I believe that “skin crawling” is a common metaphor for the experience of being around someone who is creepy.
I’m just going to give one personal point of evidence which people can interpret however they want: a large part of my own understanding of “creepiness” comes from the fact that at least for me personally, “skin crawling” is actually just unwanted sexual arousal. (It took me quite a lot of luminosity practise to figure this out.)
That’s very interesting. Did you turn up anything else that surprised you? After you found that “skin crawling” was unwanted sexual arousal, did that affect your ideas and/or behavior?
The “skin crawling” sensation you describe is probably the pilomotor reflex, which can be triggered by various of excited mental states, including fear, aggressivity or sexual arousal.
In mammals with a complete fur, this reflex causes the animal to appear bigger and more intimidating. You probably observed it in cats and dogs when they fight or do a threat display.
Also caused by Autonomous sensory meridian response which is ironically linked to non-threatening behaviour and altruistic, caring attention. (It can also be linked to deep emotional arousal, such as when listening to engaging music.) Identifying this reflex with “unwanted sexual arousal” is simplistic to the point of being just wrong.
Didn’t see this reply as it wasn’t directly to one of my posts, but I would like to reassure anyone reading that I can tell the difference between “skin crawling” and “scalp tingling”, and no they are not the same thing at all.
Well this is in the context of a long period of introspection on the theme of “When it comes to moral considerations, how much is my system 1 me?” The conclusion is “not very”, which is one of the things I changed my mind about fairly recently. (If instinct wants to sleep with someone but reason doesn’t, it is preferable for me to not sleep with them. This probably doesn’t sound like a surprising conclusion, but I was confused for a long time.)
This observation was basically consistent with the way my ideas were developing, since I developed those ideas concurrently to developing luminosity. I’m afraid I can’t tell the direction of causation between the two things, or whether there is any.
(If instinct wants to sleep with someone but reason doesn’t, it is preferable for me to not sleep with them. This probably doesn’t sound like a surprising conclusion, but I was confused for a long time.)
Actually, I’m not surprised that someone could take a while to figure that out—there’s what I call the romantic fallacy (romantic in the philosophical sense, though it happens to overlap with common usage this time) that people’s unthought impulses are sacred.
To put it mildly, what (if anything) is sacred about people is a complicated question.
Actually, I’m not surprised that someone could take a while to figure that out—there’s what I call the romantic fallacy (romantic in the philosophical sense, though it happens to overlap with common usage this time) that people’s unthought impulses are sacred.
The frequency with which people are given the advise “be yourself” in our society doesn’t help.
(If instinct wants to sleep with someone but reason doesn’t, it is preferable for me to not sleep with them. This probably doesn’t sound like a surprising conclusion, but I was confused for a long time.)
The conclusion itself is something most people here agree with, but that doesn’t mean your reaching it was inevitable. The space of human beliefs is wide.
I’m just going to give one personal point of evidence which people can interpret however they want: a large part of my own understanding of “creepiness” comes from the fact that at least for me personally, “skin crawling” is actually just unwanted sexual arousal. (It took me quite a lot of luminosity practise to figure this out.)
That’s very interesting. Did you turn up anything else that surprised you? After you found that “skin crawling” was unwanted sexual arousal, did that affect your ideas and/or behavior?
The “skin crawling” sensation you describe is probably the pilomotor reflex, which can be triggered by various of excited mental states, including fear, aggressivity or sexual arousal.
In mammals with a complete fur, this reflex causes the animal to appear bigger and more intimidating. You probably observed it in cats and dogs when they fight or do a threat display.
Also caused by Autonomous sensory meridian response which is ironically linked to non-threatening behaviour and altruistic, caring attention. (It can also be linked to deep emotional arousal, such as when listening to engaging music.) Identifying this reflex with “unwanted sexual arousal” is simplistic to the point of being just wrong.
Didn’t see this reply as it wasn’t directly to one of my posts, but I would like to reassure anyone reading that I can tell the difference between “skin crawling” and “scalp tingling”, and no they are not the same thing at all.
Well this is in the context of a long period of introspection on the theme of “When it comes to moral considerations, how much is my system 1 me?” The conclusion is “not very”, which is one of the things I changed my mind about fairly recently. (If instinct wants to sleep with someone but reason doesn’t, it is preferable for me to not sleep with them. This probably doesn’t sound like a surprising conclusion, but I was confused for a long time.)
This observation was basically consistent with the way my ideas were developing, since I developed those ideas concurrently to developing luminosity. I’m afraid I can’t tell the direction of causation between the two things, or whether there is any.
Actually, I’m not surprised that someone could take a while to figure that out—there’s what I call the romantic fallacy (romantic in the philosophical sense, though it happens to overlap with common usage this time) that people’s unthought impulses are sacred.
To put it mildly, what (if anything) is sacred about people is a complicated question.
The frequency with which people are given the advise “be yourself” in our society doesn’t help.
The conclusion itself is something most people here agree with, but that doesn’t mean your reaching it was inevitable. The space of human beliefs is wide.