ArticlesSELF-HYPNOSIS AND MEDITATION OR MEDITATION AND SELF-HYPNOSISBy: Barbara H. Pomar, MA, ChT.As a meditation teacher and a hypnotherapist, I get asked the question frequently: What IS the difference between meditation and self-hypnosis? For medical/health purposes they are almost the same. The basic difference is the intent. However, the history of each is quite different. Hypnosis started in the 1800s with Mesmer as a theatrical means of "curing" neurotic women. Freud used hypnosis for a while, downplaying Mesmer’s theatrics. Freud went from hypnosis to "talk" therapy where most of psychological therapy is today. There were those individuals, mostly medical, who used various techniques to get a person into a deep hypnotic state. It was noticed that when a client is relaxed enough, therapeutic changes can occur. Hypnotherapists, non-medical practitioners, specialize in the use of hypnosis and teaching self-hypnosis to their clients to facilitate desired changes. This is a very condensed history of hypnosis. Meditation started as an Eastern religious practice. Many Western religions use a deep prayer/contemplation method that is similar. Yoga was developed has means of relaxing the body before entering into meditation. Breathing was part of the practice. I first learned meditation from Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self Realization. A series of progressive relaxation exercises were recommended before entering into mediation. They served to relax the body, releasing tension in the body and mind. Their breathing exercises relaxed the emotions and the attention required to do both relax the mind, releasing any other thoughts from the mind. Meditation was popularized by the Beatles in the 1960s when they went to India to learn meditation from the Maharishi who then commercialized it in Transcendental Meditation. When I went through hypnosis training, I learned that progressive relaxation was a good way to relax the body. Various health articles have been written noting that progressive relaxation is a good way to control stress. As people get more relaxed, their breathing automatically starts to slow down. By encouraging clients to put their attention on their breath, they notice the change in breathing and allow their bodies and minds to relax even more. When I taught Human Relations in a business school, I explained that the breath was the key to controlling emotions. If you were faced with an irritable customer or employee, take a deep breath hold it for a few seconds and exhale, then control your breath by inhaling to a count of say 6, hold it for 6, exhale for 6 and rest for 6. What happens is that it momentarily places attention on your breath, instead of the anger or other emotions. The other person is increasing anger, voice level, etc. You take control of the situation. The first person to yell loses. As a result, most meditation and self-hypnosis practices use some sort of relaxation as a part of their regimen. Most meditation practices include breath work as well. There are some people who don't like the concept of self-hypnosis and others are afraid of meditation and visa versa. Most accomplished athletes enter into a "zone", where what they are doing eclipse everything else. It is a state of intense concentration, focus. It happens when a person intends on doing something well to the exclusion of anything else for a set period of time. Runners experience "runners’ high". Tiger Woods and other good/great golfers can hold the zone for hours. Woods learned meditation from his mother. Others got there with self-hypnosis. So, what is the difference? Intent. The basic intent of self-hypnosis is change in physical, mental condition, namely the reduction of stress. The basic intent, the original intent, of meditation is to become one with yourself, with a Higher Power by whatever name you call him/her/it. The first part of mediation is very similar, well really, the same as self-hypnosis. That part is the relaxation and focus of attention, usually on the breath. This is where the medical changes happen when the practitioner relaxes and focuses for consistent, regular periods twice a day. The recommended time is 20 minutes. Benefits can happen with less time. Consistency is the key. Dr. Benton and the Maharishi University in Iowa have done experiments on the benefits of mediation. The Dalai Lama has volunteered some of his monks on a regular basis to various universities to measure the parts of the brain that are affected by meditation. Practitioners with as few as three weeks of practice have some measurable differences in brain activity, primarily in creative and compassion areas of their brains. ---------------------------------------------------- Barbara Pomar is a certified hypnotherapist and a board certified regression therapist. She has offices in Palm Desert, California and Fairbanks, Alaska. Visit her on the web at www.barbarapomar.com. |
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