Below is a table of 59 categories of meditation-related experiences that can be distressing or associated with impairment in functioning. This list is based on the Varieties of Contemplative Experience research study, by Drs. Lindahl and Britton. Symptoms are organized and color-coded by 7 domains: affective, cognitive, somatic, perceptual, sense of self, conative, social. Links to detailed summaries of each domain and corresponding research articles are provided under each heading . In color-coded tables, symptom titles are listed on the left, followed by a description, with symptom-specific resources listed on the right. You can also type your symptom into the search field to search the entire Cheetah House website.
THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN
Includes 13 categories of changes in emotional experience, changes in the type, frequency, or intensity of emotions, as well as traumatic re-experiencing and loss of emotions.
Affective Domain
| Symptom | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Affective Flattening, Emotional Detachment, or Alexithymia |
A narrowed or diminished affective range, a lack of affective charge, and/or an inability to identify/distinguish emotions. | Britton CMRP Keynote Varieties of Contemplative Practice Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation 'I Have This Feeling of Not Really Being Here': Buddhist Meditation and Changes in Sense of Self |
| Affective Lability | Rapid shifts in mood, mood swings, a increased range of emotions, or strong, unwarranted reactions to situations. | Britton CMRP Keynote Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists |
| Agitation or Irritability | An agitated or irritable mood, possibly accompanied by restlessness, distractibility or uneasiness. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal |
| Change in Doubt, Faith, Trust, or Commitment | Changes (increase or decrease) in doubt, faith, trust or commitment in relation to religious doctrines, practices, goals, community or in relation to oneself in any dimension of life, such as self-confidence. | |
| Crying or Laughing | Crying and laughing, and associated vocalizations. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Affective Domain Summary |
| Depression, Dysphoria, or Grief | Low, depressed, or sad moods, usually coupled with physical and behavioral manifestations that may or may not affect normal functioning. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation Affective Domain Summary |
| Empathic or Affiliative Changes | Increased or decreased empathic connection to other people or to environmental stimuli. | 'I Have This Feeling of Not Really Being Here': Buddhist Meditation and Changes in Sense of Self Affective Domain Summary |
| Fear, Anxiety, Panic, or Paranoia | Feelings of fright or distress--with or without an external referent--and their corresponding physiological and behavior responses. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way |
| Positive Affect | A state of positive or elevated mood or energy level, ranging on a continuum from low to high arousal.td> | Affective Domain Summary |
| Rage, Anger, or Aggression | Feelings of intense displeasure or a retaliatory response, often caused by some adverse stimulus provoking an uncomfortable emotion. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way Affective Domain Summary |
| Re-experiencing of Traumatic Memories or Affect Without Recollection | Either a recollection of some past traumatic event in the subject's life that may or may not have been repressed, and which is generally associated with strong emotions, or the upwelling of strong emotions without any corresponding memory, content, thought or other identifiable stimulus. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way Affective Domain Summary |
| Self-Conscious Emotions | Emotions relating to one's sense of self and identity, as well as the awareness of reactions of others to oneself, whether real or imagined. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal |
| Suicidality | Affect-driven ideation concerning wanting to die, not wanting to continue with life, wishing to no longer being alive, thinking about taking one's own life, or thinking about or making specific plans for taking one's own life.td> | Affective Domain Summary |
THE COGNITIVE DOMAIN
Includes 10 categories of changes in mental functioning, including the frequency, quality and content of thoughts, as well as other cognitive processes, such as planning, decision-making and memory.
Cognitive Domain
| Symptom | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Executive Functioning | Either an inability to perform cognitive functions of decision making, concentration, and memory that the person used to be able to perform, or an enhanced ability in these domains of executive functioning. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation |
| Change in Worldview | A shift in ways of thinking about the nature of self or reality, including a change in understanding or, confusion about the nature of self or reality. | |
| Clarity | Reports of clarity or lucidity as a mental state, quality of attention, or quality of consciousness, in which there is a heightened cognition of relevant stimuli and a diminished interference from non-relevant stimuli. | |
| Delusional, Irrational, or Paranormal Beliefs | Holding with conviction and being influenced by one or more beliefs despite evidence to the contrary. Ascriptions of significance or meaning that are later disregarded or that might seem unusual or concerning to members of the practitioner's broader culture or particular subculture. Attributions of paranormal agency, origin, or explanation for cognitive experiences. | |
| Disintegration of Conceptual Meaning Structures | Percepts arise but are processed without their associated conceptual meaning, resulting in an inability to form conceptual representations of the perceptual world. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation |
| Increased Cognitive Processing | Primarily a cognitive change in thought amount or speed of cognitive processing, though the increase in processing often coincides with a decrease in sensory gating that leads to the impression of taking in or processing more perceptual information than usual. | |
| Mental Stillness | A state in which there are few identifiable thoughts, a perceived absence of thought, or a poor awareness about the thinking process in general. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation |
| Meta-Cognition | Meta-cognition, or meta-awareness, refers to an explicit knowledge of the content of thoughts or the thinking process. Meta-cognition can also entail a higher-order cognition of processes in other domains of experience, such affective, perceptual, somatic or sense of self. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation |
| Scrupulosity | Obsessive thinking, specifically about moral or religious issues and behaviors. | |
| Vivid Imagery | An experience of intense, vivid and/or clear thoughts or mental images that arise involuntarily, or a report of an increased ability to visualize. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Cognitive Domain Summary |
THE SOMATIC DOMAIN
Includes 15 categories of observable changes in bodily functioning or physiological processes.
Somatic Domain
| Symptom | Decription | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Appetitive or Weight Changes | Decreased or increased appetite, weight loss or gain. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal |
| Breathing Changes | Altered respiration rates that may manifest as a temporary cessation, or speeding up or slowing down of breathing. | Somatic Domain Summary |
| Cardiac Changes | Irregular heartbeat, heart palpitations, or other significant irregularities. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal |
| Dizziness or Syncope | Dizziness, vertigo (feeling one is spinning or off-balance), lightheadedness (feeling one is about to faint), or syncope (a brief loss of consciousness and muscle strength, commonly called fainting, passing out or blacking out). | |
| Fatigue or Weakness | A feeling of exhaustion, fatigue or weakness (general or localized). | |
| Gastrointestinal Distress or Nausea | Gastrointestinal problems including (but not limited to) diarrhea, bloating, cramping, nausea and vomiting. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal |
| Headaches or Head Pressure | Ache, sharp pain, or pressure in the region of the head or neck. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal |
| Involuntary Movements | A motor movement usually under voluntary control that occurs without a conscious decision for movement. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Somatic Domain Summary |
| Pain | Pain is an unpleasant physical sensation, either diffuse or acute, and lasting for variable amounts of time. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way Somatic Domain Summary |
| Parasomnias | Nightmares, vivid dreams, sleep paralysis or the alleviation of these symptoms. | Somatic Domain Summary |
| Pressure, Tension or Release of Pressure, Tension | Bodily pressure or tension, or release of bodily pressure or tension, that can vary according to location (general or specific), intensity, or length of time. | Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists Somatic Domain Summary |
| Sexuality-Related Changes | Hypersexuality (very frequent or suddenly increased sexual urges or activity) or hyposexuality (notably decreased sexual urges or activity). | |
| Sleep Changes | Changes in sleep amount, sleep need, or sleep depth. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The value of a middle way |
| Somatic Energy / Energy-Like Somatic Experiences | A type of sensation moving throughout the body or throughout a body area described with language of vibration, energy, current, or other related metaphors. | Like a Vibration Cascading Through the Body: Energy-Like Somatic Experiences Reported by Western Buddhist Meditators Somatic Energies and Emotional Traumas: A Qualitative Study of Practice-Related Challenges Reported by Vajrayāna Buddhists Somatic Domain Summary |
| Thermal Changes | Changes associated with heat or cold, whether a general change in sense of body temperature or localized to a specific body area. |
THE PERCEPTUAL DOMAIN
Includes 7 categories changes to any of the five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste and somatosensory processing (including interoception and proprioception).
Perceptual Domain
| Symptom | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Derealization | Surroundings are perceived as strange, unreal, or dreamlike, or perception is experienced as mediated by a fog, a lens, or some other filter that results in feeling cut off from the world. | Mechanisms of Meditation-induced Dissociation |
| Dissolution of Objects or Phenomena | The dissolving or complete disappearance of visual objects or the entire visual field. | Perceptual Domain Summary |
| Distortions in Time or Space | An alteration in the subjective experience of spatial boundaries or relations and/or temporal causality or sequencing. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Dissociation |
| Hallucinations, Visions, or Illusions | A hallucination is an experience of a percept that is not externally stimulated, is not shared by others, and is not taken to be veridical. When a visual percept that is not shared by others is taken to be veridical, it is a vision.,An illusion involves a percept that is distorted, changed, or has features added to the raw percept. | A Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Experiences: Traditional Buddhist and Neurobiological Perspectives Perceptual Domain Summary |
| Perceptual Hypersensitivity | Unusual or atypical sensitivity to certain frequencies or volumes of sound (hyperacusis), to color (hyperchromia), to visual details, to light, to taste, to smell, or to embodiment. | Mechanisms of Meditation-Induced Hyperarousal A Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Experiences: Traditional Buddhist and Neurobiological Perspectives Perceptual Domain Summary |
| Somatosensory Changes | A change in proprioceptive information that affects one's perception of relative positions or dimensions of body parts or the body more generally. | Perceptual Domain Summary |
| Visual Lights | Experience of a light or lights in field of vision that are vivid but not the result of external stimuli. | A Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Experiences: Traditional Buddhist and Neurobiological Perspectives |
THE SENSE OF SELF DOMAIN
Includes 6 categories of changes in different dimensions of selfhood, including boundaries with others or the world, sense of embodiment, ownership or agency; narrative identity and basic existence.
Sense of Self Domain
THE CONATIVE DOMAIN
Includes 3 categories of changes in motivation or goal-directed behaviors.
Conative Domain
| Symptom | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Anhedonia or Avolition | Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure in activities previously found pleasurable. Avolition is the lack of drive or motivation to pursue goals previously valued as meaningful. | Mechanisms of Meditation-induced Dissociation Conative Domain Summary |
| Change in Effort or Striving | The degree or intensity of attempts at pursuing something valued-as-good or as a means to a valued end. Effort may be mental, physical, or emotional. | |
| Change in Motivation or Goal | The reasons, drives, and needs behind a practitioner's actions, which influence or determine their behavior, as well as their expectations concerning a particular behavior. |
THE SOCIAL DOMAIN
Includes 5 categories of change in interpersonal activities or functioning, including level of engagement, quality of relationships, or periods of conflict, isolation or withdrawal.
Social Domain
| Symptom | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Relationship to Meditation Community | Changes in relationship with the meditation community (Sangha), whether increasing or decreasing degrees of affiliation with the community of teacher(s) and other practitioners.td> | Social Domain Summary |
| Increased Sociality | Increased extraversion, social contact, friendships or other behavioral manifestations indicating an increased valuing of social engagement. | Social Domain Summary |
| Integration Following Retreat or Intensive Practice | A destabilizing transition from intensive formal practice to informal practice, daily life, or life circumstances. | Social Domain Summary |
| Occupational Impairment | An impaired ability to perform in an occupational environment. | Social Domain Summary |
| Social Impairment | Behaviors indicative of a change in relationship to social networks or social situations that inhibits ordinary or desired functioning or level of engagement. | Social Domain Summary |