Among the qualities that sustained observation brings forth, one is more difficult to grasp than the others: a quality of inner “space”. It has no direct material support, and it is the most exposed to suggestion — the one where one most risks mistaking an expectation for an experience.
Method
The Laboratory approached this exploration with redoubled caution. Without material support, the risk is of sliding into pure imaginary construction. One must accept that the experience may be minimal, rather than fabricating it — and renounce drawing conclusions as soon as the observation becomes uncertain.
Observations
What appears, when something does appear, is a quality of openness: a sense of receptivity, of availability, as if attention had more room. This quality does not add itself to the other contents of experience; it resembles rather the ground upon which the other contents appear.
Epistemological status
This is, among all the explorations conducted by the Laboratory, the most delicate to handle. We document what presents itself to sustained attention, without making of it either a thesis or an explanation of the world. A felt quality is not proof: it says something about the observer and their attention, not necessarily about the reality observed.