Problems from the Waking Up app
Many meditators-in-distress who are seeking help at Cheetah House are reporting that they developed problems as a result of using the Sam Harris Waking Up App. Content related to the self and/or free will is an Illusion, and Douglas Harding/Headless Way are the most frequently reported triggers. The most common symptoms include chronic depersonalization- derealization, anxiety, panic and a particular flavor of somatic-existential OCD. Since this syndrome is appearing with increasing frequency, we decided to create a page about it, and share resources that meditators have found helpful in their recovery.
Letters to Cheetah House
8/7/2019
Dear Cheetah House,
I am writing seeking help with negative experiences resulting from meditation.
I have started experiencing distress (dissociation leading to a constant panic) and I am at a loss how to begin to de-escalate or find calm with what is happening to me.
I would be so grateful for any guidance you could offer me. There is so little information out there about negative responses to meditation, and especially what to do if you encounter them
My situation: I started using the "Waking Up" app from Sam Harris, and following his course. I am about two thirds of the way through it. I believe the anxiety I am experiencing is to do with his deconstruction of the components that make up a consistent experience of the self. I have begun to feel, as others have said, like I am watching all the parts of myself operate, without existing among them. I am struggling to reconcile this feeling that the self is illusory without extreme panic. It's like being on a hallucinatory drug trip from which one can't wake up.
I feel like I am losing my mind and going mad, and don't know how to ground myself.
I do not have a history of mental illness.
11/29/19
Dear Cheetah House,
Recently I encountered some psychological difficulties after using Sam Harris’ Waking Up mediation app. Following a 60 minute meditation on the self, I felt pretty weird, and a bit ‘detached from reality’. Given I have young family to look after, this state of mind was really problematic, and extremely anxiety inducing.
Stories
Is the Truth Really True?
One meditator describes the problems he developed from using the Waking Up app
Thank Goodness
About a year later, he wrote a second story about his recovery to give hope to those still struggling
Resources
Sense of Self Domain Page
Contains descriptions of different types of meditation-related changes in sense of self, including changes in basic self, sense of ownership, sense of agency, and boundaries with the world or other people.
Contains Scientific Studies meditation-related changes in sense of self:
Podcasts
Sam Harris talks with Drs. Willoughby Britton and Jared Lindahl about their research on meditation-induced changes in sense of self.
Sam Harris talks to Evan Thompson about Buddhist modernism and Buddhist exceptionalism, and Evan’s new book, “Why I am not a Buddhist.”
Evan’s book is also a good resource, especially the following chapters:
The Myth of Buddhist Exceptionalism
Is Buddhism True?
No Self? Not so fast
The Rhetoric of Enlightenment
Interview with Evan Thompson on Buddhist Exceptionalism
Description: We class up the podcast this week with another special interview with a philosopher specialising in Asian philosophical traditions, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. In our discussion with Evan we address the reception and presentation of Buddhism in the West, whether it is accurate to describe it as a mind science, and how 'Buddhist modernism' is related to Buddhist exceptionalism. We also get into debates of the nature of Self and whether Sam Harris is correct to claim that modern cognitive science has confirmed the insights from Buddhism. This is not an episode targeting the tradition of Buddhism but rather an examination of a specific (modern) manifestation of Buddhism that is particularly popular in the West (and has long been a topic of fascination for Chris!). So join us to distill the real teachings of the Buddha and hear how our ramblings are confirmed by 2,500 years of introspective mind science!
Sam Harris & Meditation is all you need
Anthropologist Christopher Kavanagh and psychologist Matthew Browne help “decode” the Sam Harrisphere.