Originally Posted by
Steve
Si – External Field Dynamics (EFD)
Si to me actually seems similar to Ni in many ways. Both are dynamic field functions, and both have this fundamental essence that seems to develop and emerge over time. The Ni essence of course deals with internals and sees interconnected dynamic processes that are happening beneath the surface, while Si focuses on the flow and interaction of things that exist in the external environment. With both Dynamic Field Functions, the perceiver is a part of what’s being seen, personalizes the experience, and harmonizes themselves with the flow.
A Si person achieves harmony with the external environment around them (primarily the physical environment – in which people can also be included, as well as the way those people in the environment make the perceiver feel). Everything the Si-perceiver experiences around them has a character and makes them feel a certain way. They are constantly taking in experience; watching things go by, gliding from one point in time through the next. If you compare Si-eyes to Se eyes, the Si-eyes will look much more even keel and stable – even “flat” or constant, because they are experiencing inter-connectedness with their surroundings, as their surroundings pass through time. Si-eyes are one with what they are seeing, whereas Se-eyes are more likely to dart from point to point like a laser-targeting system, leaving what they have just seen in the past, and constantly moving on to something else.
Si people frequently go through a day where each day has a different character, and there’s this core feeling as to the flow of the particular day. In fact, their environment may even seem different to them on one day or even one time, than on another. For example, one could be at a particular indoor location where there is no sunlight (no windows in the room), and the room will actually have a different feel, and even a different look to it, at 9 in the morning vs. 6 at night.
Also, looking at a particular object in the environment from one point of view could make the observer feel completely different than if they were viewing it from another. For example, one could be observing a suspension bridge across a river, while standing on one river bank. This particular side of the river could be the side where the person lives (even if their house is 100 miles further inland), where the person goes out, experiences life, and has more associations with the scenery that exists on this side. The other side of the river could be the side where the person goes on vacation, and doesn’t spend nearly as much time. So if the person is standing on the “familiar” side of the river bank looking at the bridge, they may even attach all of the familiarity and “local-ness” and whatever other associations the person has made with that side of the river to the tower of the bridge which is closest to this side. They may also somehow tie the architecture of the bridge, with the feeling they get from observing the “character” of the bridge, and blend it with all of the Si associations they have with the particular side of the river that the tower is closest to. If the person moves to the other side of the river and looks at the bridge against the new background, the person will feel like they are more connected to the Si-associations of the other side, and the perspective of looking at those associations changes.
Associations of things in the environment play a major part in Si experience. An environment will evolve and appear different with new experience, giving the perceiver a different feeling while looking at the exact same physical setting (or certain people within the physical setting) at two different points in time. Si-types hold on to past experience of environments and seem to frequently blend past and present, because for Si types, external experience is all continuous – it is seamless over time. What was can be almost as real as what is. Something Si people experience in the present can act as a “trigger” for re-experiencing the flow they had at a different time period. For example, Si-types can form associations around songs, in the sense that sometimes when they hear a song being played, they remember what they were doing and the context in which they first heard the song. Hearing the song in the present makes them re-live the experiential flow of their life at the time that they first heard the song – the time when the Si was attached to the song (including any other Si experiences that were added along the way – such as if the person had experiential associations of a song, and then went and saw the artist perform the song live – they may add the experience of the environment of the concert venue to the whole core their experience of the song). Smells or sights can act as triggers as well. For example, seeing a piece of furniture that was in the house of a deceased grandparent can suddenly bring the perceiver back to the time period where they saw the furniture in its proper place in the grandparent’s house. They will also likely recall exactly what the room looked like in striking detail, and all of the personal attachments and associations they had with that room, house, and grandparent within the context of the room and house – and of course smelling a piece of furniture (like the pillows on a couch) can be even more of a trigger of the past experience of being in the grandparent’s environment, and even the other things that were going on in the Si-person's life at the time.
How Si Differs from Se
Si differs from Se similarly to how Ni differs from Ne. With both object-perceiving functions (Ne and Se), the focus will be more localized, and there isn’t any emphasis on a context. Se is also a positive feedback function like Ne, in the sense that it will keep going, looking for stimulation after stimulation, while Si goes after only certain stimuli (sometimes repeatedly) that will be in harmony with the Si flow.
Se people will seem more intense because of the constant need to jump around and seek stimulus after stimulus in the external environment, while Si types have a smoothness and stability with the Si flow. Se types may find this Si flow boring (sometimes painfully boring and deadening, particularly in the case of ENXjs). The Se types can see Si’s flow as one constant line progressing over time, and they frequently feel the need to turn the line into a wave, or something with more variance, so they may end up causing what Si types see as a “ruckus”.
As I mentioned earlier, Si can be very personal, while Se is not. Sometimes if I try to talk about all these associations, combinations, and images I’ve blended together about things in the environment to an Se person, they have no idea what I’m talking about, and wonder why I do that, and don’t think it’s relevant. Se on the other hand focuses on things that are directly visible in raw form – no added ingredients.