The Dangers of Wrong Meditation Practices

mudra wrote:

Sanicle wrote:I feel it’s necessary to clarify that this thread was begun to make readers aware of the potential problems that can occur in our physical (in particular), emotional and mental bodies, due to practising meditation………….dangers which are not often spelled out by those who recommend the practice and, as such, many seem unaware of, as was I.  The thread is NOT intended to delve into what (or who) may come through to us from other sources from participating in any of the various forms of this practise.  There are plenty of threads and info on the net that discuss this already.

I’ve added this clarification in the first post.   

My bad I realize now I misinterpreted the title of your thread Sanicle as having to do with  "the dangers of wrongly praticing meditation "which then evolved as the discussion was taking place to having to do with  " wrong meditation techniques " . Both interpretations obviously did'nt have anything to do with what you really meant. I should have read you much more carefully my friend. Apologies for this.

Much Love for You
mudra

In recent years neuroscientists have been examining the effects of meditation on the brain. Professor Richard Davidson of Wisconsin, a long-term Buddhist meditator himself, claims that meditation can “change neural states in circuits that may be important for compassionate behavior and attentional and emotional regulation.” However, other scientists argue that Davidson’s claims are unsubstantiated and that his studies have serious flaws ranging from experimental design to conclusions. Dr. Nancy Hayes, a neurobiologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, says that Davidson and his supporters promote research before it has been replicated. And what is really interesting, but never highlighted, is that Davidson himself points out that, for psychologists using meditation to treat their patients, “Meditation is not going to be good for all patients with emotional disorders and it may even be bad for certain types of patients.”

Dr. Solomon Snyder, head of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, warns that during meditation the brain releases serotonin. This may help those with mild depression but too much serotonin can cause, in some, a paradoxical relaxation-induced anxiety. Instead of relaxing during meditation, these people become distressed and may even have panic attacks. Snyder says that in some cases of schizophrenia, meditation can launch a person straight into psychosis.

And what about all those good feelings one can experience in meditation? Is there another explanation, for example, for that transcendental feeling of being one with the universe?

Dr. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania scanned the brains of long-term practitioners of Buddhism while they were meditating and compared them with images taken when they were not. Newberg saw that blood flow to the posterior superior parietal lobe decreased during meditation. This area of the brain determines the boundaries of one’s body in relation to the environment and allows us to navigate a complex three-dimensional world without bumping into things. “We know that the posterior superior parietal lobe plays that particular role because there are patients with damage in this same region who literally cannot move around without falling,” Newberg reports. “They’ll miss the chair they intended to sit on, and generally have a fuzzy understanding of where their body ends and the rest of the universe begins.” He says that when people have spiritual experiences and feel they become one with the universe and lose their sense of self, it may be because of what is happening in that area of the brain. “If you block that area, you lose that boundary between the self and the rest of the world.” Were the Buddhist meditators merely experiencing an odd side effect of submitting their brains to unusual conditions?

Dr. Michael Persinger, a professor of neuroscience at the Laurentian University in Canada, studied 1,018 meditators in 1993 and found that meditation can bring on symptoms of complex partial epilepsy such as visual abnormalities, hearing voices, feeling vibrations, or experiencing automatic behaviors such as narcolepsy. Note that epileptic patients who suffer from seizures in the temporal lobes have auditory or visual hallucinations, which they often interpret as mystical experiences. Some are convinced that they conversed with God.

In recent years Persinger set out to investigate so-called “mystical” experiences under controlled laboratory conditions. He got volunteers to wear a helmet fitted with a set of magnets through which he ran a weak electromagnetic signal. Persinger found that the magnetically induced seizures in the temporal lobes generate the same sort of hallucinations and mystical experiences reported by epileptic patients. Four in five people, he says, report a “mystical experience, the feeling that there is a sentient being or entity standing behind or near” them. Some weep, some feel God has touched them, others become frightened and talk of demons and evil spirits. “That’s in the laboratory,” Persinger notes, referring to subjects’ knowledge of a controlled environment. “How much more intense might these experiences be if they happened late at night, or in a pew in a mosque or synagogue?”

Does this indicate that so-called mystical experiences may be caused by seizures, by a temporary malfunction of the brain circuitry triggered by abnormal conditions such as sensory deprivation or decreased blood flow to the parietal lobe? Is that what happened to me?

In addition to the neuroscientists’ findings, there is anecdotal evidence that shouldn’t be overlooked. Clearly there are potential dangers with long meditation retreats, particularly for beginners.

Sanicle wrote:Further accounts of how meditation can be harmful for some who are unaware.

Brook wrote:One last thing on the Vertigo.....

Dopamine increases during meditation.

The neurochemistry of vertigo includes six primary neurotransmitters that have been identified between the three-neuron arc that drives the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

Dopamine may accelerate vestibular compensation.


Causes and symptoms of Vertigo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo

(Scroll to "Pathophysiology" in the veritgo wiki article)

And most important...in the practice of meditation and vertigo in connection to Dopamine:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11958969


I found that after a few minutes research...imagine!

Must be the coffee   

 


Don't forget to ground! 

After injury to the inner ear, the brain undergoes a complex set of changes that allow it to adapt to the altered sensory input and abolish the perception of vertigo. This process is called “vestibular compensation.”

From: http://umm.edu/programs/hearing/services/vertigo

Sanicle wrote:

Brook wrote:One last thing on the Vertigo.....

Dopamine increases during meditation.

The neurochemistry of vertigo includes six primary neurotransmitters that have been identified between the three-neuron arc that drives the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

Dopamine may accelerate vestibular compensation.


Causes and symptoms of Vertigo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo

(Scroll to "Pathophysiology" in the veritgo wiki article)

And most important...in the practice of meditation and vertigo in connection to Dopamine:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11958969


I found that after a few minutes research...imagine!

Must be the coffee   

 


Don't forget to ground! 

Call me dumb if you like Brook, but I really don't get the point you're trying to make with this post.  I've done more research on this info you put forth and it seems to me that Dopamine .... as it says on Wiki, one of the six primary neurotransmitters involved  ...... is one of the good ones in that it actually helps with compensating during the sensations associated with vertigo, which is I guess why some forward thinking doctors recommend it for some patients who have the problem.

To quote your quote: "Dopamine may accelerate vestibular compensation."  So I looked up vestibular compensation .........

After injury to the inner ear, the brain undergoes a complex set of changes that allow it to adapt to the altered sensory input and abolish the perception of vertigo. This process is called “vestibular compensation.”

From: http://umm.edu/programs/hearing/services/vertigo

And your latter link concurs that Dopamine is increased during meditation, even in the title, "Increased dopamine tone during meditation-induced change of consciousness."  So I wouldn't say that Dopamine is a problem for me when I experience it during meditation and the cause in my particular case must be something else.  No?   

Again, I think it's more in relation to your last comment ......... "Don't forget to ground!"   

Brook wrote:
Don;t forget to ground was more of a side not regarding the practice of meditation.

Vertigo:

What are medicines for vertigo and how do they work?

A number of medicines can be prescribed to help with the symptoms of vertigo. They include: prochlorperazine or antihistamines such as cinnarizine, cyclizine, or promethazine. These medicines are the same ones that are used to help treat nausea and motion sickness. They work by blocking certain chemicals in the brain. Prochlorperazine blocks a chemical called dopamine

Which medicine is usually prescribed?

The choice of medicine depends on what is causing your vertigo and how severe your symptoms are. If you have severe nausea, your doctor may prescribe prochlorperazine.

Why would they prescribe a medication to "block dopamine" for Vertigo?

If meditation increases Dopamine....and to counteract Vertigo they give you a drug to "block dopamine".....logic would conclude increased levels of dopamine might cause said vertigo symptoms?

Here is yet another link to the information I just presented.

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/medicines-for-vertigo

Although I'd caution taking such a medication....opting for something that might be better suited.


I don't know what's causing your vertigo.  Could be an inner ear thing or perhaps something else.

But to conclude if increased levels of dopamine are perhaps there, and Meditation is something you feel might have caused it...while the paper I cited notates increased levels of Dopamine during mediation......while a primary medication for Vertigo is a blocker of Dopamine....one can only conclude no?

btw...I would NEVER call you dumb!  
 

Additional inquires on dopamine and vertigo "symptoms"

https://www.google.com/search?q=virtigo++dopamine3&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#channel=sb&q=vertigo+dopamine&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official