Hold off on deciding what it means

Let the experience be unexplained for now, rather than forcing it into a story of spiritual breakthrough or of breakdown.

Por qué funciona

Lindahl and colleagues found that interpretations of similar experiences differed considerably between practitioners, and that practitioners holding or offered multiple, conflicting worldviews reported the “influential—and often confusing” role of interpretive frameworks. The 2020 study found that Buddhist teachers and practitioners weigh many factors — distress, functioning, context — when deciding whether an experience needs intervention. Rushing to a single label can add fear (“I’m broken”) or pressure (“this is awakening, keep going”); leaving the question open lets you attend to what actually helps today.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Notice when you are trying to settle what this experience “really is” — spiritual, psychological, a stage, a breakdown — and let the question wait.
2. Focus on practical questions instead: Am I sleeping? Eating? Able to work and be with people? Is it easing or getting harder?
3. Be cautious about online forums and maps that tell you exactly what stage you are in; take what steadies you and leave what frightens or pressures you.
4. Discuss meaning later, with a teacher or clinician who can hold both religious and psychological ways of seeing it.

Evidencia

Lindahl et al. (2017) report that even where the phenomenology was similar across participants, interpretations of and responses to experiences differed considerably, and that conflicting interpretive frameworks played an “influential—and often confusing” role. Lindahl et al. (2020) argue that assessment should include not only whether an experience fits a religious or a psychopathological category, but whether it needs intervention. Palitsky et al. (2023), interviewing 68 meditators and 33 meditation experts, describe how practitioners draw on both religious and scientific worldviews to make sense of meditation-related challenges. (observational)

These qualitative studies show that interpretation shapes the experience and how people respond to it; they do not show that holding off on interpretation, specifically, improves outcomes.

Fuentes

• Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0176239.
• Lindahl, J. R., Cooper, D. J., Fisher, N. E., Kirmayer, L. J., & Britton, W. B. (2020). Progress or pathology? Differential diagnosis and intervention criteria for meditation-related challenges: Perspectives from Buddhist meditation teachers and practitioners. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1905.
• Palitsky, R., Cooper, D. J., Lindahl, J. R., & Britton, W. B. (2023). Relationships between religious and scientific worldviews in the narratives of Western Buddhists reporting meditation-related challenges. Journal of Contemplative Studies, 1–28.

Error común

Believing you must decide right now whether this is enlightenment or illness before you can do anything — when steadying helps whichever it turns out to be.