Defining Advanced Meditation A Conceptual Foundation for a Comprehensive Contemplative Science beyond Mindfulness Meditation, Basic Meditation, and Other Non-Meditative Consciousness-Altering Practices
Terje Sparby, Brian Toomey, Malcolm Wright, Jasmine Ben-Joseph, Matthew D. Sacchet
PsyArXiv June 20, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/cgurt_v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Proposes that advanced meditation be defined as the states, stages, and endpoints arising from the maturation and mastery of awareness skills, involving sometimes radical changes to volition, affect, cognition, and self-related processing toward effortlessness, intentional control, self-attenuation, integration, content minimization, structural expansion, and increased meta-awareness. Argues it is distinct from basic meditation and central to a third wave of meditation research, and offers extended definitions to guide science, training, and public engagement. |
Abstract
This article proposes a definition of advanced meditation which in concise form is the states, stages, and endpoints that arise with the maturation and mastery of awareness skills. Advanced meditation involves experiential and structural mental changes, sometimes radical, to volition, affect, cognition, and self-related processing in the direction of effortlessness, intentional control, self-attenuation, diachronic and synchronic integration, content minimization, structural expansion, and increased meta-awareness. Advanced meditation goes beyond basic meditation and constitutes a central part of the third wave of scientific research into the nature and effects of meditation. In addition to this concise definition, we also provide extended definitions of advanced meditation to enable, guide, and supports scientific inquiry, meditation training, and engagement with the public on topics including mental health, wellbeing, and flourishing. Several contextual issues are also discussed relating to the distinction between basic and advanced meditation, problems related to duration-based criteria in defining meditative expertise, and the demarcation of advanced meditation in relation to conventional mindfulness meditation, postural and movement-based yoga, breath-work practices, and substance-induced alterations of the mind (e.g., psychedelics).
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |