氣的身體經驗：一個現象學的探究

「氣」在華人文化的身心照顧佔有非常顯著的一席之地，但卻一直無法在當代的學術研究領域中獲得適當的說明。不論以西方思維下的自然科學方法將之視為人體生理現象，甚至是物理現象，或是直接以東方傳統對於氣的認識出發而主張其實在功效，都跳過了氣在身心照顧上的現象源頭──氣的身體經驗。為了突破氣現象的學術研究困境，為了讓心理學的理解在氣的身心照顧上邁出一步，回到氣之身體經驗的現象學描述是必須的。本研究以現象學方法分析氣練習者的經驗描述，獲得了八項經驗主題：（1）氣的提設、預期，與活動投入；（2）經由語意理解、觀看模仿到身體姿態擺設，來嘗試進入提設的氣經驗狀態；（3）自發的身體感湧起呈現了身體的自主性，並顯化了朝向身體感的懸浮意識者；（4）在身體上經驗到被提設的氣以及身內空間的感現；（5）外部輸入感受與氣身體湧動經驗的連結；（6）經驗到周遭空間的狀態變化；（7）氣身體歷程與氣練習者意願的再連結；（8）在以氣作為對他人的照顧中經驗到身體間際的連結。而整合地看，氣經驗可說是「空間變化之知覺經驗的身體端顯現」，其中涉及存在狀態改變的空間知覺變化，以及伴隨之身體感受與意識狀態轉變。此一發現可以：（1）在《莊子》中獲得對話的接合點，討論氣經驗作為一種知覺態以及其中的懸浮意識者現象，這將是建立傳統論述之經驗還原的起點；以及（2）與當代心理學空間知覺的身位模式（body-centric mode）與他位模式（other-centric mode），以及身體意象（body image）與身體基模（body schema）等理解進行對話討論，提出氣現象在理解身體經驗構成上的創新觀點。

關鍵字

空間知覺；氣的身體經驗；氣論；莊子；現象學

並列摘要

Qi (氣) is a term broadly used in Chinese and Eastern Asian societies to indicate a kind of experience, characteristic, and/or phenomena related to bodies, be it of Nature or human. Neither modern scientific theories from biology and physiology nor traditional Chinese discourses of qi (氣論), however, can provide much comprehensive understanding of the qi experienced in human body. Withdrawing from what has already been said in traditional discourses and returning to the process of experiential unfolding would be the primary task to understand qi. The present study was thus aimed at disclosing the bodily experience of qi. To avoid hackneyed assertions, three novices were invited to talk about their experience of practicing qi. A phenomenological method of analysis was applied to the descriptions of qi experience and a general structure was thus obtained. There are 8 essential themes: (1) qi as postulated and anticipated in relating to bodily feelings, (2) from linguistic comprehension to embodiment via visualizing and mimicking as the path to obtain the experiential state of qi, (3) spontaneous sensational upraising rendering both the sense of autonomy of the body and the experience of a hovering conscious agent attending to the body, (4) the postulated qi embodied and the emergence of intracorporeal space, (5) the surrounding sensory inputs and the qi-body process intertwined, (6) experiencing the transformation of the surrounding space as a shift of state, (7) relinking the qi-body process into volitional operation, and (8) the intercorporeal link experienced in the practice of qi as a way of taking care of others. Put the 8 themes into an integrative framework, Qi is thus presented as the experience of bodily manifestation in perceiving the changing space. That is to say, unlike ordinary perception that takes objects in space as the perceived, qi as a perceiving mode is that to which space is the perceived and in which come the experiential changes in bodily sensation. The significance of this finding was then put in dialogue with both Zhuangzi's discourse of qi and the modes of spatial perception in modern psychology in order to elaborate its significance as well as build the bridge between the traditional qi discourse and modern paradigm in study human experiences. In Zhuangzi, one can find that the experience of qi is portrayed as a mode of perceiving: ＂If you merge all your intentions into a singularity, you will come to hear with the mind rather than with the ears. Further, you will come to hear with qi rather than with the mind. For the ears are halted at what they hear. The mind is halted at whatever verifies its preconceptions. But qi is an emptiness, a waiting for the presence of beings. The Tao (道) alone is what gathers in this emptiness. And it is this emptiness that is the fasting of the mind (心齋)＂ (Zhuangzi, The human world). According to this paragraph, the perceiving mode of qi is for one to be empty for receiving. That is, ＂to hear with qi＂ indicates the practice of being empty, the practice of ＂the fasting of the mind＂. The experience of being empty thus can be described as the experience of having containing space. Furthermore, the perceived in the perceiving mode of qi is Tao (道). That is to say, when qi experience manifests itself as a mode of perceiving, Tao as the perceived shows in itself the character of containing space for all things. ＂It is the Tao that overspreads and sustains all things＂ (Zhuangzi, Heaven and Earth). Tao is, however, not a substantial thing but that which upholds things in their own manifestation. It, then, coincides with what was found in this study of the experience of qi, i.e., the experience of perceiving the changing nature of space. In addition, the phenomena of hovering conscious agent that witnesses the bodily manifestation in qi experience is in accordance with what is described as wandering (遊), an altered state of consciousness that witnesses freely, in Zhuangzi. In this view, what is installed at the experience of qi is the perceiver ＂I＂ in the state of wandering and the qi-stated body, and the existence of the perceived space. Regarding the modern psychological science, the understanding of qi as a mode of spatial perception can provide new perspective to that in cognitive and neuro psychology. In the researches on spatial perception, there are two ways for human beings to live in space. One is called egocentric frame of reference, indicating the preceptor as the center in getting the spatial relations with surrounding objects and obtaining body-centric space. The other is allocentric frame of reference, taking a detached point of view, e.g., bird's eye view, to draw the spatial position of oneself and obtaining world- or body-centric space. These understandings show that space in human experience is constructed by perception. Furthermore, these two modes of spatial perception correspond with two ways of building up the sense of one' own body, i.e., sensorimotor body schema and configurally coded body image. The body-centric space/ body schema and the world-centric space/ body image can be impaired in either one, according to the study on deafferented patients. With this understanding, the experience of qi can be viewed as a non-pathological moment of the separation of the two modes of spatial perception, and thus a moment of the separation of the cooperation of body image and body schema in sensing one's own body. The qi experience thus involves (1) the conscious agent with allocentric perspective turns toward the body and takes the latter into related spatial aspects; this is the phenomena of the hovering conscious agent. And (2) the spontaneous sensational upraising that separates the volitional consciousness and the bodily process. This study thus demonstrates that the phenomenological approach to the phenomena of qi can be a bridge that brings traditional discourse of qi and modern psychological science together into a dialogue on the ground of human experience.

並列關鍵字

phenomenology ； spatial perception ； the bodily experience of qi ； the theory of qi ； Zhuangzi

參考文獻

Vasilyeva M., & Lourenco S. F. (2012). Development of spatial cognition. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Cogn. Sci., 3(3), 349-362.

Google Scholar

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