Meditation in Qualitative Research for Bracketing and Beyond

The author recounts using mantra meditation as a form of bracketing during a phenomenological study, proposing that bracketing and meditation are inseparable in qualitative research. Rather than aiming for objectivity or immersion, this approach uses meditation to help the researcher become fully present, diminishing subjectivity so that participants' experiences can be heard and interpreted faithfully. The goal is not to eliminate subjectivity but to allow the researcher to attend fully to the other.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this study, I recounted my experience using mantra meditation during a phenomenological study for the purposes of bracketing. The efficacy and purpose of bracketing have been debated from Husserl (1931), whose aimed was to achieve objectivity, to Heidegger (1962) who advocated for immersion of the researcher, through the French school (Merleau-Ponty, 1964) of middle ground, by whom bracketing was seen as the process to unearth and suspend biases for the better understanding of participants’ experiences (Arsel, 2017; Creswell & Creswell, 2017; Creswell & Poth, 2016; Fischer & Guzel, 2023). In this study, however, I propose another approach to bracketing that expands beyond phenomenology and the duality of objectivity or immersion. I propose that bracketing, with the aim of meditation is inseparable from qualitative research. Meditation, as a form of bracketing, provokes the researcher to be fully present ensuring that participants’ experiences are heard and interpreted in a faithful manner. In this orientation, the goal of bracketing is not to rid one’s subjectivity but to allow subjectivity to be diminished and the researcher to be fully present to the other.