Development and psychometric evaluation of the Oneness Experience Scale

Experiencing oneness or nondual awareness has long been considered a core aspect of spirituality and an aim of meditation and spiritual practice. Oneness experience may lead to well-being and has various adaptive functions in everyday life. However, there has been a lack of comprehensive measures of oneness experiences that are grounded in the consensus-based reports of experienced meditation practitioners. The purpose of this study is to develop a new measure of oneness experience that is psychometrically robust and suitable for research on mindfulness, spirituality, and well-being.

Scale items were developed based on prior collective intelligence research and a comprehensive literature review and were subsequently reviewed by five content experts. The dimensionality of the scale was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a large sample of participants (N = 762; age: M = 37.29, SD = 17.16, Female = 66%).

Results revealed an 84-item scale with 21 factors, including: Part of a Whole/Connection With Everything, Ego-dissolution, Clarity, Nowness, Safety and Reassurance, Non-judgementality, Timelessness, Spontaneity, Peace, Compassion, Self-compassion, Non-striving, Spaciousness, Acceptance, Non-separation from Others, Revelation Of Truth, Flow, Perfect As It Is, Openness, Appreciation, and Same and Different. The scale and its subscales possess good internal consistency and construct validity. Evidence of construct validity was found through positive associations with well-being (as measured by the Mental Health Continuum), mindfulness (using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire), personality (based on the Big Five Inventory-10), and self-reports of oneness experience.

The Oneness Experience Scale is a measure suited for process- and outcomes-based research in the domains of mindfulness, spiritual practices, and well-being.