The Multidimensional Framework
A seemingly outstanding barrier to our field is that various disciplines with different themes of interest, goals, histories, and socioeconomic incentives are insufficiently connected.
These and other significant disconnections that silo knowledge within individual academic and professional disciplines and seemingly prevent new innovations are the core problems to be addressed here.
Can skilful dialog between the sometimes seemingly orthogonal perspectives of the academic disciplines (the humanities and sciences), modern medical disciplines, and spiritual, mystical or religious traditions, lead to a fruitful, integrative synergy to advance our understanding of emergent experiences and development?
We think that it can, and that significantly reduced barriers to knowledge sharing through a multidisciplinary approach can yield valuable new knowledge and integrate old yet useful knowledge into contemporary emergent modalities, science, and global clinical practice.
Attempting a synthesis of the perspectives and epistemologies of phenomenology, medicine, and emergent traditions would likely solve numerous problems currently encountered in this nascent yet still siloed and scattered research domain.
It is to that end that we developed the present framework, hoping it will help integrate thematic and disciplinary domains and stimulate bridges and innovations, would be helpful to resolve this issue and inform future research work.
In many ways the development of this framework started from similar observations as made by Locke and Kelly in their Preliminary model for the cross-traditional analysis of ASCs (1985) that the complexity of studying "altered states" cross-culturally and across-modalities calls for "interdisciplinary and multidimensional explanation drawing upon emerging lines of evidence from separate disciplinary studies" (p.5). We wish to thank these authors for their stimulating work which in large part inspired the present initiative.
Expanding on the work done in Sandilands and Ingram (2024), which synthesized various theoretical and empirical models of human subjectivity and function from theoretical phenomenology, qualitative and biomedical research, this scaffolding was enriched by additional categories uncovered through the thematic re-analysis of the qualitative content found in 50 recent peer-reviewed articles reporting on various emergent phenomena, experiences and effects.
For the present framework we first identified, reviewed, and synthesized existing frameworks with a similarly global, integrative scope and outcomes-based/therapeutic orientation (listed at the bottom of this page). We then complemented these findings with relevant themes and domains borrowed from the literature of various fields of research dealing with various aspects of the various levels identified in the first phase. Much of this relevant literature was found in the Emergence Research Database.
The framework has three major levels with further subdivisions, focusing on the individual first, then on the different levels of social and cultural structures, and finally the ecological level.
Individual Level
Subjectivity
This covers all relevant domains of experiencing, which constitute the manifest world or the field of consciousness for a given individual from their own perceptual perspective. As is the case overall with this framework, not all domains will be of equal relevance. Note that from a phenomenological perspective, this is the "first-person view", while from a medical perspective, this corresponds to symptoms.
Physiology and biological systems
Third-person phenomenology, and what, to a medical doctor, would be the domain of "signs".
A lot of the elements of in the previous section also manifest or have correlates on this level, but not all of them — for instance the content of mental images is hard to observe apart from a 1st person perspective.
Clearly, not all levels will be of equal relevance for the study of the determinants involved in emergent processes and outcomes. How important are the lower levels of organization like quarks, atoms, to consider, for our present focus, is also indeterminate, but likely not very ...
In the case of the physiology of emergence and emergent phenomena, it seems that e.g. the skeleton or the genome are unlikely to be changed that much (yoga could break a bone, teeth whitened after meditation retreats…), while changes in more plastic components like the brain-immune-gut-system, heart-brain-axis, etc., could well be very significant mediators/correlates on the longer term.
Punctual and longitudinal exploration of the collective and/or individual role, impact, and modifications in the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal (e.g. gut microbiome), endocrine, inflammatory, and nervous systems, in transient EPEEs, including challenging ones, but also on the long-term of consistent cultivation over years in all possible doses, could yield important insights and open possible avenues for prevention and management and perhaps optimisation of cultivation, by contrast with studies focused solely on e.g. neurological aspects.
Behavior and Action
There is a spectrum of scales in time and space, from short "internal" micro-gestures[1] (e.g. meditative activities[2], reactivity patterns[3]) to long-term "external" habits like lifestyle choices.
Ethics (behavior)
Habits and Lifestyle (Lifestyle, Sleep, Perceptive "habitus", Physical activity )
Gross and fine motor patterns
Expression/Communication style
Non-verbal (Gestures, tone of voice, demeanor, etc.)
Movements/Gestures
Expression and meaning-making largely rely on gestures, sometimes considered as the source of thought and meaning (Petitmengin, 2006, 2007, 2017). Micro-phenomenology has shown that unique expressive information can be deduced from gesture. Observation and imitation are spontaneous and traditional forms of learning, as well-documented by anthropology (Jousse, 2008). This is important in our present context, as many of the R/S/Mystical/Psychedelic (emergent) traditions are oral and gestural, or include major such components, which are non-verbal and/or non-textual, and are rooted in different epistemologies and modes of learning (Battiste and Henderson, 2021). First nations pedagogy in general for instance largely relies on experiential learning. The gestural can also be an interesting, likely understudied, focus of research, or aspect of research designs.
Verbal
Capacity to elicit reactions from social environment
Charm
Agreeableness
Benevolence
Attractiveness
Cuteness, etc.
Skills and Challenges Physical defects Experience Knowledge
Motricity Balance Bodily control Coordination Reflexes
- Some have observed that baseline improvement of reflexes (speed/precision) is one of the possible outcomes of long-term meditative cultivation.
- Meditative expertise (individuals having gone through intensive meditation practice) seems associated to attenuated sensory habituation[4]
Sociocultural characteristics of the individual
Occupation Education level Wealth
Society and Culture
Environment
Main sources
Reference | Name of model | Discipline/Field |
1. Bickley, L. S., Szilagyi, P. G., & Hoffman, R. M. (2017). Bates’ guide to physical examination and history taking (Twelfth edition). Wolters Kluwer. | Physiological Systems | Medicine |
2. 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 | Bioecological Model of Human Development | Developmental Psychology |
3. Cuthbert, B. N., & Insel, T. R. (2013). Toward the future of psychiatric diagnosis: the seven pillars of RDoC. BMC Medicine, 11(1), 126. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-11-126 | Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) | Psychiatry/Medicine |
4. 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 | Multilevel Interdisciplinary Paradigm (MIP) | Psychology of religion |
5. Engel, G. L. (1978). The Biopsychosocial Model and The Education Of Health Professionals. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 310(1), 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1978.tb22070.x | Biopsychosocial Model | Theory of health |
6. Lehman, B. J., David, D. M., & Gruber, J. A. (2017). Rethinking the biopsychosocial model of health: Understanding health as a dynamic system. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(8), e12328. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12328 | Biopsychosocial Model (revised) | Theory of health |
7. 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 | Preliminary Model for the Cross-Cultural Analysis of Altered States of Consciousness | Cross-cultural Anthropology |
8. Mahoney, A., & Shafranske, E. P. (2013). Envisioning an integrative paradigm for the psychology of religion and spirituality. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality (Vol 1): Context, theory, and research. (pp. 3–19). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14045-001 | Integrative Paradigm for the Psychology of R/S | Psychology of R/S |
9. Riggs, D. W., Yeager, R. A., & Bhatnagar, A. (2018). Defining the Human Envirome: An Omics Approach for Assessing the Environmental Risk of Cardiovascular Disease. Circulation Research, 122(9), 1259–1275. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.117.311230 | Human Envirome | Health and the Environment |
10. Schoenberg, P. L. A., & Gonzalez, K. M. (2022). Systematic Review of High-Dimensional Omics in Mind-Body Medicine. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 07(04), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2204052 | High-Dimensional Omics in Mind-Body Medicine | Mechanistic accounts of mind-body medicine based on inflammatory markers |
11. Taves, A. (2020). Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(3), 669–690. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619895047 | Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences | Psychology and Nonordinary Experiences |
12. 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 | Phenomenological and Morphodynamic Model of the Consciousness Field | Phenomenology and medicine |
13. Wright, M. J., Sanguinetti, J. L., Young, S., & Sacchet, M. D. (2023). Uniting Contemplative Theory and Scientific Investigation: Toward a Comprehensive Model of the Mind. Mindfulness. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02101-y | THIN Model | Contemplative science |
14. General Inventory of Emergent Phenomena in Sandilands, O., & Ingram, D. M. (2024). Documenting and defining emergent phenomenology: theoretical foundations for an extensive research strategy. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1340335. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1340335 | Domains of Experience and Function | Multidisciplinary and varied qualitative and theoretical sources |
~~~Olivier Sandilands
Other references
- ↑ Petitmengin, C. (2007). Towards the Source of Thoughts. The Gestural and Transmodal Dimension of Lived Experience. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 14(3), 54–82. https://clairepetitmengin.fr/AArticles%20versions%20finales/JCS%20-%20Source.pdf
- ↑ 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
- ↑ McLeod, K. (2001). Wake up to your life: discovering the Buddhist path of attention (1st ed). San Francisco: HarperSanFranciso.
- ↑ Antonova, E., Chadwick, P., & Kumari, V. (2015). More Meditation, Less Habituation? The Effect of Mindfulness Practice on the Acoustic Startle Reflex. PLOS ONE, 10(5), e0123512. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123512