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During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and “key to building more resilient soldiers.” Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and poor methodology associated with past studies of mindfulness may lead public consumers to be harmed, misled, and disappointed. Addressing such concerns, the present article discusses the difficulties of defining mindfulness, delineates the proper scope of research into mindfulness practices, and explicates crucial methodological issues for interpreting results from investigations of mindfulness. For doing so, the authors draw on their diverse areas of expertise to review the present state of mindfulness research, comprehensively summarizing what we do and do not know, while providing a prescriptive agenda for contemplative science, with a particular focus on assessment, mindfulness training, possible adverse effects, and intersection with brain imaging. Our goals are to inform interested scientists, the news media, and the public, to minimize harm, curb poor research practices, and staunch the flow of misinformation about the benefits, costs, and future prospects of mindfulness meditation.

Despite numerous benefits of practicing meditation, a growing body of evidence posits possible detrimental effects on one’s mental health and well-being. As meditation’s popularity is steadily increasing in the general population, it is critical to assess, discuss and educate the public of any possible risks associated with available practices. Here, we review existing literature on the adverse effects (AEs) of meditation in non-clinical samples. Relevant original research articles were found through various academic search engines. The bibliographies of the selected studies were reviewed to identify additional articles of interest. A total of 39 studies were retained. These articles were divided into one of three categories: Observational ( n  = 19), Experimental ( n  = 9), or Case Studies ( n  = 11). AEs varied substantially across the studies, yet trends were identified. Common AEs included affective difficulties, distorted senses of self, derealization, hallucinations, delusions, interpersonal challenges, and susceptibility to false memory. Other AEs that were less commonly reported are also summarized. Meditation-related AEs in non-clinical samples are apparent in the literature. We discuss how the perceived valence of a meditative experience can vary, particularly if the experience is considered beyond the secular framework. We conclude that the general public should be aware of any potential effects derived from meditation in order to assert the meditation community’s safety and well-being.

The purpose of this study was to uncover the day-to-day emotional profiles and dose-response relations, both within persons and between persons, associated with initiating one of two meditation practices, either mindfulness meditation or loving-kindness meditation. Data were pooled across two studies of midlife adults ( N  = 339) who were randomized to learn either mindfulness meditation or loving-kindness meditation in a 6-week workshop. The duration and frequency of meditation practice was measured daily for 9 weeks, commencing with the first workshop session. Likewise, positive and negative emotions were also measured daily, using the modified Differential Emotions Scale (Fredrickson, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 47:1–53, 2013 ). Analysis of daily emotion reports over the targeted 9-week period showed significant gains in positive emotions and no change in negative emotions, regardless of meditation type. Multilevel models also revealed significant dose-response relations between duration of meditation practice and positive emotions, both within persons and between persons. Moreover, the within-person dose-response relation was stronger for loving-kindness meditation than for mindfulness meditation. Similar dose-response relations were observed for the frequency of meditation practice. In the context of prior research on the mental and physical health benefits produced by subtle increases in day-to-day experiences of positive emotions, the present research points to evidence-based practices—both mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation—that can improve emotional well-being.

Objectives Research into meditation-related emergent phenomenology is advancing, yet progress is hampered by significant incongruities between meditator self-reports and objective measurements (e.g., of brain states). We address these incongruities by developing and demonstrating the potential of contemplative theory to support scientific investigation. Method Our approach is to translate key theories from Buddhist contemplative traditions into scientific terms, and then systematize these translations as a functionalist model of the mind—the Thin Model—able to inform scientific inquiry. Results Buddhist doctrine is shown to be consistent with objective descriptions of mental function, and the Thin Model derived from these translations demonstrates immediate explanatory power. The nested nature of the model allows explanations to be restricted to the specific problem being studied. The model enables connection of complex higher-level phenomena, such as self-reports of mental states, to complex lower-level phenomena, such as empirically measured brain states. This connection does not require simplistic assumptions to be made. A detailed demonstration illustrates how the model can convert subjective accounts of the ecstatic meditative states known as jhānas into testable neuroscientific hypotheses. Conclusions We provide an account of contemplative theory that is amenable to scientific investigation. Our approach, exemplified in the Thin Model, offers immediate explanatory power, allows meaningful dialogue between different research traditions, and provides an organizing principle for explanations of mental phenomena. The Thin Model may also be relevant to other fields concerned with autonomous entities or the nature and operation of the mind.

The triple networks, namely the default-mode network (DMN), the central executive network (CEN), and the salience network (SN), play crucial roles in disorders of the brain, as well as in basic neuroscientific processes such as mindfulness. However, currently, there is no consensus on the underlying functional features of the triple networks associated with mindfulness. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that (a) the partial regression coefficient (i.e., slope): from the SN to the DMN, mediated by the CEN, would be one of the potential mindfulness features in the real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) neurofeedback (NF) setting, and (b) this slope level may be enhanced by rtfMRI-NF training. Sixty healthy mindfulness-naïve males participated in an MRI session consisting of two non-rtfMRI-runs, followed by two rtfMRI-NF runs and one transfer run. Once the regions-of-interest of each of the triple networks were defined using the non-rtfMRI-runs, the slope level was calculated by mediation analysis and used as neurofeedback information, in the form of a thermometer bar, to assist with participant mindfulness during the rtfMRI-NF runs. The participants were asked to increase the level of the thermometer bar while deploying a mindfulness strategy, which consisted of focusing attention on the physical sensations of breathing. rtfMRI-NF training was conducted as part of a randomized controlled trial design, in which participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. The participants in the experimental group received contingent neurofeedback information, which was obtained from their own brain signals, whereas the participants in the control group received non-contingent neurofeedback information that originated from matched participants in the experimental group. Our results indicated that the slope level from the SN to the DMN, mediated by the CEN, was associated with mindfulness score (rtfMRI-NF runs: r = 0.53, p = 0.007; p-value was corrected from 10,000 random permutations) and with task-performance feedback score (rtfMRI-NF run: r = 0.61, p = 0.001) in the experimental group only. In addition, during the rtfMRI-NF runs the level of the partial regression coefficient feature was substantially increased in the experimental group compared to the control group (p < 0.05 from the paired t-test; the p-value was corrected from 10,000 random permutations). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a partial regression coefficient feature of mindfulness in the rtfMRI-NF setting obtained by triple network mediation analysis, as well as the possibility of enhancement of the partial regression coefficient feature by rtfMRI-NF training. •Mediation analysis using triple networks was employed to estimate functional feature of mindfulness (MF).•Real-time fMRI (rtfMRI) neurofeedback (NF) training based on this functional feature of MF was presented.•The partial regression coefficient from the SN to the DMN, mediated by the CEN appeared to be a potential feature of MF.•The validity of this functional feature of MF was evaluated by comparing alternative functional connectivity levels in the triple networks.•The possibility of enhancement of this functional feature of MF was demonstrated via rtfMRI-NFbased training.

Objectives In contrast to formal meditation, which involves setting aside other activities to engage in contemplative practice, informal meditation can happen at any moment within the flow of daily activities. Whether informal meditation practice improves well-being is unclear. The purpose of this investigation was to test hypotheses about the day-to-day socioemotional profiles and dose–response relations, both within persons and between persons, associated with informal meditation practice. Methods Midlife adults ( N  = 231), new to meditation, were randomized to learn either mindfulness meditation or loving–kindness meditation in a 6-week workshop that taught both formal and informal meditation practices. The frequency of informal meditation practice was measured daily for 9 weeks. Likewise, formal meditation, emotions, and perceptions of social integration were also measured daily. Results Multilevel models of daily reports over a 9-week period revealed significant dose–response relations between the frequency of informal meditation and positive emotions and perceived social integration—both within persons and between persons (positive emotions: within-person b  = 0.05, 95% CI [0.03, 0.07], between-person b  = 0.35, 95% CI [0.20, 0.51]; social integration: within-person b  = 0.11, 95% CI [0.07, 0.14], between-person b  = 0.41, 95% CI [0.12, 0.70]). Effects were comparable for the distinct informal practices of mindfulness and loving–kindness, and were statistically independent of the effects of formal meditation practice. Conclusions The present research demonstrated that, distinct from formal meditation practice, informal meditation practice is linked to both positive emotions and social integration in a dose–response manner.

Meditation research tends to be focused on positive effects. Recent studies, however, have uncovered a range of potential negative effects, which may be more prevalent than one would expect. Several different conceptions of “negative effects” exist, and such effects are variously termed “challenging”, “unpleasant”, “adverse”, and “harmful”. Before work on a unifying conception of negative effects can begin, the notion of “meditation hindrances” needs to be clarified. Research on meditation hindrances is very scarce. Traditional Buddhist texts and more recent meditation manuals treat different kinds of meditation hindrances, defining them as reactions that impair or halt spiritual progress generally and access to absorption states specifically. Different strategies have been devised as means to renounce or counteract hindrances. However, one influential idea consists of taking a hindrance as the way to liberation, which either makes the distinction between positive and negative ambiguous or collapses it. This makes it questionable whether a unified conception of “negative effect” can be maintained at all. This article gives an overview of the concept of meditation hindrances and discusses both the problems and the potential benefits inherent in the idea of relativizing the distinction between negative and positive effects. Such an idea may be either harmful to practitioners or their greatest asset.

In neurophenomenology experiments, the subject is actively involved in describing his moment-by-moment conscious experience and is sometimes asked to generate specific mind states, while the experimenter is guided by these first-person data in the analysis and interpretation of physiological data (Lutz and Thompson, 2003). Expert meditation practitioners have acted as experimental subjects in a number of neuroscientific studies to date, although only few studies have included first-person input from these subjects as an essential aspect of their methods (e.g., Carter et al., 2005; Dor-Ziderman et al., 2013; Garrison et al., 2013a,b). On the science side, rigorous programs for contemplative training are now offered to college students, scientists, clinicians, and other professionals, such as those provided by the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University, the Center for Compassion and Altruism in Research and Education at Stanford University through the Compassion Cultivation Training program, and the Emory-Tibet Partnership at Emory University through programs such as Cognitively-Based Compassion Training and the Tibetan Mind/Body Sciences Program. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the program by training indigenous Tibetan monastic science teachers, the ETSI has also established the Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholars program, which has enabled six Tibetan monks to spend three academic years studying science at Emory University, with another cohort starting in the Fall of 2013 (Severson, 2013).

This article argues that the emerging project of contemplative science will be best served if it is informed by two perspectives. First, attention should be paid not only to non-analytical and/or mindfulness-based practices, but to a fuller range of contemplative practices, including analytical styles of meditation. Second, the issue of ethics must be addressed as a framework within which to understand contemplative practice: both theoretically in order to understand better the practices themselves and the traditions they come from, and practically in order to understand the ways in which contemplative practices are deployed in contemporary societies. The Tibetan Buddhist Lojong (blo sbyong) tradition and secularized practices derived from it, which are now an area of study in contemplative science, are examined as a kind of case study in order to make these two points and illustrate their importance and relevance for the future of this emerging field.

Studying yoga as a MBCP would highlight specific contributions of intentional and dynamic bodily processes to embodied cognition, including processes associated with intentional movement, attention to bodily states, and brain changes linked to variations in the experiential “lived body” and in underlying nervous system due to sustained physical and mental asana practice. According to the much cited passage from the Yoga Sutra, the definition of the yoga practice is: citta-vrtti-nirodha, translated as “cessation of the turnings of thought” (Miller, 1995). What kinds of rewards/expectations can one study in yoga practitioners? [...]since contemplative practices, including MBCPs, typically involve long-term commitment, how can one qualify neurophysiological changes before/during/after yoga practice taking into account various possible expectations/rewards associated with an individual practitioner's motivation? [...]recent research on compassion meditation training showed alterations in inferior parietal cortex and DPLFC, networks underlying social cognition and emotion regulation (Weng et al., 2013).