Abstract
Persistent forms of nondual awareness, enlightenment, mystical experience, and so forth (Persistent Non-Symbolic Experience) have been reported since antiquity. Though sporadic research has been performed on these experiences, the scientific literature has yet to report a large-scale cognitive psychology study of this population. Method: Assessment of the subjective experience of 319 adult participants reporting persistent non-symbolic experience was undertaken using 6-12 hour semi-structured interviews and evaluated using grounded theory and thematic analysis. Results: Five core, consistent categories of change were uncovered: sense-of-self, cognition, affect, perception, and memory. Participants’ reports formed phenomenological groups in which the types of change in each of these categories were consistent. Multiple groupings were uncovered that formed a range of composite experiences. The variety of these experiences and their underlying categories may inform the debate between constructivist, common core, and participatory theorists.
Recommended Citation
Martin, Jeffery A.
(2020)
"Clusters of Individuals Experiences form a Continuum of Persistent Non-Symbolic Experiences in Adults,"
CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century: Vol. 8:
Iss.
8, Article 1.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol8/iss8/1
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