piloerection

But I have retained the piloerection ability, which I can do on command within 2-5 seconds or so. There's also some weird sensations in my sinuses I can trigger...

Why can't the feeling of fear simply be neural state of where, say, heart rate is elevated, adrenaline levels are high, accompanied by activation of piloerection muscles? What evidence is there that it requires anything more than this to be experienced as fear?

I did a cursory look around and found this study[0] from July 2020 which did mention tachycardia in passing, but notes that: "LSD use can lead to hypothermia, piloerection, tachycardia with palpitation, an elevation of blood pressure, and hyperglycemia. The autonomic reactions listed above are not as significant as the mental and behavioral effects of LSD on the body."

Otherwise, you get goose bumps, or piloerection in humans: We don't have enough hair over most of our bodies for erecting it to do any good, but we still have all the structures to erect it anyway, because none of our ancestors lost any of them even as they became useless.

> Why can't the feeling of fear simply be neural state of where, say, heart rate is elevated, adrenaline levels are high, accompanied by activation of piloerection muscles? What evidence is there that it requires anything more than this to be experienced as fear? This sounds similar to identity theory, a view with a strong pedigree, and a view that I think is one of the materialist's best options here. The problem I have is that it completely misses the actual thing I care about. You can talk about heart rates, adrenaline levels, activation of piloerection muscles, etc, but none of these things contain in them even the seed of the thing I really care about: an explanation for the phenomenology.