Existential drive, health and well-being
Humanistic conceptualizations of self-transcendence (Maslow, 1943) are perhaps closest to the accounts of MEA in Western psychology. Maslow described self-transcendence in terms of experiencing unity with something bigger than oneself which has characteristics of non-judgment, common humanity and compassion. Self-transcendence can arise as an experiential connection to a deeper truth or a sense of awe beyond the self. Some people experience self-transcendence in nature; for others self-transcendence manifests unexpectedly in challenging circumstances such as during bereavement. Maslow suggested that self-transcending experiences engage a unique holistic mode of mind called ‘being cognition’ which differs from the typical logical and evaluative approaches we rely on most of the time. Such characterization of ‘being cognition’ seems to resemble to some extent the experiential non-conceptual descriptions of MEA in the Buddhist literature. However, a progression or different degrees of ‘being cognition’ were not detailed in Maslow’s theory. So the experiential progression of increasingly more advanced MEA developed through meditation practice seems a timely advancement of Maslow’s ideas about self-transcendence.
The historically central standing of existential meaning and purpose in conceptualizations of human potential seems to converge with the current research highlighting the pivotal role of the existential psychological dimension to our health and traditional meditation approaches targeting existential exploration. These different approaches seem to highlight the same fundamental underlying principle of the human mind; cumulatively, both Western humanistic approaches and meditation traditions seem to suggest that the search for meaning and purpose in life is the fundamental driving force of the human mind. This fundamental driving force can be termed the ‘existential instinct’. Meditation approaches elaborate this principle further by proposing that the ultimate sense of meaning and purpose arises from experiential understanding of the nature of self and reality. Such realization is accompanied by a profound sense of clarity, tranquillity, knowing, contentment and unconditional kindness and compassion. It can be postulated that the existential instinct manifests as yearning for realization of the ultimate state of meaning and purpose and its experiential realization can be considered the accomplishment of the essential human potential for well-being.
The postulation of the existential instinct as a fundamental principle of the human mind has broad implications for our approaches to health and well-being. Given that the existential instinct is the primary drive towards accomplishment of human potential for well-being, experiences of the most advanced levels of MEA are likely associated with the highest levels of health and well-being. Accordingly, it can be expected that mis-direction of the existential instinct towards hedonistic well-being or other goals which do not support progression towards advanced levels of MEA would have detrimental effects on our health and well-being. This means that psychopathology could be conceptualized as a misdirection of or disconnection from the existential drive resulting in divergence from the course of existential exploration which is fundamental to accomplishing human potential. This proposal is similar to suggestions by Victor Frankl (1985) that lack of existential exploration or lack of finding meaning in life will result in existential crisis, psychopathology and ill health. But it also differs from Frankl’s account in terms of the experiential progression of MEA, the role of self-regulation in supporting the development of MEA and associated implications for illness prevention and intervention which we will now consider in more detail.
How can the proposed framework of MSRC and MEA and the postulation of the existential instinct explain psychopathology and guide development of clinical interventions? Let’s start with an initial exploration of possible implications for our understanding of addictions, depression, anxiety and psychosis. Addictions could be considered as resulting from misdirection of the existential instinct towards counterfeit pleasurable states associated with addictive behaviour (ranging from drug addictions through shopping addictions, sexual addictions or food addictions, etc.) instead of emotionally balanced positive states associated with advanced MEA. Deficiencies in the MSRC further drive the cyclic nature of addictions and underlie the lack of inhibition even in the face of recognizing one’s own maladaptive addictive behaviour.
Similarly, deficiency in the MSRC also significantly contributes to the development of depressive symptomatology which is associated with diminished meta-awareness of depressive thought cycles and difficulty in breaking the cycle of negative thoughts, cognitive schemas and emotions. Mindfulness-based approaches seem to support the development of the MSRC of the mind, and accordingly have been shown effective in preventing depression relapse (Warren et al., 2016). However, in addition to the deficiencies in the MSCR, a lack of existential drive resulting in apathy behaviour or misguided existential drive leading to self-destructive behaviour is likely a major contributory factor to depression. Indeed, improvement in decentring (one of the initial MEA states in the progression of existential exploration) has been proposed as the major therapeutic mechanism of mindfulness-based approaches in treatment of depression (Bieling et al., 2012). This converges with the findings we have discussed in the previous section showing that higher levels of existential well-being have been associated with less susceptibility to depression.
Just like addictions and depression, anxiety conditions also involve dysfunctional MSRC which can manifest as anxiety-related rumination and difficulty in effectively regulating emotions. However, anxiety disorders have a strong existential dimension too which could be described as stagnation of the existential exploration. The stagnation can result from fixation on the potentially threatening aspects of examining existential questions of meaning and purpose – anxiety seems to involve an existential threat element regardless of whether it pertains to social interactions, health concerns or direct fear of death. The fixation can lead to avoidance strategies which further increase the existential stagnation. Mindfulness-based approaches have been shown to reduce anxiety which, similarly to the mechanisms underlying positive effects of mindfulness in treatment of depression, likely involve enhancement of the MSRC as well as development of decentring as a partial remedy to the existential stagnation.
Application of similar principles of diminished MSRC and dysfunctional existential drive is more complex when it comes to psychotic disorders. Lack of self-regulation is a strong contributor to the symptom-atology of psychosis resulting in disorganized cognitions and difficulties in emotion regulation. The existential dimension of the difficulties in psychosis may seem less obvious, but could be conceptualized as existential confusion. This is because psychosis often involves fixation on strongly misinterpreted representations of self and reality. The same principle of existential confusion could, however, also apply to addiction, depression, anxiety and in a broader sense to non-clinical states outside of the most balanced advanced MEA states of well-being. This suggests that the difference between psychotic conditions and less dysfunctional states of existential confusion outside of advanced MEA is mostly a matter of degree than a categorical difference between illness and health. The evidence base on effectiveness of meditation-based approaches in psychotic conditions is currently encouraging (e.g., Chadwick, Taylor and Abba, 2005), but limited. One of the main questions to be addressed is whether acutely psychotic clients (and similarly acutely depressed clients) would be able to benefit from meditation-based approaches. Further, more extensive research is needed to address this and other open questions about applications of meditation-based techniques in psycho-pathology in order to provide conclusive answers.
Towards a long-term perspective of meditation
The pivotal role of self-regulation in psychological health is well recognized and this, together with the health-protective effects of existential well-being, highlights the importance of psychological approaches which can enhance both self-regulation and support existential well-being. It has been particularly emphas
ized that future healthcare must meet existential well-being needs of patients because of their strong contribution to health (Mueller, Plevak and Rummans, 2001). The emerging pattern across clinical and non-clinical evidence as well as mental conditions discussed in this chapter suggests that meditation-based approaches have a unique potential to enhance both self-regulation and existential well-being of practitioners. This is due to their impact on the enhancement of MSRC and the development of MEA with both supporting adaptive manifestation of the existential drive towards experiential realization of meaning and purpose in life.
For the unique potential of meditation-based approaches to be fully harnessed in healthcare and beyond (with implications for prevention and well-being enhancement in education, for example), the new science of meditation needs to address several essential questions. The main one pertains to acknowledgement of the core contribution of existential exploration to the outcomes of meditation training and focused investigation of this dimension of meditation practices. Another question relates to whether secular meditation approaches can go beyond the effects of self-regulation and decentring documented so far and enable practitioners to progress onto advanced MEA. This question is very pertinent if realization of the advanced MEA is essential to the accomplishment of human potential for meaning and purpose in life. Addressing these questions necessitates investigation of long-term effects of secular meditation-based approaches as well as research into long-term trajectories of health and well-being across traditional meditation systems. Such research needs to be broadened to a range of contemplative traditions to build up a complete picture of the role contemplative practices can play in realizing human potential for health, well-being and purpose in life. To encourage further exploration in the secular context as well as in Buddhist and non-Buddhist contemplative traditions, in the chapters that follow we will apply the proposed framework of MSRC, MEA and existential drive to the exploration of several meditation types from the long-term everyday practice perspective.
Summary
This chapter introduces the current status of research into meditation and outlines a ‘new science of meditation’ together with its implications for our understanding of human potential for well-being. After an initial brief review of the main findings of meditation research over the last two decades, the chapter discusses the lack of research attention to the impact of meditation on existential sense of meaning and purpose, particularly from the perspective of long-term meditation practice. To remedy this major drawback the rest of the chapter outlines the main pillars of the ‘new science of meditation’ in terms of the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity (MSRC) of the mind and modes of existential awareness (MEA). The MSRC involves interacting processes of metacognitive introspective awareness, attention regulation, emotion regulation and conceptual processing which can be enhanced by meditation training. The MEA can be described as experiential shifts in the construal of self and reality resulting from meditation training. Enhancements in the MSRC, such as improved stability and control of attention and emotion regulation, enable increasingly advanced shifts in MEA. Decentring is an example of an initial MEA which enables the perception of thoughts, feelings and sensations as transient mental phenomena rather than solid facts. The postulation of MSRC and MEA is then linked to research evidence highlighting the essential role of existential well-being (sense of purpose and meaning) to our health. This link is further considered in relation to traditional existential and humanistic approaches in psychology to emphasize the core contribution of the existential well-being to our health. This exploration culminates in the postulation of existential instinct as the fundamental driving force of human potential for meaning and purpose which is realized through continuously maintaining an advanced MEA. This non-conceptual state is associated with experience of subtle joy, clarity, knowing, tranquillity and compassion. Consequences of this proposal for our understanding and treatment of addictions, depression, anxiety and psychotic disorders are briefly discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of broader implications of the new meditation science for healthcare and human potential for well-being, which sets the stage for examination of specific meditation practices from this perspective in the following chapters.
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