A Meditation on Meditation and Embodied Presence

The major theories of presence in virtual worlds (social presence, co-presence, self-presence, hyper presence, and external presence) all define presence as an illusion about the virtual-ness of a virtual experience (Schultze, 2010). Their approach implies that we are always present when there is no virtuality. In this essay I will argue that 1) regardless of virtuality, we are almost never present; 2) embodied presence is an attentional orientation that can be learned and practiced and 3) the design of virtual experiences can facilitate embodied presence. I begin by discussing how the mind does and does not pay attention to bodily sensations. I describe advances in neuroscience that expand the concept of interoceptive awareness to encompass all sensory input representing the condition of the entire body, including embodied emotions and thoughts. Drawing on the Krishnamacharya-Desikachar System of Yoga and Meditation, I suggest that meditation teaches how and why to achieve embodied presence. Then I suggest five approaches to facilitating embodied presence in virtual experiences that are inspired by my work with meditation. I conclude with an example of an original meditation my meditation teacher, Marcel Allbritton, and I designed with the goal of facilitating the experience of embodied presence in a virtual beach environment (Heeter and Allbritton, 2015b). Perhaps VR can provide a training ground, a sandbox, an embodied presence simulator, for practicing this skill. http://carrie.seriousgames.msu.edu/docs/A_Meditation_on_Embodied_Presence_and_Meditation.pd f Accompanying audio Demo 1 Accompanying audio Demo 2