Edited by: Michał Wierzchoń, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Reviewed by: Helané Wahbeh, Institute of Noetic Sciences, United States; Chris Fields, Independent Researcher, Caunes-Minervois, France; John Astin, Santa Clara University, United States
This article was submitted to Consciousness Research, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Research on meditation and mindfulness practice has flourished in recent years. While much of this research has focused on well-being outcomes associated with mindfulness practice, less research has focused on how perception of self may change as a result of mindfulness practice, or whether these changes in self-perception may be mechanisms of mindfulness in action. This is somewhat surprising given that mindfulness derives from traditions often described as guiding people to realize and experience the non-separation of self from the world or its “oneness” with the whole of reality. The current study used a collective intelligence methodology, Interactive Management (IM), to explore the nature of oneness experiences. Five IM sessions were conducted with five separate groups of experienced meditators. Participants generated, clarified, and selected oneness self-perceptions they believed most characterized their experience both during meditation and in their everyday experience in the world. Each group also developed structural models describing how highly ranked aspects of oneness self-perceptions are interrelated in a system. Consistent themes and categories of oneness experience appeared across the five IM sessions, with changes in the sense of space (unboundedness), time, identity, wholeness, and flow highlighted as most influential. Results are discussed in light of emerging theory and research on oneness self-perception and non-dual awareness.
The idea that the self is inextricably interrelated to the rest of the world or that everything is part of the same whole can be found in many of the world’s religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions (
Oneness is of interest in part because of the marked life changes that it appears to be associated with. Traditionally, oneness has been considered to be a cause of well-being (
Research on oneness dates at least from William James’ (1985/1902) classic text,
James suggested four main characteristics of mystical experiences in addition to oneness: (1) ineffability, (2) a noetic quality, (3) transiency, and (4) passivity (a sense in which mystical experiences are involuntary and uncontrollable). Since then, oneness has been considered a core characteristic of mystical or awakening experiences by other researchers. For example,
In addition to oneness being identified as a core element of mysticism and enlightenment, oneness has also been described as one of the most advanced forms of self-transcendence – that is, changes that involve fundamental transformations in the self or in how the self is perceived.
Three neuropsychological models, the Conscious State Space model (CSS;
The centrality of oneness in many experiences that involve profound changes in the perception of self and the regular consideration of oneness as an advanced form of self-transcendence suggest that developing a construct focused on measuring core features of the experience of oneness could help advance research in the area. One area of research that is central to our current work is the question as to whether oneness experiences mediate the relationship between mindfulness and well-being. However, in order to address this question empirically, a reliable and valid measure of oneness experiences is needed. A number of scholars have developed scales that include items possibly measuring oneness (e.g., see
Sample items that explicitly measure an aspect of oneness from existing scales.
Name of scale | References | Sample oneness item |
The Revised Mystical Experiences Questionnaire | Experience of oneness or unity with objects and/or persons perceived in your surroundings | |
Hood Mysticism Scale | I have never had an experience in which I felt myself to be absorbed as one with all things | |
Ego-Dissolution Inventory | I felt at one with the universe | |
Nondual Embodiment Thematic Inventory | Conscious awareness of my non-separation from (essential oneness with) a transcendent reality, source, higher power, spirit, god, etc. | |
Aspects of Self-Transcendence Scale | I sometimes feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism | |
Meditation Depth Index | I felt myself at one with everything | |
Oneness Beliefs Scale | All existence in the universe forms one great unified life system (belief) | |
Belief in Oneness Scale | Beyond surface appearances, everything is fundamentally one./At the most basic level of reality, everything is one./The separation among individual things is an illusion; in reality, everything is one (beliefs) |
Drawing upon
The current study sought to understand aspects of oneness experience and how they are interrelated using a consensus-based qualitative methodology. To do so, we used the collective intelligence (CI) methodology, Interactive Management (IM). The IM process is a system of facilitation and problem solving based on John Warfield’s science of generic design (
Participants were recruited by contacting local meditation and yoga groups and via local media seeking volunteers to join a discussion group about the experience of oneness and non-dual awareness. Male and female English speakers, older than 18 years, who had meditated at least 5 years (1825+ incidences) over their lifetime and who had experienced oneness (“a breakdown of distinction between subject and object”) were invited to participate in the study. Participants’ characteristics are shown in
Demographic characteristics, meditative experience, of 41 participants across five IM sessions.
Characteristic | % | N | Mean | |
(Mean, SD) | 45.37 | 9.79 | ||
Male | 37 | 15 | ||
Female | 63 | 26 | ||
Post leaving certificate or some undergraduate | 27 | 11 | ||
Undergraduate | 39 | 16 | ||
Postgraduate | 34 | 14 | ||
Student | 7 | 3 | ||
Employed/self-employed | 83 | 34 | ||
Other (retired, unemployed, homemaker) | 10 | 4 | ||
(Mean, SD) | 1.13 | 0.71 | ||
(Mean, SD) | 14.8 | 9.10 | ||
(Mean, SD) | 5,857 | 5,067 |
Meditation types most frequently reported by participants.
Meditation type* | No. of times meditators listed this among their four most frequent meditation types** |
Yoga | 19 |
Mindfulness | 15 |
Breathing (including yogic) | 13 |
Vipassanâ | 9 |
Sitting | 8 |
Chanting | 8 |
Walking | 7 |
Alexander technique | 4 |
Awareness of awareness | 4 |
Mantra meditation | 3 |
Relaxation | 3 |
Tai chi/qigong | 3 |
Zazen (Shikantza) | 3 |
IM is a facilitated group design process designed to enhance the collective problem-solving ability of groups (cf.
The first step involved individual idea generation. Participants were given a description of oneness/non-dual awareness based on definitions provided by
The second step involved group idea generation in the CI session, to further advance upon the categorized idea set generated by the group in advance of the session. The current application of IM employed a modified version of the
The third step involved a closed voting process in which each participant was asked to select five ideas from the idea wall they believed were the most important aspects of OSP.
The fourth step involved structuring selected ideas using ISM software.
Overall, the CI sessions each lasted approximately 3 hours. Five IM sessions were conducted. These sessions were facilitated by the lead author.
Results are reported across three sections. The first section provides an overview of the main categories and themes of OSP generated across the five sessions. The second section describes the five structural models generated during each IM session. The third section presents a meta-analysis of the structural models.
The five sessions generated a total of 377 OSPs. These self-perception ideas were categorized using the paired-comparison method (
Schematic representation of oneness self-perceptions generated across five IM sessions (number of ideas generated in parentheses across five sessions). Asterisks denote the number of sessions in which statement(s) in this category were selected for inclusion in the structuring phase.
When selecting ideas for inclusion in the ISM structuring phase, participants voted, with patterns of voting reflecting the perceived importance of OSPs. The total number of votes per category is presented in
Votes received for each category.
Themes and categories appearing through this process.
Theme | Category | Clarification | Sample statements from CI sessions, [session number, asterisks (*) are votes] |
1 Action Orientation | Effective action | Discerning action, leading to transformative contributions to others and the world | Contributing to society with integrity (4) Actions are usually productive (1) |
Free-flow | A sense of creative freedom and flow which is spontaneous, non-striving and non-resistant | No longer needing to control (4***) Thinking in a way that is fresh and creative (2) | |
2 Other perception | Connectedness | A feeling of connection with others, nature and fundamental reality, while sensing profound belongingness and familiarity | The experience of being connected with all that is (1*) A feeling of being connected to something greater (2*****) |
3 Self-perception | Identity perception change | A sense that one’s self has dissolved, or has shifted away from the normal sense of being a separate thing with a body, thoughts and feelings, often to something less separate | Recognition that nothing can be taken personally (5) Feeling less separate (4) |
4 Deconditioning and embodiment | Aliveness | Enhanced aliveness of experience including greater presence, sensitivity, and sensation in the body | A sense of lightness (3**) A sense of presence (1*) |
Clarity | A profound sense of awareness and insight into fundamental reality as well as one’s perceptions, beliefs, actions and their consequences | A recognition that “good” and “bad” depend on thinking (1*) A sense of accessing my true essence (1**) | |
Acceptance | A sense of acceptance or non-judgment, of myself, others, and situations | No longer feeling superior or inferior to others (4) A deep acceptance and love for what I am (1*) | |
5 Interpersonal emotions | Open-heartedness | Being fully open to one’s own and other’s feelings, feeling love and empathy, and treating all people with kindness and compassion | A sharing of myself and my gifts (4*) A feeling of profound empathy (3*) |
6 Emotions | Unconditional peace | A stable sense of peace and ease, even in the face of problems, difficulties, and conflicts | No matter what is happening I can sense stillness and peace (1) A focus on peace, regardless of interferences (1*) |
Trust | A sense of unconditional safety, nurturance, and confidence | A sense of trust in inner guidance (1**) A sense of being in a safe haven (2) | |
Appreciation | A deep appreciation, valuing and cherishing of life, experienced as bliss, joy, and absence of negativity | A sense of no longer having a fear of death (2) Valuing connecting to inner wisdom (3*) | |
7 Foundational orientations | Wholeness | A sense that everything – including oneself – is an intrinsic part of a whole and that everything is perfect as it is. | A sense of the world being one energy field (3**) A recognition that suffering is part of oneness (1****) |
Unboundedness | A sense of boundaries dissolving or having dissolved, to reveal unbounded spaciousness and non-separation from everything/anything | A sense of the self-pervading everything (1*) The experience of no distinction between me contained within the body and the world outside (5) | |
Time–perception change | A sense that the conventional three-part division of time into past, present, and future no longer fits with one’s experience | A sense of there being no time (2*) The transient nature of experience (5*) |
A brief description of the ISM structures generated at each session is presented below. Structures are to be read from left to right, with arrows connecting boxes indicating that the element on the left “significantly enhances” the element on the right. When two or more elements are presented together in the same box, this indicates a reciprocal enhancement relation between elements.
A total of 130 OSP ideas were generated by participants (
Session 1 responses to stimulus question: “In what ways do you see yourself as oneness?”
Oneness self-perception category (votes) | Statement |
Wholeness (4) | A recognition that suffering is part of oneness |
Free-flow (2) | A sense of no longer searching |
Trust (2) | A sense of trust in inner guidance |
Unboundedness (2) | A sense of being eternal nowness |
Clarity (2) | A sense of seeing that our nature is kindness |
Clarity (2) | An awareness that all of my actions have an impact on the universe |
Clarity (2) | A sense of accessing my true essence |
The structural model generated by the group can be seen in
Enhancement structure for the first group of experienced meditators. Structural models generated are to be read from left to right, with relational lines indicating “significantly enhances.” When two or more elements appear together in the same box, this indicates a reciprocal relationship between these elements.
Also, “a sense of being eternal nowness” was judged to enhance “an awareness that all of my actions have an impact on the universe.” It was argued, “
This group logic also indicated that “a sense of no longer searching” and “a sense of seeing that our nature is kindness” jointly enhanced the interrelated oneness experiences of “a sense of trust in inner guidance” and “a sense of accessing my true essence.”
With “a sense of no longer searching,” the characteristic motivations associated with searching and striving diminish and trust builds: “
At the same time, “A sense of seeing that our nature is kindness” was seen as a reason to trust: “
Participants (
Session 2 responses to stimulus question: “In what ways do you see yourself as oneness?”
Oneness self-perception category (votes) | Statement |
Unconditional peace (5) | A feeling of inner peace and stillness |
Open-heartedness (5) | A feeling of love |
Connectedness (5) | A feeling of being connected to something greater |
Appreciation (3) | A feeling of great bliss |
Wholeness (3) | A sense of being an intrinsic part of all that is |
Open-heartedness (3) | Feelings of empathy and compassion |
Free-flow (2) | A sense of letting go of all tension in the body |
Clarity (2) | A feeling of clarity |
Effective action (1) | A sense of complete balance on every level |
This group (see
Enhancement structure for the second group of experienced meditators.
In relation to the reciprocal elements in level 2, it was argued that “feelings of clarity” have a reciprocal enhancement relationship with “feelings of empathy and compassion”: “
“A feeling of inner peace and stillness” was argued to have a reciprocal relationship with “A sense of complete balance on every level.” It was noted, “
At the same time, through a different pathway, “A feeling of great bliss” was seen to enhance “a feeling of being connected to something greater”: “
Participants (
Session 3 responses to stimulus question: “In what ways do you see yourself as oneness?”
Oneness self-perception category (votes) | Statement |
Identity–perception change (4) | A sense of “me” dissolving |
Unconditional peace (3) | Feelings of peace and calm |
Unboundedness (3) | A sense of being boundless or infinite |
Time–perception change (2) | A sense of timelessness |
Wholeness (2) | A sense of the world being one energy field |
Aliveness (2) | A sense of lightness |
Acceptance (2) | A deep sense of acceptance |
The group considered “a sense of being boundless or infinite” to be a critical driver of other aspects of oneness (see
Enhancement structure for the third group of experienced meditators.
Participants also argued that “a sense of ‘me’ dissolving” enhances both “a sense of timelessness” and “a sense of the world being one energy field,” which in turn enhanced “a sense of deep acceptance.” The enhancement of “a sense of timelessness” was argued to be mediated through the loss of a “me” that pushed itself to conform to deadlines: “
There were two pathways of influence to “a sense of lightness,” which in turn enhanced “feelings of peace and calm.” The first pathway is through “a sense of timelessness,” which was seen to produce less heaviness, rigidity, limitation, and hence more lightness: “
The second pathway to “feelings of peace and calm” is through “a sense of the world being one energy field” and “a deep sense of acceptance.” Non-acceptance is thought to be possible in a world with one energy field: “
Participants (
Session 4 responses to stimulus question: “In what ways do you see yourself as oneness?”
Oneness self-perception category (votes) | Statement |
Unconditional peace (5) | Feelings of equanimity |
Free-flow (3) | A sense of no longer needing to control |
Open-heartedness (3) | Treating people with kindness and compassion |
Appreciation (2) | A sense that the world is perfect as it is |
Connectedness (2) | A sense of belonging |
Connectedness (2) | Feeling connected to nature |
Clarity (2) | Knowing that I am ultimately not separate from others |
Clarity (2) | A sense that the core character of things has been revealed |
In the structural model (see
Enhancement structure for the fourth group of experienced meditators.
Participants also argued that “A sense that the world is perfect as it is” enhanced a feeling of “No longer needing to control,” because, for example, “…
“A sense that the world is perfect as it” is also enhanced “Treating people with kindness and compassion.” Participants argued that seeing that things are perfect caused them to treat people with kindness and compassion through being less defensive: “
In the final part of the structure participants argued that “No longer needing to control” enhanced “Feeling connected to nature,” as with no desire to control nature there resulted in a deeper appreciation of nature and its own way of accomplishing things.
Forty-one OSP ideas were generated by participants (
Session 5 responses to stimulus question: “In what ways do you see yourself as oneness?”
Oneness self-perception category (votes) | Statement |
Free-flow (3) | A sense of being a conduit rather than a doer |
Free-flow (3) | A sense of absence of resistance |
Unconditional peace (3) | A sense that experience is suffused with peace even in the midst of great difficulty and conflict |
Unboundedness (2) | The experience of dissolution of boundary between inside and outside |
Identity–perception change (2) | A recognition of the non-personal yet intimate nature of life |
Clarity (2) | A recognition of the futility of striving |
As can be seen in
Enhancement structure for the fifth group of experienced meditators.
At level 2, the reciprocal enhancement was between “a sense of the absence of resistance,” “a sense of being a conduit rather than a doer,” and “a recognition of the non-personal yet intimate nature of life.” For example, it was noted that “
The set oneness experiences at level 2 in the structure in turn enhanced both “A sense that the world is suffused with peace even in the midst of great difficulty and conflict” and “A recognition of the futility of striving.” In relation to “a recognition of the futility of striving,” it was noted: “
Statements from across 13 of the 14 OSP categories appeared in the enhancement structures. A structural meta-analysis of the five models was conducted to understand the relationship between categories of oneness experience. In order to carry out this meta-analysis, the following scores were computed to estimate the influence of each category.
Each enhancement structure places ideas in stages (
The antecedent score is the number of elements lying to the left of a particular element (i.e., OSP elements) that enhances it. The succedent score is the number of elements lying to the right of an element in the structure that is enhanced by it.
The net succedent/antecedent (Net SA) score is the succedent score minus the antecedent score. If the Net SA score is positive, it means that the specific OSP element is a net source of enhancement. If the Net SA score is negative, it means that the OSP element is a net receiver of enhancement (
The influence score is the sum of the position score and the net SA score. Influence scores were calculated for each of the 37 OSPs appearing in the five enhancement structures.
Total category influence scores were then calculated by summing the individual element scores, and average category influence scores were then calculated by dividing this summed score by the number of elements in the category. Total theme influence scores were also calculated by summing the individual category scores from across all categories in the theme, and average theme influence scores were then calculated by dividing this summed score by the number of categories in the theme. The meta-analytical model of theme average influence scores is presented in
Meta-analysis of influence structures.
The current study used a collective intelligence (CI) methodology to identify, rank, categorize, and structure relations between a variety of oneness self-perceptions (OSPs) described by experienced meditators. Participants identified perceptual, affective, cognitive, and activity-related OSPs, some of which had been previously highlighted in religious, spiritual, and mystical experience literature. Notably, a total of 14 categories and seven higher-order themes of OSP were identified. When it came to selecting OSPs for structuring, the top-ranked oneness categories were unconditional peace, free-flow, and clarity. Analysis of the structural models further suggested that the most influential categories of oneness experience were unboundedness, identity–perception change, time–perception change, wholeness, and changes in action orientation. The implications of these results, their relevance to understanding oneness, and implications for theory will be discussed in more detail below.
This exploratory study is the first to use Warfield’s CI methodology to understand OSPs and their interdependencies. Following good practice guidelines, participants were selected based on simple, measurable, and precise inclusion criteria, specifically, declaration of having had a precisely defined oneness experience and a specific minimum meditation experience. Building upon previous exemplars of stakeholder-engaged scale development (cf.
Early accounts of mystical and oneness experiences, including James (1902/1985),
The meta-analysis of influence structures (
At the same time, it is also clear that participants see oneness as involving specific affective, cognitive, and interpersonal experiences. One question is if the foundational perceptual changes and changes in action orientation (i.e., free-flow) to the left of the meta-analytical influence structure constitute the core of oneness experience while affective and other changes to the right of these might be “side effects” of these foundational experiences (see, e.g.,
Another finding that comes from the influence structure meta-analysis (
It is also of interest to compare findings of the current research to previous related theory. For example, consistent with the SSHM model (
Partially consistent with SSHM, CSS, and MEMAE models that make predictions about change toward a non-narrative self, the current study points to changes in self that include detachment and disidentification, which suggest a diminishment of the narrative self-phenomenological results, which are also consistent with reduced default-mode activity in neural studies related to meditation, psychedelic use, and mystical experience (
At the same time, there is little in the current study to suggest that thinking itself is inhibited as part of the oneness experience, apart from one idea (“Being more and thinking less”), as other ideas suggest positive changes in thought content (e.g., creative, spontaneous, clear, and serene thinking, etc.) While some OSPs suggest nowness (e.g., “Being in the present”), a larger proportion of statements generated by participants suggest complete transcendence of time (e.g., timelessness). This suggests that oneness may not entirely exclude experiences (e.g., thinking) associated with the narrative self, but may recontextualize them (
Strengths of this study include an effort to circumvent biased participant selection by using precise inclusion criteria based on exceeding a minimum required quantity of meditation experience and having had a self-reported experience of non-dual awareness. A related strength of the study is that it responds to calls for an appropriate qualitative approach for use in contemplative studies investigating altered states. In particular, the CI approach is consistent with calls for new methods that “invite phenomenological report and self-interpretation by the participant herself” (
A number of limitations and directions for future research can be noted. First, the nature of participants’ specific oneness experience was not a direct focus of enquiry in the sense that, other than describing the nature of their experience by reference to component OSPs, which were combined and elaborated upon in CI sessions, we did not measure the extent to which their experience was ongoing or transitory, invoked only during meditation or indeed active in the context of the CI sessions itself, or if it primarily reflected memory of previous experiences or a constructed narrative (
Second, this study had more female (63%) than male (37%) participants raising possible concerns about generalizability. While this trend is consistent with previous surveys and research suggesting that females (
Third, whereas some statements emerging during the CI work were more holistic and appear to bypass the subject–object dichotomy (e.g., “A sense of being boundless or infinite”), other statements indicate subject–object structuring (e.g., “an awareness that all of my actions have an impact on the universe”), and some have a “both/and” quality where things are simultaneously separate and unified (e.g., “A sense of being one with others despite differences”). Although some non-dual traditions hold that language with subject–object structuring could not be describing non-duality (
Fourth, challenges are evident in relation to the definitional starting point of research in this area. Oneness and non-dual awareness have often been treated as equivalent by contemporary spiritual teachers and theorists (e.g.,
Fifth, while this study revealed a diverse range of OSPs, given the use of CI methods across multiple groups, it is possible that a number of different types of oneness are being described, as well as some experiences that precede oneness. For example, there are self-perception changes that involve a sense of non-separation (e.g., “The experience of dissolution of boundary between inside and outside”) and a sense of simultaneous sameness and difference (e.g., “A sense of being one with others despite differences,” echoing Plotinus: “All Being, despite this plurality, is a Unity still.”). At the same time, participants also describe experiences involving disidentification and detachment (e.g., “No longer identifying with objects appearing in awareness”), which paradoxically involves separating from experiences rather than being at one with them. These last two groups of experiences – disidentification and detachment – are called decentering, a process that is hypothesized to be underpinned by experiential selfless processing (
Finally, the question used to prompt initial idea generation asked participants how they saw themselves as oneness, where oneness was defined both in terms of non-dual awareness (
Participants in this study described a range of oneness experiences related to perception, affect, cognition, motivation, action, and interpersonal relations, which are not just relevant to contemplative situations but which also extend to everyday life. These experiences are predominantly positive and include broad well-being effects. Participants also identified enhancement relationships between different oneness experiences, relationships that would be difficult to capture using conventional qualitative methods. This study highlighted the importance of foundational changes in self-perception, space and time, and wholeness together with changes in action orientation (free-flow) as important drivers of other oneness experiences.
The prevalence of reported well-being as part of oneness experiences is broadly consistent with the SSHM model (
Moreover, future research should also serve to differentiate between (a) types of oneness, (b) effects of oneness and oneness
Oneness experience is associated with significant life-changing effects (
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the National University of Ireland, Galway Research Ethics Committee. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
MH designed most of the study, reviewed, revised and approved the content of the manuscript. EVL contributed to the design, arranged collective intelligence sessions, carried out most of the data analysis, interpretation of the results, and wrote most of the manuscript. EVL and MH facilitated the collective intelligence sessions. Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.