Learning A Process Model

About Learning A Process Model

A podcast for people that have some familiarity with Focusing and who are wanting to read/think/live through Eugene Gendlin’s "A Process Model". Nicholas Montaño and Joey Massengale move through the electrifyingly fun and difficult book page by page, modeling in their own processes how listeners might embrace its density and necessary disorientations towards forming new understandings of the world and themselves: "Bring along your copy of APM, send us your questions, and join us as together we enliven and expand our felt-thinking around Focusing, learning, theory-building, and so much more!"

Publisher

Nicholas Montaño and Joey Massengale

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

15 Apr 2026

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Ch. IV (pp. 24–26) — There is only the whole implying(?)

   Hello listeners! We're excited to bring you the next episode in our series. This is another tangle-unraveller, but it also weaves in a lot of personal sharing from Joey and I that touches into the deeper ways we relate this work to other parts of our lives. The opening discussion about how learning is hard has been a particularly potent and meaningful theme for me. I hope our explorations support your own relating to the text! 🙏 As I've been prioritizing other aspects of my life, it took a while to get around to editing our backlog, and we haven't recorded for a few months. Expect the next episode to be released in 2–3 weeks, finishing out our backlog. From then on, I can't promise a pace, but Joey and I have both agreed that we'd love to finish chapter IV, as it really opens the stage for the whole book. Thanks so much for continuing to follow along; we love the engagement you all bring to this!! Because the editing process was weighing me down (it takes a lot of time), the chapters are no longer based on precise timestamps of paragraph readings. I recommend listening through YouTube with a logged-in account, and using their AI, Gemini, to ask for specific paragraph timestamps as an alternative way to be directly taken to those sections. Instead, I've used GPT-6 working off of full episode transcript to generate the chapter segments. Chapters: (00:00:00) The difficulty and shame of learning (00:04:49) Why thinking together helps (00:15:30) Original interaffecting (00:19:09) There is only the whole implying (00:32:20) Companioning Gendlin's confusion (00:45:01) How new concepts emerge (01:07:56) The schema and the whole implying (01:14:29) Baby lambs and bodily interdependence (01:22:38) A new kind of unity and multiplicity (01:36:36) Does individual healing benefit society? (01:55:14) Individualism, systems, and social change (02:05:38) The shame of following our interests (02:19:07) Philosophy and therapy as one life (02:26:16) Reading Gendlin as a companion

2. 

   23 Jul 2026

   Ch. IV (pp. 22–24) – A new kind of thinking

   This episode explores, in depth, how even early parts of the text are inviting us into a new kind of thinking than many of us would have typically experienced. This kind of thinking, of course, builds upon a lineage of thought along several lines within the philosophical canon. But its newness stands out in relationship to the predominant ways we tend to talk and think within society; so much in philosophy has yet to find a pragmatic and heartful ground within the culture and world at large. Gendlin would say that the old kind of thinking "inheres" in our current forms of thinking. In contrast, we'll explore what it's like to—relative to this baseline—experience a new way of forming distinctions that always happen against the foredrop of a whole, never separate from it nor each other. We look forward to you joining us in the excitement, confusion, and learning that emerges within this episode! Chapters (please note that paragraphs start counting per-page, on the first full paragraph of that page): 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:06 - p. 22, paras. 1–5, "This result is what most people begin with..." 00:29:58 - p. 22, paras. 6–7, "It is an empirical question..." 00:34:42 - pp. 22–23, paras. 8–1, "Once a process has become differentiated..." 01:18:38 - p. 23, paras. 2–5, "The illusion of separate processes..." 01:31:23 - p. 23, para. 6, "They are separate in the phases..." 01:36:28 - p. 23, paras. 7–10, "There seem to be separate processes..." 01:45:47 - pp. 23–24, paras. 10–2, "...The body is always the other ongoing process..." 01:50:56 - p. 24, paras. 3–4, "'Interaffecting' and 'coordination'..."

3. 

   22 Jun 2026

   Ch. IV (pp. 19–23) - The body is the other process that goes on

   The time has come to start defining the body in our little APM model. Chapter IV represents the real cliff of difficulty, but we hope the way we dive into the material will support you. Furthermore, I (Nicholas) aim to show in this episode how some of the most challenging aspects of this section come from genuine difficulties in talking properly about reality. That rather than Gendlin being obtuse, it is instead just challenging to think in the kind of ways Gendlin is thinking. It will be so worth it. If you hit a meaningful snag in this episode, please let us know! Joey and I discussed some ways we could make future episodes even more accessible without diluting the content, but we'd still love to hear from you. Happy IV-ing! (This is where things get really fun 🙂). {Paragraph scheme: top of the page always means paragraph 1. This will be changing in future episodes.} 00:00 - Intro 01:11 - p. 20, subsection (a): The body (when a process stops) is what continues... 01:50 - p. 20, paras. 1–2: We will now define a stopped process. 05:13 - p. 20, paras. 3–4: Until now, we had no way to speak about the seemingly separable... 06:54 - p. 20, para. 5: Let me first say that not every change is a stopped process. 08:54 - p. 20, para. 6: What continues is different than if there was no stoppage. 14:50 - p. 20, para. 7: A stopped process is a changed implying carried by a changed occurring. 18:49 - pp. 20–21, paras. 8–1: The differently ongoing process includes some unchanged implying which implies the object. 21:28 - p. 21, para. 2: The carried stoppage is the body-version of the missing object. 23:35 - p. 21, continuing para. 2: For the same reason I also want to call the carried stoppage the "schema". 26:17 - p. 21, para. 3: I have already said that "recognize" is used "too early" here. 29:42 - p. 21, para. 4: We are setting up a new convention of the living body... 35:26 - p. 21, para. 5: If the stoppage is new, what continues has never occurred before... 37:25 - p. 21, para. 6: Were there "two" processes before one of them stopped? 41:15 - p. 21, para. 7: What continues would not be new if... 52:06 - p. 21, paras. 8–10: We can also see novelty developing, if we consider this... 55:24 - pp. 21–22, paras. 11–1: If there are many stoppages and resumptions, there will be many processess... 58:33 - p. 22, paras. 3–4: In our new model the processes are originally and inherently coordinated. 1:07:23 - p. 22, paras. 5–6: Therefore, how any one of them is, at a certain moment... 1:27:00 - p. 22, para. 7: It is an empirical question whether all processes imply each other in this way... 1:29:56 - pp. 22–23, paras. 8–3: When one defines separated processes or bodily "systems"... 1:54:11 - Outro

4. 

   3 Jun 2026

   Ch III (pt. 2) - A Little Model with Startling Powers

   In this episode we finish Chapter III, continuing from the subsection "Some Motivations and Powers of the Model So Far", and sharing our reflections and amazements of what Gendlin has accomplished in merely twenty pages. Joey and I have a terrible habit of having long, deep philosophical discussions before moving on to record our podcast episodes and doing even more philosophy. Starting at the four-hour mark of thinking really hard together, we hope you'll enjoy the somewhat looser, sillier flow of this episode we crest into our final hour of reading Chapter III with aplomb. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:26 - p. 17, para. 5: "Some Motivations and Powers of the Model So Far" 05:02 - p. 17, para. 6: "Since we humans are here, we can be certain that we are not impossible." 05:48 - p. 17, para. 7: "Human meaning and symbols seem impossible in the spectator's space and time..." 06:34 - p. 18, para. 1: "Postmodernists want to reject any conceptual model." 12:04 - p. 18, para. 2: "We can devise an alternative..." 15:28 - p. 18, paras. 3–5: "We can speak from living..." 19:05 - p. 18, para. 6: "It is known that symbols and rituals have deep bodily effects, but there is no way to think how that can be." 28:39 - continuing para. 6 into p. 19. 29:40 - p. 19, para. 2: "What makes something a symbol is usually said to be that it 'stands for something'" 33:44 - p. 19, paras. 3–4: "Our rudimentary model already says quite a lot that needs to be said and cannot be said in the old model." 43:43 - Learned concepts in an en#1 sense are stoppages until they become relevant to the life process. 47:54 - Crossing APM with Eastern wisdom teachings about non-thinking. 49:33 - p. 19, paras. 5–6: "Later we will derive terms for cognitive processes..." 53:06 - Closing

5. 

   18 May 2026

   Ch. III (pt. 1) - Getting Existential with "An Object"

   So far in the book we have organisms that are occurring as (and in) their environment, who are implying their functional cycles and occurring (sometimes) into them. In this model, there is as yet no differentiation from within the organism between itself, and—well—anything. For a living organism, how does anything become some thing? How might things come to be differentiated in the first place as a thing? According to Gendlin, differentiation happens in a much more (implicitly) meaningful way than our current models suggest. In this episode, we tackle everything in Chapter 3 up to the first subsection, after which Gendlin starts discussing some motivations of the model (tune in for part 2 coming soon). So grab you books and come learn with us! We're glad you're here! 00:00 - Introduction 01:19 - p. 14, paras. 1–3, "Our concept of implying has already moved to a second meaning..." 07:13 - p. 14, para. 4, "If the creature does not instantly die..." 15:33 - p. 14, paras. 5–6, "...perhaps a new way forms to do something that changes the implying somewhat..." 18:10 - p. 14, paras. 7–8, "Now we are speaking not just of the whole body-identical 'environment'..." 21:31 - p. 15, para. 1, "The part of en#2 that separates itself by being absent plays a special role..." (we start getting existential here) 28:47 - Objects and oneness, God, purpose... 37:26 - p. 15, para. 2, "...all of that process which was stopped by the absence will occur..." 39:28 - p. 15, para. 3, "...the process that resumes is much more complex than one could guess..." 40:27 - p. 15, paras. 4–5, "The animal recognizes the object." 44:47 - A "too early" definition of Focusing 50:41 - p. 15, para. 6, "In a resumption, the body does not encounter..." 52:32 - p. 15, para. 7, "So what we call an object is part of en#2, and part of the functional cycle..." 56:36 - p. 16, para. 1, "Since the next occurring does not immediately change it..." 01:00:05 - The text is creating itself in its own absences 01:02:28 - p. 16, para. 2, "When people say that 'objects are a function of the organism'..." 01:19:13 - p. 16, para. 3–4, "In our third meaning of the concept of implying..." 01:23:07 - p. 16, para. 5, "Later, we will develop terms for how a body can have objects that can be there for it..." 01:31:29 - p. 16, para. 6, "By allowing our terms to function logically this way, we arrive at puzzling results..." 01:39:14 - p.17, paras. 1–3, "When the object returns, the stopped process resumes and moves on..." 01:41:49 - p. 17, para. 4, "The object implies the resumed process to the body..."

6. 

   1 May 2026

   Ch. II - The functional cycle (implying occurring)

   In Chapter I, we explored different ways to think of the environment and of space. Now, in Chapter II, we'll start exploring new ways to think of time. Grab your books and join us for a reading and discussion that spans topics such as Focusing, the nature of reality (metaphysics), and how Gendlin's concepts keep pointing to the moon of our bodies' felt sense! And as always, feel free to drop us any APM questions on our form here: https://forms.gle/ydzoChYxv9AY76mf9 (https://forms.gle/ydzoChYxv9AY76mf9). 00:00 - Episode begins 01:44 - Reading begins 07:37 - Linear time bits, 3 bits of force 11:41 - The whole string of en#2 is implied by... 17:38 - Feeling the string of en#2's, and implicit time 28:06 - "is" versus "implies" 41:00 - Living cannot well be thought of as unit events only 50:00 - Living context gives true knowledge and understanding 58:47 - A certain very special relation... 01:09:20 - "Being" vs. implying process 01:15:47 - Generating time, habitat-time 01:22:07 - To say that each bit of occurring is what the last bit implied... 01:26:59 - "To the things themselves" 01:33:48 - Implying is not the same as what will occur; not predetermined 01:41:54 - All occurring also implies; implying part of every occurring 01:44:36 - Implying is *not* an occurring that has not yet occurred; never just equal to occurring 01:52:29 - So we see that implying is not just what will occur... 01:59:34 - Whirling in deconstruction of occurring, implying, and en 02:06:32 - The most significant part of this chapter for Joey 02:08:06 - Something about how Focusing works (carrying forward) 02:13:07 - Final thoughts on chapter, and what's to come 02:20:33 - Going back to Footnote #1 02:29:01 - Thinking with patterns 02:35:26 - Gendlin is pointing at the luminous moon within our body 02:41:22 - Closed logical power, vs. opened experience: we can *always* re-open a theory 02:45:15 - The old conceptual pattern that can now imply more 02:50:42 - Let it be Open

7. 

   15 Apr 2026

   Ch. I - The body and the environment are one, but...

   We start right before the main text with the very brief Prefatory Note, and clarify how "A Process Model" (APM) differs a bit from standard philosophy fare. Then we proceed right on in, without any further introduction. Exciting! If you've been interested in (1) reading A Process Model or (2) going deeper on it, then what you really need is to just get inside the text, to be in it. So grab your copy of APM (or get a copy of it!) and join Joey Massengale and I as we navigate into the necessarily unfamiliar terrain of environments, ahem, "en"s, #2, #3, and #0. Send your confusions and questions our way at https://forms.gle/s5kQ24cy3Paycyrz9 (https://forms.gle/s5kQ24cy3Paycyrz9), and we'll try to answer them in future episodes or reach out directly! Chapters: 00:00 - Prefatory note & context 02:53 - Chapter I: body and environment are one 05:18 - en#1: the spectator’s environment 08:30 - en#2: the reflexively identical environment 09:42 - Example: walking & ground resistance 15:38 - The paradox: equal and not equal to en 22:26 - Mutual implying, non-representational concretion, and interactional concepts 40:34 - en#3: the homemade/domesticated environment 48:33 - Action tracks: the body as process concretized 1:01:50 - When does something become en#3? 1:15:40 - The main environment: other species members 1:25:00 - Rethinking space: two-directional “in” 1:34:13 - en#0: the infinite richness of the unborn 1:41:50 - Determining life process by en#0 1:48:33 - What’s alive about Chapter I for us? 2:00:02 - The exciting stuff that lies ahead in APM

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