Self-hypnosis or meditation ... are there any differences?

I'm not an expert in meditation (in the sense that I haven't spent 20 years as a Buddhist Monk in a monastery or anything). I learned some meditation in Martial Arts training and I've practiced some 'following your breath' methods over the years. I've also 'played' with Shamanistic meditations; not the sort that the local healing center offers but the genuine kind led by a real live Shaman!

Some might consider me to be an expert in hypnosis ... and I've noticed some similarities between meditation and hypnosis; the hypnotic 'states' I've experimented with appear to be very similar to certain meditative states.

I've been asked on a number of occasions to assist people in getting into meditative states. I've picked up a number of 'tricks' over the years that may help you 'jump ahead' in the task of achieving a 'quiet mind' ... so see what happens when you weave some of the following insights into your meditation practice.

I'm assuming that the goal (at this point) is to 'shut off your internal dialogue'. When you first learn to hypnotise you notice that sometimes this effect occurs and other times it doesn't. The tips below are all about achieving 'inner silence' faster than you may have thought possible (something that every beginning meditator struggles with). If you want to do all 5 tips, try them in the order suggested below.

1. Before you start a session - close your eyes briefly and 'look-up' in your head as far as your eyes will go (don't overdo this for goodness sake) for a few seconds and then bring them forward. Do this a couple more times and then open your eyes for the next step. (Turning your eyes up in your head like this releases certain neurotransmitters that alter your brainwaves and your internal state.)
2. Visual flooding is a way of shutting down your internal voice. This is about focusing on nothing and everything at the same time. Imagine there is a surface in front of you (with your eyes open) and that you drop a pebble into it. Let your 'awareness' follow the ripples outwards in a circle right to the periphery of your vision while keeping the whole surface in view. You should have a 'blurry' field of vision - but not cross-eyed.
3. This next tip is premised on some research from a few years back where scientists discovered that 'internal dialogue' is linked directly to the motor cortex in the sense that nerve impulses travel to your tongue when you are talking to yourself in your head. When they 'paralyzed' the tongue an amazing thing happened - the 'subjects' internal dialogue closed right down. You don't need to go about paralyzing your tongue ... but you can get an effect closer to this by gently 'pulling' your tongue backwards in your mouth (be sensible people, you aren't trying to choke off your breathing or anything). This seems to 'close down' the language center in your brain and your internal dialogue decreases.
4. Let your awareness sink from your 'head' to your gut or navel. Imagine that your consciousness has sunk into your stomach. This will also tend to close down your internal dialogue. Martial Arts teach that your stomach is your energy center, as do a lot of Eastern traditions. It is also your center of gravity and keeping your awareness there really does 'ground' you and keeps you balanced.
5. If you are not already in a profoundly altered state after doing the above then carry on with your normal meditation practice. Some of you may feel like you've disassociated slightly ... like they've floated out the back of there head or something. Play with the sensation by imagining you have a small ball of energy, the size of a large orange, on the top-back of your head - and feel what it is like to have your awareness there.

DO NOT underestimate the power of this sequence of tips. Be gentle with your practice. Leave your expectations at the door. Be aware, curious ... and if you feel you've gone too far then snap your eyes open and shake yourself a bit. If I was a betting person I'd bet that if you practiced this for a week for 5 to 10 minutes you'd be able to achieve a significant reduction of internal dialogue in your meditation practice (actually it might be a profound reduction).

You've just saved yourself perhaps years of meditation practice!

Pleasant journey.

Deep Zen Meditation - Further Information

5 Misconceptions About Meditation