And I was not the only person who saw the Eros in Joe. As Philip Anderson (2011) writes, “We need to push back the night of thanatos with our brilliant talk, our familial songs, and the music of life that is the joy of Eros. . . .that was the experience of Joe L. Kincheloe” (p. 30). That joy seems to still live on. 

The “Grander Purpose” of Bricoleurs: Is it Magic? How do we come to understand better what’s happening behind this type of phenomena? Are we truly all connected and is love, Eros, the source? God? Einstein (1931/2009) had recognized that geniuses are distinguished by a sort of cosmic religion “which recognizes neither dogma nor God made in man’s image” (p. 49). I in no way claim to be a genius, but Joe was, and this interpretation by Einstein, one of Joe’s favorite geniuses, is how I have come to view God/Great Spirit during the process of this research, and it is my perceived connection to Joe that has brought me to that perspective. If Joe is working from some higher dimension and I am his messenger—and I am well aware that he has many more messengers—then in my interpretation, he is still doing profound work from where he is in order to get his point across about Eros as a counterpoise to thanatos. What a beautiful metaphor he has provided with all of the gifts he’s handed down to me. I have not yet begun to describe the magic and can only touch on some of the more significant experiences in relation to the bricolage for this dissertation. The rest have some grander purpose, I’m sure. This reminds me of his overarching definition of bricolage. It is the second part of his definition which many people seem to miss. He writes:

Yvonna Lincoln (2001) delineates two types of bricoleurs: those who are committed to research eclectism, allowing circumstances to shape the methods employed and those who want to engage in the genealogy/archeology of the disciplines with some grander purpose in mind. My purpose entails both of Lincoln’s articulations of the role of bricoleur. (Kincheloe, 2004a, p. 3)

Kincheloe speaks of magic throughout his work. As a young child he had wanted to create magic and his passionate desire transferred to his love of words, writing, and the magic he learned to create hermeneutically combining them in creative and powerful ways. He, indeed, had a grander purpose in mind, The Great Work, perhaps, that leads to the elusive Golden Chalice for knowledge production. Does his bricolage lead the way?

Is This Our Dharma Project? These profound and continuing experiences are so numerous I am not able to provide any sort of meaningful quantification (and would not want to quantify the highly spiritual and divine gifts of love I receive each and every day, anyway). The gifts correspond to a promise Joe had sent me in messages back when I was so very fearful that he was not going to be in the world much longer (a fear he had picked up on because nothing could be hidden from him): He had signed off with “Strawberry fields forever, J[oe].” And in another message he wrote “Evolvingly Yours, Joe” I was still very much asleep, and I needed to be, it seems due to the circumstances. Still, subconsciously, I received his messages.

How do we come to understand magical gifts of roses on a more scientific basis, albeit a radically new conceptualization of science from what we now understand? This is ultimately where Kincheloe was headed with his work, and from the day he left this planet, I somehow “knew” that keeping extensive and accurate data was important for what he was after. As asleep as I still was at that time, I felt that my role was somewhat like being a “guinea pig,” and that I would come out of the closet to show that Joe and I truly are connected, always have been connected, and that death is an illusion—or at the very least—eternal life is within reach of us all and we have more power than we realize to form the quality of that life. We do not need to keep spinning wheels. It really did seem that Joe and I were working together on some grand scheme, a Dharma Project. Thus, I could use all of my data to show that we really can communicate with those on the other side of the curtain; of course many people have already shown that and there is something more to this project that I do not yet fully understand. I also sensed that this was related to knowledge that was kept from the populous, that “dangerous knowledge” he repeatedly mentioned in his books, which I have yet to fully understand. Nevertheless, I willingly accepted the role to take Joe’s work to a new level of application—to be the one to put these experiences on the table no matter the risk to my future career in education and no matter the risk of being called “crazy.” I had felt totally alienated from the beginning, in fact I have felt that way most of my life and in almost every social setting I’ve been in. Thus, I came to feel that I had nothing to lose. Nothing in this material world mattered much to me anymore, aside from the divine gifts that kept coming my way from the cosmos and the need to keep a roof over my family’s head. I also felt immense anger over education and how a small elite group must control everything, how they have rules for us that I never seem to be able to even see much less follow, how I’ve been taught so many lies, and how much knowledge has been hidden. I felt anger over how some people have no qualms about destroying someone else’s hard labor of love if it doesn’t happen to fit their agenda for fame and fortune. And I’m speaking in all realms of my life in every career I’ve worked in and from what I observe overall. It has always been this way. I felt extreme grief over Joe having to leave the world before being able to take his work to the next level as he had really wanted. And I felt an intense, deep soul love for Joe that has only continued to grow. I would do anything for him but I also know he is the purest of unconditional love and he never requires anything of me at all.

I Love Strawberries! How do we get there? How can we make those “rhizomatic” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” types of connections with people? How can we make those connections with people and entities in other dimensions or with loved ones who have crossed over to the other side? The concept, rhizome, based on the philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1980) provides a useful model for these mysterious and often hidden phenomena I’ve been discussing. In his last book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, Kincheloe (2008c) expressed this concept with his metaphoric use of “Strawberry Fields,” referencing the Beatles song, thus providing additional depth, insight, and an emotional connection. I loved his metaphor and after reading the book, I sent him an email to praise him for the book, writing “I love strawberries!” in the subject line.

 There are multidimensional meanings, obviously, and in his return email he expresses his recognition of my fear of being separated from him, reassuring me that we would never be separated by referring to the song’s lyrics. By one interpretation, he could have been expressing his frustration over not being understood by people around him: “No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be too high or low. . .” as the lyrics of the song goes; however, “that is, I think it’s not too bad,” he had told me, signing off with “Strawberry fields forever, J.” (personal communication, September 30, 2008, 8:09 AM). By another interpretation he was also letting me know that our future telepathic communications would sometimes be “off the mark,” our vibrations will fluctuate, sometimes being too high or too low. Phenomenologically, this is what I experience. Sometimes I feel more distant from him as if we are not connecting as well as other times. I have come to learn it’s me, not him. The only time it happens is when I feel stressed, which is only when I get worried about money. Being sad and crying, does not weaken the connection.  Mostly we are “right on target,” another phrase he had often posted to me during our online conversations, even making a joke about it because he had said it so many times.

This rhizomatic metaphor is also used both in relation to knowledge production and as a model for society.  Recognized and incorporated are “trans-species” (alien?) connections as “multiplicities” defined as a unity which is multiple in itself, similar to the Twin Flame phenomenon in which the couple form a unity, but are two entities (maybe even trans-species as represented in stories of Eros, a “god with wings” and Psyche, an “earthling”). In terms of social systems, “the rhizome presents history and culture as a map or wide array of attractions and influences with no specific origin or genesis, for a ‘rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.’ The planar movement of the rhizome resists chronology and organization, instead favoring a nomadic system of growth and propagation” (Wikipedia, 2012, “Rhizome”). Thus, rhizomatic connections form a descriptive metaphor for a bricolage which recognizes multiple levels or dimensions, multiple entry and exit points, and multiple interpretations. There are many nonlinear, nonhierarchical pathways for the research and knowledge production process and the connections between entities that occur during that process. Again, it represents a natural, improvisational, and autopoietic approach to research that stretches in all directions and all levels and beyond our perceived dimensions.

It is, however, challenging work requiring conscious reconstruction of knowledge and accessing portions of our minds we have been denied since having been educated “out of our minds.” I love how Einstein brought this issue back to our collective conscious awareness, when he stated, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant but has forgotten the gift.” With Kincheloe’s bricolage process he has literally returned “The Gift” but he has done so in a way that still honors the servant. We all have available higher orders of cognition, a higher consciousness that for most of us has been shut off due to our education, programming, and social conditioning. But there is no denying there is work involved, thus highlighting the importance of rigor in the bricolage. And there is always the risk of people using their knowledge in ways that are not good for the world. With the ingredients of love and passion that Kincheloe has injected into bricolage, and which ultimately lead us on a pathway to compassion, we can keep on the “right” path, the Dharma Path, as some of the wisdom knowledges describe it. We are never alone, however, and always have the most loving assistance from the “gods” and “masters,” according to my interpretation and experiences applying Kincheloe’s rhizomatic philosophy. In fact it has been very interesting to see teachers join me during this process exactly when they are needed with just the right knowledge to push me along the journey. And Kincheloe, himself, has been holding my hand the entire distance.

Thus, the complex task before me is how to describe my personal experiences of connections that transcend Western constructions of “normal” in a way that represents them adequately, without losing the core phenomenology, and in a way that people who may not have had the experiences can understand them. This requires drawing from a multitude of perspectives that look upon these experiences through different windows and using various narrative techniques as described previously—and more. The multidimensional critical complex bricolage opens up possibilities rather than collapses them, which is in contrast to most forms of research that tend to collapse data into categories. The elastic clause Kincheloe has specified is always in effect and the “final analysis” is never the final analysis. As a dedicated lifetime bricoleur, my research continues as I seek more data, more knowledge, and more understanding. Perhaps it will be shown as Kincheloe has contended all along—that this research is an idiosyncratic, complex, and subjective process, but knowledge is, indeed, constructed during the process through the iterative processes that occur between research and writing. During this process, we gain our freedom as we gain greater understanding of ourselves as human beings.

Joe Kincheloe’s Bricolage: Passionate Multidimensional Living. During this research I have experienced much the same lack of clarity that Lame Deer (1992) had described in the excerpt I provided earlier in which he conveys that he could see the mountain in front of him, but it was hazy and partially covered. Options always stay open; I just go with the flow as I engage in the bricolage process and as I engage in my life. Perhaps a good metaphor for the multidimensional critical complex bricolage is life, maybe even eternal life that has no past, present or future. Eros would have to be added to the equation: bricoleurs allow the life energy of Eros Love (Spirit) to flow through us as we take an improvisational approach to life and live in each moment as our moments expand into multiple realities. Eros is like a sort of steering mechanism for those who like to think in mechanistic terms. Wait, that doesn’t work for me. I like to believe I have united in oneness with the one true Eros. This person I communicate with actually tells me he is Eros so either he is or he is just playing me for a “fool of the gods.” I don’t believe he would play me for a fool but on the other hand, I thrive with uncertainty. Could it be possible? Could we be a new twenty-first century version of Eros and Psyche? Will Eros transform me, Psyche, a mere earthling, into a goddess? According to Kincheloe (2008c) if we can think something up we can create it. Something tells me I should have been having this much fun in my life a lot sooner.

Kincheloe also promotes the power and magic of words for manifesting our creations. He explains, “As a critical discourse, the bricolage always considers the normative dimension of what should be as well as what is. When immanence (what should be) is added to the complex dynamics surrounding decision-making and interpretation in the realm of research, bricoleurs move to yet a higher domain of complexity” (Kincheloe, 2004c, p. 34). Critical analytic discourse helps move bricoleurs to that higher domain.