ontological congruency

 

Richardson and St. Pierre (2005) talk about writing itself as part of the practice of researching. In the context of this research, not only writing but collaging, reading, painting, walking, creating hypertextual links became central research processes. Re-presenting this research through hypertext is not just about a different way to represent data and analysis; it reflects the ontological and epistemological places from which I research and write.

 

Yet given that words can offer access to certain groups and deny access in others others (e.g. god, pagan), I have chosen, throughout this research, to speak in a variety of tongues. Yet underlying all of them is an understanding that the world is both physical/material and psychic/spiritual (Berry & Tucker, 2006), and that shifts in energy can prompt access to ancient ways of knowing. Whether using the languages of animism, quantum theory, or of spirit, the effect is similar: access to information, insight, and ideas that are not readily available or or in some cases, even thinkable, through one's intellect alone (see Laszlo, 2008).