The Minimal Phenomenal Experience questionnaire (MPE-92M): Towards a phenomenological profile of “pure awareness” experiences in meditators

Abstract

Objective To develop a fine-grained phenomenological analysis of “pure awareness” experiences in meditators. Methods An online survey in five language versions (German, English, French, Spanish, Italian) collected data from January to March 2020. A total of 92 questionnaire items on a visual analogue scale were submitted to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Results Out of 3627 submitted responses, 1403 were usable. Participants had a median age of 52 years (range: 17–88) and were evenly split between men and women (48.5% vs 50.0%). The majority of meditators practiced regularly (77.3%), were free of diagnosed mental disorders (92.4%) and did not regularly use any psychoactive substances (84.0%). Vipassana (43.9%) followed by Zen (34.9%) were the most frequently practiced meditation techniques. German (63.4%) and English (31.4%) were by far the most frequent questionnaire languages. A solution with 12 factors explaining 44% of the total variance was deemed optimal under joint conceptual and statistical considerations. The factors were named “Time, Effort and Desire,” “Peace, Bliss and Silence,” “Self-Knowledge, Autonomous Cognizance and Insight,” “Wakeful Presence,” “Pure Awareness in Dream and Sleep,” “Luminosity,” “Thoughts and Feelings,” “Emptiness and Non-egoic Self-awareness,” “Sensory Perception in Body and Space,” “Touching World and Self,” “Mental Agency,” and “Witness Consciousness.” This factor structure fit the data moderately well. Conclusions We have previously posited a phenomenological prototype for the experience of “pure awareness” as it occurs in the context of meditation practice. Here we offer a tentative 12-factor model to describe its phenomenal character in a fine-grained way. The current findings are in line with an earlier study extracting semantic constraints for a working definition of minimal phenomenal experience.

Restructuring insight: An integrative review of insight in problem-solving, meditation, psychotherapy, delusions and psychedelics

“…In the context of mindfulness-based therapies, the (MPE-92M) also includes questions about insight (Gamma & Metzinger, 2021). Alternatively, specific tasks from the problem-solving literature have been used to investigate the effect of meditative practice on insight problem-solving (Ostafin & Kassman, 2012;Ren et al, 2011;Ding et al, 2015;Colzato et al, 2017).…”

“…Research into meditative practices seems to indicate that states with less thought activity could to be especially fruitful for attaining insights (Eberth et al, 2019;Gamma & Metzinger, 2021;Full et al, 2013;Vago & Zeidan, 2016, but see Tan et al, 2015Zedelius & Schooler, 2015). These states of calmness and clarity are characterized by a reduction or lack of discriminating conceptual thinking and an improved perception of mental phenomena.…”

“…Initially, as the intensity of meditation practice increases, hallucinations and unusual sensory and emotional experiences are also quite often encountered, especially during retreats or longer meditations (Grabovac, 2015;Lindahl et al, 2017). With further progress the amount and intensity of such experiences decrease (Gamma & Metzinger, 2021;Yates et al, 2015;Wielgosz et al, 2019;Laukkonen & Slagter, 2021). Emotional experiences can vary from extremely positive and pleasant to negative and painful (Lindahl & Britton, 2019;Britton et al, 2021;Lindahl et al, 2017).…”

Evidence Synthesis Indicates Contentless Experiences in Meditation are Neither Truly Contentless Nor Identical

“…Academics have argued that, since the contents of consciousness are absent, the experience constitutes pure consciousness, or consciousness itself, and that it should therefore be prioritized as a research target in the field of consciousness studies (Stace 1960(Stace /1961Forman 1990b;Shear 1990b; but see, e.g., Dainton 2000Dainton , 2002Lancaster 2004, Studstill 2005Gellman 2018). Recent work at the intersection of cognitive science and philosophy has given it that focus (Josipovic and Miskovic 2020;Millière et al 2018;Metzinger 2020a;Millière 2020;Costines et al 2021;Gamma and Metzinger 2021). In that research, contentless experience is referred to using terms such as pure consciousness, consciousness as such, and minimal phenomenal experience.…”

The Path to Contentless Experience in Meditation: An Evidence Synthesis Based on Expert Texts

“…TM is said to aim for an experience that is "contentless", in that mental content such as thoughts, sense-perceptions, body-perceptions, and mental images is absent (Shear 2006c;Pearson 2013). Contentless experience has also been referred to as pure consciousness, consciousness as such, and minimal phenomenal experience, and it is an important subject for cognitive science and philosophy (Millière et al 2018;Josipovic and Miskovic 2020;Metzinger 2020;Millière 2020;Costines et al 2021;Gamma and Metzinger 2021). One of the major forms of mindfulness practice known as shamatha is also said to aim for contentless experience (Gimello 1978;Jones 1993;Wallace 2007b;Markovic and Thompson 2016).…”