I’ve occasionally been able to move my sense of self downwards from my head. From what I’ve read, people didn’t put their sense of self in their heads (it was typically in the heart or abdomen) until the importance of the brain was discovered.
I find this very hard to believe, given that humans are highly visual creatures and our eyes are located in our head. What time period/people had their sense of self in their heart or abdomen?
Whenever my nerdy/schizoid/introverted side is stronger, I feel exactly this, I am behind the eyes and staring forward, as in this state my spatial location ability, the ability to be aware in 360 degrees, is bad. But whenever this side of me retreats a bit (for example any sense of success or victory beats down the inner nerd for a while) and I come out from my inner shell to bask in the world, I feel at home in space, I get 360 degrees awareness, I know where my legs and hands are and so on, then I am less aware of where I am and more in the center of the body, perhaps chest level.
Even moreso than visual, we are mental creatures. Ideas and culture can make all the difference.
To the OP: there are times and circumstances by which I can lose much connection to the location of my body at all. Usually associated with stargazing.
I also recall that the perceived location of self (soul, mind) has changed historically. Without doubt Aristotele placed it in the heart but otherwise refs are hard to find. I vaguely recall reading about it in Precht.
I’ve occasionally been able to move my sense of self downwards from my head.
Just tried it. I’m able to move the focus of my attention downward. Mostly the same way as I can consciously widen the angle of my attention.
But I can’t be sure that this implies that it is my self. I’d like to add that there are multiple self: A perceiving self (which I’m tempted to locate in the brain), a whole self which contains everything of my body that I take to be my body and then probably another self which is the space that I contain and where I do not wan’t anybody to intrude on. And some more.
I just tried imagining being in my heart looking up at my head. I can’t guarantee that I actually moved my sense of self—maybe “I” was still in my head creating an imagined self in my heart—but it was at least an interesting and rather cheering experience. I feel more alert.
I noticed that my mood subly changed in response to the moved location—presumably due to the associations these bring. This would match up with the Dalai Lama receommendations in some other comment.
Worth noting, the Dalai Lama recommends before falling asleep focusing the sense of self in the middle of the chest at the level of the heart for deeper sleeping or in the throat for more vivid dreams. I have never tried it, but may be an experiment for people with sleep problems or trying to lucid dream.
I’ve occasionally been able to move my sense of self downwards from my head. From what I’ve read, people didn’t put their sense of self in their heads (it was typically in the heart or abdomen) until the importance of the brain was discovered.
I find this very hard to believe, given that humans are highly visual creatures and our eyes are located in our head. What time period/people had their sense of self in their heart or abdomen?
Whenever my nerdy/schizoid/introverted side is stronger, I feel exactly this, I am behind the eyes and staring forward, as in this state my spatial location ability, the ability to be aware in 360 degrees, is bad. But whenever this side of me retreats a bit (for example any sense of success or victory beats down the inner nerd for a while) and I come out from my inner shell to bask in the world, I feel at home in space, I get 360 degrees awareness, I know where my legs and hands are and so on, then I am less aware of where I am and more in the center of the body, perhaps chest level.
Not everyone is that visually focused.
I’d say I’m more focused on auditory and kinesthetic senses. I’m focused in my head, but more between the ears than behind the eyes.
Even moreso than visual, we are mental creatures. Ideas and culture can make all the difference.
To the OP: there are times and circumstances by which I can lose much connection to the location of my body at all. Usually associated with stargazing.
I also recall that the perceived location of self (soul, mind) has changed historically. Without doubt Aristotele placed it in the heart but otherwise refs are hard to find. I vaguely recall reading about it in Precht.
Just tried it. I’m able to move the focus of my attention downward. Mostly the same way as I can consciously widen the angle of my attention.
But I can’t be sure that this implies that it is my self. I’d like to add that there are multiple self: A perceiving self (which I’m tempted to locate in the brain), a whole self which contains everything of my body that I take to be my body and then probably another self which is the space that I contain and where I do not wan’t anybody to intrude on. And some more.
ADDED: The widening of the angle of perception seems to be this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconcentration_of_attention
I just tried imagining being in my heart looking up at my head. I can’t guarantee that I actually moved my sense of self—maybe “I” was still in my head creating an imagined self in my heart—but it was at least an interesting and rather cheering experience. I feel more alert.
Can confirm that.
I noticed that my mood subly changed in response to the moved location—presumably due to the associations these bring. This would match up with the Dalai Lama receommendations in some other comment.
For me, there was a large postural change. Oddly, moving my sense of self down meant that my head came up.
Another thing I noticed: The effect feels like when directing attention toward something outside of the focus area (direction of gaze).
Worth noting, the Dalai Lama recommends before falling asleep focusing the sense of self in the middle of the chest at the level of the heart for deeper sleeping or in the throat for more vivid dreams. I have never tried it, but may be an experiment for people with sleep problems or trying to lucid dream.