(Anmol: I am very happy to present this intriguing and insightful guest article from Benjamin Langley.  Ben is another fantastic blogger and advanced soul who shares his passion for meditation and spirituality on his blog http://PeacefulProsperity.com/blog/.  Do head over and check it out, I am sure his writings will both inspire and uplift you personally and spiritually.

If you would like to be a guest author on Master of Meditation and Yoga, please email me at anmol@anmolmehta.com). 

Hypnosis and Meditation

Self Hypnosis

By Benjamin Langley

People frequently ask questions about the differences between self hypnosis and meditation, as well as the connections.

I have played quite a bit with both disciplines over the last 15 years, and I have taken a close look at both the similarities and the differences.

To keep it simple:

The Primary Similarity:

Both are means of altering consciousness for positive growth and/or change

The Primary Difference:

Hypnosis is typically focused on getting rid of bad habits and/or achieving worldly goals, where meditation is usually focused on becoming peaceful, becoming more aware, growing spiritually, and/or becoming enlightened.

Now this is useful information, but the question that should be asked more is “How can one benefit from the other?”

And since this is a blog that talks about meditation, the question becomes:

How can the practice of meditation be vastly improved

with understandings and practices from self hypnosis?

Here are 3 Powerful tips from Self Hypnosis that you can use to Super Charge your practice of meditation right away.

1 – The Countdown

Most meditations start with some form of relaxing and focusing.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have systematic way of doing this that allowed you to go deeper into meditation every time?

A countdown does exactly this! 

A countdown is a process from hypnosis and self-hypnosis that allows you to simply count backwards in order to enter a more peaceful and relaxed place of mind and body.

One of the most common methods is counting down from 3 to 1 (which I learned from The Silva Method). 

Breathe deeply, relax, and notice yourself entering a more peaceful place as you count downward from 3 to 1.

You can also count from 10 to 1, 25 to 1, or even 100 to 1.

Taoist meditation instructor, Mantak Chia, recommends an exercise he calls the ‘Century Breath’, where you essentially count 100 deep relaxed breaths… Why not do this while counting down from 100 and notice yourself sinking into a more and more peaceful and powerful place of meditation the whole way…

As with many things, in the beginning, you do as much as you need to get the intended result.  Long term, though, less is more.  You want to do less and less to ‘get’ more and more ‘benefit’.  Every time you practice see how much further you can go with the same countdown, or see if you can go just as deep with less countdown.

2 – Practice Fractionation

Simply explained, fractionation is the tendency of consciousness to be able to experience something more deeply every time you come back to it.

When we move into an experience, and then back out, we can go a little further into the experience each time.

For example, if you like to practice Zazen (which Anmol describes in one of his videos), you might notice that you can count a little bit further while staying focused each time you practice.

Our mind works a lot like our muscles in this way.  If you go into a stretch, release the stretch, and then go back into it… you will be able to go a little further each time.  The only difference is that our mind doesn’t have the physical limitations that our muscles do.

This is a powerful principle to be aware of throughout your life, but for the purposes of meditation, you can use it to go into a much deeper place much more quickly.

When you are meditating, imagine coming out of the meditation, and then going a little bit deeper into it.  Then come back out a little less, and then go deeper still into the meditation.

Using the Zazen meditation mentioned earlier, you might count as far as you can while maintaining focus, then relax and let it go for a moment.  Then count a little further (starting again at 1) while maintaining focus, then relax and let it go again. 

You will notice that you can go progressively further and deeper with any meditation much more quickly if you practice this!

Famous hypnotist and personal development coach, Vince Kelvin, likes to call this ‘The Dolphin Effect’.  Your consciousness is much like a dolphin that comes to the surface for air and then goes deep into the ocean, and then it returns for more air, and then dives deeper and deeper in the depths of the ocean to continue playing.

3 – Convince Your Subconscious mind

The primary reason growth seems so slow at the early phases of practice, is that the deeper parts of your mind (your subconscious mind) are not yet convinced that this is more than a new distraction that will be quickly forgotten.

So how can you ‘convince yourself’ of your sincerity more quickly?

I like to look at it in terms of consistency and intensity.  Start out with as much consistency as possible.

The Silva Method advises:  Practicing once a day is good, practicing twice a day is great, and practicing three times per day is excellent.

When you have a solid base of consistency, begin to build on it with greater intensity.

The Silva Method advises:  Practicing for 5 minutes is good, practicing for 10 minutes is great, and practicing for 15 minutes is excellent.

Starting off with a simple 5 minute meditation once per day is fine… just stay consistent with it!  Gradually you can start to practice more frequently.  Then you can begin to add a little more intensity as well.

Ultimately, you want to immerse yourself in as much practice as you can while still keeping it joyful (in order to avoid burnout).

Put simply, the more you lovingly put into your practice over the long term, the further you will be able to joyfully take it.  And the further you joyfully take your practice, the more you will get back from it.

Another way of looking at this is summed up by world famous stage hypnotist, Marshall Sylver:

“Small commitments lead to large commitments.”

Each small commitment to practice builds a little more momentum… after a while, the most serious practice of meditation just doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, anymore.

So as you continue to work with your own practice, or one of the many practices Anmol describes on this site, begin to bring in these powerful tips from hypnosis, and watch how quickly your results improve!

Benjamin Langley has been on a quest of self discovery through meditation, self hypnosis, and energy work for over 15 years. He has written well over 300 articles on these topics at his website, and he has a page devoted to hypnosis instructions.  His new book, Master Meditation, Master Your Life is currently in the process of being published, but you can still get a free copy of the ebook version by opting in at