Hagioptasia Theory

YouTube video by The Magic Wizard Fast Franchelle - AI video version

youtu.be/GMYfVN4IHRg

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing Your ancestors survived because they felt dread in ambiguous situations. This system still runs. Even my most rational friends—people who dismiss astrology and mock paranormal investigators—will qu…

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing Your ancestors survived because they felt dread in ambiguous situations. This system still runs. Even my most rational friends—people who dismiss astrology and mock paranormal investigators—will qu…

@carissaveliz.bsky.social Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing Your ancestors survived because they felt dread in ambiguous situations. This system still runs. Even my most rational friends—people who dismiss astrology and mock paranormal investigators—will qu…

@carissaveliz.bsky.social
Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing Your ancestors survived because they felt dread in ambiguous situations. This system still runs. Even my most rational friends—people who dismiss astrology and mock paranormal investigators—will qu…

Agreed. I hope you'll enjoy this:
Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing Your ancestors survived because they felt dread in ambiguous situations. This system still runs. Even my most rational friends—people who dismiss astrology and mock paranormal investigators—will qu…

Why Smart People Still Get Spooked by Nothing
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/w...

But would you agree that spookiness or eeriness is phenomenologically distinct from other types of fears?

Do you have a formal, psychology-based definition of 'spookiness' - perhaps one that distinguishes it from related concepts like 'terror' or 'fear' in a way that relates to social engagement?

Understanding Branding Through Contemporary Art (pt.1)

We build our sense of “cool” from personal & cultural codes of status.
Our natural sensitivity to social status makes “cool” things feel deeply meaningful.
Remove the status cues, & the 'meaning' vanishes.

What a horribly patronising thing to say!

Understanding Branding Through Contemporary Art (pt.1)

We build our sense of “cool” from personal & cultural codes of status.
Our natural sensitivity to social status makes “cool” things feel deeply meaningful.
Remove the status cues, & the 'meaning' vanishes.

Not a grudge, but genuine concern about her huge influence.

Zombie Ideas & the Horrifying Hypocrisy of Lisa Feldman Barrett A Nightmare in Neuroscience: Dr. Barrett’s zombie ideas rise again! This Halloween, let’s delve into the truly terrifying concept of ‘zombie ideas’ in psychology. These aren…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/z...

Zombie Ideas & the Horrifying Hypocrisy of Lisa Feldman Barrett A Nightmare in Neuroscience: Dr. Barrett’s zombie ideas rise again! This Halloween, let’s delve into the truly terrifying concept of ‘zombie ideas’ in psychology. These aren…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/z...

The Art Establishment Doesn’t Understand Art The Psychology of Why Art Can Seem So Deeply Meaningful Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Embryology (1978–80) at Tate Modern. Photo by Adam Fagen, 2018 Have you ever stood before a celebrated art…

The Art Establishment Doesn't Understand Art:
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/03/13/t...

New preprint:
Hagioptasia: Convergent Evidence for a Unified Construct of Perceived Specialness - A Theoretical Framework
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Are those the reasons why you wanted a new roof?

A Critical Evaluation of Lisa Feldman Barrett’s ‘How Emotions Are Made’ In her book ‘How Emotions Are Made’, Lisa Feldman Barrett proposes a theory that challenges ‘conventional wisdom’ regarding the origins of human emotion. She argues that emotions are not innate, bu…

"My skepticism about these improbable claims led me to do some research, which quickly exposed every one as false."
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2024/03/29/a...

A wonderful snap!

Have you ever heard of hagioptasia?

Why Your Childhood Memories Feel Magical (But Weren’t) I was in my parents’ back garden a few years ago when I heard a blackbird singing in the old apple tree. Suddenly I was seven years old again, and that same patch of grass felt bathed in this…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/w...

Hagioptasia “When you see somebody on the street, they can really have an aura. But then when they open their mouth, there goes the aura. ‘Aura’ must be until you open your mouth.” Andy Warhol

Quick test:
Recall a childhood memory that feels somehow 'magical'.
You rationally know it was an ordinary day, yet it still feels deeply 'special'.

That specialness-perception is hagioptasia - the mechanism behind nostalgia, sacredness, & much more.

hagioptasia.wordpress.com

The Science of the Sacred: A Secular Path to Spirituality A Guide to Spiritual Experience – Without Invoking the Supernatural Interior of Ticehurst church, East Sussex. Photo by the author. When I left primary school at eleven, our class received pa…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/06/22/t...

Not an emotion, but a perceptual tendency that makes certain people, places, or ideas seem radiantly significant. That then triggers emotions like awe, nostalgia & devotion. But yes, I’d love to see it confuse the taxonomists!

If hagioptasia exists as proposed, it's the missing evolutionary key explaining why humans create gods, worship celebrities, & desire empty status - all driven by our capacity to perceive illusory 'specialness'. But if you don't agree, please provide a good reason why.

The Missing Piece in Nigel Warburton’s Art Question: A Response What hagioptasia theory reveals about the psychological foundations of aesthetic experience Francis Alÿs The Ambassador 2001 © Francis Alÿs In “The Art Question”, Nigel Warburton’…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/07/10/t...

The Missing Piece in Nigel Warburton’s Art Question: A Response What hagioptasia theory reveals about the psychological foundations of aesthetic experience Francis Alÿs The Ambassador 2001 © Francis Alÿs In “The Art Question”, Nigel Warburton’…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/07/10/t...

Seeing the Sacred: How the Romans Understood What Modern Thought Overlooks Ancient pagan beliefs help to reveal the mind’s power to create meaning and illusion ‘The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and the Muses’ (c.1885) by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes The Roma…

hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/05/26/s...

The Science of the Sacred: A Secular Path to Spirituality A Guide to Spiritual Experience – Without Invoking the Supernatural Interior of Ticehurst church, East Sussex. Photo by the author. When I left primary school at eleven, our class received pa…

The Science of the Sacred: A Secular Path to Spirituality
hagioptasia.wordpress.com/2025/06/22/t...