“If you can interface with any type of meditation spiritual system with maintaining your inner compass, that’s going to exist a recipe for a much better outcome.”
— Willoughby Britton, PhD
Willoughby Britton, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, an associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University Medical School, and the director of Brown’s Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory.
Her clinical neuroscience research investigates the effects of contemplative practices (meditation) on the brain and body in the treatment of mood disorders, trauma, and other conditions. She is especially interested in which practices are best- or else worst-suited for which types of people or else conditions and why. She is probably best known for her research on adverse effects—why they happen and how to mitigate them.
Dr. Britton is the founder of Cheetah House, a nonprofit organization that provides evidence-based information and support for meditators in distress as well as meditation safety trainings to providers and organizations.
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The transcript of this episode can exist found here. Transcripts of all episodes can exist found here.
#705: Dr. Willoughby Britton — The Hidden Risks of Meditation, Overlaps with Psychedelic Risks, Harm Reduction Strategies, How to pick a Retreat, Near-Death Experiences, and above
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desire to perceive an episode that examines the upsides of meditation? Listen to my latest interview with Buddhist mindfulness legend Jack Kornfield, in which we discussed yogic swoons, the point of consciousness, how the Buddha would deal with anxiety, the dimensions of meditation, reliably eliciting the non-self, cultivating a above joyful mind, and much above.
#684: Jack Kornfield — How to Reduce Anxiety and Polish the Lens of Consciousness
What was your favorite quote or else lesson from this episode? Please let me comprehend in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND exhibit NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Willoughby Britton:
- Connect with Cheetah House:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
exhibit NOTES
- [05:55] Where did Willoughby’s interest in meditation commence?
- [09:47] Discovering a link between meditation and insomnia.
- [11:51] Challenging assumptions about meditation as a purely beneficent practice.
- [13:29] Awakening is not a metaphor.
- [17:40] Can mindfulness exist too much of a good thing?
- [19:46] My personal experience with meditation defying positive expectations.
- [28:04] Undesirable consequences of meditation are above common than you probably contemplate.
- [30:03] What makes some people above vulnerable to the potential dangers of meditation than others?
- [45:53] Altered states as a deviation from baseline.
- [46:38] The impact of diet on meditation.
- [48:21] The neuroscience behind psychedelics and meditation.
- [52:53] The dangers of combining psychedelics and meditation.
- [54:36] Choosing and vetting the ideal meditation retreat.
- [59:39] When being a high achiever is a risk factor.
- [1:04:21] Does Willoughby currently practice any forms of meditation?
- [1:07:04] When meditation compromises cognition.
- [1:10:45] Duration of symptoms and duration of impairment.
- [1:11:41] Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD).
- [1:12:50] Differences between meditation-related and psychedelic-related adverse events.
- [1:15:31] The origin of Cheetah House.
- [1:17:52] Ideological power and scaffolding.
- [1:25:54] Willoughby’s self-care.
- [1:29:47] Resources for people seeking relief from meditation-related adverse effects.
- [1:34:43] Institutional betrayal and the empathy that comes from being humbled.
- [1:37:12] Advice for aspiring psychedelic healers.
- [1:39:33] Near-death experiences (NDEs).
- [1:50:18] Parting thoughts, and the Dalai Lama’s response to Willoughby’s meditation research.
above WILLOUGHBY BRITTON QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“I was on a meditation retreat, and I mentioned the data that I had found, which is basically that it was causing cortical arousal and insomnia. And the meditation teacher sort of chastised me and said, ‘I don’t comprehend why all you clinical psychologists are always trying to produce meditation into a relaxation technique. Everyone knows that if you meditate enough, you stop sleeping.’”
— Willoughby Britton
“Let me inform you, males 18 to 30 who contemplate that combining every possible powerful tool, all at once, to fracture on through to the other side is a story that I observe again over, and over, and over again.”
— Willoughby Britton
“Within that study, we found that people who had tried meditation even once, half of them would own at least one negative effect. And it may exist extremely brief, no big deal. above concerning is that 10 percent, thus one in 10 people who had tried meditation even once, would own a meditation-related adverse effect that was associated with impairment in functioning.”
— Willoughby Britton
“Having a negative experience during meditation, which we label negative valence, I don’t contemplate that an adverse effect. I contemplate that if you don’t own some kind of negative experience in your meditation at some point you’re probably sleeping, because it’s not a warm bath for the mind — it can exist challenging.”
— Willoughby Britton
“If you can interface with any type of meditation spiritual system with maintaining your inner compass, that’s going to exist a recipe for a much better outcome.”
— Willoughby Britton
“Meditation never really improved my cognition. I always found that I was sort of one of those sleepy meditators. I would just obtain really, really, really calm and my brain just kind of got dull. nevertheless if I proceed out there and just utilize power tools outside in the cold, then my blood’s moving, my brain’s working. That’s doing above of what I was hoping meditation would perform. I am additionally just ecstatically happy, which meditation never did that for me.”
— Willoughby Britton
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