Mindfulness
April 13, 2023
Julieta Galante, Andrea Grabovac, Malcolm Wright et al.
82 citations
About half of the millions of people who learn mindfulness meditation continue regular practice after initial instruction, but it is unclear whether benefits increase with ongoing practice or whether harm can occur. Evidence shows a wide range of experiences from positive to challenging and potentially harmful. Complex interactions and temporal sequences may explain these experiences and their links to health and well-being. Effects may vary systematically due to factors like initial dosage, accumulated practice, developing skill, and interactions with past experiences and environment. The authors call for interdisciplinary, ontologically agnostic research using longitudinal models and insights from contemplative traditions to develop safer, more effective applications.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Sarah E B Francis, Frances Shawyer, Bruno Cayoun et al.
20 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and mindfulness-integrated cognitive behavior therapy (MiCBT) differ in their origins, structure, and evidence. MBCT was developed to prevent depressive relapse and has strong support from systematic reviews and meta-analyses, earning endorsement in clinical guidelines, but its single-disorder focus may limit its use in diverse health settings. MiCBT was designed for transdiagnostic applications, incorporating exposure procedures and compassion training to reduce avoidance, and shows promising early evidence, though it lacks inclusion in clinical guidelines. More high-quality randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews are needed for MiCBT, while MBCT requires greater attention to dissemination and implementation research.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
January 1, 2025
Kaveh Rayani, Andrea Grabovac, Peter Chan et al.
2 citations
In a pilot trial, 31 adults with PTSD received either real or sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Mindfulness scores, measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, did not improve significantly immediately after treatment when corrected for multiple comparisons. However, by three months after treatment, those who received real rTMS showed significant gains in total mindfulness and nonreactivity. The delayed improvement suggests the benefits of rTMS on dispositional mindfulness may take time to emerge. The findings indicate that brain stimulation might eventually help reduce PTSD-related suffering by boosting mindfulness.
PsyArXiv
May 28, 2026
Oliver Andersson Hugemark, Terje Sparby, Andrea Grabovac et al.
preprint
Advanced meditation can sometimes lead to challenging experiences involving destabilization, rigidification, and social negotiation. Through a reflexive thematic analysis of practitioners' accounts, the authors describe how embodied sense-making and integration processes unfold during these difficulties. The analysis identifies how meditators navigate destabilizing experiences, how rigid patterns of response may emerge, and how social contexts shape the meaning and resolution of these challenges. The findings suggest that advanced meditation difficulties are not merely individual psychological events but are deeply embedded in bodily, relational, and social processes.
March 2, 2026
Andrea Grabovac, Nickolas Grabovac, Winson F.z. Yang et al.
preprint
A new theoretical framework called the Insight Development Process (IDP) describes how propositional insights—brief shifts in perception that align with transience, self-lessness, and incongruence—can become durable changes in perception, cognition, and behavior. The framework distinguishes momentary insights, which are brief pre-reflexive perceptual shifts, from integrated insights, which are more lasting intuitive understandings. Drawing on Buddhist meditation traditions and first-person accounts, the IDP outlines eight stages of insight, each with characteristic patterns of momentary insights and experiential features. The framework is designed to generate testable hypotheses about the cognitive, affective, and neural mechanisms underlying insight and how advanced meditation shapes consciousness and well-being.
Journal of behavioral medicine
August 1, 2024
Lori A Brotto, Rosemary Basson, Andrea Grabovac et al.
A mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) group treatment and a sex education comparison group treatment both reduced perceived stress in 148 women diagnosed with sexual interest/arousal disorder, with MBCT producing significantly greater reductions. The cortisol slope, indicating stress system regulation, steepened from pre-treatment to six-month follow-up in both groups, with no difference between them. Exploratory analyses showed that reduced perceived stress predicted increased sexual desire and decreased sex-related distress only after MBCT. The findings suggest that group mindfulness for women with low desire improves both self-reported and physiological stress, and that improvements in self-reported stress partly account for improvements in sexual desire and distress.
Mindfulness
May 1, 2024
Malcolm Wright, Julieta Galante, J. S. Corneille et al.
About 45% of people from three international communities—UK online panelists, US-based MTurk workers, and readers of a rationalist blog—report having had at least one sudden unusual mental or somatic experience, not caused by drugs, that is often interpreted as spiritual or mystical. The most common experiences include derealization (17%), unitive experiences (15%), and ecstatic thrills (15%). Following such experiences, respondents reported a mix of positive and negative well-being outcomes; 13% reported moderate or greater suffering and 1.1% reported life-threatening suffering. Of those who suffered, 63% did not seek help. These emergent phenomena appear widespread and can lead to both benefits and harms that are not adequately addressed by clinical practice.