Untold: Power for Sale Financial Times

The podcast is well produced and the host poised and professional. I find some of the negative reviews a bit unfair. I don’t understand why calling the investigation biased when In ep2 the host clearly engages with experts to try and understand more about extreme meditation and the possible impact on the mind. There was never an implication that meditation is bad per se, only that it cam be for certain people, and most importantly for this reason, it should be approached more personably instead of the generalised one size fits all approach, which is what happens in all those retreats.
I don’t understand the controversy with the content - ie most people tolerate a certain kind of recreational drug or mood-stabilising medication, whether some other people might even die or experience severe side effects because of it.
Like what was said in ep2, any mind-altering practice or pharmaceuticals can either help or damage the nervous system on some levels. Crucially, sustained sleep deprivation, on top of meditating obsessively, is the absolute perfect recipe for an hypo-maniac episode. It’s not that controversial really! It is a totally believable argument.

I went on my first retreat 20 years ago; it’s been an amazing tool for me. I was attracted by the fact it’s donation only and you can volunteer to cook, clean etc so it’s not monetised like a lot of the wellness industry. You are entirely responsible for your own well being - you are not accepted on to the course if you disclose any mental health disorders or are taking any medication relating to mental health- you are asked to disclose this and sign a disclaimer. The technique is a body scanning technique - it is a silent retreat, you are confronted with yourself and everything that brings. People can leave if they find it too much - they do. It’s just stripped down meditation- not a guru-cult. I can’t really understand how entering into a voluntary agreement to not speak and learn a technique to observe the sensations that pass through your body can really be investigated further. It’s really not for everyone but there’s no hard selling and support meditators are available to speak to through the day.

I have a friend who has been very badly affected by these 10 day retreats and I wish the organisation had had the courage to give a detailed response to the journalist. Of course, not everyone will be impacted in the same way … that should go without saying. But, having seen first hand the damage inflicted on the person I know I really feel there needs to be at the very least a thorough review of the practices of the organisation. Other reviews of the podcast state that everyone is a volunteer and no one makes any money as if this is automatically a good thing …. Altruistic as this may be, the fact that it is run by volunteers is actually more worrying for me … I wonder what kind of training they get? They should, at the very least, I feel be required to take the excellent mental health first aid training that is now readily available. Are their good safeguarding protocols in place? Just two questions that spring to mind of many that were prompted by the podcast. I hope it will prompt a deeper investigation…Nothing about this podcast said to me that all meditation was bad …. What it did highlight was what I already knew first hand that some of these practices can be very harmful and that much better care needs to taken of people’s lives.