Sep 5, 2018 · 1 min read
Thanks for the interesting comments. I’ll try to answer concisely.
- Defining something as experientially abnormal purely means it deviates from the experiences that most people most often have. When you say we normally see our body ‘from the outside’, I guess you mean that if you look down at your own body you see its externals. But the point is we normally see it from our self-centered perspective behind the eyes. Not from a perspective flying above us or from across the room. That is an abnormal experience that we call an out-of-body experience. Keep in mind I’m talking about abnormal according to our typical experience here, not abnormal according to objective reality (whatever that may be).
- I agree with your point about our normal intuitions being that we “have” a body rather than “are” a body. But you’re talking about a more implicit sense of body ownership than I am. When I say we don’t think about body ownership in everyday life, I only mean that we take for granted that our arm or leg belongs to us, almost as though it could never be any other way. I express the point because it can be so surprising when you see the symptoms of disorders like somatoparaphrenia. A reminder that the brain is actively doing things you hadn’t even considered before.
Hope that helps you to better understand my perspective. I appreciate your questions and your time in writing them out so clearly. Enjoy the rest of your week!
