Research and method

The Sensual Capacities framework is Sensual Institute’s educational synthesis of sensual experience, human development and research. Its 36 capacities describe abilities people can explore through attention, choice, expression, relationship and everyday practice.

Philosophy gives the framework its direction

The Swedish Institute of Inner Technology’s human-capacity map provides the wider developmental setting. I AWAKE brings an authored world of self-intimacy, imagination and lived practice. Sensual Institute gives sustained attention to the sensual dimension: how sensation becomes available to feeling, pleasure, meaning, creativity and contact.

Agency runs through the whole map. Participation includes choosing, declining, pausing and revising. Context matters: sensory access, culture, relationships, time, material resources and the physical environment all shape what is available. Practices invite experimentation on terms that fit the person and situation.

What the framework names

A capacity is an ability that becomes available under particular conditions. A state is what someone experiences now. A condition supports or constrains participation. A practice is something someone chooses to do; an outcome is what follows.

For example, intensity adjustment is a capacity. Feeling overstimulated is a present state. A quieter room is a supporting condition. Lowering the volume is an action. Finding conversation easier may be an outcome. These distinctions keep the language useful.

The nine families organise the map by practical focus. Development can mean greater availability, finer discrimination, more flexibility or more useful application in daily life. Each capacity retains a stable identifier, SC01–SC36, so definitions and translations can be connected over time.

Research gives the distinctions precision

Research is connected to the construct it studies and the population in which it was studied. The framework’s taxonomy and educational practices are an editorial synthesis. Its purpose is learning and reflection; research instruments retain their own definitions, scoring and interpretation.

• R1 · Bodily awareness: Mehling and colleagues, MAIA-2 (2018) distinguishes dimensions of self-reported interoceptive awareness. It informs the separation of noticing, attention and interpretation.
• R2 · Interoception: Garfinkel and colleagues (2015) distinguishes interoceptive accuracy, sensibility and awareness. These distinctions support careful language about bodily signals.
• R3 · Attention and acceptance: Lindsay and colleagues examines monitoring and acceptance in mindfulness training, informing attention and the manner of meeting experience.
• R4 · Wanting and enjoyment: Berridge and Kringelbach (2015) and related reward research distinguish wanting and liking. The framework carries that distinction into reflection on desire and pleasure.
• R5 · Savoring: Experimental savoring research (2022) informs attention to positive experience, with findings interpreted in the context of the study’s student sample.
• R6 · Body functionality: Alleva and colleagues (2015) studied a body-functionality intervention with women, informing attention to lived bodily participation.
• R7 · Responsiveness: Jolink, Chang and Algoe (2022) examined associations between perceived partner responsiveness and affectionate touch. This supports attention to relational context.
• R8 · Mindfulness and sexuality: Brotto and colleagues (2021) compared treatment approaches in women with sexual interest/arousal difficulties. Its clinical scope grounds the interpretation of those findings.
• R9 · Arousal: Chivers and colleagues (2010) examined agreement between self-reported and genital arousal. Consent is communicated through freely given agreement; bodily responses and agreement are distinct.
• R10 · Sensory differences: Greven and colleagues (2019) reviews sensory processing sensitivity, informing attention to differences between people and settings.
• R11 · Attention to surroundings: Sturm and colleagues’ awe-walk study explored an attentional practice with older adults.
• R12 · Culture and the senses: David Howes on sensory studies situates sensory experience within cultural and social life.
• R13 · Continuity: Lally and colleagues (2010) examined habit formation in everyday life, informing continuity, repetition and contextual variation.
• R14 · Consent communication: Humphreys and Brousseau (2010) studied sexual-consent attitudes and behaviours. The framework makes room for explicit agreement, changing preferences and ongoing communication.

How to use the map

Begin with an ordinary situation and one useful distinction. Choose a practice, adjust it to your access and circumstances, and reflect on what changes. Experience, judgment and context work together. A useful discovery might be a pleasure you want to revisit, a preference you can express or a condition you can change.

Published by Sensual Institute · Version 1.0 · September 2026. The stable capacity identifiers support future editorial revisions and language versions.