Mindfulness training and false perception in individuals with high unusual experiences

• The impact of mindfulness on false perceptions was explored.
• Participants identified fast-moving words in a visual display.
• High unusual experiences scores predicted more reports of nonexistent words.
• Mindfulness reduced the reports of nonexistent words.
• Mindfulness may reduce hallucinations in individuals with high schizotypy.

The present study explored the impact of mindfulness training on the relationship between false perceptions (hallucinations) and high levels of unusual experiences. 130 participants completed the O-LIFE(B) scale and a visual-detection task in which they had to identify fast-moving words in a visual display. Each participant completed a version of the visual-detection task twice, once after a 10 min mindfulness induction session, and once after a 10 min unfocused attention control session. Participants scoring high on the unusual experiences sub-scale of the O-LIFE reported seeing more words that were not there than those scoring low on this scale. However, this difference between high and low unusual experience scorers was not pronounced or statistically significant in the mindfulness condition. These data suggest that mindfulness can reduce the number of hallucination-like experiences in individuals with high levels of self-reported schizotypy.