Research Program / Claims / distortion-2

Inner senses do not distort data per se, but distortion inevitably occurs when the self attempts to gain access to data.

内在感官本身不扭曲数据，但试图让自我获得数据时必然发生扭曲。

Concept distortion · Domain Extended Perception and Consciousness Transduction · mechanism · interface 3/3 · testability 3/3 · status untested · ★ fundable

This program treats the Seth Material as a source of hypotheses, not as doctrine to be validated. Lead dossiers are AI-compiled from the corpus with a book-and-session citation after every statement; literature reviews are AI web-search summaries whose references were all DOI-verified against Crossref; the agenda draft is an AI synthesis. None of it is Seth's original text, and none of it represents scientific consensus. English fields are machine-translated; the Chinese text is authoritative.

Seth sources (book §session)
Adjudicating experiment
First, text researchers will fix the 'first inner sense' practice into a reproducible manual; 180 beginners are randomly assigned to three groups: this practice, an expectation-matched placebo practice, and ordinary attention training, trained for 8 weeks with a 4-week follow-up, project duration approximately 12 months. Blinded measurement of the point of subjective equality, discrimination threshold, and response criterion for Müller-Lyer and Poggendorff illusions; additionally, binocular rivalry eye-tracking metrics compare report and no-report conditions. Test whether the practice produces transfer effects beyond expectation and repeated measurement; 'inner senses themselves without distortion' still requires independent definition and measurement.
Suggested paper title
Effects of Attention Training and Expectancy on Visual Illusions and Perceptual Reports: A Preregistered Randomized Trial
What it would overturn
Only independent proof of undistorted internal representation would correct the assumption that both sensation and report processing can introduce noise and bias.
Candidate labs / funders
Peter Kok，University College London 的 Visual Perception Team; Helané Wahbeh，Institute of Noetic Sciences
Specificity of Seth's formulation
Explicitly localizing distortion to the stage of transmission to the self is potentially discriminating; however, 'inner senses' cannot be directly equated with unconscious processing, interoception, or no-report paradigms.
Note
No peer-reviewed trial directly testing this specified practice was found; illusion reduction could stem from strategic changes, not automatically interpreted as access to more real data.
Evidence (2, DOI-verified via Crossref)
  • No-Report Paradigms: Extracting the True Neural Correlates of Consciousness — Naotsugu Tsuchiya; Melanie Wilke; Stefan Frässle; Victor A. F. Lamme (2015), Trends in Cognitive Sciences
    方法论综述支持区分体验与报告相关加工，但无报告指标不是未经扭曲的内在感官读数。[论文](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.10.002)
  • Perception of Visual Illusions by Novice and Longer-Term Meditators — Joseph Tloczynski; Aimee Santucci; Eileen Astor-Stetson (2000), Perceptual and Motor Skills
    小样本冥想比较仅在波根多夫错觉的部分指标上发现组间差异，不能证明缪勒—莱尔错觉减少或内在感官无失真。[论文](https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2000.91.3.1021)

Cite: Future Mind Institute, Seth Material Research Agenda, claim distortion-2, https://www.seth.org.cn/en/research/claims/distortion-2