Research · The New Human University · 2021 cohort

The New Human Assessment: first-year results

One year, nine measures, every one moving the right way. Mystical experience up 43%, depression down 24%, and a new capacity we call Inner Organic Technology up 37%.

Study summary

Graduation comes from the Latin gradus, a step. Finishing a first year isn’t an ending. It’s the first step on a much longer staircase, and in 2021 we finally had the data to show how big that first step was.

What we measured

The New Human Assessment is an integrated instrument that measures both states of experience and stages of development. For the 2021 cohort of The New Human University’s one-year transformational learning program, the state side used nine scales:

Inner Organic Technology (IOT). A new scale we built to track the body’s dormant capacity coming online: a general measure plus specific modes of expression (breath expansion, breath rhythm, the auto-wave, the double helix, and how it shows up in daily life).
Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ). Unity, noetic quality and sacredness; transcendence of time and space; positive mood; ineffability.
Sense of Coherence (SoC). How comprehensible, manageable and meaningful life feels.
Flourishing, Subjective Happiness, Goals, Pearlin Mastery, Anxiety and Depression.

Everyone took all nine before the year began (Quarter 0) and again at the end (Quarter 4). IOT, Mystical Experience and Sense of Coherence were also measured after every quarter, so we could watch them move.

Before and after

From the start of the year to the end, every measure changed in the direction we hypothesized, and every change was statistically significant (p < 0.05).

Scale	Q0 → Q4	Change	% change
Mystical Experience (MEQ)	92.4 → 132.0	+39.6 ± 9.7	+42.9% ± 11.3%
Inner Organic Technology (IOT)	24.4 → 33.4	+9.0 ± 2.6	+36.7% ± 11.0%
Depression	6.9 → 5.2	−1.7 ± 0.6	−24.2% ± 8.5%
Anxiety	7.0 → 5.6	−1.4 ± 0.7	−20.0% ± 9.6%
Goals	12.6 → 14.6	+2.0 ± 0.6	+15.6% ± 4.5%
Happiness	21.2 → 23.8	+2.6 ± 1.1	+12.0% ± 5.1%
Sense of Coherence (SoC)	144.3 → 160.2	+15.9 ± 5.1	+11.0% ± 3.5%
Mastery	23.2 → 25.5	+2.3 ± 0.9	+9.7% ± 3.9%
Flourishing	47.8 → 51.8	+4.0 ± 1.4	+8.3% ± 2.9%

Subjective Happiness Scale, individual scores before (Q0) and after (Q4); the low scores at baseline are gone after one year. — Happiness, every student before and after. The cohort was 12.0% (±5.1%) happier after one year, and the long tail of low scores disappeared.

Depression Index, individual scores before and after; the spread narrows and the median drops from 6 to 5. — Depression, every student before and after: 24.2% (±8.5%) lower than baseline.

Quarter by quarter

The quarterly measures show the shape of the change. IOT jumps in the first quarter and keeps climbing. Mystical experience rises fastest through the middle of the year. Sense of coherence, how comprehensible, manageable and meaningful life feels, climbs steadily the whole way.

IOT by quarter: 23.7, 29.9, 32.1, 32.8, 33.3. — Inner Organic Technology: 23.7 → 29.9 → 32.1 → 32.8 → 33.3

Mystical Experience by quarter: 89, 106, 127, 122, 131. — Mystical Experience: 89 → 106 → 127 → 122 → 131

Sense of Coherence by quarter: 146, 148, 152, 156, 161. — Sense of Coherence: 146 → 148 → 152 → 156 → 161

IOT tracks the rest

The most interesting result is the link between Inner Organic Technology and everything else. At baseline (February 2021, N = 48), IOT and mystical experience were already strongly correlated across students: r = 0.81 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.89).

Across the year, the quarterly averages line up even more tightly. Each point of IOT goes with about 4.4 points of mystical experience (R² = 0.91) and about 1.3 points of sense of coherence (R² = 0.62). The relationship may not be linear, and that’s one of the things the next cohorts will tell us.

Mystical Experience vs Inner Organic Technology, quarterly means with standard errors; fit y = 4.43x − 19.27, R² = 0.91. — Mystical experience vs IOT, quarterly means ± standard error.

Sense of Coherence vs Inner Organic Technology, quarterly means with standard errors; fit y = 1.28x + 113.88, R² = 0.62. — Sense of coherence vs IOT, quarterly means ± standard error.

So what? Now what?

This was the first full year after a decade of training and beta testing, and the people who did the work changed in profound, statistically significant ways: less depressed, less anxious, happier, more on purpose, and with far more access to mystical experience. The data says we’re at the beginning of something, not the end.

The next steps are already underway: the stage side of the assessment (see structure-stage growth in one year), a stage-development study with Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter, and the IOTA Life Impact Index, built to follow participants before, after and 90 days out.

About the data. One cohort, measured before and after the year with quarterly check-ins on three scales; no control group. N = 48 at the February 2021 baseline. ± values are as reported in the original analysis. Adapted from posts I first published at The New Human University: “Finally! It’s just the beginning…” ↗ (February 2022), “So what!? Now what!?” ↗ (February 2022), and the April 2021 baseline analysis ↗.