The Role of Suggestion in Meditation

Q: What is the role of suggestion in meditation? Is meditation a variety of hypnosis?

A: Suggestion in meditation plays a role in information gathering, soliciting the activity of a vehicle of consciousness, or bringing about realization of a spiritual essence. We can describe seven major ways suggestion is used in meditation:

1. To gather information related to the function of a vehicle of consciousness
2. To produce action from behavior that has already been learned
3. To change action and practice a new or different behavior
4. To gain information about the structure of a vehicle of consciousness
5. To gain information about what is in the unconscious mind
6. To identify the personal and transpersonal integration centers that control the operate the vehicles of consciousness and to request that they generate a specific outcome
7. To gain union and identification with a spiritual essence—attentional principle, spirit, or Soul

In hypnosis, suggestion is typically made to the astral body to direct it to view, change, or interact with the content at different levels of the mind. Hypnosis can be used therapeutically in a number of ways.

We detail the channels through which the astral body can be directed in our article, “Levels of Autohypnosis,” which is part of the addendum of our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail or online Accelerated Meditation Program—as we teach autohypnosis in these two courses. We teach our students to change their behavior using autohypnosis, but we also identify 32 additional channels that can be accessed through the movement of the astral body using suggestion.

Meditation’s range of suggestion is much broader than hypnosis. It can interface with the active vehicles of consciousness of the Conscious, Subconscious, Metaconscious, and Superconscious mind; with the unconscious bands of the mind; and with the essences of consciousness—the attentional principle, spirit, or ensouling entity. Meditation’s keynote is gaining mastery over all levels of the mind and the enhanced utilization of the innate faculties of the active vehicle of consciousness at those levels.

There is an overlap between hypnosis and meditation in that both employ suggestion, but the scope of suggestion in meditation is much more extensive than in hypnosis. We identify the solar plexus center of the inmost form of the attentional principle as the place where suggestion originates in meditation. Where this suggestion is anchored is a function of what your meditation objectives are. For example:

To gather information (“show” me or “tell” me)
To activate the native functioning of a vehicle of consciousness
To introduce novel programming into a vehicle of consciousness
To promote insight and realization

When you use suggestion in your meditations, it plays a powerful role in facilitating your gaining inner mastery and realization.