Focusing, vastness and union: elaborating the Focusing practice tradition and the Philosophy of the Implicit to describe an additional kind of space

From a first person perspective, ‘here’ is a crossing of multiple kinds of space—at least (1) the spaces in which we move physically, (2) social space, and (3) the space in which we engage with thoughts. Each space has its own distinctive ontology. Gendlin's Philosophy of the Implicit describes how these three kinds of space can be understood as emerging via a process of 'doubling'—a process iterating and coming to carry a new signal that makes ‘here’ available in a new way—in the way not knowing what to say can lead us to pause in conversation and have a felt sense of what we want to say emerge. (Describing how works of art move us, and correcting expression in complex texts, are settings in which this often occurs.) This chapter reports on reflective practice experiments undertaken with a group of skilled Focusing practitioners that leverage Gendlin’s concept of doubling to demonstrate how Focusing practice can shift and support the emergence of a further distinctive kind of space, one with a different ontology from each of the three spaces noted above. In this further space, an experience of radical oneness is foundational, and with that an experience of vastness here. These experiments (1) illustrate ways in which the Focusing practice tradition can be expanded to explicitly include kinds of experiencing familiar from Buddhist and Christian mystical traditions; (2) confirm the utility of Gendlin's use of doubling as a central organising principle for describing kinds of experiencing; and (3) illustrate ways in which Gendlin's Philosophy of the Implicit and Focusing practice can be leveraged as foundations for disciplined research into the character of first person experience.