'The Answer to All Your Problems?' The Overly Positive Presentation of Meditation in the Media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.37863Keywords:
Meditation, Psychology, Buddhism, Mindfulness, Popular Culture, MediaAbstract
The current popularity of ‘secular’ meditation has been due in large part to its promotion in the mainstream Western media. In 1975 Time magazine ran a cover featuring an image of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM) along with the headline: ‘Meditation: The Answer to All Your Problems?’ Ever since, stories about meditation have captured the attention of a Western audience receptive to narratives around spirituality, healing, self-help and wellness. The view of meditation that is portrayed by the Western media is, however, radically simplified and incomplete. Specifically, it is an overwhelmingly positive view, which at its most extreme, promotes meditation as a type of panacea or cure-all and ignores some of the potential adverse effects associated with meditation practice. Why has there been such an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of meditation in the media? This article examines some of the factors that have contributed to this view: the use of popular meditation tropes, poor scientist-journalist communication, celebrity influence and the commodification of meditation. It argues that all of these factors have combined to create a popular, but inaccurate, media portrayal of meditation as a simple and side-effect free solution for a variety of common problems.
References
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Goldberg, Philip 2010 American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation. How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. Three Rivers Press, New York.
Grof, Stanislav, and Christina Grof 1989 Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis. Tarcher, New York and Los Angeles.
Gunther Brown, Candy 2013 The Healing Gods: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian America. Oxford University Press, New York.
2016 Can ‘Secular’ Mindfulness Be Separated from Religion? In Handbook of Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, edited by Ronald E. Purser, David Forbes and Adam Burke, 75–94. Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland.
Harvey, Mark 2017 Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion, and Issue-Based Advocacy. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
Heuman, Linda 2014 Don’t Believe the Hype: An Interview with Catherine Kerr. Tricycle. Online: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/dont-believe-hype/
Hoffman, Steven J., and Charlie Tan 2015 Biological, Psychological and Social Processes that Explain Celebrities’ Influence on Patients’ Health-related Behaviours. Archives of Public Health 73(1): 1–11.
Ivtzan, Itai 2016 Dangers of Meditation. Psychology Today. Online: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/mindfulness-wellbeing/201603/dangers-meditation
Kaplan, Dina 2017 10-Minute Mindfulness Meditation to Reduce Stress. Forbes. Online: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dinakaplan/2017/03/24/10-minute-mindfulness-meditation-to-reduce-stress/#1562be46d02e
Kelsey-Sugg, Anna, and Bec Zajac 2018 ‘Mental Hygiene’ Could Improve Your Life—But Does It Improve Your Health? ABC News. Online: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/dan-siegel-on-distractions-and-mental-health-hygiene/10343984
Kennedy, Raymond B. 1976 Self-induced Depersonalisation Syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry 133(11): 1326–328. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.133.11.1326
Knapton, Sarah 2015 Grow Your Own Happiness: How Meditation Physically Changes the Brain. The Telegraph. Online: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12008698/Grow-your-own-happiness-how-meditation-physically-changes-the-brain.html
Lauder, Jo 2018 ‘Nothing Bad Can Happen’: What Happens When Meditation Goes Wrong. Triple J HACK. Online: https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/meditation-negatives/9987132
Lauricella, Sharon 2014 The Ancient-Turned-New Concept of ‘Spiritual Hygiene’: An Investigation of Media Coverage of Meditation from 1979 to 2014. Journal of Religion and Health 55(5): 1748–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0262-3
Lazar, Sara W., Catherine E. Kerr, Rachel H. Wasserman, et al. 2005 Meditation Experience Is Associated with Increased Cortical Thickness. Neuroreport 16(17): 1893–897. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnr.0000186598.66243.19
Lazarus, Arnold, A. 1976 Psychiatric Problems Precipitated by Transcendental Meditation. Psychological Reports 39: 601–602. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1976.39.2.601
Lindahl, Jared R., Nathan E. Fisher, David J. Cooper, et al. 2017 The Varieties of Contemplative Experience: A Mixed-methods Study of Meditation-related Challenges in Western Buddhists. PLoS ONE 12(5): 1–38.
Lindahl, Jared R., and Willoughby B. Britton 2019 ‘I Have This Feeling of Not Really Being Here’: Buddhist Meditation and Changes in Sense of Self. Journal of Consciousness Studies 26(7-8): 157–83.
Lutkajtis, Anna 2018 The Dark Side of Dharma: Why Have Adverse Effects of Meditation Been Ignored in Contemporary Western Secular Contexts? Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 31(2): 192–217. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.37053
Lynch, Gordon, Jolyon P. Mitchell and Anna Strhan 2012 Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader. Routledge, London and New York.
Mahan, Jeffrey H. 2014 Media, Religion and Culture: An Introduction. Routledge, New York.
Mitchell, Scott A. 2014 The Tranquil Meditator: Representing Buddhism and Buddhists in US Popular Media. Religion Compass 8(3): 81–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12104
Ohanian, Roobina 1991 The Impact of Celebrity Spokespersons’ Perceived Image on Consumers’ Intention to Purchase. Journal of Advertising Research 31(1): 46–54.
Parsons, William B. 2009 Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism: The Development of a Dialogue. In Changing the Scientific Study of Religion: Beyond Freud? edited by Jacob A. Belzen, 179–209. Springer, New York and London.
Paterniti, Michael 2016 The World’s Happiest Man Wishes You Wouldn’t Call Him That. GQ. Online: https://www.gq.com/story/happiest-man-in-the-world-matthieu-ricard
Payne, Richard K. 2016 Mindfulness and the Moral Imperative for the Self to Improve the Self. In Handbook of Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement, edited by Ronald E. Purser, David Forbes and Adam Burke, 121–34. Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland.
Pflugshaupt, Amy 2018 Mental Hygiene—Madison Researcher Uses Modern Neuroscience to Study Kindness, Compassion & Happiness. nbc15. Online: https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Mental-Hygiene--500882441.html
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Rosenthal, Norman E. 2016 How Meditation Changed Hugh Jackman’s Life. Oprah. Online: http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/how-meditation-changed-hugh-jackmans-life
Schwartz, Suze Yalof 2018 The Science Behind Why Meditation Makes You So Much Happier. MindBodyGreen. Online: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-29583/the-science-behind-why-meditation-makes-you-so-much-happier.html
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Published
2019-11-06
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Lutkajtis, A. (2019). ’The Answer to All Your Problems?’ The Overly Positive Presentation of Meditation in the Media. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 32(1), 49-71. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.37863
