“ So long as I keep before me the ideal of an absolute observer of knowledge in the absence of any viewpoint, I can only see my situation as being a source of error. But once I have acknowledged that through it, I am geared to all actions and all knowledge that are meaningful to me, and that it is gradually filled with everything that may be for me, then my contact with the social in the finitude of my situation is revealed to me as the starting point of all truth, including that of science and, since we have some idea of the truth, since we are inside truth and cannot get outside it, all that I can do is define a truth within the situation1... ”
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Eline Bochem * M.A. Thesis in Religious Studies: Western Esotericism Track Final Thesis submitted * June 2015
Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy & Related Currents * HHP University of Amsterdam * The Netherlands
Supervisor dr. Marco Pasi * 2nd Reader dr. Ulrike L. Popp-Baier
Acknowledgements
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I would like to thank the following people for traveling with me in this journey:
Ignaz Anderson, Marien Baerveldt, Thieu Besselink, Jan van Boeckel, Claire Boonstra, Diederik Bosscha, Martin Cadée, Anke van Donkersgoed, Peter Huijs, Iva Supic Jankovic, Henrik Looij, Ingrid Peters, Li An Phoa, Kees Schenk, Jaap Vermue, Stephanie Verstift, Tessa Visch and Louwrien Wijers for sharing their living stories and visions about the ‘spiritual’ in context of their learning environments and initiatives.
Dr. Marco Pasi and Dr. Urike L. Popp-Baier of the Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), University of Amsterdam for their thesis coaching, research recommendations and thesis draft comments.
Lester van der Pluijm and Yori Martens for their emotional, mental and spiritual support, Marie Isabelle Müller for her spiritual support at distance, Judith Sudholter and Aida Kopmels, for their advice and help with scholarly matters during the process of writing, Pia Ritman for her limitless belief and support and Esther Ritman for welcoming me to the team of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam, which has offered me the great opportunity to learn from the written experiences of ‘elders’ of the Western Mystery Traditions.
My parents Michel Bochem and Lieke Bochem-Becks and my sister Florance Bochem for their infinite patience and trust and offering endless and loving support on many levels throughout all these years.
Summary
In this exploratory study, I will research the ideas, experiences and networks of associations directly and indirectly relating to the ‘spiritual’ (category) of a selection of 18 (educational) change-makers in context of the innovative (physical) learning environments2 and related initiatives in the Netherlands to which they are
connected. Due to a rapidly changing and evolving educational landscape especially in the last 15 years, the term innovative (physical) learning environments is used, as to refer to both initiatives operating outside and inside the ‘official’ field3 of education. Hence, I focus on the ‘broader’ field of (innovative) learning in order to
be able to shine a light on also those sprouting developments not (yet) part of the ‘regular’ educational context. By means of a two-fold methodological design, I present the ‘living tales’ of (educational) change-makers obtained by open-ended and narrative conversations analyzed by means of the phenomenological interpretative approach (IPA). Secondly, relevant theoretical findings as present in a selection of both primary and secondary literature existing in the three major ‘discourse-arena’s’ of religion, art and science will be presented. I will not give priority to the specific details of each learning environment or initiative. Rather, I am interested in the stories of those people who have founded these learning environments are contributing to them or represent other important stakeholders in the field of learning (innovation). I have mapped out differences, similarities, and returning themes present in these stories so as to stumble upon a ‘red line’, narratives which connect these (educational) change-makers and their learning environments to each other and the society in which they have emerged. Thus, this study provides a general exploration of the contemporary ‘phenomenon’ of innovative (physical) learning environments and initiatives by presenting narratives relating to ‘the spiritual’ themselves stemming from the stories shared by their (co)-founders and contributors. The learning environments and initiatives to which my conversation partners are connected cover all together the broad participant lifespan of approximately 4 to 80 years. However, most of them seem to focus on the age group of 18 - 40 years. The study will be three-fold: I will first present a discussion of key terms, such as the term ‘spiritual,’ its alternative signifiers ‘esoteric’ and ‘occult’, and the term ‘innovative (physical) learning environment’. Secondly, the methodological design will be outlined, and thirdly I will present the stories of (educational) change-makers in view of the innovative learning environments they are or have been related to. Addressed will be their personal (educational) backgrounds and motivations to start or contribute to (an) innovative learning environment(s) or related initiative(s), ‘learning environmental’ characteristics and features, ‘teaching-realities’, experiences of participants, as well as ‘spiritual’ ideas and associations both directly and indirectly related to these learning environments. With this study, I hope to contribute to the field of learning innovation by inspiring the minds and hearts of contemporary (educational) change-makers, stakeholders, and all other interested scholarly or non-scholarly readers, who feel the ‘call’ to do it differently.
K e y w o r d s * education (innovation) / pedagogy / innovative (physical) learning environment / learning / teaching / open-endedness / phenomenology / narrativity / storytelling / Western - esotericism /
spirituality / initiation / rites of passage / (performing) arts / embodiment / human development *
2 ‘Innovative (physical) learning environments’ also referred to as ‘(physical) learning environments’ is a term derived from The Nature of Learning - Using Research to Inspire Practice. The publication represents a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) published by the Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) and edited by Dumont, Istance and Benavides (2010). General characteristics of innovative learning environments as typified in this publication will be further highlighted in chapter 2. NB: The terms ‘innovative (physical) learning environments’ and ‘(physical) learning environments’ will be used interchangeably in this research.
3 ‘Field’: following the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s (1930 - 2002) conceptualization: a setting in which actors and their positions are
located by processes of interaction among the specific rules of the field and the ‘Habitus’ these actors characterize including their possession and composition of cultural, economical and social ‘Capital’. Here we understand ‘field’ as a social arena in which actors maneuver in pursuit of desirable resources. From: Bourdieu, La Distinction; a Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1984).
Contents
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Summary p. 4
Chapter 1 Introduction p. 6
Chapter 2 A map of key terms
2a * The esoteric, the occult and the ‘disenchanted’ (post)-Enlightenment p. 10 2b * The spiritual: New Age, occulture and the sacralization of the self p. 11 2c * The spiritual as qualities of the mind and heart? p. 13 2d * The innovative (physical) learning environment and its characteristics p. 14
Chapter 3 Methodological design
3a * Inclusionality and the religious, artistic and scientific arena p. 16 3b * ‘Objective knowledge’, hermeneutics and the subjective dimension p. 17 3c * A selection of (educational) change-makers p. 18 3d * Narrativity and storytelling/making as a conversational approach p. 20 3e * Open-endedness: dialogue-making as a work of art p. 22 3f * An interpretative phenomenological data analysis p. 24
Chapter 4 The ‘living tales’ of (educational) change-makers
4a * The way of the pioneer p. 26
4b * ‘Jedes Mensch ein Kunstler’: building a sanctuary of learning p. 30 4c * Chôric space as a matrix of primordial learning p. 35 4d * Some choreographies of innovative learning environments p. 39
4e * Teaching: the metareality of the ‘midwife-artist-shaman‘ p. 42 4f * Equality, an ambiance of ‘human being’ togetherness p. 45 4g * A living lineage of experience transmission p. 46
4h * A tripartite dynamic categorization of participants p. 49 4i * Breaking through... The hero’s initiatory journey p. 50
4j * To know thyself and to live a whole life? p. 53
4k * Concerning the spiritual in (innovative) learning p. 57
Chapter 5 Conclusions: Towards the Collegium Hominis Universalis? p. 63
Bibliography p. 65
Introduction
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“ At school she had trouble concentrating on what the teacher said. They seemed to talk only about unimportant things. Why couldn't they talk about what a human being is or about what the world is and how it came into being? For the first time she began to feel that at school as well as everywhere else, people were only concerned with trivialities. There were major problems that needed to be solved. Sophie felt that thinking about them was more important than memorizing irregular verbs ... “
- Jostein Gaarder in Sophie’s World (1994), p. 7.
The field of learning innovation, or ‘reformation’ as it is also sometimes called, has expanded considerably over the last 15 years4. It might be characterized by its drive to ‘update’ the field of education as we know it
to the needs and wants of the (future) youth in our changing society. Many voices have framed it as a ‘transition’ taking place, bringing back movement into the ‘system’ prompting many critical questions such as: for what kind of society are we educating our people? What in fact represents good education? Why are we doing it in this way? Why are we working with educational models based on one-size-fits-‘most’ strategies? What are alternative ways of learning? As a result of this impulse and the many questions it has inspired, (educational) change-makers have founded many new physical learning environments and related initiatives throughout the past years. These innovative learning environments have sprouted from different motivations, ideas, and ideologies and are mostly operating out of the ‘official’ educational context. Although all of them are unique, working in different ways, in different fields of interest and with different groups of people, they all seem to provide their participants a space for self-development and exploration, fostering in the participants a feeling of coming ‘home’. According to founders and contributors of these spaces of learning, many participants have expressed that they connect more deeply to who they are and feel as if they are touching upon the fabric of ‘human’ life.
In this study, I explore this emerging field of innovative (physical) learning environments and related initiatives. What is it that these environments and initiatives are offering to their participants and their facilitators? And what is the value of these learning environments to the society in which they are
1
4 Although an increase in the emergence of innovative (physical) learning environments has been especially noticeable in the last 15 years
as the founding years (mostly between 2005 and 2014) of my selection of innovative learning environments and initiatives are indicating, learning-based and educational innovative developments have known ‘peak’ times before. In the 1920s, a wave of educational reform became visible with, for example, the rise of the anthroposophical ‘Waldorf Schools’ and the Montessori educational movement, based on the pedagogical ideas of the Italian pedagogue, doctor and theosophist Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952). The Waldorf School will be shortly discussed in footnote 126.
embedded? In particular, I am interested in those ideas and experiences of (educational) change-makers, who (co)-founded these learning environments, which relate to what they associate with the ‘spiritual’ in light of these learning environments. Supported by the stories of a selection of (educational) change-makers belonging to different generations, together with relevant findings existing in extant primary and secondary literature, this study will hence concentrate on the following research question:
How do (educational) change-makers perceive and experience the ‘spiritual’ in context of the innovative (physical) learning environments and related initiatives they are connected to?
Of course, when dealing with such a value-loaded category as the ‘spiritual5’, questions may come to mind
as: what do you mean by ‘spiritual6’? And what is it that we are signifying with this cultural category? In all
honesty, I have no definite answers to these questions and I think no one really has. Some may feel the concept is outdated and no longer of use as it would lack intrinsic value and appears to be a socially constructed idea, which is always on the move. However, the shifting ‘intangibility’ of the spiritual category has driven many scholars in the fields of history, sociology, anthropology, and the arts, to name but a few, to research its meanings and networks of associations in a variety of cultural contexts throughout history. The ‘spiritual’ has been re-evaluated in terms of ‘human engagement’ and experience, and has been discussed widely in academic discourse7. It seems questions about the spiritual are continuously emerging,
questions with which we are starting conversations with ourselves, with each other and the world in which we live. Questions with which we are starting explorations of those phenomena we do not understand (yet). Because we want to get to know them, unravel them and aspire to come closer without ever having the certainty or guarantee, we will be able to grasp them fully. For a real journey never ends. And although the pilgrim might slow down at a place, to hang around for a while, might get stuck at a challenging crossroad, perhaps lose the path or get side-tracked, try to end the trip, or eventually forget the quest itself: the journey keeps on going. Whether we like it or not, we are constantly in it, even when we do not know it. Such is the nature of the quest. It constantly moves, it constantly moves us. It drives us to develop. A never-ending story...
And so this research forms part of my own learning journey. In the following chapters, I hence present my journey findings by providing first a clarifying and historical context of the rather ‘ambiguous’ spiritual category and alternative signifiers. The ‘quest’ will continue throughout the rest of this research by presenting the ‘living tales’ of (educational) change-makers, based on their insights, ideas, and experiences gathered during the learning journeys they have made themselves and are still making right now.
Q
5 Other signifiers in this ‘category’ are the ‘occult and the ‘esoteric’, which are both used in Western esoteric discourse. An in-depth
analysis of these terms will be provided in chapter 3. The reader might argue; what about the term ‘religious’, could this term not be seen as a signifier in this type of category as well? The answer seems to be yes, for it definitely touches phenomena of the same kind. However, in general, both scholars and non-scholars associate the term immediately with the more ‘exoteric’ religious institutions and dogmatic systems of religious thought as represented by the five major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, which will not play a further role in this research. It is worth mentioning, the ‘esoteric’ form of religion embedded within religious systems does become referred to as ‘spirituality’ by Wouter Hanegraaff in his Western Esotericism - A Guide for the Perplexed (2013) (see page 139). Since the scope of this research is limited, further discussion on the term ‘religious’ would cause unnecessary confusion, complexity and information overload. A lengthy discussion on the ‘esoteric’ and the ‘occult’, besides an analysis of the term ‘spiritual’ in chapter 3, should provide the reader with sufficient background knowledge about the ongoing scholarly discussion of terms alike.
6 Rowe, ‘What Do You Mean By Spiritual’, in: King-Spooner and Newnes, edited by, Spirituality and Psychotherapy (2001), p.41.
7 MacKian, Everyday Spirituality, Social and Spatial Worlds of Enchantment (2012), p. 1. As already mentioned in footnote 7, the term
Before we move on to the next chapter, I would like to end this introduction with a personal note. I have started this research from the ‘calling8’ to understand learning and education as a sacred enterprise9. An
education or learning enterprise with the aim of ‘metanoia’ coming forth from inner necessity10 that aims to
make it possible to experience and perceive phenomena in a ‘new light’. Metanoia, from the Greek μετάνοια (meta nous) means afterthought or beyond mind. It can also be understood as changing one’s mind. Or, as is argued by some, even a renewal of mind and heart11. This renewal would evoke a dancing together of
feeling and intellect to playfully co-create a new knowledge and outlook12. In the New Testament metanoia
asks for a ‘re-turning’ of the Soul, a turning towards the ‘divine’, that affects the whole human being once-for-all13, thought to happen at the end of the total experience of repentance14. In psychology, the term has
been used widely by the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961), who relates it to a fundamental shift of consciousness including a change of focus, attitude, and values. This shift of consciousness forms the central focus of his work Aion - Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (published in 1951), which discusses the advent of a new ‘Aeon of Spirit’: the ‘Aeon of Aquarius15’. According
to Jung, a revival of ‘the spiritual’ would take place in this new Aeon in response to the spiritual confusion caused by a materialist attitude in modern society16. He thinks this revival of the spiritual is up to the
‘response’ ability of the individual and that in order to support this healing (making whole) process of modern society, man should start with healing him- or herself first17. Also Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky18
8 The term ‘calling’ will be discussed to a larger extent in chapter 4. The theme popped up as well in the stories of some (educational)
change-makers.
9 With this conception I hook on to the statement of Jeff Lewis as presented in his ‘Spiritual Education as the Cultivation of Qualities of the
Heart & Mind. A Reply to Blake & Carr’ (2000), p. 280.
10 The notion of inner necessity in this perspective is inspired by a statement of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky’s (1866 - 1944), who
argues that an artist was a kind of visionary, a ‘prophet’, standing alone and creating works out of an inner calling or necessity. He writes: ‘the spiritual life, to which art belongs and of which she is one of the mightiest elements, is a complicated but definite and easily
definable movement forwards and upwards. This movement is the movement of experience. It may take different forms, but it holds at bottom to the same inner thought and purpose“ See: Kandinsky (1914), The Art of Spiritual Harmony, translated by M.T.H. Sadleir (2007
edition), p. 4. Without the need of framing myself as an ‘artist’, Kandinsky’s words on inner necessity or inner thought and purpose do ring a voice of recognition in the way this research has come to life, hence I consider them at place in this introduction.
11 Myers, ‘Metanoia and the Transformation of Opportunity’ (2011) p. 8 & p. 9. 12 Ibid; p. 8.
13 Note: Metanoia ‘demands radical conversion, a transformation of nature, a definitive turn from evil, a resolute turning to God in total obedience. This conversion is once-for-all. There can be no going back, only advance in responsible movement along the way now taken. It affects the whole man, first and basically the centre of personal life, then logically his conduct at all times and in all situations, his thoughts, words, and acts’. See: Kittel et al, edited by, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1967), p. 1002.
14 The Fathers of the Church, Volume 96, St. John Chrysostom on Repentance and Almsgiving, translated by Gus George Christo (2005),
Introduction, p. xiv.
15 Jung believed in a (general) evolution of consciousness from an early age to maturity with an ‘ontogenesis’ corresponding to a
‘phylogenesis’. In his Proem to Aion, Jung announced that the theme of the book is the phylogenetic shift of the psychic situation corresponding to an ontogenetic phenomenology of the ‘Self’ in the Christian ‘Aeon of Pisces’. He names this Aeon the ‘Aeon of Pisces’ (fishes), because of its relations to the astrological notion of the ‘Platonic month’ of Pisces symbolized by two fish. A ‘Platonic month’ refers to the movement of the sun moving through each zodiacal sign. According to Jung, the beginning of the Christian Aeon of Pisces was marked by the spring equinox of around 1 A.D when the sun left the astrological sign of Aries and entered that of Pisces. Approximately 2000 years later, the sun has left the sign of Pisces and has entered that of Aquarius introducing the new Aeon. About this shift of Aeons he summarizes: ‘If, as seems the probable, the Aeon of fishes is ruled by the archetypical motif of the hostile brothers, then
the approach of the next Platonic month, namely Aquarius, will constellate the problem of the union of opposites’ [...] See: Jung,, The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9, Part II - Aion, Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, translated by R.F.C. Hull (1978), p. 87. 16 Jung, ‘The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man’, in: The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 10 - Civilization in Transition, Bollingen
Series, translated by R.F.C. Hull (1970), paragraph 313.
17 Jung, ‘Flying Saucers: a Modern Myth’, in: The Collected Works of C.G. Jung Volume 10 - Civilization in Transition, Bollingen Series,
translated by R.F.C. Hull (1970), paragraph 719.
18 Kandinsky’s fascination for the spiritual became most evident during the years 1904 - 1912. Together with other artists and thinkers (like
Jung), he believed Western society was in a critical state and dominated by materialist behavior. He thought the artist carried the responsibility to guide society out of its crisis into the daylight of meaning. Especially Theosophical teachings brought the needed inspiration for a ‘new world‘ according to Kandinsky. Hence his personal library contained for instance the Theosophical works Man, Visible
and Invisible (1902) by Charles W. Leadbeater, Thought-Forms (1905) by Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater as also Theosophy (1904)
(1866 - 1944) expressed his ideas about the rise of a same kind of ‘new era’ in his work Concerning the Spiritual in Art19 (1911). This era he called ‘the Epoch of the Great Spiritual’, which he understood as an age of purposeful creation with a spirit of artistic expression standing in an organic relationship to the creation of a new spiritual realm20. In short, these ideas of a ‘new era’ and of ‘metanoia’ might be shortly
summarized as the happening of powerful movement on the inner side of mankind. A transformation taking ‘flight’ on the level of the Soul resulting in a co-creation of mind and body. They represent the two opposites as seen in the light of healing, which nurture an organic relationship to the process of creation to use Kandinksy’s words.
It might be shortly concluded: this all seems to indicate a return to ‘the spiritual’ is taking place. A fundamental characteristic of a shift of consciousness as mentioned by Jung, which relates to the advent of a ‘new era’ according to both Jung and Kandinsky. It is this short philosophical exposition on ‘metanoia’ and the advent of a ‘new era’ in which ‘the spiritual’ would return, which have inspired me to explore the ideas, experiences, and networks of associations with ‘the spiritual’ as they emerge in the stories of change-makers in the context of contemporary innovative learning environments and initiatives they have founded and/or are contributing to. By purposefully creating this research myself from the inner drive to understand learning as a ‘sacred enterprise’ (to refer again to Jeff Lewis), I hope to find out whether a ‘new era’ of learning is on the rise. May the discoveries made during my own learning journey and the presented narratives gathered from the conversations shared with (educational) change-makers inspire your journey. And may they benefit those of the young in our society now and in the future.
19 The original text was published in German under the title Über das Geistige in der Kunst. The first English translation by Michael Sadleir
dates from 1914 under the title The Art of Spiritual Harmony. Michael Sadleir was the son of the British historian and educationalist Sir Michael Ernest Sadler (1861 - 1943). Together they represented one of the first (British) art collectors of Kandinsky’s paintings. In 1913, the two traveled to Munich to meet Kandinsky in person and as a result Michael Sadleir began translating Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual
in Art in 1914. See: Steele, Alfred Orage and the Leeds Arts Club (1893-1923) (1990), p. 179.
20 This epoch would be characterized by the discovery of an ‘objective key’, a certain objective mode of notation, composition of colors and
forms able to express the true and hidden reality indicated by inner necessity as also to touch the spectator’s Soul. From: Barash, Theories
of Art - from Impressionism to Kandinsky, Volume 3 (2000), p. 316 & p. 317. At the end of his Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky
expresses his ideas about this emerging epoch as following: ‘In conclusion, I would remark that in my opinion, we are approaching the time
when a conscious, reasoned system of composition will be possible, when the painter will be proud to be able to explain his works in constructional terms... We see already before us an age of purposeful creation, and this spirit in painting stands in direct, organic relationship to the creation of a new spiritual realm that is already beginning, for this spirit is the Soul of the ‘Epoch of the Great Spiritual’.
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A map of key terms
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2a* The esoteric, the occult & and the ‘disenchanted’ (post)-Enlightenment
The signifiers ‘esoteric’ and ‘occult‘ are both related to the Enlightenment and its disenchanted21 world
views, which began to dominate Western culture in the dawn of the scientific revolution22. The
conceptualization of ‘Western esotericism’ or the esoteric category can be situated in this time period. Western-esotericism was seen by some as a (re)-enchanting counter tradition or radical alternative including all phenomena (e.g. magic, astrology, alchemy and occultism) that seemed to be excluded from the disenchanted worldview. This disenchanted worldview was rooted in a rational and scientific perspective, in which these phenomena were perceived as ‘survivals from irrationalism and superstition’23 to use the
words of British historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1953 - 2012). The modern and disenchanting character of the Enlightenment, which advocated the disappearance of incalculable mysteries from the natural world, presupposed so to say an opposite ‘counter-category’ refusing this. The Western esoteric category could thus be understood as the ‘occult’ reaction to the (modern) identity of the Enlightenment. Interesting to add in perspective of the ‘occult’ is, that it tends to be understood by many contemporary scholars as a term to signify extraordinary phenomena and experiences of all times, which are not per se referring to a historical tradition or trajectory in particular24.
On the other hand, different applications of the adjective ‘occult’ (qualities, philosophy, -ism, sciences, arts et cetera) have been used synonymously with ‘magic’ and ‘superstition’ since the 18th century. Hanegraaff argues that all three can in fact be characterized by different historical trajectories sharing in common their reinvention during the Enlightenment in a way that could embody ‘the Other of science and rationality25’.
Seen in this light, these (value loaded) terms cannot be projected to time periods earlier than the 18th century. Secondly, they lack academic neutrality and therefore have to be seen as ‘emic’ terms26.
21 The disenchantment thesis was formulated by Max Weber in between 1913 and 1919 and he referred to it as such for the first time in his
lecture of 1918 entitled Science as Vocation. The disenchantment these characterized the Enlightenment ‘Zeitgeist’ and can be summed up as the process of intellectual rationalization created by science and its (non human) technologies causing an ‘Entzauberung der Welt’. The growing process of intellectualization and rationalization, that assumed unusually unvaried forms, had thus resulted in the belief that everything (in nature) could be controlled and explained by means of calculation and that ‘we are (no longer) ruled by mysterious,
unpredictable forces’. From: Weber, ‘Science as a Vocation’, in: The Vocation Lectures (2004 edition), p. 12 & p. 13.
22 Faivre in: Hanegraaff, Western Esotericism - A Guide for the Perplexed (2013), p. 5. He continues that early examples of Western
esotericism can be found in Christian theosophy and ‘Naturphilosophie’, a movement of early modern culture.
23 Goodrick-Clarke, The Western Esoteric Traditions: a Historical Introduction (2008), Introduction, p. 4. On the historical development of the
(emic) term ‘superstition’ (Latin superstitio; Greek equal deisidaimonia), its reinvention during the Enlightenment and its relation to ‘occultism’ and ‘magic’ see: Hanegraaff, Western Esotericism and the Academy - Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture (2012), p. 156 - p. 164.
24 Hanegraaff, Western Esotericism - A Guide for the Perplexed (2013), p. 10. Hanegraaff adds this perspective of studying the occult as a
phenomenon in modern or contemporary popular culture lacks historical depth.
25 Hanegraaff, Western Esotericism and the Academy - Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture (2012), p. 156 & p. 157. 26 Ibid; p. 157. For an elaboration on the term ‘emic’, see footnote 12 on p. 157.
Nevertheless, Goodrick-Clarke seems to criticize this approach in which (Western) esotericism is considered to represent a counter reaction, and herewith a ‘rejected form of knowledge’, to the (disenchanting) and positivist ‘milieu’ of the (post)-Enlightenment. Goodrick-Clarke thinks that this approach would relegate Western esotericism to the position of ‘a casualty of positivist and materialist perspectives in the 19th century’. Thus, the esoteric category would be of little historical importance instead of representing a worldview with a ‘significant influence on philosophical, scientific and religious change’27. In
addition, Hanegraaff states, the history of Western-esotericism could (indeed) not only be understood as a simplistic reactive force to the rationalist (disenchanting) character of the Enlightenment. In his New Age and Modern Culture (1998) he shows how the relation between Western esotericism and late modern rational and scientific culture was not at all hostile or conflictual and that former attempted to come to terms with latter28. As a final remark on the term ‘esoteric’, Kocku von Stuckrad defines ‘esoteric’ as a structural or
discursive element in social-cultural processes. ‘Esotericism’ is defined as ‘claims of higher knowledge and ways of accessing this knowledge29’. Discourses are thus thought to be esoteric when they make claims
about absolute and often hidden (occult) knowledge or wisdom, that is, ‘a master key for answering all questions of humankind30’. Following this conception of the ‘esoteric category’, ‘esotericism’ is therefore not
limited to the religious sphere. In conclusion: to avoid any relation to the positivist ‘milieu’ of the (post)-Enlightenment and its disenchanted worldview, to superstition or irrationalism, I decided to use neither the term ‘esoteric’ nor ‘occult’ in this research. However, the conception of ‘esoteric’ as provided by Von Stuckrad allowing for its application also to non-religious spheres, seems to be valuable in view of the ‘sphere’ or field of learning (innovation).
2b * The ‘spiritual’: New Age, occulture and the sacralization of the self
The term ‘spiritual’ seems to appear in Western esoteric discourse firstly in perspective of religion. Hanegraaff argues that when church and state separated and society secularized, the opportunity arose for esoteric ‘spirituality’ to detach from religious systems. It eventually grew out to individual forms of syncretism without any organizational structure commensurate with the personal needs and wants of the ‘spiritual’ consumer31. This process of autonomisation and individualization, he thinks, means a final
innovation in the field of Western esotericism known as the ‘heretical32 imperative’. Out of this phenomenon,
the ‘spiritual supermarket’ emerged, characterized by a multi-million dollar market of spirituality33 often
associated with the ‘New Age Movement34’. Stef Houtman and Dick Aupers (2007) argue that New Age
27 Goodrick-Clarke, The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction (2008), Introduction, p. 4.
28 Pasi, ‘The Modernity of Occultism: Reflections on Some Crucial Aspects’, in: Hanegraaff and Pijnenburg; edited by, Hermes in the Academy - Ten Years’ Study of Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam (2009), p. 62.
29 Von Stuckrad, ‘Western Esotericism: Towards an Integrative Model of Interpretation’ (2005), p. 88.
30 Kokkinen, ‘Occulture as an Analytical Tool in the Study of Art’ (2013), p. 28.
31 Ibid; p. 140.
32 ‘Heretical’ derives from the Greek αἵρεσις (hairesis) meaning ‘choice’.
33 Ibid; p. 141.
34 For those readers interested in the New Age Movement: Hanegraaff’s study entitled New Age Religion and Western Culture - Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (1998) represents one of the first extensive nearly encyclopedic, integrative and critical
researches carried out on the phenomenon in the field of the study of religion. It provides an highly resourceful study of the structure of beliefs and religious ideas, world views and theologies that lay underneath and constitute the ‘skeleton’ of ‘New Age’ and have supported its emergence as a ‘movement’. The ‘New Age Movement’ is connected to the counterculture of the 1960s and represents a (spiritual) movement that emerged in the second half of the 1970s that came to full development in the 1980s and is still present in Western culture. Hanegraaff defines the movement as: ‘the cultic milieu having become conscious of itself, in the later 1970s, as constituting a more or less
unified ‘movement. All manifestations of this movement are characterized by popular Western criticism expressed in terms of a secularized religion’ (p. 522). He argues, New Age Religion can be understood as a secularized esotericism, ‘that cannot be characterized as a return to pre-Enlightenment world views, but is to be seen as a qualitatively new syncretism of esoteric and secular elements’ (p. 521).
spirituality ‘is standing on its two feet and broken from the moorings of the Christian tradition35’. According
to them, ‘post-Christian [i.e., New Age] spirituality’ is at critical distance from Christian ‘faith’, it represents what has remained after the decline of Western theistic Christianity. Studies of Hanegraaff (1996) and also Paul Heelas (1996) emphasize, that by definition ‘New Age spirituality’ rejects religious ‘faith’ or ‘belief’ in favor of ‘gnosis’36. As such, it has a ‘strict emphasis on the self and on spiritual experience... not a concept
of God, but, rather...of ‘the higher self37’. In the words of Heelas: ‘It (rejects) voices of authority associated
with established orders, even rejecting ‘beliefs38’’. Also, a rise of ‘new religious movements’ (NRM’s) has
become noticeable, which are thought to be themselves ‘testimonies to secularization39’ and which
represent in best case ‘manifestations of pseudoenchantment40’. Furthermore, in their study The Spiritual
Revolution (2005), Heelas and Woodhead hypothesize, religion is giving way to spirituality in the West with a shift from ‘life-as-religion’ to ‘subjective-life spirituality’. They think that those forms of religion which ask people to live by external principles will be in decline, and that those alternative forms of spirituality which support people to live by the sacred and deep dimensions of their own unique (human) life will be growing41.
Or in Christoper Partridge’s words, those alternative spiritualities, which:
‘encourage exploration, eclecticism, an understanding of the self as divine, and, consequently, often a belief in the final authority only of the ‘self’42’.
To ‘truly’ discover or experience the ‘self’ equates the experience of an ‘inner-spirituality’, as Heelas argues43. Partridge speaks of a ‘re-enchantment’ taking place in the West, which represents not a return to
former religions, rather it marks the emergence of new alternative forms of spiritualities and new ways of being ‘religious’44. He argues, there has been a noticeable rise in those tolerant of and/or showing interest
in new forms of spirituality and ‘the occult’, particularly in the past forty years45. And thus, according to
Partridge, this (new) type of ‘religiosity’ called ‘occulture46’ represents the new spiritual atmosphere in the
35 Houtman and Aupers, ‘The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition: The Spread of Post-Christian Spirituality in 14 Western Countries
1981–2000’ (2007), p. 305. Sergej Flere and Andrej Kirbiš reject Houtman and Auper’s assumption of New spirituality ‘standing alone’ with their measure of ‘religious generosity’, which taps into New Age and traditional theistic religiosity. See Flere’s and Kirbiš’ article ‘New Age, Religiosity, and Traditionalism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison’ (2009).
36 Houtman, Aupers and Heelas, ‘A Rejoinder to Flere and Kirbiš, Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality, a Cross-Cultural
Comparison’ (March 2009), p. 170.
37 Hanegraaf as cited in Houtman, Aupers and Heelas, ‘A Rejoinder to Flere and Kirbiš, Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality, a
Cross-Cultural Comparison’ (March 2009), p. 170.
38 Heelas, The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity (1996), p. 22.
39 Swatos as mentioned in Partridge, ‘Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions and the Re-enchantment of the West’, in: Lewis, edited by, The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements (2004), p. 41.
40 Willis, ‘Secularization, Religion in the Modern World’, in: Sutherland and Clarke, edited by, The World’s Religions: The Study of Religion, Traditional and New Religions (1988), p. 207.
41 The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Away to Spirituality (2005), p. 7. 42 See his The Re-Enchantment of the West: Volume I (2004), p. 36.
43 Heelas, as mentioned in: MacKian, Everyday Spirituality and Social and Spatial Worlds of Enchantment (2012), p.32.
44 Partridge, ‘Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions and the Reenchantment of the West’, in: Lewis, edited by, The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements (2004), p. 43.
45 Ibid; p. 44.
46 To Partridge, the concept ‘occulture’ represents not a unitary concept, rather a ‘general heading’, which includes a ‘deviant’ range of
ideas and practices including: ‘magick (as devised by Aleister Crowley), extreme religio-politics, radical environmentalism and deep
ecology, angels, spirit guides and channelled messages, astral projection, crystals, dream therapy, human potential spiritualities [...] and so on. See: The Re-Enchantment of the West: Volume I (2004), p. 70. In addition: in her article ‘Occulture as an Analytical Tool in the Study of
Art’ (2013), Nina Kokkinen argues Partridge connects ‘occulture’ primarily with contemporary forms of religiosity having their roots in the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s.’. Kokkinen suggest the re-defined concept of ‘occulture’ could be applied also to earlier periods starting roughly from the beginning of the nineteenth century (p.8). She re-defines ‘occulture’ from three viewpoints: 1. as a form of popular religion(ing), (2) as a discursive field and 3. and as a (social) field consisting of seekers (p. 26).
West47. An understanding of the concept is not so much related to the ‘occult’ as something arcane, exotic and elite, rather the emphasis is on ‘culture’. As such ‘occulture’ refers to something quite ordinary and everyday48. According to Nina Kokkinen, ‘occulture’ is closely related to the construction of the modern
‘self’. People, who relate to ‘occulture’ often end up sacralizing their inner being, the ‘self’ as an attempt to solve the mystery of ‘human identity’. In short: from the spiritual supermarket and (post)-Christian New Age spirituality, to re-enchantment and the type of ‘religiosity’ termed ‘occulture’, it seems many authors speak about a turn towards ‘subjective-life’ spirituality, ‘inner-spirituality’ and an emphasis on or sacralization of the (higher) self in the context of the ‘spiritual’ category. This emphasis on (the discovery of) the (human) ‘self’ in context of the ‘spiritual’ has formed an important argument to choose for the signifier ‘spiritual’ in this research.
2c * The spiritual as qualities of the mind and heart?
Another argument to choose for the signifier ‘spiritual’ is based on the ideas of Jeff Lewis, as shared in his ‘Spiritual Education as the Cultivation of Qualities of the Heart & Mind (2000). In his article, Lewis provides arguments for an understanding of spirituality (or the spiritual) as those aspects which relate to what he calls ‘human sensibility’49. Scholars David Hay and Rebecca Nye also relate the spiritual category to ‘human
sensibility’. Furthermore, they add, spirituality is especially natural to children and that a biological fundament for spiritual awareness is necessarily present in human beings, since it forms an essential part of evolution not implanted through culture and education. Thus, a pre-linguistic experiential fundament of spiritual sensibility needs to exist in any human being50. In the context of education, Lewis aims for
understanding spirituality in relation to (spiritual) education not as a separate category, but rather as a characteristic extending beyond all phenomena51. With this statement he openly criticizes conceptions of
the spiritual as formulated in the studies of Nigel Blake and David Carr, who, as does Lewis, research the possibilities of a spiritual education in a modern secular state. In the studies of Blake and Carr, the conceptualization of the spiritual is of a reductionist character, held in opposition to other concepts instead of being seen as extending beyond all phenomena. Blake and Carr doubt whether it is the school’s responsibility to provide a spiritual education that appeals to the ‘whole child’, or in other words: the child’s total reality of his or her various modes of being52. Lewis, in contrast, aims for an understanding of the
spiritual in relation to spiritual education from a more ‘holistic’ viewpoint being involved, in short, with the ‘cultivation of qualities of the mind and heart’, qualities which he thinks should be applied to all areas of learning. Hence, in his view, the education of ‘spiritual sensibility’, which addresses the ‘whole child’ (and whole human being) could be seen as an aim for the education of all people53. His statement seems to
approach the statement of Ursula King, who argues:
47 It represents ‘the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing; the environment within which new methodologies and world-views are passed on to an occulturally curious generation Partridge, The Re-Enchantment of the West: Volume II (2006), p.2.
48 Partridge as mentioned in: Kokkinen, ‘Occulture as an Analytical Tool in the Study of Art’ (2013), 26.
49 Lewis, ‘Spiritual Education as the Cultivation of Qualities of the Heart & Mind. A Reply to Blake & Carr’ (2000), p. 266.
50 Nye, ‘The Spirit of the Child’ (1998) as mentioned in: King, ‘The Spiritual Potential of Childhood: Awakening to the Fullness of Life’ (2013), p.
6.
51 Ibid; p. 270.
52 Ibid; p. 264.
53 Here, the earlier mentioned educational reformer and ‘Pansophist’ thinker Jan Amos Comenius comes to mind, who aimed with his
‘Collegium Lucis’ an education for all people. He emphasized the importance to include all people to the project of the restoration of human affairs. He considered society as a whole a ‘Sub Specie Educationis’, as such his Pansophist conception of education encompassed the ambition to teach all things to all men and from all points of view. See: Piaget, ‘The Significance of Jan Amos Comenius at the Present Time’, in: Comenius, Jan Amos Comenius on Education (1967), p. 5 & p.6.
‘spiritualities quite simply connote those ideas, practices and commitments that nurture, sustain and shape the fabric of human lives54’.
She also writes human spiritual development is for all ages, whether childhood, adolescence, mid age or old age. At the same time she admits, on the one hand countless definitions of spirituality have been suggested. On the other hand, it is generally thought spirituality cannot be caught in any definition whatsoever55. Lewis thinks the invention of a new term is necessary and until that time he hopes more
people accept the term ‘spiritual’ in everyday language and will be able to move beyond their fear of attacking any of their rational ‘purity’56. In conclusion: as a starting point of this research I have chosen to
work with the term ‘spiritual’ (or spirituality) based on the associations of the ‘spiritual’ with the ‘discovery’ or ‘realization’ of the (human) ‘self’ as discussed in the previous subchapter. Secondly, Lewis’ conception of understanding the ‘spiritual’ as qualities of the mind and heart, Hay and Nye’s associations of the spiritual with ‘human sensibility’ and thirdly, King’s definition of the spiritual as those ideas, practices and commitments nurturing, sustaining and shaping the fabric of ‘human life’ have contributed to this decision.
2d * The innovative (physical) learning environment and its characteristics
The term ‘learning environment” is used liberally in educational theory. It evolved out of changes taking place in the field of pedagogy, whereby learning moved out of the regular school context due to the effects of innovative information technologies as also developments in the field of communication57. The Internet and
e-learning, combined with the use of and easy access to social networks and applications, have weakened the relations between schools and learning and have changed the traditional teacher-student relationship. This has resulted in learning processes becoming more co-operative, characterized by more fluid student-teacher roles58. Fluidity connotes a present-day reality of constant change, speed and immediacy, disrupting
social contexts previously firm and assured, now facing greater levels of uncertainty59. In a narrow
understanding, a physical learning environment is seen as a regular classroom, and in a wider understanding, it is seen as a ‘combination of formal and informal education systems where learning takes place both inside and outside of schools60’. Interesting to mention is a publication of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) entitled The Nature of Learning - Using Research to Inspire Practice (2010), in which the following seven characteristics of learning environments are mentioned61:
The learning environment:
1. recognizes the learners as its core participants and encourages their active engagement as self-regulated learners.
54 ‘The Spiritual Potential of Childhood: Awakening to the Fullness of Life’ (2013), p. 4. King includes spiritualities of both individuals and
communities in her definition.
55 Ibid; p. 4 & p. 5.
56 Lewis, ‘Spiritual Education as the Cultivation of Qualities of the Heart & Mind. A Reply to Blake & Carr’ (2000), p. 266.
57 Kuuskorpi and Cabellos González, ‘The Future of the Physical Learning Environment: School Facilities that Support the User’ (2011), p. 2.
58 Ibid; p. 2 & 3.
59 Baumann as referred to in MacKian, Everyday Spirituality, Social and Spatial Worlds of Enchantment (2012), p. 29.
60 Manninen et al. (2007), ‘Oppimista tukevat ympäristöt. Johdatus oppimisympäristöajatteluun’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki as mentioned in:
Kuuskorpi and Cabellos González, ‘The Future of the Physical Learning Environment: School Facilities that Support the User’ (2011), p. 1.
2. is founded on the social nature of learning and actively encourages well-organized co-operative learning.
3. characterizes learning professionals highly attuned to the learner’s motivation and the key role of emotions in achievement.
4. is acutely sensitive to the individual differences among the learners in it, including their prior knowledge.
5. devises programs that demand ‘hard’ work and challenge from all without excessive overload.
6. operates with clarity of expectations and deploys assessment strategies consistent with these expectations; there is strong emphasis on formative feedback to support learning.
7. strongly promotes ‘horizontal connectedness’ across areas of knowledge and subjects as well to the community and the wider world.
The critical question might be posed: what is exactly the difference between a physical learning environment and a ‘regular’ school (context)? At first sight, I think that not much difference exists, and each school is a physical learning environment by definition. However, not every school may challenge its students to develop the same levels of self-regulatory learning capacities. Also, degrees of horizontal connectedness and for instance encouragement of co-operative learning will certainly differ per school. Nevertheless, not every physical learning environment could be considered a (regular) school sensu stricto. Hence, I have chosen to use the term innovative physical learning environments, because it allows me to include also those initiatives which are not operating in the regular educational context and/or which cannot be labeled or characterized as (regular) schools. I do not consider the above OECD characteristics as ‘absolute’ in perspective of the innovative learning environments to which my selected (educational) change-makers are connected. Rather, I use the term innovative learning environments to approach those physical spaces of learning, which somehow stand out of the ordinary context of learning, have a pioneering character and foster the emergence of innovative ways of (active) learning and knowledge-sharing. These ‘types’ of learning environments and/or initiatives form the central focus of this research.
Methodological design
*
*
*
3a * Inclusionality and the religious, artistic and scientific arena
The first approach of the methodological design is characterized by the contextual and in some (sub) chapters historical study of research materials. It includes primary and secondary sources as they are present in the major discourses of religion, art and science. These three major ‘discourse-arenas’ provide me access to a richer base of sources and strengthen the targeted interdisciplinary and exploratory character of my research. Secondly, it allows me to introduce those methodological approaches and theoretical findings, which are not part of the (scholarly) study of religion (only) to which this research belongs and which could provide me with a literary deepening of conversational data findings. Hence, this multi-discourse approach widens my theoretical scope, enlarging the possibility of stumbling upon innovative theories and approaches and creating new connections amongst them.
I suggest a perception of the three discourse-arenas, in which they constitute a triangle. A triangle of which its three ‘pillars’ or ‘vortexes’, as they might be freely termed, interrelate to each other. Hence developments occurring in the one ‘vortex’ directly or indirectly interrelate to developments occurring in the other. As an example, the American (installation) artist, sculptor and painter Paul Thek (1933 - 1988) has written: ‘the secularization of art and the rationalization of religion are inseparably connected, however unaware of it we may be62’. Secularizing tendencies as present in the
artistic arena interrelate to rationalist tendencies as present in the religious arena, according to Thek63. Also, Comenius showed a
certain kind of awareness by expressing that the arts and the sciences were scarcely ever taught as part of an ‘encyclopedic whole’, which resulted in most scholars grasping one fact or another missing important connections. According to him, nobody received ‘a really thorough and universal education64’. Involving literary sources existing within all of these three major discourses and considering the ‘boundaries’ of these
3
62 See his Computisteria Notebook (1974).
63 Thek does not make mention of the scientific arena, which is not strange as he represented an artist with a great interest in religion and
religious themes, such as martyrdom, death and procession. Nevertheless: the tendencies he mentions in perspective of the religious and artistic arena’s most certainly have to interrelate to a parallel tendency in the scientific arena as well.
64 Comenius, ‘The Principles of Conciseness and Rapidity of Teaching‘, in his: The Great Didactic, to be found in: Piaget, Comenius, Jan Amos Comenius on Education (1967), p. 68.
discourse-arena’s as dynamic instead of ‘fixed’, thus seems to give birth to a ‘renewed’ context of discovery. With this perhaps ‘experimental’ suggestion, I hook on to the ‘warm’, fluid dynamic geometry of ‘inclusionality thinking65’. Natural inclusionality, a concept coined by British biologist and educator Alan
Rayner, implies the continual emergence of intermediary dynamic boundaries through which convex and concave spatial possibilities are coupled and transformed by one another66. By applying inclusionality to the
triangle concept of discourse-arenas, the (at first sight) three isolated and constituting pillars now become liberated from their definitions and demarcations against ‘fixed’ (discourse) contexts. Now, these vortexes are included inextricably within the dynamic spatial context of inclusionality thinking. We have thus changed our perception of these three pillars’ boundaries from perceiving them as discrete limits to understanding them as pivotal places of co-creative relationship. As such, they are now characterized by what might be called togetherness, which restores creative potential67. Any social and psychological ‘disunity’, potentially
caused by a former perception of understanding these three pillars as having absolute boundaries, thus becomes ‘healed’68. By means of applying ‘inclusionality’ to the triangle of discourse-arenas, a more dynamic way of selecting, integrating and connecting of literary sources has emerged. As a result, it increases the possibility of (co-)creative discoveries and the emergence of ‘new’ knowledge supported by this inclusional ‘door’ of discourse-perception now being opened.
3b * ‘Objective knowledge’, hermeneutics and the subjective dimension
A small part of literary sources probed itself during the conversations with (educational) change-makers. The larger part of sources consulted presented itself during academic courses, was spontaneously discovered whilst working on this research or became recommended by (scholarly) relatives. The empirical study of research materials with its suspension of normative judgement has been applied as much as possible, as I align to Hanegraaff’s wish to do full justice to the integrity to the thinker’s worldview69. To this
can be added: it is quite common in the study of religion to adopt a methodological agnostic attitude. This attitude asks of the researcher to not make any ‘truth’ claims about the reality he or she is researching appearing in literary sources and/or data gathered by means of quantitative or qualitative techniques70.
Furthermore, Hanegraaff argues, in the humanities, to which the study of religion is related, in general a certain tension is present between the aim of ‘objective’ knowledge and the necessary role of hermeneutics71. Interesting to mention in this context, is that the terms ‘hermeneutics’ and ‘interpretation’
have been used synonymously for many centuries. Most stories about interpretation start with the Greek word ‘hermaios’, which relates to the ‘Delphic oracle’. According to Hans Penner, others relate the term hermeneutics even to the Greek messenger god ‘Hermes’72. In this perspective, hermeneutics is
65 ‘At the heart of intensionality, then is a radical shift in the way we frame reality, from fixed to dynamic. We thereby move from a conventionally rationalistic, impositional logic of discrete, assertive (independent) objects (simple entities) transacting in Cartesian space, to a relational, ‘inclusional’ logic of distinct, inductive places (interdependent, complex identities) communicating between reciprocally coupled insides and outsides through intermediary spatial domains. This inclusional logic removes the paradoxes of completeness, characteristic of atomistic thought and enables evolution to be understood primarily as a process of contextual transformation rather than the operation of external selective force on discrete informational units lacking internal agency’. See: Rayner, ‘Inclusionality and the Role of
Place, Space and Dynamic Boundaries in Evolutionary Processes’ (2004), p. 51.
66 Rayner, chapter 3 ‘Inclusional Science - from Artefact to Natural Creativity’, in: Rayner, ‘From Emptiness to Openness, how Inclusional
Awareness Transforms Abstract Pride and Prejudice into Natural Sense and Sensibility’ (2007/2008), p. 49.
67 Ibid; p. 55. 68 Ibid; p. 55.
69 Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture - Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (1998), p. 5. 70 Porpora, ‘Methodological Atheism, Methodological Agnosticism and Religious Experience’ (2006), p. 71.
71 Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture - Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (1998), p. 6. 72 Penner, ‘Interpretation’, in: Braun and McCutcheon, edited by, Guide to the Study of Religion (2007), p. 57.
understood as a theory of interpretation or transmission from the one realm (divine) to the other (human) marking a relation between language and understanding73. Since the study of religion is rooted in language,
both in (religious) beliefs and in (religious) practices creating meaning for those actors relating to them, the scientific aim for ‘objective’ knowledge (only) seems indeed unrealistic a priori. Another argument, which seems to oppose this aim, is the fact that the researcher or scholar (of the study of religion) is a human being. He or she cannot guarantee (complete) absence of his or her subjective dimension interfering his or her research. This subjective dimension already plays a significant role, for instance in the process of inclusion and exclusion of research topics and theories that become discussed and, in regards of this study, the selection of conversations partners. Also, it is precisely the subjective dimension that is responsible for creative discoveries in (scientific) research. It is this dimension par excellence, which addresses the unique talents and qualities present within each researcher, providing information about the man or woman behind the researcher’s ‘mask’. Secondly, a dedicated and careful application of the subjective dimension contributes to research, which is original, created out of ‘inner awareness’ and passion.
3c * A selection of (educational) change-makers
The second approach of the methodological lay-out is characterized by a case-study design represented by open-ended and narrative conversations74 with contemporary (educational) change-makers. From a
methodological viewpoint we can say: my research group has come into existence by means of a process of purposive non-probability sampling and, more specifically, a combination of convenience sampling and snowball sampling. Non-probability sampling means to conduct a research sample not according to the canons of probability75. Purposive non-probability sampling is the same, but with the addition that the
sampling is based on the judgement of the researcher linked to a variety of criteria76. A convenience sample
represents a non-probability sample that is available to the researcher by virtue of its accessibility77. Since a
part of my conversation partners represent people who are part of my (non)-professional networks, they were quite easy to approach. The other part of my research sample came into existence via a process of snowball sampling. This means, contacts with these conversations partners were established because they were recommended by conversations partners already included to the research sample. Both methods of sampling also represent purposive samplings. More specifically formulated: they are critical case samplings, for all conversation partners were selected according to the following four criteria of (case) selection:
The (educational) change-maker should :
1. represent a real ‘pioneer’ with a drive for innovation and improvement (of learning) and a heart for supporting (young) people in their journeys of personal development 2. have experience with working with young people in (a) innovative learning
environment(s) in the Netherlands in general
3. have founded or have strongly contributed to the realization of (a) physical learning environment(s), related movements or projects in the last 10 years.
4. not be afraid of the term ‘spiritual’ when asked about and be willingly to discuss it in
73 Ibid; p. 58.
74 As a side remark: I use the term ‘conversations’ instead of the more regularly used term ‘interviews’ to emphasize the dynamic role
play of the researcher and conversation partner.
75 Bryman, Social Research Methods (2004), p. 100.
76 Jupp, The SAGE Dictionary of Social Research Methods (2006), p. 244. 77 Bryman, Social Research Methods (2004), p. 100.
