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Measuring mindfulness with the FMI

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Our new version of the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) with norm data from a representative German sample is now available (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40359-025-03671-3).

When Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, became known in Germany at the end of the 1990s, I conducted some of the first scientific work on mindfulness together with a number of students. In 1999, Marcus Majumdar and I conducted the first evaluation of an MBSR training programme [1-3], for which we received the Continentale Insurance Research Award. Nina Buchheld, now Nina Rose, also approached me at that time with the suggestion of writing a thesis on the subject of mindfulness. We decided to develop a mindfulness questionnaire, the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) [4, 5]. If I am not mistaken, this was the first questionnaire instrument for measuring mindfulness. Shortly afterwards, research exploded and a wealth of other questionnaires were developed. Our instrument, the FMI, had a certain unique selling point: Nina Buchheld derived the items strictly empirically from Buddhist mindfulness literature, presented a long list of possible items to various mindfulness teachers and asked them to assess how accurate and understandable they were. From this initial list, she selected the items that were considered best and gave them to a sample group. The 30 questions that had the best psychometric properties were then included in our long version of the questionnaire. This was immediately translated into English by Paul Grossman [6].

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US Health Bureaucracy: Reorientation towards ‘Autoimmunity’

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Admission of guilt by the American health bureaucracy regarding mistakes in coronavirus measures and reorientation towards ‘autoimmunity’

Personnel changes within the US health authorities have resulted in new priorities. Jay Bhattacharya has been director of the National Institutes of Health since 2025, the super-agency that conducts its own research and funds much of the research in the US through large programmes. In addition, Anthony Fauci was replaced by Jeffery Taubenberger as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) after a brief interim period.

The coronavirus measures were wrong and have damaged the reputation of the NIH and science

In an editorial in Nature Medicine describing the new direction of this institute, Bhattacharya, Taubenberger and their co-author Powers now clearly distance themselves from basically everything that constituted pandemic management in the US and, as a result, almost the entire world [1].

The authors write:

“… many of the recommended policies, including lockdowns, social distancing, school closures, wearing masks and vaccine mandates, lacked robust confirmatory evidence and remain the subject of debate about their overall benefits and unintended consequences. Where enforced, vaccine mandates contributed to decreased public confidence in routine voluntary immunizations. We recognize that much of the American public lost trust in the NIAID, the National Institutes of Health (NIH; of which the NIAID is a part), and in the greater scientific community. As current leaders of the NIH and the NIAID, we acknowledge this breach of trust…”

Let us pause for a moment to consider these words. They describe nothing less than the acknowledgement that the core elements of the so-called ‘pandemic response’, i.e. the political response to the pandemic, were devoid of scientific basis.

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“From Science to Consciousness” – Podcast “Imaginal Inspirations” with Harald Walach

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On December 16, 2025, I was a guest on David Lorimer’s podcast “Imaginal Inspirations” discussing the topic “From Science to Consciousness.”

About the host: David Lorimer is Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network and Chair of the Galileo Commission, an academic movement dedicated to expanding the evidence base of a science of consciousness.

Listen to the podcast for free (English):

https://redcircle.com/shows/4ffb6aa7-2e7b-40e0-967a-897542eb6b5b/ep/178b727e-1de1-4646-a0f3-478c2ffae061

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Discorso: ‘Opposing Mainstream Opinion – Dissidents of the New Normal Report’

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Discorso publishing cooperative launches its first book, ‘Opposing Mainstream Opinion – Dissidents of the New Normal Report’

Last year, together with a few colleagues from the MWGFD, including Klaus Steger, Christian Schubert, Anne Ulrich, Stefan Hockertz and several others, I founded the Discorso publishing cooperative in Basel. Our website https://discorso.ch/ provides information about our goals and our books. The first book, ‘Courage to Disagree – Dissidents of the Lack of Alternatives Report’, edited by Wolfgang Stölzle and Günter Roth, will be published on 11 December and can now be pre-ordered on our website. The 400-page book summarizes the experiences of 18 authors. In addition to myself, these include authors from the MWGFD circles – Christian Schubert, Andreas Sönnichsen – and other public figures who have spoken out against abuses either during the coronavirus crisis or even before it. In some cases, they have had to face harsh consequences, such as Daniele Ganser and Alessandra Asteriti. Most of the chapters deal with reprimands from the coronavirus period, such as the reports by Ulrike Guérot, Michael Meyen, Andreas Heisler, Alexander Bittner, Christian Dettmar, Lucian and Martin Michaelis, Carola Kistel. Finally, the experiences of the editors Günter Roth and Wolfgang Stölzle. Heike Egner and Anke Uhlenwinkel summarize their social science study on this topic and their own experiences, and Michael Esfeld wrote the foreword.

It is an important documentation of structures of exclusion, which, although covering different areas, involved similar mechanisms. Above all, it is a contradiction to false factual claims and opinion manipulation. This volume shows that such contradiction is possible, but may come at a cost. Sometimes that cost is high. However, each contribution also shows that such supposed slaps in the face simultaneously open up new paths and therefore give cause for hope. At least, that was the intention of all the authors.

Readers of this book, which can be ordered for £29.80 (400 pages) on the Discorso website, where more detailed information is also available, should judge for themselves to what extent this has been achieved.

By the way: anyone who wants to support our work can become a member of the cooperative for a minimum contribution of CHF 500 (or a multiple thereof) and purchase one or more share certificates. This allows members to participate, help shape, assist or simply provide support. Anyone interested should contact me at hw@discorso.ch.

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Book review Helmut Sterz: The Vaccination Mafia

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I have read Helmut Sterz’s new book and will discuss it briefly here. It will be published on 1 December and is the most important book on coronavirus awareness that I am aware of (though I haven’t read them all). I highly recommend it to the readers of my blog. The book is only available in German, but I still want to convey the most essential aspects with my discussion for my English language readers.

Helmut Sterz: Die Impf-Mafia (The Vaccine Mafia). Pfizer’s former chief toxicologist proves how toxic substances were illegally sold to us as a cure for Covid-19. Basel: Rubikon. 240 pages. £24, ISBN 978-3-907606-00-1

The most significant part of this book on the coronavirus comes at the very end, on pages 206–210: ‘Demands for the investigation of the global pharmaceutical scandal’. There, the author makes 18 demands. In my opinion, the following are particularly noteworthy (in my own words – where not indicated by quotations, which are literal translations from the book):

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