Isn't meditation like hypnosis?

betaboy

Namaste,

In meditation, we're essentially training the mind NOT to react in a certain, habitual way. For instance, if you insult me, my habitual response is to react with an insult of my own. Isn't meditation all about training the subconscious NOT to do this anymore?

Even if one argues that meditation is about becoming aware and so on, fine, but we cultivate that awareness so as to break old habits and patterns of the subconscious mind.

BB

DaltheJigsaw

Good question!

taiyaki

in hypnosis there is no awareness of what is going on, or is there?

i suppose that is my assumption. meditation is all about bringing consciousness into your subconsciousness.

hmmmmmm

Jeffrey

I think that it is a kind of conditioning. Look up shamatha. That is conditioning. Now look up vipassana. I don't think that vipassana is conditioned because it always manifests to any situation.

footiam

It shouldn't be the same, not unless mindfulness is in both.

taiyaki

i think the hindus place emphasis on trance states.
where as buddhism places emphasis on mindfulness and concentration based on the person.

the goal isn't to get anywhere, but to see clearly.

Lostie

Hypnosis takes no mental effort, but Meditation does. Makes sense?

compassionate_warrior

People say meditation is like self-hypnosis. It's a type of auto-suggestion that results in an altered state of consciousness. Hypnosis also results in an altered state of consciousness that makes on highly suggestible. One definition I found on WIkipedia said self-hypnosis is memorized trance instruction. And meditation can induce trance. In hypnosis, there is awareness of what's going on.

But meditation uses visualizations and breathwork to alter bodily functions (heart rate, blood pressure, body heat), and hypnosis can do that to. Certain types of meditation can be used for healing, such as Medicine Buddha meditations, meditations (I forget the term for this) where you visualize every cell in your body, you scan from heat to toe, visualizing millions of cells in each part of the body. Cancer patients can choose to do something similar, where they go into an altered state of consciousness and imagine little Pac-man figures gobbling up the cancer cells, or they visualize healing bright white light bathing each cell, and so forth.

Jeffrey

I think its more like the opposite of hypnosis its hypergnosis.

Or the 7 dwarfs mining out the cancer

zen_world

in hypnosis there is no awareness of what is going on, or is there?

i suppose that is my assumption. meditation is all about bringing consciousness into your subconsciousness.

hmmmmmm

Yes there is awareness actually...I went to hypnotherapist once and the first thing he told me was that I would be awake during the hypnosis...Well, and I was awake...

conradcook

In my experience and opinion, meditation is different from hypnosis or self-hypnosis.

However, in my experience, I found meditation *very* difficult, until I went back to it with a solid background in hypnotism. Then I just found it difficult...

Conrd.