Can Meditation KILL YOU???

Meditation, as it turns out, can be harmful to one's health, and this has been known for a good many years. Unfortunately, there's been so little research done as to its harms that the extent isn't fully known, but severe mental illness can result from it—but we have no way of knowing if it's to the level of being fatal.

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0:00 - Intro
2:08 - Adverse Effects of Meditation
3:26 - Can It Be Fatal? Can We Know?
5:46 - This Should Make Sense, at Least in Retrospect
7:18 - Sufferers Are Dismissed and Told It'll Just Go Away
8:52 - "Natural" Doesn't Mean Safe

[AndrewBrownK]

I wonder if the negative effects correlate with use of psychedelics, which the surveys might have not questioned.

I've known multiple people who were into spiritualism and meditation who also got into psychedelics and then went full Minecraft. Some people will tell you that it is impossible to OD on these substances but they are wrong. These substances can and do cause permanent damage.

[daraphairphire]

Oh, so just blindly thinking about my issues doesn't actually help me solve them? Well, ain't that a thought.

[reimeioh]

I’ve done mindfulness practices whenever my anxiety increases. Meditation on the other when first introduced, I couldn’t handle the concept of clearing your mind, because my mind takes things on a literal level. You could say that even thinking of what a clear mind looks like to having no images or thoughts, and seeing a blank space is still an image of a blank space and it never completely gets rid of the thoughts. The closest one can do is try and practice seeing that “blank space” and it could or couldn’t work. Or examine the what’s and how’s of your thoughts if it can be looked at differently. I always wondered how other people’s thoughts and internal processes worked, if it was similar to mine or if they think in numbers and whatnot. I never had anyone tell me or able to answer these questions so I had to learn on my own. Not everyone will process the same way everyone else processes things. That’s why it annoys me when things are not specified as clearly as possible the first time that it causes problems or mistakes that could’ve been prevented or lessen the impact.

[kokofan]

There are a few things I’d like to see more studies on: 1) how much of this is self selection with people who have mental problems trying to use meditation to help with their problems and 2) what about meditation might be triggering these negative side affects

[SuperAtheist]

what's the percentage of depression among non-meditators?

[mrspeigle]

This was out of the blue but makes sense when you think about it. It would be interesting to see what additional funding could find reguarding methodology impact because there is alot of variables in how meditation is done.

[jackmcslay]

Meditation is so old school, the kids today are all getting into ASMR videos - which is probably going to get studies how nonsense it is eventually as well.

[brandishwar]

I read about meditation back when I was in high school. I spent my last two years of school in Fairfield, Iowa, so I ran into a LOT of people who were caught up in the "transcendental meditation"... thing spurred on by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - after whom the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield is named, and the guy who introduced the Beatles to it. And I read quite a few books on meditation and hypnosis - since meditation is a form of self-hypnosis - and talked with some practitioners as well.

And one point I remember being called out a lot is an amplification effect.

It's similar to what people say about acid trips, that whatever is on your mind when the LSD kicks in will more or less dictate how your trip goes. So if you go into an acid trip already feeling anxious or with a lot of anxious things on your mind, then the LSD will only amplify that. Similar with meditation. Try to meditate in the afternoon after you were just laid off in the morning and you're probably going to come out of it feeling worse than had you not tried it to begin with because you're probably going to be feeling anxious from just being laid off, provided you can even get relaxed enough to actually fall into the self-hypnotic trance. And regularly coming out of meditation sessions feeling worse than when you went in is a sign that you should probably be seeking mental help.

But that amplification effect also works the opposite direction. Some of those I've talked to described coming out of a meditation session feeling... high. And it's that which likely gets a lot of the focus by people who _sell_ meditation. As part of a wellness program coupled with exercise and eating right, it can have benefit. In talking with practitioners back in high school, there was one person I met who would only meditate after jogging.

[thephantomthievesofhearts]

Lmao I misread “meditation” as “medication”.

[pizzaman-fxxx]

Think about it, if meditation really cured you, then how would BIG MEDITATION make any money?!!??!?

[Anti-CornLawLeague]

Could you talk about the news of the Shroud of Turin being 2, 000 years old? It seems a popular story for religious folks.

[neilstone]

Its weird I've ben meditating for a while and it's actually helped me. Perhaps it's a placebo or perhaps it's just a coincidence

[evensgrey]

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some forms of meditation that, if you do them wrong, could be bad for your mental health.

Years ago in university, I knew someone who did have some serious issues that could have been complicated by misunderstanding what she was doing as meditation. When they described what she was doing to me, I immediately recognized it not as meditation, but as self-hypnosis. This person had been severely abused as a child, so she was in a precarious mental health situation at the best of times. They were also on try-cyclic antidepressants for treatment of pain from fibromyalgia, which didn't really help for long-term mental health.

It really shouldn't be surprising that meditation advocates often have a religious-like enthusiasm for it. Most meditation traditions are closely tied to specific religions.