ABSTRACT
This chapter assumes an animist perspective in which everything in nature is imbued with a spark of life, soul or consciousness. It proposes ways to educate the body in order to perceive such ‘intangible’ aspects of the natural world. Part 1 discusses the existence of different forms of information all around us, featuring Christian de Quincey’s descriptions of panpsychism as a cosmology that recognises degrees of consciousness within matter. Part 2 looks at views on exchange between (human) body and environment, briefly touching on the work of Gregory Bateson, Tim Ingold and David Bohm. Part 3 draws on writings by Les Todres and Christian de Quincey and articulates the necessity of widening our epistemology beyond cognition, to include other ways of knowing and learning through immersion, feeling and intuition. Finally, the chapter offers a practical approach for reawakening a multi-levelled literacy that includes body, heart, mind, consciousness, and intuition, movement and nature. Such techniques can support an inclusive agriculture beyond traditional views of nature as existing solely of matter and particles and help empower people who work with nature on a daily basis by emphasising the role of mind, consciousness and intuition.
