Top all-time · #10348
Dan Lawton
Personal blog · danlawton.substack.comphilosophyculture
Dan Lawton's personal blog at danlawton.substack.com covers philosophy and culture. Since 2021, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times, most often “My mindfulness practice led me to meltdown”. The last post was in 2021, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked for posts on meditation's adverse effects, mindfulness, and hearing voices versus the 'broken brain' explanation. Comments mostly cite the posts as sources; one pushes back on the author's framing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Essays and reporting about Buddhism, meditation. and other forms of Eastern spirituality in the U.S. I can be reached at DanielLawton@protonmail.com.
Most-linked posts?
- My mindfulness practice led me to meltdown6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-07-20
What Hacker News says?
I think it is meant empathically and non-judgmentally. Depending on the person having it, autism isn't all bad, especially not high functioning autism. Some high functioning autistic people actually excel in society, but compared to other autistic people, they seem to be in the minority. The same seems true for high functioning ADHD (again a small minority). So I don't really see the stigma when someone on HN is cal…
Comment linking /p/when-buddhism-goes-bad
on “The trap of "I am not an extrovert"”Submitted My mindfulness practice led me to meltdown as a story · 502 points
HN discussionDoes mystical language honestly require a trigger warning? https://psychlopaedia.org/society/republished/whats-the-diff... """ The idea of trigger warnings originates in the psychiatric literature on post-traumatic reactions, where triggering had the same connotations. The primary features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include so-called “re-experiencing symptoms”, like intrusive thoughts and flashbacks. T…
Comment linking /p/when-buddhism-goes-bad/comments?s=r
on “Are you nice or kind?”Submitted When Buddhism Goes Bad – How My Mindfulness Practice Led Me to Meltdown as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttps://danlawton.substack.com/p/when-buddhism-goes-bad ...* distressing and functionally impairing meditation experiences of 60 Western Buddhist meditators. They documented 59 types of adverse effects in their study, including involuntary convulsions, panic, anxiety, dissociation and perceptual hypersensitivity—a far cry from the mainstream branding of mindfulness meditation as a panacea for all our woes.*
Comment linking /p/when-buddhism-goes-bad
on “Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness”Not sure about your use of "materialist" but there are plenty of examples of things like meditation having real physiological effects. Such as excessive meditation causing enlargement of certain areas of the brain that lead to (sometimes temporary, sometimes permanent) mental illness. There was an article about this on HN a few months ago, I can dig it up if needed. Point being that it's entirely possible for the pe…
Comment linking /p/when-buddhism-goes-bad
on “For those who hear voices, the ‘broken brain’ explanation is harmful”"I’ve practiced meditation for over a decade with many, many traditions in and out of Buddhism and never heard of this concern. Not arguing that meditation can’t have downsides, but I think you’re way over exaggerating them." Here[1] is a recent HN discussion about an article[2] about just this. And here[3] is an earlier discussion about a similar article[4]. [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27890790 [2] -…
Comment linking /p/when-buddhism-goes-bad
on “Buddha and Mind”