MEDITATION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY FORUM ARCHIVE
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Re:Meditation v EMDR
Meditator · 07/29/03 at 9:05 ET
Lindsay: I know you meditate and do martial arts. I get the sense you are a hypnotherapist. Have you ever tried EMDR, and if you have, what was your experience? I've read about the similarities between hypnosis and EMDR. I don't know the theory behind hypnosis very well, but I do see where the distraction of finger movements is much like the distraction,distraction probably isn't a very technical term, of hypnosis. I've never really had any sort of results with hypnosis. So, I can't imagine having great insight into traumatic events in my past, taking an event or image and somehow coming up with a new feeling and understanding of traumatic event with hypnosis. It does, happen often for me with meditation because I do get into an altered state. For lack of a better term, the altered state required to do that is never reached in hypnosis. I do reach it, with difficulty, in meditation. I can't imagine following a finger with my eyes, and reaching that sublime state in meditation that, well, changes everything. And, if it could change everything, I can't imagine a therapist imposing an interpretation of that divine state and knowledge, for only my mind can truly grasp that most authentic side of myself. I suspect that for some people EMDR does move them into an altered state very easily, perhaps people who dissociate easily due to trauma. I am not a therapist so I am just giving my ignorant opinion here. It is truly a miraculous experience, in the way that I felt "enlightenment" to be miraculous when I first experienced it. However, there's the default therapy part of the EMDR, which from what I read is essentially cognitive therapy. So, good results come from the cognitive therapy. But somehow, it doesn't seem that there's a real readiness in EMDR circles to accept that people, perhaps many people, are only benefitting from the CT. It's really a win/win situation for those who stick to the belief that EMDR is unique, and it's not the CT that is working most of the time. I guess then, I'm asking whether the EMDR experience is the altered state achieved in meditation? If it is, does it require a sort of tendency to dissociate into a meditative state? (I do realize that while meditation produces clarity, dissociation creates seperation and confusion. However, I know so many people who have meditated for decades, and it seems that their minds found the meditative state very easily as a means of escape at a very earily age.) And again assuming that EMDR and meditation are, in fact, the same or very similar, and that altered state requires a longer and deeper practice than most people understand to produce clarity and vision, are people actually receiving most of their healing from CT, while only a select few who dissociate into a meditative altered state actually experience the enourmous insight and healing that EMDR claims to produce, and usually requires years of practice in meditation?
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