A brief history
A brief history of social meditation
Last updated
A brief history of social meditation
Last updated
Multiplayer meditation evolved from earlier social meditation practices.
Key influence: Meditation teacher Kenneth Folk, who developed "social noting" in 2010.
Original method:
Traditional mental noting (from Burmese Buddhism) was done silently during long retreats.
Kenneth’s innovation: Doing noting out loud with others—"social noting."
Impact:
Social noting was 10x easier to teach and learn than mental noting.
The speaker and their partner, Emily, trained with Kenneth and began teaching it.
Further development (2021):
During COVID-19, the speaker trained facilitators and refined the core elements of social meditation.
Creation of Multiplayer Meditation:
In collaboration with Chris Ewald at Interbeing Inc, the speaker expanded and differentiated social meditation into multiplayer meditation.
It retains roots in Kenneth Folk’s innovations but is now a distinct approach with its own unique framework.
MOST RECENTLY: We've dropped the moniker "multiplayer meditation" and are sticking with "social meditation".