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Comment by PaulHoule

3 days ago

Dedicated mediators sometimes experience signs and symptoms of psychosis

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8380174/

In general psychosis-proneness is a quantity that people have more or less, some people have harmless hallucinations or "unusual experiences" but psychosis-prone people have more trouble when they are under more stress. Some researchers think that meditation practice could be protective

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-01856-y

Personally mindless use of the word "mindful" is a pet peeve of mine because I knew somebody who would talk about mindfulness just before he walked into an open pit. Also back when I was more anxious I always thought my mind was "full" by default and wanted to empty it, I found that many practices would just fill my mind up with more noise.

> I knew somebody who would talk about mindfulness just before he walked into an open pit.

Ironically (or not), there is a Buddhist story about this...

A monk comes to see his master, and announces that he had achieved perfect mindfulness.

The master said, "That is wonderful! And, when you came in, how many umbrellas were by the door?"

The monk realized he had not achieved perfect mindfulness.