A Critical Introduction to Psychology

Exploring Consciousness: Old Habits and New Horizons 77

lower abdomen and belly... feel your lower back... middle back... and

upper back... feel your spine like a thread of silk... your solar plexus and

sternum... ribs... chest... and collarbone, in back and in front... the back

of your neck and your throat... imagine your throat opening like a

flower... releasing the weight of your head... all the muscles and bones

of your face... soften your jaw... and the bones of your cheeks... the

orbits of your eyes... centers of your eyes... soften your brow...

forehead... temples... and your scalp... feeling your whole body, soft

and slack. [Extended pause.]

“Imagine softening the space all around your body... beyond left and

right... above you... and beneath you... beyond the crown of your

head... and several inches beneath the soles of your feet. Imagine

everything open, expansive and receptive. Offer your weight down into

the ground. Feel the Earth supporting you. You may feel heavy, as if you

are sinking, or light as a feather. Whatever you feel is ok—simply allow

it to unfold in its own way without interference... Notice the quality of

your breath, and the gentle rise and fall of your belly as you breathe

effortlessly. Rest here as long as you like.”

CONCLUSION

This chapter has attempted to describe the ways in which
contemporary, introductory psychology textbooks overwhelmingly rely on
a standardized approach to presenting the study of consciousness. In doing
so, they perpetuate the implicit biases of the dominant, materialist
paradigm operating within psychology since the rise of behaviorism in the
early part of the twentieth century. While the third-person, observational
data these chapters present is consistent with the overarching viewpoint
and aims of academic psychology, the authors fail to integrate
marginalized perspectives on consciousness that otherwise threaten to
upend normal science.
Definitions of consciousness are generally found to be incomplete and
lacking a nuanced understanding of the term, particularly with regard to the