Mindfulness Risks = Wakeup Call for Nonduality

-

The proliferation of mindfulness and meditation practices has been met with widespread acclaim, as its health benefits have been widely touted and experienced by many individuals. However, it comes as a surprise to some that these practices can actually have adverse effects, and it is not a one-size-fits-all solution that should be prescribed to everyone without caution. Thanks to ongoing research, we are beginning to understand the factors that contribute to the severity, prevalence, and nature of these adverse effects, and to shed light on the previously unknown dangers of these practices.


This growing body of research has been crucial for enabling proponents and facilitators of mindfulness and meditation practices to better safeguard their students and audiences, and for individuals to take steps to protect themselves. Many programs, retreat centers and individual facilitators have been taking pro-active risk prevention steps including getting trained in how to help support someone experiencing adverse effects, as well as trauma-sensitive meditation guidance, screening participants or at least offering guidance on how to self-assess one's susceptibility to being harmed by the practices, providing full disclosure of the risks, and having psychotherapists present during intensive mindfulness meditation retreats. In many cases, these steps are being required by workshop venues, MBSR programs, and mindfulness meditation facilitator training programs. 

------

The following was written in regards to mindfulness meditation, yet the same applies to "no-self" ego deconstruction facilitation, and in my experience, to a much more alarming degree:

"The primary motivating concern that researchers seem to vocalize today is that there are risks, negative side effects, and counter-indications that are being ignored or even obscured.”

While there hasn't been adequate research into this yet, there are shockingly widespread reports from people who have been severely negatively impacted by contemporary non-dual ego-dissolution teachings, including meditative practices like self-inquiry, which aim to instantly dismantle one's sense of self.  Given how extreme these practices are in comparison to mindfulness meditation, all rational and caring people should support the urgent call for non-dual teachers to take the same initiative to pro-actively safeguard their audience from the risks associated with practices aimed at instant "ego death"/ deconstruction of one's foundational sense of self.

In the words of Daniel Lawton, "There needs to be a real call to action, especially within communities that pride themselves in doing no harm and being compassionate.”


On Adverse Effects of Meditation




​

Preliminary Research Into Adverse Effects of Non-dual "Loss of Self"


Complexities and Challenges of Nonduality -Elizabeth Stephens, California Institute of Integral Studies 

See Also:
- Alex Tzelnic

Self-Assessment Guidance by Rebecca Bradshaw from The Insight Meditation Society

"Considering a Retreat?
​Here are some steps to check before you check in

Make an honest self-assessment as to whether you are ready and able at this time to take on the physical, emotional, and psychological stress of a silent retreat and the integration time afterward. It may be helpful to consult with a mental health professional, especially someone who has had experience with silent retreat themself. If you are suffering from severe depression, anxiety, or PTSD, it is probably not a good idea to join an intensive retreat. Try meditation classes instead, or a one-day or non-residential weekend retreat.

Choose a teacher who has training and experience working with trauma and mental health issues on retreat. Avoid teachers who choose a one-size-fits-all type of meditation instruction.
Be honest on any mental health questionnaires, and during a retreat share your experiences fully with your teacher, who needs this information to give you appropriate tailored guidance.
Listen to your gut. If it tells you that you need to leave the retreat, trust that.

Finally, you cannot treat a trusted meditation teacher’s advice as if it were medication advice: consider with your doctor whether the prescription is appropriate for you. Be aware of any possible side effects and report them immediately. Follow the doctor’s instructions, and if necessary adjust the dose so that it is correct."






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Universe's Past: A Portal to Presence!

-
Image
One of my favorite spiritual practices now, portals to presence and wonder actually involves tuning into the past! looking back to experience the now more deeply, in the light of Beings' journey of  becoming, (be)coming all the way to THIS nowness and right hereness  😱 the ground of Being has a past, and a quite extraordinarily EPIC one at that! S hining a light on it reveals the splendor of this moment it has become... can bring you to feeling astonished and deeply moved by the present... looking back to the beginning of the universe, feeling into, visualizing what it ONCE WAS, those early days of the ground of Being beginning its' journey of becoming... becoming cells, atoms, molecules, water and earth, chickens and eggs, mountains and lakes, becoming....HUMAN...becoming ME...my god, the o ne becoming MANY to see what it has become, what it is right NOW, a dimly lit room, dancing and drumming, strangers drawn together to celebrate the staggering mystery of our coinciding li...
Read more

Spiritualizing Trauma Responses - Rupert Spira - Total Dis-embodiment

-
Image
"I s there something we can do to dissolve the belief that ‘I am a body’? A woman says that during meditation she can sense old beliefs and feelings associated with the body start to dissolve, but the old conditioning of believing and feeling solid, dense and limited quickly comes back. Rupert explains that having recognised the felt sense of the body as just a cloud of sensing, once or twice is not enough. It takes time to erode this very well-born habit. These old habits are deeply conditioned in us — we've been practising them for so long. But every time we do go back there we weaken that habit. So keep questioning it by asking yourself, "Is that true? What is my actual experience?" Every time you go back to your actual experience you erode the power of your old beliefs." -Video description from Dissolving the Belief That "I Am a Body" You could actually say that the core messages of modern non-duality which split the non-physical self from the ...
Read more

Exploring Another Side of Nisargadatta

-
     Like many individuals who have delved into contemporary non-dual spirituality, I was once deeply influenced by Nisargadatta Maharajs' unconventional contemporary Advaita Vedanta-derived teachings on liberation via radical self-effacement. Alongside Ramana Maharshi, he is one of the primary influencers of these self-effacement teachings in our present-day Western world, particularly the extremely powerful, most pitfall-laden "direct path" approaches to "enlightenment" that cut out all preparatory stages/safeguards that existed traditionally before attempting to obliterate your sense of self. This is done in favor of a sort of instant enlightenment approach that is understandably attractive to people in the West. Nisargadattas' influence extends beyond strictly Advaita-derived teachings, encompassing the broad range of modern Western amalgamations of Eastern non-dual teachings, which typically mix and match cherry-picked elements of traditions like Advait...
Read more

No Ground for the Groundless

-
Image
You  climbed a ladder to the sky and for a long time, you marveled while gazing down at the world from so high up.  Now that you're ready to come back to the ground, you discover that the ladder beneath you is gone. You're suspended in the air, so you can't even fall. Now you're stuck up here, looking down from the great heights that afforded you a view you'd like to take with you but not be limited to.  I reached out to Stephen, a well-known psychotherapist and esteemed self-negating nonduality teacher, when I was in the throes of a spiritual emergency catalyzed by my ego dissolution path.  I was dis-oriented, disassociated and de-personalized, struggling to shore up a sense of personal agency, embodiment, and most importantly,  to get back a sense of solid ground beneath my feet.  I was especially terrified by what became a harrowing sense of dis-reality both of my own personal identity and in-solidity of the world, because while I'd experienced depersona...
Read more