Problem
Book is The Spell of The Sensuous By: David Abram
I. The hut and the rice paddy
Abram relates a vivid and expansive experience when he stepped out of the hut in the middle of the night and felt himself adrift among the stars.
i. Discuss the experience he relates. Imagine you had the same experience. How would you feel?
ii. How do you think this experience portrays Abram's ideas about contact and conviviality, reciprocity, and healing powers?
iii. Do you see a correlation between the healing of the individual, the community, and the environment in this experience?
II. The Ant Story
David Abram admits that he misunderstood the meaning of "spirits" and the rice trays.
i. Who were the spirits? How could ants be understood as spirits and how is this different from how we understand the term "spirit"?
ii. In what way does this story illustrate our misconceptions about matter, spirit, and nature as understood and perceived by the indigenous peoples?
III. Spiders in the Cave
i. How does this story illustrate the things Abram has been trying to say?
ii. How does the imagery of the spider webs correlate to the idea of the systems theory of life presented by Capra?
IV. Different Realities
i. What happened to Abram's sensitivity to the non-human world when he returned home?
ii. What did he do to try to remedy this?
iii. What does Abram say about our typical experience of nature as compared to non-technological cultures . . . what do we miss?