Mindfulness Meditation

See Yogadanger’s Meditation Dangers Facebook page for many posts on Mindfulness Meditation

Yogadanger’s blog posts on Mindfulness Meditation

Parents Against TM – A Facebook page dedicated to removing the TM program from the Chicago Public Schools.  The “Quiet Time” program is funded by the David Lynch Foundation and is touted as non-religious even though students are taken through a Hindu initiation ritual where they bow down to an image of J. Guru Dev and recite Sanskrit prayers and are given a secret Hindu mantra.

“The Dark Side of Meditation” – a video by New Age guru Leo Gura of Actualized.org on the dangers of meditation.

“Proof Meditation is Dangerous & Demonic (The Shocking Truth)” – an excellent video by Steven Bancarz,  outlining recent research from the Britton Lab at Brown University on the dangers of meditation.  He also has several excerpts from Leo Gura’s video above.

“The Dark Side of Meditation”  from a new book by Dr. Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm, “The Buddha Pill:  Can Meditation Change You?,” is available in edited form at the UK Independent.

“Can “Secular” Mindfulness Be Separated from Religion”  by Dr. Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University, in R. E. Purser et al. (eds.), Handbook of Mindfulness, Mindfulness in Behavioral Health, Springer, Switzerland, 2016.    DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44019-4_6

Are “Secular” Mindfulness-Based Programs in Public Schools Religion-Neutral? Dr. Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University, the link is to a pdf file, Dr. Brown’s article is on page six.

See also Dr. Candy Gunther Brown’s Facebook page.

The Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory (CLANlab) at Brown University –  The CLANLab is led by Willoughby Britton, Ph.D. and Jared Lindahl, Ph.D. at Brown University, also known as the Britton Lab.   It is a major NIH-funded research laboratory that studies the effects of contemplative practices.  The lab has extensive and ongoing research programs studying Buddhist-based meditation and “Mindfulness” practices.  The Britton Lab is one of the first research programs to focus on contemplative practices’ potential dangers and pitfalls. (See Below)

CLANlab’s Meditation Safety Toolbox –  This toolbox is a zip file on their website containing a plethora of information regarding implementing meditation programs safely.  The toolbox includes information regarding dealing with suicidality.

CLANlab’s Publications from the Varieties of Contemplative Experience (VCE) Study:

[All papers below are available at https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/research/varieties-contemplative-experience]

• Lindahl, J.R., Fisher, N.E., Cooper, D.J., Rosen, R.K., Britton, W.B., (2017). The Varieties of Contemplative Experience: A Mixed-Methods Study of Meditation-Related Challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE.
• Lindahl (2017) Phenomenology Codebook (also in simplified handout version)
• Lindahl (2017) Influencing Factors Codebook
• Lindahl, J.R. (2017) Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists. Religions 8(8), 153;
• Britton, W. B., Lindahl, J. R., Cahn, B. R., Davis, J. H., & Goldman, R. E. (2014). Awakening is not a metaphor: the effects of Buddhist meditation practices on basic wakefulness. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1307, 64-81.