MEDITATION, TRANCE AND HYPNOSIS

Meditation is the process of focusing the mind on some object or thought to the exclusion of all other awareness. There is really no difference between self hypnosis and meditation. They both use the same natural processes to induce trance.
Some people believe that meditation will allow you to get in touch with a higher consciousness. Others meditate to help them gain mental equilibrium or meditate as a way of improving health.
All forms of meditation can help overcome stress, to rise above time pressure, deadlines, difficult relationships, anxiety and anger.

All these techniques originated as religious practices. All major religions have used meditation and hypnosis techniques to achieve feelings of enhanced spirituality. There are thought to be two basic forms of meditation, zen meditation for to become more self aware, and transcendental meditation, for transcending, or leaving behind, the self.

 

AWARENESS TECHNIQUES

This class of techniques is designed to make the mediator more attuned to their world. Awareness is brought to bear on the reality of the present moment. All thoughts are banished and the mind focuses on simply being.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a meditation technique designed to let you discover what is going on in your mind, of becoming aware of what is happening to you right now. People who benefit from mindfulness tend to be those who feel that the world is just too fast, whose minds are always racing and who worry about the future or dwell on the past but never seem to be in the moment.

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Grounding

Grounding is a technique for balancing the energy flows within you and to affirm your connection as part of the earth we live on. It uses Centering and then Grounding as a way to deal with the stresses of normal life.

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TRANSCENDENTAL TECHNIQUES

This class of techniques is designed to lift the person meditating away from the concerns of the world, to focus their attention totally on their inner experience.

Breathing

Controlled breathing is the simplest form of meditation. Focus on your breathing and tell yourself silently "with every breath out I am going deeper and deeper, more relaxed....more at ease...". Just keep repeating "more relaxed....more at ease " and allow your limbs to become loose and limp and heavy. Concentrate on feeling the weight of your limbs while breathing more and more gently. Then when you are ready, feel your limbs becoming totally weightless and allow yourself to drift away from the present.

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Mantras

A mantra is a word or phrase that is repeated over and over until the mind goes into trance. The origin of mantras lie in the primitive belief that words have magic power and that the sound of a word will cause its meaning to become manifest. Mantra meditation works by boring the mind into dissociation. Take a simple word such as "money" or a rhythmic word like "nirvana" or "eternity" or even "cowabunga" and repeat it silently or aloud for five minutes or so. At some point you will find that the word loses its meaning, that as you keep saying it, it sounds strange and you wonder what it means.

This is the first stage of dissociation. What is happening is that part of your mind is doing the repetition, while another part of your mind is getting bored with the unvaried input and beginning to wander. The tendency at first is to get startled by the dissociation and to snap back into conscious awareness. However, with a little practice you will find that you can go with the wandering wondering part of your mind and leave the other part to get on with the repetition. Eventually the repetition will slow down and stop and you will be experiencing trance.

Any word or phrase will do, but some words are easier to repeat continuously than others, so to start with some familiar two syllable word. Commercial meditation organisations usually use a traditional Hindi or Sanskrit word or phrase, others create unique mantras for each individual by combining the names of two of the multitude of Hindu gods, but the result is often cumbersome to pronounce and hard to remember. It is better to use a word you are comfortable with.

Counting

Counting is a repetitive process that can be used to distract the mind. This method is an extension of the mantra method and many people prefer it. Select a word or phrase and then repeat it mentally or aloud exactly some number of time, sixty six, or one hundred for example. If you lose count then you have to start again from one. This works by splitting the focus of the mind across two different activities. As you repeat the word, your mind drifts from the counting and as you count you tend to dissociate from the word repetition. A variant of this is to visualise the number each time you repeat the word, and see each successive number getting smaller, darker and further away. If you get to the target number you start again until at some point you drift off into trance.