Beyond Bohm 2025: The Living Mountain

Around 1937 Scot author Nan Shepherd placed a finished manuscript in a drawer, where it sat for 40 years. Finally published in 1977 – four years before Shepherd’s death – The Living Mountain now has a cult following, and is considered a masterpiece that defies categorization. Though topically an account of Shepherd’s decades-long roamings in the Cairngorm massif of northern Scotland, the heart of The Living Mountain carries the reader deep within Shepherd’s experience, revealing ways of being that are at once place-specific and universal. She opens the reader to the forces and patterns of creation, and the manner in which these forces interpenetrate human consciousness and imagination.

In this two-day session, we will explore Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, as well as her slim volume of poetry, In the Cairngorms. The first day will consist of brief selected readings, with close examination and commentary on Shepherd’s intimate and evocative “way” of being with the mountain. We will also hear first-person accounts from people who, inspired by The Living Mountain, ventured forth and found their own “way” into the Cairngorms.

And yet… Much of the potency in Shepherd’s writing is that it is in no way limited to the Cairngorms. Once one has been infected with the spirit of engagement brought forth by Shepherd, that quality can be brought to bear anywhere – in a park, at the sea, in one’s own back yard. To that end, our second day will consist of contributions from audience-participants – a mutual sharing of experiences in which the depths of the human meet the depths of the natural world. This may take multiple forms – first-hand description of one’s own experiences in the natural world; reading to our Zoom group short passages from other writers or further readings of Shepherd; photographs of potent or numinous locations; any other means of conveying to the group the mystery, beauty, and even terror that can be encountered in the domain of nature. Our aim on this second day is to give full voice to the Pari community regarding the deep human need for conscious connection with stone and sun, wind and tree, bird and brook, sea and stars. Please join us!

Possible reading (helpful, not required):

• https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/03/19/the-living-mountain-nan-shepherd/ (short journal article on Shepherd)
• The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd (basis for this weekend’s sessions)
• In the Cairngorms, Nan Shepherd (basis for this weekend’s sessions)
• The Hidden Fires, Merryn Glover (excellent commentary on Shepherd)
• Story About Feeling, Bill Niedje (complementary perspective from Aboriginal elder)

Hester Reeve is a Reader in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University UK. Her practice encompasseslive art, drawing, sculpture, poetry, philosophy and ‘dialogue’ (as set out by David Bohm): Art is not viewed straightforwardly as a tool of communication or form of personal expression, but more as a complex kingdom that is continually attempting to establish itself through human thought and action.

Hester’s work has been shown internationally, including at former Randolph Street Gallery Chicago, LIVE Biennale Vancouver, BONE Performance Festival Switzerland, Tate Britain, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Halle G Vienna and, most recently, Nirox Sculpture Park, South Africa. She is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing) and a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Maria Hvidbak’s formal educational background encompasses a mix of architecture, business psychology, philosophical inter-viewing and existential-phenomenological psychotherapy. While not settling with any professional title or given field of study, Maria is engaged with questions pertaining to “communication,” as understood according to its etymological root sense of “moving together.” Increasingly inspired by what is commonly recognized as an attitude of the artist, seeking into subtleties of philosophy and sports as well as experimenting with creative expressions…all become modes of exploring what can possibly be “moved together” with.

Maria is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing) and a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Chris Marks was one of the founding trustees of Prison Dialogue, and involved for its 25 year experiment. This dialogue process in the criminal justice system (CJS) attempted to get the CJS to talk to itself and thereby humanize the overall system. The work was applied primarily in the UK, but also had outreach in the US. He has spent many years – and continues proudly working with – a number of “woke” funding organizations: human rights; economic justice; peace and conflict resolution. Chris lives in Edinburgh, loves tai chi and real tennis. He is a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Lee Nichol is Director of Bohmian Studies at the Pari Center. As a freelance writer and editor his latest works are Entering Bohm’s Holoflux and Holoflux: Codex (both from Pari Publishing). He was a long-time friend and collaborator of David Bohm, and is editor of Bohm’s On Dialogue, The Essential David Bohm, and On Creativity.

Lee has been on the faculty of the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California, and Denver University in Denver, Colorado. He sits on the Advisory Committee of the Pari Center, the Advisory Council of the Indigenous Education Institute, and is a member of the Founding Circle of the Native American Academy. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife Eva Casey.