Participate in the Study

For this study we will ask you to fill out an online survey that will include some information about your background, your experience of meditation-related challenges, how you and others responded to those challenges, and anything that might have impacted your experience.

You will also have the option to submit a written narrative if you would like to share your story in more detail. We will not ask for your name or other identifying information.

Participants will be compensated with a $30 gift card for completing the survey. There will also be opportunities to participate in other parts of the study for additional compensation, described below.

Check Your Eligibility →

Who is eligible?

We are seeking anyone who has experienced difficulties, challenges, or distress related to meditation. To be eligible to participate, you must also be 18 years old or older, be able to read and understand English, and to reside in the United States.

What does participation look like?

After filling out the short online screener questionnaire, we will invite participants who may be eligible to a 10-minute zoom conversation for screening purposes. This screening will not be recorded. If eligible, we will share the study consent form with you, and you will have an opportunity to ask any questions you have about the study. The consent form outlines important details to know about the study.
Once you have consented to participate, we will share an online questionnaire with you. The questionnaire is comprehensive because we are interested in the details of your experience. It takes approximately 1-2 hours to complete, and you can take breaks at any point.
After taking the survey, participants will be asked to provide any email through which they can receive a $30.00 gift card as compensation for participating.

Additional Opportunities

After completing the study questionnaire, some participants may also be invited to partake in some of the following activities, which would be further compensated:

We will to invite some participants to an interview as part of the study. This interview would take approximately one hour and would be compensated with a $40.00 gift card.
We will invite some participants to be part of a longitudinal study, in which we would follow up with you once every two months for a span of one year. During that time, we would send you online surveys, although these would be shorter than the first survey in the study. Each survey takes approximately 30-60 minutes.
For the longitudinal study, participants will be compensated slightly more for each additional survey that they take. Compensation for the first survey is $10. Each additional survey is compensated with $3 more. So, each survey that participants complete will be compensated at $10, $13, $16, $19, $22, and $25, respectively.

You can choose to stop participating in the study at any time. We will also provide a resource guide related to any meditation, psychedelic, and/or mental health challenges.

What will we do with the information you give us?

The insights and stories you share will help us better understand the nature of meditation-related difficulties, and to better understand what helps people navigate and recover from meditation-related challenges. The study findings collected will be published and presented to the public. However, no personally identifiable information will be disclosed, and your personal information will not be revealed. We will only report de-identified, anonymized, or aggregated data.

Your Privacy Matters. All data is kept confidential. No identifying information will be published. Only de-identified, anonymized, or aggregated data will be used in study reports.

What is the compensation like?

All components of the study (survey, interview, long-term participation) are compensated with an Amazon gift card sent directly to your email. Here’s what to expect:

$30 for completing the initial 1-2 hour questionnaire.

Those who participate in an interview will be offered a $40 gift card. Those who take part in the longitudinal study will receive up to $105 total compensation for that part of the study. Participants will be given $10 for the first survey, and $3 for each additional survey. The completion of five surveys, including the final survey, earns the participant a $25 bonus.

How can I participate?

As a first step, fill out this brief pre-screener. We will then contact participants who may be eligible for the online screening.