This hermeneutical case study looked at human conflict and human difference at the scale of local political life in democratically elected public bodies, using the lens of embodied mind and congruent phenomenological research approaches to examine whether facets could be added to the display of Varela's (1996) proposed experiential phenomenological structures. In particular, the study focused on the pre-reflective moments of intersubjective interaction between people seeking different goals. It then considered the interplay between the perceptions received during those pre-reflective moments of experienced difference with post-reflective conceptions created as a result of the encounters. In doing so, the study found evidence in support of Varela's (1996) suggested structural invariants of experience. In particular, through the use of the elicitation techniques as described by Petitmengin-Peugeot (1999) and Vermersch (2009), participants in differing setting and facts experienced common structural invariants of difference. Those structures were preceded by intention and evidenced by strong affective cues which arose during encounters and which lead to structures of felt resistance, oppositional defiance and the experience of emotional feelings.