BROADCASTS.com

Link:\xa0https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/10/21/the-pnse-paper/

\xa0

I\u2019ve mentioned this a few times, but it\u2019s worth going over in detail. The full title is\xa0Clusters Of Individual Experiences Form A Continuum Of Persistent Non-Symbolic Experiences In Adults\xa0by Jeffery Martin, with \u201cpersistent non-symbolic experience\u201d (PNSE) as a scientific-sounding culturally-neutral code word for \u201cenlightenment\u201d. Martin is a\xa0Reiki practitioner\xa0associated with the\xa0\u201cCenter for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness\u201d, so we\u2019re not getting this from the most sober of skeptics, but I still find the project interesting enough to deserve a look.

Martin searched various religious and spiritual groups for people who both self-reported enlightenment and were affiliated with \u201ca community that provided validity to their claims\u201d. He says he eventually found 1200 such people who were willing to participate in the study, but that \u201cthe data reported here comes primarily from the first 50 participants who sat for in-depth interviews\u2026based on the overall research effort these 50 were felt to be a sufficient sample to represent what has been learned from the larger population\u201d. Although Martin says he tried to get as much diversity as possible, the group was mostly white male Americans.

Martin\u2019s research was mostly qualitative, based on in-depth interviews, so we\u2019re mostly going with his impressions. But his impression was that most people who self-described as enlightened had similar experiences, which could be be plotted on: