Flourishing bodies: spiritual entanglements and psychobiological imperatives

ABSTRACTThe recent affective turn in the sciences and humanities has substantially impacted upon human perception of other animals. This article begins with a brief discussion of the affective turn as it relates to animals’ experiential (vs reflective) consciousness. Then, building on previous work on animal spirituality, it explores the psychobiological significance of spirituality for animals. Spirituality in this context is defined as exchange with agencies in the environment, whereby agency is understood as any phenomenon, event, etc., that has an effect on the animal regardless of whether or not the phenomenon has independent agency. Specifically, the article aims to establishing whether a previously proposed essentiality of such spiritual exchanges, and the comparison of the latter with other organismic necessities (e.g., food), is warranted, and the ensuing ethical implications.KEYWORDS: Animal spiritualityembodied spiritualitysensory normativitypsycho-biological regulationanimal consciousness Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Social attachments are well understood for mammals and birds, but growing evidence shows that meaningful intersubjective relations are not limited to these groups.2 After Harrod (Citation2011, 344; animacy) and Schaefer (Citation2015, 192; dance, affective web). Animacy = that which becomes animated/acquires agency by producing an effect on me.3 After Angelou Citation2009.4 Animals housed together as opposed to in separate cages.5 Humans’ attraction to nature and living systems.6 This is not to deny humans’ deep reverence for some manufactured objects, however a substantial amount of purchased goods, in the present era of consumerism, ends up cluttering homes and heads and is soon discarded (as discussed later in this article).7 Excitation: transmission, integration of information; inhibition: modulation, the shaping of the way information is integrated (Wood, Blackwell, and Geffen Citation2017).8 Moths, for example, are the major but undervalued nocturnal pollinators of flowers.Additional informationNotes on contributorsTeya Brooks PribacTeya Brooks Pribac, PhD, is a scholar and multidisciplinary artist, living in the Australian Blue Mountains with sheep and other animals. She’s a research affiliate at the University of Sydney, and her latest publications include the Nautilus-award-winning monograph Enter the Animal (Sydney UP 2021).