19AR24-25

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AR 24:25 - Are meditation retreats bad for your mental health?

In this issue:

FAITH & FINANCE - Harvard scholars skewered by Publishers Weekly

MINDFULNESS - new data on suffering caused by meditation

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - "even America's most demonised religious groups mostly feel secure"

Apologia Report 24:25 (1,433)

June 19, 2019

FAITH & FINANCE

The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging, by Robert J Barro (Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, Harvard) and Rachel McCleary (also Dept. of Economics, Harvard) [1] -- Publishers Weekly (May 20 '19) reports that Barro and McClearly "set out to explore the 'economic costs and benefits' of religion in this slapdash work. The authors lay out an ambitious plan to discuss religion in the world at large - particularly Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism - in order to explore how economic growth and government regulation of the 'religion market' (a phrase they never define) affect religious participation. Unfortunately, the book delivers on none of its promises. While the authors provide sound economic analysis, they seem to have only the loosest grasp of many of the religions they discuss - they equate the establishment of Anglicanism (a state religion) with a requirement for Anglican belief, completely omit Judaism from their list of world religions, and describe Buddhism as a 'salvific' religion. Often, their sources are oddly out of date; they cite Bernard Lewis's 1993 Islam in History [2], a volume which has been largely discredited as Islamophobic and supplanted by the work of other scholars. This sloppy work is a disappointment and reintroduces some ideas that are far better left behind."

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MINDFULNESS

"Meditation retreats bad for your mental health, study suggests" by Henry Bodkin -- "An international survey of people who attended residential meditation programmes found three in ten suffered 'unpleasant' episodes, including feelings of anxiety or fear.

"The study by University College London (UCL) found that, overall, more than a quarter of people who regularly meditate experience such feelings.

"However, those engaging in currently fashionable 'deconstructive' forms such as Vipassana or Koan meditation, which encourage insight through questioning permanence of the self and the reality of sensations, were more likely to be affected.

"These can take the form of days' long silent retreats with highly regulated sleep and diet regimens and restricted access to the outside world."

Marco Schlosser, who led the research at University College London, said "'Meditation has become quite trendy and an image has been constructed - perhaps explicitly by the mindfulness industry - that its a panacea, but it's not.'

"'It's benefits may have been exaggerated.' ...

"Men were more likely to suffer these experiences than women, as were people who did not have a religious belief compared to people who were religious.

"More than 29.2 percent who practised only deconstructive types of meditation reported an unpleasant experience, compared to 20.3 percent who only engaged in other forms." The Telegraph (UK), May 9 '19 <www.bit.ly/2wVlrcv>

The study, "Unpleasant Meditation-Related Experiences 'n Regular Meditators," is featured in PLOS One (May 9 '19). The abstract finds that "a growing number of reports indicate that psychologically unpleasant experiences can occur in the context of meditation practice. Very little is known about the prevalence and potential causes of these experiences. The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of particularly unpleasant meditation-related experiences in a large international sample of regular meditators, and to explore the association of these experiences with demographic characteristics, meditation practice, repetitive negative thinking, mindfulness, and self-compassion. ... The high prevalence of particularly unpleasant meditation-related experiences reported here points to the importance of expanding the scientific conception of meditation beyond that of a (mental) health-promoting and self-regulating technique." <www.bit.ly/2XKMhzM>

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RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

"Jehovah's Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules" by Bob Egelko (San Francisco Chronicle, May 17 '19) -- begins: "A Jehovah's Witness whose online postings were intended to stir debate about the religion's practices fears that he, or she, would be excommunicated and shunned by friends and family members if named publicly.

"A federal magistrate in San Francisco has now ruled that the self-identified Darkspilver can remain anonymous, except for identification to lawyers for the religion's Watchtower publication, which claims the posting violated its copyright. ...

"Although court filings do not identify Darkspilver's gender, Kim said she used the male pronoun because the poster's pleadings were filed under the name of John Doe. The religious organization sued San Francisco-based Reddit, the online platform Darkspilver used, to obtain the poster's identity. Reddit sided with Darkspilver. ...

"Darkspilver, a lifelong Jehovah's Witness, has been using a Reddit forum for former members of the religion for several years in order to discuss religious issues 'freely and openly,' Kim said, quoting court filings. The case arose from two recent posts that included an ad, seeking donations, and a chart, both taken from the religion's official Watchtower magazine.

"Darkspilver said the postings were meant to encourage 'discussion about the organization's tone, message, and fundraising practices.' Watch Tower [sic], which publishes the magazine, said the posts violated its copyright, and sought a court order to disclose the poster's name. ...

"Although Watch Tower holds the copyright to the magazine ad, the magistrate said, it remains subject to 'fair use,' which allows copyrighted materials to be quoted for public purposes such as criticism. Darkspilver had the noncommercial purpose of trying to provoke debate and did not diminish the publication's value, she said." <www.bit.ly/2wSHXmg>

Sacred Liberty: America's Long, Bloody and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom, by Steven Waldman (President and co-founder of Beliefnet) [3] -- the unnamed reviewer states that "While 6% of British adults report praying every day, over half of Americans say they do. Yet, observant but diverse in their beliefs, Americans are remarkably accepting of other faiths. ...

"By 2010 around half of all Americans had a spouse of a different religious tradition. ...

"When pollsters queried religious preferences in the 1950s, some 95% of Americans gave a specific denomination or tradition. In recent surveys, the share who say they have no particular religion is roughly the same as those who identify as Protestant. The 'nones' now comprise 40% or more of 18-44-year-olds.

"Sacred Liberty concludes with an analysis of the present. These days, Mr Waldman points out, the divisive religious cases before the Supreme Court sometimes involve what, by historical standards, are comparatively trivial issues, such as a baker's reluctance to make a cake for a gay wedding. Even America's most demonised religious groups mostly feel secure. According to a survey by Pew in 2017 [perhaps at <www.pewrsr.ch/2MXnNSS> ?] - after the vitriol of Donald Trump's campaign - over half of Muslims regarded other Americans as generally favourable to them. Only 14% saw their compatriots as unfavourable.

"This insightful study is grounds for guarded optimism. It shows that the advance of decency has been steady, heartening - and fragile." The Economist (UK), May 11 '19, p73

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging, by Robert J Barro and Rachel McCleary (Princeton Univ Prs, 2019, hardcover, 216 pages) <www.amzn.to/2Ff4HBE>

2 - Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East, by Bernard Lewis (Open Court, 2nd ed., 2001, paperback: 496 pages) <www.amzn.to/2FwDcDR>

3 - Sacred Liberty: America's Long, Bloody and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom, by Steven Waldman (HarperOne, 2019, hardcover, 416 pages) <www.amzn.to/2MLP0Ia>

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