Realization experiences: a convergent account of insight and mystical experiences

Mystical-type experiences and insight problem solving both belong to a family of "realization experiences" where information suddenly becomes experienced as real or true. Both can be modeled using behavioral entropy and graph theory. When novel information conflicts with prior representations, the mind destabilizes its representational network, entering a state of altered salience and enhanced associations. After restructuring sensitive to environmental cues, the agent forms new beliefs or revises its entire framework. The phenomenology depends on the size and content of the updated network and environmental affordances. This shared vocabulary aims to facilitate discussion across these phenomena.

Study at a glance

Abstract

We argue that the powerful transformative effects of mystical-type experiences can be understood using the same machinery that underlies insight problem solving, and that both mystical experiences and insight are species of a genus of “realization experiences”: experiences wherein some phenomenon or piece of information becomes suddenly experienced as real or true. Specifically, we argue that understanding both in this way allows us to model mystical experiences through the same combination of behavioral entropy and graph theory that have successfully been used to model insight problem solving. Starting from tension between novel information and prior representations, the agent destabilizes its representational network to allow it to enter a state of altered salience and enhanced associations to update the network. After an environmentally sensitive restructuring process, the agent then forms new beliefs, or – given enough restructuring – revises its framework entirely. The phenomenology of such realization experiences is determined by the size and content of the updated representational network and the affordances present in the environment. While there are, naturally, open questions remaining to answer, we hope that this model affords a useful shared vocabulary to discuss the family of realization experiences.