Presence - Reflections

I wrote these reflections for the Ways of Knowing class the week we discussed Presence.

When I use the word Presence I'm thinking of a holistic quality of experience, rather than some abstract metaphysical substance that could exist without an experiencing subject.  I define it relative to the experiencer.  And that mainly means myself.

I'm going to use the word "have", as in "I have presence" or "I have  awareness", but it doesn't mean presence or awareness is an object that I possess that is separate from who I am. In fact, "to have presence" seems related to saying "to have (awareness of) myself".

I think presence is in a way related to Will, including the ability to direct ones attention -- that is, the capacity to "attend" to experience in some way.  There seems to be a yin (receptive) aspect and a yang (creative) aspect.  The receptive aspect could be called Openness -- in which awareness accepts and reflects like a mirror or the surface of a still lake (to use a traditional metaphor).  Or maybe like a clean window.  The active form would be something like the ability to change, focus, or move attention from one form to another.  I suppose that would include dropping and re-forming identifications and attachments.

How can I recognize presence as an experience?  That's tricky, given that it has to do with quality of experience, but also experience is sometimes unconscious or fragmented, and yet the character of unconscious or uncognized aspects of the self also play into it.  In addition to observations based on qualities or characteristics of an experiential type I believe "indirect" observations are a valid source of knowledge about the self.  I'm not a purist in terms of the method(s) for obtaining knowledge. 

What is presence, as an experience, like? 

What are some possible indirect correlates of presence?

When do I have (the experience of) presence?

When do I NOT have (the experience of) presence?

Is it related to "awareness" and "attention"?

Can I notice when other people have or don't have presence?

Can presence be practiced or cultivated?