The experience of being a body—embodiment–is a complex and mostly unconscious process of blending different multisensory neural streams. Embodiment is not just the experience of self-identification with one’s body—perhaps its most central feature—but also the assimilation of tools into the body’s personal space including the use of prosthetic body parts. The process of embodiment results from both a “bottom up” process of sensory-motor and other sensory flows moving from the body’s periphery and interior up the spinal column to the brain but also a “top-down” process starting at the highest cortical centers. The neural complexity of embodiment is illustrated in a person just standing quietly in space. Maintaining balance and the erect posture comes from the integration of sensory information including visual, somaesthetic, proprioceptive, balance, and auditory with motor responses making immediate and miniscule adjustments of the eyes, head and neck, trunk, and limbs. All this information is processed in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), especially in the sub-regions of the superior parietal lobule, parieto-insular region, and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) (Giummarra et al., 2008).
The experience of embodiment is receiving increasing attention in philosophy, sociology, and psychology. The current view of embodiment is that:
(1) it is the fundamental synthesis of having a body as an object and being the body as felt from within as a process
(2) this synthesis is the basis of self-identity
(3) each individual develops his or her own bodily relationship via the object-process experience
(4) that these syntheses can be balanced and lead to good mental and/or physical health or be imbalanced and create mental and/or physical distress (Lundh & Foster, 2024).
So, embodiment is a function of neural processing and at its highest experiential levels a consequence of establishing a body-self identity. This identity is possible because of the extraordinary quality of consciousness being not only aware but aware of itself. It can reflect on its sensory experiences and reflect upon itself. This means embodiment as embodied consciousness has a relationship to itself and to the outer world; it can see inward and outward, and this is one of its defining characteristics.
Embodiment is biological, psychological, and social. It is a holistic experience of being-in-the-world as the unit of experience is no longer in the brain but in the brain-body-world system. And the importance of this interactional unity has never been more urgent especially in light of the recent COVID-19 emergency as well as global climate imbalance.
Closing Thoughts
I just can’t say enough about embodiment, or embodied consciousness as I use the two terms synonymously, as it impacts so many aspects of life: mental and physical health, gender, sexuality, human relations, ecology, and the like. More so, it cures the human mind and soul of the disease of Cartesian dualism and that is worth the price of admission. We are beginning to move in the right direction but there is still an immense amount of work that needs to be done to eliminate the anti-body and anti-world views we inherited from Descartes 400 hundred years ago.
Paul Shane, Ph.D.
Director, Academic Content
References
Giummarra, M., Gibson, S. Georgiou-Karistianis, N., & Bradshaw, J. (2008). Mechanisms underlying embodiment, disembodiment, and loss of embodiment. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 32, p. 143-160.
Lundh, G. & Foster, L. (2024). Embodiment as a synthesis of having a body and being a body, and its role in self-identity and mental health. New Ideas in Psychology 74, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2024.101083
Saboowala, S. & Cox, M. (2024). Perspectives on Embodiment Theory: An Introduction. Human Biology 95(1), p. 5-8.