Quantitative somatic phenomenology: Toward an epistemology of subjective experience

Abstract

Quantitative somatic phenomenology, a technique based in part on little-articulated practices in the field of somatics, is offered as an embodied phenomenological method of defining, operationalizing and controlling for state of consciousness in terms of the size, shape, location and dynamic movement of specific qualitative phenomena relative to the body. This approach offers a possible beginning point for the needed task of controlling for state of consciousness as a variable in each and every method of inquiry, including standard science. It also may assist methods such as neurophenomenology by offering the prospect of a more accurate and pragmatic standardized praxis. Potential approaches to scientific validation are explored.