The ultimate purpose of practicing meditation is to experience the essential oneness of you and the entire universe. But you don’t have to want enlightenment to benefit from it. You can practice meditation as mental development, honing your concentration powers and an ability to stay focused on whatever you want, for as long as you want. You can meditate for physical development – to lower blood pressure, reduce muscular tension, improve your posture and sleep better. Meditation is also very useful for emotional development, as it calms and stabilizes the mind, connecting you to your essential inner peace independent of causes and conditions.

Mind precedes all phenomena.
Mind matters most,
everything is mind-made.
-- Buddha

So meditation can be profitably participated in without a greater spiritual interest. Like hypnosis, it is non-denominational and does not conflict with any religious beliefs. In many fundamental ways meditation and hypnosis are akin, usually involving a narrowing of the focus of attention to one’s internal experience. In meditation this is done to explore the nature and functioning of the mind, while in hypnosis to more easily receive and integrate positive suggestions for change and self betterment.

The primary meditation practice taught at Mind Matters is in the Vipassana (mindfulness and insight) tradition. Combined with hypnotic suggestion, metaphor and imagery, the emphasis is on realizing the interconnectedness of body, mind and spirit as a unified whole as a vehicle for transformation and healing.

Through meditation you are guided into the hypnotic state. You will be able to meditate on your own much more easily after experiencing this. You will learn to use meditation, self-hypnosis, auto-suggestion and visualization to support your goals and intentions and to aid you throughout your life.

The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go..
-- Atisha, (11th century Tibetan Buddhist master)