The Meditative Suggestion Method

The Meditative Suggestion Method

What it is, why it’s highly effective, and what it can do for you.

Meditative suggestion is best described as 2 part “deep mind access strategy” that creates a direct and focused interface between the conscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind and the unconscious mind can often unknowingly be in opposition, but why? What exactly is the unconscious mind? and more importantly, what is its purpose?

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality:

“The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges and memories that reside outside our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, guilt, or conflict.”

By this definition the unconscious mind is seen as little more than a repository for the darker more unpleasant aspects of our nature, but is that the complete picture? While it could be argued that the unconscious mind is a deeply unpleasant part of ourselves that we would rather not visit, it could also be argued that the unconscious mind serves as the seat of our most deeply held personal truths and beliefs. These beliefs, whatever they may be, directly influence the way we see and interpret the world around us. False and misguided constructs created by the unconscious can easily become the flawed basis of our perceptual and experiential reality. It’s as simple as that.

When we change our perceptions, we change the way we experience reality.

The unconscious automatically and constantly creates judgments based on its previous experiences. From its unique perspective, the unconscious analyzes and classifies each piece of incoming sensory information as it sees fit. Every thought and experience is carefully filed away and categorized for future reference. The unconscious utilizes simplistic categories like good, bad, and indifferent, important, and unimportant to describe experiences and build its paradigm. It then creates an outlook of the world or “worldview” based upon its interpretations and dictates what it believes to be true to the conscious mind. The conscious mind completely trusts in the deeply held beliefs of the unconscious and it unquestioningly goes about living within the boundaries imposed on it by the unconscious. The conscious mind is completely constrained and ordered by whatever those deeply held beliefs might be, positively or negatively.

Kappa’s Theory of the Mind and the Kappasinian approach

Dr. John G Kappas Ph.D was a pioneering figure in the field of hypnotherapy, He developed a systematic hypnotherapy method known as the “Kappasinian approach” This technique integrated traditional Eriksonian hypnosis techniques with insights from psychology and neuroscience. Kappas emphasized the importance of rapport, suggestion, and visualization in guiding clients to their therapeutic goals.

Central to Kappa’s’ teachings was his “Theory of the Mind” which postulated that “The unconscious mind is always listening and up to 90% of everything we do, and think is happening unconsciously”.

According to Kappas, the unconscious mind is the seat of our beliefs, emotions and habits which exerts a profound influence on our thoughts and behaviours. He believed that by accessing and reprogramming the subconscious through hypnosis, individuals could overcome negative patterns and achieve lasting change.

The “direct suggestion”techniques used by practitioners of Meditative suggestion lean heavily on Kappasinian methods.

Over time, the unconscious can come to contain a vast accumulation of negative perceptions and limiting self-beliefs that serve no useful purpose. However, these self-defeating mental obstacles can easily be overcome with Meditative suggestion.

It is the goal of the Meditative Suggestion Technique to bring the two generally asynchronous parts of the mind into a state of cooperative unity or alignment where the conscious mind and the unconscious mind can focus on the same positive idea or concept. The result is a new state of self-awareness where applied conscious/unconscious suggestion can fundamentally reorder the underlying unconscious framework of an old mindset. As the undesirable limiting thoughts and beliefs are replaced, the reordered unconscious mind responds by becoming vastly more receptive to the new and positive ideas introduced to it via hypnosis and meditative autosuggestion.

The Method:

The first portion of the technique is active and requires the focused participation of the client. As is the case in many other situations, success is determined by commitment. The level of success that can be achieved is directly proportional to the client’s level of focus and willingness to actualize their stated goal. The method is very simple but requires deep concentration and persistence. I will explain why in a moment.

During the initial client interview the subject’s personal goal is first determined then distilled from an abstract concept into a concise “Positive” statement strictly in the present tense. The goal must be positively stated. For example if your goal is to lucid dream for instance, you don’t say “I want to have lucid dreams” instead, you would take the positive/present approach and say “I am a lucid dreamer and I know when I am dreaming"” The goal needs to be expressed positively and directly in the present tense as if it is a truism that has already been accomplished and not as if it is a future circumstance that you may someday attain. The negative approach will always lead to a continuation of desire or wanting rather than a realization of the desired outcome.

Once this clear goal is determined a specific and concise auto suggestive statement can be devised. This auto suggestive statement will become the client’s “mantra” or in less esoteric terms, the repetitive phrase which will act as the central pillar of the client’s meditation. The client must repeat this phrase while focusing on envisioning the outcome of the suggestion. Repeat this phrase and each time it is repeated visualize your desired outcome and believe it to be a fact in the present tense. Diligence on the part of the client is an absolute necessity as it is the central foundation of the conscious portion of the method.

*The Suggestion part of this technique is external to the client.

Meditative suggestion involves 3 phases of deepening trance, which takes the client into a highly suggestible state between being completely awake and being completely asleep. With the client’s cooperation and consent, a series of pre-determined suggestions are seeded into the client’s unconscious mind. Meditative suggestion uses both hypnotic suggestion and post hypnotic suggestion to gain access to the deep unconscious mind. Deep relaxation techniques and hypnotic trance inductions are utilized to reach into this very suggestible portion of the mind. It is in this state that new ideas can be anchored, and fundamental changes can be made to negative or limiting constructs created by the unconscious. The same idea that defines their conscious meditative mantra will then become embedded in the unconscious via an anchored hypnotic/post hypnotic suggestion.

The object of this technique is to attain a positive state of awareness where the conscious and unconscious mind can work together in unison instead of in opposition.

Meditative suggestion was developed as a method of aligning the conscious will with the unconscious will. A pronounced side effect of this method is lucid dreaming and increased dream awareness. I have consistently been able to use this combination of meditation, Yoga Nidra and hypnotic /autosuggestion to induce my own lucid dreams and OOBE’s. Lucid dreams would seem to be a side effect of encouraging the waking conscious mind to directly interface with the unconscious mind.

Meditative Suggestion can be used in many capacities including athletic performance enhancement, improving focus, concentration, and mental clarity, treating anxiety, negative behaviour modification, positive goal reinforcement, overcoming social anxiety and freeing the mind from self-doubt.