Subjective Experiences of Committed Meditators Across Practices Aiming for Contentless States

Abstract

Objectives: Contentless experience involves an absence of mental content such as thoughts and perceptions. It is often described as pure consciousness or complete stillness/silence, and is a goal in Shamatha, Thai Forest, and Stillness Meditation. This study examined the subjective character of the deepest experience of stillness/silence typically reported in each practice, and whether there are differences in reports across traditions. Method: Eighty-four Shamatha, 80 Thai Forest, and 88 Stillness Meditation participants (M lifetime hours practice = 2305; median = 671; range = 5–34,021) provided usable responses to an online questionnaire. Participants were presented with 48 types of mental..