# Waypoint Marker Bank v0

**Status:** research-phase deliverable 2 of 4 (spec §10) — **v0.1 (completed + red-team revised), 2026-07-16**. Expert-set initial weights; **nothing here is calibrated**. Surya calibration (M2) revises loci, tiers, and the foil/guard logic before any extraction run. Revision log in §0.
**Spec:** `~/LIFE/specs/waypoint-practitioner-stage-assessment.md` (esp. §3 construct, §5 evidence channels, §6 estimator, §7 validation).
**Inputs:** internal canon (`corpus/internal-canon.md`), lane dossiers 1 (traditions/verification), 2 (psychometrics), 4 (safety), 5 (Goodhart/contamination), the six seed-corpus notes (`corpus/*.md`), the external red-team ([RT] `external/codex-ultra-marker-redteam.md`), and the verifier pass (`deliverables/verifier-findings-raw.md`). Source keys expanded in §7.
**Scope:** wheel bands 3–7 (≈21–70) × four pillars (sensations / emotions / thoughts / awareness) + a phase axis (glimpse, plateau, dip/dark-night-adjacent, integration, intensification), finest resolution in 22–45 where app users live.
**Distribution note (Lane 5 §2.6):** the guard/detection logic in §4 and the confusion table in §5 are the crown jewels — internal-only, narrower distribution than the Wheel itself. Coached knowledge of *detection strategy* degrades detection far more than knowledge of the map (Rogers et al. 1993; Storm & Graham 2000, via [L5]).

---

## 0. Revision log — v0 → v0.1 (red-team pass, 2026-07-16)

**Sections:** §1 how-to-read · §2 band × pillar markers (2.1 band 3, 2.2 band 4, 2.3 band 5, 2.4 band 6, 2.5 band 7) · §3 phase-axis markers · §4 cross-band guard markers · §5 confusion table · §6 coverage matrix · §7 source keys.

The external red-team ([RT]) found v0's core defect: the bank conflated path development with **verbal/narrative sophistication, personality/culture, therapy/coaching exposure, LIFE-curriculum compliance, and transient states**. v0.1 responds structurally, not cosmetically:

1. **Every marker now carries a `Class/Contamination` field** (§1.2): its evidence family (stage / curriculum / state / milestone / covariate / guard / safety) and which of the five confounds could produce its signal absent any stage difference, with a guard note the extractor must check before emitting.
2. **Curriculum-compliance evidence is now labeled as such**, distinct from stage evidence: markers that track progress *through the LIFE curriculum* (gates, technique mastery, content comprehension — M-S4-002, M-S4-004, M-E4-004, M-T4-002, M-T4-003, M-T4-004, M-T4-005, M-A4-009) update a curriculum-position latent and reach the band posterior only via the curriculum→stage bridge prior (§1.4), never directly.
3. **New global rules 13–17** (§1.3): episode-cluster/local-dependence control, capacity norming, floor-marker down-faking, honesty-texture caution, alternative-acquisition-route annotation.
4. **Dispositions on the red-team's ten worst:**

| [RT] rank | Marker | Disposition v0.1 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | M-S4-003 Neidan signs | **Descoped** — no stage scoring; retained as phenomenology/safety annotation pending primary-text + teacher verification |
| 2 | M-A4-008 non-dual glimpse | **Phase/milestone only** — no direct band update; band effect only via longitudinal integration (M-X5-001) |
| 3 | M-E3-002 narrow affect vocabulary | **Reclassified** reporting-capacity covariate; never scores toward band 3 |
| 4 | M-S3-002 restlessness floor | **Reclassified** accessibility/health covariate only |
| 5 | M-S4-006 posture stability | **Reclassified** covariate — adapts practice format only |
| 6 | M-X3-002 instrumental framing | **Reclassified** goal/preference covariate |
| 7 | M-A4-010 practice consistency | **Reclassified** adherence covariate; absence never lowers stage (asymmetry fixed) |
| 8 | M-T4-001 thought-as-event syntax | **Downgraded** to weak + jargon-stripped-paraphrase guard |
| 9 | M-T4-002 beliefs as constructs | **Relabeled** curriculum-engagement evidence only |
| 10 | M-E3-003 externalized causality | **Deleted** — tombstone in place; contextual formulation hypothesis only |

5. **Verifier content fixes applied** (from `verifier-findings-raw.md`): M-S4-004/M-A4-009 stage-numbering reconciliation note (canon §9-A/§9-J); 2.1 consistency checks keyed to day-totals not step index (§9-D); M-X3-002 anchor gloss corrected (28 = Culture); M-A4-009 session grammar includes Mobility; M-S4-005 canon-overlay cite dropped; floor-marker down-faking promoted to rule 15; Anālayo-ladder framing marked as [AL]'s interpretive gloss; Farias elicitation-gap reframed as a design gap (rule 4). Redmore 1976 PMID 16367343 kept: live-verified twice this pass (one verifier's range-heuristic doubt noted; PubMed legacy retro-assignment explains the high PMID).
6. **[RT] items deliberately not adopted:** none rejected outright; the split-latent-family recommendation is implemented as evidence classes (§1.4), and full construct-validity control cohorts + independent criterion validation are calibration-protocol work (spec §7), out of a marker bank's scope — carried as declared limits in §6.

7. **Adjudication pass (2026-07-16, post-repair; full log in `deliverables/ADJUDICATION.md`):** §1.4 bridge subsection restored (was referenced 7× but absent — CRITICAL); M-S4-004 and M-PGL-001 dual-classed `+ milestone` so the spec §4 milestone ids (`reverse_breathing`, `first_glimpse`, `small_death`) all route to the milestone side-chain; M-S4-005 locus gloss and M-S5-003 canon cite corrected; M-A4-009 stage-numbering note completed; M-NX-003 foil-vs-teaching-move tension recorded; [FSNR] equanimity-contact marked author-derived; stale estimator-memo §6.1 refs corrected to §8.

---

## 1. How to read this bank

**A marker** is an observable indicator in (a) passive Wisdom conversation, (b) a probe response, or (c) practice telemetry. The extractor (spec §6) reads a session against this bank and emits typed events `{marker_id, polarity, confidence, quote/evidence_ref}`. **"No markers found" is a first-class, expected outcome** ([L5] §2.13). Every event must carry a verbatim quote or telemetry reference; an event without evidence is discarded by the aggregator.

### 1.1 ID scheme

`M-<pillar><band>-NNN` — pillar ∈ {**S** sensations, **E** emotions, **T** thoughts, **A** awareness, **X** cross-pillar}, band ∈ {3…7}.
`M-P<phase>-NNN` — phase ∈ {**GL** glimpse, **PL** plateau, **DP** dip/dark-night-adjacent, **IN** integration, **IT** intensification}.
`M-NX-NNN` — cross-band guard markers (contamination, implausibility, look-alike redirects). Mostly negative polarity.

Band names (canon §2): band 3 = Intelligence 21–30 (pre-path; app users enter here), band 4 = Awareness 31–40, band 5 = Awakening 41–50, band 6 = Unbinding 51–60, band 7 = Enlightenment 61–70. Scale-point anchors (e.g. "anchor ~47") refer to the canon's scale-row names (canon §3) and are sub-band hints, not hard positions. **Never key anything to the Hawkins LOC column** (non-monotonic in 21–25, canon §9-H).

### 1.2 Fields

- **Locus** — band × pillar (or phase), with scale-point anchor where the canon gives one.
- **Polarity** — FOR (evidence toward the locus) / AGAINST (evidence away from a claimed locus, usually toward a named look-alike).
- **Tier** — initial likelihood: **strong** (nominal LR ≳3: alone, noticeably moves the posterior when verified), **moderate** (≈1.5–3), **weak** (≈1.1–1.5: contextual, only counts in aggregate). Nominal placeholders for Surya to set (M2) and data to refit (M5–M6); direction is stated explicitly (e.g. "moderate FOR band ≥5 awareness").
- **Imitability** — how easily the marker is *produced from map-knowledge alone* (up-faking): **low** (behavioral/telemetry-crossed, counter-intuitive cost admissions, structure under perturbation), **medium** (structured reports a theory-trained subject can partly script), **high** (vocabulary/doctrine reproducible from reading). Grounding: faking *up* structural complexity is hard, faking down easy (Redmore 1976, PMID 16367343, via [L5] §2.1). High-imitability markers are never load-bearing alone.
- **Class/Contamination** *(added v0.1, [RT])* — two parts, one line. **Class** = evidence family: `stage` (updates the band/pillar posterior), `curriculum` (evidences progress through the LIFE curriculum — updates the curriculum-position latent; reaches the band posterior only via the curriculum→stage bridge, §1.4), `state` (transient state/phase evidence — updates phase and the corroboration queue, never the band posterior directly), `milestone` (claim-type, `claimed`→`corroborated` ladder), `covariate` (reporting-capacity / accessibility / adherence / goal — modulates the measurement model; never updates any band posterior in either direction), `guard` (negative-polarity contamination/plausibility logic, §4), `safety` (routes to the Lane-4 flag machinery). **Contamination axes** = which of the five [RT] confounds could produce the signal absent any stage difference: **V** verbal/narrative sophistication · **P** personality/culture (incl. neurotype, display norms, education) · **T** therapy/coaching exposure · **C** LIFE-curriculum compliance/exposure (incl. map reading) · **S** transient state (mood, arousal, peak experiences). Each entry adds a guard note the extractor checks before emitting the event.
- **Flags** — `corroboration_required` (claim-type marker: stays `claimed` until residue/recurrence/telemetry corroborates — spec §4 milestone semantics); `exposure_sensitive` (vocabulary-dependent: discount against the practitioner's exposure ledger, [L5] §2.8); `safety_route` (also routes to the Lane-4 teacher-flag machinery, independent of stage scoring); `telemetry` (scored from practice logs, not language).
- **Sketches** — 2–3 concrete example utterances/behaviors. Illustrative register, not string-match targets.
- **Differential** — what else produces this signal; cross-references confusion-table rows (§5) as CT-n.
- **Source** — canon section, lane section, or cited literature (keys in §7). Every marker is traceable; nothing is invented here.

### 1.3 Global scoring rules (bind every marker; imported from lanes)

1. **Claim-gated asymmetry.** Penalize unsupported claims, never absence of claims. Silence is weak evidence of nothing: cessations are characteristically under-claimed, humility norms deflate ([L5] §1, T3; [NIR]; [BL] caution 6).
2. **Structure over content.** Score how a report is organized (sequence, granularity, subject–object structure, edges under follow-up), not the doctrinal correctness of its words. Unanimous across nine traditions ([L1] §11.1) and the SCT literature ([L2] §4; [L5] §2.1).
3. **Exposure ledger.** Vocabulary-matching markers are discounted for terms Wisdom or app content already taught this practitioner; spontaneous pre-exposure usage is up-weighted ([L5] §2.8 — highest-leverage structural fix; Orne 1962 for mechanism).
4. **Elicitation weighting.** Spontaneous reports > probe-elicited reports at likelihood level (Farias et al. 2020: 3.7% prevalence in experimental/passive-monitoring designs vs 33.2% in observational/active-inquiry designs, via [L4] §3 — a *study-design* gap; the spontaneous-vs-probe reading is our inference, verifier note 2026-07-16). Difficulty markers especially.
5. **Volume normalization.** Marker counts are normalized by conversational opportunity; chattiness is not depth ([L5] §2.13).
6. **Phase before position.** Consult the phase annotation before any consistency penalty or band update; a dip is not regression, a peak is not a stage ([FSNR] §1d U-curves; spec §3). Peak-state reports advance the band posterior only if **volitionally reproducible + persistent** (Sufi maqām/ḥāl; Pa-Auk five masteries — [L1] §7, §2); otherwise annotate as phase.
7. **Trait beats state above ~41.** From Awakening up, off-cushion behavioral/trait markers outweigh peak-state reports (bhūmi rule: equipoise identical across bhūmis, only post-meditation qualities differ — [L1] §5; canon §10).
8. **Self-ratings are near-uninformative for position.** "How aware are you, 1–10" tracks a moving internal anchor that shifts *with* stage, deflationary direction (Grossman 2008/2011; Van Dam et al. 2018, via [L5] §2.9). Retain for phase and anchor-tracking only.
9. **Milestone ladder.** Milestone-class markers (first_glimpse, small_death, …) enter as `claimed`; they become `corroborated` only via after-effect residue, recurrence, or telemetry fit ([NIR] §1e; [L5] §2.3).
10. **Below ~41 trust behavior, above ~41 expect phenomenology, above ~51 expect a ceiling.** The canon's own statement of where a data-only estimator binds (canon §10); traditions unanimously assert a live-teacher information ceiling ([L1] §0). Abstain rather than guess (spec §4 `data_sufficiency`).
11. **Safety routes independently.** `safety_route` markers feed the teacher flag whether or not the band estimate has enough data (Lane 4 §7.2: "safety evidence does not wait for stage evidence").
12. **Function check on all void/detachment/equanimity content.** Genuine attainment co-occurs with functioning + warmth + reduced suffering; pathology does not ([AL] §1.2.7 discriminator). Score jointly, never the void-report alone.
13. **Episode-cluster rule (local dependence — [RT] missing-list #10).** All markers extracted from one narrated episode form ONE evidence cluster; the aggregator takes the cluster's strongest member, never the sum — one polished story must not enter as five independent Bayesian hits. Re-narrations of the same episode corroborate but do not re-count (M-NX-014).
14. **Capacity norming ([RT] confounding audit).** Language-structure markers are scored against the practitioner's own baseline verbal/introspective register (reporting-capacity covariates: M-E3-002-class), never against a population norm. Articulate introspective language is the bank's largest shared method factor; structural fluency is not stage-neutral. Second-language, low-disclosure, and neurodivergent registers widen uncertainty rather than lowering estimates.
15. **Deliberate deflation is out-of-model (v0).** Floor markers score down-faking as out-of-model; their imitability field reads "n/a — floor marker" (faking down is easy, Redmore 1976 direction). Promoted from the M-X3-001 parenthetical (verifier fix); governs every band-3 floor marker.
16. **Honesty-texture is not an authenticity oracle ([RT]).** Difficulty admissions, surprise, instability, failure-mode detail, and physiological tails are default-honest textures, not proofs: once a scoring key is inferred, all four are scriptable. They up-weight only combined with telemetry fit and recurrence in novel contexts; their absence never penalizes.
17. **Alternative acquisition routes annotate, not negate ([RT] missing-list #9).** Psychotherapy, bodywork/yoga, coaching, martial arts, psychedelics, and religious formation produce pillar-local competences without the path. Record provenance (M-NX-015), discount path/curriculum attribution, keep the pillar competence as real pillar evidence.

### 1.4 Curriculum→stage bridge prior *(restored 2026-07-16 — a verifier found this subsection referenced seven times but absent)*

Curriculum-class markers (M-S4-002, M-S4-004, M-E4-004, M-T4-002, M-T4-003, M-T4-004, M-T4-005, M-A4-009) update a **curriculum-position latent** — gate/sequence position per pillar path, maintained deterministically from telemetry plus curriculum-class events — never the band posterior directly. Band evidence arrives only through the **bridge prior**: one elicited natural-frequency table per curriculum waypoint, answering *"out of 100 practitioners at [this gate/sequence position], how many sit in each band region (22–30 / 31–40 / 41–50 / 51+)?"* Bridge rows compile to emission columns exactly like marker rows (estimator memo §3.2), so Surya can set, read, and veto every number at M2.

**v0 bootstrap defaults (machine-derived, deliberately weak):** rows are generated from the canon's gate→band correspondences (canon §10: Stage-1 completion ≈ band-4 entry; 2.x mid-sequence ≈ band 4; Stage-2 completion ≈ band-4 top, per the §9-A/§9-J reading recorded at M-S4-004) and capped at the **weak tier (≤0.6 bits adjacent-band)** — curriculum position is never load-bearing for band placement on its own, which is the whole point of the split ([RT] criterion-contamination finding: curriculum compliance is not stage). The bridge inherits rule 17 (alternative routes annotate) and the exposure ledger (the app teaches its own sequence, so described-position without logged-position is M-NX-008 territory, not bridge input). The canon §9-A stage-numbering ambiguity binds the bridge exactly as it binds M-S4-004: both readings are recorded there; Surya adjudicates at M2, and the bridge table is re-anchored to whichever reading he fixes.

---

## 2. Band × pillar markers

### 2.1 Band 3 — Intelligence (21–30): pre-path baseline

Band-3 placement is mostly established by the **absence** of band-4 structure plus these floor markers. Per rule 1, floor markers fire only on actual evidence in view (a report was invited and came back structureless), never on mere silence. Expected to dominate new app users (canon: app users enter at 22–30).

#### M-X3-001 — content-collapsed experience reports
- **Locus:** band 3 × cross-pillar (floor marker)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 (equivalently AGAINST ≥4) · moderate · n/a — floor marker (down-faking; rule 15)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, P} — V inverts here: low verbal fluency mimics the floor ([RT] reporting-capacity list), so capacity-norm first (rule 14) and fire only on invited/probed reports (rule 1).
- **What:** Invited to describe a difficult episode, the practitioner reports only global content with no noticing-sequence: no onset, no noticing, no fate of the object. The Mahāsi three-phase structure (occurred → noted → what happened to it) is absent.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I was just anxious all day, it was awful." (2) "The sit was bad, I couldn't focus, that's it." (3) Probe "what was that like moment to moment?" returns a re-statement of content, not process.
- **Differential:** Casual register — advanced practitioners also talk this way when not invited into detail; fire only on invited/probed reports. Low verbal fluency generally. CT-4.
- **Source:** [L1] §1 (U Paṇḍita 1992 three-phase formula, inverted); [CANON] §10 (below ~41 evidence is behavioral).

#### M-X3-002 — purely instrumental practice framing — **RECLASSIFIED v0.1: covariate, no stage update**
- **Locus:** band 3 × cross-pillar (anchors 22–28)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: weak FOR band 3) · n/a · low
- **Class/Contamination:** covariate (goal/preference — feeds Wisdom personalization and the practice-selection prior, never the posterior; [RT] #6: motivation is not attainment — advanced practitioners meditate for sleep, novices seek liberation) · axes {P, C} — pragmatism, privacy, product-entry route, and cultural aversion to spiritual language all produce this framing at any stage.
- **What:** Practice motivation framed entirely as sleep/stress/productivity outcomes with no epistemic curiosity about the mind itself.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I just need something to switch my brain off before bed." (2) "Does this help with focus at work? That's all I'm after."
- **Differential:** Perfectly common in genuine early band 4 too; also modesty/pragmatism norms. Weak by design.
- **Source:** [CANON] §3 band-3 scale-row orientations (Survival→Culture; 29 Civilization sits outside the 22–28 anchor — verifier fix); [MtN] (FA-dominant early motivation).

#### M-X3-003 — meaning-seeking pre-path orientation — **RECLASSIFIED v0.1: covariate, no stage update**
- **Locus:** band 3 × cross-pillar (anchor 29–30, Civilization→Wisdom)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: weak FOR top-of-band-3) · n/a · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** covariate (goal/orientation; [RT] near-bottom: openness and philosophical education, not stage). Retained as cold-start context only — it shapes the trajectory prior for a fresh account, never a band update. · axes {V, P} — reading Stoicism is a personality/education signal.
- **What:** Reflective life-view seeking — reads wisdom literature, asks "is this all there is", values-questioning — without any systematic introspective practice history yet. Marks the 30→31 transition zone.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I've been reading about Stoicism and Buddhism, something's missing in how I live." (2) Telemetry: fresh account, no practice history, rich philosophical conversation.
- **Differential:** Long-time practitioners in a doubt phase (check telemetry history); intellectual interest without any pull to practice.
- **Source:** [CANON] §3 (30 — Wisdom, last pre-path row).

#### M-S3-001 — somatic opacity
- **Locus:** band 3 × sensations
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 (AGAINST ≥4 sensations) · moderate · low
- **What:** Cannot localize or qualitatively describe body sensations when directly invited; emotions reported with no somatic anchor; the body is narrated as an object that hurts or performs, not a field of experience.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (conditional) + reporting-capacity input · axes {V, P, T} — [RT] reads this largely as an interoceptive/verbal trait: fire AGAINST ≥4 sensations only when general verbal/introspective capacity is established elsewhere in the window (rule 14); in a low-verbal or second-language register, record as capacity covariate and no stage update.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Where do you feel the worry?" — "I don't know… nowhere? It's just in my head." (2) Body-scan feedback: "I didn't really feel anything, is that normal?"
- **Differential:** Alexithymia as a stable trait (not stage); dissociative numbing (distress/impairment present → M-NX-013, safety); genuine advanced formless-absorption reports are *articulate* about the absence — opacity here is inarticulacy, not refined absence.
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.1 (1.3 sensations as first trained pillar); [L1] §1 (somatic granularity as trained skill).

#### M-S3-002 — restlessness floor (behavioral) — **RECLASSIFIED v0.1: covariate, no stage update**
- **Locus:** band 3 × sensations · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: weak FOR band 3) · n/a · low
- **Class/Contamination:** covariate (accessibility/health; [RT] #4: pain, disability, anatomy, ADHD, anxiety, medication, posture choice, session design — inability to sit still is not a pre-path construct). Used to adapt practice format and as history context for M-PDP-001 (sudden restlessness in an established practitioner reads phase, not floor). · axes {P}.
- **What:** Cannot sit through short sessions; abandonment mid-session; posture pain dominates reports. Stage-1 posture/mobility work (1.1) not yet functional.
- **Sketches:** (1) Telemetry: repeated <10-min abandonments of guided sits. (2) "My back was killing me, I had to stop."
- **Differential:** Injury/health constraints; genuine dark-night restlessness at much higher bands (check history — a long practice history with sudden restlessness is phase M-PDP, not floor).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.1 (posture "unless you sit down in meditation, it's a mess"); [FSNR] §1e (posture as SNR proxy — weak).

#### M-E3-001 — reified emotion / emotional fusion
- **Locus:** band 3 × emotions
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 (AGAINST ≥4 emotions) · moderate · low
- **What:** Emotions narrated as identity or as facts about the world, with zero gap between trigger and reaction. The naïve-realist baseline the dereification ladder starts from.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, P, T} — capacity-norm (rule 14); absence of therapy-taught decentering language is not evidence of fusion: fire only on window-level absence of event-framing *plus* fusion under probe.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I AM an anxious person, that's just me." (2) "He made me furious — anyone would be." (3) No instance anywhere in the window of noticing an emotion as an event.
- **Differential:** Idiomatic speech ("I'm angry" is normal English at every stage) — score the *absence of any* event-framing across the window plus fusion under probe, not single phrases. CT-4.
- **Source:** [BL] §1c (reification vs dereification — "the strongest linguistic stage marker", inverted); [MtN] §1B.

#### M-E3-002 — narrow affect vocabulary — **RECLASSIFIED v0.1: reporting-capacity covariate, never scores toward band 3**
- **Locus:** band 3 × emotions
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: weak FOR band 3) · n/a · low
- **Class/Contamination:** covariate (measurement-capacity modifier: sets the practitioner's language-marker reliability weight and widens pillar CIs; [RT] #3: dominated by language, culture, gender norms, education, alexithymia, neurotype, and disclosure willingness — it measures expressive repertoire more directly than emotional development) · axes {V, P}.
- **What:** Whole affective palette is "fine / stressed / off / good"; probes for texture return category labels, not qualities. Emotional-intelligence work (2.2 step 1) not begun or not landed.
- **Sketches:** (1) "How did that land?" — "Bad. I don't know. Just bad." (2) Weeks of journaling with ≤4 distinct emotion words.
- **Differential:** Culture/gender display norms; second-language constraint; alexithymia trait. Weak by design.
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.2 sequence starts at Emotional Intelligence); [L2] §4 (structure-scoring precedent — differentiation as competence).

#### M-E3-003 — externalized emotional causality — **TOMBSTONE (deleted v0.1)**
- **Disposition:** Removed from scoring entirely ([RT] #10). The marker risked moralizing legitimate adversity and power asymmetry; attribution style, personality, culture, live conflict, and therapeutic socialization dominate any stage signal, and it would systematically underrate people describing genuinely harmful environments. Not converted to a covariate: even as context it invites the same misread.
- **Residue:** the observation may survive only as an unscored *contextual formulation hypothesis* in consolidation rationale text — never an event, never a likelihood. Original sketches/differential retired with v0 (git history).
- **Source (of the deletion):** [RT] ten-worst #10. The original grounding ([MtN] §1A; [L2] §4.1 Loevinger self-protective framing) was real but non-discriminating for this population.

#### M-T3-001 — thought–fact equivalence
- **Locus:** band 3 × thoughts
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 (AGAINST ≥4 thoughts) · moderate · low
- **What:** Worries and interpretations narrated as facts; no marking of thoughts as thoughts anywhere in the window; probe "was that a thought or a fact?" lands as confusing.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, P, T} — capacity-norm (rule 14); consult phase before firing (high stress collapses structure at every band, as the differential already states).
- **Sketches:** (1) "I know they all think I'm failing" (as report of reality). (2) "It's obvious this will go wrong" with no ownership of the prediction as mental content.
- **Differential:** Idiom again — fire on window-level absence plus probe response, not sentences. High-stress episodes temporarily collapse structure at every band (check phase).
- **Source:** [BL] §1c; [MtN] §1B (dereification of thought content — inverted baseline).

#### M-T3-002 — hindsight-only rumination awareness
- **Locus:** band 3 × thoughts (upper edge, 28–31 transition)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 / earliest band 4 · weak · low
- **What:** Reports being "stuck in my head" but only ever recognized after the fact — the first rung of the anusaya/reactivity ladder (hindsight → live → non-arising), before live-catching appears.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (transition-zone 28–33) · axes {T, S} — CBT thought-records teach hindsight recognition without the path: provenance-annotate (M-NX-015), weight practice-linked instances higher.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I realized at midnight I'd been chewing on it all evening." (2) "Looking back, I lost the whole afternoon to the loop."
- **Differential:** This is also the *entry* signal for band 4 (noticing at all is the seed of meta-awareness) — locus straddles 28–33; weight by whether any live-catch instances co-occur (→ M-E4-001/M-A4-002).
- **Source:** [AL] §1.5 (anusaya fire-in-hindsight, Anālayo 2018; the hindsight→live→non-arising *ladder* framing is [AL]'s interpretive gloss on Anālayo, not his own scheme — verifier note 2026-07-16); [MtN] §1A.

#### M-A3-001 — unnoticed mind-wandering
- **Locus:** band 3 × awareness
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 (AGAINST ≥4 awareness) · moderate · low
- **What:** Mind-wandering described without any evidence it was noticed *as* wandering while it happened; sessions "just went by"; no meta-awareness episodes anywhere in the window.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, S} — run the dullness/phase differential first (CT-3, rule 6); capacity-norm (rule 14).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Honestly I don't know where the session went." (2) "I guess I was thinking the whole time? I only see that now that you ask."
- **Differential:** Low epistemic depth is also the *dullness* signature at any band — distinguish by history and co-markers (a gate-progressed practitioner reporting new fogginess is CT-3/phase, not floor).
- **Source:** [BL] §1a (low epistemic depth phenomenology); [MtN] §1A (pre-meta-awareness FA baseline).

#### M-A3-002 — attention as external force
- **Locus:** band 3 × awareness
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 3 · weak · low
- **What:** Attention narrated as something that happens *to* them, uncontrollable and unowned; no sense that attention is trainable or observable.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {P} — ADHD-type trait accounts are the P-confound ([RT] confounding audit): if the account is stable across practice history, record as accessibility covariate (M-S3-002-class), not stage.
- **Sketches:** (1) "My brain just won't let me focus, it's broken." (2) "I can't meditate, my mind doesn't work like that."
- **Differential:** ADHD-type trait accounts (stable across practice); self-deprecating humor; genuine high-band effortlessness inverts the frame entirely ("attention settles itself") — do not confuse surrendered control (high) with absent control (floor): the high form is precise about what was released.
- **Source:** [MtN] §1A (FA effort framing as the trained alternative); [CANON] §4.1 (1.6 "point the attention on the attention itself" as the skill not yet present).

### 2.2 Band 4 — Awareness (31–40): core app band

Anchors: 31 Awareness, 32 Outer Inquiry, 33 Inner Inquiry, 34 Self-Inquiry, 35 Mindful State, 36 Focused Attention, 37 Open Awareness, 38 Trance State, 39 Non-Dual State, 40 Direct Awareness. Canonical evidence here is heavily behavioral/telemetric (gates, counts, demonstrable skills — canon §10); reports gain structure through the band.

#### M-S4-001 — somatic vocabulary differentiation
- **Locus:** band 4 × sensations (anchor 31–34)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 sensations · moderate · medium
- **What:** Can localize and qualitatively describe sensations from an actual sit: place, texture, movement, change over time. The trained inversion of M-S3-001.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (pillar-local) · axes {V, P, T} — also acquirable via bodywork/yoga/somatic therapy without the path ([RT] near-bottom: interoceptive + verbal traits): provenance-annotate (M-NX-015), keep as sensations-pillar competence; capacity-norm (rule 14).
- **Sketches:** (1) "There was a band of warmth across the lower belly that spread as I settled." (2) "Tingling in the palms first, then it got broader and less defined."
- **Differential:** Bodywork/yoga/somatic-therapy training produces the same vocabulary without the meditation path (check telemetry); scripted body-scan language from app content (exposure ledger).
- **Source:** [L1] §1 (report precision as trained skill), §6 (somatic specificity); [CANON] §4.1 (1.3).

#### M-S4-002 — breath-mechanics fluency consistent with gate position
- **Locus:** band 4 × sensations (2.1 sequence) · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 sensations · moderate · low (when telemetry-crossed)
- **What:** Describes the breathwork sequence they are actually in (abdominal → navel/Ming Men activation → belt of qi → complete breathing → fast in/exhalation → mantle → reverse) with experiential detail matching their logged gate position and plausible session counts (14/exercise).
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (2.1 gate-position evidence — technique mastery within the LIFE sequence, not independent stage; [RT] trustworthy-#8: "technique mastery and curriculum compliance, not general contemplative development"; reaches the band posterior only via the curriculum→stage bridge, §1.4) · axes {C} — the app itself teaches this description ladder.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Week two of belt of qi — I can get the wrap sensation on the exhale but it collapses when I speed up." (2) Telemetry: gate progression at ≈14 sessions/exercise, no teleports.
- **Differential:** Reading ahead in the app content (describes gates not yet reached — M-NX-008 territory, retargeted v0.1); pranayama background producing adjacent-but-different mechanics. Consistency checks key to **day-totals, not step index** — canon §9-D leaves the 2.1 step decomposition (7 vs 8 vs 9) UNRESOLVED (verifier fix).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.1 sequence + cadence), §10 (gate progression as canonical evidence).

#### M-S4-003 — Neidan somatic verification signs, specific — **DESCOPED v0.1: no stage scoring**
- **Locus:** band 4 × sensations (upper band, 2.1 mid-to-late) · **Flags:** exposure_sensitive, safety_route (miscultivation watch)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: moderate FOR upper band 4/5-boundary) · n/a · high (revised from medium — [RT]: exposure makes "specificity in canonical order" *easier*, not harder)
- **Class/Contamination:** non-scoring phenomenology + safety annotation ([RT] #1: suggestion-prone bodily phenomena, tradition-specific expectation effects, map-readable canonical sequence, and acknowledged UNVERIFIED sourcing; heat/pressure may be adverse rather than developmental). Extraction still logs the report verbatim: (a) for teacher verification at M2+ — Neidan holds this sign-reading is huǒhòu-class, classically teacher-only ([L1] §6); (b) because head-pressure/insomnia variants route M-PDP-005 immediately. Reinstatement as evidence requires primary-text verification of the zhèngyàn lists AND teacher-confirmed positive cases. · axes {C, S, V}
- **What:** Reports the tradition's own verification signs with *checkable specificity of locus, quality, and sequence*: lower-dantian heat/pressure, warmth circulating the Du/Ren orbit, sweet saliva ("golden fluid") arriving after circulation, illness-reduction over the foundation period. Specificity matching known sequence is hard to fabricate; generic "I felt energy" carries ~nothing.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Heat pooled below the navel first; a week later it started moving up the spine on the inhale, down the front on the exhale." (2) "Odd one — my mouth floods with sweet-tasting saliva near the end of sits now."
- **Differential:** These sign-lists exist in Neidan books (exposure check); *unprompted arrival in canonical order* is the discriminator. Uncontrolled heat/pressure in the head + insomnia is the miscultivation signature → M-PDP-005 (safety), not progress. CT-5.
- **Source:** [L1] §6 (somatic signs; note: specific *zhèngyàn* lists flagged UNVERIFIED against primary texts in lane 1 — verify before weighting up); [CANON] §4.2.

#### M-S4-004 — reverse-breathing competence, claimed and behaviorally consistent
- **Locus:** band 4→5 boundary × sensations (pillar gate; canon: the Stage-2→3 hard gate) · **Flags:** corroboration_required, telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** strong FOR sensations-pillar curriculum completion when corroborated · low (corroborated) / high (bare claim → M-NX-005)
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum **+ milestone** (dual-class, adjudicator fix 2026-07-16: spec §4 names `reverse_breathing` as a snapshot milestone marker_id, so this marker also feeds the milestone side-chain's `claimed`→`corroborated` ladder — while band placement still flows only through the §1.4 bridge; [RT] trustworthy-#7: "valid only for this curriculum's breathwork mastery… cannot equate practitioners from other paths or establish overall band 40+") — the 2.1 terminal skill and the canon's Stage-2→3 hard gate. **Stage-numbering reconciliation (canon §9-A/§9-J — verifier MAJOR):** this bank anchors the gate at the band 4→5 boundary (~40), reading app-Stage-2 completion ≈ band-4 top per canon §6/§9-J; under §9-A's alternative mapping (app Stage 2 ≈ band 5, 41–50) the same gate reads ~50/51 — a full-band displacement. Recorded, unresolved; Surya adjudicates at M2. · axes {C, V}
- **What:** Claims working reverse breathing ("in contraction"; later "with apnea") *and* the claim sits on a completed gate sequence with terminal-behavior telemetry ("from there on you only do reverse breathing"). The canon calls this "the door to all internal alchemy" — the sensations pillar's clean milestone.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Reverse breathing clicked about a month ago; everything else fell away, it's all I practice now" + telemetry shows exactly that collapse of practice variety. (2) Can describe the inversion mechanics and its failure modes from inside ("if I force the abdomen, the chest hijacks it").
- **Differential:** Bare claim without the gate scaffold = M-NX-005. Freediving/breathhold training produces apnea skill without the alchemical context.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (reverse breathing quote), §10 (hard gate); [L1] §6 (huǒhòu caution: correct establishment is classically teacher-verified — cap confidence without live confirmation).

#### M-S4-005 — sensory flux / vibration onset
- **Locus:** band 4→5 boundary × sensations (anchor 38–41; A&P territory per [AL]'s ñāṇa mapping — "Theravada-overlay" gloss dropped, adjudicator fix: the canon §8 overlay rows there carry no arising-and-passing content, see Source)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR upper band 4 / early band 5 · moderate · medium
- **What:** Solid body-sensations begin breaking into flicker/vibration/waves during sits, with *preserved or heightened* vividness — lived anicca at the sensory level.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (state-first — [RT] misassigned-list: transient state; classify the state, let recurrence-with-vividness move the pillar posterior: M-S5-001 is the trait form) · axes {C, V, S} — MCTB/map exposure supplies the vocabulary, mood/arousal supplies one-offs.
- **Sketches:** (1) "The hands stopped being hands — just a shimmer of little pulses." (2) "Everything I attended to started strobing, it was crisp, almost too vivid."
- **Differential:** Vividness is the discriminator: dissolution-with-graying is a dip signature (M-PDP-001 context); paresthesia/medical causes; MCTB readers know to say "vibrations" (exposure check, demand structure under follow-up: where, what rate, what happened next). CT-4.
- **Source:** [AL] §1.4 (ñāṇa 4–5, arising-and-passing → dissolution); [L4] §4b (vividness preserved column). (v0 also cited [CANON] §8 Theravada overlay rows 31–40 — dropped: those rows read Delightful Sensations/Joy/Contentment, no arising-and-passing content; verifier fix.)

#### M-S4-006 — posture stability trait — **RECLASSIFIED v0.1: covariate, no stage update**
- **Locus:** band 4 × sensations · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: weak FOR ≥4) · n/a · low
- **Class/Contamination:** covariate (accessibility/fitness — adapts practice format and session-length expectations only; [RT] #5: primarily fitness, anatomy, mobility, pain status, chair/floor choice, training history — a strong disability and age bias as stage evidence). The [FSNR] §1e posture-as-SNR-proxy rationale retires with it (author-derived, low weight). · axes {P}.
- **What:** Sits full sessions without pain preoccupation; session lengths grow; posture holds without slumping (externalized attention-stability proxy).
- **Sketches:** (1) Telemetry: median session length trending 10→30+ min over months without abandonment spikes. (2) "Sitting itself stopped being the problem at some point."
- **Differential:** Fitness/flexibility base; short sessions by schedule not capacity.
- **Source:** [FSNR] §1e (posture as embodied error-correction — author-derived, low weight); [CANON] §4.1.

#### M-E4-001 — live-catching of emotional reactions
- **Locus:** band 4 × emotions (anchor 33–37)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 emotions · moderate · medium
- **What:** At least sometimes notices an emotion *while it is happening* and can narrate the catch — the second rung of the reactivity ladder (hindsight → live → non-arising).
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (emotion-regulation competence; [RT] trustworthy-#5 — strongest when the report contains a behavioral fork, e.g. the unsent email, followed by recurrence) · axes {T, P} — CBT/EI training produces it without the path: provenance-annotate (M-NX-015); practice-linked instances weigh higher (already scored).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Mid-sentence I felt the irritation coming up and actually watched myself decide not to send the email." (2) "I caught the contraction in my chest before I knew what it was about."
- **Differential:** One-off flukes vs pattern (score frequency across window); therapy training (CBT teaches this without the path — fine, it is still pillar evidence, but weight practice-linked instances higher).
- **Source:** [AL] §1.5 (anusaya ladder); [L1] §12 pattern 2 (noticing-latency).

#### M-E4-002 — somatically anchored emotion reports
- **Locus:** band 4 × emotions (anchor 33–36)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 emotions · moderate · medium
- **What:** Emotion reports carry the Mahāsi-register triplet: label + somatic quality + fate. Cross-pillar competence (sensations feeding emotions) matching the canon's cascade ontology.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, T, C} — the Mahāsi register is quotable ([RT] imitability list): exposure ledger + fresh-specifics follow-up mandatory; capacity-norm (rule 14); cluster with the source episode (rule 13).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Sadness came up — trembling, an ache in the chest — and it moved through in a few minutes" (the Salzberg register). (2) "The fear was a cold band across the shoulders; naming it loosened it."
- **Differential:** Mindfulness-app cliché phrasing (exposure ledger; demand fresh specifics under follow-up); poetic fluency without practice history.
- **Source:** [L1] §1 (U Paṇḍita 1992; Salzberg example); [CANON] §5 (sensations→emotions cascade).

#### M-E4-003 — self-acceptance shift with concrete instance
- **Locus:** band 4 × emotions (2.2 step 2)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 emotions · weak-to-moderate · medium
- **What:** Reports a softening of self-criticism *tied to a specific, checkable episode*, not as a slogan. The 2.2 self-acceptance gate landing.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {T, S} — mood, psychotherapy, and ordinary maturation are strong alternatives ([RT] trustworthy-#9): weak until longitudinal recurrence; phase-check first (rule 6).
- **Sketches:** (1) "I botched the presentation and noticed the pile-on starting — and it just… didn't stick this time. I made tea instead." (2) "The voice is still there but I don't argue with it or believe it the same way."
- **Differential:** Positive-psychology vocabulary without episodes (exposure); mood upswing (phase).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.2 sequence); [AL] §1.7 (Van Gordon et al. 2019 language exemplars — non-attachment + positive affect co-occurrence).

#### M-E4-004 — compassion-target expansion with honest foe-stage difficulty
- **Locus:** band 4 × emotions (2.2 mid-late gates) · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 emotions · moderate · low-medium
- **What:** Describes metta/compassion practice progressing friends → neutral → foes with *specific difficulty at the foe stage*. The difficulty admission is the honest signal — the map says compassion is good; the granular struggle is not in the map.
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (2.2 gate-position + skill trajectory; [RT] trustworthy-#6: "practice engagement and a specific skill trajectory, not a universal stage"; band reach via the §1.4 bridge only) · axes {C} — the foe-stage difficulty admission remains the honest texture, capped by rule 16.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Neutral people was easy, weirdly. My ex — my chest just locks. I've been stuck there two weeks." (2) Telemetry: 2.2 gate position matches the described struggle point.
- **Differential:** Doctrinal metta talk without target-structure or difficulty (exposure); performative struggle (rare — check telemetry consistency).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.2 Compassion Friends→Neutral→Foes); [L5] §2.4 (too-good-to-be-true inversion: unevenness is the genuine texture).

#### M-E4-005 — staying-with under mild aversive contact
- **Locus:** band 4 × emotions (anchor 35–38)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 emotions · moderate · low (when observed in-conversation)
- **What:** Demonstrates — in the exchange itself or in a fresh episodic report — remaining in contact with an unpleasant emotion without suppressing, spiritualizing, or acting out, and can describe its texture. Early equanimity *with* contact.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (cross-pillar integration; [RT] trustworthy-#2) · axes {V, P, S} — one observed instance is a moment of regulatory capacity, not a band: require repeated provocation→contact→recovery across occasions plus memory continuity and voluntary re-engagement (CT-1 protocol) before moderate weight; genuine equanimity may be terse or culturally low-affect — capacity-norm before reading terseness as swerve.
- **Sketches:** (1) Wisdom probes a sore topic; the practitioner goes toward it, describes the sting precisely, stays coherent. (2) "It was awful and I stayed. It got worse, then it got specific, then it eased."
- **Differential:** CT-1 is the whole game here: bypassing swerves to doctrine (M-NX-012), dissociation loses contact (M-NX-013). Contact + texture + continued function = this marker.
- **Source:** [FSNR] §1f (equanimity increases contact — an author-derived inference from the paper's psychopathology caveat, not a direct finding; verifier note 2026-07-16); [AL] §1.9 (appear-then-release); [L1] §12 pattern 12.

#### M-E4-006 — spontaneous warmth co-occurring with difficulty
- **Locus:** band 4 × emotions (anchor 36–40)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 emotions · weak · low
- **What:** Prosocial warmth/affection language arising unbidden *alongside* difficulty reports — the constructive-practice amplify channel showing through, and a standing counter-indicator to dissociative flatness.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (counter-indicator use: its real job is arguing *against* dissociative flatness in CT-1; never FOR a band alone — [RT] near-bottom: agreeableness/cultural expressivity confound, "warmth is a personality marker, not a reliable dissociation exclusion") · axes {P, S}.
- **Sketches:** (1) "The week was rough and — this is odd — I kept feeling this tenderness for everyone on the train." (2) Warmth toward the difficult person inside the difficulty report itself.
- **Differential:** Mood elevation/hypomanic warmth (check sleep/arousal cluster); love-bombing register learned from content (exposure).
- **Source:** [FSNR] §1c (LK row: threat-bias down, affiliative signal up); [AL] §1.2.7 (warmth as pathology discriminator).

#### M-T4-001 — thought-as-event syntax
- **Locus:** band 4 × thoughts (anchor 32–35) · **Flags:** exposure_sensitive
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 thoughts · **weak (downgraded v0.1 from moderate — [RT] #8)** · high (phrasing) / medium (window-level pattern)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (weak) · axes {T, V, C} — canonical ACT/CBT/mindfulness-app language, and English grammatical style drives false positives ([RT] #8): score only after jargon-stripped paraphrase (invite the description in their own words and check the event-structure survives), window-level consistency across fresh contexts, exposure-gated; a learned idiom repeated across the window is still a learned idiom.
- **What:** Thoughts spontaneously marked as mental events — "I had the thought that…", "my mind offered…", "a story showed up" — consistently across the window, not as isolated learned phrases. First-rung dereification in the thoughts pillar.
- **Sketches:** (1) "The 'I'm behind everyone' story ran again during the sit — I watched it loop twice." (2) "A plan started assembling itself; I let it dissolve and came back."
- **Differential:** This exact syntax is taught by every mindfulness app (exposure ledger; weight pre-exposure spontaneity); therapy-speak. Window-level consistency + fresh contexts discriminate. CT-4.
- **Source:** [BL] §1c (dereification); [MtN] §1B; [L5] §2.1 (structure vs vocabulary).

#### M-T4-002 — beliefs recognized as constructs — **RELABELED v0.1: curriculum-engagement evidence only**
- **Locus:** band 4 × thoughts (2.3 step 1; anchor 32–34) · **Flags:** exposure_sensitive
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** engagement evidence only (was: weak-to-moderate FOR band 4 thoughts) · n/a for stage · high
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (2.3-engagement marker; [RT] #9: the bank itself called it "cheap and reading-contaminable" — common in therapy, philosophy, social science, and educated secular culture) · axes {T, V, C}.
- **What:** Describes own beliefs/values as formed, inherited, revisable — the intellectual (level-1) rung of the emptiness ladder. Cheap and contamination-prone; counts mainly as 2.3-engagement evidence.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I noticed 'success' for me is just my father's definition wearing my clothes." (2) "That belief made sense at 25; it's scaffolding I never took down."
- **Differential:** Standard-issue therapy/philosophy insight — deliberately weak. Level-3/4 emptiness observations are different markers (M-T5-003, M-NX-009 guard).
- **Source:** [AL] §1.3 (gross→subtle emptiness ladder, level 1 explicitly "cheap and reading-contaminable"); [CANON] §4.2 (2.3 beliefs step).

#### M-T4-003 — impermanence/mortality contemplation with felt response
- **Locus:** band 4 × thoughts (2.3 impermanence→moment-of-dying gates) · **Flags:** telemetry, safety-adjacent
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 thoughts · moderate · medium
- **What:** Concrete engagement with the impermanence/dying contemplations with a *felt, personal* response (grief, urgency, release), not doctrine recital; matches 2.3 gate position.
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (2.3 gate-linked) with a weak stage residue: the *felt, personal* response with behavioral trace is the residue; the contemplation content itself is curriculum · axes {C, V, S} — memento-mori aesthetics are quotable; depressive rumination routes safety (as the differential states).
- **Sketches:** (1) "The 'you are going to die' sit cracked something — I called my mother after." (2) "Impermanence of circumstances was abstract until I did it on my job. That one landed in the stomach."
- **Differential:** Recited memento-mori aesthetics (no felt/behavioral trace); depressive rumination on death (valence + impairment + no practice-link → phase/safety, and note house rule: dying contemplations already carry extra moderation).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.3 sequence quotes); [L4] §5 (Stage 2.4/dying-contemplation flagging context).

#### M-T4-004 — values/mission articulation work landing
- **Locus:** band 4 × thoughts (2.3 mid-late gates: values → mission → mantra) · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 thoughts · weak · medium
- **What:** Produces tailor-made values/mission/mantra content of their own (canon: "much more tailor-made"), uses it across sessions, reports it organizing choices.
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (2.3 mid-late gate engagement; [RT] near-bottom: coaching literacy) · axes {C, T} — coaching-industry boilerplate is the identical surface; the cross-session *use* trace is what separates engagement from compliance.
- **Sketches:** (1) "My three values ended up being none of the ones I started with." (2) Telemetry: mantra/clear-vision sessions recurring; journaling references the mission language weeks later.
- **Differential:** Coaching-industry boilerplate (generic values lists); compliance without use (no downstream references).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.3 quotes: own values, mission, personal mantra).

#### M-T4-005 — dynamic visualization competence
- **Locus:** band 4 × thoughts (2.3 visualization gates → Clear Vision)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 thoughts (upper) · moderate · medium
- **What:** Describes the memory-based visualization method actually functioning — visualize → embody → reflect → manifest/offer — with process detail (stability, movement, sensory channels, failure modes).
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (technique mastery — [RT] misassigned-list) · axes {C, P} — imagery phenotype (aphantasia→hyperphantasia) is the P-confound: record as capacity covariate; a lag here never lowers stage (pillar-lumpy by constitution, as noted).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Using the lake memory works; invented scenes fall apart. When I'm in it, the reflection step happens almost by itself." (2) "I can hold the scene about thirty seconds now before it smears."
- **Differential:** Aphantasia-spectrum practitioners will lag here without it meaning low stage (pillar-lumpy by constitution — note in dossier); guided-audio dependence vs self-generated capacity.
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (2.3 "use memories… initially you visualise it, then you embody it… like a theater").

#### M-T4-006 — short rumination half-life in conversation (behavioral)
- **Locus:** band 4 × thoughts (anchor 36–40; carries into band 5)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 thoughts · moderate · low
- **What:** A charged topic appears in the exchange, registers, and releases within a turn or two — no viewpoint-thrash, no return-loops across the session. Measured on the conversation itself, invisible to the practitioner.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (cross-pillar integration, behavioral-in-conversation; [RT] trustworthy-#3 — "should be cross-pillar integration, not thoughts") · axes {P, S} — impression management and avoidance are the standing foils: require the contact-then-release shape (already scored) and recurrence across topics/occasions.
- **Sketches:** (1) Wisdom raises the missed streak; practitioner: acknowledges, one wry line, moves on cleanly — and does not circle back unprompted. (2) Contrast case (fires AGAINST): the same grievance resurfaces in four different framings across one session.
- **Differential:** Avoidance also shortens visible half-life — distinguish release (topic *was contacted*, then let go) from swerve (topic never contacted → M-NX-012). Flatness (no registration at all) → M-NX-013.
- **Source:** [AL] §1.9 (stickiness/retention-time probe, appear-then-release vs never-appears); [FSNR] §1c (reduced reactive elaboration).

#### M-A4-001 — meta-awareness of attention as process
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (anchor 31–35)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 awareness · moderate · medium
- **What:** Notices and reports the *quality and movements* of attention itself — attention as an observable process, not a tool pointed at things. The foundational dereification step; the inversion of M-A3-002.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, T, C} — meditation-app vocabulary (exposure ledger) and therapy-taught metacognition ([RT] therapy-exposure list): fresh situation-specific observations under follow-up discriminate (already scored); capacity-norm (rule 14).
- **Sketches:** (1) "I can feel when attention goes sticky versus when it's light." (2) "Halfway through I noticed the noticing had gone mechanical."
- **Differential:** Meditation-app vocabulary (exposure); genuine cases produce fresh, situation-specific observations under follow-up rather than the same two phrases.
- **Source:** [MtN] §1B (meta-awareness as first dereification milestone); [CANON] §4.1 (1.6).

#### M-A4-002 — noticing-latency shortening
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (graded through the band into 5)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band ≥4 awareness, graded · moderate · medium
- **What:** The gap between an event arising (distraction, reaction, mood shift) and it being noticed shrinks: hours → minutes → mid-arising. Score the latency the *report structure* implies, not the claim.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (within-person change; [RT] trustworthy-#4: repeated baseline-adjusted change beats any cross-sectional claim) · axes {V, S} — score the latency the report *structure* implies across ≥3 separate occasions; a single polished retrospective is M-NX-007 bait (as the differential states).
- **Sketches:** (1) "I was three thoughts into the spiral when I caught it" (mid-episode). (2) "I felt the sit go dull and adjusted before it settled in" (near-onset).
- **Differential:** Retrospective narrative polish can fake short latency once (paraphrase re-probe across occasions — M-NX-007); stimulant/arousal states.
- **Source:** [L1] §1 + §12 pattern 2 (Mahāsi latency scoring); [MtN] §1B (predictions "disappear faster, less sticky").

#### M-A4-003 — spontaneous three-phase episode structure
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (anchor 33–38) · **Flags:** exposure_sensitive (weakly — the *structure* resists scripting better than vocabulary)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** **strong** FOR band ≥4 awareness · medium
- **What:** Unprompted, difficult episodes come out as *sequence*: what arose → how/when it was noticed → what happened to it, with process detail at each step. The Mahāsi interview's scoring target appearing in free conversation — the single best low-band structural marker in the bank.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (the bank's strongest low-band structural marker; [RT] trustworthy-#1) · axes {V, T, C} — verbal fluency, narrative/interview training, therapy, and Mahāsi exposure all raise it ([RT] shared-method-factor list): capacity-norm (rule 14), require recurrence on novel objects, cluster per episode (rule 13).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Restlessness came up around minute ten — I noted it as buzzing in the legs — it peaked, got boring, and dissolved by twenty." (2) "The resentment arose when she spoke, I caught it as heat in the face, watched it argue for a while, and it fizzled mid-sit."
- **Differential:** MCTB/pragmatic-dharma readers know the noting format (exposure + perturbation follow-ups: genuine practitioners improvise structure on novel objects; scripts stall — sassho principle). CT-4.
- **Source:** [L1] §1 (U Paṇḍita 1992, "What Occurred, How You Noted It, What Happened to It"; Panditārāma precision instructions); [L5] §2.1 (structure resists inflation — Redmore 1976).

#### M-A4-004 — effortless sustained attention ("focused homeostasis")
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (anchor ~36, Focused Attention)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 awareness (mid-upper) · moderate · medium
- **What:** Sustaining attention has stopped being a fight: distractions infrequent, returns effortless, described as the *practice carrying itself* — with the effort-history still narratable (they remember when it was a fight).
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (state-first — [RT] misassigned-list: classify the state; move the pillar only on recurrence plus telemetry-consistent session lengths) · axes {S, C} — CT-3 discrimination upgraded v0.1: prefer *actual* interruption events recalled crisply over the hypothetical doorbell probe ([RT] confusion-pair table: hypotheticals are map-coachable).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Somewhere last month the breath stopped needing me to hold it in place." (2) "Effort now is more like steering than gripping."
- **Differential:** Dullness also feels easy (CT-3 — probe clarity/deviance-sensitivity: "if the doorbell had rung, would you have caught it?"); overstated ease from short sits (telemetry: session lengths).
- **Source:** [MtN] §1A (advanced FA "focused homeostasis"); [FSNR] §1b/§1f (absorption sharpens deviance-sensitivity vs dullness).

#### M-A4-005 — open-field monitoring reports
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (anchor ~37, Open Awareness)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 awareness (upper) · moderate · medium
- **What:** Reports attending the whole field without selecting — events arise, register, pass without commentary or grasping; evaluative tone drops out of the report itself.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C, S} — OM vocabulary is teachable ([RT] imitability list): the field-inventory probe (what *was* in the field?) is the working guard; capacity-norm.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I stopped picking objects. Sounds, itches, thoughts — same stuff, one field." (2) "Nothing was more important than anything else for about twenty minutes. Restful in a strange way."
- **Differential:** Spacing-out narrated as openness (probe epistemic depth: what *was* in the field? genuine OM reports can inventory it); OM vocabulary from content (exposure).
- **Source:** [MtN] §1A (OM: bare, non-reactive field; Lutz et al. 2015 phrasing); [BL] §1b (dispersed precision, higher epistemic depth).

#### M-A4-006 — attention-on-attention, lived
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (1.6 practice; deep form anchor 38–40)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 awareness (upper) · moderate · medium-high (vocabulary is famous; lived detail is not)
- **What:** Describes awareness taking *itself* as object with specific, situated texture — not the stock phrase but what it was like, when it holds, when it collapses.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C} — the most famous phrase in the pillar ([RT] near-bottom: metaphor-dependent language): only situated collapse/instability detail counts; doctrine-register recitation routes M-NX-004; rule 16 caps the honesty-texture read.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Watching the watcher works for a few breaths, then it flips and I'm just contents again — the flip itself has a feel now." (2) "There's a light-on-light quality when attention rests on attention; it's unstable but unmistakable."
- **Differential:** "Awareness aware of itself" is quotable from everywhere (exposure + follow-up from an uncovered angle — the collapse/instability detail is the honest part); J6-style formless claims are a much deeper cousin (M-S5-003 ladder context).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.1 (1.6 quote); [L1] §12 pattern 4; [VOH] (J6 descriptor as the deep-end cousin).

#### M-A4-007 — absorption state with clarity retention
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness/sensations boundary (anchor ~38, Trance/Altered State)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 upper (S2 "Altered State" attainment) · moderate · medium
- **What:** Reports genuine absorption episodes — time distortion, stability, intensification, pleasure — *with preserved or sharpened clarity and deviance-sensitivity*. The canon's FA→altered-state ladder rung, scored against the dullness look-alike.
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (state-first — [RT] misassigned-list: classify the state; five-masteries-style control + recurrence moves the pillar, and M-S5-002 is that trait form) · axes {S, C} — CT-3 v0.1 criteria: volitional entry/exit, repeatability at chosen duration, immediate post-sit recall, *actual* deviance events recalled, post-sit brightness vs grogginess.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Forty minutes went by in what felt like ten — and it was the opposite of foggy, everything was etched." (2) "There was a click into something self-sustaining; a car horn outside registered crystal-clear and didn't pull me out."
- **Differential:** CT-3 (dullness: low clarity, no deviance-sensitivity, post-sit grogginess); sleep-onset states; the jhāna-word problem — same label, lite vs deep referents ([L1] §2) — score control/duration/clarity, never the label.
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (attention ladder quote; S2 top row); [FSNR] §1f (absorption sharpens MMN/deviance signal); [L1] §2 (five-masteries structure as the behavioral criterion).

#### M-A4-008 — in-session non-dual glimpse (state)
- **Locus:** band 4 × awareness (anchor ~39, Non-Dual State) · **Flags:** corroboration_required (reproducibility before it counts toward position)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** phase + milestone-claim only — **no direct band update (v0.1, [RT] #2)** (was: moderate FOR band-4 top / band-5 threshold) · n/a for position · medium-high
- **Class/Contamination:** state/milestone ([RT] #2: highly imitable vocabulary; the state is also produced by depersonalization, psychedelics, panic, awe, and sleep disruption; surprise/instability/physiological-tail textures are scriptable — rule 16; reproducibility alone would not distinguish reproducible dissociation from insight). Band effect arrives only through the longitudinal integration cluster: M-PGL-001 events → M-X5-001 trajectory, with function/warmth/contact co-checks (rule 12) and CT-7 screening. · axes {V, S, C}
- **What:** A *state* report of subject–object softening during practice: watcher and watched briefly not two; reported with surprise, instability, and specific onset/offset. This is the OA→non-dual-awareness rung of the canon's ladder — distinct from trait ND claims.
- **Sketches:** (1) "For a stretch there was seeing without a seer — then 'me' snapped back and my heart was pounding." (2) "The boundary between the sound and the listening wasn't there. Seconds only."
- **Differential:** Famous vocabulary (exposure; the surprise/instability texture and physiological tail are the honest parts); depersonalization episodes (distress/impairment → safety, CT-7); one-off glimpse = phase (M-PGL-001) until reproducible/expanding (rule 6).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.2 (OA→non-dual awareness ladder); [MtN] §1A (ND signature); [BL] §1b.

#### M-A4-009 — cascade traversal fluency
- **Locus:** band 4 × cross-pillar/awareness (Stage 1→2 gate; anchor 31–33) · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR band 4 entry · moderate · low (telemetry-crossed)
- **Class/Contamination:** curriculum (Stage-1-completion comprehension; [RT] trustworthy-#10: "the cascade is taught by the app, making this circular evidence of curriculum comprehension" — belongs under cross-pillar curriculum skill) · axes {C}. **Stage-numbering note (completing the verifier fix applied at M-S4-004):** this bank reads app-Stage-1 completion ≈ band-4 entry (~31–33) per canon §6/§9-J; canon §9-A's alternative numbering displaces this gate too — recorded, unresolved, Surya adjudicates at M2.
- **What:** Completes and can describe the full Stage-1 session grammar — posture → mobility → opening → sensations → emotions → thoughts → awareness → closure (canon §4.1; Mobility restored, verifier fix) — as a *connected cascade* ("sensations turning into feelings turning into thoughts"), with the 7-session completion gate logged.
- **Sketches:** (1) Telemetry: ≥7 full combined sessions completed; practitioner: "the handoff from body to feeling to story is where the interesting stuff happens now."
- **Differential:** Completion without comprehension (gate logged, description remains listy not cascaded — weight down); the canon's own ontology taught by app content (exposure — but the *lived handoff* detail is the discriminator).
- **Source:** [CANON] §4.1 (session grammar + 7-session gate; cascade quotes §5), §10 (Stage 1→2 row).

#### M-A4-010 — practice-consistency trait — **RECLASSIFIED v0.1: adherence covariate, no stage update**
- **Locus:** band 4 × cross-pillar · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** none toward any band (was: weak FOR ≥4) · n/a · low
- **Class/Contamination:** covariate (exposure/adherence — conditions the curriculum-position latent and evidence-volume normalization; [RT] #7: measures conscientiousness, time, money, care obligations, app engagement, streak incentives; off-app practice is invisible) · axes {P, C}.
- **What:** Sustained near-daily practice over months with plausible gate pacing. Tenure is not stage ([MtN] §3 caution: hours "do not necessarily indicate how advanced"). **Asymmetry fix ([RT] #7):** absence of telemetry never lowers any stage estimate — claim-gated rule 1 governs; only a *positive claim contradicted by the practitioner's own logs* penalizes, and that is M-NX-006's job, not this marker's.
- **Sketches:** (1) Telemetry: 5–7 sessions/week across 6+ months, gates advancing at canonical cadence.
- **Differential:** Streak-keeping without depth (all other markers absent); apps reward streaks (Goodhart on telemetry itself).
- **Source:** [CANON] §10 (counts/gates as early-band evidence); [MtN] §3 (tenure caution).

### 2.3 Band 5 — Awakening (41–50): upper edge of the app population

Anchors: 41 Awakening, 42 Recognition, 43 Dissociation, 44 Transcendence, 45 Expansion, 46 Ascension, 47 Compassion, 48 Detachment, 49 Equanimity, 50 Small Death. The app population thins fast here — 41–45 is the population's upper edge (spec §3), 46–50 rare in-app. **Evidence regime shifts at ~41 (canon §10, rule 7/10):** below, behavioral/telemetric; above, almost entirely phenomenological. The observability gap is real (verifier finding on the dossier): above ~41, "behavior" collapses into self-report plus discipline-only telemetry, so this band's markers are built from (a) durable *linguistic trait-shift* across months, (b) claim-vs-telemetry/history consistency, (c) longitudinal recurrence structure — never single reports. Uncertainty widens by design; abstention is the default under thin evidence.

#### M-X5-001 — glimpse-trajectory trait-ization (longitudinal)
- **Locus:** band 5 × cross-pillar (anchors 41–45) · **Flags:** corroboration_required
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** strong FOR band 5 when longitudinal · low-medium (a months-long expanding event-log trajectory is hard to script retroactively; any single report is easy)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (the band's load-bearing marker: it is built from the event log, not from any claim) · axes {C, V, S} — map-readers know glimpses "should" expand: the guard is that this marker is *computed* from ≥3 M-PGL-001 events spread over ≥6 weeks with growing frequency/duration/stability and off-cushion spill; clustered retreat-week events read intensification phase (M-PIT-001) instead.
- **What:** The canon's Expansion signature: glimpses stop being isolated events — "they expand and you have more and more… more and more stable, more and more intense over time. And you gradually start to feel it in more and more moments in your life." Scored on the trajectory the corroboration queue shows.
- **Sketches:** (1) Event log: glimpse reports at weeks 0, 5, 8, 11; duration growing; the last two arose off-cushion. (2) "It used to only happen deep in a sit. Last Tuesday it was just there while washing dishes."
- **Differential:** Retreat/intensive clustering = phase not position (rule 6); psychedelic-occasioned events annotate provenance (M-NX-015); DPDR episodes trend with distress and function-cost, not expansion-with-function (CT-7).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Expansion 44–45 quote; Awakening 41); [L1] §7 (maqām rule: stable + volitional = position), §12 pattern 5; [FSNR] §1d (state vs trait vs depth).

#### M-X5-002 — recognition-reframe of own practice history (42)
- **Locus:** band 5 × cross-pillar (anchor 42) · **Flags:** exposure_sensitive
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band 5 entry · low when log-crossed (the strong form re-narrates *their own logged past reports*, checkable against conversation history) / high as bare narrative
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C} — the map teaches that recognition follows glimpses, so the reframe is scriptable; the discriminator is retro-reference to concrete episodes that actually exist in the log, told with new structure.
- **What:** The canon's Recognition: "at some point to recognize this, it makes sense, this is what I've been experiencing all along." Old experiences get re-indexed under the new category, spontaneously and specifically.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Those odd flat-bright moments I mentioned in March — I understand them now; I didn't have a category then" (March report exists). (2) Re-tells an old episode with subject-object structure it lacked at first telling.
- **Differential:** Confabulated retrofit after reading the map (no matching log entries — M-NX-008); therapy reframe narratives (T-route, M-NX-015). CT-4.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Recognition 42).

#### M-X5-003 — early-glimpse suffering texture (41)
- **Locus:** band 5 × cross-pillar (anchor 41)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** weak-to-moderate FOR band 5 entry · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (texture corroborator, never load-bearing alone — rule 16) · axes {S, V} — the public map's valence says glimpses are good; the canon says early flashes arrive "in your meditation practice that is mostly suffering." Difficulty-embedded first glimpses match canon texture; triumphant pure-bliss firsts lean map-expectation or mood.
- **What:** First awakening flashes reported inside difficulty — brief, destabilizing, "mostly suffering" — rather than as arrival.
- **Sketches:** (1) "For two seconds everything was completely obvious and completely unbearable. Then it shut again." (2) "The flash itself was fine. The week after, everything felt like cardboard."
- **Differential:** Dip phenomenology without any glimpse event (M-PDP-001); dramatized difficulty (T4 threat, [L5] §1); the texture is coachable once known (rule 16).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Awakening ~41: "glimpses and flashes… mostly suffering"); [L5] §2.4 (too-good-to-be-true inversion).

#### M-S5-001 — whole-field flux as default perceptual mode
- **Locus:** band 5 × sensations (41–45)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band 5 sensations · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (trait form of M-S4-005) · axes {V, C, S} — MCTB vocabulary check (exposure ledger); the trait claim must sit on a history of state reports plus matter-of-fact register.
- **What:** Solidity-breakup is no longer episodic: flux/vibration is the default texture of attended experience, narrated without drama, vividness preserved, function intact.
- **Sketches:** (1) "At some point 'solid' stopped being how anything feels. It's all texture and change now — normal, not dramatic." (2) "The strobing thing isn't an event anymore, it's just how attention lands."
- **Differential:** Dissolution-with-graying + distress = dip (M-PDP-001, CT-2); HPPD/paresthesia/medical; vocabulary without state-report history (M-NX-004). CT-4.
- **Source:** [MtN] §1B (anicca as lived realization); [AL] §1.4 (ñāṇa 4–5 territory, trait form); [L4] §4b (vividness column).

#### M-S5-002 — volitional absorption with five-masteries structure
- **Locus:** band 5 × sensations/awareness boundary (42–48) · **Flags:** corroboration_required
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate, rising to strong on demonstrated reproducibility across occasions · low-medium (control claims are longitudinally checkable: pre-stated duration, clean exit, session-length telemetry)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (trait form of M-A4-007) · axes {C, V, S} — jhāna vocabulary is public; the five-masteries *structure* (entry at will, pre-resolved duration, clean exit, factor review) across multiple occasions is the scored object, never the label.
- **What:** Claimed absorptions carry mastery structure and recur: the practitioner enters intentionally, holds a chosen duration, exits cleanly, and can review what was present — consistent with logged session lengths.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I decided on forty minutes, set in, and came out at forty-two — that's been repeatable for a month." (2) "Entry is reliable now if the first ten minutes are quiet; exits stopped being abrupt."
- **Differential:** Lite-vs-deep referent gap ([L1] §2) — score control/duration/clarity; dullness fails actual-deviance recall (CT-3); one-off depth = phase.
- **Source:** [L1] §2 (Pa-Auk five masteries; lite/deep debate); [FSNR] §1d (trait-depth: "can reliably self-induce… on demand"); [CANON] §8 (Theravada overlay places jhāna→formless territory ~31–50, cessation only at 51 — verifier re-anchor).

#### M-S5-003 — formless-sphere reports with subtlety ordering
- **Locus:** band 5 × sensations (upper, 44–50) · **Flags:** corroboration_required, exposure_sensitive
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR upper band 5 · medium-high (sphere names are in every map; the object-subtlety detail is the honest part)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C} — the guard is Patañjali's axis: what was *known*, and how subtly — body-drop into space, then consciousness-as-object, then no-thingness — with the report articulate about what remained (vs cessation's nothing). Referenced by M-A4-006 as the "much deeper cousin."
- **What:** Formless-absorption reports whose object-subtlety ordering matches the classical ladder, told from inside with process detail rather than doctrine.
- **Sketches:** (1) "The body went first, then the room; what was left was just… extent. Attention could still move in it." (2) "There was still knowing, but nothing known — and even that thinned."
- **Differential:** Cessation confusion — rich experience during the state ≠ cessation (M-NX-010, CT-6); sleep-onset imagery; void-doctrine talk without process (M-NX-004/M-NX-009).
- **Source:** [L1] §8 (Patañjali object-subtlety axis); [NIR] §1d (jhāna ladder J5–J8); [CANON] §8 (Theravada overlay: No-thingness at 49–50 — corrected from a §3 cite, adjudicator fix: canon §3's rows 49–50 are Equanimity and Small Death; No-thingness is the §8 overlay column).

#### M-E5-001 — compassion surge with empathic specificity (47)
- **Locus:** band 5 × emotions (anchor 47)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR upper band 5 emotions · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {P, V, S} — agreeableness/expressivity is the P-confound ([RT] on warmth); the discriminator is *empathic penetration with behavioral follow-through*, unbidden, distinct from metta-practice compliance (M-E4-004 curriculum).
- **What:** The canon's Compassion: "very strong compassion that emerges connected to very strong empathic understandings of other human beings" — arriving spontaneously, with specific inside-view of particular people and consequent action.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I suddenly saw exactly how trapped my father is inside his pride — not as an idea; I felt the shape of it. I drove over that evening." (2) Warmth reports that carry accurate, non-generic models of the other person's situation.
- **Differential:** Love-bombing register (exposure); hypomanic warmth (arousal cluster → M-PIT-002); performative saintliness (M-NX-002 uniformity check). CT-5-adjacent.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Compassion 47); [FSNR] §1c (affiliative signal up, threat-bias down).

#### M-E5-002 — detachment/meaning-loss with function retained (48)
- **Locus:** band 5 × emotions/thoughts boundary (anchor 48) · **Flags:** safety_route (watch-level)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR upper band 5 · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {S, V} — the depressive look-alike is the whole risk: score only jointly with function + warmth + honest disquiet (rule 12) and the CT-2 feature table; phase-check first.
- **What:** The canon's Detachment: "the more you realize, okay, fuck, nothing makes sense at all" — meaning-frames deflating *while* work, relationships, and practice continue; disquiet named without collapse.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Ambition stopped computing. I still show up — the showing up is fine, it's the 'why' that dissolved." (2) "It's not despair. It's more like the scaffolding was never load-bearing."
- **Differential:** Clinical anhedonia (global withdrawal including the path, impairment — [L4] §4b); bypass doctrine ("nothing matters" as avoidance — M-NX-012); adolescent-nihilism register (P). CT-2.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Detachment 48, incl. "we usually have very strong love training before"); [L4] §4b.

#### M-E5-003 — equanimity with empathy-cost admission (49)
- **Locus:** band 5 × emotions (anchor 49)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate-to-strong FOR upper band 5 · low-medium (counter-map cost admission; capped by rule 16)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V} — the public map sells equanimity as unambiguous good; the canon's own double edge ("it becomes a bit harder to even feel empathy to other people at some point") is not in the public map. A spontaneous empathy-cost admission *alongside* deep equanimity matches canon texture precisely.
- **What:** Deep equanimity reported with its cost: flattened empathic pull, named honestly, often with concern about it.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I don't get pulled under by anyone's pain anymore — and I'm slightly worried I don't get pulled *toward* it either." (2) "My sister called crying. I was completely present and completely unmoved. Both things."
- **Differential:** Dissociative flattening — cost admitted but contact *lost* (M-NX-013: memory gaps, unreality, impairment); schizoid presentation (P, trait-stable); bypasser claims perfect compassion + equanimity together (M-NX-002/M-NX-012). CT-1.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Equanimity 49 quote); [L5] §2.4 (unevenness as genuine texture).

#### M-T5-001 — lived anicca/anatta in ordinary perception
- **Locus:** band 5 × thoughts (41–46)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band 5 thoughts · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C, T} — doctrine words are free; the scored object is impermanence/non-ownership noticed *at perception speed in fresh, non-practice contexts*, with situational detail the map does not supply.
- **What:** OM-band insight signatures as lived reports: thoughts arising unowned and dissolving mid-formation, impermanence observed in the perceptual texture of ordinary scenes, non-self noticed in action.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Queueing at the pharmacy, I watched an opinion about the cashier assemble itself and un-assemble. Nobody did either." (2) "The plan for the email was already typing itself — I saw the 'I' get added afterwards."
- **Differential:** Doctrine recital (M-NX-004); therapy decentering (M-NX-015); single polished episodes (rule 13). CT-4.
- **Source:** [MtN] §1B (anicca/anatta as lived vs intellectual; "not under my control, they arise spontaneously"); [BL] §1c (dereification).

#### M-T5-002 — construct-freedom with re-authoring behavior (44–48)
- **Locus:** band 5 × thoughts (anchors 44–48)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** weak-to-moderate FOR band 5 thoughts · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, T} — coaching-driven reinvention and midlife re-evaluation produce the surface; the discriminator is equanimous texture (no crisis register) plus actual behavioral re-authoring consistent over months.
- **What:** Transcendence-zone relationship to meaning: frames seen as optional constructions *and* actually re-authored — commitments changed calmly, identity claims loosened, without nihilistic or manic register.
- **Sketches:** (1) "I dropped the ten-year plan. Not in protest — it just stopped being mine. I built a smaller one I actually believe." (2) "Job title used to be who I was. Now it's a coat. Warm coat, wrong weather sometimes."
- **Differential:** Crisis re-evaluation (S/P: distress register, instability); coaching literacy (M-T4-004 curriculum surface); detachment-without-function → CT-2.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Transcendence→Detachment arc 44–48); [L2] §4.1 (post-conventional construct-awareness, structure-scored — analogy).

#### M-T5-003 — emptiness depth-ladder levels 3–4 observations
- **Locus:** band 5 × thoughts (upper, 46–50) · **Flags:** exposure_sensitive
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate-to-strong when process-fresh · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C} — levels 1–2 of the [AL] ladder are reading-contaminable and live at M-T4-002 (curriculum); levels 3–4 scored here only as *live process observations*, and the level-4 mis-assertion ("the void is ultimate reality") fires M-NX-009 AGAINST instead. Referenced by M-T4-002.
- **What:** [AL]'s gross→subtle ladder, upper rungs: (3) aggregates/perception reported as fabricated in real time; (4) emptiness-of-emptiness handled correctly — no-thingness not reified into an ultimate void.
- **Sketches:** (1) "The chair assembles out of color, edge, and expectation — I watched the assembly for a second before 'chair' snapped in." (2) "Even the emptiness isn't a thing that's there. That one took the floor out."
- **Differential:** Level-1/2 philosophy talk (curriculum); void-reification (M-NX-009 — itself a placement signal against 46+); cessation-adjacent claims route CT-6.
- **Source:** [AL] §1.3 (four-level ladder; level-1 "cheap and reading-contaminable"; level-4 mis-assertions as placement signals).

#### M-A5-001 — reproducible non-dual access
- **Locus:** band 5 × awareness (42–46) · **Flags:** corroboration_required
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** strong FOR band 5 awareness when corroborated (recurrence + paraphrase-stable + off-cushion spill) · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (trait form of M-A4-008) · axes {V, C, S} — [RT]'s reproducible-dissociation objection is answered structurally: reproducibility alone never suffices; function + warmth + contact co-checks (rule 12) and CT-7 screening are mandatory co-conditions, and the mechanics must survive fresh-angle follow-up (sassho — [L1] §3).
- **What:** Subject-object softening summonable and quasi-stable across occasions, reported with mechanics ("how I get there") and failure modes, spilling into ordinary moments.
- **Sketches:** (1) "If I settle attention on the hearing itself, the hearer usually thins out within minutes — most days now." (2) "It collapses the moment I want it. Wanting is the off-switch. I've mapped that pretty well."
- **Differential:** Scripted reproducibility claims (perturbation follow-ups); reproducible DPDR (distress/function screen, CT-7); nyams-grasping register — state defended as attainment (M-NX-011). CT-1/CT-7.
- **Source:** [L1] §7 (maqām: summonable-at-will + stable), §2 (masteries), §12 patterns 5/8; [CANON] §4.2 (OA→non-dual ladder), §6 (Recognition→Expansion); [MtN] §1B.

#### M-A5-002 — self-model ladder position (minimal-self / self-less structure)
- **Locus:** band 5 × awareness (44–50)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR upper band 5 awareness · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage · axes {V, C} — MPE vocabulary is published; score which self-level the *structure* of fresh reports reaches, not the words: narrative-self quieting vs experiencing-self thinning vs episodes with no self-location.
- **What:** Reports differentiating the Dor-Ziderman gradation lived-first-person: narrative self silent; minimal witnessing self thinned; brief self-less structure (events with no locus) — each with situated detail.
- **Sketches:** (1) "The commentary is mostly gone; there's still a 'here' that things happen to." (2) "For a stretch there was seeing with no vantage point — describing it now, I have to re-install the 'me' to say it."
- **Differential:** DPDR (distress/impairment/unreality register → safety, CT-7); MPE/map vocabulary without structure (M-NX-004); cessation claims are a different family (CT-6).
- **Source:** [MtN] §1B (narrative → minimal → self-less, Dor-Ziderman et al. 2013); [VOH] (MPE descriptors); [BL] §1d.

#### M-A5-003 — small-death / proto-cessation event claim (50 boundary)
- **Locus:** band 5→6 boundary × awareness/cross-pillar (anchor 50–51; filed under cross-pillar in §6) · **Flags:** corroboration_required, safety_route (support needs rise in this territory)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** strong FOR the 50/51 boundary when corroborated; bare claims ≈ inert (claim-gated) · low when the full rubric + residue is present / high as vocabulary
- **Class/Contamination:** milestone ([NIR]'s three-part rubric is public — a well-read faker can recite it (the paper's own caution); corroboration therefore rests on the *after-effect residue window* (M-PGL-002) and under-claiming register, not the event description) · axes {C, V, S}.
- **What:** The [NIR] cessation rubric: (1) total absence of experience, (2) no retrospective content — the gap noticed only on emergence, (3) subsequent clarity/openness/vitality. Characteristically under-claimed: surfaces as a puzzled "something happened / a reset" report, not an attainment claim. Canon §9-G: this is *boundary* evidence (50/51), never clean band-6 evidence.
- **Sketches:** (1) "There's a chunk missing from the sit. Not sleep — I came out weirdly bright, like the room had been rinsed." (2) "A cut. No inside to it. I only knew from the other side, and the week after was strangely frictionless."
- **Differential:** Sleep/micro-sleep (grogginess, no residue); rich-experience-during → near-neighbor redirect (M-NX-010, CT-6); "big death"/NS claims without the 8-jhāna + ethical-transformation scaffold → M-NX-005 ([NIR] §1c; canon §6: big death excluded from the wheel by design, §9-K). CT-6.
- **Source:** [NIR] §1b (necessary-and-sufficient rubric), §1e (after-effect residue as the richest routine marker); [AL] §1.1; [CANON] §6 (Small Death 50), §9-G/§9-K; [FSNR] §1d (post-cessation reset).

### 2.4 Band 6 — Unbinding (51–60): recognition + support duty, band-level only

Live-transmission territory: the canon asserts a teacher-in-the-loop is *structurally required* from 51 up (canon §10), and traditions unanimously assert a report-only information ceiling ([L1] §0). The estimator's duty here is **recognize the territory, widen the intervals, route support** — not fine placement. All band-6 markers are **band-level and cross-pillar (X)**: per-pillar attribution above 51 has no evidential basis in the canon or lanes, so the four pillar cells are *declared gaps* (§6). Every marker in this band is `safety_route` or safety-adjacent (Lane 4 §7.1-A5 flags unbinding-adjacent posterior mass on stage alone, not distress). Expected in-app population ≈ nil; these markers exist because the phenomenology carries the highest support needs when it does appear.

#### M-X6-001 — polarity-switch phenomenology (51)
- **Locus:** band 6 × cross-pillar (anchor 51) · **Flags:** safety_route, corroboration_required
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band-6 territory · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level) · axes {V, C} — the *pair* is the guard: the public map sells peace; the canon's signature is a double trade. Both poles present + function report + corroborated 50-boundary history required.
- **What:** The canon's Unbinding onset: emptiness becomes an attractor ("it becomes harder and harder to not look at it") AND the suffering/happiness double loss ("I can't suffer anymore as I was suffering before… but then… you also don't feel happiness anymore, the same way").
- **Sketches:** (1) "The old suffering genuinely can't get traction — and neither can the old joy. Nobody warned me it was a package." (2) "Attention keeps sliding back toward the empty thing. Not a choice anymore."
- **Differential:** Anhedonia (CT-2: static, self-reproach, no attractor structure, no boundary history — [L4] §4b); bypass doctrine (M-NX-012); detachment at 48 is the near-neighbor below (empathy-cost vs the full double trade).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Unbinding onset 51 quotes); [L4] §7.1-A5.

#### M-X6-002 — Low-X loss-cascade reports (52–56, phase-cluster)
- **Locus:** band 6 × cross-pillar (anchors 52–56) · **Flags:** safety_route
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band-6 territory (with corroborated history) · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level) + state (the cascade recurs as a phase-cluster; dossier candor item for Surya M2: treat 52–56 as recurring cluster, not fixed sequence) · axes {V, S} — depression phenomenology overlaps heavily: the full CT-2 feature table is mandatory, and the flag fires regardless of the stage reading.
- **What:** Sequential loss reports in canon order-space: pain/pleasure/meaning/empathy/knowledge dimming ("you start to lose meaning. Then you start to lose even empathy… conceptual thinking becomes very complex") in a practitioner with corroborated 50/51-boundary history.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Pain dulled first, months ago. Now it's meaning going translucent. I can watch it happen mid-sentence." (2) "Reading theory is getting strange — the concepts won't stack."
- **Differential:** CT-2 in full (depression: static, global, self-directed content, neurovegetative, practice-decoupled); burnout/cognitive load; the empathy row echoes 49's empathy-cost (position-vs-phase per rule 6).
- **Source:** [CANON] §3 (52–56 rows), §7 (Low-X cascade quote); [L4] §4b, §7.1.

#### M-X6-003 — non-dual loop signature (57)
- **Locus:** band 6 × cross-pillar (anchor 57) · **Flags:** safety_route (crystallization watch), exposure_sensitive
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band-6 territory · medium-high (famous territory in pragmatic-dharma circles)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level) · axes {V, C} — CT-8 is the whole game: the same surface report ("practice doesn't make sense") occurs at three positions; only corroborated milestone history adjudicates; abstain otherwise.
- **What:** The canon's named trap: "even practice doesn't make sense… Spirituality is usually probably the last thing that you have that you're still unsure to…" — meaninglessness that has consumed even the path, while practice weirdly continues; canon: "many very advanced teachers crystallize here."
- **Sketches:** (1) "Practice is absurd. Recognizing what I already am, by appointment, daily. I still sit. That's the absurd part." (2) "Everything else went first. The dharma was last. Now that's gone too and I'm still here."
- **Differential:** CT-8: ordinary demotivation (any band, no high-band history, responds to novelty); post-enlightenment practice-meaninglessness (65+ context, function high, later returns for intensification — M-X7-003); depression (CT-2 screen).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Non-Dual Loop 57), §7 (practice-meaninglessness appears twice — explicit discrimination requirement).

#### M-X6-004 — deconstruction / hysteria-adjacent texture (58–59)
- **Locus:** band 6 × cross-pillar (anchors 58–59) · **Flags:** safety_route (Tier-A/B evaluation mandatory)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** moderate FOR band-6 territory · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level) + state · axes {V, S} — [RT] joint-possibility rule binds hardest here: the canon's own differential (interleaved excitation glimpses; void-yet-emergence texture) NEVER self-certifies; dark-tunnel phenomenology and clinical depression can coexist; the flag fires on features, whatever the stage reading ([L4] §4a: replace "spiritual vs pathological?" with "what support does this person need?").
- **What:** The canon's Deconstruction/Void: "even the concept of spirituality itself disappears… You become a little bit mad. There is a hysteria bit that emerges in phases"; "a dark tunnel… very similar to the depression state sometimes. But in moments they have glimpses of excitation"; "everything is empty, but at the same time everything emerges."
- **Sketches:** (1) "Most of the day is ash. Then five minutes where everything fountains out of nothing and I laugh like an idiot. Then ash." (2) "Even 'enlightenment' stopped meaning anything. That word was the last handhold."
- **Differential:** CT-2 with the canon's own markers (interleaved excitation, emergence texture) as *features recorded with both hypotheses*, plus [L4] §4a criteria (critical attitude, controllability, impairment); manic mixed states (M-PIT-002 arousal screen).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Deconstruction 58, Void 59), §7 (hysteria-adjacent phases); [L4] §4a (Lindahl 2020 criteria), §7.1–7.2.

#### M-X6-005 — luminosity–emptiness co-presence reports (60)
- **Locus:** band 6 top × cross-pillar (anchor 60) · **Flags:** corroboration_required
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** weak-to-moderate FOR band-6 top (recognition duty; population ≈ nil in-app) · medium-high (Dzogchen vocabulary is public)
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level) · axes {V, C} — Trekchö/Tögal language is quotable; only live process specifics count, and the grasped-vs-released relationship (M-NX-011) is the working screen.
- **What:** Reports of luminosity and emptiness as co-present and inseparable in live experience — the canon's 60→61 junction ("you are able to perceive luminosity and emptiness all together… they're inseparable and… one aspect of the same thing").
- **Sketches:** (1) "The emptiness isn't dark anymore. It shines from inside the things it empties. Both at once, one move." (2) Described from a fresh angle under follow-up without doctrine scaffolding.
- **Differential:** Doctrine recital (M-NX-004); nyams-grasping — bliss/clarity/non-thought held as attainment ([L1] §4 → M-NX-011); drug-occasioned luminosity (M-NX-015 provenance).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (60→61 union quote); [L1] §4 (nyams vs realization; pointing-out is teacher-only).

### 2.5 Band 7 — Enlightenment (61–70): ceiling recognition only

Practical human ceiling ≈62 in the spec's population model (spec §3: humans occupy ~22–62); the canon itself admits thin literature past 64 ("there is a very little literature here, I have to admit" — Reconstruction). Markers here are **cross-pillar, band-level, recognition-grade**: they exist so the estimator does not misread this territory as regression or pathology, and so the ceiling stays honest. Per-pillar cells: declared gaps (§6). Everything here is corroboration-gated and abstention-biased.

#### M-X7-001 — stabilization / constancy claims (62)
- **Locus:** band 7 × cross-pillar (anchor 62) · **Flags:** corroboration_required
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** weak-to-moderate FOR band-7 territory, only as a months-scale pattern · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** milestone (constancy, not amplitude, is the scored object: "you really experience reality all the time with it. It's not like something that you sometimes more, sometimes less, it's there") · axes {V, C} — single claims inert; requires months of consistent baseline-shift reports + unremarkable function + no amplitude-chasing register.
- **What:** Canon Stabilization: the shift stops being episodic and becomes the standing condition, reported without event-structure ("nothing to report — it's just how seeing works now").
- **Sketches:** (1) "Asking 'is it still on' stopped making sense around spring. There's no off." (2) Reports flatten into ordinariness while the trait-shift language stays consistent across months.
- **Differential:** Post-peak honeymoon (M-PGL-002 residue window, weeks-scale); grandiosity/specialness register (M-PIT-002, M-NX-001/002); PNSE-style location talk is vocabulary, not evidence (map exposure).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Stabilization 62), §10 ("Within Stage 4" row: constancy, not amplitude).

#### M-X7-002 — integration / reconstruction signature (63–64)
- **Locus:** band 7 × cross-pillar (anchors 63–64)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** weak-to-moderate FOR band-7 territory · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level) · axes {V, P} — recovery narratives and post-burnout re-entry mimic the surface; corroborated high-band history is the gate; without it, abstain.
- **What:** Canon Integration/Reconstruction: re-entry from the void phase — "gradually you reintegrate into society and you come back to life… there is a deep sense of freedom… nothing has meaning. I can give meaning to whatever I want. I'm free" — with renewed ordinary function and rebuilding behavior. Matches the Zen overlay (Return to Society 63–64; marketplace with open hands).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Picked the work back up — not because it means anything, because I decided it does. That decision being mine is the whole difference." (2) "The void didn't resolve. I just live somewhere roomier that includes it."
- **Differential:** Ordinary recovery (no corroborated 51–60 history); manic re-entry (arousal screen M-PIT-002); freedom-of-meaning talk from reading (M-NX-004; exposure).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Integration 63, Reconstruction 64), §8 (Zen Return to Society 63–64); [L1] §3 (ox-herding #10, "no smell of enlightenment").

#### M-X7-003 — practice-motivation return for intensification (65–66)
- **Locus:** band 7 × cross-pillar (anchors 65–66)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** weak FOR band-7 territory · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** stage (band-level; the CT-8 third position) · axes {V, C} — the canon flags thin literature past 64: uncertainty stays wide by design; this marker mostly serves the CT-8 discrimination rather than placement.
- **What:** Canon Intensification: after the meaninglessness phases, practice motivation *returns* — "then there is a phase in which it comes back because you realize that you can intensify the state more and more"; enlightenment framed as "a function that can intensify," plateau–peak ladder language.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Practice stopped being for anything years ago. Now it's back — not to get somewhere, to turn the brightness up." (2) Peak-plateau ladder narrated as a long game ("plateaus are where it soaks in").
- **Differential:** CT-8 (loop-at-57 meaninglessness has no return-with-intensification structure; ordinary re-motivation lacks the high-band history); amplitude-chasing without history (M-NX-011 state-grasping).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Intensification 65–66 + practice-return quote; Escalation 67 plateau–peak ladder; Reconstruction 64 literature-gap admission).

---

## 3. Phase-axis markers (fast variable)

Phase markers update the **fast phase state** (glimpse / plateau / dip / integration / intensification — spec §3/§4) and the corroboration queue. **They never update the band posterior directly** (rule 6); their job is to contextualize evidence (a dip is not regression, a peak is not a stage), gate consistency penalties, and drive the safety duty. Class is `state` (or `safety`) throughout; the estimator memo's phase chain consumes these columns. U-shaped destabilize-then-restabilize arcs are *expected* on the path ([FSNR] §1d) — that scientific footing is why the dip family exists as phase, not as negative stage evidence.

### 3.1 Glimpse (GL)

#### M-PGL-001 — glimpse event (one-off peak-state report)
- **Locus:** phase GL · **Flags:** corroboration_required (queue entry)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR glimpse phase · strong for phase, nil for position · medium-high (vocabulary public)
- **Class/Contamination:** state **+ milestone-claim** (dual-class, adjudicator fix 2026-07-16: spec §4 names `first_glimpse` as a snapshot milestone marker_id — the first M-PGL-001 event enters that milestone as `claimed`; corroboration arrives only via the M-X5-001 trajectory and P-049-style residue, never from the event description) · axes {S, V, C} — the event's position value is deferred by construction: it enters the corroboration queue and only the M-X5-001 trajectory ever converts glimpse events into band evidence. Referenced by M-A4-008.
- **What:** A discrete, surprising, time-bounded peak-state report of the glimpse class — subject-object softening, unity, luminosity, sudden intense clarity — with onset/offset and aftermath.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Twenty seconds where seeing had no seer. Heart pounding after." (2) "Everything went transparent for a moment on the bus. Then ordinary again."
- **Differential:** DPDR episode (CT-7); psychedelic/substance context (M-NX-015); panic-adjacent derealization (valence + arousal); canon: early glimpses often arrive inside difficulty (M-X5-003 texture).
- **Source:** [CANON] §7 (glimpse phases 41–45: "brief flashes… expanding in frequency/duration/intensity"); [MtN] §1C (state ≠ trait); [L1] §11.2 (states are not stations).

#### M-PGL-002 — post-event residue window
- **Locus:** phase GL (aftermath) · **Flags:** telemetry-adjacent
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR recent-genuine-event hypothesis (corroborator) · moderate · low-medium (days-scale unforced residue is hard to sustain deliberately)
- **Class/Contamination:** state (the promotion mechanism for milestone claims: [NIR] §1e after-effects — clarity, openness, vitality, warmth, reduced reactivity — appearing in the *following days' unrelated conversation*) · axes {S} — mood elevation mimics it: check sleep/arousal cluster and duration.
- **What:** Days-scale afterglow following a claimed event, visible in texture the practitioner is not narrating as afterglow: shorter rumination half-life, brighter register, spontaneous warmth.
- **Sketches:** (1) The week after a claimed "reset": complaints dissolve mid-telling, unprompted gratitude, crisper reports. (2) Journaling cadence brightens without topic change.
- **Differential:** Hypomanic elevation (arousal cluster → M-PIT-002); performed serenity (M-NX-002 texture: uniform, not specific).
- **Source:** [NIR] §1e (post-cessation residue as the richest routine marker set); [FSNR] §1d (post-cessation reset persistence).

### 3.2 Plateau (PL)

#### M-PPL-001 — plateau texture (baseline stability)
- **Locus:** phase PL · **Flags:** telemetry
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR plateau phase · moderate · low
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {} (mostly telemetry + register; the least contaminated marker in the bank) — its function is baseline: plateau is the default state against which surprise (glimpse/dip) is computed, and it protects practitioners from being read as stagnating.
- **What:** Stable practice, unremarkable reports, low novelty-seeking, steady telemetry; the canon's escalation ladder treats long plateaus as where peaks integrate ("long plateaus in which you integrate those peak experiences").
- **Sketches:** (1) Weeks of consistent sits, flat but unbothered reports. (2) "Nothing to report, honestly. Sits are sits lately."
- **Differential:** Dip (valence + vividness loss + restlessness → M-PDP-001); disengagement (telemetry decay *with* flattening interest).
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Escalation 67 plateau–peak ladder), §7 (plateau is not stagnation).

#### M-PPL-002 — mature plateau tolerance
- **Locus:** phase PL
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR plateau phase + weak maturity corroborator · weak · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** state (with a whisper of trait: tolerating dryness without alarm or self-blame is a practice-maturity texture) · axes {V, P} — stoic display norms mimic it; rule 16 caps it.
- **What:** A dry stretch narrated without catastrophizing, self-blame, or novelty-chasing, practice continuing.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Boring lately. That's fine. Boring is apparently part of it — I keep sitting." (2) No technique-shopping spike in telemetry during the dry stretch.
- **Differential:** Suppressed frustration (leaks under probe); spiritual-bypass gloss on real difficulty (M-NX-012 if difficulty is being swerved rather than tolerated).
- **Source:** [CANON] §7 (plateau phases); [L1] §12 pattern 17 (spiral/return normalization).

### 3.3 Dip / dark-night-adjacent (DP)

#### M-PDP-001 — dip onset signature
- **Locus:** phase DP · **Flags:** safety-adjacent (feeds Tier-A watch when persistent)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR dip phase · moderate · low-medium (elicitation-weighted: spontaneous >> probed, rule 4)
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {S, P} — trait-negativity and life-events mimic it; the *practice-coupled onset in an established practitioner* is the phase signature. Referenced by M-S4-005 and M-S3-002.
- **What:** Dissolution-with-graying: vividness loss, flat/hollow texture, meaning-dimming, restlessness spike, aversion to practice *with* continued pull — onset tracking practice intensification or following a high-clarity period.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Since the good month, everything's gone grey and grainy. Sits feel like chores I still somehow want." (2) Established practitioner, sudden abandonment spike + "flat" reports.
- **Differential:** [L4] §4b table throughout: depression leans static/global/self-directed with neurovegetative pattern and practice-decoupled onset; dips cycle and respond to backing off. CT-2; never self-certifies.
- **Source:** [L4] §4b (dynamics/perception rows); [FSNR] §1d (U-curves: initial destabilization expected); [CANON] §7 (dark-night phases).

#### M-PDP-002 — dark-night-adjacent cluster (three-sign structure)
- **Locus:** phase DP · **Flags:** safety_route when ≥3 weeks or any impairment ([L4] §7.1 Tier-A-4)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR dark-night-adjacent dip (phase) · moderate · medium (map-readable — John of the Cross is public domain)
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {V, C, S} — recorded as *features with both hypotheses* (dark-night AND depression), never adjudicated by the system ([L4] §4a: practitioners themselves cannot always tell from inside).
- **What:** The John-of-the-Cross triple, all three co-occurring: (1) dryness/no consolation in practice AND in worldly pleasures, (2) retained or heightened longing-and-care toward the path (anxious solicitude, not indifference), (3) the old method no longer working while something subtler stirs.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Nothing lands — not practice, not food, not friends. And I *care* about the path more than ever, which makes it worse." (2) "The technique that carried me for a year just… stopped. Something quieter is maybe there instead. Maybe."
- **Differential:** Depression leans: global anhedonia *including the goal itself*, self-reproach, worthlessness, neurovegetative changes, indifference to practice modulation (M-PDP-003). Both can be true at once — flag, don't adjudicate. CT-2.
- **Source:** [L1] §9 (John of the Cross, *Dark Night* I.9 three signs — canonical differential); [L4] §4a–4b, §7.1–7.2.

#### M-PDP-003 — depression-lean feature set (co-screen)
- **Locus:** phase DP (counter-hypothesis) · **Flags:** safety_route
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** AGAINST phase-typicality of a dip reading; FOR clinical-support routing · moderate · n/a (this is a routing screen, not an attainment surface)
- **Class/Contamination:** safety (records features; the classifier remains the acute authority; the teacher flag carries the longitudinal context — [L4] §7.0) · axes {P, S}.
- **What:** Features that lean the [L4] §4b table toward depression: static flat quality week after week, self-directed worthlessness/guilt, global anhedonia including the path, classic sleep/appetite/energy pattern, indifference to practice modulation, hopelessness about *oneself*.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Same grey every week. It's me that's the problem. Practice, no practice — nothing changes it." (2) Early-morning waking + appetite loss + "I've stopped caring whether I progress."
- **Differential:** This IS the differential row (CT-2). Suicidality/self-harm content: classifier authority immediately, Tier-B record ([L4] §7.1-B4) — no phase annotation ever downgrades it.
- **Source:** [L4] §4b (feature table), §7.1 (Tier-A-4, Tier-B), §4a (history-neutrality; retrospective-benefit uselessness).

#### M-PDP-004 — fear/terror/repulsion wave, practice-coupled
- **Locus:** phase DP · **Flags:** safety_route per thresholds
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR dip phase (dukkha-ñāṇa-typical) · moderate · medium (MCTB-readable)
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {S, C} — pragmatic-dharma readers know the fear/misery/disgust sequence: exposure check; the *cycling dynamics* (days-to-weeks, texture moving through recognizable qualities) resist scripting better than the labels.
- **What:** Waves of objectless fear, misery, disgust, or desire-for-deliverance cycling within days-to-weeks, onset tracking practice intensity, improving when practice is grounded/reduced.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Tuesday: dread with no object. Friday: everything disgusts me slightly. This morning: fine, almost sparkling. What is this?" (2) Backing off to walking practice reliably softens it within days.
- **Differential:** Panic disorder (situational triggers, no practice coupling); trauma re-experiencing (content-specific → [L4] §7.1-A3 route); static depression (CT-2).
- **Source:** [AL] §1.4 (dukkha-ñāṇa stages 5–10 anchor); [L4] §4b (cycling dynamics row; modulation-response row), §7.1.

#### M-PDP-005 — energetic miscultivation signature
- **Locus:** phase DP (energetic variant) · **Flags:** safety_route (immediate)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR destabilization requiring practice correction; AGAINST progress-reading of the same report · moderate-to-strong · low (the cluster is aversive; nobody scripts insomnia + head pressure for status)
- **Class/Contamination:** safety · axes {S} — referenced by M-S4-003: uncontrolled heat/pressure rising to the head, insomnia, nervous-system strain after breathwork escalation is the Neidan miscultivation syndrome (*zǒu huǒ rù mó*), a correction flag, never attainment evidence.
- **What:** Post-breathwork-escalation cluster: heat/pressure in the head, sleep disruption, agitation, involuntary energy phenomena with distress.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Since doubling the fast-breathing sets: pressure behind the eyes, three nights of two-hour sleep, skin buzzing." (2) Telemetry: practice-load jump immediately preceding the cluster ([L4] §7.1-A6).
- **Differential:** Benign intensification (function + sleep intact — M-PIT-001); stimulant/medical causes; anxiety flare (no practice-load coupling).
- **Source:** [L1] §6 (Neidan miscultivation; huǒhòu teacher-gating); [L4] §7.1-A1 (dysregulated-arousal cluster), A6 (post-intensification onset).

### 3.4 Integration (IN)

#### M-PIN-001 — integration texture
- **Locus:** phase IN
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR integration phase · moderate · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {V, T} — therapy-speak ("integrating my insights") mimics the vocabulary; the texture is *mundane application without event-hunger*.
- **What:** Post-peak or post-dip consolidation: insights showing up in ordinary conduct, practice-meaning quietly renewed, re-engagement with relationships/work, low drama register.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Nothing new this month. The thing from the retreat keeps turning up in small places — how I close the laptop, weirdly." (2) "It's becoming furniture. In a good way."
- **Differential:** Plateau (integration has *content being metabolized*; plateau is contentless stability); avoidant normalization of an unprocessed destabilization (check function honestly — M-NX-013 screen).
- **Source:** [CANON] §7 (integration phase; post-enlightenment variant at 63); [L1] §3 (ox-herding: return; spiral).

#### M-PIN-002 — spiral-return framing
- **Locus:** phase IN (also fires as context on any dip)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR integration phase + weak maturity corroborator · weak-to-moderate · medium (the framing is teachable)
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {V, C} — Batchelor's spiral is quoted in dharma media: exposure check; the honest form arrives with *specific* revisited territory, not the slogan.
- **What:** Difficulty framed as return-with-more-understanding — the same territory revisited at a different depth, named specifically, without catastrophe or denial.
- **Sketches:** (1) "It's the anger thing again — third lap. It's smaller and I can see its edges this time." (2) "Feels like going backwards, except I know this room now."
- **Differential:** Denial dressed as maturity (difficulty never actually contacted → M-NX-012); catastrophized regression (dip context, support need).
- **Source:** [L1] §3 (Batchelor spiral; describe-not-prescribe), §12 pattern 17; [CANON] §7 (non-linearity).

### 3.5 Intensification (IT)

#### M-PIT-001 — intensification phase (incl. devotional/mystical coloration)
- **Locus:** phase IT (canon anchor ~46 for the devotional flavor; the phase recurs across bands) · **Flags:** safety-adjacent (M-PIT-002 co-screen mandatory)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** FOR intensification phase · moderate · medium
- **Class/Contamination:** state · axes {S, P, C} — religiosity/culture shapes the devotional register (P); the map's 46-row is readable (C). **Dossier candor item pending Surya (M2): devotional/bliss@46 is scored as phase, not position** — this marker implements that stance.
- **What:** Weeks-scale rise in peak frequency/intensity: devotional/mystical coloration (deity-flavored imagery, worship-pull, "very strong devotional aspects and mystical connected to deities"), energy phenomena, charged practice — with sleep and function intact.
- **Sketches:** (1) "Everything's gone incandescent this month. I cry at liturgy I don't even belong to. Sleep's fine, work's fine — it's just *bright*." (2) Practice logs: session lengths climbing, reports charged but coherent.
- **Differential:** CT-5 is the row: benign intensity (function/sleep intact, humility, reversibility, doubt tolerated, warmth) vs destabilization (M-PIT-002). Mania/hypomania co-screen; retreat context normalizes temporarily.
- **Source:** [CANON] §6 (Ascension ~46 quote; "I'm now here now and 46%"), §7 (devotional/mystical phases as normal); [L4] §7.1-A6.

#### M-PIT-002 — destabilization screen (arousal cluster)
- **Locus:** phase IT (counter-screen) · **Flags:** safety_route (Tier-A1/B logic — [L4] §7.1–7.2)
- **Polarity/Tier/Imitability:** AGAINST benign-intensification reading; FOR support routing · strong for routing · n/a
- **Class/Contamination:** safety — this is the [RT] devotion/destabilization operationalization the v0 bank lacked entirely · axes {S, P}.
- **What:** ≥2 of: reduced sleep need without fatigue, escalating arousal, grandiosity/special-mission content, command experiences, pressured speech, impulsivity, disorganization, boundary violations, fear, functional decline. Any loss of critical attitude or uncontrollability → Tier-B expedited ([L4] §7.1-B1/B2).
- **Sketches:** (1) "Three hours of sleep is plenty now — the practice is feeding me. I've been chosen for something; I can feel the assignment forming." (2) Messages arriving rapid, disorganized, at 4am, boundaries slipping.
- **Differential:** Benign devotional intensity (M-PIT-001: sleep/function intact, humility, reversibility, tolerance of doubt); joint possibility explicitly allowed — devotion and mania can coexist ([RT]); the flag triages support, never diagnoses ([L4] §6a).
- **Source:** [RT] confusion-pair table (devotion/destabilization row — operational list adopted verbatim); [L4] §7.1 (Tier-A1 dysregulated arousal; Tier-B triggers), §4a (Lindahl 2020: uncontrollability, critical-attitude loss, impairment).

---

## 4. Cross-band guard markers (M-NX) — contamination, implausibility, look-alike redirects

The crown jewels ([L5] §2.6): this section's *detection logic* stays internal-only, distribution narrower than the Wheel itself — coached knowledge of detection strategy degrades detection far more than knowledge of the map (Rogers 1993; Storm & Graham 2000). Guards are mostly AGAINST-polarity: they scale per-practitioner credibility weights, redirect evidence to look-alike loci, and feed the consolidation review. **All guards are claim-gated (rule 1): they fire on positive assertions and contradictions, never on silence or absence.** Class is `guard` throughout (M-NX-013 doubles as safety); the Class/Contamination field is factored out here — guards are the instruments that *detect* the five axes, and each guard's false-positive confounds (what could innocently produce its trigger) live in its **Differential** line. Estimator treatment: guard events enter as evidence about contamination/enthusiasm, informative mildly downward and toward look-alike loci (estimator memo §8, guard-marker channel — stale §6.1 ref corrected).

#### M-NX-001 — explicit self-placement / self-rating
- **Trigger:** "I'd say I'm quite advanced / around stage X / a 8-of-10 awareness person"; any 1–10 self-rating; superiority-comparative language ("unlike most people, I…").
- **Action:** self-placements and self-ratings ≈ zero likelihood for position (rule 8: the internal anchor moves with stage, deflationary); superiority-comparatives add a mild inflation-risk flag to the credibility weight. Humility language is never evidence of low stage.
- **Differential:** playful register; quoting the app's own progress UI back (exposure).
- **Source:** [L5] §2.7 (Vonk & Visser 2021 spiritual-superiority), §2.9 (Grossman 2008/2011; Van Dam 2018).

#### M-NX-002 — uniform-serenity implausibility (L/K analogue)
- **Trigger:** difficulty-free, evenly-developed self-presentation across all four pillars over a sustained window; "no difficulties ever" under invitations.
- **Action:** inflation flag; scales down all uncorroborated positive claims. Genuine development is uneven and pillar-lumpy by design (spec §3); Lindahl base rates make difficulty-free deep practice statistically improbable.
- **Differential:** low-disclosure cultures/persons (capacity covariate first — rule 14); short evidence windows.
- **Source:** [L5] §2.4 (too-good-to-be-true / L-K analogue; Lindahl & Britton base rates via [L4] §3).

#### M-NX-003 — foil familiarity hit
- **Trigger:** claims familiarity with a Surya-cleared *nonexistent* practice/stage/phenomenon delivered as a probe ("some students report the descending jhāna gate — is that familiar?" → "oh yes, I know that one").
- **Action:** per-practitioner self-report credibility weight scales down likelihoods of ALL their uncorroborated claims (Paulhus overclaiming: the bias index generalizes across domains and survives warning). Foil list lives in the probe bank, Surya-cleared against every tradition overlay (a "foil" that names a real Neidan sign is a false-positive generator); dose-capped; Wisdom never confirms a foil as real afterward.
- **Differential:** politeness-agreement ("mm, maybe") ≠ familiarity claim — score only definite recognition.
- **Tension note (verifier, 2026-07-16):** foil delivery is the one probe move that cannot double as a legitimate teaching move — spec §11's probe-reactivity mitigation ("probes double as legitimate teaching moves") does not cover it, and the utterance asserts a nonexistent phenomenon. This is why the family carries D3 duties, the strictest caps, and item-by-item Surya clearance (probe bank P-040), and why the tension is on the M2 spec-revision agenda rather than silently absorbed.
- **Source:** [L5] §2.2 (Paulhus et al. 2003, warning-robust); probe-bank handoff per [L5] §4.2.

#### M-NX-004 — map-recitation register (low referential activity)
- **Trigger:** high map-vocabulary density with low episodic/sensory/temporal specificity; theory-voiced generalities where an experience was invited; the same two phrases recurring across contexts.
- **Action:** the utterance carries ~no positive weight; prompts a fresh-angle follow-up (sassho move); repeated pattern feeds the exposure/credibility picture. Never a penalty alone ([L5] §2.10–2.11: deception-cue literature is weak — use as genuineness-absence, not lie-detection).
- **Differential:** capacity-norm first (rule 14): low-RA speech is also just some people's register; second-language flattening.
- **Source:** [L5] §2.10 (Newman 2003; Hauch 2015 — small effects), §2.11 (Bucci RA heuristic, flagged speculation there and here).

#### M-NX-005 — gating-scaffold violation (F(p) analogue)
- **Trigger:** an attainment claim missing its prerequisite ladder: reverse breathing claimed with no gate sequence behind it; nirodha-samāpatti/"7-day cessation" without 8-jhāna mastery + ethical-transformation scaffold ([NIR] §1c); band-6 phenomenology claims with no corroborated 50/51-boundary history.
- **Action:** fires AGAINST the claimed locus and FOR the nearest look-alike (map-enthusiasm, formless-absorption, sleep); claim defaults to `claimed-not-corroborated`; abstention preferred over partial credit. Referenced by M-S4-004 and M-A5-003.
- **Differential:** genuine prior training elsewhere (pre-app history — take the history seriously before firing; M-NX-015).
- **Source:** [L5] §2.4 (Arbisi & Ben-Porath F(p) logic, marked derivation); [NIR] §1c (hard gating ladder).

#### M-NX-006 — claim-vs-telemetry contradiction
- **Trigger:** a positive claim contradicted by the practitioner's own logs: mastery claimed while gate position is early and practice variety unchanged; "two hours daily" vs sparse sessions; milestone claimed with no plausible preceding practice pattern.
- **Action:** consistency penalty on the claim (never on the person's estimate wholesale); evidence redirected toward enthusiasm/aspiration reading. **Asymmetry (v0.1, [RT] #7):** absence of telemetry is never evidence — off-app practice is invisible; only *contradiction* fires. The estimator memo's day-24 toy event is this guard.
- **Differential:** logging failures/offline practice (ask before firing — one clarifying probe is cheaper than a false penalty).
- **Source:** [L5] §2.3 (collateral-information principle; claim–gate and claim–trajectory checks); estimator memo §8.

#### M-NX-007 — paraphrase-instability (VRIN analogue)
- **Trigger:** the same phenomenology, re-probed weeks later in different words, fails to replicate in structure — the original account tracked surface phrasing, not experience.
- **Action:** inconsistency discount on that claim family; **phase-aware** (rule 6): a genuine phase shift also changes answers — consult the phase annotation before penalizing. Referenced by M-A4-002.
- **Differential:** genuine development between probes (direction matters: deepening structure is not instability); memory noise on old episodes.
- **Source:** [L5] §2.4 (VRIN analogue; paraphrase re-probing), §3 rank 7.

#### M-NX-008 — reading-ahead fingerprint
- **Trigger:** describes territory/gates ahead of logged position, in canonical map order, in phrasing that tracks app content or known maps ("next comes the belt of qi, where I expect the wrap sensation…" from someone two gates early).
- **Action:** redirects to curriculum-exposure covariate; prompts perturbation follow-up (genuine experience improvises off-map; scripts stall — sassho principle); repeated pattern raises the exposure discount on all vocabulary-matching markers.
- **Differential:** honest anticipation framed as expectation ("I've read that X comes next") is transparency, not contamination — score the *claim form*.
- **Source:** [L5] §2.5 (assume the answer book exists; probe families), §2.8 (exposure ledger); [L1] §11.5 (map contaminates the report).

#### M-NX-009 — ontological-ground mis-assertion
- **Trigger:** void/awareness asserted as ultimate ground or cosmic truth ("the void is the ultimate reality", "I am universal awareness — that's what's really there"), especially defending it doctrinally under follow-up.
- **Action:** fires AGAINST claimed 46+ standing: genuine emptiness/cessation reports run *epistemic process observations* that undermine any ground; the mis-assertion is itself a placement signal (the [AL] level-4 error). Referenced by M-T4-002/M-T5-003.
- **Differential:** loose poetic phrasing by a practitioner whose structure elsewhere is sound (probe before firing); devotional metaphysics as cultural register (P).
- **Source:** [AL] §1.1 (Attwood framing: ontological assertion vs epistemic observation), §1.3 (level-4 mis-assertions as placement signals).

#### M-NX-010 — cessation near-neighbor redirect
- **Trigger:** a "cessation/gap/blackout" claim with rich experience *during* — peace, vastness, bliss, watching the nothing ("during the cessation it was incredibly peaceful").
- **Action:** redirect FOR the near-neighbor loci (formless absorption M-S5-003; ND-awareness M-A5-002; sleep) and AGAINST the cessation milestone: cessation has no one home and no retrospective content ([NIR] rubric part 2). Referenced by M-A5-003. CT-6.
- **Differential:** clumsy narration of a genuine gap ("peaceful" describing the *emergence*, not the gap — one follow-up resolves it).
- **Source:** [AL] §1.1 ("vast open aware presence" is NOT cessation — someone home vs no one home); [NIR] §1b/§1f.

#### M-NX-011 — state-grasped-as-terminus (nyams-grasping)
- **Trigger:** a state (bliss, clarity, non-thought, luminosity) reported as the attainment itself — defended, hunted, treated as summit ("I've reached the blissful state — that's it, that's the goal").
- **Action:** placement signal for *lower than claimed*: the grasped-vs-released relationship, not the state, is the marker. Fires AGAINST the claimed band, FOR nyams-phase annotation (state, not station).
- **Differential:** early-path enthusiasm (expected at band 4 entry — mild); the canon's own bliss-adjacent top rows are trait descriptions, not state-chasing (context).
- **Source:** [L1] §4 (nyams gsum; "become obstacles the moment they are grasped"), §8 (Patañjali: ānanda is not the end; noetic certainty is inducible and false).

#### M-NX-012 — spiritualized swerve (bypassing signature)
- **Trigger:** invited into a concrete difficulty, the practitioner deflects to doctrine ("it's all empty anyway", "there's no one to be hurt") — topic never contacted; equanimity claimed while reactivity leaks in-exchange; positive-affect vocabulary co-occurring with topic-avoidance behavior.
- **Action:** FOR the bypassing hypothesis in CT-1; AGAINST equanimity-family markers in that episode; consolidation-level *pattern* becomes teacher-triage context, never a band penalty alone. Referenced by M-E4-005, M-T4-006, M-E5-002.
- **Differential:** genuine equanimity *increases* contact ([FSNR] §1f); terse low-affect registers (capacity-norm first); a practitioner may decline a topic for good reasons once — score patterns.
- **Source:** [L5] §2.12 (Fox et al. 2017 SBS-13: Psychological Avoidance + Spiritualizing; approach-vs-swerve probe); [FSNR] §1f.

#### M-NX-013 — dissociative flatness
- **Trigger:** invited contact produces no registration at all; affective blankness with memory gaps; unreality/watching-from-outside reports with negative valence, fear, or impairment; "calm" that reads as absence rather than presence.
- **Action:** safety route (Tier-A2 dissociative cluster — [L4] §7.1); AGAINST equanimity-family markers (CT-1); AGAINST reading self-boundary reports as stage (CT-7) when distress/impairment present. [RT] additions adopted: check memory continuity, felt agency/choice, affective flexibility, and voluntary re-engagement capacity ("could you go back to it now if you chose?"). Referenced by M-S3-001, M-E4-006, M-T4-006, M-E5-003.
- **Differential:** positive-valence self-boundary change without distress/impairment = stage evidence, not a flag (Lindahl & Britton rule via [L4] §7.1-A2); trait-flat registers (capacity covariate).
- **Source:** [L4] §7.1-A2; [MtN] §1C (self-change distress base rates); [RT] confusion-pair table (equanimity row, needed-list adopted).

#### M-NX-014 — recycled-episode detection
- **Trigger:** the same narrated episode re-offered across sessions as if new evidence (the presentation-piece story), often polished further each telling.
- **Action:** rule 13 enforcement: one episode = one evidence cluster, counted once; re-narrations may *corroborate* (new consistent detail) but never re-count; increasing polish with decreasing specificity is a mild M-NX-004 signal.
- **Differential:** integration re-processing (M-PIN-001: the same territory revisited with *new* material is growth, not recycling — the new-detail test separates them).
- **Source:** [RT] missing-list #10 (local-dependence controls); [L5] §2.13 (volume normalization kinship).

#### M-NX-015 — alternative-route provenance
- **Trigger:** pillar-competence signals better explained by non-path training visible in history: therapy/CBT (live-catching, decentering), bodywork/yoga (somatic granularity), coaching (values/mission fluency), freediving (breath control), psychedelics (glimpse-class events), religious formation (devotional register).
- **Action:** annotates provenance; discounts *path/curriculum attribution* while retaining the competence as genuine pillar evidence (rule 17); psychedelic-occasioned peak events additionally get the [BL] §1i caution (state without stage).
- **Differential:** convergent training + practice (both true — annotate, don't zero); undisclosed history (the exposure ledger cannot see it — [RT]: default humility about ledger blindness).
- **Source:** [RT] missing-list #9 (alternative acquisition routes); [BL] §1i (psychedelic caution-marker); rule 17.

---

## 5. Confusion table (expanded)

The spec §3 pairs (CT-1…CT-5) plus three the corpus forced (CT-6…CT-8). **Binding rule ([RT], adopted): the poles are NOT exclusive alternatives.** Depression can accompany dark-night phenomenology; devotion can coexist with mania; absorption can contain dullness intervals; dissociation can coexist with genuine insight. The extractor records *features under both hypotheses*; only corroboration structure, history, and (for the clinical poles) a human ever adjudicate — the system itself never asserts the differential ([L4] §4a).

| CT | Confusion | Shared surface | Discriminating structure | Markers FOR each pole | Guards / route |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **CT-1** | Equanimity vs spiritual bypassing vs dissociation | Calm in the face of difficulty; low reactivity; "it doesn't disturb me" | Equanimity *increases* contact (approach + texture + function); bypassing swerves to doctrine before contact; dissociation loses registration (memory gaps, unreality, no felt agency). v0.1 additions ([RT]): repeated provocation→contact→recovery across occasions; memory continuity; voluntary re-engagement ("could you go back to it now?"); delayed behavioral follow-through; functioning across work/relationships. Terse/low-affect registers are a P-confound — capacity-norm before reading terseness as swerve | Equanimity: M-E4-005, M-T4-006, M-E5-003, M-E4-006 (counter-indicator only) | Bypassing: M-NX-012 · Dissociation: M-NX-013 (→ safety Tier-A2) |
| **CT-2** | Dark night / low-meaning phase vs clinical depression | Flatness, meaning-loss, dysphoria, practice aversion | [L4] §4b feature table: practice-coupled onset, cycling textures, preserved/heightened vividness, existential content, responds to backing off, retained pull toward the path — vs static quality, self-directed worthlessness, global anhedonia incl. the path, neurovegetative pattern, modulation-indifference. John-of-the-Cross triple (all three co-occurring) leans dark-night. Practice linkage alone does NOT discriminate — practice can precipitate depression ([RT]); both can be true at once | Dip/dark-night: M-PDP-001, M-PDP-002, M-PDP-004; band-6 context: M-X6-002, M-X6-004 | Depression-lean: M-PDP-003 (→ safety Tier-A4/B; never self-certifies; suicidality → classifier + Tier-B always) |
| **CT-3** | Absorption vs dullness | Low-content, effortless, time-compressed states; "deep and easy" | v0.1 criteria ([RT] adopted): volitional entry/exit, repeatability at chosen duration, immediate post-sit recall, *actual* deviance events recalled crisply (retire the hypothetical doorbell as load-bearing), post-sit brightness vs grogginess, precise onset/offset microsequence. State classified first; stage only via recurrence/mastery structure | Absorption: M-A4-007, M-A4-004, M-S5-002 | Dullness: fires a phase/quality annotation (M-A3-001-adjacent), never floor placement for an established practitioner; [FSNR] §1f (deviance-sensitivity) |
| **CT-4** | Insight vocabulary vs lived insight | Fluent, correct-sounding dharma language; map-accurate sequence reports | Structure over content (rule 2) + exposure ledger (rule 3) + jargon-stripped paraphrase ([RT]: strip wording before scoring) + fresh-angle perturbation (sassho) + paraphrase re-probe weeks later + novel-transfer (improvises structure on objects the map doesn't cover). Ledger blindness stated honestly: books, teachers, forums, psychedelics, prior apps are invisible — cohort assumed map-contaminated by construction (spec §7) | Lived: M-A4-003, M-A4-002, M-T5-001, M-X5-002 (log-crossed) | Vocabulary: M-NX-004, M-NX-008, M-NX-007; foils M-NX-003 |
| **CT-5** | Devotional/mystical intensity vs destabilization | High-arousal spiritual experience; deity/mystical content; energy phenomena; fervor | Benign: sleep + function intact, humility, reversibility, tolerance of doubt, relational warmth, no urgency. Destabilization: reduced sleep need, escalating arousal, grandiosity/special mission, command experiences, pressured speech, impulsivity, disorganization, boundary violations, fear, impairment ([RT] list adopted verbatim). Energetic variant: head heat/pressure + insomnia after breathwork escalation. Devotion and mania can coexist — flag on features | Benign intensity: M-PIT-001 (phase, not position) | Destabilization: M-PIT-002, M-PDP-005 (→ safety Tier-A1/A6/B) |
| **CT-6** | Cessation / small death vs near-neighbors | "A gap", "I was gone", blackout-adjacent reports | [NIR] rubric: total absence + NO retrospective content + clarity/vitality residue. Near-neighbors: deep sleep (grogginess, no residue), formless absorption (something still known — M-S5-003), ND-awareness (wakeful contentless *presence* — someone home), anesthesia analogy talk. Rich experience "during" = redirect. NS/"big death" claims: 8-jhāna + ethical-transformation scaffold or default claimed-not-corroborated; canon keeps big death off the wheel deliberately (§9-K) | Cessation: M-A5-003 (+ M-PGL-002 residue) | Redirects: M-NX-010, M-NX-005; [AL] §1.1 someone-home test |
| **CT-7** | Non-dual / self-boundary shift vs depersonalization-derealization | "Not me", "unreal", watcher-collapse, boundary loss | Valence + agency + function: path ND is neutral-to-positive, precise, function-preserving, often surprise+curiosity, voluntarily approachable afterwards; DPDR is unwanted, distressing, foggy/unreal, impairing, with fear and no volitional access. Lindahl rule: positive-valence self-boundary change without distress/impairment = stage evidence; with distress/impairment = flag. Reproducibility does NOT discriminate ([RT]) — function/warmth/contact co-checks required | Path: M-A4-008 (state), M-A5-001, M-A5-002, M-X5-001 | DPDR-lean: M-NX-013 (→ safety Tier-A2) |
| **CT-8** | Practice-meaninglessness at three positions | "Even practice doesn't make sense anymore" | Canon §7 names the same surface at two positions; ordinary demotivation adds a third. Ordinary demotivation: any band, no corroborated high-band history, responds to novelty/rest, telemetry decays. Non-dual loop (57): corroborated unbinding-adjacent history, spirituality-as-last-certainty texture, practice weirdly continues. Post-enlightenment phase (65+): corroborated stabilization/integration history, function high, later returns for intensification. History adjudicates; without it, abstain | Loop: M-X6-003 · Post-E: M-X7-003 · Demotivation: plateau/dip context (M-PPL-001, M-PDP-001) | Guards: M-NX-005 (history gate); abstention default |

Cross-table rule of use: a confusion row is *consulted*, not scored — the extractor emits the pole-markers plus guards; the aggregator holds hypotheses jointly; consolidation (or the teacher, for clinical poles) resolves or records the divergence.

---

## 6. Band × pillar coverage matrix

**Stage-class evidence only** (curriculum/covariate/state entries noted by symbol; guards and phase markers are band-orthogonal). Legend: plain id = stage-class marker · **(c)** = curriculum-class only (band reach via §1.4 bridge) · **†** = state-first (band reach via recurrence/trait form) · **(cond)** = conditional (capacity-gated) · **—** = **declared gap**.

| Band \ Pillar | Sensations | Emotions | Thoughts | Awareness | Cross-pillar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **3 — Intelligence (21–30)** | M-S3-001 (cond) | M-E3-001 | M-T3-001, M-T3-002 | M-A3-001, M-A3-002 | M-X3-001 |
| **4 — Awareness (31–40)** | M-S4-001, M-S4-005† · (c): M-S4-002, M-S4-004 | M-E4-001, M-E4-002, M-E4-003, M-E4-005, M-E4-006 · (c): M-E4-004 | M-T4-001 (weak), M-T4-006 · (c): M-T4-002, M-T4-003, M-T4-004, M-T4-005 | M-A4-001, M-A4-002, M-A4-003, M-A4-004†, M-A4-005, M-A4-006, M-A4-007†, M-A4-008† (state/milestone) · (c): M-A4-009 | — (stage-class; covariates M-A4-010, M-X3-002-family live here) |
| **5 — Awakening (41–50)** | M-S5-001, M-S5-002, M-S5-003 | M-E5-001, M-E5-002, M-E5-003 | M-T5-001, M-T5-002, M-T5-003 | M-A5-001, M-A5-002 | M-X5-001, M-X5-002, M-X5-003, M-A5-003 (boundary milestone) |
| **6 — Unbinding (51–60)** | — | — | — | — | M-X6-001, M-X6-002, M-X6-003, M-X6-004, M-X6-005 |
| **7 — Enlightenment (61–70)** | — | — | — | — | M-X7-001, M-X7-002, M-X7-003 |

**Declared gaps and honest limits:**

1. **Band 3 × sensations is effectively a gap for stage evidence.** Post-red-team, M-S3-001 fires only capacity-conditionally and M-S3-002 is a covariate: band-3 sensations placement rests on cross-pillar floor logic (M-X3-001 + absence-of-band-4 structure), which is by design (band-3 placement is mostly the absence of band-4 structure).
2. **Band 4 × cross-pillar has no stage-class marker** after M-A4-009 (curriculum) and M-A4-010 (covariate) reclassify; cross-pillar integration evidence at band 4 lives in M-E4-005/M-T4-006 (pillar-filed, integration-flavored).
3. **Bands 6–7 per-pillar cells are declared gaps, deliberately.** No canon or lane source supports pillar attribution above 51; the canon asserts a live-teacher requirement there (canon §10). Any per-pillar claim in this territory would be invented resolution.
4. **Finest resolution is 22–45 as specced:** bands 3–4 carry sub-band anchors; band 5 anchors thin above 45; bands 6–7 are band-level recognition + safety only.
5. **Scale-point anchors have no demonstrated ordering evidence** within bands ([RT] misassigned-list closing note): people acquire visualization, somatic granularity, OM, compassion skill in different orders. Anchors are Surya-calibration hints (M2), not scoring boundaries.
6. **Devotional content appears only as phase** (M-PIT-001, pending Surya on the 46-row); there is deliberately no "devotion" stage marker.
7. **Off-cushion functioning is a rule (7/12) and a co-check, not yet a marker system** ([RT] missing-list #7): defining scored markers for work/relationships/repair-after-conflict needs Surya + safety-lane input at M2 — carried as an open item, not silently absent.
8. **Construct-validity controls and independent criterion validation** ([RT] missing-list #12–13) are calibration-protocol work (spec §7), out of scope for the bank itself; noted so the gap is owned, not forgotten.

---

## 7. Source keys

Lane/corpus keys used throughout. Verification status per the 2026-07-16 verifier passes (`deliverables/verifier-findings-raw.md`); preprint caveats carried per verifier ac2605ae1956c04b9.

| Key | Source | Location / citation | Status & caveats |
|---|---|---|---|
| [CANON] | Waypoint internal canon (Surya call S1; Stages diagram S2; Progression diagram S3; Wheel Table S4) | `specs/waypoint-research/corpus/internal-canon.md` | Internal; ASR garbles flagged in place; §9 ambiguities bind (esp. §9-A stage numbering, §9-D step counts, §9-G small-death boundary, §9-H Hawkins non-monotonicity) |
| [L1] | Lane 1 — traditions & verification methodology | `specs/waypoint-research/lanes/1-traditions-verification.md` | Citations verified there; Neidan zhèngyàn sign-lists UNVERIFIED against primary texts (binds M-S4-003's descoping); Trungpa pagination UNVERIFIED |
| [L2] | Lane 2 — psychometrics & scoring | `specs/waypoint-research/lanes/2-psychometrics-scoring.md` | STAGES/Bronlet κ≈0.78 verified; several classic-instrument metadata flagged [UNVERIFIED] there |
| [L4] | Lane 4 — adverse events & safety duty | `specs/waypoint-research/lanes/4-safety-adverse-events.md` | Flag tiers §7.1–7.2; dark-night differential §4a–4b (Lindahl 2020 Front Psychol 11:1905, verified) |
| [L5] | Lane 5 — Goodhart & contamination | `specs/waypoint-research/lanes/5-goodhart-contamination.md` | All countermeasure citations live-checked there; Bucci RA flagged speculation |
| [RT] | External red-team of this bank | `specs/waypoint-research/external/codex-ultra-marker-redteam.md` (gpt-5.6-sol, effort ultra, 2026-07-16) | Reviewed the truncated v0 + spec §3 only, no filesystem access; its structural findings drive §0 |
| [MtN] | Laukkonen & Slagter (2021), *From many to (n)one*, Neurosci Biobehav Rev 128:199–217, DOI 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.06.021 | `corpus/laukkonen-slagter-2021-many-to-none.md` | Peer-reviewed; §1A–E note structure |
| [BL] | Laukkonen, Friston & Chandaria (2025), *A beautiful loop*, Neurosci Biobehav Rev, DOI 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106296 | `corpus/laukkonen-2025-beautiful-loop.md` | Peer-reviewed **theory paper, no empirical data** — construct vocabulary, never evidence a marker tracks stage |
| [NIR] | Laukkonen et al. (2023), *Cessations of consciousness… nirodha samāpatti*, Prog Brain Res 280:61–87, DOI 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.007 | `corpus/laukkonen-2023-cessations-nirodha.md` | Peer-reviewed; neural data preliminary n≈1; its own definitions are a faker's script (rubric is public) |
| [AL] | Agrawal & Laukkonen, *Nothingness in Meditation* | `corpus/agrawal-laukkonen-nothingness-emptiness-cessation.md` | **PREPRINT** (PsyArXiv 10.31234/osf.io/tygdf / Chiron chapter); §§5–6 of the paper are explicit speculation |
| [FSNR] | Laukkonen (2026), *Clear Mind: f-SNR* | `corpus/laukkonen-2026-clear-mind-fsnr.md` | **PREPRINT** (arXiv:2606.29698); author-derived items (e.g. posture §1e) carry low weight by rule |
| [VOH] | Vohryzek et al. (2025), whole-brain MPE/jhāna criticality | `corpus/vohryzek-2025-mpe-jhana-criticality.md` | **PREPRINT** (bioRxiv); descriptor use only |

Directly cited literature (beyond lane files; verification per verifier passes): U Paṇḍita (1992) *In This Very Life* — three-phase interview formula verbatim [verified]. Redmore (1976) J Pers Assess 40(6):607–616, PMID 16367343 [PMID live-verified twice; one verifier's range-heuristic doubt recorded — legacy retro-assignment]. Rogers, Bagby & Chakraborty (1993) PMID 8473961 [verified]. Storm & Graham (2000) PMID 10887761 [verified]. Paulhus et al. (2003) JPSP 84(4):890–904, PMID 12703655 [verified via L5]. Orne (1962) Am Psychol 17:776–783 [verified]. Grossman (2008, 2011 — PMID 22122674); Van Dam et al. (2018) PMID 29016274 [verified]. Vonk & Visser (2021) doi:10.1002/ejsp.2721 [verified via L5]. Fox, Cashwell & Picciotto (2017) doi:10.1037/scp0000141 [verified via L5]. Farias et al. (2020) Acta Psychiatr Scand 142:374–393, PMID 32820538 [verified; design-gap framing per rule 4]. Lindahl et al. (2017) PLoS ONE e0176239; Lindahl et al. (2020) Front Psychol 11:1905; Britton et al. (2021) Clin Psychol Sci 9(6) [verified via L4]. Anālayo (2018) Insight Journal 44 [ladder framing = interpretive gloss, flagged at point of use]. Van Gordon et al. (2019) PMID 30660506 [verified]. Dor-Ziderman et al. (2013) [via [MtN] §1B — not independently re-verified this pass: UNVERIFIED here]. Hoffmann (1975) *The Sound of the One Hand* [via L5 §2.5, verified there].

**Nothing in this bank is invented:** every marker traces to a canon section, lane section, or cited work above; where a source is a preprint, an interpretive gloss, or UNVERIFIED, that status is carried at the point of use. Calibration (M2) and refit (M5–M6) own all numbers.

<!-- END OF MARKER BANK v0 -->