Meditation Gone Wrong with Dr. Willoughby Britton

About this episode

Dr. Willoughby Britton shares her transformation from a meditation advocate to a skeptic, discussing the negative effects of meditation and her research on meditators in distress.

Dr. Willoughby Britton tells her journey from a meditation evangelical to a meditation skeptic. She discusses how stumbling into cases of people getting worse from meditation catalyzed her research examining meditators in distress, and also led her to create the non-profit Cheetah House, which provides evidence-based support for meditators in distress. She talks about the Varieties of Contemplative Experience study, which crafted an extremely thorough catalogue of the kinds of negative effects people can have from meditation—ranging from altered self-experience to energy-like somatic experiences. Aside from research, we also discuss some more practical, action-based advice for both preventing meditation-related adverse effects and what is helpful (and not helpful) if you happen to be experiencing negative effects. We also get into the intersection between psychedelic-related adverse effects and meditation-related adverse effects, and how a lot of psychedelic enthusiasts end up on Cheetah House’s doorstep. Participate in psychedelic or meditation-related research: 👉 https://www.meditationchallenges.org/ 👉 https://www.psychedelicchallenges.org/ Lastly, I’d like to do a little…

People in this episode

Host: Haley Maria Dourron

Guest: Dr. Willoughby Britton

Topics covered

• meditation
• mental health
• adverse effects
• research
• psychedelics
• support

Keywords

• meditation
• skepticism
• Cheetah House
• negative effects
• mental distress
• psychedelics
• research
• support

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cheetah House, Furthure, Meditation Challenges, Psychedelic Challenges

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