Embodied Practitioner Knowledge: Reconfiguring the Boundary between Science and Meditation

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ABSTRACTThe scientific study of meditation is a new field of cross-disciplinary investigation that brings together neuroscientists, psychologists, and expert meditators. One might expect that in order to protect their scientific authority and objectivity, scientists who study meditation would try to distance themselves from meditation practitioners; however, a personal practice of meditation was not only accepted among scientists who study meditation, but it was also encouraged. Interviews with thirty scientists who study meditation revealed that this overlap could be explained by a new category of internal boundary practices that facilitated this collaboration: embodied practitioner knowledge. Whereas external boundary practices enable people on either sides of a boundary to work together, internal boundary practices are critical for understanding how individuals who occupy liminal spaces between disparate groups use their own bodies to support the crossing of boundaries. Scientists who both researched and practiced mediation reported that their meditation practice enabled them to translate between two domains that are epistemologically distinct, thus forging new pathways and areas of research. Moreover, meditation practice strengthens authoritative claims for objective knowledge. Embodied practitioner knowledge complements (and is supported by) other boundary practices such as standardized packages, boundary objects, and boundary organizations.