Hi Veronica,
Sorry to hear about your tragic loss, for what it's worth you clearly have the love and support of the people on this site.
I have a few questions here which have concerned me since you first posted:
1. Why did you choose this site to come on and voice your concerns?
2. Why, or how, do you believe that vipassana contributed to your daughters death?
3. What do you hope to learn from the discussion?
I don't want to come off as uncaring or cold but I think there's a very high risk that, through grief and trying to make sense of a horrendous and tragic loss, you'll shoehorn whatever "evidence" you hear to fit the belief you already hold about vipassana, or "deep meditation". I'll highlight a few of your statements:
I realise that with the sharing of her loss, there seems to be some "meaning". Even if just to warn others of the risks and that everyone should inform themselves before any commitment to do a meditation course.
You don't actually know if the retreat, the meditation centre, or the meditation techniques had any direct link to your daughters death yet, is that correct?
It appears that you've already made up your mind that, one way or another, meditation contributed to your daughters death and I don't think that this is a very fair argument to make, particularly when it's being made from a place of pain, grief and confusion. I can't fully understand how you're feeling and I won't pretend to, you've experienced loss in a way which I can't even begin to comprehend. My heart breaks as I write this, I'm a father and the very thought of such a loss pains me deeply, I too would want answers and would walk the earth for eternity to find them, but I think there's a point where the pain and desire for a resolution colours the thinking and stops us from being objective and finding out the truth.
For the moment the medical-legal procedure tends to say she had a heart arrhythmia, but I have been told that they say this when they can not find anything else. This is not very helpful to me and anyone else.
Who told you that this is what they say when they can not find anything else?
I'm not a doctor or a lawyer, Dr. Daniel Ingram's a doctor though and I'd like to hear his opinion on that statement as I don't believe that this is the case. Again, it sounds as though you've already made up your mind with regards to the causes, or at least you don't believe the current medical opinion.
I think a discussion on the dark and intensive side of meditation is very much worth it. Even if I did the 10 day course, I never really practiced. I never incorporated meditation into my life and believe I never did any proper deep meditation. Maybe my daughter attained this level but this was the first time she did any meditation course.
Which level are you referring to? Which "dark and intensive side of meditation" are you referring to, given that you appear to have very little knowledge of meditation in general.
Look, I know I'm going to sound like I'm a being a completely unsympathetic prick in this posting, but I do think that there's a very unpleasant undercurrent here and that certain indirect accusations are being made. I think these issues need to be brought out into the open, discussed properly and not just hinted at:
- You suspect that meditation, vipassana specifically, has contributed to the tragic death of your daughter.
- Meditation may have physical health risks for some people, which should be addressed more thoroughly.
There's a lot of people on here who know a LOT about vipassana and many, many other meditation techniques so why not start off my finding out what it actually is that you're investigating?
I genuinely wish the very best for you, I can't begin to relate to what you're going through but please understand that I post these questions in the hope that you can learn the truth about vipassana, about meditation and perhaps learn to cope day to day with your pain. I just want to remain objective and I mean no disrespect, please accept my apologies if you take my words as hurtful as this is certainly not my intention.
Tommy