Meditation and Halluci- nations: How Are They
Possibly Related?
Caifang Zhu Harvard Divinity School
Abstract: In the Relaxation Response, Herbert Benson says, "Many people who meditate several hours everyday for weeks at a time tend to hallucinate" (172). The cause for this, according to Benson, is ei- ther the pre-selection of the already psy- chologically disturbed practitioners seeking therapeutic effects from meditation or "sen- s o r y d e p r i v a t i o n " d u e t o p r o l o n g e d meditation. I am intrigued in his diagnosis of sensory deprivation as the cause, which I suspect is inappropriate in that at least it is an over-generalization. Benson's as- sumed or implied mechanism of hallucina- tion is that as the meditator undergoes pro- longed period of concentration-dominated meditation he/she experiences progressively narrowing scope of consciousness to the point both internal and external sensory in- puts are shut off, hence sensory deprivation.
In Buddhist meditation, we need to differen-
H e r b e r t B e n s o n
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tiate at least two basic categories, namely samatha (concentration or stillness) and vipassana (insight or discernment), which applies to the Theravada, Chinese and Ti- betan traditions. While what Benson says might happen only to samatha practitioners, the likelihood of such occurrence is not big because in practice there are very few Bud- dhist meditations without alternating insight at times. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV, hallucina- tion has undergone a change from being defined as a mental disorder cross-cultur- ally to a normal mental state in some cul- tures and religions. The revision of the definition, however, requires that the sub- jects in study be able to demonstrate the capability of normal functioning profession- ally and socially.
Key words: meditation, samatha, vipassana, hallucination, sensory deprivation
/ s a m a t h a
/ v i p a s s a n a
4
According to Psychiatric Dictionary, hal- lucination is a " perception of an external object when no such object is present; a type of imagery characterized by externalization and a continued belief that the experience is a perception of something outside the self rath er a n int e r n a l th oug h t or i m a ge "
(Campbell, 312). In contrast to the halluci- nation of perception is the hallucination of conception where "inner voices are heard"
(313). In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Edition Four (thereafter DSM-IV), hallucination falls into the subtype of schizophrenia which in turn is one of the major disturbances under the e v e n b r o a d e r c a t e g o r y o f p s y c h o t i c disorders. Although hallucinations may oc- cur in any of the sensory modalities (e.g.
auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile), DSM-IV points out that "auditory hallucinations are by far the most common and characteristic of Schizophrenia. Audi- tory hallucinations are usually experienced as voices, whether familiar or unfamiliar, that are perceived as distinct from the person's own thoughts... Certain types of auditory hallucinations (i.e. two or more voices conversing with one another or voices maintaining a running commentary on the person's thoughts or behavior) have been considered to be particularly characteristic of Schizophrenia...Hallucinations must oc- cur in the context of a clear sensorium; those
Campbell, 312
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D S M - I V
that occur while falling asleep or waking up are considered to be within the range of normal experience" ( DSM-IV, 275).
While auditory hallucination is most com- mon in general, in meditation, visual hallu- cination may be just as common. Benson does not specify in his suspicion what kind of hallucination he thinks meditation tends to induce. It should not be amiss for us to assume auditory and/or visual hallucinations in Benson's context of meditation. At any rate, this should not prevent us from pursu- ing our central concern: what is the general psycho-physiological mechanism on which Benson has based his argument that pro- longed meditation tends to engender hallucinations.
One possible assumption of such a mechanism I can conjure is this: by con- tinuously and progressively concentrating on the object of meditation, the meditator shuts off sensory receptions to all stimuli, exter- nal and internal, except the mental object, and this seemingly obsessive pattern of mental activity over weeks consequently results in hallucinations (either auditory or visual hallucination or both). According to psychological studies, when healthy per-
D S M - I V , 275
sons are isolated for accented experiments,
"with vision and hearing diminished by the use of patches and earplugs and with mobil- ity limited" ( Wolman, 1996 ), after several hours the subjects are said to " experience anxiety and a desire for external stimula- tion and motor activity, as well as difficulty in concentration, reduction in motivation, and progressive difficulty with directed thinking. After 72 hours they develop delu- sional and visual hallucinatory experiences"
(Wolman, 1996). Though the situation in the psychological setting is not quite the same as in meditation, "the anxiety and desire for external stimulation" after an extended pe- riod of narrowed or diminished "hearing and vision" may well be construed as a critical part of the mechanism for possible halluci- nations in multifarious settings including meditations.
Meditation has a stunning array of types and techniques. However, Buddhist medi- tation processes may generally be framed psycho-physiologically like this: when the meditator adopts an icon, Huato (critical phrase) or breathing, for instance, as her object of meditation, she sustains it and re- inforces and internalizes the representation to the point that it becomes the only wanted or legitimate mental object that merits her
W o l m a n , 1 9 9 6
7 2
Wolman, 1996
attention, her whole attention. In the visual- ization-dominated meditation, the temporal lobe (language, hearing and visual pattern recognition) as well as the occipital lobe (vision) and the primary visual cortex lo- cated at the back of the head are therefore activated to the utmost and the neural trans- mitting and networking around the related pathways in the said areas become most excited and magnified in power (Westen, 88-91) "by taking advantage of the marvel- ous malleability of our soft wiring" (Benson, Timeless Healing, 93). Memories of these neural activities that constitute the icon visualization therefore is accordingly prominent and more likely to surge to the surface of consciousness even if they are unwanted either during or after the medita- tion retreat. But are these unsolicited and unwanted memories of image, either in pre- consciousness or consciousness (clear sensorium), experienced as visual halluci- nation or not?
Let us get back to the seminal question:
Does such a meditation process described above diminish "hearing and vision" or in Benson's nomenclature does it necessarily cause "sensory deprivation"? Before a vi- able answer is engendered, I believe it is absolutely necessary to make a basic dis- tinction between at least two broad types of m e d i t a t i o n i n B u d d h i s m : S a m a t h a
(Benson, Timeless Healing, 93)
W e s t e n , 8 8 - 9 1
(concentration, stabilizing or stillness) and Vipassana (insight, discerning or analysis), not to mention that each entails many nu- anced levels from a coarse to a very subtle nature . Benson, however, made no men- tion whatsoever of the distinction between the two basic categories. In Vipassana (insight meditation), which has, since mod- ern era, been preferred over Samatha, the guideline instruction best narrated in the Mahasatipatthanasutta (the Great Dis- course on the Foundations of Mindfulness) is practicing mindfulness of whatever comes and goes in the mental and cognitive process. The mindfulness of breathing in the Mahasatipatthanasutta so teaches, "He dwells contemplating the origination factors in the breath-body; or he dwells contem- plating the dissolution factors in the breath- body, or he dwells contemplating both the origination and dissolution factors in the breath-body...Not depending on (or attached to ) anything by way of craving and wrong view, he dwells. Nor does he cling to any- thing in the world of the five aggregates of clinging" (Silananda, 177). Mark Epstein confirms such non-attaching mindfulness by calling it "bare attention" which requires an
" openness to both internal and sensory experience". (Epstein, Thoughts without a Thinker, 117). With such an openness of the mind, will there be sensory deprivation to happen?
/ /
the Great Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness
S i l a n a d a , 1 7 7 Mark Epstein
E p s t e i n , T h o u g h t s
Much of the Chan or Zen, particularly of the Lin-Chi or Rinzai lineage that features the cultivation of being nakedly open to and fully present at whatever is happening mo- ment by moment has the basic meditation techniques derived from Vipassana. Read this quote from Chan Master Lin-Chi: The Master ascended the hall (of the Chan Mon- astery where he was the abbot-my note) and said, "Here in this lump of red flesh (human body-my note) there is a True Man with no rank. Constantly he goes in and out the gates of your face. If there was any of you who doesn't know this for a fact, then look! Look!
(Burton Watson, tr. The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi, p.3). A "true man with no rank" that Watson translated into is from the Chinese "wu2 wei4 zhen1 ren2", which I would interpret and translate in this Chan context as the non-localizing and non-local- izable mind that is mindful of whatever is going on in and out of him / herself. This mind does not shut "the gates" off to stimuli and therefore will not suffer from sensory deprivation. On the contrary it trains to en- hance the acuity of refined and elevated consciousness.
without a Thinker, 117
Burton Watson, tr. The Zen Teachings of Mas-
ter Lin-Chi, p.3 Watson
w u 2 w e i 4 z h e n 1 r e n 2 true man with no rank
Meditation and Hallucinations: How Are They Possibly Related? We can thus ex- trapolate that insight-dominated meditation is just the opposite to "sensory deprivation"
precisely because the meditator is open rather that closed to or deprived of what- ever is going on internally and externally. If Benson's argument holds true at all, he is probably marketable only to concentration- dominated meditation (samatha), which fea- tures a progressively narrowing scope of awareness, comparable to "diminished hear- ing and vision" and close to "sensory deprivation". Even in Samatha meditation, however, it is almost always alternated intermittently or randomly with insight meditation. Cousins cited the four ways Ananda certified as the attainment of arhartship: a bhikkhu brings into being insight preceded by peace, peace pre- ceded by insight, peace and insight yoked as a pair and a mind gripped by Dhamma excitement but then it gets stabilized and one-pointed and enters into concentration.
When the bhikkhu practices and brings each of these four into being, he is liberated be- cause "his fetters are abandoned" (Cousins, 59). The first three modes demonstrate ap- parently and sufficiently the interplay and interdependence of peace (absorption, concentration) and insight. Another opti- mum model of articulated interplay of the two forms of meditation is found in the clas- sic of Chinese Buddhism called Tong2
C o u s i n s
C o u s i n s , 5 9
the Lesser Treatise on Concentra- t i o n a n d D i s c e r n m e n t
Meng2 Zhi3 Guan1 (the Lesser Treatise on Concentration and Discernment). Accord- ing to the book, authored by Zhi Yi (538- 597), the practical founder of Tien Tai School of Buddhism, Zhi3 (stopping or concentration) and Guan1 (watching or discerning) are likened to be "the two wheels of a bicycle, two wings of a bird that negligence of either will lead the prac- titioner astray" (Zhi Yi, in Introduction part).
They must be coordinated and jointly ap- plied in any given session of meditation.
Similarly, the necessary interplay of samatha and Vipassana is unmistakably resonated by Tsong Kha Pa (1357-1419) in his Lam Rim Chen Mo (The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment):
"The technique for producing forceful and long-lasting certainty about the meaning of selflessness is sustained analysis with dis- cerning wisdom. Without such insight into the real nature, no matter how long you cul- tivate serenity (another way of saying samatha -- my note) you can only suppress manifest afflictions; you cannot eradiate their seeds. Therefore, don't cultivate only serenity; you need to cultivate insight as well ..." (Tsong Kha Pa, p.22) We may conclude now that Benson's diagnosis that meditation-induced hallucination is due to sensory deprivation is questionable and at its best an overgeneralization.
The cause for probable hallucinations
5 3 8 ~ 5 9 7
1 3 5 7 ~ 1 4 1 9
The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment
T s o n g Kha Pa, p.22
from meditation now need to be sought otherwise. As I perceive, there are three cases when meditation-induced hallucina- tions may indeed happen. One possibility is what Benson mentions in the Relaxation Response: it can be due to the pre-selection of the people who are pre-disposed for such a disturbance. While I agree many people of this kind come in the hope that medita- tion can heal or cure their disorder or illness, I think so far researches seem to so scanty as to the precise mechanism that is respon- sible for activating the hallucination poten- tiality with these pre-disposed practitioners.
Another scenario is such a disorder may be attributed to the mismanagement by the prac- titioner of the "meditative technology"
which has very intricate variations, nicety and subtlety at the psychic level. It may also be caused by the problematic instruction from an inexperienced or/and insufficiently trained teacher in the first place. I was glad that Benson indeed alluded to this possible cause in his Timeless Healing published more than twenty years after his Relaxation Response. He says, " There is something to be said for the careful and reasonable guid- ance of elders and teachers when medita- tion and mental focusing techniques are practiced over long periods of time and un- der the intense conditions my colleagues and I have witnessed in retreats and monas- teries" (Benson, Timeless Healing, 215).
Given that meditation (Eastern religions
T i m e l e s s H e a l i n g
based, particularly Buddhism based) has a very short history of practice and studies in USA and the rest of the West in general and that there are, according to the Times Maga- zine (August 3, 2003), approximately 10 million people in America were and prob- ably still are practicing mediation, this con- cern is looming and should receive in- creased attention.
The third probable situation of meditation -induced hallucinations has a much differ- ent outlook. It happens to some people who are either a long-time practitioner, suffi- ciently trained people or simply the adepts known as masters (Guru, Roshi, Rinpoche, Da4 shi1). To this group of mediators, hal- lucination "in the context of a clear senso- rium" does not matter. Even if it befalls them, it does not bother their life. It does not mar their social or occupational life. In fact, in some of the meditation practices that rely heavily on visualizations, what used to be psychologically diagnosed as hallucina- tions (visual in this case) constitutes the backbone of the meditative practice. Ti-
B e n s o n , T i m e l e s s H e a l i n g , 2 1 5
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betan Buddhism simply cannot stand on its own without visualizing and emanating what is visualized. Tantra practitioners visualiz- ing mandala (Williams, 224) are "halluci- nating" without suffering a disorder all day long, all the year round and throughout their life. In Pure Land Buddhism, one of the three major sutras is simply called Visualization Sutra that teaches sixteen kinds of visual- ization ranging from the setting sun, water, the three Bodhisattavas presiding in the Pure Land, the sacred landscape and life of the Pure Land into which the practitioner aspires to be reborn after death in this life.
For these visualization-heavy meditators, the image of their chosen object of inten- tional practice of meditation is supposed to be internalized so that it can accompany them in as much part of their daily off- cushion life as possible. In recognition of spiritual paths like this, DSM-IV amends that "Hallucinations may also be a normal part of religious experience in certain cul- tural contexts" (DSM-IV, 275).
Presumably, this amended stipulation is applied to religious practices of various kinds. Although we don't know whether the 16th Carmelites Teresa of Avila and John of
Williams, 224
V i s u a l i z a t i o n S u t r a
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DSM-IV, 275
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the Cross experienced any kind of hallucina- tion, we are told in the Dark Night of Soul, that John of the Cross describes, and there- fore must have experienced, a period of prayer of "satisfying enjoyment of Scrip- tural meditation", which Sara Coakely un- derstands as "praying by thinking imagina- tively about a biblical text". Coakely rightly points out, however, such stage or period of visualization is not the ultimate, the con- summate being the "union" or "infused contemplation": resting without knowledge and thought in a peaceful and loving atten- tiveness to God (Coakley, 5). Likewise, in the "four waters" of chapters 11-18 of her autobiographical work The Life, Teresa of Avila leans on ample metaphor of a garden visualized to be "watered with increasing ease" (Coakley, 7).
Either hallucinations as a normal reli- gious experience or a disturbance from meditation, I agree that meditation should nonetheless be cautioned in that this "inner journey into the caverns of the mind" is, as William Johnston puts it in Silent Music-the Science of Meditation, "more perilous" than
"travel in outer space" (Johnston, 93; Lee and Kleiman, 122). It is precisely in the light
Teresa of Avila John of the Cross
Sara Coakely
Coakley, 5
1 1 1 8
C o a k l e y , 7
William Johnston
of the potential peril that scholars and prac- titioners have remained divided as to whether or not everybody is apt to medita- tion practice. D. W. Winnicott seems so optimistic as to say, "There is no emotional experience, no mental event, no disavowed or estranged aspect of ourselves that cannot be worked with through the strategy of bare attention" (Epstein, 127). Following this it goes without doubt that everybody is work- able with meditation. Sing Lee and Arthur Kleiman, however, seem to represent the cautious side. According to the authors, a meditation-based Qigong practitioner was advised by her doctor that she has "sensi- tive disposition" that is not suitable for the practice of a kind of Qigong known as Falun Gong (Lee and Kleiman, 123). Exactly what makes some people unfit for meditation as of Buddhism and Qigong, unfortunately, has barely been addressed.
The inner journey of meditation can be perilous though most will be safe following
J o h n s t o n , 9 3 ; L e e a n d K l e i m a n , 1 2 2
D . W . W i n n i c o t t
E p s t e i n , 1 2 7
Sing Lee Arthur Kleiman
L e e a n d Kleiman, 123
correct instructions with experienced teachers. When perils do strike and un- wanted or disturbing hallucinations result, what can and should be done? This is a big issue and beyond adequate treatment in this paper. In a nutshell, one way is following the traditional Asian therapies passed down in Buddhist cultures. The other outlet to- day especially in the West is to turn for help t o p s y c h i a t r i s t s a n d p s y c h o a n a l y s t s . Through personal experiences as described in Thoughts without a Thinker, Mark Epstein seems to be convincing that Buddhist medi- tation and psychoanalysis can each learn from the other and complement each other.
While hallucination experienced by ad- epts has been recognized by DSM-IV as a normal component of meditation, DSM-IV requires hallucinators be functional at oc- cupational or social level. Social/occupa- tional dysfunction is defined as this: "for a significant portion of the time since the on- set of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interper- sonal relations, or self-care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset"
( DMS-IV, 285). Speaking for the case of Teresa, Coakley remarks that an achieved union Teresa is entitled to is "a state no
D S M - I V
D S M - I V , 2 8 5
longer involving physical immobility or incapability, but rather a consummated 'mar- riage' between Christ and the soul-body, which nonetheless enables it to go on with its ordinary duties" ( Coakley, 8). Similarly Johnston calls Teresa's integrating her in- ner experience with daily life, living hap- pily with the community members, succeed- ing in performing "an enormous amount of work" an act of "returning to the market place" (Johnston, p.93), the consummating stage of the ten-fold path Chan practitioners are taught to undergo. To numerous Chan Masters, Chan practitioners are so func- tional that practice is ubiquitous. It is in having rice gruel, in washing bowls like Zhao4 Zhou1. It is in chopping firewood and carrying water.
What I want to postulate as a conclusion is that it is possible that some meditation practitioners may get psychologically disordered. The cause, however, is more likely the mis-management of the technol- ogy on the learners part and the inappropri- ate guidance of the teacher. Or it is due to the selection of pre-disposed patients rather than what Benson suspects: "sensory
C o a k l e y , 8
Johnston, p.93
deprivation". Interestingly, Benson himself seems to have ruled out "sensory depriva- tion" as a cause when he says, after allud- ing to the problematic instruction from the learners or teachers, "Otherwise ...strange or dramatic experiences are rare while gen- eral waves of peacefulness and tranquility -- strong enough that people believe they must be divinely imparted -- are fairly prevalent" (Benson, Timeless Healing, 215).
Most meditators or religious practitioners are not just socially or occupationally c a p a b l e . T h e y e x c e l i n a l l k i n d s o f undertakings. For charismatic leaders or models with hallucination within the normal range of meditation practice, supra-normal, as YUASA Yasuo puts it, may sound like a more appropriate term to describe them.
B e n s o n , T i m e l e s s Healing, 215
Yuasa Yasuo
Notes
Soft wiring is neural transmitting and networking by way of learning and willing as contrasted with "hard- wiring", which is believed to be es- tablished brain patterns inherited from genetic codes.
Samatha undergoes eight increas- ingly concentrating levels of samadhi or absorption. For details, see The S a m a b b a p h a l a S u t t a a n d t h e Potthapada Sutta. The two suttas in Pali Cannon are respectively trans- lated in English as Discourse on the Fruits of the Ascetic Life and Dis- course with Potthapada that delin- eates the states of consciousness.
Robert Sharf argued in his essay
"Buddhist Modernism and the Rheto- ric of Meditative Experience" that popularity of Vipassana over Samatha in modern Theravada Buddhist coun- tries was triggered as a response to the influence of Protestanism in co- lonial era and that such an phenom- enal triumph of the Vipassasa was actually denounced by the monastic order that claims to stick to the truth- ful teaching of the Buddha. I found S h a r f ' s a r g u m e n t i s s e r i o u s l y c r i p p l e d b y o v e r l y s t r e s s i n g t h e Western influence on the Buddhist
Robert Sharf
meditation technology.
In the Platform Sutra, the author- ship of which is attributed to Hui Neng (638-713), Ding (samatha) and Hui (insight) are at work simulta- neously and inseparably. See passage 13 of the annotated version of Tung Huang text of the Sutra or chapter 4 of the popular edition of the Sutra.
More systematically and profoundly articulated of such a fundamental idea is found in Mo He Zhi Guan (the Great Treatise on Concentration and Discernment) by Zhi Yi.
Refer for example to section 9, Treat- ment of Diseases in Tong Meng Zhi Guan (the Lesser Treatise on Con- centration and Discernment).
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