The Power of Silence – As a Medium for Transforming Conflicts
This thesis is a personal reflection about the relation between silence and peaces. Taking as starting point my social and cultural context, the analysis focuses on the perspective of conflict transformation to make way for the study of silence from the perspectives of energetic, moral, modern and postmodern peaces, complemented with different authors who understand silence within a transrational perspective. With those theoretical inputs, I show different methods in which silence serves as a catalyst and element for transforming conflicts, such as active listening, meditation (with a special focus on vipassana), mindfulness and yoga techniques. Regarding the practice of silence for the transformation of social conflicts, I describe the impact of silence within the dynamics of the Colombian conflict and the role of silence in the artistic expressions of dancing and theater.
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I began my journey during my first term, after my experience in the Native Spirit where I had the opportunity to practice meditation in the middle of nature. The idea to be with myself was the light that illuminated my path through writing my thesis. Silence and I have had an interesting relation through my life. It has been a witness to my private moments, some of them distinguished by happiness and others by sadness, but silence has always been my accomplice. The awareness of my relationship with silence was precisely the starting point of my master’s thesis. Silence went from being an accomplice to an inspiration, an inspiration for writing.