Harbert Rice: How a felt sense functions in a group

Active Pause

In this conversation, you will learn how a felt sense functions in a Quaker Meeting’s gathering circle. Harbert describes how his work with Gendlin’s philosophy and Quaker practice came about in a Quaker meditation as a felt sense to map Quaker language into Gendlin’s language. He looks at the underlying commonality between Focusing and Quaker meditation.
He also explores the key differences between Focusing and Quaker meetings. As members rise to speak out of the meeting’s silence you can experience the flow of the meeting as a whole. The speaking may rise to a point where the whole meeting experiences a felt shift. Quakers call this experience a ”gathered meeting.” In their monthly meetings for business, Quakers make decisions by arriving at a “sense of the meeting.” Reaching a decision in this way rests on forming a felt sense of a shared meaning, leading meeting members to reach unity in their decisions.
Harbert Rice is a Quaker. His home meeting is the Reno Friends Meeting in Reno, NV, where he served as Clerk of the Meeting. He was a member of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), which brought AVP workshops into the Nevada State Prison System. He is now retired and lives with his wife Rebecca Mueller on a small farm in Northern New Mexico. He studied Gendlin’s A Process Model with Rob Parker. He also served on the Board of Directors of The International Focusing Institute. A Quaker’s View Of Gendlin’s Philosophy” (2020) is Harbert’s second book on Gendlin’s Philosophy. His first is Language Process Notes (2008). See website.
Published August 2020.