Enter The Outer / Body

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Enter The Outer Body

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“Where does my body stop and where does yours begin?” 

— Mary S. Applegate, Liquid Air (Air Liquide, 1992) 🔗



Concept ⇌ Sensation


For centuries, the Cartesian dualism - the concept of separation between mind & body, self & other - has dominated occidental models of reality. This dichotomy differs diametrically from the theory of nondualism, which implies oneness, unity of all in existence. As another concept, however, oneness sounds merely intriguing, until we experience it directly. 



According to Schopenhauer, our sense of separateness simply exists as a result of our will to objectify, an illusory effect of our perception of time, and space. It may take an ordeal, a shock, a sacrifice to cause a breakthrough of the metaphysical realisation, that self & other indeed exist as one. Our true reality lies in the ineffable connection within all of existence. 
 


The oriental model, encompassing this sensation, is called yoga, which translates as union or unifying — a dynamic process, not a static state. Advanced practising of asana - postures, poses - and deep meditation, leads to a transcendental state of awareness, named samadhi - blissful, direct experience of oneness. 

  

More than anything, Art can do this ..



In “the zone”, artists, dancers, painters meditate, following their bliss. When we feel aroused by a piece of art, music, poetry, we transcend our state of individual perceiving, expanding the physical boundaries, and move into a mutual realm of becoming — the outer body.

   

… and of all forms of Art



Music does this more than anything else, especially when we dance. Imagine a large crowd, dancing at a festival — one of our most familiar forms of coll-active meditation: rhythmic movement to a common pulse, synchronizing all postures, creating a shared state of oneness, a direct experience of the outer body.

Through art, music, dancing, we can transmit and receive this sensation. By direct experience, it propels us beyond the illusive barrier of the skin, as we extend spontaneously into the medium that embraces us. We move out of our steady state, into ecstatic trance, euphoria, rapture. As such, we expand into the outer body, the physique of life at large. 



Entering the outer body, we feel alive — quite possibly the sensation, which we continue to chase, and crave. Like a luminous shadow, it stalks us wherever we may go, waiting to tap us on both shoulders by surprise, engulfing us with goosebumps, lifting us from our ground of being, headfirst beyond our apparent borders, boundless into bliss. 


Enter the Outer/Body


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writ: Satyr Barbarossa *
(cc) 2024 cc by-nc-nd 4.0



* Recently, I wrote this as my actual entry, responding to the open call to participate in the 2024 edition of FIBER Festival in Amsterdam - feeling grateful and happy to add: I made the selection!