iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 7h

I’m delighted to welcome Charlie Wigton as a new program manager at the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School! 🎉🧠

100

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Psychedelics can transform experience. Preparation for psychedelics can shape how this transformation unfolds. Could meditation-based preparation support psychedelic transformation?

230

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Join us this Wednesday for the 2026 Science of Advanced Meditation Conference!

111

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Here I announce a major milestone for our Meditation Research Program and for the science of advanced meditation more broadly: Publication of our new article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the leading journal in cognitive science.

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

What does years of meditation practice do to one’s mental health: Are there benefits? Perhaps also risks? What is still unknown?

141

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Can advanced meditation transform human suffering? We address this question in our new paper, now published in #Mindfulness, titled: “Mental Health, Well-Being, and Meditative Development: A Phenomenological Study of Advanced Meditators”

120

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Can a single mathematical principle help explain how advanced meditation changes brain activity, computation, and conscious experience altogether?

100

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Delighted and honored to announce our speakers for the 2026 Science of Advanced Meditation Conference!

120

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Can nonlinear dynamical-systems and complexity science help us understand the radical potential of the human mind, and perhaps even enlightenment?

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

How does meditation improve mental health? The answer may lie not in a single pathway, but in coordinated changes across the brain and body.

131

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

There is a lot of hype around neurofeedback for meditation. Does it work? Neurofeedback is a tool for real-time monitoring and modulation of mental states using feedback from one's own neural activity.

201

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

What is advanced meditation? ⤵️ This question has driven me since early childhood. After many years of effort, including with Terje Sparby over the last six, we now propose a formal scientific definition.

130

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I’m delighted to announce 2026 Science of Advanced Meditation Conference, a free, one-day virtual conference hosted by our Meditation Research Program in affiliation with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

What if the same depths of meditation that can transform a mind can also destabilize it? ⤵️

100

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Announcing our new review paper in which we evaluate how far meditation can go toward improving well-being, interpersonal relationships, and emotion regulation. ⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Bodily awareness during advanced meditation: what happens and how should we study it? Announcing our new preprint: "Bodily Awareness in Advanced Meditation: A Three-Level Model of Interoceptive, Schematic, and Pacificatory Changes," now available on PsyArXiv. ⤵️

141

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

We need to rethink meditation-related challenging and adverse experiences. It’s easy to assume that challenging experiences in meditation fit a simple binary: they are either spiritually transformative altered states or the emergence of underlying psychopathology or trauma. ⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Can Sufi and mystical islamic meditation help us understand consciousness? ⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

What can the interface of sleep, consciousness, and advanced meditation teach us? Announcing the publication of “Advanced Meditation, Sleep, and Consciousness Science: An Emerging Frontier,” in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. ⤵️

100

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I am delighted to welcome Shawn Prest @shawnprest.bsky.social as an incoming postdoctoral researcher at the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School! 🎉🧠⤵️

251

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

We have now mapped the most robust whole-brain characterization of meditation to date.

132

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I’m delighted to welcome Dr. Jonathan Lieberman as a new postdoctoral researcher at the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School! 🎉🧠⤵️

130

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I’m delighted to congratulate Dr. Puneet Kumar on his appointment as Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar! 🎉🧠⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Following up on the announcement of our recent Neuron article, here we offer a deeper look at what this work means for the future of meditation research and for science more broadly. ⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

What if sleep and advanced meditation reveal that consciousness is not something we simply have or lose, but something that can be trained, refined, reorganized, and perhaps even momentarily suspended? ⤵️

120

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Can computer algorithms, without human input, learn to read and identify the neural signatures of deep meditative absorption? ⤵️

120

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

This is a major milestone for our Meditation Research Program, and a notable development for the field of contemplative science, and particularly the subfield of the science of advanced meditation. ⤵️

161

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Meditation can be profoundly beneficial—but it can also bring challenges that science still struggles to explain. ⤵️

140

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

What happens in the brain when consciousness is voluntarily suspended in advanced meditation and then returns with radical clarity, equanimity, and relief? ⤵️

100

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

What if the root of suffering isn't what actually happens to us, but a fundamental mismatch between how the world is and how we expect it to be? ⤵️

111

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

The Harvard Gazette has published a quiz on advanced meditation: “Your brain on advanced meditation: Where do science and ancient wisdom align? Take our quiz to find out.” Check it out through the link in the comments below! ⤵️

100

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

How can psychedelic-assisted therapy be most useful? Given the clinical momentum of psychedelics, this question has never been more urgent. ⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Does neurofeedback for meditation work? ⤵️

122

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

What do we mean by meditative development, and how does meditative development relate to other forms of development? Is development about building a more complex and skillful mind, or unlearning habitual patterns and letting go? ⤵️

110

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

We're hiring a Program Manager to join the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. This is a hands-on role for someone who wants to be in the thick of our efforts. You would work closely with us to drive our current projects forward.... ⤵️

133

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The science of consciousness needs advanced meditation. Despite decades of research and incredible advances in neuroscience and AI, we are still no closer to explaining how or why consciousness arises in the brain. The hard problem remains as hard as ever. ⤵️

280

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

What if pain demands far more than trying to make it stop? Modern mindfulness gurus often claim that while pain (its sensations) is unavoidable, suffering (our emotional and cognitive responses to it) is optional. ⤵️

162

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Advanced meditation is increasingly a critical test case for neuroscience, psychology, phenomenology, philosophy and computational modeling of the mind. In doing so, it’s pushing us to rethink how we both study and understand our own subjective experience and the processes through which... ⤵️

192

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Announcing the first results from our Program’s phenomenology research: advanced meditators’ report the extraordinary, and so far overlooked, potential of meditative development for mental health. ⤵️

120

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Delighted to share that our latest manuscript is now out in NeuroImage! This project began with a simple but critical question: If meditation trains attention, what exactly changes—and could those changes help us better understand and support advanced meditative states and stages? ⤵️

1102

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Announcing our new unifying theoretical model of enlightenment Can science help teach us how to become free from human suffering? Transformative experiences traditionally called “awakening,” “Nirvana,” or “enlightenment” are often described as non-conceptual, ineffable, and paradoxical. ⤵️

281

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Here I announce a breakthrough in the neuroscience of the highly refined meditative states known as jhānas, revealing biological mechanisms of deep states of absorption that are profound, restorative, and deeply beneficial for the mind. ⤵️

160

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

I recently spoke with New Scientist, one of world’s major weekly science-and-technology magazines, to share how our work is revealing one of the most promising frontiers in human development, and may also be part of a bigger story about our collective potential and evolution. ⤵️

170

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Have you ever wondered whether you’ll be able to access advanced and transformative meditation? Or do you doubt whether the science of advanced meditation will ever extend beyond the laboratory, or beyond the rare achievements of a handful of very accomplished practitioners? ⤵️

120

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Can meditation be understood as systematic mental training? Despite the obvious appeal of thinking of meditation training like a workout for the mind, as the gym is for muscles, and its wide usage across communities practicing and researching meditation...

141

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

What if it takes losing our minds to save our minds? For centuries, enlightenment, known by many names, has been considered largely in myth, metaphor, or mystical verses. In most secularized contexts, it has been treated as a beautiful but largely superstitious story. ⤵️

150

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Powerful scientific clues to the mystery of consciousness are emerging from its very absence. Advanced meditation research seeks to scientifically understand profound and powerful shifts in consciousness that can arise from contemplative mastery. One such shift, which we call...

184

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Advanced meditation ushers in incredible new possibilities for the science of consciousness. In the first-ever fMRI study of Extended Cessation (EC), for which we’ve just preprinted, my colleagues and I examine this advanced meditative event—where consciousness is deliberately switched off and...

252

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

For thousands of years, Theravāda Buddhism—an ancient tradition with origins in India—has described what is considered the highest meditative attainment, called nirodha samāpatti, regarded as deeply connected to nirvana/enlightenment. For the first time, we have been able to use brain imaging... ⤵️

371

Matthew D. Sacchet @matthewsacchet.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

No single tradition owns meditation — and science promises to finally help us find common ground. 🧵

141