Mindfulness

Just read this article titled Meditation And Mindfulness Have a Dark Side We Rarely Talk About. Here is an excerpt from the article:

A 2022 study, using a sample of 953 people in the US who meditated regularly, showed that over 10 percent of participants experienced adverse effects that had a significant negative impact on their everyday life and lasted for at least one month.

According to a review of over 40 years of research that was published in 2020, the most common adverse effects are anxiety and depression. These are followed by psychotic or delusional symptoms, dissociation or depersonalisation, and fear or terror.

Research also found that adverse effects can happen to people without previous mental health problems, to those who have only had a moderate exposure to meditation and they can lead to long-lasting symptoms.

The western world has also had evidence about these adverse effects for a long time.

In 1976, Arnold Lazarus, a key figure in the cognitive-behavioural science movement, said that meditation, when used indiscriminately, could induce "serious psychiatric problems such as depression, agitation, and even schizophrenic decompensation".

There is evidence that mindfulness can benefit people's well-being. The problem is that mindfulness coaches, videos, apps, and books rarely warn people about the potential adverse effects.

This reminded me of what Meher Baba had to say about the practices like yoga, deep meditation and various forms of asceticism. I used NotebookLM to search 76 sources and summarise Baba's views on such practices.

The Results of Yoga, Deep Meditation, and Ascetic Practices on the Spiritual Path

Introduction

According to Meher Baba, various spiritual disciplines—including the yogas, deep meditation, fasting, and asceticism—have been laid down by ancient sages to help aspirants traverse the spiritual path. While these practices can yield profound inner experiences, deep peace, and advanced spiritual powers, they also contain hidden traps. Without the guidance of a Perfect Master, the results of these practices frequently become severe liabilities, capable of ensnaring the aspirant in heightened illusions, egotism, or even causing a catastrophic spiritual fall.

How These Practices Can Be an Aid

1. Uprooting Past Impressions (Sanskaras)

The true yogas (Karma Yoga, Dnyan Yoga, Raj Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga) serve as prominent signposts on the path to Truth. When followed correctly, they can help uproot the heritage of accumulated impressions (sanskaras) that bind the soul.

• In Karma Yoga, one loses the self in selfless service.
• In Dnyan Yoga, the mind is utilized to contemplation and meditation to check the expression of desires, thereby wiping out sanskaras.
• In Raj Yoga, the aspirant aims to stop the mind from thinking through intense concentration, steadily lessening the grip of sanskaras.

2. Providing Spiritual Rest and Energy

Deep meditation and yogic practices can lead to yoga samadhi (a state of trance). While temporary, this state provides the aspirant with a profound sense of peace. Baba explains that yoga samadhi allows the pilgrim to rest, much like sound sleep, giving the seeker renewed energy to proceed further along the spiritual path.

3. Developing Dispassion and Control

Ascetic practices—such as fasting, solitude, and the denial of physical desires—introduce a "negative assertion" that can help decondition the mind from its habitual attachments to the gross world. When intelligently handled, meditation conserves mental energy, increases the power of concentration, and can occasionally yield inner revelation.

How These Practices Can Become a Liability

Despite their benefits, Meher Baba repeatedly warns that these practices are fraught with profound dangers for the independent seeker.

1. The Trap of Occult Powers (Siddhis)

Intense yogic practices and penance can awaken dormant occult powers, such as the ability to walk on water, read minds, raise the dead, or halt moving trains. However, these powers (siddhis) are considered phenomenal and have nothing to do with true spirituality. They are described as "spectacles of colored glass" that merely alter the appearance of illusion. The fascination with these powers often distracts the aspirant from the true goal of God-realization.

2. The Danger of Misusing Power

The acquisition of these powers becomes a severe liability, particularly on the fourth plane of consciousness, where the aspirant wields infinite energy. If a yogi falls prey to the overpowering temptation to misuse these powers (for either selfish reasons or mere display), it triggers a cataclysmic psychic crash. This disaster completely disintegrates the soul's gained consciousness, throwing the pilgrim all the way back to the rudimentary consciousness of a stone, forcing them to restart the entire evolutionary journey.

3. Addiction to Trance (Samadhi)

The trance state achieved through yoga or deep meditation (yoga samadhi or haal) is entirely different from the permanent divine state of nirvikalpa samadhi (God-realization). In yoga samadhi, the mind is only temporarily stilled; as soon as the yogi returns to normal consciousness, their ego, intellect, and worldly desires instantly resume functioning. Meher Baba likens this state to a drug addiction or intoxication; the yogi may feel like an emperor while in the trance, but eventually suffers a "headache" of worldly strain upon waking. Consequently, some yogis become so addicted to this bliss that they remain stuck in trance for centuries, completely halting their spiritual progress.

4. Ego Inflation and Hypocrisy

Ascetic practices often breed a dangerous spiritual ego. Meher Baba points out that adopting outward signs of renunciation—such as wearing ochre robes, growing long matted hair, smearing the body with ashes, or sitting naked in the snow—can falsely court respect from the public. This public homage nourishes a superiority complex, turning the aspirant into a hypocrite who outwardly poses as a saint but inwardly remains plagued by worldly desires. Baba emphasized that it is easier to sit naked on a snowbound peak of the Himalayas doing meditation than to live with him and obey him implicitly.

5. The Creation of New Bindings

Independent efforts to annihilate the ego through intense austerities often backfire. Penance, mechanical fasting, and rigid yogic disciplines can actually create new bindings. Trying to escape from actions merely results in the action of inactivity, which strengthens the knots of entanglement. Furthermore, premature or unguided awakening of the kundalini through yogic exercises can lead to self-deception and cannot take the aspirant to the ultimate goal.

Conclusion

Ultimately, while yoga, deep meditation, and asceticism can elevate an aspirant to great heights, they cannot permanently destroy the deep-seated legacy of past sanskaras. The ego cannot annihilate itself simply through its own efforts or mechanical disciplines. To transcend these profound liabilities, Meher Baba asserts that the aspirant must rely on pure love and complete surrender to a Perfect Master, whose grace alone can safely remove the final veils of illusion.