On feeling (the) present: An evolutionary account of the sense of presence in physical and electronically-mediated environments

The sense of presence is the ability to experience the fact that one is physically present in the place in which the body is currently located. In other words, it refers to the part of the contents of consciousness that relate to the current time and place in which the body is located. We present an account of the sense of presence understood as the result of an evolved neuropsychological process, created through the evolution of the central nervous system, and which solves a key problem for an organism’s survival: how to differentiate between the internal and the external. We suggest that in its simplest form this originated as the feeling of something happening to an organism from outside rather than within. In this sense, presence distinguishes self from other. In its highly evolved form in humans, the degree of presence we feel tells us the extent to which we are focusing conscious attention on the outside world as opposed to attending to the internal world of thoughts and imaginings.