This website, out of compassion for all who practise meditation, was created by a Buddhist, Damcho Pamo, in consultation with Dr. Miguel Farias, a research psychologist. Read about their respective backgrounds here.
There is growing evidence, as can be seen from the research and story pages of this website, that some people can develop serious mental health problems in association with meditation practice. In view of this we have created a leaflet for meditation and mindfulness students and one for teachers and retreat leaders that provides guidelines on how to recognise the development of such mental health problems, how students can go about seeking help and how teachers/retreat leaders can provide appropriate first aid and thus give support to the students affected in this way.
By clicking on the two links below you can read the text of the two leaflets and also download and print them. Do print off as many leaflets as you require and do pass them on to others whom you think would be interested.
To print select Print on two sides and Flip on short side.
Damcho Pamo is the editor of this evidence based website.
Leaflets for Meditation and Mindfulness Students and Teachers
Articles and Research
There is now a large body of research documenting psychological problems for some people associated with meditation practice. Here we give details of six pieces of research dating from 1976 to 2015. They cover the development of general and specific psychiatric problems such as anxiety, depression, mania and psychosis. For each piece of research we give the reference, our summary, the actual paper abstract and a link to the full paper. As further research is carried out we will add to this list of research examples. Below is a link to a chapter, The Dark Side, from the book The Buddha Pill written by Dr.Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm which gives further evidence for psychological problems associated with meditation practice.
You can purchase the actual book The Buddha Pill, paperback or E-book through Amazon
Download The Dark Side Here
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