Secular & Scientific Contemplative

The "secular contemplative" lane combines mindfulness practice with explicit non-reliance on traditional religious metaphysics, often paired with neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and naturalistic ethics. Sam Harris's Waking Up is the dominant paid app; Healthy Minds Program (Richie Davidson, U Wisconsin) is the free evidence-based equivalent; the philosophical lineage runs through Stephen Batchelor (Buddhist atheism), Daniel Dennett, Robert Wright, and the broader cognitive-science-of-meditation literature.

Sister sections: Buddhist Traditions & Apps, Stoicism, Skeptical & Critical, Online Courses & Dharma Talks, Sangha & Community, Meditation Apps, Mental Health Journaling, Breathwork.

Apps

• ★ Waking Up (Sam Harris) — paid (~$130/yr); structured curriculum (Introductory Course, Daily Meditation, plus theory / philosophy lessons from Joseph Goldstein, Loch Kelly, Stephen Batchelor, Robert Waldinger, etc.); ~10-30 min sessions; financial-hardship free option (email and ask — they grant generously).
  • https://www.wakingup.com/
• ★ ★ Healthy Minds Program — completely free; Center for Healthy Minds (Richard Davidson, University of Wisconsin); evidence-based curriculum on Awareness / Connection / Insight / Purpose; the most rigorous free secular contemplative app.
  • https://hminnovations.org/
• ★ UCLA Mindful — free; UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center; audio-only, no fluff. See Meditation Apps.
• Ten Percent Happier — paid + free; Dan Harris's secular-ish app; teacher roster overlaps with Insight tradition.
• Smiling Mind — free; Australian non-profit; secular curriculum. See Meditation Apps.
• Insight Timer — free + Plus; while not exclusively secular, has a strong secular sub-library. See Meditation Apps.

Books / texts (philosophical lineage)

• Sam Harris — Waking Up (paid book; not the app); Free Will; the Making Sense podcast (paid + some free).
• Stephen Batchelor — Buddhism Without Beliefs, After Buddhism, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (paid).
• Robert Wright — Why Buddhism Is True (paid); evolutionary-psych framing of meditation.
• Daniel Goleman + Richard Davidson — Altered Traits (paid); meta-analysis of meditation research.
• Daniel Dennett — Consciousness Explained; From Bacteria to Bach and Back (paid); philosophy of mind background.
• Owen Flanagan — The Bodhisattva's Brain (paid); philosophy + Buddhism.
• Antonio Damasio — The Feeling of What Happens (paid); neuroscience of self.

Pragmatic / "technical" Buddhism (non-traditional but rigorous)

• ★ Daniel Ingram — Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha — free PDF + paid print; the canonical pragmatic-dharma text; controversial; technical, jhanic / vipassana-stages-explicit, anti-romantic; see Sangha & Community for community.
  • https://www.mctb.org/
• ★ r/streamentry — free; the cross-tradition technical-contemplative community; deep Q&A on jhana, insight stages, dark night experiences; one of the most signal-rich contemplative communities online in 2024-26. See Sangha & Community.
• Cheetah House — free + paid; resources for meditators experiencing difficulty; Willoughby Britton (Brown University) research.
• Dharma Overground — free forum; technical practice discussion; old-school but active.
• The Mind Illuminated (Culadasa / John Yates) — paid book; the popular structured-stages practice manual.

Science / research

• Center for Healthy Minds (CHM, U Wisconsin) — free research output.
• Greater Good Science Center (UC Berkeley) — free; happiness / pro-social research; daily-newsletter friendly.
• Mind & Life Institute — paid + free; long-running cross-disciplinary research.
• Cheetah House — research on adverse meditation effects.
• PubMed search "mindfulness" / "meditation" — free; evidence is mixed, especially for clinical claims; Goleman & Davidson's Altered Traits is a useful summary.

Effective Altruism / rationalist contemplative

• LessWrong — free; technical-rationalist community; meditation discussions intermittently.
• Mindstream / Mindset — small communities of meditators-who-also-do-EA.
• 80,000 Hours — free; career-impact research; not contemplative-specific but adjacent in lifestyle.
• Caveat: rationalist communities have had their own controversies / mental-health issues; the "rationalist meditation accident" is a recurring topic.

Podcasts

• Sam Harris — Making Sense — paid + some free; philosophical / political / contemplative.
• Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris — free; interviews with teachers + scientists.
• The Buddhist Geeks archive (sunset, episodes available) — free; pragmatic-dharma flavored.
• Buddhabilities (Vince Horn) — free; pragmatic dharma.
• Cheetah House Podcast — free; meditation-difficulty research.
• Ezra Klein Show / Krista Tippett's On Being — free; broader podcasts that touch contemplative themes.

Honest framing

• Secular doesn't mean neutral. Naturalist metaphysics are still metaphysics; the Buddhism-without-rebirth framing is a position, not a neutral default.
• The science is uneven. Headline meditation studies often have small samples, weak controls, publication bias. Davidson / Goleman's Altered Traits is honest about this.
• Adverse effects are real. Intensive practice can produce anxiety, depersonalization, dark-night experiences; Cheetah House documents this. Most apps don't warn users adequately.
• Sam Harris is polarizing. The Waking Up app's content is well-produced; opinions on Harris's political / cultural commentary vary.
• Not a substitute for therapy. Apps and books are not clinical care; if you have active depression / anxiety / trauma, see a professional first.

Cost / license honesty

• Healthy Minds Program / UCLA Mindful / Smiling Mind — free.
• Waking Up — ~$130/yr; financial-hardship free.
• Ten Percent Happier — ~$100/yr.
• Mind Illuminated / MCTB / books — ~$15-30 each (MCTB free PDF).
• r/streamentry / LessWrong / Dharma Overground — free.

Pick this if…

• Want polished secular curriculum, willing to pay: Waking Up.
• Want free, evidence-based: Healthy Minds Program.
• Want short audio with no fluff: UCLA Mindful.
• Want pragmatic / technical Buddhism community: MCTB + r/streamentry.
• Want philosophy-of-mind background: Dennett, Flanagan, Wright's Why Buddhism Is True.
• Want adverse-effects-informed approach: Cheetah House resources.
• Want podcast-only: Ten Percent Happier or Sam Harris's Making Sense.