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

This is a OPEN AI summary of the Tim Ferriss Podcast #705- visit www.TinyTim.blog for more AI summaries, or www.Tim.blog for the official Tim Ferriss Podcasts.

In this episode, Tim Ferriss interviews clinical psychologist and Brown University professor Willoughby Britton about her research on the effects of meditation on the brain and body. Britton discusses her work on adverse effects of meditation, and how to mitigate them. She also talks about her nonprofit organization, Cheetah House, which provides support for meditators in distress.

Willoughby Britton is a clinical psychologist who has studied altered states of consciousness. She has found that meditation can actually cause insomnia and increase cortical arousal. However, she has not published this data, as she is an evangelist for meditation.

Willoughby Britton's research focuses on the effects of meditation on the sleep cycle. She has found that there is not a direct relationship between meditation and sleep; rather, the two are dependent on many factors.

The effects of meditation on sleep and arousal are biphasic and nonlinear. A small amount of meditation can improve sleep and attention, but too much can lead to hyperarousal syndrome.

A person attends a silent retreat, expecting to gain benefits from meditation and fasting, but instead has a bad experience with memories of childhood abuse flooding back. They seek help from the author of a book they read, who is also leading the retreat, and he is able to provide guidance and support.

Willoughby Britton talks about her work with people who have had meditation-related challenges. She says that it is very common, and that she sees someone like that every day. She also says that males 18 to 30 who think that combining every possible powerful tool, all at once, to break on through to the other side is a story that she sees again over, and over, and over again.

Willoughby Britton discusses the difficulties of determining who should and shouldn't meditate, as there are many factors that can contribute to someone having a negative experience. She notes that more than 90% of people have exposure to a criterion A stressor, so excluding everyone with a history of trauma or mental illness would rule out most people. She also notes that in her study, 60% of the people who had meditation-related challenges were themselves meditation teachers, so even experienced meditators can have negative experiences.

In her research on the prevalence of adverse effects from meditation, Willoughby Britton found that nearly half of all Americans have tried meditation at least once, and of those people, 6-14% have experienced lasting negative effects. She stresses that while many people may think they are at low risk for adverse effects from meditation due to lack of psychiatric or trauma history, this is not necessarily the case. It is important for those who are leading meditation sessions to be well-informed about how to monitor participants closely and to have off-ramps in place in case someone does experience negative effects.

In this conversation, Tim Ferriss and Willoughby Britton discuss the potential risks of meditation and some ways to mitigate them. They discuss a study which found that 1 in 10 people who meditate regularly experience negative effects, and another study which found that 5-15% of people with anxiety or depression experience negative effects from meditation. They discuss some ways to train meditation instructors and monitor people who are meditating, and how to deal with negative effects if they occur.

Willoughby Britton discusses the importance of knowing one's personal indicators of stress in order to avoid pushed too far into an altered state. She emphasizes that altered states are not necessarily something to strive for, as they can be a deviation from homeostasis (dysregulation). Britton also mentions that fasting can be a factor in destabilizing someone's regulation and that high-fat protein can be helpful in grounding someone.

This is a discussion about an adverse effect of meditation and psychedelics where people can become numb to the world and unable to feel positive or negative emotions. Meditation can cause this by downregulating the limbic system, and psychedelics can cause this by initiating dissociation.

In order to properly vet a meditation retreat, it is important to consider the goals of the person attending the retreat. If the goal is to simply relax and de-stress, then any retreat that offers this type of environment and instruction would be a good fit. However, if the goal is to have a profound spiritual experience or to change the plasticity of the mind, it is important to choose a retreat that has experience with these types of outcomes and can handle them safely.

Willoughby Britton warns against taking part in high-risk meditation retreats, which are often characterized by long periods of meditation with no movement and no feedback from teachers. These types of retreats can be particularly dangerous for people who are already at risk for mental health problems.

In order to understand why drug addiction is so prevalent in the medical profession, one must look at the high-achieving individuals who make up this demographic. These individuals are often under a great deal of pressure to succeed, and this can lead to them relying on drugs as a way to cope. Additionally, many meditation and spiritual practices expect followers to adhere to strict rules, which can actually be detrimental to those with chaotic or contraindicated mental disorders.

The goal of meditation is to achieve a state of calm, but this may not be possible for everyone. There are many implicit values associated with meditation that may not be desirable for everyone. It is important to know what you want before you start meditating, so that you can modify the practice to suit your needs.

Willoughby Britton discusses the 59 categories of adverse events that can occur from meditation, which range from changes in self-identity to social consequences like being shunned by one's community. The average duration of impairment from these events is one to three years, though it can range from a few days to more than a decade. Britton is currently conducting a study on the overlap between adverse events from meditation and those from psychedelics.

Cheetah House is a halfway house for Brown students who want to become monastics. It is now entirely online, and it is helping people recover from meditation-related challenges.

The speaker is discussing the concept of mindfulness, and how it can be used to help people who have been traumatized by meditation or other meditation systems. They explain that any kind of system can be a form of ideological power over someone, and that the person-centered approach is a way to work with that.

Willoughby Britton and Tim Ferriss discuss the process of scaffolding, which is a way of helping people who have developed a trauma response to meditation by following their lead and reflecting back what is seen.

Willoughby Britton talks about how she moved from meditation to a more active engagement with the world after realizing that it was having a positive impact on her life. She talks about how this new practice has made her happier and how it has helped her cognition more than meditation ever did. She also talks about how humans are built for movement and how important it is to incorporate movement into one's daily routine. Finally, she talks about where people can find more information on the adverse effects of meditation and how to prevent or mitigate them.

1. The Cheetah House Newsletter will keep you updated on public lectures, like the one today on SERT. 2. Meditation and psychedelics are becoming more closely related. 3. Be careful when choosing a practitioner for mind-altering modalities - make sure they are experienced and have handled adverse events calmly in the past.

The helper professions can sometimes be the source of harm and trauma, rather than help. This is called institutional betrayal, when the people who are supposed to be helping you are actually the cause of harm. This can happen in different settings, like when people are seeking help for trauma or when they are trying to meditate. When this happens, it really restricts your options.

Willoughby Britton became interested in near-death experiences (NDEs) after studying temporal lobe epilepsy and religious experiences. She conducted a study in which she found that people who had NDEs tended to have epileptiform brain activity. Britton speculates that this may be because NDEs are similar to religious experiences in some ways.

Willoughby Britton discusses her research on near-death experiences (NDEs). She explains that some people may have a tendency towards "hypersynchrony," which could explain the NDEs. She also notes that both skeptics and believers have responded to her research with extreme positions. Finally, she tells a story about a woman in her study who had an NDE while her heart was stopped.

In this conversation, Tim Ferriss speaks with Willoughby Britton about her research into near-death experiences (NDEs). Britton shares the story of one NDE survivor who came back speaking a different language, and who also had a vision of the future in which she saw buildings made of a glass that could be turned opaque with the flip of a switch. Britton herself has seen this glass in Vermont, and she is considering investing in the company that is developing it.

Willoughby Britton is a researcher who studies the adverse effects of meditation. She recently presented her findings to the Dalai Lama, and received some criticism for it. However, she feels that it is important to have this conversation in order to help people be more prepared for the potential risks of meditation.

In this podcast, Tim Ferriss and Willoughby Britton discuss the risks of meditation and the need for people to be informed about them. They also talk about the Dalai Lama and how he is not infallible.

https://tim.blog/2023/11/22/dr-willoughby-britton/