Are you more or less suggestible during meditation?

[HoldorFold]

I've been thinking lately...

 

When you are being hypnotised you must enter a calm and relaxed state where you let go of thoughts. In this state you become more suggestible to the suggestions that the hypnotist gives you. It would stand to reason that in this state you are more susceptible to external influences on your subconscious.

On the other hand, meditation allows one to focus on emptiness and block out / dissolve external influences.

What's the actual difference between these two states?

[Tibetan_Ice]

And what kind of meditation are you talking about here?

 

There is mantra meditation, TM (ok some believe it is meditation), shamatha meditation, vispassana meditation, gazing meditation, tummo meditation, kundalini meditation, visualization meditation, awareness of awareness meditation, self inquiry meditation, useless meditation, contrived meditation, meditation with an object, meditation without an object, loving kindness meditation and there is even non-meditation.

 

As if meditation is one state... And then, emptiness is not empty, it is full of appearances.

 

So probably a good place to start would be to define what you mean by meditation, define emptiness and define grasping..

[HoldorFold]

I'm just talking about your basic, no frills, empty your mind and enter the alpha brain wave state (or deeper) type meditation.

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I've been thinking lately...

 

When you are being hypnotised you must enter a calm and relaxed state where you let go of thoughts. In this state you become more suggestible to the suggestions that the hypnotist gives you. It would stand to reason that in this state you are more susceptible to external influences on your subconscious.

 

On the other hand, meditation allows one to focus on emptiness and block out / dissolve external influences.

 

What's the actual difference between these two states? (Emphasis mine, ZYD)

 

The primary difference between hypnosis and meditation is the state of rapport that must exist between the hypnotist and the hypnotic subject. Except in 'guided meditation' this is not an issue. On the other hand in a guided meditation scenario the rapport that should exist between the guide and the people being guided is part of the process.

 

In short it is the rapport that makes for suggestibility and not the 'alpha' state. People who are in rapport can make a lot of suggestions to each other without even realizing it. Practitioners of Neuro-Linguqistic Programming use this all the time, it is called pacing and leading.

 

I hope that this is helpful.

[de_paradise]

If you relax your conscious mind, or narrow its focus, you will be more suggestible while in some kind of meditation. Some types of meditation, for example where you visualize yourself as a blue Heruka etc, or sending loving kindness, could be described as self-hypnosis. Hypnosis does not have a very broad understanding of cultivating an enlightened mind, nor opening energy channels, kundalini etc. Therefore, hypnosis is kind of like child's play, really only describing some superficial things such as suggestibility or catalepsy, etc.

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Flolfolil

[thelerner]

short answer, kinda

 

mostly to internal and/or nonphysical thoughts/entities

I agree, kinda. There are teachers who won't talk about what you 'should' feel. They want students to find out by themeselves authentically. Otherwise they'll be influenced by what they expect. Expectations can play a significant role in what you experience. Often its best to be a blank page.

 

Otherwise your cultural bias's and beliefs will become your lenses.

[HoldorFold]

I do mind emptiness meditation in the morning and often that's when the bin trucks come emptying huge loads of trash outside. Sounds weird, but in the meditative state I feel the dirtyness of the sound of the trash and can't help feel a little infected by it. When I'm in a normal mind state this doesn't affect me, like having a natural barrier up.

[Silent Answers]

Why not hear it as the bin men coming to collect any stress and mind rubbish that you picked up from the day before. Then be as the empty bins are when the bin men drive away. We have to work with what we have

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I do mind emptiness meditation in the morning and often that's when the bin trucks come emptying huge loads of trash outside. Sounds weird, but in the meditative state I feel the dirtyness of the sound of the trash and can't help feel a little infected by it. When I'm in a normal mind state this doesn't affect me, like having a natural barrier up. (Emphasis mine, ZYD)

 

This is an anecdote about Alfred Korzybski that I posted Here, that I think is more relevant to this topic then suggestion and hypnosis:

 

One day, Korzybski was giving a lecture to a group of students, and he interrupted the lesson suddenly in order to retrieve a packet of biscuits, wrapped in white paper, from his briefcase. He muttered that he just had to eat something, and he asked the students on the seats in the front row if they would also like a biscuit. A few students took a biscuit. "Nice biscuit, don't you think," said Korzybski, while he took a second one. The students were chewing vigorously. Then he tore the white paper from the biscuits, in order to reveal the original packaging. On it was a big picture of a dog's head and the words "Dog Cookies." The students looked at the package, and were shocked. Two of them wanted to vomit, put their hands in front of their mouths, and ran out of the lecture hall to the toilet. "You see," Korzybski remarked, "I have just demonstrated that people don't just eat food, but also words, and that the taste of the former is often outdone by the taste of the latter. (Wikipedia on Alfred Korzybski: Anecdotes)

 

This does not readily fit into a paradigm of hypnosis or suggestion, but it does seem to have a ready relevance to what you are describing.

 

Why not hear it as the bin men coming to collect any stress and mind rubbish that you picked up from the day before. Then be as the empty bins are when the bin men drive away. We have to work with what we have (Emphasis mine, ZYD)

 

Fully aware of what I am doing, dare I call this an excellent 'suggestion'? Four Stars out of a possible Five and might gain the extra Star if 'bin trucks come emptying huge loads of trash outside' means that they are emptying neighborhood trash bins and taking the trash away, or he lives near a dump and this is the sound of trash being deposited in his neighborhood. Only HoldorFold can tell us. Either way, its a good suggestion and one with a lot of applicability.

 

I don't have much time now, but I may post more related to this later.

[HoldorFold]

... dare I call this an excellent 'suggestion'?

 

Niice!

 

I live in an large appartment complex also near some bars so the bins here are multiple industrial sized ones. I've also had the honor of smelling these bin trucks as I was walking by a couple of times and that is involutarilly associated with the sound now whenever I hear it, especially in the meditative state.

 

I have previously tried some mind tricks like imagining the sound is actually a big truck emptying diamonds onto the street but I ideally I don't like having to use these mental reframing techniques when doing void meditation.

 

I suppose going deeper into the void there's no worry about being subtely infected by anything since there's no self to be affected. That's where I want to be, but this question of hypnotic suggestibility had me a tad concerned that I would have rubishy thoughts implanted in my subconscioius first thing in the morning!

 

 

 

 

[Michael Sternbach]

Are you more or less suggestible during meditation?

 

Yes, more or less.

[Silent Answers]

 

This is an anecdote about Alfred Korzybski that I posted Here, that I think is more relevant to this topic then suggestion and hypnosis:

 

 

This does not readily fit into a paradigm of hypnosis or suggestion, but it does seem to have a ready relevance to what you are describing.

 

 

Fully aware of what I am doing, dare I call this an excellent 'suggestion'? Four Stars out of a possible Five and might gain the extra Star if 'bin trucks come emptying huge loads of trash outside' means that they are emptying neighborhood trash bins and taking the trash away, or he lives near a dump and this is the sound of trash being deposited in his neighborhood. Only HoldorFold can tell us. Either way, its a good suggestion and one with a lot of applicability.

 

I don't have much time now, but I may post more related to this later.

Living next to the dump would definitely make it trickier! If you do have time to reply, see if you can help me out with a solution for screaming babies. My son woke up way too early this morning.

[de_paradise]

I do mind emptiness meditation in the morning and often that's when the bin trucks come emptying huge loads of trash outside. Sounds weird, but in the meditative state I feel the dirtyness of the sound of the trash and can't help feel a little infected by it. When I'm in a normal mind state this doesn't affect me, like having a natural barrier up.

 

This is a good opportunity to do some deep (somatic)therapy. Note your keyword "feel"here, which likely be a feeling too strong for a simple mental NLP reframe, as suggested. Why is dirty give you a bad feeling? We can perhaps go all the way back to your mom cleaning up your soiled diapers. It doesnt matter how far back, what matters is where you feel the feeling (somewhere in your body), locate it, how does it feel. Mentally stare at the feeling the next time it comes up, get to know it. Allow it, accept it, and see that it does not have to control the next thoughts in your head. Meditate straight into or towards the feeling.