About Linda Dayem Kealey

Hi, I’m Linda. When I chose my Ph.D. dissertation topic “Frontiers of Plant-Human Collaboration”, I knew it would be interesting and provocative to write about, but I didn’t realize that it would turn into something deeply important to me.  I have become convinced that for humans to live as mutually enhancing members of our Earth community, we need to put aside our preconceptions, consider an expanded sense of reality, and learn how to connect, communicate, and collaborate with other beings.

I have a grounded, critical mind that constantly questions and organizes, and I'm also tuned in to the world in a subtle, intuitive way. With this blend of analytical and intuitive skills, I can talk in a clear and believable way about topics that might otherwise be dismissed as strange or impossible. I want to share the importance of understanding that humans are not the only beings who participate in life in an intelligent, meaningful way.  And I want to offer a structure that helps us make sense of different ways of knowing and a reality that goes beyond what we can see and measure. 

In my blog, I weave personal stories with new ways of thinking, providing inspiration and structure for those of us ready to (re)discover what it means to be human as part of a regenerative world of mutually flourishing beings. I’ll be addressing topics such as intuition, embodiment, nature connection, plant intelligence, subtle worlds, and more!

If you are feeling stifled by your current experience of reality but don’t see how to move beyond it, I offer snippets of my own journey as an inspiration:  I went from living in a completely detached, mental world, to rediscovering my embodied, intuitive, interconnected nature.  If you have experienced a connection with plants or other beings and are looking for a way to make sense of your experiences, I offer you structure and language to work with.

I look forward to connecting with you, and I welcome you to reach out to me with questions and comments.

A glimpse into my journey

Until my mid-30s, I followed other people’s ideas of who I should be and what I should do. I studied science and engineering, had a career in biotech, bought and remodeled houses, got married and had kids. I’m grateful to have had this privileged existence full of opportunity.  But I was a detached observer, disconnected from the world and from my own self.  And then something shifted.  In a series of encounters, I started to feel a more direct and profound connection with the natural world, prompting me to question my beliefs and lifestyle.  After exploring permaculture, sustainability, consciousness, and cosmology, I realized the underlying issue I needed to focus on: identifying and reworking the basic limiting assumptions upon which our scientific understanding of reality is based.  I also recognized my need to move beyond my own limitations, bringing more embodiment, intuition, and nature connectedness into my detached mental existence.

In my philosophy Ph.D. program, I researched the possibility of humans communicating with plant spirits, and I wrote a dissertation to make sense of this by reworking our limiting scientific framework and expanding our sense of reality.  The old way: a world made up of separate individuals, and humans are the only ones who count as active intelligent subjects. The new way: a dynamically shifting world that is an interconnected whole, with humans and all other beings sharing a mutual reciprocity.  Though these are new ways of thinking for people educated only in Western scientific ways, Indigenous cultures are based on wholeness and interconnectedness.  My work is not intended to take the place of or to discount what Indigenous peoples have to offer, but to provide tools with which Westerners limited by current scientific frameworks can find more productive ways of engaging with Indigenous people, honoring their knowledge and way of being.

Our human possibilities are completely tied up with our Earth: human flourishing is necessarily a mutual flourishing of all beings.  I’m convinced that we will not be able to survive as a human species, will not be able to move into truly regenerative ways of living, without this shift in our underlying assumptions about the nature of reality.  On the land where I live in Sebastopol, CA, I’m working to develop methods that will help people with a similar background as mine let go of their limiting assumptions about the world and practice acknowledging all beings as worthy of collaboration.  Together, we need to develop a felt sense of what it means to be part of a whole in which all beings have a chance to thrive.

My analytical research convinced me. My intuitive feeling guides me. I’m deeply committed to the mutual flourishing of all beings.