Exploring Consciousness: Old Habits and New Horizons 75Experiential Learning and Personal Growth
Thus far, what has been proposed is not a complete overhaul of the
largely standardized approach to teaching consciousness that appears in a
wide range of contemporary, introductory psychology textbooks. Instead,
our critique is calling for a revisioning of and expansion upon the existing
framework. In addition to the ubiquitous, information-driven component I
have described herein, future textbooks would be wise to consider not only
acknowledging marginalized psychological perspectives—such as
phenomenological, transpersonal, Eastern and indigenous psychologies, to
name a few—but also incorporating an experiential component into their
curriculum.
Rather than surveying a wide array of experiential practices and
theoretical contributions, which would be valuable but has surely been
done (e.g., Goleman, 1996; Walsh & Shapiro, 2006), I would prefer to
move one step further by sharing a specific, contemplative practice that can
be applied in virtually any classroom setting, either indoors or outdoors, as
well as privately. Our thinking here is that enactive, embodied
realization—much in the way Ferrer proposes—necessarily paves the way
for deeper self-inquiry and an expanded perspective on consciousness and
psychology, more generally. There is also no shortage of data on the
innumerable benefits of practices such as mindfulness meditation (e.g.,
Davidson et al., 2003; Lazar et al., 2005), and contemplative education is
certainly on the rise in higher education. In addition to being utilized as an
all-purpose coping mechanism for stress management, I propose that such
methods may also be utilized to study consciousness, as has been the norm
in contemplative cultures—most notably, Tibetan Buddhism (Wallace,
2007)—for generations.
The basis for this practice presented below is progressive relaxation, a
distinctly human activity that does not pander to, nor is it dependent upon,
any particular set of spiritual beliefs or ideologies. It is simply the
experience of being human. I encourage you to take your time with it (for
example, five to fifteen minutes at minimum, there is no maximum), and
perhaps to record it—or, ideally, have someone record it for you—so that