Spirituality Studies 41 Fabio Mattiussi, Patrizio Tressoldi Fabio Mattiussi is a psychologist specializing in neuroscience and meditation. His research interests include the cognitive and emotional processes involved in meditation practices, with particular attention to grief, vulnerability, and endof-life issues. Patrizio Tressoldi, PhD, is a senior scientist affiliated with the Studium Patavinum at Padova University in Italy. His primary research focus is investigating non-ordinary consciousness experiences, which he considers the best way to answer the existential question, “Who are we really?” His email contact is patrizio.tressoldi@unipd.it. orcid.org Fabio Mattiussi, Patrizio Tressoldi The Phenomenology of Long-Term Meditation Experiences and Interpretation of the Nature of Human Consciousness Forty-five long-term meditators with a minimum of five years of continuous daily practice were requested to describe their highest meditative experiences using the micro-phenomenological self-inquiry method (MPSI) and to provide their interpretation of the nature of human consciousness. The first-person accounts of meditators consistently reported profound and stable experiences of body and identity transcendence, often describing non-dual states and a pervasive sense of unity. Most participants understood consciousness to be universal in nature and not reducible to a byproduct of the brain. These first-person accounts offer novel insights into the characteristics of long-term meditation experiences and the fundamental nature of consciousness. Received July 15, 2026 Revised August 17, 2026 Accepted August 18, 2026 Keywords Meditation, long-term meditators, phenomenology, consciousness ←← Photography © 2026 Martin Dojčár
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