Organic Inquiry: Approaching Research As a Sacred Endeavor
Organic inquiry is an emergent qualitative methodology that approaches research as if it were sacred. The fundamental technique of organic inquiry is listening to and telling stories. In resonance with heuristic and narrative inquiry, it is a method that includes an invitation for transformation on the part of not only the participants and readers, but of the researcher as well.
The method begins and ends with the researcher’s own story; the topics and the dissertations are highly personal. Organic researchers engage in a repeated three-step process Jennifer Clements called “the organic model of transformative change” –– preparation, inspiration, and integration. It involves moving away from the egoic state to the liminal realm, collecting information, then integrating the experience into the research. |
The method is called "organic" because it is a dynamic, living process that values transformation as much as information. The process can not be understood using only intellectual and analytical frameworks.
"Organic inquiry is an emerging approach to qualitative research that attracts people and topics related to psycho-spiritual growth." -Jennifer Clements There are five principle characteristics of organic inquiry: sacred, personal, chthonic, related, and transformative. For Jennifer Clements, Dorothy Ettling, Lisa Shields, Nora Taylor, and Dianne Jenett, the women who innovated this method, the connection between the growth of a tree and these cumulative characteristics emerged early in their development of this method. Sacred: Preparing the Soil Personal: Planting the Seed Chthonic: The Roots Emerge Related: The Tree Grows Transformative: Fruit is Harvested An additional idea is to look within the fruits of a particular study (i.e., the research results and transformative changes that come about as a result) to save seeds for the process to begin again. |
Preparation, Inspiration, Integration
Before inviting information from a source beyond ego, the organic researcher engages in a process of preparation. The researcher prepares by recognizing a question or concern, and then adopting a state of curious ignorance, which helps set the stage for visiting the liminal realm. Another important piece of the preparation is acceptance of what Jennifer Clements described as “one’s position as the instrument of the study, the stage upon which the drama of the study will be played out”. A final step in this preparation is the actual process of opening psyche to the trans-egoic realm.
There are many different ways a researcher might choose to intentionally engage in the process of inspiration, stepping out of the realm of ego into a space beyond it. This second step is best understood as a means of accessing information from the subconscious mind, and finding the means to engage it will depend upon the person doing the research. Some techniques researchers using organic inquiry employ include dance, guided imagery, meditation, important dreams, shamanic journeys, journaling, and active imagination, among others. After feeling pulled toward organic inquiry, I began to journal, record my dreams, and purposefully invite insight into my topic via creative expression and other transpersonal ways of knowing. I also spent time engaged in the creative process (creating still & moving images, composing & recording music), and found it to be a great source of non-analytical information about my study.
The third step, integration, helps the researcher translate liminal insight into deeper understanding of her topic, examining what was uncovered through a rational lens. After intentionally sidestepping the ego to access liminal information, the ego is purposefully engaged to process that information into the project. By allowing herself to be informed by transpersonal ways of knowing, the organic researcher is able to widen the base of wisdom she might draw upon, freeing herself to challenge traditional parameters of evidence. At the same time, this wisdom is not left in some ethereal realm; it is brought more clearly into consciousness, processed, and measured.
There are many different ways a researcher might choose to intentionally engage in the process of inspiration, stepping out of the realm of ego into a space beyond it. This second step is best understood as a means of accessing information from the subconscious mind, and finding the means to engage it will depend upon the person doing the research. Some techniques researchers using organic inquiry employ include dance, guided imagery, meditation, important dreams, shamanic journeys, journaling, and active imagination, among others. After feeling pulled toward organic inquiry, I began to journal, record my dreams, and purposefully invite insight into my topic via creative expression and other transpersonal ways of knowing. I also spent time engaged in the creative process (creating still & moving images, composing & recording music), and found it to be a great source of non-analytical information about my study.
The third step, integration, helps the researcher translate liminal insight into deeper understanding of her topic, examining what was uncovered through a rational lens. After intentionally sidestepping the ego to access liminal information, the ego is purposefully engaged to process that information into the project. By allowing herself to be informed by transpersonal ways of knowing, the organic researcher is able to widen the base of wisdom she might draw upon, freeing herself to challenge traditional parameters of evidence. At the same time, this wisdom is not left in some ethereal realm; it is brought more clearly into consciousness, processed, and measured.
External Links and Resources for Researchers Interested in Organic Inquiry
Center for the Sacred Feminine: Organic Inquiry
Sofia University, Palo Alto, California If Research Were Sacred: An Organic Methodology Serpentina, a collaboration of women-centered scholarship An Introduction to Organic Inquiry: Honoring The Transpersonal and Spiritual in Research Praxis William Braud, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology As If There Were a Goddess: An Organic Approach to Research Dianne E. Jenett, Ph.D., in She is Everywhere! An Anthology of Writing in Womanist/Feminist Spirituality |