Not necessarily. There are two points of interest here. First, it depends what one means by meditation. If that’s mindfulness meditation, there are studies that have shown that it doesn’t deactivate the DMN. If we add here the fact that some people dedicate 4-8 hours per day to meditation that’s a recipe for disaster as the ruminating network is working all those 4-8 hours under the hood. There is a useful post by Gary Weber, mindfulness meditation—religious vs secular—does it work? - new research that discusses this point.
Second, if the shift has occurred without the proper preparation (i.e. the “I” is not deconstructed enough) or suddenly during the insight practice, the DMN network might try to win control back and there will be a conflict as the DMN is not shut down. That might happen if awakening happens “out of the blue” and the ruminating network is strong. That might even lead to the Dark Night of the Soul. Here is another useful post by Gary, Dark Night of the Soul?...who/why/what to do.
The key point in both is that “I” has to be deconstructed enough, which means one has to learn to shut down the DMN properly. As even after awakening it might cause trouble if one didn’t learn to shut it down. A book by Suzanne Segal, Collision with the Infinite is an example how a person might struggle to integrate awakening after it occurred.
So in the end I would guess (and please keep in mind that it’s a speculation of a layman) that given the proper conditions it’s not meditation itself that causes psychosis but the DMN that is hyperactive. The issue with mindfulness meditation is that it doesn’t address the activity of the DMN.
Not necessarily. There are two points of interest here. First, it depends what one means by meditation. If that’s mindfulness meditation, there are studies that have shown that it doesn’t deactivate the DMN. If we add here the fact that some people dedicate 4-8 hours per day to meditation that’s a recipe for disaster as the ruminating network is working all those 4-8 hours under the hood. There is a useful post by Gary Weber, mindfulness meditation—religious vs secular—does it work? - new research that discusses this point.
Second, if the shift has occurred without the proper preparation (i.e. the “I” is not deconstructed enough) or suddenly during the insight practice, the DMN network might try to win control back and there will be a conflict as the DMN is not shut down. That might happen if awakening happens “out of the blue” and the ruminating network is strong. That might even lead to the Dark Night of the Soul. Here is another useful post by Gary, Dark Night of the Soul?...who/why/what to do.
The key point in both is that “I” has to be deconstructed enough, which means one has to learn to shut down the DMN properly. As even after awakening it might cause trouble if one didn’t learn to shut it down. A book by Suzanne Segal, Collision with the Infinite is an example how a person might struggle to integrate awakening after it occurred.
So in the end I would guess (and please keep in mind that it’s a speculation of a layman) that given the proper conditions it’s not meditation itself that causes psychosis but the DMN that is hyperactive. The issue with mindfulness meditation is that it doesn’t address the activity of the DMN.