An Empirical–Phenomenological Approach To Quantifying Consciousness And States Of Consciousness: With Particular Reference To Understanding The Nature Of Hypnosis

Consciousness can be scientifically understood by combining phenomenological self-report methods with quantitative and statistical procedures from psychology. This approach, called psychophenomenology, produces a reliable and valid methodology for mapping, quantifying, and statistically assessing the structures and patterns of consciousness, particularly in states such as hypnosis.

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Abstract

Abstract Metzinger (1995) is his book, Conscious experience, wrote: ‘Today, the problem of consciousness… marks the very limit of human striving for understanding. It appears to many to be the last great puzzle and the greatest theoretical challenge of our time ‘ (p. 3). Research enumerated in this book suggests that consciousness can be elucidated through the scientific application of phenomenological, psychophysiological and neurobiological methodologies. In this chapter, we will delineate an approach that we have elsewhere called psychophenomenology (Pekala 1985a, 1991b; Pekala and Kumar 2000b); this approach combines an empirical descriptive self-report phenomenology with the quantitative and statistical procedures commonly employed in the psychological sciences to pro- duce a reliable and valid methodology to map, quantify and statistically assess the structures (dimensions) and resulting patterns of consciousness in reference to states of consciousness such as hypnosis.