Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Self-Transcendent States: Perceived Body Boundaries and Spatial Frames of Reference.

OBJECTIVES

Mindfulness training is believed to encourage self-transcendent states, but little research has examined this hypothesis. This study examined the effects of mindfulness training on two phenomenological features of self-transcendence: 1) perceived body boundary dissolution, and 2) more allocentric spatial frames of reference.

METHODS

A sample of healthy, young adults (n=45) were randomized to five sessions of mindfulness training or an active listening control condition.

RESULTS

Results indicated mindfulness training decreased perceived body boundaries ( =6.010, <.001, =.12) and encouraged more allocentric frames of reference ( =2.586, =.039, =.06). The expected inverse relationship was observed between perceived body boundaries and allocentric frames of reference ((=-.58, p=.001)), and path analysis revealed the effect of mindfulness training on allocentric frames of reference was mediated by decreased perceived body boundaries (=.24, =.17, : 0.11 to 0.78).

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, study results suggest that mindfulness training alters practitioners' experience of self, relaxing the boundaries of the self and extending the spatial frame of reference further beyond the physical body. Future studies are needed to explore the psychophysiological changes that co-occur with phenomenological reports of self-transcendence and the behavioral consequences following self-transcendent experiences.