Future Directions in Meditation Research: Recommendations for Expanding the Field of Contemplative Science
📄 Original study ↗📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
A massive international team of 18 researchers surveyed over 1,100 meditators from 66 countries — people who had been practicing for about 15 years on average — and asked what strange or extraordinary things they'd experienced during meditation. The results are eye-opening. Nearly everyone (91%) reported shifts in awareness, and a remarkable 56% said they'd experienced something like clairvoyance or telepathy (perceiving things beyond normal senses). That telepathy finding is especially striking because the longer someone had meditated, the more likely they were to report it. About a third even described physical phenomena happening around them. The study, backed by a four-year task force at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, argues that mainstream meditation science has been ignoring these widespread experiences and lays out six neglected research areas — from mystical experiences to difficult emotional episodes — that deserve serious scientific attention. All the data is publicly available for other researchers to dig into.
Research Notes
The largest survey documenting anomalous experience prevalence in meditators. Key bridge paper between mainstream contemplative science and psi research — the finding that 56% of meditators report clairvoyance/telepathy provides population-level context for laboratory psi studies using meditator samples (IONS double-slit, presentiment, DMILS programs). 18 co-authors from the IONS Future of Meditation Research task force. Data openly available at OSF (https://osf.io/wubza/).
A cross-sectional online survey of 1,120 meditators (from 66 countries, mean 14.7 years practice) investigating the prevalence of extraordinary, mystical, and anomalous experiences during or related to meditation. Developed by a 4-year IONS task force of meditation researchers and teachers. Using the Revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) and newly developed items, found high prevalence of mystical experiences (MEQ30 subscales 3.26-3.71/5.0) and extraordinary phenomena: altered awareness (91%), synchronicities (82%), clairvoyance/telepathy (56%), external physical phenomena (31%), and disturbing emotions (32%). Clairvoyance/telepathy showed the strongest correlation with meditation practice length (r = .30). Provides recommendations for expanding meditation research into 6 under-studied domains: mystical/transcendent experiences, social/relational aspects, physical/perceptual phenomena, spatial/temporal phenomena, extended perception, and difficult experiences.
Links
Related Papers
Same Research Program
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- People Reporting Experiences of Mediumship Have Higher Dissociation Symptom Scores Than Non-Mediums, But Below Thresholds for Pathological Dissociation — Wahbeh, Helané (2018)
- Electrocortical Activity Prior to Unpredictable Stimuli in Meditators and Non-Meditators — Radin, Dean I (2011)
- Exploring the Relationship between Tibetan Meditation Attainment and Precognition — Roney-Dougal, Serena M (2011)
Companion
- Entertaining Without Endorsing: The Case for the Scientific Investigation of Anomalous Cognition — Schooler, Jonathan W (2018)
- When the Truth Is Out There: Counseling People Who Report Anomalous Experiences — Rabeyron, Thomas (2022)
- Meditation Experience Is Associated with Differences in Default Mode Network Activity and Connectivity — Brewer, Judson A (2011)
- Intensive Insight Meditation: A Phenomenological Study — Kornfield, Jack (1979)
- Adverse Effects of Meditation: A Preliminary Investigation of Long-Term Meditators — Shapiro, Deane H. Jr (1992)
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📋 Cite this paper
Vieten, C, Wahbeh, H, Cahn, B.R, MacLean, K, Estrada, M, Mills, P, Murphy, M, Shapiro, S, Radin, D.I, Josipovic, Z, Presti, D.E, Sapiro, M, Bays, J.C, Russell, P, Vago, D, Travis, F, Walsh, R, Delorme, A (2018). Future Directions in Meditation Research: Recommendations for Expanding the Field of Contemplative Science. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740
@article{vieten_2018_future,
title = {Future Directions in Meditation Research: Recommendations for Expanding the Field of Contemplative Science},
author = {Vieten, C and Wahbeh, H and Cahn, B.R and MacLean, K and Estrada, M and Mills, P and Murphy, M and Shapiro, S and Radin, D.I and Josipovic, Z and Presti, D.E and Sapiro, M and Bays, J.C and Russell, P and Vago, D and Travis, F and Walsh, R and Delorme, A},
year = {2018},
journal = {PLOS ONE},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0205740},
}