Navigating Advanced Meditation: Safety and Innovation

What it is, how beginners can get a taste, the dangers of striving, and whether tech can make it easier.

Dr. Matthew D. Sacchet, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Meditation Research Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General). Since 2012, he has authored more than 120 publications, presented more than 150 times at international, national, regional and local conferences and speaker series, and been cited more than 8,000 times.

In this episode we talk about:

• What Matthew's learning about advanced states of meditation, and what they do to the brain
• What relevance advanced meditation might have for the rest of us
• How we might get a taste of these states ourselves
• Whether technology might ultimately help some of us advance more quickly
• The psychological risks of practicing deep end meditation

Related Episodes:

• Dr. Richie Davidson, Daniel Goleman – Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body
• Nirvana | Joseph Goldstein
• A Meditator in the Arena | Sam Harris
• Willoughby Britton, Jared Lindahl -- Does Meditation Have a Dark Side

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Additional Resources:

• Meditation Research Program at Harvard
• Matthew Sacchet on X (Twitter)
• Matthew Sacchet’s LinkedIn