OBJECTIVE We sought to address a growing debate regarding the adverse and salutary impact of unusual, extraordinary or intense subjective experiences during meditation-based interventions. To do so, we empirically characterized such peak experiences during an intensive meditation intervention and their impact postintervention. METHOD We conducted a preregistered prospective intervention study among 96 adults who registered for 6-day insight (Vipassana) mindfulness meditation retreats and 47 matched controls. Controls were selected from a pool of 543 people recruited from the same community of meditators as retreat participants and systematically matched to retreat participants on age and lifetime meditation experience. Measures included the novel Peak Meditative Experience Scale and the Impact of PMES. RESULTS Seventeen peak experiences that were primarily pleasant (e.g., deep and unusual peace, aha! Moment) occurred more frequently among retreat participants than among matched controls in daily living (ps < .05; mean ϕ = .33). In contrast, 14 peak experiences that were mostly unpleasant (e.g., flashbacks, overwhelming sadness) occurred at similar rates in both groups (ps > .05). At 2-week follow-up, the perceived impact of all pleasant and most unpleasant peak experiences was more salutary than adverse (ps ≤ .015; M Cohen's d = 1.61). CONCLUSIONS Peak experiences that resulted from meditation retreats were primarily pleasant and had a large salutary impact postretreat. Inconsistent with conclusions from uncontrolled retrospective studies, findings document that intensive insight mindfulness meditation training in retreats may not contribute to unpleasant peak experiences and even when they occurred their impact was typically more salutary than adverse. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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洞察正念冥想静修期间的高峰体验及其有益和不利影响：一项前瞻性匹配对照干预研究。


目的 我们试图解决关于冥想干预期间不寻常、非凡或强烈的主观体验的不利和有益影响的日益激烈的争论。为此，我们根据经验描述了强化冥想干预期间的这种高峰体验及其干预后的影响。方法 我们对 96 名注册参加 6 天内观（Vipassana）正念冥想静修的成年人和 47 名匹配对照者进行了一项预先注册的前瞻性干预研究。对照组是从同一冥想者社区招募的 543 名静修参与者中选出的，并在年龄和终生冥想经历上与静修参与者进行系统匹配。衡量标准包括新颖的峰值冥想体验量表和 PMES 的影响。结果 与日常生活中的匹配对照组相比，静修参与者中出现 17 种主要令人愉悦的高峰体验（例如，深刻且不寻常的平静，啊哈！时刻）的频率更高（ps < .05；平均值 phi = .33）。相比之下，两组中 14 种主要是不愉快的高峰体验（例如，闪回、极度悲伤）的发生率相似 (ps > .05)。在两周的随访中，所有愉快和最不愉快的高峰体验的感知影响都是有益的而不是有害的（ps ≤ .015；M Cohen's d = 1.61）。结论 冥想静修所带来的巅峰体验主要是令人愉快的，并且对静修后产生了巨大的有益影响。与不受控制的回顾性研究的结论不一致，研究结果表明，静修中的强化洞察力正念冥想训练可能不会导致不愉快的高峰体验，即使它们发生了，其影响通常也是有益的而不是有害的。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。