Synthesis:Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory

From EmergeWiki

The Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) is one of the most commonly used scales in our field.[1] According to its author,

The PCI has been used to quantify the subjective experience associated with a variety of stimulus conditions, including: hypnosis (Pekala, 1991, 2015, 2016), meditation (Venkatesh, Raju, Shivani, Tompkins, & Meti, 1997), fire-walking (Hillig & Holroyd, 1997/1998; Pekala & Ersek, 1992/1993), an out-of-the- body experience (OBE) within a near death event (NDE; Maitz & Pekala, 1991), shamanistic trances (Rock, Wilson, Johnston, & Levesque, 2008), charismatic leadership (Churches, 2015), religious/spiritual narratives (Wildman & McNamara, 2010), a virtual reality environment (Huang, Himle, & Alessi, 2000), drumming (Maurer, Kumar, Woodside, & Pekala, 1997), schizophrenia (Roussel & Bachelor, 2000/2001), epilepsy (Johanson, Valli, & Revonsuo, 2011), music perception (Nagy & Szabo, 2004), and psi phenomena (Rock & Storm, 2010).[2]

Dimensions, sub-dimensions, and items

  • Altered state of awareness
    • 21. My state of consciousness was not any different or unusual from what it ordinarily is. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt in an extremely different and unusual state of consciousness.
    • 40. My state of awareness was very different from what I usually experience. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My state of awareness was no different than usual.*
    • 53. My state of awareness was not unusual or different from what it ordinarily is. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt in an extraordinarily unusual and nonordinary state of awareness.
  • Altered experience
    • Altered body image
      • 11. My body ended at the boundary between my skin and the world. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt my body greatly expanded beyond the boundaries of my skin.
      • 26. My bodily feelings seemed to expand into the world around me. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My bodily feelings were confined to the area within my skin.*
      • 51. I continually maintained a very strong sense of separation between myself and the environment. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I experienced intense unity with the world; the boundaries between me and the environment dissolved away.
    • Altered time sense
      • 15. My perception of the flow of time changed drastically. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I noticed no changes in my perception of the flow of time.*
      • 30. Time seemed to greatly speed up or slow down. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time was experienced with no changes in its rate of passage.*
      • 43. I felt no sense of timelessness; time flowed as I usually experienced it. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time stood still; there was no movement of time at all.
    • Altered perception
      • 17. My perception of the world changed drastically. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I noticed no changes in my perception of the world.*
      • 29. The world around me became extremely different in color or form. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I noticed no changes in the color or form of the world around me.*
      • 39. I noticed no changes in the size, shape, or perspective of the objects in the world around me. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Objects in the world around me changed in size, shape, or perspective.
    • Altered meaning
      • 4. I had an experience which I would label as very religious, spiritual, or transcendental. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I did not have any experience which I would label as religious, spiritual, or transcendental.*
      • 23. I had an experience of awe and reverence toward the world. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I had no experience of awe and reverence toward the world.*
      • 32. I experienced no profound insights besides my usual cognitive understanding of things. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I experienced very profound and enlightening insights of certain ideas or issues.
      • 47. I experienced no sense of sacredness or deep meaning in existence beyond my usual feelings. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Existence became deeply sacred or meaningful.
  • Volitional control
    • 3. The thoughts and images I had were under my control; I decided what I thought or imagined. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Images and thoughts popped into my mind without my control.*
    • 25. I had complete control over what I was paying attention to. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I had no control over what I was paying attention to.*
    • 41. I relinquished control and became receptive and passive to what I was experiencing. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I was willfully controlling what I was experiencing.
  • Self-awareness
    • 13. I was not aware of being aware of myself at all; I had no self-awareness. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I was very aware of being aware of myself; my self-awareness was intense.
    • 27. I was continually conscious and well aware of myself. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I lost consciousness of myself.*
    • 50. I maintained a very strong sense of self-awareness the whole time. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I did not maintain a very strong sense of self-awareness at all.*
  • Rationality
    • 2. My thinking was clear and understandable. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My thinking was unclear and not easy to understand.*
    • 24. Conceptually, my thinking was clear and distinct. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Conceptually, my thinking was confused and muddled.*
    • 36. My thought processes were non-rational and very hard to comprehend. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My thought processes were rational and easy to comprehend.
  • Internal dialogue
    • 6. I was silently talking to myself a great deal. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I did not engage in any silent talking to myself.*
    • 45. I did not engage in any silent talking to myself. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I was silently talking to myself a great deal.
  • Positive affect
    • Joy
      • 9. I felt ecstatic and joyful. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt no feelings of being ecstatic or joyful.*
      • 46. I experienced no feelings of ecstasy or extreme happiness beyond my usual feelings. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt feelings of ecstasy and extreme happiness.
    • Sexual excitement
      • 5. I became aware of very intense sexual feelings. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I experienced no sexual feelings.*
      • 35. I was not aware of any sexual feelings. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I experienced very strong sexual feelings.
    • Love
      • 20. I experienced no feelings of love. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I experienced very strong feelings of love.
      • 49. I felt intense feelings of loving-kindness. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt no feelings of loving-kindness.*
  • Negative affect
    • Anger
      • 14. I felt no emotions of rage whatsoever. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt enraged.
      • 33. I felt very angry and upset. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt no feelings of being angry or upset.*
    • Sadness
      • 7. I felt very, very sad. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt no feelings of sadness whatsoever.*
      • 31. I felt no feelings of unhappiness or dejection. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt unhappy and dejected.
    • Fear
      • 16. I felt very frightened. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt no emotions of being frightened.*
      • 42. I felt no feelings of being scared or afraid. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt very scared and afraid.
  • Imagery
    • Amount
      • 12. I experienced a great deal of visual imagery. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I experienced no visual imagery at all.*
      • 44. I experienced no or very few images. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My experience was made up almost completely of images.
    • Vividness
      • 18. My visual imagery was so vivid and three-dimensional, it seemed real. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My visual imagery was so vague and diffuse, it was hard to get an image of anything.*
      • 48. My imagery was very vague and dim. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My imagery was as clear and vivid as objects in the real world.
  • Attention
    • Direction
      • 8. My attention was completely directed toward my own internal subjective experience. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My attention was completely directed toward the world around me.*
      • 28. My attention was totally directed toward the environment around me. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My attention was totally directed toward my own internal, subjective experience.
      • 52. My attention was completely inner-directed. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My attention was completely outer-directed.*
    • Absorption
      • 1. I was forever distracted and unable to concentrate on anything. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I was able to concentrate quite well and was not distracted.
      • 34. I was not distracted, but was able to be completely absorbed in what I was experiencing. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I was continually distracted by extraneous impressions or events.*
  • Memory
    • 10. I cannot remember what I experienced. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I can remember just about everything that I experienced.
    • 22. I can recall nothing that happened to me. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I can recall everything that happened to me.
    • 38. My memory of the events I experienced is extremely clear and vivid. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 My memory of the events I experienced is extremely blurred and hazy.*
  • Arousal
    • 19. The muscles of my body felt very tense and tight. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 The muscles of my body felt very loose and relaxed.*
    • 37. I felt no feelings of tension or tightness at all. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 I felt tense and tight.

An asterisk (*) denotes items which must be reversed before intensity scores are computed.

References

  1. ↑ Prugger, J., Derdiyok, E., Dinkelacker, J., Costines, C., & Schmidt, T. T. (2022). The Altered States Database: Psychometric data from a systematic literature review. Scientific Data, 9(1), 720. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01822-4
  2. ↑ https://www.quantifyingconsciousness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PCI-Manual.2019.with-EXCEL-program.051919d.pdf
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