Isaiah Langford - The Pro-Life Implications of the Primordial Experience - 3/06/2026

  In one of our class discussions, we talked about how the primordial experience involves bodily reciprocity and the containment of the child in the womb as a sensation which we desire to return to, and for that reason when in distress we go to the “fetal position.” Upon exiting the womb, the infant almost immediately desires to be swaddled so as to feel the closeness of the prenatal relationship the baby has so quickly been required to exit; in this prenatal relationship, the mother and the baby act upon one another, the mother giving life to the infant through the food she offers and the baby giving to his mom the joy of child, which carries its own implications of happiness as the woman’s body is physiologically disposed for the intent of having children. In my opinion, that this experience is so deeply imprinted on the human person is an indication that even in the womb, every person is capable of experiencing something which will always impact their life, and thus from the moment of conception, every human life should be given the dignity and respect deserving of all persons. If death is the only thing we cannot primordially experience in this life, birth is the only thing we can be sure we do not remember, and therefore the lasting marks it leaves can be felt only by the primordial experience; knowing that every person has the same experience before leaving the womb indicates to me that we all share some sort of bond in our being born, and of course, perhaps in being created by some higher power which intended for us to share this experience so as to recognize the equality of every human person. To me, our primordial experiences are so often focused around the womb because it is literally the connective tissue which binds us to our understanding of the world, and even as we move beyond to living through the vicarious experiences of others, we share that we all came into being in the same exact way, even though we may all reach our ends in death by a variety of means. To be born is to be part of the human race, and to be conceived in the womb is to feel the very thread of our earthly existence.

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