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Don't need meditation to get there. But more importantly, you're supposed to keep going and find peace with it. Not stop and run away in terror.
You have yet to succeed at awakening.
Since this is a long article, here’s a summary for fellow readers — it’s mostly about the negative side effects of meditation that the author believes is under-documented or under-reported due to the ‘hype’ of meditation as the 21st century cure-all. He talks about dissociative experiences (which is well documented in medical research), it being a pseudo-religion, and lastly, his belief that the extended use of medit…
Since this is a long article, here’s a summary for fellow readers — it’s mostly about the negative side effects of meditation that the author believes is under-documented or under-reported due to the ‘hype’ of meditation as the 21st century cure-all. He talks about dissociative experiences (which is well documented in medical research), it being a pseudo-religion, and lastly, his belief that the extended use of medit…
> Willoughby Britton is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, and associate professor at Brown University
> The meat of Britton’s talks was the results of a 2017 paper she co-published with her husband, Jared Lindahl, called the Varieties of Contemplative Experience1. In it, they examined distressing and functionally impairing meditation experiences of 60 Western Buddhist meditators. They documented 59 types of adverse effects in their study, including involuntary convulsions, panic, anxiety, dissociation and perceptual hypersensitivity—a far cry from the mainstream branding of mindfulness meditation as a panacea for all our woes.
Since this is a long article, here’s a summary for fellow readers — it’s mostly about the negative side effects of meditation that the author believes is under-documented or under-reported due to the ‘hype’ of meditation as the 21st century cure-all. He talks about dissociative experiences (which is well documented in medical research), it being a pseudo-religion, and lastly, his belief that the extended use of medit…
Isn't (esp dissociative experiences) what is called "dark nights" in the Buddhist traditions?
Ah yes, the realizations of pointlessness of life, inevitability of death and the prison-like construct of our physical bodies for our actual minds. Don't need meditation to get there. But more importantly, you're supposed to keep going and find peace with it. Not stop and run away in terror. You have yet to succeed at awakening.
This is needlessly dismissive and condescending. It's like saying "Congrats, you failed running a marathon" to someone who suffers an injury after 20 kilometers.
As with many other types of exercise, practitioners are bound to have injuries. I'd even say the injuries the author suffered are equivalent to breaking a leg while running. This is the take away for me: > "I believe that these practices, with the correct framework, dosage, and education, can be a valuable tool for improving mental health. "
While most people are safe --most of us struggle to keep a 30-min daily meditation practice- there is also a lesson to be learned: there is no such thing as a free, harmless lunch.