'The Answer to All Your Problems?' The Overly Positive Presentation of Meditation in the Media
Journal for the Academic Study of Religion September 9, 2019 DOI: 10.1558/jasr.37863 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Western media coverage of meditation is overwhelmingly positive and incomplete, promoting it as a panacea while ignoring adverse effects. The author attributes this to meditation tropes, poor scientist-journalist communication, celebrity influence, and commodification, which together produce an inaccurate portrayal of meditation as a simple, side-effect-free solution. |
Abstract
The current popularity of ‘secular’ meditation has been due in large part to its promotion in the mainstream Western media. In 1975 Time magazine ran a cover featuring an image of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM) along with the headline: ‘Meditation: The Answer to All Your Problems?’ Ever since, stories about meditation have captured the attention of a Western audience receptive to narratives around spirituality, healing, self-help and wellness. The view of meditation that is portrayed by the Western media is, however, radically simplified and incomplete. Specifically, it is an overwhelmingly positive view, which at its most extreme, promotes meditation as a type of panacea or cure-all and ignores some of the potential adverse effects associated with meditation practice. Why has there been such an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of meditation in the media? This article examines some of the factors that have contributed to this view: the use of popular meditation tropes, poor scientist-journalist communication, celebrity influence and the commodification of meditation. It argues that all of these factors have combined to create a popular, but inaccurate, media portrayal of meditation as a simple and side-effect free solution for a variety of common problems.
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 |