Tim Wood

Background: Meditation is increasingly popular, with approximately 1 in 5 Americans now practising. However, recent research indicates that 25–87% of meditators report adverse effects, whilst paradoxically, 88% of those endorsing adverse experiences positively reappraise them upon reflection, reporting overall satisfaction with their practice. Intense meditation-related experiences (IMREs) often involve disruptions to the sense of self—changes in embodied experience (e.g., loss of bodily boundaries, altered sense of agency) and conceptual experience (e.g., shifts in self-narrative and worldview). These first-person shifts in consciousness can be profoundly transformative, yet little is known about factors determining whether meditators perceive them as helpful or harmful. As meditation expands into secular contexts—schools, workplaces, and public health programmes—understanding these disruptions and their appraisal becomes critical for supporting practitioners and preventing unnecessary harm. Objectives: This cross-sectional survey study examined how meditators appraise and reappraise IMREs—experiences involving changes in the sense of self with potential to help or harm—and explored factors associated with these appraisals. We investigated whether personal context (adverse childhood experiences, psychological distress, retreat attendance), experience centrality to identity, and efforts invested in meaning-making predicted initial help/harm appraisals and subsequent reappraisals. Results: Of 1,804 meditators surveyed, 1,063 reported IMREs. Most participants (89.1%) felt helped by their experiences initially, with this increasing to 93.6% upon reappraisal. Conversely, only 32.5% endorsed harm initially, decreasing to 29.3% at follow-up. Initial Appraisal: Psychological distress robustly predicted lower help and higher harm appraisals. Adverse childhood experiences associated with increased harm. Contrary to hypotheses, retreat attendance associated with higher help and lower harm appraisals. Reappraisal: Psychological distress remained predictive of negative reappraisal. Critically, centrality of the IMRE to identity moderated relationships between adverse childhood experiences and helpfulness: at low centrality, increased adversity predicted unhelpfulness; at high centrality, increased adversity predicted greater helpfulness. Similarly, effort invested in meaning-making associated with positive reappraisal when experiences were central to identity. Remedial Strategies: Attempted remedial strategies paradoxically associated with increased harm reappraisal, suggesting either that severe IMREs require ongoing remediation or that repeated failed attempts amplify perceived harm. Conclusions: Despite nearly half of meditators reporting adverse effects, most appraise IMREs as helpful and central to their identity. Personal context—particularly psychological distress and childhood adversity—predisposes meditators to perceiving harm. However, when IMREs become central to identity, they appear protective: meditators with high adversity histories who experience central IMREs subsequently report greater helpfulness. This suggests that highly central experiences may interrupt maladaptive self-narratives rooted in childhood trauma, creating opportunities for positive reappraisal and growth. Effort invested in meaning-making facilitates positive reappraisal, whilst repeated unsuccessful remediation attempts may compound harm. These findings suggest that meditation-related disruptions the sense of self may both help and harm and that context plays an important role in determining the impact. As meditation becomes embedded in public institutions, clinical and educational interventions should prepare practitioners for potentially disruptive shifts in consciousness, offer psychoeducational support, and adapt interventions where necessary—particularly for those with trauma histories—to facilitate integration rather than amplify distress.

Tim is PhD researcher in Psychological Sciences at University of Melbourne, Medical School. He is based in the newly founded Contemplative Studies Centre which investigates meditation health risks and benefits. Focusing on intense meditation-related experiences (IMREs), Tim is investigating the range of experiences meditators report, changes in the sense of self, emotional appraisal, and meaning making. Methods of investigation include interviews and surveys. Research questions include: How does meditation change the sense of self? What role does language play in shaping and integrating IMREs? Can meditation both help and harm by disrupting the sense of self?

His previous studies were in International Affairs (University of Colorado at Boulder, 2004) and Business (Colorado State University, 2009) but contemplative experiences sent him down a new path as a researcher. Tim plans to graduate in Fall 2026 and is seeking a postdoc or other research position.

Personal Website: www.timwwood.com

Recent Award: Outstanding Poster Presentation | International Society for Contemplative Research | Fall 2025 Conference, University of Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Presentations:

"Energy-Like Somatic Experiences and Meditation" Presentation · Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences · Online Conference · July 2026

"Impacts of Intense Meditation-Related Experiences (IMREs) on Identity, Self-Narrative, and Meaning Making: A Cross-Sectional Survey" Poster · International Society for Contemplative Research · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC · November 2025

"Intense Meditation-Related Experience Impacts on the Sense of Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis"Poster · Association for Bahá'í Studies · Calgary, Canada · August 2025

"Intense Meditation-Related Experience Impacts on the Sense of Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis"Poster · Mind and Life Summer Research Institute · Garrison Institute, NY · June 2025

"Intense Meditation-Related Experience Impacts on the Sense of Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis"Presentation · International Conference on Mindfulness · Bangor University, Wales · August 2024

"Intense Meditation-Related Experience Impacts on the Sense of Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis"Invited Talk · York St John University · York, UK · July 2024

"Identities, Societies, and Consciousnesses: An Interdisciplinary Critique of Contemplative Research"Panel · Psychology and the Other Conference · Northeastern University London, UK · July 2024

"Intense Meditation-Related Experience Impacts on the Sense of Self: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis"Invited Talk · KU Leuven · Leuven, Belgium · July 2024

"Modelling the Self in Relation to Meditation Practice—Can Different Interdisciplinary Views Ever Be Reconciled?"Presentation · International Society for Contemplative Research · University of Padova, Italy · June 2024