The Next Wave in Meditation Research Will Look to Advanced Practitioners for Insights

You might have heard of the term ‘mindfulness’, a commonly known practice that involves maintaining attention or awareness of the present moment without making judgments.

More broadly, mindfulness and meditation research are on the cusp of a new wave of science focusing on the “deep” end of practice, what researchers call advanced meditation, or states and stages of practice that unfold with increasing mastery and often with time.

This includes states and stages that have been described in ancient wisdom traditions like Buddhism and include experiences of ecstatic bliss, insight into different aspects of the mind, compassionate and empathic states, and others.

In this Q&A, Matthew Sacchet, PhD, an investigator in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, expands on a recently published letter in World Psychiatry calling for a new wave of meditation research.

The letter was co-written by Sacchet, Maurizo Fava, MD, chair of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Eric L. Garland, MD, of the University of Utah.

In the letter, the researchers discuss how advanced meditation and related experiences offer new possibilities for improving health and well-being in clinical and non-clinical contexts. Read more.