using energy work

to support the learning that was occurring through painting and other ancient ways of knowing, I drew on energetic healing techniques (such as the Yuen Method™) to shift limiting discourses which made it difficult for me to trust this new, much more intuitive, knowing which was constantly bumping up against dominant discourses of rationality. Congruent with the ontological premises of the dissertation, energy work is based on the assumption that everything, including thoughts, are manifestations of energy (Goswami, 1993; see also, McTaggart, 2007).

When I encountered a block (such as the one that kept me from completing my initial collages), I would leave the room where I was painting, pick up my pendulum dowser*, and use it to help figure out what discourse(s) needed to be shifted. Once identified, I would clear it energetically, enabling a much freer flow of energy within my body, then return to my table to continue my work much more easily. This process became invaluable to both the identification and the release of discourses (often manifesting as 'writers' block') that were in the way of completing the dissertation.

At the time of doing the energy work, I did not anticipate writing about it, so I did not take the time to document all the discourse that were cleared. Some, however, are noted in the 'academic risks' section.

*I later replaced the pendulum dowser with muscle testing from applied kinesiology, and eventually dropped both of them to rely on my intuitive knowing alone.