Phenomenological Research Methods

When I started this chapter of my textbook about a week ago, I found it so dense and difficult that I skipped it. It was evening when I started to read and I just couldn't get through the initial pages. This morning, in the clear daytime, I started again and this time I found it not only understandable, but deeply meaningful.

The study of transcendent psychology does not, obviously, lend itself to quantitative means. This chapter is about the phenomenon of being - of be-ing, which is near and dear to my heart. The methods of study in this trans-egoic topic are difficult to discern. How does one study the effects of silence (I think Dr. Ballou did exactly that!)? How does one study the effects of prayer, of faith, of meditation? How does one study the interconnectedness of all beings? How does one acknowledge the blurry lines between self and other, between the sacred and the mundane?

It is with story, with qualitative study that one studies these topics. So, when qualitative study is regarded as 'less than' in the field of research, we lose so much - we lose this level of transformative and transcendent psychology. In my opinion, these aspects of being are as important, perhaps more important, to our overall sense of satisfaction and joy, than all the physical, easily counted, aspects. This is where my heart lies. But...in my time this morning, I recognized again that this is where I spend little of my time and energy. It's what I believe, but it's what I've learned not to talk about, deferring to the practical, the tangible, the "productive." I am lonely - this part of me is constantly "tickled" in my study and then put on the shelf in my being. The inconsistency is wearing away at me and I experience the physical consequences of the dichotomy. Awareness is a start, but not enough. How do I begin to honor that which is really "me?"