August 19, 2026
Terje Sparby, Jerron Chan, Oliver Andersson Hugemark et al.
preprint
Meditation research has grown considerably, yet its clinical implications for advanced and long-term practitioners remain poorly understood. Meditation’s mental health implications extend beyond benefit, encompassing psychiatric risk, adverse experiences, and differentiating between meditative progress and psychopathology. This review synthesizes evidence on how advanced and long-term...
Acta Psychologica
July 1, 2026
Terje Sparby, Torbjørn Eftestøl, Markus Lindholm et al.
In a recent taxonomy of different philosophies of mind, Robert Lawrence Kuhn classified Rudolf Steiner's view as a mind-body dualism. We argue that this classification is incorrect. Rather, Steiner's view is trinitarian and represents a unification of monism and dualism. Hence, the trinitarian conception of the human being in Steiner not only challenges Kuhn's taxonomic placement of Steiner's...
June 17, 2026
Terje Sparby, Vanessa Naughton, Batool Abbasi et al.
preprint
Despite rapidly growing interest in meditation, research has disproportionately emphasized short-term outcomes in novices and mindfulness-based practices, leaving advanced and long-term meditation largely unexplored. This review examines how sustained and skill-developed meditation practices positively shape well-being, interpersonal relationships, and emotion regulation. Following PRISMA...
PsyArXiv
May 28, 2026
Oliver Andersson Hugemark, Terje Sparby, Andrea Grabovac et al.
preprint
Processes of embodied sense-making and integration in challenging experiences of advanced meditation – A reflexive thematic analysis of destabilization, rigidification, and social negotiation
PsyArXiv
May 27, 2026
Asiya Gul, Sebastian Ehmann, Catherine Prueitt et al.
preprint
Extending the Scientific Study of Advanced Meditation Across Contemplative Traditions to Sufism within Islam: A Comparison Case of Self-Attenuation including Theravāda Buddhism and Tibetan Dzogchen
bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 10, 2026
David Zarka, Winson F.z. Yang, Abel Rassat et al.
preprint
Extended cessation (EC) is a rare, non-ordinary meditative endpoint characterized by a temporary absence of reportable phenomenal experience, followed by an extraordinary perceptual vividness, openness, equanimity and affective balance. EC thus offers a unique, non-pharmacological window into the brain dynamics underlying suspension of conscious experience and the subsequent psychological...
December 9, 2025
Sebastian Ehmann, Terje Sparby, Vanessa Naughton et al.
preprint
Mindfulness is increasingly recognized for its mental health benefits, with evidence supporting efficacy across clinical and non-clinical contexts. However, little research has explored deeper psychological and even existential transformations related to advanced meditation, which meditative traditions regard as essential to actualize the most profound states of well-being. Given the global...
November 23, 2025
Terje Sparby, Matthew D. Sacchet
preprint
Meditation, in particular advanced meditation, develops toward meditative endpoints (MEND), sometimes referred to metaphorically as awakening, enlightenment or salvation. A well-known instance of such an endpoint is called nibbāna (Pali) or nirvana (Sanskrit). Contemporary mindfulness teachers and diverse Buddhist traditions present differing views of nirvana. Some define nirvana as the...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
November 13, 2025
Winson F.z. Yang, Ruby M. Potash, Grace Mackin et al.
preprint
Humans can experience a rich array of conscious experience, including highly stable, positive, and refined states of non-ordinary perception that can be elicited through advanced meditation. Here, we present the first group-level, ultra-high-field (7T) fMRI study of jhana advanced concentration absorption meditation (ACAM-J). We combined local (regional homogeneity), mesoscale (connectivity...
October 16, 2025
Sebastian Ehmann, Terje Sparby, Daniel M. Ingram et al.
2 citations
preprint
That meditation is similar to mental training is a widely used analogy that seeks to capture thegrowth-oriented processes that unfold through the intentional performance of mental activities.However, despite its intuitive appeal, this notion remains conceptually underdeveloped. To ourknowledge, no interdisciplinary dialogue has been established with training science—a fielddedicated to the...
bioRxiv
September 25, 2025
Jakub Vohryzek, Edmundo Lopez-Sola, Winson F.z. Yang et al.
preprint
Advanced meditation offers a powerful lens for investigating consciousness and for understanding how sustained training may contribute to human flourishing. In the spirit of neurophenomenology, we combine first-person reports with model-free empirical analyses and formal whole-brain modeling to investigate the mechanisms underlying advanced meditative states and minimal phenomenal experience...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
September 19, 2025
Kenneth Shinozuka, Winson F.z. Yang, Ruby M. Potash et al.
3 citations
preprint
In some contemplative traditions, “extended cessation” (EC) refers to a state of advanced meditation in which the meditator intentionally suppresses their own consciousness and re-emerges with a profound sense of clarity and equanimity. Here, we present the first electrophysiological study of EC, in which five meditators underwent concurrent electroencephalography (EEG) and...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
September 6, 2025
Winson F.z. Yang, Akila Kadambi, Kilian Abellaneda-Pérez et al.
4 citations
preprint
Extended cessation (EC), an advanced meditative state in which consciousness is volitionally suspended and later reset with immense mental clarity, equanimity, and peace, offers an endogenous model for investigating the mechanisms of consciousness. Using ultra-high-resolution 7T fMRI with dense within-subject sampling (N=3), we quantified whole-brain activity, functional and effective...
Mindfulness
July 29, 2025
Terje Sparby, Matthew D. Sacchet
6 citations
While there exists a large body of research on the possibility of measuring certain aspects of human development, what might be called inner development has mostly been neglected, in particular as it pertains to advanced meditation. A central aspect of this kind of development, which we call meditative development, is associated with access to bliss, peace, wisdom, and the reduction of...
Mindfulness
June 11, 2025
Terje Sparby, Matthew D. Sacchet
11 citations
Abstract Research on meditation and mindfulness in relation to challenging effects can be understood as consisting of at least two waves: The first wave focused on the efficacy of mindfulness and more broadly the clinically positive effects of meditation. The second wave mainly focused on increasing methodological rigor and uncovering underlying mechanisms. Research on the different kinds and...
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
February 5, 2025
Ruby M. Potash, Winson F.z. Yang, Brian Winston et al.
11 citations
Advanced meditation has been associated with long- and short-term psychological changes such as bliss, profound insight, and transformation of well-being. However, most advanced meditation neuroimaging analyses have implemented primarily spatially-localized approaches, focusing on discrete regional changes in activity rather than distributed dynamics. The present study uses a geometric...
Neuroimage
2025
Winson F.z. Yang, Avijit Chowdhury, Terje Sparby et al.
12 citations
The stages of insight (SoI) are a series of psychological realizations experienced through advanced investigative insight meditation (AIIM). SoI provide a powerful structured framework of AIIM for understanding and evaluating insight-based meditative development through changes in perception, experiences of self, cognition, and emotional processing. Yet, the neurophenomenology of SoI remains...
Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
2025
Isaac N Treves, Winson F.z. Yang, Terje Sparby et al.
6 citations
Advanced meditation consists of states and stages of practice that unfold with mastery and time. Dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) analysis of fMRI could identify brain states underlying advanced meditation. We conducted an intensive DFC case study of a meditator who completed 27 runs of jhāna advanced absorptive concentration meditation (ACAM-J), concurrently with 7-T fMRI and...
Neuroimage
December 14, 2024
Avijit Chowdhury, Marta Bianciardi, Eric Chapdelaine et al.
14 citations
Multimodal neurophenomenology of advanced concentration absorption meditation: An intensively sampled case study of Jhana.
Religions
July 18, 2024
Terje Sparby, Philip Eilinghoff-Ehlers, Nuri Lewandovski et al.
3 citations
This article explores the topic of meditation hindrances and breakthroughs. In the traditional literature, meditation hindrances are seen as phenomena counteracting meditative activity. However, hindrances are also seen as grounds for meditative growth and breakthroughs. In current meditation research, there is an effort to understand negative effects, sometimes referred to as challenging,...
Heliyon
May 14, 2024
Winson F.z. Yang, Terje Sparby, Malcolm Wright et al.
30 citations
Volitional mental absorption in meditation: Toward a scientific understanding of advanced concentrative absorption meditation and the case of jhana.
Mindfulness
April 1, 2024
Brentyn J. Ramm, Anna-Lena Lumma, Terje Sparby et al.
Abstract Objectives Practitioners in contemplative traditions commonly report experiencing an awareness that is distinct from sensory objects, thoughts, and emotions (“awareness itself”). They also report experiences of a void or underlying silence that is closely associated with this awareness. Subjects who carry out the Headless Way exercises frequently report an experience of emptiness or...
Frontiers in Psychology
March 12, 2024
Terje Sparby, Dirk Cysarz, David Hornemann V. Laer et al.
1 citation
There are two basic aspects of attentional control. The ability to direct attention toward different objects is typically experienced as a fundamental indicator of attentional freedom. One can control what one attends to and directing attention is a relatively simple task. In contrast, sustaining attention on a chosen object proves to be difficult as mind-wandering seems to be inevitable. Does...
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
January 14, 2024
Winson Fu Zun Yang, Avijit Chowdhury, Marta Bianciardi et al.
41 citations
Jhanas are profound states of mind achieved through advanced meditation, offering valuable insights into the nature of consciousness and tools to enhance well-being. Yet, its neurophenomenology remains limited due to methodological difficulties and the rarity of advanced meditation practitioners. We conducted a highly exploratory study to investigate the neurophenomenology of jhanas in an...
Mindfulness
April 13, 2023
Julieta Galante, Andrea Grabovac, Malcolm Wright et al.
82 citations
Abstract Millions of people globally have learned mindfulness meditation with the goal of improving health and well-being outcomes in both clinical and non-clinical contexts. An estimated half of these practitioners follow mindfulness teachers’ recommendations to continue regular meditation after completion of initial instruction, but it is unclear whether benefits are strengthened by regular...