Study explores intense meditation experiences, beyond calm and into transformation

When meditation turns up the volume

Meditation is usually sold as a way to settle the mind, but a new paper in *Mindfulness* argues that some of the most important experiences are anything but calming. The study looks at intense meditation-related experiences, or IMREs, episodes that can shift a person’s sense of self, alter worldview, and trigger strong positive or negative emotion. What makes the paper especially useful is its focus on what happens after the peak moment: people do not just feel something intense, they interpret it, and that interpretation can reshape whether the experience feels like insight, disruption, or both.

The study leans on interpretative phenomenological analysis, which means it is less interested in reducing meditation to a neat outcome and more interested in how practitioners make sense of what happened. That matters because the authors describe IMREs as experiences that often begin suddenly but keep changing in meaning over time. In plain terms, a powerful sit can start as awe, confusion, fear, clarity, or all four, then become something different as you reflect on it later.

Why the field is paying attention now

This paper fits into a broader shift in meditation research, one that has stopped treating every altered state as automatically beneficial. Prior studies already showed that meditation-related difficulties are common enough to deserve serious attention. A 2021 U.S. population-based survey found that 50% of regular meditators reported at least one adverse effect, 26% reported lasting negative effects, and 14% said an effect had worsened. The same study found that pre-existing mental illness increased the likelihood of unpleasant experiences.

International data point the same way. In a cross-sectional study of 1,370 regular meditators, 22% reported unpleasant meditation-related experiences and 13% reported adverse experiences. Those adverse effects were most often affective, somatic, or cognitive, which is a reminder that difficult meditation episodes are not limited to one narrow category of discomfort. They can show up as emotional strain, body-based distress, or changes in thought itself.

That is why the current conversation is no longer just about whether meditation “works.” It is about when it helps, when it overwhelms, and what kind of support makes the difference between a meaningful transformation and a destabilizing one.

What Brown’s contemplative research changed

Much of the groundwork for this conversation came from Brown University’s Varieties of Contemplative Experience research project, led by Willoughby Britton and collaborators. That work used extensive semi-structured interviews with more than 60 Buddhist meditation practitioners and more than 30 meditation experts. From those interviews, the team identified more than 50 types of meditation-related experiences across seven domains, along with more than 20 influencing factors that can shape how those experiences unfold.

That detail matters for anyone practicing seriously. The Brown project helped establish that meditation-related difficulty is not just about fleeting discomfort. It can touch the sense of self, social functioning, perception, cognition, emotion, and bodily experience. The new IMRE paper extends that same logic by emphasizing appraisal, context, and the meaning people assign afterward. In other words, the experience itself is only part of the story. The surrounding conditions and the post-experience interpretation are part of the outcome too.

A related line of work on worldview change makes that point even sharper. Meditation can interact with what you already believe about yourself and the world, then push those beliefs in unexpected directions. That is one reason the IMRE study is so relevant to advanced practitioners: it does not frame intense experiences as a strange side topic. It treats them as central to how meditation can become developmental, disruptive, or both.

Safety is part of the practice, not an afterthought

The practical takeaway is straightforward: intense does not automatically mean harmful, but intensity should never be ignored. Recent expert and institutional guidance is moving in that direction. An APA-indexed 2025 study on childhood trauma and subclinical PTSD symptoms in mindfulness-based programs concluded that trauma history may predict more meditation-related adverse effects and called for trauma-sensitive modifications, safety monitoring, participant screening, and provider education.

That lines up with the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which says meditation and mindfulness practices are usually considered to have few risks, while noting that the most commonly reported negative effects are anxiety and depression. Put together, the message is not “avoid meditation.” It is that the field is increasingly treating safety, pacing, and screening as part of responsible instruction.

The newest paper also lands alongside more recent retreat research. A preregistered study of 96 adults in a 6-day insight mindfulness retreat examined peak experiences and their later salutary and adverse impacts. That work reinforces the same point: a powerful meditation episode can carry both upside and downside, sometimes in the same practice cycle.

What this means for your own practice

When meditation starts to feel intense rather than settling, use the experience as a signal to slow down and assess, not as a badge to push through. The research points to a few clear checks that matter in real practice:

• Pause if the session leaves you feeling overwhelmed rather than grounded.
• Modify if the practice is consistently bringing up anxiety, depression, or other distress that lingers after you get up from the cushion.
• Reduce intensity if you are doing longer sits, retreat-style practice, or methods that reliably amplify internal material.
• Seek qualified support if the experience feels impairing, confusing, or hard to integrate on your own.
• Be especially cautious if you have a trauma history or PTSD symptoms, since those factors may raise the chance of adverse effects.

The goal is not to treat every difficult sit as a problem to eliminate. It is to recognize when practice is moving into territory that needs pacing, reflection, or outside guidance. The strongest thread running through this research is that meditation can open insight and unsettle the ground at the same time. The skill is knowing when a hard session is part of growth, and when it is a sign to step back, adjust the method, and protect the stability that makes practice sustainable.