The role of phenomenological control in constructing experience

People have to varying degrees the capacity to alter subjective experience such that it misrepresents reality in ways consistent with goals, and such that the misrepresentation can be sustained over at least minutes despite clear contrary evidence. That is, people have a capacity for phenomenological control. No induction is needed for people to exercise this capacity; and its exercise can result in corresponding neurophysiological changes. People can use the capacity to fulfill requirements of social situations or personal needs. One prominent such situation is hypnosis. But there are others. Situations in life may also call for certain experiences, for example, encountering a spiritual world according to one’s beliefs, projecting ki in esoteric martial arts, feeling the pain of other people, or feeling tingles from ASMR youtube videos. These experiences can be constructed so that they seem to confirm the beliefs of all those involved.

Professor of Psychology, University of Sussex. I organize Conscious and Unconscious Mental Processes, a final year option module; Perspectives on Psychology, a final year core module. I also teach philosophy of science in the masters module Ethics, Philosophy, and Methods, and a series of lectures on hypnosis in the first year undergraduate module Contemporary Issues in Psychology.