I could make you think that the table in front of you (or chair or couch or lamp or...well you get the idea) is an actual part of your body. In fact, this isn't some sort of innate ability I only possess but something anyone can do. The experiment needs two people, some type of object to which you are going to project a persons body image (the table, chair, another persons arm, etc), some type of divider to prevent the two people from seeing each other, and at least one of the two has to have a good sense of rhythm. For ease of writing I'm going to assume that what you use is a table. Place the divider in the center of the table (it can be as easy a blanket between the two people). Have the person who is going to experience the table become like a part of their body place a hand below the table. The second person will then push one hand through the divider and the other below the table. That second person then begins to tap or brush the first's hand and thetable in synchrony. Now the synchronous part of this experiment is key, if the taps and brushes are not in synchrony against the table and the hand the experiment wont work. If you both are lucky (this only works with maybe 50% of the people its done on) after about a minute the first person will begin to feel as if the tabs and brushes are arising from their own body, even through their logical mind knows this is completely bogus.
This same idea was experimentally used to project a person's consciousness outside of their body, essentially to give them an experimentally induced out of body experience. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5841/1048 (specifically the paragraph after the image)
It can also be done to completely place one persons sense of being into another person's body, all through visual stimulus.
This has some interesting implications, but before we get to that there's another extension off of this idea which will allow us to better engage the implications I will bring up later. This idea of being able to project ones body image onto inanimate objects (or even objects outside of your own body) is pretty radical. But when you think about it a bit more, its not all that crazy. Everyone has something which they incorporate into their extended body image. Whatever that object is, its something which they become infuriated about if it is hurt, dented, or otherwise damaged. Yet to say that the object is part of their actual body might be a stretch for lots of people. So Ramachandran set out to experimentally test this "extended body image as part of your own body image" idea. In order to do that he hooked up patients to a machine called a GSR (galvanic skin response) which measures skin resistance; just a fancy way of saying it measures your response to a visual stimulus which threatens your body, such as a heavy rock being held above your foot. The GSR is tied with your body's sympathetic reaction to dangerous or threatening situations. So, theoretically, if someone were to threaten an object which you consider to be part of your body image, say your car, then there should be a readable GSR to that threat.
Ok, so the experiment. Ramachandra took a few patients, and in a somewhat unethical manner, preformed the table experiment on them. When they had begun to feel the table as part of their body he took his fist and slammed it against the table. Every patient experienced a significant GSR.
So now onto the implications. And all I want are responses to this quote I write out because this post is long enough already. Here's what Ramachandran speculates about the meaning behind these phenomena:
"...If this argument is correct, then perhaps it's not all that silly to ask whether you identify with your car. Just punch it to see whether your GSR changes. Indeed the technique may give us a handle on elusive psychological phenomena such as the empathy and love that you feel for a child or spouse. If you are deeply in love with someone, is it possible tot you have actually become part of that person? Perhaps your souls--and not merely your bodies--have become intertwined" (Phantoms in the Brain pg 61 bolding added)
Interesting idea...
