metaphorical location

[egypturnash]

Where do you live? No, not what city - where in your body does your consciousness reside? Where's the center of awareness, around which everything else is arrayed? Does it move around or stay in one place?

The ancient Greeks, I'm told, believed that they lived in their hearts, with periscopes up to the eyes.

I've always felt that 'I' am in my head, mostly a little bit behind my eyes. The feet are very remote. I've never felt that 'I' am anywhere else in my body, at least not yet.

---

Oh, and thanks for all the responses to yesterday's entry. Browsing Slashdot while working at Spümcø makes me very quickly feel like I'm the only person in the whole world who can deal with technology and art. I should really just stop looking at Slashdot...

Comments

[pobig.livejournal.com]

The link to yesterday's entry is missing an initial slash, which prevents it from working properly when followed from a friends list or similar.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. I fixed it by just going for the http://www.livejournal.com prefix.

[love-hate-rape.livejournal.com]

It's a debate between my head, heart, and hands. It really depends on what I am doing. But in this theory, I could move around inside my body, putting my conciousness where it is needed at the time, completely focused.

[octantis.livejournal.com]

I'd say I live mostly in my braincase, but that it feels like the largest part of a consciousness that's divided through my body. It's hard to explain... it doesn't feel like my extremities are just devices attached to my brain with which to sense and manipulate things. I feel generally aware of myself as a whole, though sometimes I'll focus on my hands or feet or whatever when I'm doing something complex.

Ever hear about those people who get healthy limbs amputated because they feel like the limbs are alien or don't belong with them somehow? I wonder if they don't "live" in them.

[wolphyn.livejournal.com]

My braaaaaain.... Well, mainly. Sometimes it feels like I'm simultaneously in my brain and heart.

About technology-and-art people being rare... I'm guessing it's due to the halves of the brain, with the right tending to be dominant in those artistically-inclined and the left in those who do well with sequential disciplines. Perhaps there is less of a margin in that dominancy between the two sides in people with a talent governed by each. Just as more people are right- or left-handed than ambidextrous, the ambidextrous-brained would be less common. Personally, I can't claim myself as such a rarity. My art, such as it is, comes to me more freely (and more enjoyably!) than the constrained repetition of formulae, so I'm probably a right-brainer.

Me!

[lapdragon.livejournal.com]

'I', in the way you put it, think of myself as not really having a place within my body. I think of myself as a meatpuppet, a collection of icky things thrown together in an icky, but practical fashion. 'I' am data, a chemical process that stores information and reacts to its environment, as percieved by its shell.

'I' am an angsty geek.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Smarty-boots! Okay, then where's the program counter get stored at? *smirk*

It's pretty firmly fixed inside my head usually. :-)

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

About the only exception is when I'm really physically straining myself.

Like if I'm practicing with my makeshift staff or dual swords (balanced machettes) it's more in my shoulders and neck area.

But if I'm doing bare-hand strikes or what little Capoeira I know, it seems to slosh back and forth like a glass of water knocked askew, flowing into this strike, then rocking over to that one again.

Oddly, if I'm running or swimming or something else, it's just 'there' in the back of my head, just forward of the 'crook' in the back of one's skull (aye, I've no idea about biology or medical terms for the bod) like it usually is when I'm not doing anything in particular.

[minakawa.livejournal.com]

I'm not really anyplace at all.

Here's something original...

[(Anonymous)]

I'd say my conciousness is often in my imaginary second personality. I find that I often refer to myself as "we" or "you" and comment on my behaviour like those voices I don't have.

[maui.livejournal.com]

I find that my center is, almost literally, at my "center." I'm most aware of myself at the mid-front of my torso, just underneath the notch in my ribcage. That's where the slightly giddy, emotional part of myself resides, and when I make an effort to steel or gather myself, that's the place I withdraw to. My logical side, however, is the same place that you are. In the head, right behind the eyes.

*shrug* But then, I'm an utter fruitcake.

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Way behind the eyes, up towards the top of my head.

Once it was the back of my throat, but I was very tired that day, and many things were going weird.

I've had moments of significantly better body awareness. Such as when I'll meditate and just listen/feel for blood flowing all around. I don't know if that counts as all points at once.

There are interesting brain injuries, that break down the sensation of self, making it hard for people to distinguish between themselves and a room. Also oddities, where they have a functional arm, but refuse to recognize it as their own.

Maybe once in a while in my hands, if I'm tired and mucking for a long time.