Meditation Experiences Survey

It is now established that the practice of meditation can be associated with adverse and unpleasant experiences (Goldberg et al 2022; Farias et al 2020; Schlosser et al 2019). There are also reports of meditation practice leading to psychosis in healthy individuals with no history of a mental health disorder (e.g. Charan et al 2021; Kuijpers et al 2007). The neural mechanisms leading from meditation to adverse and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) has not yet been established, and although some evidence suggests certain types of meditation technique might be more likely to lead to adverse experiences over others (e.g. Charan et al 2021; Schlosser et al 2019). The aim of this project is to investigate demographic factors, psychosis proness factors, mental health history, meditation practice (Including type of meditation) and see if these link to psychotic like experiences (PLEs). The aim is to help clarify individual risk factors and mediating and moderating factors, to better inform meditators, meditation teachers and researchers. By carefully classifying meditation techniques in terms of the inteneded end state to be attained by using them (e.g. Nash, Newberg and Awasthi 2013), and by classifying these techniques in terms of what the meditator is doing (e.g. Matko and Sedlmeier 2019), its suggested that further hypotheses about the underlying mecahnisms by which different techniques might lead to PLEs can be proposed. This will help guide further research into these mechanisms, including using neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI.