Source Library · phenomenology of the historical record · second edition
This maps descriptions of consciousness, not consciousness. Every point is a verbatim quotation, machine-checked character-for-character against the scanned page it came from, and links to that page. Quotations that did not match exactly were discarded rather than repaired.
That ratio is the only evidence that the probes are doing real work rather than returning whatever is nearest. It also means this atlas is a core sample, not a survey: the material it draws on is roughly two orders of magnitude larger than what is plotted here.
The clearest structure is not which states get described but how. Some reach us almost entirely as instruction — a method for producing the state — and others almost entirely as testimony. The split falls along tradition lines, and is visible in the map as the contemplative region sitting apart from the visionary mass.
| Probe theme & passages read | Instruction | Testimony | Leans |
|---|
Historical sources almost always say what preceded the state — a fast, a fever, a drug, a vigil, a bereavement, a drum. Modern experimental phenomenology cannot ask this question, because it holds the cause fixed by design. This is the axis the historical record has and the laboratory does not.
| Antecedent | Passages | Share | Most common experience |
|---|
| Attributed to | Passages | Disputed | Chiefly from |
|---|
Clusters are found in the quotation embeddings and labelled afterwards by what dominates them — no region was defined in advance.
| Region | Passages | Dominant experiences | Chiefly from | Typical antecedent |
|---|
The full dataset, filtered by the controls above. Each row links to the scanned page.
| Quotation | Source | Year | Register | Page |
|---|