Emergence Benefactors

Emergence Benefactors is a nonprofit charity created to support research into emergence.

[Matthew D. Sacchet @MatthewSacchet]

What is advanced meditation?

This question has driven me since early childhood.

After many years of effort, including with Terje Sparby @terjesparby over the last six, we now propose a formal scientific definition.

Why does this matter?

Without clear concepts, we cannot reliably identify advanced meditation, compare studies, distinguish forms, test mechanisms, or determine effects. Without a definition we are massively hindered.

I thus announce a culmination and landmark for our team, the preprint:

“Defining Advanced Meditation: A Conceptual Foundation for a Comprehensive Contemplative Science beyond Mindfulness Meditation, Basic Meditation, and Other Non-Meditative Consciousness-Altering Practices.”

In it, we propose that:
Advanced meditation consists of states, stages, and endpoints that arise with the maturation and mastery of mental activity skills.

And that advanced meditation:
–Is change in skill and experience, not simply how long someone has practiced. Long-term meditation is not advanced meditation
–Is a maturation of mental activity: Effortful to effortless. Interrupted to stable attention. Negative emotion dissolving, and bliss, peace, and expansive awareness arising naturally
–Includes three dimensions of meditative skill are especially important: effortlessness, intentional control, and self-attenuation
–Includes states (e.g., absorption), stages (e.g., insight), generative practices (e.g., developed loving-kindness or visualization), and endpoints (e.g., transformations and events such as cessations)
–Mastery involves increasing reliability and control. This manifests as increasingly being able to access states or sequences of consciousness
–Is distinct from psychedelics, breathwork, postural yoga, and other practices that alter consciousness without involving mastery of mental skills

Advanced meditation has been described in Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, and other traditions, that can all be studied through our ontologically/metaphysically neutral framework.

“Advanced” is not intended as a status symbol or ranking. It is a pragmatic and scientific category for understanding what unfolds in meditation.

Our definition is fundamentally a proposal, not a final answer. It is a conceptual scaffold that can be tested, criticized, refined, and revised.

Establishing this new foundation makes new questions more tractable, including:
–How does meditation transform body and mind? Can it support exceptional mental health and flourishing? What can it reveal about the nature of self, suffering, and consciousness?

Our intention is that this definition enables a new scientific era in which meditation research investigates the full radical possibilities of human consciousness.

My deepest gratitude to Terje Sparby, my principal collaborator and the lead author of this work, and to our team Brian Toomey @bjtoomey, Malcolm Wright @punk_utopian, and Jasmine Ben-Joseph.

Preprint linked in the comments ⤵️

Please feel free to share this work if you find it meaningful

May this work benefit many 🙏

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

@bryan_johnson Consider exploring the work of the EPRC https://theeprc.orc to help the clinical and scientific mainstreams have a vastly sophisticated relationship to these topics you are discovering.

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

A new clinical subspecialty is emerging to support the good, bad, and ugly of what some people think of as "spiritual awakening" "spiritual crisis" or "spiritual emergency" under an ontologically neutral framework. Come see how you can get involved --> https://t.co/40bAtdgikS

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

Find the Expression of Interest form and our website at: https://t.co/40bAtdgikS

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

The Expert Opinion Project project seeks to bridge the gaps between clinical practice and what we call emergent phenomena, experiences and effects – and we need your help https://t.co/40bAtdgikS

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

Mystical experiences. Psychedelic states. Energy phenomena. Spontaneous awakenings. How could the clinical mainstream be a better support? We're looking for experts to answer this 🔥
Know someone with 10+ years supporting others in these experiences? Share our poster or apply

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

Know an expert whose perspective should inform this work? We'd love your recommendations.
Reach out: [email protected]
May this work help many

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

Exciting news! We've received two-year funding from @RWJF for the Expert Opinion Project, where we’ll bring together 60 experts across traditions, languages, and cultural frameworks to co-create guidance & tools for Emergent Phenomena #theeprc #mentalhealth #consciousness

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

Building on our recent pilot study, we aim to develop practical tools, a professional lexicon, and consensus-based guidance for clinicians and community practitioners, integrating insights across frameworks with rigor and cultural humility.

[danielmingram @danielmingram]

If at some point you are interested in helping the clinical, public health, mental health, and general public have a vastly better and more sophisticated understanding of the deep end of human experience and potential that can arise through meditation, psychedelics, etc, please check out https://t.co/TaVO34FS4Y and consider supporting it through https://t.co/37FtOuNLl1 Why not do for the deep end what you already do through your work on projects like Kernel and BluePrint? We have the network, team, plan, and institutional affiliations, just vastly undercapitalized for our mission of real global systems change. @the_emergent @EBenefactors 🙏🙏🙏🙂

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

🔥Please check out the remarkable accomplishments in 2025 of the EPRC in our Fall Newsletter: https://t.co/vuEcDTSKhL

[danielmingram @danielmingram]

@tomowenmorgan @DaveNadig And a great time to support the charitable work of @the_emergent and @EBenefactors 501(c)(3) to help the global clinical mainstream be more competent at the deep end of human experience and potential! https://t.co/he0mFIyBkL

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

🌲 Holiday Greetings from Emergence Benefactors! Please consider including us in your end of year philanthropic generosity to support our vital work and support the EPRC @the_emergent and their allies: https://t.co/odsyAz8Fnz

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

They will soon be proposing a new project to bring knowledge and skills regarding emergent phenomenology to the military, first responders, police, and EMTs. #military #USmilitary #veterans #FirstResponders #PTSD

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

We proudly support the work of the Integrative Mental Health University led by @EmmaBragdon! #mentalhealth #spiritualawakening #spiritualemergency #psychedelictherapy #spirituality #integrativehealth

[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

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[Emergence Benefactors @EBenefactors]

We seek to fund a visionary project known as the Expert Opinion Study, which involves interviewing seasoned practitioners in fields like psychedelics, meditation, and indigenous practices. By collecting their extensive knowledge we have the potential to reshape clinical guidelines & diagnostic criteria in healthcare!

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

Hear in less than 3 minutes why we're seeking $300k for this project, and what we'll do with it: https://t.co/FdNPZv5L4G

[The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium @the_emergent]

@EBenefactors secured pilot funding for the Expert Opinion Project, groundbreaking research on Emergent Phenomena using the Delphi process to generate expert consensus & working to identify areas of disagreement for further research #theEPRC #mentalhealth https://t.co/MOegIsW5Te