Journey of the inner witness: A path of development

This article discusses how a conscious interpersonal and intrapersonal relationship to movement impulse, as an expression of creative self-emergence, serves transformative growth. It offers an overview of Janet Adler’s developmental perspective on and teaching of the Discipline of Authentic Movement. The author’s research, looking at the development of the inner witness in practitioners of Authentic Movement over a 30-year span of time, affirms and offers new insights into Adler’s model of a threephase development of human consciousness. The article also demonstrates how the research process itself integrates contemplative inquiry into an academic study, and notes the parallels between the practice of witness consciousness and the practice of phenomenological research.