All of the nondirective meditation methods discussed in this book belong to the same family.
They all involve the effortless repetition of a meditation sound or mantra and treat mind wandering as an integral part of the process. In the short term, all of them bring about deep relaxation, which has positive consequences for health and well-being. In the long term, they may stimulate deeper existential reflection. However, they have also moved in different directions. The ways they are taught and explained differ considerably. In particular, Acem Meditation has developed a systematic approach that aims to facilitate the processing of deep-seated psychological issues in ways that are barely touched upon in other nondirective practices.
Like most contemporary meditation, nondirective meditation has its origins in Asian religious practices. It has, however, become thoroughly de-contextualized —pulled out of its original Asian religious contexts. Modern nondirective meditation is no longer accompanied by rituals and ceremonies or confined to monasteries or hermitages. At the same time, it has been just as thoroughly re-contextualized, and placed in modern, Western, secular, and scientific contexts that are of importance for their contemporary practitioners. The process of de- and re-contextualization of meditative practices has been discussed in detail in Holen (2016b, p. 228ff.).
Beyond their common emphasis on relaxation and stress reduction, the various approaches to nondirective meditation have been de- and re-contextualized in different ways. In particular, they differ considerably in their attitudes to the challenges and potential involved in the psychological processes that meditation initiates. This chapter discusses the author’s interpretation of these differences and does not represent the views of any particular group or organization.
Four approaches to nondirective meditation
Up to the early 1970s, learning nondirective meditation typically involved bringing a fruit offering to the image of an Indian guru and understanding the technique in terms of Hindu or Hindu-inspired metaphysical ideas.
Acem School of Meditation was among the first to pull the teaching of meditation out of its traditional Eastern context, place it within a modern, secular setting, and develop an alternative understanding of meditative processes based on Western psychology. Acem dispensed with the Indian initiation ceremony and began to emphasize the psychological aspects of the meditation process. This basic reorientation of the framework within which meditation was understood had far-reaching consequences. Acem developed a new approach to the interpretation of the meditation process, and developed guidance techniques aimed at stimulating the process. The book Psychology of Silence was published in 1976 and became a bestseller in Norway. It was translated into several languages, most recently English (Holen, 2016a). The editor was Acem’s founder Are Holen, at the time a psychotherapist and student of medicine, currently professor emeritus of behavioral medicine at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
At about the same time, Herbert Benson, a professor of mind/ body medicine at Harvard Medical School, began to study scientifically the physiology of the relaxation response that meditation can induce. His initial interest had been aroused by research on the positive effects of meditation on blood pressure. He continued by undertaking studies on heart rate, oxygen consumption, galvanic skin response, and brain waves. Benson’s book The Relaxation Response was published in 1975 and immediately became a bestseller in America, with an “updated and expanded” edition in 2000 (Benson, 2000). Later he also studied other aspects of mind-body medicine, though he showed limited interest in the psychological processes of meditation.
A few years later, the American psychologist Patricia Carrington, who had previously studied sleep and dreams, began to develop ideas on how to use meditation in psychotherapy. In 1977 she published her book Freedom in Meditation (Carrington, 1977, later developed into Carrington, 2012). She called her approach Clinically Standardized Meditation, a “secular, clinical form 1 of meditation practice.” Later she has supplemented her teaching of meditation with other techniques, such as “energy healing” and “inner guidance counseling.”
Even Transcendental Meditation, which had become exceedingly popular in the 1960s, and which continued to rely heavily on Indian metaphysics as interpreted by its founder, Mahesh Yogi (widely known as “Maharishi”), went through a partial process of de- and re-contextualization. The traditional Indian use of a rosa2 ry was dispensed with, the widespread Indian emphasis on concentration was abandoned, and scientific and pseudo-scientific notions were introduced into its understanding of the meditation process, as evidenced by the title of Mahesh Yogi’s book Science of Being and Art of Living (Mahesh Yogi, 1963). As we shall see, however, Mahesh Yogi’s attitude toward modern psychology was nevertheless quite negative.
These four approaches to meditation are similar in ways that distinguish them from both concentrative practices and mindfulness meditation. They all involve the gentle and silent repetition of a meditation sound or mantra, allow spontaneous thoughts to come and go freely during the practice, their mode of attention is relaxed and without the active self-observation typical of mindfulness, and they can all be practiced in any comfortable seated posture with good support in the lower back. However, these meditation methods are also different in important ways that affect the way meditation is actually practiced, how the meditation process is understood, and probably also the results, in particular the long-term psychological effects.
Psychology of meditation
Nondirective meditation has the inherent potential to facilitate emotional and psychological processing. However, not all of the nondirective meditation methods have made use of this potential, which has been explored and developed most thoroughly in Acem Meditation and, mainly in a psychotherapeutic context, in Clinically Standardized Meditation.
Are Holen and Acem have developed a user-oriented psychology of meditation in order to enable the meditator to benefit from the psychological material brought up by nondirective meditation. Acem’s psychology of meditation consists of an experience-based understanding of the psychological processes involved in meditation as well as practical techniques for meditation guidance, including technical guidance and process guidance (Holen & Eifring, 2013: 69ff.).
The purpose of technical meditation guidance in Acem is to improve the quality of the meditator’s practice by identifying and correcting problems in the way the meditator does meditation (e.g., inadvertently repeating the meditation sound with too much effort). Adjusting the meditation after guidance may enhance the relaxation effects of the meditations. Guidance may also provide a platform for exploring the links between challenges the meditator encounters in meditation and deep-seated cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns that affect the meditator’s everyday life. In this way, technical guidance in Acem also aims at stimulating personal development.
Process guidance, on the other hand, allows the meditator to share some of the thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations that have passed through the mind during the deep relaxation of longer meditations. This brings the meditator closer to central psychological themes and may initiate a personal reflection process that can inspire changes both in meditation and everyday life.
While technical guidance may be offered for all meditators, process guidance usually takes place at retreats with several consecutive days of long meditations. The purpose of both types of guidance is to help ordinary people with no specific need for treatment of particular ailments, but with a wish to stimulate processes of change and personal development.
Clinically Standardized Meditation differs from Acem Meditation by focusing on psychotherapeutic dialogue rather than meditation guidance, and combines meditation with psychotherapy. In her book Freedom in Meditation, Patricia Carrington, herself a psychotherapist, discusses a number of psychotherapeutic effects of nondirective (in her terminology “permissive”) meditation, based both on her own experience and on various research reports. Carrington finds that nondirective meditation may reduce a number of negative conditions, such as tension, anxiety, self-blame, drug addiction, depressive reactions, and irritability, and that it may increase the meditator’s contact with his or her emotions, opinions, and sense of self. However, she also discusses some limitations of the changes brought about by meditation. In spite of her psychotherapeutic focus, Carrington (2012) emphasizes that the positive effects of meditation are not restricted to patients. Meditation may even sharpen the psychotherapist’s “ability to sense patients’ moods.”
Herbert Benson’s Relaxation Response is heavily geared toward physiology and somatic medicine and has little to say about psychological issues beyond basic stress reduction. Benson (2000, p. 180) even suggests that “there is a conflict between the methods of the Relaxation Response and those used in psychoanalysis,” since “persons undergoing psychoanalysis may have difficulty in disregarding distracting thoughts and assuming a passive attitude.”
Mahesh Yogi is more emphatic in his negative attitude toward psychology and psychotherapy, claiming that they can only scrape the surface of the human mind and that they represent a regression to more primitive aspects of consciousness (see Olson & Olson, 2001, pp. 262f.; cf. lecture in Stuttgart, Germany, on 10 October 1963). He emphasizes the simplicity of meditation and sees little need for psychotherapy or advanced guidance techniques that can help the meditator work his or her way through psychological challenges. Change is supposed to come as an automatic result of nondirective meditation.
Paradoxical effects and actualization
Nondirective meditation usually brings about deep and gratifying relaxation. Nevertheless, it may also occasionally lead to periods of subtle resistance, including a sense of restlessness, a lack of relaxation, feelings of bodily or emotional discomfort, etc. If such paradoxical effects persist over time, this may challenge the motivation for regular meditation. Different approaches to nondirective meditation vary both in their theoretical understanding of this phenomenon and in how to deal with it.
Such paradoxical effects are considered to be important in the psychology of Acem Meditation, and are part of a psychological process referred to as “actualization” (Holen, 2007, pp. 25ff.; Holen & Eifring, 2013, pp. 38ff.; Holen 2016a, pp. 95–100). During actualization phases, deeply entrenched unresolved issues approach the surface of awareness. The relaxed openness of nondirective meditation creates a mental space in which such issues may become more apparent, and this creates an opening for emotional processing. Most often, however, actualization happens in condensed and convoluted ways, and the process is often more clearly understood in retrospect rather than while it is unfolding.
In Acem, actualization is seen as a starting point for deeper personal change. During the process, the meditation practice becomes affected by underlying patterns in the meditator’s psychology, as when an impatient person begins to repeat the meditation sound more hurriedly, or an impulsive person tends to float along with the stream of spontaneous thoughts and feelings instead of repeating the sound. In both cases, the mind’s free mental attitude is reduced. This also reduces the immediate relaxation effect of meditation, while unpleasant feelings of resistance temporarily increase. In actualization phases, the meditator may especially benefit from guidance not only to keep up his or her motivation, but also to adjust the way he or she practices the technique.
The guidance techniques developed for Acem Meditation focus specifically on the relationship between the way the meditator meditates and his or her personal patterns of cognition and behavior. In guidance, “the meditation experience is always the starting point, but quite often a guidance session develops into an exploration 3 of the meditator’s life issues and personal mindset.” The instructors train extensively in guidance in order to increase “their theoretical understanding as well as their technical skills and empathic 4 sensitivity.”
In contrast to this psychological approach, Herbert Benson’s book focuses entirely on the physiology of the relaxation response. It displays no interest in paradoxical effects beyond a brief discussion of the “side effect” of hallucinations in people who meditate too much and who at the outset have “emotional disturbances” (Benson, 2000, p. 180).
Within the Transcendental Meditation movement, the strong emphasis on the positive effects of meditation leads to a virtually complete avoidance of the topic of paradoxical effects in the writings on the technique. Norman Rosenthal’s book Transcendence is typical in describing the method as being “essentially free of side 5 effects” (Rosenthal, 2011, p. 89). However, silence on the matter does not reflect an absence of such phenomena, which is obvious from the many internet discussions of such experiences with Transcendental Meditation. Indeed, it is not unlikely that the experience of paradoxical effects may even be aggravated by the lack of attention paid to them. When those who practice Transcendental Meditation encounter paradoxical effects, these effects are usually explained as manifestations of “stress in the nervous system,” which can be released by meditation in a process of “stress release” (Rosenthal, 2011, p. 28; the process is also referred to as “tension release,” “unstressing,” or “normalization”). In most cases, therefore, Transcendental Meditation instructors will encourage meditators just to carry on and wait for the good results to appear of their own accord. At most, they may tell meditators to reduce their meditation time temporarily and increase their practice of physical yoga. Transcendental Meditation instructors will also routinely “check” whether the practice is technically correct, but will not explore the emotional or psychological issues that are intertwined with the way the meditator meditates.
Patricia Carrington (2012) devotes an entire chapter to “the chal6 lenge of tension-release.” Somewhat surprisingly, however, she is more concerned with practical measures for reducing the impact of paradoxical effects than with utilizing their potential for psychological exploration and development. When encountering paradoxical effects, those who practice Clinically Standardized Meditation are told to “reduce radically the amount of meditation time and do so without delay, ” or even take a five-day break from meditation. They are also given some techniques for coping with the discomforts that may be associated with such phases, such as “turn[ing] your attention lightly onto the area of pain itself,” allowing a “crying jag” to play itself out, meeting anxiety with “a few long, slow breaths … perhaps coupled with some simple physical exercises such as Yoga stretches,” etc. To some extent, the combination of Clinically Standardized Meditation with psychotherapy does allow both the meditator and the psychotherapist to see the “relation of tensionrelease to life history.” Unfortunately, however, the examples given by Carrington are based on experiences with Autogenic Training rather than meditation, and they primarily involve traumatic experiences in adult life, such as severe accidents and injuries. Carrington seems only moderately concerned with how such phases reflect basic patterns in the personalities of ordinary people. She has an optimistic view of how meditation may change people’s lives for the better, but holds that even regular meditation leave untouched “ deeper levels of their personalities.”
Actualization and the length of meditation
Whether the recommended time for meditation is twenty or thirty minutes may seem like a minor point—what can a difference of a few minutes matter? In fact, however, this reflects a difference in attitude toward the psychological aspects of nondirective meditation. It also reflects the presence vs. absence of qualified guidance that can help the meditator make use of the psychological material brought up by meditation.
In Acem Meditation, the actualization and processing of unresolved issues is regarded as one of the central long-term purposes of meditation. After the basic stress reduction of the first 20 minutes or so of meditation, the meditator will begin to touch upon more basic psychological issues. In order to stimulate the psychological process, therefore, Acem Meditation recommends 30 minutes twice a day or 45 minutes once a day. In contrast, Transcendental Meditation recommends 20 minutes twice a day, and Benson’s Relaxation Response 10–20 minutes per session. Clinically Standardized Meditation suggests a flexible scheme of up to 20 minutes twice a day.
Acem Meditation provides opportunities for practicing long meditations from time to time, both as evening activities at Acem venues and during Acem retreats. Group meditations at Acem venues usually last around 90 minutes, while long meditations at retreats normally last three to four hours (regular retreats) or more than six hours (deepening retreats), in some cases including roundthe-clock meditations (advanced deepening retreats). Meditations of more than an hour are always followed by opportunities for qualified guidance, which begin by focusing on the technical practice of meditation and then gradually proceed to the stream of thoughts, images, and feelings that pass through the mind of the meditator during meditation, as well as associations to everyday life experiences. In such contexts, the potential of nondirective meditation to stimulate personal development has proven to be significant, far beyond what regular daily meditation will normally provide (Holen & Hobbel, 2010).
The limited interest in psychology and the lack of methods for dealing with emotional issues may explain why Mahesh Yogi’s organization early on ceased using long meditations in their regular training programs, as they originally had done. Patricia Carrington (2012, ch. 16), on the other hand, has a more positive view of long meditations, as long as they take place “under the supervision of an experienced teacher.” The controlled setting of Acem Meditation retreats, where daily long meditations are followed by qualified guidance and social interaction, may be seen as a systematic way of providing such supervision to those motivated for this kind of psychological process.
Psychological neutrality of mantras and meditation sounds
All four methods of nondirective meditation share the fascinating effect of a mentally repeated sound on the physiology of the meditator. Within Indian traditions, the mental repetition or audible recitation of such sounds is believed to set in motion cosmic vibrations, with wide-reaching effects on the individual and society. In a modern scientific context, the repetition of such sounds is seen as initiating the neural and physiological processes involved in the relaxation response.
In addition, however, there is also a psychological aspect to the meditative use of sounds. In the context of Acem Meditation, the semantic and symbolic neutrality of the sounds is seen as important for the actualization and processing of unresolved issues. A neutral sound with no linguistic or symbolic meaning stimulates a process in which “whatever is in the consciousness can express itself during meditation, and be resolved and worked through” (Hobbel & Eifring, 2013, p. 83). This emphasis on non-semantic and non-symbolic sounds resembles the emphasis in psychodynamic therapy on the neutrality of the therapist. The aim is to produce ideal circumstances for the processing of emotions and memories, by giving as much freedom as possible to the spontaneous flow of thoughts and associations, uninhibited by suggestive elements.
While the sounds used in Acem Meditation are unrelated to traditional Indian mantras, and are entirely developed on the basis of experience with how sound and rhythm affect body and mind, Transcendental Meditation uses traditional Indian mantras. According to Norman Rosenthal (2011), these also have “no specific meaning to the meditator ” (italics mine), and this is considered important:
Think about it: If your mantra were “apple pie,” every time you started to meditate your mouth would water, which would hardly promote a transcendent experience. (p. 16)
For most meditators, this is probably sufficiently neutral. Nevertheless, the mantras of Transcendental Meditation are “derive[d] from the Vedic tradition of ancient India” (Rosenthal, 2011, p. 16) and for the initiated in the Transcendental Meditation movement, they have symbolic associations to Hindu deities, something that has given rise to criticism from Christian groups (Weldon, 2004).
In Clinically Standardized Meditation, meditators are told to choose from a list of 16 mantras on the basis of their own preference, or to make up their own mantra according to certain principles. The list of 16 mantras has been developed on the basis of student responses to a longer list of 100 words from Sanskrit, Hebrew, and English, giving preference to the ones that are experienced as “most soothing.” The mantras based on English words will be meaningful to the English-speaking practitioner, while the ones based on Sanskrit or Hebrew will not, though they are also based on words with meanings (Carrington, 2012, ch. 2).
The Relaxation Response also makes use of words that have both semantic meaning and emotional impact. Benson (2000, p. 11) recommends the repetition of the word one or any word, phrase, or sound that is “compelling” to the meditator, such as the words love, peace, and calm, or religious phrases such as Our Father who art in Heaven, Sh’ma Yisrael, or Isha’allah.
Research indicates that sounds with and without meaning affect different parts of the brain (Davanger et al., 2010; Démonet et al., 1992; Howard et al., 1992; Perani et al., 1996; Price et al., 1996; Price, 2012; Binder et al., 1997; 1999; 2009).
Sounds without meaning reflect most closely the openness and acceptance of nondirective meditation, by stimulating the free manifestation of the spontaneous activity of the mind. This may help to activate the bottom-up psychological processes associated with nondirective practices. In contrast, words and phrases with meanings, as in the Relaxation Response, program the mind in more specific directions, and in this respect resemble autohypnosis and autosuggestion, although with a more open and relaxed mental attitude. Indian mantras are in between, for most meditators having no particular meaning, although for some they are still associated with the sacred power of Indian deities.
Note also the emphasis on personal preference and a “melodious, pleasant and soothing” sound in Clinically Standardized Meditation and a “compelling” sound in the Relaxation
Response. This contrasts with an emphasis in both Transcendental Meditation and Acem Meditation on meditation sounds being effective not primarily because they are pleasing to the ear or the brain, but because their repetition stimulates certain responses in the ner7 vous system. In the moment, this may feel pleasant or unpleasant, and it is important to meet both effects with the same accepting attitude. From this point of view, there is no need to avoid sounds that do not feel soothing or compelling, or to avoid emotions or impulses that a more challenging meditation sound may set in motion.
Degrees of acceptance
In principle, all four methods of nondirective meditation accept all thoughts and feelings, be they happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant, soothing or disturbing.
However, there are still some important differences in the attitudes adopted toward spontaneous thoughts. In particular, Herbert Benson (2000, p. 109; 173) refers to mind wandering as “distracting thoughts” that one should “prevent” and “try to ignore,” which gives the impression that phases with mind wandering are less beneficial than phases with the mantra or meditation sound. As pointed out by Patricia Carrington (2012, ch. 2), Benson’s Relaxation Response is also slightly less nondirective (or “permissive”) in a less obvious way, since it requires that the meditation sound be repeated along with the breath:
Benson’s method differs from both TM and CSM … in that it requires a greater degree of concentration. … In contrast to Benson’s method, both TM and CSM teach a more easy-going way of handling the special sound which the person repeats mentally. In these techniques the meditator is instructed to allow the mantra to proceed at its own pace, to get faster or slower, louder or softer, or even disappear “if it wants to.” This is different from trying to link the mantra with one’s breathing, as in Benson’s method. … Benson’s method … is less of a free-floating, selfdetermined experience. In this respect, Acem Meditation is similar to Transcendental Meditation and Clinically Standardized Meditation. All three treat phases with mind wandering and phases in which the meditation sound or mantra is being repeated as equally important, and all allow considerable flexibility in the way the sound is repeated. In Transcendental Meditation, however, some states of mind tend 8 to be idealized, in particular feelings of “bliss.” The idealization of these states of mind can potentially induce a goal orientation that limits the freedom of the mind, leads to effortful striving, and gets in the way of both basic relaxation and deeper psychological processing.
Beyond physiology and psychology
Like many other practices, most nondirective approaches to meditation point to effects that go beyond our usual notions of physiology and psychology. This may include areas that are often associated with spirituality, although all four approaches discussed here 9 consider themselves to be secular in orientation.
Most commonly, this type of effect is linked to a specific state of mind. In Transcendental Meditation, this state is called “transcendence,” as the name of the technique suggests, and is variously described as “a blissful state that encompasses elements of serenity, peace, and acceptance,” a “tranquil attentiveness and crystal clear consciousness,” an “ocean of pure consciousness,” “alert but focused on nothing in particular” (Rosenthal, 2011, p. 8; 35; 40; 42).
According to an oft-quoted explanation by Mahesh Yogi (1963, pp. 34–36), any thought “starts from the deepest level of consciousness and travels through the whole depth of the ocean of mind and finally appears as a conscious thought on the surface.” Through meditation, “the mind is trained to experience the oncoming [thought] bubble at an earlier and earlier stage of its development,” ultimately to reach the “source of thought,” and arrive at “the direct experience of the transcendental absolute Being.” The whole process is described as being “not only simple, but automatic.”
Mahesh Yogi presents this as science, not religion. More recently, Fred Travis and co-workers have attempted to use scientific methods to explore the neural underpinnings of such a state, referring to them as “automatic self-transcendence” (Travis et al., 2010a; Travis & Shear, 2010b). At the same time, Transcendental Meditation is also seen as a way to “cosmic consciousness” and a path to “God realization” (Mahesh Yogi, 1963, pp. 42; 296ff.), and both Mahesh Yogi’s writings and later discussions of the method are full of terminology and references that would usually be perceived as religious.
Clinically Standardized Meditation is presented in a more unequivocally secular context with few if any references to “cosmic consciousness,” “God” or other “spiritual” notions. While not denying the value of “transcending,” Patricia Carrington (2012, ch. 6) also notes that “this state is not, by any means, experienced by all 10 meditators …; perhaps not by the majority of them.” While she presents meditation in secular terms, she has however personally “elected to delve more deeply into the spiritual side of medi[t]ation” (ch. 10).
Even Herbert Benson’s book The Relaxation Response, despite its strong focus on physiology, contains an entire chapter devoted to “Eastern and Western mysticism,” including Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Yogic, Buddhist, Daoist, shamanist, and poetic traditions (Benson, 2000, pp. 125–154):
The altered state of consciousness associated with the Relaxation Response has been routinely experienced in Eastern and Western cultures throughout all ages. Subjectively, the feelings associated with this altered state of consciousness have been described as ecstatic, clairvoyant, beautiful, and totally relaxing. … Despite the diversity of description, there appears to be a universal element of rising above the mundane senses, a feeling beyond that of common-day existence.
The purpose of the chapter is to “show that the Relaxation Response has been experienced throughout history,” though Benson hastens to add that “this approach is not to be interpreted as viewing religion or philosophy in a mechanistic fashion.” The Acem Meditation approach has been partly shaped in opposition to what is often called “a magical-mythological world11 view.” This contrast is evident in several ways:
First, Acem Meditation emphasizes a process orientation in which the way the meditator meditates—repeating the meditation sound with a free mental attitude—plays a much more central role than particular experiences or states of mind the meditator may have from time to time. “Such experiences are looked upon as passing puffs of wind with no particular significance” (Holen & Eifring, 2017, p. 146, my translation), and it is the practice itself, and not the mental state that “alters a person’s internal make-up and capacity to handle life” (Holen & Eifring, 2013, p. 60).
Second, while there is an emphasis on the spontaneous nature of meditative processes, this does not mean that long-term effects come automatically. On the contrary, without qualified guidance and self-reflection, few results beyond basic relaxation and stress reduction are likely to take hold.
Third, while daily or even sporadic meditation may be enough to help the meditator relax thoroughly and reduce the level of stress and strain, this is often not the case with the long-term psychological effects, and even less true of the more far-reaching existential processes we are discussing here. These processes are most accessible at deepening retreats featuring long meditations, qualified guidance, and exercises that stimulate a free mental attitude at deeper levels (Holen & Hobbel, 2010).
Fourth, the quiet and relaxation of long meditations makes it easier to repeat the meditation sound with greater subtlety. This may at times bring about an inner calm and lead to periods of silence.
Fifth, while such periods are naturally perceived as valuable in themselves, “like an early morning of a day yet unborn” (Holen, 2016a, p. 133), they also represent opportunities to explore and partly overcome deep-seated limitations in one’s ways of relating to existence. Even on this level, therefore, there is an emphasis on “interpret[ing] most meditation experiences ‘downward’ as representing expressions of something unfinished,” rather than “‘upward’ toward something remarkable, great and important” (Holen & Eifring, 2017, p. 146, my translation).
This methodology is designed to help the meditator go deeper:
In the quiet stream of consciousness during meditation, we are tacitly and often unnoticeably connected with what is untouched by time and history, happiness and suffering; i.e., the silent core of man’s existential freedom. (Holen, 2016a, p. 138)
The “downward” interpretation of meditation experiences may help the individual to distinguish daydreaming and fantasies from the genuine experience of subtle aspects of consciousness. This approach expresses a quiet opposition to the tendency toward mood making and self-suggestion inherent in many spiritual groups and directive meditation methods.
From relaxation to psychological processes
The approaches to nondirective meditation discussed in this chapter are technically similar and are therefore likely to produce more or less the same short-term effects. All of them refer to scientific research that shows that they have in common the many physiological changes associated with deep relaxation.
As we have seen, however, there are also differences in technique and orientation between the various approaches to nondirective meditation. In particular, the psychological focus of Acem Meditation has been developed to provide an opening toward personal processes involving deeper emotional levels of the personality. Guidance techniques seek to stimulate these processes by providing room for change that develops from within.
To some extent, a similar understanding of psychological processes is also evident in the psychotherapeutic context of Clinically Standardized Meditation. In contrast, the psychological potential of Transcendental Meditation and the Relaxation Response has yet to be realized. If practiced with regularity, these techniques could undoubtedly also initiate important psychological processes, as suggested by the fact that they also lead to phases of resistance and paradoxical effects. In order to realize this psychological potential, however, the inner dynamics of such phases would have to be better understood and accompanied by qualified guidance.
Notes
1 https://patcarrington.com/learn-to-meditate-kit/ 2 https://www.themeditationblog.com/the-battle-for-realism-schisms-in-the-earlymeditation-movement/ 3 https://www.themeditationblog.com/international-training-in-meditationguidance/ 4 https://www.themeditationblog.com/international-training-in-meditationguidance/ 5 Less typically, however, the book does mention the following “side-effects”: “headaches or dizziness if the session is interrupted,” “difficulty falling asleep,” and “flashbacks or disturbing memories that emerge during meditation” (p. 140). 6 She compares “tension-release” to the notions of “normalizing” in Transcendental Meditation, “autogenic discharges” in Autogenic Training, and similar experiences in Progressive Relaxation and Alpha Biofeedback. However, since Autogenic Training, Progressive Relaxation, and Alpha Biofeedback are directive techniques, the processes they initiate may not be directly comparable to those of nondirective meditation. 7 Holen (2016a, pp. 43f.). 8 For instance, Rosenthal (2011, p. 38) writes extensively on bliss: “The emotions most often associated with transcendence are serenity and bliss.” He emphasizes, though, that the “unfocused bliss” of transcendence “comes and goes mysteriously and cannot be forced” (p. 18). 9 Spirituality is variously defined as “a search for the sacred, and for meaning and purpose in life” (Borman et al., 2013, p. 260) or “personal [ or direct] experience of the sacred” (Corbett, 2007, pp. 11ff.). The sense of “rising above the mundane senses” mentioned by Benson (2000, p. 127) may be seen as another aspect of spirituality. In these senses, spirituality is often distinguished from the pre-defined dogmas, practices, and institutions of religion. The seven experts consulted in Ospina et al. (2007, p. B-3) all agree that being “embedded in a religious/spiritual/ philosophical context” is “important but not essential” for a practice to be considered meditation. 10
Even the executive vice president of the Maharishi University of Management, Craig Pearson, says about this state of mind: “No, I’ve only had that experience a few times in my life.” (Quoted in Rosenthal, 2011, p. 42.) 11 Holen (2016a, p. 118).
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