Embodied Engagements with the Megaliths of Carnac: Somatic Experience, Somatic Imagery, and Bodily Techniques in Contemporary Spiritual Practices

Abstract

This article explores bodily interactions, somatic experiences, and embodiment of New Age and contemporary Paganism practitioners conducting spiritual practices in the megaliths of Carnac in northwest France. Inspired from the sensory ethnography approach and applying a specific methodological framework elaborated for this study, the article argues that participants’ spiritual experiences are constructed using three main elements: somatic experience, somatic imagery, and bodily techniques. Collected data provides understanding of the practitioner’s elaboration of spiritual experience, while also suggesting further inquiries to assess sensory models prevailing in contemporary spiritual practices.

Extraordinary Bodies, Invisible Worlds

“…For the last ten years, I have been conducting research on the specificities of sensory models and somatic experiences taking place during neo-pagan practices in France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom (Dansac 2020(Dansac , 2022a(Dansac , 2022b(Dansac , 2023. In this review article, I offer a synthesis of my work on embodied interactions by exploring the main elements that make up a learning process I call "somatic pedagogy".…”

“…The collection of ethnographic data on heterogeneous interpretations of the body, especially the sensitive body, has made it possible to explore the meaning accorded to specific somatic experiences in neo-pagan ritual contexts. Examples include animistic ceremonies and mediumship sessions in which participants learn to interpret certain bodily sensations as produced by the presence of non-human beings (Dansac 2020;Rountree 2006); neo-shamanic rituals in which different sensory experiences are placed in value by ritual specialists as evidence of the agency of invoked entities (Ostenfeld-Rosenthal 2011); and energy healing sessions in which certain sensations are presented to participants as evidence of their interaction with "invisible energies" (Pierini, Groisman and Espirito Santo 2023). The omnipresence of references to the body in the discourses of those who indulge in this type of experience seems to be due to the organizing principles that frame practices.…”

“…The somatic pedagogy model draws mainly on ethnographic data I gathered in Carnac from 2014 to 2019 (Dansac 2020(Dansac , 2022a(Dansac , 2023). In the next section, I will first present the tools applied to collect data, and next I will describe the three main components of the somatic pedagogy that my informants followed to achieve and produce a body capable of sensing the presence and agency of energies.…”

“…Seeking to understand how neo-pagan practitioners learn to use their body and their senses, I conducted an eight-year study of embodied spiritual experiences among groups consisting of adults who hold neo-pagan-inspired rituals in Carnac, a megalithic site in north-western France. In diverse articles resulting from my research, I extensively analysed and illustrated how practitioners experiment during these alternative spiritual practices with, in and through their body (Dansac 2020(Dansac , 2022a(Dansac , 2022b(Dansac , 2023). Collective neo-pagan-inspired ritual practices held in Carnac are strongly prescribed, and framed by organizing principles that allow the participants to acknowledge the presence of "energies" considered to be emanating from local standing stones, to interact with "nature spirits" considered to inhabit local megaliths, and to identify the exact moment when these non-human entities physically enter into contact with the human body and spirit.…”

Achieving a Sensing Body: Visualization and Bodily Attention in Alternative Spiritual Practices

“…Concretely, practitioners walk in silence around the megaliths, touch them with their palms or other parts of their body, and verbally exchange and compare what they felt with others. Although somatic experiences, somatic imagery, and bodily techniques have been identified as the three main elements that construct participants' spiritual experiences (Dansac 2020a), little attention has been paid to the individual and collective processes for achieving specific bodily and somatic experiences related to these ritual contexts. Drawing on my ethnographic research regarding alternative spiritual practices held at the megaliths of Carnac, I will analyze how practitioners learn to develop their sensing body through visualization and bodily attention following four main actions: Practicing visualization techniques to interact with summoned entities, learning "another" sensory language, establishing relationships between bodily techniques and somatic imagery, as well as cultivating and verbalizing bodily sensations.…”