1) What if I have a question about the study or a survey question?
You can email study questions to the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at CLANLab@Brown.edu
2) What type(s) of meditation is this study about?
- Any type of meditation or contemplative practice, secular, spiritual or religious.
- Any program, tradition, or no tradition, including apps and technology-assisted meditation.
3) If answering the research questions is distressing for me, what kind of resources and support are available?
- List of resources
- You can email the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at CLANLab@Brown.edu to set up a time to chat with our research team and get ideas for resources.
4) My difficulties were caused by a combination of meditation practice, concepts or ideology and responses by meditation teachers, organizations or other related support professionals. Does the study include the wider social context?
Yes! We intend the term “meditation-related” to include both the practices/substances and the larger social context, and have specific sections that ask about ideology, interpretive frameworks, and how different people inside the meditation context responded. This could include mishandling the situation, negligence, gaslighting or abuse by meditation teachers, programs, organizations or communities.
5) I have trouble reading or looking at screens because of my meditation-related difficulties. Is there a way to complete the survey in a way that does not require reading or screens?
The current form of the study is written and requires reading on a computer screen. However, we may add an addendum to create a more accessible option in the future if we get enough requests. Please email CLANLab@Brown.edu to discuss.
6) I saw that there are two separate studies, one for meditation-related adverse effects, and one for psychedelic-related adverse effects. My difficulties were caused by a combination of meditation and psychedelics or I have had both at different times. Which study should I participate in? Can I do both?
If your difficulties were a combination of meditation and psychedelics, pick the one that had the most negative impact on your life and functioning. If that is too hard to decide, pick the psychedelics study. The meditation study includes questions about psychedelics, and the psychedelic arm has questions about meditation, and there will be plenty of free-text boxes for you to explain your situation.
If you have experienced both meditation-related adverse effects, and psychedelic-related adverse effects at different times in your life, and the experiences are unrelated to each other, then you qualify for both studies. In this case, you could do both, but since the surveys take several hours, you may want to choose one. Pick the one that had the most negative impact on your life and functioning or the one you most want researchers to know more about.
If you are still not sure, email CLANLab@Brown.edu and we can discuss.
7) I had meditation-related difficulties but am under 18 so am not eligible to participate in the study. Will you have another study for people under 18?
The study is not currently set up for individuals under 18. However, we may create that option in the future if we get enough requests. Please email CLANLab@Brown.edu to discuss.
8) My loved one had severe meditation-related adverse effects that resulted in their death, or is otherwise too incapacitated to participate in this study. Is there any way that I can share their story on their behalf? Can I send you their journals?
The study is not currently set up to accept information from 3rd parties. However, we may create that option in the future if we get enough requests. Please email CLANLab@Brown.edu to discuss.
9) I want to finish my surveys, but closed my browser/lost my computer and can't find the original link or any emails.
You can email CLANLab@Brown.edu with the email that you used to complete the study and a link to your partially completed surveys will be sent to you.
10) If I don’t finish the survey, will my data be lost?
Your survey responses will be saved every time you move to the next page. If you stop before completing a page, the answers on that page will not be saved.
11) Can I go back and change answers on previous pages that I already submitted?
Some survey pages will have a back button that can be used to navigate back in the survey and change the answers that you have already provided. However, not all pages will have a back button. This is because the survey software does not allow you to go back to certain pages when those pages were used to determine what questions you were shown later in the survey. Every time you click the forward button the survey will save the answers that you provided on your current page.
12) This survey is almost 1000 questions, why is it so long?
Meditation use is growing in popularity worldwide and is being used to in spiritual/religious, wellness and clinical settings. However, there is very little research about meditation-related adverse effects, what they entail, how long they last, and what factors make them more or less severe.
For reference, a widely used measure of personality, the MMPI, has 567 questions.
Given the widespread use of meditations, potential adverse effects are an important public health issue that deserves at least as many questions as personality.
13) I want to share my story about meditation-related adverse effects because I think it’s important that researchers know what happened. However, I have some concerns about the consequences of sharing.
For example:
- I was in a clinical trial, and don’t want to compromise the research or get anyone in trouble.
- I am afraid that the researchers or meditation teachers will find out that I told what happened.
The safety, wellbeing and confidentiality of research participants is our highest priority, and also the reason we are doing the study. We have taken several measures to protect your confidentiality. We will never ask for your name, and do not share or publish any information that could potentially identify you. We provide you with the option of creating an anonymous email to use in the study (see above). You may also skip any question that you feel is too revealing of your identity. If you would like to discuss these concerns further, please email CLANLab@Brown.edu to discuss.