How do outcomes look for people who meditate in an institutional context with feedback from a seasoned veteran vs. those who meditate based on e.g. enthusiastic blog posts?
I seem to recall hearing one meditation teacher mention that an ironclad rule for his retreats is that every participant must talk to a teacher every two days, so that the teachers can check in on whether anything concerning might be happening before it gets out of control. That would suggest that regular feedback helps keep things safe, but of course it doesn’t tell us what the relative outcomes are like.
Another issue is that anyone can claim to be competent at teaching meditation, and beginners can’t really evaluate how true those claims are. And I’ve heard claims that, e.g., the staff at Goenka vipassana retreats isn’t very well trained at dealing with emergencies, despite what you’d hope. (I’ve never been to a Goenka retreat so can’t evaluate this personally.)
I seem to recall hearing one meditation teacher mention that an ironclad rule for his retreats is that every participant must talk to a teacher every two days, so that the teachers can check in on whether anything concerning might be happening before it gets out of control. That would suggest that regular feedback helps keep things safe, but of course it doesn’t tell us what the relative outcomes are like.
Another issue is that anyone can claim to be competent at teaching meditation, and beginners can’t really evaluate how true those claims are. And I’ve heard claims that, e.g., the staff at Goenka vipassana retreats isn’t very well trained at dealing with emergencies, despite what you’d hope. (I’ve never been to a Goenka retreat so can’t evaluate this personally.)