Evoked Aesthetic Chills During Loving Kindness Meditation : Effects on Self-Transcendence, Emotional Breakthrough, and Psychological Insight
Leonardo Christov-Moore, Félix Schoeller, Mathilda Von Guttenberg, Tiffany Durinski, Mordechai Walder, Marco Iacoboni, Nicco Reggente
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA guided loving kindness meditation combined with chills-inducing music boosted mood, self-transcendence, emotional breakthrough, and psychological insight more than the same meditation without the music. In an online study with 398 participants, both the chills-augmented meditation and a chills-augmented mindfulness control increased these outcomes. Experiencing aesthetic chills during meditation predicted the positive effects regardless of condition. Individual traits also shaped specific experiences: absorption predicted ego-dissolution and connectedness to the world, interoceptive awareness predicted connectedness to self, and vivid internal imagery predicted connectedness to others.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | 2 x 2 factorial design |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 398 |
| Population | Online participants |
| Interventions | loving kindness meditation chills-inducing music |
| Key finding | Loving kindness meditation combined with chills-inducing music increased self-transcendence, mood, emotional breakthrough, and psychological insight more than the meditation alone, and experiencing aesthetic chills during meditation predicted these effects. |
Abstract
Understanding and facilitating access to non-ordinary experiences that can promote mental health and wellbeing is a growing focus of clinical and basic research. . Previous work has revealed the mood-augmenting, belief-altering, and self-transcendent effects of aesthetic-chills-inducing audiovisual stimulation, as a putative “technodelic.” The current study investigated how a guided loving kindness meditation (LKM) combined with chills-inducing music (henceforth: chills-augmented) affected participants' mood, self-transcendence (ST), psychological insight, and emotional breakthrough.. We conducted an online study (n=398) using a 2 x 2 design that compared two versions of a validated custom loving kindness meditation (LKM): one with chills-augmented music (+) and one without (-), alongside a mindfulness-based control (MC). As hypothesized, LKM when compared to MC increased connectedness to others, while chills-augmentation to either stimulus (LKM+/MC+) enhanced ST, mood, emotional breakthrough, and psychological insight. A mediation analysis confirmed that regardless of condition, the occurrence of aesthetic chills during meditation predicted the reporting of these aforementioned downstream effects. Furthermore, trait measures corresponded to distinct experiential outcomes: trait absorption predicted feelings of ego-dissolution, connectedness to the world, and moral elevation; interoceptive awareness predicted connectedness to self; and vividness of internal imagery predicted connectedness to others. This work contributes to ongoing research efforts to enhance understanding of and access to non-ordinary experiences that can beget salutogenic, pro-social outcomes.