Contemplative research is a multidisciplinary examining contemplative traditions and practices, how different contemplative traditions evolved, how they are applied, and identifying some effects of practising. Contemplative research, as a field, evolved from European and UK interdisciplinary scholarship. Still, the explosion of research into contemplative practices came via US-based collaborations between contemplatives and researchers starting in the 1960s through the influence of approaches such as Transcendental Meditation and transpersonal psychology. An example of contemplative research is when dialogue between various Western psychological disciplines and Buddhist practitioners led to adapting the Buddhist practice of sati (mindfulness) to treat anxiety and depression. The success of this research came, in part, from its focus on how meditation supports aspects of cognition such as attention and non-reactivity, in other words, by having a narrow focus on cognitive processes. Though researchers have always sought to widen the range of research contexts and questions, in the present day, these challenges are critical. The next research phase requires dialogue, openness to critiques, and the capacity to reorient how research is framed and undertaken. How can contemplative research embrace a range of communities and experiences to meet the challenges of our times? To rephrase: How can we (contemplative researchers) acknowledge the strengths of the pioneering work but broaden the dialogue community? How can contemplative researchers identify prohibitive prejudices and open to reframing enquiry to include pace and the more than human? Today, contemplative research is re-engaging its interdisciplinary origins, identifying the need to decolonise, and seeking to actively collaborate with diverse communities and perspectives for the field to reflect a changing world.  

Our panellists are all from the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne. We: A) identify tensions in the orthodox contemplative research, B) show the importance of considering new phenomena, C) provide an account of these phenomena and D) identify how each case can broaden contemplative research. The interdisciplinary panel comprises researchers with backgrounds in public mental health medicine and philosophy of religion and a researcher in psychology. They will propose new ways of framing aspects of contemplative research around ideas of self, how the field understands consciousness, and the role of the more than human in contemplative practice. 

In this panel, Julieta Galante discusses how some early approaches to contemplative research identified the aim of contemplative practice as gaining higher consciousness; this model subtly directed aspects of contemplative research and practice. Tim Wood considers meditation-induced changes in the sense of self and how some intense and disruptive experiences may be salutary or harmful based on the positionality of the meditator. Cullan Joyce examines a Christian monastic practice case study to reflect on the complex ways the more than human impacts contemplative practice and experience. 

Our panel raises these cases to provide pathways for conference participants to reflect on how the more than human can shape contemplative research in its next phases.