[jwenig]

Research suggests Mindfulness increases empathy and reduces anger and fear. Wouldn’t reframing soldiers or CEOs worldview to be more compassionate galvanize more positive change than trying to convince Sundar Pichai or soldiers that they are bad people?

[cjg]

One would hope that soldiers who had some experience in mindfulness would begin to notice their discomfort at killing other human beings.

[UnFleshedOne]

That's hippie talk. :) As another commenter pointed out, mindfullness and meditation was long used for martial arts training.

There is nothing in the core practice itself that leads to pacifism (or belligerence). It might even make easier to ignore that discomfort, like any other, if you have mental tools.

[Kaveren]

research does not indicate that [0]. mindfulness meditation isn't real, people only believe it because it comes from the Mysterious East and it's Ancient.

[0] https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/mindfulness-no...

[Nancy59]

Kaveren: Mindfulness meditation research is well validated now – I can provide many meta analyses. You can also take a look at the following article that I came across today: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/lifestyle-changes...

[jwenig]

Meta analysis: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257795314_The_Effec...

[lexpar]

You have a good citation for your first sentence, but not for your second.

[Kaveren]

It's like a religious person asking you to prove God isn't real. The science favoring meditation in general is shoddy (such as [0]), when a metaanalysis shows no evidence of a key claimed benefit to something, you'd want to be able to demonstrate a flaw in the metaanalysis.

It's very much like acupuncture. Fake, but because it's steeped in tradition, people will fall for it. Many Westerners have really uninformed views about East Asian / Asian culture, which is why I believe that's the reason meditation has the sway with people who would never convert to something like Islam.

I comment about this all the time. Not once have I ever gotten a single good reply challenging my claims and providing any good evidence that mindfulness meditation is "real".

bonus: "Specifically, the moderation results showed that a significant increase in compassion only occurred if the intervention teacher was a co-author in the published study"

[0] https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/transcendental...

[Nancy59]

Your linked article is about transcendental meditation - not mindfulness mediation. Mindfulness meditation research is well validated now – I can provide many meta analyses. You may also like to see the following recent articles:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/lifestyle-changes...

https://theconversation.com/mindfulness-meditation-ten-minut...

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/cultural-psychiatry/be-here...

https://theconversation.com/mindfulness-can-help-phd-student...

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/meditation-3-reasons-why-yo...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/being-while-doing/20...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/mindfulness-in-frant...

[jwenig]

On [0], this "Meta-Analysis" was only for pro-social behavior and the longest study they looked at had people meditate for a total of only three months. You are right science does not have rigorous research to support some of claimed benefits of mindfulness meditation, but calling it fake and citing a sourc that starts its article by declaring meditation pseudoscience does not exactly seem rigorous either. I think the answer is somewhere in the middle: there are definitely benefits to mindfulness meditation, but we need more research.

[Kaveren]

What quality evidence exists for a proclaimed benefit of mindfulness that is unique to it, and not standard for relaxation in general?

[Nancy59]

The following well-conducted studies compared mindfulness to various other 'treatments':

Alsaraireh, et al. (2017). Mindfulness Meditation Versus Physical Exercise in the Management of Depression Among Nursing Students. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(10), 599-604.

Cherkin, et al. (2016). Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction vs cognitive behavioral therapy or usual care on back pain and functional limitations in adults with chronic low back pain: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 315(12), 1240-1249.

Costa, A., 2016. Turning towards or turning away: a comparison of mindfulness meditation and guided imagery relaxation in patients with acute depression. Behav. Cogn. Psychother. 44, 410–419.

Fissler, M., et al., 2016. An investigation of the effects of brief mindfulness training on self-reported interoceptive awareness, the ability to decenter, and their role in the reduction of depressive symptoms. Mindfulness 7, 1170–1181.

Kuyken, W., et al. (2016). Efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in prevention of depressive relapse: an individual patient data meta-analysis from randomized trials. JAMA psychiatry, 73(6), 565-574.