Nicholas Van Dam

Bar graph showing population prevalence rates of meditation in Australia and New Zealand.

📣 Australasians lead the world in meditation use: ⅓ of Australians and ¼ of NZers meditated in the past year. Many turn to meditation when mental healthcare is hard to access, yet some report adverse effects. We need more research to make meditation safe & effective for all. 🔗 go.unimelb.edu.au/ba62

Neurofeedback Training Facilitates Awareness and Enhances Emotional Well-being Associated with Real-World Meditation Practice: A 7-T MRI Study - Mindfulness Objectives Novice meditators often struggle to recognise and intentionally disengage from self-referential thought during meditation. We investigated whether personalised high-precision neurofeedback (NF) training improves volitional disengagement from self-referential thought during meditation and enhances meditation’s outcomes. Method In a single-blind, controlled study, novices received 2 days of veridical (n = 20) or sham (n = 20) 7-T fMRI NF targeting posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) deactivation during meditation. After NF training, at-home meditation practice was monitored for 1 week, followed by an in-lab behavioural assessment. Results Both groups reported similar perceptions of NF contingency, performance, and expectancy (p > 0.05), suggesting effective participant blinding. PCC deactivation during NF-guided meditation was comparable across groups (p > 0.05). Veridical NF group showed significantly stronger negative functional coupling (d = 0.59) between PCC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), significantly greater mindful awareness (d = 0.41) and emotional well-being (d = 0.40) associated with 1-week practice, and significant correlation (r = 0.71, p < 0.01) between emotional well-being and PCC-DLPFC negative coupling. Conclusions These findings suggest that high-precision NF can improve novices’ ability to volitionally disengage from self-referential thought during meditation, thereby fostering greater mindful awareness in real-world practice and promoting emotional well-being. Preregistration This exploratory study was not preregistered.

Glad to share that my PhD's final paper is finally out in
@SpringerNature
Mindfulness.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

7 Tesla fMRI neurofeedback training enhances meditation training and real-world practice for beginners.

Summary (6 points) below~

Nice coverage of our work on how to maximise benefits and minimise harms related to meditation 🧘 @contemplateuom.bsky.social

📢 New paper alert

A new longitudinal study by @nicbowles.bsky.social and @ntvandam.bsky.social of over 1,000 meditators found that meditating 35–65 minutes a day delivered meaningful improvements in well-being, while 50–80 minutes daily was needed for significant gains in mental health.

🔎 Is it normal to feel worse before you feel better in meditation or therapy?

In a new article for Psyche, A/Prof Nicholas Van Dam, Director of the Contemplative Studies Centre, explores the fine line between discomfort, distress, and harm in mental health and contemplative practices.

A large group of staff from MSPS sit on concrete steps outside a modern building.

👋 Hello Bluesky!
We’re the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, from #UniMelb.
We'll be sharing updates from our research community, highlighting staff & student achievements, and connecting with those advancing psychological science across disciplines. We can't wait to join the conversation!

Meaningful change often requires some discomfort, but it doesn’t necessitate that we experience lasting distress. So, when are we being pushed outside our comfort zone and when are we potentially just getting worse?

➡️ Read here: go.unimelb.edu.au/8e6p

#Psychotherapy #Meditation

Free your attention — meditation and mindfulness in the digital age - ABC listen How many times have you checked your phone today? How many tabs are open in your web browser? Do you feel in control of your attention?  In the digital age, attention is now a commodity. Can practice...

'Free your attention' was hosted at the Brunswick Ballroom by the Sophia Club in partnership with the Contemplative Studies Centre.

🔗🎧 Now you can listen to this conversation on ABC Radio National's Big Ideas: go.unimelb.edu.au/gq6p

#ContemplativeStudies #Mindfulness #DigitalWellbeing

Can you point to these “lots of studies” or your published research? Some versions of neurofeedback have been demonstrated to be helpful for certain outcomes but those studies are different to the referenced commercial device for meditation.

New article 🚨: Is it normal to feel worse before you feel better in meditation or therapy? I explore discomfort, distress, and harm in mental health and contemplative practices. Meaningful change often requires some discomfort, but not lasting distress.

psyche.co/ideas/in-the...

Who Wants to be Mindful? Personality Predictors of Meditation Practice - Mindfulness Objectives Meditation has received increasing interest from scientists and the public for potential benefits to mental health and well-being. We examined personality predictors and expectancies of med...

What kinds of people are drawn to meditation?

Excited to share the first paper from my PhD (w/ @ntvandam.bsky.social and Luke Smillie) now out in Mindfulness (doi.org/10.1007/s126...)

Across 2 samples, we examined personality predictors of meditation and related constructs (1/3)

🧘‍♀️Meditation is often recommended for mental health, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. @ntvandam.bsky.social and Dr. Julieta Galante from the Centre recently shared insights with Liam Mannix at The Age about why some people find meditation challenging and what to do instead.

Sounds like you did have good teachers! I wouldn’t say it’s wrong if it’s distressing, just that it needn’t be distressing by default. People need a clear understanding of what may happen and teachers should know what is in vs out of scope of their practice/instruction.

Many argue that difficulty is a feature rather than a side effect. Meditation, like life, is challenging and sometimes uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean it need be distressing. Ppl need to know what they’re agreeing. When discomfort turns to distress, we need clear guidelines about what to do.

I disagree that ‘we’ always teach potential difficulties. Many programs are marketed as quick ways to bliss with few (if any) negatives. Separately, there is an important difference between difficulty, discomfort, distress, and impairment. It needs to be clear to people what they’re getting into.

An adverse effect (58%) is an unexpected negative experience and functional impairment (9%) means the effect leads to disruption in day-to-day activities. Both of these are considered harm in the clinical literature.

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Article now in @psychscience.bsky.social journal journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #psychscisky #mindfulness #meditation

Among a representative survey of 886 U.S. adults:
- 96% reported an unusual experience (change in sense of self, sense of bliss, loss of boundary btwn self/other) 
- 58.4% reported an adverse effect (side effects that are negative)
- 9.1% reported functional impairment because of adverse effects

‼️ New research ‼️ from our group: unexpected or difficult experiences are the rule rather than the exception in #meditation. Potential to help also means potential to harm. For this reason, we need to take this powerful practice seriously and ensure practices are evidence-based & tradition-informed.

Managing about 15 min, ~4-5 days/wk of meditation 🧘 (day 26). I’m finding it harder to remind myself to practice than last time I did a year-long challenge; the benefits are notable but the struggle is real. Ppl need different practices at different times in their lives.

🌍✨ Big news from the United Nations! On 6 December, the General Assembly proclaimed 21 December as World Meditation Day, highlighting the role meditation plays in fostering mental and physical health, and reaffirming the universal right to the highest standard of well-being.

Here is a good beginning to a Contemplative Research Starter Pack. Suggestions welcome. I'll try to keep it updated as more people migrate over to the blue sky 🙏 #contemplativeresearch #contemplativescience #mindfulness #meditation #yoga #breathwork #psychedelics go.bsky.app/StDaiA6

More reactive, anxious, tense when I don’t meditate.

After 2 weeks of near-daily meditation 🧘 (11/14 days), I have been experientially reminded of 2 things: 1) it’s hard work!, 2) my general level of anxiety/agitation are quite different when I don’t practice.

We hosted this inspiring event now featured on ABC Radio National on Big Ideas 🌏💡 Professor Emerita Rhonda V. Magee and @mariamtokhi.bsky.social joined @natashamitchell.bsky.social for a conversation on empathy that will empower you to hear and care for others even in times of division and conflict.

Hi #Bluesky 👋

We’re the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne. We envision a future where empirically underpinned knowledge gained from contemplative wisdom, research, education, dialogue and practice empowers individuals and societies to thrive.

Thrilled to connect! 🌟

Daryl Bem was what first came to mind for me too

a picture of yoda with the words " meditate on this i will " ALT: a picture of yoda with the words " meditate on this i will "

In the process of migrating my tweets, I was also reminded of my daily meditation challenge from a few years ago. Starting again - day 2! Will scale up to 20min/day, 5-6 days/week, for at least 1 yr.

a woman says it 's a terrible place filled with the worst people in the galaxy in a video ALT: a woman says it 's a terrible place filled with the worst people in the galaxy in a video

If my feed looks super-active, it’s b/c I’m using @blueark.app to port over old tweets. Fun to see how good the bad place used to be. #AcademicSky

Here’s my Scholar Goggler