Sunday, December 26, 2010

Explanation of the Categories of Experience

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event.

Each week for the upcoming year (2011), Patrick will be given some assignment in each of the following categories of experience.


  • Physical - Physical experience involves an observable change in the physical state of an object or environment.
  • Mental - Mental experience involves the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will, and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes.
  • Emotional - Emotional experience involves empathy and emotional intelligence as interpreted by an individual's state of mind as interacting with internal and external influences, including mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.
  • Spiritual - Spiritual experience involves an occurrence that is uncommon in the sense that it doesn't fir in with the norm of everyday activities and life experiences, and is subjectively interpreted by an individual's perception of the divine, or of some transcendant reality.
  • Social - Social experience involves the skills and habits necessary for an individual to participate within their own (or another's) society, and are acquired through a plurality of shared experiences forming norms, customs, values, traditions, social roles, symbols, and languages.
  • Vicarious - Vicarious experience involves an experience in an individual's imagination as related to the actions or feelings of another person.
  • Virtual - Virtual experience involves a simulation of experience in the real world, that is almost or nearly as described, but does not adhere to the strict definitions encountered in the real world.

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