Mental Practices: Towards an Epistemic Convergence of Meditation, Hypnosis and Mental Imagery

Meditation, hypnosis and mental imagery are three kinds of mental training practices that have attracted a growing attention in research in pyschology and neuroscience over the last two decades. However, these research fields remain mostly independent from each others, even though the three mental practices seem to share common mechanisms. By giving an overview of the main cerebral and psycho-sociological aspects involved in each practice, this review sets a starting point towards more interaction between research investigating meditation, hypnosis and mental imagery.