Phenomenological Descriptions

'AS IF...' Depersonalization and derealization are dissociative experiences frequently associated with intense and prolonged states of anxiety and stress , emerging as an adaptive response of the organism to such conditions. In depersonalization , the person experiences a sense of distancing from themselves, as if disconnected from their own body, emotions, or thoughts. Derealization , in turn, refers to an alteration in the experience of the world, which comes to be perceived as strange, artificial, lifeless, or “unreal,” even though the person knows, at a cognitive level, that nothing has in fact changed. In both cases, these are not delusions nor a loss of contact with reality, but rather a profound modification in the quality of lived experience . My Experience I experienced continuous symptoms of depersonalization and derealization for five years (from 2004 to 2009), as a consequence of a period of extremely intense anxiety. At the time, I was almost obsessively engaged in...

Creativity  arises from unique combinations of knowledge , reasoning , imaginations , experiences , and perceptions . To be creative is to go beyond the obvious, exploring new perspectives and finding unexpected solutions. It is the ability to generate new, original, and/or useful ideas — at least for the person who conceives them at that moment. Even if the idea has already been conceived and developed by someone else before, if it's new to the person creating it now — meaning they have no prior knowledge of it — they are still engaging their creativity. As mentioned in the description of this blog , what truly matters here is not so much the content of the idea (or of any experience) — whether it is good or not, whether it is absolutely original or not — but rather the experience of the process itself — in this case, the creative process. Creativity is everywhere Creativity manifests itself in a wide range of fields — such as the arts, philosophy, science, everyday problem-solvi...

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, ...

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...