It seems like the premise of your complaint is that there isn't a way do it correctly/incorrectly, therefore all practitioners can be classed together and the p

It seems like the premise of your complaint is that there isn't a way do it correctly/incorrectly, therefore all practitioners can be classed together and the practice in general may be dismissed if any of its followers exhibit undesirable and related properties. But you never give an argument for why there would be no variation in instruction, actual execution of practice, background ideologies, etc. > I'm not even going to go into how this lifestyle is linked with things like anti-vax, reiki healing, crazy diets, cleanses, etc Meanwhile, that comment makes it clear that you are speaking of a very particular subset of practitioners. You are referring to a New Age-derived subculture here: their attributes aren't derived from practicing meditation, they probably practice some form of meditation because their subculture values it (i.e. by labeling themselves meditators, they gain cultural currency. There is incentive to exploit the practice for social purposes to begin with). There are also many other practitioners who view meditation as totally unrelated to anything like spirituality, who understand its operation in purely psychological terms. And there are solemnly religious folks who take it very seriously and probably do not cavalierly exploit it for social gain as you describe.