I’m a keen meditator and use meditation in my stress management training. That being said like anything perhaps it can have a dark side. This article discusses what can go wrong…
EXTRACT:
“In other words, Eigen believes Owen used meditation to deny his own dark side. The meditator felt himself better than others, including his students, and often privately denigrated them. Eigen saw a similar dynamic in another veteran meditator, “Jesse,” a successful Wall Street analyst who came to therapy to deal with chronic fatigue syndrome and nausea.Jesse often reflected on life’s possibilities in meditation, writes Eigen. “Meditation catalyzed Jesse’s creativity and heightened his already acute awareness of shifting sensations, moods and feelings.” Although Jesse was a nice guy who seemed “open,” in his constant search for something new, he became insensitive to women and others. Eigen says Jesse really needed to control people, because they threatened him.Jesse attended meditation centres for years, but Eigen believes meditation threw Jesse back into himself. What Jesse needed, in the end, was less meditation and more connection.As Eigen says: “Jessie needed simple human contact, not Enlightenment.”Thinking of Owen and Jessie together, Eigen believes they both hurt themselves by trying to escape from other people through meditation.”
“In other words, Eigen believes Owen used meditation to deny his own dark side. The meditator felt himself better than others, including his students, and often privately denigrated them. Eigen saw a similar dynamic in another veteran meditator, “Jesse,” a successful Wall Street analyst who came to therapy to deal with chronic fatigue syndrome and nausea.Jesse often reflected on life’s possibilities in meditation, writes Eigen. “Meditation catalyzed Jesse’s creativity and heightened his already acute awareness of shifting sensations, moods and feelings.” Although Jesse was a nice guy who seemed “open,” in his constant search for something new, he became insensitive to women and others. Eigen says Jesse really needed to control people, because they threatened him.Jesse attended meditation centres for years, but Eigen believes meditation threw Jesse back into himself. What Jesse needed, in the end, was less meditation and more connection.As Eigen says: “Jessie needed simple human contact, not Enlightenment.”Thinking of Owen and Jessie together, Eigen believes they both hurt themselves by trying to escape from other people through meditation.”
………………….
Meditation So What: It’s not an escape and it’s not enough.
Meditation So What: It’s not an escape and it’s not enough.