Meditation is a fascinating study. I find it interesting that in a billion-dollar industry, they rarely, if ever, discuss some of the more distressing challenges that arise over the course of practice. Interesting, isn’t it? I’ve read stories of people having to be institutionalized after a weekend meditation retreat. And it isn’t uncommon, just extremely under-reported.
I recently read a study where a group of Buddhist meditation practitioners was assessed. The researchers were interested in discovering how prevalent and intense these distressing challenges could be. What they found is that every single person in the study had experienced adverse effects over the course of their practice. Furthermore, the effects were many and varied, with most reporting experiencing multiple adverse effects. At the close of their initial study, the researchers identified adverse effects to the degree where they came up fifty-nine categories in order to properly understand and catalog them. This became the basis of a framework for future research in this realm.
Interesting, isn’t it? But you don’t read about this in the literature for the latest weekend or month-long retreat.
Anyway, here’s some more Tower of Fantasy scenery porn, because I cannot get enough of this shit:
