Especially since the recent mindfulness boom, we have all heard about meditation, but there are still disagreements on what it is and how to practice it.

The word "meditation" comes from the Latin word "meditatum," which meaning "to ponder." The majority of schools of thought concur that regular meditation helps us become more conscious of our thoughts and how they relate to our moods and actions (West, 2016).

When Did Meditation Start?

Although there are many different types of meditation, if we take the general definition of meditation—a contemplative practice that incorporates a range of strategies to focus the mind—research indicates that humans have been practicing meditation since the dawn of time (Rossano, 2007).

Working memory is crucial for human evolution, and psychologist Matt J. Rossano (2007) hypothesized that group rituals and meditations around the campfire between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago helped our forebears acquire it. In his view, "fire-gazing" meditation literally gave rise to the human species by rewiring our brains to allow for the formation of symbolic and language.

Where Did Meditation Come From?

Finding the origin of meditation has proven to be impossible due to the challenges in studying its historical development.

As previously mentioned, shamanic guided meditation practices and fire gazing that concentrated the mind both existed in prehistoric hunter-gatherer civilizations long before written records were created (Jaffe, 2007; Eliade, 1972). Additionally, decades passed before old Vedic practices were recorded orally (Sharma, 2015).

Around 1500 BCE, the Hindu Vedas include the oldest known written accounts of meditation (Sharma, 2015). The Torah also mentions the patriarch Isaac travelling to "lasuach" (Kaplan, 1985), a type of Jewish meditation that was probably practiced around 1000 BCE.

Other types of meditation, meantime, were documented in Taoist China and Buddhist India between 600 and 400 BCE (Bronkhorst, 2014).

In conclusion, because meditation has its roots in ancient, orally taught practices that were not recorded until much later, it is impossible to pinpoint its exact origins.

History of Meditation in Timeline

The main turning points in the history of meditation practices in both the East and the West are shown on this timeline. Although it is by no means comprehensive, it should give a quick overview of the main traditions that prevailed around the turn of the 20th century as well as where they overlapped and met.