Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

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Stirling Campbell, modified 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 6:03 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 6:03 PM

Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 621 Join Date: 3/13/16 Recent Posts
Anyone else read this paper? Who is this guy? Thoughts?

I found the paper very evocative of my own experience - enough that I wanted to learn more:

http://nonsymbolic.org/PNSE-Article.pdf

Part of it has a sort of path in it:
Summary of the Key Traits per Continuum Location

A great deal remains to be done in detailing and understanding the locations on the
continuum. This is a rich area for future research. At present, models have been publically
presented with as many as eight locations, but even these can be sliced much finer. For ease of
discussion, in this paper I group the data into 4 relatively broad categories. This is sufficient to
see the types of changes that occur as well as the progression they may indicate. I refer to them
simply as Locations 1 through 4.

Location 1
Location 1 participants experienced a dramatic reduction in or seeming loss of an
individualized sense of self. Their minds seemed much quieter because of a reduction in the
quantity and/or emotional strength of self-related thoughts, but there were still some emotionally
charged thoughts that could pull them back into more active thought streams. They experienced a
range of positive and negative emotions, but these emotions were much more transient and did
not have the power over them that they once did. Conditioning could still trigger thought streams
and stronger emotions, but even these passed in a matter of seconds.
The overall change in their thoughts and emotions left them with a deep sense of peace
and beingness. This beingness felt more real than anything previously experienced and made the
external world and their former experience of an individualized sense of self seem less real by
comparison. This deep peace could be suppressed by external psychological triggers, but would
recover once the stimulus was removed. Their sense of self seemed larger and to expand beyond
the physical body. There was a new sense of connectedness between what was formerly
perceived as the internal and external worlds. For religious participants there was also an
increased sense of connectedness to divinity. Participants reported a very high level of well-
being and a noetic sense that everything was unfolding exactly as it should.

Location 2
Location 1 experiences deepened at Location 2. For example, Location 2 participants
experienced an increased loss of self-related thoughts as well as a continued reduction in the
ability of the thoughts that did remain to draw them in, when compared to Location 1. As they
progressed through this location the range of emotions they experienced became increasingly
positive. Participants in Location 2 were more likely to feel that there was a correct decision or
path to take when presented with choices. Participants who progressed to this location from the
previous one reported an increased sense of well-being.

Location 3
Location 3 is the closest to representing just one location and not a range of similar
locations on the continuum. By Location 2, participants had shed their negative emotions, and
now experienced one dominant emotion. This single emotion felt like a mixture of various
positive emotions such as impersonal/universal compassion, joy, and love. Parts of negative
emotions, which one participant called proto-emotions, were sometimes still felt but did not form
into full emotions. The single remaining positive emotion was a constant experience and
companion for Location 3 participants. The remaining traces of self-referential thought had
continued to fall away.
In Location 3, participants’ experience of inner peace and beingness continued to deepen.
So too had their feelings of connectedness and union/unity. If they were Christian, they felt
strongly merged with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or God depending upon their sect. If they were
‘spiritual’ they may have felt this same sense of connectedness mapped onto the experience of an
all-pervasive consciousness. These types of experience are often viewed as the pinnacle spiritual
experience in some traditions, such as Christianity, and a desired stopping ground for others
including some forms of Buddhism. Participants at Location 3 often saw the world as unable to
be any other way than it already is in the moment. While all participants expressed this to some
degree it seemed to have grown very deep roots by this point. These participants generally did
not place importance on choosing the correct decision or path like Location 2 participants.
Participants who progressed to this point from the previous location reported an increased sense
of well-being.

Location 4 and Beyond
Another major transition occurred at Location 4, which includes both the transitional
location and those beyond it where the experience it ushers in continues to deepen. All remaining
vestiges of self-related thoughts are gone by this point, as are experiences of emotion. Feelings
of deep interconnectedness and union with God, an all pervasive consciousness, and so forth also
disappeared. These participants reported having no sense of agency or any ability to make a
decision. It felt as if life was simply unfolding and they were watching the process happen.
Severe memory deficits were common in these participants, including the inability to recall
scheduled events that were not regular and ongoing. Participants who progressed to this location
from one or more previous ones reported the highest level of well-being. Often this amazed them
as they did not imagine anything could have been better than Location 3. 

Derek2, modified 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 6:38 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 6:38 PM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 230 Join Date: 9/21/16 Recent Posts
Stirling Campbell:
Anyone else read this paper? Who is this guy? Thoughts?

There was a thread about it on the KFD section of Awake Network in 2015.
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Eric B, modified 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 7:14 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 7:14 PM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 187 Join Date: 8/24/09 Recent Posts
He just a BATGAP interview couple of weeks ago that should answer a lot of your questions.
Stephen, modified 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 8:44 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/6/17 8:44 PM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 34 Join Date: 1/5/17 Recent Posts
Anyone else find it a bit odd that Jeffery Martin talks about the Finders Courses as experiments? In fact he calls them crowd-funded experiments in which participants pay something like $2K for instruction. I make no judgments about charging for instruction, but that’s not how science works. It brings up all kinds of ethical conflicts having your participants pay to be a part of the research. 

When I checked out his publications section of his website I couldn't find any publications, nothing in a peer reviewed journal. What he lists is a collection of powerpoint slides, audio and video from talks or interviews, press, and this research paper that he seems to have written up but never submitted for publication. I’m not sure the reason, perhaps he feels it isn’t necessary, or maybe it's too much work, or he's too busy travelling the world. Perhaps he's concerned that if he tried to publish it would reveal fundamental flaws in his experiments, e.g. lacks a control group.

This is not to entirely discredit his project. What he’s doing is interesting, the locations and all that, but he undercuts his credibility by talking at so much length about his research and findings without having any checks to make it a rigorous experiment. Maybe it could be a new field of anthropology.

If you know any published research he's authored let me know, maybe I missed it.
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Malte, modified 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 6:57 AM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 6:57 AM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 38 Join Date: 4/24/15 Recent Posts
I've been following his stuff for a year and a half, and as far as I've seen, there isn't any "real" research going on - nothing peer-reviewed, for example, lots of confounds in experiments like having participants pay etc. I have gotten the impression he's doing more of a private research project, dunno where he gets the funding for this, if it's out of own pocket or private supporters, but the whole thing seems to be quite disconnected from the ordinary, standard research world.
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CJMacie, modified 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 8:09 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 12:06 PM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
Stirling Campbell:
Anyone else read this paper? Who is this guy? Thoughts?

This topic has come-up more than once before here. (Try search on his name.)

I recall researching it as far as the internet would take it at one point, as Martin was associated with a local institution (formerly ITP - Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; more recently went bust amidst scandals, and then bought-out by Chinese speculators or some sort; now "Sofia University").

The guy is very bright – some education at Harvard, but not the "Dr" degree, which is from some more borderline place (like ITP).

The only "research" to be found was his own writings.

Also, looking into the "Finder's Course", one has to enter and "register" (give email address, etc.) to even get to the part to see what the costs are –something like $1250 or $1500; but then a barrage of email offers of big discounts come later.

Very clever, ape-ing Buddhist, MCTB,etc. schema. It seems that scam artists, con-men/women are having a great resurgence these days – the era of "false-news", "alternative-facts", etc. And they get more than enough free media coverage.(E.g. one "Jason Buzi", recently inundating neighborhoods around here with offers of easy cash for your house. All the earmarks of the classic con-artist.)

Caveat emptor.

minor edits added
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Stirling Campbell, modified 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 9:07 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 12:58 PM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 621 Join Date: 3/13/16 Recent Posts
Caveat emptor.

Watching his BatGap appearance, makes me wonder. As near as I can tell, they collect niche research subjects and sell their use and data for money. 

Agreed that his paper is short on methodology or data, but I still find the contents make some sense to me. Taken as is, I enjoyed reading it. I imagine any real data supporting his findings has been kept back for future monetization?
Chuck Kasmire, modified 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 5:46 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 2/7/17 5:46 PM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 560 Join Date: 8/22/09 Recent Posts
Interesting. I listened to the interview and read the paper. I thought it was a good interview. I relate to the stages he spoke of and always like it when Bernedette Roberts enters the conversation - as I relate much to her descriptions. It is very hard for this kind of work to get funding and get attention in mainstream research journals - he speaks about this. It is expensive to carry out this kind of research and as he says 'NIH isn't going to fund this'. I am glad to see someone put out so much effort and take the risks to do this kind of work. Thanks for posting this.
Robin Woods, modified 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 7:04 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 7:04 AM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 189 Join Date: 5/28/12 Recent Posts
Sorry to resuscitate an old thread....

Jefferey Martin seems to claim that people can simply move back and forth between the locations, or 'choose' not to go beyond location 2 for example. Anyone have any experince of this or believe it? 

I had the sense that once people found themselves in Bernadette Roberts territory there wasn't much 'they' could do about it? 

Anyone have any sense of what practice moves you 'forward' after location 2? More noting? 
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Stickman2, modified 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 11:46 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 8:30 AM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 375 Join Date: 7/24/17 Recent Posts
Yeah I read it, very interesting. His descriptions seem to sum up much of what I read from awakened people.
Some feathers ruffled over whether he's a con man or not. Dunno. But who else is doing that work ? I got a couple of his books too, one of them about a techno-enlightenment utopia.

[edit] I should explain that Persinger is likely in part inspiration behind his novel

https://about.me/drmichaelpersinger

"Because our work is interdisciplinary and may be different from what others have done, I insist that the techniques and results are published within the public forum (the scientific literature). This procedure will hopefully decrease the probability that the technology or knowledge will be employed only by a privileged few."

A negative view of all the mind gadget stuff he's involved with is that he is trying to turn humanity into the Borg.
seth tapper, modified 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 10:09 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 10:09 AM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 477 Join Date: 8/19/17 Recent Posts
I think these "stages" seem pretty accurate.  In my own experience, the mind isnt fixed in any one stage most of the time, it travels through some distribution of stages around a mean that keeps moving towards stage 4 as I drop delusional belief in more narratives.   
Robin Woods, modified 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 11:03 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 11:03 AM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 189 Join Date: 5/28/12 Recent Posts
Interesting - thanks!
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Stirling Campbell, modified 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 11:46 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/29/17 11:46 AM

RE: Jeffrey Martin Awakening/Enlightenment Study Paper (Path Model?)

Posts: 621 Join Date: 3/13/16 Recent Posts
seth tapper:
I think these "stages" seem pretty accurate.  In my own experience, the mind isnt fixed in any one stage most of the time, it travels through some distribution of stages around a mean that keeps moving towards stage 4 as I drop delusional belief in more narratives.   
I agree. Sorry to say that I am fairly sure the memory thing is now becoming a "problem". Or a feature? emoticon 

Anyone further along see this? Daniel? It doesn't actually seem to present as an issue, except to others that worry - everything still happens as it needs to without "effort".

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