Underground Circle
Annual Underground Circle has been held for 2025. However:
Contact Keely if you have a group who would like to schedule an Underground Circle
The Underground Circle is a day-long experience exploring a wild cave for contemplative, therapeutic, and ecotherapeutic benefit.
Logistics: Meet at a convenience store in Martinsburg, WV at 11:00am. Martinsburg is approximately an hour and a half from the DC and Baltimore areas. Carpools to the meeting spot is optional: depending on group size, we may need to carpool the 10 minute drive from the convenience store to the cave.
11:00am-11:30pm: Distribute loaner gear, Initial Meeting, Waivers.
11:30am - 12:00pm: Drive to cave, Final Gear.
12:00pm: Opening Circle Outside of Cave.
12:00pm - 4:00pm: Cave Trip
4:00pm - 5:00pm: Closing, Change, Return to Meeting Spot.
Cave Trip Difficulty: This is a wild cave trip, conducted slowly and with a lot of attention paid to symbols, somatic experiences, and other themes. Given that it is a wild cave, there is no walkway or handrails. You will need to move your body differently than you are used to. There are opportunities to scramble, climb, crawl, sometimes swim. The front of the cave has a gate on it, to preserve and protect the cave. The opening in the gate is 2.5" by 2.5". Once you pass through the gate, the main space of the cave is large, as are several of the nearby rooms. You are not required to endure tight or compressed spaces, although you will have the option to crawl and squeeze if you are called to do so. The cave has some crickets, salamanders, and bats. There are not usually any other animals. It is 55 degrees inside the cave, regardless of the temperature outside - so usually it is comparatively warm in the winter. It may have water in it, but based on its hydrologic structure, it does not flood abruptly like the cave in Thailand from which the soccer team had to be famously rescued. The water level when we start the trip will be approximately the same throughout the duration of the trip. Depending on that level, you may have the option to swim, but you will not be required. The experience is scalable to your physical abilities and psychological inclinations. We will aim to give you an experience with enough challenge to build your insight and somatic awareness, but to keep you within the bounds of safety. The overall footprint of the cave is small (about the size of half of a football field). It has some complexity, so it is possible to feel lost, but difficult to actually get lost.
Gear: You will use a combination of clothes/equipment that you already own and items that we can lend. Some people make a few gear purchases, but we recommend no one spend more than $20. Thrift store clothes/equipment are ideal. Everything you wear in the cave will likely come out extremely muddy. Here is a link to the GEAR LIST: this will also be emailed to you when you sign up for the trip.
Further information: We will have an information Zoom session on Tuesday, January 23, where you can ask any questions, get information on gear, etc., discuss carpool - as well as receiving some information about how to prepare mentally and emotionally to maximize benefit from the trip.
Overview of the Underground Circle and Visceral Analogy:
"Every landscape has lessons and benefits for the body, heart, and mind. And the benefits of one landscape or ecosystem are not the same as the benefits of the others: therefore the ocean offers something differ from the desert, the forest, the mountains."
Underground Circles are group activities designed to bring participants into a closer connection with the specific physical elements of the natural underground environment, and explore the potential of those elements for supporting change and personal growth. Caves are uniquely enclosed and secluded environments, challenging and inspiring in an inimitable way. Many people who have devoted their lives to exploring caves have observed these elements, but rarely is a cave trip designed to intentionally pursue and explore these elements. The Underground Circle is that cave trip.
Each Underground Circle is different, designed for a distinct group of participants and with a specific potential theme. Because the cave environment is psychologically potent as well as providing some physical risk, and because the processes introduced in the Underground Circle are experimental, participation in non-TSROP Underground Circles is screened. Please contact Keely for more information if you are interested in being a participant.
CONTEMPLATION PHASE TRIPS
- A VISCERAL ANALOGY FOR PERSONAL GROWTH -
The purpose of the Contemplation Phase Underground Circle is to offer a guided experience navigating the cave that can serve as a visceral analogy for navigating personal change. The Contemplation Circle is designed to help provide insight into how you experience change and growth, so that you can use that insight to help you heal from the past and build skills for coping with the present - but it is not therapy, in the sense of an intentional process for facilitating you to work completely through a specific issue. You will be with a group, and there will be opportunities to share issues that you are working through and how you feel that they connect with the experience - but sharing will be optional, and there will only be a limited amount of time available for each person to share and to develop the group into a container. There will also be support; at least two licensed clinicians will be present, and we also try to have at least one additional person who has some clinical training as well as a fourth person who has experience with caving - so if strong feelings come up, or physical issues with the caving experience, there will be someone to help. However, again, the focus will be on helping everyone stay safe and emotionally grounded and oriented, rather than to open issues further in order to fully process them. The reason for that is that the experience does not provide enough time, enough focus on group development, and enough clinicians to fully process everyone. You are encouraged to take anything that comes up on this trip as a starting point, and to work with it further in a therapeutic container.
THE VISCERAL ANALOGY
The different aspects of cave exploration have been broken down into different aspects of navigating personal change. From entrance to exit, the cave can teach different lessons. One unique aspect of navigating a cave, versus other experiences, is that you must do it with your whole body: all of the insights are therefore visceral as well as intellectual or emotional. This can help you learn them in a different and important way.
Act 1: Crossing the Threshold
Contemplating the Unknown: What does it feel like looking at the unknown, from the outside?
Crossing the threshold: Saying goodbye to the light, and also to the external structures that you are used to.
Beginners Mind: Break down rigid patterns in how you move, think, and feel. Learn to move like water, rediscover play.
Act 2: In The Cocoon
Formlessness: In order to change, you have to release internal structures and learn to tolerate being unformed
Orienting: What do you use as a guide, when you are formless?
Balancing Opposites: All of us have abilities and limitations, solitude and community, connection and isolation. How do you instinctively navigate these, and how can you do it differently?
Theater of Shadow: How do you confront parts of you that you don't understand?
Difficult Passage: How to balance force and acceptance when navigating obstacles
Release: How to let go of control, when you need to?
Act 3: Emerging
Conscious Assumption of Form: When you re-emerge into the world of structure, how can you be more conscious of what forms and roles you assume?
Anchoring: How do you ground an experience, so that you can begin to build a change around it?
Storytelling: How do you communicate what you have experienced?
REQUEST INFORMATION ABOUT UNDERGROUND CIRCLE NOW
by using the form below.
Annual Underground Circle has been held for 2025. However:
Contact Keely if you have a group who would like to schedule an Underground Circle
The Underground Circle is a day-long experience exploring a wild cave for contemplative, therapeutic, and ecotherapeutic benefit.
Logistics: Meet at a convenience store in Martinsburg, WV at 11:00am. Martinsburg is approximately an hour and a half from the DC and Baltimore areas. Carpools to the meeting spot is optional: depending on group size, we may need to carpool the 10 minute drive from the convenience store to the cave.
11:00am-11:30pm: Distribute loaner gear, Initial Meeting, Waivers.
11:30am - 12:00pm: Drive to cave, Final Gear.
12:00pm: Opening Circle Outside of Cave.
12:00pm - 4:00pm: Cave Trip
4:00pm - 5:00pm: Closing, Change, Return to Meeting Spot.
Cave Trip Difficulty: This is a wild cave trip, conducted slowly and with a lot of attention paid to symbols, somatic experiences, and other themes. Given that it is a wild cave, there is no walkway or handrails. You will need to move your body differently than you are used to. There are opportunities to scramble, climb, crawl, sometimes swim. The front of the cave has a gate on it, to preserve and protect the cave. The opening in the gate is 2.5" by 2.5". Once you pass through the gate, the main space of the cave is large, as are several of the nearby rooms. You are not required to endure tight or compressed spaces, although you will have the option to crawl and squeeze if you are called to do so. The cave has some crickets, salamanders, and bats. There are not usually any other animals. It is 55 degrees inside the cave, regardless of the temperature outside - so usually it is comparatively warm in the winter. It may have water in it, but based on its hydrologic structure, it does not flood abruptly like the cave in Thailand from which the soccer team had to be famously rescued. The water level when we start the trip will be approximately the same throughout the duration of the trip. Depending on that level, you may have the option to swim, but you will not be required. The experience is scalable to your physical abilities and psychological inclinations. We will aim to give you an experience with enough challenge to build your insight and somatic awareness, but to keep you within the bounds of safety. The overall footprint of the cave is small (about the size of half of a football field). It has some complexity, so it is possible to feel lost, but difficult to actually get lost.
Gear: You will use a combination of clothes/equipment that you already own and items that we can lend. Some people make a few gear purchases, but we recommend no one spend more than $20. Thrift store clothes/equipment are ideal. Everything you wear in the cave will likely come out extremely muddy. Here is a link to the GEAR LIST: this will also be emailed to you when you sign up for the trip.
Further information: We will have an information Zoom session on Tuesday, January 23, where you can ask any questions, get information on gear, etc., discuss carpool - as well as receiving some information about how to prepare mentally and emotionally to maximize benefit from the trip.
Overview of the Underground Circle and Visceral Analogy:
"Every landscape has lessons and benefits for the body, heart, and mind. And the benefits of one landscape or ecosystem are not the same as the benefits of the others: therefore the ocean offers something differ from the desert, the forest, the mountains."
Underground Circles are group activities designed to bring participants into a closer connection with the specific physical elements of the natural underground environment, and explore the potential of those elements for supporting change and personal growth. Caves are uniquely enclosed and secluded environments, challenging and inspiring in an inimitable way. Many people who have devoted their lives to exploring caves have observed these elements, but rarely is a cave trip designed to intentionally pursue and explore these elements. The Underground Circle is that cave trip.
Each Underground Circle is different, designed for a distinct group of participants and with a specific potential theme. Because the cave environment is psychologically potent as well as providing some physical risk, and because the processes introduced in the Underground Circle are experimental, participation in non-TSROP Underground Circles is screened. Please contact Keely for more information if you are interested in being a participant.
CONTEMPLATION PHASE TRIPS
- A VISCERAL ANALOGY FOR PERSONAL GROWTH -
The purpose of the Contemplation Phase Underground Circle is to offer a guided experience navigating the cave that can serve as a visceral analogy for navigating personal change. The Contemplation Circle is designed to help provide insight into how you experience change and growth, so that you can use that insight to help you heal from the past and build skills for coping with the present - but it is not therapy, in the sense of an intentional process for facilitating you to work completely through a specific issue. You will be with a group, and there will be opportunities to share issues that you are working through and how you feel that they connect with the experience - but sharing will be optional, and there will only be a limited amount of time available for each person to share and to develop the group into a container. There will also be support; at least two licensed clinicians will be present, and we also try to have at least one additional person who has some clinical training as well as a fourth person who has experience with caving - so if strong feelings come up, or physical issues with the caving experience, there will be someone to help. However, again, the focus will be on helping everyone stay safe and emotionally grounded and oriented, rather than to open issues further in order to fully process them. The reason for that is that the experience does not provide enough time, enough focus on group development, and enough clinicians to fully process everyone. You are encouraged to take anything that comes up on this trip as a starting point, and to work with it further in a therapeutic container.
THE VISCERAL ANALOGY
The different aspects of cave exploration have been broken down into different aspects of navigating personal change. From entrance to exit, the cave can teach different lessons. One unique aspect of navigating a cave, versus other experiences, is that you must do it with your whole body: all of the insights are therefore visceral as well as intellectual or emotional. This can help you learn them in a different and important way.
Act 1: Crossing the Threshold
Contemplating the Unknown: What does it feel like looking at the unknown, from the outside?
Crossing the threshold: Saying goodbye to the light, and also to the external structures that you are used to.
Beginners Mind: Break down rigid patterns in how you move, think, and feel. Learn to move like water, rediscover play.
Act 2: In The Cocoon
Formlessness: In order to change, you have to release internal structures and learn to tolerate being unformed
Orienting: What do you use as a guide, when you are formless?
Balancing Opposites: All of us have abilities and limitations, solitude and community, connection and isolation. How do you instinctively navigate these, and how can you do it differently?
Theater of Shadow: How do you confront parts of you that you don't understand?
Difficult Passage: How to balance force and acceptance when navigating obstacles
Release: How to let go of control, when you need to?
Act 3: Emerging
Conscious Assumption of Form: When you re-emerge into the world of structure, how can you be more conscious of what forms and roles you assume?
Anchoring: How do you ground an experience, so that you can begin to build a change around it?
Storytelling: How do you communicate what you have experienced?
REQUEST INFORMATION ABOUT UNDERGROUND CIRCLE NOW
by using the form below.