Can meditators transcend construing processes?
Jerald R Forster
College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Abstract
Meditation practices can be described as focused concentration on the
present moment. Medita-tion practitioners report experiences of "stifling
the mind" and "becoming one with everything." Personal Construct Psychology
posits construing processes involving personal constructs, distinc-tions
that establish meaning through contrast. The bases of distinction that
ground construing pro-cesses are themselves predications used for interpretations
and anticipations. In this paper, medi-tation practices will be interpreted
in terms of construing processes. A basic question will be ex-plored. Can
meditators achieve a state of processing that is essentially different
from what they experience during "normal" construing? That question was
explored with selected meditators and a summary of their reflections will
be presented in this paper. Discussion of the results will also explore
the idea of whether or not differences between meditation processes and
"normal" con-struing processes should be characterized as "transcending."
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