Synthesis:Psychometric and clinical scales

Scales and questionnaires relevant for emergence research (e.g. possibly serving as outcome measures), assessment for personalizing practice or therapeutic purposes are numerous. This page aims to list some of these and provide their items and instructions of use when available.

While structured interviews (i.e. questionnaires and scales) may be useful to researcher and some practitioners, and are often needed in the context of costly trials, as in-depth interviews are somewhat costly, though less so than things like cerebral imaging, there are often limitations to what they can do in terms of nuance, adequacy, phenomenological depth and precision, a fact which can be obscured by the mathematical rigor of statistical methods used to validate them. We touch on some of these limitations in the first section below.

A word of caution

Meditative and phenomenological expertise

The question of the phenomenological expertise of the subjects and/or researchers — that is to say, the expertise in verbally describing experiences at the pre-reflexive level — is rarely addressed in existing outcomes research, although it is a central topic in phenomenological research. Thus, it is difficult to know if different people mean the same thing by e.g. "altered sense of identity" or "body parts disappearing" when they are responding "yes" to such a question, and what their degree of phenomenological expertise is.

It is also common for research involving scales graded on a 7-point likert scale, to be considered as quantitative research, because statistical analyses are then conducted on the scores obtained. However, one should not forget that the original "data" is in fact qualitative, meaning they are subjective reports, and often there is no discernable method to make sure that the person's assessments are accurate. Generally speaking, there is thus a risk for outcomes research using scales or qualitative data with no methods to bypass the subject's or the interviewer's pre-existing beliefs, biases, judgments, and theories about their own experience, to (1) obtain biased descriptions (e.g. a person describes their experience using words that do not reflect what they actually lived, (2) analyze qualitative descriptions in a misleading way by superimposing one's own theories, (3) overlook aspects (sometimes many, and sometimes important) of the information contained in the description, (4) induce content.

In the case of meditation research, the question of the meditative expertise of subjects is rarely addressed, but it plays a crucial role. It takes training to become adept at adequately describing experiences without filtering them through pre-interpretations, theories, vernacular language, or beliefs.

Quality of research

It follows that clinical or qualitative research on Emergent Phenomena is often of relatively low quality, with many studies using structured questionnaire-type approaches, which as we saw are often quite "inductive" of content, imprecise, and general. Further, structured interviews are often a reflection of the researcher's own phenomenological expectations and interpretations and wording which may not always adequately reflect a person's actual unique experience. Though they allow "quantitative" analysis (statistical methods can be used on questionnaire responses), they rarely provide rich phenomenological descriptions.

Many studies do not at all address the question of distinguishing between "experience" and "interpretation" — which a crucial distinction in phenomenological research that was stressed even by early attempts like in Stace's work on mystical experiences. They rarely include procedures to attempt to bypass this (i.e., to induce a state of épochè or suspension of preconceptions and interpretations in their subjects), and much less so for the researchers themselves. This stands in stark contrast with methods such as the micro-phenomenological interview, which should be considered of higher phenomenological quality, as they (1) avoid suggesting content; (2) induce a state of épochè in both the interviewer and interviewee; (3) explore the fine, pre-reflexive details of specific experiences in great depth, and (4) only later, after having explored specific experiences with several interviewees, proceed  at attempting to identify structural invariants in individual descriptions and then general structures. Questionnaire items based on such in-depth phenomenological descriptions could be developed and would probably be of much higher quality.

Randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) in particular are often not the best in terms of phenomenology, their analysis is often stereotypical and lacks subtlety, as they typically employ psychometric scales as outcome measures. In such cases, we learn little about the actual phenomenology of the experiences of the study participants, since a scale is a predetermined binary yes/no phenomenological matrix. This makes some sense as RCTs are about testing causal hypotheses and thus need simple categories that can be quantified and subjected to various statistical methods. However, it seems to us that many of the psychometric instruments used in such research lack phenomenological subtlety and depth. Reviewing existing scales and showing the limitations that affect most of them would be an interesting project to take on, especially because clinical trials for novel agents are currently being conducted mostly using such questionnaires.

That being said, here are some instruments, divided into those which focus on specific "states" or experience types, those which focus on psychological "traits" or personal characteristics, and then more general questionnaires.

State scales

5 Dimensions Altered State of Consciousness Questionnaire

11 Dimensions Altered State of Consciousness Questionnaires

Experience of unity (5 items)

Spiritual experience (3 items)

Blissful state (3 items)

Insightfulness (3 items)Disembodiment (3 items)

Impaired control and cognition (7 items)

Anxiety (6 items)

Complex imagery (3 items)

Elementary imagery (3 items)

Audio-visual synaesthesia (3 items)

Changed meaning of percepts (3 items)

Abnormal Mental State Questionnaire

Oceanic Boundlesness (OBN)

Dread of Ego Dissolution (DED)/Anxious Ego Dissolution (AED)

Visual restructuralization (VRS)

Challenging Experiences Questionnaire

Fear

______ 4. I had the feeling something horrible would happen

______ 7. Experience of fear

______ 14. Anxiousness

______ 21. Panic

______ 26. I felt frightened

Grief

______ 2. Sadness

______ 6. Feelings of grief

______ 9. I felt like crying

______ 11. Feelings of despair

______ 23. Despair

Physical Distress

______ 3. Feeling my heart beating

______ 5. Feeling my body shake/tremble

______ 15. I felt shaky inside

______ 17. I felt my heart beating irregularly or skipping beats

______ 18. Pressure or weight in my chest or abdomen

______ 25. Emotional and/or physical suffering

Insanity

______ 8. Fear that I might lose my mind or go insane

______ 13. I was afraid that the state I was in would last forever

______ 19. I experienced a decreased sense of sanity

Isolation

___ 1. Isolation and loneliness

______ 10. Feeling of isolation from people and things

______ 24. I felt isolated from everything and everyone

Death

______ 16. I had the profound experience of my own death

______ 20. I felt as if I was dead or dying

Paranoia

______ 12. I had the feeling that people were plotting against me

______ 22. Experience of antagonism toward people around meClinician Administered Dissociative Symptoms Scale

Control Over Perceptual Experiences Scale

Daily Spiritual Experience Scale

Dissociative Experiences Scale & Dissociative Experiences Taxon

Ego-dissolution Inventory

1. I experienced a dissolution of my “self” or ego

2. I felt at one with the universe

3. I felt a sense of union with others

4. I experienced a decrease in my sense of self-importance

5. I experienced a disintegration of my “self” or ego

6. I felt far less absorbed by my own issues and concerns

7. I lost all sense of ego

8. All notion of self and identity dissolved away

Ego-Inflation Inventory

I felt especially assertive

I felt more important or special than others

My ego felt inflated

I felt especially sure-of-myself

I felt especially keen and competitve

I felt like my viewpoint was worth more than other peoples'

I felt especially self-confident

I felt especially self-assured

Ego Dissolution Scale

Ego-Loss

Sense of Self Moves

Out of Body Feelings

Feeling Nonexistent

Ego Dissolves

Self Disintegrates

No "Me" or "I"

Unity

Feelings of Merger

One with Everything

One with Universe

Union with Others

God Encounter Questionnaire

Hallucinogen Rating Scale

Somaesthesia

A rush

Change in salivation

Body feels different

Change in sense of body weight

Feel as if moving falling flying through space

Change in body temperature Electric /tingling feeling

Pressure or weight in chest or abdomen

Shaky feelings inside

Feel body shake or tremble

Physically restless

Sexual feelings

Feel removed detached separated from body

Affect

Anxious

Frightened

Feel like laughing

Excited

Awe

Amazement

Safe

Feel presence of a numinous force, higher power, God.

Euphoria

Change in feelings of closeness to people in room.

Change in "amount" of emotions.

Emotions seem different than usual

Feel of oneness with universe

Feel isolated from people and things

Feel reborn

Like the experience

How soon would you like to repeat the experience

Desire for the experience regularly

Perception

Flushed

Change in skin sensitivity

A sound or sounds accompanying the experience

Sounds in room sound different

Change in distinctiveness of sounds

Change in visual distinctiveness of objects in room

Visual effects

Room looks different

Change in brightness of objects in room

Room overlaid with visual patterns

Eyes open visual field vibrating or jiggling

Visual images

Kaleidoscopic nature of visual images

Difference in brightness of visions compared to usual daylight vision

Dimensionality of images

Movement within images

White light

CognitionSense of speed

Contradictory feelings at the same time

Sence of chaos

Change in strength of sense of self

New thoughts or insights

Change in rate of thinking

Change in quality of thinking

Difference in feeling of reality of experiences compared to everyday

experience

Dreamlike nature of the experiences

Insights into personal or occupational concerns

Change in rate of time passing

Change in sense of sanity

Volition

Urge to close eyes

Change in effort of breathing

Able to follow the sequence of events

Able to “let go”

Able to focus attention

In control

Able to move around if asked to

Able to remind yourself of being in a clinical room, being administered a drug,

the temporary nature of the experience.

Intensity

Amount of time between when the drug was administered and feeling an

effect

Waxing and waning of the experience

Intensity

High

Hood Mysticism Scale

Extrovertive (2 items)

Inner Subjectivity

Unity

Introvertive (3 items)

Timelessness/Spacelessness

Ego loss

Ineffability

Interpretation (3 items)

Positive affect

Sacredness

Noetic quality

Inclusion of Other in The Self 1 Scale

Inventory of Meditative Experiences

Inventory of Non-ordinary Experiences

Kundalini Awakening Scale

Changes (15 items)

Involuntary positionings (3 items)Physical symptoms (20 items)

Negative experiences (12 items)

Positive experiences (9 items)

Meditation Depth Questionnaire

Meditation Experiences Interview

Metacognitive Processes of Decentering Scale — State

Multidimensional Assessment for Interoceptive Awareness

Mystical Experience Questionnaire

States of Consciousness Questionnaire

1. Internal Unity (6 items)

26. Loss of your usual identity.

35. Freedom from the limitations of your personal self and feeling a unity or

bond with what was felt to be greater than your personal self.

41. Experience of pure Being and pure awareness (beyond the world of sense

impressions).

54. Experience of oneness in relation to an “inner world” within.

77. Experience of the fusion of your personal self into a larger whole.

83. Experience of unity with ultimate reality.

2. External Unity (6 items)

14. Experience of oneness or unity with objects and/or persons perceived in

your surroundings

27. With eyes open, seeing something in your surroundings more and more

intensely and then feeling as though you and it become one.

47. Experience of the insight that “all is One”

51. Loss of feelings of difference between yourself and objects or persons in your surroundings.

62. Intuitive insight into the inner nature of objects and/or persons in your surroundings.

74. Awareness of the life or living presence in all things.

3. Transcendence of Time and Space (8 items)

2. Loss of your usual sense of time.

12. Feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity.

15. Loss of your usual sense of space.

29. Loss of usual awareness of where you were.

34. Sense of being “outside of” time, beyond past and future.

42. Feeling that you have been “outside of” history in a realm where time

does not exist. 48. Being in a realm with no space boundaries.

48. Being in a realm with no space boundaries.

65. Experience of timelessness.

4. Ineffability and Paradoxicality (5 items)

6. Sense that the experience cannot be described adequately in words.

19. Experience of a paradoxical awareness that two apparently opposite

principles or situations are both true.

23. Feeling that you could not do justice to your experience by describing it in

words. 59. Sense that in order to describe parts of your experience you would have

to use statements that appear to be illogical, involving contradictions and

paradoxes.

86. Feeling that it would be difficult to communicate your own experience to others who have not had similar experiences.

5. Sense of Sacredness (7 items)

5. Experience of amazement.

8. Sense of the limitations and smallness of your everyday personality in contrast to the Infinite.

31. Sense of profound humility before the majesty of what was felt to be sacred or holy.

36. Sense of being at a spiritual height.

55. Sense of reverence.

73. Feeling that you experienced something profoundly sacred and holy.

80. Sense of awe or awesomeness.

6. Noetic Quality (4 items)

3. Feeling that the consciousness experienced during part of the session was more real than your normal awareness of everyday reality.

9. Gain of insightful knowledge experienced at an intuitive level.

22. Certainty of encounter with ultimate reality (in the sense of being able to “know” and “see” what is really real ) at some time during your session.

69. You are convinced now, as you look back on your experience, that in it you encountered ultimate reality (i.e. that you “knew” and “saw” what was really real).

7. Deeply-Felt Positive Mood (7 items)

10. Experience of overflowing energy.

18. Feelings of tenderness and gentleness.

30. Feelings of peace and tranquility.

43. Experience of ecstasy.

50. Feelings of exaltation.

60. Feelings of universal or infinite love.

87. Feelings of joy.

Nondual Awareness Dimensional Assessment Scale, ST factor

Nondual Embodiment Thematic Inventory

1. An inner contentment that is not contingent or dependent upon circumstances, objects, or the actions of other people.

2. Accepting (not struggling with) whatever experience I may be having.

3. An interest in clearly seeing the reality or truth about myself, the world, and others, rather than in feeling a particular way.

4. A sense that I am protecting or defending a self-image or concept I hold about myself.

5. Deep love and appreciation for everyone and everything I encounter in life.

6. Understanding that there is ultimately no separation between what I call my “self” and the whole of existence.7. Feeling deeply at ease, wherever I am or whatever situation or circumstance I may find myself in.

8. A sense that my actions in life are motivated by fear or mistrust.

9. Conscious awareness of my non-separation from (essential oneness with) a transcendent reality, source, higher power, spirit, god, etc.

10. Not being personally invested in or attached to my own ideas and concepts.

11. An unwavering awareness of a stillness/quietness, even in the midst of movement and noise.

12. Acting without assuming a role or identity based on my own or others’ expectations.

13. A sense of immense freedom and possibility in my moment-to- moment experience.

14. A desire to be understood by others.

15. Concern or discomfort about either the past or the future.

16. A sense of fear or anxiety that inhibits my actions.

17. A feeling of profound aliveness and vitality.

18. Acting without a desire to change anybody or anything.

19. Feelings of gratitude and/or open curiosity about all experiences.

20. A sense of the flawlessness and beauty of everything and everyone, just as they are.

Perceived Body Boundaries 1 Scale

Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory

Altered state of awareness

Altered experience

Altered body image

Altered time sense

Altered perception

Altered meaning

Volitional control

Self-awareness

Rationality

Internal dialogue

Positive affect

Joy

Sexual excitement

Love

Negative affect

Anger

Sadness

Fear

Imagery

Amount

Vividness

Attention

Direction Absorption

Memory

Arousal

Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale

Psychotomimetic States Inventory

Delusory Thinking

Perceptual Distortions

Cognitive Disorganization

Anhedonia

Mania

Paranoia

Spatial Frame of Reference Continuum

Spiritual Emergency Scale

(a) Dark Night of the Soul (7 items)

(b) Awakening of Kundalini (11 items)

(c) Shamanic Crisis (10 items)

(d) Episodes of Unitive Consciousness (Peak Experiences: 7 items)

(e) Psychic Opening (e.g., awakening of extrasensory perception: 13 items)

(f) ‘‘Past-Life’’ Experience (5 items)

(g) Near-Death Experience (8 items)

(h) so-called ‘‘Possession’’ States (8 items)

(i) Activation of the Central Archetype (9 items)

(j) Experiences of Close Encounters with UFOs (6 items)

Trait scales

Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility Form A

Inventory of Secular/Spiritual Wakefulness

Iowa Interview for Partial Seizure-like Symptoms

Metacognitive Processes of Decentering Scale — Trait

Metapersonal Self Scale

Modified Tellegen Absorption Scale

• Synesthesia
• ASC
• Aesthetic Involvement
• Imaginative Involvement
• ESP

Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale — Brief

Questionnaire for the Evaluation of the Fluidity of Consciousness

The Transliminality Scale Revised

General and other scales

Appraisals of Anomalous Experiences Interview

Attitudes Related to Spirituality Scale

Bidirectional Spirituality Scale

Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales

FAD-Plus

Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual Well-Being

Metaphysical Beliefs Questionnaire

• There exists another separate realm or dimension beyond this physical world that can be experienced or visited. (Ontological transcendentalism)
• Visiting such immersive “realms” or “worlds” can sometimes depend on a supernatural / magical transition process or event. (Supernatural transcendentalism)
• There are two separate realms of existence, the physical (body, brain and
• external world) and the mind, the latter being non-physical/non-material. (Dualism)
• There is just one primary reality: the mind and/or consciousness and all material
• things derive from it. (Idealism)
• There is just one primary reality: the physical; the mind (and/or consciousness) is
• just physical/functional properties of the brain and has an entirely material explanation. (Materialism)
• There are other realms of existence which are more important than everyday reality. (Primacy of other realms)
• The universe obeys a unifying principle which is beyond any possible material or scientific explanation. (Non-naturalism)
• The universe obeys a unifying principle which is (in theory) completely addressed by a material or scientific explanation. (Naturalism)
• The physical world is an illusion generated by consciousness or the mind (Solipsism/Idealism)
• Mind, consciousness, or soul is a fundamental quality of all things in the
• universe, either animate or inanimate. (Panpsychism)
• My conscious experience is entirely a construction of reality performed by my brain. (Internalism about consciousness)
• My ‘self ’ is entirely a construction of my brain. (Virtual self theory)
• My experience and my ‘self ’ are deeply rooted in my body and its interactions with the world and not the sole construction of my brain. (Enactivist approach to consciousness)

Psychometric Validation and Translation of Religious and Spiritual Measures

Spiritual and Religious Dimensions Scale

Spirituality Assessment Scale

Spiritual Climate Scale

Spiritual Meaning Scale

Spirituality Scale

Spiritual Supporter Scale

Spiritual Transcendence Scale

• Inner-connectedness (10 items)
• Human compassion (8 items)
• Connectedness with nature (6 items)

Spiritual Wellbeing Scale

Spiritual Wellbeing Scale Meta-Analysis