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.