The Scale of Subjective States

From the upcoming book, Jan 1st, 2023.

Start by taking a look at this “scale of subjective states” that I have proposed in earlier work:

Lower states:

1. Hell

2. Horrific (phenomenological reality breaks down)

3. Tortured

4. Tormented

Medium states:

5. Very uneasy

6. Uneasy, uncomfortable

7. Somewhat uneasy, “okay”, full of small faults

8. Satisfied, well

9. Good, lively

10. Joyous, full of light, invigorated

High states:

11. Vast, grand, open

12. Blissful, saintly

13. Enlightened, spiritual unity

Let’s go through a couple of notes about this scale before we go on.

At any given moment, it feels like something to be you. This is what I mean with “inner states”; you are always in some kind of “inner state”. These states aren’t exactly the same as feelings or emotions. We can have all sorts of sensations and emotions, but we still have some kind of overall “how we’re doing” at any given moment: that’s the “subjective state” (or “inner state”, because it’s how you experience the world from the inside of your own awareness). So you can have delicious anger, for instance, being angry while being in a high state. Likewise, sorrow can feel like a great release (i.e., it can emerge during a high state). Or you can have meaningless pleasure, pleasure while in a low state, like when gorging on cake at a party but feeling empty inside. Subjective states are not the same as emotions; they’re the canvas upon which emotions, sensations, and thoughts play out. Again, it’s how tuned in, whole, and connected we are, from moment to moment.

Subjective states go up and down. In times of crisis, we usually have at least some moments when things aren’t that bad. And even during the best of times, we tend to sometimes be somewhat uneasy and uncomfortable. So we’re always on some kind of scale of higher, medium, or lower subjective states. Life is a rollercoaster for all of us, but with varying degrees of sharp turns, soaring heights, and steep falls.

The point of this scale is to get at something a bit more tangible than simply asking “how you’re doing on a scale of 1 to 10”. That old method doesn’t really work if we want to check how we’re really doing (and thus, our currently used international happiness statistics are rather unreliable). With the “scale of subjective states”, we get something we can compare and track more easily and reliably — even if this proposed model is of course still somewhat crude.

The scale of subjective states helps us describe how “tuned in” we are to life itself, moment to moment. That’s what it’s about. It’s not about surface-level cheeriness, but about happiness at the deepest level. How is existence showing up for you?

This model has already begun to be used clinically. A senior clinical psychologist in Massachusetts, Erik Muten, has started to employ the scale of subjective states to gauge where his clients are at — and to support them in improving upon their inner states. From what I hear, it has thus far been highly successful as a part of his clinical toolkit, in his work with corporate leadership as well, and it is spreading to other therapists.

We don’t really have to, in this context, make a big deal out of the “high states” and “low states”. Maybe it isn’t exactly true that people can be “enlightened”, for instance. We can just note that at the heights of what can be experienced by humans, things tend to reach into the “spiritual” in some wide sense of the term: very strong orgasms, moments of extreme clarity and peace, psychedelic highs (whether chemically induced or not), etc. And, on the lower end, there are some really frightening and awful depths of madness and unimaginable suffering.

But let us now focus on where most of us really live our lives: in the range of medium states (states 5–10). And by far the most common subjective state for most people is “7”: Somewhat uneasy, “okay”, full of small faults. So the “7” on the scale is something we all recognize: We’re doing okay, sort of, but with this lingering feeling of slight unease, or some little discomfort here and there. Sometimes we’re at a “6”, (uneasy, uncomfortable) sometimes even a “5”, dealing with real anxieties. Some people generally have higher states, and some have to live out their lives at lower ones, coloring all of their life experience in darker shades. Most of us spend more than 99% of the time in the range of these medium states (as mentioned, 5–10).

But again, most of us are at a “7” most of the time. To be honest, that’s where we tend to more or less spend our lives. In this state, we’re okay, but we’re not quite “happy”. During unhappier and tougher periods of our lives, we tend to gravitate somewhat lower, of course.

As compared to ordinary state “7” existence, state “8” is just one state up, and there’s nothing spectacular about it. It is quite ordinary. We’ve all been there from time to time (or, by far the most of us have). There are yet higher states, sure, but here at “8”, life is still, well, genuinely okay. Not “okay, sort of”.

“Happiness”, as I conceive of it, only quite begins at state “8” — when we truly feel a sense of ease, okayness, normality. Somehow, here, we feel at home in the world and that underlying low-level suffering isn’t present. Life just happens; there are subtle moods within everyday experience which we can feel into more or less vividly: a shower, a first coffee, the little things, a nice song playing at the cozy café. Again, this serves to underscore why “the pursuit of happiness” in and of itself tends to be counterproductive; happiness is not “a thing”, it’s a container for the technicolor richness of life. Happiness is a property of the canvas of direct experience upon which life is painted.

The book is out on Jan 1st. www.metamoderna.org