[Buddha-l] Meditation and mental illness

[R B Basham]

Luke and not Luke,


> Is there any research on the dangers of meditation for those with or who have had a severe mental illness? Or on attitudes toward practicing with that sort of history?
>

I will let the active clinicians and professors address the research.

Contrary to what some 'certified' meditation experts/instructors
profess, meditation can subvert one's usual defenses and values in
disruptive, crazy-making ways. Often entry into psychotherapy or being
counseled is triggered by challenges similar to those uncovered in
simple insight meditation. [Aside, I consider concentration meditation
to be looking at the object from the opposite side, a contrary POV of
the same.] If not, occasionally <g> therapy evokes such. So every
individual needs to be mindful, measured, and benignly resourced as they
begin or return to meditative practices. 

Plus, some experts (meditators, instructors, and therapists)
"imperfectly understand" the practices and processes. For example, one
international expert meditator/scholar off-the-cuff advised a novice
stranger to visualize "being the sword which chopped problem persons and
situations into small pieces", which was immediately construed as
literal and resulted in un-necessary hardships (tact?). And, some
responses to meditative content (disruptive or not) by advisers are
'freeling' clueless and burdensome (tact?). 

Other that all that, I suggest to everyone that the best reaction for me
to my own content is "Oh, I didn't realize that I
felt/held/conflicted/... (that)." Also, I am cautious from experiences
with 'stunts', such as images for each eye, and other structured
meditations (guided, illusions, etc.). 

Thus, to answer your question, could help, could hurt -- depends on more
than the vague 'meditation'.


Richard Basham