Meditation Hindrances and Breakthroughs: A Multilevel First-Person Phenomenological Analysis

Terje Sparby; Philip Eilinghoff-Ehlers; Nuri Lewandovski; Yannick Pachernegg; Luis Schnitzler; Friedrich Edelhäuser

doi:10.3390/rel15070865

Meditation Hindrances and Breakthroughs: A Multilevel First-Person Phenomenological Analysis

Terje Sparby, Philip Eilinghoff-Ehlers, Nuri Lewandovski, Yannick Pachernegg, Luis Schnitzler, Friedrich Edelhäuser

Religions July 18, 2024 DOI: 10.3390/rel15070865 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Qualitative study Peer reviewed
Sample size	5
Population	Participants in a 6-day meditation retreat
Intervention	Meditation retreat
Duration	6-day retreat
Topics	Meditation
Citations	3
Key findings	Meditation hindrances can dissolve into breakthroughs, where negative effects give way to positive outcomes.

Abstract

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, adverse, or harmful effects. Little is known about how people experience and deal with meditation hindrances, and especially how they experience the dissolution of hindrances (breakthroughs). The method applied to shed light on this is an innovative and multilevel phenomenological method, which includes biographical exploration, daily notetaking and reflection, and micro-phenomenology. The participants consisted of a group of five people, and the setting was a 6-day meditation retreat. We offer a new perspective on this research not only by developing the concept of meditation hindrances but also by suggesting and showing how negative effects may be part of a process leading up to a breakthrough, where the negative aspect dissolves, potentially giving rise to positive outcomes.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study	Year	Design	Participants
The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan...	2017	Qualitative study with mixed-methods
The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Nurse Stress and Burnout Nurses in a hospital system	2004	Implementation study with mixed methods
An exploratory mixed methods study of the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness -based cognitive therapy for patients with active depression and anxiety in primary care Primary care patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety	2006	Exploratory mixed methods study	n = 13
A qualitative study of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy for depression Participants in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in a mental-health context	2001	Qualitative study	n = 7
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report Meditators	2013	Qualitative study using grounded theory methodology

Citations in the library

Cited by 4

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