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The following excerpt describes the interview process in the authors’ study, as well as the fluctuating moods and behaviors that many prisoners experience after beginning meditation and yoga. Farias and Wikholm discuss the dangerous effects that prisoners might have when they are too aware of their emotions, sharing a letter from an inmate. Downward Dog with Deviants – Yoga For Prisoners     The interview process was quite full on keen to get as many participants as we could, I would often interview several prisoners a day. The majority went very smoothly. All the prisoners were taking part voluntarily, and all of them wanted to do the yoga, so it’s probably not surprising that they were generally co-operative. Many also seemed to be pleased to have the opportunity to speak to a human being who wasn’t a prison officer or another prisoner, even if the conversations mostly involved me asking them about 200 closed questions regarding their mood and behavior. Only a couple of times did I find myself in an uncomfortable situation. Once, I had to halt an interview midway. All was going well until the prisoner thought that the question ‘How guilty have you felt over the last week, on a scale of one to five?’ implied that he was guilty of his offense. His response was aggressive, raising his voice and slamming his hands down on the table. When he had calmed down enough to give his answer, it was a very emphatic ‘1’ (‘not at all’). We continued for about three more questions until I had to ask: ‘How ashamed have you felt over the last week?’ The response this time was an angry tirade of denial and fury at the criminal justice system – and it was the only time during the interviews that I…

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Question:

I wanted to ask you a question about metaphysical meditation. I think that is what it is but am not sure.

Since I was a child I have on occasion meditated on the physical universe and all existence within it. Visualizing its vastness in my mind. I then try to bring my focus to the outside of that universe, to the outside of that physical space. What was there before the universe? And what space is that space since it cannot be the physical universe. If it was not here there still must be something or is it just nothingness? Unbeing…is that possible?

Thinking about that visualization and focusing on that meditation brings on a very overwhelming feeling which is indescribable. I think it is fear or anxiousness. I am not sure. I even physically feel it right in my solar plexus and the tingling sensation has been so strong that I have to stop the meditation at times.

However on 2 occasions the mediation ended in an overwhelming feeling of happiness or satisfaction I am not sure again. The first time this happened was when I was about 8 or 9 years old and it was the first time I thought about it. I wondered what would there be if none of us were here including the universe. What would be left? And the meditation left me with an actual high. Since then it has happened one other time.

Could you please shed some light on what is going on? What is it that I am trying to conceptualize and why does it give me such a strange feeling? I am a Buddhist in philosophy but am not familiar with all of the various dogma from the lines of teaching. I simply try and follow the simple tenets and mostly the teachings of the Dalai Lama and a few other Buddhist teachers such as Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.