Documenting and defining emergent phenomenology: theoretical foundations for an extensive research strategy

Meditation, psychedelics, and similar practices that alter conscious experience are increasingly used in clinical and non-clinical settings, yet the full range of associated phenomena remains poorly described and understood. There is an ethical mandate to research this domain more extensively, starting with comprehensive documentation. A review of 50 recent clinical or scientific publications, synthesizing reports from over 30,000 individual subjects, produced a large inventory of experiences, effects, after-effects, and impacts across a broad variety of psychoactive compounds, meditative practices, and other modalities. The authors critically discuss existing terminology and argue that specialized vocabularies are needed to ground this nascent research field, proposing the notion of 'emergence' and 'emergent phenomenology' as foundational concepts.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Meditation, psychedelics, and other similar practices or induction methods that can modulate conscious experience, are becoming increasingly popular in clinical and non-clinical settings. The phenomenology associated with such practices or modalities is vast. Many similar effects and experiences are also reported to occur spontaneously. We argue that this experiential range is still not fully described or understood in the contemporary literature, and that there is an ethical mandate to research it more extensively, starting with comprehensive documentation and definition. We review 50 recent clinical or scientific publications to assess the range of phenomena, experiences, effects, after-effects, and impacts associated with a broad variety of psychoactive compounds, meditative practices, and other modalities or events. This results in a large inventory synthesizing the reports of over 30,000 individual subjects. We then critically discuss various terms and concepts that have been used in recent literature to designate all or parts of the range this inventory covers. We make the case that specialized terminologies are needed to ground the nascent research field that is forming around this experiential domain. As a step in this direction, we propose the notion of "emergence" and some of its derivatives, such as "emergent phenomenology," as possibly foundational candidates.