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

A 12-factor model describes the fine-grained phenomenal character of 'pure awareness' experiences reported by meditators. An online survey in five languages collected 1403 usable responses from a median-age 52-year-old sample evenly split by gender, mostly regular meditators (77.3%) free of diagnosed mental disorders (92.4%) and not using psychoactive substances regularly (84.0%). Vipassana (43.9%) and Zen (34.9%) were the most practiced techniques. Factor analysis of 92 items yielded 12 factors—including 'Time, Effort and Desire,' 'Peace, Bliss and Silence,' 'Wakeful Presence,' 'Luminosity,' 'Emptiness and Non-egoic Self-awareness,' and 'Witness Consciousness'—explaining 44% of variance. The model fits data moderately well and aligns with prior work on minimal phenomenal experience.

Study at a glance

Abstract

To develop a fine-grained phenomenological analysis of "pure awareness" experiences in meditators. 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. 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. 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.