I brought up my favorite Lakota concept of the nagi, which I have already discussed in these blogs. Unique about this concept is the sense of person as swarm and the notion of swaminess, which is a mathematical/engineering concept now of how swarms behave. We are swarms of conscious stories and tellers of those stories rather than concrete objects. Where all the bees gather, there is a queen. The queen represents the collection of concatenated stories that we privilege as better somehow than the rest. My example of swarm behavior comes from deer nibbling on the leaves of acacia trees. The acacia trees then secrete toxins to stop the deer from nibbling which every acacia tree in the neighborhood does simultaneously.
A woman present brought our attention to how are bodies speak their story for us. Laura told a story about a time when she felt traumatized. She was also suffering from pain from her left shoulder down to her left hip. She used phrases like, "I'm all twisted up about this." "I overreached." "I stretched myself too far." "I feel down." "I bent over backwards." We were able to point out to her how her language matched her body sensations. The situations of her life were reflected or were parallel in her body.
The discussions continued throughout the day with the eventual result of planning for next year's conference. The rain continued so we made our soaking way to the boat with all of the sweat lodge blankets, some of which got quite wet. We made a bumpy trip to the mainland and loaded the car for the drive back to Melbourne.
