Imagine an apple

Explore the fascinating world of our inner experiences! Discover how Russell Hurlburt's Descriptive Experience Sampling method sheds light on unsymbolized thinking and the vivid variability in our thoughts. Learn about the intriguing differences between normal experiences and those shaped by conditions like schizophrenia. The conversation touches on the personal findings from self-sampling and how this technique can enhance introspection. Dive into the rich sensory details of expert performance, like guitar playing, and join the hosts in exploring your own inner landscape.

When you navigate a city, what is your inner experience? Do you see detailed overhead maps, or street-level views of landmarks, or neither?Vynn Suren and Francis Irving interview Anna about how she uses her imagination to find routes, program a computer and remember names.Anna describes how she sees both an overhead map view and street-level views of landmarks. She switches between them dynamically.What’s a visual map vs a spatial map? What features are salient? What is a waypoint? How do the imagined maps vary in quality between different cities? What does the marker look like that shows where you are? There’s then a discussion about how people work out the route to take on the map, and what happens when they get lost. What’s the inner experience of being lost? How do you find yourself again?The conversation switches to use of imagination while computer programming. Anna describes the abstract concepts she sees in a spatial structure. What then happens  when you’re interrupted? Does this apply to other tasks, e.g. getting quotes for insurance?To wrap up, the team talk about names and faces and how well people remember them. If you visualise writing is it serif or sans-serif, is it white or grey?Timestamps:00:55 Imagine an apple02:17 Inner background music05:00 Navigating a city08:26 Spatial vs visual11:07 Finding the best route20:17 Typical waypoints22:49 Sense of direction26:33 Getting lost30:18 Variety of experience while navigating34:08 Imagination while computer programming38:56 Interruptions41:02 Smoky grey shapes of thinking44:35 Inner experience during collaborative tasks46:29 Remembering names and facesShow Links: This isn’t f***ing Dalston! - mapping the cognitive boundaries of part of London The Image of the City - book about how people make mental maps Mind’s Eye Mentorship - 1:1 coaching, used to be called AphantasiaMeow Guugu Yimithirr language - uses north/south where English uses left/right Country Driving by Peter Hessler - getting lost in rural China Statistics of mental imagery by Francis Galton - either this, or William James referencing it, mentions the smokey grey shapes 1946 birth cohort study - NHS research projectContact Details:Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences!Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

Welcome to another episode of “Imagine an apple”!In this episode, we tackle the issue of spiritual experience.How do these vary between individuals, and how do they vary between human cultures?Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusTimestamps:01:40 What are spiritual experiences?03:30 Oneness with the Universe05:30 Nondual experience with Vynn08:20 Rejection from life goals triggering nondual experience09:30 Jessica’s move to Madrid and starting new job10:49 Lucid dreaming14:01 Hearing voices19:20 Changing perceptions of reality20:15 Scales of enlightenment experience21:00 What were you reading?22:02 Alan Watts and Buddhist Koans23:30 Effing the ineffable25:28 “I am God!”27:27 The experience of love30:15 How do you live day to day?34:26 Psychedelics35:35 Sense of self38:15 Research on spiritual experience41:15 Neurophenomenology43:00 Mental health disorders associated with spiritual experiences44:05 Vocabulary around mental experience45:00 EPRC Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium45:50 Kundalini Awakenings48:40 Wrapping up49:00 Can you recognize another?Theme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

What are the limits of our imagination? Can we imagine an apple 100 miles away, or a sound higher pitched that we can hear? Can we project our imaginations into our actual vision?Vynn and Francis are interviewed by video games designer Berbank Green. He stretches our imagination with a series of exercises (see full list below).Can you imagine a smell that knocks you out? Can you imagine an apple as large as the moon? How accurate are our imaginations?Berbank describes his “prophantasic” ability to put an imagined apple on the actual table in his real vision, and how he used this in childhood.Timestamps:00:48 Detail of imagining an apple05:10 Imagining a distant apple09:00 An eagle’s perception11:18 Microscopic and earth-sized apples16:13 Thinking of lots of apples at once19:30 4D apples23:48 Inner experience of designing a video game27:07 Imagining emotions in video games30:35 Limits of audio imagination35:17 Prophantasia - imagining things in the real world40:10 Imagining being something else51:40 Noticing where language comes from57:23 Dreaming and the subconscious64:02 Apple having an eccentric British accentShow Links: Teach Your Monster to Read - a video game Berbank made Berbank’s Twitter account Miegakure - a true 4D puzzle-platforming game Fire Kasina with Jane Flowers - earlier episode of this podcast Consider Phlebas - novel with mind fragmentingBerbank’s Imagination Exercises:Imagine an apple- what does it look like?- where is it?- can you smell it?- taste it?- feel how heavy it is?- does it make you remember anything?OK now test limits:- Can you see the apple if it's behind you?- How far away can you make the apple before you can't see it?   - What is your perspective of the apple at this distance?- How small can you imagine that apple?   - What happens when it gets too small?   - How heavy is that?   - Can you make it lighter?   - Can you feel how light your max imagination is?- How large can you imagine it?   - What happens when it gets too large?   - How heavy is that?   - Can you make it heavier?   - Can you feel how heavy your max imagination is?- How many apples can you think of at once?- How powerful can you make the smell of the apple?   - Can you imagine it to the point where it's overwhelming?- Can you imagine a 4 dimensional apple?- Can you imagine an apple that has a face?   - That's actually in front of you?   - That's floating in front of you with sparkling effects and crackling lightning?   - That's talking to you in an eccentric British accent?etc. etcContact Details:Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme by: @MJPiercello

What is the experience of imagining a gremlin on someone’s shoulder? How do people imagine music, sounds, time and emotion? How is imagination used to find keys and remember names?Vynn and Francis chat with Ronja about her imagination, covering a wide range of topics that may inspire you to ask your own friends and family what happens in their minds.As someone mostly aphantasic, Francis quizzes Ronja about how she imagines a gremlin on a friend’s shoulder. How solid is it? Does it rotate with the world? Is it alive, and to what extent is it under conscious control?The conversations continues on the topics of imagining emotion, smell and music. Then it gets practical, discussing how imagination can be used to find things lost in your house, navigate to a destination and assemble furniture.What are different ways people remember names, and what techniques can improve that? How do people imagine while watching movies and reading books, and what is it like to imagine emotions?Timestamps:00:48 Gremlin on your shoulder04:27 Aliveness of the gremlin05:43 Emotion, smell and sound07:07 Imagining music10:20 Sounds and memories13:40 Harry Potter15:10 Looking for keys19:13 Phantasia coaching21:27 Shape rotating23:42 Navigation28:02 Names and faces34:14 Visualising time39:15 Emotion, books, movies46:16 Imagine an appleShow Links: SET by PlayMonster - pattern matching card game Mind’s Eye Mentorship - formerly called AphantasiaMeow Mind’s Eye Courses - also by AphantasiaMeow Visualisations of calendars - Twitter thread Manar’s Twitter account - the gremlin was on his shoulderContact Details:Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences!Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

What is it like to have intrusively strong romantic feelings? What are the causes, and what techniques can improve it?Vynn and Francis interview life coach Michelle Akin about what it is like to experience limerence. This is a common, yet not talked about, obsessive love addiction which can repeatedly break relationships.What is the difference between limerence and love? How do limerent people behave with their object of desire? What does it feel like inside their body?The conversation goes into the possible causes of limerence, both innate and relating to attachment in childhood. Michelle describes different methods of therapy and group programmes that can help with it.How do people visualise the object of their limerence? What is the impact of attending to negative traits of the object of limerence on bodily feelings of despair?To finish, Michelle describes how many people messaged her directly when she posted on social media about limerence, and advice she gave them.Timestamps:01:15 What does limerence feel like?02:45 Is it a physical experience?03:22 Sex and Love Addicts05:57 The commonness of limerence 07:44 Dorothy Tennov the coiner of limerence11:00 The difference between limerence and love13:56 Is limerence a type of crush17:17 Anxiety in limerence18:21 What causes limerence?21:56 Vibrational Harmonic Healing22:30 Limerence therapy specialist26:20 Limerent connection as healing the father wound28:10 New friendships28:27 Visualising the objects of limerence32:10 How to handle limerence34:16 Number of people being impacted by limerenceShow Links: Limerence: What Is It And How Do We Let It Go? - video by Heidi Priebe Michelle’s AMA about limerence Michelle’s Twitter account Inconvenient Epiphanies - Michelle’s substack Dorothy Tennov - Coiner of LimerenceContact Details:Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences!Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

How can you use fire kasina meditation to develop hyperreal imagery? How does this differ from mind’s eye imagination?Vynn and Francis interview fashion designer Jane Flowers, who has developed a hyperphantasic ability using fire kasina meditation.Jane describes how she developed imagery while doing fire kasina meditation. She talks about the progress from seeing visual snow, to the brain pattern matching it as 3D, to forming plants and rich, controlled shapes. She describes ways to prepare your mind and body for these visualisations.The difference between Jane’s kasina visualisations and normal mind’s eye visualisations is explored in detail, including tactile sensation and comparison to reporting on psychedelics.Prophantasia / hyperphantasiaTimestamps:00:36 Mask illusion02:41 Meditation imagery05:16 2D to 3D08:11 Kasina visualisations11:20 Charging up13:29 Phases of forming visualisations16:00 Comparison to mind’s eye21:59 Temperature23:37 Therapeutic benefits, psychedelics28:03 Implications for reality32:47 Comparison to prophantasiaShow Links: Why Are Transgender People Immune To Optical Illusions? - mask illusion blog post by Slate Star Codex Kasina Practice, Mastering the Core Teaching of the Buddha - instructions in book by Daniel Ingram Commentary on the Vimuttimagga - canon sources on fire kasina visualisations Fire Kasina website Jane’s Twitter accountContact Details:Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences!Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

How does the inner mental experience of autistic people vary? What is our day to day experience that creates stress or tension? Can we skillfully reduce it?Vynn and Francis interview philosopher and neuroscientist Michael Johnson. Michael founded the Qualia Research Institute, and wrote the book Principia Qualia about consciousness.The conversation begins with the inner experience of autistic people. How does a denser, more connected neural network lead to more variety of experience?Then it goes through Michael’s theory of vasocomputation in detail. This relates to the Buddhist concept of “tanha” (grasping) and how it relates to stress and tension.Do we control the world too much, or in ways that make no sense? What is the experience of doing this, and how can we use techniques like meditation to change this?Timestamps:00:46 Autism and neuron connectivity07:44 Autism and inner experience10:03 Meditation11:34 Vasocomputation13:27 Free energy and active inference17:18 Buddhist concept of Tanha (grasping)23:10 Three unskillful active inferences25:36 Skillful active inference27:40 Pain and pleasure 28:37 QualiaShow Links: Autism as a disorder of dimensionality - article by Michael Johnson Principles of Vasocomputation: A Unification of Buddhist Phenomenology, Active Inference, and Physical Reflex (Part I) - article by Michael Johnson Michael Johnson’s Twitter account Michael Johnson’s websiteContact Details:Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences!Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

What do musicians see in their mind’s eyes and ears while playing? How do they use that to create the impact of the music on the audience?Vynn and Francis interview professional cellist Matthew Pierce who is aphantasic - he has no visual imagination. He uses his audio, spatial, emotional and bodily imagination to perform music.Matthew goes into detail about learning to play an instrument, using different kinds of imagination to train the subconscious to control the body while playing.How does the body move while playing a cello and a piano? Where do you need to visually pay attention while in an orchestra? What are they different layers of habit that are built up while learning an instrument?To finish, there’s a discussion about a lack of visual imagination making it harder to do paperwork.After this interview, Matthew composed, performed and recorded the intro and outro music for “Imagine an Apple”. Thanks Matthew, it’s very much appreciated! Check out his other musical work in the links below.Timestamps:01:33 Inner audio experience04:16 Spatial imagination05:56 Teaching playing an instrument09:40 Body position while playing cello11:09 Imagining what you want to play15:11 Difference with visual imagination16:19 Places you look while playing in orchestra18:35 Reading music as sound vs notation23:21 Musical keys, embodiment of playing30:52 Imagining audio of an orchestral piece36:15 Imagining emotions of audience41:50 Different kinds of mind’s eyes44:39 Paperwork when aphantasic50:02 Vynn and Francis chat about the episodeShow Links: Piercello’s Progress - Matthew’s email newsletter on Substack Matthew’s Twitter account Matthew’s YouTube channel Prelude from J. S. Bach's Suite No. 1 for Unaccompanied CelloContact Details:Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences!Twitter: @imagine_apple @SurenVynn @frabcusEmail: imagine@flourish.orgTheme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello

The podcast discusses how emotion has evolved over history and varies across cultures. They delve into different ways people experience emotion, focusing on bodily sensations and cognitive aspects. The discussion also touches on the social reality of emotions and practical tips for managing them in daily life.