Hallucinations are a universal feature of human experience. This doesn’t mean that everyone has hallucinated, but everyone is capable of hallucinating. If hallucinations can be managed, the effects range from enlightening to fun. If hallucinations are uncontrolled, the effects range from psychosis to terror. In most cases, expectations are the key to management [...]
Tags:absorption·charismatics·Christian·confabulation·delusions·evangelicals·hallucinations·perceptual bias·perceputal deficits·reality monitoring·shamans·Tanya Luhrmann·trance·visions
Thanks to the hard work and serendipity of Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, who was recently profiled in the New York Times, we know that our left brain homunculus is a storyteller. Our homunculi confabulate like crazy. Nevermind that the person in our head lacks basic information or essential plot elements: s/he will fashion a narrative or [...]
Tags:agency·confabulation·credulity·illusory intentions·intentionality·manipulation·Margaret Lynn·Michael Gazzaniga·mind control·storytelling·suggestion
In the fourth installment in his series on memory and the work of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Slate’s William Saletan discusses “repressed memories” that have given rise to all sorts of injustice in courtrooms across America. The title of today’s article is “The Recipe: A Cookbook for Memories of Sexual Abuse,” and includes this revelatory excerpt:
Loftus [...]
Tags:confabulation·Elizabeth Loftus·filtered experience·identity·imagination·immersion·indoctrination·inference·memories·memory·recipe for religion·spiritual cookbook·spiritual experiences·suggestion·William Saletan
In yesterday’s post regarding William Saletan’s excellent (and continuing) series on memory over at Slate, I quoted this excerpt: “The scary part is that your memories have already been altered. Much of what you recall about your life never happened, or it happened in a very different way.” Elaborating on this idea, Saletan recounts another [...]
Tags:brainwashing·confabulation·cultural inputs·Elizabeth Loftus·memory implants·spiritual experiences·William Saletan
Though I have had my disagreements with William Saletan in the past — we have briefly debated whether “race” is a biologically valid classification (it isn’t) — I want to be the first to congratulate him on a series of articles (“The Memory Doctor”) he is running over at Slate. The subject is memory and [...]
Tags:cognition·confabulation·Elizabeth Loftus·fabrications·imagination·memories·memory·past lives·reincarnation·suggestibility·William Saletan
