Transcendent Experiences Motivate “Escape” From the Body via Intimate Partnerships

Abstract

Three studies involving younger and older samples tested a model centered upon individual differences in one's personal history of “immutable self” (IS) experiences, typified by consciousness transcending the usual spatiotemporal bounds associated with embodiment, such that conscious existence no longer seems contingent upon the physical body. In Study 1, optical-acoustic stimulation evoked an IS-related experience that increased the sense of physical containment (i.e., feeling isolated within one's body, separate from the rest of the world) among some individuals. Studies 2 and 3 showed that the heightened sense of physical containment associated with a history of IS experiences predicted intensified motivation to maintain an intimate partnership, previously shown elsewhere to reduce the salience of the body. Key comparisons between elderly Parkinson's disease patients versus their spouses and healthy controls provided suggestive evidence that dopaminergic function may be a critical contributor to this motivational sequence.

Notes

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

¹In alternative model #1, only two of the four component mediational sequences were significant: Dopaminergic cell loss → IS propensity → tethering (Sobel's z = 2.347, p = .019), which was a sequence shared with our proposed model, and tethering → IS propensity → physical containment (Sobel's z = 2.117, p = .034). Likewise, in alternative model 2, only two of the four component mediational sequences were significant: Dopaminergic cell loss → physical containment → IS propensity (Sobel's z = 2.138, p = .033), and tethering → physical containment→ IS propensity (Sobel's z = 2.520, p = .012). Given these results, a cogent conceptual argument as to why either of these alternative models should be regarded as superior to our preferred model seems far from straightforward.