For an overview of our current research lines, click here.
Existential research is the embodied exploration and discovery through systematic experimentation of different experiences of being alive and being human.
Existential experiments aim at exposing or altering (internalised) power structures (Foucault) that limit how we think, feel, speak, and move. Typical examples include a combination of:
- sensorial deprivation (e.g., a darkness retreat)
- enhanced sensorial processing (e.g., family constellations, shadow work)
- time alterations (e.g., a week in slow motion)
- communication protocols (e.g., radical honesty)
- movement scores (e.g., authentic movement)
- body (function) alterations (e.g., durational fire breathing)
- intensified or (dis)localised attention (e.g., setting up the self as infinite spaciousness)
- trying on unconventional views (e.g., that reality is mind-created)
In contrast with the claim of scientific research to create objective/declarative knowledge, existential research produces primarily experiences and procedural (“how to”) knowledge. It designs and implements spaces and incubators that allow for unconventional and atypical subjective experiences that engender self-knowledge and self-recognition from a first person perspective.
We currently favour non-substance induced experiments that have the potential to engender sustainable, long-term transformation, in particular practices that explore loving and dying.
There is space for five to ten researchers. The length of your stay depends on your proposal. You can work on your own or together, and propose others to participate in your experiments. The House of the beloved (Laken, Brussels) provides you with a space to work and stay (costs for staying depend on the length of your stay). Depending on the spaces available, proposals are evaluated throughout the year with no specific deadline.
If you are interested in joining the research center, please send us an email with your research proposal and a short CV. Don’t hesitate to email or call if you have any questions or if you’d like to exchange thoughts about your research.
You can also join the research center as a participant in existential experiments. If you send us an email, we’ll add you to the invitation list.
