“And when you meditate what you are doing is creating, in effect, a vacuum and that will want to be filled.”
That is something I really did not know when I learned to meditate and received a mantra to use for my meditation exercises which I did regularly in the mornings and evenings for many years. 
At first I felt I was getting some benefit in terms of calmness and daily functioning, but then after a few years I noticed what might be called a plateau, where not much was going on.  There were no new insights, no discoveries and no great abilities that expanded my awareness or psychic powers. It became very boring and eventually I stopped altogether. Later I found out that many others had somewhat the same experience and for some it was worse. 
I was aware of the admonition from some of the more strict Christian faiths that warned against meditation. They seemed to lump it all together with witchcraft, ouija boards and casting spells which didn’t seem very intelligent to me. What could be the harm of a mantra and sitting quietly with one’s own thoughts? 
Part of the problem it seems is that our mind is part of non-local consciousness that is not restricted to the walls of our skulls as the materialists and many others in our educational system and culture would have us believe.  The seemingly obvious barriers to what is mine and what is yours in the amorphous worlds of thought do not necessarily follow the rules we might assume. 
Meditation, by its nature, is a kind of opening up, willfully setting aside energetic barriers and relaxing one’s defenses and for some of us that can end up being an invitation to others who occupy the dimensions where thought resides. 
As we have discovered, when it comes to our own minds, there are realms of consciousness that are not well understood. One is that we have what is called a deep subconscious that is not accessed by our conscious mind and is not even accessible via meditation or even any of the forms of hypnotherapy.  Also we have our higher selves which serves as a love connection and a lifeline to God, our Creator, which we are only dimly aware of and serves as silent witness and occasional guide in rare circumstances, as when we have a pang of conscience.  Even without meditation, the world of thought is actually a difficult place to safely navigate, but it is also true that without meditation many of us intuitively keep energetic barriers up, especially while we are awake because it can contribute significantly to our awareness and survival.
Even with advanced spiritual healer training these concepts are either entirely overlooked or poorly understood. 
The unfortunate fact is that the world of thought and what is naively called higher awareness is also occupied by dark malevolent spirits and extraterrestrial psychics who actively seek out those who meditate and are not careful about their energetic barriers. They are often looking, and offering at first encounter, a friendly and loving handshake, where they often pose and identify themselves as an ascended master or a benevolent 5th dimensional ET psychic. They are savvy and know what most of those who do meditate would like to hear and what they would like to feel. This is rather easy for them.  Their goal, in most cases, is to corral their new friends into a dialog of spiritual platitudes and benign pronouncements of love and acceptance.  For most this is a rewarding experience that engenders trust and a willingness to engage again and again. 
Sometimes their willing prey will give in to darker agendas and/or end up being a source of energy for their new psychic parasitic friends.  This can be in development for years depending on the situation and circumstances.
Unfortunately, this also happens to channelers and others longing for contact with other worldly beings and who wish to be an emissary for benevolent extraterrestrials or a divine being like an archangel.  
There are benefits to meditation.  And there are risks.  We have been able to explain both in a way that is helpful and non-threatening.  
We have also discovered an alternative to meditation which is what I do now that I am a bit more educated about the subject. It is called the Lightworker Healing Protocol.  You might find that it’s just what you’ve been looking for.