EmergeWiki - User contributions [en]

Synthesis:Neoplatonism

2026-03-10T16:30:33Z

OlivierSandilands:

As its name suggests, neoplatonism is connected with the philosopher Plato. Key figures include Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 270 CE), whose major work is called the Enneads, Proclus. Neoplatonist ideas and practices run through the whole history of european civilization, having influenced early christian writers like Saint Augustine and ascetics like pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite and Evagrius Ponticus, who in turn had a profound on western and eastern medieval christian mystics, such as John Climacus, Maximus the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, Saint Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, and then on Renaissance intellectuals like Marsilio Ficino whose magnus opus ''Theologica Platonica''<ref>Ficino, M. (2001). ''Platonic theology''. Harvard University Press.</ref> attempted a formal synthesis of neoplatonism and christianity, as well as later mystics like John of the Cross, Terésa of Ávila, or Madame Guyon. Because Islamic philosophers and mystics largely drew from similar sources, neoplatonic writings and views have also shaped the history of [[Islam]]. This is also true of Judaism. As such the legacy of this historical current is of enormous cultural import that is still relevant today.

== Henosis and the three-stage model ==

=== Henosis ===

In the Enneads, Plotinus proposes a model describing the different phases of "mystical ascent", an itinerary culminating in what he calls union with god. It is called ''Henosis'', which is the Greek word for "union" — literally becoming (-''osis'') one (''hen''). Mazur (2021), as quoted in the [[wikipedia:Henosis|Wikipedia article on the topic]], delineates the following stages:<blockquote>
* Phase 1, Catharsis: self-purification (aphairesis) from any contamination with multiplicity (of any thought, knowledge, or mental activity); "removing" Being itself (Enneads III.8.10)
* Phase 2, Mystical self-reversion: "The intellect ... must ‘withdraw backwards’ and surrender itself to what lies behind it" (Enneads III.8.9)
* Phase 3, Autophany: luminous vision of one's own self
* Phase 3.2, Self-unification: to "become one from many" (Enneads VI.9.3)
* Phase 4, Annihilation: discussed in the Enneads VI.9
* Phase 5, Union with the One
* Phase 5.2, Desubjectification
* Passages in the Enneads describing the different stages of mystical union with the One can be found in I.6, IV.8, VI.9, III.8, V.3, V.5, V.8, and VI.7-8.<ref>Mazur, A. J. (2021). ''The Platonizing Sethian background of Plotinus’s mysticism'' (D. M. Burns, K. Corrigan, I. Miroshnikov, T. Rasimus, & J. D. Turner, Eds.; Rev. ed). Brill.</ref>
</blockquote>Overall, this itinerary follows a three-phase structure which may originate in Plato's Allegory of the cave, and which can found in the mystical writings of a striking number of christian mystics.
=== The three-stage model ===
These three phases are:

* Purification
* Illumination
* Union

Practitioners of [[wikipedia:Hesychasm|Hesychasm]] (which comes from the greek word meaning "silence"), the core practice of Orthodox contemplatives, use this specific model to describe the stages of practice. The Greek names for these stages are

* ''Katharsis'' (κάθαρσις) or purification,
* ''Theoria'' (θεωρία) or illumination, and
* ''Theosis'' (θέωσις) or deification (or union with God).

The experiences of hesychasts are preserved in a collection of texts called the ''Philokalia'' (φιλοκαλία) which translates to "love" (φιλία, philia) "of the beautiful" (κάλλος, kallos), just like philosophy means love of wisdom.<ref>Skoubourdis, A. (n.d.). ''Philokalia Of the Holy Neptic Fathers'' (Vol. 5). <nowiki>https://www.wob.com/fr-fr/livres/anna-skoubourdis/philokalia-volume-5/9788709694997/GOR013051031?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Shopping&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=17823055677&cq_con=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&gclid=Cj0KCQjwuZGnBhD1ARIsACxbAViU3u2kfExmU_Y43QIM1CWE9fKAX0b5UVK8o4DZaaPjwrXSSizl558aAlahEALw_wcB</nowiki></ref>

Similarly, Saint John of the Cross, arguably one of the most well-know Catholic mystics, also fits his own conception of the path within this structure.

=== Connection with other traditions ===
Parallels of this threefold structure seem to be present in other mystical traditions, including Sufism (Ibn Arabi), Hindu Vedanta and Tantra, Buddhist Mahayana and Vajrayana, Jewish Kabbalah, and even Daoist mysticism. For instance, scholars have researched and found similarities between this progression and the buddhist [[Jhāna|jhānas]]<ref>Harris, E. J. (2019). John of the Cross, the Dark Night of the Soul and the Jhānas and the Arūpa States: A Critical Comparative Study. In N. Appleton & P. Harvey (Eds.), ''Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins'' (pp. 83–98). Equinox Publishing. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.33384</nowiki></ref>. It is interesting to note that in terms of etymology, the word ''theoria'' used by orthodox hesychasts, shares the same indo-european root as the word ''jhāna'', from which ''c'han'' and ''zen'' also derive.<ref>Sandilands, O. (2019). ''Comparative Phenomenology of Aesthetic and Meditative Experiences'' [Unpublished Master’s Thesis]. École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.</ref>

Further descriptions by Plotinus:<blockquote>"Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul. To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One. (VI.9.7)<ref>Plotinus. (2018). ''The Enneads'' (L. P. Gerson, Ed.; G. R. Boys-Stones, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.</ref> "If he remembers who he became when he merged with the One, he will bear its image in himself. He was himself one, with no diversity in himself or his outward relations; for no movement was in him, no passion, no desire for another, once the ascent was accomplished. Nor indeed was there any reason or thought, nor, if we dare say it, any trace of himself." (VI.9.11) </blockquote>The issue here in terms of phenomenology is that this is rather general and could be construed to refer to very different types of experiences of various depth, subtlety, rarity, degrees of permanence, and more, depending on the degree of literality and radicality we assign to the words used by Plotinus.

Is this referring to a "non-experience", something similar to what buddhism calls ''nirodha'' — cessation of consciousness<ref>Bryant-Scott, W. (2023). ''Perspective(s) on Nirvana, Cessation, and Emptiness''. Wystan’s. <nowiki>https://www.wystantbs.com/no-ones-busyness/blog-post-title-four-w28wc-dg8hl-pzfw3-l2lse-Guuz7</nowiki></ref><ref>Laukkonen, R. E., Sacchet, M. D., Barendregt, H., Devaney, K. J., Chowdhury, A., & Slagter, H. A. (2023). Cessations of consciousness in meditation: Advancing a scientific understanding of nirodha samāpatti. In ''Progress in Brain Research'' (p. S0079612322001984). Elsevier. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.007</nowiki></ref> — in which no subject or object of perception is to be found, and in fact, no experience at all arises? The description of a complete absence of any manifest qualities would invite us to incline towards this interpretation. According to a recent monograph, "one must accept that Plotinus basically considered the union as a complete absorption of the soul into the Supreme Entity"<ref>Meijer. (1992). ''Plotinus on the Good or the One (Enneads VI,9): An Analytical Commentary'' (1st ed). BRILL.</ref>, which could fit well with this perspective, especially considering that Mazur underlines that the end-stage following Union is actually "de-subjectivisation", which is similar to what Buddhist models of "cessation" describe as well.

However, Plotinus could also referring to a state of deep concentration where usual perceptions and sensations have mostly stopped, but some form of experience, albeit potentially subtle, remains — such as the various buddhist absorptions, which are all different one from the other. For instance, in Buddhism, the seventh jhāna is called the realm of nothingness, and those who have experienced it report that the sole remaining object of perception within the field of consciousness is a sense of "there being nothing", which is itself a thing, albeit quite subtle.<ref>Sparby, T., & Sacchet, M. D. (2024). Toward a Unified Account of Advanced Concentrative Absorption Meditation: A Systematic Definition and Classification of Jhāna. ''Mindfulness''. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02367-w</nowiki></ref> This is similar to descriptions of [[Synthesis:Sleep-related experiences and changes|lucid dreamless sleep]].<ref>Alcaraz-Sánchez, A., Demšar, E., Campillo-Ferrer, T., & Torres-Platas, S. G. (2022). Nothingness Is All There Is: An Exploration of Objectless Awareness During Sleep. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''13'', 901031. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.901031</nowiki></ref> Other states of absorption may also qualify<ref>Sparby, T., & Sacchet, M. D. (2024). Toward a Unified Account of Advanced Concentrative Absorption Meditation: A Systematic Definition and Classification of Jhāna. ''Mindfulness''. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02367-w</nowiki></ref>, as could forms of temporary "ego-death" such as can be experienced through e.g. high doses of psilocybin mushrooms, or "non-duality"? It could even be seen as describing a much more mundane and common type of experience such as the suspension of usual everyday consciousness of "mind wandering" or "attentional drift" that is busy with daily thoughts, and managing to attain a certain degree of presence that is free from past and future thoughts about oneself. Another possible interpretation here, is a permanent form of ego-death such as are reported by mystics from several religions, that happens all the while there remain normal sensory appearances within the individual's experience.

Regardless of the definitive answer, the similarities between the three-stage model and path descriptions from other traditions, whether historically connected or not, is striking.

== Resources ==

* Ficino, M. (2001). ''Platonic theology''. Harvard University Press.
* John of the Cross. (1991). ''The collected works of Saint John of the Cross'' (Rev. ed). ICS Publications.
* Mazur, A. J. (2021). ''The Platonizing Sethian background of Plotinus’s mysticism'' (D. M. Burns, K. Corrigan, I. Miroshnikov, T. Rasimus, & J. D. Turner, Eds.; Rev. ed). Brill.
* Plato. (1997). ''Complete works''. Hackett Pub.
* Plotinus. (2018). ''The Enneads'' (L. P. Gerson, Ed.; G. R. Boys-Stones, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.

== References ==

Synthesis:Source Traditions

2026-03-10T11:24:47Z

OlivierSandilands:

A vast number of religious, spiritual, ritual, cultural, philosophical, and other traditions have contributed to the conversation regarding [[Emergent Phenomena]] for at least thousands and likely many tens of thousands of years and many continue to today.

Further, critical to integrating [[Emergent Phenomena]] into mainstream clinical understandings and practice are the [[Openings in the DSM-5TR|opportunities]] provided by manuals such as the [[DSM-5TR]] and related manuals, with statements providing an immediate functional need for detailed understandings of the world's traditions and what they consider normal, such as this statement, from the DSM-5TR, on page 102, in the section on [[Hallucinations]]:<blockquote>"Hallucinations are perception-like experiences that occur without an external stimulus. They are vivid and clear, with the full force and impact of normal perceptions, and not under voluntary control. They may occur in any sensory modality, but auditory hallucinations are the most common in schizophrenia and related disorders. Auditory hallucinations are usually experienced as voices, whether familiar or unfamiliar, that are perceived as distinct from the individual's own thoughts. The hallucinations must occur in the context of a clear sensorium; those that occur while falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnopompic) are considered to be within the range of normal experience. '''''Hallucinations may be a normal part of religious experience in certain cultural contexts'''.''”</blockquote>Thus, in order to provide extensive support for diagnosticians, care providers, family members, friends, and everyone else relating to these issues, EmergeWiki aims to have detailed information and additional links to external sources on the major and minor "cultural context" mentioned above, including, but not limited to the following, and we encourage authors to add more to this list as needed to be as complete and thorough as possible:

*# Abrahamic religions
*## Christianity
*### Nicene Christianity
*#### [[Catholicism]] — Catholicism has as one of its features a remarkable capacity for local syncretism, very often adopting, enfolding, informing, etc. local religions, saints, spirits, traditions, rituals, particularly in Central and South America and Africa, but in other places also, giving many of these very different flavors and thus likely relationships to emergent phenomena, etc.
*##### Latin Church
*###### Jesuits
*###### Carmelites
*###### Franciscans
*###### Dominicans
*###### Cistercians
*###### Beguines and Beghards
*##### Eastern Catholic Church
*### Protestantism
*#### Pentecostalism
*#### Anglicanism
*#### Baptist churches
*#### Nondenominational Christianity
*#### Lutheranism
*#### Methodism
*#### Reformed churches (Calvinism)
*#### African initiated churches
*#### Chinese Patriotic Christian Churches
*#### Eastern Protestant Christianity
*#### Adventism
*#### New Apostolic Church
*#### Restorationism
*#### Anabaptism
*#### Local churches
*#### Plymouth Brethren
*#### Hussites
*#### Quakers
*#### Messianic Judaism
*### Orthodox Christianity
*#### Eastern Orthodoxy
*##### Greek Orthodox Pratriarchates or Churches
*###### Constantinople
*###### Alexandria
*###### Antioch
*###### Jerusalem
*###### Russia
*###### Serbia
*###### Romania
*###### Bulgaria
*###### Georgia
*###### Cyprus
*###### Greece
*###### Poland
*###### Albania
*###### Czech Lands and Slovakia
*###### North Macedonia
*#### Oriental Orthodox Churches
*##### Coptic Orthodox
*##### Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo
*##### Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo
*##### Syriac Orthodox
*##### Armenian Apostolic
*##### Malankara Orthodox Syrian
*##### Western Orthodoxy
*#### Evangelical Christianity
*#### Restorationist
*##### Mormon/Latter-day Saint movement
*##### Jehovah's Witnesses
*## Islam
*### Sunnīsm
*#### Ḥanafī Sunnīsm
*#### Shāfiʿī Sunnīsm
*#### Mālikī Sunnīsm
*#### Ḥanbalī Sunnīsm
*### Shī‘ism
*#### Twelver Shīʿīsm
*#### Zaydī Shīʿīsm
*#### Ismāʿīlī Shīʿīsm
*##### Ghulat
*### Kharījism
*### Sufīsm
*### Ahmadiyya movement
*### Salafism
*### Wahhabism
*## Judaism
*### Hassidism
*### Kabbalah
*### Ultraorthodox
*# Hinduism — Hinduism, far from being a single, coherent religion, probably has more local gods, variants, diversity of view, etc. than any other tradition on this list.
*## Advaita Vedānta
*## Arya Samaj
*## ISKCON (Hare Krishna)
*## Sant Mat traditions
*## Shaivism
*## Shaktism
*## Shrauta or "vedic" hinduism
*## Smartism
*## Vaishnavism
*## Yogic Schools
*### Bhakti yoga
*### Hatha yoga
*### Jñana yoga
*### Karma yoga
*### Kundalini Yoga
*### Raja yoga
*# Buddhism — According to the Pew Research Center, "all 10 countries with the largest Buddhist populations are in the Asia-Pacific region, and these countries collectively are home to the lion’s share (95%) of all Buddhists. Half (50%) of the world’s Buddhists live in one country, China. The largest Buddhist populations outside China are in Thailand (13%), Japan (9%), Burma (Myanmar) (8%), Sri Lanka (3%), Vietnam (3%), Cambodia (3%), South Korea (2%), India (2%) and Malaysia (1%)."<ref name=":1">Hackett, C., Grim, B. J., & et al. (2012). ''The Global Religious Landscape. A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010''. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/</ref>
*## Mahāyāna Buddhism
*### Pure Land
*### Zen/Ch'an/Seon
*#### Soto
*#### Rinzai
*### Nichiren
*### Tendai
*### Madhyamaka
*### Yogacāra
*## Vajrayāna Buddhism
*### Tantra
*### Dzogchen — According to Claire Petitmengin, "Dzogchen or “Great Perfection”, which designates the ultimate natural state of everything, emerged in India and Tibet in the eight to ninth centuries. Main Indian Dzogchen masters were Vajraprake (tib. Garab Dorjé), Manjusrimitra, Vairocana, Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra. In Tibet it was primarily transmitted by the Ancient School (Nyingma), through a lineage that includes illustrious masters as Yeshe Tsogyal, Longchenpa, Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche."<ref name=":0">Petitmengin, C. (2021). On the Veiling and Unveiling of Experience: A Comparison Between the Micro-Phenomenological Method and the Practice of Meditation. ''Journal of Phenomenological Psychology'', ''52''(1), 36–77. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341383</ref>
*### Mahāmūdra — According to Claire Petitmengin, "Mahāmūdra (where mahā means “great”, and mūdra means “gesture”), often translated as the Great Seal, is a Buddhist meditative tradition that emerged in India around the eighth and ninth centuries. The great Mahāmūdra Indian masters were Saraha, Shabari, Tilopa, Maitripa and Naropa. The Mahāmūdra transmissions entered Tibet between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, from Marpa to Milarepa and Gambopa. Most contemporary Tibetan Mahāmūdra masters rely on the teachings that are found in the works of Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (1513–87) and the ninth Karmapa Wangchouk Dorje (1555–1603)."<ref name=":0" />
*### Shingon
*## Theravāda Buddhism: this itself has huge internal diversity
*## Regional traditions
*### Contemporary Western Buddhism
*### Japanese New Religious Movements (Soka Gakkai)
*### Korean Buddhism
*### Nichiren Buddhism
*### Thai Forest Tradition
*### Tibetan Buddhism
*### Vietnamese Buddhism
*# [[Folk Traditions]] — According to the Pew Research Center, "An estimated 405 million people – or about 6% of the world’s total population – are adherents of folk or traditional religions. These are faiths that are closely associated with a particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe. They often have no formal creeds or sacred texts."<ref name=":1" />
*## African traditional religions
*## African Diasporic religions (Vodou, Candomblé, Umbanda)
*## Australian Aboriginal religions
*## Baltic paganism
*## Chinese folk religions
*## Native American religions
*## Nordic pre-Christian traditions
*## Pacific Islander religions
*## Slavic paganism
*## Vietnamese folk religion (Đạo Mẫu)
*# Other Traditions
*## Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophical Schools
*## Ancient Egypt
*## Confucianism
*## Druze faith
*## Falun Gong
*## Gnosticism
*## Hermetism
*## Jainism
*## Magical or occult practices
*## Mandaeism
*## Manichaeism
*## Martial Arts
*## [[Neoplatonism]]
*## New Religious Movements
*### Ásatrú/Heathenry
*### Baha'i Faith
*### Cao Dai
*### Discordianism
*### Druidry
*### IOT/Chaos
*### Japanese new religious movements (Oomoto, Seicho-no-Ie)
*### Kimbanguism
*### Neopaganism
*### Korean new religious movements (Cheondoism, Jeungsanism)
*### New Age spirituality
*### OTO
*### Raëlism
*### Rastafarianism
*### Samaritanism
*### Santeria
*### Scientology
*### Tenrikyo
*### Thelema
*### Vietnamese Hòa Hảo
*### Wicca
*## Orphism
*## Other
*## Perennialism
*## Shinto
*## Shamanism
*### Siberian shamanic traditions
*### Korean shamanism (Muism)
*## Sikhism
*## Spiritism
*## Western Esotericism
*### Alchemy
*### Astrology
*### Freemasonry
*### Gnosticism
*### Hermeticism
*### Illuminism
*### Kabbalah
*### Rosicrucianism
*### Tenrikyo
*### Theosophy
*## Taoism
*## Transcendental meditation
*## Western Mindfulness Movement
*## Yazidism
*## Zoroastrianism
== References ==

[[Category:Traditions]]

Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness

2026-02-13T14:42:18Z

OlivierSandilands: Changed redirect target from Tradition:Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness to Traditions:Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness

#REDIRECT [[Traditions:Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness]]

Traditions:Forms of spiritual emergency

2025-11-18T16:43:58Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Transpersonal psychology]]
The notion of Spiritual Emergency refers to critical forms of spiritual emergence — they are also called "transformational crises".<ref>Grof, S., & Grof, C. (Eds.). (1989). ''Spiritual emergency: when personal transformation becomes a crisis'' (1st ed). Tarcher ; Distributed by St. Martin’s Press, pp. 13 et seq ; Grof, C., & Grof, S. (1995). ''The stormy search for the self: understanding and living with spiritual emergency''. Thorsons, chap. 4. </ref> There is some overlap with the [[Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness]], however the spiritual emergencies are not reducible to these. Spiritual emergencies listed by the Grofs include:
* The Shamanic Crisis
* The Awakening of Kundalini
* Episodes of Unitive Consciousness ("peak experiences")
* Psychological Renewal through Return to the Center
* The Crisis of Psychic Opening
* Past-life Experiences
* Communications with Spirit Guides and "Channeling"
* Near-Death Experiences
* Experience of Close Encounters with UFOs
* Possession States

== Resources ==

# Bragdon, E. (1990). ''The call of spiritual emergency: from personal crisis to personal transformation'' (1st ed). Harper & Row.
# Evans, J., & Read, T. (Eds.). (2020). ''Breaking open: finding a way through spiritual emergency''. Aeon.
# Goretzki, M. (2007). ''The Differentiation of Psychosis and Spiritual Emergency'' [Dissertation, The University of Adelaide]. <nowiki>https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/47986/8/02whole.pdf</nowiki>
# Goretzki, M., & Thalbourne, M. A. (2013). Development Of A Spiritual Emergency Scale. ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'', ''45''(2), 105–117. atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-45-13-02-105.pdf
# Grof, C., & Grof, S. (1995). ''The stormy search for the self: understanding and living with spiritual emergency''. Thorsons.
# Grof, S., & Grof, C. (Eds.). (1989). ''Spiritual emergency: when personal transformation becomes a crisis'' (1st ed). Tarcher ; Distributed by St. Martin’s Press.
# Harris, K. P., Rock, A. J., & Clark, G. I. (2015). Spiritual Emergency, Psychosis And Personality: A Quantitative Investigation. ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'', ''47''(2), 263–285. <nowiki>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301731515_Spiritual_emergency_psychosis_and_personality_A_quantitative_investigation</nowiki>
# Harris, K. P., Rock, A. J., & Clark, G. I. (2019). Religious Or Spiritual Problem? The Clinical Relevance Of Identifying And Measuring Spiritual Emergency. ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'', ''51''(1), 89–118. <nowiki>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337782225_Religious_or_spiritual_problem_The_clinical_relevance_of_identifying_and_measuring_spiritual_emergency</nowiki>
# Harris, K. P., Rock, A. J., & Clark, G. I. (2020). Deﬁning Spiritual Emergency: A Content Validity Study. ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'', ''52''(1), 113–141. <nowiki>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348647627_Defining_Spiritual_Emergency_A_Content_Validity_Study</nowiki>
# Kaselionyte, J., & Gumley, A. (2019). Psychosis or spiritual emergency? A Foucauldian discourse analysis of case reports of extreme mental states in the context of meditation. ''Transcultural Psychiatry'', ''56''(5), 1094–1115. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461519861842</nowiki>
# Kogo, Y. (2002). Aum Shinrikyo and Spiritual Emergency. ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'', ''42''(4), 82–101. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/002216702237125</nowiki>
# Lukoff, D., Lu, F., & Turner, R. (1998). From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem: the Transpersonal Roots of the New DSM-IV Category. ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'', ''38''(2), 21–50. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678980382003</nowiki>
# Perry, J. W. (1999). ''Trials of the visionary mind: spiritual emergency and the renewal process''. State University of New York Press.
# Sedláková, H., & Řiháček, T. (2019). The Incorporation of a Spiritual Emergency Experience Into a Client’s Worldview: A Grounded Theory. ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'', ''59''(6), 877–897. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167816668114</nowiki>
# St. Arnaud, K. O., & Cormier, D. C. (2017). Psychosis or Spiritual Emergency: The Potential of Developmental Psychopathology for Differential Diagnosis. ''International Journal of Transpersonal Studies'', ''36''(2), 44–59. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2017.36.2.44</nowiki>
# Storm, L., & Goretzki, M. (2016). A Defense Of The Spiritual Emergency Scale: Emergency Vs. Emergence. ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'', ''48''(2), 190–209. Journal of Transpersonal Psychiatry Archive.

== References ==

Synthesis:Emergent Modalities

2025-09-20T11:00:41Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Movement-based practices */

What we call Emergent modalities covers a wide range of different practices and approaches. Since the present page belongs to the "synthesis" layer, it adopts a tentative system (in-progress) according to levels and targets of practice, based on the [[Synthesis:Multidimensional Framework|Multidimensional Framework]], which aims to help accomodate both emic and etic practices and perspectives, and integrate traditional and non-traditional terms and views while using hopefully neutral and descriptive language.

= Individual level =

== Breathing exercises ==
Exemples of traditional practices involving breathing exercises include, g-Tummo Breathing, Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya Yoga. More recently developed protocols are also common (e.g. [[Grof Breathwork]], [[Wim Hof Breathing]]...), while some clinical approaches also incorporate breathing exercises like [[cardiac coherence]], usually for relaxation and health benefits rather than to induce EPEEs. From a general health perspective, nose breathing is better than mouth breathing.<ref>https://health.clevelandclinic.org/breathe-mouth-nose</ref> These approaches can be more or less intense, and more intense breathing exercises, sometimes collectively referred to as High Ventilation Breathwork Practices (HVB), can induce profound modulations of experience.

Note that such approaches can be dangerous and contraindicated for individuals with certain conditions such as neurological, respiratory, or cardiovascular diseases, epilepsy, mental health issues (e.g. PTSD, anxious tendencies, or panic disorders), pregnancy, and more.<ref name=":0">Fincham, G. W., Kartar, A., Uthaug, M. V., Anderson, B., Hall, L., Nagai, Y., Critchley, H., & Colasanti, A. (2023). High ventilation breathwork practices: An overview of their effects, mechanisms, and considerations for clinical applications. ''Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews'', ''155'', 105453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105453</ref> This is especially the case of more forceful approaches, in particular when combined with e.g. cold water immersion, as in the case of the Wim Hof Method. It should always be made evident that any practitioners attempting to practice HVB alone must be in a safe environment, especially away from water, hard surfaces or anywhere and any situation in which HVB risks harm to oneself or others, and particularly where fainting could prove fatal.<ref name=":0" /> Please consult with a doctor before you engage in such practices.

== Dietary approaches ==
Fasting

== Heat and Cold ==
Cold exposure, Sweat Lodge, Sauna.

== Individual practices involving mostly mental activities ==
Recently, some authors have proposed that an efficient alternative when attempting to characterize specific practice styles, is to let go their cultural embedding and type, and instead describe the actual internal gestures and their sequence involved, using a repertoire of structural terms, specifically: "Observe", "Release", "Stay Open", "Let Go", "Focus", "Apply", "Sustain", "Produce", "Imagine", "Create", "Prolong", "Move", "Place", "Maintain", — which can involve and infinite number of possible objects or subjects of "meditation" — which can then form a gestural "score" of sorts.<ref>Sparby, T., & Sacchet, M. D. (2022). Defining Meditation: Foundations for an Activity-Based Phenomenological Classification System. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''12'', 795077. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.795077</ref> This is a promising approach, yet, for our present purposes we will mention a few common types of such practices.

Épochè

Meditation — Meditative and contemplative practices can be found in the world's religious and spiritual traditions, and beyond into secular and even clinical contexts. It is thus virtually impossible to list all of them.

Hesychasm

Vipassanā Meditation — The Hierarchy of Vipassana Practice; Stage-related recommendations

Prayer

== Individual practices involving an external technology, contraption, or support ==
Electric stimulation

[[Floatation tanks]]

Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy)

Lectio divina

Listening to a recording of a text

Neurofeedback

Olfactory Epithelium Stimulation with odorless air at a frequency of 0.05Hz

Visual stimulation

3 Hz visual flicker stimulation

10 Hz visual flicker stimulation

== Movement-based practices ==
Dancing

TaKeTiNa

Yoga

== Musical or rhythmic practices ==

Chanting

Listening to music

Sama'a

Shamanic drumming

== Pharmacological approaches ==

=== Psychoactive substances ===
1P-LSD

2C-B

5-MeO-DMT (e.g. Synthetic, Toad, Yopo)

Ayahuasca

Buspirone

Carvedilol

Clonidine

Cocaine

D-Amphetamine

Dextromethorphan

D-Methamphetamine

Doxazosin

DMT

Ergotamine

Ethanol

Heroin

Ibogaine

Kambô

Ketamine

Ketanserin

Lactose

LSD

Mazindol

Mannitol

Mescaline

Methylphenidate

MDA

MDE

MDMA

Modafinil

Naltrexone

Niacin

N, N-DMT(ayahuasca)

Pindolol

Psilocybin

Reboxetine

Salvia Divinorum

Salvinorin-A

THC

Triazolam

== Sensory deprivation ==
Ganzfeld

Ganzfeld (brown auditory noise)

Ganzfeld (green)

Ganzfeld (red)

Ganzfeld (violet auditory noise)

Ganzfeld (white auditory noise)

= Relational practices and approaches =
Hypnosis

Conducting hypnosis on others

= Group practices and approaches =
Liturgy

Kirtan

= Environmental practices and approaches =
Approaches involving the [[Natural Cycles]]

Meditating on the elements (Fire, Water, Earth, etc.)

Approaches involving natural features of [[Geography|Geography or]] [[Geology]] (Sacred mountains, Water stretches, etc.)

Approaches related with [[Fauna]] and [[Flora]] (e.g. Forest bathing<ref>Berghmans, C. (2023b). L’impact de l’exposition à la nature (bain de forêts) sur la santé mentale : une revue d’études contrôlées et randomisées et une analyse des processus d’action. The impact of exposure to nature (forest bathing) on mental health: A review of randomized controlled trials and an analysis of action processes. L’Évolution Psychiatrique, S001438552300083X. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evopsy.2023.06.003</ref> or Shinrin Yoku, ...)

Approaches related with cosmic elements and [[Cosmic Influences]] (Sun Dance, Sky gazing, ritual calendars related with cosmic events [like Vesak, the liturgical year, Christmas, the Solstices, ...], etc.)

=References=

Synthesis:Psychology

2025-09-04T23:54:00Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Developmentally generative or disruptive dispositions */

Human psychology is rich and complex. The present page presents some of its aspects that seem of particular relevance for various purposes of the EmergeWiki.

== Attachment style ==
Cherniak (2022) proposes to explore the relationship between attachment-styles and the phenomenology, mechanisms and outcomes of psychedelic experiences. According to Attachment Theorist Bowlby, Internal Working Models (IWMs) of ''Self'' and ''Others'' developed through relationship with early caregivers will determine and crystallize into attachment styles or orientations, including two essential dimensions: attachment anxiety (linked to image of self as lovable) and attachment-related avoidance (see summary in Cherniak, 2022).

However it may well be that (1) these two dimensions can vary quite a bit through an individual's life, and (2) depend on factors which are far more diverse than just the relationship with primary caregivers (for instance, bad personal circumstances, e.g. a depressive episode or lack of emotional skill due to lack of cultural know how about this) mixed with strong identification, can lead to lots of shame about one's self and lead to attachment avoidance and anxiety… which may have nothing to do with how the person was treated by their parents.

Others have argued that 6 months to 2 years of age is also not taking into account the importance of peri-natal experiences in the development of attachment etc.

Further, attachment-style, on top of possibly changing radically over time, can also vary according to things such as bilinguality. Bi-cultural individuals sometime report different attachment styles and emotional worlds according to the language and cultural world of respective parents.

There are also more deeply cultural differences in attachment styles. Some cultures are more weary in relationships in general. So there are cultural determinants here as well.

Similarly, ecological factors can play a strong role. Someone who had great caregivers but finds themselves in a situation of chronic deprivation of any need, may become relationally extremely anxious/avoidant, etc. Is that an attachment style?

Furthermore, what is more determinant in the process: the early experiences with caregivers shaping negative IWM of self and others and then determining fixed attachment styles ? Or, the IWM themselves ? Can someone who had good early experiences still develop negative IWM for other reasons ? Many practices involve working on representations of self and others as a way to happiness and well-being. For instance, Daniel P. Brown has written a book for "comprehensive treatment of attachment problems in adults" based on the perfect parent protocol and a re-shaping of self and other representations which seems very functional. This would suggest that the IWMs themselves are more important, to a certain degree.

== Fluidity/flexibility of consciousness ==
A major outcome of meditation, with e.g. Francisco Varela describing buddhist meditation as "the fixed mind becoming unfixed"<ref>Varela, F. J. (2017). ''Le Cercle Créateur: Écrits, 1976–2001. [The Creative Circle: Writings, 1976–2001].'' Éditions du Seuil.</ref>, fluidity of consciousness is one of the main goals and mechanisms of psychotherapies according to Drs. Vion-Dury and Mougin (2016), according to whom “all therapies […] are therapeutic because they generate particular modalizations of consciousness, which could be said to open up a new way for consciousness to function […] it seems possible to subsume all psychotherapies under the general concept of therapies that regulate the modalizations of consciousness”.<ref>Vion-Dury, J., & Mougin, G. (2016). Modalisations Of The Consciousness Field: A Phenomenological And Morphodynamic Approach. ''PSN - psychiatrie, sciences humaines, neurosciences''. https://hal.science/hal-01580235/document</ref> The Questionnaire for the Evaluation of the Fluidity of Consciousness (QEFC) involves 4 factors: Availability to self and environment, Letting go, Relative passivity in the face of the world, Acceptance of change.<ref>Vion-Dury, J., Mougin, G., Chen, C.-Y., Turcq, S., & Begnis, M. (2021). « Lâcher prise » et fluidité de la conscience. Mise au point d’un questionnaire d’évaluation, d’inspiration phénoménologique [“Letting go” and fluidity of consciousness. Development of a phenomenologically inspired evaluation questionnaire]. ''Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique'', ''179''(1), 44–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amp.2020.02.011</ref> This might be correlated with some physiological markers of "cognitive health" such as default-mode network functional connectivity and a person's ability to fluidly switch between different modes of processing —highlighted by anti-correlated functional connectivity.<ref>Tripathi, V., Batta, I., Zamani, A., Atad, D. A., Sheth, S. K. S., Zhang, J., Wager, T. D., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Uddin, L. Q., Prakash, R. S., & Bauer, C. C. C. (2025). Default mode network functional connectivity as a transdiagnostic biomarker of cognitive function. ''Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging'', S2451902225000151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.12.016</ref>

== Imagination ==
There is a link between «vividness of mental imagery and transe ability»,<ref>Locke, R. G., & Kelly, E. F. (1985). A Preliminary Model for the Cross-Cultural Analysis of Altered States of Consciousness. ''Ethos'', ''13''(1), 3–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/640008, p. 17</ref> with fantasy proneness and creativity possibly representing predisposing factors for "altered-states of consciousness"<ref>Locke & Kelly, ''op. cit.'', p. 21 </ref>, but also between daydreaming, and particularly “maladaptive daydreaming”, childhood adversities, and dissociative disorders.<ref>Ross, C. A., Ridgway, J., & George, N. (2020). Maladaptive Daydreaming, Dissociation, and the Dissociative Disorders. ''Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice'', ''2''(2), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20190050</ref><ref>Somer, E., Soffer-Dudek, N., & Ross, C. A. (2017). The Comorbidity of Daydreaming Disorder (Maladaptive Daydreaming). ''Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease'', ''205''(7), 525–530. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000685</ref> This is very relevant in the case of meditation or psychedelic-induced depersonalization/derealization or dissociation, possession-like phenomena in various emergent traditions, etc. Note that maladaptive daydreaming is opposed to the QEFC characteristics of “availability to self and environment” and “letting go”, suggesting such individuals have low levels of “fluidity of consciousness” and instead live in a rigid mode seemingly linked with some dysfunction.

== Personality, character, dispositions ==
One should be careful not to be excessively individualistic, rigid, categorical, and stereotypical, i.e., they do not take into account social, familial, developmental, emotional context and the possibility of change depending on these things, or various practices, etc. A person may be very sensitive/nervous in a certain context and not at all in others.

Emmons and Paloutzian (2003) note that "spiritually-transformative experiences" have little effect on core traits like the Big 5, but can profoundly transform other mid-level aspects of personality like "goals, attitudes, feelings, behaviors".<ref name=":1">Emmons, R. A., & Paloutzian, R. F. (2003). The Psychology of Religion. ''Annual Review of Psychology'', ''54''(1), 377–402. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145024</ref> Whether this is true of longer term cultivation is an open question. It may be that these traits can change more deeply with repeated cultivation. In any case, this observation echoes, on the psychological level, the idea that emergent practices are unlikely to alter deep aspects of physiology like composition of organs or bone structure.

=== Developmentally generative or disruptive dispositions ===
According to Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007), “throughout the life course, human development takes place through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment [the authors call this “proximal processes”].<ref name=":0">Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2007). The Bioecological Model of Human Development. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), ''Handbook of Child Psychology'' (1st ed.). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0114</ref> To be effective, the interaction must occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time”.<ref name=":0" /> In other words, development results from the repetition and complexification of a given activity.

This is an important topic for us, since it underscores how long-term cultivation or training, such as meditative practices, contemplation, or prayer, which are practiced regularly over a long time in various practice schools and paths, holds higher developmental possibilities and perhaps involves different causalities compared with singular episodes or transient experiences—as was already noted by William James in ''Varieties of Religious Experiences''.<ref>James, W. (2005). ''The Varieties Of Religious Experience: A Study In Human Nature : Being The Gifford Lectures On Natural Religion Delievered At Edinburgh In 1901-1902''. Adamant media corporation.</ref>

Certain "predispositions [to action]" are "shapers of development", while others disrupt potential for development.<ref name=":0" /> General predispositions considered as generative of development, because they lead one to engage in activities that lead to repeated and learning include (1) curiosity, (2) a tendency to initiate and engage in activity alone or with others, and (3) readiness to defer immediate gratification to pursue long term goals.<ref name=":0" />

By contrast, generally disruptive predispositions include traits that lead to (1) ''difficulty controlling emotions and behaviors'', like impulsiveness, explosiveness, distractibility, inability to defer gratification, and ready resort to aggression and violence, and (2) ''a tendency to withdraw or avoid activity'', like apathy, inattentiveness, unresponsiveness, lack of interest in surroundings, or feeling insecure.<ref name=":0" /> Although there is an innate component, and individuals will be more or less fortunate with what make up they start with, these qualities can certainly also be cultivated or managed through various approaches and practices.

It should be noted that whether a disposition is considered disruptive or generative in part depends on what is being developed (i.e., a given disposition may hinder the development of some skills seen as desirable, but may be helpful to develop other capacities also seen as desirable).

Furthermore, while the question of which skills and qualities are seen as desirable or not is culturally-relative to a significant degree, there may be core common themes. For example Buddhism describes lists of hindrances seen as obstacles to the cultivation of desirable mind states and spiritual development in general, which are ill will, greed, sloth, restlessness and worry, doubt. These largely intersect with the characters described above, and exploring the world's great ethical and moral systems, we would likely find many similarities with it as well.

=== Virtues and Strengths ===

==== Common virtues in the world's religions ====
Emmons and Palutzian (2003) underscore that the main R/S traditions (the Abrahamic traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and more) all value dispositions such as forgiveness, love, hope, humility, gratitude, self-control, and wisdom; the opposites of these virtues or strengths, vices or weaknesses, being grudginess, hate, despair, arrogance, ingratitude, lack of self-control, and foolishness.<ref name=":1" /> They can also be seen as values.

These dispositions are widely recognized as conducive to inner strength, resilience, physical and psychological well-being, prosociality, and are protective from depression and other challenging mental states.<ref>McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J.-A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''82''(1), 112–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.112</ref><ref>Schimmel, S. (2000). Vices, Virtues and Sources of Human Strength in Historical Perspective. ''Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology'', ''19''(1), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2000.19.1.137</ref><ref name=":2">Emmons & Palutzian, ''op. cit.'', p. 387</ref> While in large part predispositions, these qualities can be voluntarily developed by a person, cultivated, and belonging to a group which collectively seeks to abide by such principles can be a huge help in this.

===== Love =====
Love is endlessly praised as the most fundamental source of individual and collective wellbeing and goodness.

For instance, the essential ethical principle of the new-testament and thus of Christianity, the Great Commandment, is to love. The most ancient gospel, that of Mark, 12, 29–31, where Jesus answers the question "What is the most important commandment?", actually starts with the Sh'ma, a foundational Hebrew prayer: '''29''' “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. '''30''' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' '''31''' The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The other Gospels as well as other new-testament sections reiterate this, with John, 15:12: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" and again, 17: "This is my command: Love each other." Corinthians, 1:13: "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. '''2''' If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. '''3''' If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing [...]'''13''' And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Song of songs, 8:6–7: <blockquote>"Place me like a seal over your heart,

like a seal on your arm;

for love is as strong as death,

its ardor unyielding as the grave.

It burns like blazing fire,

like a mighty flame.

'''7''' Many waters cannot quench love;

rivers cannot sweep it away."</blockquote>Buddhism also gives immense praise to the virtue of Love: "There is no greater virtue than practicing love everyday". Dhammapada 1:5: " Hatred is never ceased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law." The Itivuttaka, 27, states that "In all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and radiates."

Some of the acquired benefits are cited by Nāgārjuna, in the ''Mahaprajñaparamita shastra'' (as quoted by Thich Nhat Hahn, 2007): "Practicing the mind of immeasurable love puts an end to anger in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the mind of immeasurable compassion puts an end to sorrow and torment in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the mind of immeasurable joy puts an end to sadness and grief in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the spirit of immeasurable equanimity puts an end to hatred, division and attachment in the hearts of living beings."

These four — loving kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity — are the four "immeasurables" and are often considered as indispensible aspects of "love" in Buddhism. In AN 11:16 we find that one who practices love sleeps easily, wakes easily, dreams no nightmares, is dear to human beings, dear to non-human beings, protected, gains concentration quickly, has a bright complexion, and... dies unconfused (among other more culturally specific benefits).

Practical ways to develop the immeasurables, Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity, can be found in many good modern sources such as Thich Nhat Hahn's excellent ''Teachings on love''. Traditional practical instructions can also be found in the discourse on love SN 1:8.

===== Hope =====

===== Humility =====

===== Gratitude =====

===== Self-control =====

===== Wisdom =====

==== Virtue, inner strength and social wellbeing ====
It is interesting to note that these dispositions and virtues influence and are influenced by [[Beliefs and Worldviews|directive and paradigmatic beliefs]], can alter [[Perception|perceptions]] and [[emotions]], and influence social behaviors, among other things. For instance, a high degree conviction in the perspective that life itself is a gift will likely affect the way we perceive our surroundings and those around us, make it easier to develop an attitude and feelings of gratitude, leading to a pleasant mental state and likely to prosocial behavior in most cases.<ref name=":2" /> These originally "intrapsychic" dynamics can thus have ripple effects, impacting one's direct social circles, and beyond.

This is confirmed by recent findings, of a more pragmatic and instrumental nature — i.e. focusing on the "benefits" of love for mental health and social cohesion, and the positive influence of belonging to a religion/spirituality that invites cultivation of such virtues, a meta-analysis of clinical trials on the effects of "kindness-based meditation" (KBM) found that "KBM showed evidence of benefits for the health of individuals and communities through its effects on wellbeing and social interaction."<ref>Galante, J., Galante, I., Bekkers, M.-J., & Gallacher, J. (2014). Effect of kindness-based meditation on health and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology'', ''82''(6), 1101–1114. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037249</ref><ref>Galante, J., Bekkers, M., Mitchell, C., & Gallacher, J. (2016). Loving‐Kindness Meditation Effects on Well‐Being and Altruism: A Mixed‐Methods Online RCT. ''Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being'', ''8''(3), 322–350. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12074</ref> Beyond the individual, this ties in to health and wellness at the sociocultural level.

Along similar empirical lines, a 2024 survey on 239,692 individuals across 65 countries found that regions of the world where people reported that they felt a lot of love for their fellow humans, also reported much higher levels of wellbeing. More specifically, (1) those who are spiritual love and care for the wellbeing of a wider circle of people, while those who are atheist are five times more likely to love no-one; (2) the increase in mental wellbeing gained through spirituality arises through the increase in one’s feelings of love and care for others, and spirituality without love and care for others does not have mental wellbeing benefits; (3) active religious practice is associated with a higher likelihood of spirituality and love for others, regardless of religious affiliation; (4) More religious regions of the world have greater love for others led by Latin America, South-East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Europe and Oceania have the least love for others with United Kingdom and Germany having the lowest among all countries from which data was collected.<ref>Sapien Labs. (2024a). ''Mental Wellbeing, Religion and the Love You Give'' (Global Mind Project). https://sapienlabs.org/wellbeing-religion-love-you-give/</ref>

These findings — a small sample of existing literature... — confirm the pragmatic value of such wisdom, yet gives a gloomy picture of the state of western societies in this regard. For instance the SapienLab report on "global mental wellbeing" for 2023 found that "as in previous years, several African and Latin American countries topped the country rankings, while wealthier countries of the Core Anglosphere such as the United Kingdom and Australia are towards the bottom. This pattern suggests that greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental wellbeing."<ref name=":3">Sapien Labs. (2024b). ''The Mental State of the World in 2023. A Perspective on Internet-Enabled Populations'' (Global Mind Project). https://mentalstateoftheworld.report</ref> Such considerations should have impact on individual life choices but also in policy decisions.
==== In positive psychology ====
[[Positive psychology]] writers have put forward 24 character strengths and virtues of: creativity curiosity judgment love of learning perspective courage bravery honesty perseverance zest kindness love social intelligence fairness leadership teamwork forgiveness humility prudence self regulation appreciation of beauty and excellence gratitude hope humor spirituality (Peterson and Seligman, 2004).

==== Beyond utilitarianism ====
We should not dilute the value of virtue in a purely utilitarian/instrumentalist (or spiritually materialist) view of these as sources of relative well-being. These strengths and virtues can be elevated to extraordinary levels, and lead to almost superhuman resilience in the face of adversity, as exemplified by historical and mythical or semi-mythical figures such as Etty Hillesum, Jesus, the Bodhisattvas, the Martyrs, etcetera.

=== Personality traits ===
Many theories of core personality traits existe. The Five factor model (FFM or Big five) is based on five pairs of personality traits:

* openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
* conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
* extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
* agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/rational)
* neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)

A more detailed theory is Cattell's 16 personality factors, which can be tested using the [https://people.wku.edu/richard.miller/520%2016PF%20Cattell%20and%20Mead.pdf 16PF personality questionnaire]:

* Warmth (A)
* Reasoning (B)
* Emotional Stability (C)
* Dominance (E)
* Liveliness (F)
* Rule-Consciousness (G)
* Social Boldness (H)
* Sensitivity (I)
* Vigilance (L)
* Abstractedness (M)
* Privateness (N)
* Apprehension (O)
* Openness to Change (Q1)
* Self-Reliance (Q2)
* Perfectionism (Q3)
* Tension (Q4)<ref>Conn, S. R., Rieke, M. L., & Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (Eds.). (1994). ''The 16PF fifth edition technical manual''. Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.</ref>

Jungian/Brigg-Meyers 16 types

Rush, M. (2019). An Evaluation of Jung’s Psychological Types and Their Relationship to Psychopathology. ''Psychotherapy Section Review'', ''63''(Spring), 32–39.

=== Emotional intelligence and skills ===

=== Meta-cognition ===
The capacity to be aware of our internal emotional states, to recognize them, to name them, and to act on them, a skill set that involves metacognition and emotional intelligence, is important in the context of cultivating a healthy mind and well-being.

=== Empathy ===

=== Absorption ===
Some research shows that the "Absorption" trait is connected with a tendency to have "dramatic" spiritual experiences, such as Lifshitz ''et al.'' (2019), or Corneille & Luke (2021). About the Tellenger absorption scale, see Jamieson (2005).

=== Hypnotizability/suggestability ===
This is related to the former (absorption) - the first scale measuring "absorption", the Telleger scale, was originally devised to measure "hypnotizability". Some like Dr Ian Wickramasekera (2020) suggest that "hypnotizability" and "mind-body talent" for dzogchen and other practices are connected.

Angelini, F. J., Kumar, V. K., & Chandler, L. (1999). The harvard group scale of hypnotic susceptibility and related instruments: Individual and group administrations. ''International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis'', ''47''(3), 236–250. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/00207149908410035</nowiki>

According to Taves (2020 ), LSD "robustly enhances suggestibility" affecting "those who score high on conscientiousness the most. This may have implications on appraisals of experience, hedonic tone, and subsequent impact.

=== Resilience ===

=== Schizotypy ===
Research has explored links between this personality trait and SE(Y), see e.g. Harris, ''et al.'', (2019). This particular article correlates positive schizotypal traits with SE(Y) proneness.

=== TLL (Temporal Lobe Lability) ===
This has been correlated with a tendency to have "spontaneous spiritual awakenings", e.g. in Corneille & Luke (2021)

=== Playfulness ===
(Winnicott, Play and reality; Piaget, Plays, dreams and imitation)

Playing is an important aspect of developing a healthy sense of self and of reality according to Winnicott and Piaget. In fact according to Bailly (2001), "Winnicott considers that what makes a child capable of play amounts to questioning "what makes life worth living" (Winnicott, 1971)" Bailly, R. (2001). Le jeu dans l'œuvre de D.W. Winnicott. Enfances & Psy, 15, 41-45. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3917/ep.015.0041</nowiki>. One may wonder about the role of seriousness/rigidity VS playfulness/fluidity in reaction styles to EPEEs and how this could lead to DPDR/Psychosis/Disorders. Considered within a developmental perspective, play is clearly a generator of development. Maintaining a playful attitude may well be a crucial though often overlooked aspect of any training, in particular within the context of "spiritual", contemplative, and related practices.

IQ

Latent Inhibition

Cognitive style

Divergent VS Convergent "Cognitive style" have been linked with proneness to Esthetic Experiences (Schaeffer, 2016)

=== Beliefs and psychological narratives ===
Directive beliefs,<ref name=":0" /> i.e. various beliefs that directly influence attitudes and behaviors such as class-related beliefs, etc. Targeted by [[positive psychology]], CBT, Schema therapy, Coherence therapy, various philosophical schools like stoicism, etc.

=== Difficulties and challenges ===

=== Ideation ===

=== Insights ===

=== Skills ===

=== Sociability ===

== Defense mechanisms ==
Originally written about by Freud, the psychological defense mechanisms describe various ways of relating to challenging situations, described as mature, neurotic, or psychotic.<ref>Di Giuseppe, M., & Perry, J. C. (2021). The Hierarchy of Defense Mechanisms: Assessing Defensive Functioning With the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales Q-Sort. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''12'', 718440. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718440</ref> The mature defense mechanisms include Affiliation, Anticipation, Humor, Self-acceptance, Self-observation, Sublimation, and Suppression. These can be viewed as effective coping strategies and skills which can be developed, leading to a mature and functional personality makeup.

== Level of ego-development ==
Loevinger, Wilber, Cook-Greuter, O'Fallon, Angerer (see Roman Angerer's attempt to cross-reference some of the post-conventional levels)

Conventional

Post-conventional

My review of Cook-Greuter

Ego/Superego/Id

== Self-esteem and self-image ==

== Personality disorders ==
Schizoid/Schizotypy/all risk factors for meditation-related psychosis (Charan et al. 2003)

== Biography and personal history ==

=== Trauma ===

==== A potential risk-factor ====
Much recent research views trauma as a risk factor for challenging emergent phenomena and developing complications,<ref>Canby, N. K., Cosby, E. A., Palitsky, R., Kaplan, D. M., Lee, J., Mahdavi, G., Lopez, A. A., Goldman, R. E., Eichel, K., Lindahl, J. R., & Britton, W. B. (2025). Childhood trauma and subclinical PTSD symptoms predict adverse effects and worse outcomes across two mindfulness-based programs for active depression. ''PLOS ONE'', ''20''(1), e0318499. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318499</ref><ref>Lindahl, J. (2017). Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists. Religions, 8(8), 153. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8080153</ref><ref>Ross, C. A., & Browning, E. (2018). Altered states of consciousness among inpatients in a Trauma Program. ''Journal of Trauma & Dissociation'', ''19''(5), 596–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2018.1451807</ref><ref>Zhu, J., Wekerle, C., Lanius, R., & Frewen, P. (2019). Trauma- and Stressor-Related History and Symptoms Predict Distress Experienced during a Brief Mindfulness Meditation Sitting: Moving toward Trauma-Informed Care in Mindfulness-Based Therapy. ''Mindfulness'', ''10''(10), 1985–1996. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01173-z</ref> as well as linked with psychosis, schizotypy, and dissociation.<ref>Read, J., & Ross, C. A. (2003). Psychological Trauma and Psychosis: Another Reason Why People Diagnosed Schizophrenic Must Be Offered Psychological Therapies. ''The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry'', ''31''(1), 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1521/jaap.31.1.247.21938</ref><ref>Quidé, Y., Watkeys, O. J., Tonini, E., Grotegerd, D., Dannlowski, U., Nenadić, I., Kircher, T., Krug, A., Hahn, T., Meinert, S., Goltermann, J., Gruber, M., Stein, F., Brosch, K., Wroblewski, A., Thomas-Odenthal, F., Usemann, P., Straube, B., Alexander, N., … Green, M. J. (2023). Childhood trauma moderates schizotypy-related brain morphology: analyses of 1182 healthy individuals from the ENIGMA schizotypy working group. ''Psychological Medicine'', 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291723003045</ref> However, trauma is not necessarily predictive of distress or challenging EPEEs, e.g. Lindahl et al. (2019) found no correlation between higher trauma history and distress in experiences of “self-loss”.<ref>Lindahl, J. R., & Britton, W. B. (2019). “I have this feeling of not really being here”: Buddhist meditation and changes in sense of self. ''Journal of Consciousness Studies'', ''26''(7–8), 157–183. https://www.imprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lindahl_Open_Access.pdf</ref>

How trauma is defined and its exact nature is the source of some debate. Some authors have minimized the importance of trauma and stressed the importance of present circumstances for people's life difficulties. Psychoanalytic writers have sometimes relativized the weight of trauma and adverse experiences, such as jungian psychologist James Hillman, who was very critical of the notion, while Freud wrote "there are no traumas, only traumatized people".

Regardless, those wishing to engage with [[Emergent Modalities]] like meditation or psychedelics, particularly more intense ones, should be informed of the fact that "trauma", however defined, having undergone very stressful events like adverse childhood experiences, currently being "traumatized", etc., can pose additional risks.

==== Working with trauma ====
There is a broad variety of approaches to work with trauma<ref>Ross, C. A., & Halpern, N. (2009). ''Trauma Model Therapy: A Treatment Approach for Trauma Dissociation and Complex Comorbidity'' (Manitou Communications).</ref><ref>Treleaven, D. A. (2018). ''Trauma-sensitive mindfulness: practices for safe and transformative healing'' (First edition). W. W Norton & Company.</ref> like the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol<ref>Parra, F., George, C., Kalalou, K., & Januel, D. (2017). Ideal Parent Figure method in the treatment of complex posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood trauma: a pilot study. ''European Journal of Psychotraumatology'', ''8''(1), 1400879. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1400879</ref>, EMDR, ... Brown et al. (2019) report a clinical case of a woman diagnosed with DID and severe attachment disturbances who was severely and chronically abused by their father as a child, underscore that she received successful treatment using the Ideal Parent Figure protocol which uses imagination over a period of two years, without any trauma processing techniques being applied. It is interesting to note that things like the ideal parent figure protocol seem built into many traditional practices of the various religions, e.g. for Christians, cultivating one's identity as "sons of God", the supreme and perfect being, might well have effects similar or more potent than the protocolled version of IPF, just like "mindfulness meditation" is built into many traditional practices, but these traditional practices usually involve many other components beyond simply paying nonjudgmental attention to the present moment, likely leading to more complex effects.

While some [[Emergent Modalities]] may be contraindicated for some individuals with trauma and PTSD symptoms, there is also some preliminary evidence that approaches like mindfulness-meditation or some psychedelics (like MDMA or DMT in some cases) may help treat trauma.<ref>Banks, K., Newman, E., & Saleem, J. (2015). An Overview of the Research on Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Treating Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review: Mindfulness and PTSD. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', ''71''(10), 935–963. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22200

</ref><ref>Netzer, O., Magal, N., Stern, Y., Polinsky, T., Gross, R., Admon, R., & Salomon, R. (2024). ''Trauma Under Psychedelics: MDMA Shows Protective Effects During the Peritraumatic Period''. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.28.587237

</ref><ref>Ragnhildstveit, A., Khan, R., Seli, P., Bass, L. C., August, R. J., Kaiyo, M., Barr, N., Jackson, L. K., Gaffrey, M. S., Barsuglia, J. P., & Averill, L. A. (2023). 5-MeO-DMT for post-traumatic stress disorder: a real-world longitudinal case study. ''Frontiers in Psychiatry'', ''14'', 1271152. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1271152</ref> More research is needed to understand when and for whom such approaches will be helpful or on the contrary lead to worse outcomes.
=== Family history and early development ===

==== Mother–infant relationship ====
Good mother–infant relations, involving an attentive and responsive mother attuned to the child's needs, mitigates negative factors on development (such as low socioeconomic status or low birth weight) (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2007). Brown et al. (2016) consider that attachment-styles in adulthood largely depend on positive or negative self-image, image of others, and positive relationship representations, which are likely heavily influenced by early attachment needs. They claim that relationships with early caregivers lead to the development of a sense of self that mirrors the relationship, the development of “internalized working models” (IWM) which are self-reinforcing and will influence future relationships. Various emergent practices work with self-image, image of the other, identification with ideal figures, to develop positive relationships/images of self/other and related sense of safety and emotional warmth, so this is likely an important area to consider (see the Attachment and Self-image sections above).

==== Environment ====
Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007) underscore that “features of the environment most frequently and strongly associated with individual differences in cognitive competence” include “a physically responsive environment, presence of sheltered areas, instability and unpredictability of events, the “degree to which the physical set-up of the home permits exploration,” low level of noise and confusion, and “the degree of temporal regularity”.<ref>''Ibid''., p. 30</ref> As noted earlier, it follows from such findings that effective proximal processes [i.e. processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment, occuring on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time — see above]<ref name=":0" /> cannot function effectively in environments that are unstable and unpredictable across space and time. <blockquote>“The degree of stability, consistency, and predictability over time in any element of the systems constituting the ecology of human development is critical for the effective operation of the system in question. Extremes either of disorganization or rigidity in structure or function represent danger signs for potential psychological growth, with some intermediate degree of system flexibility constituting the optimal condition for human development. In research design, this proposition points to the importance of assessing the degree of stability versus instability, with respect to characteristics of Process, Person, Context, and Time.”<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Family structure (single parent, remarried, two parents), socioeconomic status, absence or presence of relatives, level of parental monitoring, all play a role in normal personal and psychological develpopment.

==== Family history and family type ====
Family history is a key component in the constitution of an individual's psychology. For instance, a family history of psychosis is a risk-factor for meditation induced psychosis,<ref>Charan, D., Sharma, P., Kachhawaha, G., Kaur, G., & Gupta, S. (2023). Meditation Practices and the Onset of Psychosis: A Case Series and Analysis of Possible Risk Factors. ''Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine'', ''45''(1), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/02537176211059457</ref> and psychopathology and personality dysfunction are linked with family environment and adult attachment.<ref>Riggs, S. A., Sahl, G., Greenwald, E., Atkison, H., Paulson, A., & Ross, C. A. (2007). Family Environment and Adult Attachment as Predictors of Psychopathology and Personality Dysfunction Among Inpatient Abuse Survivors. ''Violence and Victims'', ''22''(5), 577–600. https://doi.org/10.1891/088667007782312159</ref>

At the anthropological level, historical family type (egalitarian/authoritarian, nuclear/communitarian, endogamous/exogamous, etc.<ref>Todd, E. (1985), Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems, Oxford: Blackwell.</ref>) is a profound determinant of individual psychology, which likely deeply impacts higher levels of sociocultural realities such as political and economic development. Family type formation is influenced by religion among other factors, and in turn shapes ethical values and norms, which over the course of history in the long run has direct impact on (1) ideological convictions, (2) state formation, (3) constitutional structure, and (4) post-constitutional outcomes of societies.<ref>Gutmann, J., & Voigt, S. (2022). Testing Todd: family types and development. ''Journal of Institutional Economics'', ''18''(1), 101–118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137421000175</ref>

Interestingly, what could be seen as negative outcomes or disruptive elements from one perspective (grief, trauma, loss...), can also have positive outcomes in other ways or on different dimensions (e.g. personal turmoil sometimes leads to "conversion" type experiences, reorientation of one's existence in a more positive direction).<ref>Taylor, S. (2013). The Peak at the Nadir: Psychological Turmoil as the Trigger for Awakening Experiences. ''International Journal of Transpersonal Studies'', ''32''(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2013.32.2.1</ref><ref>Yaden, D. B., & Newberg, A. (2022). ''The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.</ref> This is a very common theme in relation with [[Emergent Phenomena]]: suffering, loss, grief, accidents, and otherwise seemingly undesirable events, often bring on different forms of development which ultimately may lead a person to regard these "negative" circumstances as a gift. This is James Hillman's fundamental critique of the notion of trauma and the "adversarial" relationship of many psychotherapeutic approaches inherent in the very appraisal of life events as fundamentally undesirable, alien, disorders, etc.<ref>Hillman, J., & Ventura, M. (1992). ''We’ve had a hundred years of psychotherapy-- and the world’s getting worse'' (1. ed). HarperSanFrancisco.</ref> How one interprets an event as adverse or not definitely impacts outcomes including in the context of meditation,<ref>Lindahl, J. R., Palitsky, R., Cooper, D. J., & Britton, W. B. (2022). The roles and impacts of worldviews in the context of meditation-related challenges. ''Transcultural Psychiatry'', 136346152211286. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615221128679</ref> and working with one's appraisal and relationship with perceived life challenges is a perennial, central theme in contemplative traditions.<ref>Sparby, T. (2022). What Stands in the Way Becomes the Way: Dual and Non-Dual Approaches to Meditation Hindrances in Buddhist Traditions and Contemplative Science. ''Religions'', ''13''(9), 840. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090840</nowiki></ref> It is a question of relative impact, there are likely windows of opportunities while also being completely destructive occurrences sometimes, also depending on time of occurrence.

Socialization (PF2) and Relationships

=== Practice history (type, hours, etc.) ===
History with Emergent Experiences

Exposition to various spiritual frameworks and techniques

== Sociocultural determinants and consequences of individual psychology ==

=== Sociocultural health and individual wellbeing ===
A sense of belonging to a long history and a cultural identity is something profoundly impactful for individual human psychology. The lack of cultural grounding that runs through our contemporary, globalized, post-modern societies, is a serious source of distress for many, particularly global youth…<ref name=":3" />

Indeed, the presence or absence of broadly shared norms and values, at a level where individual roles and norms of behaviors are deeply internalized and subconsciously embodied by most members of a given society, has profound impact on individual well-being and development. By contrast with Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007), who write that level of parental monitoring, quality of the relationship between primary caregivers, Abraham Maslow argues, on the basis of empirical observation, that societies in which there exist broadly shared, clear, straightforward, pre-reflexively internalized norms as to individuals' role as members of society, as a man, a woman, a father, a mother, etc., all factor that is deeply influential on child well-being and development, regardless of the quality of relationships with parents, will have lower levels of adolescent delinquency and higher well-being.<ref>Maslow, A. H. (1970). ''Motivation and personality'' (2d ed.). New York.</ref><ref>Maslow, A. H. (1997). ''Toward a psychology of being'' (2nd ed., 30. print). Van Nostrand Reinhold.</ref> These observations suggest that the sociocultural level of shared worldviews and internalized behavioral norms is similarly or even more crucial, than the quality of individual parent-child relationships, for the psychological development and health of individuals. It is probably important to note that Bronfenbrenner and Morris mostly examine US populations, which is predominantly an "absolute nuclear" family system according to Emmanuel Todd, an anthropological fact which likely influences the ideals and norms of parental behaviors identified and valued within their works and within the culture they examine in a deep yet likely unconscious way. This means that parental norms in cultures with different worldviews, shared values, internalized roles, and family types, may well differ significantly yet still lead to healthy psychological development and social cohesion. Still, it seems likely that at least some aspects of parental care play a universal role in healthy child development, such as the quality of mother–infant relationships.

In any event, these considerations reveal how individual psychology is directly connected to the sociocultural sphere, the sphere of values, the sphere of technique, and the economic sphere. As a single datapoint, recent empirical findings show that the contemporary, ubiquitous use of technologies has serious negative impact on the mental health of global youth.<ref>Sapien Labs. (2023). ''Age of First Smartphone/Tablet and Mental Wellbeing Outcomes'' (Global Mind Project). https://sapienlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Sapien-Labs-Age-of-First-Smartphone-and-Mental-Wellbeing-Outcomes.pdf</ref> Much more radically though, and returning to broad sociocultural considerations, Bernard Stiegler claimed that it is impossible to live as a society without “positive collective protentions” — in other words, shared ideals and goals which “proceed from inter– and transgenerational transmission”. In this sense, the French philosopher saw the continual “acceleration of innovation”, “disruption”, and the “technological flight forward”,<ref>Bitbol, M. (2014). ''La Conscience A-t-elle Une Origine? Des Neurosciences À La Pleine Conscience: Une Nouvelle Approche De L’esprit. [Does Consciousness Have An Origin? From Neuroscience To Mindfulness: A New Approach To The Mind.]''. Flammarion.</ref> as undermining “everything that contributes to the elaboration of civilization”.<ref>Stiegler, B. (2016). ''Dans la disruption: comment ne pas devenir fou ?'' Éditions les Liens qui libèrent.</ref> This position ties Maslow's observations of the impact of shared worldviews and norms on adult, adolescent, and child psychology, and Bronfenbrenner's contention that excessively unstable environments hinders development, with the sociocultural consequences of recent technical evolutions.

Escalating interpersonal tensions and lack of cohesion within a given society may then give rise to expressions of violence that take the form of “scapegoating” in order to reinstate a sense of collectivity (creating a sense of “us”) by designating an “other” which will then be “sacrificed”, symbolically or actually, a process which has been described by anthropologist René Girard as a form of re-sacralization of the social order.<ref>Girard, R. (1979). ''Violence and the Sacred'' (John Hopkins paperbacks ed., [Nachdr.]). Hopkins Univ. Press.</ref> In this sense, we can see how sociocultural health directly impacts individual psychology and the possibility of human flourishing at all levels.

This is also true in the reverse direction. Individual development, wellbeing, flourishing, emotional and psychological health, directly impact interpersonal behavior and in turn leads to positive outcomes for the collective. Factors which disrupt individual development and harmony (see above) also likely hinder collective development and harmony. Factors which promote psychological health and intrapersonal wellbeing (such as the cultivation of ethics and virtue, developing emotional skills, mature defense mechanisms, healthy images of self and other, etc., see above), likely promote sociocultural health and interpersonal wellbeing. Thus, promoting and optimally balancing individual and sociocultural health, which are interconnected in profound and complex ways, seems like a highly desirable, integrated goal.

=== Cultural norms and emergent phenomena ===
“culturally-sanctioned” EPEEs in the DSM: criteria to exempt from a diagnosis of mental illness those who are experiencing hallucinations, delusions, or other unusual experiences that are expected in their spiritual tradition who also maintain sufficient function and don’t meet other criteria for mental illness. But what is the authority or reference which will give a comprehensive list of normal VS abnormal for all cultures/traditions? How does one even define a tradition? How about those who chance upon these experiences outside of a given tradition — it is established that members of e.g. the Anglosphere, do experience some of the DSM’s culture-bound syndromes from other cultural contexts, without having heard about them Ross et al. (2013)? Take a person who had a “mystical experience” while meditating, and now thinks they are able to communicate with the dead, in 2024 France. Picture this person as raised catholic, but practicing in a Buddhist tradition for the clarity of the instructions, and yet who does not identify as buddhist. Add that this person is experiencing significant distress and functional impairement in several areas of their life because of these phenomena. Which of the cultural norms at their disposal should be used to make a judgment call: classical french catholic culture (1,500+ years old), with its ample room for possession experiences, religious revelations, and mystical phenomena? Positivist reductionnism from the 19 hundreds, with e.g. Auguste Comte, a well-know figure of french culture? A neurophysicalist, mechanistic view, say one inspired by Descartes, another well-known figure in french cultural history? Or a more recent materialist/secular view, perhaps that of the DSM, a manual of psychiatry which is unilaterally written by a few psychiatrists from another cultural context (the US), and yet is often used by French psychiatrists? Normative judgment on this given experience, its nature, and the appraisal of whether it is compatible with the french person’s culture or not, will vary depending on how one defines this person’s cultural context. Is it a genuine case of after-death communication? The manifestation of repressed psychological material? Brain misfirings? Who is to make the judgment call as to which cultural framework to mobilize in this case? At the epitome of globalization and cultural fragmentation we are currently experiencing, this criterion seems completely outdated.

These questions are one of the core motivations behind the EmergeWiki.

== Resources ==

* [https://people.wku.edu/richard.miller/520%2016PF%20Cattell%20and%20Mead.pdf The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)]

== References ==

Synthesis:Psychology

2025-09-04T23:53:25Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Developmentally generative or disruptive dispositions */

Human psychology is rich and complex. The present page presents some of its aspects that seem of particular relevance for various purposes of the EmergeWiki.

== Attachment style ==
Cherniak (2022) proposes to explore the relationship between attachment-styles and the phenomenology, mechanisms and outcomes of psychedelic experiences. According to Attachment Theorist Bowlby, Internal Working Models (IWMs) of ''Self'' and ''Others'' developed through relationship with early caregivers will determine and crystallize into attachment styles or orientations, including two essential dimensions: attachment anxiety (linked to image of self as lovable) and attachment-related avoidance (see summary in Cherniak, 2022).

However it may well be that (1) these two dimensions can vary quite a bit through an individual's life, and (2) depend on factors which are far more diverse than just the relationship with primary caregivers (for instance, bad personal circumstances, e.g. a depressive episode or lack of emotional skill due to lack of cultural know how about this) mixed with strong identification, can lead to lots of shame about one's self and lead to attachment avoidance and anxiety… which may have nothing to do with how the person was treated by their parents.

Others have argued that 6 months to 2 years of age is also not taking into account the importance of peri-natal experiences in the development of attachment etc.

Further, attachment-style, on top of possibly changing radically over time, can also vary according to things such as bilinguality. Bi-cultural individuals sometime report different attachment styles and emotional worlds according to the language and cultural world of respective parents.

There are also more deeply cultural differences in attachment styles. Some cultures are more weary in relationships in general. So there are cultural determinants here as well.

Similarly, ecological factors can play a strong role. Someone who had great caregivers but finds themselves in a situation of chronic deprivation of any need, may become relationally extremely anxious/avoidant, etc. Is that an attachment style?

Furthermore, what is more determinant in the process: the early experiences with caregivers shaping negative IWM of self and others and then determining fixed attachment styles ? Or, the IWM themselves ? Can someone who had good early experiences still develop negative IWM for other reasons ? Many practices involve working on representations of self and others as a way to happiness and well-being. For instance, Daniel P. Brown has written a book for "comprehensive treatment of attachment problems in adults" based on the perfect parent protocol and a re-shaping of self and other representations which seems very functional. This would suggest that the IWMs themselves are more important, to a certain degree.

== Fluidity/flexibility of consciousness ==
A major outcome of meditation, with e.g. Francisco Varela describing buddhist meditation as "the fixed mind becoming unfixed"<ref>Varela, F. J. (2017). ''Le Cercle Créateur: Écrits, 1976–2001. [The Creative Circle: Writings, 1976–2001].'' Éditions du Seuil.</ref>, fluidity of consciousness is one of the main goals and mechanisms of psychotherapies according to Drs. Vion-Dury and Mougin (2016), according to whom “all therapies […] are therapeutic because they generate particular modalizations of consciousness, which could be said to open up a new way for consciousness to function […] it seems possible to subsume all psychotherapies under the general concept of therapies that regulate the modalizations of consciousness”.<ref>Vion-Dury, J., & Mougin, G. (2016). Modalisations Of The Consciousness Field: A Phenomenological And Morphodynamic Approach. ''PSN - psychiatrie, sciences humaines, neurosciences''. https://hal.science/hal-01580235/document</ref> The Questionnaire for the Evaluation of the Fluidity of Consciousness (QEFC) involves 4 factors: Availability to self and environment, Letting go, Relative passivity in the face of the world, Acceptance of change.<ref>Vion-Dury, J., Mougin, G., Chen, C.-Y., Turcq, S., & Begnis, M. (2021). « Lâcher prise » et fluidité de la conscience. Mise au point d’un questionnaire d’évaluation, d’inspiration phénoménologique [“Letting go” and fluidity of consciousness. Development of a phenomenologically inspired evaluation questionnaire]. ''Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique'', ''179''(1), 44–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amp.2020.02.011</ref> This might be correlated with some physiological markers of "cognitive health" such as default-mode network functional connectivity and a person's ability to fluidly switch between different modes of processing —highlighted by anti-correlated functional connectivity.<ref>Tripathi, V., Batta, I., Zamani, A., Atad, D. A., Sheth, S. K. S., Zhang, J., Wager, T. D., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Uddin, L. Q., Prakash, R. S., & Bauer, C. C. C. (2025). Default mode network functional connectivity as a transdiagnostic biomarker of cognitive function. ''Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging'', S2451902225000151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.12.016</ref>

== Imagination ==
There is a link between «vividness of mental imagery and transe ability»,<ref>Locke, R. G., & Kelly, E. F. (1985). A Preliminary Model for the Cross-Cultural Analysis of Altered States of Consciousness. ''Ethos'', ''13''(1), 3–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/640008, p. 17</ref> with fantasy proneness and creativity possibly representing predisposing factors for "altered-states of consciousness"<ref>Locke & Kelly, ''op. cit.'', p. 21 </ref>, but also between daydreaming, and particularly “maladaptive daydreaming”, childhood adversities, and dissociative disorders.<ref>Ross, C. A., Ridgway, J., & George, N. (2020). Maladaptive Daydreaming, Dissociation, and the Dissociative Disorders. ''Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice'', ''2''(2), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20190050</ref><ref>Somer, E., Soffer-Dudek, N., & Ross, C. A. (2017). The Comorbidity of Daydreaming Disorder (Maladaptive Daydreaming). ''Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease'', ''205''(7), 525–530. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000685</ref> This is very relevant in the case of meditation or psychedelic-induced depersonalization/derealization or dissociation, possession-like phenomena in various emergent traditions, etc. Note that maladaptive daydreaming is opposed to the QEFC characteristics of “availability to self and environment” and “letting go”, suggesting such individuals have low levels of “fluidity of consciousness” and instead live in a rigid mode seemingly linked with some dysfunction.

== Personality, character, dispositions ==
One should be careful not to be excessively individualistic, rigid, categorical, and stereotypical, i.e., they do not take into account social, familial, developmental, emotional context and the possibility of change depending on these things, or various practices, etc. A person may be very sensitive/nervous in a certain context and not at all in others.

Emmons and Paloutzian (2003) note that "spiritually-transformative experiences" have little effect on core traits like the Big 5, but can profoundly transform other mid-level aspects of personality like "goals, attitudes, feelings, behaviors".<ref name=":1">Emmons, R. A., & Paloutzian, R. F. (2003). The Psychology of Religion. ''Annual Review of Psychology'', ''54''(1), 377–402. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145024</ref> Whether this is true of longer term cultivation is an open question. It may be that these traits can change more deeply with repeated cultivation. In any case, this observation echoes, on the psychological level, the idea that emergent practices are unlikely to alter deep aspects of physiology like composition of organs or bone structure.

=== Developmentally generative or disruptive dispositions ===
According to Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007), “throughout the life course, human development takes place through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment [the authors call this “proximal processes”].<ref name=":0">Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2007). The Bioecological Model of Human Development. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), ''Handbook of Child Psychology'' (1st ed.). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0114</ref> To be effective, the interaction must occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time”.<ref name=":0" /> In other words, development results from the repetition and complexification of a given activity.

This is an important topic for us, since it underscores how long-term cultivation or training, such as meditative practices, contemplation, or prayer, which are practiced regularly over a long time in various practice schools and paths, holds higher developmental possibilities and perhaps involves different causalities compared with singular episodes or transient experiences—as was already noted by William James in ''Varieties of Religious Experiences''.<ref>James, W. (2005). ''The Varieties Of Religious Experience: A Study In Human Nature : Being The Gifford Lectures On Natural Religion Delievered At Edinburgh In 1901-1902''. Adamant media corporation.</ref>

According to Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007), certain "predispositions [to action]" are "shapers of development", while others disrupt potential for development.<ref name=":0" /> General predispositions considered as generative of development, because they lead one to engage in activities that lead to repeated and learning include (1) curiosity, (2) a tendency to initiate and engage in activity alone or with others, and (3) readiness to defer immediate gratification to pursue long term goals.<ref name=":0" />

By contrast, generally disruptive predispositions include traits that lead to (1) ''difficulty controlling emotions and behaviors'', like impulsiveness, explosiveness, distractibility, inability to defer gratification, and ready resort to aggression and violence, and (2) ''a tendency to withdraw or avoid activity'', like apathy, inattentiveness, unresponsiveness, lack of interest in surroundings, or feeling insecure.<ref name=":0" /> Although there is an innate component, and individuals will be more or less fortunate with what make up they start with, these qualities can certainly also be cultivated or managed through various approaches and practices.

It should be noted that whether a disposition is considered disruptive or generative in part depends on what is being developed (i.e., a given disposition may hinder the development of some skills seen as desirable, but may be helpful to develop other capacities also seen as desirable).

Furthermore, while the question of which skills and qualities are seen as desirable or not is culturally-relative to a significant degree, there may be core common themes. For example Buddhism describes lists of hindrances seen as obstacles to the cultivation of desirable mind states and spiritual development in general, which are ill will, greed, sloth, restlessness and worry, doubt. These largely intersect with the characters described above, and exploring the world's great ethical and moral systems, we would likely find many similarities with it as well.

=== Virtues and Strengths ===

==== Common virtues in the world's religions ====
Emmons and Palutzian (2003) underscore that the main R/S traditions (the Abrahamic traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and more) all value dispositions such as forgiveness, love, hope, humility, gratitude, self-control, and wisdom; the opposites of these virtues or strengths, vices or weaknesses, being grudginess, hate, despair, arrogance, ingratitude, lack of self-control, and foolishness.<ref name=":1" /> They can also be seen as values.

These dispositions are widely recognized as conducive to inner strength, resilience, physical and psychological well-being, prosociality, and are protective from depression and other challenging mental states.<ref>McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J.-A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''82''(1), 112–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.112</ref><ref>Schimmel, S. (2000). Vices, Virtues and Sources of Human Strength in Historical Perspective. ''Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology'', ''19''(1), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2000.19.1.137</ref><ref name=":2">Emmons & Palutzian, ''op. cit.'', p. 387</ref> While in large part predispositions, these qualities can be voluntarily developed by a person, cultivated, and belonging to a group which collectively seeks to abide by such principles can be a huge help in this.

===== Love =====
Love is endlessly praised as the most fundamental source of individual and collective wellbeing and goodness.

For instance, the essential ethical principle of the new-testament and thus of Christianity, the Great Commandment, is to love. The most ancient gospel, that of Mark, 12, 29–31, where Jesus answers the question "What is the most important commandment?", actually starts with the Sh'ma, a foundational Hebrew prayer: '''29''' “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. '''30''' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' '''31''' The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The other Gospels as well as other new-testament sections reiterate this, with John, 15:12: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" and again, 17: "This is my command: Love each other." Corinthians, 1:13: "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. '''2''' If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. '''3''' If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing [...]'''13''' And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Song of songs, 8:6–7: <blockquote>"Place me like a seal over your heart,

like a seal on your arm;

for love is as strong as death,

its ardor unyielding as the grave.

It burns like blazing fire,

like a mighty flame.

'''7''' Many waters cannot quench love;

rivers cannot sweep it away."</blockquote>Buddhism also gives immense praise to the virtue of Love: "There is no greater virtue than practicing love everyday". Dhammapada 1:5: " Hatred is never ceased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law." The Itivuttaka, 27, states that "In all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and radiates."

Some of the acquired benefits are cited by Nāgārjuna, in the ''Mahaprajñaparamita shastra'' (as quoted by Thich Nhat Hahn, 2007): "Practicing the mind of immeasurable love puts an end to anger in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the mind of immeasurable compassion puts an end to sorrow and torment in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the mind of immeasurable joy puts an end to sadness and grief in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the spirit of immeasurable equanimity puts an end to hatred, division and attachment in the hearts of living beings."

These four — loving kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity — are the four "immeasurables" and are often considered as indispensible aspects of "love" in Buddhism. In AN 11:16 we find that one who practices love sleeps easily, wakes easily, dreams no nightmares, is dear to human beings, dear to non-human beings, protected, gains concentration quickly, has a bright complexion, and... dies unconfused (among other more culturally specific benefits).

Practical ways to develop the immeasurables, Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity, can be found in many good modern sources such as Thich Nhat Hahn's excellent ''Teachings on love''. Traditional practical instructions can also be found in the discourse on love SN 1:8.

===== Hope =====

===== Humility =====

===== Gratitude =====

===== Self-control =====

===== Wisdom =====

==== Virtue, inner strength and social wellbeing ====
It is interesting to note that these dispositions and virtues influence and are influenced by [[Beliefs and Worldviews|directive and paradigmatic beliefs]], can alter [[Perception|perceptions]] and [[emotions]], and influence social behaviors, among other things. For instance, a high degree conviction in the perspective that life itself is a gift will likely affect the way we perceive our surroundings and those around us, make it easier to develop an attitude and feelings of gratitude, leading to a pleasant mental state and likely to prosocial behavior in most cases.<ref name=":2" /> These originally "intrapsychic" dynamics can thus have ripple effects, impacting one's direct social circles, and beyond.

This is confirmed by recent findings, of a more pragmatic and instrumental nature — i.e. focusing on the "benefits" of love for mental health and social cohesion, and the positive influence of belonging to a religion/spirituality that invites cultivation of such virtues, a meta-analysis of clinical trials on the effects of "kindness-based meditation" (KBM) found that "KBM showed evidence of benefits for the health of individuals and communities through its effects on wellbeing and social interaction."<ref>Galante, J., Galante, I., Bekkers, M.-J., & Gallacher, J. (2014). Effect of kindness-based meditation on health and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology'', ''82''(6), 1101–1114. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037249</ref><ref>Galante, J., Bekkers, M., Mitchell, C., & Gallacher, J. (2016). Loving‐Kindness Meditation Effects on Well‐Being and Altruism: A Mixed‐Methods Online RCT. ''Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being'', ''8''(3), 322–350. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12074</ref> Beyond the individual, this ties in to health and wellness at the sociocultural level.

Along similar empirical lines, a 2024 survey on 239,692 individuals across 65 countries found that regions of the world where people reported that they felt a lot of love for their fellow humans, also reported much higher levels of wellbeing. More specifically, (1) those who are spiritual love and care for the wellbeing of a wider circle of people, while those who are atheist are five times more likely to love no-one; (2) the increase in mental wellbeing gained through spirituality arises through the increase in one’s feelings of love and care for others, and spirituality without love and care for others does not have mental wellbeing benefits; (3) active religious practice is associated with a higher likelihood of spirituality and love for others, regardless of religious affiliation; (4) More religious regions of the world have greater love for others led by Latin America, South-East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Europe and Oceania have the least love for others with United Kingdom and Germany having the lowest among all countries from which data was collected.<ref>Sapien Labs. (2024a). ''Mental Wellbeing, Religion and the Love You Give'' (Global Mind Project). https://sapienlabs.org/wellbeing-religion-love-you-give/</ref>

These findings — a small sample of existing literature... — confirm the pragmatic value of such wisdom, yet gives a gloomy picture of the state of western societies in this regard. For instance the SapienLab report on "global mental wellbeing" for 2023 found that "as in previous years, several African and Latin American countries topped the country rankings, while wealthier countries of the Core Anglosphere such as the United Kingdom and Australia are towards the bottom. This pattern suggests that greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental wellbeing."<ref name=":3">Sapien Labs. (2024b). ''The Mental State of the World in 2023. A Perspective on Internet-Enabled Populations'' (Global Mind Project). https://mentalstateoftheworld.report</ref> Such considerations should have impact on individual life choices but also in policy decisions.
==== In positive psychology ====
[[Positive psychology]] writers have put forward 24 character strengths and virtues of: creativity curiosity judgment love of learning perspective courage bravery honesty perseverance zest kindness love social intelligence fairness leadership teamwork forgiveness humility prudence self regulation appreciation of beauty and excellence gratitude hope humor spirituality (Peterson and Seligman, 2004).

==== Beyond utilitarianism ====
We should not dilute the value of virtue in a purely utilitarian/instrumentalist (or spiritually materialist) view of these as sources of relative well-being. These strengths and virtues can be elevated to extraordinary levels, and lead to almost superhuman resilience in the face of adversity, as exemplified by historical and mythical or semi-mythical figures such as Etty Hillesum, Jesus, the Bodhisattvas, the Martyrs, etcetera.

=== Personality traits ===
Many theories of core personality traits existe. The Five factor model (FFM or Big five) is based on five pairs of personality traits:

* openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
* conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
* extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
* agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/rational)
* neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)

A more detailed theory is Cattell's 16 personality factors, which can be tested using the [https://people.wku.edu/richard.miller/520%2016PF%20Cattell%20and%20Mead.pdf 16PF personality questionnaire]:

* Warmth (A)
* Reasoning (B)
* Emotional Stability (C)
* Dominance (E)
* Liveliness (F)
* Rule-Consciousness (G)
* Social Boldness (H)
* Sensitivity (I)
* Vigilance (L)
* Abstractedness (M)
* Privateness (N)
* Apprehension (O)
* Openness to Change (Q1)
* Self-Reliance (Q2)
* Perfectionism (Q3)
* Tension (Q4)<ref>Conn, S. R., Rieke, M. L., & Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (Eds.). (1994). ''The 16PF fifth edition technical manual''. Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.</ref>

Jungian/Brigg-Meyers 16 types

Rush, M. (2019). An Evaluation of Jung’s Psychological Types and Their Relationship to Psychopathology. ''Psychotherapy Section Review'', ''63''(Spring), 32–39.

=== Emotional intelligence and skills ===

=== Meta-cognition ===
The capacity to be aware of our internal emotional states, to recognize them, to name them, and to act on them, a skill set that involves metacognition and emotional intelligence, is important in the context of cultivating a healthy mind and well-being.

=== Empathy ===

=== Absorption ===
Some research shows that the "Absorption" trait is connected with a tendency to have "dramatic" spiritual experiences, such as Lifshitz ''et al.'' (2019), or Corneille & Luke (2021). About the Tellenger absorption scale, see Jamieson (2005).

=== Hypnotizability/suggestability ===
This is related to the former (absorption) - the first scale measuring "absorption", the Telleger scale, was originally devised to measure "hypnotizability". Some like Dr Ian Wickramasekera (2020) suggest that "hypnotizability" and "mind-body talent" for dzogchen and other practices are connected.

Angelini, F. J., Kumar, V. K., & Chandler, L. (1999). The harvard group scale of hypnotic susceptibility and related instruments: Individual and group administrations. ''International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis'', ''47''(3), 236–250. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/00207149908410035</nowiki>

According to Taves (2020 ), LSD "robustly enhances suggestibility" affecting "those who score high on conscientiousness the most. This may have implications on appraisals of experience, hedonic tone, and subsequent impact.

=== Resilience ===

=== Schizotypy ===
Research has explored links between this personality trait and SE(Y), see e.g. Harris, ''et al.'', (2019). This particular article correlates positive schizotypal traits with SE(Y) proneness.

=== TLL (Temporal Lobe Lability) ===
This has been correlated with a tendency to have "spontaneous spiritual awakenings", e.g. in Corneille & Luke (2021)

=== Playfulness ===
(Winnicott, Play and reality; Piaget, Plays, dreams and imitation)

Playing is an important aspect of developing a healthy sense of self and of reality according to Winnicott and Piaget. In fact according to Bailly (2001), "Winnicott considers that what makes a child capable of play amounts to questioning "what makes life worth living" (Winnicott, 1971)" Bailly, R. (2001). Le jeu dans l'œuvre de D.W. Winnicott. Enfances & Psy, 15, 41-45. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3917/ep.015.0041</nowiki>. One may wonder about the role of seriousness/rigidity VS playfulness/fluidity in reaction styles to EPEEs and how this could lead to DPDR/Psychosis/Disorders. Considered within a developmental perspective, play is clearly a generator of development. Maintaining a playful attitude may well be a crucial though often overlooked aspect of any training, in particular within the context of "spiritual", contemplative, and related practices.

IQ

Latent Inhibition

Cognitive style

Divergent VS Convergent "Cognitive style" have been linked with proneness to Esthetic Experiences (Schaeffer, 2016)

=== Beliefs and psychological narratives ===
Directive beliefs,<ref name=":0" /> i.e. various beliefs that directly influence attitudes and behaviors such as class-related beliefs, etc. Targeted by [[positive psychology]], CBT, Schema therapy, Coherence therapy, various philosophical schools like stoicism, etc.

=== Difficulties and challenges ===

=== Ideation ===

=== Insights ===

=== Skills ===

=== Sociability ===

== Defense mechanisms ==
Originally written about by Freud, the psychological defense mechanisms describe various ways of relating to challenging situations, described as mature, neurotic, or psychotic.<ref>Di Giuseppe, M., & Perry, J. C. (2021). The Hierarchy of Defense Mechanisms: Assessing Defensive Functioning With the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales Q-Sort. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''12'', 718440. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718440</ref> The mature defense mechanisms include Affiliation, Anticipation, Humor, Self-acceptance, Self-observation, Sublimation, and Suppression. These can be viewed as effective coping strategies and skills which can be developed, leading to a mature and functional personality makeup.

== Level of ego-development ==
Loevinger, Wilber, Cook-Greuter, O'Fallon, Angerer (see Roman Angerer's attempt to cross-reference some of the post-conventional levels)

Conventional

Post-conventional

My review of Cook-Greuter

Ego/Superego/Id

== Self-esteem and self-image ==

== Personality disorders ==
Schizoid/Schizotypy/all risk factors for meditation-related psychosis (Charan et al. 2003)

== Biography and personal history ==

=== Trauma ===

==== A potential risk-factor ====
Much recent research views trauma as a risk factor for challenging emergent phenomena and developing complications,<ref>Canby, N. K., Cosby, E. A., Palitsky, R., Kaplan, D. M., Lee, J., Mahdavi, G., Lopez, A. A., Goldman, R. E., Eichel, K., Lindahl, J. R., & Britton, W. B. (2025). Childhood trauma and subclinical PTSD symptoms predict adverse effects and worse outcomes across two mindfulness-based programs for active depression. ''PLOS ONE'', ''20''(1), e0318499. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318499</ref><ref>Lindahl, J. (2017). Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists. Religions, 8(8), 153. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8080153</ref><ref>Ross, C. A., & Browning, E. (2018). Altered states of consciousness among inpatients in a Trauma Program. ''Journal of Trauma & Dissociation'', ''19''(5), 596–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2018.1451807</ref><ref>Zhu, J., Wekerle, C., Lanius, R., & Frewen, P. (2019). Trauma- and Stressor-Related History and Symptoms Predict Distress Experienced during a Brief Mindfulness Meditation Sitting: Moving toward Trauma-Informed Care in Mindfulness-Based Therapy. ''Mindfulness'', ''10''(10), 1985–1996. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01173-z</ref> as well as linked with psychosis, schizotypy, and dissociation.<ref>Read, J., & Ross, C. A. (2003). Psychological Trauma and Psychosis: Another Reason Why People Diagnosed Schizophrenic Must Be Offered Psychological Therapies. ''The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry'', ''31''(1), 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1521/jaap.31.1.247.21938</ref><ref>Quidé, Y., Watkeys, O. J., Tonini, E., Grotegerd, D., Dannlowski, U., Nenadić, I., Kircher, T., Krug, A., Hahn, T., Meinert, S., Goltermann, J., Gruber, M., Stein, F., Brosch, K., Wroblewski, A., Thomas-Odenthal, F., Usemann, P., Straube, B., Alexander, N., … Green, M. J. (2023). Childhood trauma moderates schizotypy-related brain morphology: analyses of 1182 healthy individuals from the ENIGMA schizotypy working group. ''Psychological Medicine'', 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291723003045</ref> However, trauma is not necessarily predictive of distress or challenging EPEEs, e.g. Lindahl et al. (2019) found no correlation between higher trauma history and distress in experiences of “self-loss”.<ref>Lindahl, J. R., & Britton, W. B. (2019). “I have this feeling of not really being here”: Buddhist meditation and changes in sense of self. ''Journal of Consciousness Studies'', ''26''(7–8), 157–183. https://www.imprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lindahl_Open_Access.pdf</ref>

How trauma is defined and its exact nature is the source of some debate. Some authors have minimized the importance of trauma and stressed the importance of present circumstances for people's life difficulties. Psychoanalytic writers have sometimes relativized the weight of trauma and adverse experiences, such as jungian psychologist James Hillman, who was very critical of the notion, while Freud wrote "there are no traumas, only traumatized people".

Regardless, those wishing to engage with [[Emergent Modalities]] like meditation or psychedelics, particularly more intense ones, should be informed of the fact that "trauma", however defined, having undergone very stressful events like adverse childhood experiences, currently being "traumatized", etc., can pose additional risks.

==== Working with trauma ====
There is a broad variety of approaches to work with trauma<ref>Ross, C. A., & Halpern, N. (2009). ''Trauma Model Therapy: A Treatment Approach for Trauma Dissociation and Complex Comorbidity'' (Manitou Communications).</ref><ref>Treleaven, D. A. (2018). ''Trauma-sensitive mindfulness: practices for safe and transformative healing'' (First edition). W. W Norton & Company.</ref> like the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol<ref>Parra, F., George, C., Kalalou, K., & Januel, D. (2017). Ideal Parent Figure method in the treatment of complex posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood trauma: a pilot study. ''European Journal of Psychotraumatology'', ''8''(1), 1400879. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1400879</ref>, EMDR, ... Brown et al. (2019) report a clinical case of a woman diagnosed with DID and severe attachment disturbances who was severely and chronically abused by their father as a child, underscore that she received successful treatment using the Ideal Parent Figure protocol which uses imagination over a period of two years, without any trauma processing techniques being applied. It is interesting to note that things like the ideal parent figure protocol seem built into many traditional practices of the various religions, e.g. for Christians, cultivating one's identity as "sons of God", the supreme and perfect being, might well have effects similar or more potent than the protocolled version of IPF, just like "mindfulness meditation" is built into many traditional practices, but these traditional practices usually involve many other components beyond simply paying nonjudgmental attention to the present moment, likely leading to more complex effects.

While some [[Emergent Modalities]] may be contraindicated for some individuals with trauma and PTSD symptoms, there is also some preliminary evidence that approaches like mindfulness-meditation or some psychedelics (like MDMA or DMT in some cases) may help treat trauma.<ref>Banks, K., Newman, E., & Saleem, J. (2015). An Overview of the Research on Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Treating Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review: Mindfulness and PTSD. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', ''71''(10), 935–963. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22200

</ref><ref>Netzer, O., Magal, N., Stern, Y., Polinsky, T., Gross, R., Admon, R., & Salomon, R. (2024). ''Trauma Under Psychedelics: MDMA Shows Protective Effects During the Peritraumatic Period''. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.28.587237

</ref><ref>Ragnhildstveit, A., Khan, R., Seli, P., Bass, L. C., August, R. J., Kaiyo, M., Barr, N., Jackson, L. K., Gaffrey, M. S., Barsuglia, J. P., & Averill, L. A. (2023). 5-MeO-DMT for post-traumatic stress disorder: a real-world longitudinal case study. ''Frontiers in Psychiatry'', ''14'', 1271152. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1271152</ref> More research is needed to understand when and for whom such approaches will be helpful or on the contrary lead to worse outcomes.
=== Family history and early development ===

==== Mother–infant relationship ====
Good mother–infant relations, involving an attentive and responsive mother attuned to the child's needs, mitigates negative factors on development (such as low socioeconomic status or low birth weight) (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2007). Brown et al. (2016) consider that attachment-styles in adulthood largely depend on positive or negative self-image, image of others, and positive relationship representations, which are likely heavily influenced by early attachment needs. They claim that relationships with early caregivers lead to the development of a sense of self that mirrors the relationship, the development of “internalized working models” (IWM) which are self-reinforcing and will influence future relationships. Various emergent practices work with self-image, image of the other, identification with ideal figures, to develop positive relationships/images of self/other and related sense of safety and emotional warmth, so this is likely an important area to consider (see the Attachment and Self-image sections above).

==== Environment ====
Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007) underscore that “features of the environment most frequently and strongly associated with individual differences in cognitive competence” include “a physically responsive environment, presence of sheltered areas, instability and unpredictability of events, the “degree to which the physical set-up of the home permits exploration,” low level of noise and confusion, and “the degree of temporal regularity”.<ref>''Ibid''., p. 30</ref> As noted earlier, it follows from such findings that effective proximal processes [i.e. processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment, occuring on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time — see above]<ref name=":0" /> cannot function effectively in environments that are unstable and unpredictable across space and time. <blockquote>“The degree of stability, consistency, and predictability over time in any element of the systems constituting the ecology of human development is critical for the effective operation of the system in question. Extremes either of disorganization or rigidity in structure or function represent danger signs for potential psychological growth, with some intermediate degree of system flexibility constituting the optimal condition for human development. In research design, this proposition points to the importance of assessing the degree of stability versus instability, with respect to characteristics of Process, Person, Context, and Time.”<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Family structure (single parent, remarried, two parents), socioeconomic status, absence or presence of relatives, level of parental monitoring, all play a role in normal personal and psychological develpopment.

==== Family history and family type ====
Family history is a key component in the constitution of an individual's psychology. For instance, a family history of psychosis is a risk-factor for meditation induced psychosis,<ref>Charan, D., Sharma, P., Kachhawaha, G., Kaur, G., & Gupta, S. (2023). Meditation Practices and the Onset of Psychosis: A Case Series and Analysis of Possible Risk Factors. ''Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine'', ''45''(1), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/02537176211059457</ref> and psychopathology and personality dysfunction are linked with family environment and adult attachment.<ref>Riggs, S. A., Sahl, G., Greenwald, E., Atkison, H., Paulson, A., & Ross, C. A. (2007). Family Environment and Adult Attachment as Predictors of Psychopathology and Personality Dysfunction Among Inpatient Abuse Survivors. ''Violence and Victims'', ''22''(5), 577–600. https://doi.org/10.1891/088667007782312159</ref>

At the anthropological level, historical family type (egalitarian/authoritarian, nuclear/communitarian, endogamous/exogamous, etc.<ref>Todd, E. (1985), Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems, Oxford: Blackwell.</ref>) is a profound determinant of individual psychology, which likely deeply impacts higher levels of sociocultural realities such as political and economic development. Family type formation is influenced by religion among other factors, and in turn shapes ethical values and norms, which over the course of history in the long run has direct impact on (1) ideological convictions, (2) state formation, (3) constitutional structure, and (4) post-constitutional outcomes of societies.<ref>Gutmann, J., & Voigt, S. (2022). Testing Todd: family types and development. ''Journal of Institutional Economics'', ''18''(1), 101–118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137421000175</ref>

Interestingly, what could be seen as negative outcomes or disruptive elements from one perspective (grief, trauma, loss...), can also have positive outcomes in other ways or on different dimensions (e.g. personal turmoil sometimes leads to "conversion" type experiences, reorientation of one's existence in a more positive direction).<ref>Taylor, S. (2013). The Peak at the Nadir: Psychological Turmoil as the Trigger for Awakening Experiences. ''International Journal of Transpersonal Studies'', ''32''(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2013.32.2.1</ref><ref>Yaden, D. B., & Newberg, A. (2022). ''The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.</ref> This is a very common theme in relation with [[Emergent Phenomena]]: suffering, loss, grief, accidents, and otherwise seemingly undesirable events, often bring on different forms of development which ultimately may lead a person to regard these "negative" circumstances as a gift. This is James Hillman's fundamental critique of the notion of trauma and the "adversarial" relationship of many psychotherapeutic approaches inherent in the very appraisal of life events as fundamentally undesirable, alien, disorders, etc.<ref>Hillman, J., & Ventura, M. (1992). ''We’ve had a hundred years of psychotherapy-- and the world’s getting worse'' (1. ed). HarperSanFrancisco.</ref> How one interprets an event as adverse or not definitely impacts outcomes including in the context of meditation,<ref>Lindahl, J. R., Palitsky, R., Cooper, D. J., & Britton, W. B. (2022). The roles and impacts of worldviews in the context of meditation-related challenges. ''Transcultural Psychiatry'', 136346152211286. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615221128679</ref> and working with one's appraisal and relationship with perceived life challenges is a perennial, central theme in contemplative traditions.<ref>Sparby, T. (2022). What Stands in the Way Becomes the Way: Dual and Non-Dual Approaches to Meditation Hindrances in Buddhist Traditions and Contemplative Science. ''Religions'', ''13''(9), 840. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090840</nowiki></ref> It is a question of relative impact, there are likely windows of opportunities while also being completely destructive occurrences sometimes, also depending on time of occurrence.

Socialization (PF2) and Relationships

=== Practice history (type, hours, etc.) ===
History with Emergent Experiences

Exposition to various spiritual frameworks and techniques

== Sociocultural determinants and consequences of individual psychology ==

=== Sociocultural health and individual wellbeing ===
A sense of belonging to a long history and a cultural identity is something profoundly impactful for individual human psychology. The lack of cultural grounding that runs through our contemporary, globalized, post-modern societies, is a serious source of distress for many, particularly global youth…<ref name=":3" />

Indeed, the presence or absence of broadly shared norms and values, at a level where individual roles and norms of behaviors are deeply internalized and subconsciously embodied by most members of a given society, has profound impact on individual well-being and development. By contrast with Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007), who write that level of parental monitoring, quality of the relationship between primary caregivers, Abraham Maslow argues, on the basis of empirical observation, that societies in which there exist broadly shared, clear, straightforward, pre-reflexively internalized norms as to individuals' role as members of society, as a man, a woman, a father, a mother, etc., all factor that is deeply influential on child well-being and development, regardless of the quality of relationships with parents, will have lower levels of adolescent delinquency and higher well-being.<ref>Maslow, A. H. (1970). ''Motivation and personality'' (2d ed.). New York.</ref><ref>Maslow, A. H. (1997). ''Toward a psychology of being'' (2nd ed., 30. print). Van Nostrand Reinhold.</ref> These observations suggest that the sociocultural level of shared worldviews and internalized behavioral norms is similarly or even more crucial, than the quality of individual parent-child relationships, for the psychological development and health of individuals. It is probably important to note that Bronfenbrenner and Morris mostly examine US populations, which is predominantly an "absolute nuclear" family system according to Emmanuel Todd, an anthropological fact which likely influences the ideals and norms of parental behaviors identified and valued within their works and within the culture they examine in a deep yet likely unconscious way. This means that parental norms in cultures with different worldviews, shared values, internalized roles, and family types, may well differ significantly yet still lead to healthy psychological development and social cohesion. Still, it seems likely that at least some aspects of parental care play a universal role in healthy child development, such as the quality of mother–infant relationships.

In any event, these considerations reveal how individual psychology is directly connected to the sociocultural sphere, the sphere of values, the sphere of technique, and the economic sphere. As a single datapoint, recent empirical findings show that the contemporary, ubiquitous use of technologies has serious negative impact on the mental health of global youth.<ref>Sapien Labs. (2023). ''Age of First Smartphone/Tablet and Mental Wellbeing Outcomes'' (Global Mind Project). https://sapienlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Sapien-Labs-Age-of-First-Smartphone-and-Mental-Wellbeing-Outcomes.pdf</ref> Much more radically though, and returning to broad sociocultural considerations, Bernard Stiegler claimed that it is impossible to live as a society without “positive collective protentions” — in other words, shared ideals and goals which “proceed from inter– and transgenerational transmission”. In this sense, the French philosopher saw the continual “acceleration of innovation”, “disruption”, and the “technological flight forward”,<ref>Bitbol, M. (2014). ''La Conscience A-t-elle Une Origine? Des Neurosciences À La Pleine Conscience: Une Nouvelle Approche De L’esprit. [Does Consciousness Have An Origin? From Neuroscience To Mindfulness: A New Approach To The Mind.]''. Flammarion.</ref> as undermining “everything that contributes to the elaboration of civilization”.<ref>Stiegler, B. (2016). ''Dans la disruption: comment ne pas devenir fou ?'' Éditions les Liens qui libèrent.</ref> This position ties Maslow's observations of the impact of shared worldviews and norms on adult, adolescent, and child psychology, and Bronfenbrenner's contention that excessively unstable environments hinders development, with the sociocultural consequences of recent technical evolutions.

Escalating interpersonal tensions and lack of cohesion within a given society may then give rise to expressions of violence that take the form of “scapegoating” in order to reinstate a sense of collectivity (creating a sense of “us”) by designating an “other” which will then be “sacrificed”, symbolically or actually, a process which has been described by anthropologist René Girard as a form of re-sacralization of the social order.<ref>Girard, R. (1979). ''Violence and the Sacred'' (John Hopkins paperbacks ed., [Nachdr.]). Hopkins Univ. Press.</ref> In this sense, we can see how sociocultural health directly impacts individual psychology and the possibility of human flourishing at all levels.

This is also true in the reverse direction. Individual development, wellbeing, flourishing, emotional and psychological health, directly impact interpersonal behavior and in turn leads to positive outcomes for the collective. Factors which disrupt individual development and harmony (see above) also likely hinder collective development and harmony. Factors which promote psychological health and intrapersonal wellbeing (such as the cultivation of ethics and virtue, developing emotional skills, mature defense mechanisms, healthy images of self and other, etc., see above), likely promote sociocultural health and interpersonal wellbeing. Thus, promoting and optimally balancing individual and sociocultural health, which are interconnected in profound and complex ways, seems like a highly desirable, integrated goal.

=== Cultural norms and emergent phenomena ===
“culturally-sanctioned” EPEEs in the DSM: criteria to exempt from a diagnosis of mental illness those who are experiencing hallucinations, delusions, or other unusual experiences that are expected in their spiritual tradition who also maintain sufficient function and don’t meet other criteria for mental illness. But what is the authority or reference which will give a comprehensive list of normal VS abnormal for all cultures/traditions? How does one even define a tradition? How about those who chance upon these experiences outside of a given tradition — it is established that members of e.g. the Anglosphere, do experience some of the DSM’s culture-bound syndromes from other cultural contexts, without having heard about them Ross et al. (2013)? Take a person who had a “mystical experience” while meditating, and now thinks they are able to communicate with the dead, in 2024 France. Picture this person as raised catholic, but practicing in a Buddhist tradition for the clarity of the instructions, and yet who does not identify as buddhist. Add that this person is experiencing significant distress and functional impairement in several areas of their life because of these phenomena. Which of the cultural norms at their disposal should be used to make a judgment call: classical french catholic culture (1,500+ years old), with its ample room for possession experiences, religious revelations, and mystical phenomena? Positivist reductionnism from the 19 hundreds, with e.g. Auguste Comte, a well-know figure of french culture? A neurophysicalist, mechanistic view, say one inspired by Descartes, another well-known figure in french cultural history? Or a more recent materialist/secular view, perhaps that of the DSM, a manual of psychiatry which is unilaterally written by a few psychiatrists from another cultural context (the US), and yet is often used by French psychiatrists? Normative judgment on this given experience, its nature, and the appraisal of whether it is compatible with the french person’s culture or not, will vary depending on how one defines this person’s cultural context. Is it a genuine case of after-death communication? The manifestation of repressed psychological material? Brain misfirings? Who is to make the judgment call as to which cultural framework to mobilize in this case? At the epitome of globalization and cultural fragmentation we are currently experiencing, this criterion seems completely outdated.

These questions are one of the core motivations behind the EmergeWiki.

== Resources ==

* [https://people.wku.edu/richard.miller/520%2016PF%20Cattell%20and%20Mead.pdf The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)]

== References ==

Synthesis:Beliefs and Worldviews

2025-08-30T20:20:09Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent phenomena]] are profoundly intertwined with beliefs, metaphysics and philosophy. [[Synthesis:Source Traditions|Source traditions]] (religions, philosophies, spiritualities) but also in many cases academic and scientific [[disciplines]] usually revolve around specific stories of the origins and ends of the world, the nature

This domain includes a huge variety of relative idiosyncratic or culturally informed beliefs of the individual, as well as their ultimate beliefs — usually the same as or related with their cultural's worldview but not always — around questions like reality, substance, causality, properties, relations, categories of beings, universals, particulars, space, time, freedom, etc.<ref>Sjöstedt-Hughes, P. (2023). On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''14'', [[1128589. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1128589]]</ref> We'll go over the following aspects:

* Metaphysics
** Cosmology (Origins of the world)
** Epistemology
** Ontology
** Soteriology
* General beliefs or views about life in general
** Implicit
** Explicit
Note that the following is a draft that needs to be re-written.

= A word on metaphysics =
Metaphysics is the realm of our most deeply held beliefs about and representations of the universe and the beings it contains, its origins, the nature of our experience, and what may lay beyond our subjective experience — whether they be the images of ourselves we hold in our hearts, our sense of the cosmos we inhabit, our notions of what is real or not, and what at the innermost level we hold as being true. One may reasonably argue that all people have metaphysical beliefs, whether they are aware of them or not. In fact, some claim that "whole cosmologies are wrapped up in single perceptions" (Rob Burbea). Thus it is very interesting — and has been a very common practice throughout history and even today — to ask questions about metaphysics and shed an introspective light on our own beliefs.

Worldviews are infinitely varied. Many authors, schools of thought, religions, philosophies, and even scientists, have proposed views and conceptions about the beings that populate this universe, the ultimate nature of our experience or of the cosmos, and of the ways to reach truth. Depending on what they consider as "really" existing and whether that is one, two, or many things, we can distinguish between various systems.

= A word on epistemology =
How can we know what is ultimately true, or is true for us? This is the question of epistemology.

Scientific epistemology relies on empirical testing and retesting (reproducibility), reliability and predictive power.

Religious epistemologies often stresse the authority of specific texts or doctrinal sources.

Contemplative, phenomenological, and mystical epistemology often rely on direct experience, but also other modes of knowing such as revelation, intuition, oracles, etc.

Revelatory epistemology: "Revelation from the Beyond through Mediums is how we get Truth" (Prophetic perspective in the Bible and Torah; State Oracles in ancient Greece and contemporary Tibet; Various divination method in the Roman republic, described by the Augur Cicero in ''De diuinatione'', etc.).

Rationalist epistemology (Descartes, mecanistic philosophies) would see reason a the source of any valid knowledge; or

Empirical epistemology (the British Empiricists) considering that only through experience and experimental procedures do we derive "true facts" — taken to the extreme, leads to positivism (Comte) and culminates in scientism, the idea that only "science" can lead to "truth" and statements such as "what exists is what can be measured" (Kelvin), evacuating intuition and human subjectivity.

Transcendental epistemologies such as Kantian idealism which distinguished between ''a posteriori'' (or empirical) knowledge, and ''a priori'' knowledge (non-derived from experience).

Pragmatic perspectives (William James): "by their fruits shall ye know them"...

One of the core aspects of the work underlying the EmergeWiki is to explore how epistemic pluralism is possible, and how we can reconcile various perspectives in a coherent whole.

The classification we give here should be taken with a grain of salt. The reality of people's views is, as always with people, vastly richer than this. People rarely agree on all aspects of their beliefs. In fact, they rarely even agree with themselves about their views: someone can very well hold implicit beliefs which contradict their explicit beliefs, without being aware of it or not, and even consciously hold contradictory beliefs without it being a problem at all. Thus, these types of views should be seen as this: schematic types.

= Substantialist Metaphysics =

== A question of Substance ==
"Substantialism" refers to all beliefs that consider that there are truly, independently existing "entities", "beings", "things", or "essences", which may or may not correspond to the objects and subjects of our everyday experience.

"Substance" comes from latin ''substantia'', and is composed of the prefix "sub-" which means "under", and "stance" from "stāre", which means "to stand". For the etymology geeks out there, ''sub'' is the latin equivalent of the greek "''ὑπό''", or "hypo"; replacing the latin prefix by the greek yield the word "''hypostasis''"” which is a commonly used word in metaphysics.

Thus, one may hear the word ''substance'' as pointing to what ''stands under'' appearances, to the real being that corresponds to the fleeting phenomena we experience.

In many ways, this touches on the essence of metaphysics : what ''stands under'' appearances ? What is the relationship between appearances and ''real being'' ?

It is immediately clear that the answer to this is not straightforward and could invite many, many types of theories, answers, and even speculations about what is "out there".

Prominent critic of metaphysical speculations, Friedrich Nietzsche, called these "other worlds" existing beyond our experience "''backworlds''" and considered these as figments of the imagination which only served to distract us from the real experience of our actual lives.

One may disagree with Nietzsche, but his words do point to a recurring theme in all human societies : the ''beyond'', and the relationship with the beyond.

A particular meaning of the word "metaphysics" (René Guénon, ''Oriental Metaphysics'') is that it refers to what is beyond ("meta-") the physical world ("physis", a Greek word which can be translated as "nature"). Physics and metaphysics are related terms. If physics is concerned with the laws of ''nature'', then in some literal sense then, metaphysics is concerned with what is "beyond" or "above" (in latin, ''super-'') nature": the super-natural.

Interestingly, this would imply that ''physics'', the ''physical world'', is the world of appearances, of our experience. If we accept this meaning of the term, then we realize that the current meaning of scientific physics is a reversal of its original use, since physics is presently concerned, not with a description of our natural, lived experience, but with the description of the laws and theories about the realities which "govern" these appearances, which are never directly manifest ''in''experience, but somewhat produce them and can be indirectly deduced from the observation of experience.

The epitome of this gap is embodied by the most advanced of physical theories, quantum mechanics, which seems to describe a quantum world that is so exotic and seemingly foreign to the world of our everyday experience that physicists and philosophers alike have been shocked and baffled by it since its inception in the 20 th century.

One must see clearly, here, that, keeping in mind the previous definition, quantum mechanics ''is a metaphysical theory''. One that is rooted in scientific methodologies, empirical testing, and continual revision, allowing for a level of technical control and predictive power which is unparalleled — but a metaphysical theory nonetheless.

The question is then - what is the status of scientific theories? Current cutting-edge approaches, rather than ''substantializing'' or ''re-ifying'' - that is to say, "making into a real thing" - the objects and laws described by contemporary physical theories

By contrast, a non-substantialist perspective would argue that there is ''nothing'' that stands under, or beyond, appearances. An interpretation of physical theories that may stem from such an attitude, could be to consider that instead of representing an external substantial reality beyond appearances which the theories describe, these theories are ''formalizations of know-how'' and ''prediction-making'' tools, which account for there probabilistic nature - instead of reality being inherently probabilistic. This is beyond the scope of our discussion, but students interested in this may look into recent developments in the area of philosophy of science which seek to provide a phenomenal grounding to quantum theories.

=== Monisms ===
Monist theories generally believe that there is only one real substance and this substance exists independently of my experience of it").

==== Idealist Monisms ====
Monism can be idealist ("there is only thought, or consciousness, or ideas"), and there is quite a variety of idealist monisms (e.g. Stoicism, Cittamatra philosophy, authors like Berkeley, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel) depending on what the specifics of the really existing substance are.

==== Materialist Monisms ====
There are also materialist monisms (who hold that "there is only matter") — but what that substance is varies —subatomic particles, atoms, brain...

These doctrines vary in their account of lived experience: illusory epiphenomenon for eliminativist physicalism, which holds that we should reduce the illusory level of lived experience to the "true level" of material forces or brain structures; phenomenal representation of the unknowable "thing in itself" belonging to the domain of the "noumenon" for kantian idealism; a universal property of material objects for pan-psychism — meaning that panpsychists hold that there is only "matter", but that all matter contains as a property the fact of "being conscious", like it has mass or spin; "phenomena" as aggregate of sensations with no "underlying substance" beyond lived experience, except that there is a god that makes all this happen, but this god is absent from experience and unknowable and irrepresentable (Berkeley); Federico Faggin's theory of CU's and quantum fields is a form of realist monism which echoes Leibniz' older monadology; Franklin Merrill-Wolff, etc.

==== Other Monisms ====
Then there are sort of strange monisms such as Spinoza, who posited one true substance — God — with an infinity of attributes, two of which constitute human life — "Thought" and "Extension", mind and body (including sensations), essentially — these being considered as distinct but not ontologically separate, two sides of the same one coin. This is sometimes called dual-aspect monism, but Spinoza considered there were infinitely many aspects of the one being,

=== Dualisms ===
There are also Dualisms. Schematically, these tend to believe that "there are two really existing substances which are different" and the question is then how these interact. Descartes comes to mind, but also lots of traditional spiritualities ("there is the body, there is the soul, there is this material/experiential world, and there is the beyond where the soul goes back to at death" — e.g. Allan Kardec's Spirit ideas, or certain interpretations of Neo-platonism (The One, The Noous, The Intellect, etc.).

Notice that both monisms and dualisms of this type are realist in some way, or more accurately, substantialist, as they posit the true existence of some "thing" (res, in latin) independent of the perception of it; and then the question is, "how do we know that thing?", which is a question of epistemology.

=== Pluralisms ===
Plato's theory of forms is an idealistic pluralism.

Allan Kardec and spiritist ontologies.

Theosophy

Anthroposophy

Akashic records.

Etc.

The similarities between the different types of substantialist perspectives led to Wittgenstein's famous assertion, that "both realism and idealism, taken to their extreme, lead to the other" — ie, materialist and idealist monisms are logical equivalents.

However, there are other perspectives which open things out more — various perspectives which are less substantialist or not substantialist at all.

= Non-substantialist or non-essentialist metaphysics =
The idea is that non-substantialist metaphysics do not consider that there are real "objects" (res; onta) or "entities" (ens) which exist independently or, or "stand under" appearances, or independently of the act of observing. In some sense phenomenal or phenomenological ontologies could hardly be seen as "metaphysics" proper, as they modify reverse or cancel the meaning of "metaphysics" understood as a view of ''that which is beyond appearances'', since these positions consider that ''being'' and ''appearing'' are strictly equivalent, a position which defines ''phenomenological ontologies''. How can something be ''metaphysics'' if it states there is nothing beyond the "natural" world of appearances? If we just take the word to refer to "theories of reality", then this problem is fixed.

== Phenomenological ontologies ==

=== Being as appearing ===
A phenomenal ontology hinges on the premise that "Being is Appearing" (phenomenalism), and relies on the suspension (in greek, ''épochè'') of the implicit beliefs in the intrinsic existence of objects of perception.<blockquote>"[Phenomenology] simply claims that being is identical with the phenomenon." </blockquote>Eugen Fink, ''Proximité et distance'', Jérôme Millon, 1993, p. 127 <blockquote>"A central, though disputed, premise of phenomenological ontology is that being is strictly coextensive to appearing. The list of quotations of phenomenologists who support this is almost inexhaustible. [...] According to it, being is ''nothing above and beyond'' appearing.”</blockquote>Michel Bitbol, ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

In other words, classical phenomenology, as its name indicates, is a radical return to the lived-world, the Lebenswelt, to the "mothers of all knowledge", or as Husserl expressed it: going "back to things themselves". In fact, Classical Phenomenologists (authors like Heidegger, Sartre, Michel Henry, Merleau-Ponty, Renaud Barbaras, Michel Bitbol) basically all have in common is the idea that objective knowledge and in fact any objectivities, objects of perception of all types, are constituted within, by, and as lived experience; in other words, they reverse the status of transcendence: transcendance is constituted within and as immanence.

A major consequence is the suspension of ''transcendence'' — in the sense of an independent existence above and beyond appearances, which is in fact the mode of being we tend to attribute to the objects and subjects of our daily lives, naturally, implicitly. This is a crucial point: the natural perception we have of the subjects and objects that populate our lived experience always "transcend" our experience of them. as to This is why Husserl, a major figure of classical phenomenology, called this the "natural attitude". The épochè gesture of "suspension" of these pro-jections, and the re-direction of attention to phenomena as they manifest( “the method of phenomenology is to go back to things themselves”) This means that "sub-stance" in the sense of "what stands under appearances" (see above) is "suspended" or negated. Clearly different phenomenologists actually hold different ontologies, but they generally share a degree of such non-substantialism.

Phenomenological approaches are epistemologically correlationist — they all have in common that they acknowledge the role of the experiencer in the constitution of objects of perception, and conversely. This is sometimes called a transcendental perspective, and is in fact a landmark of Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies: knower and known are co-relative, they co-constitute each other and are mirror-processes.<ref>Bitbol, M. (2010). The Co-Emergence of the Knower and the Known: A Comparison between Madhyamaka and Kant’s Epistemology. In D. K. Nauriyal, M. S. Drummond, & Y. B. Lal (Eds.), ''Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research Transcending the Boundaries'' (p. 521). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/11985619/The_Co_Emergence_of_the_Knower_and_the_Known_a_Comparison_Between_Madhyamaka_and_Kants_Epistemology</ref> Note that many people use the word "transcendental" to mean "transcendent", or to refer to something extraordinary.

While classical phenomenology is often seen as an abstract philosophical movement, it actually seems to be its own source-tradition, as its found Husserl for instance, wrote that<blockquote>“[the phenomenological quest implies] a complete personal transformation which can be compared ''prima facie'' with a religious conversion”<ref>Husserl, E. (1984). ''The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: an introduction to phenomenological philosophy'' (D. Carr, Ed.; 6th pr). Northwestern Univ. Press.</ref></blockquote>''The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology'', 1936, p. 156<blockquote>“A true philosopher is one who has taken the decision to make of his life a life devoted to the absolute… a life entirely devoted to the idea of the supreme good.” </blockquote>Philosophie première, PUF, 1972, p. 9, 15

As such its "methods" can be seen as emergent modalities:<blockquote>"Phenomenology is a new kind of discipline that merges knowledge, ascesis and ethics. But instead of seeking salvation by means of a variety of knowledge suffused with spirituality (as Gnostics do), phenomenology seeks knowledge by basing it on a carefully channeled variety of spiritual exercise."<ref>Bitbol, M. (2019). Consciousness, Being and Life: Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness. ''Journal of Phenomenological Psychology'', ''50''(2), 127–161. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341360</ref></blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161<blockquote>"To inquire into mindfulness according to its own standards, a phenomenologist must accept to undergo the "complete transformation"that… goes along the practice of mindfulness."</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

This then questions the usual status of scientific theories, and sets limits to what they can and can't do: are they images of a "real" world given "out there" beyond and independent of everyone's experience? Or, are they intrinsically experiential themselves, through and through, and thus, for instance, are entirely powerless in providing any ultimate account of lived experience and thus, in fact, reality, since, as a matter of fact, any scientific or philosophical theory pre-supposes experience in order to even manifest: how could they explain something which they need in order to even come into being?

=== Épochè and reduction ===
<blockquote>"The Phenomenological Épochè [...] does not limit itself to the suspension of ''discursive'' judgments about the world and society. It aims at suspending the perceptive, pre-discursive spontaneous position of objects, and neutralizing the tacit "natural" belief in an objective world allegedly given ''out there'' from the outset. [...]"</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

=== Phenomenology of Life ===
<blockquote>"Insofar [...] as the world of the spirit, with its own laws and creations, rests, it seems, on a nature, on a human or animal corporeality, this nature is precisely not the world of science with its abstract idealities, it is that of life - a world to which there is no access except within a sensibility such as ours and which never gives itself to us except through the endless game of its constantly changing and renewed subjective appearances. The illusion of Galileo, as well as of all those who, following him, consider science as an absolute knowledge, was precisely to have taken the mathematical and geometrical world, destined to provide a univocal knowledge of the real world, for this real world itself, this world that we can only intuit and experience in the concrete modes of our subjective life.

But this subjective life does not only create the idealities and abstractions of science (as of conceptual thought in general), it first gives form to this world of life in the middle of which our concrete existence takes place. Because a reality as simple as a cube or a house is not a thing that exists outside of us and without us, in a way by itself, as the substratum of its qualities. It is what it is only thanks to a complex activity of the perception which poses, beyond the succession of the sense data that we have of it, the cube or the house as an ideal identical pole to which all these subjective appearances refer. Each perception of a face of the cube or of the front of a house refers to the potential perceptions of the other faces not yet perceived according to a game of indefinite relations. It is the same for any object in general, for any transcendent formation, which implies each time a specific synthetic operation of the transcendental subjectivity without which it would not be.

Undoubtedly in our daily life we do not pay attention to this consciousness which constitutes the world of our habitual environment. We perceive the house and are inattentive to our perception of the house. We are always aware of the world and never aware of our awareness of the world. It is the task of philosophy to bring to the forefront this untiring activity of the consciousness that perceives the world, that conceives the idealities and abstractions of science, that imagines, that remembers, etc., thus producing all the unreal representations that never cease to accompany the course of our real life."</blockquote>''Barbarism, p. 20''<ref>Henry, M. (2012). ''Barbarism'' (S. Davidson, Trans.). Continuum.</ref>

Michel Henry: I am the truth, p. 156-157, denies that such a thing as a subjectivity or fixed identity, an "empirical individual", could be found as an object or subject within or as experience. His radical critique of what he called elsewhere “transcendental egotism” is thus summarized: “If by man we understand, as is usual, the empirical individual” [p.156], “man doesn’t exist”. “Worldly man is but an optical illusion.” [p.157].<ref name=":0">Henry, M. (2003). ''I am the truth: toward a philosophy of Christianity''. Stanford University Press.</ref>

Michel Henry, whose work was heavily influenced by Meister Eckhart, went further and claimed that what he found out is also the essential meaning of the Christian revelation,<ref name=":0" /> and in this he seems very close from contemporary mystics like Bernadette Roberts.<ref>Roberts, B. (1991). ''The path to no-self: life at the center''. State University of New York Press.</ref><ref>Roberts, B. (1993). ''The experience of no-self: a contemplative journey'' (Rev. ed). State University of New York.</ref>

=== The Chiasma ===
Merleau-Ponty<blockquote>We are immersed in Being, and witness its self manifestation qua lived experience, and we try to extract stable formal features from this experience, that we define as scientific objects. If such views were more widespread, no one would be tempted to embrace materialism which is seen as a confusion between forms and being, between objects of science and reality

Michel Bitbol</blockquote>Still, phenomenal ontologies are substantialist to a certain degree, since the absolute self-affectivity of Michel Henry's phenomenology of Life, seen as the essence of manifestation,<ref>Henry, M. (1973). ''The Essence of Manifestation''. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2391-7</ref> or the "pure experience" in William James' so-called radical empiricism, is considered as the substrate or "stuff" that reality is made of. This could be seen as a subtle form or reification.

== Non-foundationalist non-substantialism ==
A non-foundationalist perspective considers that no absolute or ultimate metaphysical conclusions can be drawn from empirical evidence, because this relies on epistemological assumptions which cannot be given any ultimate ground; there are no ultimate foundations to knowledge.

What is the absolute justification that empirical experience from phenomenal observation is a valid source of truth about reality? Suppose that there is a "real reality" out there from which our lived reality (consciousness) originates. Why suppose that it obeys the laws of our phenomenal existence? And why suppose the genesis of our phenomenal existence happens in ways which resemble the causality our lives seem ruled by?

This is rarer, as it means that epistemologically one considers there is no ultimate foundational principle, thus emptying out or pulling the rug under the whole concept of truth. Obviously, all the philosophical schools mentioned previously are all more foundationalist than not.

Some ,modern and post-modern thinkers come to mind: Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Foucault, William James, Lyotard in some ways aligned with this overall stance. But several philosophers, mystics, and logicians throughout history and in different world religions, also arrived at similar views.

=== The relationship between states and metaphysical beliefs… and back ===
Bitbol on the relationship between particular mind states and metaphysical theories: <blockquote>"Instead of hoping that the nature of conscious experience will be revealed by a theory, it is from now on inevitable to instead ask fluxing experience itself to exhibit the nature of theories. [...] Each thesis about conscious experience depends on a state of conscious experience; [...] abstractedly defending a theory about conscious experience amounts to contracting into one of the possible postures of experience being lived. [...] There is a mutual dependency between conceptions of consciousness and the state of consciousness of those who defend them."<ref>Bitbol, ''Does consciousness have an origin?'', 2018, p.301, p. 685</ref></blockquote>

=== The logic of being ===
Many branches of Buddhism — madhyamika in particular and related prajñaparamita-influenced schools — are non-substantialist, meaning that, going one step further than phenomenal ontologies which don't consider that there is any "really existing" entity or substance "out there" beyond appearances, they also deny, usually through elaborate logical reasonings, that phenomenality or "pure experience" are not to be reified into a "really existing" thing independent of the experience of it in the moment either) and also non-foundationalist.

Consider, for instance, the question of subject–object duality from a logical perspective. Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world": <blockquote>"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"<ref>Lavis, A. (2018). ''La conscience à l’épreuve de l’éveil: lecture, commentaire et traduction du “Bodhicaryāvatāra” de Śāntideva. [Consciousness at the test of awakening: a reading, commentary and translation of Śāntideva’s “Bodhicaryāvatāra”.]''. Éditions du Cerf.</ref></blockquote>This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

Such powerful and concise arguments seem to go a step beyond some of the phenomenological ontologies we just reviewed. In particular, the paradoxes implied in Michel Henry's affirmation that reality is "absolute self-affectivity with no distance" are revealed in a clear light, and intuit how philosophies of unity or "co-incidence" can actually become sterile.<ref>Jullien, F. (2017). ''Dé-coïncidence : D’où viennent l’art et l’existence?'' Grasset.</ref>

The Eleatic school, formost among which was Parmenides, also employed logical arguments to show the intenable paradoxes of ordinary ontological categories and destroy all dualities — which in Greek are called ''doxa'' (''δόξα''), the "opinions of mortal men", the appearances of the "natural" world. The most famous one is about Achilles and the tortoise, which is not often presented as the deep negation of the possibility of movement as it is ordinarily conceived, but rather as a sort of logical game illustrating the mathematical notion of limit. However, it goes much deeper than that.

Compare the opening stance to Nāgārjuna's ''Fundamental wisdom of the middle-way:''<blockquote>"Whatever is dependently arisen is Unceasing, unborn, Unannihilated, not permanent, Not coming, not going, Without distinction, without identity, And free from conceptual construction."<ref>https://terebess.hu/english/Nagarjuna.pdf, see e.g. Nāgārjuna. (1995). ''The fundamental wisdom of the middle way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' (J. L. Garfield, Trans.). Oxford University Press. </ref> </blockquote>With section VIII of Parmenides' ''Poem'':<blockquote>VIII

One path only is left for us to

speak of, namely, that It is. In it are very many tokens that

what is, is uncreated and indestructible, alone, complete,

immovable and without end. Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for

5 now it is, all at once, a continuous one. For what kind of origin

for it. will you look for ? In what way and from what source

could it have drawn its increase ? I shall not let thee say nor

think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be

thought nor uttered that what is not is. And, if it came from

10 nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than

sooner ? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at

all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides

itself from that which in any way is. Wherefore, Justice does

not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass

15 away, but holds it fast.

" Is it or is it not ? " Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must

be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and

nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real

and true. How, then, can what is be going to be in the

20 future ? Or how could it come into being ? If it came into

being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future. Thus is

becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of.

Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more

of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding

together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is.

25 Wherefore all holds together; for what is; is in contact with what is.

Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without

beginning and without end; since coming into being

and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away.

It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself.

30 And thus it remaineth constant in its place; for hard necessity

keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side.

Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing ; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. It is the

same thing that can be thought and for the sake of which the thought exists ;

35 for you cannot find thought without something that is, to which it is

betrothed. And there is not, and never shall be, any time other, than that which

is present, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable.

Wherefore all these things are but the names which mortals

have given, believing them, to be true –

40 coming into being and passing away, being and not being,

change of place and alteration of bright colour.

Where, then, it has its farthest boundary, it is complete on

every side, equally poised from the centre in every direction,

like the mass of a rounded sphere; for it cannot be greater or

45 smaller in one place than in another. For there is nothing

which is not that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor

is it possible that there should be more of what is in this place

and less in that, since it is all inviolable. For, since it is equal

in all directions, it is equally confined within limits.

50 Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth.

Henceforward learn the opinions of mortals,

giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words.

Mortals have settled in their minds to speak of two forms, one of which

they should have left out, and that is where they go astray from the truth.

55 They have assigned an opposite

substance to each, and marks distinct from one another. To the

one they allot the fire of heaven, light, thin, in every direction

the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is

opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. Of these

60 I tell thee the whole arrangement as it seems to men,

in order that no mortal may surpass thee in knowledge.<ref>http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenidesunicode.htm, see e.g. Parmenides. (1991). ''Fragments: a text and translation'' (Paperback ed). Univ. of Toronto Press.</ref></blockquote>

=== A dream-like world: Neither Being nor non-Being, nor Both, nor Neither ===
<blockquote>"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."</blockquote><blockquote>"We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Shakespeare, ''The Tempest''</blockquote>The ''prajñaparamita'' refutation of all ontological affirmation, best exemplified in the concise text of the ''Heart sutra'', insubstantiality leads to a fundamental ''groundlessness'' and the playful, mysterious display of appearances seen as devoid of substance, which finds poetic expression in the ''Diamond sutra'':<blockquote>“So I say to you –

This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”

''“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;''

''Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,''

''Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”''

''“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”''<ref>https://diamond-sutra.com/read-the-diamond-sutra-here/diamond-sutra-chapter-32/</ref></blockquote>

=== Unknowing and mystery ===
Many of the world's great mystics expound views of this sort. After all, the word "mystic" comes from "mystery". that of these systems which exhibit the radical limitations of any objective knowledge, theoretical knowledge, representational knowledge. This is sometimes done in favor of non-objective knowledge. Thus we are brought back from the order of metaphysical theories to the realm of practice — for non-objective knowledge is practical knowledge.

This is sometimes dismissed as "Mysterianism".

For instance Meister Eckhart or his forebear Dionysius the Areopagite.

The cloude of Unknowing.

== Ontological agnosticism ==

== Can we say anything about the "origin" or "nature" of "consciousness"? ==
So, on the epistemological level, and using Kantian terms, QRI asks a question of an ''a priori'' type (having to do with intuition not deduction) and seeks to answer them through ''a posteriori'' procedures (empirical evidence), or in his and later uses of these terms, confuses the empirical and the transcendental. Methodologically, this then calls to use objective empirical methods to explore "something" non-objective — for consciousness is not an object in the way that a "ball falling to the ground" is an object. If it was, then what is it that would observe that object, since "consciousness" is supposed to be "what observes"? Not only is consciousness non-objective, but it cannot be distinguished from its objects — this is both an experiential fact and a logical necessity: examine Santideva's verse

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,/How would they come into contact?/If no space separates them, then they will be one,/And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

Note that if by "consciousness" is meant a more restricted meaning of "the mind" or "the mental sense sphere", then one only needs to apply the previous reasoning to the specific faculty to prove that it is not a product of "the brain". But this is not an empirical observation. Empirical observation can't say anything about the brain, because empirically speaking, there is no brain, i.e., the "brain", as all objects, is a transcendent, it transcends individual experience (and according to some, is the cause of it, and "experience" is a sort of byproduct or even representation "in the brain", which also implies that the brain cannot be observed.)

Finally, more generally, there are logical issues which apply to realist approaches in general, but which in this context point to specific problems regarding the "causes" and the notion of an "origin" of consciousness (viewed as a "thing", i.e., reified). The paradoxes of realist views are thoroughly examined in philosophical texts such as the prajñaparamita literature (Heart and Diamond Sutras being some of the best known examples as well as Nagarjuna's works<ref>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</ref>), which uses deep logical arguments disprove substantial/independent existence. The pre-socratic Eleatic school employed similar logical arguments to arrive at comparable conclusion, as seen for instance in Parmenides' poem, although his treatment is less systematic and extensive, but more poetic.

'''Epistemology'''

'''Methodology'''

As I understand it, using empirical methods to test that a theory is "true" or not, means conceiving a model of how reality "really is" and then logically devising the necessary consequences of this theory being true through the laws of cause and effect. Specific consequences of the model can be turned into predictions (i.e., "if model X is true, then observation Y should be possible in such and such context"), and there should be specific observable effects in the world of experience. Actual empirical observations will then conform to predictions or not, and they are then said to offer evidence in favor or against the theory - which is a metaphysical view, basically.

This forgets the initial epistemological made above. ''A priori'' knowledge is knowledge that cannot be derived from experience, or maybe better said - is presupposed in all experience : e.g. the ''a prioris'' of sensibility in Kant's system are "time" and "space". I would say that "consciousness" (although I use an expended definition of this compared to IONS) is presupposed in all experience, i.e. there cannot be any experience without there being "experientiality" or consciousness that co-arises with it and as its very phenomenal substance.

Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world":

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

'''Some logical issues'''

Secondly, on a more logical level. The implication of this proposal is that there are causes and conditions of consciousness which can be investigated empirically and that observation can give solid if not absolute bases for sound knowledge. This is implied in the physicalist theories they try to disprove, certainly (i.e., "consciousness arises from neurons"), but it is also the implication of engaging in procedures that test the validity of a metaphysical theory (on the nature of consciousness).

If there are causes to consciousness, these causes must be different from consciousness. They must be temporally distinct from consciousness, as effects follow causes in time. If consciousness is an effect of some temporally other cause then the cause exists in a different moment than consciousness, at a different point in time. This raises the insurmountable contradictions of positing that there are ontologically distinct moments of time, ontologically distinct substances, and ontologically distinct spatial locations. All of the paradoxes that arise from realist/substantialist theories follow. These are examined and thoroughly debunked in Nagarjuna's philosophical classical, ''Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle-Way'', and other ''prajñaparamita'' texts. I could not do it justice here, but regarding the issues with realist views, this classic text will be reflected on fruitfully.

The following contains a summary of the four main types of logical reasonings used in the madhyamaka tradition to e : <nowiki>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</nowiki>.

'''Conclusion'''

Finally, regarding the argument that "the dominant worldview is physicalism": (1) I don't think it's true, as many people are in fact not that, and (2) conclusive proofs (such as the ones outlined here) have ''already'' been given that disprove physicalism, and the issue of disproving it only remains in contexts which ''implicitly take for granted the metaphysical realism, epistemologies and methods of such perspectives''.

Trying to disprove physicalism within this context will be difficult if not principally impossible, and does not seem particularly useful.

Thus, my tongue-in-cheek empirical proposal is that the money of this prize could be put to better use than trying to prove something, which has already been proven, by using methods which cannot yield the sought-after proof.

== References ==

Synthesis:Beliefs and Worldviews

2025-08-30T20:18:15Z

OlivierSandilands: /* The relationship between states and metaphysical beliefs… and back */

[[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent phenomena]] are profoundly intertwined with beliefs, metaphysics and philosophy. [[Tradition:Source Traditions|Source traditions]] (religions, philosophies, spiritualities) but also in many cases academic and scientific [[disciplines]] usually revolve around specific stories of the origins and ends of the world, the nature

This domain includes a huge variety of relative idiosyncratic or culturally informed beliefs of the individual, as well as their ultimate beliefs — usually the same as or related with their cultural's worldview but not always — around questions like reality, substance, causality, properties, relations, categories of beings, universals, particulars, space, time, freedom, etc.<ref>Sjöstedt-Hughes, P. (2023). On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''14'', [[1128589. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1128589]]</ref> We'll go over the following aspects:

* Metaphysics
** Cosmology (Origins of the world)
** Epistemology
** Ontology
** Soteriology
* General beliefs or views about life in general
** Implicit
** Explicit
Note that the following is a draft that needs to be re-written.

= A word on metaphysics =
Metaphysics is the realm of our most deeply held beliefs about and representations of the universe and the beings it contains, its origins, the nature of our experience, and what may lay beyond our subjective experience — whether they be the images of ourselves we hold in our hearts, our sense of the cosmos we inhabit, our notions of what is real or not, and what at the innermost level we hold as being true. One may reasonably argue that all people have metaphysical beliefs, whether they are aware of them or not. In fact, some claim that "whole cosmologies are wrapped up in single perceptions" (Rob Burbea). Thus it is very interesting — and has been a very common practice throughout history and even today — to ask questions about metaphysics and shed an introspective light on our own beliefs.

Worldviews are infinitely varied. Many authors, schools of thought, religions, philosophies, and even scientists, have proposed views and conceptions about the beings that populate this universe, the ultimate nature of our experience or of the cosmos, and of the ways to reach truth. Depending on what they consider as "really" existing and whether that is one, two, or many things, we can distinguish between various systems.

= A word on epistemology =
How can we know what is ultimately true, or is true for us? This is the question of epistemology.

Scientific epistemology relies on empirical testing and retesting (reproducibility), reliability and predictive power.

Religious epistemologies often stresse the authority of specific texts or doctrinal sources.

Contemplative, phenomenological, and mystical epistemology often rely on direct experience, but also other modes of knowing such as revelation, intuition, oracles, etc.

Revelatory epistemology: "Revelation from the Beyond through Mediums is how we get Truth" (Prophetic perspective in the Bible and Torah; State Oracles in ancient Greece and contemporary Tibet; Various divination method in the Roman republic, described by the Augur Cicero in ''De diuinatione'', etc.).

Rationalist epistemology (Descartes, mecanistic philosophies) would see reason a the source of any valid knowledge; or

Empirical epistemology (the British Empiricists) considering that only through experience and experimental procedures do we derive "true facts" — taken to the extreme, leads to positivism (Comte) and culminates in scientism, the idea that only "science" can lead to "truth" and statements such as "what exists is what can be measured" (Kelvin), evacuating intuition and human subjectivity.

Transcendental epistemologies such as Kantian idealism which distinguished between ''a posteriori'' (or empirical) knowledge, and ''a priori'' knowledge (non-derived from experience).

Pragmatic perspectives (William James): "by their fruits shall ye know them"...

One of the core aspects of the work underlying the EmergeWiki is to explore how epistemic pluralism is possible, and how we can reconcile various perspectives in a coherent whole.

The classification we give here should be taken with a grain of salt. The reality of people's views is, as always with people, vastly richer than this. People rarely agree on all aspects of their beliefs. In fact, they rarely even agree with themselves about their views: someone can very well hold implicit beliefs which contradict their explicit beliefs, without being aware of it or not, and even consciously hold contradictory beliefs without it being a problem at all. Thus, these types of views should be seen as this: schematic types.

= Substantialist Metaphysics =

== A question of Substance ==
"Substantialism" refers to all beliefs that consider that there are truly, independently existing "entities", "beings", "things", or "essences", which may or may not correspond to the objects and subjects of our everyday experience.

"Substance" comes from latin ''substantia'', and is composed of the prefix "sub-" which means "under", and "stance" from "stāre", which means "to stand". For the etymology geeks out there, ''sub'' is the latin equivalent of the greek "''ὑπό''", or "hypo"; replacing the latin prefix by the greek yield the word "''hypostasis''"” which is a commonly used word in metaphysics.

Thus, one may hear the word ''substance'' as pointing to what ''stands under'' appearances, to the real being that corresponds to the fleeting phenomena we experience.

In many ways, this touches on the essence of metaphysics : what ''stands under'' appearances ? What is the relationship between appearances and ''real being'' ?

It is immediately clear that the answer to this is not straightforward and could invite many, many types of theories, answers, and even speculations about what is "out there".

Prominent critic of metaphysical speculations, Friedrich Nietzsche, called these "other worlds" existing beyond our experience "''backworlds''" and considered these as figments of the imagination which only served to distract us from the real experience of our actual lives.

One may disagree with Nietzsche, but his words do point to a recurring theme in all human societies : the ''beyond'', and the relationship with the beyond.

A particular meaning of the word "metaphysics" (René Guénon, ''Oriental Metaphysics'') is that it refers to what is beyond ("meta-") the physical world ("physis", a Greek word which can be translated as "nature"). Physics and metaphysics are related terms. If physics is concerned with the laws of ''nature'', then in some literal sense then, metaphysics is concerned with what is "beyond" or "above" (in latin, ''super-'') nature": the super-natural.

Interestingly, this would imply that ''physics'', the ''physical world'', is the world of appearances, of our experience. If we accept this meaning of the term, then we realize that the current meaning of scientific physics is a reversal of its original use, since physics is presently concerned, not with a description of our natural, lived experience, but with the description of the laws and theories about the realities which "govern" these appearances, which are never directly manifest ''in''experience, but somewhat produce them and can be indirectly deduced from the observation of experience.

The epitome of this gap is embodied by the most advanced of physical theories, quantum mechanics, which seems to describe a quantum world that is so exotic and seemingly foreign to the world of our everyday experience that physicists and philosophers alike have been shocked and baffled by it since its inception in the 20 th century.

One must see clearly, here, that, keeping in mind the previous definition, quantum mechanics ''is a metaphysical theory''. One that is rooted in scientific methodologies, empirical testing, and continual revision, allowing for a level of technical control and predictive power which is unparalleled — but a metaphysical theory nonetheless.

The question is then - what is the status of scientific theories? Current cutting-edge approaches, rather than ''substantializing'' or ''re-ifying'' - that is to say, "making into a real thing" - the objects and laws described by contemporary physical theories

By contrast, a non-substantialist perspective would argue that there is ''nothing'' that stands under, or beyond, appearances. An interpretation of physical theories that may stem from such an attitude, could be to consider that instead of representing an external substantial reality beyond appearances which the theories describe, these theories are ''formalizations of know-how'' and ''prediction-making'' tools, which account for there probabilistic nature - instead of reality being inherently probabilistic. This is beyond the scope of our discussion, but students interested in this may look into recent developments in the area of philosophy of science which seek to provide a phenomenal grounding to quantum theories.

=== Monisms ===
Monist theories generally believe that there is only one real substance and this substance exists independently of my experience of it").

==== Idealist Monisms ====
Monism can be idealist ("there is only thought, or consciousness, or ideas"), and there is quite a variety of idealist monisms (e.g. Stoicism, Cittamatra philosophy, authors like Berkeley, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel) depending on what the specifics of the really existing substance are.

==== Materialist Monisms ====
There are also materialist monisms (who hold that "there is only matter") — but what that substance is varies —subatomic particles, atoms, brain...

These doctrines vary in their account of lived experience: illusory epiphenomenon for eliminativist physicalism, which holds that we should reduce the illusory level of lived experience to the "true level" of material forces or brain structures; phenomenal representation of the unknowable "thing in itself" belonging to the domain of the "noumenon" for kantian idealism; a universal property of material objects for pan-psychism — meaning that panpsychists hold that there is only "matter", but that all matter contains as a property the fact of "being conscious", like it has mass or spin; "phenomena" as aggregate of sensations with no "underlying substance" beyond lived experience, except that there is a god that makes all this happen, but this god is absent from experience and unknowable and irrepresentable (Berkeley); Federico Faggin's theory of CU's and quantum fields is a form of realist monism which echoes Leibniz' older monadology; Franklin Merrill-Wolff, etc.

==== Other Monisms ====
Then there are sort of strange monisms such as Spinoza, who posited one true substance — God — with an infinity of attributes, two of which constitute human life — "Thought" and "Extension", mind and body (including sensations), essentially — these being considered as distinct but not ontologically separate, two sides of the same one coin. This is sometimes called dual-aspect monism, but Spinoza considered there were infinitely many aspects of the one being,

=== Dualisms ===
There are also Dualisms. Schematically, these tend to believe that "there are two really existing substances which are different" and the question is then how these interact. Descartes comes to mind, but also lots of traditional spiritualities ("there is the body, there is the soul, there is this material/experiential world, and there is the beyond where the soul goes back to at death" — e.g. Allan Kardec's Spirit ideas, or certain interpretations of Neo-platonism (The One, The Noous, The Intellect, etc.).

Notice that both monisms and dualisms of this type are realist in some way, or more accurately, substantialist, as they posit the true existence of some "thing" (res, in latin) independent of the perception of it; and then the question is, "how do we know that thing?", which is a question of epistemology.

=== Pluralisms ===
Plato's theory of forms is an idealistic pluralism.

Allan Kardec and spiritist ontologies.

Theosophy

Anthroposophy

Akashic records.

Etc.

The similarities between the different types of substantialist perspectives led to Wittgenstein's famous assertion, that "both realism and idealism, taken to their extreme, lead to the other" — ie, materialist and idealist monisms are logical equivalents.

However, there are other perspectives which open things out more — various perspectives which are less substantialist or not substantialist at all.

= Non-substantialist or non-essentialist metaphysics =
The idea is that non-substantialist metaphysics do not consider that there are real "objects" (res; onta) or "entities" (ens) which exist independently or, or "stand under" appearances, or independently of the act of observing. In some sense phenomenal or phenomenological ontologies could hardly be seen as "metaphysics" proper, as they modify reverse or cancel the meaning of "metaphysics" understood as a view of ''that which is beyond appearances'', since these positions consider that ''being'' and ''appearing'' are strictly equivalent, a position which defines ''phenomenological ontologies''. How can something be ''metaphysics'' if it states there is nothing beyond the "natural" world of appearances? If we just take the word to refer to "theories of reality", then this problem is fixed.

== Phenomenological ontologies ==

=== Being as appearing ===
A phenomenal ontology hinges on the premise that "Being is Appearing" (phenomenalism), and relies on the suspension (in greek, ''épochè'') of the implicit beliefs in the intrinsic existence of objects of perception.<blockquote>"[Phenomenology] simply claims that being is identical with the phenomenon." </blockquote>Eugen Fink, ''Proximité et distance'', Jérôme Millon, 1993, p. 127 <blockquote>"A central, though disputed, premise of phenomenological ontology is that being is strictly coextensive to appearing. The list of quotations of phenomenologists who support this is almost inexhaustible. [...] According to it, being is ''nothing above and beyond'' appearing.”</blockquote>Michel Bitbol, ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

In other words, classical phenomenology, as its name indicates, is a radical return to the lived-world, the Lebenswelt, to the "mothers of all knowledge", or as Husserl expressed it: going "back to things themselves". In fact, Classical Phenomenologists (authors like Heidegger, Sartre, Michel Henry, Merleau-Ponty, Renaud Barbaras, Michel Bitbol) basically all have in common is the idea that objective knowledge and in fact any objectivities, objects of perception of all types, are constituted within, by, and as lived experience; in other words, they reverse the status of transcendence: transcendance is constituted within and as immanence.

A major consequence is the suspension of ''transcendence'' — in the sense of an independent existence above and beyond appearances, which is in fact the mode of being we tend to attribute to the objects and subjects of our daily lives, naturally, implicitly. This is a crucial point: the natural perception we have of the subjects and objects that populate our lived experience always "transcend" our experience of them. as to This is why Husserl, a major figure of classical phenomenology, called this the "natural attitude". The épochè gesture of "suspension" of these pro-jections, and the re-direction of attention to phenomena as they manifest( “the method of phenomenology is to go back to things themselves”) This means that "sub-stance" in the sense of "what stands under appearances" (see above) is "suspended" or negated. Clearly different phenomenologists actually hold different ontologies, but they generally share a degree of such non-substantialism.

Phenomenological approaches are epistemologically correlationist — they all have in common that they acknowledge the role of the experiencer in the constitution of objects of perception, and conversely. This is sometimes called a transcendental perspective, and is in fact a landmark of Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies: knower and known are co-relative, they co-constitute each other and are mirror-processes.<ref>Bitbol, M. (2010). The Co-Emergence of the Knower and the Known: A Comparison between Madhyamaka and Kant’s Epistemology. In D. K. Nauriyal, M. S. Drummond, & Y. B. Lal (Eds.), ''Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research Transcending the Boundaries'' (p. 521). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/11985619/The_Co_Emergence_of_the_Knower_and_the_Known_a_Comparison_Between_Madhyamaka_and_Kants_Epistemology</ref> Note that many people use the word "transcendental" to mean "transcendent", or to refer to something extraordinary.

While classical phenomenology is often seen as an abstract philosophical movement, it actually seems to be its own source-tradition, as its found Husserl for instance, wrote that<blockquote>“[the phenomenological quest implies] a complete personal transformation which can be compared ''prima facie'' with a religious conversion”<ref>Husserl, E. (1984). ''The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: an introduction to phenomenological philosophy'' (D. Carr, Ed.; 6th pr). Northwestern Univ. Press.</ref></blockquote>''The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology'', 1936, p. 156<blockquote>“A true philosopher is one who has taken the decision to make of his life a life devoted to the absolute… a life entirely devoted to the idea of the supreme good.” </blockquote>Philosophie première, PUF, 1972, p. 9, 15

As such its "methods" can be seen as emergent modalities:<blockquote>"Phenomenology is a new kind of discipline that merges knowledge, ascesis and ethics. But instead of seeking salvation by means of a variety of knowledge suffused with spirituality (as Gnostics do), phenomenology seeks knowledge by basing it on a carefully channeled variety of spiritual exercise."<ref>Bitbol, M. (2019). Consciousness, Being and Life: Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness. ''Journal of Phenomenological Psychology'', ''50''(2), 127–161. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341360</ref></blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161<blockquote>"To inquire into mindfulness according to its own standards, a phenomenologist must accept to undergo the "complete transformation"that… goes along the practice of mindfulness."</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

This then questions the usual status of scientific theories, and sets limits to what they can and can't do: are they images of a "real" world given "out there" beyond and independent of everyone's experience? Or, are they intrinsically experiential themselves, through and through, and thus, for instance, are entirely powerless in providing any ultimate account of lived experience and thus, in fact, reality, since, as a matter of fact, any scientific or philosophical theory pre-supposes experience in order to even manifest: how could they explain something which they need in order to even come into being?

=== Épochè and reduction ===
<blockquote>"The Phenomenological Épochè [...] does not limit itself to the suspension of ''discursive'' judgments about the world and society. It aims at suspending the perceptive, pre-discursive spontaneous position of objects, and neutralizing the tacit "natural" belief in an objective world allegedly given ''out there'' from the outset. [...]"</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

=== Phenomenology of Life ===
<blockquote>"Insofar [...] as the world of the spirit, with its own laws and creations, rests, it seems, on a nature, on a human or animal corporeality, this nature is precisely not the world of science with its abstract idealities, it is that of life - a world to which there is no access except within a sensibility such as ours and which never gives itself to us except through the endless game of its constantly changing and renewed subjective appearances. The illusion of Galileo, as well as of all those who, following him, consider science as an absolute knowledge, was precisely to have taken the mathematical and geometrical world, destined to provide a univocal knowledge of the real world, for this real world itself, this world that we can only intuit and experience in the concrete modes of our subjective life.

But this subjective life does not only create the idealities and abstractions of science (as of conceptual thought in general), it first gives form to this world of life in the middle of which our concrete existence takes place. Because a reality as simple as a cube or a house is not a thing that exists outside of us and without us, in a way by itself, as the substratum of its qualities. It is what it is only thanks to a complex activity of the perception which poses, beyond the succession of the sense data that we have of it, the cube or the house as an ideal identical pole to which all these subjective appearances refer. Each perception of a face of the cube or of the front of a house refers to the potential perceptions of the other faces not yet perceived according to a game of indefinite relations. It is the same for any object in general, for any transcendent formation, which implies each time a specific synthetic operation of the transcendental subjectivity without which it would not be.

Undoubtedly in our daily life we do not pay attention to this consciousness which constitutes the world of our habitual environment. We perceive the house and are inattentive to our perception of the house. We are always aware of the world and never aware of our awareness of the world. It is the task of philosophy to bring to the forefront this untiring activity of the consciousness that perceives the world, that conceives the idealities and abstractions of science, that imagines, that remembers, etc., thus producing all the unreal representations that never cease to accompany the course of our real life."</blockquote>''Barbarism, p. 20''<ref>Henry, M. (2012). ''Barbarism'' (S. Davidson, Trans.). Continuum.</ref>

Michel Henry: I am the truth, p. 156-157, denies that such a thing as a subjectivity or fixed identity, an "empirical individual", could be found as an object or subject within or as experience. His radical critique of what he called elsewhere “transcendental egotism” is thus summarized: “If by man we understand, as is usual, the empirical individual” [p.156], “man doesn’t exist”. “Worldly man is but an optical illusion.” [p.157].<ref name=":0">Henry, M. (2003). ''I am the truth: toward a philosophy of Christianity''. Stanford University Press.</ref>

Michel Henry, whose work was heavily influenced by Meister Eckhart, went further and claimed that what he found out is also the essential meaning of the Christian revelation,<ref name=":0" /> and in this he seems very close from contemporary mystics like Bernadette Roberts.<ref>Roberts, B. (1991). ''The path to no-self: life at the center''. State University of New York Press.</ref><ref>Roberts, B. (1993). ''The experience of no-self: a contemplative journey'' (Rev. ed). State University of New York.</ref>

=== The Chiasma ===
Merleau-Ponty<blockquote>We are immersed in Being, and witness its self manifestation qua lived experience, and we try to extract stable formal features from this experience, that we define as scientific objects. If such views were more widespread, no one would be tempted to embrace materialism which is seen as a confusion between forms and being, between objects of science and reality

Michel Bitbol</blockquote>Still, phenomenal ontologies are substantialist to a certain degree, since the absolute self-affectivity of Michel Henry's phenomenology of Life, seen as the essence of manifestation,<ref>Henry, M. (1973). ''The Essence of Manifestation''. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2391-7</ref> or the "pure experience" in William James' so-called radical empiricism, is considered as the substrate or "stuff" that reality is made of. This could be seen as a subtle form or reification.

== Non-foundationalist non-substantialism ==
A non-foundationalist perspective considers that no absolute or ultimate metaphysical conclusions can be drawn from empirical evidence, because this relies on epistemological assumptions which cannot be given any ultimate ground; there are no ultimate foundations to knowledge.

What is the absolute justification that empirical experience from phenomenal observation is a valid source of truth about reality? Suppose that there is a "real reality" out there from which our lived reality (consciousness) originates. Why suppose that it obeys the laws of our phenomenal existence? And why suppose the genesis of our phenomenal existence happens in ways which resemble the causality our lives seem ruled by?

This is rarer, as it means that epistemologically one considers there is no ultimate foundational principle, thus emptying out or pulling the rug under the whole concept of truth. Obviously, all the philosophical schools mentioned previously are all more foundationalist than not.

Some ,modern and post-modern thinkers come to mind: Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Foucault, William James, Lyotard in some ways aligned with this overall stance. But several philosophers, mystics, and logicians throughout history and in different world religions, also arrived at similar views.

=== The relationship between states and metaphysical beliefs… and back ===
Bitbol on the relationship between particular mind states and metaphysical theories: <blockquote>"Instead of hoping that the nature of conscious experience will be revealed by a theory, it is from now on inevitable to instead ask fluxing experience itself to exhibit the nature of theories. [...] Each thesis about conscious experience depends on a state of conscious experience; [...] abstractedly defending a theory about conscious experience amounts to contracting into one of the possible postures of experience being lived. [...] There is a mutual dependency between conceptions of consciousness and the state of consciousness of those who defend them."<ref>Bitbol, ''Does consciousness have an origin?'', 2018, p.301, p. 685</ref></blockquote>

=== The logic of being ===
Many branches of Buddhism — madhyamika in particular and related prajñaparamita-influenced schools — are non-substantialist, meaning that, going one step further than phenomenal ontologies which don't consider that there is any "really existing" entity or substance "out there" beyond appearances, they also deny, usually through elaborate logical reasonings, that phenomenality or "pure experience" are not to be reified into a "really existing" thing independent of the experience of it in the moment either) and also non-foundationalist.

Consider, for instance, the question of subject–object duality from a logical perspective. Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world": <blockquote>"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"<ref>Lavis, A. (2018). ''La conscience à l’épreuve de l’éveil: lecture, commentaire et traduction du “Bodhicaryāvatāra” de Śāntideva. [Consciousness at the test of awakening: a reading, commentary and translation of Śāntideva’s “Bodhicaryāvatāra”.]''. Éditions du Cerf.</ref></blockquote>This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

Such powerful and concise arguments seem to go a step beyond some of the phenomenological ontologies we just reviewed. In particular, the paradoxes implied in Michel Henry's affirmation that reality is "absolute self-affectivity with no distance" are revealed in a clear light, and intuit how philosophies of unity or "co-incidence" can actually become sterile.<ref>Jullien, F. (2017). ''Dé-coïncidence : D’où viennent l’art et l’existence?'' Grasset.</ref>

The Eleatic school, formost among which was Parmenides, also employed logical arguments to show the intenable paradoxes of ordinary ontological categories and destroy all dualities — which in Greek are called ''doxa'' (''δόξα''), the "opinions of mortal men", the appearances of the "natural" world. The most famous one is about Achilles and the tortoise, which is not often presented as the deep negation of the possibility of movement as it is ordinarily conceived, but rather as a sort of logical game illustrating the mathematical notion of limit. However, it goes much deeper than that.

Compare the opening stance to Nāgārjuna's ''Fundamental wisdom of the middle-way:''<blockquote>"Whatever is dependently arisen is Unceasing, unborn, Unannihilated, not permanent, Not coming, not going, Without distinction, without identity, And free from conceptual construction."<ref>https://terebess.hu/english/Nagarjuna.pdf, see e.g. Nāgārjuna. (1995). ''The fundamental wisdom of the middle way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' (J. L. Garfield, Trans.). Oxford University Press. </ref> </blockquote>With section VIII of Parmenides' ''Poem'':<blockquote>VIII

One path only is left for us to

speak of, namely, that It is. In it are very many tokens that

what is, is uncreated and indestructible, alone, complete,

immovable and without end. Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for

5 now it is, all at once, a continuous one. For what kind of origin

for it. will you look for ? In what way and from what source

could it have drawn its increase ? I shall not let thee say nor

think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be

thought nor uttered that what is not is. And, if it came from

10 nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than

sooner ? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at

all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides

itself from that which in any way is. Wherefore, Justice does

not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass

15 away, but holds it fast.

" Is it or is it not ? " Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must

be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and

nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real

and true. How, then, can what is be going to be in the

20 future ? Or how could it come into being ? If it came into

being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future. Thus is

becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of.

Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more

of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding

together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is.

25 Wherefore all holds together; for what is; is in contact with what is.

Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without

beginning and without end; since coming into being

and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away.

It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself.

30 And thus it remaineth constant in its place; for hard necessity

keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side.

Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing ; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. It is the

same thing that can be thought and for the sake of which the thought exists ;

35 for you cannot find thought without something that is, to which it is

betrothed. And there is not, and never shall be, any time other, than that which

is present, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable.

Wherefore all these things are but the names which mortals

have given, believing them, to be true –

40 coming into being and passing away, being and not being,

change of place and alteration of bright colour.

Where, then, it has its farthest boundary, it is complete on

every side, equally poised from the centre in every direction,

like the mass of a rounded sphere; for it cannot be greater or

45 smaller in one place than in another. For there is nothing

which is not that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor

is it possible that there should be more of what is in this place

and less in that, since it is all inviolable. For, since it is equal

in all directions, it is equally confined within limits.

50 Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth.

Henceforward learn the opinions of mortals,

giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words.

Mortals have settled in their minds to speak of two forms, one of which

they should have left out, and that is where they go astray from the truth.

55 They have assigned an opposite

substance to each, and marks distinct from one another. To the

one they allot the fire of heaven, light, thin, in every direction

the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is

opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. Of these

60 I tell thee the whole arrangement as it seems to men,

in order that no mortal may surpass thee in knowledge.<ref>http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenidesunicode.htm, see e.g. Parmenides. (1991). ''Fragments: a text and translation'' (Paperback ed). Univ. of Toronto Press.</ref></blockquote>

=== A dream-like world: Neither Being nor non-Being, nor Both, nor Neither ===
<blockquote>"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."</blockquote><blockquote>"We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Shakespeare, ''The Tempest''</blockquote>The ''prajñaparamita'' refutation of all ontological affirmation, best exemplified in the concise text of the ''Heart sutra'', insubstantiality leads to a fundamental ''groundlessness'' and the playful, mysterious display of appearances seen as devoid of substance, which finds poetic expression in the ''Diamond sutra'':<blockquote>“So I say to you –

This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”

''“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;''

''Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,''

''Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”''

''“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”''<ref>https://diamond-sutra.com/read-the-diamond-sutra-here/diamond-sutra-chapter-32/</ref></blockquote>

=== Unknowing and mystery ===
Many of the world's great mystics expound views of this sort. After all, the word "mystic" comes from "mystery". that of these systems which exhibit the radical limitations of any objective knowledge, theoretical knowledge, representational knowledge. This is sometimes done in favor of non-objective knowledge. Thus we are brought back from the order of metaphysical theories to the realm of practice — for non-objective knowledge is practical knowledge.

This is sometimes dismissed as "Mysterianism".

For instance Meister Eckhart or his forebear Dionysius the Areopagite.

The cloude of Unknowing.

== Ontological agnosticism ==

== Can we say anything about the "origin" or "nature" of "consciousness"? ==
So, on the epistemological level, and using Kantian terms, QRI asks a question of an ''a priori'' type (having to do with intuition not deduction) and seeks to answer them through ''a posteriori'' procedures (empirical evidence), or in his and later uses of these terms, confuses the empirical and the transcendental. Methodologically, this then calls to use objective empirical methods to explore "something" non-objective — for consciousness is not an object in the way that a "ball falling to the ground" is an object. If it was, then what is it that would observe that object, since "consciousness" is supposed to be "what observes"? Not only is consciousness non-objective, but it cannot be distinguished from its objects — this is both an experiential fact and a logical necessity: examine Santideva's verse

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,/How would they come into contact?/If no space separates them, then they will be one,/And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

Note that if by "consciousness" is meant a more restricted meaning of "the mind" or "the mental sense sphere", then one only needs to apply the previous reasoning to the specific faculty to prove that it is not a product of "the brain". But this is not an empirical observation. Empirical observation can't say anything about the brain, because empirically speaking, there is no brain, i.e., the "brain", as all objects, is a transcendent, it transcends individual experience (and according to some, is the cause of it, and "experience" is a sort of byproduct or even representation "in the brain", which also implies that the brain cannot be observed.)

Finally, more generally, there are logical issues which apply to realist approaches in general, but which in this context point to specific problems regarding the "causes" and the notion of an "origin" of consciousness (viewed as a "thing", i.e., reified). The paradoxes of realist views are thoroughly examined in philosophical texts such as the prajñaparamita literature (Heart and Diamond Sutras being some of the best known examples as well as Nagarjuna's works<ref>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</ref>), which uses deep logical arguments disprove substantial/independent existence. The pre-socratic Eleatic school employed similar logical arguments to arrive at comparable conclusion, as seen for instance in Parmenides' poem, although his treatment is less systematic and extensive, but more poetic.

'''Epistemology'''

'''Methodology'''

As I understand it, using empirical methods to test that a theory is "true" or not, means conceiving a model of how reality "really is" and then logically devising the necessary consequences of this theory being true through the laws of cause and effect. Specific consequences of the model can be turned into predictions (i.e., "if model X is true, then observation Y should be possible in such and such context"), and there should be specific observable effects in the world of experience. Actual empirical observations will then conform to predictions or not, and they are then said to offer evidence in favor or against the theory - which is a metaphysical view, basically.

This forgets the initial epistemological made above. ''A priori'' knowledge is knowledge that cannot be derived from experience, or maybe better said - is presupposed in all experience : e.g. the ''a prioris'' of sensibility in Kant's system are "time" and "space". I would say that "consciousness" (although I use an expended definition of this compared to IONS) is presupposed in all experience, i.e. there cannot be any experience without there being "experientiality" or consciousness that co-arises with it and as its very phenomenal substance.

Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world":

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

'''Some logical issues'''

Secondly, on a more logical level. The implication of this proposal is that there are causes and conditions of consciousness which can be investigated empirically and that observation can give solid if not absolute bases for sound knowledge. This is implied in the physicalist theories they try to disprove, certainly (i.e., "consciousness arises from neurons"), but it is also the implication of engaging in procedures that test the validity of a metaphysical theory (on the nature of consciousness).

If there are causes to consciousness, these causes must be different from consciousness. They must be temporally distinct from consciousness, as effects follow causes in time. If consciousness is an effect of some temporally other cause then the cause exists in a different moment than consciousness, at a different point in time. This raises the insurmountable contradictions of positing that there are ontologically distinct moments of time, ontologically distinct substances, and ontologically distinct spatial locations. All of the paradoxes that arise from realist/substantialist theories follow. These are examined and thoroughly debunked in Nagarjuna's philosophical classical, ''Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle-Way'', and other ''prajñaparamita'' texts. I could not do it justice here, but regarding the issues with realist views, this classic text will be reflected on fruitfully.

The following contains a summary of the four main types of logical reasonings used in the madhyamaka tradition to e : <nowiki>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</nowiki>.

'''Conclusion'''

Finally, regarding the argument that "the dominant worldview is physicalism": (1) I don't think it's true, as many people are in fact not that, and (2) conclusive proofs (such as the ones outlined here) have ''already'' been given that disprove physicalism, and the issue of disproving it only remains in contexts which ''implicitly take for granted the metaphysical realism, epistemologies and methods of such perspectives''.

Trying to disprove physicalism within this context will be difficult if not principally impossible, and does not seem particularly useful.

Thus, my tongue-in-cheek empirical proposal is that the money of this prize could be put to better use than trying to prove something, which has already been proven, by using methods which cannot yield the sought-after proof.

== References ==

Synthesis:Beliefs and Worldviews

2025-08-30T20:17:49Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Non-foundationalist non-substantialism */

[[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent phenomena]] are profoundly intertwined with beliefs, metaphysics and philosophy. [[Tradition:Source Traditions|Source traditions]] (religions, philosophies, spiritualities) but also in many cases academic and scientific [[disciplines]] usually revolve around specific stories of the origins and ends of the world, the nature

This domain includes a huge variety of relative idiosyncratic or culturally informed beliefs of the individual, as well as their ultimate beliefs — usually the same as or related with their cultural's worldview but not always — around questions like reality, substance, causality, properties, relations, categories of beings, universals, particulars, space, time, freedom, etc.<ref>Sjöstedt-Hughes, P. (2023). On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''14'', [[1128589. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1128589]]</ref> We'll go over the following aspects:

* Metaphysics
** Cosmology (Origins of the world)
** Epistemology
** Ontology
** Soteriology
* General beliefs or views about life in general
** Implicit
** Explicit
Note that the following is a draft that needs to be re-written.

= A word on metaphysics =
Metaphysics is the realm of our most deeply held beliefs about and representations of the universe and the beings it contains, its origins, the nature of our experience, and what may lay beyond our subjective experience — whether they be the images of ourselves we hold in our hearts, our sense of the cosmos we inhabit, our notions of what is real or not, and what at the innermost level we hold as being true. One may reasonably argue that all people have metaphysical beliefs, whether they are aware of them or not. In fact, some claim that "whole cosmologies are wrapped up in single perceptions" (Rob Burbea). Thus it is very interesting — and has been a very common practice throughout history and even today — to ask questions about metaphysics and shed an introspective light on our own beliefs.

Worldviews are infinitely varied. Many authors, schools of thought, religions, philosophies, and even scientists, have proposed views and conceptions about the beings that populate this universe, the ultimate nature of our experience or of the cosmos, and of the ways to reach truth. Depending on what they consider as "really" existing and whether that is one, two, or many things, we can distinguish between various systems.

= A word on epistemology =
How can we know what is ultimately true, or is true for us? This is the question of epistemology.

Scientific epistemology relies on empirical testing and retesting (reproducibility), reliability and predictive power.

Religious epistemologies often stresse the authority of specific texts or doctrinal sources.

Contemplative, phenomenological, and mystical epistemology often rely on direct experience, but also other modes of knowing such as revelation, intuition, oracles, etc.

Revelatory epistemology: "Revelation from the Beyond through Mediums is how we get Truth" (Prophetic perspective in the Bible and Torah; State Oracles in ancient Greece and contemporary Tibet; Various divination method in the Roman republic, described by the Augur Cicero in ''De diuinatione'', etc.).

Rationalist epistemology (Descartes, mecanistic philosophies) would see reason a the source of any valid knowledge; or

Empirical epistemology (the British Empiricists) considering that only through experience and experimental procedures do we derive "true facts" — taken to the extreme, leads to positivism (Comte) and culminates in scientism, the idea that only "science" can lead to "truth" and statements such as "what exists is what can be measured" (Kelvin), evacuating intuition and human subjectivity.

Transcendental epistemologies such as Kantian idealism which distinguished between ''a posteriori'' (or empirical) knowledge, and ''a priori'' knowledge (non-derived from experience).

Pragmatic perspectives (William James): "by their fruits shall ye know them"...

One of the core aspects of the work underlying the EmergeWiki is to explore how epistemic pluralism is possible, and how we can reconcile various perspectives in a coherent whole.

The classification we give here should be taken with a grain of salt. The reality of people's views is, as always with people, vastly richer than this. People rarely agree on all aspects of their beliefs. In fact, they rarely even agree with themselves about their views: someone can very well hold implicit beliefs which contradict their explicit beliefs, without being aware of it or not, and even consciously hold contradictory beliefs without it being a problem at all. Thus, these types of views should be seen as this: schematic types.

= Substantialist Metaphysics =

== A question of Substance ==
"Substantialism" refers to all beliefs that consider that there are truly, independently existing "entities", "beings", "things", or "essences", which may or may not correspond to the objects and subjects of our everyday experience.

"Substance" comes from latin ''substantia'', and is composed of the prefix "sub-" which means "under", and "stance" from "stāre", which means "to stand". For the etymology geeks out there, ''sub'' is the latin equivalent of the greek "''ὑπό''", or "hypo"; replacing the latin prefix by the greek yield the word "''hypostasis''"” which is a commonly used word in metaphysics.

Thus, one may hear the word ''substance'' as pointing to what ''stands under'' appearances, to the real being that corresponds to the fleeting phenomena we experience.

In many ways, this touches on the essence of metaphysics : what ''stands under'' appearances ? What is the relationship between appearances and ''real being'' ?

It is immediately clear that the answer to this is not straightforward and could invite many, many types of theories, answers, and even speculations about what is "out there".

Prominent critic of metaphysical speculations, Friedrich Nietzsche, called these "other worlds" existing beyond our experience "''backworlds''" and considered these as figments of the imagination which only served to distract us from the real experience of our actual lives.

One may disagree with Nietzsche, but his words do point to a recurring theme in all human societies : the ''beyond'', and the relationship with the beyond.

A particular meaning of the word "metaphysics" (René Guénon, ''Oriental Metaphysics'') is that it refers to what is beyond ("meta-") the physical world ("physis", a Greek word which can be translated as "nature"). Physics and metaphysics are related terms. If physics is concerned with the laws of ''nature'', then in some literal sense then, metaphysics is concerned with what is "beyond" or "above" (in latin, ''super-'') nature": the super-natural.

Interestingly, this would imply that ''physics'', the ''physical world'', is the world of appearances, of our experience. If we accept this meaning of the term, then we realize that the current meaning of scientific physics is a reversal of its original use, since physics is presently concerned, not with a description of our natural, lived experience, but with the description of the laws and theories about the realities which "govern" these appearances, which are never directly manifest ''in''experience, but somewhat produce them and can be indirectly deduced from the observation of experience.

The epitome of this gap is embodied by the most advanced of physical theories, quantum mechanics, which seems to describe a quantum world that is so exotic and seemingly foreign to the world of our everyday experience that physicists and philosophers alike have been shocked and baffled by it since its inception in the 20 th century.

One must see clearly, here, that, keeping in mind the previous definition, quantum mechanics ''is a metaphysical theory''. One that is rooted in scientific methodologies, empirical testing, and continual revision, allowing for a level of technical control and predictive power which is unparalleled — but a metaphysical theory nonetheless.

The question is then - what is the status of scientific theories? Current cutting-edge approaches, rather than ''substantializing'' or ''re-ifying'' - that is to say, "making into a real thing" - the objects and laws described by contemporary physical theories

By contrast, a non-substantialist perspective would argue that there is ''nothing'' that stands under, or beyond, appearances. An interpretation of physical theories that may stem from such an attitude, could be to consider that instead of representing an external substantial reality beyond appearances which the theories describe, these theories are ''formalizations of know-how'' and ''prediction-making'' tools, which account for there probabilistic nature - instead of reality being inherently probabilistic. This is beyond the scope of our discussion, but students interested in this may look into recent developments in the area of philosophy of science which seek to provide a phenomenal grounding to quantum theories.

=== Monisms ===
Monist theories generally believe that there is only one real substance and this substance exists independently of my experience of it").

==== Idealist Monisms ====
Monism can be idealist ("there is only thought, or consciousness, or ideas"), and there is quite a variety of idealist monisms (e.g. Stoicism, Cittamatra philosophy, authors like Berkeley, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel) depending on what the specifics of the really existing substance are.

==== Materialist Monisms ====
There are also materialist monisms (who hold that "there is only matter") — but what that substance is varies —subatomic particles, atoms, brain...

These doctrines vary in their account of lived experience: illusory epiphenomenon for eliminativist physicalism, which holds that we should reduce the illusory level of lived experience to the "true level" of material forces or brain structures; phenomenal representation of the unknowable "thing in itself" belonging to the domain of the "noumenon" for kantian idealism; a universal property of material objects for pan-psychism — meaning that panpsychists hold that there is only "matter", but that all matter contains as a property the fact of "being conscious", like it has mass or spin; "phenomena" as aggregate of sensations with no "underlying substance" beyond lived experience, except that there is a god that makes all this happen, but this god is absent from experience and unknowable and irrepresentable (Berkeley); Federico Faggin's theory of CU's and quantum fields is a form of realist monism which echoes Leibniz' older monadology; Franklin Merrill-Wolff, etc.

==== Other Monisms ====
Then there are sort of strange monisms such as Spinoza, who posited one true substance — God — with an infinity of attributes, two of which constitute human life — "Thought" and "Extension", mind and body (including sensations), essentially — these being considered as distinct but not ontologically separate, two sides of the same one coin. This is sometimes called dual-aspect monism, but Spinoza considered there were infinitely many aspects of the one being,

=== Dualisms ===
There are also Dualisms. Schematically, these tend to believe that "there are two really existing substances which are different" and the question is then how these interact. Descartes comes to mind, but also lots of traditional spiritualities ("there is the body, there is the soul, there is this material/experiential world, and there is the beyond where the soul goes back to at death" — e.g. Allan Kardec's Spirit ideas, or certain interpretations of Neo-platonism (The One, The Noous, The Intellect, etc.).

Notice that both monisms and dualisms of this type are realist in some way, or more accurately, substantialist, as they posit the true existence of some "thing" (res, in latin) independent of the perception of it; and then the question is, "how do we know that thing?", which is a question of epistemology.

=== Pluralisms ===
Plato's theory of forms is an idealistic pluralism.

Allan Kardec and spiritist ontologies.

Theosophy

Anthroposophy

Akashic records.

Etc.

The similarities between the different types of substantialist perspectives led to Wittgenstein's famous assertion, that "both realism and idealism, taken to their extreme, lead to the other" — ie, materialist and idealist monisms are logical equivalents.

However, there are other perspectives which open things out more — various perspectives which are less substantialist or not substantialist at all.

= Non-substantialist or non-essentialist metaphysics =
The idea is that non-substantialist metaphysics do not consider that there are real "objects" (res; onta) or "entities" (ens) which exist independently or, or "stand under" appearances, or independently of the act of observing. In some sense phenomenal or phenomenological ontologies could hardly be seen as "metaphysics" proper, as they modify reverse or cancel the meaning of "metaphysics" understood as a view of ''that which is beyond appearances'', since these positions consider that ''being'' and ''appearing'' are strictly equivalent, a position which defines ''phenomenological ontologies''. How can something be ''metaphysics'' if it states there is nothing beyond the "natural" world of appearances? If we just take the word to refer to "theories of reality", then this problem is fixed.

== Phenomenological ontologies ==

=== Being as appearing ===
A phenomenal ontology hinges on the premise that "Being is Appearing" (phenomenalism), and relies on the suspension (in greek, ''épochè'') of the implicit beliefs in the intrinsic existence of objects of perception.<blockquote>"[Phenomenology] simply claims that being is identical with the phenomenon." </blockquote>Eugen Fink, ''Proximité et distance'', Jérôme Millon, 1993, p. 127 <blockquote>"A central, though disputed, premise of phenomenological ontology is that being is strictly coextensive to appearing. The list of quotations of phenomenologists who support this is almost inexhaustible. [...] According to it, being is ''nothing above and beyond'' appearing.”</blockquote>Michel Bitbol, ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

In other words, classical phenomenology, as its name indicates, is a radical return to the lived-world, the Lebenswelt, to the "mothers of all knowledge", or as Husserl expressed it: going "back to things themselves". In fact, Classical Phenomenologists (authors like Heidegger, Sartre, Michel Henry, Merleau-Ponty, Renaud Barbaras, Michel Bitbol) basically all have in common is the idea that objective knowledge and in fact any objectivities, objects of perception of all types, are constituted within, by, and as lived experience; in other words, they reverse the status of transcendence: transcendance is constituted within and as immanence.

A major consequence is the suspension of ''transcendence'' — in the sense of an independent existence above and beyond appearances, which is in fact the mode of being we tend to attribute to the objects and subjects of our daily lives, naturally, implicitly. This is a crucial point: the natural perception we have of the subjects and objects that populate our lived experience always "transcend" our experience of them. as to This is why Husserl, a major figure of classical phenomenology, called this the "natural attitude". The épochè gesture of "suspension" of these pro-jections, and the re-direction of attention to phenomena as they manifest( “the method of phenomenology is to go back to things themselves”) This means that "sub-stance" in the sense of "what stands under appearances" (see above) is "suspended" or negated. Clearly different phenomenologists actually hold different ontologies, but they generally share a degree of such non-substantialism.

Phenomenological approaches are epistemologically correlationist — they all have in common that they acknowledge the role of the experiencer in the constitution of objects of perception, and conversely. This is sometimes called a transcendental perspective, and is in fact a landmark of Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies: knower and known are co-relative, they co-constitute each other and are mirror-processes.<ref>Bitbol, M. (2010). The Co-Emergence of the Knower and the Known: A Comparison between Madhyamaka and Kant’s Epistemology. In D. K. Nauriyal, M. S. Drummond, & Y. B. Lal (Eds.), ''Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research Transcending the Boundaries'' (p. 521). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/11985619/The_Co_Emergence_of_the_Knower_and_the_Known_a_Comparison_Between_Madhyamaka_and_Kants_Epistemology</ref> Note that many people use the word "transcendental" to mean "transcendent", or to refer to something extraordinary.

While classical phenomenology is often seen as an abstract philosophical movement, it actually seems to be its own source-tradition, as its found Husserl for instance, wrote that<blockquote>“[the phenomenological quest implies] a complete personal transformation which can be compared ''prima facie'' with a religious conversion”<ref>Husserl, E. (1984). ''The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: an introduction to phenomenological philosophy'' (D. Carr, Ed.; 6th pr). Northwestern Univ. Press.</ref></blockquote>''The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology'', 1936, p. 156<blockquote>“A true philosopher is one who has taken the decision to make of his life a life devoted to the absolute… a life entirely devoted to the idea of the supreme good.” </blockquote>Philosophie première, PUF, 1972, p. 9, 15

As such its "methods" can be seen as emergent modalities:<blockquote>"Phenomenology is a new kind of discipline that merges knowledge, ascesis and ethics. But instead of seeking salvation by means of a variety of knowledge suffused with spirituality (as Gnostics do), phenomenology seeks knowledge by basing it on a carefully channeled variety of spiritual exercise."<ref>Bitbol, M. (2019). Consciousness, Being and Life: Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness. ''Journal of Phenomenological Psychology'', ''50''(2), 127–161. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341360</ref></blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161<blockquote>"To inquire into mindfulness according to its own standards, a phenomenologist must accept to undergo the "complete transformation"that… goes along the practice of mindfulness."</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

This then questions the usual status of scientific theories, and sets limits to what they can and can't do: are they images of a "real" world given "out there" beyond and independent of everyone's experience? Or, are they intrinsically experiential themselves, through and through, and thus, for instance, are entirely powerless in providing any ultimate account of lived experience and thus, in fact, reality, since, as a matter of fact, any scientific or philosophical theory pre-supposes experience in order to even manifest: how could they explain something which they need in order to even come into being?

=== Épochè and reduction ===
<blockquote>"The Phenomenological Épochè [...] does not limit itself to the suspension of ''discursive'' judgments about the world and society. It aims at suspending the perceptive, pre-discursive spontaneous position of objects, and neutralizing the tacit "natural" belief in an objective world allegedly given ''out there'' from the outset. [...]"</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

=== Phenomenology of Life ===
<blockquote>"Insofar [...] as the world of the spirit, with its own laws and creations, rests, it seems, on a nature, on a human or animal corporeality, this nature is precisely not the world of science with its abstract idealities, it is that of life - a world to which there is no access except within a sensibility such as ours and which never gives itself to us except through the endless game of its constantly changing and renewed subjective appearances. The illusion of Galileo, as well as of all those who, following him, consider science as an absolute knowledge, was precisely to have taken the mathematical and geometrical world, destined to provide a univocal knowledge of the real world, for this real world itself, this world that we can only intuit and experience in the concrete modes of our subjective life.

But this subjective life does not only create the idealities and abstractions of science (as of conceptual thought in general), it first gives form to this world of life in the middle of which our concrete existence takes place. Because a reality as simple as a cube or a house is not a thing that exists outside of us and without us, in a way by itself, as the substratum of its qualities. It is what it is only thanks to a complex activity of the perception which poses, beyond the succession of the sense data that we have of it, the cube or the house as an ideal identical pole to which all these subjective appearances refer. Each perception of a face of the cube or of the front of a house refers to the potential perceptions of the other faces not yet perceived according to a game of indefinite relations. It is the same for any object in general, for any transcendent formation, which implies each time a specific synthetic operation of the transcendental subjectivity without which it would not be.

Undoubtedly in our daily life we do not pay attention to this consciousness which constitutes the world of our habitual environment. We perceive the house and are inattentive to our perception of the house. We are always aware of the world and never aware of our awareness of the world. It is the task of philosophy to bring to the forefront this untiring activity of the consciousness that perceives the world, that conceives the idealities and abstractions of science, that imagines, that remembers, etc., thus producing all the unreal representations that never cease to accompany the course of our real life."</blockquote>''Barbarism, p. 20''<ref>Henry, M. (2012). ''Barbarism'' (S. Davidson, Trans.). Continuum.</ref>

Michel Henry: I am the truth, p. 156-157, denies that such a thing as a subjectivity or fixed identity, an "empirical individual", could be found as an object or subject within or as experience. His radical critique of what he called elsewhere “transcendental egotism” is thus summarized: “If by man we understand, as is usual, the empirical individual” [p.156], “man doesn’t exist”. “Worldly man is but an optical illusion.” [p.157].<ref name=":0">Henry, M. (2003). ''I am the truth: toward a philosophy of Christianity''. Stanford University Press.</ref>

Michel Henry, whose work was heavily influenced by Meister Eckhart, went further and claimed that what he found out is also the essential meaning of the Christian revelation,<ref name=":0" /> and in this he seems very close from contemporary mystics like Bernadette Roberts.<ref>Roberts, B. (1991). ''The path to no-self: life at the center''. State University of New York Press.</ref><ref>Roberts, B. (1993). ''The experience of no-self: a contemplative journey'' (Rev. ed). State University of New York.</ref>

=== The Chiasma ===
Merleau-Ponty<blockquote>We are immersed in Being, and witness its self manifestation qua lived experience, and we try to extract stable formal features from this experience, that we define as scientific objects. If such views were more widespread, no one would be tempted to embrace materialism which is seen as a confusion between forms and being, between objects of science and reality

Michel Bitbol</blockquote>Still, phenomenal ontologies are substantialist to a certain degree, since the absolute self-affectivity of Michel Henry's phenomenology of Life, seen as the essence of manifestation,<ref>Henry, M. (1973). ''The Essence of Manifestation''. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2391-7</ref> or the "pure experience" in William James' so-called radical empiricism, is considered as the substrate or "stuff" that reality is made of. This could be seen as a subtle form or reification.

== Non-foundationalist non-substantialism ==
A non-foundationalist perspective considers that no absolute or ultimate metaphysical conclusions can be drawn from empirical evidence, because this relies on epistemological assumptions which cannot be given any ultimate ground; there are no ultimate foundations to knowledge.

What is the absolute justification that empirical experience from phenomenal observation is a valid source of truth about reality? Suppose that there is a "real reality" out there from which our lived reality (consciousness) originates. Why suppose that it obeys the laws of our phenomenal existence? And why suppose the genesis of our phenomenal existence happens in ways which resemble the causality our lives seem ruled by?

This is rarer, as it means that epistemologically one considers there is no ultimate foundational principle, thus emptying out or pulling the rug under the whole concept of truth. Obviously, all the philosophical schools mentioned previously are all more foundationalist than not.

Some ,modern and post-modern thinkers come to mind: Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Foucault, William James, Lyotard in some ways aligned with this overall stance. But several philosophers, mystics, and logicians throughout history and in different world religions, also arrived at similar views.

=== The relationship between states and metaphysical beliefs… and back ===
Bitbol on the relationship between particular mind states and metaphysical theories.

"Instead of hoping that the nature of conscious experience will be revealed by a theory, it is from now on inevitable to instead ask fluxing experience itself to exhibit the nature of theories. [...] Each thesis about conscious experience depends on a state of conscious experience; [...] abstractedly defending a theory about conscious experience amounts to contracting into one of the possible postures of experience being lived. [...] There is a mutual dependency between conceptions of consciousness and the state of consciousness of those who defend them."<ref>Bitbol, ''Does consciousness have an origin?'', 2018, p.301, p. 685</ref>

=== The logic of being ===
Many branches of Buddhism — madhyamika in particular and related prajñaparamita-influenced schools — are non-substantialist, meaning that, going one step further than phenomenal ontologies which don't consider that there is any "really existing" entity or substance "out there" beyond appearances, they also deny, usually through elaborate logical reasonings, that phenomenality or "pure experience" are not to be reified into a "really existing" thing independent of the experience of it in the moment either) and also non-foundationalist.

Consider, for instance, the question of subject–object duality from a logical perspective. Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world": <blockquote>"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"<ref>Lavis, A. (2018). ''La conscience à l’épreuve de l’éveil: lecture, commentaire et traduction du “Bodhicaryāvatāra” de Śāntideva. [Consciousness at the test of awakening: a reading, commentary and translation of Śāntideva’s “Bodhicaryāvatāra”.]''. Éditions du Cerf.</ref></blockquote>This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

Such powerful and concise arguments seem to go a step beyond some of the phenomenological ontologies we just reviewed. In particular, the paradoxes implied in Michel Henry's affirmation that reality is "absolute self-affectivity with no distance" are revealed in a clear light, and intuit how philosophies of unity or "co-incidence" can actually become sterile.<ref>Jullien, F. (2017). ''Dé-coïncidence : D’où viennent l’art et l’existence?'' Grasset.</ref>

The Eleatic school, formost among which was Parmenides, also employed logical arguments to show the intenable paradoxes of ordinary ontological categories and destroy all dualities — which in Greek are called ''doxa'' (''δόξα''), the "opinions of mortal men", the appearances of the "natural" world. The most famous one is about Achilles and the tortoise, which is not often presented as the deep negation of the possibility of movement as it is ordinarily conceived, but rather as a sort of logical game illustrating the mathematical notion of limit. However, it goes much deeper than that.

Compare the opening stance to Nāgārjuna's ''Fundamental wisdom of the middle-way:''<blockquote>"Whatever is dependently arisen is Unceasing, unborn, Unannihilated, not permanent, Not coming, not going, Without distinction, without identity, And free from conceptual construction."<ref>https://terebess.hu/english/Nagarjuna.pdf, see e.g. Nāgārjuna. (1995). ''The fundamental wisdom of the middle way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' (J. L. Garfield, Trans.). Oxford University Press. </ref> </blockquote>With section VIII of Parmenides' ''Poem'':<blockquote>VIII

One path only is left for us to

speak of, namely, that It is. In it are very many tokens that

what is, is uncreated and indestructible, alone, complete,

immovable and without end. Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for

5 now it is, all at once, a continuous one. For what kind of origin

for it. will you look for ? In what way and from what source

could it have drawn its increase ? I shall not let thee say nor

think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be

thought nor uttered that what is not is. And, if it came from

10 nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than

sooner ? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at

all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides

itself from that which in any way is. Wherefore, Justice does

not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass

15 away, but holds it fast.

" Is it or is it not ? " Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must

be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and

nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real

and true. How, then, can what is be going to be in the

20 future ? Or how could it come into being ? If it came into

being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future. Thus is

becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of.

Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more

of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding

together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is.

25 Wherefore all holds together; for what is; is in contact with what is.

Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without

beginning and without end; since coming into being

and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away.

It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself.

30 And thus it remaineth constant in its place; for hard necessity

keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side.

Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing ; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. It is the

same thing that can be thought and for the sake of which the thought exists ;

35 for you cannot find thought without something that is, to which it is

betrothed. And there is not, and never shall be, any time other, than that which

is present, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable.

Wherefore all these things are but the names which mortals

have given, believing them, to be true –

40 coming into being and passing away, being and not being,

change of place and alteration of bright colour.

Where, then, it has its farthest boundary, it is complete on

every side, equally poised from the centre in every direction,

like the mass of a rounded sphere; for it cannot be greater or

45 smaller in one place than in another. For there is nothing

which is not that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor

is it possible that there should be more of what is in this place

and less in that, since it is all inviolable. For, since it is equal

in all directions, it is equally confined within limits.

50 Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth.

Henceforward learn the opinions of mortals,

giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words.

Mortals have settled in their minds to speak of two forms, one of which

they should have left out, and that is where they go astray from the truth.

55 They have assigned an opposite

substance to each, and marks distinct from one another. To the

one they allot the fire of heaven, light, thin, in every direction

the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is

opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. Of these

60 I tell thee the whole arrangement as it seems to men,

in order that no mortal may surpass thee in knowledge.<ref>http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenidesunicode.htm, see e.g. Parmenides. (1991). ''Fragments: a text and translation'' (Paperback ed). Univ. of Toronto Press.</ref></blockquote>

=== A dream-like world: Neither Being nor non-Being, nor Both, nor Neither ===
<blockquote>"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."</blockquote><blockquote>"We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Shakespeare, ''The Tempest''</blockquote>The ''prajñaparamita'' refutation of all ontological affirmation, best exemplified in the concise text of the ''Heart sutra'', insubstantiality leads to a fundamental ''groundlessness'' and the playful, mysterious display of appearances seen as devoid of substance, which finds poetic expression in the ''Diamond sutra'':<blockquote>“So I say to you –

This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”

''“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;''

''Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,''

''Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”''

''“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”''<ref>https://diamond-sutra.com/read-the-diamond-sutra-here/diamond-sutra-chapter-32/</ref></blockquote>

=== Unknowing and mystery ===
Many of the world's great mystics expound views of this sort. After all, the word "mystic" comes from "mystery". that of these systems which exhibit the radical limitations of any objective knowledge, theoretical knowledge, representational knowledge. This is sometimes done in favor of non-objective knowledge. Thus we are brought back from the order of metaphysical theories to the realm of practice — for non-objective knowledge is practical knowledge.

This is sometimes dismissed as "Mysterianism".

For instance Meister Eckhart or his forebear Dionysius the Areopagite.

The cloude of Unknowing.

== Ontological agnosticism ==

== Can we say anything about the "origin" or "nature" of "consciousness"? ==
So, on the epistemological level, and using Kantian terms, QRI asks a question of an ''a priori'' type (having to do with intuition not deduction) and seeks to answer them through ''a posteriori'' procedures (empirical evidence), or in his and later uses of these terms, confuses the empirical and the transcendental. Methodologically, this then calls to use objective empirical methods to explore "something" non-objective — for consciousness is not an object in the way that a "ball falling to the ground" is an object. If it was, then what is it that would observe that object, since "consciousness" is supposed to be "what observes"? Not only is consciousness non-objective, but it cannot be distinguished from its objects — this is both an experiential fact and a logical necessity: examine Santideva's verse

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,/How would they come into contact?/If no space separates them, then they will be one,/And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

Note that if by "consciousness" is meant a more restricted meaning of "the mind" or "the mental sense sphere", then one only needs to apply the previous reasoning to the specific faculty to prove that it is not a product of "the brain". But this is not an empirical observation. Empirical observation can't say anything about the brain, because empirically speaking, there is no brain, i.e., the "brain", as all objects, is a transcendent, it transcends individual experience (and according to some, is the cause of it, and "experience" is a sort of byproduct or even representation "in the brain", which also implies that the brain cannot be observed.)

Finally, more generally, there are logical issues which apply to realist approaches in general, but which in this context point to specific problems regarding the "causes" and the notion of an "origin" of consciousness (viewed as a "thing", i.e., reified). The paradoxes of realist views are thoroughly examined in philosophical texts such as the prajñaparamita literature (Heart and Diamond Sutras being some of the best known examples as well as Nagarjuna's works<ref>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</ref>), which uses deep logical arguments disprove substantial/independent existence. The pre-socratic Eleatic school employed similar logical arguments to arrive at comparable conclusion, as seen for instance in Parmenides' poem, although his treatment is less systematic and extensive, but more poetic.

'''Epistemology'''

'''Methodology'''

As I understand it, using empirical methods to test that a theory is "true" or not, means conceiving a model of how reality "really is" and then logically devising the necessary consequences of this theory being true through the laws of cause and effect. Specific consequences of the model can be turned into predictions (i.e., "if model X is true, then observation Y should be possible in such and such context"), and there should be specific observable effects in the world of experience. Actual empirical observations will then conform to predictions or not, and they are then said to offer evidence in favor or against the theory - which is a metaphysical view, basically.

This forgets the initial epistemological made above. ''A priori'' knowledge is knowledge that cannot be derived from experience, or maybe better said - is presupposed in all experience : e.g. the ''a prioris'' of sensibility in Kant's system are "time" and "space". I would say that "consciousness" (although I use an expended definition of this compared to IONS) is presupposed in all experience, i.e. there cannot be any experience without there being "experientiality" or consciousness that co-arises with it and as its very phenomenal substance.

Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world":

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

'''Some logical issues'''

Secondly, on a more logical level. The implication of this proposal is that there are causes and conditions of consciousness which can be investigated empirically and that observation can give solid if not absolute bases for sound knowledge. This is implied in the physicalist theories they try to disprove, certainly (i.e., "consciousness arises from neurons"), but it is also the implication of engaging in procedures that test the validity of a metaphysical theory (on the nature of consciousness).

If there are causes to consciousness, these causes must be different from consciousness. They must be temporally distinct from consciousness, as effects follow causes in time. If consciousness is an effect of some temporally other cause then the cause exists in a different moment than consciousness, at a different point in time. This raises the insurmountable contradictions of positing that there are ontologically distinct moments of time, ontologically distinct substances, and ontologically distinct spatial locations. All of the paradoxes that arise from realist/substantialist theories follow. These are examined and thoroughly debunked in Nagarjuna's philosophical classical, ''Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle-Way'', and other ''prajñaparamita'' texts. I could not do it justice here, but regarding the issues with realist views, this classic text will be reflected on fruitfully.

The following contains a summary of the four main types of logical reasonings used in the madhyamaka tradition to e : <nowiki>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</nowiki>.

'''Conclusion'''

Finally, regarding the argument that "the dominant worldview is physicalism": (1) I don't think it's true, as many people are in fact not that, and (2) conclusive proofs (such as the ones outlined here) have ''already'' been given that disprove physicalism, and the issue of disproving it only remains in contexts which ''implicitly take for granted the metaphysical realism, epistemologies and methods of such perspectives''.

Trying to disprove physicalism within this context will be difficult if not principally impossible, and does not seem particularly useful.

Thus, my tongue-in-cheek empirical proposal is that the money of this prize could be put to better use than trying to prove something, which has already been proven, by using methods which cannot yield the sought-after proof.

== References ==

Synthesis:Beliefs and Worldviews

2025-08-30T20:17:25Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent phenomena]] are profoundly intertwined with beliefs, metaphysics and philosophy. [[Tradition:Source Traditions|Source traditions]] (religions, philosophies, spiritualities) but also in many cases academic and scientific [[disciplines]] usually revolve around specific stories of the origins and ends of the world, the nature

This domain includes a huge variety of relative idiosyncratic or culturally informed beliefs of the individual, as well as their ultimate beliefs — usually the same as or related with their cultural's worldview but not always — around questions like reality, substance, causality, properties, relations, categories of beings, universals, particulars, space, time, freedom, etc.<ref>Sjöstedt-Hughes, P. (2023). On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''14'', [[1128589. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1128589]]</ref> We'll go over the following aspects:

* Metaphysics
** Cosmology (Origins of the world)
** Epistemology
** Ontology
** Soteriology
* General beliefs or views about life in general
** Implicit
** Explicit
Note that the following is a draft that needs to be re-written.

= A word on metaphysics =
Metaphysics is the realm of our most deeply held beliefs about and representations of the universe and the beings it contains, its origins, the nature of our experience, and what may lay beyond our subjective experience — whether they be the images of ourselves we hold in our hearts, our sense of the cosmos we inhabit, our notions of what is real or not, and what at the innermost level we hold as being true. One may reasonably argue that all people have metaphysical beliefs, whether they are aware of them or not. In fact, some claim that "whole cosmologies are wrapped up in single perceptions" (Rob Burbea). Thus it is very interesting — and has been a very common practice throughout history and even today — to ask questions about metaphysics and shed an introspective light on our own beliefs.

Worldviews are infinitely varied. Many authors, schools of thought, religions, philosophies, and even scientists, have proposed views and conceptions about the beings that populate this universe, the ultimate nature of our experience or of the cosmos, and of the ways to reach truth. Depending on what they consider as "really" existing and whether that is one, two, or many things, we can distinguish between various systems.

= A word on epistemology =
How can we know what is ultimately true, or is true for us? This is the question of epistemology.

Scientific epistemology relies on empirical testing and retesting (reproducibility), reliability and predictive power.

Religious epistemologies often stresse the authority of specific texts or doctrinal sources.

Contemplative, phenomenological, and mystical epistemology often rely on direct experience, but also other modes of knowing such as revelation, intuition, oracles, etc.

Revelatory epistemology: "Revelation from the Beyond through Mediums is how we get Truth" (Prophetic perspective in the Bible and Torah; State Oracles in ancient Greece and contemporary Tibet; Various divination method in the Roman republic, described by the Augur Cicero in ''De diuinatione'', etc.).

Rationalist epistemology (Descartes, mecanistic philosophies) would see reason a the source of any valid knowledge; or

Empirical epistemology (the British Empiricists) considering that only through experience and experimental procedures do we derive "true facts" — taken to the extreme, leads to positivism (Comte) and culminates in scientism, the idea that only "science" can lead to "truth" and statements such as "what exists is what can be measured" (Kelvin), evacuating intuition and human subjectivity.

Transcendental epistemologies such as Kantian idealism which distinguished between ''a posteriori'' (or empirical) knowledge, and ''a priori'' knowledge (non-derived from experience).

Pragmatic perspectives (William James): "by their fruits shall ye know them"...

One of the core aspects of the work underlying the EmergeWiki is to explore how epistemic pluralism is possible, and how we can reconcile various perspectives in a coherent whole.

The classification we give here should be taken with a grain of salt. The reality of people's views is, as always with people, vastly richer than this. People rarely agree on all aspects of their beliefs. In fact, they rarely even agree with themselves about their views: someone can very well hold implicit beliefs which contradict their explicit beliefs, without being aware of it or not, and even consciously hold contradictory beliefs without it being a problem at all. Thus, these types of views should be seen as this: schematic types.

= Substantialist Metaphysics =

== A question of Substance ==
"Substantialism" refers to all beliefs that consider that there are truly, independently existing "entities", "beings", "things", or "essences", which may or may not correspond to the objects and subjects of our everyday experience.

"Substance" comes from latin ''substantia'', and is composed of the prefix "sub-" which means "under", and "stance" from "stāre", which means "to stand". For the etymology geeks out there, ''sub'' is the latin equivalent of the greek "''ὑπό''", or "hypo"; replacing the latin prefix by the greek yield the word "''hypostasis''"” which is a commonly used word in metaphysics.

Thus, one may hear the word ''substance'' as pointing to what ''stands under'' appearances, to the real being that corresponds to the fleeting phenomena we experience.

In many ways, this touches on the essence of metaphysics : what ''stands under'' appearances ? What is the relationship between appearances and ''real being'' ?

It is immediately clear that the answer to this is not straightforward and could invite many, many types of theories, answers, and even speculations about what is "out there".

Prominent critic of metaphysical speculations, Friedrich Nietzsche, called these "other worlds" existing beyond our experience "''backworlds''" and considered these as figments of the imagination which only served to distract us from the real experience of our actual lives.

One may disagree with Nietzsche, but his words do point to a recurring theme in all human societies : the ''beyond'', and the relationship with the beyond.

A particular meaning of the word "metaphysics" (René Guénon, ''Oriental Metaphysics'') is that it refers to what is beyond ("meta-") the physical world ("physis", a Greek word which can be translated as "nature"). Physics and metaphysics are related terms. If physics is concerned with the laws of ''nature'', then in some literal sense then, metaphysics is concerned with what is "beyond" or "above" (in latin, ''super-'') nature": the super-natural.

Interestingly, this would imply that ''physics'', the ''physical world'', is the world of appearances, of our experience. If we accept this meaning of the term, then we realize that the current meaning of scientific physics is a reversal of its original use, since physics is presently concerned, not with a description of our natural, lived experience, but with the description of the laws and theories about the realities which "govern" these appearances, which are never directly manifest ''in''experience, but somewhat produce them and can be indirectly deduced from the observation of experience.

The epitome of this gap is embodied by the most advanced of physical theories, quantum mechanics, which seems to describe a quantum world that is so exotic and seemingly foreign to the world of our everyday experience that physicists and philosophers alike have been shocked and baffled by it since its inception in the 20 th century.

One must see clearly, here, that, keeping in mind the previous definition, quantum mechanics ''is a metaphysical theory''. One that is rooted in scientific methodologies, empirical testing, and continual revision, allowing for a level of technical control and predictive power which is unparalleled — but a metaphysical theory nonetheless.

The question is then - what is the status of scientific theories? Current cutting-edge approaches, rather than ''substantializing'' or ''re-ifying'' - that is to say, "making into a real thing" - the objects and laws described by contemporary physical theories

By contrast, a non-substantialist perspective would argue that there is ''nothing'' that stands under, or beyond, appearances. An interpretation of physical theories that may stem from such an attitude, could be to consider that instead of representing an external substantial reality beyond appearances which the theories describe, these theories are ''formalizations of know-how'' and ''prediction-making'' tools, which account for there probabilistic nature - instead of reality being inherently probabilistic. This is beyond the scope of our discussion, but students interested in this may look into recent developments in the area of philosophy of science which seek to provide a phenomenal grounding to quantum theories.

=== Monisms ===
Monist theories generally believe that there is only one real substance and this substance exists independently of my experience of it").

==== Idealist Monisms ====
Monism can be idealist ("there is only thought, or consciousness, or ideas"), and there is quite a variety of idealist monisms (e.g. Stoicism, Cittamatra philosophy, authors like Berkeley, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel) depending on what the specifics of the really existing substance are.

==== Materialist Monisms ====
There are also materialist monisms (who hold that "there is only matter") — but what that substance is varies —subatomic particles, atoms, brain...

These doctrines vary in their account of lived experience: illusory epiphenomenon for eliminativist physicalism, which holds that we should reduce the illusory level of lived experience to the "true level" of material forces or brain structures; phenomenal representation of the unknowable "thing in itself" belonging to the domain of the "noumenon" for kantian idealism; a universal property of material objects for pan-psychism — meaning that panpsychists hold that there is only "matter", but that all matter contains as a property the fact of "being conscious", like it has mass or spin; "phenomena" as aggregate of sensations with no "underlying substance" beyond lived experience, except that there is a god that makes all this happen, but this god is absent from experience and unknowable and irrepresentable (Berkeley); Federico Faggin's theory of CU's and quantum fields is a form of realist monism which echoes Leibniz' older monadology; Franklin Merrill-Wolff, etc.

==== Other Monisms ====
Then there are sort of strange monisms such as Spinoza, who posited one true substance — God — with an infinity of attributes, two of which constitute human life — "Thought" and "Extension", mind and body (including sensations), essentially — these being considered as distinct but not ontologically separate, two sides of the same one coin. This is sometimes called dual-aspect monism, but Spinoza considered there were infinitely many aspects of the one being,

=== Dualisms ===
There are also Dualisms. Schematically, these tend to believe that "there are two really existing substances which are different" and the question is then how these interact. Descartes comes to mind, but also lots of traditional spiritualities ("there is the body, there is the soul, there is this material/experiential world, and there is the beyond where the soul goes back to at death" — e.g. Allan Kardec's Spirit ideas, or certain interpretations of Neo-platonism (The One, The Noous, The Intellect, etc.).

Notice that both monisms and dualisms of this type are realist in some way, or more accurately, substantialist, as they posit the true existence of some "thing" (res, in latin) independent of the perception of it; and then the question is, "how do we know that thing?", which is a question of epistemology.

=== Pluralisms ===
Plato's theory of forms is an idealistic pluralism.

Allan Kardec and spiritist ontologies.

Theosophy

Anthroposophy

Akashic records.

Etc.

The similarities between the different types of substantialist perspectives led to Wittgenstein's famous assertion, that "both realism and idealism, taken to their extreme, lead to the other" — ie, materialist and idealist monisms are logical equivalents.

However, there are other perspectives which open things out more — various perspectives which are less substantialist or not substantialist at all.

= Non-substantialist or non-essentialist metaphysics =
The idea is that non-substantialist metaphysics do not consider that there are real "objects" (res; onta) or "entities" (ens) which exist independently or, or "stand under" appearances, or independently of the act of observing. In some sense phenomenal or phenomenological ontologies could hardly be seen as "metaphysics" proper, as they modify reverse or cancel the meaning of "metaphysics" understood as a view of ''that which is beyond appearances'', since these positions consider that ''being'' and ''appearing'' are strictly equivalent, a position which defines ''phenomenological ontologies''. How can something be ''metaphysics'' if it states there is nothing beyond the "natural" world of appearances? If we just take the word to refer to "theories of reality", then this problem is fixed.

== Phenomenological ontologies ==

=== Being as appearing ===
A phenomenal ontology hinges on the premise that "Being is Appearing" (phenomenalism), and relies on the suspension (in greek, ''épochè'') of the implicit beliefs in the intrinsic existence of objects of perception.<blockquote>"[Phenomenology] simply claims that being is identical with the phenomenon." </blockquote>Eugen Fink, ''Proximité et distance'', Jérôme Millon, 1993, p. 127 <blockquote>"A central, though disputed, premise of phenomenological ontology is that being is strictly coextensive to appearing. The list of quotations of phenomenologists who support this is almost inexhaustible. [...] According to it, being is ''nothing above and beyond'' appearing.”</blockquote>Michel Bitbol, ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

In other words, classical phenomenology, as its name indicates, is a radical return to the lived-world, the Lebenswelt, to the "mothers of all knowledge", or as Husserl expressed it: going "back to things themselves". In fact, Classical Phenomenologists (authors like Heidegger, Sartre, Michel Henry, Merleau-Ponty, Renaud Barbaras, Michel Bitbol) basically all have in common is the idea that objective knowledge and in fact any objectivities, objects of perception of all types, are constituted within, by, and as lived experience; in other words, they reverse the status of transcendence: transcendance is constituted within and as immanence.

A major consequence is the suspension of ''transcendence'' — in the sense of an independent existence above and beyond appearances, which is in fact the mode of being we tend to attribute to the objects and subjects of our daily lives, naturally, implicitly. This is a crucial point: the natural perception we have of the subjects and objects that populate our lived experience always "transcend" our experience of them. as to This is why Husserl, a major figure of classical phenomenology, called this the "natural attitude". The épochè gesture of "suspension" of these pro-jections, and the re-direction of attention to phenomena as they manifest( “the method of phenomenology is to go back to things themselves”) This means that "sub-stance" in the sense of "what stands under appearances" (see above) is "suspended" or negated. Clearly different phenomenologists actually hold different ontologies, but they generally share a degree of such non-substantialism.

Phenomenological approaches are epistemologically correlationist — they all have in common that they acknowledge the role of the experiencer in the constitution of objects of perception, and conversely. This is sometimes called a transcendental perspective, and is in fact a landmark of Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies: knower and known are co-relative, they co-constitute each other and are mirror-processes.<ref>Bitbol, M. (2010). The Co-Emergence of the Knower and the Known: A Comparison between Madhyamaka and Kant’s Epistemology. In D. K. Nauriyal, M. S. Drummond, & Y. B. Lal (Eds.), ''Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research Transcending the Boundaries'' (p. 521). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/11985619/The_Co_Emergence_of_the_Knower_and_the_Known_a_Comparison_Between_Madhyamaka_and_Kants_Epistemology</ref> Note that many people use the word "transcendental" to mean "transcendent", or to refer to something extraordinary.

While classical phenomenology is often seen as an abstract philosophical movement, it actually seems to be its own source-tradition, as its found Husserl for instance, wrote that<blockquote>“[the phenomenological quest implies] a complete personal transformation which can be compared ''prima facie'' with a religious conversion”<ref>Husserl, E. (1984). ''The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: an introduction to phenomenological philosophy'' (D. Carr, Ed.; 6th pr). Northwestern Univ. Press.</ref></blockquote>''The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology'', 1936, p. 156<blockquote>“A true philosopher is one who has taken the decision to make of his life a life devoted to the absolute… a life entirely devoted to the idea of the supreme good.” </blockquote>Philosophie première, PUF, 1972, p. 9, 15

As such its "methods" can be seen as emergent modalities:<blockquote>"Phenomenology is a new kind of discipline that merges knowledge, ascesis and ethics. But instead of seeking salvation by means of a variety of knowledge suffused with spirituality (as Gnostics do), phenomenology seeks knowledge by basing it on a carefully channeled variety of spiritual exercise."<ref>Bitbol, M. (2019). Consciousness, Being and Life: Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness. ''Journal of Phenomenological Psychology'', ''50''(2), 127–161. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341360</ref></blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161<blockquote>"To inquire into mindfulness according to its own standards, a phenomenologist must accept to undergo the "complete transformation"that… goes along the practice of mindfulness."</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

This then questions the usual status of scientific theories, and sets limits to what they can and can't do: are they images of a "real" world given "out there" beyond and independent of everyone's experience? Or, are they intrinsically experiential themselves, through and through, and thus, for instance, are entirely powerless in providing any ultimate account of lived experience and thus, in fact, reality, since, as a matter of fact, any scientific or philosophical theory pre-supposes experience in order to even manifest: how could they explain something which they need in order to even come into being?

=== Épochè and reduction ===
<blockquote>"The Phenomenological Épochè [...] does not limit itself to the suspension of ''discursive'' judgments about the world and society. It aims at suspending the perceptive, pre-discursive spontaneous position of objects, and neutralizing the tacit "natural" belief in an objective world allegedly given ''out there'' from the outset. [...]"</blockquote>In ''Consciousness, Being and Life. Phenomenological Approaches to Mindfulness.'' Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 50, 2019, p. 127-161

=== Phenomenology of Life ===
<blockquote>"Insofar [...] as the world of the spirit, with its own laws and creations, rests, it seems, on a nature, on a human or animal corporeality, this nature is precisely not the world of science with its abstract idealities, it is that of life - a world to which there is no access except within a sensibility such as ours and which never gives itself to us except through the endless game of its constantly changing and renewed subjective appearances. The illusion of Galileo, as well as of all those who, following him, consider science as an absolute knowledge, was precisely to have taken the mathematical and geometrical world, destined to provide a univocal knowledge of the real world, for this real world itself, this world that we can only intuit and experience in the concrete modes of our subjective life.

But this subjective life does not only create the idealities and abstractions of science (as of conceptual thought in general), it first gives form to this world of life in the middle of which our concrete existence takes place. Because a reality as simple as a cube or a house is not a thing that exists outside of us and without us, in a way by itself, as the substratum of its qualities. It is what it is only thanks to a complex activity of the perception which poses, beyond the succession of the sense data that we have of it, the cube or the house as an ideal identical pole to which all these subjective appearances refer. Each perception of a face of the cube or of the front of a house refers to the potential perceptions of the other faces not yet perceived according to a game of indefinite relations. It is the same for any object in general, for any transcendent formation, which implies each time a specific synthetic operation of the transcendental subjectivity without which it would not be.

Undoubtedly in our daily life we do not pay attention to this consciousness which constitutes the world of our habitual environment. We perceive the house and are inattentive to our perception of the house. We are always aware of the world and never aware of our awareness of the world. It is the task of philosophy to bring to the forefront this untiring activity of the consciousness that perceives the world, that conceives the idealities and abstractions of science, that imagines, that remembers, etc., thus producing all the unreal representations that never cease to accompany the course of our real life."</blockquote>''Barbarism, p. 20''<ref>Henry, M. (2012). ''Barbarism'' (S. Davidson, Trans.). Continuum.</ref>

Michel Henry: I am the truth, p. 156-157, denies that such a thing as a subjectivity or fixed identity, an "empirical individual", could be found as an object or subject within or as experience. His radical critique of what he called elsewhere “transcendental egotism” is thus summarized: “If by man we understand, as is usual, the empirical individual” [p.156], “man doesn’t exist”. “Worldly man is but an optical illusion.” [p.157].<ref name=":0">Henry, M. (2003). ''I am the truth: toward a philosophy of Christianity''. Stanford University Press.</ref>

Michel Henry, whose work was heavily influenced by Meister Eckhart, went further and claimed that what he found out is also the essential meaning of the Christian revelation,<ref name=":0" /> and in this he seems very close from contemporary mystics like Bernadette Roberts.<ref>Roberts, B. (1991). ''The path to no-self: life at the center''. State University of New York Press.</ref><ref>Roberts, B. (1993). ''The experience of no-self: a contemplative journey'' (Rev. ed). State University of New York.</ref>

=== The Chiasma ===
Merleau-Ponty<blockquote>We are immersed in Being, and witness its self manifestation qua lived experience, and we try to extract stable formal features from this experience, that we define as scientific objects. If such views were more widespread, no one would be tempted to embrace materialism which is seen as a confusion between forms and being, between objects of science and reality

Michel Bitbol</blockquote>Still, phenomenal ontologies are substantialist to a certain degree, since the absolute self-affectivity of Michel Henry's phenomenology of Life, seen as the essence of manifestation,<ref>Henry, M. (1973). ''The Essence of Manifestation''. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2391-7</ref> or the "pure experience" in William James' so-called radical empiricism, is considered as the substrate or "stuff" that reality is made of. This could be seen as a subtle form or reification.

== Non-foundationalist non-substantialism ==
A non-foundationalist perspective consider that no absolute or ultimate metaphysical conclusions can be drawn from empirical evidence, because this relies on epistemological assumptions which cannot be given any ultimate ground; there are no ultimate foundation to knowledge.

What is the absolute justification that empirical experience from phenomenal observation is a valid source of truth about reality? Suppose that there is a "real reality" out there from which our lived reality (consciousness) originates. Why suppose that it obeys the laws of our phenomenal existence? And why suppose the genesis of our phenomenal existence happens in ways which resemble the causality our lives seem ruled by?

This is rarer, as it means that epistemologically one considers there is no ultimate foundational principle, thus emptying out or pulling the rug under the whole concept of truth. Obviously, all the philosophical schools mentioned previously are all more foundationalist than not.

Some ,modern and post-modern thinkers come to mind: Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Foucault, William James, Lyotard in some ways aligned with this overall stance. But several philosophers, mystics, and logicians throughout history and in different world religions, also arrived at similar views.

=== The relationship between states and metaphysical beliefs… and back ===
Bitbol on the relationship between particular mind states and metaphysical theories.

"Instead of hoping that the nature of conscious experience will be revealed by a theory, it is from now on inevitable to instead ask fluxing experience itself to exhibit the nature of theories. [...] Each thesis about conscious experience depends on a state of conscious experience; [...] abstractedly defending a theory about conscious experience amounts to contracting into one of the possible postures of experience being lived. [...] There is a mutual dependency between conceptions of consciousness and the state of consciousness of those who defend them."<ref>Bitbol, ''Does consciousness have an origin?'', 2018, p.301, p. 685</ref>

=== The logic of being ===
Many branches of Buddhism — madhyamika in particular and related prajñaparamita-influenced schools — are non-substantialist, meaning that, going one step further than phenomenal ontologies which don't consider that there is any "really existing" entity or substance "out there" beyond appearances, they also deny, usually through elaborate logical reasonings, that phenomenality or "pure experience" are not to be reified into a "really existing" thing independent of the experience of it in the moment either) and also non-foundationalist.

Consider, for instance, the question of subject–object duality from a logical perspective. Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world": <blockquote>"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"<ref>Lavis, A. (2018). ''La conscience à l’épreuve de l’éveil: lecture, commentaire et traduction du “Bodhicaryāvatāra” de Śāntideva. [Consciousness at the test of awakening: a reading, commentary and translation of Śāntideva’s “Bodhicaryāvatāra”.]''. Éditions du Cerf.</ref></blockquote>This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

Such powerful and concise arguments seem to go a step beyond some of the phenomenological ontologies we just reviewed. In particular, the paradoxes implied in Michel Henry's affirmation that reality is "absolute self-affectivity with no distance" are revealed in a clear light, and intuit how philosophies of unity or "co-incidence" can actually become sterile.<ref>Jullien, F. (2017). ''Dé-coïncidence : D’où viennent l’art et l’existence?'' Grasset.</ref>

The Eleatic school, formost among which was Parmenides, also employed logical arguments to show the intenable paradoxes of ordinary ontological categories and destroy all dualities — which in Greek are called ''doxa'' (''δόξα''), the "opinions of mortal men", the appearances of the "natural" world. The most famous one is about Achilles and the tortoise, which is not often presented as the deep negation of the possibility of movement as it is ordinarily conceived, but rather as a sort of logical game illustrating the mathematical notion of limit. However, it goes much deeper than that.

Compare the opening stance to Nāgārjuna's ''Fundamental wisdom of the middle-way:''<blockquote>"Whatever is dependently arisen is Unceasing, unborn, Unannihilated, not permanent, Not coming, not going, Without distinction, without identity, And free from conceptual construction."<ref>https://terebess.hu/english/Nagarjuna.pdf, see e.g. Nāgārjuna. (1995). ''The fundamental wisdom of the middle way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' (J. L. Garfield, Trans.). Oxford University Press. </ref> </blockquote>With section VIII of Parmenides' ''Poem'':<blockquote>VIII

One path only is left for us to

speak of, namely, that It is. In it are very many tokens that

what is, is uncreated and indestructible, alone, complete,

immovable and without end. Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for

5 now it is, all at once, a continuous one. For what kind of origin

for it. will you look for ? In what way and from what source

could it have drawn its increase ? I shall not let thee say nor

think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be

thought nor uttered that what is not is. And, if it came from

10 nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than

sooner ? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at

all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides

itself from that which in any way is. Wherefore, Justice does

not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass

15 away, but holds it fast.

" Is it or is it not ? " Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must

be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and

nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real

and true. How, then, can what is be going to be in the

20 future ? Or how could it come into being ? If it came into

being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future. Thus is

becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of.

Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more

of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding

together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is.

25 Wherefore all holds together; for what is; is in contact with what is.

Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without

beginning and without end; since coming into being

and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away.

It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself.

30 And thus it remaineth constant in its place; for hard necessity

keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side.

Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing ; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. It is the

same thing that can be thought and for the sake of which the thought exists ;

35 for you cannot find thought without something that is, to which it is

betrothed. And there is not, and never shall be, any time other, than that which

is present, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable.

Wherefore all these things are but the names which mortals

have given, believing them, to be true –

40 coming into being and passing away, being and not being,

change of place and alteration of bright colour.

Where, then, it has its farthest boundary, it is complete on

every side, equally poised from the centre in every direction,

like the mass of a rounded sphere; for it cannot be greater or

45 smaller in one place than in another. For there is nothing

which is not that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor

is it possible that there should be more of what is in this place

and less in that, since it is all inviolable. For, since it is equal

in all directions, it is equally confined within limits.

50 Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth.

Henceforward learn the opinions of mortals,

giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words.

Mortals have settled in their minds to speak of two forms, one of which

they should have left out, and that is where they go astray from the truth.

55 They have assigned an opposite

substance to each, and marks distinct from one another. To the

one they allot the fire of heaven, light, thin, in every direction

the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is

opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. Of these

60 I tell thee the whole arrangement as it seems to men,

in order that no mortal may surpass thee in knowledge.<ref>http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenidesunicode.htm, see e.g. Parmenides. (1991). ''Fragments: a text and translation'' (Paperback ed). Univ. of Toronto Press.</ref></blockquote>

=== A dream-like world: Neither Being nor non-Being, nor Both, nor Neither ===
<blockquote>"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."</blockquote><blockquote>"We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Shakespeare, ''The Tempest''</blockquote>The ''prajñaparamita'' refutation of all ontological affirmation, best exemplified in the concise text of the ''Heart sutra'', insubstantiality leads to a fundamental ''groundlessness'' and the playful, mysterious display of appearances seen as devoid of substance, which finds poetic expression in the ''Diamond sutra'':<blockquote>“So I say to you –

This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”

''“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;''

''Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,''

''Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”''

''“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”''<ref>https://diamond-sutra.com/read-the-diamond-sutra-here/diamond-sutra-chapter-32/</ref></blockquote>

=== Unknowing and mystery ===
Many of the world's great mystics expound views of this sort. After all, the word "mystic" comes from "mystery". that of these systems which exhibit the radical limitations of any objective knowledge, theoretical knowledge, representational knowledge. This is sometimes done in favor of non-objective knowledge. Thus we are brought back from the order of metaphysical theories to the realm of practice — for non-objective knowledge is practical knowledge.

This is sometimes dismissed as "Mysterianism".

For instance Meister Eckhart or his forebear Dionysius the Areopagite.

The cloude of Unknowing.

== Ontological agnosticism ==

== Can we say anything about the "origin" or "nature" of "consciousness"? ==
So, on the epistemological level, and using Kantian terms, QRI asks a question of an ''a priori'' type (having to do with intuition not deduction) and seeks to answer them through ''a posteriori'' procedures (empirical evidence), or in his and later uses of these terms, confuses the empirical and the transcendental. Methodologically, this then calls to use objective empirical methods to explore "something" non-objective — for consciousness is not an object in the way that a "ball falling to the ground" is an object. If it was, then what is it that would observe that object, since "consciousness" is supposed to be "what observes"? Not only is consciousness non-objective, but it cannot be distinguished from its objects — this is both an experiential fact and a logical necessity: examine Santideva's verse

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,/How would they come into contact?/If no space separates them, then they will be one,/And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

Note that if by "consciousness" is meant a more restricted meaning of "the mind" or "the mental sense sphere", then one only needs to apply the previous reasoning to the specific faculty to prove that it is not a product of "the brain". But this is not an empirical observation. Empirical observation can't say anything about the brain, because empirically speaking, there is no brain, i.e., the "brain", as all objects, is a transcendent, it transcends individual experience (and according to some, is the cause of it, and "experience" is a sort of byproduct or even representation "in the brain", which also implies that the brain cannot be observed.)

Finally, more generally, there are logical issues which apply to realist approaches in general, but which in this context point to specific problems regarding the "causes" and the notion of an "origin" of consciousness (viewed as a "thing", i.e., reified). The paradoxes of realist views are thoroughly examined in philosophical texts such as the prajñaparamita literature (Heart and Diamond Sutras being some of the best known examples as well as Nagarjuna's works<ref>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</ref>), which uses deep logical arguments disprove substantial/independent existence. The pre-socratic Eleatic school employed similar logical arguments to arrive at comparable conclusion, as seen for instance in Parmenides' poem, although his treatment is less systematic and extensive, but more poetic.

'''Epistemology'''

'''Methodology'''

As I understand it, using empirical methods to test that a theory is "true" or not, means conceiving a model of how reality "really is" and then logically devising the necessary consequences of this theory being true through the laws of cause and effect. Specific consequences of the model can be turned into predictions (i.e., "if model X is true, then observation Y should be possible in such and such context"), and there should be specific observable effects in the world of experience. Actual empirical observations will then conform to predictions or not, and they are then said to offer evidence in favor or against the theory - which is a metaphysical view, basically.

This forgets the initial epistemological made above. ''A priori'' knowledge is knowledge that cannot be derived from experience, or maybe better said - is presupposed in all experience : e.g. the ''a prioris'' of sensibility in Kant's system are "time" and "space". I would say that "consciousness" (although I use an expended definition of this compared to IONS) is presupposed in all experience, i.e. there cannot be any experience without there being "experientiality" or consciousness that co-arises with it and as its very phenomenal substance.

Madhyamika reasoning can help us understand and see how "consciousness" and its "objects" cannot be ontologically distinguished, either spatially or temporally. See stanza 93, chapter IX in Śantideva's magnum opus, the ''Bodhicaryāvatara'', which is about "wisdom", and which shows the problem with introducing "spatial" distinctions between "consciousness" and "the world":

"If a space separates the faculty from its object,

How would they come into contact?

If no space separates them, then they will be one,

And in this case, what would come into contact with what?"

This applies to "moments in time" also. Examine a moment in time, with a beginning, middle and end. Then take another moment of time. What could be the connection between these distinct moments? They would be entirely external to one another.

'''Some logical issues'''

Secondly, on a more logical level. The implication of this proposal is that there are causes and conditions of consciousness which can be investigated empirically and that observation can give solid if not absolute bases for sound knowledge. This is implied in the physicalist theories they try to disprove, certainly (i.e., "consciousness arises from neurons"), but it is also the implication of engaging in procedures that test the validity of a metaphysical theory (on the nature of consciousness).

If there are causes to consciousness, these causes must be different from consciousness. They must be temporally distinct from consciousness, as effects follow causes in time. If consciousness is an effect of some temporally other cause then the cause exists in a different moment than consciousness, at a different point in time. This raises the insurmountable contradictions of positing that there are ontologically distinct moments of time, ontologically distinct substances, and ontologically distinct spatial locations. All of the paradoxes that arise from realist/substantialist theories follow. These are examined and thoroughly debunked in Nagarjuna's philosophical classical, ''Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle-Way'', and other ''prajñaparamita'' texts. I could not do it justice here, but regarding the issues with realist views, this classic text will be reflected on fruitfully.

The following contains a summary of the four main types of logical reasonings used in the madhyamaka tradition to e : <nowiki>https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/four-great-logical-arguments</nowiki>.

'''Conclusion'''

Finally, regarding the argument that "the dominant worldview is physicalism": (1) I don't think it's true, as many people are in fact not that, and (2) conclusive proofs (such as the ones outlined here) have ''already'' been given that disprove physicalism, and the issue of disproving it only remains in contexts which ''implicitly take for granted the metaphysical realism, epistemologies and methods of such perspectives''.

Trying to disprove physicalism within this context will be difficult if not principally impossible, and does not seem particularly useful.

Thus, my tongue-in-cheek empirical proposal is that the money of this prize could be put to better use than trying to prove something, which has already been proven, by using methods which cannot yield the sought-after proof.

== References ==

Imaging

2025-06-04T17:57:29Z

OlivierSandilands:

Indications for imaging studies, such as [[MRI]], [[CT]], [[EEG]], etc. related to [[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent Phenomena]] have been very understudied, and definitive recommendations have been lacking, so this page is dedicated to a systematic discussion of indications and contraindications, pros and cons, to various imaging strategies for various presentations in various settings with variable resources and standards of care.

Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena

2025-06-04T17:54:56Z

OlivierSandilands:

''Emergent phenomena'', ''experiences, and effects (EPEEs)'' include a range of presentations that could be referred to as “spiritual”, “mystical”, “energetic”, “magical”, etc., in popular contexts. Basic definitions and a preliminary classification system can be found in the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 Emergent Phenomena] page of the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 EPRC White Paper], while more extensive documentation and in-depth discussion, including a review of various existing terms and expressions related with this experiential domain can be found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024).<ref name=":0">Sandilands, O., & Ingram, D. M. (2024). Documenting and defining emergent phenomenology: theoretical foundations for an extensive research strategy. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''15'', 1340335. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1340335</nowiki></ref>

Building on this previous works, we propose a list condensing some of the most commonly reported effects in the large General Inventory of EPEEs found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024),<ref name=":0" /> which synthesized over 50 recent research publications. Also included are the results of the Varieties of contemplative experiences project,<ref>Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. ''PLOS ONE'', ''12''(5), e0176239. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176239</nowiki></ref> and other inventories like the Inventory of meditation experiences,<ref>Van Dam, N. T., Targett, J., Burger, A., Davies, J. N., & Galante, J. (2024). Development and Validation of the Inventory of Meditation Experiences (IME). ''Mindfulness'', ''15''(6), 1429–1442. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02384-9</nowiki></ref> the Inventory of nonordinary experiences,<ref>Taves, A., Ihm, E., Wolf, M., Barlev, M., Kinsella, M., & Vyas, M. (2023). The Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE): Evidence of validity in the United States and India. ''PLOS ONE'', ''18''(7), e0287780. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287780</nowiki>
</ref> and Varieties of Spiritual Experiences<ref>Yaden, D. B., & Newberg, A. (2022). ''The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.</ref>.

Given the general, phenomenological, ontologically-neutral, and non-tradition-based nature of this list, it is included as part of the synthesis layer, as it lends itself well to the goal of a "rough clinical perennialism" and to supporting clinical pattern recognition and clinical recommendations, which can also link back to tradition-specific, emic typologies and views. In that sense it can serve as a bridge between the diverse perspectives of the [[Synthesis:Source Traditions|Source Traditions]], [[Disciplines]], and [[Clinical Specialties]].

Note that this list is meant to be enriched and evolve over time based on discussion between various contributors and stakeholders from various backgrounds, traditions, disciplines, etc.

== A Proposed Typology of Common Emergent Phenomena ==

# [[Aesthetic experiences]] (e.g. involving art, people, or nature)
# [[Arousal phenomena]], e.g. Changes to [[Arousal and vigilance/wakefulness|arousal]] and energy levels (physical or mental) (big range: agitation, restlessness, elation, excitement, fatigue, etc.) temporary, chronically, or even permanently (e.g. permanently higher levels of available psychic energy)
# Experiences of [[numinosity, sacredness, holiness, sacrality, divinity]] (or the opposite: evil, sin, devil, etc.), mysterium tremendum or augustum, whether in a personal form or not, feeling connected to a “higher power” however defined
# Changes to personal [[behavior]] (very broad, perhaps to be refined e.g. lifestyle changes, changes to habits (can be instantaneous, e.g. cured addiction, etc.), higher concern for ethics (or the reverse), engaging in altruistic activities, sense of increased spontaneity (or the reverse, inhibition), engaging in risky or unethical before as a result of EPEE-related stuff)
# [[Changes to cognition]], e.g.
## Increased or decreased ability to concentrate
## Mental quiescence (e.g. wispy or absence of thoughts, or turbulence (e.g. mind racing)
## Clarity of thought or confusion and difficult or muddled thinking
## Increased or decreased memory
## Increased or decreased decision-making capacities
# [[Synthesis:Death-related experiences|Death-related experiences]]:
## End of life phenomena (strange things that can happen when a person is dying)
## Near-Death Experiences
# [[Entity encounters and sensed presences]]
## Sense of encountering a deceased relative
## Sense of encountering various beings, e.g. “seemingly autonomous entities,” “nonphysical entities”
## Perceiving inanimate objects as sentient and animate
## Sensing “presences”
# [[Energy-like phenomena]] (sensing tactile sensations e.g. forces, power, vibrations, tensions, cascades, fizzing, thrills, tingling, etc. at various places in the body which can sometimes last a long time (e.g. years) and be quite debilitating, or the reverse, be ecstatic and blissful)
# [[Spontaneous movements]]
# [[Shifts to motor capacities]] (lost or increased balance [think psychedelics], slower or faster reflexes)
# [[Existential shocks, shifts, and transformations]] (changes to deep structures of one's lived world like sense of agency, sense of what is real or not (including functional or dysfunctional derealization, etc.), sense of ownership, sense of control over experience, sense of self (loss or changes, including depersonalisation) self-other or self-world boundaries, etc.) and interpretations thereof
# Emotions
## Strong [[emotions]] (+ or -), maybe not an EPEE per se, including experiences of love, compassion, awe, reverence, humility, euphoria, deep peace, rejuvenation, etc., or the reverse, extreme fear, sadness, irritability; common groups reported in the Inventory, by decreasing prevalence:
### Fear, dread, worry, anxiety, panic, and/or terror
### Disenchantment
### Peace, Tranquility, and/or Calm
### Happiness, and/or Joy
### Sadness, depression, or dysphoria
### Alienation, Disconnection, Isolation, or Loneliness
### Mood swings or emotional lability
### Love
## [[Changes to various aspects emotional life]] (intensification, flattening, evenness, balance, rawness, lability, "stickiness")
## <nowiki>[[Mood cycling, emotional lability]]</nowiki>
## <nowiki>[[Prolonged periods of destabilization/difficulty]]</nowiki>, often following a “peak experience” but not always
# [[Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness|Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness, harmony]], etc.: big range
# [[Health changes]]
## Spontaneous healing, remission,
## Unexplained medical symptoms and health decline
# [[Hedonic tone changes]]
## Bliss or the reverse
## Inability to experience pleasure in activities previously found pleasurable
# [[Insights, Intuitions, Epiphanies]]
## Sense of receiving "revelations", "messages", "information", "channeling", etc.
## Intuitive experiences (ranging from sudden insights into specific problems (like a math problem or artistic project) to spontaneous knowledge of sometimes remote events (e.g. knowing something about someone who is in another country)
## Strong sense of "knowing", of having understood something truer, deeper, sometimes perhaps ultimate, about reality or aspects of it
# [[Paradigm shocks, shifts, and transformations]]
## changes to own's views and beliefs about the world (its origins, nature, meaning), ontology (the constituents of the cosmos and its inhabitants, including oneself), truth and the ways to attain it or sources of valid knowledge, soteriology (sense of and views about one's existential condition, sense of having been or needing to be saved from something or to attain something specific that will be salutary)
## "Ontological shock"
# [[Spontaneous sensations and perceptions|Spontaneous sensations, perceptions, or visions]]
## Open or closed-eyes, short to long-lasting, simple to highly complex and multidimensional endogenous images, sensations, or perceptions, ranging e.g. from simple or complex "visuals”, immersive scenarios, visions, visionary experiences, full on "hallucinations" in all modalities (seeing angels, hearing music, hearing voices or receiving communications as if real external perceptions, tactile sensations with no apparent cause, etc.),
## Endogenous light or color perceptions or colors (e.g. diffuse halos or discrete bursts of light, fractals, geometric shapes, and patterns)
## Painful sensations in the body (e.g. pins and needles in the face and.or limbs, etc.)
# Structural changes to perception and sense spheres, whether transient or permanent (e.g. decreased sensate thresholds, higher or lower sensate clarity, perceptual speed, intensity of sensations, increased perceptual abilities, etc.)
# [[Pain]] (e.g. head pressure, headache, or migraines)
# [[Physiological effects and changes]], whether transient or permanent (very broad... e.g. arousal, cardiovascular and breathing changes, neuroplasticity, brain structure and function, gastrointestinal effects (digestion, nausea, disgust, vomiting) thermal changes, “transverberation-type phenomena => heart marks, stigmata, faster reflexes)
# [[Psychological changes]], whether transient or permanent (many things, Recalling or re-experiencing disturbing or traumatic memories, increased or decreased empathy and "theory of mind", derepression, fluidity of consciousness, phases of high energy and activity (up to mania), phases of confusion/depression/paranoia/hallucinations, psychological insights [e.g. feeling like a personal conflict or trauma was almost immediately resolved], maturing, losing one's shit more or less temporarily, rumination, obsessive thinking about a problem, unusual ideation, ...)
# [[Seemingly miraculous or magical occurrences, powers, or abilities]], "PSI", such as past-life experiences, clair-X, telepathy, telekinesis, etc., and interpretation thereof
# [[Changes to one's sexuality]] (libido, orientation, fantasies, behavior, etc.)
# [[Changes to one’s social life and intersubjectivity]] (e.g. sense of communion/deep connection with one’s relationships or the reverse, isolation alienation and disharmony, increased or decreased desire to see or talk to or communicate with other people, changed ability to connect with others, changed perception of self or other in social situations, etc.)
# [[Changes to spatial and/or temporal experience]], permanent or temporary (e.g. space expansions or contractions, dimensionality or flatness, lack of sense of space or increased sense of spatiality, speeding or slowing or time perception, reversal of time perception, suspension of time perception, loss of sense of time, sense of eternality, sense of simultaneity, etc.)
# [[Changes to sense of embodiment/perception of the body/body image/body configuration]], transient or permanent, e.g. transient experiences of feeling disembodied, that body parts are distorted, loss of awareness of all or parts of one’s body, etc., all the way to full on Out-of-body experiences, astral travelling, etc., Experiencing other “realms”, alternate realities/worlds, etc., or permanent experiences of loss of hard bodily boundaries, etc.
# [[Sense of being controlled by an external force or energy, invaded, possessed]]...
# [[Sleep-related experiences and changes]] (experiences on the border of sleep and waking (Exploding head syndrome, dark figures, nightmares, etc.), lucid dreaming, lucid dreamless sleep, changed sleep pattern, decreased or increased need for sleep)
# [[Synchronicities]]
# [[Synesthesia]]
# [[Changes to one's core values]]
# [[Vestibular effects]] like dizziness, disorientation, or lightheadedness
# [[Changes to one's vocation, life-orientation, desires, etc.]], e.g. becoming deeply aware of one’s life purpose, goals, and/or priorities, or the reverse, loss of a sense of purpose, or lack of drive or motivation to pursue goals previously valued as meaningful
# [[Changes to degree of "wakefulness" or "awakeness"]] (increased baseline wakefulness, experiencing “loss of consciousness” while meditating, developing an ability to induce "cessations" of consciousness, experiences of all-encompassing "awareness" (awake presence, formless jhanas, etc.)

=References=

Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena

2025-06-04T17:54:15Z

OlivierSandilands:

''Emergent phenomena'', ''experiences, and effects (EPEEs)'' include a range of presentations that could be referred to as “spiritual”, “mystical”, “energetic”, “magical”, etc., in popular contexts. Basic definitions and a preliminary classification system can be found in the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 Emergent Phenomena] page of the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 EPRC White Paper], while more extensive documentation and in-depth discussion, including a review of various existing terms and expressions related with this experiential domain can be found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024).<ref name=":0">Sandilands, O., & Ingram, D. M. (2024). Documenting and defining emergent phenomenology: theoretical foundations for an extensive research strategy. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''15'', 1340335. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1340335</nowiki></ref>

Building on this previous works, we propose a list condensing some of the most commonly reported effects in the large General Inventory of EPEEs found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024),<ref name=":0" /> which synthesized over 50 recent research publications. Also included are the results of the Varieties of contemplative experiences project,<ref>Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. ''PLOS ONE'', ''12''(5), e0176239. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176239</nowiki></ref> and other inventories like the Inventory of meditation experiences,<ref>Van Dam, N. T., Targett, J., Burger, A., Davies, J. N., & Galante, J. (2024). Development and Validation of the Inventory of Meditation Experiences (IME). ''Mindfulness'', ''15''(6), 1429–1442. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02384-9</nowiki></ref> the Inventory of nonordinary experiences,<ref>Taves, A., Ihm, E., Wolf, M., Barlev, M., Kinsella, M., & Vyas, M. (2023). The Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE): Evidence of validity in the United States and India. ''PLOS ONE'', ''18''(7), e0287780. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287780</nowiki>
</ref> and Varieties of Spiritual Experiences<ref>Yaden, D. B., & Newberg, A. (2022). ''The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.</ref>.

Given the general, phenomenological, ontologically-neutral, and non-tradition-based nature of this list, it is included as part of the synthesis layer, as it lends itself well to the goal of a "rough clinical perennialism" and to supporting clinical pattern recognition and clinical recommendations, which can also link back to tradition-specific, emic typologies and views. In that sense it can serve as a bridge between the diverse perspectives of the [[Source Traditions]], [[Disciplines]], and [[Clinical Specialties]].

Note that this list is meant to be enriched and evolve over time based on discussion between various contributors and stakeholders from various backgrounds, traditions, disciplines, etc.

== A Proposed Typology of Common Emergent Phenomena ==

# [[Aesthetic experiences]] (e.g. involving art, people, or nature)
# [[Arousal phenomena]], e.g. Changes to [[Arousal and vigilance/wakefulness|arousal]] and energy levels (physical or mental) (big range: agitation, restlessness, elation, excitement, fatigue, etc.) temporary, chronically, or even permanently (e.g. permanently higher levels of available psychic energy)
# Experiences of [[numinosity, sacredness, holiness, sacrality, divinity]] (or the opposite: evil, sin, devil, etc.), mysterium tremendum or augustum, whether in a personal form or not, feeling connected to a “higher power” however defined
# Changes to personal [[behavior]] (very broad, perhaps to be refined e.g. lifestyle changes, changes to habits (can be instantaneous, e.g. cured addiction, etc.), higher concern for ethics (or the reverse), engaging in altruistic activities, sense of increased spontaneity (or the reverse, inhibition), engaging in risky or unethical before as a result of EPEE-related stuff)
# [[Changes to cognition]], e.g.
## Increased or decreased ability to concentrate
## Mental quiescence (e.g. wispy or absence of thoughts, or turbulence (e.g. mind racing)
## Clarity of thought or confusion and difficult or muddled thinking
## Increased or decreased memory
## Increased or decreased decision-making capacities
# [[Synthesis:Death-related experiences|Death-related experiences]]:
## End of life phenomena (strange things that can happen when a person is dying)
## Near-Death Experiences
# [[Entity encounters and sensed presences]]
## Sense of encountering a deceased relative
## Sense of encountering various beings, e.g. “seemingly autonomous entities,” “nonphysical entities”
## Perceiving inanimate objects as sentient and animate
## Sensing “presences”
# [[Energy-like phenomena]] (sensing tactile sensations e.g. forces, power, vibrations, tensions, cascades, fizzing, thrills, tingling, etc. at various places in the body which can sometimes last a long time (e.g. years) and be quite debilitating, or the reverse, be ecstatic and blissful)
# [[Spontaneous movements]]
# [[Shifts to motor capacities]] (lost or increased balance [think psychedelics], slower or faster reflexes)
# [[Existential shocks, shifts, and transformations]] (changes to deep structures of one's lived world like sense of agency, sense of what is real or not (including functional or dysfunctional derealization, etc.), sense of ownership, sense of control over experience, sense of self (loss or changes, including depersonalisation) self-other or self-world boundaries, etc.) and interpretations thereof
# Emotions
## Strong [[emotions]] (+ or -), maybe not an EPEE per se, including experiences of love, compassion, awe, reverence, humility, euphoria, deep peace, rejuvenation, etc., or the reverse, extreme fear, sadness, irritability; common groups reported in the Inventory, by decreasing prevalence:
### Fear, dread, worry, anxiety, panic, and/or terror
### Disenchantment
### Peace, Tranquility, and/or Calm
### Happiness, and/or Joy
### Sadness, depression, or dysphoria
### Alienation, Disconnection, Isolation, or Loneliness
### Mood swings or emotional lability
### Love
## [[Changes to various aspects emotional life]] (intensification, flattening, evenness, balance, rawness, lability, "stickiness")
## <nowiki>[[Mood cycling, emotional lability]]</nowiki>
## <nowiki>[[Prolonged periods of destabilization/difficulty]]</nowiki>, often following a “peak experience” but not always
# [[Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness|Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness, harmony]], etc.: big range
# [[Health changes]]
## Spontaneous healing, remission,
## Unexplained medical symptoms and health decline
# [[Hedonic tone changes]]
## Bliss or the reverse
## Inability to experience pleasure in activities previously found pleasurable
# [[Insights, Intuitions, Epiphanies]]
## Sense of receiving "revelations", "messages", "information", "channeling", etc.
## Intuitive experiences (ranging from sudden insights into specific problems (like a math problem or artistic project) to spontaneous knowledge of sometimes remote events (e.g. knowing something about someone who is in another country)
## Strong sense of "knowing", of having understood something truer, deeper, sometimes perhaps ultimate, about reality or aspects of it
# [[Paradigm shocks, shifts, and transformations]]
## changes to own's views and beliefs about the world (its origins, nature, meaning), ontology (the constituents of the cosmos and its inhabitants, including oneself), truth and the ways to attain it or sources of valid knowledge, soteriology (sense of and views about one's existential condition, sense of having been or needing to be saved from something or to attain something specific that will be salutary)
## "Ontological shock"
# [[Spontaneous sensations and perceptions|Spontaneous sensations, perceptions, or visions]]
## Open or closed-eyes, short to long-lasting, simple to highly complex and multidimensional endogenous images, sensations, or perceptions, ranging e.g. from simple or complex "visuals”, immersive scenarios, visions, visionary experiences, full on "hallucinations" in all modalities (seeing angels, hearing music, hearing voices or receiving communications as if real external perceptions, tactile sensations with no apparent cause, etc.),
## Endogenous light or color perceptions or colors (e.g. diffuse halos or discrete bursts of light, fractals, geometric shapes, and patterns)
## Painful sensations in the body (e.g. pins and needles in the face and.or limbs, etc.)
# Structural changes to perception and sense spheres, whether transient or permanent (e.g. decreased sensate thresholds, higher or lower sensate clarity, perceptual speed, intensity of sensations, increased perceptual abilities, etc.)
# [[Pain]] (e.g. head pressure, headache, or migraines)
# [[Physiological effects and changes]], whether transient or permanent (very broad... e.g. arousal, cardiovascular and breathing changes, neuroplasticity, brain structure and function, gastrointestinal effects (digestion, nausea, disgust, vomiting) thermal changes, “transverberation-type phenomena => heart marks, stigmata, faster reflexes)
# [[Psychological changes]], whether transient or permanent (many things, Recalling or re-experiencing disturbing or traumatic memories, increased or decreased empathy and "theory of mind", derepression, fluidity of consciousness, phases of high energy and activity (up to mania), phases of confusion/depression/paranoia/hallucinations, psychological insights [e.g. feeling like a personal conflict or trauma was almost immediately resolved], maturing, losing one's shit more or less temporarily, rumination, obsessive thinking about a problem, unusual ideation, ...)
# [[Seemingly miraculous or magical occurrences, powers, or abilities]], "PSI", such as past-life experiences, clair-X, telepathy, telekinesis, etc., and interpretation thereof
# [[Changes to one's sexuality]] (libido, orientation, fantasies, behavior, etc.)
# [[Changes to one’s social life and intersubjectivity]] (e.g. sense of communion/deep connection with one’s relationships or the reverse, isolation alienation and disharmony, increased or decreased desire to see or talk to or communicate with other people, changed ability to connect with others, changed perception of self or other in social situations, etc.)
# [[Changes to spatial and/or temporal experience]], permanent or temporary (e.g. space expansions or contractions, dimensionality or flatness, lack of sense of space or increased sense of spatiality, speeding or slowing or time perception, reversal of time perception, suspension of time perception, loss of sense of time, sense of eternality, sense of simultaneity, etc.)
# [[Changes to sense of embodiment/perception of the body/body image/body configuration]], transient or permanent, e.g. transient experiences of feeling disembodied, that body parts are distorted, loss of awareness of all or parts of one’s body, etc., all the way to full on Out-of-body experiences, astral travelling, etc., Experiencing other “realms”, alternate realities/worlds, etc., or permanent experiences of loss of hard bodily boundaries, etc.
# [[Sense of being controlled by an external force or energy, invaded, possessed]]...
# [[Sleep-related experiences and changes]] (experiences on the border of sleep and waking (Exploding head syndrome, dark figures, nightmares, etc.), lucid dreaming, lucid dreamless sleep, changed sleep pattern, decreased or increased need for sleep)
# [[Synchronicities]]
# [[Synesthesia]]
# [[Changes to one's core values]]
# [[Vestibular effects]] like dizziness, disorientation, or lightheadedness
# [[Changes to one's vocation, life-orientation, desires, etc.]], e.g. becoming deeply aware of one’s life purpose, goals, and/or priorities, or the reverse, loss of a sense of purpose, or lack of drive or motivation to pursue goals previously valued as meaningful
# [[Changes to degree of "wakefulness" or "awakeness"]] (increased baseline wakefulness, experiencing “loss of consciousness” while meditating, developing an ability to induce "cessations" of consciousness, experiences of all-encompassing "awareness" (awake presence, formless jhanas, etc.)

=References=

Main Page

2025-06-03T17:06:44Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Overall Structure */

== Welcome! ==

=== Goals of EmergeWiki ===
The EmergeWiki is designed to

* '''crowdsource''' and '''synthesize''' vast and diverse sources of information
* to distill these into '''actionable [[Clinical Recommendations]]''' and '''other policy statements and best practices''' on how to skillfully relate to the '''deep end of human experience''' — what many would term spiritual, mystical, magical/psi, energetic, psychedelic, and related phenomena and effects which we term [[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent Phenomena, Experiences and Effects (EPEEs)]].
* in a way that '''promotes good outcomes.'''
The EmergeWiki's main goal is to facilitate sophisticated understandings of [[Emergent Phenomena]] and the vast range of consequences of [[Emergent Modalities]] up to and including doctoral and post-doctoral levels. To that end it will compile information from the various traditions, cultures, religions, etc. with them representing themselves ''as they wish to be represented,'' consider this through the lens of patterns in a way that may have clinical applicability, and attempt the difficult, ongoing conversation of how to translate this diverse body of information into actionable clinical recommendations that scale and make a positive difference. Thus, it is a continuation of a vast and complicated conversation that has occurred for millennia across diverse traditions, languages, cultures, and locations, but with the specific goal of supporting actionable, clinical information today. It is no substitute for human judgement and expertise, but may support it.

You can learn more about the EmergeWiki [[About EmergeWiki|here]].

=== For contributors ===
Information for contributors can be found [[Information for Contributors|here]]. If you are working on the EmergeWiki then please visit the [[Work:Base|Base]] page for an outline of the design and work phases, and links to a list of tasks for Phase 1. We are also building a [[MediaWiki orientation]].

== Organization ==

=== Overall Structure ===
Overall, EmergeWiki is divided into three main layers: Traditions, Synthesis, and Clinical, each with its own purpose, culture, moderators, standards, and requirements.

* [https://emergewiki.org/index.php/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=3000 Traditions]: A space for the traditions, such as religions, academic disciplines, spiritual practices, related communities, etc. to represent themselves as they wish to be known, with their own ontological, epistemic, soteriological, linguist, cultural, practical, etc. aspects explained as they are and as they wish to be known and understood by the clinical, scientific, public health, and public mainstreams, with a focus on [[Emergent Phenomena]]. This is the most encyclopedic aspect of EmergeWiki.
* [https://emergewiki.org/index.php/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=3002 Synthesis]: A space to explore, debate, discuss, and synthesize the patterns, commonalities, differences, phenomenology, meta-ontologics, meta-epistemics, etc. that we find in the Traditions Namespace. This is a place to form and forge in the fires of diverse human attention taxonomies, typologies, lexicons, etc. and to engage in all the rich, messy, human, imperfect, earnest conversation required to form and inform the Clinical layer. This space is the least encyclopedic in terms of simply describing things as they are on their own terms, but also most operational, the most complicated, the most controversial, and is designed to be a melting pot of ideas, a way to be transparent about the conversation that flows organically from the Traditions to refinements and simplifications found in Clinical recommendations.
* [https://emergewiki.org/index.php/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=3004 Clinical]: A space for formal clinical recommendations. Think of this as a space that could form the basis and perhaps body of a doctoral level subspecialty that owned and furthered functional, practical, clinically applicable doctoral-level knowledge of [[Emergent Phenomena]]. This is the most tightly moderated, carefully controlled section of EmergeWiki. Think of it as where the textbook of the specialty is written in a refined form, informed by the previous two layers, and, while being aware of the controversies and complexities, the areas of ignorance and ambiguity, yet, still, striving for definitive recommendations to inform beneficial, ethical, respectful global standards of care that improve outcomes that could be tested on a subspecialty board exam.
Beyond this, EmergeWiki has numerous interlacing aspects to accommodate diverse data types and the diverse organizational needs those who wish to interact efficiently with that data. This organizational structure will evolve organically over time as the project grows.

=== Disciplines ===
[[Disciplines]] are a way of relating to EmergeWiki content based on the academic discipline(s) that cover it. Some closely align with EPRC Projects, e.g. the academic discipline of [[Anthropology]] closely relating to the Anthropology Project, but other disciplines may have more complex relationships to the information here, such as theoretical and applied [[Medical Ethics]] which may interface with a wide range of Projects and other organizational structures.

=== Traditions ===
Traditions mean various religious, spiritual, and cultural traditions, and represent another way of organizing and relating to EmergeWiki content based on the [[Synthesis:Source Traditions|Source Traditions]] that began this conversation thousands of years ago and may continue it to today.

=== Specialties ===
Specialties, in this case [[Clinical Specialties]], are a way of relating to and organizing the information in the EmergeWiki through the lens of the particular scope of the specialty in question. Closely related to the framework of Clinical Specialties is the resultant [[Clinical Recommendations]] which are a key output and product of EmergeWiki.

=== Thematic domains ===
The [[Synthesis:Multidimensional Framework|Multidimensional Framework]] integrates a wide range of lenses and focuses, and can be used as an alternative way of relating to the information in the EmergeWiki.

== Donate ==
EmergeWiki is offered freely, in the legal and ethical spirit of the [[wikipedia:Good_Samaritan_law|Good Samaritan]], [[wikipedia:Public_good_(economics)|public good]], [[wikipedia:Open_source|open source]], and [[wikipedia:Open_science|open science]], in an effort to further the mandates of contemporary [[wikipedia:Medical_ethics|medical ethics]] as they apply to the deep end of human experience and potential.

In that same spirit, if you wish to support the building and maintenance of the EmergeWiki specifically or the work of Emergence Benefactors and the EPRC and its allies in general, '''[https://www.every.org/emergewiki please donate here]. Thanks!'''

== Getting started ==
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/ MediaWiki release mailing list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Localisation#Translation_resources Localise MediaWiki for your language]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Combating_spam Learn how to combat spam on your wiki]

Clinical:Main Page

2025-06-03T17:02:37Z

OlivierSandilands: OlivierSandilands moved page Clinical:Main Clinical NameSpace Page to Clinical:Main Page

The Clinical namespace is dedicated to condensing the work of the Traditions and Synthesis namespaces, as well as directly contributed [[clinical expert opinions]], into evolving clinical guidelines which aspire to be sufficiently comprehensive and useful as to constitute the primary educational curriculum for doctoral-level (MD and PhD) board-certified globally scalable subspecialties dedicated to [[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent Phenomena]].

The Clinical namespace is the most tightly moderated of the three namespaces, and being a contributor requires a clinical background and expertise sufficient to contribute to clinical guidelines.

These are the primary areas of focus that the Clinical namespace covers, essential questions related to the ethical treatment of those with emergent phenomena, such as this incomplete initial list:

# Clinical encounters
## Initial encounter and therapeutic relationship
## Involving secondary sources of information
# Key clinical competencies
## Cultural competency: Awareness of traditional “maps” of the main religious, spiritual, mystical, wisdom, etc. traditions
## EPEE competency
## Awareness of the impact of appraisals and interpretations on outcomes, some education on metaphysics and worldviews
# Safety Assessment and Protective Factors
# Differential Diagnosis
# Diagnostics: Subjective Experience, Clinical Observations, Secondary Sources, Imaging, Procedural and Laboratory Studies, etc.
# Complications and Their Management > ''a list of common complication types, and for each of them, have some information on differential diagnosis and suggested clinical interventions or non-clinical approaches, e.g.'':
## General differential diagnosis guidelines
## Energy-like phenomena
### Severe chronic or acute problems with energy-like phenomena and/or spontaneous movements
## Peak/elevated experiences and mania
## Post-peak experience “Crash”, or “Chronic or acute problems with challenging mindstates with existential components, possibly following peak experience”
## Bipolar-like patterns and emergent cycling
## Challenging changes to sense of reality or personality
## Existential or Ontological “shock”
## Psychotic-like symptoms: Visions, Hallucinations, etc.
## The “Powers” and “PSI”
## Other EPEEs
### Perception changes and Hallucinogen Persistent Perception Disorder
# Non-Pharmaceutical & Pharmaceutical Modalities
# Disposition
# Linguistics: Barriers and Establishing Lexicons
# Field Comparisons and Management Strategies
# Support Strategies
# Acceptance Obstacle
# Education and Training
# Discrepancies in Phenomenology and Coding Options

Clinical:Main Page

2025-06-03T17:01:51Z

OlivierSandilands:

Main Page

2025-06-02T21:04:29Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Traditions */

== Welcome! ==

=== Goals of EmergeWiki ===
The EmergeWiki is designed to

* '''crowdsource''' and '''synthesize''' vast and diverse sources of information
* to distill these into '''actionable [[Clinical Recommendations]]''' and '''other policy statements and best practices''' on how to skillfully relate to the '''deep end of human experience''' — what many would term spiritual, mystical, magical/psi, energetic, psychedelic, and related phenomena and effects which we term [[Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena|Emergent Phenomena, Experiences and Effects (EPEEs)]].
* in a way that '''promotes good outcomes.'''
The EmergeWiki's main goal is to facilitate sophisticated understandings of [[Emergent Phenomena]] and the vast range of consequences of [[Emergent Modalities]] up to and including doctoral and post-doctoral levels. To that end it will compile information from the various traditions, cultures, religions, etc. with them representing themselves ''as they wish to be represented,'' consider this through the lens of patterns in a way that may have clinical applicability, and attempt the difficult, ongoing conversation of how to translate this diverse body of information into actionable clinical recommendations that scale and make a positive difference. Thus, it is a continuation of a vast and complicated conversation that has occurred for millennia across diverse traditions, languages, cultures, and locations, but with the specific goal of supporting actionable, clinical information today. It is no substitute for human judgement and expertise, but may support it.

You can learn more about the EmergeWiki [[About EmergeWiki|here]].

=== For contributors ===
Information for contributors can be found [[Information for Contributors|here]]. If you are working on the EmergeWiki then please visit the [[Work:Base|Base]] page for an outline of the design and work phases, and links to a list of tasks for Phase 1. We are also building a [[MediaWiki orientation]].

== Organization ==

=== Overall Structure ===
Overall, EmergeWiki is divided into three main layers: Traditions, Synthesis, and Clinical, each with its own purpose, culture, moderators, standards, and requirements.

* [https://emergewiki.org/index.php/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=3000 Traditions]: A space for the traditions, such as religions, academic disciplines, spiritual practices, related communities, etc. to represent themselves as they wish to be known, with their own ontological, epistemic, soteriological, linguist, cultural, practical, etc. aspects explained as they are and as they wish to be known and understood by the clinical, scientific, public health, and public mainstreams, with a focus on [[Emergent Phenomena]]. This is the most encyclopedic aspect of EmergeWiki.
* [https://emergewiki.org/index.php/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=3002 Synthesis]: A space to explore, debate, discuss, and synthesize the patterns, commonalities, differences, phenomenology, meta-ontologics, meta-epistemics, etc. that we find in the Traditions Namespace. This is a place to form and forge in the fires of diverse human attention taxonomies, typologies, lexicons, etc. and to engage in all the rich, messy, human, imperfect, earnest conversation required to form and inform the Clinical Namespace. This space is the least encyclopedic in terms of simply describing things as they are on their own terms, but also most operational, the most complicated, the most controversial, and is designed to be a melting pot of ideas, a way to be transparent about the conversation that flows organically from the Traditions to refinements and simplifications found in Clinical recommendations.
* [https://emergewiki.org/index.php/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=3004 Clinical]: A space for formal clinical recommendations. Think of this as a space that could form the basis and perhaps body of a doctoral level subspecialty that owned and furthered functional, practical, clinically applicable doctoral-level knowledge of [[Emergent Phenomena]]. This is the most tightly moderated, carefully controlled section of EmergeWiki. Think of it as where the textbook of the specialty is written in a refined form, informed by the previous two layers, and, while being aware of the controversies and complexities, the areas of ignorance and ambiguity, yet, still, striving for definitive recommendations to inform beneficial, ethical, respectful global standards of care that improve outcomes that could be tested on a subspecialty board exam.
Beyond this, EmergeWiki has numerous interlacing aspects to accommodate diverse data types and the diverse organizational needs those who wish to interact efficiently with that data. This organizational structure will evolve organically over time as the project grows.

=== Disciplines ===
[[Disciplines]] are a way of relating to EmergeWiki content based on the academic discipline(s) that cover it. Some closely align with EPRC Projects, e.g. the academic discipline of [[Anthropology]] closely relating to the Anthropology Project, but other disciplines may have more complex relationships to the information here, such as theoretical and applied [[Medical Ethics]] which may interface with a wide range of Projects and other organizational structures.

=== Traditions ===
Traditions mean various religious, spiritual, and cultural traditions, and represent another way of organizing and relating to EmergeWiki content based on the [[Synthesis:Source Traditions|Source Traditions]] that began this conversation thousands of years ago and may continue it to today.

=== Specialties ===
Specialties, in this case [[Clinical Specialties]], are a way of relating to and organizing the information in the EmergeWiki through the lens of the particular scope of the specialty in question. Closely related to the framework of Clinical Specialties is the resultant [[Clinical Recommendations]] which are a key output and product of EmergeWiki.

=== Thematic domains ===
The [[Synthesis:Multidimensional Framework|Multidimensional Framework]] integrates a wide range of lenses and focuses, and can be used as an alternative way of relating to the information in the EmergeWiki.

== Donate ==
EmergeWiki is offered freely, in the legal and ethical spirit of the [[wikipedia:Good_Samaritan_law|Good Samaritan]], [[wikipedia:Public_good_(economics)|public good]], [[wikipedia:Open_source|open source]], and [[wikipedia:Open_science|open science]], in an effort to further the mandates of contemporary [[wikipedia:Medical_ethics|medical ethics]] as they apply to the deep end of human experience and potential.

In that same spirit, if you wish to support the building and maintenance of the EmergeWiki specifically or the work of Emergence Benefactors and the EPRC and its allies in general, '''[https://www.every.org/emergewiki please donate here]. Thanks!'''

== Getting started ==
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/ MediaWiki release mailing list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Localisation#Translation_resources Localise MediaWiki for your language]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Combating_spam Learn how to combat spam on your wiki]

Category:Developmental models

2025-05-19T23:07:55Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Developmental models]] describe typical sequences and trajectories of evolution that individuals have been observed to go through, often as they engage in practices like contemplation, meditation, and the likes over time (see [[Synthesis:Emergent Modalities|emergent modalities]]). [[Synthesis:Source Traditions|Source-traditions]] from all times and places have proposed such "maps", for instance the three-stages to union in Neoplatonism and throughout Christianity, or the famous ten ox-herding stages in Zen Buddhism.

Clinical Specialties

2025-04-16T17:41:02Z

OlivierSandilands:

One of the ways that one may relate to the information of EmergeWiki is through the lens of clinical specialties, be they at the level of physician, advanced practice provider, nurse, or other provider, such as physical or occupational therapist, psychiatric screener, etc.

Obviously, the major clinical specialties that one may think of as being the most related to [[Emergent Phenomena]] are [[Psychiatry]], [[Psychology (discipline)|Psychology]], and [[Clinical Social Work]], as well as [[Emergency Medicine]] and [[Neurology]], and, of course, the general practice traditions of [[Internal Medicine]], [[Pediatrics]] and [[Family Medicine|Family Practice]]. Some of the muscle spasms, "[[Energy blockages]]", and the like that are routinely reported may cause people to seek care by those who practice [[Physiatry aka Physical Medicine and Rehab (PM&R)]], as well as related practitioners of [[Physical Therapy]] and [[Bodywork]].

Obviously, it is important for the specialty of [[Toxicology]] to have a nuanced and thorough understanding of [[Psychedelics]] and related compounds and their effects.

However, it is likely that nearly all clinicians are encountering and will encounter patients (as well as colleagues, administrators, family members, and perhaps themselves) who are experiencing Emergent Phenomena and their [[Emergent Effects]]. Examples may be someone who feels they are having a "Heart Chakra Opening" whose family is concerned they might be having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and thus convince them to seek care by [[Cardiology]], or a woman who has a powerful and profoundly perspective-shifting experience she describes as "spiritual" and "energetic" while giving birth in the presence of [[Obstetrics]]. [[Emergent Modalities]], such as [[Psychedelics]] and [[Meditation]], are increasingly being considered for end of life care and terminal illnesses, and [[Synthesis:Death-related experiences|Near Death Experiences (NDEs)]], for example, are increasingly being recognized as potentially having profound impacts on patients and families, impacting [[Oncology]] and [[Hematology]], [[Palliative Care]], [[Critical Care Medicine]], [[Geriatric Medicine]].

Emergent Phenomena and Emergent Modalities can also directly impact [[Pain Management]], [[Anesthesiology]], and [[Addiction Medicine]].

The [[Visual phenomena]] that can arise directly impact [[Ophthalmology]]. [[Arousal phenomena]] are important for [[Sleep Medicine]].

There is data to suggest that these effects might have implications for [[Immunology]], [[Rheumatology]], [[Endocrinology]], [[Infectious Disease]], [[Gastroenterology]], [[Gynecology]] and [[Urology]].

In short, it is important that all of the clinical branches have a level of understanding of [[Emergent Phenomena]] and [[Emergent Modalities]] that is at the level of detail and competence expected by someone with their medical license, training, and level of responsibility to promote good clinical outcomes.

Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena

2025-04-16T15:56:58Z

OlivierSandilands: /* A Proposed Typology of Common Emergent Phenomena */

''Emergent phenomena'' include a range of effects and experiences that could be referred to as “spiritual”, “mystical”, “energetic”, “magical”, etc., in popular contexts. Basic definitions and a preliminary classification system can be found in the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 Emergent Phenomena] page of the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 EPRC White Paper], while more extensive documentation and in-depth discussion, including a review of various existing terms and expressions related with this experiential domain can be found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024).<ref name=":0">Sandilands, O., & Ingram, D. M. (2024). Documenting and defining emergent phenomenology: theoretical foundations for an extensive research strategy. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''15'', 1340335. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1340335</nowiki></ref>

Building on this previous works, we propose a list condensing some of the most commonly reported effects in the large General Inventory of EPEEs found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024),<ref name=":0" /> which synthesized over 50 recent research publications. Also included are the results of the Varieties of contemplative experiences project,<ref>Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. ''PLOS ONE'', ''12''(5), e0176239. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176239</nowiki></ref> and other inventories like the Inventory of meditation experiences,<ref>Van Dam, N. T., Targett, J., Burger, A., Davies, J. N., & Galante, J. (2024). Development and Validation of the Inventory of Meditation Experiences (IME). ''Mindfulness'', ''15''(6), 1429–1442. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02384-9</nowiki></ref> the Inventory of nonordinary experiences,<ref>Taves, A., Ihm, E., Wolf, M., Barlev, M., Kinsella, M., & Vyas, M. (2023). The Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE): Evidence of validity in the United States and India. ''PLOS ONE'', ''18''(7), e0287780. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287780</nowiki>
</ref> and Varieties of Spiritual Experiences<ref>Yaden, D. B., & Newberg, A. (2022). ''The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.</ref>.

Given the general, phenomenological, ontologically-neutral, and non-tradition-based nature of this list, it is included as part of the synthesis layer, as it lends itself well to the goal of a "rough clinical perennialism" and to supporting clinical pattern recognition and clinical recommendations, which can also link back to tradition-specific, emic typologies and views. In that sense it can serve as a bridge between the diverse perspectives of the [[Source Traditions]], [[Disciplines]], and [[Clinical Specialties]].

Note that this list is meant to be enriched and evolve over time based on discussion between various contributors and stakeholders from various backgrounds, traditions, disciplines, etc.

== A Proposed Typology of Common Emergent Phenomena ==

# [[Aesthetic experiences]] (e.g. involving art, people, or nature)
# [[Arousal phenomena]], e.g. Changes to [[Arousal and vigilance/wakefulness|arousal]] and energy levels (physical or mental) (big range: agitation, restlessness, elation, excitement, fatigue, etc.) temporary, chronically, or even permanently (e.g. permanently higher levels of available psychic energy)
# Experiences of [[numinosity, sacredness, holiness, sacrality, divinity]] (or the opposite: evil, sin, devil, etc.), mysterium tremendum or augustum, whether in a personal form or not, feeling connected to a “higher power” however defined
# Changes to personal [[behavior]] (very broad, perhaps to be refined e.g. lifestyle changes, changes to habits (can be instantaneous, e.g. cured addiction, etc.), higher concern for ethics (or the reverse), engaging in altruistic activities, sense of increased spontaneity (or the reverse, inhibition), engaging in risky or unethical before as a result of EPEE-related stuff)
# [[Changes to cognition]], e.g.
## Increased or decreased ability to concentrate
## Mental quiescence (e.g. wispy or absence of thoughts, or turbulence (e.g. mind racing)
## Clarity of thought or confusion and difficult or muddled thinking
## Increased or decreased memory
## Increased or decreased decision-making capacities
# [[Synthesis:Death-related experiences|Death-related experiences]]:
## End of life phenomena (strange things that can happen when a person is dying)
## Near-Death Experiences
# [[Entity encounters and sensed presences]]
## Sense of encountering a deceased relative
## Sense of encountering various beings, e.g. “seemingly autonomous entities,” “nonphysical entities”
## Perceiving inanimate objects as sentient and animate
## Sensing “presences”
# [[Energy-like phenomena]] (sensing tactile sensations e.g. forces, power, vibrations, tensions, cascades, fizzing, thrills, tingling, etc. at various places in the body which can sometimes last a long time (e.g. years) and be quite debilitating, or the reverse, be ecstatic and blissful)
# [[Spontaneous movements]]
# [[Shifts to motor capacities]] (lost or increased balance [think psychedelics], slower or faster reflexes)
# [[Existential shocks, shifts, and transformations]] (changes to deep structures of one's lived world like sense of agency, sense of what is real or not (including functional or dysfunctional derealization, etc.), sense of ownership, sense of control over experience, sense of self (loss or changes, including depersonalisation) self-other or self-world boundaries, etc.) and interpretations thereof
# Emotions
## Strong [[emotions]] (+ or -), maybe not an EPEE per se, including experiences of love, compassion, awe, reverence, humility, euphoria, deep peace, rejuvenation, etc., or the reverse, extreme fear, sadness, irritability; common groups reported in the Inventory, by decreasing prevalence:
### Fear, dread, worry, anxiety, panic, and/or terror
### Disenchantment
### Peace, Tranquility, and/or Calm
### Happiness, and/or Joy
### Sadness, depression, or dysphoria
### Alienation, Disconnection, Isolation, or Loneliness
### Mood swings or emotional lability
### Love
## [[Changes to various aspects emotional life]] (intensification, flattening, evenness, balance, rawness, lability, "stickiness")
## <nowiki>[[Mood cycling, emotional lability]]</nowiki>
## <nowiki>[[Prolonged periods of destabilization/difficulty]]</nowiki>, often following a “peak experience” but not always
# [[Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness|Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness, harmony]], etc.: big range
# [[Health changes]]
## Spontaneous healing, remission,
## Unexplained medical symptoms and health decline
# [[Hedonic tone changes]]
## Bliss or the reverse
## Inability to experience pleasure in activities previously found pleasurable
# [[Insights, Intuitions, Epiphanies]]
## Sense of receiving "revelations", "messages", "information", "channeling", etc.
## Intuitive experiences (ranging from sudden insights into specific problems (like a math problem or artistic project) to spontaneous knowledge of sometimes remote events (e.g. knowing something about someone who is in another country)
## Strong sense of "knowing", of having understood something truer, deeper, sometimes perhaps ultimate, about reality or aspects of it
# [[Paradigm shocks, shifts, and transformations]]
## changes to own's views and beliefs about the world (its origins, nature, meaning), ontology (the constituents of the cosmos and its inhabitants, including oneself), truth and the ways to attain it or sources of valid knowledge, soteriology (sense of and views about one's existential condition, sense of having been or needing to be saved from something or to attain something specific that will be salutary)
## "Ontological shock"
# [[Spontaneous sensations and perceptions|Spontaneous sensations, perceptions, or visions]]
## Open or closed-eyes, short to long-lasting, simple to highly complex and multidimensional endogenous images, sensations, or perceptions, ranging e.g. from simple or complex "visuals”, immersive scenarios, visions, visionary experiences, full on "hallucinations" in all modalities (seeing angels, hearing music, hearing voices or receiving communications as if real external perceptions, tactile sensations with no apparent cause, etc.),
## Endogenous light or color perceptions or colors (e.g. diffuse halos or discrete bursts of light, fractals, geometric shapes, and patterns)
## Painful sensations in the body (e.g. pins and needles in the face and.or limbs, etc.)
# Structural changes to perception and sense spheres, whether transient or permanent (e.g. decreased sensate thresholds, higher or lower sensate clarity, perceptual speed, intensity of sensations, increased perceptual abilities, etc.)
# [[Pain]] (e.g. head pressure, headache, or migraines)
# [[Physiological effects and changes]], whether transient or permanent (very broad... e.g. arousal, cardiovascular and breathing changes, neuroplasticity, brain structure and function, gastrointestinal effects (digestion, nausea, disgust, vomiting) thermal changes, “transverberation-type phenomena => heart marks, stigmata, faster reflexes)
# [[Psychological changes]], whether transient or permanent (many things, Recalling or re-experiencing disturbing or traumatic memories, increased or decreased empathy and "theory of mind", derepression, fluidity of consciousness, phases of high energy and activity (up to mania), phases of confusion/depression/paranoia/hallucinations, psychological insights [e.g. feeling like a personal conflict or trauma was almost immediately resolved], maturing, losing one's shit more or less temporarily, rumination, obsessive thinking about a problem, unusual ideation, ...)
# [[Seemingly miraculous or magical occurrences, powers, or abilities]], "PSI", such as past-life experiences, clair-X, telepathy, telekinesis, etc., and interpretation thereof
# [[Changes to one's sexuality]] (libido, orientation, fantasies, behavior, etc.)
# [[Changes to one’s social life and intersubjectivity]] (e.g. sense of communion/deep connection with one’s relationships or the reverse, isolation alienation and disharmony, increased or decreased desire to see or talk to or communicate with other people, changed ability to connect with others, changed perception of self or other in social situations, etc.)
# [[Changes to spatial and/or temporal experience]], permanent or temporary (e.g. space expansions or contractions, dimensionality or flatness, lack of sense of space or increased sense of spatiality, speeding or slowing or time perception, reversal of time perception, suspension of time perception, loss of sense of time, sense of eternality, sense of simultaneity, etc.)
# [[Changes to sense of embodiment/perception of the body/body image/body configuration]], transient or permanent, e.g. transient experiences of feeling disembodied, that body parts are distorted, loss of awareness of all or parts of one’s body, etc., all the way to full on Out-of-body experiences, astral travelling, etc., Experiencing other “realms”, alternate realities/worlds, etc., or permanent experiences of loss of hard bodily boundaries, etc.
# [[Sense of being controlled by an external force or energy, invaded, possessed]]...
# [[Sleep-related experiences and changes]] (experiences on the border of sleep and waking (Exploding head syndrome, dark figures, nightmares, etc.), lucid dreaming, lucid dreamless sleep, changed sleep pattern, decreased or increased need for sleep)
# [[Synchronicities]]
# [[Synesthesia]]
# [[Changes to one's core values]]
# [[Vestibular effects]] like dizziness, disorientation, or lightheadedness
# [[Changes to one's vocation, life-orientation, desires, etc.]], e.g. becoming deeply aware of one’s life purpose, goals, and/or priorities, or the reverse, loss of a sense of purpose, or lack of drive or motivation to pursue goals previously valued as meaningful
# [[Changes to degree of "wakefulness" or "awakeness"]] (increased baseline wakefulness, experiencing “loss of consciousness” while meditating, developing an ability to induce "cessations" of consciousness, experiences of all-encompassing "awareness" (awake presence, formless jhanas, etc.)

=References=

Synthesis:Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development

2025-04-16T15:51:18Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]
Susan Cook-Greuter's work builds on Loevinger's theory of ego-development<ref>Loevinger, J. (1987). ''Ego development: conceptions and theories'' (1. ed., [Nachdr.]). Jossey-Bass.</ref> and Kohlberg's work of moral development, as well as transpersonal psychology, including Ken Wilber's Integral Theory. It includes but goes beyond the level of normal development from birth to adulthood (as described most famously by Piaget). The transition from conventional to non-conventional development, which has echoes in various other systems, such as what classical phenomenology called the "phenomenological conversion" that breaks the spontaneous "natural attitude" of the functional and conventional adult (or child), seems deeply connected with the specific area of experiences and axis of development which are the focus of the EmergeWiki.

== Some general tenets of constructive adult developmental theory ==
<blockquote>"In general, full-range human development theories share the following assumptions:

• Development theory describes the ideal unfolding of human potential towards deeper understanding, greater love, wisdom and effectiveness in the world.

• Growth occurs in a logical sequence of stages or expanding world views from birth to adulthood. The movement is often likened to an ever widening spiral.

• Overall, world views evolve from simple to complex, from static to dynamic, and from egocentric to socio-centric to world-centric.

• Later stages are reached only by journeying through the earlier stages. Once a stage has been traversed, it remains a part of the individual’s response repertoire, even when more complex, later stages are adopted as primary lenses to metabolize experience.

• Each later stage includes and transcends the previous ones. That is, the earlier perspectives remain part of our current experience and knowledge (just as when a child learns to run, it doesn’t stop to be able to walk).

• Each later stage in the sequence is more differentiated, integrated, flexible and capable of functioning more adequately in our rapidly changing and ever more complex world.

• As healthy development unfolds, autonomy, freedom, tolerance for difference and ambiguity, resourcefulness as well as flexibility, self-awareness, and skill in interacting with the environment increase while defenses decrease.

• People’s stage of development influences what they notice and can become aware of, and
therefore, what they can describe, articulate, cultivate, influence, and change.

• Derailment in development, pockets of lack of integration, trauma and psychopathology are seen at all levels. Thus later stages are not necessarily more adjusted or “happier.”

• A person who has reached a later stage can understand earlier ones because they are part of their own becoming, but a person at an earlier stage cannot fully understand the later ones.

• The depth, complexity, and scope of what people notice can expand throughout life. Yet no matter how evolved we become, our knowledge and understanding remains partial and incomplete.

• Development occurs through the interplay between person and environment, not just by one or the other. It is a potential and can be encouraged and facilitated by appropriate support and challenge, but it cannot be guaranteed.

• While vertical development can be invited and the environment optimally structured towards growth, it cannot be forced. People have the right to be who they are at any station in life.

• The later the stage, the more variability for unique self-expression exists, and the less
readily we can determine where a person’s center of gravity lies.

• All stage descriptions are idealizations that no human being fits entirely."<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356357233_Ego_Development_A_Full-Spectrum_Theory_Of_Vertical_Growth_And_Meaning_Making</ref></blockquote>

== Stages of Ego-development ==
Susan Cook-Greuter's model covers the following stages:

* Pre-Conventional Stages
** Symbiotic, Stage 1
** Impulsive, Stage 2
** Self-Protective or Opportunistic, Stage 2/3
** Rule-oriented, Stage Delta/3
* Conventional Stages
** Conformist, Stage 3
** Self-conscious or Expert, Stage 3/4
** Conscientious or Achiever, Stage 4
* Post-Conventional Stages
** The General Systems Stages
*** Individualist or Pluralist, Stage 4/5
*** Autonomous or Strategist, Stage 5
** The Post-autonomous Stages
*** Construct-aware and Ego-aware, Stage 5/6
*** Unitive, Stage 6<ref>https://www.sloww.co/ego-development-theory-cook-greuter/</ref>

== References ==

Synthesis:Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development

2025-04-16T15:50:51Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]

Susan Cook-Greuter's work builds on Loevinger's theory of ego-development<ref>Loevinger, J. (1987). ''Ego development: conceptions and theories'' (1. ed., [Nachdr.]). Jossey-Bass.</ref> and Kohlberg's work of moral development, as well as transpersonal psychology, including Ken Wilber's Integral Theory. It includes but goes beyond the level of normal development from birth to adulthood (as described most famously by Piaget). The transition from conventional to non-conventional development, which has echoes in various other systems, such as what classical phenomenology called the "phenomenological conversion" that breaks the spontaneous "natural attitude" of the functional and conventional adult (or child), seems deeply connected with the specific area of experiences and axis of development which are the focus of the EmergeWiki.

== Some general tenets of constructive adult developmental theory ==
<blockquote>"In general, full-range human development theories share the following assumptions:

• Development theory describes the ideal unfolding of human potential towards deeper understanding, greater love, wisdom and effectiveness in the world.

• Growth occurs in a logical sequence of stages or expanding world views from birth to adulthood. The movement is often likened to an ever widening spiral.

• Overall, world views evolve from simple to complex, from static to dynamic, and from egocentric to socio-centric to world-centric.

• Later stages are reached only by journeying through the earlier stages. Once a stage has been traversed, it remains a part of the individual’s response repertoire, even when more complex, later stages are adopted as primary lenses to metabolize experience.

• Each later stage includes and transcends the previous ones. That is, the earlier perspectives remain part of our current experience and knowledge (just as when a child learns to run, it doesn’t stop to be able to walk).

• Each later stage in the sequence is more differentiated, integrated, flexible and capable of functioning more adequately in our rapidly changing and ever more complex world.

• As healthy development unfolds, autonomy, freedom, tolerance for difference and ambiguity, resourcefulness as well as flexibility, self-awareness, and skill in interacting with the environment increase while defenses decrease.

• People’s stage of development influences what they notice and can become aware of, and
therefore, what they can describe, articulate, cultivate, influence, and change.

• Derailment in development, pockets of lack of integration, trauma and psychopathology are seen at all levels. Thus later stages are not necessarily more adjusted or “happier.”

• A person who has reached a later stage can understand earlier ones because they are part of their own becoming, but a person at an earlier stage cannot fully understand the later ones.

• The depth, complexity, and scope of what people notice can expand throughout life. Yet no matter how evolved we become, our knowledge and understanding remains partial and incomplete.

• Development occurs through the interplay between person and environment, not just by one or the other. It is a potential and can be encouraged and facilitated by appropriate support and challenge, but it cannot be guaranteed.

• While vertical development can be invited and the environment optimally structured towards growth, it cannot be forced. People have the right to be who they are at any station in life.

• The later the stage, the more variability for unique self-expression exists, and the less
readily we can determine where a person’s center of gravity lies.

• All stage descriptions are idealizations that no human being fits entirely."<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356357233_Ego_Development_A_Full-Spectrum_Theory_Of_Vertical_Growth_And_Meaning_Making</ref></blockquote>

== Stages of Ego-development ==
Susan Cook-Greuter's model covers the following stages:

* Pre-Conventional Stages
** Symbiotic, Stage 1
** Impulsive, Stage 2
** Self-Protective or Opportunistic, Stage 2/3
** Rule-oriented, Stage Delta/3
* Conventional Stages
** Conformist, Stage 3
** Self-conscious or Expert, Stage 3/4
** Conscientious or Achiever, Stage 4
* Post-Conventional Stages
** The General Systems Stages
*** Individualist or Pluralist, Stage 4/5
*** Autonomous or Strategist, Stage 5
** The Post-autonomous Stages
*** Construct-aware and Ego-aware, Stage 5/6
*** Unitive, Stage 6<ref>https://www.sloww.co/ego-development-theory-cook-greuter/</ref>

== References ==

Synthesis:Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development

2025-04-16T15:50:41Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]

{{Infobox Books}}

Susan Cook-Greuter's work builds on Loevinger's theory of ego-development<ref>Loevinger, J. (1987). ''Ego development: conceptions and theories'' (1. ed., [Nachdr.]). Jossey-Bass.</ref> and Kohlberg's work of moral development, as well as transpersonal psychology, including Ken Wilber's Integral Theory. It includes but goes beyond the level of normal development from birth to adulthood (as described most famously by Piaget). The transition from conventional to non-conventional development, which has echoes in various other systems, such as what classical phenomenology called the "phenomenological conversion" that breaks the spontaneous "natural attitude" of the functional and conventional adult (or child), seems deeply connected with the specific area of experiences and axis of development which are the focus of the EmergeWiki.

== Some general tenets of constructive adult developmental theory ==
<blockquote>"In general, full-range human development theories share the following assumptions:

• Development theory describes the ideal unfolding of human potential towards deeper understanding, greater love, wisdom and effectiveness in the world.

• Growth occurs in a logical sequence of stages or expanding world views from birth to adulthood. The movement is often likened to an ever widening spiral.

• Overall, world views evolve from simple to complex, from static to dynamic, and from egocentric to socio-centric to world-centric.

• Later stages are reached only by journeying through the earlier stages. Once a stage has been traversed, it remains a part of the individual’s response repertoire, even when more complex, later stages are adopted as primary lenses to metabolize experience.

• Each later stage includes and transcends the previous ones. That is, the earlier perspectives remain part of our current experience and knowledge (just as when a child learns to run, it doesn’t stop to be able to walk).

• Each later stage in the sequence is more differentiated, integrated, flexible and capable of functioning more adequately in our rapidly changing and ever more complex world.

• As healthy development unfolds, autonomy, freedom, tolerance for difference and ambiguity, resourcefulness as well as flexibility, self-awareness, and skill in interacting with the environment increase while defenses decrease.

• People’s stage of development influences what they notice and can become aware of, and
therefore, what they can describe, articulate, cultivate, influence, and change.

• Derailment in development, pockets of lack of integration, trauma and psychopathology are seen at all levels. Thus later stages are not necessarily more adjusted or “happier.”

• A person who has reached a later stage can understand earlier ones because they are part of their own becoming, but a person at an earlier stage cannot fully understand the later ones.

• The depth, complexity, and scope of what people notice can expand throughout life. Yet no matter how evolved we become, our knowledge and understanding remains partial and incomplete.

• Development occurs through the interplay between person and environment, not just by one or the other. It is a potential and can be encouraged and facilitated by appropriate support and challenge, but it cannot be guaranteed.

• While vertical development can be invited and the environment optimally structured towards growth, it cannot be forced. People have the right to be who they are at any station in life.

• The later the stage, the more variability for unique self-expression exists, and the less
readily we can determine where a person’s center of gravity lies.

• All stage descriptions are idealizations that no human being fits entirely."<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356357233_Ego_Development_A_Full-Spectrum_Theory_Of_Vertical_Growth_And_Meaning_Making</ref></blockquote>

== Stages of Ego-development ==
Susan Cook-Greuter's model covers the following stages:

* Pre-Conventional Stages
** Symbiotic, Stage 1
** Impulsive, Stage 2
** Self-Protective or Opportunistic, Stage 2/3
** Rule-oriented, Stage Delta/3
* Conventional Stages
** Conformist, Stage 3
** Self-conscious or Expert, Stage 3/4
** Conscientious or Achiever, Stage 4
* Post-Conventional Stages
** The General Systems Stages
*** Individualist or Pluralist, Stage 4/5
*** Autonomous or Strategist, Stage 5
** The Post-autonomous Stages
*** Construct-aware and Ego-aware, Stage 5/6
*** Unitive, Stage 6<ref>https://www.sloww.co/ego-development-theory-cook-greuter/</ref>

== References ==

Synthesis:Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development

2025-04-16T15:49:41Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]

{{Template:Infobox Books}}

Susan Cook-Greuter's work builds on Loevinger's theory of ego-development<ref>Loevinger, J. (1987). ''Ego development: conceptions and theories'' (1. ed., [Nachdr.]). Jossey-Bass.</ref> and Kohlberg's work of moral development, as well as transpersonal psychology, including Ken Wilber's Integral Theory. It includes but goes beyond the level of normal development from birth to adulthood (as described most famously by Piaget). The transition from conventional to non-conventional development, which has echoes in various other systems, such as what classical phenomenology called the "phenomenological conversion" that breaks the spontaneous "natural attitude" of the functional and conventional adult (or child), seems deeply connected with the specific area of experiences and axis of development which are the focus of the EmergeWiki.

== Some general tenets of constructive adult developmental theory ==
<blockquote>"In general, full-range human development theories share the following assumptions:

• Development theory describes the ideal unfolding of human potential towards deeper understanding, greater love, wisdom and effectiveness in the world.

• Growth occurs in a logical sequence of stages or expanding world views from birth to adulthood. The movement is often likened to an ever widening spiral.

• Overall, world views evolve from simple to complex, from static to dynamic, and from egocentric to socio-centric to world-centric.

• Later stages are reached only by journeying through the earlier stages. Once a stage has been traversed, it remains a part of the individual’s response repertoire, even when more complex, later stages are adopted as primary lenses to metabolize experience.

• Each later stage includes and transcends the previous ones. That is, the earlier perspectives remain part of our current experience and knowledge (just as when a child learns to run, it doesn’t stop to be able to walk).

• Each later stage in the sequence is more differentiated, integrated, flexible and capable of functioning more adequately in our rapidly changing and ever more complex world.

• As healthy development unfolds, autonomy, freedom, tolerance for difference and ambiguity, resourcefulness as well as flexibility, self-awareness, and skill in interacting with the environment increase while defenses decrease.

• People’s stage of development influences what they notice and can become aware of, and
therefore, what they can describe, articulate, cultivate, influence, and change.

• Derailment in development, pockets of lack of integration, trauma and psychopathology are seen at all levels. Thus later stages are not necessarily more adjusted or “happier.”

• A person who has reached a later stage can understand earlier ones because they are part of their own becoming, but a person at an earlier stage cannot fully understand the later ones.

• The depth, complexity, and scope of what people notice can expand throughout life. Yet no matter how evolved we become, our knowledge and understanding remains partial and incomplete.

• Development occurs through the interplay between person and environment, not just by one or the other. It is a potential and can be encouraged and facilitated by appropriate support and challenge, but it cannot be guaranteed.

• While vertical development can be invited and the environment optimally structured towards growth, it cannot be forced. People have the right to be who they are at any station in life.

• The later the stage, the more variability for unique self-expression exists, and the less
readily we can determine where a person’s center of gravity lies.

• All stage descriptions are idealizations that no human being fits entirely."<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356357233_Ego_Development_A_Full-Spectrum_Theory_Of_Vertical_Growth_And_Meaning_Making</ref></blockquote>

== Stages of Ego-development ==
Susan Cook-Greuter's model covers the following stages:

* Pre-Conventional Stages
** Symbiotic, Stage 1
** Impulsive, Stage 2
** Self-Protective or Opportunistic, Stage 2/3
** Rule-oriented, Stage Delta/3
* Conventional Stages
** Conformist, Stage 3
** Self-conscious or Expert, Stage 3/4
** Conscientious or Achiever, Stage 4
* Post-Conventional Stages
** The General Systems Stages
*** Individualist or Pluralist, Stage 4/5
*** Autonomous or Strategist, Stage 5
** The Post-autonomous Stages
*** Construct-aware and Ego-aware, Stage 5/6
*** Unitive, Stage 6<ref>https://www.sloww.co/ego-development-theory-cook-greuter/</ref>

== References ==

Synthesis:Emergent Phenomena

2025-04-16T13:00:10Z

OlivierSandilands:

''Emergent phenomena'' include a range of effects and experiences that could be referred to as “spiritual”, “mystical”, “energetic”, “magical”, etc., in popular contexts. Basic definitions and a preliminary classification system can be found in the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 Emergent Phenomena] page of the [https://hypernotes.zenkit.com/i/UFIY1UO1cp/REKfkBv-1/emergent-phenomena?v=M6pP_Tb7W6 EPRC White Paper], while more extensive documentation and in-depth discussion, including a review of various existing terms and expressions related with this experiential domain can be found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024).<ref name=":0">Sandilands, O., & Ingram, D. M. (2024). Documenting and defining emergent phenomenology: theoretical foundations for an extensive research strategy. ''Frontiers in Psychology'', ''15'', 1340335. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1340335</nowiki></ref>

Building on this previous works, we propose a list condensing some of the most commonly reported effects in the large General Inventory of EPEEs found in Sandilands and Ingram (2024),<ref name=":0" /> which synthesized over 50 recent research publications. Also included are the results of the Varieties of contemplative experiences project,<ref>Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. ''PLOS ONE'', ''12''(5), e0176239. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176239</nowiki></ref> and other inventories like the Inventory of meditation experiences,<ref>Van Dam, N. T., Targett, J., Burger, A., Davies, J. N., & Galante, J. (2024). Development and Validation of the Inventory of Meditation Experiences (IME). ''Mindfulness'', ''15''(6), 1429–1442. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02384-9</nowiki></ref> the Inventory of nonordinary experiences,<ref>Taves, A., Ihm, E., Wolf, M., Barlev, M., Kinsella, M., & Vyas, M. (2023). The Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE): Evidence of validity in the United States and India. ''PLOS ONE'', ''18''(7), e0287780. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287780</nowiki>
</ref> and Varieties of Spiritual Experiences<ref>Yaden, D. B., & Newberg, A. (2022). ''The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.</ref>.

Given the general, phenomenological, ontologically-neutral, and non-tradition-based nature of this list, it is included as part of the synthesis layer, as it lends itself well to the goal of a "rough clinical perennialism" and to supporting clinical pattern recognition and clinical recommendations, which can also link back to tradition-specific, emic typologies and views. In that sense it can serve as a bridge between the diverse perspectives of the [[Source Traditions]], [[Disciplines]], and [[Clinical Specialties]].

Note that this list is meant to be enriched and evolve over time based on discussion between various contributors and stakeholders from various backgrounds, traditions, disciplines, etc.

== A Proposed Typology of Common Emergent Phenomena ==

# [[Aesthetic experiences]] (e.g. involving art, people, or nature)
# [[Arousal phenomena]], e.g. Changes to [[Arousal and vigilance/wakefulness|arousal]] and energy levels (physical or mental) (big range: agitation, restlessness, elation, excitement, fatigue, etc.) temporary, chronically, or even permanently (e.g. permanently higher levels of available psychic energy, something every advanced practitioner I’ve met seem to have in common)
# Experiences of [[numinosity, sacredness, holiness, sacrality, divinity]] (or the opposite: evil, sin, devil, etc.), mysterium tremendum or augustum, whether in a personal form or not, feeling connected to a “higher power” however defined
# Changes to personal [[behavior]] (very broad, perhaps to be refined e.g. lifestyle changes, changes to habits (can be instantaneous, e.g. cured addiction, etc.), higher concern for ethics (or the reverse), engaging in altruistic activities, sense of increased spontaneity (or the reverse, inhibition), engaging in risky or unethical before as a result of EPEE-related stuff)
# [[Changes to cognition]], e.g.
## Increased or decreased ability to concentrate
## Mental quiescence (e.g. wispy or absence of thoughts, or turbulence (e.g. mind racing)
## Clarity of thought or confusion and difficult or muddled thinking
## Increased or decreased memory
## Increased or decreased decision-making capacities
# [[Synthesis:Death-related experiences|Death-related experiences]]:
## End of life phenomena (strange things that can happen when a person is dying)
## Near-Death Experiences
# [[Entity encounters and sensed presences]]
## Sense of encountering a deceased relative
## Sense of encountering various beings, e.g. “seemingly autonomous entities,” “nonphysical entities”
## Perceiving inanimate objects as sentient and animate
## Sensing “presences”
# [[Energy-like phenomena]] (sensing tactile sensations e.g. forces, power, vibrations, tensions, cascades, fizzing, thrills, tingling, etc. at various places in the body which can sometimes last a long time (e.g. years) and be quite debilitating, or the reverse, be ecstatic and blissful)
# [[Spontaneous movements]]
# [[Shifts to motor capacities]] (lost or increased balance [think psychedelics], slower or faster reflexes)
# [[Existential shocks, shifts, and transformations]] (changes to deep structures of one's lived world like sense of agency, sense of what is real or not (including functional or dysfunctional derealization, etc.), sense of ownership, sense of control over experience, sense of self (loss or changes, including depersonalisation) self-other or self-world boundaries, etc.) and interpretations thereof
# Emotions
## Strong [[emotions]] (+ or -), maybe not an EPEE per se, including experiences of love, compassion, awe, reverence, humility, euphoria, deep peace, rejuvenation, etc., or the reverse, extreme fear, sadness, irritability; common groups reported in the Inventory, by decreasing prevalence:
### Fear, dread, worry, anxiety, panic, and/or terror
### Disenchantment
### Peace, Tranquility, and/or Calm
### Happiness, and/or Joy
### Sadness, depression, or dysphoria
### Alienation, Disconnection, Isolation, or Loneliness
### Mood swings or emotional lability
### Love
## [[Changes to various aspects emotional life]] (intensification, flattening, evenness, balance, rawness, lability, "stickiness")
## <nowiki>[[Mood cycling, emotional lability]]</nowiki>
## <nowiki>[[Prolonged periods of destabilization/difficulty]]</nowiki>, often following a “peak experience” but not always
# [[Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness|Flow states, Immersion in a specific activity or phenomenon, absorption states, sense of “union”, unity, oneness, harmony]], etc.: big range
# [[Health changes]]
## Spontaneous healing, remission,
## Unexplained medical symptoms and health decline
# [[Hedonic tone changes]]
## Bliss or the reverse
## Inability to experience pleasure in activities previously found pleasurable
# [[Insights, Intuitions, Epiphanies]]
## Sense of receiving "revelations", "messages", "information", "channeling", etc.
## Intuitive experiences (ranging from sudden insights into specific problems (like a math problem or artistic project) to spontaneous knowledge of sometimes remote events (e.g. knowing something about someone who is in another country)
## Strong sense of "knowing", of having understood something truer, deeper, sometimes perhaps ultimate, about reality or aspects of it
# [[Paradigm shocks, shifts, and transformations]]
## changes to own's views and beliefs about the world (its origins, nature, meaning), ontology (the constituents of the cosmos and its inhabitants, including oneself), truth and the ways to attain it or sources of valid knowledge, soteriology (sense of and views about one's existential condition, sense of having been or needing to be saved from something or to attain something specific that will be salutary)
## "Ontological shock"
# [[Spontaneous sensations and perceptions|Spontaneous sensations, perceptions, or visions]]
## Open or closed-eyes, short to long-lasting, simple to highly complex and multidimensional endogenous images, sensations, or perceptions, ranging e.g. from simple or complex "visuals”, immersive scenarios, visions, visionary experiences, full on "hallucinations" in all modalities (seeing angels, hearing music, hearing voices or receiving communications as if real external perceptions, tactile sensations with no apparent cause, etc.),
## Endogenous light or color perceptions or colors (e.g. diffuse halos or discrete bursts of light, fractals, geometric shapes, and patterns)
## Painful sensations in the body (e.g. pins and needles in the face and.or limbs, etc.)
# Structural changes to perception and sense spheres, whether transient or permanent (e.g. decreased sensate thresholds, higher or lower sensate clarity, perceptual speed, intensity of sensations, increased perceptual abilities, etc.)
# [[Pain]] (e.g. head pressure, headache, or migraines)
# [[Physiological effects and changes]], whether transient or permanent (very broad... e.g. arousal, cardiovascular and breathing changes, neuroplasticity, brain structure and function, gastrointestinal effects (digestion, nausea, disgust, vomiting) thermal changes, “transverberation-type phenomena => heart marks, stigmata, faster reflexes)
# [[Psychological changes]], whether transient or permanent (many things, Recalling or re-experiencing disturbing or traumatic memories, increased or decreased empathy and "theory of mind", derepression, fluidity of consciousness, phases of high energy and activity (up to mania), phases of confusion/depression/paranoia/hallucinations, psychological insights [e.g. feeling like a personal conflict or trauma was almost immediately resolved], maturing, losing one's shit more or less temporarily, rumination, obsessive thinking about a problem, unusual ideation, ...)
# [[Seemingly miraculous or magical occurrences, powers, or abilities]], "PSI", such as past-life experiences, clair-X, telepathy, telekinesis, etc., and interpretation thereof
# [[Changes to one's sexuality]] (libido, orientation, fantasies, behavior, etc.)
# [[Changes to one’s social life and intersubjectivity]] (e.g. sense of communion/deep connection with one’s relationships or the reverse, isolation alienation and disharmony, increased or decreased desire to see or talk to or communicate with other people, changed ability to connect with others, changed perception of self or other in social situations, etc.)
# [[Changes to spatial and/or temporal experience]], permanent or temporary (e.g. space expansions or contractions, dimensionality or flatness, lack of sense of space or increased sense of spatiality, speeding or slowing or time perception, reversal of time perception, suspension of time perception, loss of sense of time, sense of eternality, sense of simultaneity, etc.)
# [[Changes to sense of embodiment/perception of the body/body image/body configuration]], transient or permanent, e.g. transient experiences of feeling disembodied, that body parts are distorted, loss of awareness of all or parts of one’s body, etc., all the way to full on Out-of-body experiences, astral travelling, etc., Experiencing other “realms”, alternate realities/worlds, etc., or permanent experiences of loss of hard bodily boundaries, etc.
# [[Sense of being controlled by an external force or energy, invaded, possessed]]...
# [[Sleep-related experiences and changes]] (experiences on the border of sleep and waking (Exploding head syndrome, dark figures, nightmares, etc.), lucid dreaming, lucid dreamless sleep, changed sleep pattern, decreased or increased need for sleep)
# [[Synchronicities]]
# [[Synesthesia]]
# [[Changes to one's core values]]
# [[Vestibular effects]] like dizziness, disorientation, or lightheadedness
# [[Changes to one's vocation, life-orientation, desires, etc.]], e.g. becoming deeply aware of one’s life purpose, goals, and/or priorities, or the reverse, loss of a sense of purpose, or lack of drive or motivation to pursue goals previously valued as meaningful
# [[Changes to degree of "wakefulness" or "awakeness"]] (increased baseline wakefulness, experiencing “loss of consciousness” while meditating, developing an ability to induce "cessations" of consciousness, experiences of all-encompassing "awareness" (awake presence, formless jhanas, etc.)

=References=

Clinical Specialties

2025-04-16T12:50:47Z

OlivierSandilands:

One of the ways that one may relate to the information of EmergeWiki is through the lens of clinical specialties, be they at the level of physician, advanced practice provider, nurse, or other provider, such as physical or occupational therapist, psychiatric screener, etc.

Obviously, the major clinical specialties that one may think of as being the most related to [[Emergent Phenomena]] are [[Psychiatry]], [[Psychology (discipline)|Psychology]], and [[Clinical Social Work]], as well as [[Emergency Medicine]] and [[Neurology]], and, of course, the general practice traditions of [[Internal Medicine]], [[Pediatrics]] and [[Family Medicine|Family Practice]]. Some of the muscle spasms, "[[Energy blockages]]", and the like that are routinely reported may cause people to seek care by those who practice [[Physiatry aka Physical Medicine and Rehab (PM&R)]], as well as related practitioners of [[Physical Therapy]] and [[Bodywork]].

Obviously, it is important for the specialty of [[Toxicology]] to have a nuanced and thorough understanding of [[Psychedelics]] and related compounds and their effects.

However, it is likely that nearly all clinicians are encountering and will encounter patients (as well as colleagues, administrators, family members, and perhaps themselves) who are experiencing Emergent Phenomena and their [[Emergent Effects]]. Examples may be someone who feels they are having a "Heart Chakra Opening" whose family is concerned they might be having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and thus convince them to seek care by [[Cardiology]], or a woman who has a powerful and profoundly perspective-shifting experience she describes as "spiritual" and "energetic" while giving birth in the presence of [[Obstetrics]]. [[Emergent Modalities]], such as [[Psychedelics]] and [[Meditation]], are increasingly being considered for end of life care and terminal illnesses, and [[Near Death Experiences (NDEs)]], for example, are increasingly being recognized as potentially having profound impacts on patients and families, impacting [[Oncology]] and [[Hematology]], [[Palliative Care]], [[Critical Care Medicine]], [[Geriatric Medicine]].

Emergent Phenomena and Emergent Modalities can also directly impact [[Pain Management]], [[Anesthesiology]], and [[Addiction Medicine]].

The [[Visual phenomena]] that can arise directly impact [[Ophthalmology]]. [[Arousal phenomena]] are important for [[Sleep Medicine]].

There is data to suggest that these effects might have implications for [[Immunology]], [[Rheumatology]], [[Endocrinology]], [[Infectious Disease]], [[Gastroenterology]], [[Gynecology]] and [[Urology]].

In short, it is important that all of the clinical branches have a level of understanding of [[Emergent Phenomena]] and [[Emergent Modalities]] that is at the level of detail and competence expected by someone with their medical license, training, and level of responsibility to promote good clinical outcomes.

Catholicism

2025-04-15T17:41:06Z

OlivierSandilands:

The Catholic Church, with around 1.345 billion adherent, represents about 50% of all Christians, of which the Latin Church accounts for 1.327 billion and the Eastern Catholic Churches for 18 million.<ref>Hackett, C., Grim, B. J., & et al. (2012). ''The Global Religious Landscape. A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010''. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/</ref>

== Resources ==

* John of the Cross. (1991). ''The collected works of Saint John of the Cross'' (Rev. ed). ICS Publications.
* Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward.
* Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc.
* Saint François de Sales, [https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf Introduction to the Devout Life]
* Eckhart. (2009). ''The complete mystical works of Meister Eckhart'' (M. O. Walshe, Trans.). Crossroad Pub. Co.
* History of non-dual meditation methods
* Spiritual Exercises
* Scaramelli, Handbook Of Mystical Theology
* Saudreau's Books
* A.F . Poulain, Graces of Interior Prayer: A Treatise on Mystical Theology
* Tanquerey, "The spiritual life. A treatise on ascetical and mystical theology"
* Arthur Devine, Ascetical Theology (1903)
* Émile Lamballe, Mystical Contemplation, or, The Principles of Mystical TheologyFarges, Mystical Phenomena Compared with Their Human and Diabolical Counterfeits: A Treatise on Mystical Theology in Agreement with the Principles of St.
* Teresa Set Forth by the Carmelite Congress of 1923 at Madrid
* Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ways of The Spiritual Life
* Louis Bouyer's Books
* Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology (1980)
* Le Moyen Court

== References ==

Catholicism

2025-04-15T17:40:43Z

OlivierSandilands:

The Catholic Church, with around 1.345 billion adherent, represents about 50% of all Christians, of which the Latin Church accounts for 1.327 billion and the Eastern Catholic Churches for 18 million.<ref>Hackett, C., Grim, B. J., & et al. (2012). ''The Global Religious Landscape. A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010''. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/</ref>

== References ==

== Resources ==

* John of the Cross. (1991). ''The collected works of Saint John of the Cross'' (Rev. ed). ICS Publications.
* Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward.
* Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc.
* Saint François de Sales, [https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf Introduction to the Devout Life]
* Eckhart. (2009). ''The complete mystical works of Meister Eckhart'' (M. O. Walshe, Trans.). Crossroad Pub. Co.
* History of non-dual meditation methods
* Spiritual Exercises
* Scaramelli, Handbook Of Mystical Theology
* Saudreau's Books
* A.F . Poulain, Graces of Interior Prayer: A Treatise on Mystical Theology
* Tanquerey, "The spiritual life. A treatise on ascetical and mystical theology"
* Arthur Devine, Ascetical Theology (1903)
* Émile Lamballe, Mystical Contemplation, or, The Principles of Mystical TheologyFarges, Mystical Phenomena Compared with Their Human and Diabolical Counterfeits: A Treatise on Mystical Theology in Agreement with the Principles of St.
* Teresa Set Forth by the Carmelite Congress of 1923 at Madrid
* Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ways of The Spiritual Life
* Louis Bouyer's Books
* Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology (1980)
* Le Moyen Court

Catholicism

2025-04-15T17:37:19Z

OlivierSandilands: /* Resources */

== References ==

== Resources ==

* John of the Cross. (1991). ''The collected works of Saint John of the Cross'' (Rev. ed). ICS Publications.
* Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward.
* Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc.
* Saint François de Sales, [https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf Introduction to the Devout Life]
* Eckhart. (2009). ''The complete mystical works of Meister Eckhart'' (M. O. Walshe, Trans.). Crossroad Pub. Co.
* History of non-dual meditation methods
* Spiritual Exercises
* Scaramelli, Handbook Of Mystical Theology
* Saudreau's Books
* A.F . Poulain, Graces of Interior Prayer: A Treatise on Mystical Theology
* Tanquerey, "The spiritual life. A treatise on ascetical and mystical theology"
* Arthur Devine, Ascetical Theology (1903)
* Émile Lamballe, Mystical Contemplation, or, The Principles of Mystical TheologyFarges, Mystical Phenomena Compared with Their Human and Diabolical Counterfeits: A Treatise on Mystical Theology in Agreement with the Principles of St.
* Teresa Set Forth by the Carmelite Congress of 1923 at Madrid
* Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ways of The Spiritual Life
* Louis Bouyer's Books
* Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology (1980)
* Le Moyen Court

Catholicism

2025-04-15T17:36:14Z

OlivierSandilands: Created page with "== References == == Resources == John of the Cross. (1991). ''The collected works of Saint John of the Cross'' (Rev. ed). ICS Publications. Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward. Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc. Saint François de Sales, [https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf Introduction to the Devout Life] The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart Meister Eckhart Br..."

== References ==

== Resources ==
John of the Cross. (1991). ''The collected works of Saint John of the Cross'' (Rev. ed). ICS Publications.

Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward.

Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc.

Saint François de Sales, [https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf Introduction to the Devout Life]

The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart Britannica Entry

History of non-dual meditation methods

Spiritual Exercises

Scaramelli, Handbook Of Mystical Theology

Saudreau's Books

A.F . Poulain, Graces of Interior Prayer: A Treatise on Mystical Theology

Tanquerey,

"The spiritual life. A treatise on ascetical and mystical theology"

Arthur Devine, Ascetical Theology (1903)

Émile Lamballe, Mystical Contemplation, or, The Principles of Mystical TheologyFarges, Mystical Phenomena Compared with Their Human and Diabolical

Counterfeits: A Treatise on Mystical Theology in Agreement with the Principles of St.

Teresa Set Forth by the Carmelite Congress of 1923 at Madrid

Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ways of The Spiritual Life

Louis Bouyer's Books

Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology (1980)

Le Moyen Court

Synthesis:Source Traditions

2025-04-15T17:28:21Z

OlivierSandilands:

A vast number of religious, spiritual, ritual, cultural, philosophical, and other traditions have contributed to the conversation regarding [[Emergent Phenomena]] for at least thousands and likely many tens of thousands of years and many continue to today.

Further, critical to integrating [[Emergent Phenomena]] into mainstream clinical understandings and practice are the [[Openings in the DSM-5TR|opportunities]] provided by manuals such as the [[DSM-5TR]] and related manuals, with statements providing an immediate functional need for detailed understandings of the world's traditions and what they consider normal, such as this statement, from the DSM-5TR, on page 102, in the section on [[Hallucinations]]:<blockquote>"Hallucinations are perception-like experiences that occur without an external stimulus. They are vivid and clear, with the full force and impact of normal perceptions, and not under voluntary control. They may occur in any sensory modality, but auditory hallucinations are the most common in schizophrenia and related disorders. Auditory hallucinations are usually experienced as voices, whether familiar or unfamiliar, that are perceived as distinct from the individual's own thoughts. The hallucinations must occur in the context of a clear sensorium; those that occur while falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnopompic) are considered to be within the range of normal experience. '''''Hallucinations may be a normal part of religious experience in certain cultural contexts'''.''”</blockquote>Thus, in order to provide extensive support for diagnosticians, care providers, family members, friends, and everyone else relating to these issues, EmergeWiki aims to have detailed information and additional links to external sources on the major and minor "cultural context" mentioned above, including, but not limited to the following, and we encourage authors to add more to this list as needed to be as complete and thorough as possible:

*# Abrahamic religions
*## Christianity
*### Nicene Christianity
*#### [[Catholicism]] — Catholicism has as one of its features a remarkable capacity for local syncretism, very often adopting, enfolding, informing, etc. local religions, saints, spirits, traditions, rituals, particularly in Central and South America and Africa, but in other places also, giving many of these very different flavors and thus likely relationships to emergent phenomena, etc.
*##### Latin Church
*###### Jesuits
*###### Carmelites
*###### Franciscans
*###### Dominicans
*###### Cistercians
*###### Beguines and Beghards
*##### Eastern Catholic Church
*### Protestantism
*#### Pentecostalism
*#### Anglicanism
*#### Baptist churches
*#### Nondenominational Christianity
*#### Lutheranism
*#### Methodism
*#### Reformed churches (Calvinism)
*#### African initiated churches
*#### Chinese Patriotic Christian Churches
*#### Eastern Protestant Christianity
*#### Adventism
*#### New Apostolic Church
*#### Restorationism
*#### Anabaptism
*#### Local churches
*#### Plymouth Brethren
*#### Hussites
*#### Quakers
*#### Messianic Judaism
*### Orthodox Christianity
*#### Eastern Orthodoxy
*##### Greek Orthodox Pratriarchates or Churches
*###### Constantinople
*###### Alexandria
*###### Antioch
*###### Jerusalem
*###### Russia
*###### Serbia
*###### Romania
*###### Bulgaria
*###### Georgia
*###### Cyprus
*###### Greece
*###### Poland
*###### Albania
*###### Czech Lands and Slovakia
*###### North Macedonia
*#### Oriental Orthodox Churches
*##### Coptic Orthodox
*##### Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo
*##### Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo
*##### Syriac Orthodox
*##### Armenian Apostolic
*##### Malankara Orthodox Syrian
*##### Western Orthodoxy
*#### Evangelical Christianity
*#### Restorationist
*##### Mormon/Latter-day Saint movement
*##### Jehovah's Witnesses
*## Islam
*### Sunnīsm
*#### Ḥanafī Sunnīsm
*#### Shāfiʿī Sunnīsm
*#### Mālikī Sunnīsm
*#### Ḥanbalī Sunnīsm
*### Shī‘ism
*#### Twelver Shīʿīsm
*#### Zaydī Shīʿīsm
*#### Ismāʿīlī Shīʿīsm
*##### Ghulat
*### Kharījism
*### Sufīsm
*### Ahmadiyya movement
*### Salafism
*### Wahhabism
*## Judaism
*### Hassidism
*### Kabbalah
*### Ultraorthodox
*# Hinduism — Hinduism, far from being a single, coherent religion, probably has more local gods, variants, diversity of view, etc. than any other tradition on this list.
*## Advaita Vedānta
*## Arya Samaj
*## ISKCON (Hare Krishna)
*## Sant Mat traditions
*## Shaivism
*## Shaktism
*## Shrauta or "vedic" hinduism
*## Smartism
*## Vaishnavism
*## Yogic Schools
*### Bhakti yoga
*### Hatha yoga
*### Jñana yoga
*### Karma yoga
*### Kundalini Yoga
*### Raja yoga
*# Buddhism — According to the Pew Research Center, "all 10 countries with the largest Buddhist populations are in the Asia-Pacific region, and these countries collectively are home to the lion’s share (95%) of all Buddhists. Half (50%) of the world’s Buddhists live in one country, China. The largest Buddhist populations outside China are in Thailand (13%), Japan (9%), Burma (Myanmar) (8%), Sri Lanka (3%), Vietnam (3%), Cambodia (3%), South Korea (2%), India (2%) and Malaysia (1%)."<ref name=":1">Hackett, C., Grim, B. J., & et al. (2012). ''The Global Religious Landscape. A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010''. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/</ref>
*## Mahāyāna Buddhism
*### Madhyamaka
*### Yogacāra
*### Pure Land
*### Zen
*#### Soto
*#### Rinzai
*#### Ch’an
*## Vajrayāna Buddhism
*### Tantra
*### Dzogchen — According to Claire Petitmengin, "Dzogchen or “Great Perfection”, which designates the ultimate natural state of everything, emerged in India and Tibet in the eight to ninth centuries. Main Indian Dzogchen masters were Vajraprake (tib. Garab Dorjé), Manjusrimitra, Vairocana, Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra. In Tibet it was primarily transmitted by the Ancient School (Nyingma), through a lineage that includes illustrious masters as Yeshe Tsogyal, Longchenpa, Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche."<ref name=":0">Petitmengin, C. (2021). On the Veiling and Unveiling of Experience: A Comparison Between the Micro-Phenomenological Method and the Practice of Meditation. ''Journal of Phenomenological Psychology'', ''52''(1), 36–77. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341383</ref>
*### Mahāmūdra — According to Claire Petitmengin, "Mahāmūdra (where mahā means “great”, and mūdra means “gesture”), often translated as the Great Seal, is a Buddhist meditative tradition that emerged in India around the eighth and ninth centuries. The great Mahāmūdra Indian masters were Saraha, Shabari, Tilopa, Maitripa and Naropa. The Mahāmūdra transmissions entered Tibet between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, from Marpa to Milarepa and Gambopa. Most contemporary Tibetan Mahāmūdra masters rely on the teachings that are found in the works of Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (1513–87) and the ninth Karmapa Wangchouk Dorje (1555–1603)."<ref name=":0" />
*### Shingon
*## Theravāda Buddhism: this itself has huge internal diversity
*## Regional traditions
*### Contemporary Western Buddhism
*### Japanese New Religious Movements (Soka Gakkai)
*### Korean Buddhism
*### Nichiren Buddhism
*### Thai Forest Tradition
*### Tibetan Buddhism
*### Vietnamese Buddhism
*# [[Folk Traditions]] — According to the Pew Research Center, "An estimated 405 million people – or about 6% of the world’s total population – are adherents of folk or traditional religions. These are faiths that are closely associated with a particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe. They often have no formal creeds or sacred texts."<ref name=":1" />
*## African traditional religions
*## African Diasporic religions (Vodou, Candomblé, Umbanda)
*## Australian Aboriginal religions
*## Baltic paganism
*## Chinese folk religions
*## Native American religions
*## Nordic pre-Christian traditions
*## Pacific Islander religions
*## Slavic paganism
*## Vietnamese folk religion (Đạo Mẫu)
*# Other Traditions
*## Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophical Schools
*## Ancient Egypt
*## Confucianism
*## Druze faith
*## Falun Gong
*## Gnosticism
*## Hermetism
*## Jainism
*## Magical or occult practices
*## Mandaeism
*## Manichaeism
*## Martial Arts
*## [[Neoplatonism]]
*## New Religious Movements
*### Ásatrú/Heathenry
*### Baha'i Faith
*### Cao Dai
*### Discordianism
*### Druidry
*### IOT/Chaos
*### Japanese new religious movements (Oomoto, Seicho-no-Ie)
*### Kimbanguism
*### Neopaganism
*### Korean new religious movements (Cheondoism, Jeungsanism)
*### New Age spirituality
*### OTO
*### Raëlism
*### Rastafarianism
*### Samaritanism
*### Santeria
*### Scientology
*### Tenrikyo
*### Thelema
*### Vietnamese Hòa Hảo
*### Wicca
*## Orphism
*## Other
*## Perennialism
*## Shinto
*## Shamanism
*### Siberian shamanic traditions
*### Korean shamanism (Muism)
*## Sikhism
*## Spiritism
*## Western Esotericism
*### Alchemy
*### Astrology
*### Freemasonry
*### Gnosticism
*### Hermeticism
*### Illuminism
*### Kabbalah
*### Rosicrucianism
*### Tenrikyo
*### Theosophy
*## Taoism
*## Transcendental meditation
*## Western Mindfulness Movement
*## Yazidism
*## Zoroastrianism
== References ==

[[Category:Traditions]]

Traditions:The Seven Mansions

2025-04-15T17:27:04Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]

Saint Teresa of Ávila's Seven Mansions is a spiritual guide describing the journey toward union with God.<ref>Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc.</ref> She uses the metaphor of a castle with seven mansions (or dwelling places), each representing a deeper stage of spiritual development on the "way to perfection".<ref name=":0">Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward.</ref> One of the experiences she describes along the way is the "prayer of quiet":<blockquote>“The soul rests in peace…all [her] powers are at rest. The soul understands, with an understanding quite different from that given by external senses, that she is now quite close to God and that, if she drew just a little nearer, she would become one thing with him by union. She does not see him with eyes of the body or the soul.…The soul understands he is there, though not so clearly. She does not know herself how she understands; she sees only that she is in the Kingdom….

It is like the suspension of all internal and external powers. The external man does not wish to make the slightest movement but rests, like one who has almost reached the end of his journey, that he may resume his journey with redoubled strength.…The soul is so happy to find herself near the fountain that she is satisfied even without drinking. She seems to have no more desire. The faculties are at peace and do not wish to move…However, the faculties are not so lost that they cannot think of Him whom they are near. Two of them are free. The will alone is held captive.…The understanding desires to know but one thing, and memory to remember only one. They both see that only one thing is necessary, and everything else disturbs it….I think therefore that since the soul is so completely happy in this prayer of quiet, the will most be united during most of the time, with Him who alone can satisfy it.”<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>

== References ==

Traditions:The Seven Mansions

2025-04-15T17:23:05Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]

Teresa of Ávila's Seven Mansions is a spiritual guide describing the journey toward union with God.<ref>Ávila, de, T. (2007). ''Interior castle'' (Dover ed). Dover Publications, Inc.</ref> She uses the metaphor of a castle with seven mansions (or dwelling places), each representing a deeper stage of spiritual development on the "way to perfection".<ref>Ávila, de, T. (1999). ''The way of perfection''. Sheed and Ward.</ref>

== References ==

Traditions:The Seven Mansions

2025-04-15T17:12:12Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]
{{Infobox Books}}

The Seven Mansions

2025-04-15T17:11:14Z

OlivierSandilands: OlivierSandilands moved page The Seven Mansions to Tradition:The Seven Mansions

#REDIRECT [[Tradition:The Seven Mansions]]

Traditions:The Seven Mansions

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OlivierSandilands: OlivierSandilands moved page The Seven Mansions to Tradition:The Seven Mansions

[[Category:Developmental models]]

Traditions:The Seven Mansions

2025-04-15T17:10:40Z

OlivierSandilands:

[[Category:Developmental models]]

Category:Developmental models

2025-04-15T17:10:22Z

OlivierSandilands:

Traditions:The Seven Mansions

2025-04-15T17:10:02Z

OlivierSandilands: Created page with "Category:Developmental Models"

[[Category:Developmental Models]]

Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

2025-04-09T16:59:28Z

OlivierSandilands: OlivierSandilands moved page Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks to Tradition:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

#REDIRECT [[Tradition:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks]]

Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

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OlivierSandilands: OlivierSandilands moved page Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks to Tradition:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

[[category:Developmental models]]
Kenneth Rose's five Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks result from a comparative synthesis of traditional texts from Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist models of development.<ref>Rose, K. (2016). ''Yoga, meditation, and mysticism: contemplative universals and meditative landmarks''. Bloomsbury, pp. 51-55.</ref>

== Step 1: Convergence ==
<blockquote>"Preceded by preparatory practices of Catholic ascetical theology, Buddhist sīla, and the yogic yamas and niyamas, convergence, as the first station on the common yogic-mystical itinerary, is a key stage in the eight limbs of the Pātañjalian Yoga of Hinduism, in the multiple jhānas of samatha practice in Theravāda Buddhism, and in the degrees of unio mystica in Catholic contemplative prayer. Through remarkably similar practices of concentrating the mind in these three traditions, the yogi, or contemplative, accesses an ensemble of subtle inner states characterized by sublime sentiments of tranquility, immaterial sensation, liberative insight, and unitive awareness. The focusing practices that access these subtle inner states are called recueillement actif in French, dhāraṇā in Sanskrit and Pāli, and parikamma- nimitta (“training sign”) and uggaha-nimitta (“learning sign”) in Pāli (these two signs share between themselves the features of dhāraṇā in the Yoga Sūtra), and I see them as locally distinctive expressions of the contemplative universal that I call “convergence.”<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 52</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* Preceded by preparatory practices of Catholic ascetical theology, Buddhist sīla, and the yogic yamas and niyamas
* convergence is the first station on the common yogic-mystical itinerary
* mind focuses on meditation object
* sublime sentiments of tranquility
* immaterial sensation
* liberative insight
* unitive awareness

== Step 2: Coalescence ==
<blockquote>”Coalescence is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of dhyāna, paṭibhāga-nimitta, and la ligature des puissances. Each of these terms names a distinctive experience that a skilled yogic contemplative in these three traditions will likely have experienced: the sudden locking in or fixing of the mind on the meditation object after a period of increasingly focused concentration or recollection. This coalescence of the mind and the meditation object is one of the great “landmarks” in yogic contemplation, and it will not go unnoticed or be soon forgotten by the yogic contemplative who experiences it. This coalescent practice opens inner portals into a timeless and always available sublime realm of the subtle-body states. This realm is intermediate between the physical world and more sublime states of quiescence and insight (treated in the next sections) that escape the nets of cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning."<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 53-54</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* sudden locking in or fixing of the mind on the meditation object after a period of increasingly focused concentration or recollection
* one of the great “landmarks” in yogic contemplation
* will not go unnoticed or be soon forgotten by the yogic contemplative who experiences it
* opens inner portals into a timeless and always available sublime realm of the subtle-body states
* This realm is intermediate between the physical world and more sublime states of quiescence and insight

== Step 3: Simplification ==
<blockquote>"Simplification is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of the sequential suppression of the sets of factors that constitute the four jhānas, the stages of saṃprajñāta-samādhi, and the stages of unio mystica. It is a notable feature of advancing concentration in each of the three contemplative traditions that the visionary phenomena and the pleasant psychological and bodily states of the earlier stages of meditative absorption gradually give way to a quiet inner stillness in which the mind becomes clear and a stable mirror of what is ultimately real. Now, the tranquilized mind becomes the site of powerful and eﬀective liberative and salvific insights, which weaken to the point of overcoming the cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning of the yogic contemplative."<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 54</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* mind simplifies itself factor by factor
* notable feature of advancing concentration
* the visionary phenomena and the pleasant psychological and bodily states of the earlier stages of meditative absorption gradually give way to a quiet inner stillness in which the mind becomes clear and a stable mirror of what is ultimately real
* the tranquilized mind becomes the site of powerful and eﬀective liberative and salvific insights
* [Insights in this stage] weaken to the point of overcoming the cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning of the yogic contemplative

== Step 4: Quiescence ==

* mind is stilled
* the mediation of the mind by cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditions ceases
* state of virtual cessation in which the outward faculties have been stilled while awareness is utterly transfixed from within
* There is now no further attraction to or concern with the objects of the external realms of the body and the mind
* the yogic contemplative takes their stand upon the ground of immaterial being itself
* This condition of cessation is intermittent, so long as physical life continues
* experienced, especially in its initial phases, as a spiritual night of disorientation
* [Takes time for the contemplative] to become accustomed to
* New condition of absolute inner freedom
* Over time, this sense of disorientation is transformed into a steadily calm and blissful mood of unwavering inner recollectedness allows the yogic contemplative to make a return to eﬀective and compassionate external activity until the end of physical life

== Step 5: Beatitude ==
<blockquote>"Beatitude is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of nibbāna, jīvanmukti, and transforming union, which is, variously expressed, the condition of perfected, saintly human existence where the yogic contemplative lives simultaneously in the inner and outer realms while exercising mastery in both spheres. This end state of the common yogic-mystical itinerary represents the perfection of the spiritual life in its embodied, human form, and is a foretaste of the transhuman condition of parinibbāna, videhamukti, and the beatific vision."<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 54-55</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* mind is transcended
* the condition of perfected, saintly human existence
* the yogic contemplative lives simultaneously in the inner and outer realms while exercising mastery in both spheres
* represents the perfection of the spiritual life in its embodied, human form
* foretaste of the transhuman condition of parinibbāna, videhamukti, and the beatific vision

== Discussion ==
Rose's presentation of the meditative landmarks that characterise reaching specific "contemplative universals" seen as common to the the three traditions in question, should be seen as the authors' interpretation. Firstly, his presentation of the Theravada model of progressing through the Jhānas as representing the entirety of the path of development within this tradition is debatable: there are several stages of enlightenment in several Buddhist traditions, the relationship of which with the jhāna states is discuted. Furthermore, the fourth "universal" is equated with the attainment of the "cessation of perception and feelings" (NS), and then described as a "state". Rose confuses NS with the immaterial Jhānas, it seems; NS is a specific and rare attainment which is in theory only available to some of the practitioners who are beyond the third of four stages of enlightenment in the previously mentioned four path model. See Laukkonen et al. (2023)<ref>Laukkonen, R. E., Sacchet, M. D., Barendregt, H., Devaney, K. J., Chowdhury, A., & Slagter, H. A. (2023). Cessations of consciousness in meditation: Advancing a scientific understanding of nirodha samāpatti. In ''Progress in Brain Research''(p. S0079612322001984). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.007</ref> and the Visuddhimagga<ref>Buddhaghosa. (1999). ''The path of purification: Visuddhimagga'' (Ñāṇamoli, Trans.; 1st BPE Pariyatti ed.). BPE Pariyatti Editions.</ref>, for instance, or more recently, Mahāsi Sayadaw (1994).<ref>Mahasi Sayadaw. (1994). ''The Progress of Insight (Visuddhiñana-katha)'' (Nyanaponika Thera, Trans.). https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mahasi/progress.html#intro</ref> There are other "cessation" attainments, corresponding to the attainment of lower levels of realization - and the culmination of the Jhāna itenerary in the theravadin model - but these are not "experiences" (not even of "immaterial being" or a "spiritual night of disorientation" , or, as stated at p. 82, "a nondual, unitive state of awareness that, as we have seen, Newberg and d’Aquili call “absolute unitary being, ” or an “enhanced non- cognitive state. ")

== References ==

Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

2025-04-09T16:58:07Z

OlivierSandilands:

Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

2025-04-09T16:54:37Z

OlivierSandilands:

Kenneth Rose's five Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks result from a comparative synthesis of Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist models of development.<ref>Rose, K. (2016). ''Yoga, meditation, and mysticism: contemplative universals and meditative landmarks''. Bloomsbury, pp. 51-55.</ref>

== Step 1: Convergence ==
<blockquote>"Preceded by preparatory practices of Catholic ascetical theology, Buddhist sīla, and the yogic yamas and niyamas, convergence, as the first station on the common yogic-mystical itinerary, is a key stage in the eight limbs of the Pātañjalian Yoga of Hinduism, in the multiple jhānas of samatha practice in Theravāda Buddhism, and in the degrees of unio mystica in Catholic contemplative prayer. Through remarkably similar practices of concentrating the mind in these three traditions, the yogi, or contemplative, accesses an ensemble of subtle inner states characterized by sublime sentiments of tranquility, immaterial sensation, liberative insight, and unitive awareness. The focusing practices that access these subtle inner states are called recueillement actif in French, dhāraṇā in Sanskrit and Pāli, and parikamma- nimitta (“training sign”) and uggaha-nimitta (“learning sign”) in Pāli (these two signs share between themselves the features of dhāraṇā in the Yoga Sūtra), and I see them as locally distinctive expressions of the contemplative universal that I call “convergence.”<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 52</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* Preceded by preparatory practices of Catholic ascetical theology, Buddhist sīla, and the yogic yamas and niyamas
* convergence is the first station on the common yogic-mystical itinerary
* mind focuses on meditation object
* sublime sentiments of tranquility
* immaterial sensation
* liberative insight
* unitive awareness

== Step 2: Coalescence ==
<blockquote>”Coalescence is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of dhyāna, paṭibhāga-nimitta, and la ligature des puissances. Each of these terms names a distinctive experience that a skilled yogic contemplative in these three traditions will likely have experienced: the sudden locking in or fixing of the mind on the meditation object after a period of increasingly focused concentration or recollection. This coalescence of the mind and the meditation object is one of the great “landmarks” in yogic contemplation, and it will not go unnoticed or be soon forgotten by the yogic contemplative who experiences it. This coalescent practice opens inner portals into a timeless and always available sublime realm of the subtle-body states. This realm is intermediate between the physical world and more sublime states of quiescence and insight (treated in the next sections) that escape the nets of cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning."<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 53-54</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* sudden locking in or fixing of the mind on the meditation object after a period of increasingly focused concentration or recollection
* one of the great “landmarks” in yogic contemplation
* will not go unnoticed or be soon forgotten by the yogic contemplative who experiences it
* opens inner portals into a timeless and always available sublime realm of the subtle-body states
* This realm is intermediate between the physical world and more sublime states of quiescence and insight

== Step 3: Simplification ==
<blockquote>"Simplification is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of the sequential suppression of the sets of factors that constitute the four jhānas, the stages of saṃprajñāta-samādhi, and the stages of unio mystica. It is a notable feature of advancing concentration in each of the three contemplative traditions that the visionary phenomena and the pleasant psychological and bodily states of the earlier stages of meditative absorption gradually give way to a quiet inner stillness in which the mind becomes clear and a stable mirror of what is ultimately real. Now, the tranquilized mind becomes the site of powerful and eﬀective liberative and salvific insights, which weaken to the point of overcoming the cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning of the yogic contemplative."<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 54</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* mind simplifies itself factor by factor
* notable feature of advancing concentration
* the visionary phenomena and the pleasant psychological and bodily states of the earlier stages of meditative absorption gradually give way to a quiet inner stillness in which the mind becomes clear and a stable mirror of what is ultimately real
* the tranquilized mind becomes the site of powerful and eﬀective liberative and salvific insights
* [Insights in this stage] weaken to the point of overcoming the cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning of the yogic contemplative

== Step 4: Quiescence ==

* mind is stilled
* the mediation of the mind by cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditions ceases
* state of virtual cessation in which the outward faculties have been stilled while awareness is utterly transfixed from within
* There is now no further attraction to or concern with the objects of the external realms of the body and the mind
* the yogic contemplative takes their stand upon the ground of immaterial being itself
* This condition of cessation is intermittent, so long as physical life continues
* experienced, especially in its initial phases, as a spiritual night of disorientation
* [Takes time for the contemplative] to become accustomed to
* New condition of absolute inner freedom
* Over time, this sense of disorientation is transformed into a steadily calm and blissful mood of unwavering inner recollectedness allows the yogic contemplative to make a return to eﬀective and compassionate external activity until the end of physical life

== Step 5: Beatitude ==
<blockquote>"Beatitude is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of nibbāna, jīvanmukti, and transforming union, which is, variously expressed, the condition of perfected, saintly human existence where the yogic contemplative lives simultaneously in the inner and outer realms while exercising mastery in both spheres. This end state of the common yogic-mystical itinerary represents the perfection of the spiritual life in its embodied, human form, and is a foretaste of the transhuman condition of parinibbāna, videhamukti, and the beatific vision."<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 54-55</ref></blockquote>In brief:

* mind is transcended
* the condition of perfected, saintly human existence
* the yogic contemplative lives simultaneously in the inner and outer realms while exercising mastery in both spheres
* represents the perfection of the spiritual life in its embodied, human form
* foretaste of the transhuman condition of parinibbāna, videhamukti, and the beatific vision

== Discussion ==
Rose's presentation of the meditative landmarks that characterise reaching specific "contemplative universals" seen as common to the the three traditions in question, should be seen as the authors' interpretation. Firstly, his presentation of the Theravada model of progressing through the Jhānas as representing the entirety of the path of development within this tradition is debatable: there are several stages of enlightenment in several Buddhist traditions, the relationship of which with the jhāna states is discuted. Furthermore, the fourth "universal" is equated with the attainment of the "cessation of perception and feelings" (NS), and then described as a "state". Rose confuses NS with the immaterial Jhānas, it seems; NS is a specific and rare attainment which is in theory only available to some of the practitioners who are beyond the third of four stages of enlightenment in the previously mentioned four path model. See Laukkonen et al. (2023)<ref>Laukkonen, R. E., Sacchet, M. D., Barendregt, H., Devaney, K. J., Chowdhury, A., & Slagter, H. A. (2023). Cessations of consciousness in meditation: Advancing a scientific understanding of nirodha samāpatti. In ''Progress in Brain Research''(p. S0079612322001984). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.007</ref> and the Visuddhimagga<ref>Buddhaghosa. (1999). ''The path of purification: Visuddhimagga'' (Ñāṇamoli, Trans.; 1st BPE Pariyatti ed.). BPE Pariyatti Editions.</ref>, for instance, or more recently, Mahāsi Sayadaw (1994).<ref>Mahasi Sayadaw. (1994). ''The Progress of Insight (Visuddhiñana-katha)'' (Nyanaponika Thera, Trans.). https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mahasi/progress.html#intro</ref> There are other "cessation" attainments, corresponding to the attainment of lower levels of realization - and the culmination of the Jhāna itenerary in the theravadin model - but these are not "experiences" (not even of "immaterial being" or a "spiritual night of disorientation" , or, as stated at p. 82, "a nondual, unitive state of awareness that, as we have seen, Newberg and d’Aquili call “absolute unitary being, ” or an “enhanced non- cognitive state. ")

== References ==

Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

2025-04-09T16:37:19Z

OlivierSandilands:

Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

2025-04-09T16:36:52Z

OlivierSandilands:

Religious studies

2025-04-09T16:32:53Z

OlivierSandilands:

Obviously, religious studies, which approach [[Synthesis:Source Traditions|source-traditions]] from an academic (etic) perspective, are centrally related with the aims of the EmergeWiki.

== Cross-traditional approaches ==
Kenneth Rose's [[contemplative universals and meditative landmarks]].

Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

2025-04-09T16:32:46Z

OlivierSandilands: Created page with "Quoted from Rose, 2018. p. 51-55. Of note, Rose's presentation of the meditative landmarks that characterise reaching specific "contemplative universals" seen as common to the the three traditions in question, has some problematic details, at least in the summarized passage I have surveyed here. Firstly, his presentation of the Theravada model of progressing through the Jhānas as representing the entirety of the path of development within this tradition is wrong: there..."

Quoted from Rose, 2018. p. 51-55. Of note, Rose's presentation of the meditative landmarks that characterise reaching specific "contemplative universals" seen as common to the the three traditions in question, has some problematic details, at least in the summarized passage I have surveyed here. Firstly, his presentation of the Theravada model of progressing through the Jhānas as representing the entirety of the path of development within this tradition is wrong: there are several stages of enlightenment. Furthermore, the fourth "universal" is equated with the attainment of the "cessation of perception and feelings" (NS), and then described as a "state" , which is mistaken. Rose confuses NS with the immaterial Jhānas, it seems; NS is a specific and rare attainment which is in theory only available to some of the practitioners who are beyond the third of four stages of enlightenment in the previously mentioned four path model. See Laukkonen et al., 2023, and the Visuddhimagga. There are other "cessation" attainments, corresponding to the attainment of lower levels of realization - and the culmination of the Jhāna itenerary in the theravadin model - but these are not "experiences" (not even of "immaterial being" or a "spiritual night of disorientation" , or, as stated at p. 82, "a nondual, unitive state of awareness that, as we have seen, Newberg and d’Aquili call “absolute unitary being, ” or an “enhanced non- cognitive state. ") Attachments  The_common_Yogic-Mystical_Itinirary.png Compendium of Phenomena K. Rose's 5 Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks

Step 1: Convergence Step 2: Coalescence Step 3: Simplification Step 4: Quiescence Step 5: Beatitude

Religious studies

2025-04-09T16:28:45Z

OlivierSandilands: Created page with "Obviously, religious studies, which approach source-traditions from an academic (etic) perspective, are centrally related with the aims of the EmergeWiki. == Cross-traditional approaches == Kenneth Rose's contemplative universals and their functions."

Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development

2025-04-09T16:18:34Z

OlivierSandilands: OlivierSandilands moved page Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development to Synthesis:Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development

#REDIRECT [[Synthesis:Cook-Greuter's stages of ego-development]]