Ein Ra Shah
Embodied cognition, symbolic architecture and language
Reed Rickmers has studied phenomenology from the perspective of embodied cognition and created a symbolic architecture to share his learning.
Born with a congenital nerve disorder that affects muscle control, Reed learned to understand and use that architecture to help reprogram his mind-body coordination so he can now walk more easily. It wasn’t such a giant leap from there to questioning and re-engineering other brain processes, especially those causing less obvious challenges in his life, like addiction.
The symbolic architecture he uses to understand himself – his personal eidos (the programming of his personal operating system) – is based on mapping thought patterns to patterns of physical movement. For instance, to steady his nerves in moments of trauma, he will make a fist over his heart as if to grasp and steady it; to remind him to listen intently while in discussion, he will hush himself with fingers over lips. This system of gestures that both signifies and reminds him of his intent, he calls a Living Language.
But that system is more than just a language to communicate; it is a way of designing and guiding a new Self. He actually refers to it as a martial art since, like karate, it connects training in effective movement with mastery of emotional discipline. As with Mindfulness, his system helps him adopt a new character that is distinct from the habitual, automatic being – his old troubled Self – that he once thought inescapably normal as it jerked from reaction to emotionally disastrous reaction. By identifying patterns of thought and behavior, and seeing those patterns as physical movement that can be choreographed, he is now able to act with more grace and resilience in his life. More control.
The intent is not to prescribe exact patterns of embodied cognition for others. The system is still new. Formalized expressions may come later, from consensus, as more people experiment and learn patterns that work for them.
Although distinct from Pattern Language (as employed in Systems Thinking circles), it should be noted that there is a connection to ERS. Pattern Language indexes common topics in systems science so they can be remembered for inclusion in discussions. ERS attempts to do the same thing by indexing visceral dynamics that are too often dismissed or overlooked when mere (often reductionist and spirit-denying) reason dominates group thinking. ERS adds a sacred spiritual element to discussions – a ritual modality that reinforces shared learning. It creates a behavioral habit that kickstarts the process of lifting a simple group resolution into practiced action in the real world of individuals.
As mentioned above, ERS is a system for designing and guiding the Self – your Self. It is a way to step out of the person you think you are so you might become more like the person you want to be. It is a rejection of automatic, unreflective thinking that keeps a person fatefully locked in ineffective patterns of thought and behavior. Practicing with multi-modal communication slows processes enough to allow more reflection, more sacred urgency and more deliberate design of Self and community.