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Abstract
ABSTRACTUsing narrative inquiry, this study investigated the lived experience of embodied
cognition—the integrated emotional and intellectual functions of cognition—in transformative
learning in the context of a disorienting dilemma. These two fundamental conscious experiences
of embodied cognition are preceded by three preconscious sensory experiences of the felt
sense—fear, anger, and flocking. These preconscious and conscious experiences, however, can
also be responsible for a lockdown of embodied cognition, disabling the transformative learning
process. The lived experiences of disorientation with six participants were investigated using
unstructured interviews, narratives, and the lenses of embodied cognition, a grief process, and
Stoic philosophy. While all six participants began their interviews in a sustained lockdown of
embodied cognition—3 months to 50 years after their experience—as a result these interviews,
four were able to experience their grief more fully, unlock embodied cognition, and create new
meaning perspectives, completing their transformative learning process. Findings suggest when
sensory, emotional, or intellectual experiences are perceived as unbearable or unacceptable,
resistance to them can lock down embodied cognition, creating a barrier to transformative
learning. Findings also suggest when the disorienting dilemma is a negative experience in the
eyes of the participant, the lock down can represent an attempt to refuse to accept or deny the
reality of the experience. This suggestion lays the groundwork for the implication of a grief
process as a function of the emotional dimension in Phase 1 of the transformative learning
process. Therefore, Kübler-Ross’s grief process, a widely accepted and established theory, is
presented as a prospective process for more difficult disorienting dilemmas and to support the
importance of sitting in—not avoiding— sensory, emotional, and intellectual experiences for
unlocking embodied cognition. These findings suggest pedagogy regarding transformative
learning include detailed coverage of the microprocesses of embodied cognition and their
correlation to the stages of Kübler-Ross’s grief process as vital functions to transformative
learning. This research also extends Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning and enhances
Mälkki’s theorizing of the nature of reflection in transformative learning and Kübler-Ross’s
theory of grief.