Posts tagged with "self"

Gestalten

Central to the design and facilitation of the Natural Change Project is the concept of ‘Gestalt Ontology’. The term was first used by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess.

The German term gestalt refers to a concept where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and ontology means ‘way of experiencing’. So gestalt ontology, then, is a way of experiencing which acknowledges that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gestalten are common in our language, for example the word forest describes the gestalt of a large group of trees. Even though a forest is simply a large group of trees, an experience of a whole forest is greater than the sum of its tree parts. The really important thing about gestalt ontology though, is that the individual tree is also experienced as greater as a result of being part of the whole. For example, a tree experienced in an ancient forest is different from a tree experienced in a shopping centre. Materially, the tree is basically the same, but the experience of the tree is radically different because it is part of a different whole – a forest or a shopping centre.

Wild places are amongst the most complex and rich gestalts on earth and so our experiences of them tend to be complex and rich too. A whole wild place is much greater than the sum of the rocks, trees, creatures, sunlight, rain and wind that contribute to it. According to gestalt ontology, as a person exploring a wild place, we also experience ourselves as different because we find ourselves part of the whole wild gestalt.

This experience of Being in a wild place, we believe, holds the potential for transformation because it gives us a direct experience of ourselves as part of nature. If we experience ourselves as part of nature, it follows that caring for nature is essential if we want to care for ourselves. This type of caring tends to emerge spontaneously, without the need to feel responsible for nature or any kind of moral framework.