Dear Editor,
I beg to differ from Anne Alexander who accuses Norman Wells of being unChristlike in his strictures regarding mindfulness. Mindfulness is unashamedly Buddhist in its beliefs and practices and its chief sponsor is Action For Happiness of which the Dalai Lama is patron.
Many testify to the benefits of mindfulness to tackle anxiety, stress, exhaustion and depression, but it has a dark side. The New York Times of 30 June 2014 carried an article by Anna North entitled ‘The Mindfulness Backlash’ In it she refers to Dr Willoughby Britton, a professor of psychiatry and human behaviour who works with people who feel they’ve been harmed by meditation – one man described going through ‘psychological hell’ as a result of his practice, while another worried he was ‘permanently ruined’.
