Vipassana Fashion: Intense Meditation is Dangerous
If twenty years ago we asked a man of science, what he thinks about meditation, he most likely would have limited himself to a contemptuous “hm” or sarcastic comment. But in the time that technology has firmly entered our lives, everything has changed. The digital revolution has many advantages: for example, robots are already preparing to take care of patients with Alzheimer's disease, supporting their social activity, and assist in complex operations, for example, in front of their eyes. At the other end of the spectrum - stress overload, anxiety and depression, which are boosters of all the same super technologies.
Stress began to study - and it turned out that it can have a very strong effect on physical and mental health, quality and longevity. In search of effective ways to deal with stress, scientists first came to diaphragmatic breathing, and then to meditation.
Text: Marina Levicheva
What is generally useful meditation
If before science barely talked about meditation, writing it off as a “dubious” practice, now scientists are talking about exercises from the spiritual and religious field more and more often. The reason for the growing number of studies is the public interest. In science, as in the market, it is demand that creates supply: in particular, work with potentially high citation rates allow universities to receive more grants.
As a result, modern science knows, for example, that meditation can actually reduce the effects of stress on the body - by reducing general anxiety, reducing inflammatory reactions and improving the condition of people with increased excitability. Meditation seems to have the potential to be a complement to treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, and cancer.
Meditation can help patients with anxiety disorders, including in the long term, and in the fight against professional burnout in particularly stressful areas. A study conducted in 2014 showed that meditation can stabilize the level of certain cytokines (directing various protein reactions), which is one of the markers of depression. And also to stimulate creative thinking, improve concentration and memory and, oddly enough, reduce the feeling of loneliness.
But even this is not all. Research suggests that meditation helps people control addictive behavior associated with food and alcohol. And at the same time improves the quality of sleep, allowing you to effectively cope with insomnia, and, in addition to the endless list of bonuses, reduces sensitivity to pain.
Kirtan-kriya, metta, vipassana - is there any difference?
Speaking about the benefits of meditative practices, researchers almost never specify which of the many types of meditation we are talking about - but the key word here is “almost.” In some cases, a specific technique is indicated accurately. For example, a 2015 study by American scientists and published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease talks about kirtan-kriya, a popular kundalini yoga technique of meditation that combines mantras or singing with monotonous finger movements, allowing you to focus on your own thoughts (or adherents of kirtan-kriya are expressed, to instantly penetrate into the meaning of something). The study authors found that meditation, which requires only 12 minutes a day, prevents age-related memory loss, reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
At the same time, metta meditation, known as "meditation of loving kindness" and suggesting the development of positive feelings towards yourself and then to the world around you, as it turned out, reduces social anxiety and conflict, and also Research - contributes to the development of empathy and compassion. There is some scientific evidence on transcendental meditation - the technique of "quiet awareness" created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. She is believed by Chinese scientists to have a positive effect on heart health by lowering blood pressure. As the researchers noted in a publication for the Journal of Human Hypertension 2015, the effect is more noticeable in older people with high blood pressure (more often in women than in men).
Finally, the most exciting and challenging of practices is Vipassana. Based on the ideas of contemplation and impermanence, it assumes a ten-day meditative course in complete silence and as far as possible from worldly temptations. The researchers concluded that vipassana may be part of recreational therapy for people who cope with alcohol and drug addiction. Interestingly, initially (in 1996) Vipassana was tested in Indian prisons, where inmates showed a decrease in recidivism and psychopathological symptoms. A study conducted at the Department of Psychiatry at a Thai university showed that the level of cortisol, and hence stress, had been noticeably reduced for four days of meditation. What happens in the ten days of the retreat and why do people go for it?
The story of Catherine, who pacified "restless brain"
Ekaterina Vizovskaya
First time passed a ten-day course of vipassana in 2012 in Thailand, and a year later repeated it in Barcelona. She came to the event by chance, although she had long thought that it was time to learn how to somehow “turn off” the brain.
Basic rules: do not drink, do not smoke, do not use; do not skip group meditations; do not eat third-party food; not to talk for the full nine days and not to meet with the eyes of the neighbors; read and write, no gadgets; dress appropriately.
You sign a piece of paper, and after the first lecture you are told once again that if you are not sure that you will withstand discipline, you can leave now. So if you decide - be patient, if not - another time. In fact, in the house you can both read and eat, you can smoke in the woods at night, and you can’t donate a mobile phone, but this is not a kindergarten. What is the point? If you go to where you are asked to observe discipline, and you do not want to do this, then why go?
Three-hour group meditations (at 8:00, 14:30 and 18:00) are required. At other times you can meditate in the room. Having tried on the first day to meditate at home at four in the morning, I realized that at that time the most comfortable position for meditation was horizontal, and began to go to the gym. From the third day, hour meditations were recommended to be carried out without changing the posture: accept sensations - and even the pain will pass. In your free time you can stretch, watch the many squirrels, listen to the sounds of nature. In ordinary life, alas, this pastime is not available to us.
I realized that I was afraid of something wrong. I was afraid it was hard to be silent. It is generally not hard. It is difficult that in verbal silence mental chatter amplifies. I was afraid of a sore back, but my back did not hurt, and my knees ached for eleven hours a day in the lotus position. I was afraid that I would want to run away, but I didn’t want to.
On the tenth day you can talk, it sounds very unusual. But I don’t want to talk too much, although it is interesting to discuss their feelings with others. The teacher said: "Do not compare, live your experience. One is like that, the other is like that. Accept what you have. Like yours, and rightly."
In Barcelona, as for the first time in Thailand, it was not scary to get up early, it was not scary to be silent. For me, the most horrible again was the brainwashing of thoughts. This is terrifying. An interesting thing our brain - how much it fits in it. Every second we see something, we hear, we touch, we realize that something seems important to us, something does not exist, something is remembered, something is deposited on the subcortex, but it does not go away.
At some moments, I was all permeated with rapid streams of thoughts, images, fragments of memories. Pieces of dreams seen many years ago, people who have not remembered for decades, car numbers passing by in 1997 ... Many such moments, details and facts that now have no meaning. Some memories surprised me at all. I could not believe that it was with me, it seemed that this was some other life in a previous reincarnation.
I did not manage to pacify the "restless brain", but there were many insights. Mental chatter is unstoppable, but the realization that it is and of what it is on an incredible scale is an important achievement for me and is worth a lot.
The story of Elvira, who learned to "let go"
Elvira Azizova
Elvira Azizova it is recognized that for a long time spiritual quest in her life faded into the background, giving way to career quest, routine and solving crises, which have always been in abundance. When there were too many of them, burnout and nervous exhaustion with psychosomatic manifestations were not long in coming.
Throughout this period, for more than a year, I literally heard from every iron that meditation is the key to restoring the balance of the mechanisms of the nervous system. The ten-day course of Vipassana seemed quite an adequate measure, and in the detailed description of the practice there was a minimum of mysticism.
I must say that I decided on this already after all the "special effects" of my restless psyche were stopped. Therefore, when on the fourth day of meditation, I was covered with the familiar wave of suffocating unreasonable anxiety and a whole scattering of classic symptoms like chills and fever at the same time, a pulse hysterically striking the tap in the chest and head, lack of air and sticky feelings of fear, the first reaction was to stop all this immediately, to recover. , run and "do not turn over" sleeping problems.
I am very glad that I did not succumb to this impulse, but I sat through that terrible meditation to the end. General Vipassana meditations have a funny feature: when you sit in the hall and you are surrounded by eighty people with an absolutely straight back and an imperturbable look that resembles Buddha statues, you are quite sure that you only use the “wheel of samsara” to pin. At the evening session of questions, it turned out that this, to put it mildly, does not correspond to reality.
I myself do not believe that I am saying this, but if you decide to experiment, you need to leave critical thinking for ten days and trust in practice: if they say to focus on the crown of the head, just watch your crown.
Almost all sensible psychotherapists, with whom I discussed various life hacking and non-drug methods of treating mental health problems in different contexts, mentioned that in many states a clear regimen and daily routine can help a lot. So, the course of vipassana in this sense is what the doctor prescribed. Every day, the minute is painted and unchanged. The sounds and vibrations of the gong, which begin the morning at four o'clock and which mark each item of the daily routine, only emphasized this point.
To shut up yourself is much easier than silencing your brain. At this point, it becomes very unfortunate that they take away the notebook and cannot write. You non-stop make up stories and projects, make work plans, try to understand and forgive everyone and yourself, desperately fantasize and dream about everything in the world.
Watching the pain or any sensations dissociated and learning not to react at the body level, then it is easy to control emotions: for example, you notice your anger, but you don’t go on about it and you don’t start swearing with an inadequate client. Or do not tear your fatigue on loved ones.
That joy and an explosion of emotions that you experience on the tenth day are difficult to compare with anything. Very keenly felt the desire to live, not to postpone dreams for later, to decide on what he was afraid of, and to let go of what he is. In general, the most important thing that Vipassana personally taught me was to let go. Fears, emotions, people, desires, thoughts. Anything.
Why still should not rush into meditation with his head
Despite everything that has been said above, research on meditation, as well as research in general - at least about the benefits of alcohol, at least about the dangers of training - should be treated with skepticism. In 2016, it was calculated in AMRA, 692 articles were published on this topic (for comparison: 143 in 2010, and only 10 in 2000), which further complicates the search for information that can be trusted. It is important to understand that only a part of experts (and a smaller one) speaks about the potential utility of the practice. Another part notes that such studies have serious problems with the methodology. In particular, very few of them (about 9% of the total) were placebo-controlled. Not to mention the fact that in the absence of a technical definition of meditation and an exact scheme of its implementation, one cannot speak about anything at all, because in every single study this will be a completely new practice.
Separately, it should be said that there are dubious moments in the very origin of such practices as Vipassana. Actually, a ten-day retreat with a strict schedule was invented by the teacher Gokenka in the early 1980s and presented as a legacy of centuries-old practices. One of the critical publications states that Goenka interprets classical meditation in a very limited way, the theoretical benefits of retreats are not confirmed, and in their very organization there are signs of a cult.
In addition, scientists are concerned about the issue of mental stability of participants in such events. Speaking of the “dark side of meditation,” they provide evidence of somatic, psychological, and neurological problems associated with practice. And they remind that back in 1992, it was found that intense and long-lasting meditation in more than 60% of cases gives at least one negative effect, which can vary from increasing anxiety to depression and full-scale psychosis. And this is something that new research almost never takes into account. Finally, meditation is still not a matter of time and place, but of state. It is not necessary to go to the edge of the world to get to know yourself from the other side, and, of course, it is not at all necessary to be silent for ten days if you actually like to chat. Even social networks have more advantages than it seems, so it’s probably not worth giving up gadgets (at least for such a long time).
But if this material has inspired you for meditative feats, then you should begin your journey into the world of Vipassana and similar practices with the advice of a therapist. “Full immersion” far from industrial landscapes, obviously, can become a problem for people with chronic diseases and serious mental difficulties. If something suddenly happens to you in a lost Thai forest, the ambulance may not be in time for a trite thing. In addition, with the use of body and spirit, you can not only meditate, but also, say, walk. Ideally, without a phone - and without a company, to stimulate the notorious creative flow.
PHOTO: Freer - stock.adobe.com, Alexander Ozerov - stock.adobe.com, refresh (PIX) - stock.adobe.com