This study focused on the changes in affect reported by participants in a popular and highly recommended Buddhist meditation experience: the ten day Vipassana meditation retreat. Buddhist texts have discussed potential benefits that may be gained from involvement in intensive meditation, yet these benefits have not been thoroughly studied using empirical methods.
There were two groups involved in this research: (a) the Meditation Group that was a self-selected sample of ten day Vipassana meditation retreat participants, and (b) the Control Group that was a convenience sample of individuals of similar demographic characteristics to the Meditation Group but who did not attend the retreat. In addition to providing demographic information, participants in both groups completed the Adjective Check List, the Profile of Mood States, and the Affects Balance Scale before and after a ten day period.
Results provided partial support for the claims made in Buddhist texts concerning the impact of the ten day Vipassana meditation retreat on the affective states of the participants. Subjects' responses on three out of ten scales were observed to be impacted by participation in the retreat. Retreat participants were found to be less anxious and more content as a result of their involvement in the retreat. However, they were also found to be more depressed after their meditative experience.
Two possible explanations were advanced for the results. Increased emotional turmoil that has been found to occur in beginning meditators could have obscured increased equanimity that may have developed among more experienced meditators. Another potential explanation is that the decrease in anxiety and the increase in depression were both associated with the lowered level of defensiveness that has been shown to result from the practice of meditation. The increased level of contentment among retreat participants was viewed as resulting from the retreat participants' reducing their craving for impermanent and, therefore, inherently unsatisfying intrapsychic and external objects.
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