Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the learning process to develop a sensing body through visualization and bodily attention in alternative spiritual practices held at Brittany's megaliths, located in northwest France.

Paper long abstract:

In the region of Brittany in general and in the megalithic site of Carnac in particular, New Age and contemporary Pagan-inspired practices are held on a regular basis. From an emic point of view, their aim is to access the local megaliths' "healing powers" through the intervention of non-human entities named "spirits of the place". These activities convey a framework of heterogeneous beliefs and practices based on a holistic ideology that considers the physical, spiritual, and psychological aspects of a person to regain a harmonious relationship with his or her environment. Individuals who participate in practices value human relationships with nature, embrace polytheistic and animistic cosmologies, and focus on their personal development. To establish these interactions with the place, the non-human beings thought to inhabit it, themselves, and the other human participants, actors practice visualization and learn to pay attention to their bodily sensations and those of others. Practices involve a large amount of physical contact, as in touching the trees, the megaliths, and, in some exercises, the body of other participants. 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.