Observations placeholder
Damasio, Professor Antonio - The Proto self
Identifier
011007
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Professor Damasio called the template the ‘proto-self’
A description of the experience
Professor Antonio Damasio – The Feeling of What Happens
The proto-self is a coherent collection of neural patterns which map, moment by moment, the state of the physocal structure of the organism in its many dimensions…
These structures are intimately involved in the process of regulating the state of the organism. The operations of acting on the organism and of sensing the state of the organism are closely tied. The proto self is not to be confused with the rich sense of self on which our current knowing is centered this very moment. We are not conscious of the proto-self. Language is not part of the structure of the proto self. The proto self has no powers of perception and holds no knowledge…
The proto-self does not occur in one place only, and it emerges dynamically and continuously out of multifarious interacting signals that span varied orders of the nervous system. Besides, the proto-self is not an interpreter of anything.