The Cultural Shaping of Consciousness
Partner event at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Western Ontario University, London, Ontario, Canada.
- Organizer: Martin Fortier
- Place: Western Ontario University, London, Ontario
- Format: Partner symposium at ASSC
- Focus: Ordinary enculturation, non-ordinary techniques, and culture-dependent altered states
Legacy symposium description
The legacy page argued that consciousness studies had paid too little attention to cultural variables, despite evidence that susceptibility to visual illusions, sensory integration, binocular rivalry, and the cultivation of non-ordinary states vary across cultures. It contrasted monophasic cultures, reluctant to induce contents and modes beyond ordinary consciousness, with polyphasic cultures that explore a larger repertoire of conscious states.
Retained talk structure
- Martin E. Fortier, "The cultural shaping of consciousness: A general introduction".
- Xiao-Fei Yang, "Cultural influences on the neural correlates of emotional experiences: Implications for consciousness?"
- Michael Lifshitz, "Learning to hear voices: The phenomenology and cognitive mechanisms of tulpamancy".
- Rebecca Seligman, "The biology and culture of spirit possession: An integrative model of dissociation and altered states of consciousness".
The old page preserved three routes by which consciousness can be encultured: ordinary conscious processes shaped by ordinary practices; cultures using non-ordinary techniques such as hallucinogens, fasting, or sleep deprivation; and culture-dependent forms within techniques for altering consciousness such as trance. The talks connected neuroimaging of emotion, tulpamancy, spirit possession, dissociation, and altered states.