This paper reports a case in which two separate manic episodes arose after meditation using techniques from two different traditions (yoga and zen). Other cases of psychotic illness precipitated by meditation and mystical speculation reported in the literature are discussed. Continue reading
To all those who are considering mindfulness meditation, I would like to tell you that I wish everyday of my life that I had not agreed to practise it. My experience with mindful meditation is perhaps the opposite of what you have heard. It is one that precipitated and I believed caused my depression and anxiety. It provided the opposite of its touted benefits. Continue reading
My history with meditation and contemplative practice feels quite long. All through my primary school years, I used to visit with the nuns in the local convent who taught me to meditate in stillness on the Tabernacle. In times of adversity in childhood and in adolescence, I always knew how to find this “still place”: the watching place. I found it a great source of comfort, often sitting in silence in nature during troubling times. At 19, a few short months after a particularly traumatic event, I took my first retreat – two days teacher led and seven days within a retreat setting which I found quite healing. Continue reading
In 1997 I became involved with a Zen group. I adopted a daily meditation practice and attended three retreats a year, two weekends and one five day. The retreats were intensive as they were in silence, the only opportunity to talk was in individual interviews with the teacher, and there were around eight hours of meditation a day.
In my late twenties, I was a yoga teacher. I lived and taught across the world living a vibrant and exciting life that I had chosen and built. In December 2014, because I was advised by many people in my yoga circles to do so, I attended a Vipassana Meditation retreat. It’s a silent retreat that last for 11 days. Continue reading