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Meditation and Hypnosis; the same or different?

ToshTosh Veteran
edited June 2012 in Meditation
I've been having a debate with a friend whether hypnosis and meditation are the same things. He reckons they're very similar, yet I think they're very different.

Okay okay, when you see two people, one under hypnosis and the other meditating, they may appear to look similar, but a meditation practise is completely different (I think) from hypnotherapy. Maybe it's just my 'thinking', but meditation should be a daily affair, it's a practise and takes discipline and it's not easy. Whereas I assume hypnosis is something you 'purchase', have a number of sessions and you're allegedly 'cured' of some specific issue that's been troublesome.

Thoughts anyone?

Comments

  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    ooohhh. What if you were hypnotized to meditate?
    or
    Is a teaching that we believe, but have not experienced, the power of suggestion?
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    Is 'the power of suggestion' hypnotherapy?
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited June 2012
    This is a topic I've been meaning to start for a long time. I've read they're the same thing. Meditation is a form of self-hypnosis. The breathing technique and the visualizations are for the purpose of putting yourself into a hypnosis-like trance. Some of the devotional meditations have the effect of training your mind to view the guru/lama as your master, or viewing yourself as a deity, or cultivating compassion. It's auto-suggestion.
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    That can't be correct @Dakini, since that would mean I am wrong!!!!

    There's gotta be a problem here somewhere!? :D
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    I think that ones practise can be a form of self hypnosis but what I call Zazen meditation and the like, are not.
    I used to say that my practise was voluntary brain washing but that it was OK because my brain was in need of a good cleaning. Now I think that resorting to voluntary brain washing ends up as just another attachment to be dropped.
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    I've been having a debate with a friend whether hypnosis and meditation are the same things. He reckons they're very similar, yet I think they're very different.
    I'm struggling with this question because there seem to be so many different types of meditation and hypnosis.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    That can't be correct @Dakini, since that would mean I am wrong!!!!

    There's gotta be a problem here somewhere!? :D
    LOL! But I read some time ago that some of the techniques for self-inducing trance are the same as for meditation. And some of the effects can be the same, such as alleviation of pain symptoms or dropping addictions. Meditating on compassion to cultivate compassion is a form of auto-suggestion in a way, isn't it? This isn't a bad thing.

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