Fundamentals

The Felt Quality of Experience

Experience has a felt quality.

This felt quality can be mapped along a spectrum.

At one end, experience is heavily shaped by thought and interpretation. Attention is absorbed in the content of thinking. Life is experienced through stories, meanings, and internal commentary. In this state, the quality of the experience can feel:

Low-quality
Dense
Contracted
Closed
Heavy
Noisy
Forceful
Push / pull
Unflowy
Content-focused
Separate

There is a strong sense of 'me' associated with what is happening.

At the other end, attention is not dominated by thought. Experience is not filtered through interpretation. What is present is met directly. In this state, the quality of the experience can feel:

High-quality
Open
Light
Expansive
Clear
Spacious
Powerful
Peaceful
Flowy
Contextually relevant
Connected

There is no separation between awareness and the essence of 'what is'.

Between these two ends is a continuous movement of attention. This is not a fixed state, it shifts moment to moment.

The same situation can be experienced in very different ways depending on where attention is resting.

The quality of every thought, emotion, statement, action, relationship, environment, country... can be mapped somewhere along this range.

The writings on this site, including the examples, explore the spectrum — from experience dominated by stories, to experience that is less filtered and more direct.

A more detailed description of ranges of human experience can be found in David R. Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness, which outlines a spectrum of states of consciousness as they may be experienced. His book: Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, goes into even more depth. While framed differently, it points toward a similar observation that experience varies in felt quality depending on where attention is.