Encountering Nature
and the Nature of Things

Reflections by participants in The Foundation Course

At the conclusion of each summer intensive and at the end of the overall course we ask participants to share some thoughts about their experience. Here is a selection of reflections.

Reflections after completing the whole course:

“I have relished the opportunity to be in residence, even if only for a short time, and immerse myself in a daily practice guided by our wonderful teachers. The full-day program has been rich and nourishing with its varied invitations to participate actively in the learning process. From the highly personal experience at my place to the group explorations and collaborative description of the experiences, all of the activities have sparked an enthusiasm to pay closer attention to the phenomena of the world and make sense of it.” - Ben

“In general, this program has been immensely fulfilling, stimulating and challenging in that I feel like the aperture to how I view the world has widened. At the same time, I have a much clearer sense of sense and an ability to focus attention and thought – toward the natural world and within myself. I left last year’s intensive feeling this in a small way, perhaps an awakening of a new potential, and after a year of guided study and practice/project, I entered this Intensive with a certain amount of confidence in my awareness and in a growing depth to the foundation of the way I can experience the world, and pronouncedly, a hunger to do so.” - Beth

“The teaching was exemplary. I am very grateful. I appreciate the way you build up our experience of delicate phenomena, allowing them to make their very real appearance to us. I enjoyed the exploration of elements and elemental modes of seeing, and animals and the human being brought to appearance through morphology. And as well as deepening my appreciation of various phenomena and bringing a few revelations; as Henrike said, immersing oneself in the sense world is nourishing and meaningful in itself.” - Hayley

“Spending time at The Nature Institute was a dream come true. Who knew learning could be so life-giving? Deepening my connections to the world through the practices, materials, dialogue and experiences provided for me by The Institute has filled all that was missing from my life on a personal, educational and soul level. This, along with the belief that this process never need stop, is fostered in the environment created by the people of The Institute with care, insight and intelligence. Qualities I can now see developing in myself too alongside a more concrete, comprehensible and expansive world view.” - Laura

“I have been engaged in the processes of phenomenology and Goethean Science for a very long time, I just did not know it. I now have a much better sense of what that is, and how to portray it. I have begun actively changing how I conduct my business, integrating, where I can, the teaching methods I have learned as well as how to look at the world. I would say the biggest change is in my workshops, instead of explaining the concepts I take the group on a walk through a natural area and discuss what we are seeing and asking them questions, then we have discussion about what they have seen and maybe flesh a few details, for me though is just for them to experience it first hand. I have also integrated hands on learning where we use our senses to touch, smell and look at soils directly, and with the testing tools.” - Matt

Reflections after the first summer intensive:

I began the Goethean Science Foundation course in the spring of 2022 with the guided reading discussions that John Gouldthorpe facilitated over Zoom. Upon receiving the course reader, I was immediately impressed and excited by the selection of texts included therein. The rhythm of the meeting schedule was ideal—spacious, yet close enough to maintain the thread of continuity. It gradually became apparent to me that a lot of thought had gone into the assigned sequence and I appreciated the supplementary material that John provided (mind maps, guiding questions, etc.). It was also great to have the podcast episodes assigned alongside the reading; hearing Craig, Henrika, John G., and John M. in dialogue about the same texts we were reading helped to deepen my understanding. It was always a manageable amount of content and helped to prepare the soil for our rich Zoom conversations. My first intensive at The Nature Institute took me a giant leap forward in understanding Goethe’s approach by combining the textual work with actual observation and experimentation. I got to experience the epistemological claim that thought and perception form one continuum, to experience how conceptual connections arise when phenomena are approached from many different perspectives. - Ashton

“The presentations of the phenomena (the demonstrations/experiments) were an answer to a longing I've held, especially strongly since my scientific studies in college. By placing the phenomena before us, we were given a space to approach them "naively" and as if for the first time. The development of a feeling of knowing through a relationship with the primary phenomena was finally allowed and especially elicited.” - Joshua