Meditation-Related Psychosis Almost all of us posting to Fairfield Life are practising TM or at some point practised TM. So we can conclude that the way we are now is in some way related to TM practice. We are the poster-child for TM. Normally selecting a poster-child for a particular agenda is a process that is highly edited to show the particular agenda in the best light. But here on Fairfield Life, it all comes out, and on forums where the lack personal face-to-face confrontation can act as a dis-inhibitor, it all comes out.
Whatever our disposition here, it is a reflection of TM practice to a specific degree, and what comes out is not necessarily what a pro-TM stance would like to see revealed in the light scrutiny. A small percentage of people have serious problems related to TM and other meditations. The percentage would be higher if more people continued with the practice, but if, as a conservative estimate based on limited data indicates, at best only about 5 percent to 10 percent of people who learn meditation continue with it. So the number of people with serious problems probably would be 10 to 20 times greater were everyone regular with the practice. It is estimated only about 1% of people who practice meditation have really serious problems. The following link to a web page is to a post of a psychologists's Ph.D. thesis called Meditation-Related Psychosis. This paper only tangentially mentions TM as it largely discusses the problem of mental difficulties related to meditation of various kinds from a Buddhist perspective. Since there has been a discussion here recently of mental problems with TM in Fairfield, this paper provides an interesting overview of how various Buddhist teachers handle the problems of students cracking up as a result of meditation, and some of this information could be valuable and applied to the situation in Fairfield. The paper also gives a good digest of the the philosophy and practices involved in the three main branches of Buddhism, which most of us here are ignorant of. The author of the paper is a practising psychologist in Colorado. http://downthecrookedpath-meditation-gurus.blogspot.com/2012/03/meditation-related-psychosis-from.html http://downthecrookedpath-meditation-gurus.blogspot.com/2012/03/meditation-related-psychosis-from.html After reading this paper, which is very long, it occurred to me that all meditation techniques are related, that the difference between them is only the degree of mental focus and the object of attention. For example TM has a certain degree of mental focus (coming back to the mantra) and a certain degree of its opposite (take it as it comes). Aside from what is the point of focus (a mantra, a word, a phrase, an object, or breath, or the environment) the proportion of focus or defocus is what distinguishes the different flavours of meditation. Tightening up or relaxation if you will. The paper indicates that problems arise if the meditator is too focused on results, or if the practice is too focused, i.e., concentrative. Not all non-TM practices are concentrative as the movement would have one believe. One interesting point is the behavioural training in these traditions (morality if you will) is part of the traditional teaching. TM is taught mostly stripped of its traditional Hindu morality baggage, and this might also be a factor in why people practising TM and other meditations become ungrounded and antisocial because the context in which the techniques evolved is largely missing. This might explain why the environment of the movement seems at times toxic or psychotic because the normal 'civilised' behavioural environment has been disrupted. The following link is to a report from a person who claims to have been a victim of TM, and whether or not you agree with this, this person is a poster-child for TM. Note that the average poster-child for TM is someone who learned TM and then stopped practising, and who might at some future time start up again, or not, or try something else. http://www.myownmind.com/TM%20Victim.cfm http://www.myownmind.com/TM%20Victim.cfm The following is a link to a discussion of the potential connexion between spirituality and psychosis. http://nozeninthewest.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/psychotic-or-spiritual/ http://nozeninthewest.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/psychotic-or-spiritual/ For myself, I never cracked up, but I had some very dark experiences resulting from the spiritual path which directly stem from the practice of TM but I was always able to find information outside the TM purview that kept me grounded, so I do not regard TM with disdain and still use the technique. In other words, over time, with regard to movement advice, I began to trust my own judgement over the movement's, and this worked out much better for me. After all, the goal of self-sufficiency is to become your own authority. It would go a long way if the movement tried to keep statistics on how many continue with meditation, what techniques they are practising and how long, and how they are ending up, and how well the advice given to meditators actually works to handle problems. The mental attitude toward this kind of data in the movement is not helpful.
