About the Book
A profound inside experience of the transformative potential of the Discipline of Authentic Movement
• Offers insights from the author’s 50-year study of the inner witness developing toward compassionate presence, intuitive knowing, and direct experience of the divine
• Illuminates how commitment to this mystical practice supports participation in evolving consciousness within groups, grounded in personal healing
The Discipline of Authentic Movement, grounded in the relationship between a mover and a witness, connects us directly with the inner wisdom of the body. In the emptiness of the movement space, a mover’s inner experience--feelings, sensations, images, and thoughts--become outer, unchoreographed gestures. Seen by their inner witness in the presence of an outer witness, the mover steps into the intimate mystery of who they are becoming.
Sharing vivid examples from founder of the Discipline of Authentic Movement Janet Adler’s 50-year inquiry, Intimacy in Emptiness brings her essential writings, including new and previously unpublished work, to a wider audience, guiding readers through the multiple layers of this experiential and innovative approach to embodied consciousness. Her writings illuminate the path of the developing inner witness, transforming toward compassionate presence, conscious speech, and intuitive knowing. This contemporary mystical practice, a breakthrough in the field of consciousness studies, includes personal healing as an essential base from which direct experience of the numinous can safely emerge, be witnessed, and become integrated into the fullness of the whole person. The emergence of the unique gesture and voice of each individual develops toward participation in consciously embodied groups. A new form of intelligence moves through collective bodies in service of healing in our world.
Table of Contents:
PREFACE
by Janet Adler
INTRODUCTION
by Bonnie Morrissey
INTRODUCTION
by Paula Sager
CHAPTER ONE
PRESENCE
Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager
Presence: From Autism to the Discipline of Authentic Movement
CHAPTER TWO
INITIATION
Origin of a Contemporary Mystical Practice
Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager
Excerpts from Arching Backward
Lying Down: Preparation
Becoming an Initiate Return
CHAPTER THREE
THE GROUND FORM
Moving and Witnessing, Speaking and Listening
Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager
The Ground Form: An Excerpt from
Offering from the Conscious Body
Who Is the Witness?: A Description of Authentic Movement
Remarks at the Closing of the Mary Starks Whitehouse Institute*
CHAPTER FOUR
THE COLLECTIVE BODY EMERGING
Longing toward Belonging Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager Body and Soul The Collective Body Toward the Unknown: A Conversation between Janet Adler and Annie Geissinger
CHAPTER FIVE
INTUITIVE KNOWING
Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager
Waiting for Direction: Excerpt from
Offering from the Conscious Body
From Seeing to Knowing
The Mandorla and the Discipline of Authentic Movement
Intimacy in Emptiness: Ceremony*
CHAPTER
SIX LINEAGE
Who Teaches, Who Learns?
Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager
Speaking the Same Language: An Evolving Dialogue with Mary Whitehouse
Letter to Students*
Ritual Practice*
Excerpts from “Questions: Teaching the Discipline”
Emergence of Circles of Four
Letter to Learners before Retreat*
Letters from Janet to a Learner*
One Basket: The Closing of a Teaching Practice*
CHAPTER SEVEN
WITNESS CONSCIOUSNESS INTO THE WORLD
Introduction by Bonnie Morrissey & Paula Sager
Witness to a Conscious Death
Suffering: A Personal Inquiry*
ADDENDUM
EARLY ESSAYS AND RESOURCES
The Study of an Autistic Child
Integrity of Body and Psyche: Some Notes on Work in Process
JANET ADLER AND THE DISCIPLINE OF AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
ACKNOLEDGMENTS
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
*indicates previously unpublished writing
About the Author :
Janet Adler (1941–2023) was the founder of the Discipline of Authentic Movement. She had been teaching and exploring emergent movement in the presence of a witness since 1969. Her archives are housed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She is the author of Arching Backward and Offering from the Conscious Body. Bonnie Morrissey is a licensed clinical psychologist, a poet, and a teacher of the Discipline of Authentic Movement. She lives in Colchester, Vermont. Paula Sager is a teacher of embodied and contemplative practices, a writer, and founder of Three Stone Studio where she teaches the Discipline of Authentic Movement. She lives in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Bonnie and Paula are faculty members of Circles of Four.
Review :
“An important new vision for the transformation of suffering at the intersection of the individual and the world. Eye to eye, heart to heart.”
“Intimacy in Emptiness invites us into the embodied witnessing of our moment- to-moment experience--a portal to the sacred mystery behind all existence. The gift is discovering the fullness of our love, creativity, wisdom, and aliveness.”
“This book is a harvest, an ingathering, a symphony, singing us back into our sacred embodied selves. Janet Adler’s writings are deeply personal and powerfully universal, life-changing and life-giving, rendered even more lucid and accessible through the deft overtures offered by editors Bonnie Morrissey and Paula Sager. Intimacy in Emptiness not only invites us to celebrate the temple of our own bodies but is also an elixir for healing the body of the world.”
“Imagine a somatic practice that is disciplined yet mystical, individual yet collective, ‘not knowing’ in the mind yet conscious in the body. This is the Discipline of Authentic Movement, a deeply spiritual approach to witnessing one’s inner experience. The path may lead to healing, to evolving, or to finding divinity within. Janet Adler and editors Bonnie Morrissey and Paula Sager use poetic language to offer an exquisite sense of the uniting of body and spirit.”
“Janet Adler has helped us negotiate our own humanity with her profound wisdom and empathy. Expertly edited by Bonnie Morrissey and Paula Sager, this new volume gathers together writings from Adler’s career, mapping her journey and her unique understanding of the sacred bond between witness and mover, central to this embodied awareness practice. It is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the related fields of somatics, meditation, spirituality, and dance.”
“Intimacy in Emptiness is a jewel adding significantly to the treasury of contemplative wisdom. Cultivating the practice of witnessing the human essence reveals the depth and mystery of embodiment.”
“This book is a celebration of and a call for both humanity and divinity, crystallized through the deep healing power of the Discipline of Authentic Movement. In this turbulent and polarized world, Janet Adler’s focus on compassion, clear seeing, and embodied consciousness is a necessary and precious gift to our global community.”
“A must-read for contemplatives, regarding the enfleshed communion of the physical and the metaphysical. Janet Adler’s half-century of work and writing calls us to develop our inner witness toward presence, toward coming to know our humanity as consciously embodied, deeply interconnected, and an ever-evolving experience. I will be thinking, being, moving with and through these writings for a long time to come.”
“An important tribute to an invaluable life’s work. Janet Adler’s Discipline of Authentic Movement unites body and psyche, individual and collective, psychotherapy and spirituality in a profound experiential exploration of the relationship of mover and witness. A unique portrayal of the potential of embodied consciousness.”
“Janet Adler’s life and work are a powerful, creative, and generous manifestation of a process of embodied and relational awakening, so necessary for the healing and transformation of humanity in these critical times.”
“Authenticity is a practice. Although it can arise spontaneously, it also requires discipline. Each of these chapters with their introductions and images are companions, perseverant guides helping us endure with hope and celebrate with imagination.”
