
#705: Dr. Willoughby Britton — The Hidden Risks of Meditation, Overlaps with Psychedelic Risks, Harm Reduction Strategies, How to Choose a Retreat, Near-Death Experiences, and More
The Tim Ferriss ShowTue Nov 21 2023
Adverse Effects of Intensive Meditation:
- Dr. Britton's research reveals a non-linear relationship between meditation practice duration and sleep quality, indicating that excessive meditation can lead to increased cortical arousal and insomnia.
- Excessive attention-enhancing properties of meditation can have parallels with stimulants like Ritalin or caffeine, potentially leading to hyperarousal syndromes in certain individuals.
Tim Ferriss' Silent Retreat Experience:
- Tim Ferriss shares his personal experience at a silent retreat where traumatic memories resurfaced intensely due to combining fasting, high doses of psychedelics, and prolonged silence, ultimately leading to severe sleep disruption.
Frequency of Challenging Meditation Experiences:
- Dr. Britton emphasizes that such challenging experiences during intense meditation are not uncommon. She mentions encountering similar cases daily through her work at Cheetah House, highlighting the prevalence of these issues within meditator communities.
Risk Factors for Meditation and Psychedelic Experiences:
- Dr. Britton emphasizes the potential risks of combining powerful tools like meditation and psychedelics, cautioning that it can lead to adverse effects and should be approached with care.
- She discusses the prevalence of lasting negative effects from meditation, noting that 6 to 14% of individuals who have meditated at least once have experienced such effects, highlighting the need for awareness around potential risks.
Indicators for Vulnerability in Meditation and Psychedelic Experiences:
- Dr. Britton stresses the importance of understanding individual indicators or "indicator lights" that signal when a person is getting outside their window of tolerance during meditation or psychedelic experiences.
- She underscores the significance of recognizing personal stressors and reactions, encouraging self-awareness to prevent adverse outcomes.
Adverse Effects and Emotional Regulation in Meditation and Psychedelic Experiences:
- Dr. Britton explains how intensive meditation practices can downregulate the limbic system, leading to decreased emotional intensity (anhedonia), which may impact both positive and negative emotions.
- She draws parallels between altered states induced by both meditation and psychedelics, noting that they can result in dissociative experiences or emotional numbness post-experience.
Meditation-Related Adverse Effects:
- Meditation can lead to adverse effects such as increased thought frequency, trouble with executive functioning, perceptual hypersensitivity, hallucinations, emotional blunting, and changes in the sense of self.
- These adverse effects may include increases in fear and panic, re-experiencing trauma, derealization, somatic experiences like insomnia and pain syndromes.
- The cognitive/motivational domain might show changes in motivation or complete loss of motivation. Social consequences could involve shunning by communities and difficulty explaining impairment at work.
Psychedelic vs. Meditation Adverse Events:
- There is significant overlap between meditation-related adverse events and psychedelic-related adverse events.
- Perceptual changes such as visual snow and enduring visual changes are common to both groups but may be more prevalent in the psychedelic world.
- A study is being conducted to explore overlaps and systematic differences between these adverse events.
Scaffolding for Traumatized Meditators:
- Cheetah House offers a person-centered approach involving scaffolding for meditators who have developed trauma responses to meditation itself.
- This involves allowing individuals to pick their own objects of focus based on personal salience glomming on different items within their environment.
- By following the lead of traumatized individuals and reflecting back what is observed without imposing instructions or control over meaning, it becomes a more palatable form of support.
Self-Care Practices:
- Dr. Britton's self-care has evolved from resourcing and scaffolding practices into an engagement with nature that includes tending gardens and trail work.
- Her daily practice now revolves around activities such as trail work rather than traditional meditation techniques.
Meditation and Movement:
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of movement for brain activity and overall well-being, sharing that simply sitting still did not yield desired mental clarity or happiness.
- They underscore the critical role of movement in their daily routine, highlighting that small doses of meditation practiced twice a day have been beneficial.
Adverse Effects Mitigation:
- Dr. Britton discusses Cheetah House, a nonprofit organization providing support for meditators experiencing distress and offering meditation safety trainings to providers and organizations.
- She mentions online courses available for meditation teachers and clinicians interested in preventing, mitigating, and recovering from adverse effects related to meditation.
Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) Research:
- Dr. Britton explains her interest in near-death experiences (NDEs), particularly regarding overlaps between NDEs and temporal lobe epilepsy, as well as the scientific study she conducted on this topic.
- She recounts an unexpected discovery where individuals who had NDEs exhibited distinct brain activity compared to non-experiencers, sparking varied interpretations from skeptics and believers alike.
Dalai Lama's Response:
- Dr. Britton candidly shares her experience presenting her research to the Dalai Lama at the Mind & Life Dialogues, highlighting feedback suggesting his response was dismissive and lacked compassion towards those experiencing challenges with meditation.
- She reflects on the potential implications of institutionalized beliefs surrounding Buddhism and its impact on reporting negative experiences within contemplative practices.
Sponsorship Promotion - Nordic Naturals:
- Tim Ferriss promotes Nordic Naturals fish oil products, emphasizing their benefits for heart health, brain function, and immune support.
- He shares his personal experience with the Ultimate Omega Fish Oil Formula, highlighting its purity and lack of fishy aftertaste.
- Listeners are offered a 20% discount using the promo code "TIM" on nordic.com.
Sponsorship Promotion - Eight Sleep:
- Tim Ferriss endorses the PodCover by Eight Sleep as a solution for improving sleep quality through temperature regulation.
- He emphasizes the ability to adjust individual sleeping environment temperatures and the device's impact on deep sleep percentage.
- Listeners can save $350 on the PodCover until November 30th via eightsleep.com/tim.