The alluring universe: exploring an erotic relationship with the world
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Authors
Filocamo, Kevin P.
Issue Date
2008
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Psychology
Alternative Title
Abstract
Using an integrally-informed, mixed-methods research approach, this study explores the possibility that humans can engage non-human beings erotically. Erotic relating suggests that two or more beings can interconnect or interpenetrate each other energetically as well as physically, and that this interconnection is based upon a subject-to-subject encounter rather than a subject-to-object encounter. The researcher spent six months exploring experiences of connection with a Monterey Cypress tree, journaled about his experiences, and used heuristic methodologies to analyze his journal entries. He also guided four volunteers in an experiment of encounter with a natural environment and analyzed their written accounts of the experience. Moments of energetic erotic interpenetration were felt by the researcher during encounters with the tree over a six-month period, and while the volunteers did not report a similar experience, they reported experiencing a deeper connection with the environments they were engaging. This research suggests that it is possible to experience an erotic connection with non-human beings in the world, and that humans' intimacy with these beings can deepen as a result, offering possibilities for healing connections with the world that we all share as well as a more complete experience of human consciousness in relation to the world.