Disclaimer: Corboy is a layman, not a health professional. CEI does not provide health care advice.
This essay must NOT be interpreted or used by anyone to support arguments against prescribed use of medications.
This essay must not be used by anyone to decide to change or end their use of prescribed medications.
I want to direct this essay to persons who have done some meditation practice, lived and made friends in groups where meditation is practiced.
It is my hope that these readers will look at the articles listed here describing serotonin syndrome in the context of usage of [rescribed anti depressants. My final hope is that readers will look back at their own meditation experiences and those of friends and see if any of these matches the descriptions of serotonin syndrome.
Many recommendations for meditation practice are given by persons who love meditation practice and are sincerely in favor of it and also recommended with little experience (health care professionals in managed care who are instructed to
"push" company sponsored "products" such as mindfulness based meditation.
(Corboy does not like this. I saw a doctor at my HMO and the HMO later
sent me a survey to rate this MD. Among the questions asked was whether Dr
X recommended HMO sponsored products such as mindfulness based meditation.
I was disgusted that doctors were rated according to their ability to sell
products.)
This essay reports some discussions of problems caused by excess serotonin levels.
There is some early research that Maharishi's TM meditation produced elevated serotonin levels.
Later discussions by former TM practitioners tied their meditation associated symptoms to serotonin syndrome.
These days most non commercial discussions of serotonin syndrome are in the context of
discussions of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
It would be valuable for meditation practitioners and instructors to
look at these discussions then see if they have observed any side effects
that resemble drug related serotonin excess.
We hear again and yet again that meditation is good for you, it elevates serotonin.
We are not told nearly as often about excess serotonin being not a good thing.
Meditation does affect body chemistry. That means it can have side effects.
There is such a thing as too much serotonin in the body.
How often do meditation instructors teach participants about excess serotonin and what signs and symptoms to look for? And that if they continue to explore
meditation elsewhere they must *must* always monitor themselves for signs
of excess serotonin and know when to stop, even if an instructor tells them to continue. Because -- some instructors will tell you that symptoms of serotonin excess indicate progress and to keep doing it.
Some former TM practitioners have suggested a strong link between TM meditation and serotonin excess. These reactions might be mistaken for purification, kriyas, or kundalini.
[www.behind-the-tm-facade.org]
Serotonin Syndrome
One subtle side effect of Serotonin Syndrome is a very serious type of passivity both physical and emotional.
In the context of meditation and spirituality, this might be explained
as progress, as detachment from materialism and earthly matters, when it
may signal serotonin excess produced by the meditation, chanting and other
devotional exercises prescribed by the group.
I suggest this because Joyce Colin-Smith, one of the earliest members of Transcendental Meditation, and an early assistant to Maharishi intensively did
TM for years. Then, she lost interest in everything she was good at and used to enjoy. She'd made her living as a fiction writer then lost that talent, lost her juice. Former TM members who were artists told her they'd lost interest in what they did. Colin Smith described all this in her memoir, Call No Man Master. She noted that Maharishi needed a high volume of new recruits in those early days because people who did TM became so passive they were useless in carrying out his projects - TM turned them into sloths.
Recalling Joyce Colin Smith's description, I read this article below with some interest.
Discussions of side effect of excess serotonin produced by drugs
mention loss of interest in things one formerly enjoyed (known as anhedonia)
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Elevated Serotonin and Transcendental Meditation
There may be a subgroup of persons in whom increases in serotonin may induce
depression.
If your new practice of meditation appears to be making you sad or agitated,
STOP, even if the group leader insists that you continue.
Have a look at this article. Is it at all possible that some persons
might, if they boost their serotonin through intensive meditation be
especially susceptible to a type of depression triggered by excess serotonin?
"Serotonin depression"--a biochemical subgroup within the affective disorders?
M Asberg, P Thoren, L Traskman, L Bertilsson, V Ringberger
Science 06 Feb 1976:
Vol. 191, Issue 4226, pp. 478-480
DOI: 10.1126/science.1246632
[www.google.com]
The take home message is that anything capable of increasing serotonin levels
needs to be used with guidance from someone who is aware of the potential side effects and capable of telling you to stop or reduce the 'dosage' of a given drug, or of meditation itself.
This essay must NOT be interpreted or used by anyone to support arguments against prescribed use of medications.
This essay must not be used by anyone to decide to change or end their use of prescribed medications.
I want to direct this essay to persons who have done some meditation practice, lived and made friends in groups where meditation is practiced.
It is my hope that these readers will look at the articles listed here describing serotonin syndrome in the context of usage of [rescribed anti depressants. My final hope is that readers will look back at their own meditation experiences and those of friends and see if any of these matches the descriptions of serotonin syndrome.
Many recommendations for meditation practice are given by persons who love meditation practice and are sincerely in favor of it and also recommended with little experience (health care professionals in managed care who are instructed to
"push" company sponsored "products" such as mindfulness based meditation.
(Corboy does not like this. I saw a doctor at my HMO and the HMO later
sent me a survey to rate this MD. Among the questions asked was whether Dr
X recommended HMO sponsored products such as mindfulness based meditation.
I was disgusted that doctors were rated according to their ability to sell
products.)
This essay reports some discussions of problems caused by excess serotonin levels.
There is some early research that Maharishi's TM meditation produced elevated serotonin levels.
Later discussions by former TM practitioners tied their meditation associated symptoms to serotonin syndrome.
These days most non commercial discussions of serotonin syndrome are in the context of
discussions of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
It would be valuable for meditation practitioners and instructors to
look at these discussions then see if they have observed any side effects
that resemble drug related serotonin excess.
We hear again and yet again that meditation is good for you, it elevates serotonin.
We are not told nearly as often about excess serotonin being not a good thing.
Meditation does affect body chemistry. That means it can have side effects.
There is such a thing as too much serotonin in the body.
How often do meditation instructors teach participants about excess serotonin and what signs and symptoms to look for? And that if they continue to explore
meditation elsewhere they must *must* always monitor themselves for signs
of excess serotonin and know when to stop, even if an instructor tells them to continue. Because -- some instructors will tell you that symptoms of serotonin excess indicate progress and to keep doing it.
Some former TM practitioners have suggested a strong link between TM meditation and serotonin excess. These reactions might be mistaken for purification, kriyas, or kundalini.
[www.behind-the-tm-facade.org]
Serotonin Syndrome
One subtle side effect of Serotonin Syndrome is a very serious type of passivity both physical and emotional.
In the context of meditation and spirituality, this might be explained
as progress, as detachment from materialism and earthly matters, when it
may signal serotonin excess produced by the meditation, chanting and other
devotional exercises prescribed by the group.
I suggest this because Joyce Colin-Smith, one of the earliest members of Transcendental Meditation, and an early assistant to Maharishi intensively did
TM for years. Then, she lost interest in everything she was good at and used to enjoy. She'd made her living as a fiction writer then lost that talent, lost her juice. Former TM members who were artists told her they'd lost interest in what they did. Colin Smith described all this in her memoir, Call No Man Master. She noted that Maharishi needed a high volume of new recruits in those early days because people who did TM became so passive they were useless in carrying out his projects - TM turned them into sloths.
Recalling Joyce Colin Smith's description, I read this article below with some interest.
Discussions of side effect of excess serotonin produced by drugs
mention loss of interest in things one formerly enjoyed (known as anhedonia)
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Elevated Serotonin and Transcendental Meditation
Quote
J Neural Transm. 1976;39(3):257-67.
Serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine metabolites in transcendental meditation-technique.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Bujatti M, Riederer P.
Abstract
The highly significant increase of 5-HIAA (5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid) in Transcendental Meditation technique suggests systemic serotonin as "rest and fulfillment hormone" of deactivation-relaxation. Furthermore 5-HT (5-hydroxytryptamine, serotonin) is considered to be the EC-cell (enterochromaffine-cell) hormone requested by Fujita and Kobayashi and its role for EEG synchronisation via area postrema chemoreceptor as anti arousal agent is being discussed. The significant decrease of the catecholamine metabolite VMA (vanillic-mandelic acid) in meditators, that is associated with a reciprocal increase of 5-HIAA supports as a feedback necessity the "rest and fulfillment response" versus "fight and flight". As the adreno medullary tissue serves for hormonal reinforcement of orthosympathetic activity, the Enterochromaffine Cell System (having taken the form of distinct organs in some species as octopus and discoglossus) is suggested to serve via serotonin for humoral reinforcement of parasympathetic activity in deep relaxation.
There may be a subgroup of persons in whom increases in serotonin may induce
depression.
If your new practice of meditation appears to be making you sad or agitated,
STOP, even if the group leader insists that you continue.
Have a look at this article. Is it at all possible that some persons
might, if they boost their serotonin through intensive meditation be
especially susceptible to a type of depression triggered by excess serotonin?
"Serotonin depression"--a biochemical subgroup within the affective disorders?
M Asberg, P Thoren, L Traskman, L Bertilsson, V Ringberger
Science 06 Feb 1976:
Vol. 191, Issue 4226, pp. 478-480
DOI: 10.1126/science.1246632
[www.google.com]
The take home message is that anything capable of increasing serotonin levels
needs to be used with guidance from someone who is aware of the potential side effects and capable of telling you to stop or reduce the 'dosage' of a given drug, or of meditation itself.