Out-of-Body-Like Experiences are More Probable in People with Elevated Complex Partial Epileptic-Like Signs during Periods of Enhanced Geomagnetic Activity: A Nonlinear Effect

1995 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Persinger

The ratings of subjective experiences of the self “leaving” or of being detached from the body were obtained (over a 3-yr. period) for a total of 128 men and women who had been exposed only once to an experimental setting which enhances the awareness of cognitive processes. As hypothesized, the individuals who exhibited the greatest proportion of complex partial epileptic-like signs also reported the most intense experiences of detachment from the body; however, these occurred primarily when the geomagnetic activity on the day of the experiment exceeded about 15 nT but was less than about 45 nT. Geomagnetic activity for the day after or the three days before the experiment was not associated with these experiences. The effect was equivalent to a correlation coefficient ( eta) of .38.

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Garavito

Incorporation is the body’s capacity to take something to alter or extend itself. In the literature on the subject, there is a lively debate on what constitutes incorporation. According to the Hypothesis of Extended Mind, whatever extends our cognitive processes is incorporated. At the same time, that object becomes a part of our self-manifestation. However, De Preester, in what I call a narrow version of incorporation, proposes that an object is incorporated to the self only if it is included in the sense of ownership of the body. Here, I explore a broader version of incorporation, related to Merleau-Ponty’s ideas of habit and incorporation. From this perspective, incorporation is the way a self expands and alters itself in its dealings with the world. A self, as a lived body, emerges in the self’s constitutive openness to worlds; therefore, objects (and even others) are incorporated in a temporal and situated way if they participate in constitutive experiences. Finally, this perspective explores the idea of a flexible and transparent self rather than a fixed self based on representations of the body.


1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 629-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER ÖBERG ◽  
LARS TORNSTAM

The exterior territories, or surfaces, of the body have become symbols of the self in late modernity. People are increasingly overwhelmed with messages of youthful ideals: how to stay young or how to get old without signs of ageing. However, studies of the effects of these images on people's own experiences as they grow older seem to be lacking. The present paper reports an empirical study which focuses on body image for men and women of different ages. Four hypotheses, derived from social gerontological theories, are developed and tested against data: the female beauty hypothesis, the double marginality hypothesis, the ageing mask hypothesis and the ageless self hypothesis. The survey, undertaken by 2,002 Swedes, reveals a response pattern with basically positive body images that, for women, is increasingly positive with age. The results are, thus, in sharp contrast to the gerontophobic messages from consumer culture as well as contrary to some gerontological theories.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 313-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uffe Schjødt

AbstractThe classic dichotomy between bodily and cognitive processes has survived in scientific thought and can still be seen undiminished in the classic paradigm of the cognitive sciences. Lately, however, the notion of amodal cognitive systems has been challenged by new insights. More and more findings from neurobiological and perceptual studies support the assumption that cognitive processes solely rely on the brain's modal activities – even the most complex ones. Discarding amodal systems, however, would have profound effects not only on the cognitive sciences, but also on the broader study of human behaviour. During the last two decades, cognitivist theories have made their entrance into humanistic studies, including the study of religion. Thus, in discarding one of the basic premises of the cognitive paradigm, as I argue in this article, could lead to a radical rethinking of the science of religion. I will argue that the body and its sensory-motor modalities are not only the mind's representational base, but also encompass the intentionality behind human behaviour in general and religious behaviour in particular. I will call this intentionality homeostatic intentionality, as it has to do with the self-regulation and optimization of the organism. Ignoring physiological activities, including homeostatic ones, in the mind's complex cognitive processes is unfortunately a characteristic of classic cognitivist theories, and this negligence, it seems to me, rules out a satisfying and realistic account of religious behaviour.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 2919-2933
Author(s):  
Lara Maister ◽  
Aikaterini Fotopoulou ◽  
Oliver Turnbull ◽  
Manos Tsakiris

Abstract Erogenous zones of the body are sexually arousing when touched. Previous investigations of erogenous zones were restricted to the effects of touch on one’s own body. However, sexual interactions do not just involve being touched, but also involve touching a partner and mutually looking at each other’s bodies. We take a novel interpersonal approach to characterize the self-reported intensity and distribution of erogenous zones in two modalities: touch and vision. A large internet sample of 613 participants (407 women) completed a questionnaire, where they rated intensity of sexual arousal related to different body parts, both on one’s own body and on an imagined partner’s body in response to being touched but also being looked at. We report the presence of a multimodal erogenous mirror between sexual partners, as we observed clear correspondences in topographic distributions of self-reported arousal between individuals’ own bodies and their preferences for a partner’s body, as well as between those elicited by imagined touch and vision. The erogenous body is therefore organized and represented in an interpersonal and multisensory way.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Monika Szuba

The essay discusses selected poems from Thomas Hardy's vast body of poetry, focusing on representations of the self and the world. Employing Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concepts such as the body-subject, wild being, flesh, and reversibility, the essay offers an analysis of Hardy's poems in the light of phenomenological philosophy. It argues that far from demonstrating ‘cosmic indifference’, Hardy's poetry offers a sympathetic vision of interrelations governing the universe. The attunement with voices of the Earth foregrounded in the poems enables the self's entanglement in the flesh of the world, a chiasmatic intertwining of beings inserted between the leaves of the world. The relation of the self with the world is established through the act of perception, mainly visual and aural, when the body becomes intertwined with the world, thus resulting in a powerful welding. Such moments of vision are brief and elusive, which enhances a sense of transitoriness, and, yet, they are also timeless as the self becomes immersed in the experience. As time is a recurrent theme in Hardy's poetry, this essay discusses it in the context of dwelling, the provisionality of which is demonstrated in the prevalent sense of temporality, marked by seasons and birdsong, which underline the rhythms of the world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Dessy Sumanty ◽  
Deden Sudirman ◽  
Diah Puspasari

This research attempts to relate the body image phenomenon with the level of subject religiosity. This research used correlational research design that was involving 332 respondents. The statistical testing which is used to test the hypothesis Rank Spearman. The calculation result with the significance level of trust 95% (a = 0.05) show that the correlation coefficient is 0.083 and p-value is 0.129. It means that Ho is accepted and H1 is rejected. It can be concluded that there is no relationship between religiosity with body image.


Author(s):  
I Wayan Budiarta ◽  
Ni Wayan Kasni

This research is aimed to figure out the syntactic structure of Balinese proverbs, the relation of meaning between the name of the animals and the meaning of the proverbs, and how the meanings are constructed in logical dimension. This research belongs to a qualitative as the data of this research are qualitative data which taken from a book entitled Basita Paribahasa written by Simpen (1993) and a book of Balinese short story written by Sewamara (1977). The analysis shows that the use of concept of animals in Balinese proverbs reveal similar characteristics, whether their form, their nature, and their condition. Moreover, the cognitive processes which happen in resulting the proverb is by conceptualizing the experience which is felt by the body, the nature, and the characteristic which owned by the target with the purpose of describing event or experience by the speech community of Balinese. Analogically, the similarity of characteristic in the form of shape of source domain can be proved visually, while the characteristic of the nature and the condition can be proved through bodily and empirical experiences. Ecolinguistics parameters are used to construct of Balinese proverbs which happen due to cross mapping process. It is caused by the presence of close characteristic or biological characteristic which is owned by the source domain and target domain, especially between Balinese with animal which then are verbally recorded and further patterned in ideological, biological, and sociological dimensions.


Author(s):  
Joshua S. Walden

The book’s epilogue explores the place of musical portraiture in the context of posthumous depictions of the deceased, and in relation to the so-called posthuman condition, which describes contemporary changes in the relationship of the individual with such aspects of life as technology and the body. It first examines Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to view how Bernard Herrmann’s score relates to issues of portraiture and the depiction of the identity of the deceased. It then considers the work of cyborg composer-artist Neil Harbisson, who has aimed, through the use of new capabilities of hybridity between the body and technology, to convey something akin to visual likeness in his series of Sound Portraits. The epilogue shows how an examination of contemporary views of posthumous and posthuman identities helps to illuminate the ways music represents the self throughout the genre of musical portraiture.


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