ABSTRACT
Our understanding of the effects of meditations developing existential insight is very limited. This chapter provides an in-depth examination of this type of meditation, starting with an overview of insight practice categories and conceptualizations. Neuroscientific evidence relevant to existential insight practices is discussed in four categories: attentional foundations of existential insight, changes in the default mode network, investigations of neural correlates of self-construal and psychophysiological studies of dream yoga. The theoretical discussion is then applied in practical considerations about how to integrate practices cultivating existential insight into everyday life as part of daytime and night-time (dream yoga) practice.
