Lin Ku-fang, a scholar of folk music with much experience in Zen practices, points out that while Western hypnosis and Eastern Zen meditation are both concerned with "getting to a relaxed state and controlling the mind," they are--because of the "self-examination" stressed in Zen techniques--quite different in their essence.
禪修經驗甚深的民族音樂學者林谷芳則指出，西方的催眠與東方禪修雖然在「放鬆身心、統御精神」的路徑上一致，但是兩者本質上不同，主要是後者在過程中下了「自我觀照」的功夫。