Meditation Sickness & Spiritual Emergency

Spiritual Emergency and Meditation Sickness

The term “Meditation Sickness” is a translation from words in ancient Buddhist texts. It refers to psychological and physical problems that may arise during Buddhist meditation, including severe problems like extreme states that create an urge to suicide.

What’s The Problem?

Mindfulness practices originated in Oriental Buddhism but have been simplified and popularized outside the Orient as secular approaches to gain more peace and moderate pain. Britton and Lindahl have produced a number of qualitative and clinical studies that have identified a spectrum of potential negative side effects of mindfulness meditation. These range from gastro-intestinal disorders to anxiety, depression, psychosis, delusions, terror, dissociation/depersonalization, and even suicidality.

Meditation Sickness Does Not Occur in All Types of Meditation

As a practitioner of Yogananda’s techniques of meditation in an international community of at least 30-40,000 people, nothing akin to meditation sickness is reported. Practitioners in this tradition do not experience meditation sickness or spiritual emergency. Paramahansa Yogananda was recognized worldwide as being Self-realized. He brought a series of very specific meditation techniques to the USA in 1920.

Author Bio

Emma Bragdon, PhD. (Transpersonal Psychology) is the Executive Director of IMHU.org. She was a member of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1967-1971. She has been a follower of Yogananda’s teachings via Self Realization Fellowship since 2012. She was licensed as a Marriage, Family, Child Therapist in 1989. EmmaBragdon.com

A course at IMHU speaks to the issue of understanding Kundalini: Kundalini, Bioenergy and Awakening