Perceptual shift

Perceptual shift happens within.

Paradigm shift? Perceptual shift? Cognitive shift? A fundamental shift in the way we understand science and life? This is happening. A new physics of life. This has been going on at least since the 20th century as a continuous development and we now have what looks like the best contender for a unified theory of life, called Active Inference Theory. It is complex mathematics but it is a form of biophysics and that means a physics of life. Life is the common denominator.

We can understand it. We already understand much of it and we do not need to know the math or the neuroscience or even the physics in order to understand it deeply. However it involves thinking with a different part of our brain and a different part of our body. We do need to understand a little bit of new anatomy so that we can begin to see things from the inside out.

Paradigm shift? Perceptual shift? What about neurological and physiological shift? Is it possible to shift physiological systems within the body? Yes, of course it is. We have different modalities that we operate under. We can zone out or go hyper focused for periods of time. Sleep is one perceptual mode, waking consciousness is another, psychedelics also. Neurophysiologically, or anatomically (including brain anatomy) the body has three different major perceptual or sensory motor systems. These are exteroception, proprioception (deep self awareness), and the gut or visceral system of interoception.

A sensory motor system is a system of organs that work together as a single unified system with a distinct purpose. There are many different kinds of sensory organs in addition to the conventional exteroceptive ones of our five senses, the limbs. and the outer skin. There are many different kinds of organs including digestive and circulatory organs or the deep postural muscle tissues.

The three basic sensory motor systems are how we know ourselves and the world. There is an external system and two internal systems.Even if we are not conscious of the inner systems in the same way that we are conscious of our external senses, they are still always functioning within us and are communicating with the brain in support of our integration and vitality.

Exteroception is awareness on the outside, using our limbs and five senses to interact with the world outside of us. This is an intellectual, conscious, and verbal form of cognition and this is manifest in the modern system of analytical reason, which is based upon observable evidence. Exteroception provides objective, visible evidence. We tend to over-identify with this system, called exteroceptive bias, and this is one way to understand the current problem of technological overreach.

Exteroceptive bias refers to the natural tenancy in any system to assume as its primary identity it’s surface functions. This is natural and inevitable and there is nothing wrong with it so long as we remain aware that there is a bias in the system, meaning we do not lose sight of the other settings the system requires for its complex functioning. In control theory, cybernetics, or engineering a bias is a setting of a servo controller or servo mechanism like a thermostat. This is what sets the attitude of it system. When you adjust the thermostat and keeps the whole house at a certain temperature but you have different settings for different times of the day or different seasons of the year. Bias is variable.

The bias in the systems of our body naturally changes as we cycle through different perceptual modes, in sleep or awake, in meditation, exertion, etc. Bias becomes a problem when we lose track of the fact that there are other settings in the system, that we require, and that create problems when we fail to make use of them when we need to. The emergence of the inner systems into our collective and scientific awareness is evidence of the principle of homeostasis.

Although there are three sensor remover systems in the body: exteroception proprioception and interoception, it is the two primary systems which possess self-awareness: exteroception and proprioception. It is most important at this time in history to understand the adaptive resources provided to us by the deep inner system of proprioception, literally meaning self awareness.

A very complex problem that active inference makes very clear is that an accurate model of life is self evidence. The perceptual challenge relates to the fact that we both have a model and are the model. These are the two different perceptual modes in the system doing and being. The paradigm shift we are experiencing in so many fields relates to this profound universal dynamic within each of us as we shift from having a model to being a model, with self awareness generated from within.

In addition to exteroception, the body has two other interior physiological systems. These are proprioception, our core integrative or postural muscle system, and a gut or visceral system called interoception. While interoception includes functions like digestion, breathing, and circulation, it is the core muscular system that should attract our interest both for comprehension and actual physical awareness. Proprioception literally means self-awareness and this is the most coherent option and the most recognizable complement to our current bias, which is exteroception.

The paradigm shift for the perceptual shift that we can all undertake equally is a shift from one major part of our body, the outside, the exteroceptive sensory motor systems, to the inside, to deep self awareness in the proprioceptiveve sensory motor system. This is the part of the body that we use to feel ourself when we do things like Feldenkrais and yoga or tai chi. We already possess the system but what is new is its scientific description in the form of anatomy. In order to have the model and also to be the model we must know the model.

A knowledge of the simple axial anatomy of inner self awareness, the proprioceptive sensory motor systems, constitutes the paradigm shift itself.