Sense of Presence

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 ours or belongs to our bodily identity.


Sense of Agency

It is the feeling that we are the agents of our own actions, that is, the perception that we are responsible for the actions we perform in the world. 


It is closely linked to our ability to control or influence the environment through our intentions and movements. 


When we have a sense of agency, we feel that our actions are the result of our conscious intentions and that we have control over what we do.

Description

When I sit down to meditate, my sense of self settles into the sensation of presence, and I become able to observe my thoughts in a detached manner. 


However, I maintain my sense of ownership, recognizing that these thoughts originate from me. 


On the other hand, my sense of agency over them weakens, allowing me to remain as an observer of the flow of these thoughts, without identifying myself as their generator. 


I notice that this shift occurs physically when I feel more like my eyes than the interior of my throat. 


It is as if my gaze were positioned over my lower eyelids, 'seeing' the movements of internal speech and passively hearing them, in other words, as if I were standing still in this internal posture, watching them unfold without engaging with them. 


Since the eyes are fixed in this position, visual images cannot easily form in my mind. 


Thus, this sense of being the observer of my mental processes also seems to be a matter of subtle internal posture, which manifests physically as described.

References

Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. Analysis, 58(1), 7–19. 


Check out these posts to understand the phenomenological approach used in providing these descriptions of experience: 1) What is Phenomenology; 2) Naturalization of Phenomenology; 3) Micro-Phenomenology; 4) Intersubjective Validation; 5) Embodied Cognition; 6) 4E




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