The Esoteric Thesis: Unspeakable Things & Unknowable Truths

Abstract

This article explores aspects of the conventional research thesis and identifies one approach - the ‘esoteric thesis’- for explicating inner meaning of the outward ‘research quest’. Often, when researchers are completing their external world oriented - ‘exoteric thesis’ - based on research, literature review and so forth, little time or attention is directed to their inner world. Such a huge investment of life energy, often over a period of years, has the potential to offer substantial insights for the researcher and intriguingly may even elucidate what, in the first instance, created interest in the research question itself.  An inward-focused ‘esoteric’ process of inquiry creates the opportunity for identifying patterns in the researcher’s past professional activities that may help explicate the ‘exoteric’ task at hand. This article argues the importance of an inner journey that spirals with the conventional outward-looking research quest and in doing so offers an approach that respects and accommodates both.