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On the Emergence of Perinatal Symptoms in Buddhist Meditation

Christopher M. Bache

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion December 1, 1981 DOI: 10.2307/1386182 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Topics Buddhism Meditation
Citations 6
Key points Argues that the traumatic seizures and disruptive emotions reported by advanced Zen meditators, which masters treat as signs of progress, are emerging birth-trauma memories of fetal impingement. Proposes that object-relations theory on impingement and ego development, combined with transpersonal psychology's account of meditation, explains why these embodied memories manifest in the ego-dissolving context of meditation.

Abstract

Advanced meditators in the Zen tradition occasionally experience traumatic physical seizures accompanied by powerful, disruptive emotions, a development consistently taken by meditation masters as signs of progress toward enlightenment. Using data from LSD research, this paper suggests that these seizures are emerging birth-trauma memories. Interpreting these perinatal memories as memories of fetal impingement, it then turns to object-relations theory to study the effect of impingement and impingement-generated fear on ego-development in order to understand why embodied impingement memories should manifest in the ego-dissolving context of meditation. It argues that a coherent explanation for the manifestation of these symptoms can be had by combining insights from these two fields with the understanding of meditation and consciousness emerging in transpersonal psychology. XVith the growing number of autobiographical descriptions of the meditation and enlightenment processes available in print, a striking and curious meditational experience has been brought to our attention. Advanced meditators occasionally experience traumatic physical seizures accompanied by strong, disruptive emotions. Even more curious, perhaps, is the fact that these agonizing experiences are consistently greeted by the meditation master as a positive sign of deepening meditation. One such account appears in Philip Kapleau's Three Pillars of Zen and provides us with a rather detailed description of the experience:

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. 2006 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience 1995 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being 2005 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World 2017 Theoretical or philosophical paper
From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory 2016 Theoretical or philosophical paper

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Buddhism Meditation LSD Philosophy of mind