Although it is virtually impossible for most people to really grasp pre self consciousness, having become self conscious, it is possible to remember the time when you were not aware of your self; or at least, the moment you came to self-sonsciousness--you did not recognize yourself in the mirror that morning.
Since this may be a good reflection of the state that our religious or mental models seek to reproduce (despite failure in a Google search of pre self consciousness~the only return was for pre-reflective self consciousness), it becomes illuminating at some point in most walks to examine this state of mind from a different perspective~that of remembering when, or at least the doorway from there, rather than aspiring to.
Pre reflective self consciousness provides an interesting analog in helping to understand your state of mind at the time, so we'll look at a brief of this concept:
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One can get a bearing on the notion of pre-reflective self-consciousness by contrasting it with reflective self-consciousness. If you ask me to give you a description of the pain I feel in my right foot, or of what I was just thinking about, I would reflect on it and thereby take up a certain perspective that was one order removed from the pain or the thought. Thus, reflective self-consciousness is at least a higher-order cognition. It may be the basis for a report on one's experience, although not all reports involve a significant amount of reflection.
In contrast, pre-reflective self-consciousness is pre-reflective in the sense that
(1) It is an awareness we have before we do any reflecting on our experience, and
(2) It is an implicit and first-order awareness rather than an explicit or higher-order form of self-consciousness.
Indeed, an explicit reflective self-consciousness is possible only because there is a pre-reflective self-awareness that is an on-going and more primary self-consciousness. Although phenomenologists do not always agree on important questions about method, focus, or even whether there is an ego or self, they are in close to unanimous agreement about the idea that the experiential dimension always involves such an implicit pre-reflective self-awareness.
{In line with Edmund Husserl (1959, 189, 412), who maintains that consciousness always involves a self-appearance (Für-sich-selbst-erscheinens), and in agreement with Michel Henry (1963, 1965), who notes that experience is always self-manifesting, and with Maurice Merleau-Ponty who states that consciousness is always given to itself and that the word ‘consciousness’ has no meaning independently of this self-givenness (Merleau-Ponty 1945, 488)}
Jean-Paul Sartre writes that pre-reflective self-consciousness is not simply a quality added to the experience, an accessory; rather, it constitutes the very mode of being of the experience...
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-consciousness-phenomenological/#PreRefSelCon
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Or in other words, you, completely in the moment, before mental processing.
We’ll take a look at how to remember the moment you came to self awareness, but unfortunately, even though this experience alone will be quite a jolt, all you will be left with, most likely anyway, is a memory of that moment; although intriguing echoes of pre self consciousness will reverberate.
And who knows? Maybe you will be the one who writes the article about further regression here, since the Indians apparently are not.
An intro for a failed article.
The spoiler is that I did this with a (woo-woo) Indian, in a 'ceremony,' with a mildly euphoric 'tea of remembering,' all of which just served to help imprint, and cause later reflection on a memory that we all have inside us. Very powerful.
Since this may be a good reflection of the state that our religious or mental models seek to reproduce (despite failure in a Google search of pre self consciousness~the only return was for pre-reflective self consciousness), it becomes illuminating at some point in most walks to examine this state of mind from a different perspective~that of remembering when, or at least the doorway from there, rather than aspiring to.
Pre reflective self consciousness provides an interesting analog in helping to understand your state of mind at the time, so we'll look at a brief of this concept:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One can get a bearing on the notion of pre-reflective self-consciousness by contrasting it with reflective self-consciousness. If you ask me to give you a description of the pain I feel in my right foot, or of what I was just thinking about, I would reflect on it and thereby take up a certain perspective that was one order removed from the pain or the thought. Thus, reflective self-consciousness is at least a higher-order cognition. It may be the basis for a report on one's experience, although not all reports involve a significant amount of reflection.
In contrast, pre-reflective self-consciousness is pre-reflective in the sense that
(1) It is an awareness we have before we do any reflecting on our experience, and
(2) It is an implicit and first-order awareness rather than an explicit or higher-order form of self-consciousness.
Indeed, an explicit reflective self-consciousness is possible only because there is a pre-reflective self-awareness that is an on-going and more primary self-consciousness. Although phenomenologists do not always agree on important questions about method, focus, or even whether there is an ego or self, they are in close to unanimous agreement about the idea that the experiential dimension always involves such an implicit pre-reflective self-awareness.
{In line with Edmund Husserl (1959, 189, 412), who maintains that consciousness always involves a self-appearance (Für-sich-selbst-erscheinens), and in agreement with Michel Henry (1963, 1965), who notes that experience is always self-manifesting, and with Maurice Merleau-Ponty who states that consciousness is always given to itself and that the word ‘consciousness’ has no meaning independently of this self-givenness (Merleau-Ponty 1945, 488)}
Jean-Paul Sartre writes that pre-reflective self-consciousness is not simply a quality added to the experience, an accessory; rather, it constitutes the very mode of being of the experience...
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-consciousness-phenomenological/#PreRefSelCon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Or in other words, you, completely in the moment, before mental processing.
We’ll take a look at how to remember the moment you came to self awareness, but unfortunately, even though this experience alone will be quite a jolt, all you will be left with, most likely anyway, is a memory of that moment; although intriguing echoes of pre self consciousness will reverberate.
And who knows? Maybe you will be the one who writes the article about further regression here, since the Indians apparently are not.
An intro for a failed article.
The spoiler is that I did this with a (woo-woo) Indian, in a 'ceremony,' with a mildly euphoric 'tea of remembering,' all of which just served to help imprint, and cause later reflection on a memory that we all have inside us. Very powerful.
