The model
A clinical map that sets the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha's seven stages of knowledge (bhūmikās) beside seven recognised depths of trance, names the integration zone at each rung, and states its own limits.
Open any rung to read the integration zone — what the therapist and the text are doing together at that depth.
Read upward — stage 1 at the bottom, stage 7 at the top
Integration zone
Pure-awareness trance and silent presence — not another state to enter but the ground recognised in every state. Jīvanmukti; Fundamental Peace.
Integration zone
Perceptual shift — the boundaries of things soften; consciousness expands past its usual partitions.
Integration zone
Post-trance integration — sustained non-reactivity carried into behaviour; what was seen in depth becomes how one lives.
Integration zone
Hypnotic absorption meets direct knowing — identity deconstruction at full depth. This is YVH's primary therapeutic zone, and the model's central testable hypothesis.
Integration zone
Progressive relaxation and deepening — the habitual self loosens enough for new pattern to take.
Integration zone
Self-inquiry joined to guided suggestion — narrative reframing and Socratic dialogue inside a gently focused state.
Integration zone
Therapeutic motivation — disillusionment with suffering becomes readiness for change. The first honest wish to be free is itself the induction.
A note on what this map claims. The alignment between stages of knowledge and trance depths is a clinical map — a heuristic correspondence proposed for research, not a claim of identity between contemplative attainment and hypnotic depth.
Beta with ordinary waking vigilance; alpha with relaxed inward attention; theta with absorbed imagery and hypnotic responsiveness; delta with the deepest, least-verbal states; gamma reported in advanced contemplative practice. These are reported associations, not stage markers.
Associated with self-referential processing; reduced activity and altered connectivity are reported in deep trance and in non-dual states.
Implicated in attention and in pain modulation during hypnotic analgesia.
Executive control; altered engagement is reported in both samādhi and hypnotic absorption.
These are correlational findings drawn from the meditation and hypnosis literatures. They are not established mechanisms of this model, and none of them is offered as evidence that a stage of knowledge and a trance depth are the same thing.
These are proposals for research. None is yet an established finding.
Gallardo, L. M. (2026). Yoga Vāsiṣṭha Hypnotherapy (YVH): An Integrative Model Bridging the Supreme Yoga and Modern Hypnotherapy. Working paper and Figure 1 (v2). Zenodo. [DOI pending deposit]
Researchers, clinicians and institutions are welcome to write. Replication, data-sharing and site partnerships for the trials in progress are all open conversations.
Educational and scholarly content. Hypnotherapy and regression material is complementary and not a substitute for medical or psychiatric care.
