The Differences Between Hypnosis and Meditation
Mar 16, 2023
Hypnosis and meditation are different practices, however they both have similar goals – to calm and quiet the conscious mind, allowing access to the deeper levels of the subconscious mind.
Meditation may be practiced for purposes of inner peace and tranquility, moving from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state, and/or fostering connection with a higher power/ universal energy/ God (whatever the concept that relates for the meditator).
Meditation is an ancient practice that has been used for centuries to help people focus and calm their minds. There are many different ways to meditate, but the goal is typically the same: to reach a state of relaxation and stress relief.
In classical meditation, you focus your attention on your breath and let go of all other thoughts.
If you are following a guided meditation you focus on the words and sounds of the meditation.
Over time, you learn to control your mental chatter and focus only on the present moment.
Where hypnosis differs somewhat is that the purpose is often a specific topic, such as quitting smoking, overcoming fears, or breaking through limiting beliefs that can hold one back.
In hypnosis, you enter into a trance-like state and are typically guided by the hypnotist's voice to relax and picture yourself in a peaceful place. While in this state, you are still aware of your surroundings and are fully in control, but your subconscious mind is more open to suggestion.
Hypnosis involves suggestions given aloud to “speak” to your subconscious mind while the conscious mind is quieter and more relaxed.
Meditation is a practice that anyone can do to help focus and calm the mind, while hypnosis is a trance-like state that is induced by an outside voice (this can be a recording).
Both meditation and hypnosis can be helpful for people who want to focus their minds or make changes in their lives as they promote change at the subconscious level. One of the things that meditation and hypnosis have in common is that they promote the alpha brain wave state. The alpha brain wave state is a state of being awake but very relaxed, the state of daydreaming and imagination; if you were laying on the soft, green grass staring up at the clouds and letting your thoughts drift, you’d likely be in the alpha state.
The reason this alpha state is important is that it is the state that we can most easily access the subconscious mind. It is the gateway to the subconscious mind, because when we are in higher brain wave states such as beta, our conscious mind is alert and active, and frankly gets in the way of the process! We need to quieten the conscious mind and slow the brain wave patterns from busy beta to calm alpha so that the subconscious mind can emerge, which is where the true healing and deeper change occur.
Both meditation and hypnosis have the goal of calming the busy chatter of the conscious mind, to be able to access the subconscious mind to release limiting beliefs, thoughts and behaviors; and to stimulate the healing capacity of the body. I utilize both in my everyday life and find them to be extremely powerful healing modalities.
I have a powerful Hypnosis for Healing session that I’m offering you for free to experience the benefit of hypnosis. Click here to access it!
