Felt Knowledge

October 25th, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Exercises, Feeling, Knowledge, Performance, Proprioception, Sense, Touch |

Different forms of knowing correspond to different sensory modes: Objective ‘3rd person’ knowledge is associated with sight, whereas subjective ‘1st person’ knowledge is associated with touch and ‘feelings’. Knowledge that we regard as distinct from our selves and not part of our consciousness or being is metaphorically placed external to our bodies where it can be viewed dispassionately. Other knowledge, which we might regard as more ‘intimate’, is held close to the body where it is felt and embraced. This latter kind of ‘felt knowledge’ is not dissociated from one’s self and is experienced as a part of our being, a part of our ’subjectivity’. This difference in how knowledge is imagined, as distant and distinct or as upclose and personal, has implications for the use of imagery and the imagination in performance optimisation. Exercises which use the imagination to affect change in mental states often work better if the imagery used in not visual, but draws on one of the other senses, particularly the tactile and kinaesthetic. These latter forms of imagery do not objectify one’s experience and suggest a distinction between experience and experiencer, which visual imagery inevitable does.