International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
May 29, 2026
Simin Kazemi, Julia Torquati, Tuyen Huynh
Connection to nature is linked to psychological wellbeing, and two studies tested whether mindfulness or spirituality explain this link. In Study 1 (219 young adults), mindful attention reduced anxiety and perceived stress, and mindful awareness reduced depression and increased positive states of mind; spirituality did not mediate these effects. In Study 2 (180 young adults), spirituality (self-transcendence) mediated wellbeing outcomes except anxiety, while none of the five facets of mindfulness were significant mediators. The roles of mindfulness and spirituality depend on how they are conceptualized and measured, indicating a need for conceptual clarity in future research.
PsyArXiv
May 28, 2026
preprint
Advanced meditation can sometimes lead to challenging experiences involving destabilization, rigidification, and social negotiation. Through a reflexive thematic analysis of practitioners' accounts, the authors describe how embodied sense-making and integration processes unfold during these difficulties. The analysis identifies how meditators navigate destabilizing experiences, how rigid patterns of response may emerge, and how social contexts shape the meaning and resolution of these challenges. The findings suggest that advanced meditation difficulties are not merely individual psychological events but are deeply embedded in bodily, relational, and social processes.
Front Psychol
May 28, 2026
A systematic review and meta-analysis of mindfulness-based interventions for competitive anxiety in athletes found that these interventions reduce anxiety, with the type of control group moderating the effect. The analysis included 12 studies and showed a significant overall effect favoring mindfulness interventions. The magnitude of the effect depended on whether the control condition was active or passive. The authors suggest that mindfulness training can be an effective approach for managing competitive anxiety, but the strength of the evidence is preliminary and varies by comparison group.
PsyArXiv
May 27, 2026
preprint
This theoretical paper proposes extending the scientific study of advanced meditation to Sufism within Islam, comparing self-attenuation practices across Theravāda Buddhism, Tibetan Dzogchen, and Sufi traditions. The authors argue that contemplative traditions beyond Buddhism, particularly Sufism, offer valuable but underexplored models for understanding advanced meditative states and their effects on self-related processing. By examining similarities and differences in how these traditions conceptualize and cultivate self-transcendence, the paper suggests that a broader cross-traditional framework can enrich scientific understanding of meditation's transformative potential. The analysis highlights common themes of self-diminishment and non-dual awareness while respecting each tradition's unique doctrinal and practical contexts.
Journal of cognitive neuroscience
May 27, 2026
Alejandro Chandia-Jorquera, Sean D van Mil, Mar Estarellas et al.
3 citations
Pure awareness, a state of minimal phenomenal experience, can be reliably studied through transcendental meditation. In 33 experienced TM practitioners compared to controls doing mental counting, TM produced significantly greater intensity and temporal variability of pure awareness, unrelated to years of practice. Using EEG and multivariate classification, a double dissociation emerged: temporal entropy and aperiodic dynamics best distinguished TM from counting, while low-frequency functional connectivity best distinguished TM from its own baseline. These differences reflected distributed neural patterns, not localized effects. TM showed little carryover into rest, unlike counting. The findings characterize pure awareness electrophysiologically and support neurophenomenology as a framework for studying minimal experience.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
May 27, 2026
Praerna Chowdhury, Ramajayam Govindaraj, Arun Sasidharan et al.
preprint
Meditation-related EEG patterns are often studied by comparing meditators to passive rest or by experience level, but such designs rarely test reliability or include active controls. This study used a multi-session within-subject design with experienced Brahmakumaris Rajayoga meditators to identify reliable, state-dependent EEG dynamics. The approach addressed prior limitations, providing more valid neurophysiological markers of meditative state.
Mindfulness
May 19, 2026
Tim Wood, Merle Kock, Nicholas T van Dam et al.
Intense meditation-related experiences (IMREs) can suddenly alter a person's sense of self, worldview, and emotions, but their meaning often shifts as meditators reflect and interpret them over time within their social and cultural context. Through in-depth interviews with 13 participants, four themes emerged: watching the self and world transform; emotional explosions leading to insight; deciding whether to share the experience or remain silent; and developing new perspectives and agency. Most participants found that the meaning of their IMREs became clearer through conversation with others, using concepts from science and meditation traditions. These experiences were transformative, offering new ways of perceiving and acting in the world.
Scientific Reports
May 19, 2026
Karin Matko, Cate Bailey, Julieta Galante et al.
Seventy percent of adults in Australia and New Zealand engaged in contemplative practices such as meditation, yoga, or breathing techniques in the past year, most commonly meditation (31%). Practitioners reported higher psychological distress and greater use of mental healthcare than non-practitioners. After adjusting for sociodemographic differences, the association with distress disappeared for yoga and relaxation practitioners but remained for breathing techniques, which were linked to increased distress in all models. Among those with unmet healthcare needs, meditators and relaxation practitioners reported less distress than non-practitioners with unmet needs. The findings suggest contemplative practices may serve as complements to mental healthcare, but their complex relationships with mental health require further study.
arXiv (Cornell University)
May 15, 2026
Jonas Mago, Edmundo Lopez-Sola, Jakub Vohryzek et al.
States of consciousness with minimal phenomenal content, such as those induced by certain meditation practices, show increased brain entropy similar to high-content psychedelic states, challenging the Entropic Brain Hypothesis that links entropy to phenomenal richness. The Complex Brain Hypothesis resolves this by proposing that brain complexity, not entropy, better indexes the richness of experience. Complexity is modulated by the grain of inference the brain uses to resolve uncertainty: fine-grained inference loosens constraints and proliferates content, as in psychedelic states; coarse-grained inference simplifies experience into contentless awareness, as in minimal phenomenal experiences. Both regimes can elevate entropy but differ in phenomenology and perturbational signatures, refining the Entropic Brain Hypothesis and highlighting minimal phenomenal experiences as a test case for computational theories of consciousness.
Mindfulness
May 11, 2026
Patton Burchett, Adrian J. Bravo, Mark Mclaughlin et al.
Lay people's understanding of mindfulness varies with their level of contemplative experience. A mixed-methods study of 100 US participants (50 inexperienced college students and 50 experienced community members) identified six categories of mindfulness definitions: religious/spiritual/philosophical, attention/observing, calming and grounding, tenets of MBSR, virtue cultivation, and awareness. Experienced participants more often defined mindfulness as attention/observing and as aligned with MBSR tenets, and they more frequently endorsed that mindfulness reveals no substantive self and is a specific type of meditation. Inexperienced participants more often defined mindfulness as calming/grounding and as awareness, and they were more likely to see mindfulness as distinct from meditation. These findings suggest that prior contemplative experience shapes how people conceptualize mindfulness.
Scientific reports
May 8, 2026
Erola Pons, Julieta Galante, Nicholas T Van Dam et al.
Depersonalization and derealization (DPDR) involve feeling detached from one's body, thoughts, or emotions, typically triggered by trauma, stress, or drugs and causing high distress. Similar experiences arise during meditation, where they are often described as positive and meaningful. This cross-sectional study compared DPDR-like states triggered by meditation (60 participants) versus other triggers (61 participants). The meditation-triggered group rated their experiences as substantially more positive, though most participants in both groups described them as mixed. Meditation-induced DPDR occurred across types and experience levels. These experiences are phenomenologically similar but more welcome, pleasant, and spiritually meaningful than those from trauma or cannabis, though distress is not uncommon. Contemplative approaches may inform clinical support for DPDR, and guidance within meditation settings is needed.
Nursing in critical care
May 1, 2026
Amanda Zahumensky, Varinporn Amporndanai, Jane Orbell-Smith et al.
Critical care staff experience high rates of burnout and emotional fatigue due to intense work environments. A systematic review of thirty studies found that meditation-based interventions, especially those combining in-person and app-guided formats, most consistently improved well-being and reduced stress and burnout among doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals in ICUs, EDs, CCUs, and perioperative units. Yoga and aromatherapy also showed benefits, but their use was often limited by space and schedule constraints. Qualitative findings indicated improved emotional regulation and workplace satisfaction, though barriers like work guilt and time constraints remained. The review suggests flexible, scalable mindfulness-based interventions may help mitigate burnout and support workforce sustainability.
Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental
May 1, 2026
María Arqueros, J L Fayos Soler, Ausiàs Cebolla et al.
Ego dissolution, a temporary state of reduced self-referential processing and increased unity with the environment, can be modulated by both psychedelics like ayahuasca and contemplative practices like meditation. In a comparison of 37 ayahuasca users and 137 meditators, meditators scored significantly higher on the 'Delusion of Me' index, which measures acceptance, decentering, and non-attachment. While meditation practice showed a significant non-linear association with cumulative practice and higher scores, repeated ayahuasca exposure showed no evidence of a cumulative association with the index in this sample.