This August, join us in exploring the twelve senses at an online conference celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Karl König’s seminal lectures on the topic at the Threefold Summer School in Spring Valley (today Chestnut Ridge), NY.
In light of present world events, we see the twelve senses, now more than ever before, as a path of understanding that can lead towards healing in our social life, vitality in our education and personal development, and greater diversity, effectiveness, and integration in our approach to health and healing. In this conference, participants and presenters will work together to build an understanding of the twelve senses and the contributions it can make to the fields of education and therapies, and as the basis for a healing social life.
This digital conference will be of interest to educators, therapists, students, and anyone interested in finding a direction toward solving the problems of isolation, fear, and social and environmental breakdown. The presentations, workshops, and discussions will guide us toward building a perceptual capacity for the being of another person – a capacity that is the basis for all healthy social interaction.
The deadline to register is Tuesday, August 4. Click here to register.
Questions? Email christa@threefold.org.
Schedule
All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).
Friday, August 7: Setting the Foundations
6:45am Zoom webinar room opens so participants may log in
7:15–8:30am
Welcome and Introductions
Transnational Opening: Karl König’s Encounters in and with America
Richard Steel
Karl König’s urgent concerns about the senses came to a special culmination in the US. They are concerns that we should be aware of now, 60 years later!
Zoom webinar room remains open; no need to log off
9:00–10:30am
Singing and eurythmy
Marianne Perchlik and Brigida Baldszun
Keynote: Touching – Seeing – Listening: The Twelve Senses as a Path to a More Human Future
Joan Sleigh
Can it be that, in the aftermath of Corona, the study of the twelve senses is more relevant than ever? Attentive sense perception as a living, breathing process, an instrument to building new relationships to the outer and inner worlds through actively observing, sensing, and perceiving.
Zoom webinar room remains open; no need to log off
10:45–11:45am Participatory/Artistic Workshop: Sensing our Senses through Color and Form
Becky Rutherford
Participants will be guided to discover a renewed understanding of the senses’ interconnection through simple art activities. Discussion and sharing will follow. Participants will need a few sheets of paper (8-1/2 x 11” or A4) and crayons or pastels of several colors.
11:30am-1:30pm Break
1:00pm Zoom webinar room opens so participants may log in
1:30–3:00pm Panel Conversation
Joan Sleigh, Becky Rutherford, Nancy Blanning, and Jane Swain
Close of Day: Singing and eurythmy Marianne Perchlik and Brigida Baldszun
Saturday, August 8: Trauma and Healing
6:45am Zoom webinar room opens so participants may log in
7:15–8:30am
Welcome
Transnational Opening: Working with Living Pictures from Karl König in Trauma
Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna
How the twelve senses connect to the life processes and the organs, and how we can work out of König’s indications for healing.
Zoom webinar room remains open; no need to log off
9:00–10:30am
Singing and eurythmy Marianne Perchlik and Brigida Baldszun
Keynote: Radical Gentleness: An Inner Path for the Experiential Knowledge of the Human Sensory System
David Schwartz, with Elizabeth Frishkoff
Because the human senses are a “sensitive system,” meeting each other in the realm of the senses with healing forces requires us to take up the path to an experiential knowledge of the twelve senses, an inner path of radical gentleness. Specific practices that lead to gentleness will be explored, such as Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent/Compassionate Communication, the lesson of non-judgment taught by Judith Bluestone (founder of the HANDLE work), and the modern eightfold path offered by Rudolf Steiner.
Zoom webinar room remains open; no need to log off
10:45–11:45am Participatory/Artistic Workshop: Moving Through Trauma to Healing
Jaimen McMillan
One often overlooked aspect of trauma is its spatial component. Every traumatic event has an accompanying SOS, Shift of Space, which a therapist can be trained to perceive, describe, and address. In this workshop we will learn simple movements to help someone begin to re-design their spaces, their movements, and their lives, breaking the reflexive character of trauma.
11:30am-1:30pm Break
1:00pm Zoom webinar room opens so participants may log in
1:30–3:00pm Panel Conversation
David Schwartz, Paige Hartsell, Gleice da Silva, Lakshmi Prasanna, Elizabeth Frishkoff, Galilee Manaças Damiao
Close of Day: Singing and eurythmy Marianne Perchlik and Brigida Baldszun
Sunday, August 9: The Social Future
6:45am Zoom webinar room opens so participants may log in
7:15–8:30am
Welcome
Transnational Opening: Body and Nature Oriented “Sophianic – Sensory” Spirituality in Aboriginal Australia
Michael Kokinos
Ways of moving from five senses to the full richness of the soul and spirit in a living body with twelve windows.
Zoom webinar room remains open; no need to log off
9:00–10:30am
Singing and eurythmy Marianne Perchlik and Brigida Baldszun
Keynote: Perceiving Each Other: Embodied Resonance and Human Relationships
Jan Goeschel
What happens between us when we meet as embodied human beings? What are the foundations for our experience of each other’s presence? And how do we work with these processes in a healing and transformative way? This talk will explore how our body as a whole, through the integrated experience of all the senses, becomes a sensory organ for the perception of the other.
Zoom webinar room remains open; no need to log off
10:45–11:45am Participatory/Artistic Workshop: Senses, Self, and Society
Harlan Gilbert
This workshop will explore how the senses act developmentally. On the one hand, sensory experiences can overcome prejudice, preconception, and predispositions, rejuvenating social relationships. On the other hand, sensory experience can provide a sound foundation for selfhood. We will engage in a series of exercises that open new paths in social life, and that explore how various senses ground ego experience.
1:00pm Zoom webinar room opens so participants may log in
1:30–3:00pm
Closing Panel
Presenters, workshop leaders, and panelists, with audience participation
Singing and eurythmy to close
Conference schedule subject to change. All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).
Sources for the Twelve Senses
For a bibliography of source materials on the twelve senses, please click here.
Conference Hosts and Supporters
This international conference is hosted by Threefold Educational Foundation, co-hosted by Sunbridge Institute, Eurythmy Spring Valley, Green Meadow Waldorf School, the Otto Specht School, with funding from Camphill Foundation and Rudolf Steiner Charitable Trust. Supported by the Anthroposophical Society in America, the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology, the Camphill Association of North America, the North American Council for Anthroposophic Curative Education and Social Therapy, the Waldorf Association of North America, the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America, the Waldorf Educational Foundation, and the Waldorf Schools Fund.
Conference Registration
The deadline to register is Tuesday, August 4. You must submit an RSVP to receive access to the online conference. There is no charge to RSVP, but participants are asked to make a donation to defray the expenses of putting on the conference. Thank you in advance!