The Multidimensional Approach to Presence (MAP): Integrating Micro-Phenomenology, Artistic and Somatic Practices in a Contemplative Framework for the Study of Experience

A contemplative research framework called the Multidimensional Approach to Presence (MAP) is proposed for scientifically studying lived experience. Building on micro-phenomenology, the framework examines how cultivating presence—inhabiting one's experience as it unfolds—can be integrated into experiential inquiry. Analyzing three moments of generating experiential knowledge (contact with experience, description, and analysis), the article argues from an enactive perspective that experience is dynamic, self-referential, and transformative. MAP places presence at the core of investigation, using tools like micro-phenomenological interviewing, somatic practices, and artistic expression methodologically, while epistemologically contending that investigating experience requires transforming modes of knowing through self-transformation. The article highlights the need to broaden cognitive science's methodological and epistemological repertoire for a science of experience.

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Abstract

This article proposes a contemplative research framework—the Multidimensional Approach to Presence (MAP)—for the scientific study of lived experience. Building on micro-phenomenological research, the proposal examines how cultivating presence –inhabiting one’s lived experience as it unfolds– can be integrated methodologically and epistemologically into experiential inquiry. Drawing on studies of pain and bodily awareness, it analyzes three moments in the generation of experiential knowledge: contact with experience, the description of experience, and the analysis of descriptions. From an enactive perspective that conceives experience as dynamic, self-referential, and transformative, the discussion addresses the strengths and limitations of the method, particularly regarding evocation and memory, dimensions of lived experience that exceed declarative language, and the intersubjective character of knowledge generation. MAP places the cultivation of presence at the core of the investigative process and operates on two levels: methodologically, by integrating tools that foster familiarity with bodily experience—such as micro-phenomenological interviewing, somatic practices, and artistic expression—and epistemologically, by contending that investigating experience requires transforming modes of knowing and thereby opening a process of self-transformation. In this way, the article highlights the need to broaden the methodological and epistemological repertoire of cognitive science, paving the way for a science of experience consistent with the very nature of what it seeks to investigate.