What’s the Difference Between Meditation & Hypnosis?

8 min. read | Meditation | Self-Hypnosis

They both help link conscious and subconscious, and both help rewire the brain - but meditation and hypnosis can take the mind in different directions. So what’s really happening under the surface that sets them apart?

Meditation and hypnosis both involve shifting your state of mind. They kind of look alike and may even feel similar, but they are essentially different animals (ok, they’re not bird-and-mammal-different: maybe more like like horse-and-zebra-different, or two-closely-related-mammals-different). If you’ve ever wondered how they’re related, or even if they’re just the same general state or phenomenon with a different name, you’re not alone!

There is a lot of overlap between the two, but their objectives, mechanisms, and outcomes diverge in important ways. Meditation is often about being - cultivating deeper awareness, observing without interference. In contrast, hypnosis is a little more about actively engaging the subconscious mind to create change. While some meditation invites you to sit back and observe your thoughts like clouds drifting across the sky, hypnosis can get you in the driver’s seat and steer your subconscious toward change.

So, which one is right for you? That depends on what you’re trying to achieve.

The Purpose: Awareness vs. Suggestion

Meditation is about cultivating mindfulness, emotional balance, and presence. Whether you’re following your breath, using a mantra, or just noticing the mind’s chatter without reacting or attaching a story, the goal is often to cultivate an open, spacious awareness. It’s a practice of non-doing, of observing and allowing the mind rather than engaging with it.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, is an active process, more like tuning your mind to a specific frequency. It narrows attention, creating a heightened state of suggestibility where the subconscious mind becomes more receptive to positive suggestions and change. Whether used for breaking habits, managing pain, or reprogramming limiting beliefs, hypnosis is less about detached awareness of the mind and more about recruiting the subconscious for transformation. (For more on what this looks like in real life, check out How Self-Hypnosis Saved My Mental Health.)

The Mechanism: Open Monitoring vs. Directed Focus

Meditation can be likened to watching ocean waves - you notice the ebb and flow of thoughts, emotions, and sensations without controling, grasping, or pushing them away. This kind of open monitoring helps develop cognitive flexibility, emotional resilience, mental clarity, and a greater capacity for presence. Research shows that regular meditation can induce neuroplasticity, strengthening brain regions associated with emotional regulation and focus.

Hypnosis is more like sailing those waves and guiding the ship with a clear destination in mind. It involves a deep, narrow focus that quiets the noise of the thinking mind, allowing for direct communication with the subconscious. Hypnosis doesn’t just alter perception - it reorganizes neural activity, reinforcing new cognitive patterns and behaviors, kind of like updating the software of your mind to better align with your goals.

There are forms of hypnosis that are more like meditation, and forms of meditation that are more like hypnosis, but one key difference between the two practices in general is continuity of awareness. Meditation often fosters an integrated awareness, strengthening the mind’s ability to remain fully present without distraction. It encourages full presence and non-reactivity, training the brain to observe without interference.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, involves stepping around ordinary consciousness and using imagination to interrupt the prevailing cognitive and emotional patterns - a level of strategic, temporary dissociation from habitual thought patterns, physical sensations, or self-perception. This dissociative element is part of what makes hypnosis so effective for behavioral change as meaning and beliefs are updated at the subconscious level.

The Outcomes: Self-Discovery vs. Subconscious Reprogramming

If meditation is about awareness, hypnosis is about transformation. Meditation helps you become an observer of your thoughts, making space for insight and acceptance. Over time, this can lead to profound changes - lower stress, sharper focus, and even structural shifts in the brain that support well-being.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, is often about more specific results. Need to quit smoking, overcome a fear, or change a deeply ingrained habit? Hypnosis is designed to work directly with the subconscious, creating rapid shifts in perception and behavior. While meditation encourages letting go, hypnosis is more about directing change.

What the Experts Say

Guy Montgomery, PhD, a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Behavioral Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, highlights a key distinction between the two practices: “Hypnotherapy has some important advantages,” he explains. “Whereas meditation helps you accept a problem, hypnosis allows people to make changes to do something about the problem.” Montgomery’s research on clinical hypnosis with cancer patients demonstrates how hypnosis can be a powerful tool for directed change.

Psychologist and dream scholar Deirdre Barrett, PhD explores the overlap between hypnosis and meditation, noting that both enhance creativity and problem-solving in unique ways. Meditation allows the mind to roam freely, while hypnosis directs it toward a specific outcome - like setting your mental GPS.

Dr. David Spiegel, a leading hypnosis researcher at Stanford, explains that meditation encourages acceptance, while hypnosis is designed for active cognitive change. His lab’s brain imaging studies show that hypnosis engages neural networks linked to focus and control - proving it’s not just some parlor trick, but a powerful tool for transformation.

A Peek into Ancient Traditions

While science is still trying to work out the mechanics of these practices and non-ordinary states of consciousness, ancient traditions have long known their power.

Clearly, Eastern wisdom traditions like Buddhism have explored and developed meditation systems extensively. And while the term itself and the formalized practice of hypnosis is relatively new, there’s something very akin to hypnosis going on with Dzogchen meditation in Tibetan Buddhism, where selective attention, visualization, and posthypnotic suggestion are used to facilitate profound states of awareness.

Some tantric and Taoist practices use breathwork and visualization techniques that functionally feel a lot like self-hypnosis.

From ancient China, the I Ching talks about “quieting the heart-mind” to access deep intuitive knowing - a concept that also resonates with both meditation and hypnosis.

In ancient Egypt, “sleep temples" served as healing centers where priests used chants and guided trances to induce therapeutic dream states - and we might consider this an early form of hypnosis.

The Greeks had similar practices in Asclepieia, sacred healing temples where patients engaged in "incubation," a process of meditative sleep intended to bring about divine healing insights.

The Stoics engaged in practices akin to modern meditation and self-hypnosis. They emphasized prosoche, or continuous mindfulness of one's thoughts and actions, to live in accordance with reason. Techniques included morning reflections to prepare for the day and evening reviews to assess one's behavior, fostering self-awareness and virtuous living. Additionally, premeditatio malorum, or negative visualization, involved contemplating potential misfortunes to build resilience and appreciation for what one has. ​

These historical traditions suggest that the human fascination with these non-ordinary states of consciousness like meditation and hypnosis has been with us for millennia, whether for healing, insight, or transformation (and this isn’t even considering even more ancient shamanic practices - and that’s a whole other topic!). Despite the heightened authority of today’s “hard science,” we’re really just beginning to see how modern research aligns and catches up with some of these ancient insights on the mind’s function and potential.

So, Which One is Right for You?

Both meditation and hypnosis are powerful transformative tools, but they can serve different purposes. Think meditation for cultivating mindfulness and deepening self-awareness. Think hypnosis for reprogramming subconscious patterns and creating targeted change. Both are effective therapeutic, integrative, and restorative practices, with hypnosis often resulting in faster, specific benefits, and meditation being a bit more of a long game in terms of positive results.

But why choose one? Meditation strengthens your ability to observe and detach, while hypnosis helps you reshape deep-seated beliefs, and together, they become a very dynamic duo for mental and emotional transformation.

Whether you’re surfing the waves of your subconscious with hypnosis or simply watching them roll in with meditation - together or separate - you’re cultivating a more empowered, integrated, and harmonized heart-mind.