Dr. Matthew D. Sacchet, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Meditation Research Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General). Dr. Sacchet and his team study advanced meditation: skills, states, stages, and endpoints of contemplative practice that unfold with mastery and time. Since 2012, he has authored more than 135 publications, presented more than 150 times at international, national, regional and local venues including at Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale Universities, and the United Nations, and been cited more than 9,500 times. He has received generous support from numerous foundations and repeat awards from federal funding bodies in the United States, including NIH and NSF. His work has been covered by many major media outlets, including CBC, CBS, Forbes, Men’s/Women’s Health, NBC, NPR, Scientific American, TIME, Vox, and Wall Street Journal, and Forbes named him one of its “30 Under 30.” Dr. Sacchet is an Associate Editor of the leading meditation academic journal Mindfulness, and a Research Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute.
The mission of the Meditation Research Program at Mass General and Harvard is to establish a scientific understanding of, and also share, advanced meditation. The Program’s research spans and integrates diverse fields across clinical science and medicine, computer/computational science, engineering, epidemiology, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. For example, the Program’s studies include investigation of meditative development and meditative endpoints toward a more comprehensive understanding of the trajectories and outcomes of advanced meditation. The Program has published landmark studies in a number of domains including contributing first insights into scientific understanding of advanced absorption (“jhana”) and insight meditation, and meditative endpoints (cessations of consciousness), and the epidemiology and public health implications of altered states of consciousness. This research promises to contribute to improving individual well-being and the collective health of society by informing the development of meditation training and meditation-based interventions that are more impactful. Toward this end, the Program develops advanced meditation training and educational materials for broad dissemination.
Education
Ph.D., Neurosciences, Stanford University School of Medicine; Sc.B., Contemplative Studies, Brown University
Select Publications
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1x9tsgj0kLI57/bibliography/public/
2. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ckejHQkAAAAJ&hl=en
Highlights
2021: R01 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
2021: Anne M. Cataldo Excellence in Mentoring Award Nominee, McLean Hospital
2021: Excellence in Mentoring Awards Nominee, Harvard Medical School