Inside the Physical Core
Once I identified the physiological substrate involved in pre-empirical experience (see Of Two Minds #8), I had a paradigm that I could use in approaching the unknowable physical core at the first tier of consciousness. I envisioned the systems involved in this substrate functioning together in guiding our actions as we navigate through the realities we encounter. Since pre-empirical experience is established prior to the differentiation of the entities and events we consciously recognize, these systems function without conscious mediation like the physiological systems that maintain homeostasis.
The peripheral vestibular system in the inner ear anchors our movements in time and space, and it appears to provide grounding in much the same way for everyone. The three remaining pre-empirical systems, however, are each associated with individual capacities or propensities that vary substantially from one person to another. The individual differences that result reflect innate, genetically given forces. The three propensities, our basic capacities for encountering reality, work in conjunction with each other. They provide the essential grounding for who we are through the structural response probabilities in the brain that establish our physical core of experience.
The two systems that guide the pre-empirical movement sequences initiated at the first tier involve ongoing sensory inputs from the external world and visceral inputs from the physiological systems of the body. These two input sources function continuously whether we are consciously aware of them or not. Sensory inputs guide the smoothly efficient physicality inherent in every move we make, and visceral inputs guide the choices implicit in those actions that ensure that they serve our interests and needs. The actions initiated at the first tier take place within the framework of time and space provided by the peripheral components of the vestibular system.
These guidance systems are sufficient for the carefully directed movement sequences that characterize a pre-empirical level of functioning for many animal species. A first-tier level of consciousness that generates skilled movement sequences and meets the needs of the organism without differentiation of the entities and events involved is likely shared by many species. Although we have no way of knowing what other species experience, we have some insight into consciousness at the first tier. It doesn’t involve awareness of the things we identify later at the verbal-symbolic tier, only awareness of being physically involved in our own actions.
We would remain at a first-tier level of awareness were it not for the fourth component of pre-empirical experience, mirroring. It is difficult to fully appreciate the significance that mirroring has for human functioning because it takes place pre-empirically, without direct conscious awareness. We may notice the behavioral effects it generates when we observe ourselves imitating the gestures and expressions of others. It is, however, a pervasive phenomenon that continuously connects us to the others in our world. We are social beings who establish communities wherever we reside, and mirroring is essential for the bonding that makes social behavior possible. It is likely that mirroring-based communities have been instrumental in the survival and success of the human species.
Mirroring makes it possible for humans to dwell longer in the personally significant experiences we have of others. It thereby provides an essential first step in the identification and recognition of entities and events at the verbal-symbolic tier.
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