Dangers of Meditation/Mindfulness

[MBG]

A couple of articles on possible negative mental health effects of meditation, especially extended bouts of it combined with social isolation. Remember social isolation is what prisons use to punish prisoners.

The dangers of meditation

These were side effects discovered by researchers at Brown University, Rhode Island, exploring the phenomenon of 'meditation sickness' by interviewing nearly 100 people.

www.dailymail.co.uk

My daughter killed herself during intense 10-day meditation retreat

Nathalie, from Ontario, Canada , told a new podcast called The Retreat, from the Financial Times, how her daughter Jaqui checked into a Goenka retreat.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[uzuf86]

If you meditate for too long, surely it can and will screw up your mind in negative ways

 

[Pluto]

I recall learning about the Canadian woman's case.

The nature of retreats is that they can bring up deep-seated issues. It is imperative that there be some sort of guidance along the way. The same likely applies to other fields like psychedelic treatments. This can be powerful stuff and is dangerous if not treated accordingly.

 

[SexyIncél]

Dr. K says most meditation experts, are only expert in 1 kind of meditation. If you have PTSD & just let thoughts bubble up — BOOM you may be smacked down by painful memories

Also, Lama Jampa Thaye points out it can program you into a psychopath:

More seriously, such free-floating meditation is ripe for subversion to whatever political or economic ends its proponents prefer. It easily absorbs the values of the most unsavory elements of our culture. Worse, many meditators, thinking they are practicing the essence of the dharma, remain completely ignorant of the ideological commitments that might come to underpin the meditation they practice. In our society, this is likely to be a ruthless individualism congenial to both the market and state.

To compensate for this, meditation in the West grounds itself in a mélange of self-indulgence and gesture politics masquerading as compassion—a "compassion," it must be said, that cannot see beyond self-regard. The result is the same vapid posturing that dominates so much of contemporary culture.

If current trends continue, meditation will become a mere app for stress-free living. In other words, it will simply come to accommodate the harmful consumption-driven lifestyles that still characterize much of life in wealthy Western countries. In such a scenario meditation would serve as a reinforcing agent to stabilize delusion.

Mind-hackers might like trying simple conversations. And look to anthropologists to demystify Buddhism & other traditions — so you're not taking the sucker's path & nuking your mind

 

[BrugmansiaFreak]

some say Nietzsche get mad by thinking too much, so much reality that he wouldn't deal

 

[divinemistress36]

It takes you out of reality so i can see how it could be dangerous for some

 

[Ash]

Reading the Daily Mail can also cause extreme nausea, high blood pressure, rage and in severe cases readers have been known to feel a sudden urge to punch a Nazi.

 

[Hotsackage]

It definetly can lead psychological disturbances, like any other drug. We're not Tibetan yogis, to bad society is all about profit, and charge obscene amounts of money to teach people things, that they have no idea what they're doing

 

[Havnis]

It feels good tho

 

[thenamingofcats]

Meditation made me very depressed, felt like I was on downers or something.

 

[fleetingnight]

A lot of meditation is about self-awareness, isn't it? If your life is genuinely awful, and you want to survive it, you should be trying NOT to think about it. I know therapists would be mad at me because "avoidance is bad," but I do a lot worse things to myself when I'm aware.

Mindfulness meditation usually makes me spiral, but the kind where you try not to think about anything can be nice, unless I start overthinking, which happens about half the time

 

[cosmic-freedom]

If meditation can bring about self-awareness and if the slaves realize that they do not have to live in made-up society driven by greed, hatred, lust and envy, then it would be the end of this madness.How the hell are we going to keep the cycle of suffering running?Let's make up a lame theory backed up by dumb facts.Hehe

 

[Dark Window]

It takes you out of reality so i can see how it could be dangerous for some

Not really. It doesn't take you out of reality, it makes you more aware and for some people that's difficult.