Even more disturbing to me was the realization that none of this implies malicious intent on the part of reason. Simply encountering an epistemology of feeling, reason will automatically overshadow it- even if its intent is honorable. As I looked back on my own career, I found plenty of confirming instances. In my work, I have had many occasions to engage people interested in consciousness from perspectives other than philosophy or science-mysticism, shamanism, aesthetics, for example. When a search for truth pits dialectic reason against dialogic experience the feeling component of the other's knowledge can rarely withstand the encounter.
Feeling feels invalidated.
Sorenson's thesis allowed me to understand this dynamic in a way I hadn't before. And his paper didn't leave me with merely an intellectual appreciation of the preconquest-postconquest dynamic. Their communication was spontaneous, open, and honest. What mattered was the magnitude of collective joy produced. Into that flux individuals thrust their inner thoughts and aspirations for all to see, appreciate, and relate to.