Using a Chills-Inducing Score to Augment Loving Kindness Meditation: Effects on Self-Transcendence, Emotional Breakthrough, and Psychological Insight

Non-pharmacologically induced altered states of consciousness that promote mental health and wellbeing are a growing focus of clinical and basic research. Previous work has revealed the mood-augmenting, belief-altering, and self-transcendent effects of aesthetic-chills-inducing audiovisual stimulation. The current study investigated how a guided loving kindness meditation (LKM) combined with uplifting, chills-inducing music (henceforth: chills-augmented) affected participants' mood, self-transcendence (ST), psychological insight, and emotional breakthrough. We conducted a randomized, controlled online study (n=398) using a 2 x 2 design comparing a validated loving kindness meditation (LKM) to mindfulness-based control (MC), each with chills-augmentation (+) and without (-). As hypothesized, LKM, compared to MC, increased connectedness to others, while chills-augmentation to either stimulus (LKM+/MC+) enhanced ST, mood, emotional breakthrough, and psychological insight. Mediation analyses confirmed that the occurrence of aesthetic chills during meditation predicted the these downstream effects. They also found trait measures that independently (of main effects) contributed to distinct outcomes: absorption predicted feelings of ego-dissolution, connectedness to the world and self, and moral elevation; interoceptive awareness predicted ego-dissolution and connectedness to self; and vividness of internal imagery predicted connectedness to the world and others. This work can further our understanding of and access to non-ordinary experiences that beget salutogenic, prosocial outcomes.