🧘‍♀️ Meditation: Safe Haven or Dangerous Battleground?

🔥

In its simplest definition, meditation is a practice that involves focusing or clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques. Meditation is often praised for peace, clarity, stress relief, spiritual growth... BUT, what happens when that's not the experience? Many people don’t expect the unusual, scary, or even supernatural-type experiences that can emerge when they meditate deeply or intensely. We "clear our minds", but what is it that we're leaving room for? What is that space being filled with? **About 33% of people indicate experiencing negative/adverse effects with meditative practice* This is considered a statistically significant number** (JUMP to the bottom for positive/negative experiences surrounding this)

Meditation was initially a religious practice but has made ground with individuals that don't consider themselves religious. It can be found across cultures and religions and dates back for thousand of years.

🙏Examples of Meditation in different religions/cultures/contexts:

Buddhist: Several different forms of meditation have their origins in Buddhism (which is considered both a philosophy and a religion, especially depending on the nation of origin). Theravadan meditation is more common in Southeast Asia, especially in India and Thailand. Zen Buddhist meditation originated in China, and different forms of it eventually evolved elsewhere, such as Japanese Zen Buddhist meditation. Tibetan Buddhist tantric meditation comes from the former nation of Tibet, now a region of China. Buddhism emphasizes mindfulness and insight to cultivate compassion and liberate from suffering.
Christian: Contemplation or contemplative prayer is a common practice in Christianity. Praying is often classified as meditation. *A note here: may be worth looking into the different Christian groups and their view/stance on meditation.
Islam: uses shikr (rememberance of God) and muraqabah (meditative reflection) for spiritual closeness
Judaism: offers meditation-like practices such as hitbodedut and Kabbalistic contemplation to deepen connection with the divine.
Guided: A nonreligious form of meditation can happen with several people or one-on-one. It’s a common technique in counseling, therapy and group support settings.
Osho: This form of meditation, also known as “dynamic meditation”, comes from India and has its roots in Hinduism. Breathing exercises are deliberate and forceful.
Sufi: Sufism is a branch of Islam, and meditation is a common practice among people who follow it.
Taoist: Like Buddhism, Taoism is also considered a religion and philosophy. It originated in China and is best known through the writings of its founder, Laozi (also spelled “Lao Tzu” or “Lao-Tze”).
Transcendental : This form of meditation comes from India. It involves using mantras, which are phrases or words people focus on and repeat aloud or in their minds.
Yoga: This is a physical form of meditation and exercise from India. It can take on religious and nonreligious forms.

(info above found at: Meditation: What It Is, Benefits & Types)

**** I would argue that not all the different forms are the same or equally yoked***

🏞Types of Meditation

Body-centered meditation. This is sometimes called self-scanning. Doing this involves focusing on the physical sensations you can feel throughout your body.
Contemplation. This usually involves concentrating on a question or some kind of contradiction without letting your mind wander.
Emotion-centered meditation. This kind of meditation has you focus on a specific emotion. For example, focusing on how to be kind to others or on what makes you happy in your life.
Mantra meditation. This kind of meditation involves repeating (either aloud or in your head) and focusing on a specific phrase or sound.
Meditation with movement. This type of meditation can involve focusing on breathing, holding your breath or performing specific body movements. It can also involve walking while focusing on what you observe around you.
Mindfulness meditation. This form of meditation is about staying aware of what’s happening at the moment rather than letting your mind wander and worrying about the past or future. It can also involve a similar approach as body-centered meditation, using what you feel throughout your body as a foundation for your awareness of the world around you.
Visual-based meditation. This kind of meditation involves focusing on something you can see (either with your eyes or by concentrating on a mental image).

(info above found at: Meditation: What It Is, Benefits & Types)

🌟 Benefits of Meditation

🧠 Improved Focus and Attention: Studies show meditation can strengthen attention networks in the brain.
💗 Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Meta-analyses find mindfulness meditation significantly lowers anxiety and stress.
🫀 Physical Health Support: Regular meditation can lower blood pressure and reduce inflammatory markers
😌 Emotional Regulation: Meditation enhances self-awareness and emotional regulation, allowing calmer responses to stress. People indicate an increase in feelings of love and compassion.
🧘 Spiritual Growth: In religious contexts, meditation or contemplative prayer is used to deepen one’s connection with the divine, cultivate compassion, and quiet the ego.

⚠️ Potential Dangers of Meditation

*🌀 Surfacing Trauma: Meditation can bring suppressed memories or emotions to the surface, which may be overwhelming without proper support. People have indicated having flashbacks, flooding of negative emotions, fear, impending sense of doom/like something bad is going to happen.

😟 Increased Anxiety or Dissociation: Some people experience heightened anxiety, depersonalization. People indicate feeling a distorted sense of reality and some had indicated feeling attacked or influenced by spirits with ill intent and perceiving a demonnic presence
Hallucinations, delusions, and dissociation have been reported, even in people without prior psychiatric diagnosis.
🔄 Cultural Misalignment: Practices drawn from one faith tradition can feel alien or even conflict with another, which is why it’s valuable to honor your own tradition’s contemplative practices if that feels (or is) safer
💤 Overuse as Escape: "spiritual bypassing" Using meditation as a way to avoid real-world responsibilities or emotions can delay healing or growth.

⚠️ Things to Notice / Common Themes

Many adverse experiences are temporary but sometimes intense (anxiety, depersonalization, flashbacks). There are individuals that have indicated feeling this for months after and some of these individuals indicated not having any mental health issues prior.
Prior mental health, childhood trauma, or lack of guidance often appear in the backgrounds of people who report more serious effects.
Some experiences are interpreted spiritually (visions, awakenings, noetic knowledge) rather than “evil influence.” How someone frames it depends a lot on their beliefs, context, and culture.
Guidance, safe structure, supervision, and knowing how to integrate or process experiences are frequently mentioned as making a big difference.

🔧 What Helps Keep Meditation Safe & Grounded:

Be aware of what kind of meditation you’re practicing (intense, “insight”, retreat-type, etc.) **I do think that it's important to have informed consent---meaning.....know what you're getting into---do your research and be diligent. We often only hear about the benefits of meditation, but there are some risks and there IS a difference between the different types of meditation. **
Be aware of your own boundaries....when we open up space "clear our mind", how do we engage with that space? What are the options if something disturbing comes in?

Start small: short sessions, comfortable setting, limited time
Use guided meditations (again be aware of content and where the practices come from/what the intent of the practices are) or work with a teacher you trust
If frightening or disorienting things happen, pause, seek support (spiritual counsel, therapist)
Reflect on your beliefs and interpretive framework (spiritual vs psychological) to make sense of experiences

💡 Question to ponder: Have you ever felt unsettled during meditation or experienced something unexpected that felt supernatural, scary or spiritually charged? How did you interpret that experience (psychologically, spiritually, or both)? What supports would help you process it well?

2 comments

Inspired Life, Empowered Being

skool.com/inspired-life-empowered-being-7894

Supportive environment where we are encouraged to increase our awareness, take action, and thrive through life's many challenges. Inspire.Empower.Live

Bring people together around your passion and get paid.