ANNA LUTKAJTIS Final Thesis PDF

The dark side of Dharma: Why have adverse effects of meditation
been ignored in contemporary Western secular contexts?
Anna Lutkajtis
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
(Research)
Department of Studies in Religion
The University of Sydney
2019
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Statement of Originality
This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work.
This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes.
I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all
the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged.
Anna Lutkajtis
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Acknowledgements
To the many people who have made this thesis possible, I am truly grateful.
To Professor Carole Cusack for allowing a serendipitous phone enquiry to result in this
research project – thank you! This has proved to be the most intellectually satisfying project
I have undertaken.
To Ricardo Farago, for his unconditional love, belief and support.
And to Daniel M. Ingram, for helping me through my own Dark Night of the Soul.
Finally, thank you to all my fellow academics, meditators, and seekers. Your work, your lived
experiences and your enlightening conversations provide an unending source of inspiration.
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Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 8

Thesis Chapter Outline .................................................................................................................. 8
Background ................................................................................................................................... 8
Meditation in the West: Mainstream ......................................................................................... 8
Meditation in the West: Clinical ............................................................................................... 16
The Meditation Backlash.......................................................................................................... 20
Adverse Effects: Meditation Research ...................................................................................... 21
Central Research Question.......................................................................................................... 27
Explanation of Key Terms ........................................................................................................... 28
‘Secular Meditation’ ................................................................................................................ 28
‘Transcendental Meditation’ .................................................................................................... 32
‘Mindfulness’ ........................................................................................................................... 32
‘Vipassana’ .............................................................................................................................. 33
‘Meditation Adverse Effects’ .................................................................................................... 34
Theory and Methodology............................................................................................................ 35
Chapter 2. From Enlightenment to Symptom Relief and Personal Transformation ........................ 38
The Role of Meditation in Religion.............................................................................................. 38
Hindu Approaches to Meditation ............................................................................................. 38
Buddhist Approaches to Meditation ........................................................................................ 41
Meditation as a Western Therapeutic Intervention .................................................................... 44
Meditation as a Panacea: “The Answer to All Your Problems?” ................................................ 44
Meditation and the Relaxation Response ................................................................................. 49
Issues of Self and Non-self ....................................................................................................... 52
Research Methods in Meditation Studies ................................................................................. 57
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 61
Chapter 3. Meditation Divorced From Religion .............................................................................. 63
Meditation as a Detachable Technique ....................................................................................... 64
De-contextualisation: Privileging Meditation and Marginalising Religious Context ................... 65
Simplification: Psychological, Pathological and Neural Reductionism ....................................... 69
Re-contextualisation: “The Buddha was a Scientist” and the Creation of a Western Meditation
Lineage .................................................................................................................................... 72
Meditation Adverse Effects in Religious Traditions ..................................................................... 75
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Preparation ............................................................................................................................. 80
Supportive Context .................................................................................................................. 83
Teacher and Technique ............................................................................................................ 86
Individual Differences and Psychopathology ............................................................................ 92
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 95
Chapter 4. Meditation, Commodification and the Media ............................................................... 96
All Good News Stories ................................................................................................................. 96
Celebrity Gurus and Celebrities Meditating................................................................................ 103
Meditation as a Commodity....................................................................................................... 106
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 111
Chapter 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 113
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................. 119
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Abstract
In contemporary Western society, meditation techniques that were previously taught within
the context of Eastern religious traditions are now increasingly being practiced in secular settings.
So-called ‘secular forms’ of meditation first came to mainstream public awareness in the early
1960s, when Hindu-inspired Transcendental Meditation (TM) gained popularity in the United States.
In the 1970s, vipassana, a standardized residential 10-day meditation retreat undertaken in a secular
format, also became popular among Westerners. More recently, ‘mindfulness’ meditation, a form of
secular meditation derived from Theravada Buddhism, has found widespread use as both a
therapeutic intervention and a mainstream self-help tool. ‘Meditation as self-help’ has become a
booming commercial industry, and alongside these practices there now exists a variety of secular
meditation courses, apps, podcasts and meditation-related wearable technologies. While the
boundary between the secular and the religious is blurred, popular mainstream meditation
techniques such as TM, vipassana and mindfulness are generally promoted as being derived from
Eastern religions, but inherently non-religious, and suitable for a general audience.
The popularity of secular meditation has been due in large part to its acceptance within the
scientific community. Over the past forty years, thousands of research studies have been conducted
suggesting that there are many psychological and physiological benefits associated with meditation.
As a result, various meditation techniques have been incorporated into a number of therapeutic
interventions and used as tools for the treatment of a variety of clinical issues. Interest in meditation
has also grown as a result of mainstream media attention, particularly coverage of TM and
mindfulness. The media has played a crucial role in driving public acceptance of meditation by
positioning the practice as an inherently secular, side-effect free, therapeutic technique that is ‘good
for everyone.’
Although the scientific studies and popular media coverage of secular meditation have been
overwhelmingly positive, meditation has not gone without some criticism. In particular, a small but
growing literature indicates there could be adverse effects associated with meditation practice, in
both clinical and non-clinical settings. Close examination of the scientific literature reveals that even
in early meditation research, adverse effects, including profound but de-stabilising insights,
problematic spiritual emergencies, and the exacerbation of pre-existing mental health issues, were
identified. In religious traditions, these types of difficulties associated with meditation are
acknowledged, and are usually understood to be milestones on the path to enlightenment, the
result of improper practice or due to individual differences. Additionally, in traditional contexts,
meditation teachers are equipped to deal with complications that may arise. However, in a Western
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secular context, negative effects associated with meditation have largely been overlooked or
ignored in both the academic literature and in the popular media.
Why have meditation adverse effects been ignored in secular settings? This question is
particularly relevant given the current popularity of secular meditation practices in a large variety of
non-traditional settings including therapy, education and the workplace. If meditation has adverse
effects, and these adverse effects are underreported, this has significant implications for the safe
delivery of meditation practices in these settings, including the consideration of factors such as
teacher competency, participant screening, ongoing monitoring and informed consent.
This thesis argues that meditation adverse effects have been ignored in secular settings as a
result of three factors related to the secularisation process: first, in contemporary Western society
the goal of meditation has shifted from enlightenment to symptom relief and personal
transformation, leading to the assumption that meditation is harmless and ‘good for everyone;’
second, secular meditation has been decontextualized and divorced from the religious literature and
contemplative practitioners who could shed light on possible difficulties associated with meditation;
and third, the image of meditation in popular media has been manipulated to fit contemporary
market demands for a secular Westernised therapeutic technique that can be commodified.
This thesis comprises an analysis of pop cultural sources and a close reading of clinical
research sources regarding meditation in the modern West. This project incorporates data from a
variety of meditation studies obtained from the scientific literature, including experimental studies,
qualitative studies, unpublished PhD dissertations and case studies. It also considers ‘traditional’
religious sources on meditation, including stages of the path literature, Buddhist meditation manuals
and spiritual autobiographies.
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Chapter 1. Introduction
Thesis Chapter Outline
This thesis attempts to answer the question of why meditation adverse effects have been ignored in
Western secular settings. It is divided into three sections, preceded by an Introduction. Chapter one,
the Introduction, provides a background that discusses how Eastern-derived forms of meditation
became a mainstream practice in the West. In particular it considers the history of meditation from
the early twentieth century onwards, in both clinical and non-clinical settings. It also provides a
review of the existing literature on meditation adverse effects, and gives an explanation of some key
terms and definitions that will be used in this thesis.
Chapter two considers the differences between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ meditation, and describes
how in the West, the goal of meditation has shifted from enlightenment to symptom relief and
personal transformation, leading to the assumption that meditation is harmless and ‘good for
everyone.’ This chapter examines the different ways that meditation has been reconceptualised in
clinical settings and in Western therapeutic culture, and how this reconceptualisation has led to
meditation-related adverse effects being overlooked.
Chapter three discusses how contemporary secular forms of meditation have been viewed as
detachable techniques that can be decontextualized and divorced from their traditional religious
origins. It considers the processes involved in the attempt to secularise meditation, and how this
may lead to meditation adverse effects being ignored. In particular, this chapter discusses how
meditation adverse effects are well known and acknowledged in ‘religious’ contemplative traditions,
but this information is often lost or overlooked in secular settings.
The fourth and final chapter examines the role of the media in driving public acceptance of
meditation by positioning the practice as an inherently secular therapeutic technique that is
beneficial for everyone. It discusses how the presentation of meditation in the media has been
overwhelmingly positive due to factors such as poor scientist-journalist communication, celebrity
endorsement, and market demands for a secular Westernised therapeutic technique that can be
commodified.
Background
Meditation in the West: Mainstream
The practice of meditation (or contemplation) is found in most if not all, major religious traditions.
Ancient traditions throughout the world have used meditation as a technique to go beyond
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conscious thought and experience the inner depths of the mind. In Eastern religions such as
Buddhism this practice has continued unbroken over centuries. In the West, however, the living
tradition of meditation largely disappeared with the destruction of classical civilisation (although the
Eastern Orthodox churches have a rich and varied contemplative tradition), and interest in
meditation only began to gain mainstream traction in the West when Eastern meditative practices
were reintroduced by Asian meditation teachers.1
Ideas about Eastern meditation began to infiltrate Western popular culture before the American
Revolution, through various European esoteric Christian sects.2 However, until the eighteenth
century, Western engagement with Eastern religions was sporadic and occurred primarily through
missionaries, travel and trade.3 It was during the nineteenth century, particularly the period
between the 1840s and the 1880s, that Eastern religious philosophy and meditation practices
started to have a significant influence on Western ideas regarding spirituality and mental healing. In
Mindful America, Jeff Wilson argues that the beginnings of American interest in Buddhism are
usually dated to 1844, when Edward Salisbury (1814-1901), an American Professor of Arabic and
Sanskrit languages, read his “Memoir on the History of Buddhism” to the American Oriental Society,
and the Transcendentalist journal Dial published Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s (1804-1894) translation
of an extract from the Lotus Sutra. 4 During this period popular writers and transcendentalists such as
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) were influenced by
Eastern scriptures on meditation and their works reflected a new and influential paradigm for the
understanding of different religions as pointing towards a common universal metaphysical ‘truth.’5
This perennial philosophy (philosophia perennis) was also promoted by The Theosophical Society, an
organisation founded by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907)
in New York in 1875, which greatly influenced the spread of Hindu and Buddhist ideas in the West.
Blavatsky introduced Eastern concepts into American spiritualist groups and published texts on
meditation, making them available in popular form to English-speaking audiences. Similarly, New
Thought practitioners (followers of the American spiritual teacher Phineas P. Quimby [1802-1866])
1
J. Shear, The Experience of Meditation: Experts Introduce the Major Traditions (St Paul, MN: Paragon House,
2006), xv.
2
M. Murphy and S. Donovan, The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Review of Contemporary
Research with a Comprehensive Bibliography 1931 – 1996 (Petaluma, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1999).
3
W.B. Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism: The Development of a Dialogue,” in Changing the Scientific
Study of Religion: Beyond Freud?, ed. J. A. Belzen (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2009).
4
J. Wilson, Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 15.
5
D. L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford, 2008), 70-71.
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also included meditation techniques such as guided visualisations and mantras as part of their
healing therapies.6
The nineteenth century also saw notable visits to the West by Eastern spiritual leaders, such as
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the Zen roshi Soen Shaku (1860-1919), and Paramahansa
Yogananda (1893-1952), all of whom founded societies and institutions for the distribution of their
meditation techniques and philosophical teachings. In particular, scholars have argued that the
Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, was the landmark event that increased
Western awareness of meditation, as this was the first time that Westerners on Western soil
received Eastern spiritual teachings directly from Asian teachers.7 Carole Cusack writes that the
event, which ran from 11 – 27 September, is now viewed retrospectively as the first instance of
interfaith dialogue and religious pluralism.8 The Buddhist delegation at the Parliament was one of
the more influential groups, and speakers such as Sri Lankan preacher Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–
1933), Shaku Soen and Swami Vivekananda were all very positively received. As a result, Cusack
notes that Buddhist sympathisers like the German American Paul Carus (1852-1919) “initiated
programmes to disseminate Buddhism among Westerners, through personal relationships with both
the high-profile Dharmapala, and especially Soen.”9
Despite this initial interest, meditation remained a relatively fringe activity in the West until the late
1960s, when there was a wave of interest in Eastern spiritual practices fuelled by the counter-
cultural climate. Factors such as youth unrest (triggered by opposition to the Vietnam War),
suspicion of organised religion, a focus on individualism and experiential knowledge, and widespread
experimentation with psychedelic drugs, combined to create a cultural climate where meditation
was welcome and thrived.10 In particular, the youth of the Western counter-culture, who were
largely brought up and educated within a Christian environment, became disillusioned with the
externally imposed moral constraints and absolutist belief systems of organised religion.11 Instead,
they began to gravitate towards psychological theory and personal experience as a way to make
sense of the world.12 As a result, there was an increased popular interest in, and idealisation of,
6
W.S. Hickey, “Mind Cure, Meditation, and Medicine: Hidden Histories of Mental Healing in the United
States,” Unpublished PhD Dissertation. (Duke University, 2008): 72.
7
Murphy and Donovan, The Physical and Psychological Effects.
8
C. M. Cusack, “The Western Reception of Buddhism: Celebrity and Popular Cultural Media as Agents of
Familiarisation,” Australian Religion Studies Review 24, no. 3 (2011): 303.
9
Cusack, “The Western Reception of Buddhism,” 305.
10
A.C. Paranjpe, "Indian Psychology and the International Context," Psychology and Developing Societies 23,
no. 1 (2011, 5): 1-26.
11
P. Oliver, Hinduism and the 1960s: The Rise of a Counter-Culture (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 45.
12
Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism,” 198-99.
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Eastern religions and their seemingly more liberal, diverse and experiential frameworks.13
Westerners were attracted to Eastern religious concepts such as non-duality and karma, ideals of
non-violence and peace, and the focus on the individual spiritual experience. Paul Oliver notes that
young Westerners were also attracted to stories of the mystical achievements and abilities of yogis
and meditators, which were so different from ‘normal’ experience in the West. 14 Within this context,
meditation began to be appreciated as both an Eastern religious technique that could be used to
directly experience the divine, and a secular tool for psychological growth and development.
During the 1960s and 1970s the mainstreaming of meditation continued to be influenced by the
arrival of Eastern religious teachers from Asia.15 During this period several highly influential Eastern
religious figures visited the West, including neo-Hindu guru and founder of the International Society
for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Srila Prabhupada (1896-1977), controversial Tibetan lama
Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987), Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh (b.1926) and Tenzin Gyatso
(b.1935), the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. 16 While these spiritual teachers all played a significant
role in dispersing ideas related to meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918-2008), the founder of
Transcendental Meditation (TM), arguably had the most substantial impact on the popular reception
of meditation in the West.17 Like Vivekananda and Yogananda before him, Maharishi had a Western-
style education, was fluent in English, and posited that meditation was compatible with Western
science. However, Maharishi’s unique contribution was his ability to connect with the mainstream
media, in particular the youth market. At the time, almost half of the American population was
under the age of twenty-five and according to Philip Goldberg “whatever captured their fancy
reverberated throughout society.”18 Hence, when Maharishi taught TM to The Beatles and other
popular celebrities, he obtained “the gold standard in endorsements,” along with a tremendous
amount of media coverage.19 Goldberg writes that “every mention of the Beatles and meditation
seemed to increase demand on campuses, where students flocked to introductory lectures,
sometimes by the thousands.”20
13
Oliver, Hinduism and the 1960s, 52-53.
14
Oliver, Hinduism and the 1960s, 157-158.
15
16
17
TM is a form of concentration meditation that uses a mantra to centralise cognitive focus. See L. Williamson,
Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion (New York: New York
University Press, 2010).
18
P. Goldberg, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation How Indian Spirituality
Changed the West (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010), 156.
19
Goldberg, American Veda, 153.
20
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The popular news media ran numerous articles on TM, including a 1975 TIME magazine cover
featuring an image of Maharishi along with the headline: “Meditation: The Answer to all Your
Problems?”21 Maharishi also made appearances on national television, which resulted in an
unprecedented amount of US media attention for an Eastern meditation teacher. Goldberg writes:
The mother lode was two nationally televised interviews, one with Johnny Carson on The
Tonight Show and one with Joe Garagiola on Today. Likely no spiritual teacher, except
perhaps the pope or Billy Graham, had ever been heard by that many Americans at once …
Probably very few viewers understood what he was talking about. But the words, ‘more
energetic,’ ‘more productive,’ and ‘happier’ no doubt registered…22
Additionally, books about meditation and Maharishi gained mainstream popularity. The book TM:
Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress (1975) remained on the New York Times bestseller
list for six months and sold well over a million copies.23
The popularity of TM could be said to have reached its peak in 1976, when more than one million
people had allegedly learned to meditate using the TM method, and scientific research into
meditation, and the legitimization of meditation in general, was established. However, in the same
year the cultural impact of TM began to decline.24 Scholars of religion argue that this happened for
several reasons, including competition from the arrival of new Eastern gurus, the high cost of the
introductory TM course, and a shift in the focus of the TM movement away from basic meditation
and towards a new practice called the ‘TM-Sidhi technique.’25 Further, despite the persistent framing
of TM as scientific and secular, it still included religious elements, such as guru-teachers, initiation
ceremonies, Sanskrit mantras derived from Tantric Hinduism, a connection to ideas such as
reincarnation and God-consciousness, and alleged supernatural benefits such as the ability to
levitate. These factors decreased the ability of TM to penetrate into some secular areas of society,
and attracted criticism from both liberal and conservative Christians.26
As interest in TM declined, mainstream interest in a new type of meditation – ‘mindfulness’

meditation – increased. In Mindful America, Jeff Wilson identifies the 1970s as the decade when
mindfulness meditation first began to flourish in Western culture. He writes:
21
Goldberg writes: “Pre-cable and pre-Internet, a story in a national magazine was maha exposure, and
Maharishi had several of them.” Goldberg, American Veda, 159.
22
23
24
Williamson, Transcendent in America, 94.
25
Williamson, Transcendent in America, 94-97. Wilson, Mindful America, 79.
26
Wilson, Mindful America, 79-80.
12
When the decade opened, mindfulness was a marginal practice within Western Buddhism,
associated with a handful of books and pamphlets, most of them by Asians or Europeans. By
the end of the decade, the major players in American mindfulness were all in place, and
permanent institutions dedicated to the promotion of mindfulness were beginning to make
their mark. The center of the mindfulness movement was shifting toward the United States,
which would soon emerge as the dominant player in the mindfulness game.27
Wilson identifies several key sources of mindfulness teaching that appeared in the 1970s and that
drove the contemporary Western mindfulness movement. Firstly, a number of Westerners trained in
Asia in the vipassana meditation method, and brought the teachings home in the form of workshops
and retreats for Western lay practitioners. Many of these Western teachers had both formal
scientific training in disciplines such as psychology and medicine, and an extensive personal
experience of meditation. Hence, this period saw the rise of a new type of Western meditation
teacher; one who was trained in science but sympathetic to Eastern religions, and also personally
engaged in meditation practices. In particular, Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein have been highly
influential in the mainstreaming of mindfulness.28 In 1976, Kornfield and Goldstein (along with
Sharon Salzberg and Jacqueline Schwartz) founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). Later, in
1981, Kornfield moved to California where he founded the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Both IMS
and Spirit Rock are highly influential organisations, and have cultivated a large number of students
and teachers of mindfulness meditation across America.29
The second source that contributed to the mainstreaming of mindfulness meditation was the
modernist Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who became, along with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,
one of the most influential Buddhist teachers for non-Buddhist popular audiences. Officially exiled
from Vietnam in 1973, Hanh began to teach meditation to Westerners in the mid-1970s. His
teachings, drawn from both Mahayana and Zen Buddhism, emphasised the practice of mindfulness,
coupled with dedicated engagement with the world, a viewpoint that appealed to many lay
Westerners. Wilson argues that Hanh is the most important figure in Western Buddhism in terms of
direct influence, number of students taught, and impact on the language of contemporary Western
Buddhism. Hanh has taught at Princeton and Colombia Universities, published more than 100 books
27
Wilson, Mindful America, 31.
28
These teachers integrated meditative insights with Western psychology, and argued for the importance of
psychological healing as part of the spiritual path. For example, Kornfield, a clinical psychologist, wrote his PhD
dissertation of the phenomenology of the vipassana meditation experience and has argued for the need to
integrate the individual psychological self into meditation practice. J. Kornfield, “Meditation and
Psychotherapy: A Plea for Integration,” Inquiring Mind 5, no. 1 (1988).
29
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in English, including the 1976 book The Miracle of Mindfulness, and established a wide network of
Buddhist practice groups known as the Community of Mindful Living.30
Finally, the “universally acknowledged turning point” for the mindfulness movement’s
mainstreaming, and in particular its relationship with science and medicine, is 1979, when scientist
Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program (SR & RP).31 Now referred to
as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), Kabat-Zinn’s program was based primarily on
vipassana courses that he had attended at IMS. The central aspect of the program is the practice of
‘mindfulness’ meditation, defined by Kabat-Zinn as “paying attention in a particular way: on
purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”32 Mindfulness practice generally begins
with observation of the breath, and then expands to include awareness of physical sensations,
thoughts, and emotional states as they arise in the present moment. The shift in focus from the
breath to a variety of phenomena is what distinguishes mindfulness meditation from purely
concentrative forms of meditation such as TM. While both mindfulness and TM involve initial
concentration on a specific object (in mindfulness, the breath; in TM, a mantra), with mindfulness
meditation this focus is then directed toward the entire field of awareness.
While Kabat-Zinn’s work on mindfulness has been primarily clinical, it has filtered into the
mainstream. In particular, his pragmatic and ‘secular’ definition of mindfulness has proved to be
highly appealing to non-clinical lay audiences. Kabat-Zinn has authored several popular books on
mindfulness including the bestselling Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are,
which have sold 400,000 and 750,000 copies respectively to date. 33 Further, Wilson argues that not
only has mindfulness meditation picked up where TM left off, it has gone well beyond TM in terms of
successful integration into mainstream Western society.34 Unlike TM, mindfulness has been
effectively (and lucratively) applied ‘off-the-cushion’ to a variety of everyday Western middle-class
needs. As a result, ‘meditation as self-help’ has become a booming commercial industry.35 For
example, a recent report by IBISWorld estimated that in 2015, meditation-related businesses in the
30
In 2012 the Community of Mindful Living listed 357 official affiliated groups in the United States. Wilson,
Mindful America, 34.
31
Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the name of his mindfulness program from Stress Reduction and Relaxation
Program to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and removed the word “relaxation” from audiotapes
and handouts. Wilson, Mindful America, 78.
32
J. Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (New York:
Hyperion, 1994), 4.
33
Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are.
J. Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living: How to Cope with Stress, Pain and Illness using Mindfulness Meditation.
(New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1990).
34
35
Wilson, Mindful America, 104-131.
14
United States generated $984 million in revenue.36 Along with the traditional categories of books
and CDs, there are now also meditation apps, podcasts and wearable technologies that measure
brain activity during meditation practice.37 Apps like Headspace and OMG. I Can Meditate, have
partnered with airlines to offer in-flight meditation options.38 The large majority of these products
and services have been influenced by mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness is also taught in secular settings such as the workplace and in schools.39 A 2017 study of
US workers (n = 85,004) found that approximately 1 in 7 reported engagement in some form of
mindfulness-based activity.40 Employers such as Nike and Google offer relaxation rooms for
meditation practice,41 and there has been an increase in the number of consultants offering
corporate mindfulness training.42 Recent data from MeditationCapsules and Smiling Mind, two
Australian organisations that provide mindfulness training to schools, demonstrates that more than
7500 teachers are using mindfulness meditation in pastoral care classes, dedicated well-being
classes, or as a preparatory tool at the start of academic classes.43
The media reporting on mindfulness has also been overwhelmingly positive. ’Mindfulness’ has
become a buzzword that has generated an explosion of interest and enthusiasm and has permeated
36
D. Gelles, “The Hidden Price of Mindfulness Inc.,” New York Times, March 19, 2016, accessed 12 April 2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/sunday/the-hidden-price-of-mindfulness-inc.html.
37
According to a recent article, there are currently 1300 meditation apps. P. Doran, “McMindfulness:
Buddhism as Sold to You by Neoliberals,” The Conversation, 24 February, 2018, accessed 16 April 2018:
https://theconversation.com/mcmindfulness-buddhism-as-sold-to-you-by-neoliberals-88338. See also S.
Brinson, “Hacking Your Brain Waves: A Guide to Wearable Meditation Headsets,” DIYGenius, January 29, 2017,
accessed March 23, 2018: https://www.diygenius.com/hacking-your-brain-waves/.
38
“Why Airlines are Promoting In-flight Meditation,” Globetrender, 3 August 2016, accessed 25 April 2018:
http://globetrendermagazine.com/2016/08/03/why-airlines-are-promoting-in-flight-meditation/.
39
Mindfulness-based practices have been shown to ameliorate the negative effect of stress on employees,
leading to improved employee health, increased productivity, and reduced costs for employers. For example,
M. Klatt, B. Steinberg and A.M. Duchemin, “Mindfulness in Motion (MIM): An Onsite Mindfulness Based
Intervention (MBI) for Chronically High Stress Work Environments to Increase Resiliency and Work
Engagement,” Journal of Visualized Experiments 101 (2015): 1-11.
40
The authors used 2002, 2007, and 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data for adults (aged ≥18 y,
n = 85,004) to examine 12-month engagement in four mindfulness-based practices (meditation, yoga, tai chi,
and qigong) among different groups of workers. D. Kachan, H. Olano, S.L. Tannenbaum et al. “Prevalence of
Mindfulness Practices in the US Workforce: National Health Interview Survey,” Preventing Chronic Disease 14
(2017).
41
A. Stahl, “How to Practice Mindfulness at Work,” Forbes, September 14, 2017, accessed March 23, 2018:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2017/09/14/how-to-practice-mindfulness-at-
work/#5656b674d57b.
42
For example, the non-profit Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a mindfulness training program
incubated at Google, offers two-day workshops to Fortune 500 companies, including Ford and American
Express. J. Wieczner, “Meditation Has Become a Billion-dollar Business,” Fortune, March 12, 2016, accessed
March 23, 2018: http://fortune.com/2016/03/12/meditation-mindfulness-apps/.
43
L. Waters, “Why Meditation Should be Taught in Schools,” The Conversation, 30 June 2015, accessed 25 April
2018: https://theconversation.com/why-meditation-should-be-taught-in-schools-42755.
15
the discourse of popular culture.44 For example, in 2014 TIME magazine ran another meditation
related cover, this one titled “The Mindful Revolution” along with an accompanying story detailing
the extent to which mindfulness meditation has spread into the largest sectors of modern Western
society.45 In the same year the Huffington Post, a popular American news site which has its own
Mindfulness news section, declared 2014 the “Year of Mindful Living.”46 Hence, via mindfulness,
secular meditation has been able to reach into nearly every institution of Western society. In 2007
there was an estimated 20 million meditation practitioners in the United States, and hundreds of
millions worldwide.47 Meditation is now one of the world’s most widely practiced and researched
psychological disciplines.
Meditation in the West: Clinical
Scientific studies of meditation can be traced back to the 1930s, with initial research focusing on the
effects of meditation on autonomic function.48 In 1935 French cardiologist Therese Brosse travelled
to India to conduct systematic studies of the physiological changes that occurred as a result of yogic
and meditative practices. Brosse used a portable electrocardiogram to obtain measurements from at
least one yogi who claimed to be able to voluntarily stop his heart by using meditative techniques.49
Her data showed the yogi’s heart potentials and pulse wave decreasing in magnitude to
approximately zero, where they stayed for several seconds before they returned to their normal
magnitude. This result was believed to support the claim that the yogi was able to voluntarily control
his heart to approximate cessation of contraction.50 Similar studies were conducted in the 1950s by
Gus Wenger, a physiologist from the University of California. Wenger examined four Indian yogis
who also claimed to be able to voluntarily stop their heart or pulse, and reported that while the
44
J. Sun, “Mindfulness in Context: A Historical Discourse Analysis,” Contemporary Buddhism 15, no. 2 (2014):
394.
45
K. Pickert, “The Mindful Revolution,” TIME Magazine, February 3, 2014, accessed March 23, 2018:
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2163560,00.html.
46
C. Gregoire, “Why 2014 Will Be the Year of Mindful Living,” Huffington Post, March 1, 2014, accessed March
23, 2018: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/will-2014-be-the-year-of-_0_n_4523975.
47
In 2007 a government survey reported that more than 20 million Americans used meditation for health
reasons, and recent reports suggest that one million Americans are taking up mindfulness meditation each
year. J. Michaelson, “What If Meditation Isn’t Good for You?” Daily Beast, November 1, 2014, accessed March
23, 2018: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/01/what-if-meditation-isn-t-good-for-you.html.
48
Paranjpe, "Indian Psychology,” 1-26.
49
Brosse undertook her studies at Kaivalyadham, a yoga institute at Lonavala near Pune, India. See Paranjpe,
“Indian Psychology,” 1-26.
50
Results cited in M.A. Wenger, B.K. Bauchi and B.K. Anand, “Experiments in India on ‘Voluntary’ Control of the
Heart and Pulse,” Circulation 24, no. 6 (1961): 1319-1325.
16
subjects did not control the heart muscle directly, they were able to induce changes in certain
circulatory variables by using muscular and respiratory control. 51
In the 1950s there was also a growing interest in the potential use of meditation in psychotherapy.
This was informed by an ongoing dialogue between Buddhism and psychoanalysis, which centred on
the work of influential Neo-Freudian psychoanalysts Karen Horney (1885-1952) and Erich Fromm
(1900-1980), who were both students of renowned Zen scholar Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870-1966).
Influenced by their association with Suzuki, both Horney and Fromm viewed Buddhism as a culturally
distinct, but comparable, form of therapy to Western psychoanalysis.52 This view was based on
perceived similarities between the two systems, most notably the idea that both Buddhism and
psychoanalysis share a common aim (the alleviation of suffering and the attainment of insight) and
that both use introspection as a method to achieve this goal. Within the psychoanalytic context,
meditation (in particular mindfulness, zazen and breathing techniques) was seen as a therapeutic
tool that could increase an individual’s access to their unconscious mind and help to resolve
psychopathology.53
In the 1960s and 1970s, meditation research continued to focus on both physiological and
psychological effects, and researchers started to conceptualise meditation in terms of current
constructs in experimental psychology such as self-regulation, addiction and stress management.
Notable studies from this period include those by Japanese researchers who conducted extensive
electroencephalographic (EEG) studies of Zen meditators, observing changes in brain waves and
testing reactions to external stimuli. These studies suggested that zazen (a Buddhist form of seated
meditation) induced a calm but alert state that could potentially improve social confidence, increase
emotional stability and treat drug addiction. 54 This period also saw the birth of the humanistic and
transpersonal schools of psychology. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and Anthony Sutich (1907-1976)
founded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (in 1961) and the American Association of Humanistic
Psychology (in 1963) in an attempt to establish a “Third Force” in American psychology; that is, an
51
Wenger conducted studies at Kaivalyadham, and at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. See
Wenger et al., “Experiments in India,” 1319-1325.
52
Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism,” 192.
53
A prevailing idea in psychoanalysis was that unconscious conflicts were the root cause of psychopathology. It
was thought that meditation could ‘loosen’ a person’s defences and allow formerly repressed unconscious
material to surface and be resolved. One popular view saw meditation as a free association technique that
could be used to reveal the interior contents of the unconscious mind. For an explanation of possible
processes see I. Kutz, J. Z. Borysenko and H. Benson, “Meditation and Psychotherapy: A Rationale for the
Integration of Dynamic Psychotherapy, the Relaxation Response, and Mindfulness Meditation,” American
Journal of Psychiatry 142, no. 1 (1985): 1-8. Also G. Bogart, “The Use of Meditation in Psychotherapy: A Review
of the Literature,” American Journal of Psychotherapy 45, no. 3 (1991): 383.
54
For a review see J.M. Kornfield, “The Psychology of Mindfulness Meditation.” Unpublished PhD Dissertation.
(Saybrook Institute, 1977): 31-38.
17
approach that focused on future-oriented self-actualisation rather than past-oriented
psychopathology.55 Transpersonal psychology provided a “Fourth Force” that focused on the
transpersonal and spiritual dimensions of human existence. The transpersonal movement emerged
out of the encounter between Western psychology, Eastern contemplative traditions, and the
psychedelic counterculture of California in the 1960s. 56 Both humanistic and transpersonal
psychology acknowledged the importance of spirituality, and utilised meditative techniques such as
self-awareness and mindfulness in their practices.
The 1970s also saw a significant upsurge in research on TM, with studies indicating that this form of
meditation could decrease blood pressure, respiratory rate,57 and anxiety,58 while increasing self-
actualisation59 and other positive behavioural outcomes in a large variety of domains.60 In particular,
TM was to establish an enduring presence in Western medicine and psychology during this period
via the work of cardiologist and academic Herbert Benson. Benson coined the term “relaxation
response” to describe the physiological and psychological effects that occur during TM, and his work
greatly influenced the modern Western conceptualisation of meditation as a scientifically-endorsed
stress reduction technique.61 As Goldberg writes:
[TM] was presented as a scientific procedure, with results as predictable as those of any
medicine, and no bad side effects. This rebranding of meditation was the first step in the
secularisation and medicalisation of yogic disciplines.62
Goldberg notes that the relaxation message impressed both the general public and the scientific
community, and quickly overshadowed any more “profound” reasons for meditating.63 Hence, by
1976 the TM movement had enough data to be able to publish a seven hundred page volume of
55
J.J. Kripal, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007):
137-151.
56
For a discussion see J.N. Ferrer, Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human
Spirituality (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002), 5-6.
57
For example, R.K. Wallace and H. Benson, “The Physiology of Meditation,” Scientific American 226 (1972):
84-90.
58
D. Ballou, “Transcendental Meditation Research: Minnesota State Prison” in The Psychobiology of
Transcendental Meditation, eds. D. P. Kanellakos and P. C. Ferguson (Los Angeles, CA: MIU Press, 1973).
59
W. Seeman, S. Nidich, and T. Banta, “Influence of Transcendental Meditation on a Measure of Self-
Actualization,” Journal of Counselling Psychology 19, no. 3 (1972): 184-187. Also P.C. Ferguson and J. Gowan,
“The Influence of TM on Anxiety, Depression, Aggression, Neuroticism, and Self-actualization” in The
Psychobiology of Transcendental Meditation, eds. D. P. Kanellakos and P. C. Ferguson (Los Angeles, CA: MIU
Press, 1973).
60
For a review see D. H. Shapiro Jr and R. N. Walsh eds., Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives
(New York, NY: Aldine Transaction, 2009).
61
62
63
18
research papers, from fifty-one institutions in thirteen countries, reinforcing meditation’s new role
as a health and wellness intervention.64
The late 1970s was also a critical period for the scientific study of mindfulness meditation. As
discussed above, mindfulness was first incorporated into medical care in the form of what is now
known as MBSR, an eight-week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. Initially designed to
treat chronic pain, the program produced promising results, and over the next three decades
mindfulness replaced TM as the most researched form of meditation. More recently, the success of
MBSR has stimulated the development of other mindfulness-inspired clinical interventions including
mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT),65 acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT),66
dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT),67 mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP),68 mindfulness-
based eating awareness training (MB-Eat),69 and mindfulness-based therapeutic community
treatment.70 These therapies have shown efficacy in the treatment of a number of conditions
including depression,71 anxiety,72 chronic pain,73 substance abuse,74 eating disorders,75 addiction76
64
65
Z. V. Segal, J. M. Williams and J. D. Teasdale, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A New
Approach to Preventing Relapse (London: Guilford, 2002).
66
S. C. Hayes, K. D. Strosahl and K. G. Wilson, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach
to Behavior Change (New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2003).
67
For example, M.M. Linehan, “Dialectical Behavior Therapy for the Treatment of Borderline Personality
Disorder: Implications for the Treatment of Substance Abuse,” NIDA Research Monograph 137 (1993): 201-
216.
68
For example, K. Witkiewitz, G.A. Marlatt and D. Walker, “Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention for Alcohol
and Substance Use Disorders,” Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy 19 (2005): 211-228.
69
For example, J.L. Kristeller and R.Q. Wolever, “Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training for Treating
Binge Eating Disorder: The Conceptual Foundation,” Eating Disorders 19, no. 1 (2011): 49-61.
70
For example, M.T. Marcus and A. Zgierska, “Mindfulness-based Therapies for Substance Use Disorders: Part
1,” Substance Abuse 30 (2009): 263-265.
71
For example, S.H. Ma and J.D. Teasdale, “Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Replication
and Exploration of Differential Relapse Prevention Effects,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 72
(2004): 31-40.
72
For example, J. Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress,
Pain and Illness (New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1990).
73
J. Kabat-Zinn, “An Outpatient Program in Behavioral Medicine for Chronic Pain Patients Based on the
Practice of Mindfulness Meditation: Theoretical Considerations and Preliminary Results,” General Hospital
Psychiatry 4, no. 1 (1982): 33-47. Also J. Kabat-Zinn, L. Lipworth and R. Burney, “The Clinical Use of
Mindfulness Meditation for the Self-regulation of Chronic Pain,” Journal of Behavioural Medicine 8, no. 2
(1985): 163-190.
74
For example, A. Zgierska, D. Rabago, N. Chawla et al., “Mindfulness Meditation for Substance Use Disorders:
A Systematic Review,” Substance Abuse 30 (2009): 266-294.
75
For example, J.L. Kristeller, R.A. Baer and R. Quillian-Wolever, “Mindfulness-based Approaches to Eating
Disorders,” in ed. R.A. Baer, Mindfulness-Based Treatment Approaches: Conceptualization, Application, and
Empirical Support (San Diego, CA: Elsevier, 2003).
76
For example, C.A. Spears, D. Hedeker, L. Liang et al., “Mechanisms Underlying Mindfulness-based Addiction
Treatment Versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Usual Care for Smoking Cessation,” Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology 85, no. 11 (2017): 1029-1040.
19
and more recently psychosis.77 Today, MBSR is an established practice in hospitals, and a large
number of clinicians have undertaken training in mindfulness-based interventions.78 Additionally,
mindfulness meditation research has expanded from looking at how mindfulness can improve
outcomes for a variety of illnesses, to looking at how mindfulness might improve performance
enhancement in healthy populations.79
While the majority of meditation research is still on mindfulness, the field has also expanded to
include the study of other Buddhist-derived meditation techniques, such as practices aimed at the
cultivation of compassion (for example, metta, or loving-kindness meditation),80 and other analytical
styles of meditation (for example, deity visualisation practices).81 New areas of research (for
example, technological approaches to mindfulness training)82 are emerging and discussions are
taking place regarding the field of ‘contemplative science,’ and how to best define, classify and study
a variety of meditation practices.83 In recent years there has been an increased interest in the study
of contemplative practices within neuroscience, psychology and the health sciences, which has
resulted in the development of several new academic journals, including Mindfulness, The Journal of
Compassionate Healthcare and the Journal of Contemplative Inquiry.84
The Meditation Backlash
The media coverage and general acceptance of secular meditation has been overwhelmingly
positive, although there has been some criticism. In particular, critics have raised concerns regarding
whether meditation can ever be truly secular,85 the integrity and effectiveness of so-called secular
77
For example, P. Bach and S.C. Hayes, “The Use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Prevent the
Rehospitalisation of Psychotic Patients: A Randomised Controlled Trial,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology 70 (2002): 1129-1139. See also P. Chadwick, “Mindfulness Groups for People with Psychosis,”
Behavioural Cognitive Psychotherapy 33, no. 3 (2005): 351-359.
78
In the United Kingdom mindfulness has also been adopted by the NHS, with many primary care trusts
offering and recommending the practice instead of cognitive behavioural therapy. Dawn Foster, “Is
Mindfulness Making Us Ill?” The Guardian, January 23 (2016), accessed March 24, 2018:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill.
79
J. Sun, “Mindfulness in Context: A Historical Discourse Analysis,” Contemporary Buddhism 5, no. 2 (2014):
394-415.
80
J. Kabat-Zinn, “Lovingkindness Meditation,” Mindfulness 8, no. 4 (2017): 1117-1121.
81
M. Kozhevnikov, O. Louchakova, Z. Josipovic and M.A. Motes, “The Enhancement of Visuospatial Processing
Efficiency Through Buddhist Deity Meditation,” Psychological Science 20, no. 5 (2009): 645-653.
82
J. Sliwinski, M. Katsikitis and C.M. Jones, “A Review of Interactive Technologies as Support Tools for the
Cultivation of Mindfulness,” Mindfulness 8, no. 5 (2017): 1150-1159.
83
See D. Dorjee, “Defining Contemplative Science: The Metacognitive Self-regulatory Capacity of the Mind,
Context of Meditation Practice and Modes of Existential Awareness,” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 1-15.
Also, W. B. Britton et al., “Contemplative Science: An Insider Prospectus,” New Directions for Teaching and
Learning 134 (2013): 13-29.
84
B. Ozawa-de Silva, “Contemplative Science and Secular Ethics,” Religions 7, no. 8 (2016): 5.
85
M. Hale, "Perfectly Present: Mindfulness Curriculum as Implicit Religion." Implicit Religion 20, no. 4 (2018):
335-365.
20
approaches,86 and whether Buddhists and Hindus might be covertly imposing their religious views in
the guise of healthcare or psychology.87 Additionally, the scientific research on meditation has not
been universally accepted, with critics pointing to a variety of methodological flaws, including
inadequate control groups, small sample sizes, demographic homogeneity among participants,
inattention to gender as a variable, and researcher bias.88 Finally, some meditation teachers and
researchers have begun to discuss potential adverse effects associated with secular meditation
practices, including profound but de-stabilising insights, problematic spiritual emergencies, and the
exacerbation of pre-existing mental health issues. In Meditation, Buddhism and Science, David
McMahan and Erik Braun write: “A note of caution has emerged regarding recommending extensive
meditation for all, no matter what one’s psychological condition.”89 It is this last point regarding the
potential adverse effects of meditation that this thesis will focus on.
Adverse Effects: Meditation Research
Historically, research into meditation has tended to emphasise beneficial outcomes rather than the
processes involved or potential adverse effects. However, there is a growing body of evidence that
suggests there may be risks associated with meditation practice, in both clinical and non-clinical
settings. Close examination of the scientific literature reveals that even in early meditation research,
adverse effects were identified in therapeutic contexts. Notably, renowned psychologists Arnold
Lazarus (1932 – 2013) and Albert Ellis (1913 – 2007), co-founders of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
(CBT), both expressed concerns regarding negative side effects associated with therapeutic
meditation. For example, in 1976 Lazarus reported that some of his patients had severe disturbances
after practicing TM, including depression and suicidal ideation, leading in one case to a serious
suicide attempt. He wrote:
86
For example, Hindu purists accused the founder of TM, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, of watering down the
tradition and of “selling mantras.” Goldberg, American Veda, 160.
87
J. Wilks, “Secular Mindfulness: Potential and Pitfalls,” Insight Journal, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
(2014), accessed March 23, 2018: https://www.bcbsdharma.org/article/secular-mindfulness-potential-pitfalls/.
88
These criticisms apply to all meditation studies, including those that have found adverse effects. For
example, Goyal et al. conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 47 mindfulness studies and found no
evidence that meditation programs were better than any active treatment (such as medication, exercise, and
other behavioural therapies). M. Goyal, S. Singh, E.M.S. Sibinga et al., “Meditation Programs for Psychological
Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” JAMA Internal Medicine 174 (2014): 357-368.
Also, see S.R. Bishop, “What Do We Really Know About Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction?” Psychosomatic
Medicine 64, no. 3 (2002): 71-83.
89
D.L. McMahan and E. Braun, Meditation, Buddhism and Science. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press,
2017), 13.
21
[meditation] is not a panacea. In fact, when used indiscriminately, there are clinical
indications that the procedure can precipitate serious psychiatric problems such as
depression, agitation, and even schizophrenic decompensation.90
Lazarus was also one of the first researchers to argue that individual differences should be taken into
account when deciding whether meditation is an appropriate intervention, noting:
Scientific psychology has emphasized the significance of individual differences. Folklore is

equally aware that "one man’s meat is another man’s poison.” Yet popular systems and
movements from psychoanalysis to Transcendental Meditation (TM) generalize and
universalize, present their views and findings in absolutistic rather than probabilistic terms,
and depart from established scientific pathways in several other respects. Their procrustean
deftness at fitting everyone to their system damages the integrity and individuality of
persons who are temperamentally and otherwise unsuited to their procedures.91
In 1984, Ellis also expressed concerns regarding the therapeutic use of meditation, arguing that it
had the potential to be more harmful than many other psychological techniques because of its
association with spirituality and religion. Specifically, he argued that the traditional spiritual goals
associated with meditation (such as transcendence or the experience of a higher consciousness)
were probably “illusory” and “highly disturbed,” since no human was likely to achieve them.92
Therefore, he conceded, meditation combined with mysticism “includes highly dangerous, anti-
therapeutic elements.”93 However, Ellis was broadly supportive of the use of secular meditation in
therapy, but like Lazarus, argued that the practice could be harmful for certain groups of individuals,
particularly those with obsessive-compulsive and ruminative tendencies, noting: “A few of my own
clients have gone into dissociative semi-trance states and upset themselves considerably by
meditating.”94 Interestingly, Ellis argued that the greatest potential danger of meditation was that it
was “a highly palliative procedure;” that is, a diversionary technique that helped people to feel
better temporarily, but that ultimately distracted them from developing the necessary skills required
to make significant positive change in their lives.95
90
A. Lazarus “Psychiatric Problems Precipitated by Transcendental Meditation,” Psychological Reports 39
(1976): 601-602.
91
Lazarus, “Psychiatric Problems,” 601.
92
A. Ellis, “The Place of Meditation in Cognitive-behaviour Therapy and Rational-emotive Therapy,” in
Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives, eds. D.H. Shapiro and R. N. Walsh (New York, NY: Aldine
Transaction, 2009 [1984]), 692.
93
Ellis, “The Place of Meditation,” 672.
94
95
22
A more severe example of the potential adverse effects of meditation was reported in a 1975 case
study by Alfred French and colleagues. The authors describe the case of a 39 year old woman who,
several weeks after starting TM practice, experienced altered reality testing and behaviour.96 While
the patient had no pre-existing clinical issues, after starting meditation she experienced euphoric
fantasies with mystical elements, dysphoric moods and unusual behaviour that resembled psychosis.
The authors argued that the continued presence of an altered state of consciousness (which began
within days of starting TM), and the occurrence of "waking fantasies” (which began shortly after),
suggested a causal relationship between meditation and the subsequent psychosis-like experience,
and cautioned that “this form of meditation carries the risk of psychosis-like and potentially
dangerous regression.”97 However, the authors also emphasised that the psychosis-like symptoms
appeared to be the result of a specific meditation-induced phenomenon, and were distinct from
standard clinical definitions of psychosis, writing: “such ‘trips,’ while often clinically psychosis-like,
are distinct clinical entities from functional psychoses.”98
Another study of TM by Leon Otis noted that adverse effects such as pervasive anxiety and
depression occurred in a significant percentage of people who practiced TM (slightly less than half of
the 1,900 subjects), and that the probability of such effects occurring was higher among psychiatric
populations.99 Of particular interest is Otis’s finding that more adverse effects occurred among long-
term meditators and TM teacher trainees than among novice meditators. He writes:
These data suggest that the longer a person stays in TM and the more committed a person
becomes to TM as a way of life (as indicated by the teacher trainee group), the greater the
likelihood that he or she will experience adverse effects. This contrasts sharply with the
promotional statements promulgated widely by the SIMS (Students International Meditation
Society), IMS (International Meditation Society), WPEC (World Plan Executive Council), and
related TM organisations that TM is a simple, innocuous procedure.100
Additionally, Otis noted that some participants in his study continued to practice meditation despite
experiencing adverse effects, and had “compared meditation to a drug addiction … not wishing to
continue but unable to stop.”101
96
A.P. French, A.C. Schmid, and E. Ingalls, “Transcendental Meditation, Altered Reality Testing, and Behavioral
Change: A Case Report,” The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 161, no. 1 (1975): 55-58.
97
French et al., “Transcendental Meditation,” 55-58.
98
French et al., “Transcendental Meditation,” 55-58.
99
L. S. Otis, “Adverse Effects of Transcendental Meditation,” in Meditation: Classic and Contemporary
Perspectives, eds. D.H. Shapiro and R. N. Walsh (New York, NY: Aldine Transaction, 2009 [1984]),
201-208.
100
Otis, “Adverse Effects,” 204.
101
Otis, “Adverse Effects,” 207.
23
Dissociative symptoms have also been reported as a result of meditation practice. Arthur Deikman
reported cases in which depersonalisation and derealisation occurred in individuals practising an
experimental procedure based on classical descriptions of contemplative meditation.102 Raymond
Kennedy also reported two meditation-related cases in which patients experienced
depersonalisation and derealisation,103 including out-of-body experiences, and required psychiatric
treatment.104 Additionally, Richard Castillo conducted interviews with six TM meditators and
concluded that meditation can cause both depersonalisation and derealisation, and that the
depersonalised state can become an apparently permanent mode of functioning. 105
Adverse effects have also been found among meditation retreat participants. For example, Deane
Shapiro conducted a study on a non-clinical population (n = 27) at a vipassana meditation retreat
and found that 62.9% of participants experienced at least one adverse psychological effect from
meditation, including feelings of anxiety, panic, depression, confusion and disorientation.106 Two
participants (7% of the sample studied) experienced symptoms so severe that they stopped
meditating; one participant said the retreat left him “totally disoriented … confused, spaced out,”
while the other participant reported “lots of depression, confusion … severe shaking and energy
releasing.”107 Shapiro also found a trend that, while not statistically significant, lent support to Otis’s
earlier finding that meditators who had practiced the longest (in this case, over 8.5 years) reported
the highest frequency of adverse effects.
More recently, Tim Lomas and colleagues conducted a study on the effects of secular meditation
(including mindfulness techniques) in a non-clinical population (n = 30) and found that while
meditation was portrayed overall as a beneficial activity, all participants found it challenging at least
102
A.J. Deikman, “Experimental Meditation,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 136 (1963): 329-343.
And A.J. Deikman, “Implications of Experimentally Induced Contemplative Meditation,” Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease 142 (1966): 101-116.
103
The terms ‘depersonalisation’ and ‘derealisation’ are distinguished from what Buddhists call ‘non-self.’ In
psychiatry, depersonalisation/derealisation disorder (DP/DR) is considered a dissociative disorder and is
characterised by disruption or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness. DP/DR can potentially
disrupt every area of psychological functioning. In Buddhism, ‘non-self’ is generally viewed as a desirable state
or trait. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (Washington, DC: American
Psychiatric Publishing, 2013), 291.
104
R. B. Kennedy, “Self-induced Depersonalisation Syndrome,” American Journal of Psychiatry 133, no. 11
(1976): 1326-1328.
105
R. J. Castillo, “Depersonalization and Meditation,” Psychiatry 53 (1990): 158-168. However the author noted
that this permanent mode of depersonalisation can occur without there being any significant anxiety or
impairment in social or occupational functioning - the meanings the meditator attributes to the experience will
determine to a great extent whether anxiety is part of the experience.
106
D. Shapiro, “Adverse Effects of Meditation: A Preliminary Investigation of Long-term Meditators,”
International Journal of Psychosomatics 39 (1992): 62-67.
107
Shapiro, “Adverse Effects,” 64.
24
some of the time.108 Additionally, one quarter of participants in the study encountered “substantial
difficulties” with meditation, including troubling experiences of self, troubling thoughts and feelings
which were hard to manage, the exacerbation of mental health issues such as depression and
anxiety, and in two cases, psychosis requiring hospitalisation. 109
Several recent studies have also looked at the re-experiencing of trauma as a potential adverse
effect of meditation. Specifically, there has been recognition that meditation might cause emotional
flooding110 or re-traumatisation111 in certain individuals. Jane Compson argues that in particular,
intensive, silent meditation retreats may leave meditators at risk for traumatic activation, which
manifests as panic, anxiety, rage and insomnia.112 In his book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness David
Treleaven argues that mindfulness meditation, practiced without an awareness of trauma, can
exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress, leading to flashbacks, dissociation and
retraumatisation.113 Treleaven also describes a specific meditation-induced phenomenon he terms
“contemplative dissociation,” which he defines as “a disconnection between thoughts, emotions and
physical sensations that is exacerbated by contemplative practice.”114
In a comprehensive review of meditation adverse effects, M. Kathleen Lustyk and colleagues

consulted seventeen primary publications and five secondary reports and literature reviews,
including several of the studies mentioned above. The authors found that the most frequently
reported meditation adverse effects were mental health issues, with the more serious cases
including severe affective and anxiety disorders (for example, mania and PTSD), temporary
dissociative states, and psychosis.115 They also reported meditation-related adverse effects on
physical health, including increased epileptogenesis (risk of seizures), somatic discomfort arising
from holding a meditation postural position, and potential problems associated with loss of appetite,
108
T. Lomas, T. Cartwright, T. Edginton and D. Ridge, “A Qualitative Analysis of Experiential Challenges
Associated with Meditation Practice,” Mindfulness 6, no. 4 (2015): 848-860.
109
Lomas et al., “A Qualitative Analysis,” 848-860.
110
W.B. Britton and A. Sydnor, “Neurobiological Models of Meditation: Implications for Training Young
People,” in Teaching Mindfulness Skills to Kids and Teens, eds. C. Willard and A. Salzmann (New York, NY:
Guilford Press, 2015).
111
D. Treleavan, “Meditation, Trauma and Contemplative Dissociation,” Somatics 16, no. 2 (2010): 20–22.
112
J. Compson, “Meditation, Trauma and Suffering in Silence: Raising Questions About How Meditation is
Taught and Practiced in Western Contexts in the Light of a Contemporary Trauma Resiliency Model,”
Contemporary Buddhism 15, no. 2 (2014): 282.
113
D. A. Treleaven, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing (New York
and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2018).
114
Treleaven, “Meditation, Trauma,” 20.
115
M.K.B. Lustyk, N. Chawla, R.S. Nolan and A.G. Marlatt, “Mindfulness Meditation Research: Issues of
Participant Screening, Safety Procedures, and Researcher Training,” ADVANCES 24, no. 1 (2009): 20-30.
25
reduced food intake, and difficulty sleeping.116 The authors also referenced studies in which adverse
spiritual health effects were reported, most notably, cases of religious delusions.
It is unclear whether the effects of meditation practices alone can be compared directly with
meditation practices in the context of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). There are very few
reports of adverse effects in MBIs, however some studies do exist. For example, Leigh Burrows
conducted a study examining the mindfulness meditation experiences of community college
students (n = 13) and found that the majority of students reported negative experiences including
increased heart rate, depersonalisation, disorientation, disconnection, self-other boundary
dissolution, a loss of spontaneity, a loss of sense of self, and emotional flooding.117 Burrows noted:
Results from this small qualitative study showed 12 of the 13 participants who chose to
participate reported a range of unusual perceptions, sensations, and altered states and
experiences of self as a result of mindfulness meditation. Only one participant reported
unambiguously positive effects such as increased relaxation, focused attention, productivity,
and reduction in stress and worry.118
Other recent studies of mindfulness meditation have reported increases in perceived stress and
depression,119 feelings of exhaustion or disorientation,120 increased false memory susceptibility,121
and links to criminal thinking.122
In one of the most comprehensive studies of meditation phenomena to date, Jared Lindahl and
colleagues investigated meditation-related experiences that are normally underreported,
“particularly experiences that are described as challenging, difficult, distressing, functionally
impairing, and/or requiring additional support.”123 The authors employed a mixed-methods
116
The authors also note that some people may fear violating their own religious principles by engaging in
secular meditation practices that were originally derived from Buddhism or other religions.
117
L. Burrows, “ ’I Feel Proud We Are Moving Forward’: Safeguarding Mindfulness for Vulnerable Student and
Teacher Wellbeing in a Community College,” The Journal of Adult Protection 19, no. 1 (2017): 36.
118
L. Burrows, “Safeguarding Mindfulness Meditation for Vulnerable College Students,” Mindfulness 7 (2016):
284.
119
P.L. Dobkin, J.A. Irving and S. Amar, “For Whom May Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Program be Contraindicated?” Mindfulness 3 (2012): 44-50.
120
Dobkin et al., “For Whom,” 44-50.
121
B.M. Wilson, L. Mickes, S. Stolarz-Fantino, M. Evrard and E. Fantino, “Increased False-Memory Susceptibility
After Mindfulness Meditation,” Psychological Science 26, no. 10 (2015): 1567-1573.
122
In this study ‘criminal thinking’ refers to ‘criminogenic cognitions,’ which are defined as thought patterns
used to reduce the dissonance between moral standards and behaviour, rationalise deviant behaviour, and
minimise negative consequences. J.P. Tangney, A.E. Dobbins, J.B. Stuewig and S.W. Schrader, “Is There a Dark
Side to Mindfulness? Relation of Mindfulness to Criminogenic Cognitions,” Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin 43, no. 10 (2017): 1415–1426.
123
J.R. Lindahl, N.E. Fisher, D.J. Cooper, R.K. Rosen, and W.B. Britton, “The Varieties of Contemplative
Experience: A Mixed-methods Study of Meditation-related Challenges in Western Buddhists,” PLoS ONE 12, no.
5 (2017): 1.
26
approach that included qualitative interviews with Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and
experts from the Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan traditions. From this study the authors were able to
delineate 59 meditation-related experiences across 7 domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective,
somatic, conative, sense of self, and social. Whether a meditation-related experience was
interpreted by the experiencer as adverse depended on a number of influencing factors related to
the meditation practitioner, their practice, relationships and health behaviours.
Finally, neuroscientist and meditation adverse effects expert Willoughby Britton has reported that in
addition to the above research studies, there exist numerous anecdotal reports of meditators in
both clinical and non-clinical populations experiencing psychological and physical disturbances that
appear to be directly related to meditation. Some of these instances were severe enough to require
medication and hospitalisation and many were serious enough to have become a clinical problem
that lasted, on average, for more than three years.124
Central Research Question
It is clear from the above literature review that there are adverse effects associated with meditation,
and that these adverse effects have been largely overlooked by the academic literature on
meditation, and until very recently, largely unheard of in the mainstream media. This raises serious
concerns regarding the possible risks associated with the use of meditation in secular clinical and
non-clinical populations.125 If meditation has adverse effects, and these adverse effects are
underreported, this has significant implications for the safe delivery of meditation practices in
secular settings, including the consideration of factors such as teacher competency, participant
screening, ongoing monitoring and informed consent.
124
W. Britton, “The Dark Side of Dharma,” Buddhist Geeks (2011), accessed 24 October 2016:
https://art19.com/shows/buddhist-geeks/episodes/bb6cd056-ca75-42e0-bead-2d8d862aa46f.
W. Britton, “The Dark Night Project,” Buddhist Geeks (2011), accessed 24 October 2016:
https://art19.com/shows/buddhist-geeks/episodes/7c66e68d-ab9b-4a08-a21a-caa8d8a724f9.
J. Jenkins, “Is Mindfulness Meditation Dangerous?” BBC Radio 4 (2016), accessed 24 October 2016:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2nB1psRz3JFQpzDh6J2Z6xl/is-mindfulness-meditation-
dangerous.
125
The US National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine considers meditation to be safe,
except possibly for those who have a psychiatric condition. It does not acknowledge that healthy people may
suffer meditation-related adverse effects. “Meditation: In Depth,” US National Center for Complementary and
Integrative Health. Accessed May 2017: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm. In Australia,
the Meditation Association of Australia states: “in a relatively small number of cases, meditation can activate
reactions of panic, depression and anxiety. In some more extreme cases, mania and psychotic symptoms have
been reported. These cases are rare but require further investigation and care. In acknowledgment of this
concern, the Meditation Association of Australia (MA) has created a sub-committee to investigate and raise
awareness of these risks.” Accessed 20 May 2018: http://meditationaustralia.org.au/risks/.
27
This issue is particularly relevant given the current popularity of secular meditation practices in a
large variety of non-traditional settings including therapy, education, and the workplace. While
many meditation-based interventions are run by qualified practitioners with clinical training,
systematic evaluations of their safety have not been reported in the literature.126 Additionally,
meditation teaching is an unregulated industry, meaning that there are an unaccounted for number
of teachers who practice independently and without any safeguards. Further, many people now self-
refer to meditation (for example, via the internet) and seek meditation in highly variable settings
outside of clinical programs, for example in the form of performance improvement services (such as
coaching) or apps.
Given the current popularity and proliferation of secular meditation-related products and services, it
is important to understand why meditation adverse effects are being overlooked and under-
reported. Hence this thesis attempts to answer that question.
Explanation of Key Terms
‘Secular Meditation’
As noted by Michael Murphy and Steven Donovan, the attempt to extract the common
characteristics of ‘meditation’ from a variety of religious traditions in order to come up with a
generic definition is a uniquely modern Western phenomenon.127 In religious contexts, the term
meditation does not refer to one distinct technique; rather it is an umbrella term that refers to a
variety of practices that are intended to cultivate a particular state of being, and that promote self-
transformation along a religiously defined path. More specifically, meditation practices attempt to
develop a particular state or trait via the regulation or alteration of cognitive, affective, and
perceptual faculties.128
Meditation techniques are found in most, if not all, of the world’s major religious traditions.
Meditation is found in Christianity (in the form of contemplation),129 Hinduism (from which
Transcendental Meditation is derived), Buddhism (from which mindfulness and vipassana
meditation originated), Judaism and Islam.130 Religious texts describe many meditation techniques
that range from sitting quietly (such as Buddhist concentration practices) to physical movement of
126
Lustyk et al., “Mindfulness Meditation Research,” 20-30.
127
Murphy and Donovan, The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation, 2.
128
W.B. Britton and J.R. Lindahl, Meditation (Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2015). Accessed 4 June 2018:
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199828340/obo-9780199828340-0169.xml.
129
B. Pennington, “An Ancient Christian Way of Meditation,” in The Experience of Meditation: Experts
Introduce the Major Traditions, ed. J. Shear (St Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2006), 245-257.
130
H. Eifring, “Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Technical Aspects of Devotional Practices.” In
Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Cultural Histories, ed. H. Eifring (London, UK: Bloomsbury
Academic, 2013), 3-14.
28
the body (such as Hindu-derived Hatha Yoga) or scriptural reading and prayer (such as in the
Christian practice of lectio divina).131 Approaches to meditation also differ based on the object of
meditation (for example, a concrete object versus more abstract thoughts, feelings, images, or
qualities such as compassion or peace), type of attention cultivated (for example, focused attention
versus open monitoring),132 cognitive processes involved (simply observing thoughts versus
deliberately modifying them)133 and the desired outcome or goal (for example, a state of calm versus
a state of excitation).134 However, defining meditation is difficult and there is disagreement
regarding what type of practices constitute meditation. For example, movement-based practices
such as yoga, qigong and tai chi may be considered a form of meditation by some, while others
define meditation in a stricter sense to refer only to internal mental practices that focus on attention
and concentration.
It is important to note that religious meditation techniques are culturally embedded within very
specific contexts. Religious studies scholar Ann Taves writes that religious traditions that include
meditation have “created data of various sorts, including philosophical discussions of meditation,
rituals that include meditation, and, especially in the modern era, post hoc accounts of experiences
that occurred during meditation.”135 Therefore, to simply refer to ‘Christian meditation’ or ‘Buddhist
meditation’ is not very meaningful, as both religions contain a vast range of different philosophies,
traditions and lineages.136 It follows that meditation practices are best understood within the
context of certain schools of thought, individual teachers and specific texts. Hence, this thesis will,
where possible, attempt to distinguish between specific types of meditation techniques.
Further, it is also important to consider that although meditation is often identified today in the
West as an essential (if not, the essential) component of some Eastern religious practices,
historically, relatively few people have meditated.137 For example, McMahan notes that in the
131
For example, B. Awasthi mentions the example of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, a single text that describes
over one hundred different meditation methods, including silent sitting, breath observation, mental imagery,
vigorous chaotic breathing, intense activity and sexual excitation. B. Awasthi, “Issues and Perspectives in
Meditation Research: In Search for a Definition,” Frontiers in Psychology 3 (2013): 4.
132
A. Lutz, H.A. Slagter, J.D. Dunne and R.J. Davidson, “Attention Regulation and Monitoring in Meditation,”
Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12 (2008): 163-169.
133
P. Sedlmeier, J. Eberth, M. Schwarz, D. Zimmermann, F. Haarig, S. Jaeger and S. Kunze, “The Psychological
Effects of Meditation: A Meta-analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 138, no. 6 (2012): 1141.
134
Several factors may influence whether sitting meditation increases or decreases arousal, including dose,
practitioner expertise level and contemplative trajectory. See W.B. Britton et al., “Awakening is not a
Metaphor: The Effects of Buddhist Meditation Practices on Basic Wakefulness,” Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences 1307 (2013): 64-81.
135
A. Taves, Religious Experience Reconsidered (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 81.
136
L.M. Monteiro, R.F. Musten and J. Compson, “Traditional and Contemporary Mindfulness: Finding the
Middle Path in the Tangle of Concerns,” Mindfulness 6 (2015): 1-13.
137
E. Braun, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 3-6.
29
contemporary West, meditation is popularly considered to be the “heart of Buddhism.”138 However,
while meditation has always been considered essential to the Buddhist goal of enlightenment, only a
small minority of monks and ascetics have practiced meditation in a serious way. The vast majority
of Asian Buddhists do not meditate, but practice their religion through adherence to ethics, and
engagement in ritual and service to the sangha (monastic community). In some circumstances
provisions have been made for lay people to practice meditation, but generally it has been
considered “an arduous endeavour taken up by a small number of monastics who specialise in
contemplative practice.”139 Prior to the colonial era, even the majority of Buddhist monks did not
meditate, but rather functioned as clerics and priests, engaged in scholarship or ritual, and acted as
punnakhetta (‘fields of merit’, or recipients of charity).140 Likewise, in Hindu traditions, meditation,
as distinct from other devotional activities like puja or kirtan singing, was a fairly rare practice until
the twentieth century Western middle class movements.141
Today, of course, throughout the world many people practice meditation, and here an important
distinction must be drawn between ‘religious’ meditation and ‘secular’ meditation. While meditation
has religious roots, the practice has become increasingly secularised, particularly in the past 50
years. While in contemporary religious studies, the term ‘religion’ is viewed as problematic and
vague, a distinction is commonly made between what is ‘religious’ and what is ‘secular.’ Secularism
is differentially defined depending upon the context within which it is discussed (for example,
secularism as a philosophy versus secularism as a political stance). However, it is broadly identified
as a separation from, and movement away from, religion. There is statistical evidence of
secularisation in almost all European countries since the end of World War II, a trend which has
developed alongside modernisation.142 Some sociologists of religion debate whether ‘secularisation’
has been happening or whether there has been a return of religion, or a turn towards ‘postsecular’
themes.143 Nevertheless, in the modern West, secularism is a widely accepted paradigm, and
138
McMahan, The Making, 185.
139
140
Braun, The Birth of Insight, 3-6.
141
The practice of postural yoga, which is closely linked to meditation, was also rare and mainly the domain of
sadhus until the early twentieth century. The modern Western use of the term ‘yoga’ to mean primarily
postural yoga - the asana or physical exercises - is misleading, as yoga in earlier times was a generic term
covering mind-body practices. The main point of the physical asana was to assist in the practice of meditation.
For example, see G. Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (Chino
Valley, Arizona: Hohm Press, 2008). Also, M. Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice.
(New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
142
J. Habermas, “Religion in the Public Sphere,” European Journal of Philosophy 14, no. 1 (2006): 2.
143
Habermas, “Religion in the Public Sphere,” 1-25.
30
mainstream meditation is presented primarily as a secular activity.144 As a result, a growing number
of people practice what is commonly described as ‘secular’ meditation.
The distinction between ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ meditation is, of course, partially an arbitrary one.
The only way to distinguish between secular meditation versus religious meditation is to focus on
the end goal of the practice (that is, whether it is a religious goal or a non-religious goal), and on
claims to secularity (that is, what different scholars, teachers and religious practitioners have
claimed about both meditation practices and their end goals). For example, contemporary
meditation practitioners such as Kabat-Zinn, who apply meditation in a purely clinical way, view
meditation practice (in this case mindfulness meditation) as secular simply because it is employed
towards clinical goals (such as the alleviation of chronic pain). Likewise, the Transcendental
Meditation technique created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is defined as secular because its goals are
this-worldly, physiological and health-related; for example the alleviation of stress.145 Further, TM
adherents are “free to follow other religions, are not given a dogmatic code of ethics to follow and
do not belong to a “real” or visible “community,” but rather seek to benefit themselves through
their practices;” all factors which have been used to support its purported secular status. 146
While there has been much debate regarding whether meditation can ever be truly removed from
its religious context, an in-depth analysis of this issue is beyond the scope of this thesis.147 For
present purposes, it is useful to distinguish between secular meditation and religious meditation to
the extent that it helps to identify a particular discourse, while also keeping in mind that the
boundary between the secular and the religious is both arbitrary and porous. This thesis will, for the
most part, narrow its focus to three types of secular meditation: Transcendental Meditation (TM),
mindfulness, and vipassana. These are the meditation practices that have been studied the most in
Western clinical and research settings, and for which the most data exists. They are also the
practices that are most commonly presented as ‘secular.’ Other forms of meditation that are
practised within the context of an organised religious tradition (for example, a school of Buddhism)
will be referred to as ‘traditional meditation’ or ‘religious meditation.’
144
For example, a study by Sharon Lauricella demonstrates that meditation is presented by the news media
primarily as a secular activity, with 87 % of the news articles in her data demonstrating a secular tone. S.
Lauricella, “The Ancient-Turned-New Concept of ‘Spiritual Hygiene:’ An Investigation of Media Coverage of
Meditation from 1979 to 2014,” Journal of Religion and Health 55, no. 5 (2014): 1748-1762.
145
Transcendental Meditation Australia, website accessed 23 October 2018: https://tm.org.au/benefits-of-
meditation.
146
R. Lockwood, “Religiosity Rejected: Exploring the Religio-Spiritual Dimensions of Landmark Education,”
International Journal for the Study of New Religions 2 no. 2 (2011): 232.
147
As Lockwood notes, “the purported position of a group does little to silence the debate surrounding its
religious elements.” Lockwood, “Religiosity Rejected,” 248. See also, R.H. Sharf,"Is Mindfulness Buddhist? (and
Why it Matters)," Transcultural Psychiatry 52, no. 4 (2015): 470-484.
31
‘Transcendental Meditation’
Transcendental meditation (TM) is a form of meditation that uses a mantra to centralise cognitive
focus.148 Research studies on TM often define the technique as a concentration practice, however
the TM organisation states that TM is not a concentration practice, but rather a ‘self-transcending’
technique. The TM technique is associated exclusively with the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
is derived from Vedantic Hinduism, and references texts such as the Rig Veda and Patanjali’s Yoga
Sutra (a foundational text of yoga, one of the six orthodox systems of Hinduism).149 Despite its Hindu
roots, TM is described as a secular practice that is not associated with any religion or belief system.
The TM website states: “The TM technique is not a religion, philosophy, or lifestyle. No belief or
expectation is needed for it to be effective.”150
‘Mindfulness’
Mindfulness derives from Theravada Buddhism, and is usually associated with the teachings of the
Burmese monk Mahasi Sayadaw (1904-1982), and the canonical text Satipatthana Sutta (the
Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness), Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification)
and other Pali sources.151 The Satipatthana Sutta is generally regarded as the canonical Buddhist text
with the most comprehensive instructions on the system of mindfulness meditation. In its clinical
use, mindfulness is conceptualised as a type of ‘open monitoring’ practice whereby the practitioner
is attentive, moment by moment, to anything that arises in experience, without focusing on any
explicit object.152 Open monitoring involves non-reactively monitoring the contents of experience,
primarily as a means to recognise emotional and cognitive patterns. While there are disagreements
regarding how to operationally define mindfulness, a commonly accepted definition is taken from
the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, where mindfulness is described as “paying attention in a particular way:
on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”153 It is important to note that, when
148
Transcendental Meditation website, accessed 27 October 2018: https://www.tm.org/meditation-
techniques.
149
Williamson, Transcendent in America, 95-100.
150
Transcendental Meditation website, accessed 27 October 2018: https://www.tm.org/wellness-
program/what-is-tm.
151
Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist?” 472.
S. Thera, The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta and Its Commentary (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist
Publication Society, 1998). Accessed 12 April 2018:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soma/wayof.html.
152
Lutz, et al., “Attention Regulation,” 163-164.
153
Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are, 4.
J. Kabat-Zinn, “Some Reflections on the Origins of MBSR, Skilful Means, and the Trouble with Maps,”
Contemporary Buddhism 12, no. 1 (2011): 289.
32
considered in the format of MBSR, Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness includes influences from
Mahayana Buddhism, Zen, Vedanta and select Neo-Hindu gurus.154
‘Vipassana’
‘Vipassana’ refers to residential vipassana meditation courses, which teach mindfulness meditation.
The vipassana course is a standardized, residential 10 day course that is presented in a secular
retreat format.155 It is based on Buddhist philosophy and practices derived from the Theravada
Buddhist tradition. Szekeres and Wertheim offer a brief description of a vipassana course:
Participants meditate 10 h[ours] daily, refrain from reading and religious practices, eat
vegetarian foods twice daily and remain silent during the course (except during question
periods). These processes eliminate distractions that could prevent being present to
moment-to-moment experiences, thereby helping to settle the mind and fostering openness
to the meditative practices. During the first 3 days, students observe the natural flow of
incoming and outgoing breath to develop focused attention and present-moment
awareness. From day 4, students practise Vipassana. On day 10, loving-kindness meditation
is taught.156
The vipassana tradition could be said to exist on a spectrum of secularity, with claims to secularity
varying according to the specific vipassana organisation. For example, the American organisation
Spirit Rock,157 is explicit regarding its connection to Buddhism, but it also draws on a number of
other spiritual and psychological traditions and has what could be described as an East-meets-West
integrative approach. The Insight Meditation Society158 has a reputation for being more conservative
and preserving their Theravada lineage, but notes on their website “While the context of our
meditation retreats is the Buddha’s teachings, the practices are universal.” Finally, vipassana in the
tradition of S. N. Goenka159 claims to be completely non-religious and refers to its teaching as an “art
of living.” In general, vipassana meditation articulates a relatively secular approach to Buddhist
philosophy and practice. As David Treleaven notes:
154
Kabat-Zinn, “Some Reflections.”
155
R.A. Szekeres and E.H. Wertheim, “Evaluation of Vipassana Meditation Course Effects on Subjective Stress,
Well-being, Self-kindness and Mindfulness in a Community Sample: Post-course and 6-month Outcomes,”
Stress & Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress 31 (2015): 373–381.
156
Szekeres and Wertheim, “Evaluation of Vipassana,” 376.
157
Spirit Rock website, accessed 27 October 2018: https://www.spiritrock.org/about.
158
Insight Meditation Society website, accessed 27 October 2018: https://www.dharma.org/about-us/.
159
Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka website, accessed 27 October 2018:
https://www.dhamma.org/en/about/qanda.
33
Judging by the infrequent number of times the word “enlightenment” appears in WVM
[Western Vipassana Meditation] texts, it appears that most WVM teachers, while still
drawing upon foundational teachings such as the Eightfold Path, deemphasize the term in
lieu of secular values that can inform and improve the quality of one’s life.160
Hence, for the purposes of this thesis, vipassana is defined as a secular meditation technique.161
‘Meditation Adverse Effects’
Negative effects related to meditation have been described across a variety of religious traditions,
and in Western psychology. Terms such as ‘Dark Night of the Soul,’ ‘Kundalini Crisis’ and ‘Spiritual
Emergence’ have all been used to refer to periods of difficulty associated with contemplative
practice. The use of the term ‘adverse effects’ in Western meditation research can be traced back to
Leon Otis, who used the term in his 1984 study of TM meditators, and Deane Shapiro who referred
to adverse effects in his 1992 study of vipassana meditators.162 More recently, Lindahl and
colleagues have described meditation adverse effects as meditation experiences that are
“challenging, difficult, distressing, functionally impairing, and/or requiring additional support.”163 In
their recent study The Varieties of Contemplative Experience, the authors note:
Meditation-related effects that are not health-related benefits or that are reported as
distressing have been classified as “side effects” or “adverse effects” (AEs), especially in
clinical psychology research.”164
In this particular study the authors describe a “taxonomy of 59 meditation-related experiences

across 7 domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective, somatic, conative, sense of self, and social.” 165
These experiences range from very positive to very negative. While a detailed discussion of the many
adverse effects reported in this study is beyond the scope of this thesis, the term ‘adverse effects’
will be adopted for its utility, as it encompasses the widest possible spectrum of negative outcomes
that may occur with meditation. Further, it is a relatively value-neutral term (as opposed to ‘Dark
160
D.A. Treleaven, “Meditation and Trauma: A Hermeneutic Study of Somatic Experiencing and the Western
Vipassana Movement,” Unpublished PhD Dissertation (California Institute of Integral Studies, 2012): 78.
161
However, it is important to acknowledge that a strong argument for the opposite position – vipassana as
religious – can, of course, also be made. For example, recent work by scholar Renee Lockwood, argues that the
boundaries of what constitutes a religion could be expanded to include groups such as Landmark Education. A
similar analogy could be drawn with vipassana. R. Lockwood, “Religiosity Rejected: Exploring the Religio-
Spiritual Dimensions of Landmark Education,” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 2 no. 2
(2011): 225-254.
162
Otis, “Adverse Effects.”
D. Shapiro, “Adverse Effects.”
163
Lindahl et al., “The Varieties of Contemplative Experience,”1.
164
Lindahl et al., “The Varieties of Contemplative Experience,” 3-4.
165
Lindahl et al., “The Varieties of Contemplative Experience,” 1.
34
Night of the Soul’ or ‘Spiritual Emergence’) and is not tied to any specific religious tradition (like
‘Kundalini Crisis’).
Theory and Methodology
This thesis comprises a discourse analysis on pop cultural sources and a close reading of clinical
research sources regarding meditation in the modern West. As supporting evidence for both the
positive and adverse effects of meditation, this project incorporates data from a variety of
meditation studies obtained from the scientific literature, including experimental studies, qualitative
studies, unpublished PhD dissertations and case studies. It also considers ‘traditional’ religious
sources on meditation, including stages of the path literature, Buddhist meditation manuals and
spiritual autobiographies. Additionally, this thesis draws on a number of new media sources such as
blogs and podcasts. These new media sources (particularly podcasts such as Buddhist Geeks and 10%
Happier)166 have been at the forefront of discussions of meditation adverse effects, and often
feature lengthy interviews with prominent figures (for example meditation researchers,
psychologists and teachers) in the modern contemplative field, providing a rich source of
information. Ann Gleig posits that Buddhist Geeks is reflective of a new, distinctly postmodern stage
in the wider assimilation of Buddhism in America.167 While the thesis attempts to situate these
sources in a secular context, it also acknowledges that meditation practices have both historical and
living connections to religious lineages, and that complete separation from these traditions is
difficult if not impossible.
This thesis draws on a number of theoretical studies that examine the historical conditions that have
led to the widespread adoption of meditation in the West. The concepts of ‘secular meditation’ and
‘Buddhist modernism’ are foundational to the arguments presented, and hence David McMahan’s
The Making of Buddhist Modernism provides a fundamental analysis of meditation and modernity.168
In particular, McMahan’s discussion of the relationship between meditation, Buddhism and key
discourses of modernity, including scientific rationalism, perennialism, romanticism and
transcendentalism, provides a supportive theoretical context for this work. The impact of socio-
166
Dan Harris, 10% Happier podcast #79: W.B. Britton and J.R. Lindahl, “Does Meditation Have a Dark Side?”
Accessed 8 April 2018: https://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts/10-happier-with-dan-harris/episodes/79-
willoughby-britton-jared-lindahl-does-meditation-have-a-dark-side.
167
A Gleig, “From Buddhist Hippies to Buddhist Geeks: The Emergence of Buddhist Postmodernism?” Journal
of Global Buddhism 15 (2014): 15-33.
168
Buddhist modernism is described as a modern Western approach to Buddhism that evolved out of the
complex exchange between Asia and the West that took place over the last 150 years. McMahan, The Making.
35
cultural phenomena such as the subjective turn, the privatisation of the self, and Western
individualism are all also directly relevant to the arguments presented in this thesis and are
discussed at length in McMahan’s work. Jeff Wilson’s Mindful America, a historical study of the
religious and sociocultural factors that have led to the current Western mindfulness movement, also
considers a number of issues that are central to this thesis.169 Of particular importance is Wilson’s
discussion of the factors that have led to mindfulness meditation being made available for
appropriation, and modified to suit scientific and therapeutic culture. Wilson provides a significant
analysis of how mindfulness has been de-contextualised, simplified and re-contextualised in relation
to modern Western middle class values. In addition to McMahan and Wilson’s analyses, two other
recent works provide an important perspective regarding the mainstreaming of meditation. Erik
Braun’s The Birth of Insight provides a detailed study on the development and rise of vipassana
meditation, and Philip Goldberg’s American Veda charts the history of Indian spirituality’s impact on
modern Western culture.170 Both of these works examine the factors that have led to the
mainstreaming of what are now viewed as common secular meditation practices, that is, vipassana
and TM respectively.
Theories of Western psychology, particularly psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology and

transpersonal psychology are also foundational to the arguments in this thesis. The work of
psychologists such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Abraham Maslow and Fritz Perls greatly
influenced Western ideas regarding the private psychological self, personal transformation, and the
role of meditation in the search for ‘wholeness’ and healing. The pioneering work on ‘spiritual
emergence’ by transpersonal psychologists Stanislav and Christina Grof, now almost thirty years old,
still provides one of the most comprehensive and effective Western psychological frameworks
within which to understand adverse meditative experiences. 171 Similarly, Jack Engler172 and Jack
Kornfield’s173 early theories regarding the integration of the Western individual psychological self
with Eastern contemplative concepts of ‘non-self’ is still highly relevant today. Their work provides a
critical analysis of the similarities and differences between meditation and psychotherapy, and how
an unconsidered conflation of the two practices may lead to adverse effects.
169
Wilson, Mindful America.
170
Braun, The Birth of Insight. Goldberg, American Veda.
171
S. Grof and C. Grof, Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (New York and Los
Angeles: Tarcher, 1989).
172
J. Engler, “Being Somebody and Being Nobody: A re-examination of the Understanding of Self in
Psychoanalysis and Buddhism,” in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: An Unfolding Dialogue ed. J.D. Safran
(Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2003), 35-100.
173
J. Kornfield, “Even the Best Meditators Have Old Wounds to Heal: Combining Meditation and
Psychotherapy,” in Paths Beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision, eds. R.N. Walsh and F. Vaughan (New York,
NY: Tarcher Penguin, 1993), 67-69.
36
In their book Selling Spirituality, Jeremy Carrette and Richard King detail the emergence of a
commodified 'consumerist' or capitalist spirituality, whereby “religion is rebranded as 'spirituality' in
order to support the ideology of capitalism.”174 In this context, the primary function of ‘spiritual’
practices is the perpetuation of the cycle of consumption, and meditation is conceptualised as a tool
that is used for self-improvement and personal gain. Self-improvement is a dominant narrative in
modern Western culture, and the idea of bettering oneself, often in relation to one’s resilience and
productivity, is central to contemporary Western neoliberal values. The link between meditation and
self-improvement/self-transformation is a focal point of this thesis and Richard Payne’s recent work
provides a theoretical basis for this position.175 Other scholars such as Terry Hyland176 and Peter
Doran177 provide a similar cultural critique, arguing that when meditation is viewed as a commodity
to be used in the pursuit of increased productivity and performance improvement, rather than
oriented towards a wider social and ethical framework, it loses its core transformational function;
that is, its ability to alleviate fundamental suffering for individuals and communities. The position of
critics of commodified forms of meditation (sometimes referred to as “McMindfulness”) have been
central to this thesis.
174
J.R. Carrette and R. King, Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion (London and New York:
Routledge, 2005), 17.
175
R.K. Payne, “Mindfulness and the Moral Imperative for the Self to Improve the Self.” In Handbook Of
Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, ed. R.E. Purser, D. Forbes and A. Burke (Cham,
Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016).
176
T. Hyland, “McDonaldizing Spirituality: Mindfulness, Education, and Consumerism,” Journal of
Transformative Education 15, no. 4 (2017): 334-356.
177
P. Doran, “McMindfulness: Buddhism as Sold to You by Neoliberals,” The Conversation, 24 February (2018),
accessed 16 April 2018: https://theconversation.com/mcmindfulness-buddhism-as-sold-to-you-by-neoliberals-
88338.
37
Chapter 2. From Enlightenment to Symptom Relief and Personal
Transformation
The least recognised time bomb of the 20th century may be contact between the Asian meditation
traditions and Western culture. At their best, these traditions offer a portal into a radically new
(lived) understanding of what it is to know, to be, to act, and to be an embodied self in time. Western
approaches have so far tended only to nibble around the edges of these traditions - Eleanor Rosch.1
This chapter argues that meditation adverse effects have been ignored in Western clinical settings
because the interaction between meditation and Western psychology has changed the goal of
meditation from enlightenment to symptom relief and personal transformation. Specifically, when
examining the historical interaction between Hindu and Buddhist-derived forms of meditation and
Western psychology, some key themes emerge: the conceptualisation of meditation as an exalted
psychotherapeutic tool, the equation of meditation with relaxation, and the belief in the ability of
meditation to heal and enhance many aspects of the conventional psychological self. This chapter
discusses how these themes can provide insight into why meditation adverse effects have been
largely ignored in Western secular applications. It also considers how the scientific study of
meditation within psychological research settings may have contributed to adverse effects being
overlooked. The chapter will begin with a brief discussion of the role of meditation in Hinduism and
Buddhism. However, it is important to note that religious meditation techniques are culturally
embedded within very specific contexts. Therefore, to simply refer to ‘Hindu meditation’ or
‘Buddhist meditation’ is limiting, as both religions contain a vast range of different philosophies,
traditions and lineages.2 However, while recognising this limitation, for the purposes of this thesis, a
broad discussion of the use of meditation in these two traditions serves as a basis of comparison to
secular Western meditation.
The Role of Meditation in Religion
Hindu Approaches to Meditation
Defining Hinduism is difficult. As Klaus Klostermaier notes, “The long history, the vastness and the
heterogeneity of Hinduism offer enormous challenges to each and every description of the
tradition.”3 Some scholars argue that the term ‘Hinduism’ covers such a diversity of traditions that it
1
E. Rosch, “Is Wisdom in the Brain?,” Psychological Science 10, no.3 (1999): 222.
2
L.M. Monteiro, R.F. Musten and J. Compson, “Traditional and Contemporary Mindfulness: Finding the Middle
Path in the Tangle of Concerns,” Mindfulness 6 (2015): 1-13.
3
K.K. Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism 3rd Ed. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2007), 15.
38
has no meaning.4 However, for the purposes of this thesis, the most useful way to define Hinduism is
as an umbrella term for all the traditions that adhere to the sacred scriptures of the Vedas; ancient
Indian texts in Sanskrit that cover psychology, religion, and philosophy, and that date back to
approximately 3500 B.C.E.5 The Vedas, the Upanishads (c. 800 - 600 B.C.E.), the Bhagavad Gita (c.
500 - 300 B.C.E.), and the Yoga Sutras (c. 200 B.C.E. - 300 C.E.), are the major source texts regarding
Hindu forms of meditation.6 These scriptures contain references to meditation practices embedded
within a religious and philosophical context that addresses issues such as ethics, prescriptions for
living, and theories regarding the existence of God.7 In Hinduism, this combination of meditation and
context is often referred to as yoga. It should be noted that this usage of the term ‘yoga’ is different
to modern postural yoga as it is taught in the West today, which has its origins in techniques of
proprioceptive relaxation developed in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe and America.8
Traditional Hindu texts refer to a variety of meditation practices. For example, the Upanishads
mention techniques that utilise cosmic contemplation, Vedic religious symbolism, avataras (images
understood to be a physical presence of a deity or God), and mantras (words or sounds that have
special religious significance) like the OM.9 Various positive physiological and psychological effects
are also mentioned in the Hindu scriptures, however health benefits tend to be the outcome of
preparatory and purification practices (kriya) rather than of meditation itself.10 For example, body
postures (asana) and breath control (pranayama) are preparatory cleansing techniques used to
maintain health, prevent disease and increase the life span. However, the intention behind the
cultivation of these health effects is religious; that is, the primary goal of asana and pranayama is to
prepare the individual to sit comfortably and motionless for protracted periods of meditation. 11
4
See L. Williamson, Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion (New
York: New York University Press, 2010), 55.
5
In Indian languages, the preferred description of Hinduism is Vaidika dharma, the “Vedic Law”. Klostermaier,
A Survey, 15.
6
The Yoga Sutras are widely accepted in most, if not all, Hindu schools that address meditation. P. Sedlmeier,
et al. "The Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Meta-Analysis," Psychological Bulletin 138, no. 6 (2012):
1139-1171. For an overview of these texts see G. Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition. Also, A.M. Simpkins and C.A.
Simpkins, Meditation and Yoga in Psychotherapy: Techniques for Clinical Practice (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley,
2011), 45-49.
7
Feuerstein argues that in Hinduism, the distinction between philosophy and religion is not as clear-cut as it is
in contemporary Western culture. Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition, 72.
8
M. Singleton, “Salvation through Relaxation: Proprioceptive Therapy and its Relationship to Yoga,” Journal of
Contemporary Religion, 20, no.3 (2005): 289-304.
9
Klostermaier, A Survey, 164; 206-207. Also, Swami Jyotirmayananda, “Meditation on the Self and
Superconsciousness,” International Journal of Humanities and Peace 22, no. 1 (2006): 58-61.
10
Klostermaier writes: “That health and religion go hand in hand is a commonly accepted truism among the
Hindus.” Klostermaier, A Survey, 140-141.
11
The Yoga Sutras mention effects (vibhutis, or properties of yoga) such as the attainment of “an excellent
body with grace, strength, perfect complexion and lustre” and a temperament that is “friendly and
39
Sometimes kriyas contain meditative elements, such as in the case of trataka, which is both a
purification practice and a form of concentration meditation. 12 Trataka involves concentrated gazing
at an object (usually a candle flame) and is said to confer a wide range of health benefits, including
the treatment of eye conditions, depression, insomnia, allergies, anxiety, and postural problems.13
When practiced correctly, trataka also induces a meditative mental state and, with time, is said to
improve memory and concentration. 14 However, like the other kriyas, while trataka has many
alleged therapeutic effects, its primary purpose as a cleansing technique is connected to a religious
goal; that is, to purify and prepare the body for the demands of prolonged meditation.15 Hence,
while meditation is utilised in contemporary Western secular settings primarily for health promotion
and symptom relief, in the traditional Hindu context, physical and mental wellbeing are prerequisites
to begin meditation practice, not its goal.
Scholars note that although many discrepancies exist between traditional Hindu texts, they all point
towards a common theme; that is, if an individual practices meditation with dedication, for a
prolonged period of time, it should eventually lead to a state of enlightenment (moksha, or mukti,
liberation). This is the primary goal of Hindu meditation.16 Although described as a state of being
that is ultimately ineffable, in Hinduism, the term ‘enlightenment’ refers to both liberation from the
cycle of rebirth (samsara),17 as well as the ability to gain access to and dwell in ‘pure consciousness’
(purusha; also sometimes translated as true person or true self).18 According to Vedanta philosophy,
all human suffering results from ignorance of, and separation from, the pure consciousness state.
compassionate to all” however these are seen as side effects, not primary goals of practice. Klostermaier, A
Survey, 346-350.
12
Trataka is mentioned in the The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (c. 900 – 1000 B.C.E.), the first important written
work to depict the asanas used in the Hatha Yoga tradition. See Swami Muktibodhananda (ed.), Hatha Yoga
Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga (Munger, Bihar, India: Yoga Publications Trust, 2012), 212.
13
Swami Muktibodhananda, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, 212.
14
There is some scientific support for this claim. For example, B.R. Raghavendra and P. Singh, “Immediate
Effect of Yogic Visual Concentration on Cognitive Performance,” Journal of Traditional and Complementary
Medicine 6 (2016): 34-36.
15
For an overview of the kriyas see Swami Muktibodhananda, Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
16
However, Klostermaier notes that the terms moksa or mukti are hardly ever used by the Upanishads to
describe the ‘ultimate condition;’ they prefer terms like immortality, bliss, or becoming brahman.
Klostermaier, A Survey, 178.
17
The general Indian and Buddhist worldview is that humans (and all sentient beings) are subject to an
apparently endless cycle of rebirth or reincarnation. For example, R. Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism
(Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998), 17-18.
18
Sedlmeier and Srinivas write that “gaining access to pure consciousness and dwelling therein is, in fact, the
highest aim [of meditation]… the result of having gained access to pure consciousness and dwelling therein is
known in the literature as … ‘enlightenment’ or ‘realisation.’” P. Sedlmeier and K. Srinivas, “How Do Theories
of Cognition and Consciousness in Ancient Indian Thought Systems Relate to Current Western Theorizing and
Research?,” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 3-4. Many other definitions of this state exist including ‘to see
reality as it is,’ or to realise the equivalence of the small individual self (Atman) with one’s true (eternal) Self
(Brahman). According to yoga philosophy, Brahman is ineffable. In the Upanishads it is described as neti neti
(not this, not that). For example, see Sedlmeier et al., “The Psychological Effects,” 1139-1171.
40
Pure consciousness is always present, but the conscious mind, with its constant fluctuations (vritti),
presents this state from being accessed. 19 If, however, the mind is able to be stilled via meditation,
then the connection between the limited human intellect and pure consciousness can become
strong enough to enable the individual to access the pure consciousness state and abide there.
There is a complex religious literature that details the process that leads to enlightenment, however
for the purposes of this thesis it is suffice to say that meditation works by intercepting the flux of
ordinary mental activity and allowing the mind to access states of meditative absorption and
concentration (Sanskrit: samadhi) that lead to eventual liberation.20 Koneru Ramakrishna Rao
summarises:
Meditation in the classical tradition has a single acceptable application, which is the
transformation of the person to realise herself in a state of total transcendence and freedom
from all the existential constraints.21
Buddhist Approaches to Meditation
Like Hinduism, Buddhism also refers to a vast and complex religious and philosophical tradition that
originated approximately 2500 years ago, and is oriented around the teachings of the historical
Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (c.480 – c.400 B.C.E.) who is believed to have lived and taught mainly in
the eastern part of ancient India.22 Buddhism emerged out of Upanishadic traditions (what is often
referred to now as ‘Hinduism’) as a breakaway sect, and may be viewed as a form of ‘unorthodox
Hinduism.’ Living Buddhism is divided into three broad traditions (yanas, paths/vehicles): the
Theravada tradition of Southeast Asia, the Mahayana schools and the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism.23 These traditions all have various schools and sub-traditions and each approaches
meditation differently. However, as in the Hindu approaches, despite superficial differences, the
schools of Buddhism all share a common goal: to lead the individual to a state of enlightenment
(nirvana, or cessation of suffering). In Buddhism, this involves following a path that incorporates
ethics (sila), the cultivation of wisdom (prajna) and the practice of meditation. Buddhism also
19
Klostermaier writes: This freedom is “not a new acquisition, a product, an effect or result of any action, but
it always existed as the Truth of our nature; we are always emancipated and always free.” Klostermaier, A
Survey, 178.
20
For an overview of Patanjali’s eight-fold path to enlightenment, see “The Eight Limbs of the Path of Self-
Transcendence,” in Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition, 244-254.
21
K.R. Rao, Cognitive Anomalies, Consciousness and Yoga (New Delhi, India: Matrix, 2010). Cited in P.
Sedlmeier et al., “The Psychological Effects of Meditation,” 1142.
22
For a discussion of these dates see C.S. Prebish, “Cooking the Buddhist Books: The Implications of the New
Dating of the Buddha for the History of Early Indian Buddhism,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 15 (2008): 1-21.
Also, L. Cousins, "The Dating of the Historical Buddha: A Review Article," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
Series 3, 6.1 (1996): 57-63. Accessed 10 April 2018: http://indology.info/papers/cousins/node5.shtml.
23
For an overview of the three major traditions, see Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, 1-6.
41
contains rituals and belief in mythical cosmologies that include magic, other realms, and unseen
supernatural beings who respond to prayers, invocations and offerings.24
The meditation component of the Buddhist path consists of both concentration practices, and
insight practices, which are sometimes referred to as right concentration and right mindfulness.25
Concentration (or calm abiding) practices (Pali: samatha) are generally regarded as preliminary
meditations that calm and stabilise the mind. However, unlike in Western contemporary
applications, calmness is not cultivated as an end in itself, but rather as preparation for insight
meditation practice (Pali: vipassana). When the mind has achieved a requisite degree of stable
concentration, the individual is able to pay close enough attention to moment-to-moment mental
occurrences to see into their true nature, which is the basis of vipassana, or ‘penetrating insight’
practice.26 According to Buddhist philosophy, human suffering results from a distorted perception of
reality that leads the individual to live in a constant state of illusion and reproduce a never-ending
cycle of rebirth (samsara). The path to enlightenment involves correcting these perceptual
distortions and seeing reality as it really is: impermanent (anicca), productive of suffering (dukkha)
and devoid of self (anatta).27 However, while Buddhist philosophy explains in detail the cause of
suffering and its cure, enlightenment cannot be realised from discursive intellectual thought alone; it
must arise through direct experience of the truth of the Buddha’s teachings. This requires the
individual to look deeply into their own experience of reality, something that is not possible for
those who have unfocused and uncultivated minds. It is only through the practice of meditation that
direct insight becomes achievable. In a discussion of the integration of concentration and insight
meditation, Richard Thurman and David Gray write:
the mind, which is initially highly resistant to concentration meditative exercises, can initially
be focused only via tremendous effort, which gradually gives rise to intermittent and finally
unbroken focus of the mind on a single object. Mastery is achieved when this focus can be
maintained ‘naturally,’ i.e., without any conscious effort … From the basis of this mastery of
24
D.L. McMahan, “Buddhist Modernism” in Buddhism in the Modern World, ed. D.L. McMahan (New York:
Routledge, 2012), 160.
25
Sedlmeier, “The Psychological Effects,” 1143.
26
For example, in Bhavanakrama I: “One cannot know things as they really are with an unequipoised mind, for
the Bhagavat [the Buddha] has proclaimed, ‘The man whose mind is equipoised knows things as they really
are.’” Cited in J.B. Hollenback, Mysticism: Experience, Response, and Empowerment (University Park, PA:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000), 598.
27
For example, S. Ledi, The Manual of Dhamma (Igatpuri: VRI, 1999), 273.
42
the mind gradually achieved through quiescence exercises, one’s Insight analysis is no longer
purely intellectual, but is experiential, involving one’s entire psychophysical complex.28
Like Hinduism, Buddhism teaches that enlightenment involves freedom from human suffering and
rebirth (samsara) as well as the recognition of an ultimate reality. However, in Buddhism, the
experience of ultimate reality is the insight that all phenomena arise and pass away as a chain of
conditions that ultimately can be reduced to nonexistence or emptiness (sunyata). Although this
definition seems quite different to the Hindu concept of a pure consciousness state, as the term
‘enlightenment’ is ineffable, scholars argue that it is possible that both traditions are speaking of the
same experience; that is, that the experience of pure consciousness may be the same as that of pure
emptiness.29 Even within the various schools of Buddhism there are disagreements regarding what
enlightenment means, and what experiential states refer to true realisations of nirvana.30 For
example, Tibetan Buddhism speaks of a ‘primordial wisdom’ (a basic state of knowing that is beyond
the conceptual mind), while Zen Buddhism refers to ‘original mind’ and ‘no mind.’31 However there
is one commonality that exists among all the traditions. As Eleanor Rosch writes: “All agree that ‘this’
is our original, natural, fundamental state, what we are right now, not any particular or special
experience.”32
In summary, both Hinduism and Buddhism view meditation as a practice that has short term (state)
and long term (trait) transformational goals.33 However, unlike in Western secular applications, the
short term state changes (calming of the mind) produced by Hindu and Buddhist meditation are
28
R.A.F. Thurman and D.B. Gray, “Tsongkhapa on the Integration of Quiescence and Insight Meditation,” in The
Experience of Meditation: Experts Introduce the Major Traditions, ed. J. Shear (St Paul, MN: Paragon House,
2006), 163-164.
29
Sedlmeier et al. argue that while on the surface the Buddhist approach to meditation may seem quite
different to the Hindu approach, the effects an individual can expect from both practices are similar. Sedlmeier
et al., “The Psychological Effects,” 1143.
30
For example, Burmese meditation master Mahasi Sayadaw of the Theravada Buddhist tradition maintains
that nirvana “can be seen inwardly as the cessation of all phenomena.” Alternatively, some schools of Tibetan
Buddhism view enlightenment as the ability to see “all phenomena as truly beyond suffering, as an inseparable
emptiness-luminosity-bliss state.” J.H. Davis and D.R. Vago, “Can Enlightenment be Traced to Specific Neural
Correlates, Cognition, or Behavior? No, and (a qualified) Yes,” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 870. Even
within Theravada Buddhism there is disagreement regarding what experiential states refer to realisations of
nirvana and which are merely deep states of concentration (jhana).
31
E. Rosch, “How to Catch James’ Mystic Germ: Religious Experience, Buddhist Meditation, and Psychology,”
Journal of Consciousness Studies 9, no. 9-10 (2002): 38.
32
Rosch, “How to Catch,” 32.
33
It should be noted that ‘state’ and ‘trait’ are psychological concepts deriving from scientific psychology,
especially psychometric research on personality and intelligence. However more recently modern meditation
teachers who are influenced by Western neuroscience and psychology have adopted these terms in order to
differentiate between short-term and long-term changes that result from meditation. For example, Y. Tang,
B.K. Hölzel and M.I. Posner, “Traits and States in Mindfulness Meditation.” Nature Reviews. Neuroscience 17,
no. 1 (2016): 59.
43
cultivated as part of a much larger transformational aim; the realisation of enlightenment, or a fully
transformed consciousness. Both traditions consider the everyday state of consciousness and the
conventional sense of a ‘self’ to be inaccurate, limited, and the cause of human suffering. This
suffering can be overcome by following a prescribed religious path that includes many components
(including ethics, ritual and renunciation), and of which meditation is a key ingredient.
Meditation as a Western Therapeutic Intervention
The popular conceptualisation of meditation in the West has been heavily influenced by its affiliation
with various streams of psychology. The idea that meditation has therapeutic potential can be
traced back to 1934 when eminent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung posited that Zen
Buddhism and psychotherapy shared a common goal (that is, the alleviation of human suffering via
psychological means), and that the Buddhist teacher and psychoanalyst fulfilled a similar role in
facilitating an individual’s healing.34 Since then there have been numerous attempts to link
meditation with psychology, including the ideas that mystical experiences associated with
meditation are therapeutic, and that meditation can enhance or even replace psychotherapy. 35
Historically, almost every school of psychological thought has been used to support these claims,
and working definitions of meditation have evolved alongside developments in psychology.36
Meditation as a Panacea: “The Answer to All Your Problems?”
A key theme that emerges from the historical interaction between meditation and psychology is the
view of meditation as a type of panacea; an exalted technique with a therapeutic potential that
transcends conventional Western psychotherapy. This view can be traced back to the early dialogue
between psychoanalysis and Buddhism, and in particular to psychologist Erich Fromm (1900 - 1980),
who reformulated psychoanalytic theory to propose a more positive definition of health as ‘well-
being,’ rather than just the absence of illness. While Freud’s psychoanalysis was concerned with only
one aspect of the unconscious – that dealing with psychopathology – Fromm argued for a
humanistic psychoanalysis that went beyond symptom relief and included the “full recovery” of the
34
R. Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Boulder, Colorado:
Shambhala Publications, 1992), 205.
35
J.C. Smith, “Meditation as Psychotherapy: A Review of the Literature,” Psychological Bulletin 82, no. 4
(1975): 558-564.
36
According to Parsons, the initial psychoanalytic encounter with Buddhism was between 1880 and 1944, but
was severely hindered by a number of factors. For a detailed discussion, see W.B. Parsons, “Psychoanalysis
Meets Buddhism: The Development of a Dialogue,” in Changing the Scientific Study of Religion: Beyond Freud?
ed. J. Belzen (New York and London: Springer, 2009). Since this period, meditation has been variously
conceptualised throughout its association with psychology as a free association technique, a de-conditioning
technique, a relaxation response, a self-regulation strategy and a tool to train attention. For a review, see W.B.
Britton and J.R. Lindahl, “Meditation,” Oxford Bibliographies Online (2015). Accessed 4 June 2018:
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199828340/obo-9780199828340-0169.xml.
44
unconscious. Informed by his correspondence with Suzuki and his analysis of Zen Buddhism, Fromm
believed that meditation could be used as a tool to aid psychotherapy in not just the elimination of
neuroses, but the “more radical aim of a complete transformation of the person.” 37 This perspective
provided the basis of a Western conceptualisation of meditation that has proved to be enduring: the
optimistic view of meditation as an exalted technique that has the power to provide healing beyond
traditional forms of psychotherapy.
Another reoccurring theme that has contributed to overly positive Western perceptions of
meditation is the idea that there is something inherently healing about present moment
‘awareness;’ a key state cultivated by meditation, and in particular mindfulness meditation. For
example, Shauna Shapiro and colleagues note that “attention has been suggested in the field of
psychology as critical to the healing process.”38 This is a theme that can be traced back to noted
psychiatrist and Buddhist sympathiser Fritz Perls (1893-1970), the founder of Gestalt therapy, who
claimed that “awareness – by and of itself – is curative.”39 Perls designed experiments in self-
awareness which were designed to bring to consciousness the thoughts and bodily activities which
were considered to be creating ‘unconscious blocks,’ resulting in psychopathology.40 Similarly,
renowned psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987) defined psychologically healthy, fully functioning
people as “allowing awareness to flow freely in and through their experiences.”41 Humanistic
psychotherapists saw personal transformation instead of symptom relief as the end result of
successful therapy, and this was brought about through awareness and acceptance. 42 Dryden and Sill
posit that many humanistic psychotherapists were “familiar with and probably influenced by
Buddhist ideas, though this is rarely made explicit in their theory or practice.” 43
This positive view of awareness persists in psychology today, however it is expressed in the
cognitive-behavioural language reflective of current psychological thought. For example, Roger
Walsh and Shauna Shapiro write:
37
E. Fromm, D.T. Suzuki and R. de Martino, Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism (New York: Harper, 1993 [1974]),
137.
38
S.L. Shapiro, L.E. Carlson, J.A. Astin and B. Freedman, “Mechanisms of Mindfulness,” Journal of Clinical
Psychology 62, no. 3 (2006): 376.
39
F. Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (Lafayette, CA: Real People Press, 1969), 16. Cited in Walsh and Shapiro,
“The Meeting of Meditative Disciplines,” 231.
40
W. Dryden and A. Still “Historical Aspects of Mindfulness and Self-acceptance in Psychotherapy.” Journal of
Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy 24, no.1 (2006): 12.
41
N. Raskin and C. Rogers, “Person-centered Therapy,” in Current Psychotherapies, eds. R. Corsini and D.
Wedding (Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock, 1995), 146. Cited in Walsh and Shapiro, “The Meeting of Meditative
Disciplines,” 231.
42
Dryden and Still “Historical Aspects of Mindfulness,” 9-10.
43
Dryden and Still “Historical Aspects of Mindfulness,” 14.
45
Dramatic heightening and continuity of awareness are said to allow meditators to recognise
and disidentify, not just from a problematic subset of thoughts, emotions or images, but
from all of them. The result is said to be the ability to observe all experiences with
imperturbable calm and equanimity, in a state of mind variously described as
‘transcendental consciousness’ (TM), ‘mind-body drop’ (mind-body disidentification – Zen),
Xujing (calm stillness – Taoism), ‘divine apatheia’ (Christian contemplation) or equanimous
‘witnessing’ (yoga).44
The authors go on to discuss the potential of meditation to enhance more sophisticated

psychological capacities including emotional intelligence, equanimity, moral maturity and lucidity
during both waking and sleeping states. The idea that meditation can access human potentials that
go beyond the levels currently recognised by conventional Western psychology (what Abraham
Maslow called “the farther reaches of human nature”) is an idea that developed within
transpersonal psychology, and that was explored extensively by theoretical psychologist Ken Wilber
who created a developmental model that spans the full spectrum of human growth from infancy to
enlightenment.45 Within this model, the earlier levels refer to the developmental territory studied by
conventional psychology, and the higher ‘transpersonal’ levels of consciousness refer to
developmental stages that can only be accessed via spiritual practices such as meditation.46 This idea
was also developed by psychologist and meditation teacher Jack Engler, who argued that psychology
and Buddhism map discrete states of a single developmental sequence, which starts with lower
stages of conventional development (the domain of psychotherapy) and leads to more subtle stages
of contemplative development (the domain of Buddhism).47 Engler has since revised his theory
44
Walsh and Shapiro, “The Meeting,” 232.
One recent critique of medical mindfulness goes so far as to argue that the mindfulness movement portrays a
failure to pay attention (i.e., lack of awareness) as the principal cause of disease: “The specific culprit is
inattention to the present moment.” K.K. Barker, “Mindfulness Meditation: Do-it-Yourself Medicalization of
Every Moment,” Social Science & Medicine 106 (2014): 171.
45
A. Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (New York: Viking, 1971). Cited in Walsh and Shapiro,
“The Meeting,” 235. Also, William James’ seminal work The Varieties of Religious Experience provides a classic
account of religiosity as situated within the private psychological self. W. James, The Varieties of Religious
Experience. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 2004 [1902]).
46
For example, Ken Wilber sees religious sages as ‘evolutionary forerunners’ who point towards latent stages
of human development. K. Wilber, Up From Eden (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1996), 75-77. For a review of
Wilber’s work, see R. Walsh and F. Vaughan, “The Worldview of Ken Wilber,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology
34, no. 2 (1994): 6-21.
47
J. Engler, “Therapeutic Aims in Psychotherapy and Buddhism,” in Transformations of Consciousness, eds. K.
Wilber, J. Engler and D. Brown (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1986). The view that meditation is a technique that
reaches beyond conventional psychotherapy can be found throughout the psychology literature. Other
notable examples are here listed. Mark Epstein describes Buddhism as something that “reaches beyond
therapy, toward a farther horizon of self-understanding that is not ordinarily accessible through psychotherapy
alone.” M. Epstein, Thoughts Without a Thinker (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 130.
46
regarding a linear developmental model, but still believes that Buddhist theory and practice address
a type and range of functioning and well-being that go beyond traditional Western clinical practice.48
While both transpersonal psychology and psychoanalysis have been criticized for lacking conceptual,
evidentiary and scientific rigor, contemporary Western psychology is now exploring the relationship
between meditation and human potential through a positive psychology lens.49 For example, recent
studies have shown that mindfulness meditation promotes both hedonic 50 and eudaimonic well-
being. 51 Hedonic well-being is associated with pain relief and increased pleasure, while
eudaimonic well-being means living a meaningful, self-realised and fully-functional life.
One of the factors that has contributed to meditation adverse effects being overlooked in
psychological and clinical settings is therefore quite straightforward: meditation is seen as a
therapeutic intervention and therapeutic interventions are supposed to help, not harm. A review of
the psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic literature from the 1960s onwards reveals that
meditation has largely been viewed as a harmless psychotherapeutic technique, and any adverse
effects that have occurred have been attributed to either the therapeutic process or the individual
undergoing therapy. Some Western researchers in psychology have attempted to map meditation
difficulties (the best known example being the “spiritual emergency” literature),52 but most secular
Western meditation texts have very little to say about adverse effects.53 This is reflected in early TM
studies, where negative effects associated with meditation were simply attributed to “unstressing,”
a term used by the Students International Meditation Society (SIMS, the parent organisation of TM),
to describe an initial, transient process whereby the problem areas in the meditator’s life are solved
Daniel Goleman writes: "I conceptualise meditation as a "meta-therapy:" a procedure that accomplishes the
major goals of conventional therapy and yet has as its end state a change far beyond the scope of therapies...
an altered state of consciousness.” D. Goleman, “Meditation as Meta-therapy: Hypotheses Toward a Proposed
Fifth State of Consciousness,” Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 3 (1971): 4.
48
J. Engler, “Being Somebody and Being Nobody: A re-examination of the Understanding of Self in
Psychoanalysis and Buddhism,” in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: An Unfolding Dialogue ed. J.D. Safran
(Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2003).
49
Positive psychology is concerned with the study of human flourishing and examines topics like flow, values,
and character strengths and virtues. Both positive psychology and contemplative science are based on the
premise that intentional effort can produce changes in psychological health. For example, see K.W. Brown and
R.M. Ryan, “The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and its Role in Psychological Well-being,” Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 84, no. 4 (2003): 822–848. Also, I. Ivtzan and T. Lomas, Mindfulness in
Positive Psychology: The Science of Meditation and Wellbeing (London: Routledge, 2016).
50
K.W. Brown and S. Cordon, “Toward a Phenomenology of Mindfulness: Subjective Experience and Emotional
Correlates,” in ed. F. Didonna, Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness (New York, NY: Springer, 2009), 59-81.
51
K.W. Brown, R.M. Ryan and J.D. Creswell, “Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its
Salutary Effects,” Psychological Inquiry 18, no. 4 (2007): 211–237.
52
S. Grof and C. Grof, Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (New York and Los
Angeles: Tarcher, 1989).
53
47
or “normalised.”54 Similarly, in psychotherapy, difficulties that occur during meditation have
generally been attributed to ‘normal’ psychotherapeutic processes such as catharsis or “working
through” issues.55 For example, Roger Walsh and Shauna Shapiro write that from a Western
psychological perspective:
growth at any stage can be challenging, but many challenges may be potentially therapeutic,
and clinicians have therefore described them as, for example, ‘crises of renewal’, ‘positive
disintegration’, ‘creative illness’, and ‘spiritual emergencies.’56
While humanistic and transpersonal views of growth and transformation entail change that,
regardless of whether initiated by meditation, will be experienced as difficult by many people, it is
important to note that the ‘adverse effects’ this thesis is referring to are quite literal. The term
adverse effects is not, in this particular context, simply a metaphor for the emotional discomfort
involved with personal growth. It would be quite unusual, for example, to expect auditory
hallucinations, involuntary movements, or psychosis to result from psychotherapy, yet these effects
have all reportedly been associated with meditation.57 Further, meditation adverse effects that are
long lasting and functionally impairing are unlikely to be the result of a normal process of
psychological growth. However, it is possible that despite the sometimes obvious differences in
symptom presentation, in some clinical situations genuine meditation adverse effects may be
conflated with psychological discomfort arising from therapy and hence the link between meditation
and the adverse effect is not identified.
In a Western psychotherapeutic context, difficulties associated with meditation may also be

misattributed to the individual meditator. Willoughby Britton notes that when it comes to
meditation adverse effects there have been various instances of “victim blaming” and a tendency to
54
However, Otis (1984) found “unstressing” to be an inadequate explanation of adverse effects in TM, as his
study found that it was experienced meditators, not novices, who experienced the most adverse effects. L.S.
Otis, “Adverse Effects of Transcendental Meditation,” in Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives,
eds. Deane H. Shapiro, Jr and Roger N. Walsh (New York, NY: Aldine Transaction, 2009 [1984]).
55
For example, Parsons writes that from a psychoanalytic perspective, meditation can be problematic if
“unearthed unconscious content is simply observed (as meditation advises) and not worked-through.”
Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism,” 205. Also, Bogart writes that de-repression of unconscious
material may occur in meditation. G. Bogart, “The Use of Meditation in Psychotherapy: A Review of the
Literature,” American Journal of Psychotherapy 45, no. 3 (1991): 397.
56
57
M. Farias and C. Wikholm The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You? (London: Watkins, 2015), 150-151.
48
assume that any problems encountered with meditation are the meditator’s fault.58 This is a
perspective that can also be found in the psychological literature. For example, religious studies
scholar Jeffrey Kripal writes that in the 1960s and 1970s, people who showed interest in various
altered states of consciousness – what psychologist Abraham Maslow termed ‘peak experiences’ –
were routinely diagnosed by the Freudian-influenced medical establishment as displaying signs of
mental disorder.59 Even relatively recently, psychologist John Suler has argued that people who are
drawn to meditation display a range of psychological problems: “from a fear of autonomy and
refusal to assume adult responsibility to issues concerning incapacity for intimacy and
passivity/dependency needs.”60 Other scholars have argued that in some situations meditation may
be used as a form of ‘spiritual bypassing;’ a technique used by individuals to avoid dealing with
unresolved emotional issues or unfinished developmental and psychosocial tasks.61 It is likely that
most meditation adverse effects involve an interaction between the practice of meditation and the
individual meditator.62 Hence, in therapeutic contexts, where meditation is used to treat a variety of
conditions that affect mood and cognition, it can be challenging to identify what difficulties are due
to pre-existing or latent psychopathology and what might be caused by the meditation technique
itself.
Meditation and the Relaxation Response
One of the first theories that attempted to explain the effectiveness of meditation in clinical settings
was that meditation helps produce a state of relaxation.63 Certain physiological changes have been
consistently reported during meditation studies, including reduced heart rate, decreased oxygen
consumption and carbon dioxide elimination, decreased blood pressure, increased skin resistance
and increased regularity and amplitude of alpha brain waves. As these physiological signs are typical
58
59
J.J. Kripal, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007),
138. Also, Bogart writes “Freud considered all forms of religious experiences as attempts to return to the most
primitive stages of ego development.” Bogart, “The Use of Meditation in Psychotherapy,” 396.
60
J. Suler, Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Eastern Thought (Albany, NY: State University Press of New York,
1993). Cited in Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism,” 201-202. Parsons also notes that renowned
psychologist Jack Engler (1986) argued that “mystical therapies” such as Buddhist meditation may attract and
exacerbate the condition of those with self-disorders.
61
R.A. Masters, Spiritual Bypassing: When Spiritualty Disconnects Us From What Really Matters (Berkeley, CA:
North Atlantic Books, 2010). Also, Bogart, “The Use of Meditation in Psychotherapy,” 398.
62
63
For a discussion of scientific and cultural theories of stress and relaxation, see M. Jackson, The Age of Stress:
Science and the Search for Stability (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013).
49
responses that occur during relaxation, early researchers hypothesised that meditation produces a
‘wakeful hypometabolic state’ of relaxation.64 In 1974, cardiologist Herbert Benson coined the term
‘relaxation response’ to describe the physiological and psychological effects that occur during
meditation.65 The attainment of a relaxation response during meditation has been replicated by
many subsequent studies, and as a result, meditation practices are often reduced to and equated
with (particularly in the popular media) other relaxation techniques such as hypnosis, progressive
relaxation, guided imagery and biofeedback.66
Today, the relaxation view of meditation has been recognised by scholars as overly reductionist and
incomplete;67 however, the association between meditation and relaxation has prevailed. Scholars
have argued that this is because defining meditation as a relaxation technique allows it to fit more
easily into secular therapeutic paradigms. For example, Gordon Boals posits that the relaxation view
of meditation initially gained popularity because it demystified meditation and divorced it from its
Eastern religious roots, “thereby countering the apparent secrecy and cultishness that have risen
around most meditation procedures.”68 When reconceptualised as relaxation, meditation became
more familiar, acceptable and accessible to the scientific community.
One of the problems that arises when meditation is equated with relaxation is that it leads to
unrealistically positive expectations regarding meditation outcomes. For example, a common
popular misperception about meditation is that it always leads to the attainment of blissful states or
the transcendence of one’s day-to-day reality.69 Perceptions such as this contribute to the view of
64
R.K. Wallace, H. Benson and A.F. Wilson, “A Wakeful Hypometabolic Physiologic State,” in Meditation:
Classic and Contemporary Perspectives, eds. Deane H. Shapiro, Jr and Roger N. Walsh (New York, NY: Aldine
Transaction, [1971] 2009).
65
H. Benson and M.Z. Klipper, The Relaxation Response (London: Collins, 1976).
66
G.F. Boals, “Toward a Cognitive Reconceptualization of Meditation,” The Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology 10, no. 2 (1978): 143-182.
67
There is recognition amongst scholars of both psychology and religion that the relaxation model is not by
itself an adequate explanation of the therapeutic effects of meditation, and attempts have been made to
promote a more balanced view of meditation. Notably, Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the name of his mindfulness
program from Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and
removed the word “relaxation” from audiotapes and handouts. See W.B. Britton et al., “Awakening is Not a
Metaphor: The Effects of Buddhist Meditation Practices on Basic Wakefulness,” Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences, 1307 (2013): 64-81. Also, A. Nathoo, “From Therapeutic Relaxation to Mindfulness in the
Twentieth Century,” in The Restless Compendium: Interdisciplinary Investigations of Rest and its Opposites,
eds. F. Callard, K. Staines, and J. Wilkes (Durham, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), 71-80.
A. Lumma, et. al. "Is Meditation always Relaxing? Investigating Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, Experienced
Effort and Likeability during Training of Three Types of Meditation." International Journal of Psychophysiology
97, no. 1 (2015): 38-45.
68
Boals, “Toward a Cognitive Reconceptualization,”149.
69
Lustyk, et al., “Mindfulness Meditation Research,” 20-30. While it is true that some meditation practices may
lead to states of tranquility and relaxation, others may lead to states that are challenging or unpleasant. For
example, the goal of mindfulness meditation as defined by Kabat-Zinn is to pay attention, on purpose, in the
present moment, non-judgementally, and according to this definition, meditation may include paying
50
meditation as a panacea and have implications for the under-reporting of meditation adverse effects
by practitioners. When meditation is presented as a harmless relaxation technique this creates a
situation that meditators may be reluctant to question or challenge, and meditators may be afraid to
speak up about difficulties. An article in Spectator describes the case of a meditator who:
tried out a mindfulness course because he was having some trouble falling asleep. While
doing the course he became aware of negative thoughts, which wouldn’t disappear no
matter how much he accepted and tried to ‘let them go’. After eight weeks his anxiety levels
had increased from something barely noticeable to an everyday problem which he found
hard to manage. ‘Is it my fault?’ he wanted to know — and this is a common question for
those who don’t feel the wellbeing, relaxation, happiness kick one might expect to get when
meditating. Let’s not add stigmatisation to the list of adverse effects. It is no one’s fault
when meditation goes wrong.70
Hence, meditators who do not experience relaxation, or worse, experience adverse effects, may
attribute these experiences to their own perceived inadequacies as practitioners and be reluctant to
speak up. Contributing to this effect is the fact that even in Western secular contexts it is common
for meditators to practice in silence in order to enhance the deepening of concentration and
awareness.71 Limiting social interaction and encouraging uninterrupted practice may create
conditions that contribute to meditators’ reticence to speak about adverse effects with teachers. For
example, it is possible that the common instruction in therapeutic mindfulness practice to “just sit
with it” may create an implicit pressure on the meditator to endure any adverse effects in silence,
leading to an under-reporting of adverse effects.72
The relaxation view of meditation has also greatly influenced the way in which scientific studies
report the effects of meditation. Scholars have argued that studies of meditation may emphasise or
attention to experiences that are challenging or unpleasant. J. Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are
(New York: Hyperion, 1994). Additionally, some scholars have warned against the blanket application of
relaxation techniques, including meditation, as some people appear to have a paradoxical stress response to
relaxation techniques, despite diligent attempts at training. This is referred to in the literature as relaxation-
induced anxiety and is defined as a sudden increase in anxiety during deep relaxation that can range from mild
to moderate intensity and that can approach the level of a minor panic episode. A. A. Lazarus and T.J. Mayne,
“Relaxation: Some Limitations, Side Effects, and Proposed Solutions,” Psychotherapy 27, no. 2 (1990): 261-266.
70
M. Farias and C. Wikholm, “What Mindfulness Gurus Won’t Tell You: Meditation Has a Dark Side,” Spectator
Health, 11 March (2016), accessed 7 May 2018: https://health.spectator.co.uk/what-mindfulness-gurus-dont-
tell-you-meditation-has-a-dark-side/.
71
J. Compson, “Meditation, Trauma and Suffering in Silence: Raising Questions About How Meditation is
Taught and Practiced in Western Contexts in the Light of a Contemporary Trauma Resiliency Model,”
Contemporary Buddhism 15, no. 2 (2014): 274-297.
72
For example, D. Treleavan, “Meditation, Trauma and Contemplative Dissociation,” Somatics 16, no. 2 (2010):
20–22.
51
deemphasise certain effects in order to fit within acceptable modern paradigms, such as that of
Western therapeutic culture. 73 So far, studies of meditation have emphasised its relaxation effects,
however, the evidence that meditation can lead to a state of relaxation is based primarily on studies
of only two types of meditation; TM, and mindfulness techniques derived from the Theravada
stream of Buddhism.74 Interestingly, a number of studies exist that show that other forms of
meditation, such as those from the Vajrayana and Hindu Tantric traditions, produce a state of
arousal, not relaxation.75 For example, a study by Ido Amihai and Maria Kozhevnikov demonstrated
that different types of meditation are based on different neurophysiological mechanisms, which give
rise to either a relaxation or arousal response.76 An interdisciplinary review by Willoughby Britton
and colleagues also lends support to meditation’s arousing effects, providing further evidence that
the common characterisation of meditation as a relaxation technique is incomplete. 77 The evidence
from this review suggests that not only do different types of meditation techniques lead to either
relaxation or arousal, but that paradoxical arousal effects may occur even with meditation
techniques that were traditionally thought to be relaxing; specifically, Buddhist meditation can
actually promote greater wakefulness and lower sleep propensity depending on dose and expertise
of practitioner.78 As meditation adverse effects are by definition arousing and not relaxing, research
studies that focus only on the relaxing effects of meditation risk ignoring other categories of
phenomenological experience that may include adverse effects.
Issues of Self and Non-self
Attempts to integrate meditation into Western psychotherapy have focused on the therapeutic
benefits of meditation as a technique to help a person address psychopathology and develop a
healthy sense of self. Secular meditation-based therapies are therefore concerned with individuals
73
Britton et al., “Awakening is Not a Metaphor,” 64-81.
74
The lumping together of very different meditation techniques from disparate traditions can be traced back
to the Theosophical Society, who mixed Hinduism and Buddhism so that both became ill-defined terms. It is
also due in part to the Asian teachers who came to the West and presented only the meditative aspects of
their religions, aligning them with science. Also, William James’ seminal work The Varieties of Religious
Experience provides a classic account of religiosity as situated within the private psychological self. W. James,
The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 2004 [1902]).
75
I. Amihai and M. Kozhevnikov, “Arousal vs. Relaxation: A Comparison of the Neurophysiological and
Cognitive Correlates of Vajrayana and Theravada Meditative Practices,” PLoS ONE 9, no. 7 (2014).
M. Kozhevnikov, J. Elliott, J. Shephard and K. Gramann, “Neurocognitive and Somatic Components of
Temperature Increases During g-Tummo Meditation: Legend and Reality,” PLoS ONE 8, no. 3 (2013).
M. Kozhevnikov, O. Louchakova, Z, Josipovic and M.A. Motes, “The Enhancement of Visuospatial Processing
Efficiency Through Buddhist Deity Meditation,” Psychological Science 20, no. 5 (2009): 645–653.
R.B. Cahn and J. Polich, “Meditation States and Traits: EEG, ERP, and Neuroimaging Studies,” Psychological
Bulletin 132, no. 2 (2006): 180–211.
76
Amihai and Kozhevnikov, “Arousal vs. Relaxation.”
77
78
52
and their adjustment to their social context; a context which scholar Geoffrey Samuel describes as
“deeply invested by the Western sense of the separate individual.”79 Yet, contemporary therapeutic
meditation practices such as mindfulness and TM derive from modernist versions of Buddhism and
Hinduism; religious traditions which emphasise the deconstruction of the individual self, or the
realisation of non-self.80 In Hinduism this is referred to as self-realization (atma-jnana) and is
equated with knowledge of the true self beyond identification with material phenomena. Similarly,
Buddhism denies the existence of the sense of self (atman) as a stable and continuous entity.
Samuel writes: “For Buddhists, the human sense of oneself as a coherent, stable individual is
ultimately artificial and mistaken … This is not an optional extra for Buddhists; it is a central assertion
of the tradition.”81 Thus, in these religious traditions, meditation is seen as a vehicle for realising that
the conventional sense of self is an illusion.
This presents an interesting challenge for therapeutic meditation with its current individualistic
orientation. While Western meditation literature describes a helpful shift in perspective that arises
from basic mindfulness practice, the idea of non-self as defined by Buddhism fits poorly into the
contemporary Western therapeutic context, which focuses on the fulfilment of the individual’s
personal desires and the gratification of the psychological self.82 Further, the contemporary
psychological self is the product of the last three or four hundred years of Western civilisation;
scholars have argued that the concept of an independent and autonomous selfhood was unknown in
the Buddha’s day.83 However, whether the Buddha recognised a psychological self or not is actually
beside the point. A problem arises because in Western therapeutic approaches, meditation is seen
simply as a technique whereby “one’s old notion of self can better get what it wants.”84 However, as
a contemplative practice, the goal of meditation is not self-gratification or self-fulfilment, but rather
79
G. Samuel, “The Contemporary Mindfulness Movement and the Question of Non-self,” Transcultural
Psychiatry 52, no. 4 (2015): 494.
80
For example, P. Sedlmeier et al., “The Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Meta-analysis,” Psychological
Bulletin 138, no. 6 (2012): 1139-1171.
81
Samuel, “The Contemporary Mindfulness Movement,” 494.
82
The Western mindfulness literature notes helpful changes in perception such as “standing back” from one’s
identity (“reperceiving”; Shapiro et al., 2006), disidentification (Walsh and Shapiro, 2006), decentering (Safran
and Segal, 1990) and cognitive defusion (“self as context” versus “self as content”; Hayes 2004).
83
Some scholars have argued that the modern Western conceptualisation of the self as a unique individual is
foreign to traditional Asian cultures. There is evidence to suggest that Asian cultures do differ from Western
cultures in that they are more collectively oriented and less concerned with individuality. Therefore, it is
possible they may find teachings of non-self easier to integrate, and that insights of non-self associated with
meditation may present unique concerns to contemporary Western individuals who have a strong sense of
separate personal identity self. For example, M. Mines, “Conceptualising the Person: Hierarchical Society and
Individual Autonomy in India,” in Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice, eds. R.T. Ames, W. Dissanayake
and T.P. Kasulis (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994); A. Roland, In Search of Self in India and
Japan: Towards a Cross-Cultural Psychology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988); H.C. Triandis,
“The Self and Social Behaviour in Differing Cultural Contexts,” Psychological Review 96, no. 3 (1989): 506-520.
84
Rosch, “Is Wisdom,” 222.
53
the deconstruction of the individual self.85 While psychotherapy seeks to modify the self, the original
goal of meditation in a traditional religious context is to experience a consciousness beyond the
cognitive structures and constructs of the conventional self.86
That Western psychotherapy and the Eastern religions from which contemporary forms of
meditation originate have fundamentally different ideas regarding the self is a fact that has been
largely ignored in the scientific literature on meditation. It is possible this is because there is an
implicit assumption that both psychotherapy and the contemplative traditions share a common goal
– the alleviation of human suffering – and that notions of non-self are seen as irrelevant in
contemporary secular pursuits of this goal. While this may be true to an extent, the definition of
‘suffering’ differs significantly according to context. In psychological terms, suffering is equated with
psychopathology, or problems associated with the individual self. In Buddhist and Hindu traditions,
suffering is caused by the illusion of the individual self.87 For example, in Buddhist philosophy, any
relief from suffering that is provided by an attempt to adapt to external conditions - arguably the
goal of most forms of psychotherapy - would be temporary; true alleviation of suffering would only
come from realising the illusory nature of self.88 As C.W. Huntington Jr. writes:
Both Buddhism and psychotherapy are directed toward the problem of human suffering, but
nibbana—the goal of Theravada Buddhist practice—and the therapeutic goal of “mental
health” are grounded in two distinct understandings of the nature and scope of human
suffering. While psychotherapy aims at the alleviation of symptoms experienced as extrinsic
or peripheral to the patient’s underlying core sense of self, Buddhism addresses a form of
suffering (dukkha) considered intrinsic to the experience of the personal self as an
85
Bogart notes that from the Buddhist perspective, in contrast to Western psychology, identity constancy
represents a point of arrested development; self-coherency is achieved in order to be transcended. Bogart,
“The Use of Meditation in Psychotherapy,” 399.
86
J. Engler, “Promises and Perils of the Spiritual Path,” Buddhism & Psychotherapy: Across Cultures ed. M.
Unno (Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2006), 24. Also, Gleig, “Wedding the Personal,” 140.
87
Asian meditation teachers such as Mahasi Sayadaw and the current Dalai Lama have admitted to being
surprised by the unfamiliar psychological problems they find in Western meditation students. Sayadaw has
referred to psychological problems as a new form of dukkha, one that he termed “psychological suffering.”
Similarly, the Dalai Lama was reportedly surprised to hear that Western students suffer from self-hatred, as
there is no equivalent Tibetan concept matching this psychological issue. Hence, there seems to be a
categorical difference between Western conceptions of psychological suffering and Buddhist conceptions of
suffering. However, there is evidence to suggest that depression, anxiety and psychosis exist in Tibetan
cultures and hence these types of claims must be scrutinised and should not be taken at face value. For
example, R. Hogendoorn, "Caveat Emptor: The Dalai Lama's Proviso and the Burden of (Scientific) Proof"
Religions 5, no. 3 (2014): 522-559.
88
This definitional issue is also reflected in the ideological split between Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield.
Goldstein argues that the highest Buddhist aim of liberation from suffering has been replaced by more
humanistic psychological concerns. He writes: “I see a tendency to let go of that goal and become satisfied
with something less: doing good in the world, having more harmonious relationships, seeking a happier life.
That’s all beautiful but in my view it misses the essential point.” Quoted in Gleig, “Wedding the Personal,” 136.
54
independent agent defined by its capacity to analyze and think, to judge, choose, act and be
acted upon. Buddhist teachings associate these two forms of suffering with two distinct but
interrelated truths about the self and its world: the first is ‘conventional’ truth (sammuti-
sacca), which governs day-to-day, practical affairs, where appearances are all that matters;
and the second is ‘ultimate’ or ‘absolute’ truth (paramattha-sacca), which reveals the
illusory nature of these same appearances.
The practice of psychotherapy is, accordingly, dedicated to a method of healing that leaves
the conventional structure of self-as-agent intact as the focal point of attention, whereas
Buddhist spiritual practice engages in a sustained, methodical dismantling of our customary
preoccupation with self-centered experience.89
This key difference in definitions of suffering may be another factor contributing to meditation
adverse effects being overlooked in secular therapeutic contexts. That is, secular therapeutic forms
of meditation may induce effects that go beyond symptom relief; specifically, changes in the
meditator’s sense of a stable individual self. A review of the literature shows support for this idea,
and also indicates that such experiences of insight into the impermanent nature of the self during
meditation may be extremely challenging. For example, in his pioneering phenomenological study of
insight meditation practitioners, Jack Kornfield describes the challenging aspect of non-self
experiences in vipassana meditation:
Deep practice also involves mindfulness of death-like experiences, reported as feeling a

dying of the body, death of illusions, of self-images, of ideals, of past and future, and the
idea of one self as permanent or solid at all. One of the experiences most commonly
described as powerful or transformative is the insight into the moment-to-moment changing
nature of the self. Students report experiencing themselves as simply a flowing process of
sense perceptions and reactions, with no sense of a fixed self or person existing apart from
this process at all.90
Similarly, Jack Engler writes:
Discovering that there is no ontological core to consciousness or self that is independent and
enduring and no stable ‘objects’ of perception … no ‘I’ or ‘thing’ enduring across the gap
between one construction and arising of the next – this is a profound shock. It is experienced
as a free fall into a looking-glass world where, as the Mad Hatter tells Alice, ‘Things are not
89
C.W. Huntington Jr., “Are You Looking to Buddhism When You Should Be Looking to Therapy?,” Tricycle,
(Spring 2018), accessed 10 April 2018: https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhism-and-psychotherapy/.
90
J. Kornfield, “Intensive Insight Meditation: A Phenomenological Study,” The Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology 11, no. 1 (1979): 54.
55
as they seem!’ It so turns our normal sense of self and reality on its head that, as Niels Bohr
once remarked about quantum physics … if you don’t get dizzy thinking about it, you haven’t
understood it.91
A recent study by psychologist Tim Lomas and colleagues also reported on the difficulties that
meditators can encounter with non-self experiences. When describing one participant’s experience,
the authors write: “the deconstruction of the self (which is the goal of the practice) was experienced
as a frightening dissolution of identity, rather than as a sense of liberation (which the practice is
arguably designed to invoke).”92 Other participants in the study described their non-self experiences
as disorienting, frightening, alienating and disturbing. Sean Pritchard’s qualitative study of vipassana
meditators supports these findings, with participants comparing insights into non-self as a “death
experience.”93 Additionally, scholar Andrea Grabovac argues that some participants in secular
mindfulness-based interventions appear to progress through the Theravadan Buddhist stages of
insight, even during a relatively short period of time, such as an eight week program. This involves
experiences that can be extremely psychologically challenging (including experiences of non-self),
and that may become clinically significant.94 Hence, it seems that even when secularised and applied
in Western therapeutic contexts, meditation may cause the concept of a stable, permanent
psychological self to be challenged, and this may result in adverse effects.95
In summary, it is clear that while psychotherapy and meditation share some similar goals and
functions in the enhancement of individual well-being, there are also major philosophical differences
that must be acknowledged. Some scholars have gone so far as to argue that the Buddhist and Hindu
goal of meditation (the realisation that the individual self is illusory) is fundamentally irreconcilable
with the Western therapeutic goal of facilitating the development of a cohesive psychological self.96
91
J. Engler, “Reply: Can We Say What the Self ‘Really’ Is?” in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: An Unfolding
Dialogue ed. J. Safran (Boston, MA: Wisdom, 2003), 92-93.
92
T. Lomas, T. Cartwright, T. Edginton and D. Ridge, “A Qualitative Analysis of Experiential Challenges
Associated with Meditation Practice,” Mindfulness 6, no. 4 (2015): 16.
93
S.M. Pritchard, “Mindfulness and Beyond: A Qualitative Study of Advanced Mahasi Meditators’ Experience,”
Unpublished PhD dissertation. (Fielding Graduate University, 2016): 66-67; 74-75; 143.
94
A. Grabovac, “The Stages of Insight: Clinical Relevance for Mindfulness-based Interventions,” Mindfulness 6
(2015): 589-600.
95
Other Western contemporary qualitative research describes the “non-conceptual perception of self” (Full et
al., 2013), a “transcendence beyond self” (Gifford-May and Thompson, 1994), a progression of understanding
including “self, self and mind, and non-self” (Healy, 2001), a "dis-identification with emotions and thoughts"
(Pruitt and McCollum, 2012), and “experiencing oneself as a changing process, not as a solid unchanging
entity” (Kornfield, 1977). All cited in S.M. Pritchard, “Mindfulness and Beyond.”
96
Some scholars argue that the goal of meditation (the realization that the self or ego is illusory) is
irreconcilable with the therapeutic goal of facilitating development of a cohesive ego, and that although
meditation and therapy both work to enhance individual well-being through the development of present
moment awareness, there are major philosophical differences between the two that make separation
56
Others have argued that a more balanced approach may be to maintain a clear distinction between
Western psychotherapeutic aims and the goals of Eastern meditation, and to admit the differences
between the stated aims of each technique.97 While the idea of completely excluding meditation
from psychotherapy seems unnecessary and extreme, the literature suggests that it would be
impossible to make a clear distinction between ‘Western psychotherapy’ and ‘Eastern meditation’ in
modern contexts, because they have co-arisen and been developed in a mutually informing way.
Hence, it is up to secular clinicians and meditation teachers to recognise that non-self experiences
may occur, even with secular meditation, and that these experiences are distinct from
psychopathology.
Research Methods in Meditation Studies
A final factor to consider is that the scientific study of meditation has occurred primarily in clinical
trials and self-report surveys (psychometrics) that have focused on quantitative, bio-neurological
investigations into the effects of meditation. While clinical trials are the most reliable method for
acquiring accurate information about the effects of meditation, their design does not specifically
seek to test for side effects or adverse effects. Currently there is no standard method for identifying
adverse effects in clinical trials, and the vast majority (>75%) of meditation studies do not actively
assess adverse effects, but rely on patients to spontaneously self-report any negative experiences
that occur. 98 However, research into the nature of self-report has demonstrated that participants in
clinical trials are unlikely to volunteer information about negative reactions to treatment without
being directly asked due to the influence of social desirability effects and demand characteristics.99
advisable. For example, J. Bradwejn, M. Dowdall and L. Iny, “Can East and West Meet in Psychoanalysis?”
American Journal of Psychiatry 142 (1985): 1226-27.
97
P.G. Bacher, “An Investigation into the Compatibility of Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy and Buddhist
Meditation,” (Doctor of Education, Boston University School of Education, Massachusetts, 1981). Also,
Parsons raises the point that in Western culture “we repress the fact of an unconstructed non-core to
existence.” The addition of Buddhist practices to psychotherapy may therefore require the individual to “work-
through an even deeper level of mourning: that of the existence of a continuous, stable, enduring self.”
Parsons, “Buddhism and Psychoanalysis,” 202. Pritchard also notes that several participants in his study
recognised the need for conventional psychotherapy as a useful adjunct to their meditative practice. Pritchard,
“Mindfulness and Beyond,” 81.
98
U. Jonsson, I. Alaie, T. Parling and F.K. Arnberg, “Reporting of Harms in Randomized Controlled Trials of
Psychological Interventions for Mental and Behavioral Disorders: A Review of Current Practice,” Contemporary
Clinical Trials 38, no. 1 (2014): 1–8. Also, J.R. Lindahl et al., “The Varieties of Contemplative Experience: A
Mixed-methods Study of Meditation-related Challenges in Western Buddhists,” PLOS ONE, 2017.
99
F. Fowler, A. Roman and Z. Di, “Mode Effects in a Survey of Medicare Prostate Surgery Patients,” The Public
Opinion Quarterly 62, no. 1 (1998): 29-46. Cited in J.R. Lindahl et al., “The Varieties of Contemplative
Experience.”
57
Therefore it is probable that the prevalence of adverse effects in clinical trials, including meditation
studies, is greatly underreported.100
Additionally, as quantitative clinical trials de-emphasise the subjective experience of participants,

very little research exists on the ‘lived experience’ of meditators, resulting in a skewed and
incomplete perspective that focuses mainly on the positive effects of meditation.101 The small
number of qualitative research studies on meditation that do exist indicate that there is a
comprehensive phenomenology of meditation experiences that commonly includes negative effects.
For example, Jack Kornfield’s mixed methods study of meditators during a three-month vipassana
retreat reported several adverse effects including intense negative emotions, involuntary
movements, abnormal somatic sensations, and altered state experiences. 102 More recently, a
qualitative study by Tim Lomas and colleagues found that one quarter of participants encountered
substantial difficulties with meditation including troubling thoughts and feelings which were hard to
manage, exacerbation of depression and anxiety, and in two cases, psychosis requiring
hospitalisation.103 Additionally, Sean Pritchard examined the qualitative experience of advanced
vipassana meditators and found that disturbing emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety and shame
often occurred during certain stages of meditation practice, along with challenging shifts in
perception of self.104 Finally, Leigh Burrows, in describing her small qualitative (n = 13) pilot study of
young adult mindfulness meditators, writes:
the finding that many of the 13 participants had negative or unusual experiences raises a
more fundamental issue—why is it that such an unusually high number of participants
experienced negative emotions in this study and not in the vast majority of randomized
controlled trials? Obviously, better controlled research is clearly needed to tease out
whether the findings in this preliminary, uncontrolled study are unique to this study or
generalizable to other mindfulness-based interventions.105
100
S. Bent, A. Padula and A.L. Avins, “Brief Communication: Better Ways to Question Patients about Adverse
Medical Events: A Randomized, Controlled trial,” Annals of Internal Medicine 144, no. 4 (2006): 257-261. Cited
in J.R. Lindahl et al., “The Varieties of Contemplative Experience.”
101
Pritchard, “Mindfulness and Beyond.”
102
J. Kornfield, “Intensive Insight Meditation: A Phenomenological Study,” The Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology 11, no. 1 (1979): 41-58.
103
Lomas et al., “A Qualitative Analysis,” 848-860.
104
Pritchard’s research suggests that while changes in perception of self may ultimately be productive and
help facilitate positive transformational change, there are also challenging aspects and associated risks.
Pritchard, “Mindfulness and Beyond.”
105
L. Burrows, “Safeguarding Mindfulness Meditation for Vulnerable College Students,” Mindfulness 7 (2016):
285.
58
All of these qualitative studies suggest that meditation adverse effects may in fact be a common and
normal part of meditation practice that is being overlooked in clinical studies.106
Another methodological challenge in meditation research is the relatively high rates of attrition.
Dropout rates often approach 25% in healthy populations who seek meditation practice and are
even higher among populations with depression or anxiety. While these attrition rates are
comparable to other medical interventions, high dropout rates still pose a significant problem for
meditation research, and only a few studies have examined the factors that lead people to withdraw
from meditation studies. One large study found that among 784 individuals entering a MBSR
program following physician referral, the differences between completers (n = 598) and dropouts (n
= 186) were levels of chronic pain (higher among dropouts) and obsessive-compulsive tendencies
(higher among completers).107 Certain personality traits and cognitive habits, such as self-efficacy,
emotion regulation, and neuroticism, may also influence dropout rates among meditators. Hence,
difficult or frustrating experiences may lead to abandonment of a meditation intervention, and these
adverse effects are unreported.108
It is worth noting that meditation-related adverse effects have also been reported in clinical and
medical case reports, including descriptions of meditation-induced psychosis,109
depersonalization,110 de-repression of trauma,111 and mania.112 However, as anecdotal case reports
are concerned with single instances they are often regarded as unscientific and less worthy of
consideration. While case reports are not as scientifically rigorous as randomised control trials, they
are still a key mode of transmitting knowledge and have played a significant role in the evolution of
academic psychology and psychotherapy in the area of religious and spiritual issues.113 For example,
106
This thesis does not provide an exhaustive list of the factors that may lead to the under-reporting of
adverse effects in meditation studies. For example, other research limitations include short-term follow up
periods, small sample sizes, and suboptimal controls. For a critical review see R. Baer, “Mindfulness Training as
a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review,” Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 10
(2003): 125-143.
107
J. Kabat-Zinn and A. Chapman-Waldrop. ”Compliance with an Outpatient Stress Reduction Program: Rates
and Predictors of Program Completion,” Journal of Behavioral Medicine 11 (1988): 333–352.
108
S.L. Russ, G. Maruyama, T.B. Sease and S. Jellema, “Do Early Experiences Matter? Development of an Early
Meditation Hindrances Scale Linked to Novice Meditators’ Intention to Persist,” Psychology of Consciousness:
Theory, Research, and Practice 4, no. 3 (2017): 274-287.
109
H. Kuijpers, F. van der Heijden, S. Tuinier and W. Verhoeven, “Meditation-induced Psychosis,”
Psychopathology 40 (2007): 461–4.
110
R.B. Kennedy, “Self-induced Depersonalization Syndrome,” American Journal of Psychiatry 133, no. 11
(1976): 1326-1328.
111
D. Treleavan, “Meditation, Trauma and Contemplative Dissociation,” Somatics 16, no. 2 (2010): 20–22.
112
G. Yorston, “Mania Precipitated by Meditation: A Case Report and Literature Review,” Mental Health,
Religion and Culture 4, no. 2 (2001): 209-213.
113
D. Lukoff, R. Provenzano, F. Lu and R. Turner, “Religious and Spiritual Case Reports on MEDLINE: A
Systematic Analysis of Records from 1980 to 1996,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 5, no. 1
(1999): 64-70.
59
Kathryn Hunter argues that case reports have an important epistemological function, as over time
they accumulate into a body of knowledge which then guides clinical practice and suggests where
research should turn to next. She writes: “they [case studies] are frequently the as-yet-unorganised
evidence at the forefront of clinical medicine.”114 Therefore it would appear that case reports on
meditation, while sparse in quantity and less scientifically rigorous than clinical trials, do lend
support to the idea that meditation adverse effects exist for some groups and are worthy of further
investigation.
A final point worth considering is that an overly positive view of meditation may have developed
within Western psychology because a large number of influential psychologists and psychotherapists
were, and continue to be, meditation practitioners themselves; what William Parsons terms
“cultural insiders”115 and David McMahan refers to as “Buddhist sympathisers.”116 Certainly, many
authors who have written significant studies of Buddhist meditation and psychology (for example,
Jack Engler, Mark Epstein, Paul Cooper, Jeffrey Rubin, Jeremy Safran, Jack Kornfield, Joseph
Goldstein and Jon Kabat-Zinn, to name a few) represent a baby-boomer generation who were
attracted to Eastern religions, went on meditation retreats, worked closely with gurus and then
integrated meditation practices into their own therapeutic work. 117 In Mindful America, Jeff Wilson
notes that most early MBSR instructors were Buddhists, or directly involved in formal Buddhist
meditation practice.118 Similarly, Roger Walsh and Shauna Shapiro note that many of the early TM
studies were published by “enthusiastic advocates using self-selected subjects.”119
Throughout the history of medicine, scientists have selectively interpreted or ignored data that fails
to confirm a favoured research hypothesis.120 This is commonly described as a confirmation bias, and
“connotes the seeking or interpreting of evidence in ways that are partial to existing beliefs,
expectations, or a hypothesis in hand.”121 While rigorous experimental design and the peer review
114
K.M. Hunter, "’There Was This One Guy . . .’: The Uses of Anecdotes in Medicine,” Perspectives in Biology
and Medicine 29, no. 4 (1986): 623.
115
Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism,” 199.
116
D.L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford, 2008), 28-30. Also, Lopez argues
that the scientific study of Buddhist meditation is so popular (compared to meditation techniques from other
religious traditions) because of the “religious predilections of the researchers involved.” D.S. Lopez Jr,
Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 209-210.
117
Parsons, “Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism,” 209-210. Also, see N. Katz, “Buddhist-Jewish Relations,” in ed.
C. Cornille, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue (Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013),
394-409.
118
York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 33.
119
120
R.S. Nickerson, “Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises,” Review of General
Psychology 2, no. 2 (1998): 192-193.
121
Nickerson, “Confirmation Bias,” 175.
60
system aim to minimise this type of bias, there is evidence that it still exists in academic
psychology.122 There is also evidence to suggest that the confirmation bias may be especially harmful
to objective evaluations of nonconforming results, and that data that conflict with the researcher's
expectations may be rejected as unreliable, producing the ‘file drawer problem.’123 In the case of
meditation studies, such bias may lead to the under-reporting of adverse effects. While standards of
meditation research have now improved considerably since the early TM studies, questions still
remain regarding the objectivity of researchers who are also ardent supporters of the meditation
practices they study. In particular, it is important to consider whether conflicts of interest or
expectancy effects might be contributing to an overly positive view of meditation that overlooks
potential adverse effects.124
Conclusion
This chapter has examined how psychologists have viewed meditation, not as a way to achieve
enlightenment, but as a form of psychotherapy. During the historical relationship between
meditation and Western psychology some key themes have emerged and these help to explain why
adverse effects of meditation have been overlooked. Firstly, viewing meditation as a type of panacea
means that adverse effects may be misattributed to the therapeutic process or to the individual
meditator. Similarly, reducing meditation to ‘relaxation’ leads to both a narrow focus in meditation
research and overly positive expectations regarding meditation outcomes. The view of meditation as
a panacea and a relaxation technique may also lead to the underreporting of adverse effects by
meditators whose experiences do not match the perceived ideal outcomes. There is anecdotal
evidence to suggest that meditators who don’t experience relaxation, or who experience adverse
effects, may blame themselves and be afraid to speak up.
122
A. Hergovich, R. Schott and C. Burger, "Biased Evaluation of Abstracts Depending on Topic and Conclusion:
Further Evidence of a Confirmation Bias within Scientific Psychology." Current Psychology 29, no. 3 (2010): 188-
209. The peer review process is also susceptible to bias. See G.B. Emerson, et al., "Testing for the Presence of
Positive-Outcome Bias in Peer Review: A Randomized Controlled Trial," Archives of Internal Medicine 170, no.
21 (2010): 1934–39.
123
R. Rosenthal, "The File Drawer Problem and Tolerance for Null Results." Psychological Bulletin 86, no. 3,
(1979): 638-641.
124
However, it must be noted that many supporters of meditation do also recognise its limits. For example,
Jack Kornfield posits that for most people meditation does not “do it all” and there are areas (such as grief,
fear and phobias) where Western therapy is a much quicker and more successful intervention than meditation.
J. Kornfield, “Even the Best Meditators Have Old Wounds to Heal: Combining Meditation and Psychotherapy,”
in Paths Beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision, eds. R.N. Walsh and F. Vaughan (New York, NY: Tarcher
Penguin, 1993), 67-69. Kornfield also recognises that some psychological issues that arise at retreats cannot be
resolved simply by meditating. In A Path With Heart, he notes that at least half of the Western students who
undertake three-month vipassana retreats at the Insight Meditation Society are unable to continue with
practice because they encounter so many emotional and psychological issues. A. Gleig, “Wedding the Personal
and Impersonal in West Coast Vipassana: A Dialogical Encounter between Buddhism and Psychotherapy,”
Journal of Global Buddhism 13 (2012): 129-146.
61
Additionally, in psychological settings meditation is seen as a self-improvement technique; it is used
as a tool to heal and improve the individual psychological self. However in Eastern traditions,
meditation is used to deconstruct the concept of the individual psychological self and realise non-
self or True Self, which is a self that is beyond identification with the material world. There is
evidence to suggest that non-self insights occur in secular meditation settings. However, Western
psychology does not currently have a framework in which to explain non-self experiences, and hence
they may be conflated with dissociative psychopathology, such as derealisation and
depersonalisation. Finally, meditation adverse effects may be overlooked because meditation
research has focused mainly on short-term quantitative studies that ignore the ‘lived experience’ of
meditators. Indeed, the few qualitative meditation studies that exist demonstrate a rich and varied
phenomenology of meditation experiences, including adverse effects. There is also the possibility
that an overly positive view of meditation may have developed within Western psychology because
a large number of influential psychologists and psychotherapists were, and continue to be,
meditation practitioners themselves. While rigorous experimental design and the peer review
system aim to minimise confirmation bias, there is evidence that it still exists in academic
psychology, hence it is important to consider whether conflicts of interest or expectancy effects
might be contributing to an overly positive view of meditation that overlooks potential adverse
effects.
62
Chapter 3. Meditation Divorced From Religion
Paradoxically, while meditation is often considered the heart of Buddhism, it is also deemed the
element most detachable from the tradition itself ... More than any other facet of Buddhism,
meditation and mindfulness are presented as psychological, spiritual, or scientific techniques rather
than as religious practices. – David L. McMahan.1
While there is ongoing debate regarding whether meditation can ever be ‘truly secular,’ there is little
doubt that Western forms of secular meditation, in both their clinical and nonclinical applications,
are quite different from traditional religious meditation.2 As discussed, the most popular forms of
contemporary secular meditation studied and practiced in the West to date have been TM,
mindfulness and vipassana. These practices utilise meditative techniques appropriated from Hindu
and Buddhist traditions, however in their secular applications the techniques have been ‘removed’
or ‘detached’ from their religious context and applied towards more worldly goals.3
The previous chapter provided an overview of how Western contemporary views of meditation have
developed along psychological and clinical paths, and how the goal of meditation within this new
context has shifted from enlightenment to symptom relief and personal transformation. This chapter
will now examine how secular meditation techniques are divorced from their traditional religious
contexts, and how this separation has contributed to adverse effects of meditation being
overlooked. This chapter will provide evidence that meditation adverse effects are mentioned
throughout religious literature; in particular references to adverse effects can be found in classic and
contemporary Buddhist meditation manuals, stages of the path literature, practitioner
autobiographies, and research studies that examine meditation practice within Buddhist traditions.
From these sources, I have identified four factors that have contributed to meditation adverse
effects being ignored in secular settings: preparation, supportive context, the role of the meditation
teacher, and individual differences. These factors are considered important when meditation is
1
D.L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford, 2008), 185.
2
For example, A. Arat, “‘What It Means to be Truly Human’: The Postsecular Hack of Mindfulness,” Social
Compass 64, no. 2 (2017): 167-179.
3
Some critics of secular meditation have noted that religious elements sometimes remain implicit even in
clinical applications of meditation. For example, in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, one of the goals is
to make contact with a ‘transcendent sense of self.’ This notion of ‘transcendence’ is similar to the teachings of
Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, and of neo-Hindu gurus Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj. See D.Y. Seiden and K, Lam, “From Moses and Monotheism to Buddha and Behaviorism: Cognitive
Behavior Therapy’s Transpersonal Crisis,” Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 42 no. 1 (2010): 89-113.
63
practiced in traditional settings with religious goals, however they are often overlooked or scarcely
taken into consideration in secular settings.
Meditation as a Detachable Technique
The question for Westerners is usually not, “How can I wake from delusion and free myself from
samsara?” but, “How can I use meditation to calm down, feel better, and become more successful?”
– Eleanor Rosch.4
In contemporary Western culture, discussions about spiritual or religious issues are often seen as
“unscientific or problematic,” however paradoxically, religious-derived meditation techniques are
being utilised in Western scientific and clinical settings.5 A key way that researchers and clinicians
have attempted to resolve this apparent conflict is by viewing meditation as a ‘detachable’
technique; that is, a technique that can be completely separated from its traditional religious
context and re-purposed within a secular scientific paradigm. In the case of Buddhism, McMahan
argues that the idea that meditation techniques can be isolated from their wider religious, ethical,
social and cosmological contexts was implicit in the nineteenth century, and became explicit in
Western discussions of meditation written in the mid-twentieth century. In The Making of Buddhist
Modernism, McMahan cites the example of Rear Admiral E. H. Shattock, a British naval officer who
studied meditation in a Theravada monastery and wrote in his 1958 book An Experiment in
Mindfulness: “Meditation … is a really practical occupation: it is in no sense necessarily a religious
one, though it is usually thought of as such. It is itself basically academic, practical, and profitable.”6
More recently, Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of MBSR, was quoted in an interview with TIME
magazine: “Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It’s not about
Buddhism, but about paying attention. That’s what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or
particular technique is used.”7 These comments are indicative of how meditation is now commonly
viewed in the modern West; as a pragmatic and inherently secular tool that can be removed from its
particular religious context and applied to a variety of practical worldly pursuits. While an analysis of
all the factors that have contributed to this view is beyond the scope of this thesis, three key
secularisation processes will be briefly considered below; the de-contextualisation, simplification
4
E. Rosch, “The Emperor’s Clothes: A Look Behind the Western Mindfulness Mystique,” in Handbook of
Mindfulness and Self-Regulation, eds. B. Ostafin, M. Robinson, and B. Meier (Amsterdam: Springer, 2015), 276.
5
Possibly because there is little scientific understanding of how spirituality is rooted in biology and physiology.
For example, H. Walach, Secular Spirituality: The Next Step Towards Enlightenment (London: Springer, 2015), 3.
6
7
Maia Szalavitz, “Q&A: Jon Kabat-Zinn Talks About Bringing Mindfulness Meditation to Medicine,” TIME, 11
January 2012, accessed 10 April 2018: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/11/mind-reading-jon-kabat-zinn-
talks-about-bringing-mindfulness-meditation-to-medicine/.
64
and re-contextualisation of Eastern-derived meditation practices (TM, vipassana and mindfulness) in
modern Western culture.8
De-contextualisation: Privileging Meditation and Marginalising Religious Context
One of the key ways that meditation has been detached and distanced from religion is via the
process of de-contextualisation. This involves privileging meditation above other religious elements
such as scripture, doctrine and ritual, and marginalising the religious context that normally
accompanies meditation practices. Today meditation is often viewed as the central component of
modernist interpretations of Eastern religions, however historically, it has not been given this special
status.9 Broadly speaking, in both Hinduism and Buddhism, meditation is viewed as simply one
component of a multi-faceted path that leads towards enlightenment.10 Moreover, contrary to
popular belief, in most Eastern religions meditation is not a particularly common practice.
Historically, it was the speciality of a small subgroup of monks or ascetics who lived in forest
hermitages or caves, and today meditation plays a minor role in the lives of the majority of monks. 11
For example, Buddhist studies scholar Robert Sharf writes that in the Theravada tradition, few
monks expect to reach enlightenment in what is currently thought to be the degenerate third age of
Buddhism, Mappo, or the Age of Dharma Decline.12 Hence, most Theravadan monks do not
meditate, but rather specialise in teaching, scholarship or ritual, and spend their time cultivating
moral virtue in the hope of being re-born in better circumstances.13 Similarly, in the Korean Son
tradition, only about 5% of the clergy practice meditation. The current Western emphasis on
8
For a comprehensive review, see McMahan, The Making.
9
A number of cultural factors (E.g. the ‘subjective turn’ and the rise of individualism) have combined to create
what McMahan terms a “meditation-friendly environment” in the West; that is, a culture that is particularly
receptive to the privileging of meditation. This shift in Western consciousness has contributed to an ideological
structure in which authority has been given to personal meditative experience rather than traditional religious
institutions. While a detailed analysis of these cultural factors is beyond the scope of this thesis, suffice to say
that they have contributed to the current conditions under which meditation can be detached from religion,
prioritised above other external religious activities, and viewed in terms of more generic personal and
psychological development. For a discussion, see the following sources.
McMahan, The Making, 187-189; 212.
C. Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1989), 305.
D. L. McMahan, “The Enchanted Secular: Buddhism and the Emergence of Transtraditional Spirituality,” The
Eastern Buddhist 43, nos 1-2 (2012): 1-19.
10
For example, other factors include merit making, chanting, ritual, devotion and the study of scriptures.
11
Sharf, "Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience," Numen 42, no. 3 (1995): 242-244.
12
Meditation among lay Buddhists was even rarer. Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism,” 253.
13
Sharf, "Buddhist Modernism,” 241.
65
meditation is therefore not necessarily reflective of how meditation has been viewed historically or
even currently within traditions such as Buddhism.14
However, there have been particular points in history where meditation has been prioritised above
other religious elements and activities. Robert Sharf cites examples from eighth century Zen and
Tibetan Dzogchen traditions, where meditation teachers replaced traditional forms of meditation
with newer styles that were simple enough to be accessed by a lay audience.15 These new
‘democratized’ meditation techniques were regarded as direct approaches to enlightenment that
avoided the need for extensive training in concentration exercises (samatha), the attainment of
advanced contemplative states (such as jhana), mastery of scripture, proficiency in ritual or the
renunciation of lay life.16 Sharf notes that these Zen and Dzogchen reformers were:
interested in developing a method simple enough to be accessible to those who were

unschooled in Buddhist doctrine and scripture, who were not necessarily wedded to classical
Indian cosmology, who may not have had the time or inclination for extended monastic
practice, and who were interested in immediate results as opposed to incremental
advancement over countless lifetimes.17
More recently, the influential Burmese Buddhist monk Ledi Sayadaw (1846-1923) popularised the
vipassana meditation technique as part of an effort to promote meditation amongst lay
practitioners.18 Like the earlier Zen and Dzogchen teachers, Sayadaw designed the vipassana
technique as a way to standardise and simplify meditation, and make it widely accessible to a
general lay audience who did not have the time or interest to participate in extensive religious
training or ritual. However it is important to note that Sayadaw’s privileging of meditation was done
out of perceived necessity; he believed that making the vipassana practice widely accessible would
help to protect the Buddhist tradition from perceived colonial threat. Hence Sayadaw’s privileging of
meditation was aimed at the preservation of the Buddhist tradition, not the secularisation of
meditation techniques. While Sayadaw did not completely neglect Buddhist doctrinal or moral
issues, Erik Braun argues that his popularisation of meditation did lead to “the elevation of the
14
Today, despite the impact of the vipassana movement, meditation plays a “minor, if not negligible role in
the lives of the majority of Theravada monks.” Most Theravada monks insist that the development of morality
and observance of monastic rule is more essential than meditation. Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism,” 242-244.
15
R.H. Sharf,"Is Mindfulness Buddhist? (and Why it Matters)," Transcultural Psychiatry 52, no. 4 (2015): 470-
484.
16
Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist?,” 475-476.
17
Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist?,” 476.
18
In the case of Southeast Asian Buddhism, historical records suggest that meditation practice was limited
until the colonial period. E. Braun, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism and the Burmese Monk
Ledi Sayadaw (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 5; 77-101.
66
layperson’s role in Buddhism and even laid the ground for meditation to detach from the rest of
Buddhism as a separate tradition in its own right.”19
In contemporary Western culture, the prioritisation of meditation above other religious elements
has also been associated with laicisation. In particular, the vipassana movement has gained
popularity among lay practitioners and has had a significant influence on contemporary Western
meditation culture.20 Vipassana meditation is taught without most of the religious elements
associated with Theravada Buddhism, does not require familiarity with religious philosophy and can
be taught in a relatively short period of time, usually in a ten-day retreat format. Meditation has also
been prioritised in other modernist versions of Buddhism, in particular, Japanese Zen. David
McMahan argues that D.T. Suzuki encouraged the understanding of zazen as detachable from the
ritual, liturgy, priesthood and hierarchy of institutional Zen settings, and decontextualized Zen
literature in order to incorporate it into a framework of modern Western ideas.21 A similar de-
contextualisation process has occurred with TM, where meditation is the central focus, and ritual
and cosmology play a minor role, at least in the introductory TM course.22
The privileging of meditation involves a necessary marginalisation of religious context. This is evident
in secular settings, where the traditional cosmological and disciplinary language that would usually
accompany meditation is routinely dismissed and replaced with modern Western discourses. 23 Many
examples can be found in contemporary discussions of mindfulness meditation, where aspects of
Buddhist cosmology - which includes gods, ghosts, demons and realms of rebirth - are reinterpreted
in psychological, metaphoric and symbolic terms. In Mindful America, Jeff Wilson notes examples
19
E. Braun,“The Insight Revolution.” Lion’s Roar, 5 July 2018. Accessed 25 September 2018:
https://www.lionsroar.com/the-insight-revolution/.
20
Western teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg made this meditation
technique particularly popular, and vipassana is one of the most commonly practiced styles of meditation in
the West and one of the foundational practices of Buddhist modernism.
21
Scholars have argued that Western views of Zen have been disproportionately influenced by the writings of
a small group of twentieth-century intellectuals, including D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966), Hisamatsu Shin’ichi (1889-
1980) and Nishitani Keiji (1900-1990). The view of Zen perpetuated by these scholars was of a rational,
humanistic spirituality that avoided ritual and was based on experience rather than faith. See;
Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism,” 246-247.
McMahan, The Making, 132; 186-187.
Modern Zen has also been influenced by William James. See;
J.W. Krueger, “The Varieties of Pure Experience: William James and Kitaro Nishida on Consciousness and
Embodiment.” William James Studies, 1, no.1 (2015): 1-16. Accessed: https://philpapers.org/rec/KRUTVO.
Y. Arisaka “The Nishida Enigma: ‘The Principle of the New World Order.’” Monumenta Nipponica, 51, no.1
(1996): 84.
22
Lola Williamson, Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion (New
York: New York University Press, 2010).
23
For a detailed discussion, see D.L. McMahan, “Buddhism as the ‘Religion of Science’: From Colonial Ceylon to
the Laboratories of Harvard,” in Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science, eds. J.R. Lewis and O.
Hammer (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010), 117-140.
67
where, in popular mindfulness texts, the demon Mara is reduced to negative emotion, supernatural
entities such as hungry ghosts are seen as metaphoric images for mental states such as desire and
craving, and the metaphysical realms like the six realms of existence are re-imagined as “Six Patterns
of Stress.”24 The use of these metaphors is particularly common in applications of mindfulness to
addiction recovery and mindful eating. Buddhist cosmology is also reinterpreted in modernist
versions of Tibetan Buddhism. In The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation Chogyam
Trungpa, one of the most influential Tibetan Buddhist teachers in the modern West, describes the
realms of rebirth in psychological terms:
The realms are predominantly emotional attitudes towards ourselves and our surroundings
– reinforced by conceptualisations and rationalisations. As human beings we may, during the
course of a day, experience the emotions of all the realms, from the pride of the god realm
to the hatred and paranoia of the hell realm. Nonetheless, a person’s psychology is usually
firmly rooted in one realm.25
Maharishi adopted a similar tactic with TM, when he translated Hindu concepts of “gods” into the
language of science:
The “gods” mentioned here are the deities presiding over the innumerable laws of nature,
which are present everywhere throughout relative life. They are the powers governing
different impulses of intelligence and energy, working out the evolution of everything in
creation. The existence of gods may be understood by an analogy: each of the myriad cells in
the human body has its own level of life, energy and intelligence; together, these
innumerable lives produce human life. A human being is like a god to all these small
impulses of energy and intelligence, each with its own form, tendencies, sphere of activity
and influence, working for the purpose of evolution. (Mahesh Yogi, 1989, pp. 143–44)26
Some scholars have argued that meditation must be ‘sanitised’ in this way in order to appeal to a
secular Western audience. For example, in the case of mindfulness meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn has
argued that de-contextualisation is necessary in order to make the technique accessible to
24
York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 46-48.
25
C. Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1976), 24.
26
Cited in C.A. Humes, “The Transcendental Meditation Organization and its Encounter with Science.” In
Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science. eds. J. R. Lewis and O. Hammer (Leiden, The Netherlands:
Brill, 2010), 357. He also appropriated Hindu terms in new spelling so they did not appear to be religious. For
example, “siddhi” became “sidhi” and “yajna” became “yagya.”
68
Westerners who would benefit from the practice but have no interest in Buddhism.27 Re-interpreting
Buddhist ideas within a secular scientific framework helps to avoid associations with religion that
would undermine attempts to present mindfulness as an evidence-based and legitimate mainstream
medical treatment. Kabat-Zinn writes: “I bent over backward to structure it and find ways to speak
about it that avoided as much as possible the risk of it being seen as Buddhist, ‘New Age,’ ‘Eastern
Mysticism’ or just plain ‘flakey.’”28
Simplification: Psychological, Pathological and Neural Reductionism
While the attempt to define meditation as scientific, or even as secular, has been met with
scepticism from scientists and scholars of religion, meditation techniques have still been seen as
objects worthy of scientific study. 29 As discussed in previous chapters, there has been a large amount
of scientific research conducted on the physiological and psychological outcomes of specific types of
meditation, most commonly TM and mindfulness. As a result, researchers have sought pragmatic
and simplified definitions of meditation that can be applied in research and clinical practice. So far,
attempts to operationally define ‘meditation’ have involved firstly, the removal of any religious
associations, and secondly, the reduction of the term ‘meditation’ to refer purely to suggested
psychological or neurological mechanisms and processes. Reducing meditation to a biological or
cognitive mechanism that is either non-religious (an inherent human capacity) or multi-religious
(universal to all religions and therefore more of a generic philosophy or worldview) makes it an
acceptable secular object of study.30 This idea is illustrated in an early comment made by Herbert
Benson (founder of the meditation ‘relaxation response’) and colleagues, who write:
27
J. Kabat-Zinn, “Some Reflections on the Origins of MBSR, Skillful Means, and the Trouble with Maps,”
28
Kabat-Zinn, “Some Reflections,” 282.
29
There is much debate regarding whether MBIs are secular. For example, during an eight week MBSR course,
participants learn Buddhist-derived practices such as vipassana meditation, walking meditation, and loving-
kindness (metta) meditation. MBSR also promotes “choiceless awareness,” a practice popularised by Eastern
philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986). For a discussion see W.S. Hickey, “Mind Cure, Meditation, and
Medicine: Hidden Histories of Mental Healing in the United States,” Unpublished PhD Dissertation. (Duke
University, 2008).
Also, A. Arat, “‘What it Means to be Truly Human’: The Postsecular Hack of Mindfulness,” Social Compass 64,
no. 2 (2017): 167-179.
30
In Mindsight, Daniel Siegal writes: “People sometimes hear the word mindfulness and think ‘religion’. But
the reality is that focusing our attention in this way is a biological process that promotes health – a form of
brain hygiene – not religion”. In The Mindful Therapist, mindfulness is “a human skill that religions use – not
itself a religious practice.” Cited in Wilson, Mindful America, 58. Some scholars go so far as to recommend
uncoupling mindfulness from “any given technology, including meditation.” See S.C. Hayes and C. Shenk,
"Operationalizing Mindfulness without Unnecessary Attachments," Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice
11, no. 3 (2004): 249.
69
To understand the psychophysiological aspects of meditation, it should first be conceptually
denuded of its cultural and religious biases. This is best achieved by defining meditation as
an intentional regulation of attention from moment to moment, a definition that can be
applied to all forms of meditation.31
This early comment demonstrates a viewpoint that has, until perhaps very recently, pervaded
meditation research; that is, the idea that all meditation techniques can be reduced to an innate
human capability (for example, attention regulation) and that religious context is simply an
unnecessary by-product. Many similar examples of reductionism can be found throughout the
psychological and clinical literature, where meditation has been re-conceptualised as a cognitive
distraction technique,32 a self-regulation strategy,33 or a mental discipline aimed at training
attention.34 More recently science has turned towards neurological models, and within this
framework meditative experiences are explained in terms of concepts such as sensory deprivation,
changes in the opioid systems, and by analogy to neural deficits such as amnesia, apraxia or
disordered spatial processing.35
While operational definitions are necessary for scientific studies and useful for practical applications,
purely mechanistic interpretations of meditation that ignore context and reduce meditative
phenomena to nothing but the suggested processes or mechanisms involved can result in
inappropriate reductionism.36 This has been referred to as premature parsimony, and is described by
Charles Tart as:
a common cognitive pathology in science where the desire to create a simple and elegant
explanation for things results in ignoring important aspects of the actual phenomena.
31
I. Kutz, J.Z. Borysenko and H. Benson, “Meditation and Psychotherapy: A Rationale for the Integration of
Dynamic Psychotherapy, the Relaxation Response, and Mindfulness Meditation,” The American Journal of
Psychiatry 142, no. 1 (1985): 2.
32
A. Ellis, “The Place of Meditation in Cognitive-behaviour Therapy and Rational-emotive Therapy,” in
Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives, eds. D.H. Shapiro and R. N. Walsh (New York, NY: Aldine
Transaction, 2009): 692.
33
D.H. Shapiro, “Classic Perspectives of Meditation: Toward an Empirical Understanding of Meditation as an
Altered State of Consciousness,” in Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives, 13-23.
34
C. Hassed and R. Chambers, Mindful Learning (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2015), 6.
35
E. Rosch, “Is Wisdom,” 223. Also, R. Walsh and S.L. Shapiro, “The Meeting of Meditative Disciplines and
Western Psychology: A Mutually Enriching Dialogue,” American Psychologist 61, no. 3 (2006): 231.
36
At the extreme end of mechanistic reductionism, some scholars suggest dropping the term ‘meditation’
entirely. Hayes and Shenk, “Operationalising Mindfulness,” 250.
Other scholars note that meditative terms such as ‘enlightenment’ are imprecise constructs that cannot be
reduced to changes in neural correlates, cognition or behaviour. For example, Davis and Vago describe
enlightenment as a “profound transformation across ethical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive domains.”
J.H. Davis and D.R. Vago, “Can Enlightenment be Traced to Specific Neural Correlates, Cognition, or Behavior?
No, and (a qualified) Yes,” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 870.
70
Although consciousness research has now become relatively respectable in contemporary
psychology and neurology, the lure of premature parsimony is as strong as ever, and the
field is rife with oversimplifications.37
Reducing complex entities such as meditation to the sum of their constituent parts makes them
easier to study. However, the cost of this reductionism is that the object that is being studied
scientifically, is no longer the object that appears naturally in the world. This is one of the shortfalls
of scientific reductionism. In the case of meditation, forcing all types of meditation and all
meditative experiences into pre-existing Western categories overlooks how complex meditation
practices can be.38 This is particularly obvious in the case of meditation-related altered states of
consciousness. For example, Tart posits that various contemplative systems and practices have
cognitions, emotions and actions that are only fully accessible in appropriate altered states of
consciousness; this is termed ‘state specific knowledge.’ As state-specific knowledge can only be
fully accessed in the appropriate altered state of consciousness, trying to study the effects of
meditation in ‘normal’ states of consciousness, while valuable, will inevitably overlook some of the
important state-specific aspects of the experience.39
Additionally, there has recently been a growing recognition of the important role of cultural context
in meditative experience. Scholars such as Evan Thompson argue that meditation is a social practice;
it involves the integration of a variety of cognitive, affective, and bodily skills in situated action.40
Hence, the cognitive functions involved in meditation practice cannot simply be reduced to
particular brain areas or networks. This is because firstly, the correct level of description for any
cognitive function is the embodied subject or person, not brain areas or networks, and secondly
because it is unlikely that there is one-to-one mapping between particular cognitive functions and
particular brain areas or neural networks, especially as currently identified by fMRI.41 Donald S.
Lopez Jr. also argues this point in Buddhism and Science, when he writes: “Even for vipassana, the
37
C. T. Tart, “Accessing State-Specific Transpersonal Knowledge: Inducing Altered States,” The Journal of
Transpersonal Psychology 40, no. 2 (2008): 138.
38
In Buddhism and Science, Lopez opens Chapter 5 with a detailed description of a tantric meditation practice
in order to give the reader “some sense of how complicated, and baroque, meditation practice can be.” D.S.
Lopez Jr, Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press,
2008), 208.
39
Tart, “Accessing,” 137.
40
E. Thompson, “Looping Effects and the Cognitive Science of Mindfulness,” in Meditation, Buddhism, and
Science, eds. D.L. McMahan ad E. Braun (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017).
41
After examining large databases of neuroimaging data, evidence suggests there is no one-to-one
correspondence between particular brain regions and particular cognition functions. Thompson, “Looping
Effects,” 51-53.
71
‘mindfulness’ practice widely studied by cognitive scientists, the goal is something far beyond
anything easily measured on an fMRI.”42
Finally, Ronald Purser, in his article ‘The Myth of the Present Moment,’ explores some limitations
with Kabat-Zinn’s present-moment focused operational definition of mindfulness.43 Specifically,
Purser argues that this definition limits the potential of secular mindfulness practice to investigate
the temporal structure and causes of suffering at a fundamental level.44 Purser posits that the
central Buddhist goal of alleviating suffering, both for self and in others, requires the meditator to go
beyond concepts of the present moment to examine the nature of all aspects of conditioned
existence (i.e. the broader world). Enhancing awareness in the present moment is not an end in
itself; it is merely a means to provide the necessary conditions for engaging with the broader world.
This engagement also involves a moral and ethical component which arguably cannot be separated
from mindfulness practice.
Re-contextualisation: “The Buddha was a Scientist” and the Creation of a Western

Meditation Lineage
Another key way that meditation has been detached from religion is through the presentation of
meditation as a technique that is compatible with modern Western scientific values. This is usually
achieved by emphasising the psychological and philosophical components of Eastern religions as
opposed to elements such as ritual or doctrine.45 Specifically, Buddhist and Hindu scriptures often
contain detailed psychological theories that attempt to describe and explain human experience and
behaviour, and contemporary Western advocates of meditation tend to focus on these.46 Hence
modern interpretations of Buddhism, for example, tend to present the historical Buddha as
someone who taught a philosophy or a way of life compatible with modern science, not a religion.
Evidence of this viewpoint can be found in comments made by early Orientalists and Buddhist
sympathisers like Paul Carus (1852-1919) and Harold Fielding-Hall (1859- 1917), who described the
Buddha as the “first prophet of the Religion of Science”47 and the “Newton of the spiritual world.”48
42
Lopez, Buddhism and Science, 209.
43
Defined as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-
judgmentally” R. Purser, “The Myth of the Present Moment,” Mindfulness, 6, no. 3, 680.
44
R. Purser, "The Myth," 682.
45
McMahan, “Buddhism as the ‘Religion of Science,’” 117-140.
46
These theories cover aspects of psychology such as cognition, behaviour, emotion and personality. For
example, see P. Sedlmeier and K. Srinivas, “How do Theories of Cognition and Consciousness in Ancient Indian
Thought Systems Relate to Current Western Theorizing and Research?,” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 1-17.
Also, Feuerstein notes that in Hinduism, the distinction between philosophy and religion is not as clear-cut as it
is in contemporary Western culture. Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition, 72.
47
48
Lopez, Buddhism and Science, 154.
72
The view of the Buddha as a scientist-philosopher, and of Buddhism as a type of science, is still quite
prevalent today and is one of the characteristic features of Buddhist modernism. It is also a view that
is held in the Western vipassana community, particularly in the Goenka lineage. Contemporary
vipassana pioneer S.N. Goenka (1924-2013) referred to the original Buddha as a “super-scientist”
who discovered truths about the mind that are only now being revealed by contemporary Western
science.49 Similarly, when discussing the historical Buddhist origins of mindfulness meditation, Jon
Kabat-Zinn writes:
One might think of the historical Buddha as, among other things, a born scientist and
physician who had nothing in the way of instrumentation other than his own mind and body
and experience, yet managed to use these native resources to great effect to delve into the
nature of suffering and the human condition. What emerged from this arduous and single-
minded contemplative investigation was a series of profound insights, a comprehensive view
of human nature, and a formal ‘medicine’ for treating its fundamental ‘dis-ease…’50
The re-imagining of the Buddha as a scientist naturally re-conceptualises meditation as a mode of

scientific enquiry; if the Buddha was a scientist, then Buddhism is not really a religion, and
meditation is merely a tool for scientific exploration, free from dogma and institutional
authority.51 Along these lines S.N. Goenka often referred to vipassana meditation as a scientific
method of investigating consciousness. Similarly, the influential German born monk Nyanaponika
Thera (1901-1994) described Buddhist meditation as a “science of the mind” and equated the bare
attention component of mindfulness meditation with the scientific mindset.52 This view is still very
popular with quite a few scholars, although is perhaps retreating as recent meditation research
emphasises the critical role of context and social cognition.53
Examples of scientific re-contextualisation are also found in TM, which was presented by Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi as a secular technique that was compatible with science. Cynthia Humes notes that TM
had less-than-secular beginnings; in 1959 Maharishi founded the Spiritual Regeneration Movement
49
S.N. Goenka, Buddha: The Super-Scientist of Peace. Keynote address at the United Nations on May 28 (2002),
accessed 10 April 2018: https://store.pariyatti.org/Buddha-The-Super-scientist-of-Peace-br-
spanVipassanaspan_p_4714.html.
50
J. Kabat-Zinn, “Mindfulness-based Interventions in Context: Past, Present, and Future,” Clinical Psychology:
Science and Practice 10, no. 2 (2003): 145.
51
D.L. McMahan, "Intersections of Buddhism and Secularity," in Interreligious Dialogue and the Cultural
Shaping of Religions, ed. C. Cornille (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2012): 137-158.
52
McMahan, The Making, 206. Nyanaponika Thera was highly influential in the development and
popularisation of mindfulness in the West prior to the 1970s. Wilson, Mindful America, 25.
53
For example, Jeremy Hayward and Alan Wallace take this view. McMahan, “Buddhism as the ‘Religion,’”
129-130.
73
in the United States, an organisation whose articles of incorporation explicitly stated “this
corporation is a religious one.”54 However, Humes argues that after several years of “limited
response to his evangelism in the West,” Maharishi began claiming that his teachings did not require
a belief in God, were not specifically Hindu, and not actually religious at all.55 Maharishi promoted
the TM practice as a ‘natural’ technique that transcended religious dogma and which was part of an
essentialist philosophy that he referred to as the ‘Science of Creative Intelligence.’56 While
Maharishi’s philosophy placed less emphasis on meditation as a technique for systematically
studying the mind, it did attempt to give scientific legitimacy to TM via the establishment of
universities, journals, and quasi-academic conferences.57 Maharishi also employed other approaches
such as re-describing traditional Advaita Vedanta philosophy and practices in more neutral Western
language, using metaphors and analogies based in Western scientific concepts, and claiming
parallels between ancient Vedic teachings and the modern sciences of quantum physics and
biochemistry.58
A final mode of re-contextualisation worth considering is the creation of a modern Western secular
meditation lineage via the transference of authority from monks to laypeople. In Mindful America,
Jeff Wilson notes that in contemporary Western discussions of meditation, the dialogue is now
54
Humes, “The Transcendental Meditation Organisation,” 349.
55
Humes, “The Transcendental Meditation Organisation,” 349. The Art of Living Foundation, founded by Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar, a fellow student with Maharishi, takes the same non-religious line. See S. Jacobs, The Art of
Living Foundation: Spirituality and Wellbeing in the Global Context (Farnham and Burlington, VT:
Ashgate 2015).
56
Modern advocates of Hindu and Buddhist-derived forms of meditation often posit that, like science, these
traditions are pointing towards some ultimate perennial truth or reality. For example, D.T. Suzuki presented
Zen meditation as a way of realising a universal reality to which all religions, and some secular philosophies,
aspire. McMahan, The Making, 186.
Similarly, when discussing mindfulness meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn writes: “Of course, the Buddha himself was
not a Buddhist. One might think of dharma as a sort of universal generative grammar, an innate set of
empirically testable rules” and hence, mindfulness, “being about attention, is also of necessity universal. There
is nothing particularly Buddhist about it.” J. Kabat‐Zinn, "Mindfulness‐Based Interventions in Context: Past,
Present, and Future," Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 10, no. 2 (2003): 145.
Hence, meditation is detachable because it is not inherently religious, but rather a generic mode of enquiry
that points towards a universal interior experience that is accessible to all.
57
Humes, “The Transcendental Meditation Organisation,” 345-369.
58
Humes, “The Transcendental Meditation Organisation,” 349.
For a critique of parallelism, see R.H. Jones, Piercing the Veil: Comparing Science and Mysticism as Ways of
Knowing Reality (New York, NY: Jackson Square Books, 2010).
Also, Gunther Brown writes: “The TM Book, Transcendental Meditation: How to Enjoy the Rest of Your Life
(1975) chastises readers for the ’absurd’ assumption that ‘just because the TM technique comes from India it
must be some Hindu practice.’ Rather, TM workshops teach a technique based on a ‘scientific discovery which
happens to come from India,’ a claim apparently substantiated by Maharishi’s physics degree from Allahabad
University.” C. Gunther Brown, The Healing Gods: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian
America (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013), 170.
74
clearly dominated by “lay voices.”59 In the 1960s and 1970s, popular Western meditation teachers
such as Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg were instructed by ordained monks in
Asia, however, today the majority of meditation teachers being trained are laypeople who may have
never travelled to Asia, visited a monastery or attended a retreat. 60 In the case of mindfulness
meditation, Wilson writes:
A second generation of lay teachers swiftly began to emerge who had mainly or only
practiced Buddhism in America, had personal exposure to only limited selections of Buddhist
tradition, and were taught either by a mixture of missionary monks and lay Americans, or
only by other Americans.61
As a result, the Buddhist-derived practice of mindfulness has now lost most of its connection to
renunciation; there has been a diminishment of the retreat model, and lay teaching and lay practice
have been normalised.62 Further, in an age where it is no longer even necessary to have a meditation
teacher (since meditation can be learned from books, blog posts, internet forums, apps and online
courses) monastic institutions may be viewed as unnecessary, conservative and inconvenient.63 Lay
life is increasingly viewed as the best place to practice meditation and the emphasis is shifting
towards pragmatic and efficient techniques that can be practised during daily life “off the
cushion.”64
Meditation Adverse Effects in Religious Traditions
In the contemporary West, the proponents of meditation techniques such as TM, mindfulness and
vipassana have, at times, gone to great lengths to distance themselves from religion and present
their techniques as rational and secular. However, this disconnection from traditional meditation
teachers, monastic environments, and texts may be a key factor that has contributed to meditation
59
For an overview of the historical evolution of this trend in relation to mindfulness meditation, see Wilson,
Mindful America, 48-50.
60
McMahan, The Making, 186. Wilson, Mindful America, 50.
61
Wilson, Mindful America, 50
62
Prebish argues that to a large extent American vipassana teachers presented meditation in a context almost
wholly removed from association with the Theravada tradition. For example, Kornfield was quoted in a 1995
interview: “We wanted to offer the powerful practices of insight meditation, as many of our teachers did, as
simply as possible without the complications of rituals, robes, chanting and the whole religious tradition.” C.S.
Prebish, Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1999), 152.
63
For example, T. Laurinavicius, “10 Hot Mindfulness and Meditation Apps to Watch,” Forbes, 4 January
(2018), accessed 10 April 2018: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaslaurinavicius/2018/01/04/mindfulness-
and-meditation-apps/#773c691457d5.
64
The current emphasis is on meditation techniques that can be applied within daily life. Wilson, Mindful
America, 53.
75
adverse effects being overlooked. In Eastern religions, traditional commentaries, stages-of-the-path
literature and biographical narratives acknowledge difficulties associated with meditation practice.
For example, Eric Greene writes that Buddhist meditation has been seen as both a high risk and high
reward practice:
Given its frequent presentation in the modern West as a panacea for psychological or even
physical ailments, it might be surprising to find that Buddhist meditation has often been
seen as potentially dangerous. The otherwise highly praised Buddhist meditations on the
impurity of the body can, according to a famous canonical story, lead to suicide; elsewhere
we learn that meditation on the breath-a common introductory meditation practice-can, if
performed improperly, disturb the body's "winds" and lead to death. The Buddha himself is
said to have been attacked by demons-in the form of the hosts of Mara-on the eve of his
awakening, precisely on account of his advanced levels of meditative attainment.65
In Theravada Buddhism, adverse effects associated with meditation are well-known and may be due
to the dukkha nanas (Pali: insights into suffering), a series of insights that are characterised by fear,
misery and disgust and which can cause mental distress. These experiences are well documented in
Buddhist manuals such as the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification),66 the Vimuttimaga (The
Path of Freedom),67 and the Abhidhamma,68 and are usually interpreted as milestones on the path to
enlightenment.69 Lois VanderKooi provides a concise description of the dukkha nanas:
As outlined in the Visuddhimagga (a fifth-century work that supposedly collects the

Buddha’s teachings on meditative states), the process of realising nirvana is fraught with
troubling and sometimes excruciating states. Initially, confusion, hallucinations, disturbing
feelings, and involuntary movements can occur as one gains knowledge of mental and
physical states through increasing concentration and mindfulness. As samadhi is achieved,
‘pseudo-nirvana’ experiences of rapture, tranquillity, and bliss can be accompanied by
frightening images, uncomfortable body sensations such as itching, heat, and stiffness, and
65
E. Greene, “Healing Sickness Caused by Meditation: ‘The Enveloping Butter Contemplation’ from the Secret
Essential Methods for Curing Meditation Sickness,” in Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern
Sources, ed. C.P. Salguero (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017), 373.
66
Bhikku Nanamoli, Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society,
2011), 666-681. Accessed 10 April 2018: https://www.urbandharma.org/pdf1/PathofPurification2011.pdf.
67
N.R.M. Ehara, S. Thera and K. Thera, Vimuttimagga: The Path of Freedom (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist
Publication Society, 1961), 299-301. Accessed 10 April 2018:
http://urbandharma.org/pdf1/Path_of_Freedom_Vimuttimagga.pdf.
68
N.M. Thera, A Manual of Abhidhamma (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Buddhist Missionary Society, 1987), 478.
Accessed 10 April 2018: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/abhidhamma.pdf.
69
Thera, A Manual of Abhidhamma, 478. Also, the Vimuttimagga, 299-301.
76
gastrointestinal problems of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then, sadness, irritability,
extreme fear, and a deep sense of the insipid nature of life may manifest as one becomes
more and more aware of the arising and passing away of phenomena. A desire for
deliverance can emerge, and one may wish to discontinue practice. For example, the body
may itch as though being bitten by ants. Later, when deciding to practice to completion, one
may feel odd sensations such as being slashed by a knife.70
The samatha-vipassana meditation manual by Sramaṇa Zhiyi (538-597 CE), founder of the Tiantai
tradition of Buddhism in China, has a chapter dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of
meditation-related disorders.71 According to this text, meditation-related pathology may develop as
a result of imbalance during practice:
Once the practitioner has established his resolve to cultivating the Path, disorders associated
with the four great elements may manifest. Based on one’s present application of the
contemplative mind, the breath may be caused to provoke the activation of latent disorders.
Sometimes it happens that one is unable to skilfully and appropriately adjust the three
factors of body, mind and breath. Due to interferences between the inward and outward
circumstances, pathological trouble may develop … if one is able to skilfully apply the mind,
then the four hundred and four kinds of disorders will naturally be cured. If, however, one
fails in the correct placement of the mind, then the four hundred and four kinds of disorders
may arise on that very account.72
Adverse effects associated with meditation are also documented in Zen Buddhism. For example,
there is a category of meditative experiences that may arise during zazen practice, called makyo
(translated as “diabolic phenomenon”, from ma (devil) and kyo (phenomenon; objective world)).73
Hence, makyo are disturbing phenomena, and can include visual, auditory and olfactory
hallucinations and involuntary movements.74 In The Three Pillars of Zen, American Zen teacher Roshi
Philip Kapleau notes that the number of makyo which can appear to a meditator are unlimited; in
the Ryogon sutra the Buddha warns of fifty different kinds of makyo, but these are just the most
70
L. VanderKooi, “Buddhist Teachers’ Experience with Extreme Mental States in Western Meditators,” The
Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 29, no. 1 (1997): 32-33.
71
Bhikshu Dharmamitra, The Essentials of Buddhist Meditation: The Essentials for Practicing Calming-and-
Insight & Dhyāna meditation—The Classic Śamathā-Vipaśyanā Meditation Manual by the Great Tiantai
Meditation Master & Exegete Śramaṇa Zhiyi (Seattle, WA: Kalavinka Press, 2009), 169-188.
72
Bhikshu Dharmamitra, The Essentials of Buddhist Meditation, 169.
73
P. Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment (New York, NY: Anchor Books,
2000), 45.
74
M.H. Kohn, The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1991).
77
common manifestations, and experiences may vary according to the personality and temperament
of the individual meditator.75
Zen traditions also acknowledge a prolonged illness-like condition related to meditation, called ‘Zen
sickness’ or ‘meditation sickness’. This condition is understood to manifest due to a variety of causes
that may be physiological, psychological, karmic, or supernatural in nature. Depending on the cause,
Zen sickness may manifest in different ways (for example, as headaches, tightness in the chest or
fearful hallucinations), and traditional teachers recommend an assortment of treatments ranging
from modern medical and psychological care to traditional mantras, spells and repentance
practices.76
In Tibetan Buddhism, nyams (meditation experiences) may include adverse effects such as intense
body pain, physiological disorders, paranoia, sadness, anger and fear.77 Additionally, there is a
specific meditation-related condition that the Tibetans call lung.78 Sometimes described as a
“nervous disorder”79 or “meditator’s disease,”80 there are several different types of lung that are
said to result from the interaction between meditation practice and characteristics of the individual
meditator, such as imbalances in the meditator’s constitution or their karma. In Balanced Mind,
Balanced Body, Amy Cayton describes various treatments for lung, which come from both Tibetan
folklore and more experienced meditators from the lay community. These include bodhichitta and
tonglen practice, prostrations, mantras, traditional Tibetan medicine, and changes to diet and
sleep.81 Cayton notes that meditators are advised to consult a qualified teacher or Tibetan doctor to
treat lung and that without treatment it can become a chronic state that is difficult to deal with. 82
Cayton writes:
75
Also, Kapleau writes: “While disciplining himself in meditation the Yogin is liable to be visited by all kinds of
evil beings whereby he is constantly assailed by hallucinations of various natures. These are all due to highly-
accentuated nervous derangements, and the Yogin is advised to guard himself against them.” Kapleau, The
Three Pillars, 45.
76
L.W. Nelson, “Chan (Zen) Sickness and the Master’s Role in its Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention,”
Unpublished PhD dissertation. (California Institute of Integral Studies, 2012): 80-90.
77
5 (2017): 2.
78
In Tibetan medicine, lung (or rlung) is sometimes literally translated as ‘wind’ or ‘wind illness,’ and
unbalanced or disordered flows of lung are a key way in which psychiatric disorders are explained. For a
detailed discussion see M. Epstein and L. Rapgay, “Mind, Disease, and Health in Tibetan Medicine” in Eastern
and Western Approaches to Healing: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Knowledge, eds. A. A. Sheikh and K. S.
Sheikh (New York, NY: Wiley, 1989), 124-145.
79
J. Paine, Re-Enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West (New York, NY: Norton, 2004), 128.
80
A. Cayton (ed.), Balanced Mind, Balanced Body: Anecdotes and Advice from Tibetan Buddhist Practitioners
on Wind Disease (FPMT, 2016), 45.
81
Cayton, Balanced Mind, 6; 17; 34; 41.
82
Cayton, Balanced Mind, 5.
78
When we talk about lung, we must distinguish between acute and chronic lung. In this essay,
I’m mainly concerned with acute lung, specifically that which arises in meditation retreats.
Acute lung can come from concentrating too hard on the mandala, reciting mantras too fast,
working too hard in service or at our jobs, or frustration in relationships. With rest and
Tibetan medicine (if we can get it), this form of lung goes away when we finish our retreat or
stop doing what was causing our mental stress. Chronic lung, or tsok lung, is what we might
label as varying degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Chronic lung can be
treated with herbs, diet, acupuncture, Tibetan medicine, and verbal therapies.83
Hindu and Yogic traditions also acknowledge periods of difficulty associated with meditation
practice, most often associated with kundalini, which is said to be the biological mechanism behind
enlightenment.84 Classical esoteric literature describes kundalini as a normally dormant force that
resides at the base of the spine, and that when awakened, can cause a variety of mental, emotional,
physical and spiritual effects. According to Eastern philosophers, kundalini should only be awakened
as a gradual process, under the guidance of an experienced teacher. If a kundalini awakening occurs
when a meditator is not properly prepared, it can cause negative effects, including fear,
disorientation and psychosis.85 Scholars have argued that because the ancient traditions provided
gurus to supervise kundalini awakenings, the classical literature did not focus on problems
associated with the phenomena; it was assumed that with proper context and proper guidance, the
process would lead to positive outcomes.86 However, there are modern biographical accounts that
report severe problems attributed to kundalini, usually referred to as ‘kundalini crisis.’ The most
well-known case is Gopi Krishna (1903 - 1984), an Indian yogi and mystic who wrote about his own
long-lasting kundalini crisis which included symptoms of depression, insomnia and psychosis-like
states.87
83
Cayton, Balanced Mind, 48.
84
B. Greyson, “The Physio-kundalini Syndrome and Mental Illness,” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
25, no. 1 (1993): 43-58.
85
L. Sannella “Kundalini: Classical and Clinical.” In Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation
Becomes a Crisis, eds. S. Grof and C. Grof (New York and Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1989), 99-108.
86
Greyson, “The Physio-kundalini.”
87
G. Krishna, The Awakening of Kundalini (Ontario: Institute for Consciousness Research, 2001): 96-97.
Also, in The Healing Gods, Gunther Brown cites examples of kundalini problems related to hatha yoga and
pranayama: “Although many instructors tout yoga’s safety, some yoga proponents warn of physical,
psychological, and spiritual risks. Swami Swatmarama, of Yoga Vidya Gurukul University, cautions that
performing pranayama in hatha yoga awakens kundalini energy rapidly: “But if one is not prepared to take on
this high level energy awakening then this may have negative effects on mind and body.” Swami
Narayanananda is more specific about what negative effects might entail: “if a person does not know how to
check the currents and to bring down the partly risen kundalini shakti to safer centers, one suffers terribly and
it may ruin the whole life of a person or lead one to insanity.” C. Gunther Brown, The Healing Gods:
79
Hence, meditation adverse effects are mentioned across a variety of religious traditions. The
literature observes that meditation adverse effects may arise simply as a normal stage on the path of
progress towards enlightenment (for example, makyo and the dukkha nanas), or if the practice is not
undertaken with adequate preparation, in the right conditions and with proper guidance (such as is
the case with Zen sickness, lung and kundalini crisis). However, when secular meditation is
disconnected from these traditional religious sources, this knowledge regarding adverse effects is
often lost. The next section will now examine four domains of meditation practice and discuss how
adverse effects are recognised and managed within each of these domains, in both traditional and
secular contexts.
Preparation
Something all the major meditative traditions have in common is a belief in rigorous preparation;
that is, in order to safely achieve the desired states and outcomes of meditation, an individual must
adequately prepare before undertaking any actual meditation practice. For example, in the Hindu-
derived discipline of yoga, preparatory methods consist of several stages and many steps, including
moral and religious training (yama and niyama), posture practice (asana), breath control
(pranayama), diet changes and behavioural modifications. These preliminary practices are then
followed by sense withdrawal practices (pratyahara) and concentration techniques (dharana) which
finally prepare the individual for meditation (dhyana) and meditative absorption (samadhi).88 In
Yogic Meditation, Georg Feuerstein describes how for meditation to be successful, certain
prerequisites must be met, including correct posture (sitting erect with the spine and neck aligned,
riju-kaya), a suitable environment, the development of concentration and self-discipline, and the
cultivation of nonattachment (vairagya), which depends on emotional and spiritual maturity. In the
yogic traditions, practice must begin with this preliminary training, otherwise progress is not
possible.89 Feuerstein notes:
Without adequate moral preparation and genuine spiritual aspiration, meditation tends to
be experienced as routine, tedious, or impossible. Hence Patanjali’s eightfold path begins
with the five moral observances (yama) of nonharming (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya),
nonstealing (asteya), chastity (brahmacarya), and greedlessness (aparigraha). A second
Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian America (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013),
133.
88
B. Awasthi, “Issues and Perspectives in Meditation Research: In Search for a Definition,” Frontiers in
Psychology 3 (2013): 1-9.
89
K. Rose, Yoga, Meditation and Mysticism: Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks (New York,
NY and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 97.
80
foundation is niyama, self-discipline, which Patanjali divides into the five practices of purity
(shauca), contentment (samtosha), austerity (tapas), study (svadhyaya), and dedication to a
higher principle, specifically the “Lord” (ishvara-pranidhana).90
Similarly, in Buddhism, meditation is seen as an advanced practice that is only started once an
individual has mastered preliminary instruction and discipline.91 In Theravada Buddhism, meditation
practice has three components - morality (sila), concentration or calm abiding (samatha), and insight
(vipassana) - which correspond to the Eightfold Path. Practice begins with morality, as it is believed
that the mind must be purified of ‘unwholesome’ or unvirtuous thoughts in order to facilitate initial
concentration.92 For lay practitioners, five moral precepts are taken before beginning meditation
practice; abstaining from killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct and intoxicants. For novice
meditators the list of precepts increases to ten, and for monks there are more than 300 prohibitions
and observances that regulate every detail of monastic life.93 Once the meditator has attained a
purified mind, the next step is to develop concentration or one-pointedness by fixing the mind on a
single object; the meditation subject. 94 The ability to concentrate then assists the meditator in the
pursuit of insight. Thus, the interaction between morality, concentration and insight cannot be
separated; morality facilitates initial concentration, which then enables sustained insight.95
In religious contexts, morality and concentration training is the foundation of meditation practice
and is seen to be a necessary requirement for the development of insight.96 However, modern
Western adaptations of meditation often skip these preparatory stages. Both mindfulness
meditation and vipassana are focused primarily on insight practice and do not offer preparatory
training in concentration or ethics.97 Teaching meditation without adequate preparation can lead to
90
G. Feuerstein, “Yogic Meditation,” in The Experience of Meditation: Experts Introduce the Major Traditions,
ed. J. Shear (St Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2006), 105.
91
Paine, Re-Enchantment, 88.
92
D. Goleman, The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience (New York, NY: Putnam, 1988), 2.
93
Hickey, “Mind Cure,” 173-174. Also, Goleman writes: “While the practice of purity varies with one’s mode of
life, its intent is the same: It is the necessary preparation for meditation.” Goleman, The Meditative Mind, 3.
94
The Visudhimagga recommends forty meditation subjects. Goleman, The Meditative Mind, 7-8.
95
A similar process operates in Zen Buddhism (Kapleau, The Three Pillars, 18-19) and Tibetan Buddhism, see R.
Marx, “Accessibility Versus Integrity in Secular Mindfulness: A Buddhist Commentary,” Mindfulness 6 (2015):
1156.
96
Hickey argues that this is because “one cannot have peace of mind if one’s behaviour is unethical.” Hickey,
“Mind Cure,” 174. Similarly, former Siddha Yoga official Robert Rabbin expressed: “The seminal spiritual
question of ‘Who am I?’ is incomplete without ‘How shall I live?’” Goldberg, American Veda, 338.
97
TM is partly exempt from this discussion as it is a concentration technique. However TM is also not taught
within an explicit ethical framework and eliminating the ethical basis that traditionally accompanies
meditation may also lead to adverse effects. For example, Andrea Grabovac and colleagues argue that from a
modern psychological perspective, one of the major purposes of ethics in meditation is to reduce the baseline
amount of mental proliferation an individual experiences. By leading an ethical life, a meditator should
naturally experience less negative affect (such as guilt, doubts, and worries), which in turn supports both
81
problems. For example, in Psychotherapy Without the Self, Mark Epstein describes a “disturbing
trend” noted by Western psychotherapists when observing Western meditators:
Western students of Eastern spiritual traditions who jumped into intensive meditation with
little preparation sometimes experienced emotional distress. Many sincere practitioners,
disillusioned with therapy or with the idea of therapy, turned to meditation in the hope of
healing psychological issues and found that emotional material was uncovered that neither
they nor their meditation teachers were prepared to deal with.98
Contemporary Buddhist meditation teacher Culadasa (John Yates) argues that psychological
problems arise when insight meditation is practiced without the cultivation of advanced skill in
concentration (samatha) or the experience of meditative absorption (jhana).99 As mentioned above,
the modern vipassana tradition is a ‘dry insight’ (non-jhanic) tradition and teaches that insight can
be achieved without concentration; thus samatha and jhana are rarely mentioned, let alone taught,
in this popular form of meditation. Culadasa argues that dry insight practices can lead to adverse
effects, as samatha makes it easier for meditators to confront potentially de-stabilising insights into
impermanence, emptiness, suffering and non-self. The joy, tranquillity and equanimity of samatha
provide an important “lubricating” quality or palliative that relieves the internal friction associated
with challenging insights.100 He writes:
Without samatha, these challenging Insights have the potential to send a practitioner
spiralling into a ‘dark night of the soul.’ This Christian term comes originally from the
writings of St. John of the Cross, who supposedly spent forty-five years in this dark night. The
term beautifully captures the feelings of despair, meaninglessness, non-specific anxiety,
frustration, and anger that often accompany such powerful realisations.101
In both clinical mindfulness-based interventions and vipassana, preparation in concentration is not

seen as a necessary prerequisite to begin meditation; hence, teachers of these techniques are
concentration and mindfulness practices. Other scholars have argued that meditation without ethics can be
dissatisfying and frustrating, leading only to superficial calmness but no lasting positive change, and that the
inclusion of ethics in secular meditation practices may actually speed up progress and make insights more
widely generalizable. A.D. Grabovac, M.A. Lau and B.R. Willett, “Mechanisms of Mindfulness: A Buddhist
Psychological Model,” Mindfulness 2 (2011): 154-166.
Also, there is debate regarding the extent to which ethics is or is not included in secular mindfulness practices.
See, S. Stanley et al (eds.) Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness (Cham, Switzerland: Springer
International Publishing, 2018).
98
M. Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2007), 14.
99
Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist,” 473.
100
Culadasa (John Yates), The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House,
2015), 412.
101
Culadasa, The Mind Illuminated, 411.
82
unlikely to attribute any adverse effects that might show up to an ‘unbalanced’ insight meditation
practice.102 If meditation adverse effects do occur, they may instead be explained as simply being
due to ‘psychological issues.’ For example, on its website, the Australian vipassana organisation
states that meditation is suitable for any person “in reasonable physical and mental health who is
genuinely interested and willing to make a sincere effort.”103 There is no mention of preparation,
despite the fact that a vipassana retreat involves ten days of seated silent meditation – a physical
and mental challenge for most novice meditators.104
Further, on its ‘Question and Answer’ page, the website states:
Can Vipassana make people mentally unbalanced?
No. Vipassana teaches you to be aware and equanimous, that is, balanced, despite all the
ups and downs of life. But if someone comes to a course concealing serious emotional
problems, that person may be unable to understand the technique or to apply it properly to
achieve the desired results. This is why it is important to let us know your past history so
that we can judge whether you will benefit from a course.105
Therefore, according to the Australian vipassana organisation, the vipassana technique itself cannot
cause psychological instability. The implication is that any adverse effects that occur with vipassana
practice are likely to be the result of an individual meditator who has ‘concealed’ their psychological
problems and cannot properly understand or apply the meditation technique.106
Supportive Context
In religious traditions, meditation practices have corresponding psychologies, philosophies and belief
systems that work to conceptualise and frame their insights. Traditional texts and cosmologies
provide a cartography and context for clarifying different types of meditation experience. In
contemporary Western applications of meditation, most or all of the religious context for meditation
102
Referring back to the early Zen, Dzogchen and Theravada reformers, Sharf notes that all these traditions
have been criticised for “dumbing down” the Buddhist tradition by devaluing ethical training and the role of
concentration. Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist,” 476.
103
Vipassana Meditation website. Accessed 1 October 2018: http://www.dhamma.org.au/faq.htm.
104
The Oxford Mindfulness Centre notes that the most intensive way to practice mindfulness is on meditation
retreats and “most reports of adverse effects of mindfulness practice to date come from participants in
intensive retreats.” Also, that “Anecdotal evidence suggests that harm is rare, but a few participants have
reported severe psychological problems lasting for months or years after the retreat has ended.” R. Baer and
W. Kuyken, “Is Mindfulness Safe?,” Oxford Mindfulness Centre (October 2016). Accessed 2 October 2018:
http://oxfordmindfulness.org/news/is-mindfulness-safe/.
105
Vipassana Meditation website. Accessed 1 October 2018: http://www.dhamma.org.au/faq.htm.
106
It is worth noting that too much concentration meditation at the expense of insight meditation has also
been said to lead to adverse effects, particularly the re-experiencing of trauma. L. Brasington, “Leigh
Brasington Interview,” Vimeo (2013). Accessed 27 September 2018: https://vimeo.com/61893225.
83
practices is reinterpreted, minimised or left out, and research findings on meditation are interpreted
almost exclusively within Western psychological frameworks.107 However, due to cultural and
conceptual differences, Western secular frameworks may not be able to provide an appropriate
context within which meditators can understand their experiences and frame their insights. In
particular, Buddhist insights into emptiness, impermanence, non-self and suffering completely
contradict the current Western “operating model” of reality.108 That is, the dominant Western
paradigm for understanding ‘reality’ assumes that objects exist, that an independent, autonomous
self exists, and that positive or negative experiences result from the interaction between the two. 109
These beliefs provide the foundation for a sense of meaning and purpose in life, and meditation-
induced insights that conflict with these assumptions can be severely disruptive, leading to adverse
effects such as anxiety and despair.
Other cultural and conceptual differences relate to states of consciousness.110 Western culture is
predominantly monophasic; that is, almost exclusively focused on the ordinary waking state of
consciousness, with perceptual and cognitive processes oriented toward the external world.
Traditional meditative cultures, however, tend to be polyphasic; that is, they place importance on
other functional but non-ordinary states of consciousness that may be the result of dreams, trance
states, meditation states or intoxicants. 111 In religious traditions, meditation is often used to achieve
altered states of consciousness (ASC); defined as experiences that produce “a qualitative alteration
in the overall pattern of mental functioning, such that the experiencer feels his consciousness is
radically different from the way it functions ordinarily.”112 Scholars of religion note that meditation-
related ASCs are considered both attainable and important, and there is a vast literature on these
experiences from many, if not all, the major traditions. In religious contexts ASCs allow the
individual to access state-specific knowledge that may be used to heal or to serve their
community,113 and people who experience meditation-related ASCs have reported profound and
lasting positive changes in their lives, including radical shifts in their values and belief systems. While
107
R. Walsh and S.L. Shapiro, “The Meeting,” 227-239.
108
Culadasa, The Mind Illuminated, 411.
109
For example, H. Markus and K. Shinobu, “Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and
Motivation,” Psychological Review 98 (1991): 224-253.
110
Meditative disciplines value and cultivate altered states where sense of identity extends beyond the
individual self. While Western psychologists may have rediscovered some of these states (for example,
Maslow’s ‘peak experiences,’ Jung’s ‘numinous’ experience, Grof’s ‘holotropic’ experience, Fromm’s
‘atonement’ and James’ ‘cosmic consciousness’), without a conceptual framework in which to understand
them, these states may be experienced negatively.
111
Walsh and Shapiro, “The Meeting,” 227-239.
112
C. T. Tart, “States of Consciousness,” Science 176 (1972): 1203-1210.
113
Tart “Accessing State-Specific,” 137-154.
84
ASCs are not the end goal of meditation practice, they appear to change the cognitive and
behavioural patterns of the meditator, thereby enhancing well-being and quality of life.
Modern meditation studies suggest that secular forms of meditation can lead to spiritual and
mystical experiences, including ASCs.114 However, in modern Western settings, without a conceptual
framework in which to understand them, these states may be experienced negatively (for example
as psychosis, dissociation, depersonalization, altered perceptions, agitation and muscular tension)
leading to what transpersonal psychologists have termed a “spiritual emergency.”115 Spiritual
emergency is defined as significant distress associated with spiritual practices and experiences that
causes a disruption to psychological, social and occupational functioning.116 Psychologist David
Lukoff notes that individuals in the midst of a spiritual emergency may appear to have a mental
illness if viewed out of context, but they are actually undergoing a normal reaction to spiritual
development that is non-pathological and distinct from psychopathology. Proponents of spiritual
emergency argue that symptoms of spiritual emergency may appear similar to, and sometimes
identical with, psychopathology, however their causes and significance are very different, and hence
treatment should be different.
There is some recognition of spiritual emergency in modern clinical psychology. For example, the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) acknowledges distressing religious and
spiritual issues as non-pathological by including a category entitled “Religious or Spiritual Problem”
(V62.89).117 The DSM-V also recognises the need to distinguish between psychopathology and
meditation-related experiences in instances of depersonalisation/derealisation:
Volitionally induced experiences of depersonalisation/derealisation can be a part of

meditative practices that are prevalent in many religions and cultures and should not be
diagnosed as a disorder. However, there are individuals who initially induce these states
114
Kornfield, “The Psychology of Mindfulness Meditation,” 178.
115
Stanislav and Christina Grof are credited with creating the term in the 1960s in order to define a range of
psychological difficulties that were being associated with Eastern spiritual practices being practiced in the
West. They posit one of the most important causes of spiritual emergency is deep involvement in various
forms of meditation and spiritual practice. S. Grof and C. Grof, Spiritual Emergency: When Personal
Transformation Becomes a Crisis (New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA: Tarcher, 1989), 8. Further, although they
may share some similar features, spiritual and mystical experiences are distinct from psychosis as defined by
psychiatry. G. Bronn and D. McIlwain, “Assessing Spiritual Crises: Peeling Off Another Layer of a Seemingly
Endless Onion,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 55, no. 3 (2015): 346-382.
116
D. Lukoff, F. Lu and R. Turner, "From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem: The Transpersonal Roots of
the New DSM-IV Category," Journal of Humanistic Psychology 38, no. 2 (1998): 21-50.
117
Introducing V-code 62.89 has increased the possibility of differential diagnosis between religion/spirituality
and health/psychopathology. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (Washington,
DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013), 725.
85
intentionally but over time lose control over them and may develop a fear and aversion for
related practices.118
However, despite numerous psychologists, academics and medical professionals attesting to the
existence of these problems, spiritual issues have been largely neglected in mainstream
psychology119 and Western health professionals report minimal or no training in dealing with them.
This could be for a number of reasons, including bias against religion and spirituality in the field of
psychology (for example, research indicates psychologists tend to be much less religious than their
clients), and a lack of commonly agreed upon guidelines. An emphasis on establishing psychology as
a scientific discipline may have also led to a reluctance to acknowledge the relevance of spirituality
and religion resulting in “spiritually avoidant care.”120 Lack of training in religious and spiritual
diversity may have significant consequences for clinical practice, as not only may meditation-related
adverse effects be misdiagnosed as psychopathology, but there is evidence to suggest that
psychologists can hold explicit and implicit negative biases based on perceived client religiosity, such
as assessing religious clients as having worse prognoses.121 However, the increasing popularity of
mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions and growing recognition of the diversity of meditation-
related phenomenology (both positive and negative) may indicate an imminent paradigm shift in the
way that spiritual and religious issues are approached in health settings. 122
Teacher and Technique
In traditional religious contexts the ideal meditation training is one-to-one transmission from
teacher to student, with practice generally undertaken in isolation.123 In Buddhism, the ideal
meditation teacher was the historical Buddha, who was said to know the mind and heart of others,
and could therefore perfectly match an individual with their appropriate meditation object and
setting. In lieu of such a perfect teacher, the Visuddhimagga recommends that a meditation teacher
118
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, 304.
119
The inclusion of spirituality and religion in the treatment of people with mental illness has been seen as
problematic due to the possibility that spiritual and religious ideation may worsen symptoms of
disorganisation, trigger harm to self or others, or promote lack of adherence to treatment recommendations.
R.D. Fallot, “Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Recovery from Mental Illness,”
International Review of Psychiatry 13, no. 2 (2001): 110-116.
120
C. Vieten et al. "Spiritual and Religious Competencies for Psychologists," Psychology of Religion and
Spirituality 5, no. 3 (2013): 132.
121
C. Vieten et al. "Competencies for Psychologists in the Domains of Religion and Spirituality," Spirituality in
Clinical Practice 3, no. 2 (2016): 92-114.
122
L. Sperry, “Spiritually Sensitive Psychotherapy: An Impending Paradigm Shift in Theory and Practice,” in The
Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality, ed. L. Miller (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012):
223–233.
123
According to Paine, when Tibetan lamas saw people meditating in groups at American Zen centres, they
saw this as being unusual, because in Tibet, meditation was a solitary activity. Paine, Re-enchantment, 214.
86
should be selected according to their own level of attainment in meditation, with the most highly
accomplished being the best teachers. The teacher’s support and guidance is seen as critical,
particularly when dealing with issues of technique, altered states of consciousness and the
integration of insight.124
In religious traditions, one of the fundamental roles of a meditation teacher is to give precise
instruction regarding correct meditation technique, as incorrect technique can lead to adverse
effects. Physical problems may result from improper posture (for example, neck and back pain),
unnatural breathing (for example, a stressed diaphragm) or from lack of attendance to the physical
environment (for example, inadequate clothing, food and sleep).125 Additionally, many meditative
traditions note that adverse effects may occur as the result of an imbalanced practice; that is,
excessive and overvigorous meditation practice at the expense of other activities such as the study
of scriptures or physical work.126 Excessive practice may lead to physical problems, as described by
Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering:
Prolonged zazen gave me chronic hemorrhoids. Baba told me the human body is not
designed to sit in the double or even the half lotus position for long periods of time. The
postures put excessive strain on the rectum. I found that easy to believe. Preparation H is a
staple in Zen monasteries, together with Maalox, for eating too hot meals too fast, peer
pressure by zealots, too little sleep, and the relentless master's constant urging to solve a
koan create mental tensions that ulcerate Zen stomachs.127
Psychological adverse effects may also result from excessive practice. For example, in Tibetan
Buddhism, forcing the mind to stay on the meditation object in an overly rigid way is said to induce a
psychiatric condition that is similar to an obsessive anxiety state.128 Similarly, in Zen, overly rigorous
practice and excessive striving for enlightenment, especially at the expense of engagement with the
scriptures, is said to lead to a state described in the literature as “falling into emptiness” (duokong),
which is associated with “meditation sickness” (chanbing).129 In this state, the meditator:
124
Goleman, The Meditative Mind, 9.
125
Master Sheng-yen (1930 - 2009) cited in L.W. Nelson, “Chan (Zen) Sickness,” 66.
126
Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki also emphasized the need for meditators to engage in physical activity to
counterbalance sitting meditation. This may account for the inclusion of physical work practices (for example,
gardening) and walking meditation (kinhin, which is alternated with periods of zazen) in Western Zen Centres.
Nelson, “Chan (Zen) Sickness,” 75-78.
127
J. Van de Wetering, Afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student Out on His Ear (New York, NY: Thomas Dunne,
1999), 4.
128
Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self, 149.
129
Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist,” 476. Nelson, “Chan (Zen) Sickness,” 63.
87
loses touch with the socially, culturally, and historically constructed world in which he or she
lives. The practitioner becomes estranged from the web of social relations that are the
touchstone of our humanity as well as our sanity.130
Contemporary Buddhist teachers have argued that adverse effects such as duokong and chanbing
result from a misinterpretation of the insight into emptiness (sūnyatā). The traditional Buddhist
meaning of emptiness is that phenomena have no inherent nature by themselves, however in
modern meditative contexts emptiness is sometimes misunderstood as a type of nihilism, leading to
feelings of depression, anxiety and dissociation.131 Contemporary Buddhist teacher Shinzen Young,
claims that difficulty integrating insights into emptiness and non-self (anatta) can actually result in
adverse psychological effects that present as depersonalisation and derealisation disorders (DP/DR).
Young describes this phenomenon as an enlightenment experience gone wrong, or “enlightenment’s
evil twin.”132 Ordinarily, an insight into emptiness and non-self is experienced as a fulfilling and
empowering event, however, in some people, this insight is experienced as a nihilistic dysfunctional
state. Young stresses that when insights are experienced as negative rather than empowering, this
indicates that the meditator requires intervention and support from a senior competent teacher
who knows how to deal with this issue successfully.133 Similarly, in Zen Wisdom, Buddhist teacher
Master Sheng-yen (1931–2009) writes:
If the teacher is not around and the person has an experience of emptiness, but not
necessarily enlightenment, he or she could develop mental problems or become deeply
confused. That is why practice traditions such as Chan, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism stress the
need for a qualified teacher.134
130
Sharf, “Is Mindfulness Buddhist,” 476.
131
Richmond writes: “If we can’t understand such a profound concept, we often ‘lazily’ associate Emptiness
with Nihilism. The problem begins with the English translation of the original Sanskrit term Shunyata. This
profound and complex concept is often translated into English as ‘voidness.’ Voidness sounds a lot like
‘nothingness’ and, in my many years of attending teachings, I’ve often heard teachers interchange the word
Emptiness, Voidness and Nothingness, so this can be confusing from the get-go. In the same discussion, some
teachers will warn against nihilism, but never-the-less use the word ‘nothingness.’ L. Richmond, “What the
Teachers Say About Emptiness: Removing “Lazy Nihilism” from Shunyata — or “How Deep the Rabbit Hole
goes” and “How Big is the Moon?”” Buddha Weekly, accessed 11 April 2018: https://buddhaweekly.com/what-
the-teachers-say-about-emptiness-removing-lazy-nihilism-from-shunyata-or-how-deep-the-rabbit-hole-goes-
and-how-big-is-the-moon/.
Also there is evidence to suggest that misunderstanding emptiness is not a uniquely modern phenomenon.
The third century Indian Buddhist master Nagarjuna (150 – 250 CE) taught that emptiness wrongly grasped is
like picking up a poisonous snake by the wrong end. G.W. Nishijima and B. Warner, Nagarjuna’s
Mulamadhyamakakarika: Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Rhinebeck, NY: Monkfish, 2011).
132
S. Young, “Enlightenment, DP/DR & Falling Into the Pit of the Void,” YouTube, 2009, accessed 7 April 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zIKQCwDXsA.
133
S. Young, “Enlightenment, DP/DR & Falling Into the Pit of the Void,” YouTube, 2009, accessed 7 April 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zIKQCwDXsA.
134
Cited in Nelson, “Chan (Zen) Sickness,” 91.
88
This view is also supported by findings from Sean Pritchard’s qualitative study of vipassana
meditators. Pritchard found that skilful guidance and conceptualisation by a teacher allowed
students to successfully frame difficult meditation insights both in practice and within daily life.135
Pritchard cites an example of a student experiencing an extreme case of the dukkha nanas, which
was then put into an appropriate context by the teacher:
I actually became suicidal and I was afraid to tell V. [teacher], that he’d never allow me to
come back. I was in the dukkha-nanas. I was in the misery, and I thought, I never had this.
And then I went and I saw V. when it was time for me to go for the interview. And he said
this is common in this particular time and that other yogis had gone through it too … Then
once I got to V., I think just being with him and him kind of making light of it, it was, like, this
is just the practice. He gave me a context of that and, like, this is good. The stronger it is the
better. “This is good fear. Go back and practice.” For some reason it really worked.136
Pritchard argues that practical, technical advice and clear specific instructions from a qualified
teacher can prevent extreme negative mental states from lasting, whereas unguided, meditators
might become stuck in states of fear, anxiety, terror, depression or psychosis for extended periods
that could last from days to years.137
Experienced meditation teachers are also able to recognise, and provide guidance and
contextualisation regarding, altered states of consciousness. In a qualitative study, Lois VanderKooi
interviewed twelve Buddhist teachers (four Zen, four Theravadan, four Tibetan, all teaching in North
America) regarding their experiences with extreme mental states in Western meditation students.
All of the teachers understood altered states of consciousness as phenomena that often emerge as
meditation practice progresses, and all had various strategies for effectively dealing with these
states.138 The teachers’ strategies included providing assurance that the experience is normal and
will pass, adjusting the meditation technique, checking for correct posture and breathing, decreasing
135
Pritchard, “Mindfulness and Beyond,” 178.
136
137
138
ASC are common in early stages of Buddhist meditation and include disturbing emotions and fantasies,
perceptual anomalies and hallucinations, memories, proprioceptive sensations and movements, and
psychotic-like experiences. Theravada teachers estimated that during a three-month long retreat about half of
the students experience ASCs. VanderKooi notes that though these teachers are dealing with non-ordinary
states of consciousness, they did not often encounter extreme adverse effects, due to adequate preparation
and support. VanderKooi, “Buddhist Teachers’,” 34-4. Also, as William James (1902-1985) noted, spiritual
experiences in general and ritual experiences in particular can be connected with different forms of
dissociative experiences. He wrote that ASCs are the “root and centre” of individual religious and spiritual
experience. Cited in S. Demmrich, U. Wolfradt and M. Domsgen, "Dissociation in Religion and Spirituality: God
Images and Religious Rituals in the Context of Dissociative Experiences among a Sample of German Adults,"
Journal of Empirical Theology 26, no. 2 (2013): 229.
89
sitting time, adding ‘grounding’ physical activities, conducting more frequent interviews with the
student, and recommending changes to diet.139 The teachers were also able to identify warning signs
that an extreme ASC may lead to a psychotic break, and knew when meditation practice should be
discontinued and medical advice sought.140
In secular mindfulness meditation settings, the importance of the role of the teacher in identifying
and dealing with adverse effects is acknowledged. As stated by the Melbourne Academic
Mindfulness Interest Group, short-term adverse experiences can be a transient part of the MBI
process, and “the skill of the instructor in dealing with such eventualities may be important in
determining whether they become valuable learning opportunities or, alternatively, adverse
events.”141 Burrows also argues that “anyone leading mindfulness activities needs to have enough
experience of the practices to be able to guide others in their own journey of introspection and
support them when they encounter any obstacles.”142
However, Baer and Kuyken note that in reality, mindfulness meditation teacher training is in its
infancy, and standards are less than ideal:
Contemplative traditions have long recognized that intensive mindfulness practice can lead
to challenging emotional or bodily experiences that require expert guidance. The developers
of secular, evidence-based mindfulness programs also emphasize the importance of
competent mindfulness teaching. Unfortunately, interest in mindfulness classes has become
so widespread that not enough qualified teachers are available. Some teachers have very
little training and may be unprepared to help participants with either the normal and
expected unpleasant experiences that arise or the more atypical unexpected side effects of
mindfulness practice. They may do little screening and assessment to determine if people
are suitable and ready for programmes at different levels of intensity. Teacher training
programmes are themselves still developing, including with regard to how best to ensure the
protection of those learning mindfulness. The field is only just beginning to develop good
practice guidelines and listings of qualified teachers.143
139
VanderKooi, “Buddhist Teachers’,” 40-41.
140
A Tibetan teacher noted that advanced meditators need a qualified teacher to help differentiate between
psychotic states and true spiritual visions. VanderKooi, “Buddhist Teachers’,” 41-42. Less teacher supervision
can lead to incorrect practice leading to adverse effects such as psychosis. Marx, “Accessibility Versus
Integrity,” 1157-1158.
141
Cited in P.L. Dobkin, J.A. Irving and S. Amar, “For Whom May Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Program be Contraindicated?” Mindfulness 3 (2012): 47.
142
L. Burrows, “’I Feel Proud We Are Moving Forward’: Safeguarding Mindfulness for Vulnerable Student and
Teacher Wellbeing in a Community College,” The Journal of Adult Protection 19, no. 1 (2017): 39.
143
R. Baer and W. Kuyken, “Is Mindfulness Safe?,” Oxford Mindfulness Centre (October 2016). Accessed 2
October 2018: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/news/is-mindfulness-safe/.
90
The authors also delineate different levels of mindfulness practice according to intensity, from low
intensity (such as “bringing friendly awareness to the tastes and textures of food”) to moderate
intensity (techniques used in therapeutic mindfulness-based interventions) and high intensity
practices (meditation retreats). While low to moderate intensity meditation practices are of less
concern (particularly when taught in a one-on-one therapeutic relationship with a qualified medical
professional), problems are more commonly reported in modern Western retreat settings. Baer and
Kuyken write:
The most intensive way to practice mindfulness is on meditation retreats, where participants
typically meditate for many hours each day, often entirely in silence, for a week or more at a
time. Contact with a teacher may occur only once every day or two. Most reports of adverse
effects of mindfulness practice to date come from participants in intensive retreats. The best
retreat centres are operated by meditation teachers with comprehensive knowledge of the
retreat centre’s orientation (e.g., Christian, Buddhist etc.), extensive experience in offering
the teachings in those settings, and knowledge of the difficulties that may arise during
intensive mindfulness practice. Teachers at these centres will frame the difficulties they
encounter within their own orientation and experience and the best will undertake some
degree of screening, have a safeguarding policy and ways of referring to treatment centres
when appropriate.144
Unfortunately not all meditation retreat centres are able to operate at such high standards, and
extreme adverse events have been reported at, or following, some vipassana meditation retreats. A
recent example cited in the media concerns Megan Vogt, a young woman who returned from a ten
day Goenka style vipassana retreat incoherent and in psychosis; ten weeks later she committed
suicide.145 An article in the Pennsylvania Real-time News reported:
The center that Vogt attended in Claymont Delaware, the Dhamma Vipassana Meditation
Center, uses the traditional teachings of the spiritual leader Goenka, who died in 2013. His
daily lessons have been videotaped and are played nightly for meditators at retreats. So
there is no "main teacher" on site. Instead, volunteer assistant teachers are supposed to
guide meditators on site but their qualifications are unclear. There is generally one lead
assistant teacher who is supposed to be trained. The woman who led Vogt's retreat said she
144
Baer and Kuyken, “Is Mindfulness Safe?”
145
C. Vendel, “'She Didn't Know What Was Real': Did 10-day Meditation Retreat Trigger Woman's Suicide?”
Penn Live, 29 June (2017), accessed 11 April 2018:
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/06/york_county_suicide_megan_vogt.html.
91
was from Cambodia. The other volunteers may have no training. The only requirement is
that they have attended at least one previous meditation course.146
This particular case highlights another key factor that contributes to meditation adverse effects
being overlooked: post-retreat follow-up. Many meditation adverse effects occur after a retreat, or
‘off-the-cushion,’ so may go unnoticed by teachers who are largely unavailable for practitioners to
talk to post-retreat. Mark Epstein notes that meditation teachers are in general not only untrained in
psychotherapy and unprepared for the extreme distress that could arise in Western practitioners,
but also uninterested in maintaining long-term personal relationships with students who might
attend a workshop or retreat. 147 Daniel Ingram also mentions this issue in Mastering the Core
Teachings of the Buddha, noting that problems can arise when meditation students are unable to
engage in “long, deep conversations with harried and over-committed Jet Set Dharma Teachers.”148
Megan Vogt reportedly emailed the meditation retreat centre she had attended several times in the
weeks leading up to her death, but was unable to speak with a teacher regarding the difficulties she
was experiencing.149
Individual Differences and Psychopathology
While transient adverse effects, and difficulties integrating insights may occur as a normal part of
meditation practice, it is also possible that some of the more extreme adverse effects that have
recently been reported in the popular media are the result of an interaction between meditation
practice and pre-existing or latent psychopathology. In Buddhist texts on meditation, there is
recognition that not all meditation techniques will suit all individuals. For example, the
Visudhimagga recommends forty different meditation subjects along with a variety of diverse
physical surroundings that can be tailored to individual meditators:
146
Vendel, “She Didn’t Know.”
147
Epstein, Psychotherapy without the Self, 14.
148
D.M. Ingram, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book
(InteractiveBuddha, 2007), 379.
149
In the case of Megan Vogt, it seems that the psychosis she experienced was triggered by the meditation
retreat. The article notes that “she told her parents that she recalled having problems about halfway through
the retreat and by day seven, she didn't know who she was or why she was there. Yet no one called her
parents or intervened. Instead, the center assigned a volunteer to watch Megan as she continued to meditate
for three more days.” This is an example of where an experienced meditation teacher should be able to
recognise that a problem is escalating and know if/when to refer on to a psychiatrist. Vendel, “She Didn’t
Know.”
92
The lustful meditator, for example, should be assigned a cramped, windowless hut in an ugly
location in the neighbourhood of unfriendly people; the hateful type, on the other hand, is
to be given a comfortable and roomy cottage in a pleasant area near helpful people.150
Further, in some religious traditions it is understood that meditation in general is not suited to every
individual. Some scholars have argued that traditionally physical and mental wellbeing, along with a
stable personality are prerequisites to meditation, and “troubled” people have been restricted from
entering the practice. 151 For example, regarding kundalini crisis, Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) in
Letters on Yoga writes that kundalini itself does not induce psychosis in previously healthy
individuals. Rather kundalini crisis is the result of a constitutionally weak nervous system that is
already predisposed to emotional problems and hence decompensates under the stress of a
kundalini awakening. Psychotic decompensation due to kundalini awakening may therefore be less
common in cultures and contexts where proper screening and preparation are prerequisites for
yogic training.152
Additionally, psychological therapy is not an explicit concern in Buddhism or Hinduism, and

meditation in these traditions has not focused on an individual’s personal history, emotions or
psychological issues.153 For example, despite the modern equation of suffering with
psychopathology, depression in the clinical sense is not mentioned in Buddhist literature. The fifty-
two mental factors of the Abhidhamma (third century BCE) list negative emotions such as greed,
hatred, conceit, envy, doubt, worry, restlessness and avarice, but do not include sadness “except as
a kind of unpleasant feeling that can tinge other mental states. Depression is not mentioned.” 154 In
the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, medical authorities recognise mental illnesses which correlate with
Western diagnoses of depression, melancholia, panic, bipolar and psychosis, and for these they
recommend pharmaceutical treatment, as it is understood that meditation can make these
conditions worse.155 While the Buddhist tradition holds that the ultimate cure for every kind of
suffering is enlightenment, attainable through extensive meditation, Tibetan healing recommends
against the use of meditation as a therapy for mental illness as it could lead to even greater
anxiety.156 Although this seems paradoxical, it points towards the diverse and complicated uses of
150
Goleman, The Meditative Mind, 9.
151
Awasthi, “Issues and Perspectives,” 5. Also, Sedlmeier and Srinivas, “How Do Theories,” 7.
152
However, a note of caution is advised as it is easy to romanticise ‘traditional cultures’ as being wiser than
our own. Greyson, “The Physio-kundalini Syndrome,” 47.
153
Sedlmeier and Srinivas, “How Do Theories,” 7.
154
Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self, 144-45.
155
Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self, 149.
156
A. L. Benedict, Mancini, L. and Grodin, M.A. "Struggling to Meditate: Contextualising Integrated Treatment
of Traumatised Tibetan Refugee Monks." Mental Health, Religion & Culture 12, no. 5 (2009): 485-499.
93
meditation in various schools of Buddhism; meditation is recognised to be able to both harm and
heal.157
This is in direct contrast to how meditation is generally taught in contemporary secular Western
settings. Today in the West, meditation is regularly used within the context of psychotherapy and
meditators often come to the practice in search of psychological relief.158 However, more recent
research is starting to reveal the complexities and problems associated with using meditation as a
broad spectrum solution to treat psychopathology. For example, there is evidence to suggest that
meditation may act as a stressor in psychologically vulnerable individuals. In Psychotherapy without
the Self, Mark Epstein discusses unique meditation-related challenges that may arise for those with a
diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, schizoid personality, or
depression.159 Other scholars have argued that meditation may be contraindicated in those who
have obsessive-compulsive disorder,160 a history of trauma,161 or who are emotionally fragile.162
Additionally, the official standards of practice for MBSR state that the treatment should exclude
those who are suicidal or have a psychiatric disorder. 163
157
An in depth consideration of the treatment of mental illness in Buddhist traditions is beyond the scope of
this thesis, but some notable examples are listed here. For example, Jacobson notes that symptoms that
Western biomedicine would term “psychiatric” are most prominent in the Tibetan “wind illnesses” (lung,
discussed above) and in some demonic illnesses. Symptoms of demon possession correlate with Western
psychiatry’s descriptions of psychosis, however in Tibetan medicine this symptom is treated with exorcism
rituals as well as medications. E. Jacobson, “’Life-Wind Illness’ in Tibetan Medicine: Depression, Generalised
Anxiety, and Panic Attack,” in Soundings in Tibetan Medicine: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, ed.
M. Schrempf. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007. (Proceedings of the 10th Seminar of the International Association for
Tibetan Studies (PIATS), Oxford Sept. 6-12 2003), 228.
E. Jacobson, "Situated Knowledge in Classical Tibetan Medicine: Psychiatric Aspects." Unpublished PhD
Dissertation (Harvard University, 2000): 171; 304-312.
Benedict et al. report a case study of dual-diagnosis (PTSD and lung) and treatment with both traditional
Tibetan medicine and Western biomedicine. Benedict et al., “Struggling to Meditate.”
For a comprehensive discussion of meditation and mental illness, see C.P. Salguero, Buddhism and Medicine:
An Anthology of Premodern Sources (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017).
158
Awasthi, “Issues and Perspectives,” 5.
159
Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self, 65-8.
160
F. Didonna, “Mindfulness and Obsessive–compulsive Disorder,” in Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness, ed. F.
Didonna (New York, NY: Springer Publishing, 2009), 189-220. The author notes that individuals who suffer from
pathological “feelings of emptiness” should also work with a therapist as meditation may lead to intense
reactions; for example, dissociation, panic, or the need to escape.
161
D.A. Treleaven, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing (New York,
NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018).
162
Germer argues that people who “decompensate when cognitive controls are loosened should generally not
do formal sitting meditation” (p. 128). People with “fragile personalities” may benefit from learning meditation
but duration of practice should be shortened. C.K. Germer, “Teaching Mindfulness in Therapy,” in Mindfulness
and Psychotherapy, eds. C. K. Germer, R. D. Siegel and P. R. Fulton (New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2005), 113-
129. Cited in P.L. Dobkin, J.A. Irving and S. Amar, “For Whom May Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Program be Contraindicated?,” Mindfulness 3 (2012): 44.
163
S. Santorelli, Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR): Standards of practice (Worcester, MA: Center for
Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2014).
94
As mentioned earlier, there has been a tendency in Western psychology to conflate meditation
adverse effects with pre-existing or latent psychopathology. Indeed, one of the most difficult
problems facing contemporary Western psychology may be how to dis-entangle ‘conventional
suffering’ (the suffering treated by psychotherapy) from the more existential distress that can
occur as the result of meditation practice (for example, the experience of the dukkha nanas or the
insight into emptiness) or specific meditation-related conditions (such as anxiety that is
exacerbated by meditation). Attempts to resolve this issue may have to be informed by a more
direct dialogue between religion and psychology. This is an area that is ripe for future research.
Conclusion
This chapter has considered how Western contemporary secular forms of meditation have been
significantly divorced from the religious contexts from which they originate, and have focused
instead on clinical and health applications. While the distancing from religion is understandable,
given that connecting meditation to Eastern religions could severely limit the generalisation and
acceptance of these practices in healthcare and other secular areas, this is a factor that has
contributed to adverse effects being overlooked.164 Knowledge of meditation adverse effects exists
within the Buddhist and Hindu yogic traditions. Within these traditions adverse effects are identified,
managed, and do not usually become a major problem. However, in Western secular settings,
knowledge regarding meditation adverse effects is either simply unknown (for example, knowledge
regarding the role of concentration in preparing for practice), unable to be adequately applied (for
example, knowledge regarding best standard teacher training) or lost within the Western
psychotherapeutic paradigm (for example, when adverse effects are conflated with
psychopathology). While consulting religious sources may prove controversial, and it is not
recommended that classic meditation manuals are to be taken at face value, it is worth considering
that a better familiarity with the traditional literature may help to identify what adverse effects are
normal and expected, how to deal with extreme or non-ordinary states of consciousness, and how to
prevent unnecessary difficulties from occurring and escalating.
164
Kabat-Zinn, “Some Reflections,” 281-306.
95
Chapter 4. Meditation, Commodification and the Media
The popularity of secular meditation has been due in large part to its promotion in the Western
media. Since Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught Transcendental Meditation to the Beatles in 1968,
stories about meditation have captured the attention of a Western audience receptive to narratives
around spirituality, healing, self-help and wellness. Additionally, the familiarisation and positive
reception of meditation in the West has been heavily facilitated by celebrity influence. The view of
meditation that is portrayed by the Western media is, however, radically simplified and incomplete.
Specifically, it is an overwhelmingly positive view, which at its most extreme, promotes meditation
as a type of panacea or cure-all. Some scholars have argued that as media coverage of meditation
has grown, so too have misunderstandings about what meditation is, who it can help, and how it
affects the mind and brain. 1 The overly positive positioning of secular meditation in the media is
often blamed on poor scientist-journalist communication and sensationalistic reporting. However,
the commodification of meditation, and the creation of meditation-related businesses and services,
has also helped to create a popular view of meditation as a ‘simple’ and ‘side-effect free’ solution for
a variety of common problems. This chapter discusses how the image of meditation in popular
media has been manipulated to fit contemporary market demands for a secular Westernised
therapeutic technique that can be commodified, and how this has led to meditation adverse effects
being overlooked.
All Good News Stories
Over the past two decades, stories about meditation have saturated the popular media.2 However,
there is growing concern, particularly among the scientific community, that the media portrayal of
meditation is incomplete and at times inaccurate. There appears to be a disconnect between
scientific research on meditation and media reporting, and many news stories fail to accurately
present research, exaggerate the benefits of meditation, and ignore potential adverse effects. An
analysis of media news stories about meditation reveals a clear positivity bias. For example, a recent
study by Sharon Lauricella analysed 764 mainstream print media articles about meditation that were
published between 1979 and 2014. 3 The author employed frame theory analysis to understand how
meditation is presented in print media. From the sample of articles, only six reported on negative
aspects of meditation. Lauricella writes:
1
N.T. Van Dam et al., “Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on
Mindfulness and Meditation,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 13, no. 1 (2018): 37.
2
Van Dam et al., “Mind the Hype,” 36-51.
3
S. Lauricella, “The Ancient-Turned-New Concept of ‘Spiritual Hygiene:’ An Investigation of Media Coverage of
Meditation from 1979 to 2014,” Journal of Religion and Health 55, no. 5 (2014): 1748-1762.
96
It is important to note that of all 764 articles included in this analysis, all but six reported on
meditation positively. The six articles recounting the negative aspects of meditation included
two reports that scientific research on meditation was poorly done, two reports cautioning
the public’s interpretation of scientific results relative to meditation studies, one article
which addressed a priest’s objection to meditation being considered prayer, and one article
which cautioned against the use of meditation in schools because it may be considered
prayer. Overall, the data reflected near ubiquitous positive coverage of meditation and its
potential benefits to practitioners.4
The study found that almost half of the news stories analysed spoke of meditation’s positive effects
on physical ailments (such as asthma, headaches, chronic pain, inflammation, and cardiovascular
disease), and 88% spoke of the emotional benefits of meditation (including improvements in work
relationships and family life, greater empathy and sensitivity, an increased sense of calm, and ‘‘stress
relief’’).5 Lauricella posits that these results indicate that articles about meditation “reflect the
health and wellness challenges present in contemporary culture, together with a desire for personal
relief from such issues.”6
Lauricella also argues that the data support the conceptualisation of meditation as a form of spiritual
self-care, a concept which she terms “spiritual hygiene.” At its most basic level, spiritual hygiene is
described as a spiritual practice that, like physical hygiene, can relieve the practitioner of negative
effects; “much like brushing one’s teeth reduces the likelihood of cavities, washing the body
prevents infections and unpleasant odors, and grooming the body assists in one’s overall sense of
wellness and confidence.”7 However, spiritual hygiene also serves an additional and greater
restorative function as a method for returning a practitioner to ‘wholeness.’8 If spiritual hygiene, like
physical hygiene, can indeed help to alleviate common negative health problems, and possibly
provide a salvific purpose, then it follows that meditation would be a topic of popular media
interest.9 Hence, the conceptualisation of meditation as a form of spiritual hygiene may help to
explain both the large increase in popular media coverage of meditation, as well as the widespread
adoption of secular meditation practices.
4
Lauricella, “The Ancient-Turned-New,” 1753.
5
6
7
8
9
97
Meditation is also portrayed by the media as a pathway to happiness, and recent popular news
headlines include “How Meditation Increases Happiness,”10 “Meditation Will Make You Smarter (and
Happier)”11 and “Grow Your Own Happiness: How Meditation Physically Changes the Brain.”12 This
trend has likely been informed by the “happiness turn” of the past two decades, whereby the
scientific study of happiness has become a popular research topic and has been widely reported on
in the mass media.13 There has been a growing interest in concepts such as ‘wellbeing,’ ‘happiness,’
and ‘life satisfaction’ and this has in turn likely influenced the Western perception of meditation;
that is, many people believe that practising meditation will make them happy. This is most obviously
seen in media presentations of Buddhist-derived forms of meditation. For example, scholar Robert
Sharf argues that in the West, Buddhism is commonly seen as a “science of happiness” and
“Buddhist practice is reduced to meditation, and meditation, in turn, is reduced to mindfulness,
which is touted as a therapeutic practice that leads to an emotionally fulfilling and rewarding life.”14
Well-known spiritual leaders and meditation teachers are also promoted by the popular media as
symbols of happiness. For example, TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was dubbed ‘the giggling
guru,’ and news stories often featured images of Mahesh laughing.15 More recently, French-born
Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard has been referred to by journalists as “the happiest person in the
world.”16 Ricard has been given this title because brain scans have demonstrated excessive activity in
his brain’s left prefrontal cortex, indicating an abnormally large capacity for experiencing happiness
and a reduced tendency towards negativity. However, Ricard himself says that while he is a
generally happy person, the title “happiest person in the world” is a media-driven headline that he
10
J. Cho, “How Meditation Increases Happiness,” Forbes, 5 March (2016), accessed 6 May 2018:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeenacho/2016/03/05/increase-happiness-and-sense-of-well-being-through-
meditation/#18d4697a2adb.
11
R. Puff, “Meditation Will Make You Smarter (and Happier),” Psychology Today, 15 September (2013),
accessed 6 May 2018: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/meditation-modern-
life/201309/meditation-will-make-you-smarter-and-happier.
12
S. Knapton, “Grow Your Own Happiness: How Meditation Physically Changes the Brain,” The Telegraph, 20
November (2015), accessed 6 May 2018: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-
news/12008698/Grow-your-own-happiness-how-meditation-physically-changes-the-brain.html.
13
S. Ahmed, "The Happiness Turn," New Formations 63, no. 1 (2007): 7-14. Also, Edelglass argues that the
pursuit of happiness can be understood in terms of the “triumph of the therapeutic.” A decline in faith means
that Westerners have “nothing larger than themselves” to provide them with values. Hence, all that is left is
the pursuit of personal happiness and wellbeing. W. Edelglass, “Buddhism, Happiness, and the Science of
Meditation,” in Meditation, Buddhism, and Science, eds. D.L. McMahan and E. Braun (New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2017), 80.
14
R.H. Sharf, "Is Mindfulness Buddhist? (and Why it Matters)," Transcultural Psychiatry 52, no. 4 (2015): 472.
15
S. Shunsky, “The Beatles and the Guru,” USA Today, January 2018, accessed 6 May 2018:
http://www.divinerevelation.org/USATodayMagBeatles.pdf.
16
A. Barnes, “The Happiest Man in the World?,” The Independent, 21 January (2007), accessed 6 May 2018:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-happiest-man-in-the-world-433063.html.
98
finds “absurd.”17 Nevertheless, such sensational headlines bestow scientific authority onto the idea
that meditation increases happiness, and ‘increased happiness’ has become one of the key ways in
which secular meditation is marketed.18
The ‘tranquil meditator’ is another popular media trope. Scott Mitchell coined this term to describe
a reoccurring character in US media representations of Buddhism. The tranquil meditator is usually
presented as a Western female, seated in a version of the lotus position, meditating by herself in
solitude.19 Mitchell argues that this character points towards a “vague and ill-defined Asian
spirituality or mysticism that is directly tied to a calm, centering, and relaxed state of mind.”20 Seen
across a variety of media, the tranquil meditator reinforces the popular mainstream view of
meditation as a seated practice that is associated with happiness and relaxation, and engaged in for
secular pragmatic purposes.
While it is true that numerous scientific studies have shown a correlation between some meditation
practices and increased levels of happiness and wellbeing, media headlines tend to exaggerate
positive outcomes and obscure the challenges that occur in meditation research. As discussed
earlier, there are methodological issues in meditation research, including difficulties in operationally
defining meditation, and limitations regarding technology such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
and magnetoencephalography.21 While such problems are not limited to meditation research, and
are in fact common to psychological science and neuroscience in general, the media’s disregard of
these issues has led to two rapidly diverging discourses regarding meditation: scientific consensus
and the popular press coverage regarding that consensus.22
17
M. Ricard, “Matthieu Ricard - Why Are You Called the Happiest Man in the World? 1 of 5,” Matthieu Ricard,
accessed 6 May 2018: http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/medias/matthieu-ricard-why-are-you-called-the-
happiest-man-in-the-world-1-of-5. M. Paterniti, “The World's Happiest Man Wishes You Wouldn't Call Him
That,” GQ, 13 October (2016), accessed 6 May 2018: https://www.gq.com/story/happiest-man-in-the-world-
matthieu-ricard.
K. Gander, “The World’s Happiest Man Reveals What Makes Him Unhappy,” The Independent, 17 October
(2016), accessed 6 May 2018: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/matthieu-ricard-
worlds-happiest-man-unhappy-buddhist-nepal-book-photographer-a7365191.html.
18
Per Drougge writes: “It is not that long ago since Western textbooks would describe Buddhism as a life-
denying, pessimistic, or nihilistic religion. While it is easy to dismiss such descriptions today, we should perhaps
ask ourselves if our current image of Buddhism has not gone too far in the opposite direction. In recent
decades, Buddhism has often been presented as a kind of ‘happiness project,’ symbolized by laughing monks
rather than stern, emaciated ascetics.” P. Drougge, “Notes Toward a Coming Backlash: Mindfulness as an
Opiate of the Middle Classes,” in Handbook Of Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, eds. R.E.
Purser, D. Forbes and A. Burke (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016), 175.
19
S. Mitchell, “The Tranquil Meditator: Representing Buddhism and Buddhists in US Popular Media,” Religion
Compass 8, no.3 (2014): 84.
20
Mitchell, “The Tranquil Meditator,” 84.
21
Van Dam et al., “Mind the Hype,” 37; 51.
22
L. Heuman, “Don’t Believe the Hype: An Interview with Catherine Kerr,” Tricycle, 1 October (2014), accessed
6 May 2018: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/dont-believe-hype/.
99
Scholars have argued that this disparity is partly due to communication issues between scientists
and journalists. Over the past 30 years, ‘science’ (in the form of scientific organisations and their
members) has developed a closer relationship with the mass media, and is more responsive to the
priorities and needs of media organisations.23 Additionally, with the growth of online media, there
has been a personalisation of scientific communication whereby scientists can increasingly bypass
traditional media channels and convey information directly to the public via personal websites,
blogs, and social media networks.24 These more direct personal communications avoid the regular
barriers associated with specialist communication with the mass media, and content is controlled by
the scientist-communicator. As a result, the tone of this type of communication is often more
conversational, and there may be an emphasis on pragmatic applications and personal experiences,
rather than published research findings.25
In the case of mindfulness research, it has been noted that many scientists in this area have a
‘double identity’ both as scientists and practitioners of the meditation techniques that they study.
Further, these scientists may differ in their professional and popular communications regarding
mindfulness. For example, the research literature suggests there is a lot of uncertainty concerning
the benefits of mindfulness, and studies often emphasise the existence of knowledge gaps, poor
methodological design, and the preliminary nature of many research findings. Further, where
positive psychological and physiological effects of mindfulness are reported, the neural mechanisms
underlying these effects are still regarded as being largely unknown and poorly understood, and
researchers admit that the neuroscientific study of meditation is “still in its infancy.”26 Hence,
academic papers on mindfulness commonly point out methodological flaws and limitations, and call
for more methodologically rigorous studies.
However, this level of uncertainty is not present to the same degree in more personalised, popular
scientific accounts of mindfulness meditation, which generally give the impression that mindfulness
is unquestionably effective. Popular scientific accounts often emphasise the “revolutionary” and
“cutting edge” nature of meditation research, and suggest that with neuroscientific studies of
23
This increasingly personalised relationship between science and the media has been criticised by some as a
movement towards marketization and politicisation, and concerns have been raised regarding the possible
increased risk of hype and dishonesty in science-journalist communication. For example, Eklöf posits that being
visible in the media may help scientists gain social and political legitimacy, boost scientific citations, and serve
as a way to publicly settle academic disputes.
24
J. Eklöf, “Saving the World: Personalized Communication of Mindfulness Neuroscience,” in Handbook Of
Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, eds. R.E. Purser, D. Forbes and A. Burke (Cham,
Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016), 324.
25
Eklöf, “Saving the World,” 325.
26
100
meditation, we are “witnessing something like a paradigmatic revolution in science and medicine.”27
Rather than pointing out methodological limitations, popular accounts of mindfulness use science as
a symbol of validity; self-help books, blog posts and websites commonly note that mindfulness
meditation is “science based” and has been tested in the “rigorous” setting of the neuroscience
laboratory.28 Additionally, a common theme that runs throughout the popularised scientific
mindfulness literature is that meditation practice is an integral part of the lives of those conducting
or communicating the research. Eklöf cites the example of Richard Davidson’s book The Emotional
Life of Your Brain, in which the author recounts his own personal story of “coming out of the closet”
as a meditator, and his “personal and scientific transformation” as a result of meditation practice.29
Such personal endorsements from highly accomplished and esteemed scientists provide further
legitimacy to the effectiveness of meditation and help to eclipse the shortcomings of actual scientific
research. As Eklöf writes:
the [scientist] communicators become bridges between the inner and the outer spheres of
science, between knowledge production and its reception, and between supposedly pure
science and the specific tools, techniques, and practices offered for use in medicine and
everyday life. This “practical” neuroscience is presented as being evidence-based, even
though research in the field is judged to be in its infancy. The personal experiences of the
experts therefore play an important role for negotiating whether these practices are
“scientific enough.”30
In the article ‘Mind the Hype,’ Van Dam and colleagues call for more “truth in advertising” from
contemplative researchers, particularly regarding the limitations of mindfulness studies.31 However,
even when scientists caution about the limitations of meditation research, journalists who are
seeking a sensational headline may ‘cherry pick’ research that supports their agenda, or greatly
oversimplify scientific studies.32 For example, in an interview with Tricycle magazine, neuroscientist
Catherine Kerr cites the example of Sara Lazar’s 2005 paper “Meditation Experience is Associated
with Increased Cortical Thickness.”33 While the findings from this paper were preliminary, Kerr
argues that it was oversold by the media. In an article on career website The Muse titled ‘A
Neuroscientist-Approved Brain Trick That Can Help You Make Better Career Decisions,’ Lazar’s
27
28
29
30
31
Van Dam et al., “Mind the Hype,” 51.
32
33
S.W. Lazar et al. “Meditation Experience is Associated with Increased Cortical Thickness.” Neuroreport, 16,
no.17 (2005): 1893–1897.
101
research study is cited as support for the claim that meditation can lead to a “stronger brain.” The
article notes:
Neuroscientist Sara Lazar found that regular meditation is associated with increases in the
brain’s cortical thickness—in other words, likely a stronger brain—in regions related to
cognitive and emotional processing.34
Examples such as this demonstrate how oversimplified reporting of meditation research findings can
result in captivating headlines, but also lead to exaggerated claims that are not supported by the
underlying science. Further, sensational stories tend to get circulated virally via social media
channels. Kerr writes:
The Huffington Post is the worst offender. The message they deliver becomes a ubiquitous,
circulating meme that people put up on their Facebook pages and that becomes “true”
through repetition alone. The Huffington Post features mindfulness a lot and tends to
represent only the positive findings (and in the most positive light imaginable) rather than
offering a balanced reading of the science.35
In terms of real-world effects, the exaggeration of meditation’s benefits may lead to an ‘undue
societal urgency’ to take up secular meditation practices.36 Specifically, overly simplified media
reporting may mislead people to think that meditation is a broad-based panacea, when in fact,
specific interventions may only be helpful for particular people in certain circumstances. As a result,
meditation could be viewed as more effective than it really is, or utilised for conditions that it was
never designed to treat. People who self-diagnose based on media reports, and seek meditation to
treat unrelated problems may be at best wasting their time and money, and at worst, putting
themselves at risk of adverse effects.37 Most worryingly, when the media portrays meditation as a
universal cure-all, it can lead people to abandon effective and appropriate medical treatments and
replace them with un-tested meditation practices. Kerr says:
I’ve heard reports of people who have abandoned chemotherapy to do mindfulness. I don’t
know if that has really happened. Certainly there are people who go off their
antidepressants or lithium and think that mindfulness is going to manage their serious
depression or bipolar disorder. That’s a concern we have with the current hype around
34
J. Earls, “A Neuroscientist-Approved Brain Trick That Can Help You Make Better Career Decisions,” The Muse.
Accessed 4 October 2018: https://www.themuse.com/advice/a-neuroscientistapproved-brain-trick-that-can-
help-you-make-better-career-decisions.
35
L. Heuman, “Don’t Believe the Hype.”
36
37
102
mindfulness. People might see it as being more active than it really is. It doesn’t resolve
those situations.38
Sensationalistic reporting on meditation creates larger problems for secular meditation and
meditation-based interventions as a whole. Specifically, there is the risk that misinformation and
excessive hype could eventually lead to a backlash and widespread public mistrust of meditation.
Indeed, the few popular news headlines regarding possible adverse effects of meditation have been
equally as sensationalist as the positive ones. Recent examples from major news sites include “What
Mindfulness Gurus Won’t Tell You: Meditation Has a Dark Side,”39 “Is Mindfulness Making Us Ill?,”40
and “Dangers of Meditation.”41 While sensationalist stories that promote meditation as a cure-all
may result in adverse effects for some specific groups, headlines that promote fear mongering at the
expense of informed debate could equally lead to adverse effects in that many people who would
actually benefit from meditation will miss out. Hence, balanced media reporting on meditation
reduces harm for all involved.
Celebrity Gurus and Celebrities Meditating
It is worth briefly mentioning that the familiarisation and positive reception of meditation in the
West has been heavily facilitated by celebrity influence. From the late nineteenth century to the
present, Western meditation has had a strong association with celebrity, in the form of both
celebrity gurus and celebrity meditators. The Theosophical Society, one of the earliest Western
proponents of Eastern meditation, was founded in New York in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
(1831-1891) and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), who were both celebrities of the era.42
Western meditation narratives have also tended to focus on charismatic spiritual leaders and
meditation teachers such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (also known as Osho;
1931-1990), Daisetz T. Suzuki, Chogyam Trungpa and His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama. These individuals have been portrayed by the media as exceptional characters, endowed
with extraordinary qualities, and have become celebrities themselves.43
38
L. Heuman, “Don’t Believe the Hype.”
39
M. Farias and C. Wikholm, “What Mindfulness Gurus Won’t Tell You: Meditation Has a Dark Side,” Spectator
Health, 11 March (2016), accessed 7 May 2018: https://health.spectator.co.uk/what-mindfulness-gurus-dont-
tell-you-meditation-has-a-dark-side/.
40
D. Foster, “Is Mindfulness Making Us Ill?,” The Guardian, 23 January (2016), accessed 7 May 2018:
41
I. Ivtzan, “Dangers of Meditation,” Psychology Today, 11 March (2016), accessed 7 May 2018.
42
C. M. Cusack, “The Western Reception of Buddhism: Celebrity and Popular Cultural Media as Agents of
Familiarisation,” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 24, no. 3 (2011): 298.
43
J. Borup, “Branding Buddha – Mediatized and Commodified Buddhism as Cultural Narrative,” Journal of
Global Buddhism 17 (2016): 41-55.
103
TM has had a large celebrity following which began with The Beatles, 44 and has continued more
recently with Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch, who has established a charitable foundation
dedicated to fund the teaching of TM, and other high-profile celebrity supporters including Katy
Perry,45 Russell Brand,46 Hugh Jackman,47 Jerry Seinfeld,48 Moby,49 and Naomi Watts.50 In 2003,
actress Goldie Hawn created The Hawn Foundation, which teaches mindfulness practices to children,
and she has published three popular books on mindfulness: A Lotus Grows in the Mud, 10 Mindful
Minutes, and the follow-up, 10 Mindful Minutes: A Journal.51 Athletes also tout the benefits of
meditation. Stephen Curry, an American professional basketball player reportedly practices
mindfulness exercises, and LeBron James famously meditated during a timeout in the 2012 NBA
playoffs.52 Meditation is also popular amongst high profile CEOs, including hip-hop mogul Russell
Simmons,53 hedge fund founder Ray Dalio,54 and Rupert Murdoch, who in 2013 tweeted that he was
“trying to learn transcendental meditation.”55 Scientists themselves - usually white male middle-
class American neuroscientists, such as Richard Davidson or Rick Hanson - can also become popular
celebrity figures, or ‘secular priests.’ The majority of these celebrities promote meditation as a
secular practice, removed from any particular religion. Popular celebrity accounts are also focused
on ‘success’ stories - how meditation has contributed to increased health, happiness and success -
and not stories of how meditation has failed people.
44
A. Ross, “How Meditation Went Mainstream,” TIME, 9 March (2016), accessed 7 May 2018:
http://time.com/4246928/meditation-history-buddhism/.
45
K. Gander, “Katy Perry Says She Treats Her Anxiety With Meditation, Not Prescription Drugs,” Newsweek, 28
April (2018), accessed 14 May 2018: http://www.newsweek.com/katy-perry-904893.
46
I. Aleksander, “Look Who’s Meditating Now,” New York Times, 18 March (2011), accessed 7 May 2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/fashion/20TM.html.
47
N.E. Rosenthal, “How Meditation Changed Hugh Jackman's Life,” Oprah, 26 May (2016), accessed 7 May
2018: http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/how-meditation-changed-hugh-jackmans-life.
48
M. Garvey, B. Niemietz and O. Coleman, “Even While Filming a Commercial, Meditation is Job One for Jerry
Seinfeld,” New York Daily News, 17 November (2014), accessed 7 May 2018:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/seinfeld-meditation-job-article-1.2013166.
49
Aleksander, “Look Who’s Meditating Now,” New York Times.
50
G. Pringle, “Naomi Watts on 'While We're Young', Her Roots and Being a Mum,” The Independent, 30 March
(2015), accessed 7 May 2018: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/naomi-
watts-on-while-were-young-her-roots-and-being-a-mum-10144541.html.
51
The Hawn Foundation, accessed 7 May 2018: https://mindup.org/thehawnfoundation/.
52
“LeBron’s Meditation During the Timeout,” YouTube, accessed 8 May 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCR7OfRuQd4.
53
A. Valiente, “Russell Simmons on How Meditation Changed His Life, His Relationship With Donald Trump,”
ABC News, 26 April (2017), accessed 7 May 2018: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/russell-simmons-
meditation-changed-life-relationship-donald-trump/story?id=47036252.
54
J. La Roche, “Ray Dalio Founded One Of The World's Biggest Hedge Funds And Says Meditation Makes Him
Feel 'Like A Ninja In A Fight,'” Business Insider, 13 February (2014), accessed 7 May 2018:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ray-dalio-2014-2?r=US&IR=T.
55
Wellness, “Rupert Murdoch Is Giving Transcendental Meditation A Try,” The Huffington Post, 23 April (2013),
accessed 7 May 2018: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/rupert-murdoch-meditation-
transcendental_n_3131268.html.
104
The reason this is of interest, is because celebrities are important sources of influence, and hence
affect the way that meditation is represented and understood in contemporary Western society.
Historically, news coverage of celebrities was mainly confined to tabloids, magazines and special
sections of newspapers. However today, with the recent democratisation of the media and the rise
of the twenty four hour news cycle, celebrity news is a widespread phenomenon and can be found
across the entire media landscape. Scholars have argued that celebrity news has become pervasive
to the extent that it constitutes a “new normality,” and stories about celebrities are often presented
in the popular media as if they were as significant as traditional news.56 Because of their fame,
celebrities are able to “spotlight” issues; that is, they generate large amounts of attention and
publicity due to their high visibility, public interest, and the perceived newsworthiness of their
message. In addition to being able to gain the public’s attention, studies have shown that messages
delivered by well-known celebrities also achieve a high degree of recall for some consumers and
hence may lead to an increased intention to purchase a celebrity-endorsed product or service.57 For
example, in the case of Tibetan Buddhism, Jeffrey Paine argues that the Dalai Lama “has worked like
a billboard for Tibetan Buddhism and created a ‘market’ for it where there was none.” 58
Additionally, when celebrities speak about issues of public importance, they often have a level of
credibility and influence that rivals or exceeds traditional sources including scientists, politicians and
medical professionals.59 Celebrities may be successful influencers because consumers see in them
attributes they admire and want to emulate. For many people, celebrities possess attractive qualities
and high status, and represent important social or cultural meanings. Marketing researchers posit
that a celebrity’s attractive qualities are symbolically ‘transferred’ to the product they endorse,
making it appear more desirable; a process that marketers refer to as ‘meaning transfer.’60 People
will then consume the product in the hopes of acquiring the celebrities’ positive traits. Some
researchers have also described a ‘halo effect’ whereby the predominant positive trait of a celebrity
biases how all his or her other traits and behaviours are perceived.61 This combination of publicity
and influence explains how celebrities successfully persuade audiences and directly influence public
56
A. Dubied and T. Hanitzsch, "Studying Celebrity News." Journalism 15, no. 2 (2014): 137-143.
57
R. Ohanian, "The Impact of Celebrity Spokespersons' Perceived Image on Consumers' Intention to Purchase."
Journal of Advertising Research 31, no. 1 (1991): 46-54.
58
J. Paine, Re-Enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West (New York, NY: Norton, 2004), 186.
59
M. Harvey, Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion, and Issue-Based Advocacy. Lawrence. Kansas: University
Press of Kansas, 2017.
Also, a study has shown that celebrity endorsement even extends to the acceptance of evolution, a scientific
theory. S. Arnocky, et al. "Celebrity Opinion Influences Public Acceptance of Human Evolution." Evolutionary
Psychology 16, no. 3 (2018): 1-11.
60
S.J. Hoffman and C. Tan, “Biological, Psychological and Social Processes that Explain Celebrities’ Influence on
Patients’ Health-related Behaviors.” Archives of Public Health 72, no. 3 (2015): 1-11.
61
Hoffman and Tan, “Biological, Psychological,” 5.
105
opinion and behaviour.62 Celebrities can act as powerful agents in the dissemination of information,
and hence celebrity endorsement is a highly effective vehicle for the positive promotion and
mainstreaming of meditation techniques. While celebrity endorsement of meditation is no doubt
well-meaning, the combined factors of high visibility and influence, perceived credibility, and
ubiquitously positive content all contribute to an overly positive view of meditation that overlooks
adverse effects.
Meditation as a Commodity
The overly positive image of meditation in the popular media has also been influenced by market
demand for a commodified form of secular meditation. Scholars have argued that as the traditional
religious institutions that, until recently, provided meaning and guidelines for how to live, are now
losing their influence, the remaining void is being filled by the consumption of therapeutic goods and
services.63 Additionally, while the influence of organised religion is declining there has been a
growing commercialisation of ‘religion’ in the form of ‘spirituality,’ resulting in the emergence of a
spiritual marketplace.64 Further, the proliferation of popular news media articles about meditation,
together with a focus on the physical and psychological benefits of the practice, suggests an
“enthusiasm on the part of the public” to learn how to alleviate their personal issues with a ‘spiritual
but not religious’ meditation practice.65 For example, Lauricella argues that the popularity of news
stories that position meditation as a form of ‘spiritual hygiene’ may be indicative of a sociocultural
shift whereby meditation is becoming increasingly accepted, encouraged, and practiced. As a result
of these factors, secular meditation has found a place in both therapeutic culture and the spiritual
marketplace, and ‘meditation as self-help’ is a booming commercial industry, generating hundreds
of millions of dollars in annual revenue.66
Outside of the purely clinical domain, mainstream commodified meditation is generally presented as
a technique for either self-care or self-improvement.67 In medicine, the term ‘self-care’ originated in
62
Including health behaviour. See R. Stevens and J. Rusby, "’The Angelina Effect’: The Effect of High Profile
Media Coverage on Referrals to a Family History Breast Clinic." European Journal of Surgical Oncology 40, no. 5
(2014): 643-643.
63
Rieff argues that a decline in faith has left Westerners without transcendent goods, with nothing larger than
themselves to provide values and meaning. Hence, personal happiness is the supreme goal. P. Rieff, The
Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006 [1966]).
64
J.R. Carrette and R. King, Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion (London and New York:
Routledge, 2005).
65
66
D. Gelles, “The Hidden Price of Mindfulness Inc.,” New York Times, March 19 (2016), accessed 12 April 2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/sunday/the-hidden-price-of-mindfulness-inc.html.
67
While this thesis focuses on meditation for self-care and self-improvement, meditation may also be
undertaken as a form of spiritual ‘seeking;’ that is, as a strategy for uncovering an ‘authentic self.’ For example,
Lockwood (2012) discusses how in the West, cultural shifts of late modernity have resulted in an internalising
106
reference to the self-management of illness; namely, its treatment and prevention. However, more
recently the term has become a popular buzzword used to refer to a variety of democratised
strategies for attending to the self, with the goal of maintaining or optimising health.68 The discourse
around self-care has emerged as part of a broader cultural interest in ‘wellness,’ indicated by a
collective shift away from total reliance on the medical establishment in matters of health, and
toward the idea that the individual can take responsibility for their own wellbeing.69 The interest in
wellness and self-care is reflected in the current contemporary Western fascination with natural
products, and the rising popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).70 Within this
context, meditation is often viewed as a self-care practice, similar to engaging in regular exercise or
having a relaxing bath.71
In the spiritual marketplace, secular meditation is also promoted as a tool for self-improvement.
Self-improvement is a dominant narrative in modern Western culture, and the idea of bettering
oneself, often in relation to one’s resilience and productivity, is central to contemporary Western
neoliberal values. The link between meditation and self-improvement can be traced back to early
interactions between Buddhism and the West. For example, Richard Payne posits that since its
earliest introduction into Western society, Buddhism has been integrated as a form of self-
improvement. He writes:
of the sacred, and “a soteriological relocation from a salvation based in eternity and proffered by external
grace to one that is imminent, worldly, and obtained through internal experience.” In this context,
commodified forms of meditation may be used as techniques for finding a sacred or ‘authentic’ self. R.D.
Lockwood “Pilgrimages to the Self: Exploring the Topography of Western Consumer Spirituality through ‘the
Journey,’” Literature & Aesthetics 22, no. 1 (2012): 108-130.
68
Democratised in the sense that these strategies are no longer the sole domain of the medical establishment.
See C. Partridge, The Re-enchantment of West: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and
Occulture (London: T&T Clark International, 2004), 4.
69
Scholars have also attempted to explain the turn towards the holistic through themes of dis-enchantment
with Western medicine, romanticised New Age orientalism, and a desire to find a substitute for the meaning
and solace that was once found in traditional religion. There is also an implied neoliberal subtext in the self-
care discourse; one must be as ‘well’ as possible in order to be able to produce as efficiently as possible, and
hence produce a sustainable profit.
R. Kuang, “The Neoliberal Trap of the Self-Care Rhetoric,” Huffington Post, 22 April (2016). Accessed 4 October
2018: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuang/the-neoliberal-trap-of-th_b_9751594.html.
70
This is part of a widespread lifestyle shift that has been informed by a number of factors including increased
environmental awareness, distrust of pharmaceuticals, and improved access to health information. See C.
Gunther Brown, The Healing Gods: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian America (New York,
NY: Oxford University Press, 2013).
71
L. Vrcek, “How to Take Care of Your Mind Like You’re Getting Paid for It,” Headspace blog, accessed 10
October 2018: https://www.headspace.com/blog/2016/07/18/how-to-take-care-of-your-mind-like-youre-
getting-paid-for-it/.
N. Theodore, “The Perspective Shift That'll Totally Transform Your Self-Care Practice,” MindBodyGreen,
accessed 10 October 2018: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-24458/the-perspective-shift-thatll-totally-
transform-your-selfcare-practice.html.
107
The culture of self-improvement has appropriated Buddhism as a part of a century and a half
long fascination with the exotic in general, and the “Mystic East” and its “ancient wisdom” in
particular. And, Euro-American proponents of Buddhism have themselves made use of the
self-improvement culture as a ready-made vehicle for promoting Buddhism. Some might
justify this by claiming that since the origins in the sangha that formed around Śākyamuni,
Buddhism has been a self-improvement program, or perhaps even the original self-
improvement program.72
While no longer explicitly linked to Buddhism, secular commodified forms of meditation are now
frequently presented as tools or resources upon which people can draw on in order to improve
themselves and their lives. A variety of coaches, counsellors and personal trainers all sell secular
meditation-based products and services, and popular self-improvement tropes position meditation
as a form of ‘mind hacking’ or ‘mental fitness.’ Secular meditation is particularly prevalent in the ‘life
hacking’ or ‘quantified self’ movement. Individuals who identify with these movements have the
ultimate goal of enhancing themselves, and they track various aspects of their lives in order to
improve (or “hack”) them.73 Specifically, lifehackers engage in the collection and analysis of personal
information, as this data is thought to provide an important source of knowledge regarding the self.
Within these movements meditation is often viewed as a form of ‘brain training’ and at the time of
writing, a search for the term ‘meditation’ on the Bulletproof blog of popular performance-
improvement entrepreneur and ‘biohacker’ Dave Asprey returned 413 results. 74 The association
between meditation and ‘mental fitness’ is also a common theme, and analogies are often drawn
between mental fitness and physical fitness.75 For example, an article on meditation website
Headspace notes:
like physical fitness, mind fitness can be strengthened through attention and concentration
practices (i.e. meditation) that literally change the brain structurally and functionally – a
process called neuroplasticity. Just like you build up muscle strength to prevent injury or
72
R.K. Payne, “Mindfulness and the Moral Imperative for the Self to Improve the Self.” In Handbook Of
Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, ed. R.E. Purser, D. Forbes and A. Burke (Cham,
Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016): 126.
73
A. Wexler, "The Social Context of "do-it-Yourself" Brain Stimulation: Neurohackers, Biohackers, and
Lifehackers." Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 11, (2017): 224.
74
Bulletproof Blog, website accessed 4 October 2018: https://blog.bulletproof.com/.
Also, A New York Times magazine article notes that as part of his campaign of self-improvement, Asprey went
to Tibet to study meditation. J. Wortham, “You, Only Better,” The New York Times Magazine, 10 November
(2015). Accessed 4 October 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/magazine/you-only-
better.html?_r=1.
75
Bulletproof Staff, “The 7-Day Resilience Challenge: Build Mental Toughness for a Happier Life,” Bulletproof
Blog, 18 April (2017). Accessed 10 October 2018: https://blog.bulletproof.com/7-day-resilience-challenge-
build-mental-toughness-happier-life/.
108
weakness, mind fitness builds resiliency that leads to faster recovery from psychological
stress … Think of it like hitting the gym.76
In this context meditation is practiced in the pursuit of mental strength and resilience; it is a tool for
dealing with the demands of society, and a technique for developing attention, concentration and
self-discipline, which can then be put towards enhanced productivity.
Critics of commodified forms of meditation (sometimes referred to as “McMindfulness”) have

argued that meditation, when used in order to achieve specific operational objectives such as
increased productivity and performance, loses its core transformational function; that is, its ability to
alleviate fundamental suffering for individuals and communities.77 While this is a valid concern, and
is broadly related to the topic of meditation adverse effects, this thesis will not go into detail
regarding this argument here since others have written about it at length elsewhere.78 However,
there are two issues related to the commodification of meditation that are directly relevant to the
question of why meditation adverse effects have been ignored. The first is the issue of profit versus
quality control. A basic consequence of ‘meditation as commodity’ is that meditation-related
businesses exist primarily to make a profit. While meditation-related businesses may profess their
desire to alleviate suffering, help others or change the world, the potential for profit is generally the
primary motive for any entrepreneurial activity. Further, meditation-related businesses operate in a
highly competitive industry with relatively low barriers to entry, and these conditions make it
essential to stay competitive at all costs. As a result, it is often the meditation-related businesses and
apps that are the most successful at marketing that succeed - not necessarily the ones that are the
most well-informed. As Jeff Wilson notes:
Quality control becomes ever harder to enforce as profits accrue to those who can best gain
customers through savvy marketing and product design—these do not necessarily mean
that the products are of low quality, but customers flock to products that have the slickest
ads or apps with the nicest interface, which are not guaranteed to be those with the most
reliable instructors or deepest understanding of meditation. 79
76
C. Aguirre, “Mindfulness and Mental Toughness,” Headspace, accessed 15 May 2018:
https://www.headspace.com/blog/2015/01/17/mindfulness-and-mental-toughness/.
77
P. Doran, “McMindfulness: Buddhism as Sold to You by Neoliberals,” The Conversation, 24 February (2018),
accessed 16 April 2018: https://theconversation.com/mcmindfulness-buddhism-as-sold-to-you-by-neoliberals-
88338.
78
T. Hyland, “McDonaldizing Spirituality: Mindfulness, Education, and Consumerism,” Journal of
79
J. Wilson, “Selling Mindfulness: Commodity Lineages and the Marketing of Mindful Products,” in Handbook
Of Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, eds. R.E. Purser et al. (Cham, Switzerland: Springer
International Publishing, 2016), 119.
109
Particularly in the case of meditation apps, the focus is on providing a superior user interface
experience, and not on informing the public about the complex nuances of contemplative
techniques. For example, the Calm app (which promotes itself as “The #1 App for Meditation and
Sleep”), has a ‘Help Center’ page that is concerned with topics regarding technical trouble shooting,
subscription management, and billing; at the time of writing this article there was no mention
anywhere on the website of possible contraindications or adverse effects associated with
meditation. Within the Calm app, secular meditation is promoted as a technique “that strengthens
mental fitness and tackles some of the biggest mental health challenges of today: stress, anxiety,
insomnia and depression.”80 In a recent interview with The Guardian, Calm founder, Michael Acton
Smith, describes meditation as a “relatively simple ancient skill” that is equivalent to “mental
fitness.”81 Further, a recent CNBC article about Calm notes the ways in which the business plans to
grow:
As of three months ago, Calm had about 20 employees running what Acton Smith described
as a very profitable digital business with grand ambitions to expand well beyond guided
meditation and become a giant consumer brand. Physical world products like books,
clothing, a Calm Hotel and perhaps a Calm Island someday are all part of the vision. He
called Calm the "Nike of the mind."
The company already has a $30 sleep mist, "which users can spray on their pillow to aid
sleep, while listening to a bedtime story specifically designed to accompany it," according to
a press release from July. Acton Smith also published a book called "Calm" in 2016. 82
Articles like this demonstrate that when secular meditation becomes a business, the focus is on
brand building and diversified revenue streams. Currently, meditation apps and businesses appear
to give little attention to the complexities associated with meditation practice, including potential
contraindications and adverse effects. Perhaps this is because it is commercially advantageous for
meditation-related businesses to promote meditation to the media as a simple panacea and to avoid
discussing any negative side effects. As one of the few recent news articles on meditation adverse
effects notes: “Meditation and mindfulness are big business, and distressed meditators aren’t a
80
Calm website. Accessed 17 October 2018: https://support.calm.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002474527-
What-is-Calm-.
81
I. Tucker, “Michael Acton Smith: ‘We Want to Show Meditation is Common Sense.’” The Guardian, 8 October
(2017), accessed 17 December 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/08/michael-acton-
smith-meditation-common-sense-moshi-monsters-calm-app.
82
A. Levy, “This Meditation App is Now Worth $250 Million and has Trump-related Stress to Thank.” CNBC, 26
March (2018), accessed 17 October 2018: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/26/calm-raising-over-25-million-
from-insight-at-250-million-valuation.html.
110
good sales pitch.”83 The article goes on to cite scholar and meditation adverse effects expert
Willoughby Britton, who suggests that commercial interests are a contributing factor in the under-
reporting of meditation adverse effects: “One of the teachers told me that it’s not good advertising
to talk about these side-effects, so it has been under-reported,” Willoughby said.84
However, it is also possible that secular meditation businesses portray an overly positive image of
meditation simply due to a lack of knowledge and experience regarding meditation practices. In the
marketplace, the highly experienced and ordained meditation teacher is regularly being replaced by
the coach, counsellor or entrepreneur, and secular meditation instructors come from a variety of
spiritual, personal development and other backgrounds. In commercial contexts, anyone can call
themselves a meditation teacher, and business acumen may be more relevant than years of
personal meditation experience and deep knowledge regarding the complexities of practice. The
spectrum of secular meditation teachers varies considerably. There are teachers such as Shinzen
Young, who has studied meditation for over fifty years, holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies and has lived
as a Shingon (Japanese Vajrayana) monk for three years at Mount Koya, Japan.85 Alternatively there
are teachers who may have substantially less personal experience and who have learned how to
teach meditation in a four day teacher training ‘intensive.’86 Hence, given the varying experience and
diverse backgrounds of secular meditation teachers, it is likely that many teachers have limited
knowledge or training in the area of meditation adverse effects and are simply unaware of the full
variety of possible meditative experiences. These teachers may have the capacity to teach the
beginning levels of meditation practice, but lack experience regarding more complicated issues such
as contraindications, possible complications and adverse effects.
Conclusion
This chapter has discussed several factors that have led to an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of
meditation in the popular media, and how these factors have contributed to meditation adverse
effects being overlooked and under-reported. Specifically, the media has tended to present
meditation as a simple, celebrity-endorsed, side-effect free pathway to happiness and wellbeing.
This view has been influenced by both popular scientist-practitioner accounts of meditation and
sensationalist reporting by journalists. Additionally, the commodification of meditation, or
83
J. Lauder, “"Nothing Bad Can Happen:" What Happens When Meditation Goes Wrong.” Triple J HACK, 12 July
(2018), accessed 17 October 2018: https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/meditation-
negatives/9987132.
84
Lauder, “Nothing Bad Can Happen.”
85
Shinzen Young, website accessed 10 October 2018: https://www.shinzen.org/.
86
An online search for meditation teacher training courses reveals a variety of courses ranging from 4 days to
6 weeks or more in duration.
111
‘meditation as commodity’ has also played a role. Meditation-related businesses and services also
tend to promote meditation as a type of panacea that is harmless, suitable for anyone, and that may
be of particular help to those with mental health issues. While this is likely based in good intentions,
meditation-related businesses that prioritise profits over quality control and that focus on marketing
rather than an in-depth knowledge of the meditation practices that they promote, also contribute to
both an inaccurate portrayal of meditation and the ignorance regarding meditation adverse effects.
112
Chapter 5. Conclusion
Thus, my point is that meditation is no panacea – it is strongly indicated in some cases, mildly in
others, and clearly contraindicated in others. The precise guidelines for these discriminations have
yet to be worked out. – Arnold A. Lazarus.87
An analysis of the available data suggests that there are adverse effects associated with meditation,
and that these adverse effects have been largely overlooked by the academic literature on
meditation, and until very recently, largely unheard of in the mainstream media. Evidence from a
variety of sources suggests that meditation may be associated with distressing and challenging side
effects that in many cases appear similar to, but may be fundamentally different from,
psychopathology. An under-reporting of meditation adverse effects raises serious concerns
regarding the possible risks associated with the use of meditation in both clinical and non-clinical
populations. This issue is particularly relevant given the current popularity of secular meditation
practices in a large variety of non-traditional settings including therapy, education and the
workplace. Hence, it is important to understand why meditation adverse effects have been
overlooked or ignored.
This thesis has argued that meditation adverse effects have been overlooked in so-called secular
settings because in these settings, the goal of meditation has shifted from the traditional religious
goal of enlightenment, to a focus on symptom relief and personal transformation. This shift has been
informed by the relationship between Western psychology and Eastern contemplative practices. An
examination of this relationship reveals a number of themes that have informed how meditation is
viewed in the contemporary West. Firstly, within the psychological context, meditation has been
conceptualised as a type of panacea; that is, a technique with potentials that go beyond traditional
psychotherapy. Viewing meditation in this way has meant that any meditation-related adverse
effects that might occur are possibly misattributed to the therapeutic process or to the individual
meditator. Secondly, within the clinical context there has been an incomplete, but prevailing view of
meditation as a ‘relaxation technique.’ As a result, reducing meditation to ‘relaxation’ has led to
both a narrow focus in meditation research and overly positive expectations regarding meditation
outcomes. The view of meditation as either a panacea or a relaxation technique may also lead to the
underreporting of adverse effects by meditators whose experiences do not match the perceived
87
A.A. Lazarus, “Meditation: The Problems of Any Unimodal Technique,” in Meditation: Classic and
Contemporary Perspectives, eds. D.H. Shapiro, Jr and R.N. Walsh (New York, NY: Aldine Transaction, 2009
[1984]), 691.
113
ideal outcomes. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that meditators who don’t experience
relaxation, or who experience adverse effects may blame themselves and be afraid to speak up.
While Western psychotherapy and Eastern-derived meditation techniques share some similar goals
and functions in the enhancement of individual wellbeing, there are also major philosophical
differences that must be acknowledged. Specifically, attempts to integrate meditation into
psychotherapy have focused on the therapeutic benefits of meditation as a technique to help a
person address psychopathology and develop a healthy sense of self. Secular meditation-based
therapies are therefore concerned with individuals and their adjustment to their social context; a
context which, since the birth of modern psychology, has been heavily invested in the idea of a
separate psychological self. Yet, contemporary therapeutic meditation practices derive from
modernist versions of Buddhism and Hinduism, religious traditions which emphasise the
deconstruction of the individual self, or the realisation of non-self; that is, a self that is beyond
identification with the material world. While ‘secular’ therapeutic meditation and ‘religious’
meditation are differentiated by these very distinctive goals, there is evidence to suggest that non-
self insights can occur in secular meditation settings, including clinical settings.
This presents an interesting challenge for therapeutic meditation with its current individualistic
orientation. While Western meditation literature describes a beneficial shift in perspective that
arises from practice, the idea of non-self as defined by Buddhism (or True-self as defined by some
schools of Hinduism) fits poorly into the contemporary Western therapeutic context, which focuses
on the fulfilment of the individual’s personal desires and the gratification of the psychological self.
In the West the psychology paradigm is so naturalised that any challenges to the notion of a fixed
private individual self may pose problems. Specifically, because Western psychology does not
currently have an explicit framework within which to explain non-self experiences, they may be
conflated with dissociative psychopathology, such as derealisation and depersonalisation. While it is
likely that most meditation adverse effects involve an interaction between the practice of
meditation and characteristics of the individual meditator, the issue is complex, and adverse
experiences are not limited to people who have a history of, or proclivity towards, mental
illness. Western individuals’ experiences with meditation (both positive and negative) demonstrate
that there are other ways of thinking about the self and that these views may not fit neatly within
the current Western psychological paradigm.
Meditation adverse effects may also be overlooked due to factors related to meditation research.
Specifically, meditation research has focused mainly on short-term quantitative studies that ignore
the ‘lived experience’ of meditators. Indeed, the few qualitative meditation studies that exist
demonstrate a rich and varied phenomenology of meditation experiences, including adverse effects.
114
In particular, Lindahl et al.’s recent study demonstrates an incredibly diverse range of meditation-
related experiences, and acknowledges that the valence associated with these experience is
influenced by factors such as the individual meditation practitioner, their specific practice,
relationships and health behaviours.88 It is important to note that meditation research may also be
subject to a particular type of bias. That is, an overly positive view of meditation may have
developed within Western science because a large number of influential psychologists,
psychotherapists and researchers were, and continue to be, meditation practitioners themselves.
While rigorous experimental design and the peer review system aim to minimise confirmation bias,
there is evidence that it still exists in academic psychology, hence it is important to consider whether
conflicts of interest or expectancy effects might be contributing to an overly positive view of
meditation that overlooks potential adverse effects. The use of meditation in medicine and
psychology has no doubt been a positive development, as it has stimulated a new and dynamic
discourse regarding the healing power of the mind, and a renewed interest in non-pharmacological
approaches to the treatment of a variety of health issues. However, defining meditation purely in
terms of symptom reduction and personal transformation means that a large spectrum of
experiences associated with meditation practice are ignored.
Another key factor that has contributed to meditation adverse effects being ignored in secular
settings is the distancing of meditation techniques from the religious contexts from which they
originated. While scientific and clinical interest in mindfulness has seen a dramatic increase in the
past several decades, there has been surprisingly little deep engagement with the traditional
Buddhist literature by contemporary clinical and scientific proponents of meditation. The distancing
of meditation from religion is understandable, given that any connection to religion challenges
claims to secularity and could severely limit the generalisation and acceptance of meditation
practices in healthcare and other secular areas. The de-contextualisation and simplification of
meditation has allowed it to be studied by science and applied in a pragmatic way to a variety of real
life issues. However, re-contextualisation within an exclusively Western scientific and philosophical
framework also has its limitations. Completely divorcing meditation from religion can lead to a
limited, distorted and ethnocentric view that ignores the rich history, cosmology and context that
accompanies meditation techniques, and this is another factor that has led to adverse effects of
meditation being overlooked.
88
5 (2017).
115
The religious lineages from which secular meditation practices derive all warn about possible
problems associated with meditation. In particular, meditation adverse effects are well-known and
acknowledged within certain Buddhist and Hindu yogic lineages. Religious texts such as meditation
manuals and stages of the path literature note that meditation adverse effects may arise simply as a
normal stage on the path of progress towards enlightenment, or if the practice is not undertaken
with adequate preparation, in the right conditions and with proper guidance from a qualified
teacher. Evidence suggests that within these traditions adverse effects are able to be identified and
managed, and do not usually become a major problem. However, in Western secular settings, this
traditional knowledge regarding meditation adverse effects is either simply unknown (for example,
knowledge regarding the role of ethics and concentration in preparing for meditation practice),
unable to be adequately applied (for example, knowledge regarding the important close
involvement of the meditation teacher) or lost within the Western psychotherapeutic paradigm (for
example, when adverse effects are conflated with psychopathology).
While consulting religious sources may prove controversial, and it is not recommended that classic
meditation manuals are to be taken at face value, it is worth considering that a better familiarity
with the traditional literature may help to identify what meditation-related adverse effects are
‘normal’ and expected, how to deal with extreme or non-ordinary states of consciousness, and how
to prevent unnecessary difficulties from occurring and escalating. Additionally, in therapeutic
contexts, where meditation is used to treat a variety of conditions that affect mood and cognition, it
can be challenging to identify what difficulties are due to pre-existing or latent psychopathology and
what might be caused by the meditation technique itself. In these situations, traditional sources
may be particularly valuable as they may help to delineate between challenging contemplative
phenomenology (for example the dukkha nanas) and clinical issues such as depression and anxiety.
It is hoped that the increasing popularity of mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions and the
growing recognition of the diversity of meditation-related phenomenology (both positive and
negative) may indicate an imminent paradigm shift in the way that these issues are approached in
secular settings.
Finally, one of the key factors that has contributed to meditation adverse effects being overlooked is
the overly positive presentation of meditation in the popular media. Specifically, the media has
tended to present meditation as a panacea; a simple, celebrity-endorsed, side-effect free pathway to
happiness and wellbeing. This view has been influenced by popular scientist-practitioner accounts of
meditation, sensationalist reporting by journalists, and widespread celebrity endorsement of
meditation. The overly positive and simplistic portrayal of meditation is reflected in popular media
tropes such as ‘spiritual hygiene,’ the ‘happy monk/giggling guru’ and the ‘tranquil meditator.’ Such
116
depictions are not only inaccurate and/or incomplete, but they create problems for secular
meditation and meditation-based interventions as a whole. Specifically, there is the risk that
misinformation and excessive hype could eventually lead to a backlash and widespread public
mistrust of meditation. While sensationalist stories that promote meditation as a cure-all may result
in adverse effects for some specific groups, headlines that over-hype adverse effects could equally
lead to problems in that many people who would actually benefit from meditation will miss out.
Indeed, the popular news headlines regarding possible adverse effects of meditation have been
equally as over-hyped and sensationalist as the positive ones. Hence, balanced media reporting on
meditation reduces harm for all involved.
The commodification of meditation, or ‘meditation as commodity’ has also played a role in the
under-reporting of meditation adverse effects. A proliferation of meditation-related businesses and
services also tend to promote meditation as a type of panacea or performance enhancement tool
that is harmless, suitable for anyone, and that may be of particular help to those with mental health
issues. While this type of promotion is likely based in good intentions, meditation-related businesses
that prioritise profits over quality control, and that focus on marketing rather than an in-depth
knowledge of the meditation practices that they promote, also contribute to both an inaccurate
portrayal of meditation and ignorance regarding meditation adverse effects.
Scholars have argued that the quantity of media coverage about meditation in a variety of frames
indicates a cultural acceptance of, and/or an active desire for information about, meditation. 89 As
such, consumer demand for secular meditation is a trend that is likely to continue. Many people now
seek meditation in highly variable settings both within and outside of clinical programs, and many
individuals self-refer to meditation teachers and courses, often via the internet. Meditation teaching
is currently an unregulated industry meaning that no prerequisite training standard for meditation
teachers exists, and there are an unaccounted for number of teachers who practice independently.
As such, because meditation is fashionable at the moment, it may be taught by well-intentioned but
inadequately-trained teachers who have limited experience with meditation adverse effects. Hence,
it is advisable that there is regulation around meditation teacher training, screening processes for
potential or pre-existing psychopathology, ongoing support structures for potential meditation-
related difficulties, and informed consent for meditation practitioners. As recognition and
acceptance of the diversity of meditation experiences increases, it is hoped that meditation teachers
and businesses will implement these standards and practices.
89
S. Lauricella, “The Ancient-Turned-New Concept of ‘Spiritual Hygiene:’ An Investigation of Media Coverage of
Meditation from 1979 to 2014,” Journal of Religion and Health 55, no. 5 (2014): 1750.
117
In conclusion, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that secular meditation is not beneficial
for all people, all of the time. While the occurrence of meditation adverse effects may be rare
(although at this stage the frequency of adverse effects is unknown), they do exist and are worthy of
further scientific investigation. Future meditation research needs to investigate the full range of
phenomenological experiences that occur for meditators, both positive and negative. Meditation
teachers and texts from religious lineages might also prove to be a valuable source of information
regarding meditation adverse effects. Additionally, both scientists and the media have an important
role to play in providing a balanced and non-sensationalist view of how meditation works and who it
may benefit. Finally, rather than continuing to simplify meditation techniques in order to fit current
Western secular paradigms, it might be wise to instead develop a dialogue with some of the Eastern
religious traditions from which these practices evolved in order to advance a greater understanding
of the role of context in meditation.
118
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The dark side of Dharma: Why have adverse effects of meditation

been ignored in contemporary Western secular contexts?

Department of Studies in Religion

The University of Sydney

To Ricardo Farago, for his unconditional love, belief and support.

Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 8

Thesis Chapter Outline

Meditation in the West: Mainstream

As interest in TM declined, mainstream interest in a new type of meditation – ‘mindfulness’

Meditation in the West: Clinical

The Meditation Backlash

Adverse Effects: Meditation Research

Scientific psychology has emphasized the significance of individual differences. Folklore is

In a comprehensive review of meditation adverse effects, M. Kathleen Lustyk and colleagues

Central Research Question

Explanation of Key Terms

‘Meditation Adverse Effects’

In this particular study the authors describe a “taxonomy of 59 meditation-related experiences

Theory and Methodology

Theories of Western psychology, particularly psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology and

The Role of Meditation in Religion

Hindu Approaches to Meditation

Buddhist Approaches to Meditation

Meditation as a Western Therapeutic Intervention

Meditation as a Panacea: “The Answer to All Your Problems?”

The authors go on to discuss the potential of meditation to enhance more sophisticated

In a Western psychotherapeutic context, difficulties associated with meditation may also be

Meditation and the Relaxation Response

Issues of Self and Non-self

Deep practice also involves mindfulness of death-like experiences, reported as feeling a

Similarly, Jack Engler writes:

Research Methods in Meditation Studies

Additionally, as quantitative clinical trials de-emphasise the subjective experience of participants,

Meditation as a Detachable Technique

De-contextualisation: Privileging Meditation and Marginalising Religious Context

interested in developing a method simple enough to be accessible to those who were

Simplification: Psychological, Pathological and Neural Reductionism

Re-contextualisation: “The Buddha was a Scientist” and the Creation of a Western

The re-imagining of the Buddha as a scientist naturally re-conceptualises meditation as a mode of

Meditation Adverse Effects in Religious Traditions

As outlined in the Visuddhimagga (a fifth-century work that supposedly collects the

In both clinical mindfulness-based interventions and vipassana, preparation in concentration is not

Further, on its ‘Question and Answer’ page, the website states:

Can Vipassana make people mentally unbalanced?

Volitionally induced experiences of depersonalisation/derealisation can be a part of

Teacher and Technique

Individual Differences and Psychopathology

Additionally, psychological therapy is not an explicit concern in Buddhism or Hinduism, and

All Good News Stories

Celebrity Gurus and Celebrities Meditating

Critics of commodified forms of meditation (sometimes referred to as “McMindfulness”) have

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