Where are my legs : Buddhism at the crossroad of the culture and biology

KOTHEROVÁ, Silvie. Where are my legs : Buddhism at the crossroad of the culture and biology. In Biological and cultural evolution and their interactions : rethinking the Darwinian and Durkheimian legacy in the context of the sudy of religion, Aarhus, 26-30 June 2012. 2012.

Basic information

• Original name: Where are my legs : Buddhism at the crossroad of the culture and biology
• Authors: KOTHEROVÁ, Silvie (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Biological and cultural evolution and their interactions : rethinking the Darwinian and Durkheimian legacy in the context of the sudy of religion, Aarhus, 26-30 June 2012, 2012.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60300 6.3 Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
• Country of publisher: Denmark
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/12:00061632
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: Buddhism; out-of-body experience; Buddhist meditation; body schema distortion; meditation techniques
• Tags: rivok

Abstract

The most discussed theme of the Buddhism is experience, especially the experience of alternated states of consciousness. In the Buddhist literature and among Buddhists, we can find many self-reports about "loosing hands", "missing legs" and disappearing of other body parts, out of body experiences, or near-death experiences during meditation. From the Buddhist point of view these "special" states are solely results of mental cultivation by meditation techniques. But we can find these experiences also in our everyday life in biologically predisposed individuals. Sleep research has well documented loosing of sense of one's own body in a sleep paralysis (sleep-off set phase) and disappearing of body parts in a hypnagogic state (sleep-on set phase). My poster will address to these questions: Are these states caused just by individual biological predispositions or by cultural practice? Or are these questions unanswerable and rather points to fascinating interaction of our biological conditions and cultural practices? Can cultural practices predispose us to experience these states? In my research I use standardized methods of behavioral measures of body schema perception and questionnaires to shed the light on this issue.

Links

• EE2.3.20.0048, research and development project: Name: Laboratoř pro experimentální výzkum náboženství