In spatial experience, its mental and sensory recognition are not only closely related, but often indistinguishable. We do not always need to touch or see spaces in order to experience them, but even then, we need to have had some form of an immediate experience of space to know what it is to begin with. Through the combination of reasoning and sensory stimuli, we have a better chance of understanding the connections between our surroundings and what we are — sensory beings occupying a space.

The nature of human consciousness can be a source for philosophical, scientific and religious debate. However we can effortlessly point out our most immediate and indisputable source of self — our physical presence. The body we control and inhabit is not just an object. It is also the first shape and space that we can experience. The surface of our body is the first frontier between us and the world and a first unit of measure that we come against and, to a certain extent, base all our perceptions on. Our body defines our most basic sense of spatial awareness, our physical location — the place in space we occupy.

If the first thing and the one true constant we know is our own physical body, should it then not seem that the world is moving around our person, as the point zero of all co-ordinates, that we are the still-point and everything else is changing instead? Naturally, that is not what happens. Our spatial understanding makes sure of that. We know we are not the centre of our world — not even in our own minds. Our perception is expanded by our reasoning: we create maps to navigate space we inhabit and to define our connection to others.