<\/p>\n
A Digest<\/strong><\/p>\n For most of us, the stomach is positioned around our middle. In East-Asian cultures, this area is usually considered the seat of the subjective self \u2013 the centre, from which we extend outward towards the world. Closer to home, we usually think of ourselves as residing somewhere behind the eyes, perhaps at one of the busier junctions of brain fold. Testing both locations within myself for signs of existence, I’m most aware of a ‘self’ when something goes wrong; when things are going well, I don\u2019t occur to myself at all.<\/p>\n The solar plexus is where the feeling of danger registers whenever it appears I am under threat (emotionally or physically). This reaction happens in my guts before any wordthoughts have time to log the incident in my head. Recent scientific investigations show the extent of the neural network in and around the stomach, and lend credibility to the idea that we exist much more in our bellies than we think we do.\u00a0I like this idea. It makes sense when I think about playing and writing music, and what can be considered \u2018my own\u2019 in any of it.<\/p>\n The word \u2018stomach\u2019 traces back to\u00a0stoma<\/em>,\u00a0a Greek word having the sense of a kind of mouth; an opening; an inlet or an outlet. Interestingly, the entire alimentary canal \u2013 oesophagus through to the large intestine \u2013 can be strictly considered\u00a0external\u00a0to our bodies from an anatomical perspective, in that it has openings at either end. If we consider the stomach as the seat of the self, we might concede that we exist outside ourselves in a certain way all the time.\u00a0The ear is another stoma, another digestive organ, where voices are metabolized and absorbed into the nerve stream.<\/p>\n I find the most enjoyment in making sounds when it lends strangeness to the experience of being. When you listen to another person or another thing, you’re initiated into another world, churned around in another belly. Within the transmission process, you are suspended between selves, with an ability to be inside and outside simultaneously, accessing all the feelings on both sides of the exchange.<\/p>\n