Current Opinion in Psychology
October 25, 2018
Claire Petitmengin, Martijn van Beek, Michel Bitbol et al.
163 citations
Meditation research mostly examines neurophysiology, but the actual moment-to-moment experience of meditating—what it feels like at different stages and in different practices—remains largely unstudied. This article reports a pilot project that used 'micro-phenomenological' interview methods to help meditators describe their lived experience with rigor and precision. The results show that such detailed descriptions can deepen understanding of meditation, improve practice, and inform teaching, revealing a valuable but overlooked dimension of contemplative science.
Current Opinion in Psychology
January 14, 2019
E. Garland, B. Fredrickson
131 citations
The Mindfulness-to-Meaning Theory (MMT) describes how mindfulness promotes health and resilience through positive emotion regulation. This review extends the MMT to show that mindfulness fosters self-transcendence by triggering upward spirals of decentering, attentional broadening, reappraisal, and savoring. Savoring is key for inducing absorptive experiences of oneness between subject and object, amplifying the object's salience and imbuing perception with affective meaning. New evidence indicates that inducing self-transcendent positive emotions and nondual states through mindfulness-based interventions may restructure reward processing, producing therapeutic effects on addictive behavior, such as opioid misuse, and chronic pain syndromes.
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 6, 2025
Iva Totomanova, Eline Haijen, Petra P M Hurks et al.
5 citations
Regular use of low doses of LSD or psilocybin, known as microdosing, has been studied in 57 human studies. Reported benefits include improved mood, enhanced cognition, social functioning, and mental health, but findings are inconsistent and largely based on self-reports. Adverse effects such as anxiety, physical discomfort, and cognitive disruption are also common. Outcomes vary greatly by individual and are shaped by expectations, context, and baseline state. Experimental studies of single doses often yield null findings, while observational studies of repeated use report more benefits. The evidence remains inconclusive and warrants caution.