Article by Christopher Lloyd Clarke
You may have noticed that we have separate categories for royalty free hypnosis music and royalty free meditation music at Enlightened Audio.
Both styles of music have the same ultimate purpose – to help guide the listener into a state of deep relaxation and to open their mind to positive suggestions. In my opinion there is no clear line that differentiates meditation and hypnosis music per se, however I have noticed that there are some general differences between the preferences of the practitioners who make use of these music styles. These differences seem to vary according to their area of expertise, and according to the way in which they intend to use the music, but here is just one (very broad) example.
Example
A spiritual guidance counsellor who is creating a guided meditation for “opening the heart to love” (for example) might favour royalty free music that is emotional – perhaps a track that features beautiful choirs and light bell sounds.
In contrast, a hypnotherapist who is creating a CD to cure insomnia will probably favour music that is less emotional. If the goal is not to inspire, but to entrance the listener, then more subtle music may be preferred. Perhaps music that consists of a soothing drone might be used, as opposed to a track that contains flutes or bells (some of the sounds that are sometimes associated with typical “new age” music).
There really are no rules when it comes to selecting music for meditation or hypnosis. Every hypnosis recording is different. Every guided meditation recording is unique. To blur the lines even more, it’s worth remembering that many meditation teachers are also qualified hypnotherapists, and many hypnotherapists and psychologists also teach meditation!
At Enlightened Audio I have created separate categories for both meditation and hypnosis music. It would have been very easy to simply group them together as “relaxation music” and I’m sure that no-one would have ever found fault with that approach. I’ve made my own subjective division between the two categories according to these basic guidelines:
Meditation music features the broadest range of relaxing music styles, from deep drone music to heavenly spiritual music.
Hypnosis music features the most subtle music in my collection. It’s music that is usually free from any attention-grabbing instrumental performances.
The following musical comparison highlights the distinction I have made between these two styles, (please play the music previews):
This music is deep, enveloping and completely free from any elaborate instrumentation. As hypnotic as it gets.
Wandering In The Warmth is a quieting arrangement of chord progressions that slowly blur from one to the next, gently massaging the mind and soothing one’s nerves. It is a perfect complement to hypnosis, or for any media production that requires deeply relaxing music that has no emotional highs or lows.
This music is very relaxing, but the high bell sounds and soaring choirs make it less suitable for clinical hypnotherapy. It’s a fabulous atmosphere for certain kinds of guided meditations though.
Arthur Rubenstein once said, "It's the space between the notes that makes the music". Floating is a testament to this simple truth. Ethereal choirs, the gentle patter of light rain and bowed Tibetan bells come together in this spacious composition that leaves plenty of room for your guiding words. Listen closely...you can almost hear the silence.
As I mentioned earlier, the distinction I have made between hypnosis and meditation music is entirely subjective and very much open to debate. Hopefully these musical examples will help to explain the reasoning behind the distinction and what to expect from Enlightened Audio as we release more music.
