Somatic experience

Immediate experience of the body understood as extending beyond the physical limits of the skin. This experience has a powerful influence on a person's response to every social situation, with the image changing depending on circumstances. The body image is highly plastic and completely inseparable from social interaction. Such a body image is not given once and for all, but is subject to a series of creations and de-creations. It may be extended to include products of the body. A person can act to extend his body image by incorporating other things into it. Influences between people can be sensed at this somatic level. When the mind is experienced as being part of the body for any length of time, the person is able to experience himself as a magic, self-sensing form. This leads to a corresponding shift in the physical environment. The elements of nature are then experienced as standing forth as living, communicative presences.