A universal aspect of human psychology is the quest and cultivation of rapture states, the need to stand outside oneself (ecstasy). The question is what may drive the human need to abandon and transcend a default mode of survival to cultivate altered states of consciousness? The idea is to approach this basic question in light of what arguably sets us apart in nature: human self-consciousness...
Abstract Human consciousness is considered in the perspective of early development. Infants and young children remind us that at its core, the problem of consciousness is primarily a problem of identity, in particular a problem of self-identity with others in mind. It is about how we feel and construe ourselves as an entity among other entities. It is about becoming co-conscious: Aware of...
Primordial sense of embodied self-unity Infancy research of the past forty years defies long-held ideas regarding the starting state of mental life. These ideas were justified by the fact that we do not have any explicit recollection of our own infancy. Infantile amnesia was symptomatic of an initial absence of experiential unity and self-awareness. Prior to language, children were regarded as...
Self-awareness is viewed here as the phenotypic expression of an interaction between genes and the environment. Brain and behavioral development of fetuses and newborn infants are a rich source of information regarding what might constitute minimal self-awareness. Research indicates that newborns have feeling (subjective) experience. Unlike automata, they do not just sense and respond to...