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Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

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    Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

    What does everyone think of this? I really don't know what to make of it, to be honest, but I am interested in getting opinions on this article. I do find it difficult to believe that 7% may suffer severely from meditation as Dr. Farias claims.


    Mindfulness is a cultural buzzword right now - with institutions from schools to prisons embracing the practice. But Coventry University's Dr. Miguel Farias, co-author of The Buddha Pill, believes meditation has a "dark side" that's been largely ignored until now.

    #2
    Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

    Originally posted by gelman66 View Post
    What does everyone think of this? I really don't know what to make of it, to be honest, but I am interested in getting opinions on this article. I do find it difficult to believe that 7% may suffer severely from meditation as Dr. Farias claims.


    http://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode...ects-1.3109670
    It depends on what you consider 'negative side effects'... because deep meditation (not so much mindfullness, but meditation) and trance states can absolutely lead to emotional muck being bought up, to energy imbalances (especially if you do chakra work or energy work during meditation) and to dissociative states where your non-physical body separates from your physical (which is the entire point of journeying, for example). If you aren't prepared for these things, having done your groundwork, don't practice good astral hygeine or just aren't emotionally and mentally equipped to deal with the fallout from intensive internal work, then these things can be a 'negative side effect' that leads to the need for psychological help.

    But I hesitate to call them 'negative effects' across the board... because in a lot of cases this is actually the entire point of doing that deeper intensive work. If you are prepared and go into it with the appropriate groundwork and support structures in place, then those things can be a helpful tool for growth. The key is whether you arrive at them by accident and are unprepared and unequipped to deal with it (= negative side effects requiring outside psychological help to get through) versus getting there with intention and the correct support and groundwork (= profound tool for personal growth and evolution).

    I am one of those (pretentious and elitist) people who does not believe that dabblers should be doing intensive meditation or trance work, or that newbies should be jumping in the deep end with this stuff. It takes years to get to a point where you can safely dredge up that sort of buried muck deep inside you (aka doing Shadow work, if you prefer that terminology). I don't think that blithe chakra or energy work is necessarily safe (you can overload your energy circuits very easily if you are too trigger happy about opening up your chakras). Journeying to external Otherworlds or the Astral Plane is absolutely not safe if you don't do your homework first.

    I also don't think that deep meditation or trance has a place in secular practice. Mindfullness, yes. Relaxation meditation to reduce stress, yes. Guided inner work with a psychologist trained in the technique, yes. But deep inner work? You need an understanding of the psyche and energy body and their relationship to the physical body (and to the physical and non-physical worlds around us) in order to safely do this. Frankly, I'm surprised that a supposedly experienced yoga teacher had this sort of reaction to what sounds like it might have been an out of body experience... that suggests to me that she was unprepared, untrained and probably had little understanding of her soul-body complex. I do agree with the article that too many teachers of secular meditation (and energy practices like yoga or reiki... and some New Agers) are a bit too blase about the safety aspects.

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      #3
      Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

      Rae-ya, what you say makes sense to me. I do think its more a matter of people going too deep when are not prepared. I am interested exploring these things, but where should I start?

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        #4
        Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

        For me the biggest problem of mindfulness lies in the marketing:
        "It's easy, it's convenient, it's free (just buy these books and visit our retreat center*) you can do it everywhere, it cures everything from cancer to depression, you can't do it wrong - but just blame yourself if it doesn't bring you any results."
        Now doesn't that sound a bit cultish?

        *I guess that might be psychological thing though, putting money into it makes it feel more valuable?
        baah.

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          #5
          Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

          I despise all the victim-blaming cults. Really & truly sick of it all.
          sigpic
          Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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            #6
            Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

            From mindfulness meditation? No, I don't think so.
            A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' limited in time and space. He experiences himself...as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison for us... Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the of whole nature in its beauty...
            --Albert Einstein

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              #7
              Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

              Oh great. Just great. I use mindfulness as an affective way to manage my anxiety, and now I'm warned it could be harmful to me? Thanks a bunch. Yeah, really great going guys..

              Honestly though, I don't think it can be harmful. I think certain forms of meditation can be; I know first hand how quickly you can lose your grasp on reality through too much ungrounded meditation, but the simple shifting of consciousness that mindfulness exercises call for surely can't be harmful. It's just using your senses a little differently.

              Please don't take the only thing that works away from me...
              夕方に急なにわか雨は「夕立」と呼ばれるなら、なぜ朝ににわか雨は「朝立ち」と呼ばれないの? ^^If a sudden rain shower in the evening is referred to as an 'evening stand', then why isn't a shower in the morning called 'morning stand'?

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                #8
                Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

                Originally posted by Jembru View Post
                Oh great. Just great. I use mindfulness as an affective way to manage my anxiety, and now I'm warned it could be harmful to me? Thanks a bunch. Yeah, really great going guys..

                Honestly though, I don't think it can be harmful. I think certain forms of meditation can be; I know first hand how quickly you can lose your grasp on reality through too much ungrounded meditation, but the simple shifting of consciousness that mindfulness exercises call for surely can't be harmful. It's just using your senses a little differently.

                Please don't take the only thing that works away from me...
                I think you are okay.

                I have to agree that mindfulness meditation is benign. I can potentially see that some forms of inner work might lead someone with unresolved or unaddressed psychological trauma to intensify or exacerbate their issues, even to the point of debilitation, but I highly doubt that any form of inner work can create problems where there wasn't something there waiting to surface before.
                Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                sigpic

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                  #9
                  Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

                  "I am one of those (pretentious and elitist) people who does not believe that dabblers should be doing intensive meditation or trance work"

                  I don't think that's pretentious at all. I went to a buddhist school for a while where intensive meditation classes were being taught without groundwork layed out to prepare people, nor a support structure to ground people in the mundane and earthly realm or to provide basic emotional and psychological support to handle intensive issues that often come up. For many it was disastrous.

                  Hear hear to challenging harmful cults-- often they are NOT intended to be harmful, the problem is that they often are and I think challenging systematic harms that happen in religious groups, in addition to out right charlatans who have money and power far ahead of right action or the welfare of those they are seeking to take from.

                  Simple breathwork, for most people, is helpful; for those who it's harmful for it can be disastrous. I talked with someone who worked at a local mental hospital near the school and they said they regularly got students of the school there having break downs. Improper use of fasting, intensive breathwork, and teaching classes with spiritual teachings that could be interpreted as destructive rather than affirming of life (i.e. moving on from the self or seeking to be at peace with nothingness are not proper practices for 20 year olds who should be affirming, building, and supporting the existence of a self, not breaking it down).

                  For most people who just reading a meditation book and doing some breathwork, or doing a yoga class, I think the main thing is to notice what you can- if it's helping then you're probably fine. Sometimes people who seek out and want really "intensive" or far out spiritual practices are the ones who most need to get comfortable with (to them) boring grounding healing and balancing that matches their cultural experience rather than seeking the exotic (i.e. plan to eat healthy, spend time with good friends, read wholesome books, watch light comedies, do good work for others, use your hands to build things). The very nature of thinking meaning and answers and the divine must be something exotic, far out, or intensive is missing that if you're going toward the compassionate divine it should be very life affirming, and respectful of your experience. Difficult is ok and necessary at times, but that should be balanced by healing and nurturing and stabilizing forces in ones life.

                  I like ayurveda more than just meditation because it provides a wide array of life practices to bring balance and spiritual purpose into the life and as they say in ayurveda, vata types can have problems with intensive meditation, for them massage, oiling of the body, yoga postures, and very brief breath focused meditation for calming will be more helpful than long bouts of meditation where one can get lost in the nether regions. There is some crazy stuff in the nether regions! Sometimes people are seeking to resolve problems of a lack of human support, lack of healthy diet, or other emotional problems that stem from their environment and while meditation in small doses could help- there are some religious communities that are over-priorities meditation as The Way To Health to the exclusion of addressing the complex issues and needs humans have even to the degree of claiming one doesn't need love but just "to look within".

                  Granted the majority of these messages I have seen more often come from students or half assed practioners more interested in getting stoned or sounding profound than seriously practicing healthy spirituality- but if that's you're crowd it can be very influencing of how you interperet a teachers messages- and often those who are most in need of a very skilled teacher or healer are the most likely to fall prey to crappy teachings, bad crowds, and harmful "healers". I think for those of us who do value supporting those in need in our communities, this is worth addressing.

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                    #10
                    Re: Can Mindfulness Meditation have Negative Side Effects?

                    Originally posted by Domtar
                    Improper use of fasting, intensive breathwork, and teaching classes with spiritual teachings that could be interpreted as destructive rather than affirming of life (i.e. moving on from the self or seeking to be at peace with nothingness are not proper practices for 20 year olds who should be affirming, building, and supporting the existence of a self, not breaking it down).
                    I have needed to hear this for five years. A lot of people in the spiritual circles need to hear this. Thanks, Domtar, a lot of words of wisdom there in your post!

                    And also, concerning my previous message now that I've read it, I guess I owe an apology to sincere mindfulness practitioners. I certainly didn't mean to be that blunt. (I tell you a thing, mindfulness folks, I just envy you because mindfulness meditation doesn't work for me that well. I've found other things but it'd be nice to be in the bandwagon once in a while.)
                    baah.

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