A Case Study in Sensemaking:
A Thesis submitted to the faculty of graduate studies at the University of Calgary
Note: This document has been reformatted from its original format,
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the Rocky Mountain pre-conference field trip as a pilgrimage. Pilgrimage, in its broadest sense, refers to any long journey. However, in reference to the pre-conference field trip, I am using the term pilgrimage in its narrower sense as a journey to a sacred site or sites. It is from this perspective that I am positioning the pre-conference field trip as analogous to a religious pilgrimage. The notion of this particular field trip as a pilgrimage came to me through the integration of (1) field trip participants' comments regarding the visit to the Burgess Shale, (2) my own experience as one of the field trip participants, (3) personal experiences with other pilgrimages, and (4) a holistic look at the meaning of the field trip as a lived experience which transcended yet included being an instance of sensemaking. Said differently, through my tacit knowledge of the field trip experience, that is, through "a multitude of unexpressible associations which give rise to new meanings, new ideas, and new applications of the old,"1 I have come to understand the pre-conference field trip as a pilgrimage. As an observer participant, not only was I able to notice how the events of the field trip and the activities of the participants paralleled those described in traditional pilgrimages, I was also privy to participant accounts of what these events and activities meant to them. In addition, I had my own inner experience of the trip to draw on. As a result of these factors, I have come to understand that the field trip, like a traditional pilgrimage, was about the basic human need to connect with something beyond one's self. As Martin Rudwick observes, "the explicitly religious purpose of a pilgrimage and the explicitly scientific purpose of geological travel are at a deeper level closely comparable."2 The common purpose of pilgrimage and geological travel involve "transformations of one's inner state and outer status."3 For members of the pre-conference field trip this transformation entailed gaining new understandings through first hand experience with the geology and paleontology of various fossil localities as well as with the Rocky Mountains in general. It also included developing and maintaining community membership.
To discuss a scientific field trip as a pilgrimage is a challenging task for several reasons. First, while sacred sites and the religious customs related to pilgrimages have been studied in some detail, the study of the pilgrimage process as a social-cultural event has been neglected.4 Consequently, our understanding of the social and cultural role of pilgrimage is not clearly understood.5 If this is the case for religious pilgrimages, then it is even more so the case for secular pilgrimages.6 To my knowledge, other than a single, short paper by Martin Rudwick, virtually nothing has been written about geological travel as pilgrimage. In reference to pilgrimages, J. J. Preston states, "we know less about them than we do about the remote planets of our solar system."7 Hence, in discussing the field trip as a pilgrimage, we are traveling relatively uncharted waters. The second difficulty arising in discussing the field trip as a pilgrimage is that such a discussion entails terminology which goes beyond the normal bounds of conventional science. Thus to engage in this discussion means bringing together two very different traditions of knowing, religion and science. An encounter of this type requires a vision-logic perspective, a perspective which integrates the two traditions without negating either. Therefore, the field trip as pilgrimage needs to be situated in a context broader than that provided by either science or religion alone-one that transcends yet includes both. This broader context can be achieved by viewing both the scientific field trip and the religious pilgrimage through the lens of deep science. From this standpoint, their commonality lies in being injunctions that serve to provide participants with a deeper understanding of their respective communities' shared ideals. As such, their essential purpose is the same, to connect with "something beyond one's everyday experience."8 Given this commonality, redefining some of the terms generally associated with religious journeys in such a way as to include geological travel provides the broader context required for discussing the field trip as a pilgrimage. Pilgrimage, which is generally thought of as a religious word, can in a broader sense be used "to speak of journeys to sites that are held in high esteem and represent values served."9 Under this broader definition of pilgrimage, the field trip journeys to the Burgess Shale, the Mount Stephen fossil beds, and the Tanglefoot Creek trilobite beds all qualify as sites held in high esteem and representative of values shared in common by geologists and paleontologists. Coleman and Elsner maintain that museums also fit within this broader meaning of pilgrimage sites: As symbolically rich end-points of a journey to a site and controlled movement within that site, they [museums] have similar qualities [as religious sites]. In front of such relics, a person is confronted-literally put in touch with-a tangible embodiment of all that the place might represent.10 Thus, the Royal Tyrell Museum, too, qualifies as a pilgrimage site. Another concept associated with religious pilgrimages is that of "sacred sites." While several researchers contend that sacred sites are embodiments and representations of cultural and social ideals,11 the actual sanctification process of sacred sites is not well understood. However, we do know that sacred sites emerge and develop through the humanization of geographical locations.12 In other words, a site's sacredness is determined by its history and the associations made with it. Hence, the 500 million year old biological history as well as the nearly one hundred year old social history of the fossil sites visited during the field trip qualify them as sacred sites. Specifically, the Burgess Shale's reputation, as the world's most important fossil locality, qualifies it not only as a sacred site but as "the" sacred site of the paleontological world. A third difficulty in discussing the field trip as a pilgrimage is that "each culture has fashioned its own version of the pilgrimage, and every pilgrim has interpreted this cultural model to suit his personal life and spirit."13 Thus, pilgrimage has as much to do with the internal state and experience of the person participating in the pilgrimage as it has to do with the external, visible behaviors of the individual in that pilgrimage is about making a personal "connection with the ultimate, however that is understood."14 In other words, from a personal perspective, what constitutes a pilgrimage varies from one individual to another. For example, while Henry described the trek to the Burgess Shale as a pilgrimage and Sam referred to the Walcott quarry as "Holy Ground," Peter, who had been to the site many times before, commented that it had become "common place" and that "a lot of the wonder of it had disappeared." While it is not possible to declare the field trip a pilgrimage from the perspective of each and every participant, it is possible to describe the field trip as a pilgrimage from a cultural-social perspective. Culturally, the field trip is "a central element of practice"15 for pursuing the goals of geologists and paleontologists in much the same manner as a pilgrimage is a "culturally sanctioned endeavor"16 for pursuing the sacred ideals of the religious devotee. Although pilgrimages vary from culture to culture and from shrine to shine, they share a common structure. A typical pilgrimage entails (1) preparation for the journey, (2) journey to the site, (3) encounter at the site, (4) journey home, and (5) integration back into the home community.17 The pre-conference field trip included each of these stages. First, besides all the individual participant's preparations made for getting to Edmonton from places as far away as Korea, Australia, and Germany, Carl and Sam prepared an excursion guidebook, booked tours and accommodations, and arranged for our transportation. Second, not only did the field trip include a trek to the Burgess Shale quarries which were the main attraction of the field trip, but like many traditional pilgrimages, it included visits to other sites of lesser notoriety. The Mount Stephen fossil beds, the Tanglefoot Creek trilobite beds, the Ammonite mine, the Royal Tyrell Museum, as well as the Rocky Mountains in general all constituted "sacred" sites visited during the field trip. Third, field trip participants explored each site with great intensity, taking photos and collecting fossils where permitted. Fourth, after the field trip most of the participants continued on to the geological conference held in eastern Canada before heading home. Finally, integration back into the community commenced for some with attending the conference, while for all it included the sharing of the experience via photos and stories with friends, family, students, and colleagues as well as exchanging information, ideas, and specimens with fellow field trip participants. In addition to these five stages, traditional pilgrimages are characterized by the following features: (1) a sense of presence, (2) special clothing, (3) the path taken to the site, (4) taking something home, and (5) difficulty of access to the site.18 Each of these characteristics were evident at one time or another during the pre-conference field trip. Individually, as well as collectively, they illustrate how the pre-conference field trip was a pilgrimage. A sense of presence. What distinguishes sacred sites from more mundane places is the sense of presence of the divine. Of all the sites visited during the field trip, the Burgess Shale best exemplified what is meant by a sense of presence. The day of our visit to the quarries was stellar. The rain had stopped, the clouds had separated, and the sun warmed the air. As I stood there on the high, open slopes of the Burgess Shale, looking out across the forested valley at the breath-taking magnificence of the Canadian Rocky Mountains with their hanging glaciers, snow-capped peaks, and emerald green lake below, I felt exhilarated. If there was one moment during the field trip that for me was a connection beyond self, this was it. The magnetism of the Burgess Shale as a sacred site, as a site for experiencing the wonder of the universe, is reflected in Peter's comments regarding people on other trips he has taken to the site: Peter: People were coming from around the world to see this [the Burgess Shale]. I had a person who came from Boston. He was what we call one of the Burgess Shale pilgrims. He was going to get there. He was sixty years old. He was a good fifty pounds overweight. He had just had knee replacements put in. There was no discouraging him going. He was going to make it. He was going to see the Burgess Shale. And that's all there was to it. No matter how much pain he was in, he was going to get there. He was an extreme, but nevertheless, there were all these people who just were coming in having read everything that existed, having seen all the documentaries on it. They were obsessed. These pilgrims, when they got up there, they just went boom, they were gone, I mean they were off in their own little world. . . . They were the sort of people who were having these "religious experiences" up there. Having this thing about trying to make connections with this idea that they've had in their head for so long, that they'd seen as remote. And suddenly being there touching it, holding it, they were there in their own happy little world. They were amazing to watch. The Burgess Shale experience alone qualifies the field trip as a pilgrimage. In Carl's words, "a lot of people consider it to be the most famous fossil site in the world, and so it is a pilgrimage to the Burgess Shale." He went on to say that "the trilobite beds at Mount Stephen was also a pilgrimage." Special clothing. While the clothing worn by the field trip participants may not have appeared as particularly special, there was a uniformness about it. For the most part people wore jeans, sweaters or sweatshirts, light pile or cotton jackets, anoraks, and hiking boots. But it was more in what they didn't wear that was most distinctive. No one dressed in high-tech gear so common among mountain hikers. Also, the participants' clothing was well worn. No one had to purchase new gear to go on this expedition; they already owned it. The path taken to the site. The path to the sacred site is a reminder of what is being experienced, of what happened at the site.19 This was particularly evident on the way to the Burgess Shale quarries. Throughout the hike to the Burgess Shale there was no mention of Charles Walcott's discovery of the fossil beds until we emerged from the forest and stepped out into the vast open slopes of the ridge where the quarries are located. It was there that people started talking about Walcott and asking if we were on the horse trail where he found the fossil-bearing rock which led to the discovery of the fossil beds. The questions and talk about Walcott signified the importance of being there and walking where he walked. This experience is consistent with Martin Rudwick's suggestion that as sacred sites are approached by pilgrim or geologist, there is a progressively heightened sense of expectation and receptivity to new understandings.20 Tolsoe's "seeing is believing" and Jerry's "I learned a hell of a lot today" comments regarding visiting the Burgess Shale quarries illustrate field trip participants' receptiveness to new learnings. Taking something home. Souvenirs and artifacts represent cultural ideals21 and as tokens of the experience, keep it present in the mind of the pilgrim.22 Souvenirs in the way of post cards, t-shirts, and field guides were purchased throughout the field trip, particularly at the information centres in Jasper and Field as well as at the Frank Slide and the Royal Tyrell Museum. Artifacts were collected in two ways. First, where possible, at the Tanglefoot Creek trilobite beds and at the Ammonite mine near Magrath, everyone on the field trip collected fossils. As noted in the previous chapter, Hans alone collected over 130 trilobite specimens at Tanglefoot Creek. Second, where fossil collecting was prohibited, everyone took pictures of specimens found at the Mount Stephen fossil beds and the Burgess Shale quarries. The photographing of fossils had a ritualistic quality about it in that placing a reference coin beside the specimen being photographed was a cross-cultural behavior. Individuals from Asia, Europe, and North America all engaged in this habit. Paul's story of the spray-lacquered specimens he contemplated at home also illustrates how artifacts can be used not only to keep the field experience in mind but to assist in the creation of knowledge about them. Difficulty of access. Difficulty of access to a site not only increases the "magnetism of a sacred site,23 but is also symbolic of the inner journey of the pilgrim.24 During pilgrimage the outer journey is from the comforts of everyday life to exposure to the trials and perils of the vastness of the world.25 Or from Han's experience Hans: [Field adventures] are essentially the moments when you prove to have escaped from the normal life and the ordinary job. . . . They indicate the moments that a normal tourist would hardly experience or, even better, 'survive.' It is this exposure to unfamiliar experiences, this experiential and spatial separation from every day community occurring during pilgrimage or geological field trip, that provides both pilgrims and geologists access to new and deeper understandings of reality, "deeper than can be found by remaining within the 'structure' of everyday experience."26 In other words, the outer journey creates the environment in which the inner journey takes place. In terms of inaccessibility of sites visited, the pre-conference field trip was unlike most other field trips associated with conferences in that it was much more physical than usual for this type of trip. In that sense the field trip was typical of pilgrimages involving long walks to reach their intended goal. On three separate occasions during the field trip we walked for hours along narrow mountain trails, up creek beds or through the bush to various fossil localities. Each hike contained its own set of difficulties. The two hour climb to the Mount Stephen fossil beds entailed hiking along a very wet and slippery trail, one of the steepest in the area. The only accident that occurred during the trip happened as we made our way to these fossil beds. Several members of the group were stung by wasps, the effects of which remained with both Levi and Carl for several days afterward. The next day we visited the Burgess Shale quarries. This nine hour trek involved climbing over two thousand feet in elevation and descending over three thousand feet of elevation. It was the hike down from the quarries more than the hike up to it that proved problematic. Carl lost of a couple of toe nails and several others experienced blistered feet and sore muscles which caused some grief during the following day's hike. The third and final day of hiking, an arduous twenty kilometer round trip excursion to the Tanglefoot Creek fossil beds, included six kilometers of very difficult bushwhacking. While there were no real complaints about the difficulty of these hikes, Janet and others assured me that this was totally unlike any field trip they had ever been on. The value of shared hardships encountered in gaining access to sacred sites is, as Victor Turner suggests, that it binds various groups of people together.27 This most certainly was the case during the field trip as students, amateurs, and professional geologists jointly suffered the intensity of foul weather, the strains and stresses of steep climbs and descents, and the accumulated effects of three long days of mountain hiking. During these times, as Carl points out, "people tend to break up into twos or threes and talk as they walk. And I think that's good too." Examples of this include, Janet, a professor of geology, hiking back from the Burgess Shale with Patrick, a paleontology student, then the next day hiking to Tanglefoot Creek with Levi an amateur paleontologist, and later Patrick and Levi, student and amateur, hiking back from Tanglefoot Creek together. In addition to developing interpersonal bonds, the hardships associated with the long treks into the sites created a sense of accomplishment as well as providing people with time to reflect as is evident in Sam's comments about hiking to the Burgess Shale: Sam: I think that the fact that you have to hike up there, makes you appreciate it more than just driving up to it and getting out of the car. You have to actually work to get there. And you get time to think while you're going up. Given the geological complexity of the Rocky Mountains, it would have been quite easy to plan a field trip that didn't involve these hardships. However, not only had Carl and Paul designed the trip to include some very important fossil localities, but they intentionally designed it to be quite physical: Carl: I understand that in eastern Canada they ran a very different sort of trip where everything was choreographed. They had a large number of localities to get to each day. Basically, everybody poured out of the bus and heard a five minute speech and then poured back into the bus. I think people would be sick of it after a few days. We tried not to run a trip of that sort. . . . I personally like strong physical sides to field trips. The physical nature of this field trip in conjunction with the sacredness or "sense of presence" of the sites visited are key factors in distinguishing it as a pilgrimage. People embark upon sacred journeys for many reasons. They include: (1) to see the place where something happened, (2) to draw near to something sacred, (3) to answer a sense of inner calling, (4) to see why others go there, (5) to get outside the normal routine of life, (6) to admire something wondrous, (7) to make a vacation more interesting, or (8) to be among the privileged.28 While each of these reasons may, to one degree or another, have played a part in individual decisions for joining the pre-conference field trip, "seeing where something happened" and "being near to something sacred" were the two most prevalent reasons. This is apparent in people's desire to visit the Burgess Shale. As a place where something happened, where there is something sacred, the Burgess Shale is unrivaled. Stephen J. Gould explains:
As its primary fascination, the Burgess Shale teaches us about an amazing difference between past and present life: with far fewer species, the Burgess Shale -one quarry in British Columbia, no longer than a city block-contains a disparity in anatomical design far exceeding the modern range throughout the world! . . . The broad anatomical disparity of the Burgess is an exclusive feature of the first explosion of multicellular life.29 The Burgess Shale, as a site representing the earth's "first explosion of multicellular life," embodies the sacred ideal of the evolution of life, of our connectedness to other life forms, to our connectedness to something beyond ourselves. Here at the Burgess Shale we find our origins in the first known cordate, Pikaia gracilens, the first known species of our phylum.30 To paraphrase Stephen Gould, we are alive because Pikaia survived.31 Hence, the Burgess Shale is a compelling site to visit as is noted in the following comments: Carl: I would say at least half the people on the trip were just there primarily to see the Burgess Shale and maybe the Stephen formation. The other half were just generally interested and wanted to go to the Rocky Mountains. We had a couple of very high profile sites to visit. At any time something came up in a discussion about a particular locality, they could say, "Oh ya, I was there." Hans: It's a must to have been to the Burgess Shale for someone working more or less officially on certain African problems. Especially where I am working. . . . Others are just eager to have been to a locality that's quite different. Jerry: The whole reason I came on the trip was to go to the Burgess Shale. The Mount Stephen fossil beds were important, but I would have come just to go to the Burgess Shale. It's the pilgrimage thing if you will. . . . But just to see the Burgess Shale, . . . I would have crawled to the damn thing. Tolsoe: The Burgess Shale is the Jerusalem of paleontology, so I liked going there. Three or four years ago I had a chance to go but I missed it, so the '97 field trip I didn't want to miss. . . . It was a neat experience as a paleontology student. Now I can talk about the Burgess Shale to other students who haven't been there. I'm proud of myself for having been there. Sam: It [the Burgess Shale] was like an important world site that is really well known, so it is nice having gone to it. It's kind of restricted and hard to get to. Nice to see things like that. The focus of these remarks is on seeing the site, on the experience of being there. Accounts from pilgrims about traditional pilgrimages have much the same focus. According to Alan Morinis, "sacred journeys tend not to be intellectual quests. It is the experience that counts."32 Moreover, while the external behavior between tourist and pilgrim is often indistinguishable,33 the pilgrim's ability to relate the pilgrimage experience to a larger framework of meaning is one of the key factors in distinguishing the pilgrim from the tourist.34 In the case of the field trip, the participants' knowledge of geology and paleontology provided "a larger framework of meaning" for them in the same way as pilgrims' knowledge of religion. Field trip participants at all levels, professional, amateur, and student possessed this larger framework as affirmed by the following comments: Janet: We've probably all seen films and photos and all that and descriptions and everything else, so I doubt that anybody was really surprised at what they saw today [at the Burgess Shale]. Jerry: I've read a lot about it [the Burgess Shale]. I've seen most of the specimens in the Smithsonian. Tolsoe: All the species in the Burgess Shale, I've already seen from text books and from some specimens in museums. A second distinction between tourist and pilgrim is that tourists typically travel away from the center toward an elective periphery of their society whereas pilgrims are on a quest toward the center of their culture.35 Said differently, pilgrimage is structured and has set destinations whereas this is not necessarily the case for tourism. In this regard, the pre-conference field trip headed directly for the center not once but on five different occasions. Each of the fossil sites, Mount Stephen, Burgess Shale, Tanglefoot Creek, and the Ammonite mine as well as the Royal Tyrell Museum represent centers embodying the cultural ideals and values of paleontology. By its very nature then, the field trip, as a quest directed toward the center of geological culture, functioned as a pilgrimage. Another factor differentiating pilgrim and tourist is that for the pilgrim the group of fellow travelers is part of the ambience of the experience, while for the tourist the group has no culturally defined significance.36 For the field trip participants, the composition of the group was definitely an important aspect of the experience as can be seen from their comments: Carl: My own personal view of such trips is that they are most useful for scientists getting to know each other. . . . But the reason I go on these kind of field trips is to meet people. The contacts made on field trips are usually much stronger than those made at a meeting where people mainly attend talks. Tolsoe: I think all of us [Kildong and Mongryong] are here to meet trilobite people. . . . There's the personal thing, you know-the political things. Also we are here to meet trilobite people, hear trilobite people and to get useful information. Besides providing personal experiences for individual pilgrims, pilgrimage plays an important role in developing and maintaining communities.37 Through the pilgrimage process, disparate social groups are fused together forming what Victor Turner identifies as communitas. He explains the process: When one goes on a pilgrimage . . . one is also moving away from a social life in which one has an institutionalized social status, plays a set of expected roles, and belongs to such social groups as family. . . . One is moving into a different kind of social atmosphere, one in principle (if not always in practice) stripped of status, role-playing attributes, corporate group affiliations, and the like.38 In other words, a communitas serves as a social structure in which individuals can step out of their status-role way of relating to others and relate to each other in non-status-role manners. As such, it provides the individual with release from the structural obligations and necessities of everyday life.39 The social structure of the pre-conference field trip was that of a communitas. Throughout the course of the field trip professionals, amateurs, and students interacted with each other based on their "peopleness" rather than their status or role. Thus, professionals didn't have to stand on a pedestal nor did amateurs and students have to look up to them. They could and did interact in non-hierarchical manners as Sam's comments illustrate:
Sam: I walked with Carl for a while and we talked about things besides paleontology, like mushrooms and stuff like that other than just what he is actually studying. . . . Further support for the field trip group being a communitas is revealed by a close examination of Appendix G. It shows that fifteen of the sixteen field trip participants shared a van seat, room, or meal with individuals from all status groups. Cross-culturally, Hans from Germany and Phelim from China shared a van seat, room, or meal with fourteen individuals each while the Koreans (Kildong, Mongryong, and Tolsoe) did the same with eight, seven, and nine others respectively. Carl's post-field trip contacts with Jerry, Andy, Hans, and Phelim as well as Tolsoe's contacts with Jerry, Andy, Paul, Janet, Henry, and Mongryong give further indication of the cross-status and cross-cultural nature of the relationships built during the field trip. In addition to this, the interactions were also cross-disciplinary. Based on previous field experiences, Carl elaborates on the value of cross-disciplinary interactions: Carl: I ran a first year field school for a number of years. I ran it with a different faculty member, and I found very often that the best mix was to go with somebody with a totally different background. So, if I headed off with a granite specialist with my fossil and sediment background, the students actually got a lot more out of it because we were constantly cutting at the rocks from totally different angles. So when we would be looking at a bunch of sediments, he'd be interested in the minerals that were in the sediments and where their origins were and so on. If we were looking at a bunch of metamorphic rocks, he'd be interested in the metamorphic minerals and the heat pressure, and I'd be looking at whether these things were once sediments and whether we could see any signs of the old sedimentary structures whereas he was interested in the metamorphic environments and the mountain building which may have taken place hundreds of millions of years later. I generally found that people with totally different backgrounds at least in introductory field experiences of that sort provided far more knowledge to students than if you had two specialists who were rather close in which case they would probably spend time either agreeing with each other or arguing about minutiae which would be of no possible interest to the students at that level. This mixing of disciplines, ethnic cultures, and levels of status serves to reduce the fragmentation of knowledge between individuals within the same field of study. Not all interactions between field trip participants were non-hierarchical. As noted in a previous chapter, Patrick made Paul's lunches and Sam was called upon to do "the donkey work" as Carl described it. However, in both these situations there was compensation. Paul funded Patrick's participation in the trip as well as his graduate research. Sam was being paid to work as Carl's summer assistant. Both Patrick and Sam spoke highly of their supervisors. Such relationships do not negate the ideal of communitas. As Victor Turner explains, "while the pilgrimage situation does not eliminate structural divisions, it attenuates them, removes their sting."40 Stories, told as tales, legends, and history, are also an essential aspect of the pilgrimage process.41 As discussed in the previous two chapters, stories were a significant part of the sensemaking process of the field trip. They ranged from descriptions of geological history of the sites visited to the exploits of geologists past and present. Veterans of numerous field expeditions, like Carl, Paul, Hans, and Andy, narrated tales of personal field adventures. Other less experienced members of the group, Patrick, Henry, and Sam, focused on relating the legends of Andrews, Cope, Marsh, and other historic paleontological icons. On our treks to the Mount Stephen and Burgess Shale fossil beds, Peter relayed the local history, and whenever Charles Walcott's name arose in a conversation, Jerry recounted his accomplishments. Not only did these stories provide individuals with a sense of identity within the community of geologists and paleontologists as discussed in the previous chapter, but they also linked the pilgrimage sites to the cultural field. That is to say, they helped establish the cultural values and beliefs embedded within the sites visited. They established the "sacredness" of the sites. Not all stories influencing the field experience were ones told during the trip. Most notably, Stephen J. Gould's Wonderful Life was instrumental in bringing the Burgess Shale to the attention of the public in general as well as to many of the members of the field trip. Peter: Wonderful Life by Stephen Gould was the entire Burgess Shale literature except for things in journals. He was the reference point, the one everyone talked about. When you watched any documentary that's the story you got. The exposure the Burgess Shale received from Stephen Gould' book added tremendously to its magnetism as a sacred site. Not only was Wonderful Life key in motivating people to visit the Burgess Shale, it was what motivated Patrick to leave a career in the navy and return to university to study paleontology. In addition to the stories heard before and during the pilgrimage, pilgrims come away from the pilgrimage with their own story of the place and the meaning it has for them42-stories which, along with souvenirs and artifacts, "serve to reconstruct the journey in the imagination."43 It is through the retelling of these personal stories that pilgrim and geological traveler alike integrate back into their home community. Through their stories they bring a renewed and intensified energy for the shared values and beliefs encountered during the shared experience of the journey. Thus, they return home having created a new relationship with values and beliefs that are of individual and collective importance.44 Up to this point in our discussion the comparison between the pre-conference field trip and traditional pilgrimage has focused primarily on their external similarities. We have examined the nature of geological sites as sacred sites, the five stages common to both geological travel and religious travel, the characteristic features common to the field trip and pilgrimage, various reasons for embarking on journeys including the distinctions between tourists and pilgrims, how both have a similar social structure referred to as communitas, and finally the comparable role of story in each. From a social-cultural perspective, the commonalities between the field trip and pilgrimage support the argument that indeed, the pre-conference field trip was functionally a pilgrimage. However, a pilgrimage is an inner experience as well as an outer experience. While I can not speak with any authority about the inner experience of the other members of the field trip, other than from what they have told me, I can speak with authority about my inner experience of the field trip as a pilgrimage. It is from this perspective that I continue the discussion of the pre-conference field trip as a pilgrimage.
In conducting this case study, I have learned that part of what is required to make a field trip a pilgrimage is a desire to travel to a sacred site, a desire to stand in its presence. Second, there must be an expectation that the act of being there will somehow make a difference in one's life. When Bryant Griffith first suggested I consider a research project involving the Burgess Shale, I had no idea of its significance. Even after arranging to participate in the field trip, I had no sense of the field trip's potential as a transformational experience. I imagined the trip as an intellectual endeavor from which I would gain insight into the sensemaking process occurring during a geological field trip. Initially, I was going along to learn about sensemaking, not geology. It never crossed my mind that the field trip would entail a quest for connecting with that "something else that's going on." Hence, at the onset of the project, I lacked both the desire and the expectation associated with traditional pilgrimage. In preparing myself for my role as ethnographic observer engaging in field research, I read Fieldnotes by Roger Sanjek and Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes by Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw prior to embarking on the trip. In addition, to prepare myself for my role as field trip participant, I read Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould. Reading this book, I was totally enthralled with Stephen Gould's descriptions of the fossil animals found at the Burgess Shale and his interpretation of the meaning of the great diversity occurring among them. I had not been so excited about evolution since reading The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris thirty years earlier. Through the study of evolution as an undergraduate wildlife biology student, I had come to understand the connectedness between all forms of life. Over the years, this understanding has been one of the fundamental principles informing my sense of spirituality. As I read Wonderful Life, I began to realize that "something wondrous had happened" at the Burgess Shale. The more I read, the more curious I became as to what that wondrous something was all about. However, unlike Martin, who upon hearing that the field trip was scheduled to visit the Burgess Shale immediately signed on as a participant, or Jerry, who would have "crawled" to it, my curiosity about it had not yet fully materialize into desire and expectation. This did not occur until after the start of the field trip. Throughout the first two days of the field trip, immersed in geology and paleontology talk, I started becoming familiar with the language of the group and thus developing a basic understanding of what this talk was about. Through the stories told, I learned about who the participants were as individuals and as a group. Through conversations about the Burgess Shale, Charles Walcott, and Stephen Gould, whose interpretations most on the trip participants seemed to disagree with, I came to comprehend that within the paleontological community there was tension surrounding the differences in Walcott's and Gould's interpretations of the Burgess Shale fossils. This tension piqued my curiosity. Whose interpretation was most accurate? Were there other possibilities? What was the significance of the Burgess Shale? As Janet said, A lot of times you hear two stories, and they're incompatible. You have no a priori knowledge-both sets of arguments sound possible. You don't necessarily favor anything, and how can you if you don't go out there and actually see it for yourself. And I wanted to it see for myself, to make my own interpretation-to determine whose story I thought was most plausible or if there were other possibilities neither had considered. From conversations throughout the trip, it became apparent that this tension between interpretations was one of the factors that enhanced the magnetism of the Burgess Shale as a sacred site not only for me but for others as well. Another factor that increased my desire to visit the Burgess Shale was the trip to the Mount Stephen fossil beds. This was my first experience seeing some of the same fossils present at the Burgess Shale. Finding an Anomalocaris claw was a turning point for me; it made what I had read, in addition to what I had heard from the participants, become real. It was at this point that I became excited about going to the Burgess Shale. I was beginning to feel a sense of expectation. Although I could not have verbalized it at the time, the Mount Stephen fossil beds served as a minor sacred site that intensified my desire to visit the major sacred site, the Burgess Shale. I was going there to have my own experience, not just to observe and record the experience of others. What is significant about this series of events is that my inner experience of pilgrimage evolved over time; it was neither spontaneous nor intentional. I had not entered into the field trip with the expectation of having any sort of personal transformation nor of participating in a pilgrimage. Even though the realization of the pilgrimage process did not come until much later, the process was what was happening during the field trip. This lack of awareness of the pilgrimage process is not uncommon. In fact it is common for a person to start out on a journey as a tourist and end up as a pilgrim,45 which is exactly what happened for me. Although a major portion of my energy on the trek up to the Burgess Shale was spent as an observer listening to and recording the stories told by various participants, I also had time to contemplate what being at the Burgess Shale quarries would mean. I was filled with excitement. I looked forward to seeing the site first hand, to being there in the midst of the mountains, and to standing there in front of the quarry experiencing it as others had. I wanted to connect with the significance of this geologically and biologically historic site through body and spirit as well as through mind. Yet, I was also apprehensive. I had no clear sense of what my response would be once we arrived. Given that pilgrims' expectation of "rapture and exaltation" often fail,46 I was concerned that I might not have any significant response at all. There might not be any sense of transformation-no "ah ha's." Upon arriving at the Burgess Shale, both excitement and apprehension gave way to "awe." As is common in this type of circumstance, it is difficult to articulate the inner experience.47 I precede with that in mind. It was not the quarries themselves that created a sense of awe; rather it was the vastness and magnificence of the surrounding mountains in combination with the knowledge that buried within this site was the record of the origins of multicellular life, the record of our connection to something beyond ourselves as human beings-the record linking Nature and Human Nature together. Over 500 million years ago, life forms, which gave rise to the phylum Chordata, were enshrined in the rocks of what are now the slopes of the Burgess Shale. Being there in the presence of these ancient artifacts was staggering. In addition to observing and photographing the activities of the other field trip participants, I wandered around the lower and middle quarries examining the banded layers of rock exposed by years of quarry activity, touching fossils embedded in pieces of shale, and gazing out at the mountain vistas. I was thoroughly enthralled and totally aware that I was in a sacred place. It was the only time during the field trip that I requested to have my picture taken with my camera. This one picture of me standing beside Carl with the Walcott quarry in the background became evidence of my having been there. This photograph serves as one of several souvenirs I use to reconstruct the Burgess Shale experience. Returning from the Burgess Shale was more of a beginning than an ending. Having been there, now more than ever, I looked forward to the rest of our journey and the sites we would visit along the way. Each subsequent site served to reinforce and enhance the Burgess experience. The relevance of having been to the Burgess Shale became more significant as I learned more about the big picture context surrounding it. To repeat Clift and Clift's words, through expanding my "ability to relate the experience to a larger framework of meaning,"48 I developed a deeper understanding of the experience as well as of life itself. As we journeyed from site to site, my feeling as field trip participant steadily increased. For example, at Tanglefoot Creek, I combed the hillsides searching for fossil trilobites like everyone else. In addition to the photographs taken there, I returned with a complete trilobite specimen, which, like the Burgess Shale photograph, became a symbol of my experience and the beliefs I held regarding the evolution of life. As discussed in chapter three, by the time we visited the Frank Slide, I was feeling very much like a member of the group and, like several others on the trip, purchased a copy of Ben Gadd's Handbook of the Canadian Rockies. I had a need to know more, to make a deeper connection. The geological history of the Rocky Mountains was about more than the history of life; it was about the history of the planet from which life sprang. By the time we reached the Royal Tyrell Museum, I was also becoming more and more aware of the significance of the entire field trip as a pilgrimage as opposed to just the Burgess Shale visit. That is to say, through the combination of visiting all the various sites along with traveling in the company of others over an extended period of time and distance, I came to experience the field trip as a pilgrimage. This field trip, like Victor Turner describes pilgrimage, was about moving from idea to experience; it was about getting closer to the "belief" roots of a culture.49 Returning home, I immediately shared my experience of the field trip with my wife. While looking at the photographs of the trip, I described the details of everything we had done. I also shared my stories of the field trip with friends and colleagues. As I told my stories and contemplated my experience of the trip, I became aware of subtle changes within myself. For example, shortly after the field trip I made the following journal entry:
Colleen and I went cycling with Ted, Maureen, and Eli on August 30th from Goat Creek to Banff and back to Canmore via the highway. As I cycled along I frequently realized that I was looking at and appreciating the mountains in a much more intimate way than ever before. I was quite struck by this new relationship I have with them. Not only did I relate differently to the mountains, I also incorporated pilgrimage as part of my learning process. During one of my university courses we viewed Fritjof Capra's film Mindwalk which was shot on location at Mont-St.-Michel in France. This film significantly influenced my thinking regarding the interconnectedness of life. Knowing that I would be going on a business trip to France, I made plans to go on a pilgrimage to Mont-St.-Michel. While I do not need to discuss the details of the trip here, it suffices to say that it was a wonderful experience in that it solidified my understanding of Capra's notions of the web of life as well as expanded my understanding of pilgrimage. Thus, as a result of the pre-conference field trip experience, I engaged in a pilgrimage as a way of making sense, as a way of knowing. The significance of the cycling insight and the Mont-St.-Michel pilgrimage is that I returned home from the Rocky Mountain field trip a different person from the one who left. This experience of transformation is what classifies the field trip experience as one of pilgrimage. According to Clift and Clift,
going on the pilgrimage makes one into a different person. Then we can come back to the place where we began and know it for the first time because the person who comes back is, in truth, different from the person who left.50 On August 19th, 1997 the last night of the field trip, I recorded a similar observation in my field journal:
Our trip is a journey in space (miles traveled and heights climbed) and time (current and past). It would appear that we will return to where we started, but not so. Through (1) contact with geological sites-being there, (2) the field trip communitas-living together, and (3) engaging in conversation with field trip participants-storytelling, I have come to understand the Rocky Mountain pre-conference field trip as a case of sensemaking on two very different levels. At one level, the participants have engaged in a scientific injunction which has provided them with insights concerning the exterior domain of geologic and paleontologic reality as well as the external social reality of their community. At another and perhaps more subtle level, the field trip, functioning as a pilgrimage, included insights into their interior world both individually and collectively, that is, the "I" and "We" domains of experience. As such, the above account of my inner experience as a field trip participant in conjunction with the account of the exterior experiences of the other field trip participants constitutes a "modest beginning of an ethnography"51 for exploring the nature of a geological field trip as an instance of sensemaking and as an instance of pilgrimage.
One of the initial research issues arising during the field trip was that of establishing rapport with the field trip participants, none of whom I had met prior to the trip other than one brief meeting with Carl. Establishing rapport was of particular importance because a case study as ethnographic research "is characterized by the intense nature of relationships that are established between researcher and researched."52 Hence, the quality of the data collected during and after the field trip was dependent upon the quality of relationships established.53 As an observer participant not only did I have to establish myself as a human science researcher, I also needed to establish myself as an actual field trip participant. To be an effective researcher it was necessary for me to create a balance between these two roles. In other words, I had to be aware that "close observation involves an attitude of assuming a relation that is as close as possible while retaining a hermeneutic alertness to situations that allows us to constantly step back and reflect on the meaning of those situations."54 To achieve this end, I spent the first two days of the field trip concentrating on meeting as many of the participants as possible by engaging them in conversations about their personal and work lives. In this way I got to know something about most of the other participants, and they got to know something about me. Also, because it is important to "show a willingness to enter into the way they see the world,"55 being familiar with Stephen J. Gould's work and being an avid outdoorsman went a long way in establishing my role as field trip participant. This was augmented by my genuine interest in the scientific content of the trip which I demonstrated by asking questions and initiating discussions about the local geology and paleontology. The success of my efforts to build rapport were evident the evening we returned to Edmonton when Carl made unsolicited comments regarding my being accepted by everyone and fitting in well with the group. Andy, Hans, and Phelim echoed his sentiments. To ensure a balance between the observer and participant roles, each evening of the field trip prior to retiring I spent an hour or so transcribing field notes, reflecting upon the day's events, and preparing for the next day's research. A second research concern was my impact as a researcher on the behaviors of those being researched. How much did my presence influence the dynamics of the group's interactions and as such bias the data collected? The answer to this question is directly related to my ability to develop rapport with the other participants. Because I was able to gain the trust and confidence of the group, I believe I was able to minimize the impact my presence had on the group. In an effort to reduce my impact as a researcher, I made a point of being as unobtrusive as possible, though not secretive, by recording field notes in a brief mind map format and by only using the tape recorder during interviews. Also, knowing that I would be conducting post-field trip interviews, I kept the field trip interviews to a minimum. My influence as researcher was most obvious in that I initiated conversations about topics that might not have normally been discussed in the context of the field trip. An example of this would be the discussions with various participants concerning how they made sense of different geological concepts. However, because I was for the most part just another listener within a group of listeners, I think my presence had little effect on the conversations and stories occurring during the field trip. Thus, I am confident that the conversational data collected are representative of public interactions that would have normally occurred had I not been present. A third research issue surfacing in this ethnographic case study is that of collecting and recording data. One of the strengths of an ethnographic case study is that the researcher enters into the case without a preconceived interpretation of what the observed behaviors mean. The ethnographer does not enter into research to prove a hypothesis but rather to uncover the meaning structures associated with the behaviors related to the research question.56 Because lived experience is complex and "there will always be too many 'variables' for the number of observations to be made,"57 the ethnographer must select which behaviors to pay attention to and subsequently record. While "the field researcher watches for the sorts of things that are meaningful to those studied,"58 it is inevitable that some activities and events are emphasized while others are omitted or trivialized59 Hence, "fieldnotes provide the ethnographer's, not the members', accounts of the later's experiences, meanings, and concerns."60 The implication of this is that ethnographies are based on the set of assumptions ethnographers bring to the research as well as the on the lived experiences of those being researched. In this regard, the fieldnotes used to develop the sensemaking themes emerging from the activities and events of the field trip, while capturing the significance of the field trip participants' experiences based on their meanings and interpretations, are deeply grounded in the basic assumptions I hold. The most significant assumption influencing my interpretation of the data collected is that sensemaking is a socially constructed process which evolves through ongoing interactions between participants in the context of the physical world. Given that different assumptions lead to different perceptions and interpretations, this means that the themes emerging from the field trip experience constitute one possible interpretation of the meaning structures people used to make sense of the field trip. Consequently, the validity of the interpretations and descriptions of the field trip experience as outlined in this thesis, while not exclusive of other possible interpretations and descriptions, lies in their ability "to identify those dimensions critical to our understanding of human social behavior"61 and to harmonize with the experiences of those who have had similar experiences, that is, those who have performed similar injunctions. A final consideration emerging from this case study concerns the possibilities for further research. While the themes emerging from this case study have illuminated the nature of sensemaking occurring during this one particular geological field trip, they have also raised a number of other questions requiring additional investigation. From a general outlook, there is a need to examine the applicability of these themes to other field trips of a similar nature. In what ways do they hold true or not true for other geological field trips or for field trips engaged in by other scientific disciplines? Under what conditions do these themes present themselves? Or how do these themes differ when the composition of the participants of the field trip differs? For example, does a university field school composed of a teacher and students or a team of professional researchers exploring new sites display the same sensemaking processes? If so, how are they similar or different from those observed in this case study; if not, what other sensemaking processes emerge? In other words, what are the critical factors influencing the emergence of the sensemaking processes described in this case study and how applicable are they to other situations? Issues arising from each of the sensemaking themes also present interesting possibilities for further exploration. For example, several field trip participants indicated that being there, seeing the geological features and fossils in their natural context, made what they had learned from textbooks more real, more meaningful. This gives rise to questions regarding the relationship between text and field learning and knowing. What is the interrelationship between these two approaches? How can these two approaches be integrated to maximize learning and knowing? Does the field experience coming after the text learning change previous learning (expand it, clarify it) or does it simply reinforce what is already known? What are the critical factors involved in being there that make this type of contextual learning effective? The notion of communitas as the social structure developed during the field trip also furnishes possibilities for extended research. Typically the social structure of a scientific community involving professional, amateur, and student researchers is by its very nature hierarchical. However, while living together during the pre-conference field trip there appeared to be a temporary suspension of power and domination between participants. This occurred despite the fact that some members of the field trip had, to use Andy's words, "gained recognition and credibility through publishing significant monographs," while others had not. The range of recognition and credibility within the group extended on one hand from Hans, who, besides being a well published university professor, holds an official position on a subcommittee of the International Union of Geological Sciences, to Sam on the other hand, who was a third year undergraduate student. This change in social structure from the everyday work setting to the temporary field trip setting is wide open for investigation. One area of particular interest is the role and nature of storytelling in a communitas compared to that of hierarchical social structures commonly found in work or university settings. Of all the possibilities for further research evolving from this case study, the ones with the greatest potential for new understandings of social behavior related to scientific sensemaking are those involving geological field trips as pilgrimage. By describing the pre-conference field trip as a pilgrimage in the traditional religious sense, this thesis has created an awareness of pilgrimage, as an archetypical behavior, i.e., as a "universal pattern in human behavior,"62 manifesting itself in the scientific world in the form of the geological field trip. To determine the extent of this manifestation more research integrating scientific and religious perspectives is required. Given that this area of study is virtually untouched, the possibilities for research are endless. While some researchers have examined secular sites63 including museums,64 none mention specific scientific field sites as "sacred sites." In light of the thinking of Fritjof Capra, who compares Western science with Eastern mysticism,65 and Ken Wilber, who proposes a common ground for determining valid scientific and religious experience,66 studying scientists as pilgrims, as people seeking connections with something beyond the self, would seem quite timely. Although scientific expeditions have been metaphorically described as pilgrimages, that is, as long journeys, there is still need to study them as transformational undertakings.
In this thesis, I have argued that the Rocky Mountain pre-conference field trip was an instance of sensemaking as evident through the emergence of three discernible sensemaking patterns or meaning structures, being there, storytelling, and living together. Furthermore, I have argued that the field trip, because of certain unique features and characteristics, was functionally a pilgrimage. Although these claims are grounded in the voices and actions of the participants and the events of the field trip as well as my experience as observer participant and as author of this ethnography, the ultimate test of the validity of these claims rests with the informed reader as a member of a community of knowers. If the claims made in this thesis resonate with the reader's experience, then to that person it will serve as a natural basis for generalization67 and have served its purpose. However, there are broader implications arising from this case study than those of understanding the field trip as an instance of sensemaking or as an instance of pilgrimage. It is to these broader implications that I now direct my comments. In doing so, "I will plunge in with a Popperian 'bold conjecture'"68 that has been percolating through my consciousness as a consequence of this case study. My hypothesis is this. A scientific-field-trip-as-pilgrimage (scientific-pilgrimage) represents the integration of the subjective ("I"), intersubjective ("We"), and objective ("It") dimensions of reality at the body, mind, and soul levels of Being without the reduction of one dimension or level to another. Throughout history the world's great wisdom traditions have perceived reality as the Great Chain of Being, as "a rich tapestry of interwoven levels, reaching from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit."69 While scientific-pilgrimages may integrate knowledge at all levels, the focus of this discussion will be limited to body (sensorimotor perception), mind, and soul (one's connection to the ultimate however that is defined). Structurally, the integration of knowledge associated with scientific-pilgrimage consists of a vertical component, the Great Chain of Being, and a horizontal component, the cultural value spheres. Each level on the vertical plane contains the three dimensions of the horizontal plane. That is to say, the sensorimotor level has an "I," "We," and "It" dimensions associated with it as do each of the other levels. Because each level transcends and includes its predecessor and exists as a consequence of its three dimensions, each level, in conjunction with the three strands of valid knowing (injunction, illumination, and falsification), can generate valid knowledge claims within its own domain.70 Thus, there is a natural basis for the integration of objective, subjective, and intersubjective knowledge. Before examining how scientific-pilgrimage achieves this integration of knowledge, we must first define scientific-pilgrimage. By scientific-pilgrimage I am referring to those, and only those, field trips that exhibit both external and internal aspects of pilgrimage. To qualify as a pilgrimage, a scientific field trip must be composed of as many of the core features (external aspects) of a pilgrimage as is required to evoke transformational or liminal experiences (internal aspects). The external features may include: (1) a journey to a "place of centrality with respect to the great tradition"71 of the community, (2) a community sanctioned search for shared or "sacred" ideals, (3) a "communitas" social structure, (4) a journey of extended length in both time and distance, and (5) difficulty of access to the site or sites involved. Internal transformational experiences, which can be experienced as a personal act on a number of different levels: ego, cultural, social, or meta,72 may include (1) transformation of one's inner state and outer status, (2) subtle changes in norms, values, and behaviors, (3) a deeper understanding of the community's shared ideals, (4) reinforcement of "the human bond within the particular cultural group,"73 and (5) a connection with something beyond one's self. The internal aspect of scientific-pilgrimage can also be understood from Martin Rudwuck's description of the liminal experience:
Liminality is that which raises the interaction between trained experience and unfamiliar features above the level of 'everyday' reality. It gives the unfamiliar a 'sacred' aura, in which its deeper significance may more readily be perceived. In this limen a new scientific insight may be born and may grow.74 The final test of scientific-pilgrimage is the acknowledgement of such by its participants. Unfortunately, because it is difficult to articulate the experience of pilgrimage75 and because the language of objective science has yet to incorporate to any significant degree the language of subjective personal and cultural lived experience, the acknowledgement of scientific-pilgrimage is as of yet not part of the typical scientist's consciousness. Perhaps, as the work of Fritjof Capra, Max van Manen, Humberto Maturana, Martin Rudwick, Ken Wilber, and others permeates the world of objective science, the compulsion to engage in field trip or pilgrimage will be seen as one and the same, as different manifestations of a single archetypical behavior. Scientific-pilgrimage, as an integrative approach for unifying knowledge, not only has the potential to combine content knowledge from different disciplines but also has the potential to integrate interior knowing ("I" and "We" domains) with exterior knowing ("It" domain) at various levels of being. The pre-conference field trip, as a particular case of scientific-pilgrimage, can be used to illustrate what is meant by an integrative approach for unifying knowledge. At the sensorimotor level of being, participants of the pre-conference field trip concentrated their attention on direct sensory-based observations of the geological and paleontological features encountered during the field trip. By standing face to face with the physical features of the environment, by taking photographs of geological features and fossils, and by collecting fossils, the field trip participants sought observable, representational truth and as such focused on the exterior or "It" domain at the sensory level. Through interacting and conversing with each other over a period of six days about the geology and paleontology of the areas visited, the field trip participants developed a sense of shared experience, that is, a sense of shared interiors or "I" and "We" domains of the sensory realm. Or as Carl suggests, you do develop a level of trust that you won't have necessarily just from an interaction at a conference. In the lived experience of the field trip, the three domains at the sensory level come together as one. Even though I speak of them as if they occur independently and separately from each other, they do not. In real-time lived experience, people mingling with each other and with the natural environment generate knowledge at the sensory level in all domains simultaneously. At the mental level of being, the "It" domain is intimately linked with the "I" domain. This is illustrated in a number of remarks made by several field trip participants. In reference to the slow pace of walking to the Burgess Shale, Sam remarked that you get time to think while you're going up. For Janet knowing only the "It" domain of an observation is not enough. She seeks out the meaning of what is observed: Janet: You don't want just dry facts. Dry facts are "The quarry is x meters high and this is where we found fossils A, B, and C." You want to know what that means. That's the story. And for Paul, prolonged contact with a physical object is a stimulus for contemplation: Paul: Anyway, for me this is something I do myself a lot if I'm contemplating something, a model or theory. I'll put stuff out so that I can look it, a lot of people don't do that, but it works for me. It keeps me thinking because for me I like to deal with ideas a lot not just documentation, and if you have reminders, it keeps you thinking so that a thought might come to you in an unusual way. You're reading a book on the john or you're cooking or something or walking to school or whatever, and then an idea pops into your head because the question has been circulating in your mind. I think most people probably do that if they are concerned about ideas and connections. The commonality of all three of these remarks lies in the creation of meaning, that is, understanding at the mental level of being. Not only is this creation of meaning connected to the physical world, but by telling stories of the meanings they have made, the participants' "I" experiences become public and thus incorporated into the "We" domain at the mental level. In the same manner "We" experiences are incorporated into the "I" domain of the mental realm. Through a sharing of experiences at the sensorimotor level and meanings at the mental level, a sense of community was built among the participants. This is most apparent in Tolsoe's comments:
Also we [Kildong, Mongryong, and I] are here to meet trilobite people, hear trilobite people and to get useful information . . . This focus on making connections with people at both the sensorimotor and the mental levels is a critical factor in a scientific field trip functioning as a pilgrimage. In the context of the scientific field trip, the soul level of Being is the realm of transpersonal awareness through contact with the physical world. Given that this level takes as its content illuminations and archetypal forms,76 and hence incorporates the "We" domain, it is the most difficult to apprehend. A person's transpersonal awareness as an interior state of being is visible in the exterior domain through comments of expectation and awe. It also takes on metaphorical expression as seen in field trip participants' comments about the trip to the Burgess Shale being a pilgrimage, or the Burgess Shale itself being the "Jerusalem of paleontology" as Tolsoe remarked. It is this sense of expectation of experiencing a transformational moment that is the essence of pilgrimage. However, as Eric Cohen explains, that expectation of rapture and exaltation, that expectation of connection with the ultimate, is seldom realized.77 Ultimately then, what is important is not the realization of a transformational experience but the expectation of it. It is this expectation of a liminal experience that solidifies the scientific field trip as a pilgrimage. To summarize my hypothesis, if, as Ken Wilber argues, in order to bring depth and meaning to knowledge, there is a need to integrate the disassociated cultural value spheres,78 then scientific-pilgrimage, as outlined above, is one injunction for advancing toward that goal. When scientists set out on a field trip acknowledging that all phenomena are composed of subjective and intersubjective dimensions as well as objective dimensions and with the intention of integrating those dimensions across the sensorimotor, mental, and soul realms of being, they will be engaging in pilgrimage as well as scientific field trip. Hence, the significance of the scientific-pilgrimage injunction is that it has the potential to bring forth a transformation of consciousness from a rational to a vision-logic perspective which constitutes an advancement in the evolution of what counts as knowledge. The Rocky Mountain pre-conference field trip, as a specific case of scientific-pilgrimage, illustrates one possibility of how this evolution of consciousness can manifest itself in the world of lived experience. Generalizing from this one case, scientific-pilgrimage can be seen as one avenue along which the evolution of what counts as knowledge can travel. While the theoretical constructs upon which my hypothesis is based may appear esoteric or complicated, scientific-pilgrimage itself is neither a complex nor a sophisticated process in that it is a universal behavior engaged in by ordinary people. It is a process in which pilgrim-scientists as ordinary people are experientially and spatially separated from every day community life and exposed to unfamiliar experiences from which they can generate new and deeper understandings of their world when they return home. Like other pilgrims who have come before them, pilgrim-scientists' concerns are both of a profound and of a mundane nature. In Martin Rudwick's words,
This quasi-sacred character of the geologist's goal is perfectly compatible with his more mundane concerns to make accurate and reliable observations, to collect adequate specimens of rocks and fossils, and so on. For in the same way the sacred character of the pilgrimage site is perfectly compatible with the simultaneous conduct of secular business, making useful contacts and just enjoying oneself: in terms of mediaeval Western pilgrimage, the Communion and the Fair were equally 'in place' within the pilgrimage experience. Indeed the route from home towards sacred site can be seen not only as a gradient of increasingly sacralized experience, but equally as a gradient of increasingly mundane character, in the sense that the pilgrim is liberated from the taken-for-granted constraints of his local environment, and his experience becomes progressively more cosmopolitan as he meets individuals and groups from other contrasting environments.79 So it was with the participants of the Rocky Mountain pre-conference field trip. And in this regard, they, as pilgrim-scientists, were no different today than the pilgrims of Chaucer's time:
When everyone was making a pilgrimage, the vast crowds were not composed of burning zealots, but of ordinary human beings, who turned naturally to mirth and jollity, who relished their food and drink, who enjoyed the company of their fellows who found delight in travel.80 I thank them, my fellow travelers, for being who they are and for allowing me to join them.
Field Trip as Pilgrimage
An Inside View
Research Issues and Questions
Final Thuoghts
May the FORCE be with you!
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