Phenomenological Descriptions

What do you feel when you see someone breaking their leg or falling in a way that makes it clear they've hurt themselves?  Watch the GIF below and try to perceive how you feel about it.  Before moving on to my phenomenological description of this process, try to perceive for yourself, in your own experience, how this happens. 〰 Description When I see someone getting hurt, for example, when they're falling badly, breaking their leg, or something else. I don't feel exactly the pain that the other person is probably feeling, nor the pain that I would probably feel if the situation had happened to me.  In other words, I don't feel the pain from the impact they experienced when falling, nor in the same part of the body that hit the ground. Instead, I feel a bad wave running through my body from top to bottom, probably starting with the movement in my throat, and, finally, a strange tingling ending, sometimes, in my forearms.  Other times, this happens on the sides of...

The Observer  Sense of Presence It is the feeling of being in the present moment and space, that is, the feeling of being 'really there,' engaged with the present experience, knowing oneself there.  In other words, it is the feeling of being physically and subjectively immersed in a situation or environment, actively perceiving and experiencing what is happening. Sense of Ownership It is the feeling that something is part of us, that an object or part of our body "belongs to us."  This is clearly experienced in the context of body perception, where we feel that our limbs and organs are part of us.  It can also be experienced in situations where, for example, when using tools or devices, we begin to perceive the tool as integrating with our action, becoming part of our 'body extension' and our mind – an idea proposed by the thesis of the Extended Mind (Clark and Chalmers, 1998).  Therefore, the sense of ownership is related to the perception that something is ...

Pleasant Fragrances and Unpleasant Odors The sense of smell is a chemical sense that works through the detection of odor molecules present in the air.  When we inhale, these molecules enter through the nostrils and reach the olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity, where specialized sensory receptors detect them, generating electrical signals.  These signals are transmitted to the olfactory bulb, located in the brain, which organizes the information and sends it to other brain areas responsible for processing the perception of smell. I don’t have much to say yet about the phenomenology of smell in terms of its corporeality, but I will provide a brief description and some speculations about how I tend to perceive pleasant perfumes and unpleasant odors. Description Pleasant perfumes When I smell a very pleasant scent, there is a tendency to try to intensify this sensation.  This seems to occur through movements of the head and internal movements, especially in the throat, ...

Visual, Kinesthetic, and Tactile Imaginations Visual imagination is the ability to create mental images or visual representations of objects, scenes, or events that are not present at the moment.  It is a cognitive process in which the mind recreates, modifies, or visualizes something based on memories, past experiences, or even fictional elements.  Unlike visual perception, which involves capturing images from the external world through the senses, visual imagination does not rely on the presence of real visual stimuli. Kinesthetic imagination is the ability to mentally create representations of movements without those movements actually occurring.  This form of imagination involves recreating motor experiences, such as the sensation of walking, running, picking up an object, or performing a specific movement.  Just as visual imagination works with images, kinesthetic imagination works with the sensation of movement, using memories or past experiences. Tactile ima...

Exploring the Experience of Inner Speech Verbal thoughts are those that occur in the form of words, as if we were mentally speaking.  They can manifest as complete sentences, sentence fragments, isolated words, or even internal dialogues, often being associated with self-reflection, planning, decision-making, and emotional regulation. In phenomenological experience, these thoughts can present different characteristics. In some cases, they are clear and articulated, while in others, they appear in a more diffuse manner.  They may arise spontaneously or be generated deliberately, also varying in terms of the perception of their spatial location: some people experience them as if they were "inside the head," while others perceive them in different parts of the body or without a defined location.  Additionally, they can have different tones and vocal qualities, sounding like the thinker’s own voice, the voice of someone else, or even without a specific auditory quality. Do yo...

Familiarity is the sensation or experience of recognizing something as already known or previously experienced, without necessarily being able to identify specific details or consciously recall the original moment or context.  This feeling can occur in various situations, such as when encountering a place, a person, or an object, and can be described as the impression that something is " familiar " or " common ," even if one does not know exactly why. Which is the correct logo? If you were unsure about which logo was the original and something made you choose one over the other, can you identify what influenced that decision?  Was there a ' somatic marker '—bodily signals that guide choices (Damásio, 1994)—that played a role in it? If so, what might it be? Try looking at both images again and observe what happens in yourself, noticing what makes you perceive one of them as more likely to be the correct one. Before moving on to my phenomenological description...

Optical Illusion What do you see in this image?  Can you see the two animals present in it?  How does your perception shift from one to the other?  What would you do if you wanted to make this perceptual switch voluntarily? Before moving on to my phenomenological description of this perceptual experience, try to discover for yourself how you make this alternation happen. 〰 Description When I focus directly on the drawing of the eye and my peripheral vision—which seems to be related to throat movement, as explored in the post on attention, in the section on exteroceptive attention ( see here )—shifts to the left, I perceive the duck.  If the movement in the throat region shifts to the right, I perceive the rabbit.  This alternation can also occur solely through the orientation of eye movements: when I shift my gaze from the drawing of the eye to the right side of the image, I perceive the rabbit; when I move my gaze to the left, I perceive the duck.  Simila...

I notice that there are different emotions that I can identify as a type of joy (what I generally refer to as such—something that brings a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure), and many of them are expressed with a smile. Serene Joy (felt as plenitude) It is when I feel my whole body in harmony, a calm "energy" flowing through it, with no "center of tension" being overloaded as in other emotions, nor an absence of feelings.  My breathing is soft, almost imperceptible. It feels effortlessly complete, as if I am not even breathing but simply being fully filled with life and oxygen.  The air seems to enter through my nostrils without touching their walls. I feel as if everything is possible, even doing nothing, just enjoying the pure sensation of peace, plenitude, calm, and well-being.  There is no specific motivation to act. Everything seems to make sense, everything fits together, everything is exactly as it should be. There is a sense of comfort and belonging to t...

Disgust at Smell, Sight, Texture, Taste, and Attitudes (Contempt) Disgust is a emotion that functions as a protective mechanism against potential sources of contamination or toxicity.  It can be triggered by sensory stimuli such as unpleasant odors, signs of decay, sticky or slimy textures, and aversive tastes.  Beyond its biological role, disgust is also involved in the experience of contempt — an emotion that arises in response to morally reprehensible behaviors, such as mean-spirited, cowardly, or dishonorable actions." Description When faced with a bad smell or the sight of something repulsive, I notice an immediate and distinct bodily reaction.  In the case of unpleasant odors, the intensity of the response varies depending on the degree of aversiveness.  A tension arises that pulls upward the area between the nose and the upper lip (where the nasolabial fold begins), causing it to wrinkle and lift — as if the face, for a moment, were trying to internally recoil...