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Not All That Glitters is Gold: Meditation Won’t Heal The World
From spiritual bypassing to psychosis and social delusions.
When a study conducted in the 1980s by Harvard tried to demystify the claim that experienced meditators could dry wet sheets with their body heat (during tummo meditation), they not only found that the claims were supported but also that the monks could control metabolism and oxygen levels via said meditation. Very similar results were found in 2013 at the National University of Singapore.
Not long ago, YouTube intended to shove a documentary down my throat: A Joyful Mind. As it started, I almost dissociated due to the ubiquitous cheap music, stock images, and low-quality interviews of middle-aged white Americans. It was a mix of cliches and some good information made corny, until finally, right before I gave up, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche appeared and started teaching about what meditation is and recounting the story of how it helped him overcome a panic disorder. Of course, I already knew that YMR and I had something in common, but it still froze me when he said that after taking meditation seriously:
“My panic was one of my best friends and best teacher”
How can something so dark and terrible be considered a friend? I’ve come so far from where I was just a couple…
