Out of Mind: Media, Meditation, and the Problem of the Inner Self

"What does it mean to be "present"? How should we think about calls to "be here now" that we hear from advocates of mindfulness meditation, which is among the most popular practices in the billion-dollar wellness industry? The ideas about presence or awareness that permeate mindfulness meditation emerge from a context of popular beliefs about Buddhism, yoga, mantras, gurus, self-help courses, behavioral therapies and more. In Out of Mind, R. John Williams explores this context and its history, revealing and questioning the philosophies of mind that animate contemporary mindfulness. Criticisms of mindfulness meditation often denounce it as a neoliberal endeavor meant to privatize emotional well-being, or they work to counter its appeal by pointing to clinical reassessments of its supposedly positive effects. Rather than address these common critiques, Out of Mind asks a series of fundamental questions: Why do people want mindfulness meditation to work? What are the expectations they bring to its enactment? And, critically, what exactly does mindfulness meditation imply that the mind is? Through a series of historical case studies--ranging from late nineteenth-century theosophy to transcendental meditation, Buddhist modernism, Heideggerian mindfulness, existential psychology, Cold War brainwashing, and the rise of sensory deprivation tanks-Out of Mind reveals the assumptions that have subtly guided meditators away from recognizing the extended reality of all contemplation, of our being preciously attached and always in-the-world"--