A Feature-Based Approach to the Comparative Study of “Nonordinary” Experiences

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, researchers compared case studies of patients diagnosed with hysteria and mediums who claimed to channel spirits. In doing so, researchers recognized the phenomenological overlap between the experiences reported by their subjects: alterations in the sense of self. Yet, notwithstanding its early promise, this comparative approach to “nonordinary experiences” (NOEs) was never fully realized: disciplinary siloing, categorical distinctions such as between “religious” and “psychopathological” experiences, and the challenges involved in comparing culture-laden first-person accounts all limited such efforts. Here, we argue for a renewed feature-based approach for mapping the universality and diversity of NOEs across cultures and investigating the ways in which culture and experiences interact. To do so, we argue that researchers must solve two problems: (1) how to query experiences without eliminating the culture, and (2) how to query experiences when the ordinary-nonordinary distinction itself may be culture-dependent. We introduce a survey —the Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE)—that addresses these problems by separating the phenomenological features of a wide-range of experiences from the claims made about them, and then querying both the features and claims. We demonstrate how this approach enables us to investigate a few ways in which culture shapes experiences and make inferences regarding the reasons why experiences stand out for people. We conclude by highlighting future directions for the comparative study of NOEs across cultures.