Mindfulness Teacher Trainees' Experiences

With the increasing interest in mindfulness practices within clinical as well as non-clinical settings and the increasing body of research on the positive effects of mindfulness, concerns have been raised that mindfulness might also produce adverse effects including intense experiences and psychosis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2024-04, Vol.19 (4), p.e0301593
Main Authors: Jönhagen, Erik, Wood, Tim, Niemi, Maria, Galante, Julieta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Education
Health aspects
Investigations
Methods
Mindfulness meditation
Psychological aspects
Teachers
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:With the increasing interest in mindfulness practices within clinical as well as non-clinical settings and the increasing body of research on the positive effects of mindfulness, concerns have been raised that mindfulness might also produce adverse effects including intense experiences and psychosis. The aim of this study was to investigate if intense experiences occur as a natural part of mindfulness practice, and if so to examine the characteristics of such experiences. We conducted a qualitative analysis based on fortnightly meditation reports from 13 mindfulness teacher trainees for 4 months. Intense experiences in meditation were frequently expressed in the reports of most of the practitioners and in some individuals these experiences were similar to psychotic-like experiences. This study presents suggestive evidence that mindfulness practices can produce intense experiences and that for some individuals these intense experiences may resemble psychotic-like experiences.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0301593