People don’t take the time to realize how different we are from each other.
In Western cultures we assume we are a lot alike. Western psychology has long rejected introspection over technicalities. Cultural studies have long labored under the delusion that foreign people think the same way we do, that we are all psychically uniform. Social psychologists have leveraged the broad popularity of the “empty self” concept to commit massive fraud. The field of psychology to best weather the replication crisis was personality psychology, the only one to recognize human differences. (even if it can’t always explain them with reliable, well-generalizing personality constructs)
The most widespread, toxic, demonstrably wrong idea in the western intellectual sphere is that of the typical mind. This is an enormous blindspot that hides a range of true ideas from people too set in their ways of thinking. This is an edge that you can have over almost every middle-aged psychologist, because they have made themselves familiar with a variety of popular untruths.
During study, the premonition that if you push onward, an insight will soon manifest and solidify.
During learning, shoving aside a context in order to remove it from your focus. Literally, as if it were an invisible box or panel in front of you. Pushing it aside, not with my hand but by an automatic mental expectation.
Or, instead of shoving it aside to focus on something else, finding a way to keep it in place while working through it. As in reaching through it to work on something on the other side. To do this I typically have to rearrange the context a little, work it towards some state that feels like it won’t interfere with what I’m thinking about. For instance, if I’ve been thinking about superhero fiction but I want to get some thinking about math done. In process that takes seconds, I scan the superhero fantasy context for a mental image that feels like it won’t interfere with my thoughts about math. I don’t have to hold the vision in place after this.
After learning, the sense of your realizations becoming more distant with a change in context.
Anytime, but especially while going to sleep, recalling words you’ve heard and repeating them in your head for their syllables or the style of the phrases. Sometimes it isn’t exact repetition but something in the style of speaking.
While going to sleep, white whispy-yet-clumpy waves that can tremble slowly across your vision. Their speed varies, and I can help them find traction. I can also make them appear in the first place.
I did not originally have this form of hypnagogic vision, it first occurred to me on a night when I could not sleep. So instead I tried to let go of any kind of imposition I was making on my brain to let it recover as much as it could without sleep. This allowed them to appear in my vision.
I remember I also managed to use this on some early mornings to clear my head while standing up and working, but I think bright light interferes with it? The restful component isn’t exactly the visual effect, it’s some sensation inside my head that makes it restful and I think that is what I induced for restfulness. It would be cool to know if it were something anatomical, like adjusting my brain activity to be reliable even with some adjustments to blood flow.
The sensation of learning how to de/focus your eyes. When I did this for the first time, it instantly cleared a headache that I had. Not like I’ve never had headaches since, but this seems like a good thing to try.
After sexual release, the sensation that the boundaries between objects or categories are less definite.
At an awkward moment in a conversation that you caused but do not understand, the sensation that you are not in control of your body and are stuck repeating what you just said.
At an awkward moment in a conversation (caused by another) that is not being resolved, the sensation that you are not in control of your body and cannot move.
The realization-feeling that something you thought you only enjoyed doing, is part of who you want to be. (salient when low-status or otherwise previously ego-dystonic e.g. you wanting to be the type of person who plays video games or watches porn. Not just to do, but to be the person who does)
During fevers, the sense that parts of your body are societies or organizations in turmoil or conflict.
During fevers, a sensation that approximates hopelessness as a realization. Perhaps accompanied with a vision, for example an evil mandala.
At the very start of cold weather, a moment of exposure to brisk coldness evokes a sense of hope and pseudo-nostalgia. Typically happens once a year, onset in my twenties.
Some I don’t have, but if anyone does have them that would be interesting:
Voluntary piloerection (VPE) the innate ability to give yourself goosebumps whenever.
Extramissionary emissions: instinct that there are projections from your eyes that enable sight.
Spine-semen link: instinct that semen is the marrow of the spine-bones.
More from a page on Gwern’s blog:
People with vivid visual imagery assume everyone can see things in “the mind’s eye” while ‘aphantasics’ assume that this is simply a poetic metaphor; people with color-blindness wonder why other people get so worked up about various shades of gray until they run into an Ishihara plate, and people with anosmia are puzzled by the focus on flowers etc. Further examples include maladaptive daydreaming, pain insensitivity, the prevalence of visual & auditory hallucinations in mentally-healthy individuals like ‘scintillating scotoma’, misophonia, hearing voices, inner monologues, facial self-awareness, trypophobia, Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory vs hyperthymesia, ASMR, face blindness/prosospagnosia, musical anhedonia, ‘the call of the void’/intrusive thoughts, hypnagogia, the nasal dilation cycle…
