THE SOUL BEHIND YOUR EYES: Psychic Presence in the Digital Screen

Abruptly thrown into virtual life, we have had to come to terms with a new dimension in human experience that has subverted our spatiotemporal sense and is slowly dislocating our existential coordinates. An altogether new form of being and being-together arises in virtual space, where my gaze does not cross the same space, nor do my eyes receive the same light as yours. If indeed the ‘eyes are the windows of the soul’, in the digital screen it would seem nobody can see or show the soul. The overarching concern of this chapter is how to care for the human psyche in our era, and the focus is specifically on the digital image. How it is changing our conception of psychic presence and the very nature of communication? Is there really no soul to see behind those (virtual) eyes? And what does it take to find it on the screen? We attempt to understand the transformations that we are experiencing in our intercourse with the digital as an evolutionary step in human consciousness.