So you’re saying meditation is over-hyped…

“As mindfulness [meditation] has increasingly pervaded every aspect of contemporary society, so have misunderstandings about what it is, whom it helps, and how it affects the mind and brain. At a practical level, the misinformation and propagation of poor research methodology can potentially lead to people being harmed, cheated disappointed, and/or disaffected.”

“Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation,” Van Dam et al, Perspect Psychol Sci, 2018.

Nice hype-fighting words? Well, yes… but …

As Ron Purser deliciously notes in his book, McMindfulness, “none of [the authors] notes their own role in this insidiuous process.” For instance, one author of that paper, Sara Lazar, also wrote, for the Harvard Business Review just three years earlier, “Mindfulness Can Literally Change Your Brain” and “Perhaps you haven’t heard that the hype is backed by hard science.”

If I’d found that glaring and very public contradiction myself, I would have danced a little jig of journalistic joy. 😜