Why Say Soma_.mp3

It might be helpful to define soma before stepping any deeper.

Defining soma is less a matter of learning than of unlearning. The soma is the experience of our being when nothing is left out. I sometimes describe this as "the felt body." When we remove or soften all the usual concept-maps that structure experience—be they anatomical diagrams or meridian maps; chakras or organs—what's left is a raw field of experience with more richness and depth than we know what to do with.

When all the maps and concepts and accretions have been softened and put away, we find something else under them. Something that doesn't fit any of our ideas about what the word body means, but that is unmistakably a raw experience of the body. This is a deeply personal exploration, and one that takes shape differently for everyone. For me, the exploration has overlapped most closely with things described by others as: felt sense, the daimon, samadhi, Deep Okayness, the unconscious, the underworld. Others have described what they find there in some of the following ways:

As you can see, there's quite a range here, and a lot of it depends on the person you are, the experience you bring with you, and the worldviews you hold.

What these experiences have in common is a sense of resonance: a sense that multiple parts of our lives and selves are finding unity and harmony in a way they haven't before, and that this is taking place through the lived sense of our mode of existence—the soma.

Next Steps:

Two Ways a Body-Scan Feels

Systematic & Spontaneous Styles