THE FINDERS

At the instigation of Peter Fenwick, Dr Jeffery Martin was a keynote speaker at our 2019 Mystics and Scientists conference on Technology, Spirituality and Well-being, where he spoke about his 15-year research programme on the nature or fundamental well-being for what he calls persistent nonsymbolic experience (PNSE). The title of this book implicitly refers to spiritual seekers as people who have not yet found what they are looking for. Over the summer, Peter invited me to take part in the introductory programme 45 days to Awakening (www.45daystoawakening.com) – which includes positive psychology exercises, one hour of daily meditation and other assignments including writing your own eulogy. One of unique features of the programme is before and after questionnaire assessments of various measures of well-being, so that the researchers can ascertain what improvements have come about. In this way, every participant becomes part of this ongoing research, which shows that 65% achieve awakening. Although I myself was in the residual 35%, I can strongly recommend taking part and felt I benefited overall, not least from the group exercises where each member had to say a sentence beginning 'awareness is…' This led me to a more subtle understanding of the relationship between transcendence and immanence where one represents beyond and the other within. We are in the world, but the world is also in us, or, as Plotinus put it, 'we are within a reality that is also within us.'

There is no doubt that this longitudinal research is ground breaking in mapping the field and the characteristics of what Jeffery calls locations; the book has accordingly been widely endorsed by many leading figures in consciousness studies. The first part considers the tension between the narrative self/ego/inner voice and fundamental well-being. Transition from the first state to the second is marked by replacement of discontent, worry and fear 'by a sense that everything is fundamentally okay, that you are safe, whole, and fine just as you are.' You will be at peace and able to thrive and enjoy life, which corresponds to what Abraham Maslow called 'the high plateau experience' after he had realised that a stage of self-transcendence lay beyond self-actualisation. Once the narrative self falls away, awareness is more centred on the present moment in a state of fundamental contentment that is no longer so concerned with control and seeking approval. The basis of the study as a whole is a series of lengthy interviews about changes in cognition, emotion, perception and memory.

As the research proceeded, a map of five main 'locations' emerged as phases or clusters along a single continuum. This section is prefaced by a very astute remark from William James: 'there are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.' Moving from Location 1 along to Location 5 and beyond involves a series of transitions starting with a sense of okayness, stillness and spaciousness where one is less susceptible to psychological triggers. Location 2 has a more impersonal feel and a corresponding non-duality in addition to an intensification of Location 1 features. Location 3 is qualitatively different in being infused with compassion, joy and love as 'facets of a single meta-emotion' and representing the mysticism of the heart in Christianity and Sufism with a sense of deep connectedness and union. Many feel that this must be the peak of well-being. For some people, therefore, the transition to Location 4 can feel like a loss, and it is a further turn of the non-dual spiral found in Location 2. Here there is no sense of agency, and a complete immersion in the present moment with life experienced as an unfolding process. People report a sense of freedom, while the lack of emotion and the need for approval can sometimes cause challenges in family and social relationships. Anyone proceeding to Location 5 and beyond will likely have been through 4 and be undergoing a process of further reintegration, especially on the 'path of humanity' rather than the 'path of freedom.' It is at this stage is that intuitive perceptions and psi begin to occur more frequently, perhaps because of this sense of 'being the universe' without boundaries.

The third part looks in more detail at core aspects of fundamental well-being, covering the interview areas mentioned above – cognition, emotion, perception and memory – as well as the sense of self. This provides many individual nuances such as how parents in Location 4 lose their personal love for their child once they have transcended their conditioned orientation response. Crucial is this heightened present-moment awareness that can also enhance the senses. Another interesting finding is that people at Location 4 not only have fewer self-referential thoughts but have to make lists of planned events and schedules that would previously have been memorised. The 'God-sized hole' is filled with fundamental well-being, while the 'doer' progressively disappears. In a 'zoomed out' state, there is an undifferentiated spaciousness and everything is felt to be perfect exactly as it is, which is paradoxical for the 'zoomed in' personality in view of all the world's suffering.

The fourth part covers the lived reality of fundamental well-being including the impact on relationships and even sex of the transition to one of the locations. There is no necessary correlation between social action and fundamental well-being, the loss of which at this stage is likely to be due to stress; some even reject the state for personal reasons – one subject felt that he had 'traded his humanity', but the vast majority find the effects hugely beneficial and that life flows more smoothly with more synchronicities and a deep sense of peace. Appendices contain some more research results, which can be viewed in full www.nonsymbolic.org. Overall, this book is a must read for anyone interested in the major features of transpersonal development and the achievement of higher and broader states of consciousness.