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Comment by stephengillie | Hacker News Reader

Meditation is one of those things that people aren't allowed to not like. If you say you don't like it or it's not for you, you get overwhelmed and drowned out by the echo chamber.

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I'm curious if you have ever tried your theory out on an experienced mediator? By experienced I mean 5 or more years of a regular practice. I meditate every day, and do a couple of week long meditation retreats a year if I can. I certainly don't think it's for everyone. Most of the people I meditate with (including myself) have spouses that do not meditate. I cannot imagine any of them criticizing their spouse for this. I think the idea that meditation is for everyone is a position taken by novices who experience something that is positive for them, particularly in the short term, and think that experience would extend to everyone.

Absolutely not. It's much easier to be chastised for criticizing someone's religion. Tell a meditator what they do is stupid, and you may actually have positive feelings intentionally directed at you (see compassion mediation).

It's much easier to be chastised for criticizing someone's religion.

That's a rather low bar, though.

It makes me really wonder about the "hacker" community that such obvious bunk keeps showing up here. Hackers are skeptical.

What makes you say it is bunk? There is mounting scientific evidence in favor of meditation and its benefits.

Yeah would love to hear more about what you mean :-)

To the best of my understanding, meditation is a mental activity. You sit still and... do what, exactly? Think of nothing? How does one think of nothing? Is meditation another word for daydreaming? How can we be sure that any two people are "meditating" in the same way, since it's an unobservable mental state? And are proponents of meditation simply saying that sitting still, being calm, and focusing one's attention (or _not_ focusing one's attention? which is it?) has benefits over running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Doesn't that fall into the "no shit, Sherlock" realm of common sense?

Any "science" on meditation faces the same problems that "psychology" faced ~100 years ago, when practitioners simply described their mental states. It was only when psychology embraced empiricism and left self-descriptions of mental state behind that it was able to advance as a science.

Ah, like you say, there are many different techniques. The type I'm describing in the OP is Vipassana[1], which is a systematic scan of physical sensations, part by part throughout the body. Not 'thinking of nothing', nor 'daydreaming'. Of course, some other people do use those sorts of techniques, so confusion abounds.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassanā

Like an MRI scan?

Sorry you feel that way

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