Before you begin
Residential centres screen applicants and have a teacher on site. A self-guided course has neither. This page does that job as well as a page can: it tells you what can happen, what to do, and when to seek help.
On this page
Speak to a doctor or therapist first if
- you are being treated for, or have recently experienced, serious depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder or PTSD;
- you are in an acute crisis, bereavement or withdrawal;
- you have a history of dissociation or trauma that meditation has previously stirred up.
None of these means you cannot meditate. It means: before a 101-day programme with no teacher beside you, talk it over first with someone who knows you — a doctor or a therapist.
What can come up
Strong emotion, old memories, anxiety, changes in sleep, unusual perceptions. In a survey of 434 people who had meditated, Goldberg, Lam, Britton and Davidson (2022) found that about a third reported an unwanted effect, about one in ten some impairment in daily functioning, and about one in a hundred impairment lasting a month or more. The conclusion of the researchers is simple: people can meditate, but they should know this beforehand. That is what this page is for.
Journalists have looked into the same thing on intensive retreats: the Financial Times podcast Untold: The Retreat (2024), which NPR discussed with its reporter the same year, and David Kortava in Harper’s Magazine (2021). They describe people whose mental health got much worse during or after a ten-day silent course: deep fear, hallucinations, a break with reality, and for some a stay in hospital. It is one reason this page exists, and one reason the sittings here start short.
- Financial Times, Untold: The Retreat (2024) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-untold-the-retreat/id1724826952?i=1000640943884
- David Kortava, “Lost in Thought”, Harper’s Magazine (2021) harpers.org/archive/2021/04/lost-in-thought-psychological-risks-of-meditation/
- Andrea Muraskin, “A new podcast examines the perils of intense meditation”, NPR (2024) www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/31/1241784635/meditation-vipassana-dangerous-mental-health
What to do
- Shorten the sitting, or stop. That is completely normal.
- Open your eyes. Move. Walk. Eat something.
- Talk to someone the same day.
- If you have ever had an eating disorder, choose the Classic edition rather than Detox.
If something has come up that does not settle within a few days, seek help.
Where to get help
Cheetah House (cheetahhouse.org) offers support and resources specifically for meditation-related difficulties, including a directory of clinicians who understand them. In an emergency, contact your local emergency services.
Reaching a human here
Email smile@vipassana.life. The teacher reads the messages, and a reply usually comes within a few days. If you need help urgently, call your local emergency services.
About health
Everything on this site is about the practice of meditation; it is not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Where the course talks about health or food, it describes the experience of practice rather than prescribing anything.