Awakening to Death: How Long-Term Sufi Meditation Shapes Prosocial Responses to Mortality Salience

Terror Management Theory posits that awareness of mortality typically elicits defensive responses, yet emerging evidence suggests that meditation may promote adaptive outcomes. This study examined whether long-term Sufi meditation—a contemplative practice emphasizing direct engagement with death—is associated with reduced existential defensiveness and altered prosocial orientation following mortality salience (MS). Fifty-five Iranian participants (24 Sufi meditators, 31 non-meditators) completed implicit measures of self- versus other-oriented attitudes before and after MS, along with affective and cognitive assessments post-MS. Non-meditators showed increased prosocial orientation after MS, consistent with worldview defense strategies. In contrast, Sufi meditators exhibited greater accessibility of death-related thoughts, lower anxiety, and a preference for self-related information, suggesting reduced defensive avoidance. Among meditators, years of practice correlated negatively with anxiety and negative affect. These findings indicate that sustained contemplative engagement with mortality may buffer existential defensiveness, fostering more adaptive affective and cognitive responses.