I agree with much of what you said. But I also think it makes people a tad more open to irrationality after such experiences, even the knowledgeable ones.
> that is more about each individual’s existing beliefs and the resulting framing of the experience
Not disagreeing.
There are good reasons that so many people realize for themselves that non-dual perspectives hold more value than dualistic ones.
It’s nearly impossible to describe this in English well.
If you do a "5 Whys" type thing, there isn't really a reason to live. It's just an instinct. So I can say, I'm a hedonist, I live because life pays off eventually. No big deal.
I don't think rationality is opposed to anything like love or sentiment. I just like feeling good. Rationality is a tool I can use to feel more good, if I want.
Do you have some specific examples of irrationality? I’m curious to know what you’re encountering, and I haven’t yet found this among the non-religious meditators that I know.
I do avoid them (figuratively, not literally) because I value my critical thinking.
What I observe in meditators is a gradual loss of trust in logic, reason and science, even in those with decades of education. They fall for silly quackeries and psychic beliefs or that the meditation teacher mystically can know things and have insight beyond even experts.
If they produced some new knowledge through that, I would be all for it. But no, it just is a collapse of common sense.
This is again all very vague, so it’s difficult to understand your perspective. Silly quackeries like what?
It also doesn’t align with what I’ve experienced, or have observed in others: I’m still a staunch believer in logic, reason and science. Have never felt the need to take on psychic beliefs, etc.
I’m not saying you’re wrong about the people you’re referring to, I just don’t have a similar frame of reference.
The scientific interest in meditation is primarily focused on the mindfulness variety, which is more about observing your state of mind without judgement, and learning to stop getting lost in discursive thought, vs. TM's focus on mantras.
While the mindfulness family of practices has been fairly well secularized, it does seem that TM brings a lot more baggage along with it.
I think this still boils down to the person practicing. While researching/evaluating meditation practices, TM was something that I decided to steer clear of, for many of the reasons you describe.
A religious friend went on a road trip and hiked deep into the Rocky Mountains. They experienced the awe and wonder of the landscape, and to them, this was God revealing himself to them.
Supernatural claims by meditators are interpretations of the experience, much like God-in-the-mountains is an interpretation of experience.
I held the view you’re describing for many years until I spontaneously experienced what some meditators describe while I was practicing photography out in nature. It caught me off guard, and came with a dawning realization that “oh shit, so this is what people are talking about”.
Learning to be a better photographer by immersing myself in the environment I was in had inadvertently led me to states of presence that meditators train to achieve. This is what ultimately made me explore meditation further.
I’d be cautious about linking that openness with what you’re framing as gullability. In my own exploration, I’ve applied rigorous rational examination as I go, and while I understand why people who are predisposed to religiosity reach supernatural conclusions, that is more about each individual’s existing beliefs and the resulting framing of the experience.