Meditation, particularly mindfulness, has been commodified and promoted globally as a health and wellness practice, becoming in the process a multibillion dollar industry. People practice expecting relaxation, stress reduction, or more productivity. But, the Buddhist tradition — from which most of the meditations being studied clinically were originally extracted — has for centuries warned that powerfully transformative contemplative practices can often be destabilizing. 

Western practitioners, promoters, app developers, and scholars alike have long ignored, dismissed, or remained completely unaware of these warnings. But, recently, popular media and scientific literature alike have been documenting examples of contemplative challenges. The percentage of practitioners experiencing adverse effects from meditation ranges from 3% to 65%, depending on the kind of events being studied. But, however you measure it, the fact that meditation is not always beneficial for everyone has now become undeniable. 

In the last few years, my scholarly research has centered on the question of examining what exactly Asian Buddhism has said about the dangers of meditation. I’ve organized an anthology of translations from across 2000 years of Asian Buddhist history, published academic articles analyzing the sources, and convened a collaborative of meditation teachers, researchers, and scholars to explore these issues from multiple angles. 

It turns out that contemplative practices have always been understood in Asia as “high-risk, high-reward” spiritual technologies that both have transformative possibilities and also a range of pitfalls and dangers. Buddhist traditions expect that serious practitioners of meditation will sooner or later encounter challenging experiences, and see this as a natural part of the process of growth. However, Buddhist traditions also speak of severe medical and psychiatric challenges that sometimes arise in the course of meditation — referred to as “meditation sickness,” “Zen sickness,” “wind illnesses,” or other terms. Importantly, these traditions also recommend ways of avoiding these crises and practical solutions to treat them if they arise. 

Most meditators will not experience a crisis. But, it’s important to recognize that it is an eventuality that some will. In my opinion, it is important to educate ourselves about the pros and cons of contemplative practice, recognizing both the risks and rewards in a reasonable and mature way that goes beyond black and white thinking. This website provides a window into my ongoing research in this area. Please sign up for updates to be alerted to forthcoming research and resources.

Enjoy!                        

– Dr Pierce Salguero