Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety

Re:Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety by galaxyLogic on Monday August 17, 2020 @11:47AM (#24188329)

> On top of that nearly all ancient texts on meditation basically include a "do not try this at home" statement of sorts.

I didn't know that. But I can see that being a "guru" or a "priest" is a profession, say like being a doctor is one.

Now doctors are unlikely to say "go heal yourself". Rather they are likely to say "Come see me in 2 weeks and pay another $300 bucks".

So I suspect if ancient texts say "Do not try this without a teacher" the reason may be that teachers need students.

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Re:Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety by muffinman26 on Monday August 17, 2020 @01:43PM (#24189663)

Doctors want money, but that does't mean they're completely useless. I wouldn't want to perform surgery on myself.

I recently read "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong, which covers the evolution of religion and various mystical traditions in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. It's a really interesting book and one of the points she brings up is that there are many historical examples of attempts at mystical experimentation that end in madness. The teacher is supposed to be a sort of life guard.

Ultimately, the book made me even more skeptical of religion and meditation than I already was. Spiritual/meditative introspection seems like a risky and dangerous process.

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Re:Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety by cmrx64 on Monday August 17, 2020 @05:49PM (#24192600)

what's the background rate on madness in the non-mystical-experimentation population?

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Re:Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety by galaxyLogic on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @05:10PM (#24216538)

Good point. Madness can attack anybody

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