State Identification Self-Assessment

🧭 State Identification Self-Assessment

Overview

Learners frequently conflate states (temporary altered experiences) with stages (enduring developmental levels) — a confusion that AQAL theory directly addresses. This self-assessment helps you identify which state you are most frequently accessing in practice, receive a personalised recommendation for deepening, and understand how your current state access relates to your likely stage centre of gravity.

The assessment covers four state bands from the Wilberian state spectrum:

State Band	Phenomenological Markers
Gross	Ordinary waking awareness; sensorimotor reality; body, breath, external sounds
Subtle	Inner luminosity; flowing energy; absorbed concentration; hypnagogic imagery
Causal / Witness	Open awareness; witnessing stillness; thoughts observed without identification
Nondual	Dissolution of subject-object boundary; seamless, boundless presence

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AQAL Mapping

Dimension	Value
Where (Quadrants)	I — individual interior experience (self-reflective inquiry)
Depth (Levels)	Applicable across all levels; maps to Waking Up pathway
Skills (Lines)	Contemplative, Cognitive, Self-awareness
Experience (States)	All four state bands: gross, subtle, causal/witness, nondual
Style (Types)	Self-paced; introspective; structured-first

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Instructions

Answer each question based on your actual recent practice experience, not on how you hope your practice will develop. There are no right or wrong responses. The assessment takes approximately 5–8 minutes to complete.

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Assessment

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a self-reflection tool, not a clinical instrument. It is designed to support contemplative self-inquiry and cannot diagnose, treat, or assess any clinical condition. If you are experiencing psychological distress, please consult a qualified mental health professional.

Answer each question based on your actual recent practice experience — not on how you hope to experience practice or what you think the "correct" answer might be. There are no right or wrong responses.

0 of 12 questions answered

1. In your most recent practice session, the dominant quality of your experience was:

Ordinary physical sensations — breath, body contact, external sounds.Subtle luminosity, flowing energy, or dream-like imagery.A quiet, expansive awareness with thoughts and sensations in the background.A vast openness in which the sense of a separate "me" softened or dissolved.

2. When attention settles during practice, it most naturally rests on:

Physical anchors — feet, hands, breath, or posture.A felt sense of inner warmth, light, or subtle energetic movement.The awareness that perceives, rather than on any object it perceives.No particular anchor — everything appears within a single, boundless field.

3. When you experience quiet in practice, it most closely feels like:

Physical relaxation and calm — muscles releasing, breath slowing.A gentle, luminous stillness with soft imagery at the edges of awareness.A vast, open silence in which thoughts arise and dissolve without pulling you in.An effortless dissolving of the boundary between inside and outside.

4. When strong emotions arise during practice, your most common experience is:

Noticing them as bodily feelings — tension, heat, tightness, or fluttering.Sensing them as subtle energetic or textural shifts beneath the surface.Observing them from a stable background awareness without being absorbed.Finding that the emotion and the one who notices it are part of the same seamless field.

5. The quality of your concentration during practice is most often:

Grounded and steady, anchored in the body or breath.Absorbed — you sometimes lose track of external sounds or the passage of time.Spacious and non-grasping — attention is present but does not cling to objects.Boundary-free — subject and object feel continuous rather than separate.

6. After a practice session, you most frequently notice:

A sense of physical refreshment and grounded, embodied presence.A lingering softness or luminous quality in ordinary perception.An abiding sense of witnessing stillness that persists for some time.A gentle dissolution of the sense that ordinary experience is solid or self-enclosed.

7. When you close your eyes at the start of a sitting, you most typically notice:

The body's weight, temperature, and breath rhythm.A subtle inner landscape of colours, patterns, or gentle imagery.A shift into an open, background awareness — like stepping back from the front of the stage.Immediate spaciousness — a sense that the observer and the observed are not separate.

8. During longer or deeper practice sessions, the experience of time feels:

Normal — you remain aware of time passing in the ordinary way.Expanded or distorted — time seems to slow or become fluid.Irrelevant — you are aware, but time does not register as particularly meaningful.Absent — ordinary time-tracking dissolves completely.

9. The most accurate description of your sense of "self" during practice is:

Stable — "I am here, meditating." The sense of self is ordinary and continuous.Absorbed — the self is temporarily forgotten in the quality of the experience.Thinned — awareness remains, but the "I" is no longer foregrounded.Absent or transparent — what remains is awareness itself, with no separate observer.

10. When an unexpected sound occurs during practice, you most often:

Note it, possibly react briefly, then return to the physical anchor.Feel it subtly ripple through an inner energetic field before settling.Remain in a witnessing position — the sound arises and dissolves within awareness.Experience it as part of an undivided field — no sense of something interrupting a separate self.

11. The practice format that most reliably supports your deepest access is:

Consistent short sits with strong body or breath anchors.Extended sits, Yoga Nidra, or hypnagogic threshold practices.Open awareness, self-inquiry, or noting practices.Pointing-out instruction, koan, or non-dual inquiry.

12. Which statement best describes your overall relationship to contemplative states?

I am building a consistent foundation — regular practice with physical anchors.I regularly access absorbed or luminous states and want to understand them better.I have tasted a stable witnessing quality and want to deepen and integrate it.I have experienced glimpses of subject-object dissolution and am learning to work with them.

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About the State Spectrum

Gross State (Ordinary Waking)

The gross state is the default waking mode — sensorimotor reality, physical body, external sounds, ordinary thought. It is the necessary foundation for all other state access. Most contemplative traditions begin here with body-anchored or breath-focused practices.

Subtle State (Inner Luminosity and Absorption)

The subtle state is characterised by inner luminosity, flowing energy, absorbed concentration, and dream-like imagery. It is accessed through extended sits, Yoga Nidra, hypnagogic threshold practices, and deep concentration (samatha). Subtle states are temporary and not identical to developmental stages, even when they are profound.

Causal / Witness State (Open Awareness)

The causal or witnessing state is characterised by a stable, spacious background from which thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are observed without identification. It is accessed through open awareness meditation, self-inquiry, and noting practice. The witness is not a developmental endpoint — it too can be released into nondual presence.

Nondual State (Seamless Presence)

The nondual state involves a dissolving of the ordinary subject-object boundary — a glimpse of awareness as the ground of experience rather than as a separate observer. It is pointed to by Dzogchen, Advaita, Zen, and other non-dual traditions. Glimpse quality and integration are distinct; frequent glimpses do not guarantee stable integration.

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State vs. Stage: An Important Distinction

A high score on causal or nondual state access does not indicate an advanced developmental stage. States are temporary and peak experiences available at many stage levels. Stages reflect enduring structural capacities that develop over time through lived experience, challenge, and integration.

Someone at an Amber stage centre of gravity can have profound nondual glimpses. Someone with a Green or Teal stage centre of gravity may primarily access gross-state awareness. The value of state work is in deepening access, stabilising integration, and understanding how states and stages interact — not in using state access as a proxy for developmental altitude.

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Evidence and Citations

Claim	Source	Quality	Caveat
Four-state spectrum (gross, subtle, causal, nondual)	Wilber, K. (2006). Integral Spirituality. Shambhala.	Tier C — conceptual/theoretical framework	Not empirically validated as discrete categories; contested in academic contemplative science
Phenomenological markers of meditative states	Lutz, A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Meditation and the neuroscience of consciousness. In P. Zelazo, M. Moscovitch, & E. Thompson (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness. Cambridge University Press.	Tier B — peer-reviewed synthesis with limited direct replication for these categories	Neuroscientific markers differ across traditions; first-person categories are author-synthesised
State-stage distinction	Wilber, K. (2006). Integral Spirituality. Shambhala; Torbert, W. (2004). Action Inquiry. Berrett-Koehler.	Tier C — theoretical model with limited direct empirical testing	State-stage interaction models have limited empirical testing
Self-assessment in transformative learning	Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. Jossey-Bass.	Tier C — adjacent theoretical support, indirect application	Applied here to contemplative context by analogy, not direct replication
Contemplative state phenomenology	Contemplative Sciences Center, University of Virginia. (2020). Neurophenomenology of Meditation.	Tier C — institutional/programmatic report, provisional evidence	Ongoing research program; findings subject to revision

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Retrieval Schedule

Interval	Activity
24 hours	Retake the assessment after your next practice session; note any shift in responses
72 hours	Journal: What was the dominant quality of your last three sits? Does it match your profile?
7 days	Complete one module recommended by your profile; return to the assessment and compare
14 days	Reflect: How does your state access relate to what you are learning about stages and development?

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Safety Notes

This assessment involves self-reflective inquiry about contemplative experiences. It is Tier 1 (low intensity — self-paced, no facilitator required).

• This tool is not a substitute for guidance from an experienced teacher in your contemplative tradition.
• If practice-related experiences are causing distress, confusion, or functional impairment, consult a qualified teacher or mental health professional.
• See the State Development Safety Standard for full contraindications and escalation guidance.