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Clarifying Perception: The Micro-phenomenological Method (Now Online)

Online Program
Dates: Jun 15, 2020 - Jun 20, 2020

Instructor(s): Claire Petitmengin

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Program Description:
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As with some forms of Buddhist practice, classical phenomenology involves suspending beliefs about the objects of consciousness, enabling us to become aware of structures that underlie our experience. Micro-phenomenology is a new scientific discipline enabling us to discover dimensions of our lived experience that are ordinarily inaccessible and to describe them accurately and reliably. Exploring and using the micro-phenomenological interview method, this program will help contemplatives, clinicians, artists, researchers, and others learn how to collect fine-grained descriptions of the lived experience associated with a sensorial, emotional, and cognitive processes. Applying the micro-phenomenological interview method to meditation helps meditators become more mindful. The outcome of a micro-phenomenological study is thus similar to vipassana, and contributes to enhancing the focus and accuracy of the practice of insight.

Please visit microphenomenology.com for more information about this discipline.

Learning Intentions:

To distinguish the descriptive elements of experience from other levels such as explanations and judgments, and cultivating awareness of how to guide the interview in these different dimensions;

To guide the interviewed persons from a general description towards the description of a singular experience, that is situated in space and time, and to help them mobilize their concrete memory to evoke this experience;

To collect descriptions of the diachronic and synchronic dimensions of an experience by guiding the interviewees into the temporal fragmentation of the experience and the description of its cognitive, sensory, attentional and emotional dimensions;

To detect the verbal and non-verbal clues of implicit information in the interviewee's discourse and explore these with relevant questions;

To manage the relationship with the interviewee by defining the framework and objective of the interview, knowing how to reformulate the interviewee's words and creating and maintaining the conditions for good non-verbal communication with the interviewee;

To learn elements of analysis of the descriptions by identifying the diachronic and synchronic structures of the experiences, and detecting possible regularities (generic structures).


Experience Level:
Suitable for beginning and experienced practitioners.