You may believe that you need to be visual to fully benefit from your meditation or hypnosis practice but this is not true. There are many ways in which you can fully experience a hypnotic journey or guided meditation.
In this blog article, I will explain you how you can access all information available to you even if you cannot visualize. Read on to learn more.
How to Receive Information Through All Your Senses in Meditation or Hypnosis
Visualization is just one of many ways in which information appears in meditation or hypnosis. But there are many channels available to you.
1. Body Changes
Your body usually communicates to you without visuals so even if you cannot visualize, you can still perceive messages channelled to you.
Before you begin, it is always beneficial to spend a few minutes guiding yourself through relaxation. Progressive relaxation not only calms you but also helps you attune to your body's signals. Your body is an antenna, a conduit for messages from your higher self, your guides, and also from your deeper inner wisdom.
Your body communicates without using visuals, so you do not need to see with your eyes to receive guidance and intuitive insights
In meditation, notice if any of the following occur:
Body temperature changes
Relative changes in tension or relaxation
Changes in weight or levity in certain parts of the body
Skin responses such as tingling or goosebumps may indicate the presence of spiritual entities
Sense of leaning towards or away from a choice you have in mind
Reactions from the gut or heart, both of which have their own intelligence
Your body may be trying to show you something that you have been subconsciously ignoring or a truth you have not yet seen
Connect Your Body Responses
Body changes may evoke an emotional change. Notice what surfaces in you and be compassionate with yourself and curious about your body's wisdom.
Ask yourself why you feel this way without self-censorship or judgement.
Your body may channel a message from the divine to your sixth sense, from external guidance or your deeper subconscious wisdom. Your body may be trying to show you something that you have been subconsciously ignoring or a truth you have not yet seen.
Your somatic responses may translate into a sudden knowing, a revelation or an insight.
2. Emotional Shifts
Your body response can influence emotions but emotional shifts may also surface independently of any physical changes.
Tune in to primal emotional shifts, particularly when contemplating a choice, and notice whether the emotions are generally positive or negative.
From there notice nuances in your emotional state. Explore the emotions and feelings. If you were to describe the message of your emotions, what would they say to you?
Connect Emotions
As all emotions serve a purpose, accept how you feel. Ask yourself:
Why do I feel this? What do I need to recognize or accept in myself?
Can I permit myself to feel this and why or why not?
What is the message behind this emotion?
You may, for example, be filled with reassurance about your future, even though no specific guidance has manifested for you. This in itself is a valuable message.
3. Information Downloads
Information downloads appear in your mind spontaneously as a sudden knowing. They may appear in just a flash, in a brief moment, but their effects are long-lasting.
After receiving a knowledge download, you may feel as if a blindfold has been removed from your eyes.
Much like intuition, both divine and spiritual downloads gift you with a higher wisdom and understanding. While they may manifest in abstract forms at first, allow the messages to reveal themselves over the coming hours and days. They will soon form a comprehensive message.
Connect Information Downloads
Downloads provide all the information you need, so further analysis is not needed. You will simply know what to do next and confidently know the right choices to make. Notice how your perspective shifts.
4. Visuals
When people think of receiving visual information during meditation, some assume that this should come in the form of a clear and complete picture. But this is often not the case.
When you receive visual impressions, notice everything, not just what you can identify and name
Even if you cannot see a complete picture, it does not impede your ability to receive insights. On the scale between aphantasia (seeing absolutely nothing) and being able to create a picture in your mind's eye, many people may have some degree of visual ability. But because many people expect to be able to see a full scene, they overlook what they actually can perceive.
For example, if I ask you to visualize an ocean you may be able to experience this as a sense of the walls of your room shifting to a wide open space. You may perceive the movement of rippling waves or the light dancing on the water.
While you may not see a complete picture, notice if you can perceive any of the following:
changes in spatial awareness such as the sense of being surrounded by walls, a tall building or in a vast open space
faces or figures
abstract shapes, geometric designs, patterns and symbols
outlines of other lands, buildings or locations you have never seen before
moving shapes, lines or waves forms
colours
changes in light and shadow
outlines or silhouettes
When you receive visual impressions, notice everything, not just what you can identify and name. Notice the abstract as well as the well-formed images. They may not make sense at first. But they still hold clues and useful information.
Connect Visuals
Do not try to analyze what you see in your mind's eye. Simply observe, ask for more to be revealed and trust that meaning will appear, sooner or later.
During meditation ask what each visual represents. Notice what they evoke in you by association, whether memories of events, people, or associations with places.
Use whatever visual element is available to you and combine this with your other senses (sound, taste, touch, sensations) to create an immersive scene.
5. Sounds
You may receive auditory messages in hypnosis or meditation. This may be a background sound, music or another person's voice.
Are these organic sounds from nature or industrial or urban sounds? Certain sounds may evoke a geographical place and even a time in history.
If there is music, ask to see or perceive the instrument, the singer of the song or the place where the song was played.
The timbre and tone of the voice will give you clues as to who is behind the voice. Ask for the name of the voice. If this is one of your spirit guides, you can also read more Tips to Contact Your Spirit Guide here.
Connect Sounds
Notice both external associations and inner changes within you. Notice emotions and mood changes evoked by the voice, sounds or music. The voice or music may represent some aspect of yourself or may carry a message from a higher wisdom.
6. Touch
Your sense of touch can also be helpful in meditation. You may become aware of a different environment around you. Or you may also spontaneously feel something on you, such as different clothing or something placed in your hand. If an object, touch it and notice if you can feel:
the shape, size and length
the material
the weight
what the object may be and its use
You may even get a sense of the object's origins and age. You may perceive the origins of the material used especially if organic, such as wood, paper or stone.
Connect Touch
Ask to see the land from which the object originated. You can also ask to see who used to hold or own this object and get an idea as to the purpose of the object.
7. Smells and Taste
Less common but still possible are for spontaneous smells and tastes to appear. These will generally bring an immediate sense of disgust or delight. You may associate a certain taste with a place where you ate this meal earlier in this life or in a past life.
Connect Smells and Taste
Notice your immediate responses. They may evoke a strong and complete picture of a person, place or era. Notice spontaneous images and shapes, sounds or names appear in association with tastes or smells.
Journal or Record All Your Experiences
To ensure you recall everything, write or verbally record your experiences without censorship or question immediately after your meditation or hypnosis session. The smallest detail may prove to be useful and insightful later on even if you cannot immediately understand the meaning.
Release the Need to Find Immediate Meaning
Even after your meditation or hypnosis session, ensure that your ego and rational mind do not take over and impose meaning.
Trust that the meaning will be revealed to you if it is not yet clear. Like pieces of a jigsaw, you may receive insights after your practice. You can ask for further information to be revealed to you in dreams, synchronicity, or in future meditation sessions.
Connect All Your Senses and Ask For Insights
One sensory insight may start a chain reaction. For example, a change in your spatial awareness and a shiver over your skin, or abstract shimmering wave patterns and warmth may evoke the sense of being on a beach, followed by a taste of sea air or a sensation of a breeze over your skin. Allow each sense to be one part of a bigger scene or message.
Final Thoughts
The biggest barrier to receiving messages in hypnosis or meditation is expectation, whether in the form of fear or desire. Expectation of a certain response or expectation of the way the message will be conveyed can block you from receiving information available to you. Let go and embrace each new meditation or hypnosis session with curiosity. Actively engage all of your senses.
The second major block is the need to make immediate sense of any message. Keep an open mind and do not rush to form meaning from any message. Record everything in a journal. Trust that their meaning will become clear
As you practice regularly, you may start to find that one sense is strongest and will learn to inquire and connect one sensory response to another to form a complete "picture", even if without images.
Even if you are not visual, you can tap into so many channels, and perceive messages through spatial awareness, sounds, body responses, emotional shifts, new sensations, information downloads, taste, scent and touch.
You can now put this into practice. Use all your senses as you listen to these sessions to Learn Your Soul Name from the Akashic Records, or Learn Your Spirit Guide's Name.
If you are looking for guidance on a big decision, or need help in an area of your life where you feel confused or stuck, try my Connect with Your Intuition Meditation session below.
Thank You For Reading
Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Sarah Dresser and I have worked as a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist for over a decade. I embrace both the neuroscience and spirituality of hypnotherapy.
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