A pilot trial randomized 101 sixth-grade students to either a daily mindfulness meditation practice during an Asian history course or an active control activity during an African history course. Both groups showed significant decreases in clinical syndrome subscales and negative affect, with no difference between them in the extent of improvement. However, students who meditated were significantly less likely to develop suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm compared to controls. The findings suggest that mindfulness training may produce both unique benefits, such as reduced suicidal ideation, and non-specific benefits shared with other novel activities.
Sixth graders who practiced short mindfulness meditation sessions four to five times per week for six weeks reported greater improvement in emotional wellbeing than those in an active control group. Gender moderated the effect: female meditators showed larger increases in positive affect compared to control females, while males in both groups improved equally. Among females only, gains in self-compassion were linked to better affect. The results suggest school-based mindfulness training benefits early adolescents, with distinct responses by gender.
Prompting AI to reflect on four contemplative principles—mindfulness, emptiness, non-duality, and boundless care—improves alignment and cooperation. On the AILuminate Benchmark, performance increased with a Cohen's d of .96, and on the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma task, cooperation and joint-reward improved with a Cohen's d greater than 7. The principles help AI self-monitor goals, avoid rigid attachment, dissolve adversarial boundaries, and reduce suffering universally. Active inference is proposed as a way to integrate these principles into AI architecture. This approach offers a resilient alternative to controlling superintelligence and provides an empirical test of ancient wisdom.