автор: wp-root Июль 13, 2022 0 Комментарии

More specifically, some of the virus’s genes—i.e., the genes that contributed to the coughing and sneezing of hosts—were selected across generations because they helped to build widely dispersed extended phenotypic webs of virulence that enabled the replication of those very genes. Like viral genes, some human genes may have been selected because they contributed to our ancestors’ development of extended phenotypic uses of environments and the beings inhabiting them—whether mutualistically or parasitically. I posit that many human experiences are mediated by extended phenotypic phenomena between humans and other humans, including transcendent experiences. Self-transcendent experiences exist on a spectrum of possibility, intensity, and choice (Yaden et al., 2017). The vulnerability of the transcendent experience to exploitation suggests that its truth value is bleak. How can we ever arrive at an honest account of reality via transcendence if we so easily fall prey to selfish manipulators who activate our ingroup-directed emotions and beliefs in non-existent supernatural agents, or are so easily influenced by exploitative beauty and illusory knowledge?

The use of music and visual propaganda by totalitarian regimes and despots suggests that aesthetic transcendence is useful in politics, not just art and religion. Most of the time, music listening is innocuous, and possibly even physically, psychologically, and socially beneficial. However, it is not hard to find examples of when music can function as a manipulative ploy that exploits individuals and crowds. The most obvious example entails the use of music during military parades and processions. At such gatherings, music is known to arouse feelings of jingoistic fervor and emotional commitment to one’s country and its armed forces.

Theory of Mind and Transcendence

It has been considered quite frequently in many research threads but is perhaps most prominent in the nursing research community. Living alone and being isolated in other ways, such as not doing weekly group activities or having regular family and friend visits, was linked to a 77% higher risk of death. Interestingly, more frequent visits didn’t reduce the risk further, lead study author Hamish Foster, a clinical research fellow specializing in health and social inequalities at the University of Glasgow, told Insider.

As suggested by the previous discussion of the various modes of transcendence, there is probably no such thing as the exemplar case of transcendence. Some transcendent experiences may be activated by the social sphere and its attendant affiliative emotions which ensure commitment to the ingroup. Others may be under the influence of culture-specific supernatural beliefs and the fear- and love-inducing properties of gods and spirits. Still, others may be anchored in the immersive aspects of beauty and knowledge synthesis, and the ecstasies they unleash. More likely than not, many instances of transcendence involve the activation of a combination of psychological systems, and the unique and personal nature of transcendence may reflect this unique pattern of activation that varies within an individual’s lifetime and from one individual to another.

Self-Transcendence Through “The Lifespan”

In his theory of knowledge, this concept is concerned with the condition of possibility of knowledge itself. He also opposed the term transcendental to the term transcendent, the latter meaning «that which goes beyond» (transcends) any possible knowledge of a human being.[7][8] For him transcendental meant knowledge about our cognitive faculty with regard to how objects are possible a priori. «I call all knowledge transcendental if it is occupied, not with objects, but with the way that we can possibly know objects even before we experience them.»[9] Therefore, metaphysics, as a fundamental and universal theory, turns out to be an epistemology. Transcendental philosophy, consequently, is not considered a traditional ontological form of metaphysics. In one study from 2014, students looked up at a towering grove of 200-feet-tall eucalyptus trees for just one minute — but after that awe-inspiring encounter with nature, they reported felt less self-centered, and they even behaved more generously when given the chance to help someone. Other research shows that after transcendent experiences, people feel more satisfied with their lives and rate their lives as more meaningful.

• Austin believes that, at bottom, the religious experience and the aesthetic experience are the same, though outfitted with different cultural accoutrements—presumably doctrine and group-commitment in the case of the former, and traditions of creative expression in the case of the latter.
• After all, however flawed our visual and auditory systems are, they enable us to more or less successfully navigate our world.
• As previously discussed, humans are equipped with specialized cognitive mechanisms whose naturally selected function is the acquisition of knowledge relevant to survival and reproduction.
• Kaufman (2020) proposes that self-actualisation acts as a “bridge” to self-transcendent states, values, and motivation.
• What St. John of the Cross referred to as “the dark night of the soul,” often described as a bleak and meaningless void left in the wake of transcendent and mystical states, is only now being given scientific consideration (Rocha 2014).

In the ensuing section, I discuss the relationship between transcendence and human development across the lifespan, and conclude with some thoughts on the epistemic and ethical utility of transcendence. For example, liking someone predisposes an individual to act in a friendly manner toward the liked person—e.g., laughing at the person’s jokes, mimicking the person’s body movements and mannerisms, etc. Conversely, when one’s behavior is being mimicked, one unconsciously begins to like and feel an emotional closeness to the mimicking person (Chartrand and Bargh 1999). As discussed, mimicry and behavioral synchrony are evolved mechanisms whose selected purpose is to enable smooth social interaction and to communicate one’s affiliative intentions toward others.

Exploitative shamans—figures who are already venerated within the community—can enhance the tribe’s commitments to the shaman’s own selfish interests by simply engaging the tribe in synchronous dancing and chanting. Such exploitation can have devastating consequences for the tribe if the ceremony encourages an attack on a neighboring tribe when such an attack is less than optimal for the tribe, but beneficial for the shaman (e.g., if it enables him to monopolize the tribe’s women when the men go off to war). As proposed by MacNeill (2004), one of the main evolved functions of the religious experience is the arousal of a bellicose feeling and a propensity to sacrifice for the ingroup during battle. The effect of synchrony on the subsumption of the self into the larger military unit is likewise manifest in military drills and processions. What makes this form of exploitation so insidious is that simple, low-level synchronous movements can bring about transcendent states that are then used to inspire deadly intergroup aggression or self-righteous vengeance against purported transgressors within the group.

Sometimes, group-directed transcendence may be coincidental with an individual’s experience of sexual attraction or falling in love—states coinciding with the coming of Kenrick and Griskevicius’ mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care subselves. It is this type of transcendent experience that may have inspired the pervasive linkage between the religious and the romantic. Likewise, the group-oriented transcendent state may coincide with epistemic states that contribute to the immersive aspects of the experience—e.g., the aforementioned epistemic dissolution of the self in favor of a higher, group-directed cause among Zen-inspired Kamikaze pilots. Using Kenrick and Griskevicius’ developmental framework, I predict that certain types of transcendent experiences are more likely than others at each life stage.

It’s not an easy path, as it represents the highest heights of human development, beyond even Maslow’s rarely achieved self-actualization. Although today’s researchers generally don’t adhere to the idea that spirituality is a must to reach self-transcendence, it is certainly a significant aspect of transcendence for many, and it can vary across what is transcendent-based quality a broad spectrum of beliefs. Humans need some conceptual boundaries, of course, but the expansion of these boundaries outward to include more of the environment, more human beings, etc., puts people in a state of greater connectedness with their environment and encourages a sense of “wholeness” they may not otherwise have (Reed, 1991).

The signaling of costly emotional commitment to the ingroup during communal transcendence probably serves the adaptive function of cementing coalitional ties to one’s fellow group members. Somewhat more questionable is whether any of the other modes of transcendence are adaptive, be it for genes, individuals, or groups. It is plausible that ToM-mediated transcendence ensures the survival of coalitions by invoking supernatural beings that regulate behavior within the group, but this could very well be a by-product of the human tendency to project sentience where there is none. Likewise, even if aesthetic and epistemic transcendent states guide individuals toward survival- and reproduction-enhancing opportunities, the costs of being incapacitated by such all-consuming experiences may outweigh their adaptive benefits.