{"id":352,"date":"2008-12-16T15:00:21","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2008\/12\/exchanging-self-for-other-with-high-tech-help.html"},"modified":"2008-12-16T15:00:21","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T15:00:21","slug":"exchanging-self-for-other-with-high-tech-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/12\/exchanging-self-for-other-with-high-tech-help.html","title":{"rendered":"Exchanging self for other (with high tech help)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I came across (thanks to Eva) an interesting piece in the New York Times titled Standing in Someone Else\u2019s Shoes, Almost for Real<\/a>. The article details the work of Swedish neuroscientists who’ve made it possible, using goggles and cameras, to create a compelling \u201cbody swapping\u201d illusion in the minds of research subjects. Therapists are already keen to put it to all sorts of uses, and it seems to me it has at least of couple of concurrent dharma practice applications as well.
\nFor one thing, it sounds like the body-swap experience can provide a vivid sense of the manner in which we experience the aggregates, our bodies in particular, as selves, and how fluid that seemingly solid association can be. “Researchers have found that men and women say they not only feel they have taken on the new body,” the article relates, “but also unconsciously cringe when it is poked or threatened.” It continues:
\n
\nIn previous work, neuroscientists have induced various kinds of out-of-body experiences using similar techniques. The brain is so easily tricked, they say, precisely because it has spent a lifetime in its own body. It builds models of the world instantaneously, based on lived experience and using split-second assumptions \u2014 namely, that the eyes are attached to the skull.<\/em>
\nSounds like a good way to vivify study of the Abhidharma<\/em> and its precise delineation of our momentary experience.
\nThe possible therapeutic applications of the body swapping described in the article also seem to dovetail nicely with the Buddhist agenda of developing compassion and understanding and diffusing animosity. The article notes:
\n. . . those who seek help for relationship problems, in particular, often begin to moderate their behavior only after they have worked to see the encounters in their daily life from others\u2019 point of view.
\n\u201cThis is especially true for adolescents, who are so self-involved, and also for people who come in with anger problems and are more interested in changing everyone else in their life than themselves,\u201d said Kristene Doyle, director of clinical services at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York.
\nOne important goal of therapy in such cases, Dr. Doyle said, is to get people to generate alternative explanations for others\u2019 behavior \u2014 before they themselves react.
\nThe evidence that inhabiting another\u2019s perspective can change behavior comes in part from virtual-reality experiments<\/em> [such as this one].
\nMaybe one day, before our lojong contemplation sessions at the local dharma center, we’ll be strapping on a pair of goggles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I came across (thanks to Eva) an interesting piece in the New York Times titled Standing in Someone Else\u2019s Shoes, Almost for Real. The article details the work of Swedish neuroscientists who’ve made it possible, using goggles and cameras, to create a compelling \u201cbody swapping\u201d illusion in the minds of research subjects.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nExchanging self for other (with high tech help) - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/12\/exchanging-self-for-other-with-high-tech-help.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exchanging self for other (with high tech help) - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The other day I came across (thanks to Eva) an interesting piece in the New York Times titled Standing in Someone Else\u2019s Shoes, Almost for Real. The article details the work of Swedish neuroscientists who’ve made it possible, using goggles and cameras, to create a compelling \u201cbody swapping\u201d illusion in the minds of research subjects.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/12\/exchanging-self-for-other-with-high-tech-help.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-16T15:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Zwahlen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Exchanging self for other (with high tech help) - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/12\/exchanging-self-for-other-with-high-tech-help.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Exchanging self for other (with high tech help) - One City","og_description":"The other day I came across (thanks to Eva) an interesting piece in the New York Times titled Standing in Someone Else\u2019s Shoes, Almost for Real. 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He has undertaken advanced study over the past few years at the Rime Shedra Rime of New York City, the Mipham Academy under Khenpo Gawang, and the Nitartha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/gzwahlen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}