Question
Note: I previously erroneously gave the wrong email address, the correct email address should be: fitque@live.co.uk and not quefit@live.co.uk
Dear Doctor Clark,
Firstly I'd like to thank you for sharing your valuable time to assist others, its sometimes easy for people to forget the time people donate of themselves.
I have been studying various self improvement techniques which include a look at the fundamental principles of self hypnosis, autosuggestion and other what generally can be termed "mind body" communications at a subconscious level, and it is from this study that my questions arises. Actually there are two questions although closely related, a. The difference between meditation and hypnosis and what each should be used for and b. What fundamental type of meditation would you personally advocate or favor.
Firstly if possible, could you explain what is the difference between "Self Hypnosis" (Assuming for general purposes that "Self Hypnosis" is defined broadly as all states relating to those commonly defined as "Hypnotic" whether self induced or induced by a therapist irrespective of which induction technique is used (Elman style, Ericson style etc) and the difference between meditation?
More specifically following on from that would it be possible to give an indication as to what circumstances would be most appropriate for which.
The next question relating to this is which type of meditation would you recommend? Is there one general type or form of meditation that you personally like and would recommend or the work of any particular author you would recommend? I have tried transcendental meditation and naturally I seem to prefer a "proactive" focused and "willed form" of meditation rather than a passive form.
With Kind Regards
James
Answer
Hi... this question is too long and detailed for me to go into point by point. But I will say that definitions usually depend on who is doing the defining. When you think about it, nobody really knows what headspace another person is in. One person's "ego consciousness" could be more like another's "trance." This is especially so when we look cross-culturally.
As for the active-passive issue you outline, this too is a potentially complex and debatable matter.
My advice is to more or less forget the "schools" and just explore everything that you feel lead to, interested in, and so on.
This, of course, assumes that you will use good common sense.
Anyhow, I'm sort of busy these days but am interested in your question. Please consider this as a preliminary answer. Feel free to follow up.
