Disconnection

The point of being here is to be here. An hour or two into my time in the forest, I wrote these words in my notebook, and drew a box around them to emphasise their authority and self-sufficiency. And then I stopped writing words in my notebook altogether, because writing words is my work, and I was wary of taking an utilitarian approach to the solo. The point of being there, after all, was to be there. And what did I do, while I was being there, in the forest, by the river? Nothing, more or less. In these moments, I find myself thinking of the place itself as somehow conscious of my presence. To be alone in a forest, and to be thinking of the forest as somehow aware of you: I will acknowledge that this sounds like the very substance of nightmare, but, in fact, it is a strangely beautiful and quietly moving experience, and I think it must be what people mean when they talk about intuiting the presence of God. Mark O'Connell

Disconnection is acts which take us closer to our ancestors’ sensory experience of the Land. It is our ability to consciously disconnect from some things, in order to begin connecting to others - to pass out of the everyday, and into the strange.

Essays

Beginners

  1. On Disconnection
  2. Disconnection and the Star
  3. Why We Disconnect
  4. Time to Disconnect

Learning

Appendix

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