Guided Meditation and Hypnosis; the same thing.
September 1st, 2010
Many years ago, I heard about this guy who just got back from Machu Picchu, Peru. I have always wanted to go, it being one of the seven spiritual centers of the world. This guy, Michael, was in town to teach a certification class in hypnotherapy. When I talked to him, he said come to the class, we can talk at the breaks, after class, etc. I agreed and went. I had been doing meditation and guiding others on inner journeys for about 9 years at that point. What I discovered really shocked me. I had been doing the work of hypnosis for all those years! What a shock! Now please forgive me for being a little dense, it just recently occurred to me that I could design meditations for a specific outcome! I haven’t done much hypnotherapy. That, along with the fact that all the meditations I lead are a surprise to me sort of blocked that distinction. When I say a surprise, I mean I have no idea where they are going until we all go there. I simply allow them to come thru me. Its rather freeing to not have to control, memorize or design anything. I just let it happen. Fun because I get the journey as much as everyone else. I remember one New Years Morning several years ago when I was invited to lead a sunrise meditation at the beach. I hadn’t done one in a while and didn’t know how it would go. There were a lot of people there, of whom I didn’t know anyone except the person who invited me and I hadn’t met her in person before then. These people were certain it would be a great experience and even though I didn’t share their certainty, I went ahead. It went great!
I have been thinking about a way to do this for many people around the world. I am a fan of several podcasts and thought I could produce a weekly meditation and distribute it for free! With the tools available now, I could help a lot of people and have a ton of fun in the process! I have been getting the hardware, the site, the domains, etc. together for the last couple of years. There are a couple more pieces of this puzzle to put into place then I will ROCK! It will be a wild ride! I hope many of you enjoy it even a little bit as much as I will!
Merlin
4 comments on “Guided Meditation and Hypnosis; the same thing.”
01
I can only speak of my own personal experience. I am hoping that it might put some ideas into the mix.
I have several meditations on my Ipod including one with quite a bit of explanation by someone named Pema Chodron. I have attended a guided meditation, have several CDs and even some instruction on how to meditate from a priest I know. Like I mentioned before in most cases I have trouble with quieting my mind.
I was most successful at staying focused with the guided meditation. The problem there was that all kinds of emotions and thoughts that I usually keep buried came to the surface and I felt like crying. Of course I did not do this in mixed company. I went home and after a couple of days of rumination I emailed the facilitator and I explained what happened to her. I asked her, “okay if you meditate and you bring up all of these emotions what do you do?” She answered me that this would give me an opportunity to deal with those emotions. She thought that this was a benefit of the guided meditation.
My opinion here is that I think that one usually keeps such emotions stuffed away because they don’t know how to deal with those feelings. I am hesitant to listen to her guided meditation CDs because if I stir up any feelings that are not happy or joyful…I am on my own with an elephant sitting on my chest.
This problem may be unique to me. But I guess it’s my convoluted way of saying that I think that guided meditation should have some type of interactive element to address feedback.
02
I agree with Patty regarding the interactive element. If you’re going to do a podcast of guided meditations (totally awesome, by the way), then I can see there being some purpose to them. But, I would see it as more generic. I think anything deeper–such as dealing with addictions, releasing past traumas, or other therapies–would have to be more personalized. Either in person or with a recording, but only after an extended interview.
While healing can come from the self, therapy does require feedback.
03
I completely agree with both of you. I can foresee a time when I will be able to do “custom” or specific meditations for people, do them in a way that addresses a persons individual needs and allows for feedback after the fact. When doing hypnotherapy or NLP or NACS or many other types of therapies, a direct feedback link is necessary to sculpt the experience for the person. Timing, pace, direction, etc. are all dependent on seeing visual cues and responding to them. With meditation, it is a journey that can have the long reaching effects without knowing exactly what happened, just the results are evident. That is a win for both parties because it can happen in your own space and time. It can be repeated to ‘lock in’ the change and can be shared with someone else later.
04
Patty, you have to admit ‘stuffing’ these emotions away may not be the healthiest thing. If thats what you’re committed to, I will support you. However
From my experience, letting go of these emotions in a healthy way is very cathartic. It does not have to include a conscious memory of the source of the emotions, that may be too painful or uncomfortable to relive. Instead, just allow them to flow through and out of you. It could even be set up in a way that can be pleasurable or even fun! So, I guess I have to agree with the lady you mentioned in your comment. Deal with them, only do it so it’s not unpleasant. Thoughts?