1. Introduction

Research on meditation, in particular mindfulness meditation, is advancing steadily. However, many other forms of meditation, such as Anthroposophic meditation, have yet to be investigated. Anthroposophic meditation is not well-known and has not previously been studied using the methods of qualitative content analysis. A full account of Anthroposophic meditation cannot be given here, as the range of practices is very extensive and so are their theoretical underpinnings. More in-depth overviews have been published elsewhere [1,2] and these will only be summarized here. Anthroposophic meditation arose in the early 20^th century. Its main features of are outlined in the basic writings of Rudolf Steiner [3–8] and expanded upon in different writings and lectures contained in more than 300 volumes. Characteristics that can serve as a way of differentiating Anthroposophic meditation practice are an emphasis on cognitive development (primarily thinking) and that it seeks to realize a higher self that is not ego-centered but still individual [9]. Furthermore, Anthroposophic meditation is often connected to other areas of human activity, such as investigating the natural world [10,11], and it is conceived of as providing support for pedagogy [12], medicine [13], agriculture [14], and religious practice [15]. For further characterization and historical contextualization of Anthroposophic meditation, see the commentary by Clement [16] and Sparby [1]. A typical Anthroposophic meditation consists of consciously activating different capacities of the mind, such as feelings, visualizations, and thoughts, in association with words or sentences. This is sometimes referred to as mantra meditation and is the most common form of meditation undertaken by the current sample[2].

Furthermore, certain aspects of meditation that may have an impact on the effectiveness and the actual outcome of the meditation practice, such as motivation, have received little attention. By investigating motivations for Anthroposophic practice, this article addresses both of these issues. Anthroposophy is increasingly becoming a topic of academic research [17–24]. Though there exists a handful of studies that address Anthroposophic meditation [10,25–30], the motivations that people have for meditating anthroposophically have yet to be examined. To our knowledge, this study is the first to address this issue. In combining a data-driven and theory-driven approach, it seeks to develop an initial overview of forms of motivation for Anthroposophic meditation practice today, to discover patterns of motivational change, and to compare Anthroposophic practice with other traditions and forms of meditation in relation to motivation.

What motivates meditation practice in general? Not much is known about this; there have only been few studies up until now [31–34]. Much more is known about the beneficial effects of meditation, in particular mindfulness meditation [35]. It should be obvious that all beneficial effects, or the idea of such effects, are potential motivators, though what these effects are varies greatly. However, some motivations may be more likely to provide the intended results, and, conversely, some motivations may be detrimental to obtaining particular effects. In addition, certain motivations may be supportive of establishing regular practice, which can be seen as a precondition the successful application of a meditative technique. Traditionally oriented and contemporary meditation manuals also put an emphasis on having a clear motivation and of regularly reminding oneself of this [36,37]. The level of adherence to practice varies considerably [38], and is related to adverse effects [39,40], personality, and other factors [31]. One meditation teacher is reported having said that he considered it a success if 5% of course participants were still meditating one year after taking an introductory course [41], and a study done Shapiro has found that there is indeed congruence between sought after and actual results, though perceived benefits can be both higher and lower than expected [31].

The same study [31] differentiates between three forms of motivations: Self-regulation, self-exploration, and self-liberation. While self-regulation includes stress and pain management, self-exploration includes personal insight and self-understanding, and self-liberation includes not only liberation from the ego, but also “developing a sense of harmony with the universe; the ability to increase one’s compassion, sensitivity and service to others” [31]. Together these are referred to as the SR-SE-SL continuum. This study also indicated that there is a shift from self-regulation to self-liberation on this continuum depending on the duration of practice. In Germany, a questionnaire has been developed by Schmidt and Netzt that based on a similar continuum: Well-being, self-regulation, self-exploration, self-transformation [42,43]. In applying this questionnaire it was found “that people with longer meditation experience have stronger spiritual motivation compared to more motivation for relaxation and wellbeing, which is more prevalent in short term meditators” [34].

A recent study of motivations for mindfulness meditation came to the conclusion that the only significant difference in motivation between meditators with less than 12 months of practice and those with more, was that the first group tended to be more motivated by reducing physical pain than the latter [33]. The results from the qualitative part of this study showed that spiritual reasons were slightly more likely to motivate commencing with practice (6.32%) than to motivate continuing with practice (4.23%), which can be seen to contradict Shapiro’s findings. However, this change in motivation is not significant, and may have to do with the more specific question of what motivates beginning with meditation and continuing with it. A further study of a group using mindfulness-based stress reduction to counter stress-related issues failed to reveal clear connections between different forms of intentions and outcomes [32]. However, there is evidence that certain forms of meditation, such as compassion training or metta meditation (also referred to as loving-kindness meditation, which consists of cultivating attitudes such as friendliness, gratitude, and benevolence towards others) themselves change people’s behavior and motivation towards being more pro-social [44]. Hence the answer to why there is a change in people’s motivation for meditation in the direction of becoming more spiritual (which includes compassion for Shapiro) might be that the meditation technique itself changes the practitioner. Shapiro’s study is the only one that has looked into differences between beginners and long-term practitioners, which is, of course, a prerequisite for uncovering overarching developmental patterns. Clearly, there is a need for further study within this area, not only to discover developmental patters and connections between motivation and effects, but also in order to be able to compare motivations between different traditions and forms of meditation. Further variables to investigate would be other forms of motivational shifts over time in relation to intensity and duration of practice, the influence of the worldview and conceptual framework of the practitioners, and also the sociocultural context in which the practice is undertaken (in a hospital, Eastern or Western monastery, solitary or group practice, etc.). However, since motivations are related to practice and different forms of practice may change the practitioners in a variety of different and unique ways, it may not be possible to generalize motivations across traditions and types of meditation.

2. Participants and methods

The design of this study was inspired by the “Varieties of Contemplative Experience” project [45,46]. Inclusion criteria for participants were: being at least 18 years of age, having Anthroposophic meditation as a main element of their meditation practice, having a regular meditation practice of at least one year, and having experienced at least one significant or unexpected effect of meditation, whether positive or negative. To ensure that the subjects could give accounts of a wide range of topics and phenomena, subjects with extensive experience in Anthroposophic meditation were purposefully recruited by approaching Anthroposophic meditators, face-to-face or by email, who were either friends, acquaintances, or colleagues of the authors. Further subjects were recruited with the aid of snowball sampling [47]. Thirty meditators of European origin were recruited (see Table 1 for demographic characteristics).

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Table 1. Characteristics of sample (N = 30).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203184.t001

The study design was approved by the local IRB at the University of Giessen, Fachbereich 06, Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft" (application 2014–0014). Written consent was obtained from all participants.

With two exceptions all interviews were conducted in person, and had a semi-structured open-ended format. The interviews were conducted by the first author (a male postdoctoral researcher), who received training by colleagues and collaborating researchers, and were carried out either German, English or Norwegian. Potential subjects were informed about the nature of the study both informally and through a standardized document; this included the participants being informed about the aim of studying more meditative traditions, such as Anthroposophy, and investigating the whole range of meditation experiences and effects, such as potential adverse effects. All interviews were audio recorded and the average duration of the recordings was about 1 hour and 40 minutes. After the audio recording of the interviews had been transcribed, a thematic analysis of the content was undertaken [48,49] using software (MAXQDA) for qualitative data analysis. The software helped establish the hierarchical order of the categories (see Table 2) and also to get an overview over which, and how often, motivations were connected to each other, either as different aspects of a compound motivation or in the form of a developmental trajectory. All participants were offered the opportunity to review and edit the transcripts. Three participants chose to do so. All interviewees were asked what their initial motivation for meditation practice was, and the analysis below is mainly based on their responses to this question. Major changes in the participants’ meditation practice became a topic in many interviews. Descriptions of the reasons for these were also included in the present study. Some subjects had experiences with other forms of meditation before coming to Anthroposophy. Responses that were not related to Anthroposophic practice were included as well, since they might give an indication of what kinds of motivations are representative of people who become attracted to Anthroposophic meditation. Additional questions were asked about any positive, negative, surprising or unexpected effects that the practitioners had experienced, but the responses to these were only taken into account in the present analysis insofar as they were deemed relevant to the question of what motivated their practice.

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Table 2. Forms, themes and characteristics of motivations for meditation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203184.t002

The method of analysis was both data-driven and theory-driven, both inductive and deductive. The reason for combining methods was that “there are no previous studies dealing with the phenomenon [motivations for Anthroposophic meditation]”, [50] which justifies an inductive approach, but also to “test a previous theory in a different situation”, [50] which requires a deductive approach. The themes were initially developed inductively based on the interview transcripts by the first author and then checked for validity by the second author. The 14 themes that were extracted were organized according to an overarching scheme influenced by Shapiro’s idea of an SR-SE-SL continuum and other motivational theories from psychology [51] and philosophy [52,53]. The divergence from Shapiro’s scheme were in part due to explanations the participants made of their own motivational shifts and in part due to implicit changes in motivation apparent when taking the biographical development of the participants as it was evidenced by the interviews into consideration. Additionally, some themes (such as duty, suggestion from others) did not fit into with Shapiro’s continuum, which led to a development of a new overarching scheme of external, internal and service motivations. Hence the analysis consisted of a dynamic process of interaction between the participant’s self-interpretation and the author’s interpretation of the participants’ statements, on the one hand, and employment of theory, on the other [54]. Once the overarching scheme was established, the transcripts where reviewed again, and this led to some minor revisions of how the themes were anchored in the transcripts, but not to major new discoveries. Some participants who were been present during initial presentations of the findings have provided feedback to the analysis, but this lead to no changes to it. Note that the different categories should not be considered to have clear-cut boundaries and other ways of organizing them may be possible. In particular, the distinction between internal and external motivations may be counterintuitive, since some motivations that are identified as external here can be considered as psychologically internal (for instance “needs and longings”) while others belong to the social environment (such as “suggestion by others”). It can be discussed to what extent the social environment is really distinct from the psyche, but this is beyond the scope of this article. The three categories presented below have the advantage that they enable the tracking of a specific form of psychological development, namely the one that is based on becoming reflectively aware of why one is doing something. Hence it is suggested that the reader understands external motivations as heteronomous, non-reflected, and/or indistinct, while internal motivations are autonomous, reflected, and/or articulate, as explained below.

3. Results and interpretation of specific themes: Motivations for anthroposophic meditation

Why do Anthroposophic practitioners meditate? As already indicated, three overarching forms of motivation were identified. One is a set of external motivations, where the practitioner describes the reason for why they meditate as something that comes to them from “the outside” and cannot be clearly formulated as a specific motif. External motivations contain such themes as suggestion from others, but also includes acting out of a (pre-)disposition or a given need (i.e. dispositions and needs that do not arise out of second order considerations of what kind of person the subject wants to be). Such motivations are opposed to internal motivations, where the practitioner has a clear idea of what the aim of their meditative practice is and how it relates to their own identity.

Examples of themes of internal motivations are self-development and self-improvement. The distinction between external and internal motivations drawn here based on the qualitative analysis is similar to the theoretical idea of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation [51], but mainly follows Kant’s distinction between heteronomous and autonomous acts [52]. An internally motivated meditator is more autonomous than someone who is motivated externally. However, external motivations can become internal, and certain motivations that seem internal can be different forms of introjected motivations. For example, duties imposed by social norms can be adhered to in an internal way if the subject is capable of giving reasons for these norms. Whether someone really identifies with these reasons is another question, and such an identification is a necessary condition for a motivation to be fully internal. In the current analysis care was taken to focus on what the subject stated while not speculating about which forms of internal motivations might be “impure”, i.e. introjected. The third from of motivation, service, is a combination of internal and external motivation: The subject is internally motivated to act for the benefit of someone or something else, which could also be considered a realization of freedom that goes beyond the distinction of heteronomy and autonomy [53], being fundamentally about relatedness [55]. Hence motivations can be seen as a process that forms a circle: They start out as external unreflected motivations, then become internally reflected motivations, and finally they are reflectively related to the external world again (other human beings, nature, etc.), which closes the circle. Again, care has been taken not to speculate about whether motivations of service are actually external motivations in disguise or varying degrees of introjected duties or norms. While themes are not mutually exclusive, external and internal forms of generally motivations are, although combinations are also possible.

It can be noted that no participant numbers are given in the following. This is to provide an extra level of anonymity; the Anthroposophic community is relatively small (there are about 47.000 members of the Anthroposophical Society worldwide [56]; the Anthroposophical Society in Germany has less than 14.000 members [57]). Though it is unknown how many people practice Anthroposophic meditation, participants of this study are likely to know or at least know of each other because of the snowball sampling that was utilized for recruitment. We expect more publications to come from this study and if participants numbers are used, it could potentially be possible to identify participants by coordinating numbers and quotations.

4. General interpretation of the themes

Sometimes different themes overlap. For example, a need to relax can be connected to self-regulation. In other words, different themes can function as parts of more complex motivations. The overarching forms of motivation can also be related to each other, especially over time. What starts as an external need or curiosity can become a clearly formulated intention of developing higher capacities or realizing oneself as a human being.

Though one could say that each and every case is highly individual, it is possible to notice certain patterns of development. A typical pattern seems to be a change from external motivation to internal. Here is an example: One subject stated that meditation for him was “somehow a need” and that it was connected with a “sense of meaning”. He also stated that as a child he had had the same deep sense of meaning when he went to church, something he did without anyone telling him to do so, but rather “because of an inner longing”. Here there is a mixture of internal and external motivations; on one level he went freely, i.e., autonomously, but behind all of this there was a longing for something (which could be construed as heteronomy). Most likely the deep sense of meaning had to do with the sense of meaning that was experienced in the church. The sense of meaning was not elaborated any further in the interview, but it could possibly be interpreted along the lines of being something that has to do with the self of the subject, so that the longing was for self-realization or even initiation.

As has been mentioned earlier, there are also examples of connections between having a disposition for meditation and spirituality and having had spiritual experiences as a child. Having a need or longing for something spiritual also can develop into a motivation for developing the higher capacities described in Anthroposophic literature, and the need can be connected to becoming more self-realized. There is also a case, which has been touched upon earlier, where an initial motivation of coping with life transformed into developing higher capacities and was combined with a wish for practically applying meditative skills for researching eurythmy. For some, self-regulation is a matter of self-improvement, and self-improvement can also be seen to be related to self-realization. Finally, a tendency also seems to be that in order to establish a regular practice, an external motivation has to become either a motivation that is internal or a motivation of service. For instance, there is one example of someone initially being drawn to meditation due to a disposition, while the practice becomes regular when it shifted to a motivation of service. A spiritual disposition could indeed be understood as a disposition towards service. Certainly, if we understand spirituality to mean a sense of connection to the whole out of which separate existence arises, then service could be understood as a way of embodying or manifesting spirituality.

Again, there is one clear overarching trajectory of development that goes from external motivation, through internal, to a motivation of service. The subjects often start out motivated by something that in one way or another is given from the outside. It can be a certain disposition towards meditation, a need or longing, simply curiosity, or a sense of duty. Sometimes external life circumstances or a tendency of having difficult emotions leads to using meditation as a way of self-regulating. This can be a way of self-improvement or of realizing one’s deeper nature, which is also related to the sense that one needs meditation or that one has a need to reconnect with the spiritual world. Often meditation is motivated by trying to open up an access to a spiritual world, which one hears of or has had some encounter with earlier, or simply has had a longing for. As the capacities start developing and a connection is established, the motivation can shift towards being about either realizing Anthroposophy, practically applying one’s capacities, or service to the world and humanity in general. This is then a way of manifesting the connection to the spiritual world within this world, a way of overcoming the situation where the spiritual is transcendent and not immanent; a further typical characteristic of Anthroposophic meditation and spirituality in general. There are examples of less ideal patterns of development, such as when meditation becomes an empty duty and a burden, but such aspects will have to be treated on another occasion. Though external factors may be an important part of the initial motivation for meditation, the tendency is that the motivation is internalized. This is, furthermore, in accordance with Steiner’s view that meditation is the only act that really is free within human life [72,73]. Hence there is a tension here between how the act of meditation is sometimes initially approached and how it was originally conceived. Furthermore, participants of this study have indicated that meditating out of duty, or similar external reasons, is both a source of psychological conflict as well as not being sufficient for establishing a regular practice. It can therefore possibly be helpful for beginning meditators who want to avoid this to reflect on their reasons for meditating, finding a way of internalizing the motivation, if it starts out as being external.

5. Discussion

Again, to our knowledge this is the first study of Anthroposophic meditation. 14 themes were extracted based on the data and were organized within an overarching framework consisting of external, internal, and service motivations. Certain motivations seem to be specific to Anthroposophy, especially when compared to mindfulness meditation. However, all forms of motivation identified by Shapiro can also be found among Anthroposophic practitioners. Furthermore, there are indications that the motivation for Anthroposophic practice gradually becomes more spiritual, but in ways that cannot be fully accounted for by the SR-SE-SL trajectory identified by Shapiro. The main reason for this might be that Anthroposophic meditators rarely seem to view meditation primarily as a way of self-regulation, but rather approach meditation with a spiritual understanding from the very beginning. Still, motivational shifts do happen, and it will be suggested that they follow a trajectory that proceeds from external motivations to internal motions and motivations of service.

It is possible to locate at least some of the themes extracted here on the SR-SE-SL continuum. Self-regulation (SR) has already been identified as one theme. Self-regulation can also be seen to include self-improvement, in the sense of developing character and virtue. However, self-liberation is sometimes seen to include personal growth, and hence self-improvement could also be located there. What is referred to here as self-realization is probably the theme that comes closes to Shapiro’s category of self-exploration (SE). Most of the themes extracted from the interviews would belong to Shapiro’s category of self-liberation (which also include service motivations, harmony with the universe, etc.): Spiritual experience, develop capacities of higher knowledge, realize Anthroposophy, service to humanity, practical application. In contrast, reasons such as disposition, duty, suggestion from others, and curiosity do not fit neatly anywhere, though the theme of need and longing can probably be understood either as a variety either of SE-motivation or SL since it sometimes is a longing for self-knowledge or a longing to connect to a spiritual world. The theme of duty can be seen as a motivation of service, which belongs to SL, though in the form it has been treated here, it is a matter of a duty that has not been internalized. The forms of motivation discussed in Pepping et al. 2016 [33] mostly concern SR, which makes further comparisons with that study difficult.

It seems apparent then that the way that motivations have been categorized in the research up until now is somewhat confused. However, this can be understood as a reflection of motivations are sometimes overlapping, or that they cannot be separated clearly from each other, or that they exist on a continuum. Furthermore, motivations need not always be very clear to the meditators themselves, especially in the beginning, and it should not be ruled out that motivations can also be expressive of an unconscious drive. What starts as a motivation of SR may on a deeper level be a matter of seeking a better understanding of oneself (SE), and SR, in the sense of reducing suffering, can be seen as the “light” version of SL (ending suffering once and for all). Indeed, in meditation self-exploration that leads to insight and liberation is often present at least implicitly. For example, meditation can bring to light how one is unintentionally creating stress through aversion; as this insight grows it might turn out that there is a drive towards the final end of suffering (liberation) inherent in the subject. Whether unconscious motivations for SE and SL are actually present cannot be decided here, but it could be a part of explaining why motivations shift on the SR-SE-SL continuum.

In order to study motivation for meditation better it should be clear that a more fine-grained and unambiguous system of classification is needed. In order to track connections between motivations and effects, shifts in motivations, etc., it is necessary to know more clearly what forms of motivations we are referring to. The overarching scheme that I have developed here improves on Shapiro’s in that it suggest a distinct line of development proceeding from external (heteronomous) and internal (autonomous) motivations to a unification of the two in service. In contrast, Shapiro’s scheme cannot differentiate between motivations of liberating oneself and compassion; both belong to SL. In the scheme developed here, self-liberation is an internal motivation while compassion would be service.

In other words, the critique of Shapiro’s scheme is twofold: Certain motivations do not fit into the scheme (such as duty, suggestion form others, etc.) and it fails to distinguish between basic forms of human motivation (such as self-centered and other-centered motivation). Both of these problems are remedied by the overarching scheme of the present study. Future research will need to investigate whether the external-internal-service line of development can be empirically supported. Furthermore, additional traditions need to be studied in order to discover the full range of motivations and other possible forms of motivational shift. Indeed, the ultimate aims of meditation may vary between traditions. Hence, clarity in the understanding of motivations for meditation cannot be gained without investigating of the full range of effects of meditation, including different models of enlightenment and liberation, and other contextual factors.

An obvious limitation to this study is the gender imbalance and that the participants come from European countries. A further limitation is that questions about the changes of motivation were not posed systematically and that the focus was on the initial reason for practice. This might explain why there are more external and internal forms of motivation in comparison to service. Future studies should take this into account. If the theory of a shift from external motivations to service is correct, it should be possible to identify more cases exemplifying the latter form.

What has been suggested here is that when systematizing motivations, one of the most fundamental questions is: Who is the intended beneficiary of the practice? Oneself or someone else? In this study the internal and external motivations are primarily self-related, while the motivation of service has others as its focus. One question that deserves further attention is what impact the experience of the dissolution or merging of self and other that is characteristic of some meditations, (such as loving-kindness) has on motivation for meditation practice and life in general. Additionally, it has been suggested that a main difference between motivations is that of heteronomy and autonomy, of unclear impetus (drive/disposition/curiosity) and conscious motif. Finally, it has been suggested that there is a development from heteronomous and autonomous motivations to service, corresponding to shifts on the SR-SE-SL continuum that other studies have indicated. However, further study, including statistical analysis of a much larger sample, is needed to investigate whether such a shift is typical or incidental in Anthroposophic practitioners, and whether the external-internal-service scheme can be found in other communities as well.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to all the members of the research groups in Germany and the United States who have provided feedback and support throughout the process of conceiving, conducting and presenting this research: Freya von Hohnhorst and Michael Tremmel (German group), Willoughby Britton and Jared Lindahl (US group).