Rachel Goodwyn-Lane’s Phenomenological Approach

Belden C. Lane describes three approaches to understand sacred place in Landscapes of the Sacred, including phenomenological, ontological and cultural. The phenomenological approach states that places themselves participate in the perception that is made of them. Essentially that sacred place has meaning for and of its self. This approach also asks about how people perceive and experience a particular sacred place. However, the main point of this approach is to give a voice to the other participant in the perception of place and that is the place itself. The place in this approach presents itself as more than the sum of its parts. In the book it describes the sun and animals having a new meaning and new influence on the perception of the place.