Report on Mental Psychology and Avatar Psychology

Written by Yoko Yamamoto

PSY 459 Mental Psychology, Avatar Psychology (Class Home Page)

Spring 2009 Generation 29

UH Manoa Instructor: Dr. Leon James

Instructor Dr. Leon James: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/leon.html

Instructions for this Report: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy29/459-g29-report.htm

Class Homepage for G29: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy29/classhome-g29.htm

Contents:

Introduction

Part I: A simulated interview on Mental Psychology

Part II: Explain the Diagrams

Part III: Web resources on Avatar Psychology and Cyberpsychology

Introduction:

Throughout the course of Psy459 I have come to learn many unusual but yet interesting topics in the field of psychology which consists of Mental psychology, Avatar psychology, Virtual psychology, and Cyberpsychology that have been taught by UH Manoa Instructor, Dr. Leon James in the Spring semester of 2009. One of the things that really inspired me and I would always like to remember is the importance of holding on to our loves. Our thinking, feeling, and consciousness are all driven by our loves, the actions we take, our desires and motivations we have are also driven by our loves. All humans are born with hellish loves and heavenly loves and it is important to pay attention and identify what those loves are. Where we end up after the process of regeneration is up to where our loves destined us to be, and if we do not want to end up in hell, we need to maintain and practice our heavenly loves in order to overcome our the desires of our hellish loves. Mental psychology gives us the chance to change our hellish loves to heavenly loves, which is like a process of character reformation and it is a life long process. This homepage is divided into three parts (Part I: A Simulated Interview on Mental Psychology, Part II: Explain the Diagrams, Part III: Web Resources on Avatar Psychology and Related Topic). They are based on Dr. James’s lecture notes and Dr. Suler’s hypertext online book, The Psychology of Cyberspace. If there are any concerns and questions, please e-mail me.

Part I: A Simulated Interview on Mental Psychology

[18] What is Cyberpsychology?

Interviewer: The topic I would like you to discuss in this section is Cyberpsychology. Most people who live in this decade are familiar with what the Internet is and how they can utilize the technology to expand their social network and knowledge. In what helpful ways should the Internet be perceived as in order to understand the study of Cyberpsychology?

Author: The Internet is one of the many features equipped within a computer system. The Internet is a gateway to a universe of information and knowledge around the world that is accessible with the convenience of a click. Once you’ve entered, you will be connected to different spaces and places that you are able to navigate around for free. The spaces and places created by the computers are called “Cyberspace”. I would like to mention John Suler, Ph.D. many of the ideas I will be discussing comes from his hypertext book The Psychology of Cyberspace.

Interviewer: How is cyberspace considered an extension of the peoples mind?

Author: The computer users describe cyberspace as an extension of the people’s mind. What they look for when using the net is based on their wills and interests. Cyberspace is also a useful medium for people to exchange and share information based off their interests. If you decide to talk to your friend in a chat room, your mind and his/her mind will be mixing up in the computer. This is why the psychologist calls cyberspace as a type of “transitional space” which is an individual’s intrapsychic world. A space can be the reflection of their personality such as their tastes, interests, and attitudes.

Interviewer: What is Cyberpsychology?

Author: Cyberpsychology is the study of how people’s mind and behavior affect them both in cyberspace and outside of cyberspace.

Interviewer: What online mediums could be considered as a part of cyberspace?

Author: The Internet, chat rooms, on line games, e-mailing, etc. These are the example of cyberspace. The forms may vary, but the purpose of it is the same. Cyberspace is an environment where people can socialize and interact with each other within the computer systems.

Interviewer: What makes cyberspace more unique than a three-dimensional in-person environment?

Author: The cyberspace can produce different kinds of social interactions than how people would do in person. In-person environments, they have some limits. People have to be present in the same place and same time in order to make interactions, but in cyberspaces, there are no limits for people to interact. The cyberspace can connect people from different times and different places. Some of the examples of the cyberspaces that I gave have the features have the elements that make the cyberspace unique. For example, in on line games and virtual worlds, people interact with virtual characters

Interviewer: What does Cyberpsychologist look for in the Cyberspace to understand the users behaviors?

Author: How people interact in the cyberspace depends on the users interests and which cyberspace they are engage in. Cyberpsychologists look for the behaviors that are the product of the cyberspace.

Interviewer: Could you give me some examples?

Author: Let me ask you something. What is the biggest difference between cyberspace and in-person space when people interact?

Interviewer: In cyberspace, you cannot see or feel the other person you are interacting with. In in-person space, you can see and feel each other. How does my answer relate to Cyberpsychology?

Author: The answer you just gave is one of the elements of how people behave in cyberspace. Not being able to see or feel each other results to both a positive and negative effect on how people behave in cyberspace and how they interact with each other. There are many other elements that cyberpsychologists use to explain some of the occurrences behaviors in cyberspace. These elements can help you to understand the concept of Cyberpsychology.

[17] What is the relationship between the virtual world and the mental world?

Interviewer: In an earlier interview, you have mentioned about how users feel going to places and travelling when they enter cyberspace. I have been using the virtual world, Second Life for a while now and I have been trying to figure out what is the relationship between the virtual world and the mental world. Could you tell me what field of psychology should I take a closer look at in order to find the answers to that question?

Author: Avatar Psychology describes the relationship between the virtual world and the mental world.

Interviewer: What is the definition of Avatar Psychology?

Author: Avatar Psychology is the study of how people in different physical locations have real interactions online with each other through an information produced digital avatar that sees and moves around in a virtual world populated with the avatars of other owners.

Interviewer: What do Avatars look like?

Author: Avatars can simply be anything you wish. They can be like a person that looks like you, animals, and even an object. Particularly, in the virtual world of second life, most of the avatars look like a human.

Interviewer: What is the relationship between the virtual world (of Second Life) and the mental world? Could you describe the relationship with the avatar?

Author: In order to understand the relationship between the two worlds, I would like you to remember the Body-Mind Correspondences. When we say “I’m burning”, our physical body is not literary burning and it is an expression of our mind such as “feeling angry”. The expression “I’m burning” (body activity) corresponds to feeling angry (mental activity). The same kind of correspondence can see in the virtual world (of Second Life) and the mental world. For example, avatars in a same place or environment (virtual activity) correspond to social presence (mental activity). The “activity of people being in the same place” is expressed as “social presence” in the mental world. Another example would be avatars doing something together (virtual activity) correspond to mental co-presence (mental activity). So the relationship between the virtual world and the mental world is that they are corresponding with each other.

[19] How do you establish presence in virtual world?

Interviewer: In the virtual world of Second Life, how does a person make presence in the world? First, you need to have your avatar to be present in the world. But that does not necessary make you feel that you are in the world. What can make a person feel that they are present in the world?

Author: When you enter a room in the physical world, your five senses can capture what is presented in the room immediately and you physically feel that you are in the room. But in case of the virtual world, only two of our senses such as vision and hearing can be felt. When you enter the virtual world and if you do not see any objects or people in there you would not feel you are present in the world. They do not feel that they are present when the virtual world was empty, so let’s add a chair in the world. Would it make you feel like you are present? No. We need movement. The more movements we get in the virtual world increases our feeling of presence. In Second Life, you are able to add Animation Override to increase in the variation of movements and help the avatar to become even more human like. Another feature in Second Life that gives people a sense of presence is the Teleport command. Avatars are able to go to different islands within the Second Life and find out things they did not know about, which is like a never-ending process in the Second Life. Owners of the islands change the features of their islands every so often too. Having a world filled with others and objects, Animation overrides, and the places that never stays the same can activate people’s feeling of presence in the virtual world.

Interviewer: Earlier in the interview, I have asked you to give us a brief idea of what an avatar is. But now, I would like to focus on avatar. Could you give us the definition of avatar?

Author: Avatar refers to a sensorimotor “body” that can function in a new medium, and with which the person or “owner” identifies, that is, treats “as-if” it is one’s self.

[20] What is an avatar body? How does it relate to the physical body and to the mental body. What other body forms do we have?

Interviewer: What is an avatar body?

Author: It is like how we have physical body in our real life. Avatars are digital bodies that you and other users can see and make social connections with. Users rely on their avatar bodies to carry out social interactions and access to different services in the virtual world of Second Life.

Interviewer: How does avatar body relate to the physical body?

Author: In the physical world, we are able to produce mental co-presence, which make connections with others through their physical bodies to define the situation. In the virtual world, we use avatar bodies to produce the mental co-presence that gives us the consciousness to connect with others. The things we experience through our mental bodies are determined by our loves. In Second Life, users experiences things based on their loves.

Interviewer: How does the avatar body relate to the mental body?

Author: One of the abilities that avatars have in the Second Life is the ability to fly. We are also able to fly in the mental world of eternity. In Second Life, users do things that they enjoy such as visiting a place that you have never been to, create an outfit that you won’t be able to find in real life, you can create a group based on what you love to do, etc. Second Life is driven by people’s love and their passion through their mind. Everything you see in the Second Life is a representation of your mind. The mental world is like a reflection of our dreams. Sometimes you see yourself in the dream and you are looking at yourself through your dream, it is the same view you get in Second Life. You see your avatar moving around in the virtual world of Second Life.

Interviewer: What other body forms do we have?

Author: Dr. James discovered two things that people would find out by going through a process of organic induction when they experience the virtual world. The two things are: just like the physical and mental world, there is only one virtual world, and everyone has a virtual avatar, whether they use it or not, it is part of a cultural phenomenon and a human trend. He also found 7 avatar bodies that everyone is born with and his online book can help people to discover their mental anatomy and to explore their avatar bodies.

Interviewer: What are the 7 avatar bodies that were discovered by Dr. James?

Author: They are physical body, dream body, imagination-fantasy body, digital body, material mental body, rational mental body, and celestial mental body. These are what we are born with and it is available in our consciousness.

Interviewer: Could you tell me how the seven bodies act as a part of us?

Author: The first avatar body is Physical body. It is for exploring the physical world until the resuscitation process. But we also have the mental body while we have the physical body. The mental body gives us the sensations and thoughts that make us feel and realize the existence of the physical body.

Author: The second avatar body is Dream body. It is for exploring the dream world while we are sleeping. When we are sleeping, the material mental body puts on the dream body. In order to understand this concept, try use the avatar body. When we enter the virtual world of Second Life, we put on a digital body. Everything we see, every interaction we make with other avatars become real to us. This is because the digital body identifies and brings us the sensations, thoughts, and feelings to us through the digital body. In our dream, we look at our dream through our dream body and we receive sensations and feelings through the dream body.

Author: The third avatar body is Conscious material mental body. It is for exploring the material zone of the mental world. The mental body has three discrete sub-degrees: celestial layer, rational layer, and material layer. Our daily consciousness is based on the material layer because it is closest to the physical body.

Author: The fourth avatar body is Imagination-fantasy body. It is for exploring the world of imagination, fantasy, daydreams, etc.

Author: The fifth avatar body is the digital body. It is for exploring the virtual world.

Interviewer: Why is their only one virtual world?

Author: In the human consciousness, every human is born with a virtual or digital avatars as a part of their mental anatomy, and that there is only one virtual world in which all the avatar bodies exist and can give virtual consciousness to human beings. In the virtual world of Second Life, we are able to add Animation Override (AO) on our avatars. AO can give you movements, dances, poses, etc that can make your avatar move more human like. Sometimes, users can be influence by their avatar’s AO and such effect is called “Imago effect”. I did not notice it until Dr. James introduced me to the concept of “Imago effect”, but I was sub-consciously influenced by my avatar’s “female like walk” AO. I started to walk like my avatar, because she has a better posture than I do.

Author: The sixth avatar body is rational mental body. It is for exploring the zone of the mental world. In order for us to live in the Grand Human society, we need to have a rational way of thinking. We need to understand the omnipotence of God and after life rationally.

Author: Lastly, the seventh avatar body is celestial mental body. It is for exploring the celestial zone of the mental world. The celestial zone of the mental world is the Grand Human society.

[6] What is death?

Interviewer: I have asked you several questions that were related to the mental world of eternity. Now, I would like to ask you about the questions that lead us to the mental world of eternity. My first question is what is death?

Author: We are born with our physical body and mental body. In our life, people tend to only focus on physical body and do not notice about the presence of the mental body. When we die, it is the time for us to separate our mental body from physical body. Our physical body dies and we start to live in our mental world of eternity. The mental psychologists use the term resuscitation, which is the process of separating our mental body from physical body. Death only applies to our physical body and not to our mental body, because dying is a resuscitation process to the mental body. We also have something called the second death. It is the process of our two loves that we have from birth to separation. Our affective organ is the circulatory system of the mental world. Just like our heart is the only one organ in our body that circulates our blood in our body, so in the mental world, we can have only one love: heavenly loves or hellish loves. We can only choose one love.

[8] What is heaven and hell, and how can these concepts be part of science?

Interviewer: Where and what is heaven and hell?

Author: Heaven and hell are inside of our mind, our consciousness. Our mind is in the mental world of eternity. Heaven and hell are closely working with our loves. Everything we do in our physical body will reflect later in our mental world of eternity. So, our hellish loves will lead us to a path of hellish consciousness and lifestyle. Heavenly loves will lead us to a heavenly consciousness and lifestyle. In the mental world of eternity, there are two regions our ruling love can choose from. They are Grand Human region, which represents heaven and Grand Monster Region, which represents hell. The Grand Human consists altruistic loves and the Grand Monster consists selfish loves. These two different loves form different shapes of humans in our mental world of eternity.

Interviewer: how can these ideas and concepts correspond with science?

Author: The biggest problem is that there is no scientific proof or evidence of any sort that validates the existence of God, heaven and hell. But, Dr. James found an anatomical definition of heaven and hell, scientific definition of God in terms of the mental sun of eternity and how God operates in our mind. Dr. James proves that idea by using the mechanisms by which we communicate with God to effect regeneration. Heaven and Hell are in our consciousness in the mental world of eternity, which corresponds to our physical world. Our loves in the mental world are the sources of our consciousness and this corresponds to our actions and motivations in the physical world. Dr. James found the anatomical correspondance of mental world of eternity and physical world, which now allow us to give a definition of God or heaven and hell in terms of the mental sun of eternity and God’s operations in our mind through love and truth substance that creates our mental organs. In order to understand his proposal, it is required to have a rational thinking.

Interviewer: How can we explain these concepts with science?

Author: The mental psychologist expanse from monism and dualism, and it is not scientific. It is assumption leads to two directions.

Interviewer: What are monism and dualism?

Author: Monism is a negative bias that there is only one world and exists in only in one place and in time. Dualism is a positive bias that there are two worlds and exists one in time and other in eternity.

Interviewer: Which ideas mental psychologist use to explain the assumption?

Author: Dualism. Because Dualism believes that there is eternity, so God in Dualism make sense.

Interviewer: How do I make dualism scientific?

Author: You can make dualism scientific by using empirical data and rational proof.

[16] Why do people need to manage their eternity, and how.

Interviewer: Why do people need to manage their eternity, and how?

Author: When we talk about managing our eternity, we need know what our ruling love is. What we have in our life and what kinds futures we are going to have depends on our ruling love. Ruling love chooses between which directions (Grand Human or Grand Monster) we are going to in the mental world. This happens only after the resuscitation. Once we determine our ruling love, we cannot change it.

Interviewer: How can we determine our eternal ruling love?

Author: We determine our eternal ruling love by our daily life choices. This process of determining our eternal ruling love is a lifelong process. We can only control and manage our mental society by changing our hellish love to heavenly love in the physical world.

Interviewer: How can we manage our eternity?

Author: We need to understand the presence of God and his management techniques.

Interviewer: What is God’s role in our life?

Author: It is easy to think that our life is ours and we control our destiny, but it is nothing like how we believe. The most important thing to realize is that God wills to have us feel that our life is real. Everything we have is God’s property. Once we notice that God manages our life both in physical and mental world, we are able to avoid suffering from negative events.

[12] If God is omnipotent why is there suffering and evil everywhere?

Interviewer: If God is omnipotent why is there suffering and evil everywhere?

Author: Before jumping into the answer to your question, I need to explain two principles: Laws of Providence and the Laws of Permission. Laws of Providence is for the “evil” mental state. Laws of Permission is for the “good” mental state. One of the criteria for us to go to a heavenly eternity is we need to love God and accept his omnipotence without forcing ourselves to be. Everyone is born with some evil and it is our job to cope with evil through rational thinking. Why does suffering and evil exist everywhere? Because God has allowed evil loves for our development and pick our way by the consequences. Negativity such as evil has a good and truthful quality in it. God uses it to train people. God use it for good. In order to understand good and truth in evil, it requires rational understanding. Mental understanding cannot process that rational understanding, because it only focuses on what is convenient and works, which is not necessarily related to good and truth.

[10] How do men and women differ in mental anatomy?

Interviewer: How do men and women differ in mental anatomy?

Author: We often hear saying like “men think from the mind, women think from the heart”. If they think that way then they act that way too. So if that is how men and women think and act in our physical world, it has to correspond to our mental world. The anatomical differences of the male and females are the arrangement of mental organs. The arrangement of mental organs in a female (from innermost to the outmost) is the cognitive organ, the affective organ, and the sensorimotor organ, the arrangement of mental organ in male (from innermost to the outermost) is the affective organ, the cognitive organ, and the sensorimotor organ. The difference is where their affective organs and cognitive organs are located; the sameness is where their sensorimotor organs are located. The female’s affective organ is closest to her sensorimotor organ; on the other hand, male’s cognitive organ is closest to his sensorimotor organ.

Interviewer: How is the difference in the arrangement of the mental anatomy affecting them?

Author: The differences in the arrangement of the mental anatomy produce difference in their experiences. Everything female does such as experiencing consciousness is based on loves and feelings. For males, it is based on their thoughts.

[15] What kind of mental traits do we inherit?

Interviewer: What kind of mental traits do we inherit?

Author: We are all born with both positive and negative mental traits.

Interviewer: What are positive and negative mental traits?

Author: The positive mental traits are positive, creative, and heavenly. The negative mental traits are negative, destructive, and hellish.

Interviewer: Could you give us some examples of both traits that are related to our daily life?

Author: In our daily lives, our mental states are frequently conflicting between heavenly and hellish. This cycle is not under our control. For example, you are at the beach relaxing with your dog. You feel peace, enjoying the sun, weave, and the dog’s company. All of a sudden, your dog runs away, you look everywhere but cannot find him. You start to worry about him, start to sweat, think about your wife getting upset if you tell her the bad news, etc. This could be an example of the ups and downs of a day in the life of an average adult.

Part II: Explain the Diagrams

- Diagram 2: Schematic Representation of Male and Female Anatomy

The diagram 2 < http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy28/409b-g28-lecture-notes-p1b.htm#anatom> begins with God. The two substances that are released by God through the Spiritual Sun go into the human mind. There are two genes: mascline gene (on your left side) and female gene (on your right side). These genes are in our mental body in the mental world of eternity, which corresponds to physical body in the physical world (connection shown at the bottom of the diagram). In masculine genes, love substance surrounded by truth. In female genes, truth is the substance surrounded by love. The woman’s affective organ connects to the man’s cognitive organ by love. The man’s affective organ connects to the woman’s cognitive organ by truth. This connection between man and woman creates a new human mind called the “conjoint self.” Her love activates his thinking, and his love activates her thinking. The biggest differences between mental anatomy of a man and woman are a woman does things based on her love such as affective organ and a man does things based on his wisdom such as his cognitive organ.

· Male and Female Human Anatomy

The difference the between male and female anatomy < http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/mental-psychology-p1.htm#_Toc212519324

>is the arrangement of their mental organ. For female, a female soul creates female mental organs in the arrangement of cognitive organ inside of affective organ (which is shown in the left hand side of the diagram, inner most circle is A and it is surrounded by C). For male, it is the opposite of female: affective organ inside of cognitive organ (shown on your right hand side of the diagram, inner most circle is C and it is surrounded by A). Every sensation (S), thought I, and feeling (A) in a male and female must be different. In fact, male sensations (S) and movements of the environment are produced by masculine thoughts (C), female sensations (S) and movements of the environments are produced by feminine loves (A). These differences of sensations (S), thought (C), and feeling (A) in male and female human anatomy in the mental world corresponds to the differences in male and female human anatomy in the physical body (shown at the bottom of the diagram). Man and woman have different body structure, which lead them to have different diseases, and different medical affects. These findings in the medicine lead to the fact that male and female have different physical body and physical structures. The sensations (S), thoughts (C), and loves (A) are only exists in the mental body and they do not exist in physical body. In summary, this diagram shows that a woman’s consciousness of the world and her environment (S) is created by feminine loves (A) and feminine intelligence (C) and a man’s consciousness of the world and his environment (S) is created by masculine loves (A) and masculine intelligence (C).

· The Vertical Community

Vertical Communities < http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/mental-psychology-p1.htm#_Toc212519321> forms the Grand Human and the Grand Monster in the mental world of eternity. While physical communities spread out horizontally, mental communities spread out vertically because after the resuscitation there will be no physical distance and no fixed space like what we had in physical world. In physical communities, if two people live in opposite direction (e.g. Japan and Brazil), they go by different time zones and live in different geographical locations. However, they are able to shorten their distances by travelling or calling each other on the phone. On the other hand, mental communities are not divided by space and time, but people are able to make connections with others through their imaginations and dreams that are created by their mind. In the mental communities, if two people share same loves, they will be co-present in the mental world. The love decides which region in the mental world they will fit in. If your love is altruistic, you will be in the region of Grand Human. If your love is selfish, you will be in the region of Grand Monster. After the resuscitation, your region is fixed and cannot change your location.

The diagram, The Vertical Community illustrates our life from birth and connection we have with the vertical community.

· In the center of the diagram, there is a large middle body, which represents the shape and form of our natural mind – mental layers 9,8,7.

· The smaller body at the top represents the shape and form of Grand Human – mental layer 6,5,4. Mental layer 6,5,4 is the layers of our spiritual mind.

· The smaller body at the bottom represents the Grand Monster – layers -7, -8, -9. ( *minus sign indicated the order of hell.) The layer 7,8,9 is the natural mind. Before the resuscitation, all humans have both hellish and heavenly mental traits.

· There are two lines with arrows that go up (on your left side) and down (on your right side). The line that goes up is the development of natural mind before inversion. The line goes down is the regenerating mind after inversion.

· The development of unregenerate natural mind starts from layer 9e (e=external). The different numbers represent different minds: layer 9 represents the corporeal mind, layer 8 represents the materialistic mind, layer 7 represents the rational mind. Layer 9e connects to the layer -9 in the Grand Monster region, because layer 9e is highly influenced by layer -9. For example, toddlers can cause many troubles to the parents, and sometimes they feel like their toddlers can be monsters. This occurs because from birth to the young adult is the time when hellish loves are stronger than the heavenly loves, because babies and young adults do not have the rational thinking like adults do. Some young adults do illegal activities just because doing bad things can make them look cool and by doing them, they get attention from others and feel good. This is an irrational thinking.

· The development of regenerating natural mind begins from layer 7i (i=interior), 8i, 9i. Once we are able to think rationally (7i), we are able to move down to layer 8 and layer 9.

· Layer 7i, 8i, 9i connect to the Grand Human. Top-right hand corner you can see the connection of each regenerating natural mind layers to layers in the Grand Human society (layer 7i connects to layer 6, layer 8i connects to layer 5, layer 9i connects to layer4).

- Layer 7i (regenerating rational mind) = Layer 6 (the first heaven)

- Layer 8i (regenerating materialistic mind) = Layer 5(the second heaven)

- Layer 9i (regenerating corporeal mind) = Layer 4(the third heaven)

· The vertical community can connect every individual who have been born in the mental world of eternity.

· In the top left corner, you can see the Spiritual Sun. The Spiritual Sun of eternity produces the loves in the Grand Human region.

· Who can help us to guide to enter the Grand Human society? The Divine Psychologist can. They give us the ability to modify, adjust, and change the loves are circulating in our vertical community.

Diagram 7: Anatomy of the Mental Body

The first layer of the mental world of eternity is God (as you can see in the top left hand corner, this diagram begins with God), under his presence, we have the spiritual sun of eternity (below God in the diagram), which produces spiritual heat (below Mental Sun of Eternity on left side) or altruism love substance and spiritual light (below Mental Sun of Eternity on right side) or rational truth substance that are everything we have (including mind) in the mental world is made of. Our mental organs are constructed out of the particles of mental heat and light. When the heat dust from the mental sun cools off, it forms into three systems: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor, and three systems together produce our consciousness. The mental body has three anatomical systems: affective circulatory system (loves, feelings, intentions, desires, needs, values), cognitive respiratory system (thoughts, reasoning, imagination, memory, knowledge, understanding), sensorimotor neuro-skeletal system (sensations, motor determinations, expectancies, adaptations, motor readinesses, perceptual filters – which all working together to produce consciousness). The arrow, mental heat (also the altruistic love substance) connects to the affective circulatory system because it is the main source of the mental world of eternity, just like our heart is the main source of our physical body. Our love is one of the main sources in the affective circulatory system, which is why the arrow connects to the love. Also loves direct our thoughts in the cognitive organ, and loves and thoughts together produce our consciousness. At the bottom of the diagram, the arrow love connects to the mental environment and appearance because everything we love becomes real in our mental world. Loves construct consciousness through the appearances and objects of the eternal environment.

Questions from the diagrams:

Question 1: If you study the diagram above, you are able to tell that men and women differ in their spiritual or mental anatomy. What is our mental body made up of?

Answer 1: Our mental body is made of the spiritual substances that are released from the Spiritual Sun in the mental world of eternity.

Question 2: There are two substances: love substances and truth substances released from God. What other names can we use for these substances? These two substances are God’s…?

Answer 2: Spiritual heat and spiritual light. Spiritual heat is the substance of Divine Love in God’s affective organ. Spiritual light is the substance of Divine Truth in God’s cognitive organ.

Question 3: Is everything that we have in our physical world and mental world is made of two substances from the Spiritual Sun? (yes or no)

Answer 3: Yes.

Question 4: A women’s world is dominated by ____ , while a man’s world is dominated by _____?

Answer 4: Loves (A), thoughts (C)

Question 5: What does it mean when Divine psychologist say “Having a hellish ruling love?”

Answer 5: It means that you do not get pleasure by doing heavenly things and only way to get pleasure is seeing others make mistakes. When you do not get pleasure by doing heavenly things, eventually you stop doing them and you only do things that are hellish.

Question 6: What is “conjoint self”?

Answer 6: It is the mental state of unity that soul mates that are in love with each other live in life of heaven in the mental world or eternity.

Part III: Web Resources on Avatar Psychology

In the part III of the report, I will summarize what I have found through my searches in google. The materials I’ve searched are: Cyberpsychology and space, Cyberpsychology and God, and Avatar psychology and consciousness. My focus here is to find materials on the net that are relevant to what we have discussed through this semester such as Dr. James’s lecture notes and the links (e.g. Dr. Suler’s hypertext book). The last part of my essay is focused on how cyberspace has impact on people’s socialization skills.

Cyberpsychology and God

“There are several games that people call “God games” because the player controls a bunch of little human-like avatars, usually created in his/her own image, or the idealized one ...When I started playing [The Sims], I created a little “me” and gave her my values, my attributes and my lifestyle. Then, I played the game. Soon after starting, I crashed and burned. But, I learned something. The little life meter for my SimSelf was always low in certain areas, like “social” and “rest”. When I backed away from my computer, I realized that my life meter was low in those areas as well. I soon stopped playing the game and resolved to enhance my real life. I think that is the real value of “God game.” Not the ability to control and create our own little selves in our ideal world, but the ability to learn from our mistakes in a virtual movement, where the consequences aren’t as dire (FAITHMILE.COM). May 12^th, 2007 by Katryna in Good Health To You!, Think on These Things.” If people look at the virtual world as “God game”, in this way, people have a better chance of understanding the presence of God and his role in our life. For example, in the short passage below, the author of the blog explains that she looks at the virtual world as “God games” because the player is able to control their avatars. We have discussed “God hides from our view or knowledge that whatever property is bestowed on us from God remains God’s property. If the users or owners play God’s role, they are hidden from their avatars and controlling them, and of course the avatars do not have any ideas who is controlling them or they do not even feel like they are being controlled by him. In the virtual world, we make decisions for avatars so everything they experiences is based on the owner’s choices. And the author goes on and talks about how she failed to play the game when she designed her avatar as her (her lifestyle, attribution). She was experiencing Imago effect. Because her avatar was influencing on her and by using the avatar she noticed about herself and realized she needs to make some changes in her real life. Then, she moves on and talks about God’s role in our life. This is relevant to what we discussed in class that when there is a God, why evils are still with us? Because he wants to us to learn and by making mistakes, dealing with evil like moments, from such challenges, we are able to learn and realize our mistakes and in turn apply that knowledge in a way that is beneficial to our lives.  

Avatar Psychology and Consciousness 

“We are today in the early stage of being able to assume avatars. In Hindu thought, an avatar is a god or god force who has downloaded into human body and consciousness in space and time. In cyberspace, an avatar allows us to take on and be seen on the screen wearing a virtual body: Merlin or Wonder Women, Queen Elizabeth or Joan of Arc, a creature with a thousand eyes or a fish with the head of monkey. Such virtual identities are closer to impersonation than to incarnation, yet some people come to identify so closely with the avatar they wear that it becomes an extension of their human personality, allowing them to express feelings and points of view in poignant ways. The avatars of cyberspace allow us to try on the diversity which we contain and to interact with other avatars in virtual landscapes which bring the dreamworld onto the screen as a outer experiences reflect the greater range of cultures and people we counter at work, in our communities, and in our own families (cyber consciousness by Jean Houston).”

The paragraph I found above relates to several topics such as God, consciousness, avatar, Imago effect, and a dream world that we discussed in our discussions. 

The dream environment or world constructed by the sleeping person’s love and idea acting together. Cultures, people we encounter at work, our communities, etc, some loves, ideas, and images cannot get along with each other. For example, people wish peace within their culture, their fellow co-workers, and individuals within their communities, but often times it is hard to achieve that fantasy. In the dream world, our wishes and constructed images and ideas are able to work together with our loves. The loves that help constructs our wishes, images and ideas produces a dream environment that is perfectly ideal and meets the expectation we desire in our consciousness. 

The Power of Cyberspace on People’s Socializing Skills

The longing quest to understand and know one self is one of most the common qualities that all humans share. There is always a constant battle we fight within ourselves, because we; ourselves are selfish in nature so by default we seek out what’s best for us. The inner conflict begins when we start setting standards for what is an appropriate behavior for a group or society. In order for us to get along and work well with others, we often tend to hide and hold back on our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. It is a part of life to learn and understand what behaviors are socially acceptable and those that aren’t (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). The world we live is governed by a system of morals, rules, restrictions, and at times they can get very complex and confusing. Yet we find ways to fit in and get along with other people and adapt with society. But what if there is a place where you can reveal your true identity and have the freedom of expressing your inner self without worrying of what others might think of you? Cyberspace is a place where people have the opportunity to be their true selves. Cyberspace can help people to open up socially and be their true selves that they wish they could be in real life.

The cyberspace has the potential to be used for educational purposes and has been used over the past years. One of the current problems is that only new and upgraded computers can install the system with out having any turbulent use. But in a few years that problem will disappear and the numbers of users will increase. There are many psychologists who have been studying about cyberspace, yet it is still considered a new field. Dr. Suler was one of the first people who have been studying about psychological views of cyberspace and he described that people’s curiosities about cyberspace have changed over the past ten years. “It seems odd to me that it would take a decade to reach this realization: cyberspace is much more than a place for teens and unpleasant people to act out, and much more than one gigantic library for gathering information. It is replete with social opportunities: relationships, groups, communities of all shapes and sizes” (Suler 2002). Our generation experienced both times with computer technologies and without the computer technologies. Most of the older generations have a hard time adjusting themselves to the computer systems. On the other hand, the younger generations were born into an age where computer systems are considered a staple tool of the 21^st century. Currently we are still able to see the gaps between two generations, but within a few years the gap will diminish and computer technologies and cyberspace will reach an expansion and dominated.

One of the main parts to understanding one self is self-knowledge. The Social Psychology textbook gave us some of the experiences, which involve self-knowledge such as when you check your hair in the mirror or check our weight on the scale, and on a first date, your partner asks you about yourself, and you try to give honest answers that show the kind of person you are. These moments are a self-reflection of you and the stored information of you (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). What if you are not satisfied with the current information about your self (i.e. weight) or do not have the honest answers about yourself that can impress your date? When you are in real world, these moments are often uncomfortable because they are self-reflection and stored information that’s etched in stone and cannot be changed. What if somebody asks you to “tell me something about yourself”, sometimes you cannot really say the truth, but if you are in cyberspace you can probably do so because you do not have the pressure of actually facing the person and the equipments can encourage you to speak up without literally speaking up to the person. One of the researches showed that in case of online game, “virtual environments have the potential to provide short-term comfort, excitement, and distraction. Research has found that online communication allows for the development of computer-medicated social support (e.g., support via e-mail and chat rooms), which could buffer the negative effects of stressful life circumstances, as do types of noncomputer-medicated social support” (Hussain & Griffiths 2008).

The second part to understanding and discovery of self is interpersonal self. According to the Social Psychology textbook, the interpersonal self helps the person connect to other people. This includes, people often work hard to present a particular image to others even though it is not exactly who they are, you dress up for a social event, you hold back to say things that might offend people, you worry about what someone thinks of you. These are all part of a thought process, how we act, and how we communicate with others in order for us to gain social acceptance and maintain a interpersonal self (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). This is part of our self, but we are caring about acceptance we gain from others more than actually thinking of who we really are. But in cyberspace, you may not need to act out or try hard to be acceptable while gaining the acceptance. “The virtual space shows traits of freedom in the sense that the normal consequences of play and experimentation in social interaction are eradicated: one can leave the interaction at any time and need never come into contact with the other persons involved again if one does not want to” (Marcus, Machilek & Schutz, 2006). In Cyberspace, time and space are controllable. For instance you can go into a chat room anytime you want and if things does not go well, you can always leave the room and you do not need to come back if you do not want to. Just knowing the fact that you may leave when you feel uncomfortable or when you feel like you are not gaining the acceptance you would like, can reduce the pressure of making that negative connection with other people in the right way. You cannot do these in real world, just like the self-knowledge, once you establish something to others, they will not forget. Others might not remember what you said, but every time you see the group of people or the person, they could remind you of your failure to make that connection. We have to face the situations that you have to make right connection with other people many times and if you are not good at it, you can practice presenting the interpersonal self in cyberspace.

In cyberspace, people can really be more social than they are in real world. “In a German sample, Machilek, Schutz, and Marcus (2004) compared a relatively large (N=266) sample of personal website owners to various groups of non-Web site owners on the Big Five dimensions of personality, narcissism, self-monitoring, and self-esteem. They found that, compared with the general adult population, Web site owners scored lower on Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, and higher on Openness to Experience” (Roesler 2008). When you go to a social event, you want to meet, as many people as possible so you can feel like you are part of the group. You need to have the attitude of openness to experience of meeting new people. The research showed that web-owners are good at in that aspect of personality. Another fact about the cyberspace is that there are no authorities in that world. Once you enter the world, everyone has a equal status. You are able to socialize with anybody by sharing the same feeling of equality and connection by the fact that everybody in the world is a user. “On the plus side, the online world has fewer ways for people to differentiate themselves, contributing to the sort of egalitarian atmosphere that promotes trust because people appear to be very much the same” (Radin & Landzelius, 2006).

There are numbers of positive quality in cyberspace that can encourage people to be more social, on the flipside; there are negative qualities too. One of the negative effects is called disinhibition effect. “It is well known that people say and do things in cyberspace that they ordinarily would not say or do in the face-to-face world. They loosen up, feel more uninhibited, and express themselves more openly. Researchers call this the online disinhibition effect (Suler, 2004a; Suler, 2004b)” (Barak & Boniel-Nissim & Suler, 2008). I have been exploring a cyberspace called Second Life, and have not seen other users acting out. Even there would be people acting out, there are many ways you can avoid them by sending notice to the creator of the space, or changing your setting of your avatar. One of the researcher suggested that people are able to overcome their disinhibition by using the cyberspace. “On the positive side, disinhibition indicates an attempt to understand and explore oneself, to work through problems and find better ways of relating to others. On the negative side, it may be simply a blind catharsis, and acting out of unsavory needs and wishes without any personal growth at all” (). The cyberspace can help you to overcome your social problems, also become a place to practice how to connect with other people, and find who you really are or discover new qualities about yourself, and able to present your true and newly discovered quality out in the real world.

In conclusion, cyberspace can help people to be comfortably social; the sense of acceptance and openness allows people to show their true colors more than they would in reality. People can be their true selves more in cyberspace because of the virtual environment they’re equipped with and through experience it serves as a tool to encourage individuality and being more of you in cyberspace than in the real world. Most of the time, people feel less pressured to present them selves because of the invisibility and the benefit of avoiding face-to-face situations. People will become more social and develop better socializing skills in cyberspace because of the sense of equality and having the one common feature, that everyone is a user, shared in the same virtual space. Dr. Suler interviewed people in one of the cyberspaces called Palace and he found that users in Palace feel that they are more true to themselves than they are in real world. “I’ve heard quite a few people say that at the Palace they feel they are more like their true selves than in real life. They are more open, expressive, warm, witty, friendly. Once again, partial anonymity allows people to be less inhibited. In some ways it’s not unlike the poet, writer, or artist who through their work learn to fully express themselves – without fully being in the presence of others” (Suler 2002). Currently, there are multiple cyberspaces, but in the future, all of them will be connected and users are able to cross-different spaces. This will increase the opportunity for people to connect with others and socialize with people from all over the place. Studying cyber psychology is a growing field and more resources and topic will come up in the future. I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge of my cyberspace social life in Second Life.

Resources;

Gender swapping and socializing in cyberspace: An exploratory study.

Hussain, Zaheer; Griffiths, Mark D.

CyberPsychology & Behavior. Vol 11(1), Feb 2008, 47-53.

The self in cyberspace: Identity formation in postmodern societies and Jung's Self as an objective psyche.

Roesler, Christian

The Journal of Analytical Psychology. Vol 53(3), Jun 2008, 421-436.

Personality in cyberspace: Personal web sites as media for personality expressions and impressions.

Marcus, Bernd; Machilek, Franz; Schütz, Astrid

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 90(6), Jun 2006, 1014-1031.

"To me, it's my life": Medical communication, trust, and activism in cyberspace.

Radin, Patricia; Landzelius, Kyra

Social Science & Medicine. Vol 62(3), Feb 2006, 591-601.

Fostering empowerment in online support groups.

Barak, Azy; Boniel-Nissim, Meyran; Suler, John

Computers in Human Behavior. Vol 24(5), Sep 2008, 1867-1883.

Baumeister, R.F. & Bushman, B.J. (2008). Social Psychology and Human Nature. Thomson Wadsworth: Belmont, CA.

Suler, J. (2002). The basic psychological features of cyberspace. In The Psychology of Cyberspace, www.rider.edu/suler/psycyber/basicfeat.html (article orig. pub. 1996)

Class Home Page for G29: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy29/classhome-g29.htm