The Next Wave of Meditation Research and Training

( Left: Matthew Sacchet, PhD.)

We believe that scientific research has only scratched the surface in exploring the potential of meditation. Most initial studies focused on using mindfulness for stress reduction and various clinical applications. The Meditation Research Program, led by Dr. Matthew D. Sacchet at Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General) and Harvard Medical School, aims to further the field by pioneering new research and training on advanced meditation.

Advanced Meditation: What Is It and Why It Matters

Advanced meditation is deeper engagement with meditative practices that with time and mastery, produce refined states of mind and awareness. These include bliss states, insights into the mind, altruistic/compassionate mindsets and ultimately, enduring transformation.

Such transformation may result in profoundly altering one’s relations to psychological suffering, desire and motivations and sense of self.

Advanced meditation enables fundamental potential for human flourishing.

It promises to contribute to innovation and impact in many fields and domains including mental health, personal thriving and life meaning, wisdom development and consciousness exploration. Advanced meditation also impacts research in relation to psychedelics and more generally, altered states, artificial intelligence, sustained excellence and peak performance, among others.

The Opportunity and Our Solution

We currently have a nascent understanding of advanced meditation, with current meditation research focused on clinical applications of mindfulness. There has been limited scientific research on advanced meditation, it is still in the early stages of introduction to modern culture and life.

The Meditation Research Program’s Vision: to lead with the best research and education on advanced meditation

This goal is achieved through our comprehensive multidisciplinary advanced meditation research and our development and implementation of advanced meditation training programs and resources.

A Selection of Articles from Their Website

(All PDFs of these can be downloaded on their website)

Ehmann S., Sezer I., Treves IN, Gabrieli J, Sacchet MD Mindfulness, cognition, and long-term meditators: Toward a science of advanced meditation (in press) Imaging Neuroscience
McAlpine R, Utan?aç M, Kuc J, Pankhurst H, Sellers A, Kraft D, Litchy A, Gupta NE, Timmermann C, Kamboj S, Sacchet MD Practitioner perspectives on meditation-based preparation for psychedelic experiences 2025 OSF PsyArXiv doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ph7fm_v1
Sparby T, Sacchet MD Defining meditation: Foundations for an activity-based phenomenological classification system 2022 Frontiers in Psychology 12:795077
Sparby T, Sacchet MD The third wave of meditation and mindfulness research and implications for challenging experiences: Negative effects, transformative psychological growth, and forms of happiness 2025 Mindfulness doi.org/10.1007/s12671-025-02607-7
Wright MJ, Galante J, Corneille JS, Grabovac A, Ingram DM, Sacchet MD Altered states of consciousness are prevalent and insufficiently supported clinically: A population survey 2024 Mindfulness 15:1162–1175

IMHU is excited to learn about research into the effects of advanced meditation. The above was taken from a website at Harvard on Aug 4, 2025. https://meditation.mgh.harvard.edu

IMHU Resources

Interested in advancing your meditation practice? IMHU offers a course reflecting on diverse kinds of meditation practices. We believe that your choices in this area of your life are extremely important and intimate to you. In terms of techniques: you can choose a technique that is the pedestrian path…or the safe, jet path to expanded consciousness, i.e. oneness with all. And, of course, there are many paths in between these two. Link to IMHU course: https://courses.imhu.org/courses/best-meditations-for-wellbeing