A Clinician’s View from Contemporary Nepal: Interviews with Dr. Pawan Sharma

Most psychological and clinical research in the United States on “adverse meditation effects” has studied “meditators-in-distress” of European descent who utilize modern(ist) meditation forms. This paper, written from my dual perspective as both religious studies scholar and psychotherapist, offers a counterpoint, drawing on ethnographic interviews with Nepali psychiatrist Pawan Sharma and his treatment of “meditation-related psychosis.” Practicing in what he calls a “meditation culture,” Sharma argues that contemporary clinicians should better account for religio-cultural difference. For example, he doesn’t pathologize Nepalese temple-goers who experience “transient possession” because such episodes are socially normative. But Sharma is also resolutely biomedically-minded asserting that, ultimately, it’s “all about the neurochemicals.” He believes a “core psychopathology” remains consistent among “meditators-in-distress” throughout history across cultures. Nonetheless, Sharma is also open to healing resources typically categorized as “religious.” I conclude by considering Sharma’s vision “that clinicians and religious scholars should work together” to care for meditators-in-distress.