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"Haptic intelligence is human intelligence"


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Thanks for the article Kit.  Super read.  I agree that so much of our exploration in ST is about awareness of ourselves and our partners.  I'm currently battling with this every week with my handstand partner.  We train together and at the end of our handstands session I lead us in some partner stretching.  But her "touch" is so poor that I can feel that she cannot feel me.  I am struggling with how to teach her to feel more and connect with my body better so she can be a better stretcher.  Both stretcher and stretchee are connected through their mutual touch and need to be awake to each other's bodies.  For a brief period of time they are one organism with two halves.  The key is for the two halves to feel each other and operate as one.

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  • Kit_L pinned this topic

I have pinned this post; it is truly important; please everyone read it.

If you are short of time, click on the link and search for "Linden’s original research involves"; this will get you into the heart of what I think is important.

Ashwin: the next time you are working with your handstand partner, ask her to consider what her normal speed of movement of any part of her body is when she is working with you, before she makes any movement to touch you. Then, with this idea in mind, ask her to make all movements at half that habitual speed. You will be surprised by the outcome, I believe; please report back. Touch can be learned and hugely enhanced.

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  • 5 months later...

Thank you for posting the article, such an amazing read! 

Some particular statements struck a cacophonous chord with me, namely when the author writes, "One strange thing about the unsung sense is that it has no songs. Every other sense has an art to go with it: the eyes have art, the ears have music, even the nose and the tongue have perfume and gastronomy. But we don’t train our hands to touch as we train our eyes to look or our ears to listen." 

Is not our movement culture a form of art where we engage in touch to learn more about our environment and ourselves? Any sport from basketball to rock climbing to parkour is all about touch, even though we don't actively learn those modalities through that perspective. How about massage therapy, where development of the quality of touch (on a physically and energetic level) is of paramount importance?

 

Also, in the last little bit, the author writes, "Keltner’s approach to touch turns on the deeper idea that consciousness itself is “exteriorized”—that we are alive in relation to others, not in relation to some imagined inner self, the homunculus in our heads."

 

In my opinion it goes both ways and that our predisposition culturally is to "exteriorize" and constantly project our personalities into the world. What we lack (very generalized statement based on my personal daily experience in NYC) is the quality of "interiorizing" because I strongly believe in creating balance, the external being the yang quality and the internal being yin. Perhaps the author is saying that is the inherent nature of consciousness to project and expand. However, what ends up being "exteriorized" isn't consciousness but ego and fear. Thus the natural process is one of initially delving into the internal, peeling away the layers of the onion of ego and fear-driven behavior to reach the root of consciousness and presence, and then allowing consciousness to do what it does best. 

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Internal is the way to go, absolutely. Hence meditation. Stillness reveals all. 

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... then allowing consciousness to do what it does best. 

Yes. In our work, we say enough awareness "fixes" everything; "fixes" because in reality, there is nothing to fix, but the ordinary mind simply cannot comprehend this, so fix is the word we use. Lovely post, @Bumanov.

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  • 1 year later...

Another, related, piece:

http://theconversation.com/nerves-of-endearment-how-a-gentle-touch-affects-emotions-26852?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebookbutton

This one stresses the importance of touch in a number of ways; sense of self is one, but reducing barriers between oneself and others is critical, too.

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