A Simple Approach to Thinking at the Edge

An Aliveness-based way of understanding and using the Three Movements of TAE

Introduction

Some of us have found the formal 14 steps of TAE to be somewhat daunting or complex, so I was thrilled to hear a friend described the three core movements of TAE quite differently. This gave me an understanding of TAE as a way of working with aliveness.

This article emerged from her inspiration. (I would mention her name, but when I told her that I was going to write this and credit her contribution, she told me that she has no recollection of ever saying this and asked me not to!)

What Is New in This Approach

The new names for the TAE movements can help us understand what is trying to come into this world in a new way. This speaks to the creative partnership between ourselves and the aliveness — our Edge — that wants to take greater form in this world.
The order of the first two movements can be reversed. Beginning with the second movement can expand the range and power of the TAE process into realms where it was not initially considered very effective and where it is difficult to get a felt sense of your 'edge'.

Disclaimers

This process lacks some of the intricacy and richness of the full 14 steps. On the other hand, it is much easier to understand. The formal steps can be used at any time to fine-tune things. My sense is that the formal steps are easier to appreciate and use once we understand the energy-logic of the entire process in its flow
This process is not very effective for those wanting to do formal theory construction. Like most people who use TAE, I have not attempted to create a formal theory. Instead, I use this process for developing my writing and process design. I find that the simpler process serves me quite well and flows smoothly. Someone writing a paper for publication would want more rigor, and for that the traditional 14 steps are great.

In summary, if your primary interest in TAE is carrying forward embodied thinking that is fresh, alive, and flowing, you may be pleased with this complementary approach. If you need to write a paper for publication, you may find this process inspiring but not sufficient for your needs.

TAE Classical Version

Here are the 14 TAE Steps from The Folio, 2000–2004 as they are often taught

I find these to be very exact descriptions, and quite technical:

1. Speaking from the Felt Sense (Steps 1–5)

Let a felt sense form.
Find what is more than logical in your felt sense.
Notice that you do not mean the standard definitions of the words.
Write a sentence or fresh phrase to say what you wanted each of the three words to mean.
Expand what you wanted each word to mean by writing fresh, linguistically unusual sentences.

2. Finding Patterns from Facets or Instances (Steps 6–9)

Collect facets.
Allow the facets to contribute detailed structure.
Cross the facets.
Write freely.

3. Building Theory (Steps 10–14)

Choose terms and link them.
Ask into the inherent relations between the terms.
Choose permanent terms and interlock them.
Apply your theory outside your field.
Expand and apply your theory in your field.

Reframing Through Renaming

Notice whether the following terms shift the paradigm for you out of the mechanistic and into the emergent, offering more juice and excitement to the process.

Movement 1: Contacting the Edge in the Present

Steps 1–5: speaking from the felt sense in the original model

Some people describe Movement 1 as:

“What do you want those words to mean?”

I like that summary of the first five steps.

But what is the function of the first movement? Isn’t it:

“How is this edge living in you right now, in this moment, as you sense inside?”

From this perspective, the formal Steps 1–5 in TAE are particular ways that can help you articulate a sense of your new felt understanding—your edge—as you experience it in the present. What is your felt sense of all this now, as you sit with it and offer it attention?

Within this stage, some of the formal steps are ways to help the words come. They have been used by many people with good results.

I encourage you to pick and choose what works for you. Let your process flow between the “something in you” that wants expression and the structures and processes that can encourage that expression and articulation. Do not let your process be forced into a step-by-step box if doing so seems to drain something from it.

The formal first five TAE steps are ways to help you fine-tune your felt sense and find verbal handles for your understanding. They are not the only ways. I have found that I do not need to treat them as though they are carved in stone, nor do I necessarily need to follow them in sequence.

I love the phrase, “What do you want these words to mean?” Along those lines, one formal TAE step involves using dictionary definitions as a “bad reflection” to help you clarify what you personally mean.

Movement 2: Tracking the History of the Edge over Time

What is your sense of how this edge has been showing up or developing through your lived experiences? Can you get a sense of it over space and time, in your living?

I like this description of the movement. We are collecting facets and instances, connecting the dots.

Of what? Of how our edges have been unfolding or speaking to us in our lived experiencing.

Formal Steps 6–9 are ways to scan through the history of our living for events, feelings, occurrences, and other experiences that seem to have some connection with our edge. These are things that point toward our edge, relate to it, “smell like it,” or express some aspect of it.

You may not know exactly what the connection is, but there is a sense of: “Yes, that has something to do with it. There is something about that then which relates to this, which is a part of it.”

As you look back through your life, you can see signposts along the way—events and ideas that contribute to your creative project or concepts. You are actually tracking the history of this edge over time.

We choose a few instances that have some felt connection to our edge. Then we spend more time with them, sensing into what about those aspects felt relevant.

Notice that we are not only tracking our edge over time; we are also gathering various facets of our edge together.

The formal TAE steps describe crossing one facet with another, step by step. That can be quite powerful. There are also other ways of allowing crossing to occur. Use whichever approaches feel right for you:

Gathering a Medicine Bundle. As meaningful facets are gathered and brought together over space and time, “powerful medicine” is formed: a pinch of this moving experience, a dash of that adventure, and so on.
A Stonehenge circle. Imagine placing each facet around the edge of a circle. Each informs the others, each is kept distinct, and something new is allowed to form in the center.

Movement 3: Crossing the Edge in the Present with the Edge over Time - Creates a New “Body”

We cross our sense of the edge emerging in the present with our connection to the movements of the edge over time.

We hold our connection to each, along with our handles for each. We allow them to interact and inter-affect each other within our own body-mind field of attention and aliveness.

I love this metaphor. It carries a sense of something alive—not just in the moment, but in the moment and through space and time.

Rather than only Focusing on “What is here now, in me?” we cross that with several felt-sensed instances of “What has been coming up over time?”

It feels as though two dimensions of living are crossed in this process: the inertial momentum of years and years of something living itself into being through us, crossed with the Now.

Crossing the life that has been implied during our living with an opening to More that wants to come in the present creates a new “body”—a body of information, a theory, or a way of relating to reality.

When this kind of crossing happens, there is a sense of something qualitatively different occurring.

From one metaphysical perspective, we are crossing “karmic momentum”—the ways the edge showed itself, pushed through, and manifested through our life—with the edge that is trying to emerge or incarnate right now. It is like crossing a vertical and horizontal axis. For me, this adds a sense of extra-dimensionality, allowing what comes to have more power, more strength, and more lived experience behind it.

When to Use Each Movement

Each movement of TAE has its own value and gifts. They are qualitatively and energetically different from one another.

It is completely acceptable to start with Movement 2 rather than Movement 1.

As someone who loves to know which tool to use and in what situations, I will assert this more strongly:

It can be a frustrating mess to keep trying to make Movement 1 “work for you” when you cannot access enough of a felt sense of your edge for anything to unfold. It can be easy to get upset and prematurely give up on your project.

If you do not have enough of a felt sense to make much headway, no problem. Rather than giving up, begin with Movement 2 - going back through your life experiences to find things that feel related to your edge. This is a powerful way to find more grounding and greater felt-signal strength. In addition, Focusing on relevant, meaningful life experiences can be nourishing and inspiring.

Consider Movement 1 (Steps 1–5) as ways of working with a felt sense you already have, helping it articulate more fully.

Consider Movement 2 (Steps 6–8) as ways of helping a felt sense form and develop more fully by tracking relevant instances from your experience.

Depending on how strong a felt sense you have of your edge, use whichever movement best serves you at that time:

If a felt sense is present when you check inside, you can—but do not have to—start with Movement 1.
If a felt sense is not clear, begin with Movement 2 to amplify, clarify, and evoke it.
After a clearer and more palpable sense of your edge has formed, return to Movement 1, get a felt sense of it, and follow forward from there.

Nada Lou’s Sequence

When I first realized this, over 20 years ago, I described the idea to Nada Lou to get her take on it. She surprised me by saying, “That is exactly the sequence that I used to write the TAE Manual!”

Because the teaching manual was something quite novel, she began by seeking and harvesting relevant past instances related to TAE. She was starting with Steps 6–8. Only when she had more to work with directly in felt sensing did she use Steps 1–5 to refine her writing and ideas.

Additional Ideas and Applications

1. Working with Instances and Facets

The formal TAE Steps 6 and 7 describe this well and offer good guidance. Here are a few other suggestions.

Dream Questions

When I find it challenging to discern patterns from instances, I may approach them as in Gendlin’s dreamwork, allowing different aspects of each instance to unfold.

“What comes for me about this?”

“What about that seemed so striking?”

“What mattered so much?”

Crossing My Edge with Theories and Models

Another facet I personally use in this step is an already-existing theory or model. Actual experiences can be incredibly rich, and so can good models that call to me. I usually mix some of each.

In particular, I may choose a theory or model that examines something I am interested in. For example, because I am interested in what promotes aliveness and emergence, I might use attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, or Integral Theory as some of my facets.

Models are a distillation of other people’s exploration of something that has some relationship to my own edge.

2. Collecting and Organizing Facets as a Creative or Healing Process

I feel very drawn to Movement 2 of TAE and believe it has great capacity for personal and group creativity and healing.

Here is one example: TAE, Dreams, and the Gathering of Facets.

At some time, I hope to write about adapting Movement 2 of TAE into a personal or group spiritual practice. A rudimentary version is alluded to in “Amplifying Weak Signals from the Emergent Future.”

I hope this has been helpful in some ways.

Happy travelling into embodied thinking and creating new forms!

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