Meditation can often mask a downside

A recent Vancouver Sun poll conducted by the Mustel Group found one out of three British Columbians, roughly 1.4 million people, have practised meditation. That doesn't include many more who practise prayer in a contemplative way.

But can meditation, contemplation and related practices encourage people to detach too effectively from their so-called negative thoughts, leading them to actually detach from life itself?

The meditators did not integrate life's inevitable suffering and limitations into their own being. Focussing on their inner lives, neither allowed themselves to be "transformed" by others.

Many middle-aged baby boomers who meditate bring to it an over-simplified commitment to pluralism and relativism and the notion that, "You do your thing and I'll do mine." Meditation for many "becomes a process of transcend and deny ... rather than transcend and include.

The trouble is many meditators believe that means having no viewpoints at all, even on important issues. Many meditators don't believe in anything. People can through meditation reach elevated states of consciousness that can help them become more mature. But there is no guarantee mediation will free men or women from their own narcissism.