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“The number of Americans who meditate spiked to 14.2% in 2017, up from 4.1% in 2012”
I’ve been teaching meditation for more than 40 years so I’ve been tracking this trend for decades. But this surge in interest in the US took even me by surprise. We may have already passed that 20% point on the adoption curve where something becomes a mass phenomena.
The adoption of Eastern meditation practices in the US began more than 100 years ago when Swami Vivekananda, fresh from India, spoke at the World Council of Churches in Chicago in 1893 and became an instant celebrity. He established Ramakrsna Mission ashrams across the country. There is one right in the middle of Berkeley, California, across the bridge from Silicon Valley.
Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the super best seller, Autobiography of a Yogi, picked up the ball in the 1920’s, paving the way for the flood of monks and swamis in the 60’s. Then in 1968, in the PR coup of all time, The Beatles learned meditation. It quickly spread to a host of other rock stars and an entire generation.
This massive spread of interest in meditation due to adoption by celebrities was followed by something of a lull during the ’80’s and 90’s. But in the early 2000’s three new factors appeared on the horizon and began driving a more mainstream adoption of meditation. Interestingly, all three factors are technology related: Stress, Science & Scaling.
Stress: The growing stress epidemic, aggravated by devices and social media addiction, has created an increasingly acute need for peace of mind and focus. Meditation is the no-brainer, side-effect-free solution.
Science: Recent breakthroughs in brain monitoring technology have enabled us to get a first look at what is actually happening inside a living brain. Making possible the thousands of studies into the effects of meditation and mindfulness that are validating the remarkable benefits of meditation, ranging from reducing anxiety and distraction to optimizing focus and creativity.
We are still in the early stages of mainstream adoption, but it is accelerating rapidly. Meditation is not some new fashion that is going to fade away when people find some new fad. This 7000 year old ‘fad’ is the most tested mental, emotional and spiritual health discipline in the history of the world. And now it has the backing of science.
Scaling: When I first searched for the word, ‘meditation’, on Google in 2004 I got 2.4 million results. Last week it was 400 million. But internet search is just one technology feeding this trend. The big accelerator now is meditation phone apps. In 2017 the award winning Calm app. became the first meditation ‘unicorn’ 🦄with a valuation of 1.1 billion $US. When I spoke with Calm co-founder, Michael Acton Smith, he told me they were gaining 2 million new users per month. That was before they got $115 million in funding. And Calm is just one of a growing army of more than 3000 meditation apps spreading this healthy habit like a California summer fire. (Please note: I sure don’t mean to imply that California summer fires are healthy. 🔥 😬😬😬 🔥)
Within very few years meditation will be as widely accepted as a part of a healthy daily routine as exercising and eating your veggies. This beautiful, transformative practice is here to stay. Lucky us. 🍀🙏
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