This study asserts that the journey of learning mindfulness skills is a richer and more powerful experience when the journey is shared. The grounded theory of the role of the group in MBIs illustrates a range of benefits to participants, some of which can be described as generic group effects. However, the non-verbal experience of group meditation, the multi-layered experience of normalisation, and the grounding of the teachers’ group-based responses in embodied mindfulness, are presented as unique MBI group factors that appear to have important consequences for the clinical efficacy of MBIs.