PLoS One
May 24, 2017
Jared R. Lindahl, Nathan E. Fisher, David J. Cooper et al.
468 citations
Meditation practices derived from Buddhism are widely used for health promotion, but their traditional sources also describe a broader range of effects. The Varieties of Contemplative Experience study used interviews with Western Buddhist practitioners and experts from Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan traditions, plus a follow-up survey, to investigate underreported meditation-related experiences, especially those that are challenging, distressing, or impairing. Thematic analysis produced a taxonomy of 59 experiences across 7 domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective, somatic, conative, sense of self, and social. Interpretations and responses varied greatly, with valence ranging from very positive to very negative and distress from minimal to severe. The study identified 26 influencing factors across 4 domains: practitioner-level, practice-level, relationships, and health behaviors.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2014
Jared R. Lindahl, Christopher T. Kaplan, Evan M. Winget et al.
123 citations
Meditation can induce visual light experiences, such as discrete lightforms and patterned or diffuse lights, which are well documented in Buddhist texts but rarely reported in scientific literature. Reports from American Buddhist practitioners closely match these traditional accounts. The paper argues that meditative practices that reduce sensory and social stimulation and focus attention produce perceptual and cognitive effects similar to sensory deprivation. Since sensory deprivation is known to increase neuroplasticity, meditation may similarly enhance neuroplastic potential. The findings suggest that scientists, clinicians, and meditators should be aware of this broader range of experiences arising from contemplative practice.
Frontiers in Psychology
November 22, 2021
Willoughby B. Britton, Gaelle Desbordes, Rebecca L. Acabchuk et al.
77 citations
Self-related processes (SRPs) such as rumination, self-compassion, self-efficacy, and self-esteem are theorized to be key mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). This evidence map introduces a framework for categorizing SRPs and assesses how well mindfulness training engages these targets and whether engagement relates to improved outcomes. Rumination shows the strongest evidence as a mechanism for depression, with support for other health outcomes as well. Self-compassion consistently engages with mindfulness training but inconsistently links to better outcomes. Decentering and interoception are emerging potential mechanisms, though their construct validity remains under development. Few SRPs have been measured in MBIs, and more research with well-validated measures is needed.
Religions
November 24, 2021
David J. Cooper, Jared R. Lindahl, Roman Palitsky et al.
20 citations
Energy-like somatic experiences (ELSEs), such as sensations of heat, tingling, or energy moving through the body, are frequently described in religious texts and have been documented in a few psychological studies, yet they remain understudied in meditation research. Based on narratives from a large qualitative sample of Western Buddhist meditators who reported meditation-related challenges, this paper describes how ELSEs manifest in practitioners' lives. It moves beyond a 'kundalini awakening' framework to catalog the metaphors practitioners used, the trajectories and impacts of ELSEs, factors influencing their nature, how they were interpreted by practitioners, teachers, doctors, and therapists, and the remedies employed. Interpreting and managing ELSEs often drew on frameworks from within or beyond the meditator's Buddhist tradition.
Consciousness and Cognition
March 1, 2024
Nicholas K. Canby, Jared R. Lindahl, Willoughby B. Britton et al.
11 citations
Experiences like mystical states, non-dual awareness, selflessness, and ego dissolution are increasingly studied in meditation and psychedelic research, but their definitions and measures often overlap and lack precision, especially regarding pathological experiences. In a survey of 386 people who reported an experience involving a loss of self or self-boundaries, researchers used statistical and qualitative methods to identify 16 distinct characteristics of such experiences. These included different types of changes in sense of self, accompanying phenomena, and cognitive or emotional responses. The results provide a more specific model for measuring and describing these experiences across contexts like meditation, psychedelics, and psychopathology.
Journal of Contemplative Studies
July 23, 2025
Roman Palitsky, David J. Cooper, Jared R. Lindahl et al.
10 citations
Western Buddhist meditators often draw on both religious and scientific worldviews to make sense of meditation-related challenges. Interviews with 68 meditators and 33 meditation experts revealed five ways these worldviews relate: conflict, compatibility, nested relationships, discrete domains, and complementarity. These varied relationships carry existential weight and influence how meditators respond to challenges. The findings suggest that the scientific study of contemplative practices should consider the diverse ways religion and science interact, and that nuanced understandings of these relationships can help practitioners and teachers address meditation-related difficulties.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Nicholas K. Canby, Elizabeth A Cosby, Roman Palitsky et al.
10 citations
Childhood trauma and PTSD symptoms are linked to worse depression outcomes and more meditation-related adverse effects in mindfulness-based programs. Across two clinical trials, total childhood trauma and childhood sexual abuse consistently predicted poorer depression outcomes. Childhood sexual abuse also predicted dropout in one study. Multiple forms of trauma and PTSD symptoms predicted meditation-related side effects, while total trauma, emotional abuse, and subclinical PTSD predicted lasting adverse effects. These findings suggest that trauma-sensitive modifications, safety monitoring, screening, and provider education are needed when implementing mindfulness programs for depression.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 29, 2020
Jared R. Lindahl, D. James Cooper, Nathan E. Fisher et al.
2 citations
Buddhist meditation practitioners and teachers report a wider range of difficult or distressing experiences than previously discussed, some of which are considered expected on the contemplative path. Distinguishing these from psychopathology requires expanding assessment frameworks beyond normative fit with religious experience or mental illness to include the need for intervention, whether religious or clinical. Decision-making about intervention often depends on contextual factors, aligning with person-centered mental health care that considers interpersonal and cultural dynamics.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 24, 2025
Elizaveta Solomonova, Jared R. Lindahl, Ian Gold et al.
1 citation
Delusion-like ideation (DLI) occurs in psychopathology and among the general population, and meditation can trigger such experiences. Based on interviews with over 100 Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts, this mixed-methods study establishes a typology of eight types of DLI, reports their relative frequencies, and identifies impacts and treatment outcomes. Four case studies illustrate risk factors, trajectories, outcomes, and appraisals. Responses to DLI depend on type, duration, severity, impact, and appraisals by meditators, teachers, and psychiatrists. Some DLI phenomenology reflects Buddhist meditation cultures; although normalized in certain contexts, meditation experts consider DLI a potential "red flag" requiring monitoring or intervention. Explanatory models include environmental conditions of retreats, attention and sensory attenuation, and DLI as a cultural idiom of distress.
Contemporary Buddhism
April 22, 2025
Nicholas K. Canby, Jared R. Lindahl, David J. Cooper et al.
1 citation
Meditation teachers can have both beneficial and detrimental impacts on practitioners facing meditation-related challenges. A mixed-methods study of 68 meditation practitioners and 33 experts from various Buddhist lineages found that beneficial relationships involved access to well-qualified teachers, appropriate guidance, and teachers with psychology or mental health training. Unhelpful factors included teacher unavailability, limited student tracking or disclosure, invalidating or victim-blaming responses, lack of perceived expertise, and mismatched interpersonal or cultural dynamics. The psychologization of Buddhist meditation in the West shapes student-teacher relationships and expectations, especially during challenges.
Journal of Contemplative Studies
July 23, 2025
Jared R. Lindahl
A philosophical analysis of Nan Shepherd's "The Living Mountain" argues that her intense attentional practices in the Cairngorms—walking, seeing, and cultivating absorption until she encounters the mountain as a unified living system—should not be described as Buddhist, despite possible influence from a Victorian-era summary of Buddhist teachings. The paper resists earlier scholarship that frames her experiences in Buddhist terms, and instead contends that such framing misrepresents her unique approach. It concludes by reflecting on how Shepherd's work can broaden scholarly definitions of contemplation to include practices outside major religious traditions.
Transcultural Psychiatry
August 1, 2023
Jared R. Lindahl, Roman Palitsky, David J Cooper et al.
Worldviews can both increase the risk of meditation-related challenges and serve as a remedy for them, depending on the individual. Buddhist practitioners and teachers in the contemporary West navigate both religious and scientific explanatory frameworks, a context shaped by "Buddhist modernism" which presents Buddhism as compatible with science. Interview data from the Varieties of Contemplative Experience project show that for some, having, applying, or changing a worldview helped mitigate challenging experiences or distress, while for others, worldviews acted as a risk factor influencing the onset and course of difficulties.
Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
May 18, 2021
Willoughby B. Britton, Jared R. Lindahl, David J. C. Cooper et al.
In a sample of 96 participants in an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy program, 83% reported at least one meditation-related side effect when assessed with the Meditation Experiences Interview. Negative-valence effects or negative impacts on functioning occurred in 58% and 37% of participants, respectively. Lasting bad effects, experienced by 6% to 14% of the sample, were linked to signs of dysregulated arousal such as hyperarousal and dissociation. The findings suggest that meditation practice in mindfulness-based programs is associated with transient distress and negative impacts at rates similar to those seen with other psychological treatments.
August 18, 2017
Jared R. Lindahl
In a qualitative study of Western Buddhist practitioners in Tibetan Vajrayāna lineages, 12 practitioners described unusual somatic experiences such as energy flowing through the body, knots of pain, pressure or tension, and concurrent emotional changes. Some viewed these as transient practice-related states, while others received a Tibetan medical diagnosis of rlung disorder. Releases of tension sometimes coincided with emotional upwelling. Practitioners with a trauma history reported traumatic re-experiencing and tended not to adopt a purification framework; they were more likely to seek psychotherapeutic or medical treatment. How these experiences manifest and are appraised depends on individual, interpersonal, and cultural factors.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
January 1, 2014
Willoughby B. Britton, Jared R. Lindahl, B Rael Cahn et al.
Buddhist meditation is traditionally described as a state of relaxed alertness that avoids both excessive hyperarousal (restlessness) and excessive hypoarousal (drowsiness, sleep). While modern research has emphasized meditation's relaxing and hypoarousing effects, this review draws from Buddhist texts and scientific studies—including subjective, behavioral, and neuroimaging data during wakefulness, meditation, and sleep—to show that meditation also has arousing or wake-promoting effects. Factors such as dose, expertise, and contemplative trajectory influence whether meditation increases or decreases arousal. The course of meditative progress suggests a nonlinear multiphasic trajectory: early effortful phases may produce more fatigue and sleep propensity, while later stages yield greater wakefulness due to neuroplastic changes and more efficient processing.