Can meditation change your MBTI type

[Black Rose]

Just curiousness as to the affects.

I vs E
N vs S
T vs F
P vs J

 

[Fukyo]

Meditation? Dunno. A steel object penetrating your skull and leaving you miraculously alive just might do the trick.

 

[s0nystyle]

doubt it, when i did yoga i still felt like a INTP

 

[Adymus]

No.

 

[Philosophyking87]

(Can't believe I'm agreeing with a douchebag), but No. I doubt it.

 

[ckm]

No, but it can help develop functions.

 

[Jah]

Perhaps balance you more, but for real change you'd probably need more than just meditation, something like Re-imprinting, which takes massive doses of LSD combined with a guide who's well versed within the psyche and how to stimulate the correct responses within your mind.

So, no.

But there might be a way to change your MBTI, given the right environment and stimuli.

 

[Words]

Of course, anything is possible. (well..almost)

 

[Moocow]

Nope. In my experience, meditation just seems to somehow exercise the functions I don't normally use, which leads to a better clarity of thought and action. In the end I'm still an INTP though.

 

[s0nystyle]

If you really want to change your type try robo-tripping

WARNING: ROBO-TRIPPING IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS. CARELESS ROBO-TRIPPING MAY RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY AND OR DEATH.

but srsly. consuming massive amounts of robotusin screws with your head

 

[Jah]

robo-tripping, turned out from a quick scan of google, to be based upon DXM, which is said to be similar to Ketamine.

Perhaps John C. Lilly has advice in relation to that. (Btw. Have any of you read his memoirs ?)

 

[Maverick]

No.

how can you be so sure?

 

[Puffy]

He knows all.

 

[Adymus]

how can you be so sure?

1. There is no logical reasoning to suggest that it would work.
2. It is not exactly something that has been proven to be true.
3. Based on my own understanding, I don't think it is possible to change your type in any way at all.
4. I suppose it is possible, but I don't see why I should consider it likely to be true based only on a possibility. I'm pretty open minded, but I still like to rank my possibilities based on how likely they are to be true.

So yeah.

The way I see it, changing your type through mediation is in the same ballpark as changing your eye color through meditation.

 

[Pants]

1. There is no logical reasoning to suggest that it would work.
2. It is not exactly something that has been proven to be true.

The burden of proof lies just as much on your view, that personality can't be changed by conscious reflection, as it does on opposite statement.

3. Based on my own understanding, I don't think it is possible to change your type in any way at all.
4. I suppose it is possible, but I don't see why I should consider it likely to be true based only on a possibility. I'm pretty open minded, but I still like to rank my possibilities based on how likely they are to be true.

What makes you think that it's more likely that meditation can't affect personality?

The way I see it, changing your type through mediation is in the same ballpark as changing your eye color through meditation.

The way eye see, eye colour is influenced solely by genetics while personality is subject to other influences as well. I remember, for instance, being much more sociable as a young boy than I was as an adolescent and I can't help but suspect that the change was facilitated by informal and perhaps unconscious 'meditation' on circumstance, even if it was also affected by a genetic disposition. I think it very likely that meditation, in one form or another, might be able to change how people see and interact with other people. You could argue that the altered behaviour would be unnatural and not a true reflection of personality, but that assumes that there's a true personality. I would sooner think that there's just a set of inclinations.

And, really, MBTIs deal more with behavior than with some abstract notion of an actual self. Do you really think that one couldn't change the answer to "I avoid unnecessary interaction." through meditation if they so desired?

PS - I stumbled on one of your youtube videos this morning and have the exact same sort of repeating sentences. Like a placeholder, the last sentence just keeps looping until something new shows up. Grr.

 

[Adymus]

The burden of proof lies just as much on your view, that personality can't be changed by conscious reflection, as it does on opposite statement.

Well for one, there is a very big difference between developing your personality, and outright changing it. The difference is developing it gives you access and more proficient use of other cognitive functions. Outright changing that personality would completely shifting your Source functions, becoming a 100% different personality.
And No, the burden of proof does not lie on my shoulders, there are no examples of anyone who has ever done this, nor proof that it can be done, my skepticism is fully justified.

What makes you think that it's more likely that meditation can't affect personality?

If you had the understanding of the theory that I did, you would probably think so too, but I am not going to get into this.

The way eye see, eye colour is influenced solely by genetics while personality is subject to other influences as well. I remember, for instance, being much more sociable as a young boy than I was as an adolescent and I can't help but suspect that the change was facilitated by informal and perhaps unconscious 'meditation' on circumstance, even if it was also affected by a genetic disposition. I think it very likely that meditation, in one form or another, might be able to change how people see and interact with other people. You could argue that the altered behaviour would be unnatural and not a true reflection of personality, but that assumes that there's a true personality. I would sooner think that there's just a set of inclinations.

Again, I don't think you realize just how significantly massive a complete change of personality would be. It is more than just improving yourself, it is not even necessarily an improvement. Imagine at one point in your life being a person who desires knowledge and abstract contemplation of the universe. Then you meditate, now all of a sudden all you really care about is having fun and playing racing games.

And, really, MBTIs deal more with behavior than with some abstract notion of an actual self. Do you really think that one couldn't change the answer to "I avoid unnecessary interaction." through meditation if they so desired?

No it doesn't dude, read more Jung please, I'm really too lazy to explain it all to you right now.

 

[Pants]

Alright, say you scored 51% I, 51% N, 51% T and 51% P then you had a good long think and decided that you'd like to be a little more socially engaged, more compassionate and more decisive. Do you think you'd still score INTP after six months of thinking like this?

 

[Adymus]

*facepalm*

 

[Pants]

I'm not sure what you're facepalming about. The question was whether meditation can change your personality type as measured by the MBTI; your MBTI type. Beyond my positing the existence of non-intrinsic influences on personality there's been no discussion of the theoretical mechanisms behind the measurable preferences.

I agree that you'll likely not go from being a person who desires knowledge and abstract contemplation of the universe to someone who only really cares about having fun and playing racing games. I disagree, though, that it is impossible, through meditation, to affect your preferences such that when measured by an MBTI the result will have changed. Why, I even think it possible that an accurately measured 51,51,51,51 INTP could later be accurately measured as a 51,51,51,51 ESFJ.

Abstract
Randomly assigned 61 undergraduate volunteers to Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM), quiet sitting (SIT), or wait list' and 19 others to Open Focus (OF) or wait list2. Ss were tested before training and again 8 weeks later. All groups but wait list2 decreased significantly on Spielberger's trait anxiety. All groups became nonsignificantly more internal on Rotter's locus of control. On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, meditation volunteers were more introverted than extraverted, intuitive than sensing, feeling than thinking, and perceiving than judging. All groups became more intuitive, approaching signicance for CSM only. OF became significantly more extraverted than both CSM and SIT, and CSM significantly more so than wait list'. Practice time correlated with anxiety reduction for the combined treatment groups. More evidence was found for correlations of practice time and outcome with growth motivation than with either new experience motivation or expectancy of benefit.

 

[Adymus]

I agree that you'll likely not go from being a person who desires knowledge and abstract contemplation of the universe to someone who only really cares about having fun and playing racing games.

Then you just agreed with my entire premise.

From this point on our disagreement is somatic only, and I really don't feel like having to brain dump an entire conceptual model onto you for the sake of this discussion.

One more thing though, Test results =/= Personality type, we expand our minds, but we don't replace them, you feel me?

 

[BigApplePi]

My intuition says no one is going to change their temperament in any major way. If one is 51% 51% 51% 51% by some measurement and it goes to 49% 49% 49% 49% you have changed 2% 2% 2% 2%. So what is that? I see no reason why couldn't change that much if one forms a new attitude.

If one is 51% of anything, I would think that would never put one "hard" into that category. That's silly. One is borderline. (If one is 5 feet 7 inches, would you want to call that borderline for tall or short and insist 5 7 1/2 inches is tall?)

Temperament is not like electing a political candidate or entrance into a fraternity. It's NOT all or nothing one way versus the other. If you must label yourself something and you are 51%, that's tough. You are borderline.

This is different from the discovery one has moods or emotional states which bring one to another temperament within one's main temperament. I have an example of that in myself but no one commented I recall when I posted it.

 

[BigApplePi]

Another comment about borderlines. There seem to be both societal and behavioral characteristics which bring one to polarize. I haven't read about this. These are just thoughts so maybe YOU can think of something better.

1. Sex. One goes one way or the other, but there are still bisexuals and asexuals.

2. Handedness. I mean righty versus lefty. This may be strongly inherited. Once one discovers the inclination, one is more likely to develop it. One can still be ambidextrous.

3. Thinking versus feeling. For all I know the way one starts off in life, that is the way one will develop but they don't HAVE to. In a large family, siblings will tend to develop specialties. They have to to gain an identity. So it may be with feeling versus thinking. But I would think a person born on the borderline would not necessarily be COMPELLED to polarize.

 

[snafupants]

If one meditated non-stop for five to seven years - as in 8+ hours per day - one would gradually experience an overhaul in one's normal personality. But looking at individual components of MBTI, one's personality would not change per se. Decisions would still be based on logic over feeling - although subjectivity would be higher - and the N and P would assuredly stay the same. Even if one were on the cusp, I would hesitate to say someone could metamorposize from INTP to, say, ESTP.

 

[Lobstrich]

doubt it, when i did yoga i still felt like a INTP

In my experience Yoga physical whereas psychological. In other words. Not the same thing. So where you draw the similarities is my question.

 

[Lobstrich]

"Whereas meditation is psychological" *