Where Am I? Redux

Activation of the brain's putative retinoid system has been proposed as the neuronal substrate for our basic sense of being centred within a volumetric surround - our minimal phenomenal consciousness (Trehub, 2007). Here, the assumed properties of the self-locus within the retinoid model are shown to explain recent experimental findings relating to the out-of-body experience. In addition, selective excursion of the heuristic self-locus is able to explain many important functions of consciousness, including the effective internal representation of a 3D space on the basis of 2D perspective depictions. Our sense of self-agency is shown to be a natural product of the role of the heuristic self-locus in the retinoid mechanism.