the rules of academic engagement and textual representation which privilege rationality as the preferred way of knowing, and linear explanatory text as the most accepted form of research/representation, can numb researchers to intuitive insights. The intense engagement of the thinking mind required to follow a singular line of argumentation leaves little space to access insights from animate Earth.

This often makes it difficult to nourish a creative spirit of discovery (see Richardson, 1997), or to access one's trans-rational knowing (Astin, 2002). It can also make it difficult to hear, interpret and re-present the many voices of animate Earth (see Abram, 1996, 2006; Berry & Tucker, 2006; Harvey, 2006b; Plumwood, 2002).