Some spiritual traditions, like Buddhism, talk of the need to create peace through the practice of non-violence [4] whereas others emphasize that peace is related to the need “to slow down, in other words walking, eating, having a shower and just about any activity you undertake. Slow down and enjoy things more” [5]. On the other hand, Arka claims: “The first experience of spirituality is inner peace. Once this threshold is obtained, many doors of matrix realities open” [1, p. 68]. However, “before we enter the inner realms of peace, we must bypass the mind´s obstructions. If we accept this about the mind, then we can even enjoy its disturbing nature en route to the peaceful heart, and thence to the deep, silent sea of consciousness” [6, p.145]. Arka describes the part of the person who undertakes the inner journey as the “I ego awareness,” and he maintains that to find our true identity, or Self, we have to look above or below our surface mind. He describes this as “a journey from the 'Rational Mind to the Emotional Heart to Pure Consciousness'” [1, p. 38].

To help people undertake this journey, nearly 40 years ago Arka developed a heart-based method of meditation known as Arka Dhyana or Intuitive Meditation (IM) which is based on three pillars – touch, sound and breath. IM has been practiced for over a quarter of a century in many countries, such as England, New Zealand, Canada, India, Spain, Mexico, and Fiji Islands. Although the psychosomatic nature of religious practices is part of other methods that meditate on the heart [7], in the present investigation the IM method was chosen because, although it too is aimed at leading the practitioner to the discovering of the Self, it is so designed that people who want to connect with their feeling nature in their heart may do so [2]. This method is not a religious practice but a natural way of discovering or rediscovering our heart-based inner intuitive nature on our journey to Self-discovery. During this journey, Arka maintains, practitioners will go through six main levels of consciousness in order to reach the core of their being. This observation is based on his own experience and on teaching the Intuitive Meditation method to others. It has also given rise to his Theory of the 6 Main Levels of Consciousness [1, p.37]. Arka uses the following definition of consciousness:

Consciousness manifests itself through physical matter. Similar to bacteria that are able to survive with a complete lack of oxygen and in high temperatures, consciousness lacks boundaries, can take any form or shape and can emerge under challenging life conditions. In spirituality, consciousness is mainly a non-physical yet powerful entity that is the pivotal point of all life and activates the senses in every living being. It is highly responsive and expressive and activates many levels, especially in humans [1 p. 37].

Arka´s definition of consciousness is similar to Classical Indian writings such as the Upanishads, [where] consciousness is thought to be the essence of Atman, a primal, immanent self that is ultimately identified with Brahman—a pure, transcendental, subject-object-less consciousness that underlies and provides the ground of being of both Man and Nature [8, p. 1].

It also resembles the model of reality put forward by quantum-relativistic physics which

has transcended the concept of solid, indestructible matter and separate objects and show the universe as a complex web of events and relations… However, the physicist has very little to say about the variety of the different forms the cosmic dance takes on various other levels of reality. The experimental insights from unusual states of consciousness suggest the existence of intangible and unfathomable creative intelligence aware of itself that permeates all realms of reality. This approach indicates that it is pure consciousness without any specific content that represents the supreme principle of existence and the ultimate reality. From it everything in the cosmos is derived [9, p.72].

The six levels Arka presents in his theory are Mind, Subliminal-Mind, Feeling-Mind, Emotional-Heart, Heart-Soul and Pure- Self:

M (Mind) – Consciousness: Mind is the first layer, which manifests on the surface of the cerebral region. As it becomes sharpened by the cultivation of learning, it evolves into a faculty called intellect.

SM (Subliminal-Mind) – Consciousness: The second level, which is below the surface mind, is the subliminal or subconscious mind. We are unaware of its potential and capabilities, which may seem incredible to the surface mind. Many daily activities are governed by the subconscious mind.

F (Feeling-Mind) – Consciousness: The third level is the feeling mind. This feeling-consciousness generally prevails in the heart area and can thus be called the Heart of Heart-Consciousness. It includes an emotional faculty called intuition. Almost all mothers have this faculty naturally available and readily accessible to help them understand the intense needs of their children and people they care about.

H (Emotional-Heart) – Consciousness: The fourth layer is the deeper heart where you feel emotions with even greater intensity. This can be called the spiritual heart, or your inner consciousness. The presence of the surface mind is reduced and the presence of subliminal or subconscious mind is enhanced. It is formed by impressions gathered through what you have learned and experienced along with the memory of your personality.

HS (Heart-Soul) – Consciousness: The fifth level is between the deeper heart and the ultimate essential being (Soul). Here you experience inner-space and the Mystical Universe, where the laws of physics start reversing and lead you to experience many alternative realities and possibilities that give access to your own soul. Here you become more connected with Nature and the forces of the Universe.

PS (Pure-Self) – Consciousness: The sixth layer is Core-Consciousness. This is the very essence of your whole presence and of everything that you feel, think and do. It is addressed as Soul or Self [1, pp. 37–38].

As I was interested in learning more about Arka´s 3rd level of consciousness, Feeling-Mind – Consciousness, my investigation was directed at people who were unfamiliar with the IM method to see if they would show a shift towards a more feeling-based consciousness after being trained to go below their minds. Here the independent variable consisted of an IM workshop consisting of 5 IM sessions spread over 6 weeks (a total of 13.5 hours). As this level of consciousness prevails in the heart area, Arka suggests it be called the Heart of Heart-Consciousness [5]. In the original study, I simply referred to it as the “Feeling Heart” [2].

Scientists have found that more information is sent from the heart to the brain than vice versa [10] and, even if science does not know the contents of this information, they do recognize that the heart uses different pathways. For instance, the HeartMath Institute identifies four communication pathways: neurological, chemical, biophysical, and energetic [11, Heart Brain Communication section, para. 1].

What is of interest to me here, are the last two pathways of communication. In support of the electrical or biophysical pathway, Liboff suggests that Western science has revealed that there is “a remarkable endogenous electric character to organisms” [12, p. 44]. Based on research involving heart transplant patients, the energetic layer seems to be the initial layer as it seems the organism might be reacting to subtle changes brought about by changes in the biofield, made up of the electromagnetic layer and other layers not yet discovered by science [2]. Rubik supports this. She claims the biofield is “at least in part, based on the electromagnetic field theory of modern physics… [and] rests on physical principles that can be measured” [13, p. 555]. However, she also draws our attention to the fact that these fields “might also include acoustic and possibly other subtler energy fields not yet known to science” [13, p. 555]. Changes in the biofield can be brought about by forces directly linked to the Source or Higher Nature or by changes in the environment [2]. The environment not only consists of the exterior environment; it also involves our world of thoughts and stories, referred to as our “inner environment”. It is through “our bodies” that we experience these changes, both those that are occurring in the outside world and those that are occurring as a reaction to our inner thoughts [14]. Based on research into the nature and role of the heart, it seems as though these fields, often referred to as “subtle energy fields”, are primary in that they seem to be related to not only what comprises the system, but what guides it [2]. This is consistent with the Anthroposophic vision [15]. However it also appears these fields can be influenced by the system, mainly the heart, in response to the person´s reaction to the outer and inner environment. In this sense, these fields, or at least part of them, might be a reflection of what is going inside the person. These fields have been talked about throughout the ages and form the subject matter of many spiritual and metaphysical traditions. In India the subtle energy system is described as “swirling intersections of vital life forces” making up the “subtle energy system” of the body which animates each person´s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual body. Each chakra reflects an aspect of consciousness essential to our lives. They are “organizing centers for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of life energies” [16] and appear to involve changes in the magnetic and other electrical fields.

Spiritual traditions also talk of an aura where different bodies or sheaths are each embedded in the other [17, p. 8]. These bodies go from the outer subtlest body to the denser physical body. The different bodies that make up the Self are generally thought to be the causal body, mental body, emotional body, etheric body (made of ether or life-energy), and physical body [18]. There are variations to these names and number of sheaths. They are said to extend both outside the body and penetrate into the body itself [6]. As implied earlier, science also recognizes the organism as a being embedded in a bio-field of ever-increasing subtle fields. This way of looking requires a paradigm shift from seeing the body as only a biochemical system to also seeing it as a bioelectrical system. When the term “spiritual” is replaced with “metaphysical systems”, it becomes easier for the Western mind to understand [2].

In this investigation, people were trained to go below their thinking mind and contact their Self, using the IM method of meditation. As “life force is a one of the properties of soul” (Arka, personal communication, August 21, 2015) and terminologies “like soul, inner self, and deeper consciousness are very close to each other in meanings” (Arka, personal communication, May 2, 2016) this investigation also involved finding out what happens when practitioners are trained to go below their minds and connect with their “life force”. Arka, on being asked where the soul was in the human body answers with a question: “Soul, electrically, tell me where there is no soul . . . soul is not the word, it is the meaning that is important—self spirit, atman, how can you separate yourself from soul?” [19]. From this statement, he is clearly referring to an electrical system. The research mentioned here can therefore also be seen as involving what happens when people are trained to get in touch with their electrical system. During this analysis one must be careful not to reduce “life force” or “electrical system” to the soul, but rather see it as a property of the soul as suggested by Arka.

In his theory of the 6 levels of Consciousness, the sixth level as PS (Pure-Self) - Consciousness is identified as the very essence of your presence and of everything that you feel, think and do. It is called Soul or Self [1]. Arka also defines soul as the unconscious master–mind within every organic material in the body. It pervades inside and outside of every cell, a mother-like awareness of intelligence, which prompts everything that happens biologically, psychologically, emotionally, or in any other way. It can be bigger than our bodies and smaller than a photon. One’s truest identity; cosmically spiritual in nature. (S. Arka, personal communication, May 4, 2016).

He likens IM to a “musical instrument” which can be used in different ways depending on the intention of the person practicing it. He declares “the preliminary task of setting ones intention is the thrust of the IM method” and people may utilize it how they like. Some people want to “improve their health or feel good, whereas others want to discover and connect with their true nature or inner Self” (S. Arka, personal communication, August 6, 2016). In this investigation participants were encouraged to connect with their inner essence or Self, using their feeling heart.

The concept “heart-based” also needs to be clarified. Although some traditions talk of Anahata which is the name of the 4th chakra or heart center, in IM pupils are initially instructed to bring their right hand in jnana mudra, which consists of bringing the index finger and the thumb together in a closed circuit, to the area of the center of their upper chest and to become aware of their inner world of sensations. Participants are encouraged to experiment where they feel more connection without specifying the exact location. During this beginning stage participants who want, may launch an intention. In this study, those who so desired were invited to connect with their Self or Soul, and then to let go of this wish. An intention based on a sincere desire is said to put participants in touch with their inner world of feeling.

Initially “heart-based” can be considered an area in the center of the upper chest connected with sensations, as well as an inner attitude based on ones intention. “Heart-based” is also concerned with certain levels of consciousness described by Arka in his theory and a type of meditation. Meditation methods can be divided into thinking or feeling based meditation. Feeling based meditation is considered as easer than those that are thinking based [6]. When the goal of meditation involves ego-transcendence arising out of “experimental phenomenological introspection into the living topological construct of the Self” [20 p. 82] or the rewinding of our history coupled with “serious self-pondering [which involves] the process of making profound inquiry into the depth of the soul about . . . [our] existence or how the Universe was created or the laws that governed living and non-living matter” [1p. 29], then the meditation experience is seen to move in a certain way.

The participants for this study were self-selected in the sense they were people who voluntarily signed up to learn the IM method and participate in the study. As long-term changes in inner consciousness normally require that people actually practice the method on a regular basis, I decided to use only people interested in learning it. All participants paid a nominal sum for attending the workshop. People who were not earning were given a discount.

Thirty-seven participants started the course, of which 31 completed it. Six could not complete the course for a variety of reasons. Twenty-three were females and 8 were males. Their ages ranged from 27 to 72 years, with an average age of 48 years. Twenty-five were Spanish, two Argentinian, and one from Colombia, Brazil, and Italy respectively. At the time of the study, they all were living in Madrid, where I conducted this research. The participants came from all walks of life.

The same IM workshop was offered on different days, times and places and the participants joined whatever workshop was most convenient to them. All workshops were conducted in spacious halls, which permitted the participants to lie down during the relaxation phase of the meditation. In the end there were five groups consisting of between three and nine subjects. All the participants filled in the FCS prior to beginning the workshop. The same scale, was again applied 6 weeks later at the end of the last class after practicing IM. The first time the scale was applied it also included demographic questions regarding age, gender, and experience with other meditation methods. The scale also included several open questions the second time it was applied. As such, this research can be considered as a special type of multi-method approach where both quantifiable and qualitative data play an important role [21]. The assertions were the same as in the first scale, although the order of presentation was changed. A Likert-type scale ranging from 1 to 7 was used, with 1 representing “never” or “almost never” and 7 representing “very often” or “always”. All participants filled in the scale items the second time it was applied but one male did not fill in the open questions.

The final scale consisted of 20 items (Table 3). I dropped two during the analysis phase because both of these were worded negatively and when the participants were filling them out, many asked which way they should go. This indicated an ambiguity in their wording, so I decided to not include them.

As this study is a start in a field in which scientific psychological evaluation is new, future work in evaluating this treatment approach will need to refine the measurement instrument and try to develop a shorter version so that the field can add constructs to the evaluation instrument (A. Kendall, personal communication, January 31, 2016). (See Table 3 for a list of scale items).

The qualitative questionnaire consisted of five reflective questions:

1. In what way or how do you feel IM has complemented to your wellbeing?
2. Please add something about your experiences while practicing the method IM and how you feel afterwards.
3. In what way is IM helping you with your emotions?
4. Since experiencing the method IM, do you feel that you have tapped into intuition more? Please expand your answer if possible.
5. Do you feel that IM has increased your sensitivity? For example, how do you react to violent scenes in films or the TV? Do you have to turn away your head and close the eyes? Has it always been like this or have you noticed a change since taking this course? Please also give more details in how your sensitivity might be increasing.

There was also another open-ended question that followed the scale items: Is there anything you would like to comment or add regarding the questionnaire itself or how you filled it in the first time you did it?

Only 30 participants responded to the open questions; one of the participants who had filled in the scale online did not complete this section. The answers to the open questions were not very elaborate, but, in turn, were descriptive in terms of certain traits. This permitted the answers to be coded in terms of frequency. Seventeen traits were identified. A frequency count was conducted. I also looked at the frequency of naming a trait in terms of gender (Table 1). I then calculated the frequency scores based on gender into percentages (Table 2). Although some traits were similar to each other, I initially left them as separate traits, for sometimes both were mentioned together by the same person, indicating that at least for them, the internal experience of each trait was slightly different. Two people responded in English, the rest responded in Spanish. One of the traits, “sensitivity” (sensibilidad in Spanish) has multiple shades of meanings (Merriam-Webster.com, n.d.b). As some people claimed that prior to learning IM they were already sensitive, I identified it as the same trait with part “a” and part “b,” with part “a” reflecting more “sensitivity” after learning IM and part “b” reflecting recognition of sensitivity prior to learning IM. I did the same for intuition, as people also claimed they were already intuitive prior to learning IM. I also looked at the data to see if one could recognize phrases that identified the learning of IM as a process. Unfortunately, the open questions did not address the question of process directly.

Arka´s theory and work suggests that a return to a more feeling level of consciousness involves various inner experiences, such as awareness of different configurations of sensations in the heart and elsewhere in the body, spontaneous emotional feelings arising during meditation, a move toward a feeling of unity and peace, connection with the Self, greater connection and empathy toward oneself, others, and nature, increased positivity and focus, a feeling of being centered, and an increased sense of receiving intuitive guidance [1, 6, 22].

The scale items comprising the FCS were derived from theory and interviewing eight people who had practiced the IM method for between 7 months and 2 years. I asked them to tell me about their experiences related to its practice. I chose to do this, as my interest was not only in testing a theory, but to find out if certain subjective experiences were common to practitioners when they started meditating on their Self using the IM method. Based on intuition and on Arka's work, I felt that “feeling consciousness” is a single construct involving multiple facets.

Later, the same eight people ordered and arranged the statements regarding their experiences in different groups based on common elements. This was done to overcome certain biases like aphelia or patternicity¹ [23], attribution bias² [24], and confirmation bias³ [25]. In addition, where possible, participants in this study were asked to share more about their inner experiences rather than my relying purely on the words used by them.

In the draft of the scale used in the pilot study, the number of scale items was reduced for better reliability - the rule of thumb is about five respondents per item [26]. Fundamental to IM is the awakening of the emotional layer. The deepening of this is essential to the student´s progression through the various levels of consciousness outlined by Arka in his theory. This is difficult to measure, particularly as the limitation in the number of scale items does not allow for the inclusion of other items that could tap into these deeper levels.

¹ The tendency of one individual to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise

² A cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others' behaviors.

³ The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

⁴ Although the results of the investigation are based on 31 participants, the results of the open-ended questions are based on the responses of 30 participants, 23 females and 7 males. One male did not complete this part of the questionnaire.

In the originals study a paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare feeling-consciousness on the pre-test and post-test. There was a statistically significant difference between the pre-test score (M= 4.3, SD= .99) and the post-test score (M= 5.3, SD= .72); t =5.4 (30), p < .001. The mean post-test score was .9 scale points higher than the mean pre-test scale score. The 95% confidence interval is from .6 scale points to 1.3 scale points with a statistically significance at the .001 level⁵.

Fig. (3). Scatter Plot of Results based on Pre and Post Feeling Consciousness Scores.

Although there is somewhat of a lower left to upper right pattern, the points are not a straight line Fig. (3).

⁶ To obtain the full version of the FCS, contact consol.tina@gmail.com