Meditation for the collective goodMeditation for the collective good
All In The Mind
Is an enlightened planet possible? Co-writers of a new film and book called The Portal say it is—through the power of collective meditation. They share personal stories of inspiring individuals who have come through adversity by reflecting inwards, using meditation. Hope for humankind may lie in the cumulative effect of individual meditation and whether mindfulness can promote empathy.
29:07•20 Oct 2019
Meditation, Crisis and the Quiet Shift Toward Collective Change
Episode Overview
- Meditation can help break conditioned patterns, easing anxiety, depression and stress born from addictive and high-pressure lifestyles.
- Personal crises may act as cues for change, prompting people to look inward and adopt practices like meditation to reshape their lives.
- Stories from The Portal highlight how facing trauma and displacement can lead to compassionate, community-focused work after inner transformation.
- Laboratory research suggests brief mindfulness training can increase compassionate helping behaviour and reduce distress after social exclusion.
- Guests stress that individual inner peace is essential before trying to create wider change, and that mindfulness alone needs to be paired with action.
“The greatest gift we can give to the world is the reduction of our own suffering and an experience of happiness, first and foremost.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This episode of *All In The Mind* looks at meditation not just as a way to calm down after a hectic day, but as something that might reshape society itself. Host Lynne Malcolm talks with Tom Cronin, who spent 26 years in a high-pressure finance career, living a “Wolf of Wall Street style” life filled with drinking, drugs and stress.
After hitting a personal crisis marked by anxiety, depression and even agoraphobia, he stumbled into meditation and found it dramatically changed his mental health and direction in life. That shift led him to create the Stillness Project and co-write *The Portal* with producer Jackie Pfeiffer.
The Portal follows six people through intense personal crises, showing how meditation helped them move from trauma and conditioning into “a much lighter place, a much more conscious place, a much kinder place of living.” Stories include Harvard scholar Zwei Kwok, who used neuroscience, jokes and comedy to help her brain heal from developmental trauma, and UN human rights lawyer Amandine Roche, who turned to yoga and meditation to support peacekeepers and people in Afghanistan living with widespread PTSD.
Cronin argues that “the greatest gift we can give to the world is the reduction of our own suffering,” suggesting that individual healing ripples out into collective change. Jackie Pfeiffer frames crisis as a cue for innovation, seeing meditation as a creative space for new systems and more positive futures.
Balancing these personal narratives, psychologist Daniel Berry explains his research showing that even brief mindfulness practice can boost compassion and helping behaviour, and may reduce distress when people face social rejection. If you’ve ever wondered whether sitting quietly could really matter beyond your own head, this conversation might make you think twice about the power of a single mind at rest. Could changing your inner world be the first step to changing the bigger picture?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.