Embodying Wonder

What is wonder like?

How and when do we feel it?

How can we more deeply understand and cultivate it?

And a more pressing question: can wonder help to heal our relationship with the more-than-human world?

Through discussions and engaging exercises, we will grasp at these questions and more, exploring connections between wonder and judgment, attention, animism, imagination, and wildness. By the end, we will have a solid and playful ground from which to investigate wonder’s role in remedying both our spiritual and material alienation from nature and our deeper selves.

Henry first led a version of this workshop at Harvard University’s inaugural conference on “Ecological Spiritualities” in April 2022. Now he is offering an expanded version – and in the woods, an even better setting! This workshop will be on the trail – so bring a snack, and be ready to walk a bit.

@outward.mind

OutwardMind.org

Outward Mind is a home for events, walks, workshops, and classes focused on re-imagining our thinking about the natural world and our human connection to it. Most of what we plan to offer are small-scale, intimate experiences centered on you and your relationship with the wider world. With an eclectic mix of philosophy, applied psychology, meditative exercises, and a healthy dose of play and theatrics, our Outward Mind events hope to spark an inner movement outward – out towards the other-than-human beings with which we share this Earth. Intensely and intractably local, Outward Mind is a Hudson Valley-based organization.

Outward Mind was founded by Henry Kramer. Henry is a Religious Studies professor at Hunter College as well as an enthusiastic musician, animist, and woods wanderer. His work – both academic and creative – has always emphasized eco-spirituality, environmental philosophy, imagination, wonder, and play. Henry holds two master’s degrees in Environmental Philosophy and Ecocritical Literature, as well as a bachelor’s degree in the Psychological Dimensions of Religion. He has experience leading Philosophy Walks and Workshops with Merlin CCC and is a graduate of David Abram’s Broken Bard School.