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Amit Bernstein

13 papers in the library · 135 citations · publishing 2008-2026

Papers

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Prevalence and Predictors of Self-Reported Adverse Experiences in Digital Meditation Training: 2 Randomized Controlled Trials

JMIR Mental Health June 12, 2026 Polina Beloborodova, Lillian M. Smith, Kevin M. Riordan et al.

Background: Digital meditation-based interventions (MBIs) reach vast global audiences with millions of active users, yet concerns persist about the frequency and nature of adverse experiences (ie, AExs) occurring during meditation training. Some researchers have argued that AExs are substantially underdetected and reflect iatrogenic harm caused by meditation (ie, adverse effects [AEfs]). Others...

The effects of intensive mindfulness meditation training on mental health: evidence of effectiveness and safety from a matched-controlled intervention study.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy April 29, 2026 Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Romi Oren-Schwartz et al.

Despite increased public interest and research on intensive high-dose mental health interventions, much remains unknown about the mental health effects and safety of multi-day intensive high-dose mindfulness meditation training. Accordingly, we conducted a preregistered prospective intervention study among 89 adults who registered for 6-day insight mindfulness meditation retreats and 46 matched...

The Mindfulness Internal Attention (MIA) Framework: Uncovering the Attentional Mechanisms of Mindfulness Training.

Annual Review of Psychology 2026 Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Iftach Amir et al.

Attention is theorized to have a definitive role in mindfulness and its salutary effects. Yet, findings from more than two decades of research testing this central theoretical premise have been surprisingly mixed. To account for this paradoxical disparity between theory and findings, we propose the Mindfulness Internal Attention (MIA) framework. We theorize and review initial findings...

From simple mechanics to complex dynamics: A dynamical systems science of mindfulness and meditation.

The American psychologist 2026 Amit Bernstein, Noga Aviad, Yuval Hadash et al.

Mindfulness meditation is a robust and rapidly growing area of inquiry in the psychological sciences. However, core questions remain about how mindfulness develops, how it exerts its effects, and what conditions amplify or attenuate these effects. We argue that empirical research on mindfulness has predominantly relied on reductionist decomposition-a foundational scientific approach that...

Nonrandomized Open Trial of a Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Selective Preventive Mobile Health Intervention for Forcibly Displaced People.

Mindfulness October 2, 2025 Shani Zohar Puris, Kim Yuval, Gebreyohans Gebremariam et al.

This study tested the feasibility of Mindfulness-SOS for Refugees, a novel lay- and minimally guided mobile health mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention, that is trauma-sensitive and socio-culturally adapted for diverse forcibly displaced people. A pre-registered, nonrandomized, single-arm, open-trial of Mindfulness-SOS as a selective preventive intervention was conducted during the...

The Mindful Scientist: How Meditation Could Support Ethical Scientific Practice

Mindfulness September 2, 2025 Kevin Berryman, Yanli Lin, Sara W. Lazar et al. 4 citations

Abstract Ethical principles and societal regulations are critical to scientific integrity, but individual human factors greatly influence adherence to them. Personal virtues may play a significant role in reinforcing adherence to communal ethical scientific practices but remain largely unexplored. This paper examines how cultivating mindful ethical virtues through meditation could support...

Oscillating Mindfully: Using Machine Learning to Characterize Systems-Level Electrophysiological Activity During Focused Attention Meditation.

Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science March 1, 2025 Noga Aviad, Oz Moskovich, Ophir Orenstein et al.

There has been rapid growth of neuroelectrophysiological studies that aspire to uncover the "black box" of mindfulness and meditation. Reliance on traditional data analysis methods hinders understanding of the complex, nonlinear, multidimensional, and systemic nature of the functional neuroelectrophysiology of meditation states. Thus, to reveal the complex systemic neuroelectrophysiology of...

A prospective ecological momentary assessment study of an ayahuasca retreat: exploring the salutary impact of acute psychedelic experiences on subacute affect and mindfulness skills in daily life

Psychopharmacology January 18, 2025 Sharon R. Sznitman, Yoel A Behar, Sheila Daniela Dicker-Oren et al. 3 citations

Abstract Rationale To examine the acute effects of ayahuasca use and their relationship to sub-acute changes in affect and mindfulness in a non-clinical sample, addressing the need for a better understanding of ayahuasca’s immediate and short-term impacts as interest in its use grows. Objectives Using prospective ecological assessment, this study investigates how ayahuasca used at a 4-day...

Peak experiences during insight mindfulness meditation retreats and their salutary and adverse impact: A prospective matched-controlled intervention study.

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology April 1, 2024 Yuval Hadash, Tatyana Veksler, Omer Dar et al. 8 citations

We sought to address a growing debate regarding the adverse and salutary impact of unusual, extraordinary or intense subjective experiences during meditation-based interventions. To do so, we empirically characterized such peak experiences during an intensive meditation intervention and their impact postintervention. We conducted a preregistered prospective intervention study among 96 adults...

The Mindfulness Internal Attention (MIA) Framework: Looking In to Understand Attentional Mechanisms of Mindfulness Training

July 31, 2023 Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Iftach Amir et al. preprint

Although attention is thought to have a definitive role in mindfulness and its salutary outcomes, extant empirical findings from more than two decades of research on the effects on mindfulness training on attention are mixed and provide only partial support for this central theoretical premise. To account for these findings, as well as to advance field-wide understanding of mindfulness...

Does mindfulness practice promote psychological functioning or is it the other way around? A daily diary study.

Psychotherapy April 30, 2020 Simon B. Goldberg, Adam W. Hanley, Scott A. Baldwin et al. 22 citations

Mindfulness-based interventions are commonly used to reduce psychological symptoms and enhance positive qualities of human functioning. However, the influence of mindfulness practice dosage remains poorly understood, limiting dissemination and implementation efforts. The current study examined the association between practice dosage and several constructs related to psychological functioning...

Experiential self-referential and selfless processing in mindfulness and mental health: Conceptual model and implicit measurement methodology.

Psychological Assessment April 14, 2016 Yuval Hadash, Reut Plonsker, David R. Vago et al. 69 citations

We propose that Experiential Self-Referential Processing (ESRP)-the cognitive association of present moment subjective experience (e.g., sensations, emotions, thoughts) with the self-underlies various forms of maladaptation. We theorize that mindfulness contributes to mental health by engendering Experiential Selfless Processing (ESLP)-processing present moment subjective experience without...

Marijuana coping motives interact with marijuana use frequency to predict anxious arousal, panic related catastrophic thinking, and worry among current marijuana users.

Depression and Anxiety 2008 Marcel O Bonn-Miller, Michael J Zvolensky, Amit Bernstein et al. 29 citations

The present investigation evaluated whether coping motives for marijuana use interacted with past 30-day frequency of marijuana use in relation to anxiety-relevant variables among community-recruited young adult marijuana users (n=149). As expected, after covarying cigarettes per day, alcohol use, and total years of marijuana use, the interaction between frequency of past 30-day marijuana use...