INSIGHT Forum (EN): Do Nothing Meditation as a Complement or Alternative to Psychedelics

In the 1960s, the Australian psychiatrist, Ainslie Meares (1910-1986), developed a form of meditation involving the total relinquishment of doing, control, and effort. With short periods of practice over a few days, weeks, or months, this technique is said to lead to a complete stillness of mind, in which there is profound calm and inner freedom, and which the philosopher Thomas Metzinger refers to as minimal phenomenal experience or pure consciousness. Ainslie Meares used the method for the treatment of anxiety and physical and emotional pain, but he also presented it as a way to “[e]xpand [the] mind without the use of drugs”. 

In the first part of the Transrationale segment of this INSIGHT Forum, Dr. Toby Woods will share select verses from Ainslie Meares’ poetry, and provide a light commentary designed to contextualize them and make them more accessible. The verses capture the nonconceptual essence of the practice and at the same time communicate in practical terms key aspects of the meditation technique and experience and their effects in daily life. In the second part of the Transrationale, Dr. Woods will give the group a direct experience of the meditation. 

For the Rationale segment, Dr. Woods will present on how the Do Nothing practice may complement or provide an alternative to use of psychedelics for expanding the mind and/or treating clinical issues. As part of his presentation, Dr. Woods will summarize key findings from his 7 years full-time research comparing the practice with traditional forms of meditation.  He will explain how the research indicates that the practice may provide a shortcut to complete stillness of mind, which in traditional methods is said to be difficult to achieve. 

Program: 

18:50 Welcome and opening 

19:00 Poetry reading (with light commentary) and Do Nothing meditation session 

20:00 Presentation on Do Nothing practice and psychedelics, with Q&A 

21:00 Networking