Solomonova Elizaveta, Lindahl Jared R, Gold Ian, Cooper David J, Little Charlotte, Arteca Damian, Cao Chenxi, Britton Willoughby B
Neurophilosophy Lab, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Department of Philosophy, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2025 Oct 24;16:1644684. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1644684. eCollection 2025.
Delusional ideation is characteristic of psychopathology (e.g., psychosis, bipolar disorder) and is also found among the general population. Contemporary case studies have documented delusional ideation as a feature of meditation-induced psychosis, and Buddhist literature on the side effects and adverse effects of meditation also includes discussion of transient experiences that could be considered delusional or delusion-like ideation. Drawing upon interviews with more than 100 Buddhist meditation practitioners and meditation experts (teachers and clinicians) in the West, this paper presents a mixed-methods study of delusion-like ideation (DLI) associated with meditation. We establish a typology of eight types of DLI and report their relative frequencies among the sample; we identify impacts and treatment outcomes associated with DLI; and we provide four case studies that illustrate the risk factors, trajectories, outcomes, and appraisals associated with DLI. We show how responses to DLI are shaped not only by the type of DLI but also by their duration, severity, and impact, as well as the associated appraisals made both by meditators and by meditation teachers and psychiatrists. In some cases, the phenomenology of DLI suggests influences from the lived context of Buddhist meditation cultures. Furthermore, although DLI are normalized in Buddhist meditation culture under certain circumstances, meditation experts also noted the potential severity of meditation-related DLI, with some identifying it as a "red flag" meriting close monitoring if not immediate intervention. Finally, we discuss various explanatory models that could account for the presence, content, and impacts of DLI among meditators, drawing upon the environmental conditions and social contexts of meditation retreats, the role of attention and sensory attenuation in meditation practice, and the ways in which meditation-related DLI can function as a cultural and spiritual "idiom of distress."
妄想观念是精神病理学（如精神病、双相情感障碍）的特征，在普通人群中也有发现。当代案例研究已将妄想观念记录为冥想诱发精神病的一个特征，佛教关于冥想副作用和不良影响的文献也包括对可能被视为妄想或类似妄想观念的短暂体验的讨论。基于对西方100多名佛教冥想修行者和冥想专家（教师和临床医生）的访谈，本文呈现了一项关于与冥想相关的类似妄想观念（DLI）的混合方法研究。我们建立了八种DLI类型的分类法，并报告了它们在样本中的相对频率；我们确定了与DLI相关的影响和治疗结果；并且我们提供了四个案例研究，说明了与DLI相关的风险因素、发展轨迹、结果和评估。我们展示了对DLI的反应不仅如何受到DLI类型的影响，还受到其持续时间、严重程度和影响，以及冥想者、冥想教师和精神科医生所做的相关评估的影响。在某些情况下，DLI的现象学表明受到佛教冥想文化生活背景的影响。此外，尽管在某些情况下DLI在佛教冥想文化中被正常化，但冥想专家也指出了与冥想相关的DLI的潜在严重性，一些人将其视为一个“危险信号”，如果不立即干预，值得密切监测。最后，我们讨论了各种解释模型，这些模型可以解释冥想者中DLI的存在、内容和影响，借鉴了静修的环境条件和社会背景、冥想练习中注意力和感官衰减的作用，以及与冥想相关的DLI如何作为一种文化和精神上的“痛苦习语”发挥作用。
