Mind Play Study Guide - Mark Wiseman.pdf

The Mind Play

Study Guide

by Mark Wiseman (Wiseguy)

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The Mind Play Study Guide

Contents Getting Started Introduction About This Book About the Author Thanks Necessary Disclaimers Tips for Presenters Building Blocks for a Successful Class Start Strong The Zone Root Yourself and Set the Room Organizing Your Content Erotic Hypnosis 101 Outline 4MAT Closing Lecture, Demo, or Hands-On? Closing Up What about Q&A? Co-Presenting

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NLP for Teachers Using Your Body Borrowing Anchors Self Anchoring Chunking Wrapping Up

The Basics Erotic Hypnosis 101 Presenter Notes What is Hypnosis? Hypnosis Myths The Conscious and the Subconscious What is Erotic Hypnosis? Anatomy of a Hypnotic Scene Summing Up Discussion Points Exercises Safety and Ethics Presenter Notes Playing Safe Physical Safety and Comfort 4

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Landmines Abreactions Safer Suggestion Safe Words Ethics Consent Covert Hypnosis and NLP Negotiation Respect Touching Discussion Points Starter Inductions Presenter Notes Eye Fixation Swinging Crystal Relaxation Body Scanning Fractionation The Dave Elman Induction Discussion Points Exercises

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Going Deeper Presenter Notes What's Depth Got To Do With It? Depth Scales When Suggestions Fail Deeper = More Controlled Deepeners The Staircase The Blackboard The Furniture Store Self Deepening Testing for Depth Subconscious Depth Scale Discussion Points Exercise The Language of Suggestion Presenter Notes Suggestion in Everyday Life Suggestion in Hypnosis Direct and Indirect Suggestion Waking Suggestion

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Post-Hypnotic Suggestion Safe and Effective Wording Trigger Safety Putting it All Together Discussion Points Exercises Fun With Modalities Presenter Notes Primary Modalities Identifying Modalities Language Cues Decision Cues Eye Accessing Cues Using Your Partner's Primary Modality Discussion Points Exercises Your Hypnotic Self Presenter Notes Trust, Expectation, and Belief The Elements of Style Your Voice

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Your Words Your Touch Versatility Discussion Points Exercises Being the Hypnotee Presenter Notes Can You Be Hypnotized? Getting There Self-Hypnosis Discussion Points Exercise

The Next Level Testing and Convincers Presenter Notes Why Test? Tests vs. Convincers Caveats Pre-Trance Tests Arms Rising and Falling Hand Clasp 8

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Finger Vise Floppy Arm The Chevreul Pendulum Convincers Catalepsy Numb Spot Hilarious Pen Discussion Points Exercise Confusion Inductions Presenter Notes About Confusion Inductions The Analytical Mind Control Freaks Confusion Countdown Cross-Body Confusion Nine Things The List The Process An Erotic Variant Word Play

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Discussion Points Exercise Setting and Using Triggers Presenter Notes About Triggers Well-Formed Triggers The Trigger Event “Only when it is safe and appropriate...” The Trigger Response Trigger Safety Non-Triggering Conditions Temporary Triggers Open Triggers A Reinduction Trigger An All-Purpose Trigger Discussion Points Exercise Fractionation Presenter Notes What is Fractionation? Fractionation as an Induction

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Fractionation as a Deepener Auto Fractionation Discussion Points Exercises Instant Inductions Presenter Notes Instant Induction Basics Transderivational Search Setting the Stage The Hypnotic Contract Follow Through Safety Concerns Hand Drop The Butterfly Standing Rock The Handshake Erickson's Handshake Bandler's Handshake Discussion Points Exercises Hypnotic Favorites

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Presenter Notes Overview Safe Place The Control Room Freeze The Jedi Mind Trick Discussion Points Exercises Long Distance Hypnosis Presenter Notes Reach Out and Hypnotize Someone Text Trancing Text Inductions Suggestions Contingencies Ending the Session Hypnosis by Audio Voice Inductions Suggestions Contingencies Ending the Session

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Hypnosis by Video Chat Video Inductions Suggestions Contingencies Ending the Session Discussion Points Exercises More Inductions Presenter Notes A Non Verbal Induction Heart Coherence Object Drop Recursion Discussion Point Exercises

Kinky Human Tricks Arousal and Desire Presenter Notes Pleasure Trigger Lust Potion Hypno-Pheromones 13

Remote Control Discussion Points Exercises Sensation Play Presenter Notes Hot and Cold Hypno-Tickling Remote Erogenous Zone Vibrating Underwear Discussion Points Exercise Hypno-BDSM Presenter Notes Subspace as Trance Hypno Bondage Hypno Impact Hypnotic Objectification Floor Lamp Human Sculpture Exhibitionist “My pussy is missing!”

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Discussion Points Exercises Doll Play Presenter Notes About Dolls Basic Dolls Rag Doll Fuck Doll Puppets Marionette Action Figure Ventriloquist's Dummy Discussion Points Exercises Memory Play Presenter Notes Hypnosis and Memory Tips for Effective Amnesia Suggestions Pop Quiz Blank Disappearing/Changing Clothes

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Hypnotic Teleport Memento Mystery Trigger Discussion Points Exercises Transformations Presenter Notes More Than Meets the Eye Bimbo Robot Animal Drugged Drink Discussion Points Exercises Hypnotic Orgasms Presenter Notes Foreplay Come on Command Orgasm Gun Brain Massage Five-Point Palm Exploding Orgasm Technique

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The Mind Play Study Guide

Enabling Tantric Orgasm Discussion Points Exercises

Advanced Lessons Dual Inductions and Co-Topping Presenter Notes Two Hypnotists Are Better Than One Dual Induction Technique Variations After the Induction Co-Topping Negotiation Execution Aftercare Mutual Hypnosis Discussion Points Exercises Consensual Non-Consent Presenter Notes What is CNC anyway? Surprise Inductions 17

Resistance Play Resistance and Brats Induction Resistance Suggestion Resistance Turning the Tables Hypnosleep Discussion Points The Esdaile State Presenter Notes A Little History Why Esdaile? Getting There Coming Back Beyond Esdaile? Discussion Point Exercise Where to Go From Here Local Communities Events Teaching Online Communities

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The Mind Play Study Guide

Going Pro Have Fun

Appendix Notes on the Discussion Points Chapter 3: Erotic Hypnosis 101 Chapter 4: Safety and Ethics Chapter 5: Starter Inductions Chapter 6: Going Deeper Chapter 7: The Language of Suggestion Chapter 8: Fun With Modalities Chapter 9: Your Hypnotic Self Chapter 10: Being the Hypnotee Chapter 11: Testing and Convincers Chapter 12: Confusion Inductions Chapter 13: Setting and Using Triggers Chapter 14: Fractionation Chapter 15: Instant Inductions Chapter 16: Hypnotic Favorites Chapter 17: Long Distance Hypnosis Chapter 18: More Inductions Chapter 19: Arousal and Desire 19

Chapter 20: Sensation Play Chapter 21: Hypno-BDSM Chapter 22: Doll Play Chapter 23: Memory Play Chapter 24: Transformations Chapter 25: Hypnotic Orgasms Chapter 26: Dual Inductions and Co-Topping Chapter 27: Consensual Non-Consent Chapter 28: The Esdaile State

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The Mind Play Study Guide

For the entire erotic hypnosis community, and for those who teach and guide them.

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Introduction

Getting Started

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Introduction

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Introduction

About This Book In July of 2013 I published Mind Play: A Guide to Erotic Hypnosis. It was a labor of love: a resource for the erotic hypnosis community, who have so few good sources for learning,and a way of making myself more widely available, albeit by proxy, to those who want to learn erotic hypnosis. At the time I figured it was a niche product with a small audience; it would likely sell maybe 300 copies and then taper off. What actually happened has far exceeded anything I ever imagined or hoped for. As of May 2015 over 2,500 copies of Mind Play have been sold (ebook and print editions combined) and it continues to sell at a consistent pace. The community has been incredibly kind (though not reluctant to smack me when I deserved it) and has actually made things possible for me that I thought were never going to happen. And so, it's time for me to give some more back. The Mind Play Study Guide continues the work that we started in Mind Play: A Guide to Erotic Hypnosis. If you've read Mind Play some of that material is repeated here, but in greater depth. The Study Guide covers a broader range of topics than Mind Play, especially topics for the intermediate and advanced hypnotist but also for the beginner. Each chapter in the Study Guide covers one aspect of erotic hypnosis at a deep level of detail, with the examples and anecdotes (and occasional tongue-in-cheek observations) you would expect from a Wiseguy class. Each chapter has been deliberately written to stand alone. Sometimes that means that some fundamental concepts are repeated. In the chapter on triggers, for example, you will find discussion of how to form triggers safely and effectively. A lot of the same material is also included in the earlier chapter on forming suggestions, because it's relevant and important in that context too. As a result, your path through the Study Guide doesn't have to be linear – you can take the chapters in whatever order you like without having to flip around to other chapters to pick up important pieces. This structure also makes it easy to use this material in a couple of different ways. 24

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If you are seeking to learn erotic hypnosis, then each chapter represents a self-contained lesson in your studies. Read the chapter through, give some thought to the Discussion Points you'll find at the of each chapter, and do the Exercises to practice using the content in the chapter. By the end of the book you will have had an opportunity to do a lot of very cool and sexy things. If you are part of a local erotic hypnosis community group – and especially if you are a leader, who is expected to teach as well as to facilitate regular meetings – then what you have here are 27 individual classes which you can turn into one- to two-hour presentations for your group. You may find topics in here that you'd like to see presented on but have nobody who feels comfortable doing so, in which case you can have a Wiseguy class by proxy. It should also come in handy if you have a void in your activity schedule or if a planned speaker has to cancel. Another option is to use this book as source material for an erotic hypnosis study group. Rather than standing up and lecturing, you could have everyone read the chapter and then facilitate discussion and practice of the skills in the chapter. The Discussion Points and Exercises come in handy for this, too. If you don't feel confident teaching a group yet, that's okay. Chapter 2, immediately following this one, is a lesson on how to teach. It's based on my “The Art of Teaching Hypnosis” class that I've done at various cons across the country and online via Hypbook. Also, each chapter has a section called Presenter Notes that contains advice from me on how you might approach teaching that topic to a group. For my own very selfish reasons, I hope you do use this book as a teaching tool. In fact, I want you to get hooked on teaching – it would make me extremely happy to find out that this study guide is the gateway drug that gets you into teaching erotic hypnosis to groups, either at the local level, regional gatherings, or the big conventions like NEEHU, MEEHU, and WEEHU. We need fresh ideas, fresh voices, and fresh minds. Yours could be one of them. Whatever you do with this, be safe, be responsible, and have fun. -wg 25

Introduction

About the Author My personal story is already laid out in Mind Play, so I'll just summarize. I started writing erotic hypnosis fiction in 1999 as Wiseguy, and figured if I was going to do that I should research my subject. A few years later I developed an aptitude for it and became a professional hypnotherapist, while still writing hypnotic smut and holding a day job and raising four children as a single dad. I socialized online through the Mind Control Forum and did a little online hypnotic play but largely kept to myself for the first decade or so. Somehow I found the time to write Busman's Holiday, a novel-length fictional work that served as a thinly-veiled erotic hypnosis how-to guide, and some 40-plus other pieces of short fiction which can still be found on mcstories.com and www.asstr.org/~Wiseguy. Starting in 2008 I got more involved in the community aspects of erotic hypnosis. It started with the New England Leather Alliance Fetish Fair Flea, where I'd keep company with the New England Hypnosis Group, led at the time by Mephki and Dr. Slashblight. Then came the first New England Erotic Hypnosis Unconference (NEEHU), which gave me my first real opportunity to go out and teach erotic hypnosis as Wiseguy in a safe environment. NEEHU thrived and so did I thanks to the community that grew up around it. In time NEEHU begat WEEHU and MEEHU, making these wonderful learning events available around the USA and throughout the year. Realizing that the day would come when I couldn't travel to every con or visit every local community group, I wrote and published Mind Play. That book has opened doors not only for me but for the entire community. It's been placed in kink-friendly libraries, sold in commercial book stores, become an educational staple at local hypnosis groups, and it even got me interviewed by Sex Nerd Sandra for her Nerdist podcast, which introduced a whole bunch of new people to erotic hypnosis. The joy of teaching has been bleeding over into my mundane life, too. I became a certified instructor for the largest professional hypnosis organization in the US. They don't know me as Wiseguy, of course – they'd probably throw me out if they did – but it's allowed me to expand my 26

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teaching into the professional hypnosis world, and I'm bringing a bunch of extremely talented kinky people into that world with me. I've also become a Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), which has led me in some very interesting directions. I'm getting closer to letting go of the day job and devoting myself to hypnosis, writing, and teaching full time. Plus, buried deep in the fertile soil of my hard drive are the beginnings of other projects. Stay tuned – we've only gotten started.

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Introduction

Thanks A lot of people have contributed to this book, either directly or by doing things that inspired me to get off my butt and do it. All of the people I thanked in Mind Play come to mind, and in the tradition of that book I want to thank them and some more people up front, because nobody ever reads the ending credits. First up has to be Mephki. Not only is she the brains and soul behind the whole *EHU movement (I think three thriving annual conventions qualifies as a movement), but it was her idea originally to do this book. She planted the seed right after Mind Play first saw print, and I squirreled away the idea intending to do it when a decent interval had passed (I really don't want to become known as Wiseguy the Book Whore). Another huge inspiration of mine has been HypnoMaestro. He and I go to every *EHU but we seldom get to see each other because we're both teaching all the time. He was there at the very beginning, before Wiseguy ever learned to hypnotize, showing me how much fun this could be and it's an honor for me every time I get to see him. His respect and admiration for this community inspires mine, and I'm always looking forward to opportunities to work with him for the community's benefit. A teacher is nothing without a classroom. Mine is largely provided by the *EHUs: WEEHU (every fall in or around San Francisco), MEEHU (summers in the Chicago area), and of course the original, NEEHU (March near Hartfort, CT). I owe an eternal debt of thanks to the people who organize these: Dr. Headcrash, panavatar, and Fleur for WEEHU, HypnoMaestro and his team (currently Mephki, MissIsis, Daja, LeadPrism, SashasTrance, HypnoInamorata, and crucifixoftime) for MEEHU, and of course Mephki and her cadre of helpers for NEEHU. It has also been my pleasure to participate as a guest presenter for Hypbook's Live Learning series, thanks to the kindness of Skyla and dystopiocracy. This book's purpose is to serve the local erotic hypnosis communities, and the inspiration for that has come from the local groups I've had the pleasure of speaking to. Those include the New England Hypnosis Group (a NELA SIG), Hypnosis New York, the Dayton OH hypnosis group, Edu.kink, The 28

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Sarasota Society in Florida, and of course the Black Rose Hypnosis SIG in my home Washington DC area. There are tons more of them – check out the list on Mephki's hypnation.org website or on Fetlife. There are also the organizations such as New England Leather Alliance (NELA), The Eulenspiegel Society (TES), the Society of Janus, and Black Rose that sponsor local hypnosis SIGs. My fellow erotic hypnotists and teachers have given me so much, and there are way too many of them to name but I want to call out a few that hold special places in my heart: Lady Ru’etha and Jukebox, whose love and warmth inspired me to join with this community in the first place; LeeAllure; Marc Cabot; my old friend Hypnosis Enthusiast; MrDream and ZanyM; Daja and SpiralTurquoise; sleepingirl, my favorite copresenter; AmHypnotic; Dr. Headcrash, Fleur and panavatar; Felix Krull and Professor X … the list could fill a chapter by itself. A special thanks must go to Dr. Will Horton, who has become a friend and mentor to me. He taught me NLP, he taught me to be a better teacher, and he's pushed me to get off my butt and start executing on plans I've been cooking for years. This book is one of those plans. A group of trusted friends looked over this text for me, and their comments and feedback all helped shape the book you are now holding. So even though I’ve already named most of them for other reasons, thanks to Mephki, ZanyM, MrDream, MissIsis, Daja, and SpiralTurquoise. And finally, as always, in the place of honor is my beloved Dani. She gives me the freedom to be who I want to be. She is always there with a hug and a smile. And she puts up with the barrage of unprovoked orgasms I subject her to in the honing of my craft. It must be love.

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Necessary Disclaimers The content in this book is meant to be read and used by adults for education and recreational purposes only. Nothing in this book should be interpreted as therapeutic or as instructions for doing any kind of therapy. The author explicitly urges every reader not to attempt any kind of therapy without the proper training. This book contains some sexually explicit language, including discussion of erotic techniques. It is intended exclusively for an adult audience. Do not read this book or attempt any of the techniques in it if you are not of legal age to read about and practice sexual activities in your area. Recreational hypnosis should only be practiced by and with consenting adults who are fundamentally in good mental health. If you have been formally diagnosed with schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, or any other serious mental health issue, talk to your mental health professional about any special safeguards you should consider when you engage in erotic hypnosis play. Hypnosis is not dangerous, but it does need to be taken seriously. You, the reader, are solely responsible for what you do with the information in this book. Neither the author nor the publisher take any responsibility for consequences arising from the use or misuse of the information and techniques contained in this book.

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The Mind Play Study Guide

Tips for Presenters One of the classes I present at conventions is “The Art of Teaching Hypnosis.” The purpose of that class is to pass on some valuable tips I've learned over the years and to help people become more comfortable, confident, effective presenters. Very few of these tips are specific to teaching hypnosis. You'll find them useful for pretty much any kind of informative public speaking, whether it's teaching a class or giving a briefing or making a sales pitch. So even if you don't plan to become a star *EHU presenter, you may find that you can still benefit from these tips. I know I have.

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Tips for Presenters

Building Blocks for a Successful Class Giving a good presentation starts with you. Like a good hypnotist, a good teacher or speaker has to believe in themselves and earn the audience's trust and confidence. There are a few things you can do to help with this process. 1. Model the attitude you want people to have. A basic principle of sales is that your customer will always instinctively adopt the attitude toward your product that you have. If you want your audience to be excited, curious, or interested in what you have to say, you have to feel that way about it yourself. If you don't feel excited about the topic, why are you presenting it? Maybe you need to change the topic, or focus on an aspect of it that does excite you or interest you. 2. Create a safe environment. People learn best if they feel safe in the space. By “safe” I'm not only talking about physical safety, of course – unless you're teaching in a combat zone that is usually a given – but emotional safety. Your audience members need to feel that it's okay to ask questions, that they won't be humiliated for what they don't know, and that you respect and appreciate them. I often tell stories on myself when I'm teaching because it demonstrates that it's okay to be vulnerable and to make mistakes because I've done it too. 3. Remember that the group is on your side. Fear of public speaking is perennially ranked as the most common fear among adults in the US. The very fact that you are in front of a group speaking automatically wins you a measure of respect from your audience. Many of them are glad they're not in your shoes. The vast majority of them want you to succeed, either because they like you or because they want to learn something from you. This is especially true when the audience is self-selected, like at a hypnosis convention – nobody is compelling them to be there, they chose to be. So remember that and relax. 4. The group's feedback is your best coach. If you're presenting at a convention there is usually a feedback mechanism in place. If there isn't, or if you're not sure, go ahead and ask for feedback. Your 32

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audience, as I pointed out above, wants you to succeed and a lot of them will offer you comments, praise and criticisms. Take all of it in, but pay particular attention to anything you hear more than once because that could be a trend. For example, if several people who were sitting in the middle and back of the audience tell you that it was hard to hear you, you need to project your voice more; if only one person says that, and they were sitting under the air conditioner against the back wall, you probably don't. 5. Remember that we are all learning together. Nobody likes a know-it-all. Even if you really do know it all (and does anybody ever, really?), be open to learning with your audience. Without that attitude, it's easy to come off as condescending and lose your audience's respect and attention. I've been practicing and writing about erotic hypnosis for 15 years, but when someone who's been doing it for 15 days speaks up during my class to make an observation of their own, I listen to them and I validate their experience. Even if I disagree with the observation, I will always acknowledge it as valid or as one way of looking at things. It helps, of course, that in hypnosis almost nothing is absolute so it's very hard for anyone to be totally wrong or totally right.

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Start Strong A strong opening sets the tone for the entire class. When you start strong, you take control of the room and capture your audience's interest. The first step to a strong opening is to energize yourself. One of the best ways to do this is an NLP exercise called The Zone.

The Zone 1. Close your eyes and think of a time in your life when time seemed to move very slowly. Maybe you were sitting in a boring lecture, or stuck in traffic, or in a waiting room. Pick one or two such times. 2. In your mind and imagination, step into that experience. Notice all the things you can: what you see, hear, feel, smell, taste. Become aware of every little detail. 1. Notice whether your vision is narrow and focused, or broad and open. If you have an image in your mind, is it color or black and white? Bright or dull? Sharp or blurry? 2. If there are sounds, are they loud or quiet? Clear or muffled? Nearby or further away? If there are internal sounds, where are they coming from? 3. Where is your center? Are you focused inside yourself or on things outside yourself? How do your stomach and chest feel? Does your body seem heavy or light? 4. Do you smell or taste anything? 3. Open your eyes and clear your mind. 4. Close your eyes again and think of a time when time seemed to move very quickly. Perhaps you were absorbed in an activity, or spending time with someone you love, or enjoying a fun party. 34

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5. In your mind and imagination, step into that experience. Ask yourself all of the same questions as for the slow experience, and notice how the answers vary. 6. Now allow yourself to experience what athletes call “the Zone”: where time moves normally or quickly for you, but everything around you seems to have slowed down. Your internal responses are rapid, flowing, smooth, effortless. Your mind and body instantly react to events that seem to be moving slowly. Really imagine yourself in that state where time is fast on the inside and slow on the outside. 7. Now make a gesture that you can repeat later, perhaps a hand movement or some other kind of physical gesture. 8. Repeat all of the steps above (1 through 7), and this time add power music and applause in the background while you imagine yourself in “the Zone” and make that gesture. Whatever gesture you chose, that is now an anchor for you to get yourself into that Zone state. Go ahead, use it, see what I mean. Now, before you take the stage (or the front of the room, as the case may be), make that gesture – in NLP we call it “firing off” the anchor – and let yourself enter the Zone. You'll feel powerful and confident.

Root Yourself and Set the Room Take center stage. Now that you're in your position to start teaching/presenting, root yourself. Find your emotional center and, in your mind, push it down. Imagine having roots that extend securely into the ground. Then imagine pushing that power out into the room. It only takes a second or so to do this but it makes a huge difference in your command of the room. Now, set the room. Make eye contact with your audience, sweeping across them, and especially out to the far corners of the space. Bring the room in to you. Some people do this physically, opening their arms and raising them to metaphorically embrace the room; others just think about it and give the audience a warm smile. You'll figure out quickly what feels most natural to 35

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you. It takes a lot longer to describe this process than to actually do it. I root myself and set the room in about two seconds, then I start delivering my content.

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Organizing Your Content Before your class ever starts, it's important to plan what you are going to present. Over the years I've heard a lot of people make remarks like, “I never prepare anything, I just speak from the heart.” Most of them are not particularly good presenters; I do not believe this is a coincidence. If people are going to give you their time, you owe it to them to be prepared and to know what you're going to teach them in that time. You should also present it in a way that is organized and easy to follow. This does not mean you should spend hours making up PowerPoint slides – far from it! I think PowerPoint is the single greatest evil ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting world. But you should organize your material in a way that flows well and is easy for your audience to follow. My usual method is an outline. As an example, here is my outline for the Erotic Hypnosis 101 class that I teach several times a year:

Erotic Hypnosis 101 Outline 1. Welcome 1. Why erotic hypnosis is cool 2. What is hypnosis? 1. There are many definitions and depictions 2. Agreed-upon characteristics are 1. Focused concentration 2. Increased openness to suggestion 3. Usually, not always, relaxation 3. Erotic hypnosis == use of hypnosis in a sexual context

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4. Myths and Misconceptions 1. Mind Control/Truth Serum 2. Violating personal limits 3. Getting “stuck” 5. Things you can do with erotic hypnosis 1. Arousal 1. Induce it, amplify it, channel it 2. Body control 1. Hypno bondage 2. Freeze play 3. Human puppet 3. Sensation Play 1. Increasing, decreasing, relocating 2. Hypno impact play 4. Enhancing power exchange 1. enhance subspace/rope space 5. Fantasy role play 1. Changing perceptions of self 2. Vivid fantasy dreaming 6. Memory play 1. Forgetting things 38

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2. Remembering things differently 7. Orgasms 6. Anatomy of an erotic hypnosis scene 1. Negotiation 2. Induction 3. Suggestion 4. Emerging 5. Aftercare 7. Demonstration scene 1. Reactions/thoughts from the volunteer and audience 8. Closing/Q&A That one-page outline covers a class that usually takes 50 to 60 minutes. It doesn't go into heavy detail about the content, but it contains enough to remind me what points I want to make and in what order I want to make them. That order comes from a framework used often in education.

4MAT 4MAT is a method for helping people to learn by organizing content in a way that is easy to follow. You can find very detailed analyses of it online, but for our purposes we can simplify it to a sequence of Why, What, How, and What If. After your opening, the first thing you want to do is address the Why – that is, give your audience the reason(s) why they want to know what you are about to teach them. In a self-selected group like the typical hypno-kinky munch or event that would appear to be self-evident, but it always pays to address the Why. This is your opportunity to grab your audience's attention early and keep it. Ideally you are raising questions that you will answer 39

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through the rest of the presentation. Next, move into What. In the What stage, you give information: statistics, definitions, facts and figures as needed. If there are common misconceptions or misunderstandings, this is the time to expose and correct them. Once you've laid down a base of information, move into How. How is the practical aspect – now that your audience knows Why and What, How is all about what they can do with that information. In a hypnosis-related class, this is when you explain how a technique works and what safety and related concerns may come up with it. This is also a good time for a demonstration or a class exercise. If you have a number of What/How items to cover, it's okay to move between What and How for each item so the facts and the application of those facts are closely related. The final stage before you close is What If? This is your chance to engage your audience's imagination and curiosity by talking about variations and additional ways the skills and information you're teaching them can be applied. If you did a demo, this is a great time to mention other things you could have done in that demo, either with a different volunteer or with more time or in response to some other variable. Contemplating these helps to cement the information in your audience's minds and gives them ideas on how they can take the material and use it themselves.

Closing How many classes have you been to that ended in, “Any questions? Okay, bye”? Were they good ones? I'm guessing not so much. The closing of your presentation is your final opportunity to cement the highlights into the minds of your audience. Take a few sentences to summarize what you've taught them, and to challenge them to think of ways they can apply the material themselves. Then open the floor for questions. When you do start the Q&A, how you do it makes a difference. If you don't really want many questions, then ask, “So, are there any questions?” That wording subtly discourages questions by conveying that you really don't expect any. You can even be more blatant about it (“There aren't any more 40

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questions, are there?”) if you want, perhaps because you're out of time. When I'm ready to start the Q&A, I put my hand in the air and say something like, “So … if I were sitting out there I'd probably have a gajillion questions. Who wants to be first?” The body language invites people to mirror me by raising their hands, and the wording establishes the expectation that there are questions and it's okay to ask them. A shorter form (hand up and “What questions do you have?”) also works well. It's generally a good idea to allow at least 5 minutes for question and answer, especially if you don't take questions during the talk itself (I almost always do). Few things irritate me more than a speaker who says, “Hold your questions until the end” and then leaves no time at the end.

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Lecture, Demo, or Hands-On? Planning a class or presentation can be a juggling act. Lecturing is important, but who wants to be a talking head for the entire class? Demonstrations can liven up a class and break the monotony of speaking, but there are so many things that can go wrong. Hands-on exercises are great for making sure people really understand the material, but it's so easy to lose control of the clock when you do them. How do you balance them all? First, understand that you don't have to do all three in a single class. People do like demos, and they generally love exercises and hands-on time, but it's a very unusual class that doesn't involve at least some lecture to set things up. Remember 4MAT – you should open and address Why and What before you get into How, which is where your demo or hands-on would fall. Lecture is typically how you'll do that. Lecture is almost always necessary, and is the easiest of the three methods to use: you simply talk to your audience, using your outline to keep yourself on track. Another advantage to lecture is that it's the easiest to manage the time with. It's easy to speed up or slow down, do a little more or a little less detail, to keep yourself on track to finish on time and leave space for questions. Lecturing does not have to remind people of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off or subject them to Death by PowerPoint. It's a chance to show your audience who you are. If you engage them – ask them questions, make eye contact, walk around instead of shielding yourself behind a podium – they will stay connected with you. You can embrace them with your energy and flow with theirs. When done well, audiences can enjoy a lecture as much as they do a demo or hands-on class. I work in demos any time I can. One of my favorite classes to teach, “Kinky Human Tricks,” is at heart a series of demonstrations, with Why at the front and a separate What and How and What If for each technique I demonstrate. It also tends to be a very popular class, so I must not be the only one who enjoys it. A well-done demo teaches on multiple levels, because it shows a practical application of what you were speaking about. It answers What and 42

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How together, and feeds the What If. Even when things drift away from your expectations it's still a valuable learning experience for the audience and for you. The biggest dilemma with demos is how to select your volunteers. Some speakers recruit their demo bottoms in advance, before the class starts. That's not a bad thing, because it ensures that you have familiarity with your demo partner; you can negotiate the scene ahead of time, which saves time during the demo, and you have a level of rapport already built up (especially if you practice with them in advance). If you are going to demonstrate a technique that depends on the hypnotee having certain skills, such as a gift for negative hallucination or hypnotic amnesia, this is the safest way to go. When I do it, though, I have to admit I feel like I'm cheating a little by bringing in a ringer. I typically only do this for a class like “All the Way Down,” which is about really deep trance states; for that I usually use my wife Dani because I know she is experienced at going into the Esdaile state and that she enjoys it. For things that don't require a specific skill or ability, I encourage you to pull a volunteer from your audience. Using a random volunteer may seem like rolling the dice – you could end up with someone who isn't well focused, or who can't seem to pull off the hypnotic phenomena you need for the demo to work. Worst case, you get one of those people who just loves being the center of attention and isn't really all that good a trance partner, and your demo falls flat. But there are things you can do to load those dice ahead of time. During the time leading up to the demo, when you are presenting the concepts, keep an eye out for people who are paying particular attention. They will make eye contact with you and hold it a hair longer. You may notice them leaning forward in their chairs or looking especially alert. Foreshadow a little – say something like, “and in a minute I'm going to ask someone to come and help me demonstrate this.” The ones whose faces light up, who sit a little straighter (or lean forward) in their chairs, whose eyes widen – those are your ringers; the people you want to be your demo volunteer. Now, when you are ready to start your demo ask, “Who would like to volunteer?” while you raise your hand. Look for your ringers – at least one of them will almost certainly have a hand raised – and select one of them. 43

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Don't worry if theirs wasn't the first hand up – this isn't kindergarten. You can also simply make eye contact with the nearest ringer and ask them to join you on the stage. Nine times out of ten they will. By screening your candidates in advance this way and then selecting from the best, you can get consistently good results from your demos even with people you've never met before. For many, the best learning experiences come from hands-on practice and exercises. I love to do these because I can immediately see people accepting feedback, learning from it, and getting successful results. Unfortunately, there are serious challenges with hands-on as a teaching method. The first hurdle is often class size. If you have 10 people in a 1-hour class, you can do hands-on and be able to offer a few minutes of guidance and coaching to each. If you have 30, it's nearly impossible to get a meaningful amount of time with each because you only get about 45 seconds per person. You can alleviate this by having co-presenters who can help with the coaching so that you don't have to personally handle everyone yourself. The other challenge in a hands-on class is time management. When you're speaking or doing a demonstration, you have the group's attention and you can control the pace. Every time you start a hands-on exercise you are suspending that control; people will naturally do the exercise at their own pace, which will vary with each individual. You may feel obligated to wait until the slowest people are done before you can end the exercise, which puts your timetable in jeopardy. And once the exercise is over, you have to regain your audience's attention and get them back into listening mode. The time and difficulty of doing this increases exponentially with the size of the group. If you want to include hands-on practice time or exercises in your class, I think that's great. Here is some advice designed to help you do it without running over time or losing control of the class: Keep the exercises brief. My rule of thumb is no more than 10 minutes per exercise; if the skill you're teaching needs more time than that, divide it into smaller pieces and practice each piece individually. NLP practitioners call this chunking. The longer your exercise time goes, the larger the time gap between the faster and the slower participants will become and the harder it will be to get 44

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everyone back on track. Get help. Ideally you should have a helper for every 10 students so that there is coaching available quickly to those who need it. Watch the clock. When the exercise time is up, end it regardless of whether or not everyone is finished. You have a schedule to keep. The presenter coming after you will appreciate it.

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Closing Up A well-presented class ends with a closing that wraps things up for the participants. You have a lot of flexibility here; the only requirement is that you provide a sense of closure. The easiest closing is brief summary of the key ideas and concepts you presented in the class. Doing this closes the loop you opened at the beginning and satisfies the old adage, “Tell them what you're going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them.” A more subtle option is to close with a story. If you do this, pick a story that revolves around the material you just taught. If you are teaching an NLP concept, for example, tell a story about how you used that concept and got an interesting or positive result. This not only closes the loop on your class but also helps feed the What If, which will send your students out looking for opportunities to use what you just taught them. Another very common way to end a hypnosis or NLP class is with a short trance session. Do a quick group induction, then summarize your content and give suggestions for retaining the ideas and concepts and making them your own, or some similar wording. Then bring everyone back feeling great. You can also use your NLP techniques to inspire an emotional state such as confidence or excitement. However you do it, your closing should be upbeat and positive. Thank your audience for their time and attention.

What about Q&A? I said earlier to always leave time at the end for questions and answers. Most presenters do this at the very end of the class, after the closing. You can do that, or you can do your Q&A right before you close. Either choice is fine. When I'm teaching, I encourage people to ask me questions during the class. Some presenters dislike the way it can break their flow, but I like the 46

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immediacy that taking questions in stream provides. Also, if I'm getting a lot of questions on a point that tells me that I need to be more clear in my presentation of the concept. The questions you get also tell you a lot about your audience; you'll get clues that you can use to increase your level of rapport with the group, and I like that.

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Co-Presenting Sometimes having multiple presenters can be a big help in having a successful class. Sharing the stage with a co-presenter has a couple of potential advantages to it as well as things to be careful of. One of the key benefits of multiple presenters is that each can bring their own perspective to the topic at hand. For example, when teaching Erotic Hypnosis 101 at NEEHU 6 I brought in an experienced hypnotee to copresent with me. She brought that perspective from her side into the discussion and made it more rounded than just having me speaking as a hypnotist. Obviously this works best if you and your co-presenter actually have different perspectives! Perhaps one of you is self-taught and one is formally trained, or one of you has a very dominating style while the other is permissive and subtle. As long as there is contrast, the class can benefit from multiple viewpoints. Another benefit of co-presenters is that you can help take some of the pressure off each other. If you and your co-presenter are in good rapport, you will be able to pass the lecture ball back and forth pretty smoothly and keep your audience engaged. This also creates even more interesting ways to do positional anchoring, which we’ll discuss shortly. There are potential downsides to co-presenting as well, though. You and your co-presenter need to be familiar with each other and know what your overall message is. You need to make frequent eye contact and maintain a level of rapport with each other so that you can avoid talking over one another. Finally, time management becomes more difficult when you share the stage because you both have to be aware of the time and cooperate to keep things on track.

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NLP for Teachers One of the best teachers I know is Dr. Will Horton, who teaches NLP and hypnosis. One of the things he taught me early on is the value of using NLP to teach. Regardless of what your actual subject is, knowing and using a few NLP tricks will help you get your points across and keep your audience's attention.

Using Your Body We tend to think of teaching or presenting as a verbal art, but how you use your body as you present makes a world of difference in how your audience perceives you. For example, when you deliver your entire presentation from behind a podium, you become a talking head to your audience. When you come out from behind the podium and face your audience directly, a barrier is removed; you become a person they can interact with. When I teach I usually move around a lot depending on the venue. I'll at least move from side to side across the presentation area, and if space permits I also move closer and farther from the front row. If there's a generous aisle in the middle I sometimes move a step or two into it and then back out again. It's a natural tendency of mine, but I use it to my advantage as well. Moving across the space as I speak lets me connect with more of the audience than if I stand in one place. People watch me as I move, which helps me gauge how well I'm holding their interest. Also, my sight lines vary with my body position; when I'm on the audience's left, I can make eye contact with people I can't see as well from the other side and visa versa. My tendency to pace also lets me make use of positional anchoring. This is an NLP technique that can help you to leverage the rapport you have with your audience. Suppose your talk includes points that are very important, other points that are optional and less important, and things you've thrown in to provide laughs in between. If you deliver all of your important points from the same place on stage, the less important points from a different place, and the laugh lines from a third, your audience will subconsciously 49

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pick up on that. They will pay closer attention when you speak from the “important” spot; they will relax a little when you speak from the “less important” spot; and they will laugh more readily when you move to the “comic relief” spot. Another form of positional anchoring is one I've been doing for years and never realized it until someone pointed it out to me. I move almost constantly when I'm speaking, spreading myself more or less evenly across the available area. When I'm going to say something particularly important, however, I tend to stop and deliver the important statement from one spot. Audiences pick up on this (more quickly than I did, apparently) and perk up when I stop moving. It's like my own personal, “E. F. Hutton says...” trigger. Another good option suggested by SpiralTurquoise is to use your body to advance your outline. Plant yourself in one place and deliver Point A, then move as you segue and plant again to deliver Point B. Continue this way, and your audience will quickly pick up your cadence and follow you.

Borrowing Anchors We all have hundreds of anchors that we've picked up in our lives. How do you feel when you see someone in a military uniform, or a white coat and stethoscope? Is there a particular smell that takes you back to a happy time in the past? A song that can always put you in a better mood? All of these are anchors – stimuli that, when we perceive them, invoke an emotional response. Anchors are fired off by the subconscious mind, which means they are not under conscious control – we can choose to disregard the feeling that gets called up, but it's still going to be there. Another way to connect with your audience is to borrow some of their anchors. Ask them about people they admire, for example, and what it is they admire about those people. As they answer, they are looking at you; you can borrow some of that emotional response to the person they are thinking of. For example, you might ask someone in the audience to name their favorite character from Star Wars. If they say Obi-wan Kenobi, for example, and mention him being a wise mentor, you can then respond with, “Yes, 50

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definitely. Obi-wan is a classic example of the wise elder, the teacher we all wish we had,” and at the italicized words make a gesture toward yourself – straighten your tie, if you wear one, adjust your collar, or touch a pendant or necklace you're wearing. By pacing that emotional state of respect and admiration by restating it, and making the gesture toward yourself (which most people won't consciously notice), you borrow that anchor and apply it to yourself. Get a couple of more answers (Luke, Leia, and Han Solo tend to come up often) and do the same thing, and you'll have taken another step toward bonding with your audience. But wait – isn't borrowing anchors just a way of tricking people into listening to you? You could take that position if you want to. The same can be said of skilled salespeople, of course. And advertising writers. And politicians. They all use strategies to influence how they relate to people, and a lot of those strategies involve a form of NLP. If someone has chosen to come to your class or presentation and you use NLP to help you connect with them and convey the material that they came to learn, is that tricking them or is it being a skilled communicator? The ethical line gets blurry when it comes to using NLP techniques in your daily interactions. Most of us can agree that using any kind of influence technique to get someone to do something because you want them to is ethically questionable at best. In the context of teaching, though, you're not using NLP to get your audience to take any particular action or do something that benefits you; you’re informing, in a way that makes the material easier for them to take in, and leaving it to them to decide what they will do with that material.

Self Anchoring You can also use anchors on yourself. The Zone exercise from earlier in this chapter is a classic example of setting an anchor to a resourceful state. Do that and you can then fire off that anchor to get your mind back into that resourceful state at will. You can use that anchor any time you need a boost during your class, not just at the beginning. You can also set a new anchor for yourself in the middle of a class. If things are going particularly well, and you feel on top of your game, use that – 51

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pick a gesture, or a motion, or a sound you can easily recreate, and anchor those feelings to it. You'll be able to use that new anchor later to recapture those feelings.

Chunking One of the core principles of NLP is that any complex behavior can be taught if we break it down into smaller components. The principle is called chunking: taking a complex process and breaking it down into a series of smaller steps. For example, this chapter takes the complex process of presenting a class and breaks it down into components: an overview starting strong organizing your content choosing between lecture, demo, and hands-on NLP techniques for teaching Several of these components are then chunked down into smaller bits. Chunking down gives your audience a chance to absorb each bit and then put them together at the end. As an example of chunking in action, let's take the Dave Elman induction. It's a popular and well-known induction that is quick and highly effective for a lot of people. It also has the advantage of being very easy to teach someone, as long as you chunk it down into its core components. When I teach the Dave Elman, I describe it as a series of four steps: 1. Eye closure: get your partner to relax their eyelids so much that they simply won't open. Once they've done that, have them test and see that their eyelids won't open. Stop the testing as soon as they start and have them spread that level of relaxation to the rest of the body. 2. Hand drops: raise your partner's hand by the wrist a few inches off 52

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their lap. If they are helping you, wiggle the arm a little and tell them to let you do all the work. Once the arm is relaxed, tell them that when you drop it back into their lap they relax twice as deeply, then count 3 and drop the arm. Do this a total of 3 times. 3. Fractionation: Tell your partner that on the count of 3, and only on 3, you want them to open their eyes and look straight forward, and when you say “close” they close them again and relax twice as deeply. Count to three, say “Open”, and then right away say “Close” and encourage them to drop back down. Do this a total of 3 times. 4. Losing the numbers: Tell your partner to begin counting backwards from 100, speaking each number aloud and after each number saying “Deeper down.” As they count, suggest that their mind relaxes more deeply with each number, and the more their mind relaxes the more the numbers want to fade, to disappear, to relax away. Each number makes the next one harder to bring up, and when the numbers just don't want to come to mind anymore they can just let them go. Continue this line of suggestion until they stop counting, then go on to what you wanted to do in the session. By breaking it down this way, I can take someone who has never hypnotized anyone before and have them performing a competent Dave Elman induction in about 15 minutes. That is the power of chunking.

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Wrapping Up Now that you've learned some of the Wiseguy “secret sauce,” go back through this chapter and take a look at it again. You'll notice that I used the 4MAT system to organize the chapter's content: it opens with a short Why statement, then moves into What and How with a sprinkling of What If. We covered tips on holding a successful class, on starting strong, on organizing your material, on closing, and on using NLP techniques to help you teach. And this, of course, is the summary closing. I hope you'll take a few pointers from this and make them part of your teaching style, and when you do let me know how well they work for you.

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The Basics

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Erotic Hypnosis 101

Erotic Hypnosis 101 Having a good foundation in what hypnosis is, how it works, and what it can do is important to using it effectively, safely, and responsibly. This lesson is all about building that foundation so that you have a solid base of knowledge to work from.

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Presenter Notes One of the best ways I know of to introduce people to erotic hypnosis is to have a good 101 presentation. The Black Rose SIG in the Washington DC area actually has a 101 right before each of their monthly meetings so that new people can come early for the 101 while veterans can skip that and come for the main meeting only. You may not want to go quite that far (though the Black Rose SIG never seems to have trouble filling the room for it) but this is definitely one that you'll want to present regularly as new people join the group. It also gives new presenters an opportunity to take a turn and gain some confidence. When I do my 101 presentation, I like to keep it light-hearted in tone. With people who are new to the idea of erotic hypnosis, and may be a little apprehensive, it's especially important to establish that this is a safe space, and a good way to do that is to get people chuckling. Media stereotypes are a rich source of humor you can safely tap into, so go ahead and talk about “Curse of the Jade Scorpion” (a trigger so powerful that it can get schlubby Woody Allen out of bed with Cameron Diaz to go rob a bank?? Really??) or the Ghost Clown from “Scooby-Doo.” I always do a demonstration in my 101, and I like to do it with an audience volunteer I select at the time. Some people in the 101 are still wondering whether hypnosis is even real, so having a prearranged demo bottom just reinforces the idea that the whole thing could be staged. Besides, working with someone new to you has educational benefits, as the audience gets to see you negotiate the demo scene. This is your chance to model good behavior instead of lecturing about it, so take it! If you're worried that you might not be able to successfully get your volunteer into trance, don't be – by being the one giving the class you have already established yourself as a credible hypnotist, so belief and expectation should be there for you. Just pick someone who is clearly interested and you'll do fine.

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What is Hypnosis? Before we can define erotic hypnosis, it helps to first define hypnosis. And hypnosis is … sort of hard to define. Humans have been using it in one form or another for something like 2,600 years (that we know of) and we still don’t have a firm definition. A few things that are generally agreed upon are: Hypnosis is a state of focused concentration A person in hypnosis is fully conscious and aware of their surroundings A person in hypnosis is generally more receptive to suggestion than they are when not in hypnosis The ability to accept suggestions is cooperative in nature, requiring some level of consent from the person being hypnotized That’s a good enough working definition for our purposes, so let’s go with it.

Hypnosis Myths People have a lot of interesting ideas about hypnosis, most of them shaped by things they’ve seen in the media. Let’s burst a few of them right now. Myth: Only some percentage of the population can be hypnotized. Hypnosis is a perfectly normal, natural state of consciousness. Everyone goes into trance at least twice a day: when they first wake up, during the transition from sleep to alertness; and when they go back to sleep, as they pass from alertness into sleep. So everyone is capable of entering hypnosis. Most people enter hypnosis several times a day; they just don’t realize it or call it that. If you’ve ever been so absorbed in thought that you were completely unaware that someone else was talking to you, you were in 58

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hypnosis. If you’ve ever parked your car and realized you have no idea what happened during the drive, you were in hypnosis. If you’ve ever been watching a TV show or movie and suddenly, as it ended, became aware that the room got dark somehow when you weren’t looking, you’ve been in hypnosis. These are just examples of perfectly normal, everyday trance states. Having now explained that, it should be clear that just about anybody can be hypnotized. Aside from cases of severe organic brain dysfunction that interferes with concentration or severe chemical intoxication (alcohol or other mind-altering substances) that interferes with concentration, anybody who wants to be hypnotized can be. The trick, most of the time, is the wanting to. Myth: People can be hypnotized against their will People often ask whether it's possible for someone to be hypnotized against their will. The practical answer to that is no – someone who actively does not want to be hypnotized can generally resist any kind of hypnotic induction. Someone thrust into a trance state by a sudden surprise – what we call a pattern interrupt – may go into trance involuntarily, but they can always bring themselves out of it and ignore any unwanted suggestions given to them by the jerk who did it. A much easier task for the unprincipled is to hypnotize someone without their knowledge. That is possible, and happens more often that it should. All it takes is someone who has learned how to do pattern interrupts, or waking suggestions (also called “covert hypnosis”), to get someone who isn't expecting it into an altered state. What happens next, though, is still largely a matter of how much that person actually trusts the jerk who just tricked them into trance. People can and do say no to hypnotists all the time. Which leads to another myth. Myth: A hypnotized person’s mind is under the control of the hypnotist. Once hypnotized, a person does not become the zombified, mind-controlled slave of the hypnotist. Just being hypnotized is not enough to get someone to violate their personal morals, put themselves in danger, or cause them to do something that would be unacceptable to them if they were not 59

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hypnotized. There are those who love to debate this point, and they tend to do it loudly, but in the end it’s still true. There are a couple of important caveats to consider, though. First off, realize that people can always be deceived, coerced, and tricked into doing things whether they are hypnotized or not. Hypnosis has no effect on that one way or another. Brainwashing techniques, for example, might include hypnosis but rely mostly on sleep deprivation and a host of other techniques to wear down resistance. Hypnosis alone isn’t nearly enough. On the more mundane side of the scale, people in trance are no more or less susceptible to peer pressure, avoidance of confrontation, and similar coercive forces than they are out of trance. These things do happen, with or without hypnosis. Also, for some people the line between acceptable and unacceptable is not sharply drawn. Someone may consciously despise peanuts, for example, and refuse to ever eat any peanut product; but if they also have a humiliation kink and are not actually allergic to peanuts, they may obey a hypnotic command to eat peanut butter because of the thrill of being “forced” to do something against their will. The murkiness of that line is why an ethical hypnotist will negotiate in good faith, before any hypnosis has started, and stick to what is negotiated with the person’s conscious mind. I deliberately chose peanuts for that example because it’s such a common allergen. If, in the example above, the person hypnotized had a serious peanut allergy, that’s a life-threatening condition; no amount of hypnosis is going to get them to agree to ingest anything that smells or looks like a peanut product, and no ethical human being would try.

The Conscious and the Subconscious When talking about hypnosis, we use the terms conscious and subconscious (or unconscious) a lot, so it's important to get clear in your mind what we mean. The conscious mind refers to the part of the mind (an abstract concept in itself) that performs deliberate functions. The conscious mind is the analyzing, decision-making, focused part of your mind. It generally does 60

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one thing at a time and then moves on. The subconscious mind refers to that part of the mind that handles all of our automatic, instinctive functions. The subconscious mind regulates the body's temperature, respiration, pulse, posture, and balance. It is also the seat of learning: every complex series of actions that we learn starts in the conscious mind as something we have to focus on, and then gets written into the subconscious as a learned behavior. Think of a handshake, or a tennis serve; those are complicated processes that we had to think about when we first learned them, but which after learning them we do pretty much without thinking of the steps involved. The subconscious is also the seat of emotions. As you would expect given its many roles, the subconscious is a natural multi-tasker. In hypnosis, the conscious mind temporarily steps back and allows the subconscious to come closer to the surface. This generally results in the hypnotee becoming suggestible – that is, more inclined to accept suggestions than they would in their normal, analyzing, conscious-minddominant state.

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What is Erotic Hypnosis? Now that we have an understanding of what hypnosis is, erotic hypnosis can be defined as the use of hypnosis in a sexual or arousing context. Exactly what that context is depends on the people involved, of course. Hypnosis can be used in a lot of ways that intersect with sexuality and sensuality. The most popular uses, in no particular order, are: 1. Stimulating arousal and/or desire. Sexual desire and arousal are emotional states; the mind feels them and the body provides the physical responses. Since hypnosis works primarily on the subconscious mind, it's very easy to cause someone to become aroused or to feel sexual desire by suggestion. For many people the very idea of hypnotizing someone, or being hypnotized by someone, is arousing in itself. With hypnosis a person can become aroused on command, and kept in that state for an extended period of time, if desired. Someone who is normally passive in bed can be overcome with lust to the point where they become sexually aggressive. It's all up to the imaginations of those involved. 2. Sensation play. Hypnosis is often used in the medical world to reduce sensation, specifically pain. It can also be used to amplify sensation, either pain (which for some people is erotic) or pleasurable sensations. A brush against the upper arm can be made as arousing as a stroke across the genitals, for example. Turning sensation down in sensitive areas can prolong someone's progression from arousal to orgasm, or even be used in a sensual “torture” where the person has to earn the ability to feel pleasurable sensations again. Turning it up can also be used as a teaser, especially if the person being affected is unable to orgasm without permission. You can also simulate (using someone's own physical memory) the sensations produced by various kinds of impact play with hypnotic suggestion alone -- for example, by having someone feel the impact of a flogger whenever you clap your hands. 3. Body control. The subconscious mind controls the body, so hypnosis can easily alter the way the body moves, holds itself, or reacts to commands. You can hypnotize someone to feel and act as if 62

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they were tied up, chained, glued to the wall, or restrained in any way they can imagine (hypno-bondage). You can use a remote control to pause, reverse, or fast-forward someone's body movements, potentially causing them to re-experience something over and over. You can freeze them in position and treat them as a life-sized dress-up doll, to be posed and manipulated as you see fit. Hypnosis takes the “mirror game” – where one person must mimic the motions of another as if they were that person's mirror image – to a fascinating level. 4. Transformations and Role play. With hypnosis, anybody can be a method actor. You can play out an entire role play fantasy with someone in hypnosis, imagining that they really are the role they portray, while their subconscious knows who they really are. The entire scene can take place in someone's mind, as vividly as any dream, which really helps on the props and costumes budget. With hypnotic suggestion your partner can take on an entirely different persona, becoming a bimbo (himbo), a robot, a vampire, an animal, or a doll as you and they wish. 5. Memory play. Making someone “forget” is part of many a hypnotist's bag of tricks. Hiding memories can turn a routine hypnotic trigger into a delightful surprise, or add an element of playfulness to an otherwise highly charged scene. It's also possible to create memories of erotic encounters which never actually took place, but which you can then “recreate” with your partner. 6. Orgasms. Yes, of course you can use hypnosis to give someone an orgasm. The methods are as many and varied as hypnotists and hypnotees, ranging from the simple come-on-command to elaborate chains of compounded suggestions that push someone's buttons until they can't help but orgasm from it.

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Anatomy of a Hypnotic Scene An erotic hypnosis scene generally follows a defined sequence. The sequence can vary a little, particularly when the people involved have an existing relationship and have adopted habits or rules of their own, but even then these elements are usually represented in some form. First comes negotiation, which is the process by which those who are going to be participating in the scene discuss and agree on what will happen during the scene. Negotiation can be as simple as “You want to? Me too” and as elaborate as “Let's go through this 17-page checklist of items to make sure we agree.” Most of the time it falls somewhere between those two extremes. The important things to remember are: 1. Negotiation in some form is essential. In existing relationships it may be abbreviated – after all, once you know someone's likes and limits it isn't often necessary to rehash them – but there needs to be consensus on what the scene is about. (Mind you the potential hypnotee might very well choose to say, “Surprise me” if they trust the hypnotist enough, and that's fine.) 2. Negotiation takes place before anyone gets hypnotized. Hypnotizing someone into a highly aroused state, for instance, and then feeling them out to see how far they're willing to take it is not proper negotiation (though it might be a hot scene if that “pushing” itself was negotiated in advance, of course). 3. It’s important to discuss limits for everyone in the scene. The less well you know each other the more important that becomes. 4. Negotiation does not always conclude in play. Sometimes, especially with people who haven't played together before, you find that desires just don't seem to mesh. “Let's not” is a perfectly valid negotiated outcome. 5. Negotiation is also a good time to talk about aftercare needs. Once you’ve established what your scene will be, you will be in a good position to judge whether either of you may need anything to make 64

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sure you can process it. When discussing limits, we often talk about “hard” and “soft” limits. For most people, a hard limit is a line they absolutely will not cross and is not up for debate. People have these, they are entitled to them, and they must be respected. Soft limits are usually subject to context and may be negotiable, depending on your relationship, the environment, and other factors. Soft limits must be respected as much as hard ones are. However, if the relationship, environment and circumstances are amenable to it the person with the soft limit may permit it to be pushed. If you plan to do this, make sure that you negotiate pretty explicitly what can be done in that direction and what constitutes a hard stop. Once the parties involved have reached agreement to play and outlined what the scene will involve, the hypnosis begins. An induction is a method of getting someone into trance. There are a gazillion different ways to do this, and you'll find a number of good ones later in this book. For right now, it's sufficient to understand that a good hypnotist should know several inductions and be able to choose one that is suited to the person they are working with. Obviously the more inductions a hypnotist knows the more equipped they are to play with a variety of people. An induction is sometimes followed by a deepener. A deepener is just a standard routine to help someone get into a deeper (meaning more focused, possibly more inclined to accept suggestion) state of trance. Whether a deepener is needed or desired is usually a judgment call the hypnotist makes after the induction. Once a trance state has been established, it's time for suggestion. Here is where things get fuzzy just from the nature of the many options available. You may do the entire erotic part of the scene here, giving suggestions that take effect immediately until the desired result is achieved. You may give suggestions here that are intended to take effect later (called post-hypnotic suggestions), in effect setting up a scene that will take place at another time. You can do a combination of the two, perhaps doing some sensation play now and planting post-hypnotic suggestions that will cause arousal and orgasm later. You are limited only by your imaginations. Once all the suggestions have been given, accepted, and (if desired) acted upon, it is time for emerging. This is simply the process of getting someone 65

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out of hypnosis and back into their normal waking state. Some kind of counting up is traditional but not required. I strongly recommend including suggestions to wake with feelings of well-being – “refreshed, energized, happy and content” is my usual phrasing – because you want them to feel good about being hypnotized. Finally, to conclude the scene, comes aftercare. Yes, aftercare is important, especially if your suggestion phase included erotic content. When someone agrees to let you hypnotize them, you are accepting responsibility for their physical, mental, and emotional well-being for the duration of the scene. That makes proper aftercare part of the job. Like negotiation, aftercare can be as simple as “You okay? Cool” or can consist of an extended time of talking, cuddling, or whatever everyone needs to process the scene. Take the time you need so that you are both (or all, as the case may be) okay before you go your separate ways.

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Summing Up Erotic hypnosis opens up a whole candy store of opportunities for people who are creative and open to its use. It doesn't take a lot of effort to learn the basic techniques of hypnotizing someone, giving suggestions, and enjoying the result, and for most people learning to be hypnotized is even easier. Erotic hypnosis has the ability to touch on deep emotional states and as such can be edgy if used carelessly. Communication and informed consent are vital to enjoying erotic hypnosis safely and responsibly. Negotiation should take place before anyone gets hypnotized, and the scene should stick to the negotiated framework. Once the parameters have been agreed on, the actual hypnosis is straightforward. The hypnotist uses an induction to get the hypnotee into trance and then gives them suggestions. Those suggestions might be the actual scene, or they could be post-hypnotic suggestions that give instructions for things that will happen later. Often it's a combination of both. Always bring someone out of hypnosis with suggestions for feeling good, and make sure that aftercare is completed before you part company. Remember, the hypnotist is responsible for their partner's physical, mental, and emotional safety for the duration of the scene.

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Discussion Points 1. Some people routinely say that they can't be hypnotized. Are they right? Why or why not? 2. Someone you know casually comes up to you and says, “Some time I'd really like for you to hypnotize me without my realizing it and make me do something a little embarrassing.” How do you respond? 3. What are some of the things you would want to ask someone before you hypnotize them?

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Exercises 1. Negotiate an erotic hypnosis scene with a partner. (You don't necessarily have to follow through and do the scene; just practice negotiating.) Determine things like: 1. Who will hypnotize whom? 2. What are each person's hard and soft limits? 3. What will happen during the scene? 4. Will there be any suggestions that last after the scene is over? 2. Come up with a list of ideas you would like to explore in a hypnoerotic scene, either as a top or as a bottom. Feel free to mix and match from the various types of hypnotic phenomena listed in this chapter.

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Safety and Ethics Norm Abram started every episode of The New Yankee Workshop with the same short speech: “Before we use any power tools, let's take a moment to talk about shop safety. Be sure to read, understand, and follow all of the safety rules that come with your power tools. Knowing how to use your tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury.” Do a little search-and-replace and Norm's advice applies quite well to hypnosis. Unfortunately, the safety rules aren't written in clear text in an owner's manual; you have to learn them as you go. That learning is the point of this lesson.

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Presenter Notes There are certain perils to leading a talk on safety and ethics. When you demonstrate a technique and someone disagrees with you, it's easy to turn that into a learning experience for everyone because very few people take it personally. When you lay down a rule of safety or ethics and someone disagrees with you, though, things tend to go less smoothly. An amusing statistic I was taught in Driver's Ed (longer ago than I care to admit to) was that 80 percent of men and 60 percent of women believe they are better-than-average drivers. My experiences after publishing Mind Play have led me to conclude that the same principle applies to hypnotists: the overwhelming majority of people who do erotic hypnosis believe they are being safe and ethical in their conduct. Therefore if you lay down rules that differ from those peoples' practices they will let you know it, often loudly and at length. And most of the time they have a valid point. To avoid having your lesson derailed by verbal sparring with people in entrenched positions (which can include yourself!), you might want to do this topic as a group discussion rather than as a lecture. Doing so allows you to act as a facilitator rather than as The Authority On Safety And Ethics and makes it easier to find middle ground with people who disagree with the lesson's content or have their own take on it (“...but when I do X kind of play that safety principle doesn't really apply so well...”). Another pitfall in safety and ethics classes is the temptation to preach. The discussion format makes it easier to avoid this because it's not one single person talking to many. If you find yourself, or someone else in the group, getting louder or starting to repeat themselves, that's a sign that they may be slipping into preacher mode and it's time to let someone else speak. The last peril I want to mention is that of over-emphasizing this topic. “But Wiseguy,” I can almost hear you protesting, “how can you possibly overemphasize safety and ethics?” Trust me, you can! This is particularly likely to happen once there's been an incident – a real or perceived breach of consent, an accidental injury, that sort of thing. There is a tendency, for the best of reasons, to overreact; to start pushing ever more stringent rules about negotiation and active consent and considering every possible way in which 71

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things can go wrong before you ever even consider playing with someone else, until one day you realize that your attendance at meet-ups has dropped off precipitously and nobody who's left in attendance seems to know why. I like to think in terms of RACK (Risk Aware Consensual Kink). Erotic hypnosis is a form of edge play. People sometimes make mistakes, and then they do what they can to fix them. When people choose to engage in this activity, they need to accept the risk that something not-fun may happen and trust in each other to deal with it like responsible adults when/if it does. That attitude, in my opinion, is a lot more realistic and practical than trying to predict and prevent every possible mishap.

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Playing Safe One of the fascinating things about playing with hypnosis is that everybody is different. People respond differently to the same suggestion, often in ways that are delightful and fun and lead to more interesting play sessions. With that great variety, however, comes an equally great potential for things to go wrong. Most of the time what goes wrong is simply an accident. The hypnotist says something they think is clear and unambiguous, and their hypnotee interprets it in a way they didn't expect. We usually refer to this as the Law of Unintended Consequences, which is simply the hypnotist's version of the infamous Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong, will. As a hypnotist, when someone agrees to let you play with them, you are assuming responsibility for that person's physical, mental, and emotional well-being for the duration of the scene. Fulfilling that responsibility is largely a matter of thinking through what you plan to do and then taking reasonable care to avoid the most likely mishaps. When you do, it shows that you care about your partners and makes it that much easier for both of you to relax and enjoy the play. This is not to say that hypnotees are powerless, delicate flowers that must be cared for and protected in every way lest they wither. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, a person can always refuse a hypnotic suggestion they perceive as unacceptable. However, the nature of hypnosis does place the hypnotee in the more emotionally vulnerable position. It may help to think of hypnosis as similar to rock-climbing: the belayer (hypnotist) by holding the rope assumes the bulk of the responsibility, but it’s still incumbent on the climber (hypnotee) to be smart and make good choices. The need for good communication flows both ways, as I have yet to meet a hypnotist that could read their partner’s mind. I know I can’t.

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Slips, trips, and falls are seldom fun and usually put a damper on your hot erotic scene, so be aware of what you plan to do and what might happen. People who are hypnotized while standing up do not always remain standing. This is especially true if you do an instant induction that involves pulling the person off balance, as many do. You need to be prepared to catch them so they won't land on the floor. Also be aware that not everyone falls forward – I've had people drop straight down instead. You need to be prepared to catch them whichever way they fall. If you are hypnotizing someone much taller/larger/heavier than you are it's important to make sure that you are braced, with one foot behind you, so that they don't just bowl you over on their way down. It's a good idea to have a chair close at hand, preferably behind the person you are hypnotizing, so you can lower them into it instead of having to hold them up for the entire scene. People who are hypnotized while seated do not always remain seated. The metal folding chairs typically found at hotels, conferences, and meeting rooms are particularly easy to slide out of when someone gets really relaxed, or if they start squirming around. You can counteract that with simple suggestions along these lines: No matter how deeply your body relaxes, you always remain safely and comfortably seated in the chair, as if held safely in place by an invisible seat belt. If you make a suggestion that may result in them squirming in the chair (having an orgasm, perhaps, or trying to struggle against imaginary bonds) reiterate that no matter how much they squirm or struggle they always remain safely seated in the chair. If the chair is hard, they may need to shift occasionally to stay comfortable. Make sure you suggest that they can do this while remaining deeply hypnotized – you might even suggest that doing so takes them deeper. There will be times when you want your hypnotee to stand up and walk around. Before you do that, make sure there is nothing in the path that they may trip on. Also, make sure that you instruct them to open their eyes (remaining deeply in trance if that's your desire) so that they can see where they are going – this makes it much easier for them to aim for a doorway, avoid furniture, etc. as they would normally. 74

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Pay attention to your hypnotee's body position. A lot of people, when they relax in an upright chair, tend to let their head drop forward onto their chest. Sitting there with one's chin digging into the breastbone is very bad for the neck and tends to get uncomfortable quickly. When a partner of mine does this I lift their head gently to an upright position and suggest that their neck muscles can find that spot of perfect equilibrium, where their head remains balanced comfortably upright even as they continue to relax. Hypnosis can give someone the sensation of locked muscles, but that doesn't mean they don't get fatigued or sore, so don't make someone hold their arms out or stick out one leg for a long time. If you are doing freeze or mannequin play, make sure your hypnotee is always in a stable position when you freeze them, or suggest that their body can always find a way to stabilize itself when told to freeze. And speaking of freezing: if you are going to have your partner strip, turn up the thermostat a little bit beforehand so they will stay warm. If you are playing with someone you don't know well, it's a good idea to ask about any physical limitations or injuries they may have. If they have a bad knee, or chronic back problems, do NOT suggest that they crawl around on the floor like a cat. If they mention a recent shoulder injury, abandon your plan for an arm-pulling instant induction and be careful how you position them when you do that hypno-bondage demo. Someone who is going to spend most of the scene with their eyes closed really doesn't need their eyeglasses; take them and set them aside in a safe place so they don't fall off and break.

Landmines Your partner's mind may contain hazards of its own that aren't immediately apparent. Like landmines, they sit beneath the surface and if you step on one it can ruin all of the planned fun. The most common sort of landmine is a strong aversion or phobia. These are easy to work around because generally people who have these know about them and are just as eager as you are to avoid triggering them. Experienced hypno-bottoms will usually volunteer the information that they are phobic of water, or heights, or falling, and you can easily modify the 75

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imagery you use with them to avoid those concepts. With a first-time partner you can ask, “Do you have any things that especially freak you out, or that you're afraid of?” and they will probably know – it's rare that someone discovers a phobia for the first time during mind play. As a hypnotist consider asking your partner something like, “Are you OK with imagery involving (what you plan)?” if you are concerned about triggers. As a hypnotee, it is important to volunteer this sort of information as it will make your trance time more fun! Another sort of landmine, less common but still important, is a past trauma. People are often rightfully reluctant to talk about these, especially with someone they've just met, but someone who has been sexually abused, been victim of or witness to a violent crime, or involved in a serious accident (among other things) can have triggers that bring back panic, powerlessness, and other highly unpleasant emotions. And since you don't know their history, you don't know how to avoid that traumatic memory. You can ask something like, “Are there any things I should avoid saying or doing because they might trigger a past trauma?” if you suspect there is something or want to be sure. If they seem dubious, you can assure them that you don't want or need to know the details; you just want to know enough to avoid accidentally stumbling into that territory. If they remain dubious, ask them for broad areas of things to avoid, rather than any sort of specifics. Another approach to uncovering possible landmines is to talk to your prospective partner about their previous erotic hypnosis (or just hypnosis) experiences. You want to know about the good ones, so that you can take clues as to what they've enjoyed in the past and what has worked for them. You also want to know about any bad experiences so you can avoid repeating those.

Abreactions When you do step on a landmine, the most common result is what's called an abreaction: a strong emotional response that occurs in hypnosis as a result of something happening in the trance. Professional hypnotists doing therapy often cause an abreaction on purpose, because when properly handled it can be cathartic and lead to new learnings and insights for the person having the abreaction. In erotic hypnosis, however, you are NOT 76

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doing therapy so you never want to intentionally cause an abreaction. When an abreaction happens in a play context, it's never a good thing. Your responsibility as a hypnotist is to get your partner out of that head space and into a place where they feel safe and protected, then end the trance and the scene. You can talk about it in after care if they feel as if they want to, and if you still want to do the scene you can do it later. Remember, though, that whether you’re trained for it or not, play and therapy do not mix. Most people give a few warning signs before they go into full abreaction. The most common signs of an oncoming abreaction are a sharp increase in respiration, visible tension in the face or hands (clutching or clawing is common), and an agitated posture or a sudden increase in body movement. If you see someone who was calm suddenly looking upset, you've got an abreaction in the offing. Stop what you're doing immediately and deal with it. If you miss the warning signs or do not stop and forestall it, a full abreaction can be very disturbing to witness. Everyone is different and every situation is unique, but in general you can expect a person in abreaction to cry or call out, often yelling at figures in their memory; they can become physically active, even violent, depending on what they are reliving, or they can curl up into a ball on the floor and sob. Your first duty when you see an abreaction coming on, or when it's started, is to get your trance partner out of that state. It is vital that you remain calm yourself, because if your voice sounds tense or worried that will impress itself on their subconscious and the abreaction can get worse. Suggest that your partner allow the scene they find themselves in to fade back into their memory, that they step away from that scene and into a place where they feel absolutely safe and secure, safe and protected. Keep making suggestions to distance them from the upsetting scene in their head and coax them into a place where they feel safe and protected. Keep your voice firm but calm – yelling will only make things worse. It is also a good idea to avoid touching the person, even if your relationship is such that you are normally expected or allowed to touch, because it can make you a part of the emotional scene in their mind. You need to be the lifeline back to the here and now, to that safe place. Once your partner is visibly calmer, gently bring them out of trance. Use a 77

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long count, maybe 10, and keep repeating that they come all the way back safe, protected, and secure. Spend as long as you need to with them to make sure they are all the way out and back in a positive head space. My policy is that if someone abreacts while playing with me, they are finished with hypno-play for the day. This is not to punish them for having a perfectly natural emotional reaction; it's a safety issue. Someone fresh off an abreaction almost always still has a lot of emotional churning going on deep beneath the surface. It is best to let their subconscious process that before they start playing again, or there is a strong chance that they will abreact again and that's never pleasant.

Safer Suggestion I'm using the expression “safer suggestion” in the same context as “safer sex” – you can never be 100 percent certain of safety, but you can take reasonable precautions and any mishaps should be minor and fixable. When you give suggestions to someone in hypnosis, how you word them can have a huge impact on how effective they are and also how safe and comfortable the person will be carrying them out. The key here is to avoid surprises by following a few rules of thumb: 1. Use simple, precise language. Hypnotized people are notoriously literal-minded. They are not usually good at interpreting sarcasm, slang, or long, convoluted sentences. They also will not necessarily fill in missing steps in a process, such as opening their eyes before trying to walk across a room. 2. Repeat yourself. Giving the suggestion multiple times, using as close to the same words as you can, will help the subconscious mind absorb it. 3. Be positive. Suggest, “Do X” rather than “Don't do Y.” The subconscious has a tendency to ignore don't, not, and similar negation words (like a 2-year-old who hears “don't touch that” and immediately reaches out to touch that). Even it they do process “Don't do Y” correctly, you're still leaving it up to them to determine what to do instead and you may not be prepared for what they 78

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decide. 4. Repeat yourself. Tell them what the suggestion will be; tell them the suggestion; then tell them what the suggestion you just told them was. 5. Get subconscious buy-in. I will often end a set of suggestions meant to be long-lasting with something like, “And when your subconscious has fully accepted these suggestions and made them a permanent part of your habits and behaviors, you can <make some small physical gesture>.” If you are giving someone a post-hypnotic suggestion, think about the circumstances under which that suggestion might get triggered. Become very familiar with phrases like these: “Only when it is safe and appropriate ...” “Only when I say to you <whatever> do you ...” “The next time, and only the next time … “ “When I say <whatever> and <make some gesture or touch>...” Using qualifiers like those is important because it helps to avoid creating open triggers – post-hypnotic suggestions that can be accidentally (or intentionally!) activated at inappropriate times or by unauthorized people. If you are playing with multiple people who might end up in the same place at the same time (such as at NEEHU,) you might want to make your triggers specific to the individual hypnotee by adding their name or a touch to the trigger event. People have self-protection mechanisms, such as the hidden observer, and will typically not respond to a trigger in a context that is obviously going to endanger, embarrass, or inconvenience them but it is very poor safety practice to put someone in a position where that gets tested. Doing it deliberately would be extremely unethical.

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Safe Words I'm a fan of safe words. Most play spaces have standard ones, and in Mind Play I actually state as a rule that that safe words should always be established and used. Some in the community have called that unnecessarily harsh, and they make a good point. If you are doing light hypnotic play – an induction, maybe a few Kinky Human Tricks or a guided fantasy, an emerging – that's like a walk in the park. It is highly unlikely that you're going to get into a situation where a safe word is needed. On the other hand, suppose you are negotiating a more “edgy” type of scene, like a brutal interrogation scene. Perhaps one of you is not as experienced as the other. Maybe one of you wants to experiment with stretching their soft limits. That's more like a hike through a dense forest; smart hikers bring some basic gear to help find their way out if things get hairy. Safe words are the hypnotic (and BDSM) equivalent of that gear, and the denser the woods you intend to explore the more important it is to have them. The green/yellow/red system from Mind Play is pretty standard and works well. Using that system, when someone says Red the scene comes to an immediate stop, the trance session ends, and everyone goes straight to aftercare (and hopefully discusses what just went wrong). When someone says Yellow the scene pauses, they communicate what is making them uncomfortable, and the others in the scene redirect so that things stay fun. When someone is particularly enjoying what is happening, they can say Green to mean “I would love more of this!” I often give people the suggestion that their subconscious mind uses these words automatically whenever they are appropriate, and that no hypnotic suggestion can ever prevent them from saying a safe word. With an empowered or experienced bottom, the ultimate safe word is simply “no.” If no really means no – and it always does, unless you've negotiated otherwise – and you are both committed to using it as soon as things start to get uncomfortable, then “no” can actually be liberating. Used that way, when you have a foundation of trust, “no” can redirect the scene without bringing it to a screeching halt.

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It is also a good idea to practice using safe words once in a while. Especially in a long-term play (or deeper) relationship, people sometimes become reluctant to use a safe word for any number of reasons. So once in a while, negotiate a scene in which you will deliberately push your partner into a situation where they should use a safeword, and make sure that they do so. It’s a good idea to reinforce the suggestions you use to install the safe words, and when you do to lay emphasis on their special properties: Safe words come out automatically, immediately, instinctively when they are appropriate, whether the person’s conscious mind is aware of them or not No hypnotic suggestion can ever interfere with the ability to say safe words Remember, too, that safe words are for communication; if you are doing a scene with someone and they safe word that is not a criticism of you, it’s feedback. Take it and use it.

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Ethics The subject of ethics is always touchy, because people tend to want to define what is ethical for themselves and take offense when someone else brands their choice as unethical. The three-page section in Mind Play called “Wiseguy's Guide to Ethical Hypnotic Play” has garnered me more heated feedback than the other 200 pages combined, and a lot of it was well grounded. So let's toss the idea of rules entirely and focus instead on the core principles that should be mandatory for any hypnotic play.

Consent Everyone has a right to their limits, and to have those limits respected. No has to mean no, unless you have specifically negotiated otherwise before anyone gets hypnotized. Taking someone into trance and then trying to push them beyond the agreed-on limits is unethical behavior. The one exception to that would be if they had explicitly negotiated a push scene – and even then, to be on firm ground those involved should agree ahead of time on what limit(s) are okay to push on, and anything else is to be respected at all times. In the same vein, it’s a best to presume that only “yes” means yes. If in negotiation one of you says “I’d like to do such-and-such” and the other says something neutral or noncommittal, you do not have consent yet. Ask for the yes if you intend to do that in the scene. What people often overlook in discussing consent issues is that it flows both ways. Hypnotists also have limits, and their limits deserve just as much respect as the hypnotee's. As a hypnotist, it is important to take the time to think about and define your personal limits. I've had people try to push against my limits from the bottom, and it's not pleasant even when you are theoretically the one in control. One advantage of being the hypnotist in that situation is that, as the one theoretically in control of the flow, you can more easily end the scene immediately if needed, and you should. The hypnotee can always snap out of trance and/or disregard a suggestion they are not okay with, but this is not a pleasant way to end a scene.

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A breach of consent is not always an act of malice. Most of the ones I've witnessed or been involved in were accidental. A suggestion may be worded in a way that the recipient interprets as beyond what they consented to, for example, or the participants may have different understandings of something they thought they had agreed on. As long as the hypnotist handles these situations responsibly, retracting the offending suggestion(s) immediately and expressing genuine contrition, this does not have to be a hanging offense. People do make mistakes and we unfortunately cannot actually read each other’s minds. If someone makes the same mistakes consistently, that's another story. Someone who knowingly or willfully violates negotiated limits, ignores the need to obtain consent, or otherwise acts against the interests of their scene partners is a bad actor. It is important for the safety of everyone that these individuals be identified and held accountable for their choices. That can be difficult, as there is no Hypno Police Force with which to file a complaint. My advice, for what it's worth, is this: Direct confrontation, if you are okay with doing that, is often the best approach. Tell the person what they did wrong and why it was wrong. Mistake is far more common than malice, so don't assume they were deliberately trying to harm you unless the evidence is very clear that they were. When addressing the person, stay focused on the facts; don't let yourself get drawn into a shouting match or a philosophical debate over generalities. If you are sure the incident was intentional and the offender is a member of a local community group, speak to the leader(s) of the group about it, preferably in private. There isn't much they can do other than inform the individual that the behavior was unacceptable and they are no longer welcome at group functions if it continues, but if you are dealing with a deliberate bad actor that can limit their opportunities. If the offense happened at a convention, speak to the convention organizers. Organizers go to a great deal of effort to ensure that their con is a safe space for people to play and explore, so if something is disturbing that they will want to know. The individual may be taken aside by someone well-known and respected to counsel them on appropriate behavior. In severe cases the offender can be escorted 83

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out of the con and barred from re-entering. If the breach of consent did not happen to you, or to someone that is under your protection, then stay out of it. Let the people who were actually part of the incident resolve it, report it, or do whatever they choose to do about it. Encourage them to report it, but it’s up to them to do it -- they are the only ones who really know what happened.

Covert Hypnosis and NLP There are a number of people in the community who are skilled in covert hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). These are influence techniques that can be used in the context of normal conversation – subtle uses of language, gestures, and tonality that sneak past the critical factor to communicate directly with the subconscious. Often the person these techniques are used on does not consciously realize they are being influenced. This has caused some heated discussion on FetLife and in other forums about the use of NLP and covert techniques without first obtaining consent. Practitioners of NLP – and for the record, I practice and teach NLP professionally myself – will often defend the practice by stating that it is simply communicating in a way that is naturally effective and persuasive. People are targeted by NLP and waking suggestion constantly throughout their day, deliberately and otherwise, but nobody points a finger and screams “consent violation!” unless it happens during a hypnosis session. The defenders do have a point, in that we all experience NLP techniques and waking suggestions all the time. The layout of your local grocery store, the design of the uniforms worn by police officers, the commercial messages in every radio, TV, and print media ad … all of these are carefully engineered to influence us and nobody asked our consent first. However, all of those examples are impersonal. The people who design the grocery store layout, the police uniforms, the ads, are targeting the general public and leveraging their knowledge of human behavior to get the general public to buy more stuff, respect the police officers, buy the products, etc. It's not really practical to ask the general public for consent. Not until humans develop a hive mind, anyway. 84

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When someone uses NLP, waking suggestion, or some other influence technique on another person, however, the target is very specific. It is easy to ask one person, or a classroom of people, for consent before you start trying to mess with their minds. So easy, in fact, that it should be considered obligatory. I consider it egregiously unethical to use NLP, covert suggestion, etc. to influence someone’s attitudes or behaviors without obtaining their conscious consent first. At best, it’s giving that person something they didn’t ask for, and may not want; at worst, it’s imposing your will on someone else, as if you had successfully walked up to them, done a surprise hypnosis induction without consent, and given them suggestions that you want them to follow. No matter what twisted rationalizations anyone tries to wrap around that, it’s sleazy. If you or your partner really likes the idea of being covertly influenced/seduced that way, you can always negotiate this and gain consent beforehand. It’s pretty common in the community for people to give specific others blanket permission to trance them whenever they happen to be together. You can negotiate a similar advance consent for NLP or covert hypnosis with someone who wants it, or wants to do it, and then you and they can have all the spontaneous covert-hypno-NLP fun you want.

Negotiation As I mentioned in Chapter 3, negotiation can take many forms. How you do negotiation isn't really that important as long as everyone involved is satisfied that their needs are being met. What is important is that when negotiation ends, everyone involved has the same understanding of what was negotiated. When I negotiate a scene as a top, I spend about 80 percent of the time listening and asking my partner questions. That's my nature as a service top – I want to know what my bottom's hot buttons are, how they like to have them pressed, and where I can fit my own preferences and desires into that framework. A more alpha type might spend more time describing what they want to get out of the scene and then working out how to fit their bottom's needs/wants into it. Negotiation is important for hypnotees too, of course. An empowered 85

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hypnotee knows what they want out of a scene and states their desires and limits clearly up front. Always remember that it is perfectly okay for a bottom to say No during negotiation. It's also okay to say “Surprise me” if you are dealing with a top who knows you and is familiar with your limits and has earned your trust. When you negotiate a scene it's vital that you communicate clearly and honestly. If you have both hard and soft limits, that's fine. State which limits are soft, and what your tolerance is for pushing those if that's what you want. Remember that tops have limits too, and it's equally important for the top to make those known so that you each know where the other is coming from. Be as specific as you can when discussing the aspects of the scene. One person's idea of objectification, for example, may be completely different from another's. If you want to freeze someone in place like a mannequin, strip them naked, and pose them while you take some photos, say so – and be sure that you agree on what will happen to the photos! Negotiation does not always have to end in play. Sometimes you'll get into negotiating with someone and discover that what they really want to do right then isn't really compatible with what you want. In that case it's better to simply say “No, thanks” than to agree to a scene you're not really into.

Respect The third pillar of erotic hypnosis ethics, for me, is the concept of respect. When someone trusts me to play with their mind, I feel obligated to treat their mind and body with the utmost respect, and to return them in as good a condition as when I received them. Anything less would be unethical. Part of practicing respect is honesty. You don't have to tell your trance partner everything about your life, dreams, and aspirations to do a scene, but anything you do tell them needs to be true. Be open and honest about anything that is relevant to the scene. If you need to know something that your partner has not disclosed – for example, you want to make sure you are both legal adults – ask. If they won't give you a straight answer, decide whether you want to risk playing with them. 86

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Responsible, respectful hypnotists clean up after themselves. If you are doing a casual play session with someone, any suggestions you give them should end when the session ends unless you've negotiated otherwise. Any triggers you set should be removed unless you negotiated otherwise. If you are in a relationship with them, either as “friends with hypno-benefits” or something more, then lasting suggestions and triggers may be appropriate. If you are playing with someone who trances with other hypnotists, respect their desire to do so. Do not try to countermand, erase, alter, or take ownership of any triggers or suggestions that other hypnotists have placed unless your partner requested that you do it. It is especially sleazy to try and prevent your partner from being hypnotized by other people. Even if you are in a monogamous relationship, that could end very badly if something unexpected happens. When you set triggers, make sure they are well-formed. Follow the guidelines under “Safer Suggestion” earlier in this chapter. Know and understand your trance partner’s limits and stay within them as negotiated. Your partner always has the right and ability to refuse a suggestion, even if it falls within negotiated limits, and they should never be scolded or punished for doing so. Your partner always has a right to safe word, and should always be supported in doing so. So do you. Unless you negotiated otherwise, your partner should always be able to remember any suggestions that were given during a scene after the scene is over. Also, know and understand your limits. If you are not trained in hypnotherapy, do not try to help your partner lose weight, stop smoking, overcome their fear of pencils, or whatever other non-recreational thing they ask for. Send them to a professional. If you are a professional, you should still consider carefully whether it is wise to do therapy with someone that you are intimately involved with. As a hypnotee, it is equally important to practice respect for your chosen top. Communicate your desires and limits clearly and specifically. Honestly disclose anything that may be relevant to the scene, and especially anything that could derail the scene or cause you to abreact. You don’t necessarily have to disclose all the intimate details; just give your hypnotist enough to know they should avoid <X>. Trust is essential to successful hypnosis, so if there is something you feel the need to hide from this specific top, 87

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reconsider whether they are the right person for you to be playing with. Give your hypnotist honest feedback so they can know what worked well for you and what didn't. Do not ask your recreational hypnotist to practice amateur hypnotherapy with you; if you need that kind of help, seek out a professional hypnotist. If your partner is a professional, they may not be a good therapist for you because it's hard to be objective with someone close; understand that and respect their choice if they decline or refer you to a colleague.

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Touching While not necessarily an ethics or safety issue, this seems like a good time to discuss touching in the context of erotic hypnosis. There are times when a hypnotist will want or need to touch their hypnotee. Sometimes it's for safety (to prevent them falling during an instant induction, for instance), or is a necessary part of the induction. Sometimes it's for effect, such as running a finger along an extended arm while suggesting it becomes stiff and rigid. Sometimes the touch is meant to be arousing or explicitly sexual. Whatever the reason, it is incumbent on the hypnotist to get permission before touching their trance partner. Getting consent to touch is important for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, a lot of people are not comfortable being touched. Asking for permission first makes sure that your bottom has agreed to it and is okay with it. Also, people in trance may not react well to surprises. If you did not discuss touching and your partner suddenly feels a hand on their leg, that can be jarring enough to pull them out of trance in a very unpleasant way. It's also important to be precise when asking permission to touch. Asking, “Is it okay if I touch you?” and leaving it at that invites a positive response, but you and your hypnotee may have completely different ideas of what areas are okay for touch. Instead ask permission to touch the areas on the body that you anticipate touching – “For this scene I may need to touch you on the arms, shoulders, back, or head; is that okay with you?” And once you have that permission, only touch in those places. If you didn't ask permission to touch their legs, don't be grabbing their knees and spreading them apart. There have been times – usually during a demo, of course, when dozens of people are watching and I'm trying to pay attention to them as well as to my demo bottom – when I've forgotten to ask permission to touch. It doesn't necessarily have to be a problem. If the touch is innocuous, like the arm drops in a Dave Elman induction, it's generally okay to ask permission while the person is still in trance as long as you do it in a non-leading way, such as, “Is it okay with you if I lift your arm by the wrist?” Anything more intimate than that is going to depend on your relationship with your hypnotee. If your relationship with them is such that you generally have 89

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consent to touch them in that way, in similar environments, it may be okay to do it again. If there is any doubt in your mind, don't do it.

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Discussion Points 1. Chris is 5' 2” and 110 lbs; Fran is 6 feet tall and 200 lbs. They have been paired up to practice standing instant inductions. What precautions should they take? 2. You have a hypnotee, with whom you've been socially friendly for a while, in trance and are guiding them through an erotic fantasy scene. You can tell that they are close to orgasm but not quite getting there on suggestion alone. A light touch or two, on the inner thigh or perhaps a little higher, would probably do it, but you didn't anticipate this and so didn't ask permission. What are some things can you do now to bring them to orgasm? 3. Consider this trigger: Each and every time you hear the phrase 'tied up' your arms cross behind you and you feel them bound at the wrists. The harder you try to pull against the bond the more firmly your wrists remain tied together. You remain bound in this way, unable to separate your wrists, until I tap them three times like this. Then normal movement returns to your arms and you are no longer bound. What is wrong with this trigger? How would you reword it to make it safer? 4. You are starting a scene with a new hypnotee in which they wish to experience hypnotic amnesia. You begin by having them imagine walking down a corridor in their mind until they come upon a locked closet where they can hide memories temporarily. Your partner immediately starts sobbing and crying out, “Don't lock me in the closet again! I'll be good, I swear!” and clutching the chair. What do you do? Could this have been anticipated through reasonable means?

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Starter Inductions An induction is a method for getting someone into trance. One of the basic rules of being a good hypnotist is to suit the induction method you use to the person you are hypnotizing. Clearly, then, the more inductions you know the more versatile a hypnotist you can be. In my professional hypnotherapy course, I teach my students about 20 inductions. The ones I teach first are the ones in this lesson. Just knowing these will get you started toward becoming a well-rounded, versatile hypnotist.

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Presenter Notes Inductions classes are very easy to present because they're all about technique. You don't have to do a lot of justifying why someone would want to learn inductions, because you've got a self-selected audience – if they didn't want to learn to hypnotize they wouldn't be there! I chose the inductions in this lesson with the new hypnotist in mind. These inductions are easy to learn, involving just a few steps, and don't rely on fancy word-play or exact pacing. They are also generally effective for a wide variety of people. When teaching inductions to a group, I like to follow the 4MAT system for each induction. First, I name the induction and describe in very general terms what it does and under what circumstances I tend to use it (Why). Then I select a volunteer and perform the induction on them so the audience can see it done (What). Next I explain how the induction worked, referring to the demo I just did when it helps to do so (How). If conditions are good for it (meaning I have the time and the class isn't too big to make it practical), I have the class pair off and do the induction with each other (still How). Then I wrap up by mentioning variations on the technique (What If). If you include time for the class practice, you can teach 3-4 inductions in an hour-long class without having to rush.

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Eye Fixation The eye fixation induction is one of the most well-known, and one that people are most likely to be familiar with from movies or television. Which is helpful, because people have been conditioned to expect it to work. That makes the eye fixation technique a good general-purpose induction to use with people who are new to being hypnotized as well as with experienced people. The classic fixation object is a pocket watch, pendant, or crystal that you swing back and forth in front of your hypnotee's face while they watch it. A plastic chandelier crystal tied onto the end of a piece of thread makes a simple, effective, and cheap (less than a dollar, depending on the crystal) fixation object.

Swinging Crystal For purposes of this text, let's assume that you picked up a cheap plastic chandelier crystal and tied it onto the end of a length of quilting or embroidery thread (I like gold or silver metallic thread, which is thicker than standard sewing thread but cheaper and more flexible than chain). After obtaining consent from your hypnotee, raise the crystal in front of their face, slightly above eye level and about 12-18 inches away from them, or more if necessary. You want them to be able to see the crystal clearly, so glasses are okay if they are needed for near vision. Instruct your hypnotee to keep their head still and to follow the crystal with their eyes. Then start swinging it easily back and forth. The speed doesn't matter unless it's too fast for your volunteer to track. And while it swings, say something like: Just keep your eyes focused on that crystal. Notice every facet, even as it swings back and forth. Isn't it interesting how the light catches it and bounces off? Can you see through it, catching flashes of color from the scenery behind it? And maybe you've already noticed, or maybe not, that the more you focus all of your attention on the crystal, the more your inner dialog – all those 94

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thoughts and ideas that constantly chatter through your mind – slows down, and quiets. Letting all of your attention be completely focused on this crystal, following it, observing it, to the exclusion of everything else around you. By now your partner's eyes should be starting to get fatigued. Look for them to blink. Pick a blink and continue: That's right. You're concentrating so well, following so closely, that you may not have noticed your eyes becoming tired, wanting to blink more. And that's okay; eyes get tired, especially when they are so intently focused, and it's perfectly natural to feel that tiredness, that heaviness, creeping into your eyelids each and every time you blink. Many people find that each time they blink their eyes are a little slower to open again, and it starts to become more and more difficult to keep them focused on the crystal. You can help things along a little by slowly, subtly letting the crystal inch a little closer to their face. That will inherently make it harder to focus on, so take credit for that: In fact, by now you may be noticing yourself how easily the crystal seems to get blurry instead of sharp. Having a more and more difficult time keeping it in focus. And with those eyes getting so tired, lids so heavy with each and every blink, you may find your attention wandering a little … wondering how good it will feel to simply close your eyes and keep them closed … good. Eyelids getting heavier and heavier … sleepier and sleeper … wanting so much to close down now … Everyone is different, of course. If your partner heeded the implied command in that last sentence and closed their eyes, you're done – just tell them to keep relaxing, going deeper, feeling so good, and you can put the crystal down. If they open them again, just keep suggesting that they get heavier and heavier with each blink, wanting so much to just close down. Another way to finish the induction is to do a little reverse psychology: And as I count from five down to one, you can perhaps imagine 95

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that with each number your struggle harder and harder to keep your eyes open. That's right, no matter how much they want to close now, try to keep your eyes from closing until I reach one. Five, eyelids getting heavier and heavier … four, each blink getting longer, harder to reopen those eyes … three, so ready to just let them close down now, but struggling to open after each blink … two, so close now, so ready to just close your eyes and relax so deeply, closing, closing … one, letting your eyes close now, and as they do feeling a wave of relaxation passing all the way from the top of your head to the tips of your toes … good. The fixation object doesn't have to be a crystal, of course. A pocket watch is also iconic, and since you don't care how well it runs for this purpose you can buy any cheap pocket watch that's interesting to look at. A woman's pendant also works nicely for this purpose because the weight at the end makes it easy to swing. You don't have to swing the object back and forth, either. Sometimes I'll use a round crystal with a lot of facets. It's a little heavy for swinging, so I spin it instead. The ball rotates, winding up its thread, and then slows down and reverses itself as the thread unwinds. It will keep doing this for a couple of minutes depending on the thread, which is more than enough time to do the induction. Eye fixation inductions are also done with fixed points. You can have your hypnotee choose a spot on the wall, or the ceiling, to stare at – any spot above eye level is ideal, to help get that muscle fatigue. And of course there's the ever-popular “Look deeply into my eyes” variant. If you do this one, I suggest that you actually focus your gaze on an imaginary point just behind one of your hypnotee's eyes. You will still be able to observe them that way, but you will seem to be looking through them. If you have the confidence to do the eye-to-eye variant, you'll find it is a wonderfully intimate way to draw someone into hypnosis, which makes it very well suited to erotic trancing.

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Relaxation Relaxation inductions are a staple of hypnotists everywhere. They require very little skill to perform, and like the swinging watch they benefit from a ton of cultural references that prime people to expect them to work. The standard relaxation method is well known: have your hypnotee settle down comfortably, eyes closed, and then concentrate on relaxing the body one part at a time. Some hypnotists start at the feet and work their way up; others start at the scalp and work their way down. Depending on how granular you get in choosing body parts, the process can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. I hate that induction! It takes an inordinate amount of time, it's a cliché, and at the end of it your hypnotee is limp as a dishrag and borderline unresponsive – or, they checked out and went to sleep on you. And, I'll admit, I tend to view the classic progressive relaxation induction as the calling card of the unimaginative, unskilled, barely-competent hypnotist. But that's just my personal bias; if you like this induction and want to use it, more power to you.

Body Scanning A quicker, far less tedious relaxation induction is the Body Scanning induction. In Body Scanning, we use the concept of relaxation but in a more active manner. Start by having your hypnotee sit comfortably. Get permission to touch the top of their head, arms, shoulders, and back of the neck. (You may not need all of that, but it's better to ask and not touch than to touch and not ask.) Then begin: Close your eyes now and relax yourself as best you can, knowing that if you follow my instructions nothing can keep you from entering a deep state of trance in just a minute or two. Place your palm lightly on top of the hypnotee's head and hold it there. 97

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Imagine right now a powerful wave of relaxation emanating from my palm downward. Feel the wave flowing through your head, down your neck, your shoulders, your chest and back, arms and legs, all the way down to the tips of your toes. That's right. Remove your hand. And in a moment when my hand touches your head again, I want you to imagine another wave of relaxation, twice as powerful as the first … Put your hand back on their head and say: Now. Feel your head relaxing, neck relaxing, shoulders drooping, arms going floppy … chest and back, stomach, hips, legs, feet all going loose and limp, floppy and heavy, like a rag doll sitting in a chair. … Remove your hand. That's right, you're doing perfectly. And now, when I touch your head again, another wave of complete, total relaxation pours down through you, leaving your entire body so relaxed, so loose, so limp, that it's simply too much trouble to even think about moving. Wait for them to breathe in. Put your hand back on their head just as they start to exhale and this time push very gently. Deeper relaxed … your head, your neck, your shoulders all letting go completely. Your arms and legs going floppy, heavy, loose, limp. Chest, back, and stomach completely relaxed now, completely relaxed. Very, very good. At this point, lift an arm at the wrist and wobble it a little. If it feels heavy and loose, and it wiggles without them trying to help you, you're done. If they do try to help you, repeat the body scan a couple more times.

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If you can get behind your hypnotee easily, you can substitute a downward press on the shoulders for the hand on the head. Pressing down on the shoulders is a near-universal command to relax the shoulders, and that downward sensation tends to bring the head and neck muscles along for the ride. Remember to make sure their neck stays in a comfortable position.

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Fractionation Fractionation is the process of taking someone in and out of trance repeatedly and rapidly. It's a sort of wind sprint for the mind. Each time the person goes back into trance they drop more deeply, and after a few repetitions they start to lose track of whether they are in trance or out. We're going to use this as an induction here, but you can also do this as a deepening technique after the induction. Start with your hypnotee sitting down in a chair. Obtain their agreement to go into hypnosis, and then proceed: I want you to pick a spot, maybe on the ceiling or the upper part of the wall, so that your eyes are slightly turned upward. Now, I want you to allow your gaze to soften. In other words, look through that spot, or just relax your eyes into that gaze. In a moment I'm going to start to count down from 10 down to 1. And I'm going to ask you, between each count, to open and close your eyes. And I'd like you to just imagine that each time you close your eyes, a wave of relaxation flows from the top of your head all the way down to the tips of your toes, in whatever way is comfortable for you. Now … close your eyes … 10 … and imagine that wave of relaxation from head to toe. That's right. Open your eyes … and close your eyes. 9. Good. Notice how that wave of relaxation feels better, more relaxing, each time you open and close your eyes. So you open … and close your eyes. 8. Feel this wave of relaxation even more. Each and every time you open and close those eyes it deepens that state. Open your eyes … and close your eyes. 7. Allowing that relaxation to move all the way down through your feet. Very good. 100

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Open your eyes … close your eyes. 6. Relaxing more and more, that's right. It's just that easy. Open your eyes … close your eyes. 5. And imagine, as this wave of relaxation flows through you, that those muscles around those eyes relax to the point that when you try to open them they want to stay shut. See how that works for you. Now, open … and close, excellent, noticing what you can about the changes in your breathing, about the level of comfort that you can feel. Open your eyes … close your eyes, 4, and beginning to sense a real shift happening, as you... Open your eyes … close your eyes, 3, feeling so good, going deeper and deeper, so easily and naturally, noticing how easy it is to get into this state of trance. Open your eyes … close your eyes, 2, deeper and deeper down … you're doing perfectly … And open your eyes, close your eyes, one, all good, things settling in, now as you get even more comfortable, more relaxed. This induction seems very simple, and it is, but it works remarkably well. The key is that your hypnotee spends most of their time with their eyes closed; they only open their eyes to close them again. But each time they do that, they come up out of their trance momentarily and then plunge back in again as they close their eyes. Exactly what words you say between counts is not critical, but the purpose of them is. In between counts, you want to encourage your partner to turn their focus inward, toward their own sensations and experiences as they go into trance. The language in the example above is pretty standard relaxation talk peppered with embedded suggestions (such as “notice how…” and “See how that works for you.”) and dissociative language (“those eyes” versus “your eyes”). But don't memorize those words, use your own. Improvise on the themes of continuing to relax, of noticing changes in how they feel or perceive, of just letting things happen or becoming aware as 101

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they happen, and you’ll help the process along. Without that, it’s just a countdown and eye closure and while it may still work it won’t be as effective. What you're looking for here are stages. The first few counts are to establish the rhythm, that you will say open and then almost immediately say close again. Look for beginnings of relaxation in the face and body. Once you get that, change your suggestions between counts to increase relaxation – suggest imagining that each time they open, their eyes get more heavy and reluctant to open. “See how that works for you” is a loaded suggestion to make that happen. When you see the physical response (eyelids opening more slowly, blinking heavily) then you've got trance, so use the rest of your countdown to deepen. It's perfectly okay to sneak in a few extra open/close sequences between counts, as I did in the example. If your hypnotee is slower to respond that will keep you from getting to 1 before they are ready.

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The Dave Elman Induction Once you've learned Body Scanning and the Fractionation induction you are already most of your way to learning the Dave Elman induction. The Elman is a staple induction of professional hypnotists everywhere. It was designed by (surprise!) Dave Elman, one of the best-known hypnotists of the 20th century. Elman taught hypnotism to physicians and other professionals, so his induction is designed to get someone into a moderate to deep trance state quickly. It is usually delivered in a very authoritarian style – commanding, assertive, not giving the hypnotee a lot of time to process the instructions intellectually. A well-executed Dave Elman induction takes about 2 minutes and consists of four steps: 1. Eye catalepsy – Tell your trancee to relax all the muscles around their eyes to the point where their eyes just won't open. Test that briefly and then move on. 2. Arm drops – Lift the trancee's arm and drop it gently into their lap. Here you are verifying relaxation of the arm and deepening the trance. 3. Fractionation – In this step, you have the hypnotee open their eyes very briefly and then close them again. Each time they come out of trance for a very tiny moment and then drop back in, going deeper each time. 4. Losing the numbers – Have the trancee count (usually down), relaxing their mind until the numbers are too hard to keep in mind. Start with your hypnotee seated. Get permission to touch the arms, head and neck (so that you can adjust their head if needed – people drop deep for this one!), get their agreement to go into trance, and begin: Put your hands in your lap, please, and uncross your legs. Good. Remember, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis; if you follow my instructions, nothing can stop you from being hypnotized in just a 103

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couple of minutes. We both know you can always resist if you want to, but that's not why you're here. Just follow my instructions and you are about to enjoy a very pleasant, relaxing experience. Start now by taking a long, deep breath. Hold it and count to three. Now, as you let it out, close your eyes and let go of every bit of tension in your body. Just relax as much as possible right now. Good. Pay special attention right now to all those tiny muscles in and around your eyelids, and relax every single one of those muscles. Imagine them being so relaxed, so heavy and loose, that they simply will not open. Keep relaxing them until you know those eyes will not open, and when you know it, prove that they won't open. Try to open those eyes and prove to yourself that they simply won't open. (Wait until you see the eyelids flutter. Continue immediately when you see the first flutter.) That's good. Stop trying now, and allow that relaxed feeling from your eyelids to flow across your face, around your head, and all the way down your body to the tips of your toes. Every muscle, every nerve, every fiber relaxed from the top of your head all the way down into the tips of your toes. Very good. Now we're going to deepen your relaxation even further. (Lift the nearest arm at the wrist, raising it just enough to get a good feel for how relaxed it is.) As I lift your arm right now, feel how loose and limp and heavy it feels … that's right, let me do all the work … and as I drop that arm back into your lap you automatically relax twice as deeply again. One, two, (drop the arm and say) three, twice as deep, right now. (Lift the arm) And again, your arm so loose, so heavy, that's right, and as I drop it again going (drop it) twice as deep. So good. (Lift) Once again, loose, limp, lazy, and (drop) twice as 104

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deep, right now. You're doing perfectly. Now, when I count to three and only on the count of three, I want you to open your eyes only until I tell you to close them again. As soon as I tell you to close them, you let your eyes close and your whole body relaxes twice as deeply. Opening only on the count of three and then closing immediately when I say so, dropping twice as deep. (Place your hand in front of the person's face about a foot away, just above eye level.) One, two, three – open. (As soon as the eyes open, pass your hand downward.) and close, going twice as deep now. Good. One, two, three open … and close, going twice as deep again. One, two … (longer pause) … three, open ... and close, twice as deep. Very, very good. And now that your body is relaxed, it's time to also relax your mind. In a few moments, when I tell you to begin, I want you to count backwards from 100, saying each number out loud followed by the words, “deeper relaxed.” As you count down I'll be talking to you, but you needn't pay any conscious attention to what I say; instead, focus on counting and relaxing, so that each number is a little bit harder to bring to mind. Each number you count relaxes your mind and makes it more difficult to remember what the next number is. And when you've relaxed your mind so much that the numbers are just gone, you can stop counting and let them all go for a little while. Begin counting now. (The trancee begins counting. Talk softly to them as they count.) That's right, relaxing your mind … the numbers getting farther and farther away … each number makes the next one harder and harder to recall … relaxing and concentrating … growing distant and fuzzy … so easy to just relax those numbers right out of your mind … (Keep going until they stop counting, which usually happens before 90.) 105

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Very good. You can let the numbers go now and just relax. You're doing perfectly. The Elman contains a number of elements, which is why it is such an effective induction. It starts out with relaxation, similar to Body Scanning. The eye catalepsy test is a way of ensuring that the hypnotee is fully cooperating and to gauge their success. If their eyes do open, simply have them relax more and repeat the test until their eyes don't open quickly. As soon as you see them starting to try, though, you tell them to stop trying and relax further. The arm drops reinforce relaxation and act as a deepener, again like Body Scanning. The fractionation step is very much like the fractionation induction, but with only three iterations. By pausing a little extra long on the third count, you can gauge whether the hypnotee is following your rhythm (a conscious response) or your directions (a subconscious response). The hardest part of the induction for new hypnotists is the counting. Everyone is a little different, so you won't know ahead of time how they will count – how slowly, or for how many numbers. Remember that whatever they do is right and go with it. Speak the suggestions while they count, because the counting distracts their logical mind and lets your suggestions slip right into the subconscious part. If they get past about 85, you can shortcut by suggesting that they just let the numbers go. The Dave Elman is such a great general-purpose induction that I strongly believe every hypnotist should know it. I use it a lot at conventions, where I tend to get approached by people who have been having trouble getting into trance or are unsure whether they are getting “deep enough” or not. You won't use the Elman on everyone, but it's a great tool to have at your disposal.

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Discussion Points 1. Under what circumstances would you use each of these inductions? 1. Eye fixation 2. Relaxation 3. Fractionation 4. Dave Elman 2. What is your favorite induction? What is it about that induction that makes it your favorite?

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Exercises 1. Look around the room where you are right now. What potential fixation objects can you find? 2. Find a willing partner and practice each of these inductions on each other.

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Going Deeper Once you've learned to hypnotize, or had your first experiences at being hypnotized, there is almost invariably a tendency to wonder about depth. Am I deep enough? Is my hypnotee deep enough? Depth is an abstraction; an arbitrary measurement that varies greatly from person to person and situation to situation. This lesson takes a practical approach to determining whether someone is “deep enough” for the scene you have in mind and, if not, getting them there.

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Presenter Notes When presenting this class, you need to be particularly confident in your material. People cling fiercely to their misconceptions. Less skilled hypnotists take a lot of solace in the idea that they didn't fail, their “subject” just couldn't go deep enough. When you tell them that no, that's not it, they need to examine how they word the suggestion, they will want to argue with you. Hypnotees get frustrated because they really want to achieve a certain phenomena (amnesia is common here) but can't get deep enough to do it. Some will balk at being told that no, depth isn't really an issue, they just need to work their way up to it with practice and baby steps. As with most hypnosis techniques, the best way to teach deepening is through demonstration. Select a volunteer and hypnotize them. Use a short induction, because you don't really want them very deep to start with. Agree on a depth measurement system – I'm fond of letting my volunteer select the meter of their choice, and just tell me what the numbers are – and ask throughout the demo for what their depth reading is. Make a point of noting that this depth reading is purely subjective; it has no meaning for anyone other than this volunteer, and the even for the same person the numbers could be entirely different another time.

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What's Depth Got To Do With It? The concept of depth as it relates to hypnosis is nothing but an idiom. Since we have developed the habit of saying “down” or “under” for going into trance and “up” for coming out, it's convenient to refer to greater and lesser degrees of hypnosis as “deeper” and “less deep.” Hypnosis, however, is not a linear state. When we say “deeper” what we really mean is more focused, perhaps more receptive to suggestion. But the idea that there is a linear scale ranging from “barely hypnotized at all” to “so deep they will follow any suggestion,” while still popular with the academic set and old-school hypnotists, simply doesn't stand up to critical examination.

Depth Scales Formal hypnosis research has given us a multitude of systems for measuring either how “susceptible” someone is to hypnosis (meaning how easy is it to get them into trance and how deep they can go) or how deeply hypnotized they are. Formalized attempts to study hypnosis in the laboratory brought us the Davis-Husband scale, the LeCron-Bordeaux, the Stanford Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, the Harry Arons scale, and many others. While they vary in their granularity and in the order of some of the phenomena, each of these scales is based on the same presumptions: 1. That a standard script, applied to X number of people, will produce a level of trance that is determined by each person's susceptibility. 2. That the list of hypnotic phenomena can be arranged in an order such that anyone who is hypnotized to a particular “depth” can perform all of the phenomena for that depth level and above, but none of the phenomena for deeper levels. The problem with those presumptions, of course, is that they are built on the fallacy that hypnosis is a hard science, like chemistry or physics. It's not. At best it's a soft science, like sociology, and in my opinion it's more of an art.

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One hypnotic size does not fit all. The lab coat method of studying hypnosis was to read the same relaxation induction to A, B, and C and conclude that those who did not go into trance for it were less susceptible, or less hypnotizable, than those that did. Then they'd read the same suggestion text to those who were hypnotized, and if someone did not follow the suggestion they were said to be not deep enough. Skilled hypnotists know that what works well for A will not necessarily work as well for B or C, so they vary the induction method and the wording of suggestions to suit the person they are working with. In a similar vein, people have different sets of talents and abilities. The Arons scale, for example, insists that someone who can do negative hallucination (failing to see/hear/feel something that is actually present) is at the lowest depths of hypnosis and can therefore also accomplish any other phenomena that is asked of them. In practice, though, very few people can readily achieve everything on the list of phenomena in the Arons scale – some can do negative hallucination, for example, but not positive hallucinations (seeing/hearing/feeling something that isn't actually there), or amnesia (forgetting things by suggestion). Those things that a person can't do the first time they try can often be learned through practice.

When Suggestions Fail Thanks to the various hypnotic scales, it is commonly believed that if someone doesn't successfully follow a given suggestion – for example, to forget parts of the session until later – that they were not deep enough in trance. I've met a lot of people who are frustrated because they've had trouble with a phenomenon – amnesia is a common one – and think it's because they're not getting deep enough, when in fact they are quite good at getting into trance. If Arons and company were right, these people would not be having any trouble at all. In reality, whether someone can do a particular thing in hypnosis is less a question of how deep they are than it is about A) how the suggestion is worded, B) their level of trust and confidence in themselves and their hypnotist, and C) the talents and capabilities of their own mind. Take amnesia, because it's such a common example. A lot of people love 112

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the idea of being “made” to forget things that happen during trance, or even things that happen outside of trance. For some it's a measure of giving control to another person; for others, a way to arrange delightful surprises. However, quite a number of people have difficulty achieving that effect – they either remember immediately what they were told to forget, or the memory seeps back into their consciousness before it was supposed to, or they become aware that they seem to have lost a few minutes of time, start thinking about it, and the memory comes back. The answer to that dilemma is seldom deeper trance states. Most of the time it's how the suggestion is worded. Many people find that their subconscious mind, which is the seat of memory and learning, naturally rebels at the idea of being told to “forget” something, especially if there is a possibility that we might appear foolish or air-headed for doing so. Most people's subconscious minds, however, are willing to hide a memory temporarily from the conscious mind, so that the person feels as if they have forgotten but the subconscious knows where that memory is the whole time. We've all experienced this before – that feeling of something on the tip of the tongue, knowing we know but the word, or the name, or the idea, just won't come up on demand. Harnessing that everyday experience makes hypnotic amnesia a lot less scary to the subconscious, and tends to make for more successful memory play. One of the presuppositions of NLP is If what you're doing isn't working, try something else. That can be applied very aptly to the case of hypnotic suggestions that aren't working. If the wording you're using is not getting the results you expect, try a different approach. There's always another way to do it. Sometimes a suggestion is asking too much from the hypnotee's subconscious mind at one go. For example, suppose you have a trance partner who wants to experience sensory deprivation: the temporary suspension of vision, hearing, and touch as much as possible. The nonhypnotic way to do this is in a water tank (creates a sensation of floating and weightlessness) with a sleep mask and earplugs. Using hypnosis, you can suggest that the eyes remain closed, that the ears temporarily rest and simply ignore any sounds in the environment other than your voice, and that the entire body becomes numb and weightless. If your trance partner has difficulty doing all that, work on it a little at a time. Start with the dulling of 113

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sound, and have them practice that until you can drop a heavy book or blast the radio and they don't react. Then have them practice having part of the body go numb, and then spreading the numbness until the whole body is numb. This might take many sessions of practice, but if they want the end goal – that simulated sensory deprivation – they will get there incrementally.

Deeper = More Controlled In erotic hypnosis especially, there is the persistent belief that the deeper into trance you go, the more control your hypnotist has and the more irresistible their suggestions become. It's a great fantasy … but it's just a fantasy. Someone on the edge of the Esdaile state (an uber-deep trance state sometimes called the “hypnotic coma”) is just as capable of rejecting a suggestion as someone barely in trance at all. If you don't believe me, take someone super-deep and then suggest that they give you their ATM card and tell you their PIN. Just because “the deeper you go the more I control you” isn't real, of course, doesn't mean we can't have fun with it. If your hypnotee wants to feel that, you can always go there. Simply state, while you deepen their trance, that the deeper they go the more automatically they obey your suggestions. As long as you're pushing their happy buttons, you can act as if it were actually true and make a hot scene of it. (And if you happen to step too close to a limit, you will both discover quickly that they really can resist an unwanted suggestion.)

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Deepeners There are a number of ways to deepen someone's trance state. The simplest of them all, of course, is simply to suggest going deeper. There are hypnotists whose standard deepening method is simply repeating, “Deeper and deeper” until they get the level of responsiveness that they want, and there's nothing wrong with that. You can also deepen trance by doing another induction. Some call this “stacking inductions,” because the person is already in trance but you do another induction anyway. You can either move directly into the second induction, or you can tell your hypnotee to imagine that they have just settled down and are ready to be hypnotized, and then do the second induction. Either way, it will take them deeper. Bear in mind that not every induction is suited to this technique. If you like confusion inductions, for example, then lead with one to get them into hypnosis, but don't stack another confusion induction with it. Once trance is established, there's no point in continuing to try and confuse the conscious mind; just let it sit back and enjoy the ride. There is also no benefit in hypnotizing someone only to then stand them up and do an instant induction as a deepener. Relaxation type inductions like Body Scanning work very nicely as deepeners. So does fractionation.

The Staircase The staircase is the deepener with which people are most familiar thanks to movies and television. It's a simple exercise in imagery designed to get the hypnotee to take themselves deeper into trance. Imagine yourself now at the top of grand, well-lit staircase. Make it as real in your mind as you can; notice the colors, the textures, everything you can about that staircase. And as I count now from 10 down to 1, with each number I count allow yourself to take a step down, going deeper into trance for me with every step down that you take.

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10, first step, feeling so relaxed and pleasant. 9, feeling the handrail under your hand. I don't know whether it's wood or metal, or perhaps something else entirely, but you can feel safe and secure with it. 8, deeper, gliding easily down the stairs. 7, noticing the patterns on the bannister. 6, perhaps hearing your footsteps as you go down, so soft they're barely perceptible 5, halfway down now, approaching the floor below 4, deeper still, that last step coming closer as you go down and down 3, so relaxed now, so easy to just float the rest of the way down, 2, 1. The staircase deepener can be short and simple or lengthy and elaborate, depending on your style and the desires of your hypnotee. Notice that in the sample text I don't describe the staircase. Remember, the point of this is to engage their imagination, not yours. Let their mind come up with the imagery, so it can be real and absorbing for them, and you'll get much better results.

The Blackboard The blackboard deepener follows the same principle as the “losing the numbers” exercise at the end of the Dave Elman induction. You ask your hypnotee to imagine writing on a blackboard, using the letters of the alphabet as you do numbers in the Elman. If the blackboard and chalk concept is too dated for your trance partner, use a whiteboard and markers or a tablet with a simple drawing app. 116

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Imagine that you are standing in front of an old-fashioned blackboard, the kind used in school classrooms all over. Make it as real as you can in your mind; feel the texture of the smooth surface, notice the deep color, the frame around it, the chalk tray where chalk and eraser are kept. Now, imagine reaching for a piece of chalk right now and writing a large letter A on the board. Really see the A in your mind's eye. … And now, using your other hand, grab the eraser and erase the letter A, and as you do allow yourself to think, “deeper down” and feel your mind relaxing even more deeply. … That's right … Now continue through the alphabet the same way. As you write each letter, say it out loud and as you erase the letter, say “deeper down” and feel yourself relaxing, drifting, deeper and deeper with each letter you erase. As your mind becomes more and more relaxed, it becomes harder and harder for the next letter to come to mind, and that's okay. Very soon, your mind will be so blissfully relaxed that you can just forget about the letters entirely. Continue now. At this point you can proceed as with the Dave Elman induction, suggesting that each letter they write makes it more difficult to recall the next, mind relaxing more and more, so easy to let go of the letters, etc. until they seem to be stalling or take more than a few seconds to come up with the next letter. Then you can simply suggest letting the letters fall away for now. Like the number sequence, the successfully executing the blackboard deepener brings about selective memory, so it is a good deepener to use if you want to play memory games.

The Furniture Store If I'm going for a really deep state, then I often turn to this deepener that was taught to me by my professional hypnotherapy instructor. It relies heavily on imagining images, sounds, and body sensations, so it tends to work well for most people and produces very profound relaxation. This is 117

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not a good choice if you want your hypnotee active and moving around. Imagine yourself now in a furniture store, here to check out new sofas. This is a most unusual furniture store because there are no salespeople hovering around, no department manager to ask how they can help … just you and an array of luxurious, comfortable sofas that occupies floor after floor of the store. On this floor, the top floor, all of the upholstered furniture is white. There is a nice white upholstered sofa nearby, so imagine trying it out now. Feel the leather conforming to your body as you sit … hear the quiet little hiss as air leaves the cushion … see yourself, in your mind's eye, relaxing into the white sofa … serene, peaceful, still … And now, imagine leaving that sofa and heading down the next floor to see what's there. Imagine yourself finding the escalator and slowly riding it down … down one floor … On this floor the lighting is more soothing, and the sofa you find near the escalator is a nice, light beige. Have a seat on the beige sofa … feel it welcoming your body, cradling it … feel how relaxing it is to just let yourself go, relaxing into the sofa, really enjoying the comfort, the quiet, the soothing atmosphere … good … But there are more floors, deeper down, and more sofas to try. So, relaxed as you are, imagine now heading back to the escalator and down, down another level, easily, gently, safely … deeper down … On the next floor the lighting is even more subdued. The sofa you find there is a rich gold color, and as you settle into it you can feel every muscle in your body going, “Ahhhhhhhhh...” at how very comfortable it is. Imagine almost floating in the gold leather sofa, so warm and safe, comfortable and relaxed … that's right. And after a few minutes you reluctantly return to the escalator and once again, down another floor, deeper, and you find that the next floor is even quieter, dimmer, more soothing than the one 118

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before. And there, right to hand, is a beautiful burgundy sofa that practically begs you to come have a seat. And as you sit down your body feels as if it's gently sinking into a warm bath, so wonderfully supported, so comfortable, so relaxing. Your body feels light as air, relaxing instinctively and completely, so good. There is one more floor to experience, though, so you leave the burgundy sofa behind and take the escalator down one more floor, deeper, quieter. The lighting on this floor is so subdued it feels like a bedroom at night, but you can easily make out the gorgeous dark brown leather sofa nearby. This one is so soft you can barely feel the leather as you lie down on it, letting it support you completely. Your body floats as if on a cloud, completely supported, totally relaxed and comfortable. You can feel your mind drifting, wanting to nap, and you know that it would be perfectly okay to simply rest here for as long as you like, listening to my voice and enjoying the feeling of deep, deep relaxation. You can make this one as long or short as you like simply by adding in more subtle variations in color between the floors. Notice that the color of the furniture on each floor is darker than the one before, and that the lighting is more subdued. These are cues to the subconscious that there is a downward progression going on aside from the obvious counting down.

Self Deepening Designed for the truly lazy hypnotist, this simple technique causes your partner to deepen themselves while you rest your voice, get a drink, or do whatever you need. In a few moments, I'm going to ask you to count down from ten to one. When I do, you say each number out loud, and then wait while your mind and body relax to the point where they are twice as deep, twice as relaxed, twice as focused, as they were when you said the number before you can say the next one. With each and every number you count, you double your depth and focus automatically, effortlessly, so that by the time you reach the number one you may have relaxed so deeply that it's almost too 119

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difficult to actually say the numbers out loud anymore; if that happens, it's okay to say them quietly in your mind instead. Begin counting now. All kidding aside, if you really are going to leave the room during this make sure your partner is safely and comfortably seated and get back as quickly as possible. I generally stay, and take the opportunity to throw in the occasional encouraging, “That's right...” to let them know I'm still there and paying attention.

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Testing for Depth Having now learned a few deepening techniques, it makes sense to discuss when to use them. Most hypnotists do some kind of depth testing, especially when working with someone new to them. Many don't really think of it as such; they are simply looking for the physical signs of trance, such as relaxed facial muscles and slow, steady breathing. That in itself is a rudimentary form of depth testing. Others engage in more deliberate tests. I'm ambivalent about this myself. If done well, depth testing is harmless and assures you that your trance partner is prepared and able to accept the suggestions you are going to give. If done poorly, it can make the hypnotee feel as if they are failing by not going deep enough, which actually sabotages the session. Some common ways of testing for depth during the trance session are: 1. Arm drops, as in the Dave Elman induction. By lifting someone's arm (get permission first!) at the wrist, you can gauge their degree of physical relaxation. The arm should feel heavy and limp. If you wiggle it gently, it should move freely. If you feel resistance, that is your hypnotee trying to help you; do some deepening. 2. Catalepsy, a state of rigid immobility of all or part of the body. The usual catalepsy test involves raising an arm (again, make sure you have permission) and suggesting that it is now stiff and rigid, stiff and rigid, as if supported by a steel bar. Give the suggestion until you can let go of the arm and it stays in place. Press gently and the arm should feel stiff. Relax it again and continue. 3. Arm raising. In the arm raising test, you suggest to your hypnotee that one or both arms becomes lighter and lighter, wanting to rise up toward the ceiling all by itself. Many hypnotists use the imagery of a bundle of helium balloons tied to the wrist; others merely suggest a loop of cord which is being pulled from above. What you're looking for is a slow, jerky upward movement. If your hypnotee is too 121

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relaxed, though, you might get nothing so don't put too much stock in this one if you've done a relaxation induction or a lot of deepening. 4. Good smell. In this test you suggest to the hypnotee that something nearby smells delightful, enticing, captivating, etc. and with each breath they smell it more intensely. Watch for a facial reaction. Once you're content that they are imagining the pleasant scent, you can make it go away. Or not. Those tests will confirm for you that your hypnotee is in trance and at a depth where they are willing and able to follow simple suggestions. They don't necessarily tell you whether suggestions you have in mind for the scene will succeed, though. To confirm that, you need to test for the same kind of phenomena that you intend to use in the scene. You're not really testing for depth itself, but rather to determine whether your hypnotee is amenable to a given type of suggestion. If, for example, you intend to do memory play with a trance partner, a good way to test for this is to have them briefly forget their name, or the number after 5. They can stay in trance for this; simply make your amnesia suggestions, ideally using the same kind of phrasing that you intend for your scene, and then ask them a question that they should have forgotten the answer to. If they can't answer, you've established that they are “deep enough” (really willing enough). If you want to do sensation play, start by suggesting a change in sensation in the back of the hand. When they react to that, you know they will react to the sensation suggestions you have in mind. But what if they don't? If your test suggestions don't work out, ask the subconscious what they need in order to achieve the result you want. They may not know, or they may tell you something else that is preventing them from carrying out the suggestion. If you get a definite answer, then adapt your approach and try again; otherwise you can deepen, but you should also consider changing your suggestion wording. Understand one thing when you undertake testing for depth: a trance partner never fails a test. No matter how they react, that is feedback that you can use to be more effective. Never, ever say anything to a trance partner that 122

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suggests they are failing or doing things wrong because that will damage their belief and expectation, which ultimately hampers the whole scene.

Subconscious Depth Scale An approach that a number of hypnotists take to measuring depth is to simply ask the hypnotized person to measure it for them. When I do this, I use wording like this: Just imagine now that somewhere in the back of your mind, somewhere deep inside that part of your mind that is always watching, always measuring, always orchestrating all the unconscious activities that are part of being alive, is a meter that your subconscious uses to keep track of how deeply into trance you go. I don't know whether that meter is a digital readout, or a pointer and dial, or a thermometer-like scale, and it really doesn't matter; whatever it looks like, however it reads, is the right way for you. I'd like you to allow the reading on that meter right now to just bubble up from your deep subconscious mind to your lips; just automatically, letting your mouth say what the meter reads right now for how deeply hypnotized you are. You'll almost always get a number, but you don't necessarily know where that is on the person's overall scale. If they say “eight,” for example, you don't know whether that's 8 out of a possible 10 or 8 out of 100 or 8 out of 10,000. You can ask what reading represents fully awake and aware, out of hypnosis, then ask what reading represents the deepest they think they can go, and that will give you an idea. If you trance with this person in the future, expect those readings to change. It's very common for the deepest-they-can-go value to go higher (lower) with practice. Sometimes the whole scale adjusts itself proportionally, giving you more granular levels to work with, so what used to be 8 out of 10 is now 75 out of 100.

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Discussion Points 1. Some hypnotists give suggestions like, “And now, take a nice deep breath in, and as you let it out you drop ten thousand times deeper...” Is this really effective? Why or why not? 2. You have hypnotized a partner and intend to do a hypno-bondage scene with hypnotic flogging. How would you test to ensure that your bondage and impact suggestions will be accepted?

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Exercise 1. Use self-hypnosis to enter a trance state -- if you aren’t sure how to do this, skip ahead to Chapter 10 for some instructions -- and ask your own subconscious mind for the reading on your depth meter. Deepen yourself, and see how the reading changes as you go deeper. 2. Now hypnotize someone else and do the same thing.

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The Language of Suggestion Suggestion is fundamental to everything we do with hypnosis. From the induction, to deepening, to play, to emerging, almost everything that a hypnotist says to their partner is a suggestion. Understanding how to word suggestions for effectiveness and safety is an important part of being a hypnotist.

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Presenter Notes Being able to word suggestions effectively is crucial, so this is a good topic for lots of group participation and practice. Be prepared to entertain discussion, as there is almost never only one way to achieve a given result and getting different perspectives gives everyone a more rounded picture. Talking about wording of suggestions inevitably leads into the area of safety. Since your topic is suggestion, keep the safety aspect confined to avoiding unintended consequences. Encourage people to share stories of times when a suggestion went “wrong” or got them a result they weren't expecting, and include some of your own.

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Suggestion in Everyday Life We are always receiving suggestions. Every time we see an advertisement, read a street sign, talk to another person, or even think to ourselves there is often a suggestion involved. Sometimes that suggestion is blatant (“DON'T WALK”) and sometimes it's more insidious (think of any ad or billboard). Suggestions have influence on how we think, feel, and behave. A single suggestion's influence depends heavily on the source and the context, of course. When a friend says, “I saw Movie X the other day and it was awesome!” during a conversation about how to spend the upcoming weekend, that carries a certain amount of weight. Casually walking past a poster saying some critic you've never heard of recommends Movie X probably has less influence. However, over time and with repetition, a suggestion can become a belief. This is how the Big Lie theory in politics works: repeat a statement enough times, in enough ways, and people will begin to believe it simply because they keep hearing it. It's also the goal of mass-market advertising – to get the message out, from multiple media sources, so that people will accept it as true. Once a suggestion becomes a belief, that belief then shapes our attitudes and behaviors.

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Suggestion in Hypnosis Erotic hypnosis is all about suggestion. As hypnotists, we use suggestions to guide our scene partner into the hypnotic state, which then makes them more inclined to accept further suggestions. We then give them suggestions designed to (usually temporarily) alter their perceptions, sensations, emotional state, attitudes or beliefs. If they accept our suggestions we have a hot scene and then we give more suggestions to get our partner back to their normal waking frame of mind. Even the process of negotiating the scene involves suggestion. A suggestion can be either in-hypnotic or post-hypnotic, depending on when the suggestion is intended to be followed. An in-hypnotic suggestion is meant to be followed immediately, as in, “...and as you watch the watch, focusing entirely on the watch, notice how quickly your eyes start to feel tired...” A post-hypnotic suggestion is given now but meant to be followed after the trance session is over, as in, “Each and every time I hypnotize you, you find yourself dropping more easily, more deeply, more effortlessly into trance for me.”

Direct and Indirect Suggestion The distinction between direct and indirect suggestion lies in how a suggestion is worded. A direct suggestion is an instruction given to the hypnotee that clearly states what they are to do: “You feel uncomfortably warm; take off your shirt.” “Take a sip from this glass of water.” “Until I remind you of what it is, you are completely unable to remember your name.” As you can see, there is no subtlety involved here; the hypnotee is clearly told to do X. Direct suggestions are generally very safe and easy to formulate because they are so straightforward. New hypnotists tend to lean heavily on direct suggestions, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with 129

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that. In fact, I know of a couple of very experienced hypnotists who work primarily with direct suggestion and they get the results they want out of it. Most hypnotists, however, mix direct suggestion with indirect suggestion. An indirect suggestion is given in more subtle terms; it's embedded inside a framework of words designed to bypass whatever amount of conscious filtering may still be in place using techniques such a misdirection and presupposition. If we were to take the direct suggestions above and reword them to be indirect, they might come out like this: “I can't help but notice, and perhaps you're just beginning to become aware of it too, how the air keeps getting warmer and stuffier in here, like a sticky, hot, humid summer day? How much of a relief will it be once you take off your shirt and let your skin cool off?” “I don't know whether you'll take a sip from that glass right now, or perhaps in a few minutes when that dry feeling has begun to spread through your mouth more completely; I just know that when you sip from that glass you may be surprised at how good that water tastes … now.” “We've all had that feeling of knowing something, knowing that we know, but somehow the words just hide themselves at the last moment. It's so easy for a person to feel that happening even on something so simple, so obvious, as your own name. And how surprised will you be when I ask you to tell me your name and that very thing happens … your own name, right there on the tip of your tongue, but just a little out of reach … until I remind you of what it is?” You'll notice immediately, I'm sure, that indirect suggestions tend to be longer than their direct counterparts. It takes words and time to misdirect the conscious mind. It also takes time to learn how to deliver indirect suggestions in a smooth, natural manner, but it's time well spent for anyone who wants to be a skilled hypnotist. The easiest way to learn indirect language is to study the patterns that are commonly used when wording indirect suggestions. Some of the most frequently used patterns are:

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1. I'm wondering if (X) … In order to determine whether X is true or not, the person has to first imagine X – which is what you want them doing. The subconscious doesn't do judgment, so the see-if-it's-true part usually gets forgotten. 2. You probably already know (X) … Presupposes that what follows is true; at issue is whether they already know it or not. Common variations include You may not have noticed (X) yet or you may find yourself becoming aware of (X). 3. One could (do X), because … Merely states the obvious truth that “one” (which is impersonal) could do something. Lay a tiny bit of emphasis on the could for even more effect. It really doesn't matter what comes after because; it's there to draw attention away from the embedded suggestion to do X. Variations: Combine with presupposition (When you (do X), then … ), make it more personal by adding their name (A person could, , (do X)...) or less personal (A person is able to do X). For an extra bit of indirect goodness, append … can you not? (or could you/they not? to the end. It's inherently confusing because it's vague, and draws attention away from the embedded suggestion while simultaneously getting the subconscious to imagine following it. 4. You might notice how good it feels when you (do X) ... Again, the word when presupposes that the thing will happen sooner or later; the suggestion is overtly about how good it will feel when that happens. And in order to estimate how good it might feel, the person has to imagine doing X. 5. I could tell you that (X) … I could tell you, but by prefacing it that way the whole suggestion is a hypothetical so the conscious mind is more likely to let it slip by. Variations include attributing the suggestion to a third party (<someone> once told me that …), presuming it's common knowledge (You may have heard that …), or treating the point as already proven (There is no question that … or There is every reason to be confident that … or, for a visual type, You can plainly see that ...). 6. What happens when you (do X)? Similar to the first example, this will cause the subconscious to imagine whatever you're suggesting 131

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so the conscious mind can then determine what happens next. (Variation: Can you really enjoy (doing X)?) 7. You might want to (do X) … now. Rather than saying directly to do X, it says that they might want to. Pause a couple of beats before saying “now” and it becomes a suggestion rather than an imperative. Variation: Maybe you haven't (done X) … yet is basically the same thing, just expressed with stronger presupposition. 8. You don't have to (do X) Lay a little bit of stress on the have and you have a truism – something that the conscious mind will see as unarguably true – that masks an embedded suggestion to do X. Variations: I can't make you (do X), or You may choose to (do X). 9. And I don't know if you'll (do X) (option 1), or (option 2) … Salesmen call this the presumptive close; it's a more elegant version of the classic, “Would you rather buy the red one or the blue one today?” String as many options together as you like, but make sure they all lead in the direction you want. A common variation is to use time frames (Will you (do X) right now, or perhaps tomorrow?) Milton Erickson is generally considered the master of indirect suggestion, and there are a lot of hypnotists who flourish on using predominantly indirect language. (Many Ericksonian hypnotists actually use a lot more indirect language than Erickson himself did.)

Waking Suggestion When we give someone suggestions without making any effort to establish an altered state first, we call that waking suggestion. Waking suggestions are the most like those everyday suggestions we get exposed to every time we see a TV commercial or look at an ad. Just because a suggestion is given in the waking state does not mean that it can't be effective. Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) teaches us that we are always communicating, and that it is quite possible to make powerful, effective suggestions to someone that act on the subconscious even without doing any kind of trance induction first.

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For example, right now you are (probably) sitting down reading this text, and your brain is interpreting the words on various levels, as well as keeping track of your surrounding environment, and as it does you may or may not begin to notice a change in the sensations around your nose. Many people find that it's a sort of mild itching feeling and they simply scratch the nose to make it go away, while others choose to ignore it until it just gets too annoying, and then they scratch. Some just feel that need to twitch, and then resume reading. And it really doesn't matter which of those you choose to do, because it is the choice that is right for you now. Silly, isn't it? And yet, a lot of you either scratched or twitched your noses as a result of those waking suggestions. Imagine how much more potent that sort of suggestion can be if you are interacting with someone in person, where you can develop rapport with them and gauge their reactions to what you say.

Post-Hypnotic Suggestion Whether they are phrased as direct or indirect, suggestions given during a trance session are usually referred to as hypnotic suggestions. Some hypnotic suggestions are meant to be acted on immediately (“...and as I drop your hand into your lap you can relax twice as deeply...”); those are sometimes called in-hypnotic suggestions but just as often are simply called suggestions. A post-hypnotic suggestion is a suggestion given during trance that is meant to be followed after the trance session is over. For example: “Each and every time you go into hypnosis you find yourself going deeper, more easily, more naturally than before.” “The sound of my voice is sexy to you; the more you hear it, the more it arouses you and makes you want more.” “Each and every time I make eye contact with you and say 'Surrender', as long as it is safe and appropriate to do so, you stop whatever you're doing and go into a deep, submissive trance state for me with your eyes open and staring into mine.”

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That last example demonstrates a trigger – a form of post-hypnotic suggestion that is very popular in the recreational and erotic hypnosis context. A trigger takes the general form of “Whenever (X happens), you (do Y).” The most common form of trigger is the reinduction trigger, a posthypnotic suggestion that can be used to put your partner back into trance quickly and easily. For example: Whenever we are in a safe environment and I squeeze your shoulder like this while saying 'Sleep', you automatically drop into a nice, deep trance for me before you even realize you've done it. There are practically limitless applications for triggers, which is why they are so popular in erotic hypnosis.

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Safe and Effective Wording Whether you are making a direct suggestion or indirect, in-hypnotic or posthypnotic, how you word the suggestion is vital to its effectiveness and safety. A well-worded suggestion is easy for the subconscious mind to follow and is therefore much more likely to be effective and enjoyable for both you and your hypnotee. A poorly-worded one is likely to either fail completely, or perhaps net you a result you weren't prepared for and that your hypnotee may find objectionable afterwards. Keep a few simple rules in mind when phrasing a suggestion: 1. Use clear, unambiguous language. The subconscious is not good at subtleties like slang and idioms, so make sure that whatever words you use have only the meaning you intend for them to have. If you are uncertain whether your partner understands what “hot to trot” means, then either don't use it (say “aroused” instead) or define what “hot to trot” means in this context. 2. Give positive direction. When you are phrasing a suggestion, tell the person what you want them to say/do/experience; avoid telling them what not to say/do/experience. Consider, for example, the suggestion, “You no longer find romantic comedies boring.” That suggestion does not give positive direction; it leaves it entirely up to the hypnotee to determine how they will react to romantic comedies, and the new reaction may be no more desirable than the boredom it replaces. A more effective suggestion might be, “From now on you enjoy romantic comedies; they amuse you, and when you watch one with me it puts you in a very sexy, romantic mood.” A suggestion that tells the subconscious what to do is much easier for it to follow and avoid the chance of an unexpected result. 3. State clearly when the suggestion effect begins and ends. Most suggestions are not intended to be ever-lasting. For example, you would not want to receive a suggestion that makes you overwhelmingly aroused immediately and continues indefinitely. There needs to be a start (which might be immediately, or might be a trigger event) and there definitely needs to be an end – preferably 135

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once you've had an orgasm, for example. Following these simple rules of thumb makes it easy to form safe, effective suggestions.

Trigger Safety When establishing and using triggers, there are some additional considerations that come into play. 1. Make the event as specific as possible. Ideally, the event should be something that only happens when it is safe and acceptable for your partner to do what the trigger requires. I often include the preface “when you/we are in a safe environment” so that they can automatically disregard the trigger if it would embarrass them or be unsafe to follow at the time. 2. Be specific as to who can initiate the trigger. Make sure to specify, “when I do X” or “when does X”. Failing to do that creates an open trigger, meaning a trigger that anyone could try to use. Doing that by accident is a Very Big Mistake; doing it on purpose is irresponsible and unethical. Yes, people have selfprotective mechanisms in place that will prevent them from endangering themselves, but it is better to be thoughtful than to rely on the safety net. 3. Define the action positively and unambiguously. As with any suggestion, the more exactly you specify what the person being triggered is supposed to do, the easier it is for their subconscious to accept the trigger and act on it. Also, you will know exactly what they are going to do so you won't be bitten by the Law of Unintended Consequences. 4. Always state clearly when the trigger effect is to end. You almost never want a trigger's effect to last forever, so state when it should end. If the trigger effect is one that may impair the person's ability to respond to an emergency or unexpected event make sure they have an “out” available that either suspends or pauses the effect while they deal with the other thing. 136

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5. If the trigger itself is meant to be temporary, or if there is no need for it to be a permanent thing, explicitly define when the trigger expires. I often use triggers when doing demonstrations or giving classes, so it's standard practice for me to start with, “For the rest of this class...” or “Until you leave this room next...” when giving my volunteer a trigger. If you aren't in an ongoing hypnotic relationship with someone it is generally not appropriate to give them permanent triggers. Like any hypnotic suggestion, a person can ignore a trigger if the circumstances are such that acting on it would place them in danger or cause them to do something they are strongly opposed to doing. However, for some people that causes a very uncomfortable reaction as the subconscious wants to obey the suggestion and yet knows that bad or embarrassing things could happen if they do. This could manifest itself as a distraction, which could be very dangerous if the person is driving a car at the time, or as a subconscious “itch” that needs to be scratched as soon as possible, prompting them to stop whatever they were doing and find an environment where they can give in to the desire to follow the trigger. Either way it's a very inconsiderate thing to do to somebody.

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Putting it All Together Language is one of the primary tools of hypnosis. The way you word a suggestion can have a dramatic effect on how well that suggestion is received and acted on by the person you give it to. Suggestions can be worded directly or indirectly, depending on your personal style and intent. However you state it, though, it’s wise to make sure your suggestions are clear, easy to follow, and phrased thoughtfully so that your partner can feel confident in accepting them. As you practice and play with different people, experiment with the way you use language and find that mix of direct and indirect, those particular turns of phrase, that resonate for you and for your partners.

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Discussion Points 1. What are some examples of suggestions that we give ourselves? Do they have influence? 2. What are some of the factors that affect how much influence a suggestion has on us? 3. Which is the better way to word a suggestion, directly or indirectly?

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Exercises 1. Practice using direct and indirect language to give suggestions: 1. Think of a simple direct suggestion. If you do this with a group, write it on a board where everyone can see it. 2. Now, take the list of indirect language patterns above and rephrase the same suggestion using each of those patterns. Any variation is fine. If you do this with a group, everyone can take a turn until you've used all nine patterns. 3. Repeat for more direct suggestions 2. Practice creating well-formed triggers by coming up with suggestions to have someone: 1. Stop whatever they are doing and do jumping jacks. 2. Move, speak, and think in slow motion. 3. Go back into hypnosis immediately.

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Fun With Modalities One of the skills that can always help a new hypnotist to get better is the ability to recognize how their partner processes information and use it to their advantage. When you tailor your words to your hypnotee's modality you make it easier for them to accept and follow your suggestions and instructions.

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Presenter Notes This is a fun topic to present on and lends itself nicely to short in-class exercises. Keep control of the class by limiting the time for each. It only takes a few minutes to ask a couple of questions, watch eye movements, and whatnot. One thing that tends to happen when you teach modalities, especially when you've talked about eye accessing cues, is that people become selfconscious about their words and eye movements. This can make it harder to tell what someone's real inclination is, because they are not longer acting without thinking about it. There really isn't much you can do about that other than encourage people to just relax and be natural as much as possible.

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Primary Modalities Humans perceive the world through our senses – what we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. While all of our working senses are used to perceive, we don't generally use all of them equally. Just as most people tend to favor either the left or the right side for manual tasks, our brains tend to choose a dominant sense for most of our storage, retrieval, and processing needs. There are four primary modalities that you can expect to run across. The visual modality is tied to sight. When people notice how things look, when they picture remembered or imagined things in their minds, they are using the visual modality. The auditory modality uses the sense of sound. When using the auditory modality, people notice subtle changes in voice tone, and can remember or construct/imagine sounds. Internal dialog is also an auditory function. The kinesthetic modality is attuned to emotions and body sensations. Someone taps into their kinesthetic sense to reproduce physical sensations in the imagination or memory, to be aware of the orientation of their body in relation to their surroundings, and to notice or reproduce emotional states. The auditory digital modality relies on data, conclusions, and logic rather than sensory inputs. It is a detached mode in which we make judgments based on information. When talking about modalities, there is a tendency to label people according to whichever modality they tend to use most frequently -- this person is a visual, that one is a kinesthetic, etc. While that can be a useful shortcut, it is important to remember that people generally use all of these modalities to one degree or another. When we say someone is visual we are not saying they use vision exclusively; only that they are most adept with the visual and so, all else being equal, their mind tends to default to using the visual modality. They are still fully capable of using sound or feeling or reasoning, it's just not their first choice.

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Just as some people are ambidextrous (able to use their left and right hands equally well), sometimes you will encounter people who are multi-modal – that is, they use multiple modalities equally well. They may be visual and auditory, for example. Some people are born that way, while others develop skill with a second or third modality through life experiences they’ve had. Taking up yoga, for instance, tends to improve someone’s kinesthetic awareness. If you discover that your partner is strong in multiple modalities that’s great, because it gives you even more flexibility in how you approach things.

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Identifying Modalities Being able to determine someone's primary modality quickly is a handy skill for a hypnotist to have. Fortunately, this is frequently just a matter of asking a few questions and really paying attention to how they answer them.

Language Cues One way to get an idea what someone's primary modality may be is to listen to the language that they use. A visual type will tend to use words and phrases that describe appearance – “I see”, “It's clear”, “How would that look?”. An auditory will be more inclined to say “I've heard that ...” or “I don't like the sound of this.” When something “feels right” or “seems rough” you're probably talking with a kinesthetic. The more you listen, the more accurate you will be in your judgment. Remember, we all use all of our senses, so even a kinesthetic will sometimes “see clearly.” Get them talking and note what kinds of sensory predicates (a fancy word for phrases that hint at the use of a particular sense) they tend to use most. And keep the context as open as possible because anybody will tend to use a lot of visual terms to discuss a photograph or painting. When using this technique with people, I like to ask open-ended questions such as “Tell me about your (car, home, or hobby).” Follow up by asking what they like (or dislike) about it to get more information and clues.

Decision Cues Another way to get insight into someone's primary modality is to find out how they make decisions. The easiest way to do that is to ask about one. For instance, you might ask your partner how they chose to buy the shirt they're wearing, what attracted them to their current significant other, or how they decided what to have for lunch. The answer will often be a multiple step process, and each step relates back 145

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to one of the modalities. For instance, someone who chose their lunch at a restaurant by browsing the photos on the menu and then reading the details of the dishes that looked appealing is probably visual. Someone who asked the waiter for a recommendation, or who listened to the day's specials and picked the one that “sounded good” is probably auditory. Someone who first asked themselves what they were in the mood for and then looked at that part of the menu is probably kinesthetic. It is very normal for people to use multiple senses to make non-trivial decisions, but the one they go to first or most often is going to be their primary modality. Note that one, and any others that come up often, and work with them.

Eye Accessing Cues A fast way to get an idea about someone's primary modality is to use eye accessing cues. One of the best-known teachings of NLP is that people tend to reveal their thought process through unconscious movement of the eyes. By watching for those movements, you can get a quick read on whether someone is accessing the visual, auditory, or kinesthetic modality. Generally speaking, people glance upward when they are accessing visuals. They may be remembering an image, constructing a new image in their imagination, or using a mental image as an index to retrieve a piece of information. When people look to one side or the other – toward the ears, if you will – they are accessing their auditory sense. Most people look down and to their right (your left as you watch them) when accessing kinesthetic memory or imagination, and down and to their left (your right) while engaging in internal dialog. NLP further teaches that when people look to their left (your right as you watch) they are remembering things, and when they look to their right (your left) they are constructing things. This is often recommended as a way of spotting a liar, but by itself eye accessing cues are not consistent enough to do that. For one thing, some people are reversed, looking to their right for memory and their left for invention. Sometimes construction just means having to think about how to formulate a sentence. And someone kinesthetic, or heavily driven by internal dialog, will tend to look the same 146

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way for memory and imagination. While you can't safely spot a liar by watching their eyes, you can get a good idea of how they are accessing information. Ask a few simple questions and watch their eyes. Try questions that lean on one sense or another, like asking their favorite color or food. You would think that asking a blatantly kinesthetic question would yield an immediate look down and your-left, but a visual will often have to pull up an image first (looking up), then consider the kinesthetic point (shift the eyes down right), and then maybe even have an internal dialog about what to say (down left). This all happens in a split second; it's easy to miss if you're not watching for it. Ask several questions until a pattern emerges. And while you're at it, listen for language cues and decision cues as well.

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Using Your Partner's Primary Modality Once you've sussed out what your partner's primary modality is, you can use that to tailor your induction and suggestions to the way their mind is most comfortable working. The first obvious thing you can do is adopt the predicates that correspond to their favored modality. If your partner is visual, use words like see, picture, look, colorful, pretty, perspective, hazy. For an auditory partner, work in words like hear, discuss, quiet, noisy, scream, resonate, harmony. With a kinesthetic partner say feel, grasp, pressure, rough/smooth, warm/cold, tingling, firm, etc. By expressing yourself in the language their mind likes, you make it easier for their subconscious to accept your wording with minimal need for processing. You will also want to tailor your language in a larger sense as well. If you know your partner is visual, then use imagery as much as you can during your induction and suggestions. You might have them immerse themselves in an imaginary scene, describing in detail (or better yet, letting them decide the details) what they can see around them as they go deeper and their inner vision expands. If you then want them to have the experience of being stimulated with a sex toy, have them imagine the toy and envision what they look like as they submit to the pleasure it brings them. To do the exact same scene with an auditory, you might use a metronome or a Tibetan singing bowl for the induction, inviting their mind to slow down as the ticking slows down or letting the harmonic vibrations from the bowl ripple through their minds, smoothing out conscious thought. Then you might have them imagine the sound the toy makes, if any, or the sounds they feel themselves making automatically, involuntarily, as the pleasure builds and amplifies inside them. For a kinesthetic partner, you might use a relaxation induction or have them imagine slowly lowering themselves into a hot tub or bath, floating in the warm water as it relaxes them into bliss. Then they can feel the sex toy as you tease their skin with it, talking up the textures and the vibration (if any) and then the sensations it brings as it teases, touches, and arouses them.

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It bears repeating that we all use all of our senses. Using your partner's favored modality this way is playing to their strength, which will help them engage in the trance. However, don't completely neglect the other senses. Once you've got your partner in a nice trance state, go ahead and work in the other senses too. A guitar always sounds fuller when you use all the strings. It’s also worth noting that modalities are not all-encompassing. Just because someone is primarily visual doesn’t necessarily mean they will do all visual things well; they may appreciate swirls of imaginary color relaxing them into trance, but then have difficulty visualizing the talking teddy bear that you suggest is in the chair across from them. With a little experimentation you’ll learn what your partner’s mind is comfortable doing and what is more challenging, which is another level of tailoring you can add to the trance experience.

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Discussion Points 1. Which modality is easiest for you to work with? Why is that? 2. What would you do with someone who wants to get better at imagining visual things?

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Exercises 1. As you encounter people in a casual setting, talk with them and guess their primary modality. (You don't have to ask them to see whether your guess is right, but you can.) 2. Make a list of the inductions you know and classify them by what modalities they are designed to engage. (Hint: not every induction plays to a particular sense, and some play to multiple.) 3. Take each of the suggestion ideas below and rephrase them to cater to each of the primary modalities (visual/auditory/kinesthetic). Try auditory digital for an extra challenge. One arm becomes stiff and straight. Imagine being on a hammock in the shade on a summer day. Recall a pleasurable erotic experience.

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Your Hypnotic Self Being a skilled hypnotist involves a lot more than knowing a few inductions. Going to the next level, from being good with one person to being good with random people, requires that you learn how to make the most of the tools you have. Find your voice, define your style, and your confidence in your own ability will grow with each person you successfully hypnotize.

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Presenter Notes This is a very good topic to do either as a panel or with a co-presenter, because so much of hypnotic style is subjective. The goal is not to get a bunch of people hypnotizing the way you do (or the way I do); it's to help them find and develop their own unique styles while picking up some habits that will make any style more effective. One of the themes of this lesson is that success as a hypnotist is 80 percent belief and expectation. When I teach this topic at *EHUs, I like to demonstrate this at the outset in a way that really hammers the point home. I'll start by doing a longer introduction of myself than usual and go into more detail on my professional hypnosis background – establishing credibility, of course. While I'm doing it, I make eye contact with as many people near the front of the class as I can, looking for people who are paying rapt attention. Then I'll begin to drop into my hypnotic voice and see if anyone starts to glaze over. As soon as I see that, I stop and point out that they were starting to trance out and ask, “Why did that happen?” The answers I get will vary, but they generally fall into the themes of reputation and expectation. Which is the right answer, and leads very nicely into a class on how to develop your own style that people will recognize and believe in.

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Trust, Expectation, and Belief Being a successful hypnotist, whether in the scene or in general, requires that you establish rapport with the person you intend to hypnotize. As much as we like to pretend otherwise, as a hypnotist all you're really doing is guiding someone; it's their mind that does all the work. It should be obvious that successful hypnosis requires trust between the hypnotist and the hypnotee. Your hypnotee has to know that you will treat them well, or at least have no reason to believe that you won't. Without that level of trust your partner's conscious mind will be more vigilant as you try to work with them. Usually that results in either failure to get them into trance, achieving only a light trance state with little response to suggestion, or popping out of trance abruptly right after the induction. Expectation is a powerful tool in hypnosis because the human mind has a strong tendency to bring about what it expects to happen. If you've ever said to yourself something like, “Dammit, why do I keep doing that?” you can blame it on your subconscious expectation. In the hypnosis context, if someone expects to have trouble going into trance it is extremely likely that the expectation will cause that to happen. And where do expectations come from? Beliefs, of course. Beliefs are the filters by which we process our experiences. When presented with new ideas or information, we tend to accept easily things that are compatible with our existing beliefs and disregard or question things that are not. Most of us are generally able to modify our beliefs, or adopt new ones, in response to new experiences. Belief is important on both sides of the hypnotic equation. Your potential trance partner has to believe that they can go into trance and generally do what you are negotiating, and that you have the necessary skill and experience to keep up your end. At the same time, you have to believe in your own ability as well. Any doubt you have in yourself will become apparent to your partner once you get into rapport and can work against you. This often creates a chicken-and-egg problem for new hypnotists, who need to be confident that they can do something they haven't actually done (or done much) yet. 154

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So, how does a new hypnotist establish trust, expectation, and belief in a partner? Experience is the best source, of course, but here are a few things you can do to help build your confidence while you are out there gaining experience: 1. Be a student of hypnosis. Watch other experienced hypnotists; notice what they do and how they do it. Ask them questions after the scene is over (be respectful of after-care time). Most hypnotists love to talk about this stuff and you can learn a lot that way. Read books on hypnotic techniques – even totally vanilla hypnosis books can still teach you things that you can apply in an erotic context with a little imagination. 2. Talk the talk. Because you're a student of the art, you can speak knowledgeably about hypnosis and erotic hypnosis. Develop a “grab bag” of stories that you can tell, either about things you've done (ideally) or things you'd like to do with a prospective partner. 3. Showcase a healthy attitude. Listen as much as you talk. If you are talking with someone about possible play, ask them about what they're curious about, or what they particularly enjoy, and listen to the answers. If there is a primary relationship, make sure you are respectful of it; ask what the protocol is with their relationship, and make sure you follow it. That might mean asking their primary partner’s permission, though not always. Be equally respectful of the prospective partner; it's their mind you intend to play with, after all, and they need to trust that you will respect the limits and parameters of whatever you negotiate. 4. Start with experienced bottoms. The hardest people to play with are those who know that you're brand new at hypnotizing people and have little or no experience as a hypnotee, because they have a history with you that does not include hypnosis; they probably trust you, but expectation and belief are going to be very hard to establish. So first, seek out empowered hypno-bottoms who enjoy playing with multiple hypnotists and know what they like. Playing with people like that will help you to get the hang of negotiations and protocol, and they can give you extremely valuable feedback. Take it to heart. Once you've done enough scenes that you start to feel confident, then you can branch out to people who are new, or not very experienced, 155

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and your confidence will help them as well as yourself. Now, with several successful scenes under your belt, you have a strong basis to establish belief and expectation with your significant other. 5. Avoid being creepy or pushy. It's easy to let enthusiasm get out of hand. Sometimes you'll be tempted to practice your waking suggestion while trying to persuade someone to scene with you. Don't; it's unethical and creepy. If you ask someone if they'll play with you and they say not tonight, accept that gracefully and then let them approach you when/if they are feeling receptive. And always hold yourself to high standards of ethics and conduct. If you slip up – and we all do once in a while – apologize immediately and make whatever amends are appropriate. Do these things and you should develop a good reputation as someone who is new but trustworthy. That will carry you far as you gain more experience.

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The Elements of Style (Somewhere, Strunk and White just cringed without knowing why!) Every hypnotist has their own personal style, a combination of what they do and how they do it that makes each hypnotist different from the others. Finding yours is one of the early challenges for any new hypnotist. Your hypnotic style is defined by a number of separate but related things. It starts with your voice – your tone, your pacing, your style of delivery – but also includes your posture, your touch, your choice of words, your demeanor. Some hypnotists are very commanding, standing over their hypnotee, speaking sharply and quickly and making mostly direct suggestions. Others speak softly, sometimes leaning in close and almost whispering into their partner's ear, using indirect suggestions and open language to engage the imagination. Some hypnotists stroke or touch their partner as they work while others stay hands-off. Some are playful, others are serious. Some spend a long time on inductions and deepening, while others will drop their partner into trance in seconds and go straight into the scene. Defining your style starts with some conscious decisions and practicing some fundamentals.

Your Voice Your voice is easily the most important tool you have as a hypnotist; after all, getting people into hypnosis is usually a verbal activity. The stereotypical hypnotist voice is a low monotone, but in real life that's probably the least effective style there is. Your best hypnotic voice is expressive, varying in both pacing and pitch; it is obviously and recognizably you, but usually richer and fuller-sounding than your normal conversational voice. One way to get a start on your voice is to do a short exercise. First, just say out loud in your normal conversational voice, “Close your eyes and relax as 157

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best you can.” If you have an audio recorder handy, on a smartphone or PC, use it and then play back the recording. Now, actually close your eyes for a moment and allow yourself to enter a light trance state, then say it again (“Close your eyes and relax as best you can.”). Notice the differences between the two? The second time you probably spoke more slowly and smoothly. Adopt that tone and pacing, and you're well on your way to developing your compelling hypnotic voice. One of the keys to a good voice is getting the right tone. You want your throat to be open and clear as you speak. You should feel the vibration at the bottom of your throat and in your upper chest rather than in your mouth and nose. Sit up straight, open your throat, and start speaking; it doesn't matter what you say for this, just listen to yourself and notice how that tone is different from your normal conversational voice and closer to your hypnotized voice. As you practice speaking with your throat open, you'll notice that you run out of breath quickly. That's because you're expelling more air at a time. With practice you'll get better at it; you'll breathe in more and learn to do it smoothly. There are vocal exercises you can do to help develop that resonance that you want in a hypnotic voice. Sing the letters of the alphabet, slowly (1-2 seconds each), breathing when you need to. Start at a low pitch, and each time you go through the alphabet lower your pitch until you can't go any lower. The more you do that the wider your range will become and the more easily you'll be able to sustain your hypnotic voice tone for full sentences. Once you have your tone down, practice increasing the fluid, expressive qualities of your voice. A good hypnotic voice is interesting to listen to; it rises and falls in pitch and volume, speeds up and slows down in tempo. Sometimes you'll do this deliberately, to emphasize certain words or phrases, but even when you're not doing that practice exaggerating your normal up and down a little bit, so it's more noticeable. Tempo is another important component of a hypnotic voice. Again, variety is good. If you are using confusing wording, go ahead and speed up a bit; if you want to subtly tell the subconscious to slow down and go deeper, slow your pace.

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Varying volume also sends signals to your partner's subconscious. When giving embedded commands, a slight rise in volume marks out what you want the subconscious to notice. To project authority, use a louder tone (not shouting, just forceful) and speak while standing in front of or directly behind your partner, especially if they are sitting. A quiet voice draws your partner's attention to you and forces them to focus on it. If you really want to crank up the feeling of intimacy, get very close to your partner, hold them close or stroke them gently on the arm or back, and speak softly into their ear. Experiment with different vocal techniques until you find the ones that feel natural and comfortable to you.

Your Words What you say is just as much a part of your hypnotic style as how you say it. Over time you will find that certain phrases just seem to work their way into your speech patterns – a couple of mine, for example, are “perfectly okay,” “automatically, instinctively,” and “only when it is safe and appropriate.” You may even pick them up from other hypnotists that you observe or listen to. That's normal and natural; it's your subconscious noticing, a lot of the time, what feels natural for you or what seems to resonate with your trance partners. And, as with most other elements of style, they may vary over time. Another important aspect of word choice is to notice what words your trance partner seems to respond to. We all have a few words that, when said in the right context or by the right person, set off a happy reaction; when you spot that reaction, note that word and start using it strategically. For example, if you happen to say “That's right” (which is a common Ericksonian thing) and your partner squirms in their seat or you notice a hitch in their breath, you've hit one of their verbal buttons; from then on, you know you can use “That's right” as a stroke, a reward for following instructions, or a treat. Words that tend to get a happy reaction from many include: surrender obey (obedience) 159

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submit helpless powerless irresistible good (girl/boy) I'm sure you can think of a bunch of others as well. Try some on your partner, note which ones get a reaction, and use them when you want to add intensity. I make it a point to reassure or praise my hypnotee frequently throughout the scene or session, especially when they are responding well. I'll say things like “that's right” or “you're doing perfectly” when my partner responds to suggestions. Often people who are new to erotic hypnosis appreciate the reassurance because they really can't tell a lot of the time how well things are working. Assuring them that they're doing perfectly helps to bolster their own belief and quiet that little voice they may have that's wondering if the hypnosis is actually working. One of the best things you can do to develop as a hypnotist is to watch other experienced hypnotists. Whether you do this at a convention, or through recordings, or at local gatherings, or by buying tickets to a professional show, it's an opportunity to pick up tricks and tips that you can experiment with and, if they work out well, incorporate into your style. I often say that hypnotists are like comedians, always watching each other and appropriating bits they can make their own. (In NLP we call this “modeling.”)

Your Touch Though hypnosis is largely a verbal art, it can be greatly enhanced by touch. This is especially true in erotic hypnosis, which is much more intimate than conventional recreational or therapeutic hypnosis. I almost never touch a client when I'm doing mundane professional hypnosis, but I often do when demonstrating erotic hypnosis. 160

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It's vital to remember that people have boundaries – just because someone is willing to sit in a chair and let you play with their mind does NOT automatically mean they're okay with you touching their body. Unless you are already in a relationship where you've established that touching is okay, always get permission before touching someone you are hypnotizing. Get that permission before you start the hypnosis, not after. Also, with someone you are not on intimate terms with, you need to be very explicit about where you intend to touch them when getting consent. While most people are generally okay with being touched on the arm or shoulder, you cannot assume this – you need to ask for permission and list the body parts you intend to touch, or think you may need to touch. They can then give you an informed yes or no, perhaps as part of the scene negotiation. Once you have permission to touch, confine yourself to the specific areas you got consent for. If someone agrees that you can touch them on the back, for instance, and your hand slides down the back to their ass, you have overstepped and they may rightfully object. It should also be clear, but I'm going to spell it out anyway, that asking someone who is already in hypnosis and possibly feeling aroused if you can now touch them in a more intimate way than they originally agreed to is egregiously unethical without prior negotiation, even if they are the one asking for the not-negotiated touch. I would only consider doing this with someone that I knew intimately enough that the touch in question was a routine thing for us. There are several overall handy ways to touch someone that can enhance the hypnotic experience. One of my personal favorites, especially with someone in an upright chair, is to place a hand on the back of the neck or on each shoulder and then gently rock them. A smooth, gentle rocking motion can be wonderfully soothing and many bottoms find that it helps them let go easily and quickly into deeper trance states. It also gives me a heads-up if they are getting too floppy so I can make sure they don't slip out of the chair. A firm but gentle push down on the shoulders as your partner starts to exhale is also a very potent deepener. Another favorite of mine, which I do often for sensation play, is a gentle downward stroke on the arm. Use the backs of your fingers and just draw them slowly down the arm from shoulder to elbow (or to wrist), touching so lightly that they barely feel it. Time it so that you start the stroke down as they exhale, and that stroke will act as a highly effective non-verbal 161

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deepener. If you have permission to touch the arm, you can gauge your partner's degree of physical relaxation by lifting an arm at the wrist, Dave Elman style, and wiggling it. Someone who is still paying conscious attention will try to help you; their arm will lift easily and when you wiggle it you'll feel resistance because their muscles are trying to cooperate. In someone who is well into trance the arm will feel heavy and when you wiggle the arm it moves with you. You can then drop the arm back into their lap, or let it flop down next to them, as a non verbal signal to go deeper.

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Versatility NLP teaches that in any system the element with the most flexibility is usually the controlling element. To be an effective hypnotist, you need to be versatile. Learn as many inductions as you can, model from other hypnotists when you see something that appeals to you, and be prepared to adapt your style a little to accommodate your trance partner. If you are playing with someone who wants to feel dominated and controlled, for example, then morph your style a little to be more authoritative: raise your voice a little, use short direct sentences, and add some extra references to the bottom being controlled, overwhelmed, powerless, or whatever other words resonate with them. If your partner wants a more intimate, relaxed approach then pull up your chair closer, get permission to hold them and stroke the arm or leg, and whisper sweet hypnotic words into their ear. The more you practice and work with different people, the more your personal style will grow and evolve. That is always a good thing.

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Discussion Points 1. New hypnotists are often tempted to exaggerate their experience in order to inspire belief and expectation in a prospective play partner. Is this a good idea? 2. If you've never done a hypno-bondage scene before and your partner wants it, should you tell them it will be your first time?

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Exercises 1. Practice giving a spoken induction with your throat open, so that you feel the resonance in your lower throat and upper chest. Notice what that does to the tone quality of your voice. 2. Watch another hypnotist (erotic, stage, or other) in action and identify as many elements of their style as you can. How is their hypnotic voice different from their speaking voice? What words or phrases do they tend to use often? Do they touch their partner? 3. Experiment with authoritarian and permissive wording. Take each of the following suggestion ideas and write one authoritarian way and one permissive way to word the suggestion: One arm becomes light and rises until it points to the ceiling. The hypnotee becomes giddy and giggly. The temperature of the room becomes increasingly warm or cool.

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Being the Hypnotee Anyone who wants to be a good hypnotist should learn how to be hypnotized. By experiencing trance yourself you gain a much better understanding of what hypnosis is like, which in turn will help you to relate to what your trance partners are doing when you hypnotize them. And there are benefits to you as well; we can all use a little mental vacation once in a while. Being hypnotized is a skill that improves with practice. If you don't have a hypnotist handy that you can practice with, use self-hypnosis to get better at going in and out of trance. Even if you're not making suggestions to yourself, it's still good practice and beneficial in its own right.

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Presenter Notes This topic is suitable for everyone. Even someone who exclusively plans to top should learn how to be hypnotized so they can be a better hypnotist. Switches can obviously benefit from getting better at letting go into trance when they bottom for someone else. And of course there are always bottoms who are looking for ways to go into trance more easily when they play. This lesson is for all of them; the only real difference is why they come. When I present this class (usually under the title “Deeper, Faster, Easier”) I like to do a group trance induction at the end of the lecture. During the trance I have each participant choose their own reinduction trigger. Then, after ending the group trance, I have them all use their triggers to go back into hypnosis for a minute or two and fractionate them a little by doing this 3 or 4 times, for just a minute or so apiece. It's a great way to cement the habit of going into trance, and of course the fractionation itself helps them drop deeper, faster, with repetition. It's a confidence-builder.

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Can You Be Hypnotized? It used to be common knowledge that only a certain percentage of the population can be hypnotized. Depending on whose figures you heard, that number ranged from as low as 15 percent to as high as 85 percent. This came from the days when researchers tried to study hypnosis using the scientific method – they would read (or play a recording of) the same script to 100 people, and anyone who didn't respond to it by going into trance was considered “not hypnotizable.” Nowadays we know that hypnosis is more art than science. Everybody's mind is different and how they respond to a hypnotic induction is a function of their mood, trust/expectation/belief, and a bunch of other factors that a canned recording or untrained grad student reading a script can't adapt to. When working with a moderately skilled hypnotist, almost everyone can be successfully hypnotized. The exceptions are: 1. People who have a severe physiological disorder of the brain that prevents them from concentrating (extremely rare). 2. People who are under the influence of certain mind-altering substances such as LSD, PCP, heavy sedation, or large amounts of alcohol or THC (the active ingredient in marijuana). These people are already in an altered state and the drugs tend to inhibit concentration; once they sober up they can be hypnotized. (Side note: a couple of drinks, or a few puffs on a joint, is unlikely to affect an average person enough to prevent trance and can actually help the process by encouraging relaxation; beyond that the ability to concentrate deteriorates and hypnosis gets increasingly difficult.) 3. People who don't want to be hypnotized. Usually this is a temporary thing; they aren't comfortable with this hypnotist, or in this environment, and would be amenable to trance under other circumstances. Occasionally you'll run into someone with a deepseated fear of losing control who jerks out of trance instantly under any circumstance; they can still learn to let themselves be hypnotized, but it's a lot more difficult for them.

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Going into hypnosis is a perfectly natural thing that your brain already knows how to do. Each and every one of us with roughly normal brain function goes into trance at least twice a day: when we go to sleep, and when we wake up again. While going from wakefulness into sleep and then back from sleep into the waking state we pass through trance. If you sleep, therefore, you can be hypnotized. Another thing that's often said is that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. That one is actually true. Hypnosis is never something that someone else does to you; it's something your mind does in response to either an invitation or a desire of its own to go there. No hypnotist can force someone into trance if they don't want to go there. A sneak or surprise induction, where you don't necessarily have time to consciously object, may work for a second or two but you can (and likely will) always bring yourself back out and you can reject every suggestion the unethical hypnotist tries to make in the process. There are a lot of frustrated bottoms out there who can drop into trance at will, but never feel as though they're going “deep enough.” Some are on an epic quest to achieve that perfect deep trance Nirvana, thinking that if they can only go deep enough they'll finally be able to experience a coveted hypnotic phenomenon or they'll finally feel as if they were hypnotized. This is unfortunately, because the idea that there is a certain depth that enables a given result has been thoroughly discredited, and too much emphasis on depth can prevent you from enjoying the hypnotic state you're in. I often tell people that being in trance is a lot like being drunk, in that your own perceptions are the least accurate way to judge your state. This is especially true for inexperienced hypnotees, who may simply have an expectation of what deep hypnosis must feel like that isn't true for them; they remember things, they know they were aware of their surroundings, so despite the fact that they clearly remember holding a conversation with their left shoe and answering to the name Rumpelstiltskin they feel they probably weren't really very hypnotized. Chapter 6 of this book covers the whole depth debate in more detail. Suffice to say for now that how deep into hypnosis you are has little or nothing to do with how well you respond to suggestion or what hypnotic phenomena you can experience. Your trust/expectation/belief, your experience and mental talents, and your imagination are the important things. 169

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Getting There The ability to easily drop into trance at will is a skill, like driving or dancing or playing the piano. Some people are just naturally good at it; most of us can become competent with practice. There are very few people who truly can't learn to go into trance, though some may need to resolve some personal issues first. The key to gaining skill at going into trance is, of course, to practice. If you have a hypnotist you can practice with regularly, that's great – you'll get better and better with each session that you do. If you don't, you can use self-hypnosis to sharpen your skill so that when you do get the chance to play with a hypnotist your mind is primed and able to drop easily into trance with minimal fuss. There are some things you can do to help the process along. Remember to keep an open mind, especially when you are new to hypnotic play yourself. Hypnosis almost never feels the way we expected it to before we started playing with it. For some people it feels different from trance to trance, or from hypnotist to hypnotist. So let go of your expectations and let whatever happens happen. If you really feel you must worry about whether you went into trance or not, do it later. Avoid the temptation to analyze. As you gain experience, there may be a piece of your mind that listens to each hypnotist and compares them to others. You may notice that they approach the Dave Elman induction differently, for example, and find yourself dwelling on the “mistakes” instead of letting the analytical, judging part of your mind wander off as it needs to. If the hypnotist says something that seems nonsensical or contradictory, it's okay to just let the words flow through without evaluating them. It helps a lot to adopt a Zen-like attitude: don't “try” to go into trance, just allow trance to either happen or not happen. Don't try to measure how deep you are or how trancey you feel; let the scene play out and judge at the end how well the hypnosis worked for you. You may discover at the end that while you didn't feel all that hypnotized you have no idea when or how your clothes came off. 170

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When all else seems to be failing, call on your imagination. Imagine as vividly as you can that you are deeply hypnotized and every suggestion the hypnotist gives you is compelling and irresistible. Imagination is a function of the subconscious, after all, and the subconscious is what you want running the show; imagine being hypnotized and, more often than not, your mind will take you there. (If you do this, make sure you communicate with your hypnotist afterward that you were doing it so they can benefit from the feedback.) When you are playing with a new hypnotist (new to hypnosis or just new to hypnosis with you), it's important to make sure that you give them information that they need to know about how your mind works. Communicate your hard limits clearly. Tell them about any physical limitations you have, like an old knee injury or a stiff neck. Warn them about any fears/phobias that you have. But also tell them about previous experiences you've had that were good – a hypnotist wants to hear about that so they can leverage the experience.

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Self-Hypnosis Self-hypnosis is one of the easiest ways to practice going into and out of trance. The more you hypnotize yourself, the more accustomed your mind gets to what a trance state feels like and how to get there. This will make it easier for you to go into trance for someone else when you want to. There are a lot of tools out there that you can take advantage of to practice self-hypnosis. There are thousands of YouTube videos designed to guide you into self-hypnosis, for instance. Most of these feature some sort of eye fixation graphic and a recorded voice doing an induction. This may not really seem like self hypnosis because someone else is speaking, but remember it's your mind doing the work. If you're going to go this route, variety is your friend; pick several recordings and rotate through them so you don't get too conditioned to one particular one. There are also a bunch of websites where you can either use the site's tools as a hypnosis prop or download software that you run on a PC. The website or software, like the YouTube videos, typically displays some kind of fascinating pattern on the screen and may also include either vocal suggestions (recorded or synthesized voice) or audible beats to help guide you into trance. A program called Virtual Hypnotist is an old and wellknown tool whose creator (FollowTheWatch) has retired and released it to the community. A new project, Descent, is being developed as a successor to Virtual Hypnotist. There are also any number of spirals, binaural beat generators, and the like for those so inclined. Ultimately, of course, you don't need any fancy equipment, a special chair, or another person to hypnotize you. You can do it anywhere that you can safely let your attention wander. Here is a very simple method that involves no technology or props: 1. Settle into a comfortable position in a place where you can tune out for a bit without risk to yourself. It could be a private spot at home, the passenger seat of a car/bus/train/airplane, or anywhere you feel comfortable. 2. Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. With each breath open your 172

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eyes and inhale completely, filling your lungs all the way, and hold it for a second or two. Then, as you let each breath out slowly, close your eyes and make a small gesture, such as tapping on the chair or rubbing two fingers together. Make the same gesture each time you exhale, and make it as you feel your body relaxing. 3. Tell yourself how much time you will spend in self hypnosis. Note the current time if you can without having to move around or search for a clock, otherwise don't worry about it. It's usually good to start with 5 minutes and work your way up, if you want to, to longer sessions. Even 5 minutes is good practice, though. 4. Close your eyes again if you haven't already and make that gesture. Imagine that each time you make the gesture your body relaxes, your mind clears, and you feel everything in and around you slowing down. Continue to do this and feel yourself responding to the gesture each time. Take your time; there's no need to count or measure. 5. At some point you will suddenly become alert again. Open your eyes and look at the clock. You may be surprised at how good your subconscious is at keeping track of time. The gesture that you make, through repetition and practice, becomes a trigger for self-hypnosis. Making that gesture will automatically start your mind heading toward trance, which is a good and handy thing to have. If you want to give yourself suggestions during your self-hypnosis, use your imagination to do it. Whatever the suggestion is, imagine the benefit you will gain from following it – maybe a slimmer body, maybe a calmer mind, maybe doing something beneficial instead of indulging in a habit you want to get rid of. Imagine yourself enjoying those benefits, and as you do make the imaginary images, sounds, and feelings as intense and bold and in-yourface as you can. Also imagine yourself doing whatever the necessary steps are to gain that result – passing up sweets, exercising, throwing away cigarettes, whatever – in the most vivid way that your mind can. Your subconscious will get the message and start reprogramming your behavior to get you there. With time and practice, you'll discover that you don't really need the ritual of the 5 steps to put yourself into trance. Once you know what it feels like, 173

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you can simply close your eyes and recall that feeling, make the gesture once or twice, and you'll be right there in trance. For a more intense sort of self-hypnosis practice, you can do your own fractionation exercise. Trigger yourself into trance, giving the instruction to stay in trance for one minute only. As soon as you feel yourself emerging from trance, trigger yourself again for one minute. Repeat as many times as you like. Each time you drop down right after coming (most of the way) back up you'll find yourself dropping more deeply more quickly. Fractionation can be a little disorienting, so if you find it getting too hard to wake up completely you may want to slow down a bit. Or not – it's a cool feeling. Practicing self-hypnosis trains your mind to go into trance quickly, easily, and deeply when you want it to. It will build your confidence in your ability to trance successfully, and if you want to you can use it for your own selfimprovement purposes. Plus, if you are trancing with a hypnotist, you will find it much easier to go into trance no matter what induction they use.

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Discussion Points 1. Suppose you are adept at self-hypnosis and are playing with a new hypnotist whose technique is a bit awkward and not working for you. Would you simply use your self-hypnosis skills to go into trance yourself? What, if anything, should you tell the hypnotist afterwards? 2. Why would a dominant allow their submissive(s) to hypnotize them?

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Exercise 1. Practice the 5-step self hypnosis technique from this chapter at least once a day for 2 weeks. How accurate is your subconscious timekeeper? Do you start to lose track of time while you're practicing? Notice how much easier it gets to drop into trance when you practice.

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The Next Level

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Testing and Convincers Do you wonder if your trance partners are really hypnotized? As a hypnotee, do you find yourself wondering whether you were really in trance or not? If so, the answer can be had by using testing and convincers. To do an erotic hypnosis scene you don't usually need a lot of hypnotic depth, and depth as a general concept is overrated as we've already discussed. However, using a test or convincer well can help to enhance your trance partner's belief in the process and end up improving the hypnotic experience for both of you. Pay attention to how you do it, though, because using them poorly is a great way to sabotage yourself.

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Presenter Notes This is a mid-level topic. It presupposes that your audience knows how to get someone into trance and give them suggestions and is looking to get better at it. This particular topic won't leave the beginners completely in the dust, but they may not have the foundation they need to make use of this material. Know your audience and make sure they understand what is expected of them. The topic of convincers and tests really lends itself to demonstrations, so do them. I would start by doing the suggestibility tests as an audienceparticipation demo. Watch your audience, and make note of the ones who are most responsive to those exercises. Then choose one or two of them to come up to the front and be your demo bottom for the convincers.

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Why Test? Experienced hypnotists often disagree on the subject of testing: when to test, what kind of test to use, even whether to test at all. Some swear that testing is vital because it proves beyond a doubt that the person really is hypnotized; others see any test as an opportunity for the hypnotee to “fail” and undermine their belief and expectation. Both sides make a valid point, so the wisest position to take is one somewhere in the middle. How much I test depends very much on the situation and the person I'm playing with. If I haven't played with this person before, or they aren't very experienced, and we have plenty of time, then I'll do several tests or convincers so that I can gauge how their mind responds to things and they will have something they can point to and say, “Yes, that showed that I really was hypnotized.” If the hypnotee is experienced, or we know each other well, there is less need for testing because the hypnotee already knows what their mind can do and I already have a decent idea what to expect. I also tend to skip testing when doing demos because of the time factor; whatever phenomenon we're going to demo becomes the test, in a way.

Tests vs. Convincers When we talk about testing and convincers we're generally talking about the same thing. The main difference is when we do them. A suggestibility test (or just 'test') is an exercise done with a person who is not in hypnosis yet. I strongly dislike the term and, as I'll explain shortly, I never use it with someone I'm about to hypnotize but for purposes of this section we'll let it stand. A suggestibility test serves multiple purposes: It provides a way for the hypnotist to gauge how responsive the hypnotee is to a particular kind of suggestion It gets the hypnotee used to following instructions It demonstrates to the hypnotee that their mind is capable of surprising things 180

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A successful test – which is any test where the hypnotee believes they got the expected result – helps to establish belief and expectation in an inexperienced hypnotee. They can also start the process of shifting that person into trance for you. I've seen hypnotists do two or three tests and then move directly into an instant induction, using the testing to set that up. When someone is already in trance, there is still a case to be made for testing. In this case you're not testing waking suggestibility, of course, you're testing response to suggestion. Tests done during trance are usually called convincers because their primary purpose is to prove to the hypnotee that they really are in an altered state and that suggestions do work.

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Caveats Before we start discussing specific tests and convincers, let's go over a couple of general caveats that apply to both: 1. Never tell a hypnotee that they are being tested. The very word “test” implies the possibility of failure, and the last thing you want someone thinking about as you are trying to hypnotize them is the possibility that it might fail. Also, a lot of people get anxious at the very concept of being tested, which is pretty much the opposite of the mindset you want them to have. It's also wise to avoid using the word “suggestibility” – most people equate being suggestible with being gullible, which is something nobody wants to be. So if you have to say anything, say something like, “Let's do a couple of simple exercises to see how your imagination works” or “To demonstrate to you how easily your mind can mess with your body, let's do this...” Brian David Phillips likes to use the term “imagination game” in place of “suggestibility test.” 2. Whatever response you get from a test is the right one. There is no failure, only feedback. If you do a test and get a result other than what you were expecting, that result is correct and you need to deal with it. Remember the importance of belief and expectation to successful hypnosis. Belief can be a fragile thing; if your hypnotee thinks they have “failed” a test it undermines the entire session. So never tell a hypnotee what response you expect, and no matter how they respond to your test tell the hypnotee they're doing well.

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Pre-Trance Tests Testing before trance gives you an opportunity to assess your partner's ability and willingness to follow suggestions in the waking state. Always remember when you do these that your trance partner's subconscious is listening – keep the caveats in mind and make sure that you're building belief rather than dismantling it.

Arms Rising and Falling Also known as the “bricks and balloons” test, this one is such a staple that it's become almost as cliché as a swinging pocket watch. Nonetheless, it gives you good feedback on how vivid your partner's imagination is and how willing they are to immerse themselves in an imagined situation. Start by having your trancee close their eyes and hold their arms straight out. For this example, let’s assume that their left palm is facing up and their right palm is facing down. Have them take a deep breath or two and let them out, then begin. Imagine right now that I'm tying a string loosely to your right wrist. On the other end of that string is a bunch of brightly colored helium balloons. You may hear them bonking against each other as I handle the string, and you can certainly imagine that as I let go of the string you can feel those balloons tugging at your arm, trying to lift upwards. Lifting, tugging, pulling up … that's right. Now, imagine that in your left hand I'm placing the handle of a big empty bucket. You can imagine the bucket as metal, or plastic, or wood, whatever material you like. The handle is now in your palm, and as you feel the heft of that bucket in your hand just imagine that I start placing bricks into the bucket. Each brick clunks as it drops inside, and with each brick the bucket gets heavier and heavier. Heavy, dragging, pulling down … good. On the right side, imagine that I'm adding more and more helium 183

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balloons. The tugging, the pulling upward, getting stronger and stronger the more balloons I add to the bunch. Adding balloon after balloon, making that tugging upward get harder, more insistent, pulling your arm upward. And on the left side, dropping more and more bricks into the bucket. Every second another brick plops into the bucket, making it heavier and heavier. Imagine that bucket getting so heavy, so much weight, pulling down. As you talk, watch their left and right arms. If they are imagining well, you should notice the right arm starting to rise and the left arm starting to drop. You can encourage this by continuing to talk up the lightness, the pulling upward, the tugging of the balloons and how the bricks in the bucket get heavier and heavier. When you've got a visible result, where it's easy to see that the left hand is lower than the right, have your partner open their eyes and see how good their imagination is. The amount of separation you get, of course, directly correlates with how open to suggestion they are at the moment. Even a little bit of difference is a successful outcome, but of course the more separation you get the more confident you can be that they will respond well to direct suggestion involving imagination of body sensations. If you get no separation at all, have them lower their arms to their lap before opening their eyes (because you don't want them to see that they got no separation). The test was still successful because you have now determined that they are not very receptive to direct suggestion involving body sensations.

Hand Clasp The hand clasp is almost as universally known as the bricks and balloons test. Stage hypnotists use it often to identify the people in the audience who are most open to suggestion. Place your arms out in front of you, extended all the way, that's right. Now clasp your hands together like this (demonstrate), letting your fingers interlock, good. Now, imagine that the palms of your hands contain powerful 184

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magnets that attract each other. Your palms are already so close now, so imagine that you can feel those magnets pulling those palms together, tighter and tighter, tighter and tighter, that's right. Really feel those magnets gripping, pulling, holding those hands together. Now, with those hands already stuck so hard together, imagine that I'm pouring glue over those hands. Feel that glue seeping in between the fingers, between the palms, everything sticking together tight. Sticking tight. Glue drying almost instantly, leaving those hands so stuck together that even if you TRY to pull those hands apart now, the more you TRY to pull them apart the more they're STUCK together. The harder you TRY to separate those hands the more STUCK they become, STUCK together, that's right. Now, stop trying and feel how truly, absolutely STUCK TOGETHER those hands are. Good! I've seen stage hypnotists do this and then, at this point, invite everyone whose hands are still stuck together to come up on stage and be in the show. When you do this one, it's important to provide some guidance when it's time to start trying to separate the hands. You want them to try and pull the palms apart without first opening their fingers, so demonstrate it that way – do the exercise with your partner, so they will do it the same way you do. This is a trick, of course; it's much more difficult anyway to separate the hands without first opening the fingers, so you get some physiology working for you. Also notice that once the hands are together they become “those hands” rather than “your hands.” That's called dissociative language, and it helps to distance the person from their hands. “Those hands” become an object rather than a part of them, which makes it easier to accept them being temporarily stuck together.

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achieve its end. Have your trancee hold their arms out and clasp the hands together, just as they would for the hand clasp, but this time have them extend just their index fingers and hold them about an inch apart. (If their hands are clasped tightly together this should be difficult but not impossible.) Now, let's play a game with your imagination. I wonder if you can imaging that I'm placing a vise around your extended fingers. You know how a vise works, I'm sure: the operator turns a handle or a knob and the two sides of the vise close together. (Begin to mime turning a knob to one side of the partner's extended fingers.) Imagine that now, a force drawing those fingers together, getting stronger and stronger with every turn of the knob. Stronger and stronger, that's right, feeling those fingers getting squeezed together, squeezed together … This one usually doesn't take more than a few seconds because the tendons that control the fingers are stretched and already want to bring the fingers back together. That's the “feature” that makes this test work for pretty much anybody who isn't actively resisting. Mind you, this also means that you can't put too much stock in the result either – this test is to convince them more than to inform you.

Floppy Arm This one is so simple it barely needs words. After getting permission to touch your trancee on the arm or shoulder, take their hand in yours. Now, as I take your hand, I'm going to lift it up to here. (Elbow bent, arm mostly forward.) Let me do all the work here; I want you to relax that arm as much as you can, so it's completely loose, limp, and floppy. (Wiggle the arm around, feeling to ensure that it is relaxed.) That's right, like a rag doll's arm. I'm not going to drop it, but if I did that arm would just drop right down toward the floor, wouldn't it? In fact, you can even imagine now, can't you, that that arm is completely loose, limp, and lazy, like a rag doll's arm. 186

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That's right. This one is all about the trancee's ability to physically relax in response to a suggestion. As you wobble that arm around, you want it to feel loose and heavy; if you feel it moving other than as you wobble it, then they are trying to help you and they are not completely relaxed. That phrase let me do all the work seems to get the message across nicely for most people.

The Chevreul Pendulum The Chevreul pendulum is a highly versatile hypnosis prop. It can be used as an induction tool, it can be used in or out of hypnosis to get information from the subconscious through a technique called ideomotor questioning, and you can use it as a suggestibility test. You'll need to do some preparation for this one. The pendulum itself is nothing special; any weighted object attached to the end of a string will do. It only needs to be something you can attach the string to and that's heavy enough that it will hang straight down. I like to use a plastic chandelier crystal (they cost about 20 cents at a craft store) because people tend to associate a swinging crystal with trance anyway. You will also need a pad, or a sheet of paper. It can be blank, or you can pre-draw two perpendicular lines on it that intersect in the middle, dividing the paper into four sections. To start, have your hypnotee sitting upright and have the paper either in their lap (supported by a clipboard or book) or on a table in front of them. You want it in a position where they can comfortably and easily hold their hand over the paper for several minutes. Have your hypnotee hold out their hand (left or right, doesn't matter) over the paper and position the hand in a specific way: forefinger extended and curved, thumb and other fingers in a fist – as if they were holding an imaginary gun and pulling the trigger. Now give them the pendulum and have them hold the string with their thumb and non-extended fingers, so that the string comes up and over the end of the index finger before going straight down to the pendulum. The pendulum object should hover a couple of inches above the paper. If they are doing it right, any movement of the 187

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index finger should cause the pendulum to move. Now, wait for the pendulum to settle (or help settle it yourself) and move the paper so that the center is under the pendulum. The Chevreul pendulum is a fascinating application of the theory of ideomotor response. For a moment or two, just watch the crystal at the end of the string and notice how it never entirely sits still; there's always a little bit of movement, isn't there? Because no matter how hard you try to hold your hand still, there are always tiny little muscle movements going on that cause a corresponding movement in the string. Now, watch what happens when you direct a thought at the crystal in your hand. Watch the crystal, and think to yourself, “No … no … no … show me No ...” Keep thinking that thought, “No,” … that's right … and notice how that thought, directed at the crystal, causes a definite change in how it moves. If the paper is blank, draw a line on it that matches the direction the pendulum is swinging. Everyone is different, so there's no right or wrong direction; you just want to identify “No” and give your hypnotee the opportunity to discover how their subconscious mind can control their body in subtle, minute ways. Good. Now, let's change the thought and see what happens to the crystal. Think to yourself, “Yes … yes … yes … show me Yes ...” That's right. The more you focus your mind on that idea, “Yes,” the more you'll notice the crystal reacting, changing direction … yes … just like that. Mark the “Yes” direction on the paper as well. This is usually the opposite of No, but not always. And now, one more exercise: do your level best to think of nothing at all. Just relax and let your mind be blank, and see what that does with the crystal. Notice how it reacts as you simply relax every thought away from the front of your mind. You may even just think to yourself, “Relax … relax … relax ...”

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Again, there is no correct answer here. With some people the pendant will go still; with others it will move in a distinct way that is different from Yes or No. For testing purposes you really don't care which direction means what; you're only interested in noting that the direction changes, and in how clear and obvious the pattern is. Someone whose pendant swings in a wide arc, or circle, is concentrating very well and getting a great result; someone whose pendant moves only in small circles or arcs is less responsive. In 15 years I've never seen anyone have no response. There’s no magic here -your partner’s subconscious mind is causing tiny muscle movements in the fingers holding the string, which in turn cause the pendant to move in a given direction. The more pronounced those movements, the more the pendulum moves. People who haven't done this exercise before tend to be fascinated by how easily their thoughts affect the pendant, so by the time you've got a solid response to “relax” they are already on their way into trance. It's very easy to just keep going and turn the test into an induction if you have consent for it.

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Convincers Convincers are tests that you do during a trance session for the purpose of demonstrating to your trance partner that they really are hypnotized. Professional therapists use convincers because their clients often need to have some sort of “proof” that they were hypnotized or they won't believe they actually were, which can then undo all the suggestion work the therapist did. In the erotic context, convincers server a very similar purpose: they let the hypnotee have confirmation that they were “under” which, in some cases, is all they really wanted from the scene. Having that proof may also lead them to feel that they are now hypnotized and are therefore compelled to obey, which is a key fantasy in hypnokink. Almost any suggestion can be used as a convincer – very few people will deny having been hypnotized when they have an orgasm every time the hypnotist snaps their fingers – but in practice the best convincers are simple, innocuous things done during trance that show the trancee that they are receptive to suggestion. This enhances belief and makes the “real” suggestions, either in the same session or in a subsequent one, that much more effective. Some of these convincers are post-hypnotic suggestions. When I use them with a partner, I usually give them the convincer suggestions and bring them out of trance to experience the effect without doing any more suggestions right away. Once completed the convincer, I drop them back down and get to work on the actual scene.

Catalepsy One of the easiest hypnotic phenomena to obtain is catalepsy, a condition in which part of the body (or the entire body) becomes rigid and immobile. Catalepsy is a good convincer because it feels involuntary; it also gives you some information too. There are a couple of common variations on this theme. For arm catalepsy, one arm is made stiff and rigid. Take your hypnotee's arm (you need to have permission to touch the arm and shoulder for this) 190

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and hold it straight out in front of them. Now, as I hold your arm straight out like this, just imagine that arm locking into position. Every joint, every muscle, locking into place. That's right, everything from the shoulder, through the elbow, through the wrist, even each individual knuckle and finger joint locking into place, absolutely stiff and rigid. (Start to let go of the arm; if it stays in place you are ready to move on, otherwise continue to support the arm and suggest it become stiff, rigid, locked, etc. until the arm does not move when you let go of it.) Now, stiff and rigid and locked as it is, imagine that now you feel a hard steel bar immediately under that arm. Imagine that arm is resting on that stiff, straight, rigid bar of steel. Nothing can bend steel, so no power can force your arm downward as long as it rests on that stiff, rigid, steel bar. (Take your hand and press down on the hypnotee's arm, gently at first and then a bit more firmly as you feel the resistance. NEVER push harder than they can easily resist!) Notice how the harder I press down on that arm, the more impossible it is for me to move it. The more I press down, the more stiff and rigid and firm that arm remains. That's right. And now, as I squeeze on the elbow right here (squeeze), your arm returns to its normal state, relaxed and flexible and floppy. The steel bar disappears and I can easily lower your arm back into your lap (or onto the arm of the chair, etc.). Arm catalepsy is a classic test because it's easy to do and very easy to judge the result. When you press down on the arm, you want it to feel exactly as you described: rigid, stiff. If it starts to go down and then presses upward again, that's a conscious response – your hypnotee is not focused and is consciously trying to resist the pressure. It's important not to press down on the arm too hard. For one thing, if you are stronger than your hypnotee or have the benefit of leverage (as someone 191

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standing would have over someone sitting) you can force their arm down, and that would destroy their belief and probably ruin the scene before it even starts. For another, they might injure themselves trying to resist your force if you apply too much. Being hypnotized does not make anyone stronger. Another frequently-used convincer is eye catalepsy. This will seem very familiar if you know the Dave Elman induction, which is in Chapter 5. With your eyes closed now, I want you to relax each and every one of those tiny muscles in and around your eyes. Relax those muscles so completely that it begins to feel as if those eyes are too relaxed to open. Now you and I both know you could open your eyes any time you want to, but that is not why you're here. So relax those muscles all the way, letting those eyelids become so heavy, so droopy, so relaxed that they simply will not open. And when you've relaxed those eyes so much that they simply will not open, go ahead and TRY to open them. The more you TRY to open those eyes, the more stubbornly they remain stuck closed, too relaxed to open. That's right, prove to me that those eyes are so relaxed that they will not open. Good! Stop trying now, and just relax... This is very similar to the first step in a Dave Elman induction. In fact,when I do the Elman I use almost exactly that language. This convincer works well for most people, and the language is a large part of why. That word TRY always implies failure, so putting emphasis on TRY is a powerful message to the subconscious that they will not succeed. “Prove to me that those eyes are so relaxed they will not open” is a direct suggestion to fail at opening the eyes. And again, notice the dissociative language – “those eyes” and “those muscles” versus “your eyes.” When people realize that their eyes won't open, something clicks and they know they're hypnotized. Another fun variant I like to use is full-body catalepsy. I typically do this one as a post-hypnotic suggestion, to prove to someone when the scene is over that they really were hypnotized.

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In a few moments I'm going to count to three. On the count of three you come completely out of trance, fully awake and alert, feeling wonderfully refreshed and rested. However, for 30 seconds after that count of three, your body from the neck down remains completely still, completely rigid, completely immovable. All of your natural body functions continue to work, but your arms and legs, your back and hips and shoulders, everything below the neck remains absolutely still and unmoving for 30 seconds. As soon as the 30 seconds pass your body reverts to normal, able to move freely and easily the way it always does. You will know by the way your body remains absolutely stiff and unmovable for those 30 seconds that you really were hypnotized and that you can be hypnotized again any time you wish to be. This one is very dramatic, especially for someone inexperienced who doesn't think they're going into much of a trance. When they come out and find their body just won't move it's a weird feeling that erases all doubt. Just make sure you remind them that they will automatically regain all movement at the end of the 30 seconds. You can even count it down for them.

Numb Spot Another very strong convincer involves creating a small spot on your trancee's body and making it go numb. I like to use the back of the hand for this because it's a very sensitive area for most people (meaning it has lots of nerve endings) and it's easily accessible. Like the catalepsy tests, this is done while the person is in trance. Make sure you have permission to touch the hand and to leave a small, short-lived mark. Take their hand in yours and hold it. And now, just imagine that this hand I'm holding right now is even more deeply hypnotized than the rest of you. Feel that hand relaxing, growing more distant, more disconnected, more and more like an object I'm holding. Good. 193

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Now, imagine that I'm holding an ice pack right here (touch the back of the hand) on the back of that hand. An ice pack so cold that it instantly numbs that part of that hand … a chilling numbness that creeps in and spreads throughout that entire area. You know how totally numb a hand can feel that way, all the nerves stunned and senseless by the cold, every little part of that area completely numb. The more you imagine it, the more numb that hand becomes, the more disconnected and numb it feels. At this point, take your fingers and pinch the area lightly while watching your hypnotee's face. If you see a response, go back to suggesting increasing numbness – you can keep talking about cold, or maybe remind them what it feels like when a doctor or dentist injects a local anesthetic (assuming your partner is not needle-phobic or afraid of the dentist!), or talk about nerves going to sleep. Keep this up until you can pinch hard enough to leave a red mark which will go away in a few minutes. If you have a clothes pin or something similar that you can leave attached, all the better. Now, bring your partner out of trance (reminding them that the numbness remains until you tell them it ends) and show them the red mark, clothes pin, or what have you. They should be able to confirm that they had no idea you were pinching so hard – they probably felt a little pressure at most. If they felt more than that and you didn't see it in their face, that in itself suggests that they were suppressing the sensation while in trance. I like to use the back of the hand for this because it's easy to get to, easy to get consent for, and the mark fades quickly. If you have an intimate relationship with the hypnotee and they agree to it, you can feel free to use another sensitive body part instead.

Hilarious Pen I modeled this post-hypnotic convincer from John Cerbone, a well-known stage hypnotist. It's great to use in a light-hearted setting. All you need is to have a pen handy. Start with your hypnotee's eyes closed, holding the pen in front of them at a distance where they can easily focus on it. In a moment I'm going to count from one to three. On the count of three I want you to open your eyes and look at the object I'm 194

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holding in front of you. One, two, three. Remember this pen, what it looks like, and now close your eyes and relax even deeper … good. That pen that you just saw, for the next little while, is the funniest thing you've ever seen in your life. The very sight of that pen, no matter whether you're in hypnosis at the time or not, makes you break out laughing as if you'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. The more you laugh, the sillier and funnier it gets and the siller and funnier it gets the more you can't help but laugh. Every movement of the pen makes it even funnier and funnier, as long as you can see it. When the pen is out of view you no longer need to laugh, but every time you see the pen it just makes you laugh harder and harder and harder. Even the idea that you're laughing at a pen is so ridiculously funny that it makes you laugh harder and harder. The pen is the funniest thing in the world for you, funnier and funnier the more you see it, until I tell you that it's just a pen. Once I tell you it's just a pen, the pen really is just a pen, no longer funny in any way, and your feelings about the pen return to normal. Having planted that post-hypnotic suggestion, put the pen in your pocket and bring your hypnotee out of trance. Make small talk for a few moments, then casually bring out the pen and hold it in front of them. They will start to laugh, of course, and you can take advantage of their post-hypnotic suggestibility to make it funnier and funnier. When you've made the point sufficiently (before they get to laughing so hard they can’t breathe properly!) tell them that they're laughing at a pen – just a pen – and watch them sober up in a flash. Most people I do this to say something along the lines of, “That was so weird! I knew it was just a pen and shouldn't be that funny, but just realizing how stupid it was to be laughing at a pen made it even funnier.” Which is a great convincer for anyone who wasn't sure they were in trance.

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Discussion Points 1. What other suggestions might make a good pre-induction test? 2. What other suggestions might make a good convincer?

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Exercise 1. Partner up and practice using the tests and convincers from this lesson with them, plus any more that you think of and they agree to. Then switch roles so you both get a chance to experience them.

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Confusion Inductions There are a lot of ways to get someone into trance. In Chapter 5 we went over some of the most basic ones that any hypnotist should know. Now it's time to start branching out from there by adding some additional tools to your hypnotic toolbox.

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Presenter Notes One of the problems I'm having in writing this chapter is that my favorite confusion inductions – things like “Seven Plus or Minus Two” and “From Five to Nine” – are the copyrighted property of Terence Watts, which means I can't include them in a book without his permission. I work around that by focusing on how the induction works rather than what the words are. There are examples of each, of course, but since this is a mid-level class by now your audience should be able to take these principles and weave their own words around them. The copyright constraints that I have in writing a book don't necessarily apply to someone doing a class. I am not a lawyer, but I believe that as long as you give the original author credit and refrain from handing out entire copies of their work, fair use should allow you to teach the original “Seven Plus or Minus Two” or other inductions from copyrighted sources if you like. Variety is good. When I'm teaching a purely spoken confusion induction, I like to do it as a group exercise; that is, I'll perform the induction and everyone in the audience who wants to participate can just let me take them into trance. When I do, I always suggest before bringing them back up that they can “clearly and completely, easily and effortlessly” remember how the induction was done so they can easily use the induction themselves whenever they wish to. Most of these inductions take several minutes to fully execute. If you want to have your class pair off and practice them make sure you keep control of the room and don't let the exercises go on too long. Because most confusion inductions involve a lot of talking, people have a tendency to ask for the script. Resist the urge to hand them one; it is better for them in the long run to learn the concepts behind the induction and practice delivering it in their own words.

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About Confusion Inductions A confusion induction is a method of inducing hypnosis in which the conscious mind is deliberately given material that is difficult to process rationally. If you think of your partner's subconscious as an over-eager Doberman patrolling their front yard, using a confusion induction is like throwing the dog a nice, meaty bone. While their conscious mind is chewing on that tasty distraction, you can slip into the house without getting jumped. The most common use cases for a confusion induction are: 1. What Roy Hunter calls the analytical resister. I really don't like that expression at all because it implies that the “analytical resister” is someone who doesn't want to be hypnotized or is somehow resistant to being hypnotized because they are analytical. That's almost never the case, especially in a recreational setting – these people do want to be hypnotized, they just need you to do it in a way that's compatible with how their mind works. More about that shortly. 2. Dealing with hyper-vigilance, which is that nagging tendency some people have to keep asking themselves, “Am I there yet?” while you're trying to get them there. Constantly trying to evaluate whether the induction is working is a judgment function – that is, something the conscious mind has to do – so doing it actually works against you going into trance. 3. People who have not responded well to other styles of induction. When negotiating with a new hypnotee, they may tell you that they hate the relaxation induction, or that they've had people try the down-the-staircase thing and the swinging watch and none of those worked well for them. Or you may start out doing your favorite relaxation induction only to notice that they are looking bored and irritated. In any of these cases, it's a good time to bring out (or segue smoothly into) a confusion induction. There are also times when it's a bad idea to do a confusion induction. If your trance partner is anxious or nervous to begin with I would advise 200

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against an induction that may agitate them more. Get them calm first, or use a more soothing induction type. If your hypnotee has a short attention span – perhaps they have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) – then a confusion induction is a poor choice. A lot of ADD people are actually natural multitaskers, much harder to overload than the average person, so it takes a lot more to confuse them. And some just can't stay focused on one thing long enough for a 4-minute spoken induction to do anything for them.

The Analytical Mind You will often hear hypnotists suggest that confusion inductions are inherently the way to go for anyone who is analytical. I disagree with that. Analytical people are not inherently handicapped when it comes to trance; they simply have minds that are inclined to examine and evaluate more closely than most what they are told, and prefer to draw their own conclusions rather than accept ideas from external sources. This makes swinging a watch in front of them and intoning, “You are getting sleeeeeepy” a losing proposition, but they can be hypnotized in a bunch of other ways. A lot of the “trouble” with analytical people can be addressed with communication. Analytical people are often true skeptics – that is, they are willing to accept an assertion like “Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness” as long as you give them evidence to support it. So I talk with my analytical hypnotees about what hypnosis is, how it works, and what medical evidence there is to prove that it even exists (because a lot of people new to the concept aren't sure it does!). I admit up front that it is more art than science; we don't have a lot of hard data, so we go by experience and what proves to be reproducible in most people. I lay a lot of emphasis on the voluntary nature of hypnosis – it's a cool thing they can do with their mind, not a battle of wills between them and me. And I mention that highly intelligent people are generally very good at hypnosis because they have good powers of concentration and focus. (Yes, this is a subtle waking suggestion and an appeal to the ego.) When you approach hypnotizing an analytical person as a cooperative effort – getting them curious about it and interested in learning something cool their mind can do instead of treating it as a challenge to be overcome – 201

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you'll find it a lot easier to get satisfying results regardless of what kind of induction you use.

Control Freaks A lot of people come up to me at conventions and say something along the lines of, “I'm not sure whether I can be hypnotized or not because I'm such a control freak.” Usually this happens right after they've asked me to hypnotize them. And again, a lot of people will tell you that the best way to handle it is to break out a confusion induction. And again, not necessarily. Like the highly analytical person, the control freak is a lot easier to handle if you communicate with them before you start trancing. With control freaks I talk about how going into trance increases your control because it puts you more in touch with your inner mind where all those habits and behaviors live. I stress that hypnosis is not something I do to you; it's something you do, with me sitting there teaching you how and offering directions. Sometimes I will talk about the AirBus commercial jets. When they first came out a few decades ago, they were revolutionary and a little frightening. In an ordinary jet of the time, the controls in the cockpit were directly linked to the ailerons, rudders, flaps, etc. that control the plane (albeit with lots of hydraulics and gear systems to moderate the forces involved). In an AirBus, the controls in the cockpit were only connected to a computer, and the computer in turn had control of the ailerons, rudders, flaps, etc. Pilots were intimidated by this because it meant they could only tell the computer what they wanted the plane to do and trust the computer to take that request and execute it. A hypnotized person, I explain, is like the AirBus – the pilot/hypnotist can tell the subconscious what to do, but the subconscious may or may not choose to do it. Another thing I will do with a self-described control freak is to use expressions like these throughout the trance session: Of course we both know that you could easily <do the opposite of X> if you wanted to, but that's not why you're here... I wonder whether you can use the control you have over your own mind and body to <make X happen>... 202

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The more you <do X> the more it reinforces at the deepest levels of your mind that <doing X> is what you've chosen for yourself... And you have all the resources and ability that you need to program yourself to <do X>... See what I did there? I'm not giving them suggestions; I'm suggesting that they give themselves the suggestion, and reminding them that they have the control to make it happen. Ericksonians call that utilization – taking what your hypnotee brings to the table and working with it.

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Confusion Countdown Roy Hunter teaches a confusion induction that uses a counting down technique. This is his preferred approach to the “analytical resister” type and it has a good track record. Start by having your hypnotee stare upward at a spot high on the wall or ceiling. You want the spot to be decently above eye level to induce eye fatigue. Explain to them that you will be counting backward from 100; on each even number they are to close their eyes, and on each odd number they should open them again and look at the same spot. Now, while they are still staring at the spot, have them take three long, slow, deep breaths and release them slowly. On the third breath out they can close their eyes and you begin to count. 100 … eyes closed, allowing yourself to relax. 99, eyes open, taking another deep breath and 98, eyes closed. Very good. 97, eyes open, 96, eyes closed, and just imagine how good it feels to release the cares of the day as you breathe in deeply and exhale … good … 95, open, maybe starting to notice the strain and then 94, close, feeling that relaxation doubling or maybe tripling, because it feels so much better to keep your eyes closed than to keep them open 93, that's right, and 92, closed, and realizing that each time you try to open those eyes it gets more difficult to do it quickly because they just want to stay closed and relaxed .. closed and relaxed … 91, 90, relaxing your mind, such a relief to have those eyes closed, 89, getting so difficult, 88, so easy to forget, whether to open or 204

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close, to close or open 86, and as soon as you forget, those eyes stay closed and you can just relax even deeper … 83, good, 82, deeper and deeper relaxed, and you may even find that it's easier to respond to my voice if you simply let it happen automatically, instinctively … the less you think about it, the more automatic and easy it becomes 81 to forget, 80 to remember, to open, or close … Keep going this way, skipping numbers on occasion, as long as they continue to open on odd numbers. If you see them struggling use that – remind them that the more they struggle to open the easier it is to close and relax. When they don't open their eyes on an odd number, you've got trance; you can tell them to just keep their eyes closed now and relax twice as deeply on odd numbers as they do on even numbers and keep counting down to deepen. If your partner is too lucid, or seems to be keeping track too easily, then throw in some non-sequitur lines between numbers. Their conscious mind will wonder what the heck your kitchen sink has to do with anything and add to the confusion. If you really want to get evil, throw in non-sequitur phrases that include a number out of sequence, like “reminds me of the '72 Dolphins, though there were only 45 of them...” Most of the confusional element in this induction comes from the filler statements you make between counts. Someone analytical can pretty easily follow the counting part, so it's up to you to be creative with what you say between the numbers. Throw in irrational numbers; use words that sound like numbers but aren’t; give them math problems instead of simple numbers. When you see some hesitation before opening, you can start messing with the sequence and throwing non-sequitur numbers in there to help move things along.

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Cross-Body Confusion This is based on the same principle as a Terence Watts induction, but the language in the sample is mine so you can use it freely. It leverages the anatomical fact that control and sensing of the body is divided more or less equally between the left and right sides of the brain. The left brain, in fact, controls and senses the right side of the body and the right brain the left side of the body. So an induction that references left then right then left then right requires a lot of conscious attention to follow, and that need for signals to keep crossing the center bridge of the brain has interesting effects: it breaks up anxiety clusters, makes it difficult to form complex ideas, and takes a lot of mental clock cycles all by itself. Start with your trancee seated comfortably. Close your eyes now, please. This exercise is about what you can feel, and you'll feel more readily without the distraction of things in your line of sight. Just relax yourself now and allow yourself to become more aware of your physical body. In a few moments I'm going to start calling attention to different parts of your body, such as the tip of your left pinkie finger, or the outside of your right ankle, and as I do I'd like you to notice whether you can concentrate all of your thoughts on the part I mention, or whether you find yourself giving only part of your attention to that part and part to another part that I didn't mention … or perhaps you'll think entirely of a different part altogether. And it doesn't really matter because the important part is that you be able to use that mind of yours to think exactly how you want to think, whether it's about the part that I mention or the part that I don't mention. And as we go it may be that you begin to tune your mind into mine, so that you can almost anticipate what part I'm going to talk about next, or the part I'm not going to talk about next, and it may even seem as if you are already thinking of that part, or a part apart, even before I mention it, as if you're reading my thoughts, or perhaps I'm reading yours, or maybe we just both 206

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had the same thought at almost the same time. You can allow yourself to become even more focused now, so focused that instead of that tip of your left little finger you can notice the sensations in the knuckles of your right hand. Some people have just a little hair on the back of their hand, and some more, like the hairs on your head. Can you become aware now of every single hair follicle on your head? Every square inch of your scalp has hundreds of them. Or perhaps you're thinking of your feet, both feet at once, and deciding which is warmer, the little toe on your left foot or the big toe on your right foot. And it may be, as you focus your mind in that special way, the way people do so easily and naturally as they go inside now and really notice that their entire awareness of the body is intensified, so that you can actually think of every party of the body all at once. So if I mention your left elbow, right knee, or that spot right in the center of your back between the shoulder blades, you are already aware of that part and how it feels differently. And I don't know whether you've noticed yet a change in the sensations in the left third of your right hand, or whether the texture you feel around your left heel is different from your right shoulder, but the more you continue to relax deeply and focus your awareness inside the more easily you can become aware of something, perhaps a tingling or a warmth, in your left palm. Your unconscious mind keeps a map of the body, which it uses to check in on its many parts – your head, your knees, your face, your shoulders – where every part is mapped in detail. It knows the long muscles in the back of your right thigh and the shorter ones around your heels and ankles. It can distinguish the sole of each foot from the arch of each foot, and truly seems to be aware of each and every part all at once. But the conscious mind is slow, and can really only think of one thing at a time, so that when I mention your left ear, all of its attention goes there and it forgets to notice the sensations in that right index finger, and until I finish this sentence it may be completely unaware of the sensations in the soles of your feet, or whether your left hand feels warmer than your right one, until I 207

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mention it. So how much easier is it, now, to simply let your unconscious mind take over and be aware of everything all at once? To relax, to rest … now. Before you get hung up on trying to practice that entire speech, let me remind you that it's a process, not a magical formula. The early part of the induction is about getting the person focused inward, thinking about sensations in one part of the body or another. The language about thinking of the part I mention, or another part altogether, is a sort of double-bind in that obviously they will need to do one of those things and when they do it seems like the hypnosis is already working. Next we start shifting the hypnotee's awareness around their body, crossing the body, sometimes comparing one side with another side. There is talk of tuning their mind into mine, which is designed to take advantage of the rapport we have and encourage them to let go into it. Make sure your pacing on this is brisk; don't give them too much time to linger in any one place or the confusional element is weakened. After a few jumps back and forth across the body we start throwing in more language designed to bring out the subconscious. We talk about noticing a change in sensations (vague, isn't it? So the imagination can decide what the change is), warmth or tingling. And then we tie all this to an inner map of the whole body, which widens the hypnotee's awareness and, at the same time, requires the subconscious to provide that wider awareness. We point out that the conscious mind is slow and limited, and pick up the pace here so that it's hard for the hypnotee to keep up. At the end we give an indirect suggestion to stop trying to keep track and just let the unconscious mind take over. Most people are more than happy to do that. Use that sequence and it doesn't really matter what body parts you direct them to or in what order. You'll get the result you want.

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Nine Things Two of my favorite confusion inductions are by Terence Watts and center around the principle of “seven plus or minus two.” That principle states that the average person can hold at most seven items in their mind at once, plus or minus two. So some people can consciously keep track of no more than five different things at once, most can do seven, and some can do up to nine. When you deliberately load up the mind with a too many things to keep straight easily, that's called an overload induction. The conscious mind can't keep up, so it calls on the subconscious, the natural multitasker, to take over. The original Terence Watts text of “Seven Plus or Minus Two” is on the Internet, but it's still Terence's copyrighted work so I won't reprint it here. (Confession: I've met Terence in real life under my mundane identity and I'm sure he wouldn't object to my teaching you his induction if you were professional hypnotherapy students, but I don't know where he stands on the topic of erotic hypnosis and I'm reluctant to ask.) Anyone aspiring to be a better hypnotist would benefit from reading his books Crucial!, which contains his original “Seven Plus or Minus Two,” and Logical Indeepeners, which contains the more imaginative “From Five to Nine” variant and quite a few other confusion-style inductions and deepeners. For purposes of this book, I will explain how the induction works and show you how you can create your own version using the same technique.

The List Building a “nine things” induction starts with a list of nine concepts that you'll use to overload the conscious mind of your hypnotee. These can be any combination of things that someone sitting in a chair with eyes closed can either perceive, remember, or think about. In the original script, the nine things are: 1. the sound of your voice 2. the weight of their head against the chair 209

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3. their breathing (slow and steady) 4. music playing in the background (or background noises, if there's no music) 5. how they might appear to someone watching them 6. their hands/arms and how they feel relaxing in the chair 7. their feet/legs 8. the temperature of the room 9. how their eyes feel Most of those are kinesthetic things – body sensations – with a couple of auditory items and one visual. The common thread is that they all tend to draw the hypnotee's attention inward, which encourages trance. Even the “how you look to someone else” part requires the hypnotee to form a dissociated image of themselves. So no matter which of the nine things they are thinking of, it is helping to nudge them further into trance. You can, of course, create your own list. One possible list might be: 1. the sound of your voice (since you're going to be talking, why not use it?) 2. the flavor of an orange 3. the number 17 4. a particular sound in the background (music, or a metronome, or random background) 5. how relaxed and heavy they can make their legs feel 6. the sensation of lowering into a warm, soothing bath 7. a smell that means “home” 8. a lightness or tingling in the palms 210

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9. a pet they would like to have, but don't Like the original, these are mostly things that require imagination, which is a function of the subconscious. If you're feeling brave you can even choose things at random from the environment and improvise the induction – just make sure you can remember all nine things!

The Process Once you have your nine things, the induction itself is a straightforward, almost formula process. Start with basic instructions to close their eyes and relax. Elaborate a little; I will often do a few lines of generic Ericksonian type relaxation, something along the lines of: Just relax yourself now, and realize there's nothing you really need to do. You don't need to move, or speak. You don't even need to consciously listen to the sound of my voice. Nobody wants anything from you, nobody expects anything of you. You can simply relax, and drift, and allow whatever happens to happen. Now introduce the first few things, one at a time, slowly. And as you do, just allow yourself to pay attention to the sound of my voice. To notice how it sounds, and to note the pauses between my words as I speak to your unconscious mind. And while you do that, you can also allow yourself to recall the flavor of a ripe orange, sweet and juicy and running all over your tongue and down your throat. That's right. And as you notice the sound of my voice and remember the flavor of a ripe orange, you can also become aware of the number 17. I don't know whether you'll picture the number 17 on a sign or a board, or perhaps imagine 17 of something in a row, or a circle, or perhaps something entirely different that involves the number 17. Whatever comes to mind first is perfectly okay. So now that you've given them three things, explain what you expect them 211

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to do with them and add a couple more. Most people, by the time they begin thinking of the number 17, have forgotten entirely about paying attention to the sound of my voice, or remembering the flavor of a ripe orange. And that's okay, because it's a perfectly natural thing to do, and it's just as natural to pick up all three of those ideas and juggle them in your mind now, isn't it? Good. In psychology there's a principle called “seven plus or minus two” which states that people can generally think about seven distinct things at one time, plus or minus two. So some people can think of no more than five things at once, most can handle seven, and exceptional people can actually think of nine distinct things all at the same time. So right now, for example, you're paying attention to the sound of my voice, recalling the flavor of a ripe orange, and contemplating in some way the number 17. Your mind can easily keep track of these three separate things, and in fact you can easily add at least two more. So let's also become aware of the sounds in the background, those little random noises that occur in every building and that we aren't consciously aware of all the time, yet they're always there in the back of the mind, aren't they? That's right. And you can also begin to notice the sensations in your legs, that heaviness, or maybe a lightness, as they relax in the chair. And while we both know you could easily move your legs if you wanted to, you can just as easily imagine them being perfectly still and quiet, can't you? Of course. This gets us up to five things, which is the minimum an average person can juggle. Next we add in the remaining four things, one at a time. So now you're thinking of five things all at once, which is something that most people find easy to do, or somewhat easy, depending on the talents and abilities of their own mind. So let's add in another thought: imagine now the sensation of lowering yourself into a warm, soothing bath. Perhaps it's a whirlpool, or 212

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a hot tub, or a bubble bath; whatever it is, it feels safe and warm and restful, doesn't it? You may even imagine the sensation of your body floating in the warm water, safe and supported. And while you do that, you can also bring to mind a scent, or a smell, that to you means “home.” Maybe it's a food, maybe it's a fabric, or maybe it's something else entirely; any smell that means “home” to you is perfectly okay. Good. And now you're thinking of seven things all at once … seven sensations, or memories, or concepts, which is what the average person can keep track of in their mind. But your mind is creative and powerful; you can think of all seven of those things and, at the same time, become aware of the sensation in your palms. They may feel warm, or perhaps tingly, or some other sensation as they relax there. And as you notice any sensations in your palms, I'd like you to also imagine a pet that you'd like to have but don't currently. What does it look like? Sound like? Feel like? Okay, your hypnotee has the whole list in mind now and some things are probably already dropping out. So we'll run through the list to make sure they're all picked up again. And how well are you doing now at keeping all of these things in your mind? The sound of my voice … the flavor of a ripe orange … the number 17 … the sounds in the background … the sensations in your legs … a warm, soothing bath … a smell that means “home” … the feelings in your palms … a pet that you'd like to have, but don't. As you think of all these things, what you're really doing of course is cycling through them, like a computer dividing its resources among the requesting tasks. Which is why some people can only handle five or seven things at once, while others can handle nine. I wonder how you're doing at keeping all nine things in mind at once? Now, my own evil addition: run through the list a couple more times, but in 213

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varying order! A warm, soothing bath … the number 17 … your palms … an orange … the sound of my voice … a smell that means “home” … your legs … the sounds in the background … a pet you'd like to have, but don't. A smell that means “home” … that feeling in your palms … the sounds in the background … a warm, soothing bath … a pet you'd like to own, but don't … your legs … my voice … the number 17 … the taste of an orange … Okay, now you can wrap things up: And I wonder, as you think of all of those things, how wonderful will it feel when I ask you think of only one thing instead of nine. And that one thing is, how wonderful it feels to think of only one thing. To let it all go and RELAX NOW … Most people are more than happy to follow that last suggestion.

An Erotic Variant You can use this formula to create an erotic trance induction. Make a list of nine erotic stimuli: a combination of touches, feelings of arousal, arousing images or sounds, whatever turns your partner on. Now, do the induction with that list, but with a couple of changes to the formula: As you're adding things, also include suggestions about how every item on the list increases their arousal, the more they think of these things the more arousing it becomes, etc. A good choice for the ninth thing is how their body feels when they're on the brink of an orgasm. Once you've got all nine going, suggest again that each time they think of one of the things their arousal build and grows. Repeat the list (scrambled or not, your choice) until they are both hypnotized and ready to orgasm. Then, instead of RELAX NOW, tell them to let go into trance and orgasm. 214

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My beloved Dani gets credit for this idea. I can state from experience that it is quite pleasurable.

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Word Play You may have noticed that some confusion inductions rely on the creative use of language to achieve the goal of occupying the conscious mind. Using deliberately ambiguous or twisted language ties up conscious attention, and while the conscious mind is trying to figure out whether you meant to or too or two whatever you say next slips right past to the subconscious. Some of the key word tricks associated with confusion inductions are: Words with multiple meanings, like part and sense. If you can use the word in multiple ways in rapid succession (think: “... and you may begin to sense how much sense this really doesn’t seem to make…”) it creates a speed bump for the conscious mind. Homophones -- words or phrases that sound the same but mean different things, such as “a part apart” in the cross-body induction. Negation. Processing negatives is an analytical function, which is why we normally avoid using words like don’t, not, and the like. If you bombard the conscious mind with negations, though -- “... and I don’t know if you will or not, but what I don’t want you to do right now is not relax completely…” -- you can tie it up long enough to get more suggestions through to the subconscious. Learning to use word play takes practice, but it adds another very useful tool to your collection. The key is to be able to deliver the phrasing smoothly, as if it’s a perfectly natural thing to say and not confusing at all to you, and to keep your pace moving so that the conscious mind can’t ever quite catch up.

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Discussion Points 1. If you were going to construct a list of Nine Things designed for an auditory person, what would they be? What about for a visual person? Do you necessarily need to cater to your partner's modality if you're doing an overload induction? 2. How could you take the Confusion Countdown and make it even more confusing?

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Exercise 1. Get together with one or more partners and practice these inductions on each other. 2. Make your own Nine Things list and use it to do the induction on a volunteer. (Extra credit if you do the erotic variant!)

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Setting and Using Triggers Triggers are an iconic hypnotic phenomenon made famous by their use in the media and in stage shows everywhere. So naturally people looking to have fun with hypnosis tend to use a lot of them. Learning to use triggers safely and effectively, therefore, should be near the top of every new hypnotist's To Do list.

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Presenter Notes People love triggers, so you can expect to have a lot of fun with this class. You could just about do it as an educational stage show: start out by describing what triggers are and listing some of the common ones that get done, then bring up a few volunteers and demonstrate different triggers on each one. For a grand finale, give each one a trigger whose response is a trigger to someone else (ie, “Joe, when I say X you do Y; Mary, whenever Joe does Y you automatically do Z...”) There are some pretty important safety aspects to triggers, so make sure you use well-formed triggers when doing your demo. It's also a good idea to explain, once you've set a demo trigger, why you phrased it the way you did. For example: “Notice that what I told <demo bottom> was, 'When I say the word fluffernutter', not 'whenever you hear the word fluffernutter'; I want to make sure that this trigger never gets set off by accident or by someone other than me...”

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About Triggers A trigger is a specific kind of posthypnotic suggestion. The general structure of a trigger is very simple: Whenever (X happens), you (do Y). X is the trigger event (often just called the trigger) and Y is the trigger response. Triggers are a very useful hypnotic phenomenon because they allow someone to have a hypnotic experience without the formality of the full negotiation-induction-suggestion-emerging-aftercare cycle. As such, they are generally used in the context of a lasting relationship between hypnotist and hypnotee. In that case the triggers and their responses are negotiated in advance, the triggers are installed (or “set”), and then used later, either at a predetermined time or at the hypnotist's will for spontaneous hypnotic fun. They can also give a top who is not a hypnotist some new toys to play with by having a hypnotist (with negotiated consent of everyone involved, of course) install the triggers in the bottom's subconscious in such a way that the top can use them. Some examples of triggers might be: Each and every time I place my hand over your mouth and say “Silence!” your mouth closes and your lips become stuck together, as if a powerful magnet was holding your lips together. You can move your jaw and breathe normally, but your lips absolutely remain together and this prevents you from speaking, eating, drinking, or doing anything else that requires your lips to open except for using safe words. You remain in this state, lips stuck together, until I give you permission to speak again. Whenever we are in a place where it is safe and appropriate to be topless and I hold up a set of Mardi Gras beads, you automatically expose your breasts to me and keep them exposed until I toss the beads to you. From now on whenever it is safe and appropriate to go into trance and I dangle this pocket watch in front of your face you become instantly, automatically, irresistibly fascinated by it. Your eyes lock 221

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onto the watch; they become heavy and sleepy; your mind becomes still; and as your eyes close you drift into a deep, obedient, blissful state of trance for me. Each of the above examples follows the basic trigger formula of “When <X>, do .” How you choose X and Y makes all the difference.

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Well-Formed Triggers A well-formed trigger is one that is designed to be safe and effective with as little potential for unexpected consequences as is reasonably possible. Since by their nature triggers are often used outside of a controlled environment it's not reasonable to expect perfection, but there are certain precautions that you can and should take.

The Trigger Event When you are setting a trigger, make the trigger event as specific as possible. An ideal trigger event is one that is extremely unlikely to occur by accident or under circumstances where the trigger response would be inappropriate, embarrassing, or dangerous in some way to the person being triggered. Some examples of poorly-chosen trigger events are: 1. “Whenever you hear ...” 2. “Any time you hear the word ...” 3. “Every day at <specific time>...” Now compare those to well-formed versions: 1. “Whenever just you and I are in private together and you hear ...” 2. “Any time that I say to you just the word and it is safe and appropriate for you to do so ...” 3. “Each day at <specific time>, as long as you are in a place where it's safe and appropriate ...” Note how the well-formed versions of these trigger events are much more specific. They all contain some variation on the concept of “only if it is safe and appropriate,” which ensures that the response can only be triggered 223

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under circumstances where the hypnotee can feel safe performing the trigger response. A hypnotee might hear a song anywhere, whether the original hypnotist is present or not, and find themselves feeling an urge to strip naked and dance in the middle of a restaurant. It's extremely unlikely that the hypnotee would actually respond to the trigger under those conditions, but many would feel the desire and be distressed at having to exercise willpower to override the urge. By specifying that the trigger requires a private place in the company of the hypnotist and hearing the song, it becomes far less likely that the trigger would be set off by accident. Using a word as a trigger is a similar problem, in that a word can come up in any context. Even a seemingly uncommon word like 'eclipse' comes up commonly every few months to a year, and pretty much any word can come up during a game of Scrabble. You can make up a word, but even that doesn't mean someone won't mishear something else and think the made-up word was said. I generally advise hypnotists to follow the two-factor rule: that is, a trigger event should consist of at least two things that must both be present. Examples would include a specific person saying a specific phrase, a particular touch along with a word or phrase, or a verbal command given in a specific location or type of location. More than two factors is even better, within reason – most people will have no difficulty understanding, “Whenever I and only I touch your forehead like this and say 'sleep'...” (3 factors) but something like, “When the moon is full, and I am wearing my black leather vest, and I tap you three times on the left shoulder then twice on the right from behind while saying schnitzerdoodle...” is too unwieldy for most people. Whenever practical, one of the factors in your trigger event should be the specific person or persons who can invoke the trigger. When you're setting a trigger for your own trancee, that is you. Sometimes when I'm doing a demo or working with someone at a con, I'll set a trigger with the intention that their top/partner/spouse/lover will be the one using it, in which case I'll name that person instead of myself. Once in a while I'll give someone a trigger and suggest that they can give permission to activate it to anyone they wish and revoke that permission at will. For example, in October 2014 I did a class at The Society in Hartford, CT about erotic hypnosis and NLP. As part of that class I took an audience 224

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volunteer and first set an NLP anchor of a stroke on the upper arm to cause a jolt of erotic pleasure, then I turned it into a hypnotic trigger to show how a trigger differs from an anchor. As part of the trigger, I suggested to my volunteer that only myself and anyone else that she verbally gave permission to could use that trigger; if anyone that she had not verbally given permission to tried to use the trigger, it was just a touch and had no particular meaning or effect. This frustrated the heck out of several people who witnessed the demo and tried to use the trigger on her later, and provided her with a source of amusement each time she got to shake her head and say, “Nope, nothing.”

“Only when it is safe and appropriate...” I often use this phrasing when setting a trigger. It can be one of the two or more factors in the trigger event, but usually I use it in addition to two or more factors as a safety mechanism. As I mentioned above, being triggered in an environment where the trigger response could be embarrassing, uncomfortable, or dangerous can make people feel very uncomfortable, as part of them wants to comply and has to be overridden by the part that knows doing so could get them in trouble or be dangerous. If the strippingin-the-restaurant example above was too contrived for you, imagine someone hearing a trance trigger while driving a car. They likely won't close their eyes and slump down over the steering wheel, but just receiving the trigger and rejecting can be dangerously distracting to someone traveling at 50mph in a metal box. By including the “safe and appropriate” constraint the trigger never fires off in the first place and the danger is avoided.

The Trigger Response The second half of a trigger is the trigger response, the action you want your trancee to take when the trigger event occurs. Like the trigger event, it is important that the trigger response be well formed. A well-formed trigger response is one that is specific, reasonable, and time-bound. Like any hypnotic suggestion, a trigger response needs to state specifically what you want the person to do. You are still speaking to a subconscious 225

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mind, so all of the points made in Chapter 7 about well-worded suggestions apply here: use simple language, state what you want instead of what you don't want, avoid slang and explicitly define any term that might be open to interpretation. Also like any other hypnotic suggestion, a trigger response has to be reasonable. If it's a physical response, it has to be something the hypnotee can actually do, or reasonably fake doing. For instance, a trigger to make a person do ten burpees should only be given to someone who is fit enough to accomplish that and who knows how to do burpees (Google “burpee exercise” if you don't). I've never met anyone who could genuinely sneeze on command, but most people can imagine a tickle in their nose and respond by jerking their head and saying, “a-CHOO!” so a hypnotic sneeze trigger is feasible as long as you word it in such a way that their subconscious can fake it if they don't feel a real need to sneeze. (You can even stipulate that the conscious mind believes that they really did sneeze.) A trigger response must be time-bound, meaning it has to tell the hypnotee explicitly when the response starts and when it ends. For instance, an instruction to become overpoweringly aroused needs to include a point when they cease to be aroused, or you may find yourself with a very frustrated hypnotee on your hands. A suggestion to feel a craving for something needs to end at some point or the craving may never be satisfied.

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Trigger Safety Using triggers safely is mostly a matter of making sure that the trigger is well formed so that it can't be activated inappropriately and the response is specific, reasonable, and time-bound. There are some tips and tricks you can use to help make your triggers safer.

Non-Triggering Conditions When I set triggers, I will often explicitly state conditions under which the trigger does not activate. For example, with the demo volunteer at the Society (see “The Trigger Event” above) I explicitly said, “If someone other than me or someone you've given verbal permission to use this trigger touches your arm that way, it has no effect on you at all; it's just a touch.” I do that for a couple of reasons: it stresses that only the specified people can use the trigger, and it gives me a chance to repeat the instruction by adding, “Only when I, or someone you've given verbal permission to, touches your arm like this...” etc.

Temporary Triggers If a trigger is not meant to be permanent, you should state explicitly for how long the trigger event causes the trigger response. When I install triggers during a demo, for example, I typically include something like, “For the rest of this class ...” or “Until the next time you leave this room...” as part of the trigger as a qualifier on the trigger event. For example: Starting now and until I declare that the class is over, each and every time I say, “PLEASuuuure” you feel an intense wave of erotic pleasure flow through your body. The wave of pleasure lasts only a few seconds, but is strong enough to interrupt your train of thought and surprises you with its intensity. The wave of pleasure you feel when I say “PLEASuuuure” is always a highly pleasurable, sexy, pleasing sensation. If someone other than me says “PLEASuuuure” during the class 227

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it's just a word; only when I say it do you experience that intense wave of erotic pleasure. And once I declare the class is over, even if I do say “PLEASuuuure” again for you it's just a word and has no particular effect on you anymore. As you can see, it is explicitly stated that the trigger is only until class is over, and I state clearly how they will know that class is over. There is also an example of non-triggering conditions, as I specifically state that if someone else speaks the trigger word it's just a word. A basic rule of hypnotic etiquette is that you don't install permanent triggers without the advance consent of the hypnotee. Asking someone who is already hypnotized if you can install a trigger is generally considered a breach of consent, which is a serious violation of your hypnotee's trust. Don't do it.

Open Triggers An open trigger is one that can be activated by anybody who knows how. An example of an open trigger would be: From now on, any time someone says to you, 'You look sleepy' you immediately become intensely, overpoweringly sleepy. The harder you try to stay awake and alert, the sleepier you become, so that within a minute of being told 'You look sleepy' you've fallen into a deep hypnotic sleep. The first thing you may notice is that this trigger does not follow the twofactor rule; the trigger event is just a phrase, and a fairly common one at that. Anyone who knows this trigger exists can walk up to the person, say 'You look sleepy', and in theory they will go into trance. In practice, the person will certainly resist responding to the trigger if given it under conditions where going into trance would be unsafe, or if the person saying it is not someone they trust or feel comfortable going into trance with, but nobody should be put in the position of having to do that. Deliberately setting an open trigger, even at the request of the hypnotee knowing that it's an open trigger, is reckless and irresponsible. Don't do it.

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A Reinduction Trigger A reinduction trigger is a trigger that causes the hypnotee to go back into trance. It's often one of the first triggers that a hypnotist installs in a regular playmate. Having a reinduction trigger is fast and convenient, because it reduces the induction part of a scene to almost zero time. Seeing someone drop abruptly into trance in response to a trigger is dramatic, convincing, and to a hypnokinky person extremely hot. Because reinduction triggers are so common, every hypnotist tends to have a couple of favorite ones. Here is one of mine: As we discussed, , I would like to have the ability to drop you into trance on command and you agreed that you want it as well. So from now on, whenever it is safe and appropriate for you to go into trance and I say to you, “ down” you automatically, instantly, instinctively stop whatever you are doing and drop into a deep, deep trance for me, at least as deep as you are now and then letting yourself drift deeper. Only when I say “ down” do you drop automatically, instantly, instinctively into a deep trance; if someone else says it, it's just words and has no effect at all on you. Whenever I say “ down” your mind responds automatically, instinctively, as a reflex, the way your knee jerks when your doctor tests it with that little hammer. It happens before you can think about it, before you consciously realize it's happening, and it happens in just a couple of seconds. It may please you to try and resist falling into trance for me when I say “ down”, but the harder you try to resist the more powerfully your subconscious takes over and drags you down into that deep, pleasant, obedient trance state. You only go into trance for me when I say “ down” and it is safe and appropriate to do so. You never go into trance when driving a car or doing something that requires your full concentration. If we are not in the same physical space when I say “ down” and you are holding a telephone, the arm 229

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that's holding the phone continues to hold it to your ear so that you can hear me easily even as the rest of your body relaxes. Each time I use the trigger “ down” you go deeper, faster, more easily than before and your response becomes more automatic and instinctive. When you've accepted these instructions with your whole mind and made them part of your natural habits, beliefs, and behaviors, you can give me a smile. That's right. Thank you for being so wonderfully obedient. The two factors here are (1) the phrase, “ down” and (2) that is must be me saying it. This gives me the flexibility to use the trigger in person or remotely, over the phone or on a voice chat connection like Google Hangouts. There's an instruction in there about holding the phone if I trigger someone during a phone call – a lesson learned from early experience. You'll also note the presence of “safe and appropriate” language and an explicit admonition against answering the trigger while driving or doing something that requires full concentration. I also place a lot of emphasis on how the response is automatic and instinctive. I like that immediate, without-even-thinking response to a trigger so I ask for it. But because I've played with a few willful, bratty personalities I also build in a consequence if they try and defy the trigger. That resistance game, of trying to fight the response and losing, can be very hot for both top and bottom so I make provision for it. Finally, I ask the hypnotee to give me a signal when they've accepted the new trigger and made it a natural part of their habits, beliefs, and behaviors. Doing this seems to cement the trigger, making it less necessary to keep practicing with it (though I won't install a trigger as permanent if I don't intend for it to be used).

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An All-Purpose Trigger This is another trigger that almost every hypnotist I know has their own version of. It comes in extremely handy for impromptu play with a regular partner, and is particularly fun for doing discreet public play. I call it the Simon Sez trigger because it's based on the child's game in which the caller, “Simon,” gives instructions and the players must do what Simon says. From now on, each and every time I say something to you that begins with “Simon says,” whatever comes after those words is an irresistible hypnotic command that your subconscious is automatically compelled to obey. Your subconscious obeys immediately, automatically, whatever I tell you that Simon says, usually before your conscious mind has even realized that I gave you a command. The longer you delay in obeying what Simon says, the more powerfully you feel compelled to obey. You can always use a safe word if you need to and your safe words always work even with a Simon Says command, but otherwise any delay in obeying always causes the compulsion, the need to obey to become increasingly powerful until you finish obeying the command or until I cancel the command by saying, “Command canceled”. If what follows Simon Says is a question, then your subconscious must answer that question honestly, completely, and directly. You may remember answering or you may not; unless I specify, that will always be your choice. If what follows Simon Says is a statement of information, then your mind absolutely believes that statement to be true and ignores any evidence that contradicts it until I tell you the statement is no longer effective. When your subconscious has fully accepted the suggestion and agrees that whenever I say something to you starting with Simon Says it must automatically, unfailingly obey whatever Simon Says, and when your subconscious has permanently added that 231

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response to your habits and behaviors, you can give me a nice big smile. An all-purpose trigger gives you an easy way to improvise trigger responses on the fly. The safety aspects are already built in, so you can feel more secure in being spontaneous with its use. If you are using this with a lifestyle submissive who belongs to you, you may want to include a built-in reward system: Each time you obey what Simon says you can feel a little rush of pleasure and pride with yourself for being so obedient to Simon. The more you obey the more automatic and instinctive it becomes and the more you enjoy being compelled this way. If you are using this with a sub who likes to be bratty (I love the bratty ones!) you can put even more emphasis on what happens if they try to resist the command or subvert it. I have some language in the example, but for specific partners I've been known to tie increasing arousal, or a “punishing” physical sensation like tickling, to resistance. It adds to the fun.

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Discussion Points 1. Why would you use a trigger instead of a simple posthypnotic suggestion? 2. A potential play partner comes to you with a request: they want you to give them a trigger that makes them grant three “wishes” (requests that they must fulfill if they are possible) to anyone who possesses a prop lantern they have with them. Would you do this? If so, how would you word the trigger? What limits, if any, would you place on the trigger? 3. What are your favorite triggers? What makes them your favorites?

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Exercise Rewrite each of these poorly-formed triggers to make them well-formed: 1. “Whenever I clap my hands, you become my harem slave and must please me by doing a sexy strip tease.” 2. “Whenever you wear this slave collar, you are hypnotically compelled to obey any command given to you by whomever is holding the leash.” 3. “Whenever we are in private, I show you my (breasts/cock) and say 'Show me how much you want me,' you become intensely, overpoweringly horny and can't help but masturbate for me, which makes you get more and more aroused as you obey me.” 4. “Each and every time you see this pendant you immediately stop anything you are doing, stare into the pendant, and enter a deep, obedient hypnotic state.”

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Fractionation Fractionation is the process of taking someone in and out of trance repeatedly in a relatively short period of time. It's fun for the hypnotist and for the hypnotee, but fractionation also serves a practical purpose by helping the hypnotee to go deeper and to respond more automatically to a trance trigger.

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Presenter Notes Fractionation is a very simple topic, really, so when you teach this unit you should take advantage of that and include plenty of hands-on practice time. When I teach this by itself I explain what fractionation is and discuss why, how, and when you might use it. That only takes 10, maybe 15 minutes depending on questions. Then I pull up a demo volunteer and go through a fractionation exercise with them – up and down 5, maybe 6 times. I ask them after the first time how they feel, what sensations they're having, etc. and then again after the last time. The rest of the class then becomes mentored practice time so that everyone gets to practice the technique and get some coaching and feedback in the process. You'll want to have people to help you circulate and coach during the practice time.

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What is Fractionation? Anyone who's been to an erotic hypnosis convention like NEEHU, WEEHU or MEEHU probably knows a little about fractionation. Walk the halls of any *EHU on Sunday and you'll spot lots of people wandering around in a semi-daze, the result of being on their third day of regular, deep trancing. But why do people get that way? It's been shown that people tend to go into trance much more quickly and deeply if they've already been in hypnosis recently. The more recent that previous trance, the more pronounced the effect is: someone whose most recent trance was yesterday will be a little easier to hypnotize again today; someone who was hypnotized an hour ago much easier, and someone hypnotized a minute or two ago easier still. The response is similar to the hypnotic technique of recalling a previous trance – get someone to think about what it felt like to be hypnotized, and they naturally start drifting back to that state. They have to; it's part of the organic process of remembering. In hypnosis, erotic and otherwise, we often use fractionation deliberately as a means of getting someone into a deeper trance state, or of teaching them to go into trance more easily. For the kinky hypnotist, using fractionation is an opportunity to watch someone come out of trance and drop back into it again repeatedly, which can be very hot. The hypnotee gets to experience dropping, coming back, and dropping again repeatedly, with the response getting more automatic each time, which can be very hot. The hypnotee also gets to experience a sort of “trance buzz” where they're not quite sure whether they're in trance or out of it. For people who've had trouble getting the feeling that they really are deeply hypnotized, a fractionation exercise is usually enough to get them that.

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Fractionation as an Induction Chapter 5, Starter Inductions, has two examples of using fractionation within a hypnotic induction. The Fractionation induction, in which the hypnotee opens and then closes their eyes repeatedly during a slow count down from 10 to 1, uses fractionation heavily to achieve a deep trance state. There is also a fractionation step in the Dave Elman induction. Another fractionation-based induction is one made popular by Richard Nongard. Nongard's induction is a very conversational one following a straightforward process something like this: 1. Get the hypnotee's consent to be hypnotized. 2. Talk about how hypnosis is a common, everyday thing that we all do naturally. 3. Ask the hypnotee to remember a time when they experienced an everyday trance such as: 1. Getting in the car and driving somewhere familiar, and their mind wandering as they drive 2. Sitting down to watch a movie and getting fully absorbed in the movie world, to the extent that when the credits roll they suddenly realize the room got dark around them 4. Have the hypnotee close their eyes and imagine, as you count from 5 to 1, that on each count they can relax more deeply. 5. Have the hypnotee open their eyes for a few seconds. 6. Repeat 3 and 4, emphasizing deepening relaxation, several times. In subsequent repetitions, start adding in additional ideas as you count: 1. That each time they open and then close their eyes they find it easier and easier to relax back into that state quickly and then go deeper

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2. That each time they try to open their eyes they find it more and more difficult because their eyes want more and more to just stay closed 7. When the hypnotee shows great difficulty opening the eyes, tell them to just let them stay closed and relax even more deeply now. When you use a fractionation-based induction you very seldom need a deepener afterwards. With an experienced hypnotee you may even find that they go too deep for what you had in mind, and you need to bring them up a little bit so that they can physically respond and talk to you.

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Fractionation as a Deepener You can also use a fractionation exercise after the induction, to bring your hypnotee into a deeper state of trance. Anything that involves them coming out of trance for a few seconds and then plunging back in will work for this purpose. Here is an example: We're going to do an exercise now to help you learn how to go even deeper into trance for me. In a few moments I'm going to count from one to three. Each time I count from one to three you come all the way back and open your eyes, fully awake, fully aware. Each time I touch you on the shoulder and say 'down' you automatically, instinctively drop right back into trance again for me, going deeper and deeper each time. Each time I touch you on the shoulder and say 'down' you drop back into trance more deeply, more quickly, more easily than the time before and your response becomes more rapid, more automatic each time. You may even be surprised at how quickly and how deeply you drop into trance, automatically, and at how wonderful it feels to keep going down, deeper and faster, each time. One, two, three – all the way back, that's right. Feels good, doesn't it? (Touch the shoulder.) Down. That's right, dropping all the way back down, so easily, so naturally. Notice how it feels to go deeper this time, so quickly and easily. Let yourself relax into that feeling, really enjoy it. That's right. One, two, three – all the way back. There you are. (Touch the shoulder.) Down. You can repeat the cycle of count up, wait a few seconds, then trigger them back down as many times as you and they wish to do it. For best results, trigger them back down as they begin to exhale. You can even suggest 240

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when their eyes open that they take a nice deep breath so that when you trigger them on the exhale they almost feel themselves deflating like a balloon. After a few times up and down, you will notice that even when your partner's eyes are open they don't seem entirely all the way back. Repeated fractionation can do that; the subconscious is anticipating being dropped again soon, even expecting it, and stays a little bit more in the foreground than normal. That state can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on the individual and the circumstances, which is why you see so many people wandering around at *EHUs on Sunday looking spaced out. Bear in mind, too, that while in that state even though they are not technically in trance your partner will still be much more open to suggestion than they normally might be. This is a good opportunity to slip in some waking suggestions about how good they feel or how easy they're going to find it to go back into trance whenever they wish. It will also be very easy for someone else to drop them back into trance, so keep an eye on them and make sure they're all the way back before you turn them loose. Be mindful of whether your partner may need to drive or do other things that require their intense concentration, and discuss this beforehand so that they can be prepared in case they are out of it. After the scene, stay with them and chat or do non-hypnotic things until they are fully lucid. Aftercare is always important.

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Auto Fractionation Credit for this technique goes to Marc Cabot, known online as DreamsofControl. In auto fractionation, your hypnotee is programmed to fractionate themselves, coming up and going right back down again, while you watch (or sip your drink, read the paper, surf the Web …). It's the sort of creatively lazy thing that hypnosis is great for. Start by getting your partner into trance using whatever method you fancy. I recommend that they be seated in something that offers plenty of support, because they're going to need it. If all you’ve got is a restaurant chair, then make sure to suggest several times that they can always remain safely and comfortably seated. In a few moments, (hypnotee's name), I'm going to give you the command, 'Loop start.' When I give that command, your mind immediately goes into a fractionation loop. While you are in a fractionation loop, you automatically count yourself into and out of trance. If you are out of trance when I say 'Loop start' then your mind waits 15 seconds and then you count out loud from five down to one. With each number that you count you feel yourself slipping irresistibly into trance for me, so that by the count of one you are deeply hypnotized. Once you've been deeply hypnotized for 15 seconds, you automatically count out loud from one to five, bringing yourself out of trance so that at the count of five you are fully alert and no longer hypnotized. While you are in a fractionation loop, you continue to repeat the cycle of counting yourself down into trance and then back up out of trance, always waiting 15 seconds before counting. When it is time to count the urge to count is absolutely uncontrollable; your mouth automatically says the numbers and they automatically have their effect, either drawing you unstoppably into trance or waking you back up. During the 15 seconds that you are out of trance you can act normally, think and speak and move however you like, but when that 15 seconds are up you stop whatever you are doing and count yourself back down. You can always remain 242

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safely in whatever position your body is in when you start to count, even as you count down and go nice and deep into hypnosis for me. Each and every time you count yourself down into trance, you go twice as deep as the time before. No matter how many times you loop, you keep going deeper with each count down and you always come all the way back when you count up. The loop continues, counting down into trance, then back up out of trance, until I give you the command, 'Loop end.' As soon as I give you the 'Loop end' command, you remain in whatever state you are in when I say 'Loop end' and no longer automatically count yourself up or down. With a little rewording at the beginning, you can turn 'Loop start' into a trigger that you can use whenever you like. You can also change the end condition to have it repeat for a set number of cycles and then stop on its own. With a bratty sub, it can be a lot of fun to see what they do during their 15 seconds of lucidity to resist going back into trance.

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Discussion Points 1. What do you suppose would be good ways of making sure someone is all the way back to their fully alert self after a fractionation exercise? 2. What would be the benefits of Auto Fractionation as described above?

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Exercises 1. With a partner, practice the Nongard conversational fractionating induction. Get your volunteer's feedback on how that induction feels compared to a standard relaxation induction. 2. With a partner, induce trance using any induction that doesn't include fractionation, then do the fractionation exercise for deepening. The first time you bring them up, ask about how they feel and how the trance felt. Then, after 5 or 6 fractionations, ask them again.

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Instant Inductions An instant induction is a very fast way of getting someone into trance. They are showy and dramatic and quick, which makes them perfect for demonstrations. Most of them are also very easy to learn and to do. Any hypnotist, erotic or otherwise, should have a few of these in their repertoire.

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Presenter Notes Instant inductions aren't really hard, but they do depend heavily on expectation and belief. If the hypnotist is not fully confident in their ability to do the induction and expecting it to work, the hypnotee will subconsciously pick up on that and their own belief and expectation may be undermined. When you demonstrate these, make sure you are modeling good behavior. When you demo a standing induction, have a chair ready and make sure your volunteer doesn't fall. Every instant induction in this book involves some amount of touching, so let them see you getting consent for it.

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Instant Induction Basics An instant induction is easily one of the most fun ways to get someone into trance. They're very impressive to see; to someone new to hypnosis or just curious about it, witnessing an instant induction can go a long way toward establishing in their minds the belief that hypnosis is real and that you, the hypnotist, are skilled and capable. It is a bit of a misnomer to call these “instant” inductions, though. The actual induction is more than just the moment when the hypnotist says, “Sleep!” and the person drops; there's a lot of time involved in establishing expectation, executing the induction, and then making the transition into the rest of the trance session.

Transderivational Search Most instant inductions are designed to take advantage of a psychological state known as transderivational search. I like to call this the “what the fuck!?” state; it occurs when we are presented with a situation to which we have no ready learned response. The conscious mind prods the subconscious to come up with an appropriate response, but it doesn't have one. During that 1/4 to 1/2 of a second while the subconscious is trying to find an appropriate response, any short, clear suggestion that you offer will be happily accepted by the subconscious to fill the gap. Most of the time that suggestion is “Sleep!” which the subconscious conveniently (thanks to lots of cultural conditioning) interprets as going into trance. The differences between instant inductions generally lie in how they induce that WTF state. A pattern interrupt gets the trancee started on a learned behavior that they know well, but interrupts the normal sequence in an unexpected way. Other inductions use loss of equilibrium – literally pulling or pushing the hypnotee physically off balance – as a way of inducing it. A few use a form of confusion, providing instructions but then creating a situation for which there was no instruction. Because instant inductions rely on that WTF state, it makes sense to conclude that if someone knows what is about to happen there isn't any 248

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surprise and the induction won't work. Interestingly, that's not so. For one thing, WTF is hard-wired into our brains at the reptilian level – it's one of the variants on the 'fight, flight, or freeze' response that almost all mammals share to one degree or another. So it works time and time again, even doing the same induction with the same person. Also, remember that hypnosis is heavily based on belief and expectation. Once you've done a particular induction with someone and it's worked, the next time you do it their subconscious knows that it works and expects it to work, which of course helps to ensure that it will. This WTF mechanism is so reliable that you could in theory use it successfully with someone who doesn't want to be hypnotized. Trying to do that, however, is egregiously unethical. Getting an unwilling person to stay in trance or accept your suggestions would be extraordinarily difficult and, in my opinion, a form of mental assault.

Setting the Stage The success of most instant inductions is heavily influenced by what you do before the induction. Remember that hypnosis depends on trust, expectation, and belief. The more thoroughly you establish those things before you execute the induction, the more successful your induction will be. If your hypnotee is experienced at going into trance, you don't have to explain what hypnosis is or allay any fears because they've already been there. With someone new to trance, however, take the time to do that. Tell them how hypnosis is a perfectly natural state; mention the usual examples (driving without remembering the trip, getting absorbed in a book or movie). This will (A) establish your credibility as a knowledgeable hypnotist worthy of trust, (B) genuinely address any uncertainty they may have about being hypnotized, and (C) get their mind recalling times when they've been in that state, which makes it easier to get them back there.

The Hypnotic Contract With instant inductions in particular, it's important to establish the hypnotic contract – that is, to get the person's verbal agreement that they want to be hypnotized by you right now. Usually I'll do this simply by asking: “Are 249

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you ready to go into hypnosis for me now?” Get a positive response; a shrug of the shoulders, or a “I'll try” is not good enough. By obtaining a 'yes' response, your trance partner is agreeing consciously and subconsciously to go into trance for you. You have clear and obvious consent, plus you have a degree of commitment already from their mind that it's going to happen. Once you've established the hypnotic contract, it's also a good time to use some language to help encourage cooperation, such as “If you follow my instructions, nothing can stop you from entering a nice, pleasant trance state in just a few moments.”

Follow Through Once you’ve performed the induction and your partner has dropped into trance, it is vitally important that you keep talking. The trance state that you get from an instant induction is usually a fairly light one, easily disturbed by any circumstance that might require conscious attention -- like the sense of falling, for example, or being suddenly caught and held and moved. So even as you are catching, supporting, or guiding your partner into a chair, keep talking! But what do you say? Almost anything will help to one degree or another, but it helps to say things that contribute toward your primary goals: Reassure your partner that they’re safe and you’re in control. Telling them what you are doing with their body so there are no surprises. Deepen the trance. When I do an instant induction, I’ll typically follow it up with words like: That’s right … I’ve got you, you’re perfectly safe … and as I guide you back to a waiting chair, you can find it so easy to settle back into that chair and just let yourself drift deeper and deeper down … very good ...

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An alternative, if you want them to remain standing, might be: That’s right … I’ve got you, safe and secure … and as you let your mind focus on my voice and drift deeper and deeper down, you can easily find that your legs can remain strong and solid, holding you up even as your mind continues to relax, to drift, to float … good … Once your partner is safe and secure, you can transition into a conventional deepener. Something I will often do after an instant induction is steer my volunteer into a chair and then start rocking them gently from side to side while I deepen. Rhythmic, soothing rocking helps to send people into a deeper trance state.

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Safety Concerns When you do instant inductions, there are some special safety considerations that you need to take into account. A few simple measures will help to protect your partner and you from some of the most obvious and avoidable mishaps. A lot of instant inductions are done with a person standing up, but someone who is standing when they go into trance will not necessarily stay standing on their own. This is especially true if you are going to be pulling or pushing them off balance to create that WTF moment. So before you do a standing instant induction, make sure that: You or an assistant are in position to catch your trance partner if they start to fall. Remember that not everybody falls forward; be prepared for your trancee to drop straight down. You or your assistant are physically strong enough to hold that partner up. If they are significantly larger than you, make sure you are braced so that they won't just bowl you over as they pitch forward. You have a chair or other seating option stationed behind your hypnotee so that you can guide them into it once they've dropped into trance. You have permission for any touching necessary to catch, hold, and steer them into a seat. Let your partner see you making these preparations. It shows you are concerned for their comfort and safety, and it helps to establish the expectation that they will be going into trance so deeply that they may need to be caught and settled into a chair. Seated instant inductions are less tricky because someone in a chair is more inclined to stay there, but people can and do relax enough to flop out of chairs. Watch for this and be ready to steady them and make immediate suggestions that no matter how deeply they relax they can always remain 252

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safely and comfortably seated.

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Hand Drop The hand drop is simple, fast, and easy to learn. Start with your hypnotee sitting down in a straight-backed chair. You will be relying on loss of equilibrium to get WTF, so if the chair leans back or is too supportive the induction will fail. (But you do need a back – don't do this with someone on a stool or bench.) To do the hand drop: 1. Sit facing your hypnotee. It's best if you are on their right side and a little in front. You want to be far enough that they have to extend their arm all the way to touch you. 2. Obtain consent to touch on the hand, arms, and shoulders. 3. Establish the hypnotic contract. 4. Make eye contact with the hypnotee and hold it throughout the induction. If they don't automatically meet your eyes, instruct them to. 5. Hold out your left hand, palm up, and have the hypnotee place their right hand on top of it with their palm down. 6. Give them these instructions: Now, press down on my hand with yours. I will be pressing up against your force and power. The more I press upward, the more you press down. Do NOT let me lift your hand. Good. Focus on that; meeting my pressure, down against up, so that your hand stays where it is. And as you do, let your mind recall a time when you felt droopy … drowsy … sleepy … 7. Watch for eye flutter or glazing, which is a sign they are starting to trance out. As soon as you see that, drop your left hand. Your hypnotee will start to pitch forward. Immediately say, “Sleep!” and 254

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steady them with your right hand on the left shoulder, guiding them back into an upright position on the chair. 8. Deepen. Timing is everything. When you do this induction, the dropping of the hand and “Sleep!” will happen very quickly. They need to, as the hand dropping and the resulting pitch forward is what creates the WTF and the command “Sleep!” needs to come during that instant, and then immediately move into deepening.

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The Butterfly A version of this induction was made popular by John Cerbone, a professional stage hypnotist. I happen to like John and I know that he sells videos on how to do his induction, so I won't reproduce it here exactly but this will give you the idea. Your hypnotee should be seated for this induction, again in a straightbacked chair. You can either stand or sit; if you sit, position yourself facing them and to their right as you would for the Hand Drop. If you stand, stand to their right and about even with their knee. To do the Butterfly induction: 1. Obtain consent to touch on the hands, arms, and shoulders. 2. Establish the hypnotic contract. 3. Establish eye contact with your partner. If they don't automatically meet your gaze and hold it, tell them to. 4. Take their right arm by the hand and lift it to about chest level, and give these instructions: Just relax that arm as I wiggle it around. Let me do all the work here. Just concentrate on relaxing that arm, making it loose and limp, wobbly, floppy … that's right. 5. Place your right hand in front of your partner's eyes about 14-16 inches away. Your hand should be flat, palm down, fingers out. Begin wiggling your fingers and, at the same time, moving your right hand randomly left, right, up, and back (do not go down lower than you started yet) so that you're forming an inverted T shape. As you do, give these directions: Now, watch my fingers. Follow my fingers with your eyes, keeping your head still, and keeping that arm nice and loose, loosey goosey … Remembering a time when you felt droopy … drowsy … sleepy ... 256

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6. Watch for eye glazing or flutter. As soon as you get that, move your right hand straight downward. As their eyes follow it down, give the loose arm a tug and, as they pitch forward, command “Sleep!”. 7. Steady your partner in the chair and deepen. The “butterfly” is the the right hand, of course. This induction uses the same technique as the Hand Drop but adds an extra confusional element from having to simultaneously follow the fingers and focus on relaxing the arm. A common mistake people make when doing this induction is waiting too long in Step 4. This process should take no more than about 10 seconds from starting to move the right hand around to “Sleep!” Taking longer will not help, and may in fact work against you. Cerbone calls this method “Speed Trance” for a reason.

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Standing Rock Many hypnofetishists have seen videos of Italian hypnotist Tony Kamo using this type of induction on European television. This is another that uses loss of equilibrium to induce WTF. Start with you and your hypnotee standing and facing each other. You want to be far enough apart that you can easily hold hands at chest level with elbows still partly bent. Their feet should be together and legs straight. Then: 1. Obtain consent for holding hands and for embracing your partner to hold them up. 2. Establish the hypnotic contract. 3. Establish eye contact. If your partner does not automatically hold your gaze, instruct them to. 4. Hold your partner's hands in yours in such a way that you can easily lift and pull but you can also easily let go (meaning no interlocking of fingers). If you imagine holding someone's hand as if to raise it to your mouth and kiss it, that's the kind of grip you want. 5. Raise the hands to chest level and give your partner these directions: I want you to keep looking into my eyes now and begin to relax. Breathe deeply and slowly, and let whatever happens happen. 6. Watch their breathing in your peripheral vision. As they inhale, lift on their hands and pull gently forward a couple of inches; as they exhale, lower their hands and push them slightly back. You want to create a rocking sensation that is timed to their breathing. As you do this, continue to encourage them to focus on your eyes, relax, let it happen, etc. Then, ask them to remember a time when they felt droopy … drowsy … sleepy … 7. Watch for eye flutter or glazing. As soon as you see that, lift the arms, then pull down and forward sharply while saying, “Sleep!” Let 258

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go of their hands and grab them around the upper body to catch them. 8. Guide your partner into a chair if you choose, or continue to hold them up, and deepen. This induction can create a very intimate trance experience where you are holding your partner in your arms and giving suggestions directly into their ear in a low tone. If your partner is significantly taller or heavier than you, make sure that you are properly braced (one foot behind you and planted firmly) when you do the pull. Properly braced, you can catch and support someone twice your size or more.

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The Handshake One of the most famous – or infamous – instant inductions is the handshake induction. What many people don't realize is that there is more than one handshake induction. Milton Erickson, who is usually credited with inventing this induction, had a favorite version but he was far from the only one. Richard Bandler, one of the co-creators of NLP, also popularized a handshake induction whose mechanics are different but equally effective. Unlike the instant inductions you've learned so far, the handshake inductions use the pattern interrupt technique to establish that WTF state. When we learn something new, it starts as a conscious process – we have to focus on it and pay attention to each detail. Remember when you first learned to drive a car, and you discovered that holding the wheel straight doesn't mean the car goes straight? After a few sessions on the road, though, you no longer had to consciously pay attention to where the car was in the lane and adjust the wheel to keep it centered; you still did it, but without conscious focus. Your subconscious learned the behavior and took over the execution of it, so your conscious mind could then pay attention to other things, like your speed, navigation, traffic signals, etc. Each of us has, in our subconscious mind, a vast library of these learned behaviors. They're like subroutines in a computer program: the conscious mind recognizes a situation where it has a learned behavior and passes that off to the subconscious to execute. But if the normal sequence of that learned behavior is broken by something unexpected, the subroutine fails and the mind goes into WTF. Both Erickson and Bandler (and probably 7 or 8 others) have developed effective ways to induce WTF by breaking the learned pattern of a handshake. Handshake inductions are designed to be used by surprise. Erickson used them primarily during talks or lectures, when someone in the audience would express skepticism as to whether hypnosis was real. Erickson would invite the individual to the stage, offer his hand, and do a surprise handshake induction on the skeptic to prove his point.

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The Milton Erickson variant of the handshake induction I'm using here is the one described in Hypnotic Realities (Milton Erickson and Ernest Rossi, 1976). It's probably not the only technique Erickson ever used, but it's one documented one. 1. Obtain consent for touch and trance. 2. Extend your hand to your partner and shake hands normally at first, maintaining eye contact. 3. When it is time to release, loosen your grip but hold the trancee's hand. Let your grip change from a firm grip to a gentle touch and refocus your eyes on a spot well behind your trancee. 4. Touch the hypnotee's extended hand gently with your thumb, then your middle finger, then your little finger. Each touch should be just enough to attract attention, barely there. Continue to alternate from thumb to middle finger to little finger. 5. With your other hand, touch gently just under the hypnotee's extended hand, then on top. 6. (Optional; Erickson often did this non verbally) While doing 4 and 5, make verbal comments to invoke trance such as: That's right … such a fascinating sensation, isn't it … so easy to let that hand float there, sensing this touch, and that … feeling distant, unfocused … yes … At this point you can do a number of things. Erickson often simply walked away, leaving the person standing there for a few moments until they aroused themselves from trance. You could also suggest to your hypnotee that “that hand” rises upward to touch “the face” only as quickly as they can let go into a nice, deep trance state. As the hand rises confirm it and keep suggesting rising as they drop into trance until the hand touches the face. You could also just suggest eye closure and deepen without having their hand rise up. It all depends on what you plan to do after the induction.

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While Erickson's handshake (at least the one described above) was usually completely non verbal, NLP co-creator Richard Bandler made popular a variant using a combination of pattern interrupt and spoken suggestion to achieve trance. 1. Obtain consent for touch and trance. 2. Extend your hand toward the hypnotee to start a handshake. 3. As the hypnotee's hand comes out to meet yours, take it by the wrist and lift it up so the palm faces the hypnotee's face. Quickly come around to the hypnotee's right side, facing the same direction they are, point to their hand with your finger, and say: Watch that hand! Notice every detail about that hand … every line, every crease … and as that hand moves closer and closer to your face, you can notice the changing focus of your eyes. The closer that hand comes to your face, the fuzzier it gets, the harder it becomes to focus on it. That's right. Those eyes getting so tired, so hard to focus, so much easier to simply let those eyes close. 4. As you say “let those eyes close” drop your pointing hand downward to encourage eye closure. 5. Deepen. Sometimes Bandler will use ambiguous wording to heighten the initial confusion. If the hypnotee was wearing a wrist watch on that hand, for instance, Bandler would start with something like, “Nice watch … that hand … in every detail ...” etc. You can readily construct your own version of the handshake induction as well. All that you need to do is start a handshake and then, once you've established the expectation, do something out of left field. Common variations include: Holding the other person's hand too long, then pulling forward and saying, “Sleep!” (pattern interrupt plus loss of equilibrium) Taking the hand and moving it in a circle instead of the expected up 262

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and down, while giving suggestions for relaxing the arm and eye closure. As the hypnotee's hand comes out, push down on their arm, step in to catch, and say “Sleep!” If you do the handshake as a pure pattern interrupt, without pulling your hypnotee off balance, people generally remain standing easily and just space out where they are. This is a very safe way to do things, of course. Any time you add a pull you need to make sure you're ready to catch them.

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Discussion Points 1. Milton Erickson often used his handshake induction on people who had not given consent to be hypnotized or touched. How would you use the handshake induction ethically within the erotic hypnosis community, where explicit consent is required and expected? 2. Would you use an instant induction on someone who isn't sure they they can be hypnotized? Why or why not?

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Exercises 1. With a willing volunteer, practice each of the inductions in this chapter. 2. Invent your own variation on the handshake induction and see how well it works. 3. Think of another common pattern and devise a pattern-interrupt induction around it.

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Hypnotic Favorites Club singers, disc jockeys and the like often work from a list of songs that are generally popular and well-know for whatever type of event they are performing at – think “Pomp and Circumstance” for graduations, “Sunrise, Sunset” for weddings, and what have you. Likewise, many erotic hypnotists have favorite suggestions that they use with multiple play partners or submissives, especially in the use with multiple play partners or submissives, especially in the course of an ongoing hypnotic relationship. Often these are useful techniques that apply to a variety of situations, so it can be helpful to learn some of them and adapt them to your own use.

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Presenter Notes This is a really good topic to do as a panel. Get several experienced hypnotists to talk about the things they do with multiple partners. Most likely you'll get several variations on things like the safe place, and people can then blend those to develop their own favorite formula. The All-Purpose Trigger, which is covered in Chapter 13, fits nicely into this topic as well if you have time for it. A lot of hypnotists do something like that and most have their own spin on it.

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Overview Good hypnotists borrow from each other all the time. When I'm doing an event and I hear a hypnotist say to their partner “Tell me about your car...” or “Only when it's safe and appropriate...” I smile, because it feels so good to know that people are modeling what I teach them. People have been using hypnosis for 2600 years, so anything you can think of to do with it has, in all probability, already been done by at least one, and probably many, other people. I joke about having invented the Five-Point Palm Exploding Orgasm Technique, but I can't possibly be the only hypnotist who saw Kill Bill and had that thought. In this lesson are a few hypnotic tricks that are so common that almost every hypnotist I know does some variation on them. They are good things to have in your repertoire as you grow in experience. Perhaps you've already developed these independently, but it never hurts to see how someone else does it. I'm always refining my techniques by watching what others do.

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Safe Place Most hypnotists use some variation on the safe place, especially those who do challenging scenes or push soft boundaries. The safe place is a refuge built in the hypnotee's mind where they feel absolutely safe and protected. Having one built gives you a place to go if your hypnotee has an abreaction or starts feeling anxious or upset during a scene or trance session. This example establishes the safe place and also installs a trigger to take the person there on command. I'd like you to imagine right now a place where you feel absolutely safe, protected, and calm. It can be a real place where you've been before, or it can be a place that you invent for yourself; it's your choice. All that matters is that it be a place that makes you feel safe, protected, and calm. And when you've thought of a place, you can give me a nice, big smile. (Wait for the smile. If it doesn't come within a short time, encourage them to imagine that safe place. Repeat until you get the smile.) Very good. Now, go ahead and imagine yourself in that safe place. Really focus on it; make it as real as you possibly can inside your mind. Imagine the colors, the textures, the sounds of this place. Notice how just being here calms you, relaxes you, deepens you. With every breath you take in this place, you feel your mind and body wallowing in calm, peaceful, serene energy. Every breath you let out carries away stress, tension, and anxiety with it, leaving you feeling even more relaxed, more protected, more peaceful with every breath. That's right … you're doing perfectly. And because this is your safe place, you can alter it in any way you wish, at any time you wish. You might choose to move an object, or change the color of something, or change the sounds you can hear in this place, or you may decide that for right now, 269

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it's just perfect. And you can always change your mind whenever you'd like. This is your place … your sanctuary … your place where you are always safe, protected, and calm. Remember this place. Make it a fixed point in the landscape of your mind, because I want you to be able to come back here any time you want to re-experience these feelings of safety and calm. You'd like that too, would you not? (Look for a nod, a smile, or a 'yes'.) Good. From now on, (partner's name), any time I tell you to go to your safe place, this is the place where I want you to go. You return here, to this sanctuary, immediately and automatically, any time I tell you to go to your safe place. Each and every time you go to your safe place you feel yourself wrapped up in that calm, peaceful, safe, protected feeling and any anxiety or stress you may have been feeling before you come here simply falls away and is left behind. Stress, anxiety, worry, fear … those things simply can't exist here. And how good does it feel to know that? When this safe place is a permanent part of your mind, when you've accepted and agreed on every level that you will return to this place automatically each and every time I tell you to go to your safe place, then you can give me another nice, big smile. I think it's important to let your partner design their own safe place. Let it be exactly what their imagination chooses, and let them rearrange it or redefine it any time they like. That way it's truly their place. You don't even really need to know the details about it; what matters is that it exists and that they feel safe and protected there.

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The Control Room This is a very useful metaphor that I use often both in therapy and in erotic hypnosis. The control room provides a way for someone to alter the inner working of their own mind, temporarily or permanently, by manipulating control panels in this imaginary room. To establish the existence of the control room, start with your partner in trance. And now, (hypnotee's name), imagine a long, sloping corridor leading into the deepest parts of your mind. Sloping gently down and to the right, we can follow this corridor all the way to the core of your being. Now just imagine that right here, near the end of the hall, is a door marked “Control Room”. If you listen closely you may even hear the hum of machinery beyond the door, an industrial sort of sound, busy, smooth. The door is locked, of course, because the things behind it are so important, but it always opens for you. Imagine now opening the door and entering the control room of your body and mind. The room is filled with panels of controls, each marked with its function. There's one for body temperature, one for respiration, for heartbeat, for metabolism, for stress levels … anything your mind controls, which is everything in your body and mind, has a control panel in this room. Everyone's control room is different, of course. I can't tell you what the panels look like, or what style of controls are on them, but you can notice this yourself as you survey the room. However the room seems to you, in your imagination, is right. Now that you've created the room and established where it is, you can use this for a variety of purposes. Some things you can do with the control room include: Locate the panel that controls sexual arousal or desire, and manipulate those controls to increase or decrease those emotions. 271

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You may even establish a remote control that adjusts this panel from outside the control room so that you can use a trigger to increase or decrease arousal or desire. Locate the panel that controls memory. If you are working on doing memory play (hypnotic amnesia), you may suggest that by changing some of the settings on this panel your hypnotee can enable the ability to let their conscious mind forget things when you ask it to and the subconscious agrees. (Metaphorically speaking, what this does is let the hypnotee give themselves permission to “forget” when you do memory play. People who have had trouble achieving amnesia have overcome it this way.) Your imagination is the only limit here. A word of caution, however: it can be very tempting to use the control room for other purposes – releasing stress, changing metabolism to encourage weight loss, that sort of thing. Unless you are a trained professional therapist, DON'T. Even if you are, you should know that play and therapy do not mix.

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Freeze A lot of submissives love the idea of having the power of movement taken away from them. We'll visit this idea in more detail in a later chapter on doll play, but just the act of freezing your partner in place is something that almost every hypnotist does. One way to set up a freeze trigger would be: Each and every time I clap my hands once and say the word 'Freeze' you automatically, immediately freeze. By 'freeze' I mean that all of the voluntary muscles in your body lock in position, completely immobile. You continue to breathe, blink, and maintain your balance but otherwise your body remains absolutely still, stuck, and locked in position. Your arms and legs are still; your head remains locked in position; your mouth and tongue are absolutely still, leaving you completely unable to speak except to use safe words. You always feel perfectly warm and comfortable while you are frozen; it is simply your muscles that become locked in position. The more you try to perform any voluntary muscle movement, the more those muscles you are trying to move simply remain still and stiff, exactly as they were when I clapped my hands once and said 'Freeze'. While you are in the frozen state, you remain completely aware of everything happening around you to the extent that your senses can detect. You hear every sound; you feel any touch on your body, any sensations caused by the environment, just as you normally would. You remember clearly and completely everything that happens while you are frozen. You simply can't move in any voluntary way except to say a safe word. You remain in this frozen state until I clap my hands once and say the word 'Thaw'. As soon as I clap my hands and say 'Thaw' your muscles return to normal and you may move normally again. In this variant of the standard freeze trigger, the hypnotee is fully aware of what is going on around them but can't react to it. Some hypnotists (and some hypnotees) prefer that their partner be able to speak while frozen; if that's your preference, simply say so when defining what the frozen state 273

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means for this purpose. Others go even further and freeze the mind, too – the hypnotee, while frozen, is completely unaware of the passage of time or anything that happens while they are frozen. This essentially combines the freeze and the 'blank state' amnesia trigger, which is also described in a later chapter.

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The Jedi Mind Trick Sooner or later just about every hypnotist does this, or something very like it. At its core, the Jedi Mind Trick is a general-purpose trigger, but the way it’s done has tremendous geek appeal. I’m sure you know what the Jedi mind trick is, don’t you? A Jedi can use the force to influence the minds of those around them. It’s very simple: the Jedi just waves his hand slowly across the person’s field of vision while making a statement. The person they do that to stops thinking, their face goes blank, and they repeat whatever statement the Jedi made. As soon as they do that, the statement becomes absolutely true to them and they act accordingly, as if the statement was their own idea. From now on, , I have that exact same Jedi mind power over you. Whenever I wave my hand slowly across your field of vision while making a statement in my hypnotic voice, and it is safe and appropriate for you to do so, you react exactly the way people do in the Star Wars movies do: you stop whatever you were thinking or doing, your face goes blank, you repeat the statement I made, and then whatever that statement was is absolutely true for you and you continue acting accordingly, as if it was your own idea. Your response to the Jedi mind trick is automatic, instinctive, a reflex. As long as it is safe and appropriate for you to react to the Mind Trick, your conscious mind never interferes or prevents you from going blank, repeating the statement, and then absolutely believing and acting on it as if it were your own idea. Each time I use the Jedi mind trick on you in a safe and appropriate way, your response is immediate, automatic, as natural and unavoidable as breathing. The Jedi mind trick bypasses your conscious mind and memory temporarily, speaking directly to your subconscious; your conscious mind is completely unaware that I used the mind trick until after it has taken effect, and even then the statement I made with the mind trick continues 275

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to be true for you unless I use the mind trick to remove it. And now, when your subconscious has completely accepted this new behavior; when your automatic response to the Jedi mind trick from me is to repeat and accept whatever statement I make while waving my hand across your field of vision, and that has become a permanent part of your mind’s internal program of habits and behaviors, I want you to say, “Obey, I will.” Now, while your partner is out of trance, you can make the classic Star Wars waving gesture and make any factual statement you like, such as, “What you’re eating right now is the most delicious thing you’ve tasted all day” or “Those pants are unbearably itchy and uncomfortable; you should take them off.” Bear in mind that, like any hypnotic suggestion, your partner always has the ability to resist if they want to or if they don’t feel safe complying. Even in the movies the Jedi mind trick didn’t always work.

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Discussion Points 1. At what point in an ongoing play relationship would you construct a safe place? What if you need one and haven't created it yet? 2. You have a new play partner who has difficulty achieving orgasm even during intercourse. Would you use the control room to adjust their “orgasm threshold” so that they find it easier to orgasm? 3. What other “favorites” do you have? What makes them favorites for you?

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Exercises 1. With a willing partner, establish a safe place and a freeze trigger. Exercise them and see what you can do with them. 2. With a willing partner, use the control room metaphor to temporarily adjust their sensitivity, or reaction, to an innocuous touch. (Get consent for the touch!) 3. Play with the Jedi mind trick with a willing partner. See how creative you can get with your statements.

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Long Distance Hypnosis Throughout this book and most others that teach hypnosis, there is an assumption that the hypnotist and their partner are interacting in person. For many people, though, this is not necessarily the case. For people in long distance relationships, or who don't have a local community group or friends who are also hypnokinky to practice and play with, online play is a real and commonly used option. In this lesson we examine the special challenges of doing erotic hypnosis with someone over the Internet or telephone and suggest some techniques for enjoyable remote trance play.

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Presenter Notes A lot of people get their start in erotic hypnosis through online meetups, chat rooms, and the like so this is a good topic to do as a round table discussion or panel rather than a lecture. You can present ideas from here and solicit stories, ideas, and tips from those who've been doing it more recently. There are some interesting possibilities for demonstration here, too. You could arrange for a demo partner in advance and do a short remote session with them over video or audio to demonstrate some of the techniques of induction and suggestion. It might be even more interesting if you have a volunteer hypnotist on a remote link working with a volunteer who is physically present for the class; people can learn by seeing the demo bottom's reactions to what the remote hypnotist is doing and how the hypnotist adjusts to the situation.

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Reach Out and Hypnotize Someone The ideal circumstance for an erotic hypnosis scene is to have everyone involved in the same location, but for a lot of people that ideal circumstance is a rare opportunity. Fortunately, hypnosis is at heart a communication process; whether you and your partner are in different ZIP codes, different time zones, or different continents, as long as you can communicate you can play with hypnosis. Years ago, before the rise of local erotic hypnosis community groups and national events like NEEHU, most hypno-kinky people were more or less isolated. If you wanted to experience erotic trance, and weren't one of the lucky ones who had play partners in their social circle, the only viable answer was the Internet. People would meet up in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels, chat about hypnosis, and hold play sessions online. Text chat was the most common method at first, but as IP voice technology evolved voice chat and eventually video chat became more and more popular. There have always been challenges to doing hypnosis remotely, but with a little preparation and creativity it can be a very satisfying experience for everyone involved.

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Text Trancing In the earliest days of Internet trancing, the only reliable medium was text chat. There are still a number of people who question whether you can even really do hypnosis over text chat, but enough people have done it and enjoyed it that there isn't much point in debating the question. To be sure, there are challenges involved in text trancing. For one thing, the hypnotee needs to keep their eyes open and focused on the screen; that alters the sensation of trance significantly for most people because they can't just close their eyes and let the world float away. Another challenge is the need to type responses during the trance. Again, for people who prefer to just drift off and be passive this changes the experience for them, requiring a level of activity they may not be used to. In general, though, these challenges are a matter of expectations rather than any real obstacles to trancing. It helps to remember that hypnosis is a state of focused concentration; as much as we tend to dwell on the ideas of relaxation, sleep, and the like they really aren't hypnosis. Someone focused on a computer screen to the extent that they ignore the cat in the room and follow the suggestions they read on the screen is in hypnosis. As long as they understand that, and accept that it will feel differently than when they have their eyes closed and are being passive, they'll do just fine.

Text Inductions Inductions over text tend to be very simple in their structure. Most of them are of the pacing and leading variety, using short statements to guide the hypnotee into trance. Here is an example of a text trancing induction (hypnotist's side only): Watch the screen now … You can see the letters appear as I type … Notice the glow of the screen …

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Hear the faint sounds of the computer's fan and hard drive … And even as your eyes remain focused, notice how easily the muscles at the back of your head can relax … Always able to remain focused on the screen, reading my words … Blinking when you need to blink … Breathing when you need to breathe … Deeply and slowly … And just allow the rest of your body to relax comfortably … And you can rest your hands over the keyboard, ready to type when I need you to respond... And imagine what it would be like to soften your gaze … To look through the screen a little bit … so that you're still reading my words with your peripheral vision … And notice the differences in how that feels … How much easier it is to let your mind drift and wander … And while your eyelids may become heavy, droopy, drowsy … Each time they close they manage to open again and focus on the screen … Going deeper into that relaxed mindset … Each time your eyes close and open … With each line you read …

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With each response you type … You can let your mind drift more and more into that state … Where you're aware, but in a distant, dreamy sort of way … Those hands typing out letters on their own … Whatever feels natural and right … Each time I ask you to respond to me … Each time you have something to tell me … Deeper … Deeper … That's right. At this point I would ask a few simple yes or no questions, to make sure my partner is still responsive and to gauge their degree of focus. From there, it's a matter of making suggestions and getting responses until it's time to end the session. Notice how the text induction is different from a more conventional spoken hypnotic induction. The lines are kept short so that they're easy to read quickly. Each one ends with an ellipsis (…), which is a way of indicating that another line will follow. Long paragraphs become increasingly difficult to read as someone goes into trance, so make it easy for them and they will make it easy for you. One of the major issues with text trancing from the hypnotist's side is that you get very little feedback to tell you how well the session is going. You can't look for facial expression, feel for muscle tone, watch breathing or any of the usual things that tell you whether the person is in trance or how deeply they've gone. There are things you can look for, though, to get an idea of how well the session is going. A hypnotized person usually types more slowly than a fully conscious one. People in hypnosis don't tend to bother much with capitalization or 284

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punctuation and generally don't stop to correct typos. By comparing the rate and spelling/grammar/punctuation/typos of the person before the trance started to the behavior during the session, you can look for differences and gauge how focused they are. As with anything else, people vary. For example, back in 2007 I bottomed for Lady Ru'etha in a text trancing demonstration for the Realm of Bliss podcast. (The transcript used to be up on the podcast site, but I think it's gone now.) In the transcript I respond to her throughout the session with fully-formed sentences, punctuated, and with very few typos. Why? Because I've been touch typing since the eighth grade, so my subconscious is totally comfortable at the keyboard and can easily type full sentences, rapidly and accurately, without any help from my conscious mind. If you play with someone like that -- and given that keyboarding skills are commonly taught in public schools even earlier than I learned them, I am probably no longer in the minority here -- you can expect a similar result. Know your partner, just like with any other form of hypnosis, and you'll be able to sense how they are doing. Some chat programs can be set to play sounds for incoming messages even when the chat window is active. These sounds can be used to your advantage, in that your partner can open their eyes when they hear the incoming message sound and close them when they are done reading. This leads to some excellent fractionation over the course of a leisurely induction.

Suggestions Generally speaking, you can give suggestions by text pretty much the same way you would verbally. Break up your suggestion into short lines so that it's easy to follow, and make sure that you provide a positive cue when the suggestion starts and ends. For example: In a moment, I will count from one to three … On the count of three, the seat of your chair begins to vibrate … The vibration is intensely pleasurable and arousing to you … However, you are unable to rise up from the seat in any way …

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The harder you try to get up the more firmly you are stuck in the chair... The more you squirm in the chair, the more arousing the vibrations become … No matter how aroused you become, you continue to watch the screen … No matter how aroused you become, you can always type to me … The chair continues to vibrate, getting more and more arousing and pleasurable … Until you need to have an orgasm … But you only orgasm when I give you permission … And I will only give you permission when I am ready to ... Once your orgasm is over the chair stops vibrating. When your subconscious has accepted this suggestion and is ready to follow it, type Y. (hypnotee types Y) 1 … 2 … 3!

Contingencies Any time you are remote from your hypnotee, there are some contingency suggestions you should put in place as early in the session as you can. For text trancing, you need to be conscious of several common things that can go wrong: Your hypnotee closes their eyes Your hypnotee stops typing in response 286

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Your connection gets dropped Something happens in the hypnotee's environment that requires their attention The sample induction actually addresses eye closure as part of the process with a suggestion that each time they close they simply open again and refocus on the screen. It also mentions the hands comfortably at the ready to type responses. Keep mentioning that during your suggestion flow so that the suggestion is well reinforced and your hypnotee should continue responding. You may also want to mention that it's okay to look away from the screen to the keyboard when they need to if your hypnotee is not a touch typist. Whenever you do remote hypnosis it's a good idea to suggest that if for any reason you lose communication, your hypnotee automatically comes out of trance with all suggestions that they were acting on at the time ended. Connectivity hiccups happen, so it's smart to have a plan. Make that suggestion early and often, and repeat it at the start of every session once you've established trance. For the last issue, you technically don't have to say anything because people in hypnosis are always aware of their surroundings. If the smoke alarm goes off or the doorbell rings your hypnotee will hear it, come out of trance, and respond accordingly (well, to the smoke detector definitely; they might choose to ignore the doorbell). However, it is always a good idea to make the suggestion anyway that if something in the environment requires their attention they can come up out of trance long enough to deal with the issue and then, if the session is still open, drop right back into trance and resume with you.

Ending the Session You terminate a text trance the same way you would in person, typically by counting up. Always give suggestions for feeling good after the trance is over regardless of what medium you used – it costs you nothing and helps end the session on a high note. Unlike most other trance media, text trance creates a record of everything 287

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that happened during the session. You and your hypnotee can choose to save this or not as you wish. If you are playing with amnesia and there are things your hypnotee should not remember right away, you might want to also suggest while they are in trance that if they save the chat log they do not read it until it's okay for them to remember whatever that was. As a safety measure, chatrooms have started automatically logging all activity and retaining it for a short time. Be aware of this but don't rely on it – if you want a lasting record of the session, save your own.

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Hypnosis by Audio Another option for remote hypnotic play is through audio, either on the telephone or using voice-over-IP technology. Whether you do voice trancing by telephone or voice chat, a few things will make the experience much more enjoyable for all parties involved. 1. Have a good, comfortable headset. It is possible to go into hypnosis while holding a phone up to one's ear, but it's neither ideal nor particularly comfortable for a session of any length. A wired headset is less convenient than Bluetooth but never runs out of battery in the middle of a session. 2. Make sure anyone using a cell phone has plenty of battery life or plugs it in before you start. 3. Have the hypnotee secure their environment against unnecessary interruptions: close the door, silence other notifications on the computer or cell phone, close or minimize distracting windows, and put the dog or cat in the other room. Have a drink handy, both of you. If you plan to do a lot of hypnosis over Internet audio, I recommend that you invest in a studio quality USB microphone, like the Blue Yeti. The richer your voice comes through, the more engaging it will be for your hypnotees. Also, if your hypnotee is wearing stereo headphones, they get the sensation of your voice speaking from within their own head, which can be very powerful all by itself.

Voice Inductions Your induction options for a voice chat are much more open than they are for text. You can use pretty much any induction you know that doesn't require you to touch or see your partner. So choose a spoken induction that fits your partner's mindset and you'll do fine. You can do an eye fixation induction if you like; simply have them choose a fixation object or point in 289

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their environment and describe it to you enough that you can reference it during the induction. Because you can't watch your partner's eyes close or head droop, you'll need to use sound to detect how well they're following you. If your partner is using a headset you will probably be able to hear them breathe, so listen for changes in respiration. If you can't hear that, then ask them short-answer questions and listen to their voice to gauge their response time. A hypnotized voice is markedly different from the waking voice.

Suggestions Voice trancing puts very few constraints on your suggestion choice. The biggest one is the need to keep the headset on. If your hypnotee is using a wired headset and you want them taking off their shirt, that may require them to remove the headset temporarily. It's a good idea to suggest that they can do this, and that as soon as they've obeyed the suggestion they automatically put the headset back on. You can use suggestion to compensate for some of the faculties that don't work over voice alone. For instance, you can cause your hypnotee to feel as if you are watching them even though you're not, or give the illusion of them being touched by you even though you can't actually do it.

Contingencies As with text trancing, you should establish early on what your hypnotee should do if certain things happen, such as the connection dropping or something in the environment requiring urgent attention. For the case of the call dropping, you have a couple of options. For a telephone connection you can suggest that if you lose voice contact the hypnotee waits quietly, drifting in trance, and automatically answers the phone when it rings again. Voice chat usually requires more work to answer an incoming connection, so you may instead suggest that they come out of trance and wait for you to contact them again before dropping back in.

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Ending the Session You end a voice trance the same way you would any other, with suggestions to emerge from trance with good feelings. Engage your hypnotee in conversation after they come out to help make sure they're fully alert. There are various ways in which a voice call can be recorded if you want a record of the session. As long as everyone on the call consents to the recording you are unlikely to run into any legal problems with doing it. Recording a VoIP chat can be more challenging depending on what platform you used, but it should be possible if you want to.

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Hypnosis by Video Chat That picture phone from the 1969 World's Fair never took off, but thanks to computers and the Internet video chat is now a common, everyday sort of thing for a growing number of people. For online hypnotists, of course, being able to see your partner as well as hear them opens up more channels for feedback. Being able to see the face of the person you're playing with also adds a comfort level for some, and gives you an opportunity to build rapport. Doing hypnosis over video chat requires that you have appropriate technology, of course. You need something that connects to the Internet and has a camera, display, and headset jack, microphone and speakers, or USB headset. I prefer a computer, but a tablet can work quite well too. Most smartphones are a little small for my liking – if I'm going to play with someone I want to be able to see them well -- but that’s a matter of personal preference. Skype used to be the all-around best medium for voice and video chat online, but since they were purchased by Microsoft the Skype experience has become a lot less enjoyable, especially if you don't use Windows. I'm very fond of Google's video chat, currently part of Hangouts, as it works well with everything from PCs to tablets to smartphones – even Apple's tablets and phones, which are kind of notorious for not wanting to work and play well with other breeds. You may find that different programs work better depending on where each of you is physically located. In some cases, Google Talk may be jittery and awkward while Skype is smoother, or Google and Skype may both be lacking but another videoconferencing client works nicely. So be prepared to experiment with multiple programs until you find the one that works best for your combination of locations. These programs use significant bandwidth, so be careful if you are using your smartphone and your cellular network. If you have broadband internet and a wireless network set up in your preferred trancing location, you will get better sound and video quality if you set your phone to connect to your network rather than using your cellular data.

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Since most computers have a good set of speakers on them and most webcams have a reasonable quality mic it’s tempting to use those instead of a headset for video chat unless there are housemates to consider. Bear in mind, though, that unless your mic is directional anything that comes out of your speakers will feed back into the microphone, and that can be very distracting for the person on the other end. As with pure audio, if you plan to do a lot of this invest in a really good microphone – your partners will appreciate the voice quality. I also recommend that you both use highdefinition (1080p) video cameras, to get the best image quality you can. Higher image quality also requires more bandwidth, though, so you may have to compromise a little.

Video Inductions With video, you can do any induction you like that doesn't require you to touch your hypnotee. You can have them fixate on an object, either something local to them or something that you hold up in front of your camera. With some applications (Google being one) you can start a hypnotic spiral application in a window and share it so your hypnotee can stare at it. You can even do the “look into my eyes” induction if you want to, but bear in mind that in order to look your hypnotee in the eye you actually have to be looking directly into your own camera, not the screen. That might make it harder to watch your hypnotee in your peripheral vision, depending on where your camera sits relative to your screen. During the induction, you have the luxury of being able to monitor your hypnotee's response visually. You can watch their eyelids get heavy and incorporate that into the induction; you can time your words to their breathing; you can see if their head slumps down uncomfortably and instruct them to hold it up. One thing you can't do, of course, is steady them in their chair. Make sure you suggest early that they can always remain safely and comfortably seated, and remind them of that if they seem to be slumping.

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Being able to see each other opens the door to pretty much any nontouching suggestions you want to give to your hypnotee. You can add the touch element, too, by either having your hypnotee touch themselves for you or by giving suggestions to feel a touch even though you aren't physically present to do it. Because you can see your hypnotee, you can also adjust to what they are doing. If your hypnotee starts to squirm in the chair you can call attention to that and use it just as you would in person.

Contingencies The most common problem in video conferencing, of course, is that you lose connection. Sometimes the video will stall for a few moments while audio continues, and sometimes everything just freezes up. Total freezes are very common on Skype, at least with the Linux client, and usually require you to drop and reconnect. Freezes and drops usually mean either network congestion or limited bandwidth. They are especially common when one of you is using wireless Ethernet because the bandwidth is constrained by the wireless access point (wired is always faster). With wifi, there can also be interference from a number of sources, primarily other devices in the house and neighbors with wifi competing for the same frequencies you are using. Another common symptom of either interference or network congestion is blocky, jerky video. Generally when you lose the video chat connection some analysis is required to reconnect, so your contingency plan should be that if the connection drops or freezes the trance ends and any currently active suggestions are suspended. That way your hypnotee can troubleshoot on their end if necessary and you can do so on yours. You should talk with your hypnotee about who will call back if your session drops, as two people trying to call each-other leads to failure on both sides. It is also helpful to have alternate method of contacting your partner, so if video chat is beyond fixing there’s always the phone or instant messaging to make sure everything is OK and wrap up the session.

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Ending the Session You can end a video session the same way you would an in-person session. Bring your partner out of trance feeling good, and chat with them until you are sure they are fully alert and in a good place. Whether you can record a video session or not depends on what provider you use and what operating system your device is using. I don't know of any free video chat platform that has recording built in, but you can often run an application on your system that will record the session (and possibly anything else on your PC desktop) for you. There are ways to record a Google Hangout and post it to YouTube, but I tend to assume that your hypnotee does not want their erotic hypnosis session published to the world; if that's your thing, you can easily look up how to do it.

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Discussion Points 1. Safety is a major issue when trancing online with people you don't know. What safeguards would you recommend to someone trying hypnosis online for the first time? 2. What are your favorite programs to use for voice or video chat? 3. What are your favorite hypnosis chat rooms?

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Exercises 1. Pick someone you know well and have a hypnosis session with them using only text chat. See how well you can gauge the depth of trance. Try some suggestions and determine how well they work. As a hypnotee, note how the experience compares to trancing in person. 2. Try the same thing with audio only and video chat. Compare the experiences with each other and with in-person play.

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More Inductions Versatility is important for any hypnotist, professional or erotic. The more different types of inductions you know, the more prepared you are to work or play successfully with a variety of people. The inductions in this lesson don't fit neatly into a single category but they are each well worth knowing and come in handy in special situations.

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Presenter Notes This is another inductions class, so much of what I've already noted in chapters 5, 12, and 15 about inductions classes applies here. Demonstrations are golden. The Object Drop induction is actually designed to be used with a group, so definitely do that one as a group trance induction. Heart Coherence and Recursion can be done with a group or with an individual, your choice. There are a lot of steps in the non verbal induction, so you may want to handle it a little differently. I would demonstrate it once in front of the class with a volunteer and explain how it works afterwards. Then, have the class pair off and lead them through the steps again, you demonstrating with your volunteer while they follow.

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A Non Verbal Induction This non verbal induction is modeled on the technique taught by Marx Howell, retired Inspector of the Texas State Police and a nationally-known expert in forensic hypnosis. Marx used it to do hypnosis with people who are hearing-impaired, asking questions through a sign-language interpreter once his client was in trance. It is also handy in noisy environments, or just for novelty. Even with inexperienced trance partners this induction tends to produce a surprisingly deep trance state. Make sure that your hypnotee does not have any movement restrictions involving their arms, shoulders, or neck. If they do, choose another induction. Start with your hypnotee sitting in an upright chair without arms. Make sure there is enough room around the chair that you can move freely around it on all sides, because you will be. Marx usually begins by doing a short pre-talk on the topic of non verbal communication, something like this: Hypnotist: How much do you know about non verbal communication? Hypnotee: (usually) Not much. Hypnotist: When you're in an audience, and the person at the front does this (raises arms), what does it mean? Hypnotee: Stand up. Hypnotist: Right. And this? (lowers arms) Hypnotee: Sit down. Hypnotist: Right. And this means …? (Beckons with a hand or finger) Hypnotee: Come here. Hypnotist: Yes. And this? (Puts a finger over their own lips) 300

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Hypnotee: Be quiet. Hypnotist: Exactly. So really, you know a lot more about non verbal communication than you thought you did, don't you? You don't have to start with that, but it does serve a purpose. Each example is a command or instruction, so doing it gets the hypnotee into a mindset of receiving non verbal instructions. It also reinforces that they do know how to communicate non verbally. Now, to perform the induction: 1. Obtain consent for hypnosis and agreement to follow your non verbal instructions. I recommend something like, “Do you agree to follow my non verbal instructions and enter into a deep, relaxing state of trance now?” 2. Obtain consent for touch. For this induction you will need to touch both arms (including hand and wrist), both shoulders, the neck, the head, and the forehead. You will also at one point be passing a hand in front of their face at close range, so make sure they are okay with that. 3. (Optional) Establish a signal – Marx uses a light poke on the side of the neck – that means the hypnotee is to open their eyes while remaining in trance. If your hypnotee can hear, this is not necessary. 4. Take your partner's right hand by the wrist and lift it in front of their face, palm down, at eye level so that the fingers point toward the eyes. You want the fingers far enough from the face that they can focus on them. Move the hand back and forth in an oval, and get your partner to follow the fingertips with their eyes. (With your free hand, point from their eyes to the fingertips if they need a hint.) 5. When they're following the hand, gradually let the moving hand drop a little lower and then pass your free hand down in front of their eyes to signal eye closure. Repeat the hand passes until they close their eyes and keep them closed. Place your hypnotee’s right hand in their lap.

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6. Take their left hand by the wrist. Raise it up, over their head, and back so that the palm comes to rest on the back of their neck. Press the hand firmly against the neck. When you let go, it should stay there; if not, put it back and press firmly again until it does. 7. Lift the right arm straight up toward the ceiling. If you feel resistance as you get close to vertical, stop lifting and just work with whatever upward angle you have. Tug on the arm a little (indicating, “Keep this here”). If the arm doesn't stay put when you let go, reposition it and tug again until they comply. 8. Wait a few seconds. Now take the right arm again by the wrist and elbow and lower it a few degrees at a time, treating it as a stiff lever. Bring it down to their right side, then wobble the arm to get it to relax. Now lift the relaxed arm by the wrist and drop it into their lap. 9. Take the left arm from behind the neck and straighten it out so that it points upward and forward. Lower it by degrees, just as you did the right arm. Once lowered, wobble it to get relaxation, lift at the wrist, and drop it into their lap. 10. Move to your partner's right side. Support the back of the head at the base of the skull with your left hand. Wait for your partner to begin to exhale and, with your right thumb and forefinger, press downward firmly (but not hard!) on the forehead above the eyes. If you are supporting the head properly it should NOT move. Do this a total of 3 times. 11. Stand behind your partner and place your hands on their shoulders. Wait for them to begin to exhale and then press firmly downward on the shoulders. Stop pressing when they start to inhale. Do this a total of 3 times. 12. Hold your partner's head in both hands, palms over the ears and fingers spread. GENTLY rotate the head clockwise 3 times, then counterclockwise 3 times. 13. Lift the right arm by the wrist – it should feel limp, heavy, and relaxed – and drop it beside them. Now lift it back up and place it in the lap. Repeat with the left arm. 302

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14. Wait for them to exhale. As they do, press firmly down on the right forearm near the wrist. Repeat with the left arm. 15. If you established a signal to open the eyes while remaining in trance, give that signal. Otherwise, move on to suggestions. Deepening further is seldom necessary. Should you want to deepen, think back to which actions produced the best relaxation response during the induction, and repeat them. This is just one example of a non verbal induction. Feel free to experiment with the sequence and timing, to substitute different actions, etc. The subconscious message in most of the manipulations is “down” so anything that gives that feeling of going downward will likely work.

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Heart Coherence This is a very interesting induction technique to use with someone who is a little bit antsy or anxious because the process involved is calming. It is actually based on an anti-anxiety exercise taught by Melissa Tiers, a wellknown hypnotherapist in New York City. Your hypnotee can be in any comfortable position for this. Establish the hypnotic contract, then begin. Let's begin by taking a nice, long, slow, deep breath in … that's right … and just hold it for a second. When you hold your breath, it's easy to become more aware of your heart beating … like that. Now, slowly let that breath out. And now, as you continue to breathe, just bring your awareness to your heart. Imagine breathing deeply, in and out, from your heart. You may want to hold a hand over your heart, or not, but keep your awareness right there as you breathe through it. As you breathe, your heart is also pumping healthy blood through your body. That healthy blood contains oxygen from your breathing, so with each breath and beat you are distributing lifegiving oxygen through your whole system. Something most people don't know is that the heart is the strongest emitter of electromagnetic energy in the body. So, as you continue to focus your awareness on breathing through your heart, you may become aware of how your heart radiates energy through your whole system. By focusing on the rhythm of your heart, you are beginning to entrain your brain into a coherent, more relaxed state of mind. The heart sends information to the brain in many ways. Some of it is sent electromagnetically, which is what an EKG measures. Some of it is sent through the pulse, which creates a pattern of blood pressure waves. Some of it is sent biochemically, through the release of atrial peptide, a hormone that inhibits stress 304

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hormones. That's right … your heart, through the release of atrial peptide, is helping to reduce the levels of stress throughout your system. And the more you allow your brain and your heart to come into convergence, to synchronize, the more you can really notice how that whole-body rhythm soothes away stress, worry, fear, doubt … soothes them away, more and more, with each healthy, cleansing breath. And as your brain and heart come together, you can notice a shift in your feelings, your emotions … a calmness … a sort of inner harmony … that can guide you down into that peaceful, meditative state. A state where you feel completely in touch with yourself, with your body, with your inner mind. Good. This induction is designed to turn the hypnotee's focus inward, which will tend to start them on the way into trance. You can continue with a deepener -- the “Dissociation with Iterative Deepening” technique from Mind Play goes particularly well with this induction -- or just move on to your suggestion plan.

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Object Drop This induction is intended to be used with a group of people. Participants should be seated in straight-backed chairs. Every participant should have in hand an object. Exactly what the object is doesn't matter, and everyone's can be different; what matters is that each person's object be easy to hold between a thumb and forefinger and not fragile. A pen, pencil, or coin works nicely. Poker chips are great if you have a supply of them handy. To start, have each participant hold their object out in front of the body between their thumb and forefinger, gripping it in a secure way. I usually express it something like this: “Those of you who would like to experience hypnosis right now, please take that object between your thumb and forefinger and hold it out in front of you, like this.” You should also have an object; hold it out to illustrate and then continue: Close your eyes now, and focus all of your attention on that object that you're holding. Now breathe in, deeply and slowly … hold it … and breathe out, slowly, easily. Good. Take another nice, deep, slow breath in … hold it … and now let it out, nice and slowly. That's right. Each time you inhale, you bring more oxygen into your lungs, and each time you breathe out just imagine your body relaxing, becoming more calm and peaceful, as you continue to focus on the feel of that object between your fingers. Breathe in again now … that's it .. and out, noticing how that object feels in your hand, even as the muscles holding it begin to relax. And I wonder when those fingers will become relaxed enough that the object just slips loose and falls? Breathing in … feeling that relaxation flowing again as you breathe out … and each time you hear someone's object hit the floor, you can relax even more deeply and let it go … At this point your audience should be nicely focused and relaxing. If nobody has dropped their object yet, talk them through another breath cycle 306

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or two and then drop your object. Nine times out of ten that starts a chain reaction and you'll hear objects dropping all over the room. This induction works best on a hard floor, so that when an object drops it makes a clearly audible noise. If the room is carpeted you probably won't get the same chain reaction result simply because your participants don't hear others' objects dropping.

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Recursion Imagine you had two mirrors and a vase of flowers. If you place the mirrors so that they face each other and set the vase of flowers in between them, then step to the side and look into one of the mirrors, you'll see what looks like an infinite progression of mirrors showing reflections of vases of flowers. The mirror you look at shows a reflection of the vase and the mirror opposite it, which is showing a reflection of the vase and the first mirror, etc. That loop of embedded image inside image inside image is an example of recursion. In hypnosis, we use the concept of recursion as a confusion technique. You start your induction, and during that you tell a story about another hypnotist doing an induction, in which they talk about a previous time when they (or someone else) did an induction. It's probably better to show you an example first and explain it afterwards. Close your eyes now, and just relax. There's nothing in particular you need to be doing right now except listening to my voice and allowing whatever feelings, whatever sensations, whatever thoughts might come to mind to simply float in, and float out. Many other people who like to go into trance find it easiest to focus on their breathing, while others imagine themselves in their mind, doing whatever it takes to seem even more relaxed. You may remember, or perhaps you never knew of her, a wellknown hypnotist called Soforia the Enchantress. Soforia had an amazing voice, one that was so fascinating that you just couldn't not follow the words and feel that sensation, deep down, of drifting, floating … you know the one … that's right. And Soforia would say to you something like, “Just imagine a candle flame, flickering in the dim light … dancing every so slightly, captivating, fascinating. And even though your eyes are closed and you're relaxing so deeply, so easily, you can still experience the candle flame in your mind's eye, and imagine it so vividly that everything else just seems to fade into the background.” And whatever Soforia said, you found it so easy to 308

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just let it happen for you. “One time,” Soforia once told me, “I had someone in that chair who is very much like you. They could imagine the candle flame, and relax so deeply, and find it so easy to just let go for me. And I said to them, 'You're doing so well for me, I'm so pleased, and I want to show you something very special. You'd like that, wouldn't you?' And of course the answer is yes. “So I said to them, 'Now it's time to go even deeper for me … so imagine that the candle flame is moving, slowly, gently, leading you down a corridor … down to a grand flight of stairs. And with each step, as you follow the candle down the stairs, you can feel yourself going down, deeper, easier, with each step.' “First step down, floating down, just ahead... “Second step down, noticing how good it feels to follow, and drift... “Third step, down deeper, becoming so quiet, so calm, so open … “Fourth step, barely aware of your own footsteps anymore, as you float down, following... “Fifth step, becoming aware of the quiet, the calm, the serenity that envelops you more and more with each step... “Sixth step, noticing a change in the air, or perhaps in your mind, floating, drifting down... “Seven, deeper down, following, drifting … “Eight, very good, so delightfully deep for me … “Nine, wondering just how good it feels to be so deep for me, to let it happen now … “Ten, all the way down … that's right ...” And if you're still following, you'd feel that wonderful, relaxing, 309

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stillness … that sensation of everything slowing down … going deep inside … and you knew that your mind can so easily accept any suggestion at all … that's right … And you may still be imagining the candle flame, as it flickers and glows, and that's perfectly okay … Now that you've seen an example, you can notice how the recursive induction is constructed. It starts out like any other type of induction, with a few suggestions to get started. Then this outer induction branches into a story about someone else doing an induction. I picked Soforia the Enchantress for my example, but you could just as easily pick a different name – if you happen to know of someone that your hypnotee admires or has heard of favorably, go ahead and use them – or just refer to someone in the abstract, another hypnotist you knew or a mentor you had. It doesn't really matter; what matters is that you bridge from you doing an induction to you talking about them doing an induction. This second layer, talking about someone else doing an induction, is a recursion. The induction suggestions that occur in this layer are still going to be heard by your partner's subconscious and, because you're still speaking in terms of 'you' the subconscious hears that and responds to it, even though the 'you' you're talking to is an imaginary, fictional 'you' in the story within the induction. Next, while describing the induction within the induction, that second hypnotist branches into a story of another induction they did on someone else, and so we have a third layer induction happening within the frame of the second induction, which you are retelling as your induction. And again, because you're quoting someone else who is quoting someone else (or themselves, as in the Soforia example), you can still use 'you' and your hypnotee's subconscious will still receive and act on those suggestions even though they were given to someone else entirely. Using recursion this way is confusing for the conscious mind because it's so easy to lose track of the levels of narrative. It's also easy for your conscious mind to lose track, so focus on what you're doing. You can in theory recurse by more levels if you want to, but with most people the best results come from three layers, as in the example. More than that makes your life more difficult with no appreciable benefit to the hypnotee. 310

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Discussion Point 1. The Heart Coherence induction is designed to be used with a trance partner who is feeling anxious or agitated. Would it be better to do a longer pre-talk to address the source of their anxiety first and then use some other induction? Why or why not?

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Exercises 1. Recruit a willing partner, and perform the non verbal induction from this chapter with them. 2. Using the structure outlined above, create your own recursion-based induction. Find a volunteer and see how well it works for them.

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Kinky Human Tricks

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Arousal and Desire The mind, some say, is the ultimate erogenous zone. Erotic hypnosis lets us take that saying more literally than it's usually intended to be. Arousal and desire are emotional states; since emotions are the domain of the subconscious mind, obviously hypnosis can affect how people experience those states.

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Presenter Notes This lesson is all about getting people turned on. It's a fun topic to present, but depending on your audience it may be challenging to find a willing volunteer for a demo. You may want to prearrange a demo bottom who is okay with displaying arousal in front of the group and then reward them well for their service. At NEEHU and similar events I'll often start out by doing the “Pleasure” trigger as a group demo so that anyone who wants to participate can, in their seat in the audience. As I'm setting the trigger (which expires at the end of the class) I'll use it a number of times and calibrate the response up, making it stronger and stronger, until I get a few people squirming or biting their lips. Then, for the rest of the class, I'll trigger them at random just to watch and hear the reaction. In a kink-friendly environment, you could consider doing exercises to practice the skills. Warn everyone ahead of time to bring a partner, though, because pairing up strangers and saying, “Okay, now go get him/her horny” tends not to work out well.

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Pleasure Trigger One of my all-time favorite triggers is this one, inspired by the only scene in the movie Bruce Almighty worth watching. The mechanics of it are very simple. From now on, each and every time I say the word 'pleasure' and it is safe for you to be momentarily distracted, you feel an immediate, powerful rush of erotic pleasure, as if you were being stroked or licked or kissed in the most pleasurable, intimate, arousing way. The sensation lasts only a few seconds, but is always powerful enough to interrupt your train of thought and cause you to automatically focus for those few seconds on that wave of pleasure, fully aware of how good your body can feel at my command. Each and every time I say 'pleasure' to you and it is safe for you to be momentarily distracted, that feeling comes over you again, stronger, more pleasurable, more arousing and more distracting each time. Feeling that wave of intense, erotic pleasure is an automatic, instinctive, reflexive response, like breathing or blinking, and it happens each and every time I say 'pleasure' to you as long as it is safe for you to be distracted. Allow this new habit of yours to embed itself into your mind, part of your own personal library of automatic habits, and when you've completely accepted this new part of your habits and behaviors, you can give me a nice, big smile. (Wait for the smile.) Good. Pleasure... This is a fun trigger to use for public or semi-public play, because out in public most people aren't paying attention to anyone else, so the trigger and the reaction are unlikely to get you noticed but you can still enjoy the thrill of playing in the open.

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I'm partial to the word “pleasure” because of the movie, but of course you can substitute anything you'd like – a stroke down the arm, a squeeze of the hand, whatever. One of the more interesting variations I've seen on this is that when your partner says your name they receive the erotic jolt. Whatever word you use (if you use a word), adopt a distinctive pronunciation of it. When I say “pleasure” for this trigger, it's more like 'PLEAshuuuuuuuure' (drawn out the way Bruce does in the movie). My wife Dani's subconscious recognizes that distinction, so if I just casually say “pleasure” as part of a sentence it has no effect.

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Lust Potion Aphrodisiacs have probably been part of human sexual mythology since its beginning. Science may disagree with the folklore regarding chocolate, oysters, cherries, Spanish fly, and whatnot, but with a few well-chosen suggestions you can turn anything into “Love Potion Number Nine.” For this example, let's use a bottle of ordinary drinking water. Get your partner into trance, and then continue like this: Now, allow any part of your conscious mind that may be listening to just tune out for a few minutes; your subconscious can always remember clearly and completely everything that we do while you are in hypnosis, but you will enjoy this much more if your conscious mind stays blissfully unaware of the suggestions I'm about to give you until later. After I bring you out of this trance, when you're fully alert, fully conscious even though your conscious mind is not aware of what we're about to do, you come out of trance feeling a bit thirsty. I will offer you a bottle of water and when I do, you accept it as you normally would. What your conscious mind is unaware of is that this water is special water; it has been laced with a powerful aphrodisiac, a substance that is completely safe and harmless but causes extreme sexual arousal. The water itself tastes perfectly normal to you, even perhaps a little extra refreshing and good. You drink it slowly, one swallow at a time, pausing for at least a few seconds between gulps. A few seconds after you take your first sip from the bottle the aphrodisiac takes effect: you suddenly become extremely aroused. You feel blood rushing to your groin, to your erogenous zones, and you feel a rising sense of erotic pleasure and arousal. Each sip you take from the bottle increases that feeling of arousal. Your conscious mind, however, never makes the connection between the water and the arousal; you continue to 318

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sip, getting more and more aroused with each drink, and yet always wanting another sip. By the time the bottle is half empty, you are so aroused that you can no longer hide it; you have to fondle your body, either through your clothing or by reaching inside of your clothing, and each sip then makes you twice as aroused. The more aroused you become the less you care about hiding it and the less you care who is watching or what they may be thinking; all that matters is how good you feel, how aroused you are, how badly you want to orgasm. No matter how aroused you become, though, you orgasm only when you've emptied the bottle. By the time the bottle is three-quarters empty, you are so aroused that fondling yourself through clothing just isn't satisfying enough – you peel off any clothes that are in the way and touch yourself freely, still getting twice as aroused with each sip from the bottle, still unable to orgasm until the bottle is empty. Once you swallow the last sip from the water bottle you have a tremendous, long-lasting, super-powerful orgasm that you can feel in your entire body. You orgasm for as long as you can, feeling as much pleasure as you can, and when the orgasm subsides you feel completely satisfied and can enjoy the blissful glow of endorphins flooding through your system for as long as you like. Once you've had that really satisfying orgasm, you may then choose to allow your conscious mind to remember how it all happened … or you may choose to keep it our secret, if that makes it more enjoyable for you. End the trance, hand your partner the water bottle, then sit back and watch. Remember, too, that while responding to these posthypnotic suggestions your partner is highly suggestible, so you can make suggestions disguised as offhand observations (“Gee, that looks like it would be a lot easier if you took that shirt off”) and your partner will act on them. This particular example is intended to evoke pure arousal and channel it into uninhibited masturbation. You can, of course, reword things to get a 319

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different result. You also don't necessarily have to ask the subconscious mind to keep the conscious mind in the dark; if your partner enjoys resistance play, they may actually get more out of knowing they're acting out hypnotic suggestions and feeling unable to resist.

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Hypno-Pheromones A more modern take on the aphrodisiac is found in pheromone colognes and sprays. As with so many things in this area, the true effectiveness of pheromones is greatly exaggerated by companies who sell the products. On the other hand, a little hypnotic suggestion can create the same result. Start with your partner already in trance. As you relax and drift, your mind completely open to my suggestions, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. While you've been enjoying this trance, I took the opportunity to spray on some very powerful pheromone body spray. The spray has a very subtle scent to it, so subtle that you may not even consciously notice it, but the pheromones are incredibly powerful. When you breathe in those pheromones you find yourself becoming turned on, aroused, lustful. Your inhibitions start to fall away, encouraging you to act on the urge to have hot, wild, uninhibited sex – and the person your body wants to do this with is me. The effect of the pheromones is mild at first, but with every breath you take in my presence you breathe in more pheromones and the effects get stronger and stronger. You get more and more aroused, more and more turned on. Your body feels a powerful animal desire to have wild, uninhibited sex with me, and that desire gets stronger with every breath. You have the courage to say or do anything that comes to mind to make that sex happen, and the more you breathe in those pheromones the less reason there is to delay. If we are in an environment where it is not safe or appropriate to have sex, you still feel the urges building but you hold back from acting on them in any way that will cause you embarrassment until it is safe and appropriate to give in. The act of holding in those urges makes them stronger, and you'll do whatever you can to get us to a place where it's safe and appropriate to act on them.

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Breathing in these pheromones makes your body so erotically charged that it craves sex with me, and that charge makes it easy for you to orgasm as often as you wish. Every orgasm you have is particularly enjoyable and intense because of the pheromones. The pheromones continue to affect you, keeping you turned on, aroused, uninhibited, passionate, until I say, “Fresh air is overrated.” Once I say, “Fresh air is overrated” the pheromones wear off and you are no longer affected by them. If your partner likes to be teased, try giving them this suggestion in a public environment, like at a party or restaurant, where they can't act on the urges until later when you're in a private location. But know your partner – if their idea of “safe and appropriate” is the alley out back and you're not comfortable with that, you could be in trouble.

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Remote Control The Lust Potion and Hypno-Pheromones are pretty similar, in that they both involve a linear progression in the arousal/desire they produce. But sometimes an extended tease, where the feelings come and go, can be more fun. For those times, you may want to use this sort of technique, which I am blatantly modeling from my friend Lee Allure. As usual, start with your partner in trance. I'd like to program your mind to become aroused at my prompting, and to allow me to remotely control your level of arousal. If you're still willing to allow this, give me a nod now. (Assuming you get the nod) Thank you. From now on, each and every time I say to you the command, 'Remote Mode On' that command signals your mind to attune itself for remote arousal control. When your mind is attuned for remote arousal control you feel perfectly normal in every way, but you also feel a sense of connection between the two of us, as if your mind has an imaginary antenna receiving signals from me all the time. Those signals are received by your subconscious only; your conscious mind may or may not be aware of them, as you choose. While your mind is attuned this way, I can remotely control your level of sexual arousal by saying the word 'level' and a number from zero to ten. 'Level zero' causes you to feel perfectly normal, not aroused at all; each number above zero causes you to feel increasingly aroused, turned on, horny. At levels one, two, or three you feel aroused, but you are able to function normally even though the arousal is a bit distracting. At levels four, five, or six the arousal is powerful enough to be very distracting, making it difficult for you to concentrate on things because of the sensations in your body. At levels seven, eight, and nine the arousal increases more and more at each level, getting so strong that you are completely distracted by it, unable to hide your arousal, unable to concentrate on anything except how incredibly aroused you are and how much you want to have an orgasm. At 323

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'level ten' you are so overwhelmingly aroused that all you can think about are the overpowering feelings of arousal flooding throughout your body, so strong, so intense; you feel the blood rushing to all of your sexual parts and the urge to stroke yourself, touch yourself, do anything at all to get you to that orgasm that you so desperately want is just too much to resist any longer. The more you try to give yourself the orgasm you need, though, the more it arouses you but the orgasm remains just out of reach until I say to you, 'Orgasm now.' When you are at level ten and I say 'orgasm now' you automatically have an exquisite, powerful, incredibly satisfying orgasm and then, as the orgasm subsides, you automatically re-adjust to level one. When you are attuned to me, I may choose to increase or decrease your arousal level whenever and by however much I choose. I may start you at level three, then increase to nine, then reduce to four, and your mind always adopts the level of arousal appropriate for that number, on the scale from zero to ten. When I set your arousal level, you remain at that level of arousal until I change it, no matter what else may be happening around you or what you may be attempting to do or concentrate on. Your mind remains attuned to me, and you continue to respond to the 'level' commands, until I say to you, 'Remote mode off.' Once I give you the command 'Remote mode off' you are no longer attuned, and my saying 'level' and a number no longer affects your degree of arousal. Allow these new behaviors to write themselves into your mind at the lowest level, so they become as instinctive, as natural, as automatic for you as breathing. That's right. Now you have a toy that you can play with in whatever ways your imagination may suggest. You can set 'remote mode on' and 'level three', for example, and carry on a perfectly mundane conversation with your partner or watch them try to converse with someone else. You can increase their arousal, or decrease it, at your whim as long as they can hear your command. You can take them to level 10 and leave them there until they beg you to let them orgasm, or you can have them yo-yo between 10 and 2 repeatedly for a while before giving them their orgasmic reward. 324

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You can also recalibrate from time to time. For example, if your partner is at level eight, you could say: And right now, at level eight, feeling so incredibly turned on for me, so hot, so horny, so aroused that you can barely think straight. And yet, your mind and body are capable of so much more, so we're going to recalibrate. Feel your mind adjusting the arousal scale, so that what you feel now, what used to be level eight, is the new level six. That's right, this level of arousal is now six, and every level above six gets even more intense, more arousing, more distracting. Another variation I've seen done is a time-delayed level command. For example: While your mind is attuned to mine, I may also give you a command to set your arousal level at a future time, or in response to a future event. If, for example, I say 'at 7:30, level eight' then you would automatically become aroused at level eight as soon as you become aware that it is 7:30 or after, even if your mind is not currently attuned at that time. I may also choose to say something like 'the next time I touch my nose, level six' in which case the next time you see me touch my nose you automatically become aroused at level six. As with any level command, when you respond to these commands your arousal level stays at the level I set until I change it regardless of what you may be doing. Another useful command variation is the touch control: While your mind is attuned to mine, any time I slide my finger up your arm like this your arousal level increases by one. If you are at level five, for example, and I slide my finger up your arm like this, you automatically increase to level six. Any time I slide my finger down your arm like this, your arousal level decreases by one. If you are at level six, for example, and I slide my finger down your arm like this, you automatically decrease to level five.

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This technique lends itself to countless variations. The only constraint is how flexible and creative your and your partner's imaginations are.

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Discussion Points 1. Some of the applications in this lesson mention using them in public. What sort of things should you consider before engaging in public play? What would you do differently from using the same technique in private? 2. What do you think would happen if you used the hypno-pheromone technique with someone with whom you have never been physically intimate?

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Exercises 1. Find a willing volunteer and practice as many of the techniques in this lesson as your relationship with them allows. Alternately, word the suggestion in such a way that a third party (either a specific person or anyone of your hypnotee's choosing) can trigger it instead of you. 2. Alter the Lust Potion example to evoke a different state – drunk/high, silly/giggly, sleepy, whatever – and use it with a willing volunteer.

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Sensation Play Each of us experiences the world through our senses. Every minute of every day we are bombarded with sensory data. Even now, as you read this, you are seeing the words on the page (or screen) but you can also, if you choose, be aware of a host of other things: sounds in the background, your body's position on whatever you may be sitting or standing on, the texture it feels there, the temperature of your environment, any smells in the air, perhaps taste sensations if you've eaten recently or increased salivation if you're thinking about eating soon, and probably a dozen more things specific to you and your environment. The job of receiving all of those inputs and filtering them so that you don't have to be consciously aware of all of them all the time falls to your subconscious, the natural multi-tasker. Since hypnosis works directly with the subconscious mind, it's surprisingly easy to use hypnotic suggestion to manipulate how a person senses the world. With the right suggestion you can create sensations that don't actually exist and manipulate sensations that do, to bring pleasure to your hypnotee in whatever way you and they prefer.

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Presenter Notes The techniques in this lesson lay the groundwork for the next chapter, Hypno-BDSM. They also have plenty of uses in their own right. Demonstrate liberally, and encourage your audience to play with these in class as much as time permits. Playing with sensation almost always leads back into discussion of modalities. It's important to emphasize that sensation play is not just for kinesthetics; we all have the ability to feel, inwardly and outwardly, so we all have the ability to manipulate those feelings and sensations with our subconscious. The kinesthetics may be extra talented in this area but they are by no means the only ones who can enjoy sensation play. If someone is not getting as much response as they want from the sensation play suggestions, it's okay; they'll get better at it with practice. You may also want to refer back to the lesson on Arousal and Desire as you teach this because sensation play and arousal often go together. After all, if you simulate a sensation that your partner finds arousing, they are naturally going to get aroused; there is no reason not to acknowledge that arousal and play with it along with their sensations.

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Hot and Cold Any sensation you have previously felt, your subconscious can reproduce. In fictional stories like “Adult Education” I called this body memory, but it's a real thing that you can take advantage of. In this trick, we get the subconscious to recall and reproduce the sensations of being too hot and too cold. For purposes of this example we'll assume that you are indoors at a normal room temperature environment, that your hypnotee is already in trance, and that they have consented to undressing for you. And now, as you relax and feel your mind opening itself completely to my suggestions, I'd like you to pay particular attention to the atmosphere around you. The air, moving ever so slightly, is a comfortable 70 degrees and you are shielded from any direct sunlight, able to relax and enjoy this comfortable environment. But notice what happens as I turn the thermostat up to 80 degrees. The air gets warmer, sticker, heavier. When you breathe in that warm air, you feel it warming your body from the inside. That's right. And as I turn up the temperature even higher, to 90 degrees, you can easily feel now how uncomfortably hot it is in this room. Hot air all around you, the seat beneath you feeling warm, like you're sitting on a heating pad. You breathe in and feel that hot, sticky, humid air entering your lungs and heating up your body from the inside too. You just know that if you did anything involving an effort you would immediately start to sweat. The temperature rises more, to 100 degrees. SO hot now, so stuffy, you can feel your clothes starting to stick to your body, getting sweaty and hot and itchy, so uncomfortable. Now 110 degrees, so hot you feel yourself breaking into a sweat even just sitting there. How much better will you feel once you take some of those clothes off?

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120 degrees, blazing, blistering hot, you can't get those clothes off fast enough now, can you? Every bit of skin that you expose feels better, more comfortable, more able to breathe despite the intense heat. That's right, you can take off as much as you want, every piece of clothing you take off helps you to endure the blazing heat. ... Excellent, you're doing perfectly. And now, a gentle, cooling breeze rolls in. Feel that air on your exposed skin, cooling you down, feeling so absolutely wonderful. The temperature falls to 100 degrees … 90 degrees … 80 degrees … and you get more and more comfortable, feeling more and more relieved, relaxed, and comfortable … 70 degrees … perfect room temperature. But now the air conditioner has kicked in and it's over-correcting. It's 60 degrees, and the air in the room is starting to feel cool. The chair beneath you is also getting cool to the touch. 50 degrees … definitely chilly now, and you can feel your body heat dissipating, sucked away by the cold chair and the cold air around you. 40 degrees … beyond chilly now and feeling very cold, cold and dry, your exposed skin feeling so very cold now. Feeling a wind whipping by and chilling you down even further, colder and colder as the temperature continues to drop. 30 degrees … below freezing now, so cold that you can't help starting to shiver, grabbing on to anyone nearby for their body heat … that's right huddling so close, the closer you huddle the more of their body heat you absorb to keep yourself from freezing … that's right. Ah! Did you hear that? A loud click; the air conditioner is cycling off. The room quickly warms up again: 40 degrees … 50 degrees … getting warmer and more comfortable again … 60 degrees … feel that warm air surrounding you, warming you … 70 degrees, perfect room temperature, perfectly comfortable for you once 332

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again. A lot of stage hypnotists use a routine very much like this one early in their act, to help identify who in the volunteer group has the best imaginations. Depending on the nature of the show, of course, they generally discourage taking off clothing, but for an erotic hypnotist getting someone to strip off their clothes and then huddle up close to them can be its own reward.

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Hypno-Tickling Tickling is erotic in itself for a number of people; you can use hypnosis to bring on that same sensation and then play with it, even if your partner is normally not ticklish. I like to do this one as a trigger: We both know how much you really love to be tickled. Being tickled arouses you and pleasures you, and that's perfectly okay. From now on, from time to time, I will say to you, “tickle mode on.” Each and every time I say “tickle mode on” your body goes into tickle mode. When you are in tickle mode your body is completely normal except that you instantly become very, very ticklish – way more ticklish than you normally are – but for me only. If someone else tries to tickle you while you are in tickle mode, your body reacts to them as it normally would. Only for me are you extra ticklish. While you are in tickle mode, each and every time I mention a body part you feel my fingers tickling that body part for three seconds. No matter what body part I mention, the tickling is immediate and lasts three seconds. My tickling always feels good – pleasurable, erotic, arousing, exciting – no matter where I tickle you, and the more I tickle you the more strongly your body feels and responds to the tickle. You may laugh, you may squirm, and you become increasingly aroused the more I tickle you by mentioning parts of your body. You remain in tickle mode until I tell you, 'tickle mode off.' As soon as I say 'tickle mode off' your body returns to its normal state of ticklishness and my mentioning body parts no longer makes you feel tickled. The arousal from being tickled can linger for as long as you enjoy having it, even though you are no longer being tickled. When your subconscious has accepted these suggestions – to go into tickle mode when I say 'tickle mode on,' to return to normal when I say 'tickle mode off,' and to react while in tickle mode as I 334

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have described – and made those responses an automatic part of your habits and behaviors, you can give me a nice, big smile. Tickling is just one possible sensation, of course, If your partner is not into tickling, you may instead have them feel a different sensation – perhaps being stroked on the named part with a fur glove, or an ice cube, or a vibrator.

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Remote Erogenous Zone With this technique, you use your partner's subconscious mind to establish a link between an innocent part of their body and an intimate one. You can use that linkage to create an erogenous zone anywhere on their body that you want. Your mind has an amazing ability to form connections between different parts of your body so that what one part feels, the connected part feels as well. I want to show you right now how creative and powerful your mind is in this way. Think now about the places on your body where you most love to be touched; those erogenous spots where the slightest touch arouses, pleasures, and tantalizes you. And as you do, just imagine now those different spots linking together, sharing sensations, so that a touch on any one of those places feels like a touch on all of them together. Some people imagine a network of energy lines connecting each part to each other part, the lines of whatever color that erotic energy would be in their imagination. Yes, that's right. And now, as you continue to imagine that erotic network of connections, let's add one more spot to it: this spot right here, on the back of your left hand. Imagine those energy lines extending out from every erogenous part of your body to this spot right here on the back of your left hand. Feel them connecting up, so whenever any of those spots is touched you feel it in all of them at once. Good. (Stroke the spot on the hand.) So as I stroke that spot now, you can feel that stroke in all of those erogenous spots, all at once. That's right, you're doing perfectly. And the more I stroke that spot, the more you feel it in all those other spots too. Just imagine all those spots getting so sensitized, so excited, so aroused by this touch, just as if I were touching you in all of those spots all at once.

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From here, you can go anywhere your imagination leads. You can leave the spot connected, in or out of trance, and have a toy you can use for public or semi-public play. You can have them go to the control room in their mind (see Chapter 16) and adjust the sensitivity of those areas up or down, so they feel more or less aroused by each touch. You can use a variant on the Remote Control arousal technique from Chapter 19 to control how sensitive they are to your touch. You can tie different sensations to different touches – for instance, a short stroke might feel like being licked, while an extended press might feel like a vibrator being applied.

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Vibrating Underwear This is a simple one designed for the mischievous dominant and a submissive who enjoys public play. The underwear you are wearing now has been fitted with special motors and equipment so that on command I can make it vibrate. From now on, whenever you are wearing that underwear, I can turn it on by touching you anywhere on your body and saying 'vibrate on'. As soon as I do, the underwear begins to vibrate. You can feel the vibration all through the area of your body that the underwear touches or covers, even if the underwear isn't closely touching at the time. The vibrating sensation is incredibly arousing and pleasurable to you, as if an actual vibrator was being used on all those areas of your body that are covered by the underwear. The longer the vibration goes on, the more aroused you become from it. If you are in a place where it is not appropriate or safe to show or express arousal you do your best to hide it, even though you know that hiding your arousal only makes it stronger. The vibrations always automatically stop if you are driving a car or in a situation where the arousal is dangerously distracting to you. While the underwear is vibrating, I can control the intensity of the vibrations. When I touch you anywhere on your body and say 'stronger' the vibrations become stronger, more arousing, more distracting to your mind. When I touch you anywhere on your body and say 'weaker' the vibrations become weaker, the arousal builds more slowly, but the sensation is still present and still extremely pleasurable to you. The vibrations in the underwear continue, getting you more and more aroused, until I touch you anywhere on your body and say 'vibrate off.' As soon as I do that the underwear ceases to vibrate. You can, of course, have this apply to any underwear rather than a particular set. Once this set of triggers is in place you can cause the 338

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vibrating sensation anywhere, at any time, on command. The wording as given above is intended for public play with a sub who enjoys the idea of trying to hide their arousal; it is incumbent on you to make sure you do not push the public aspect too far. Most people can be made to orgasm from the imaginary vibrations. You can also use sensations other than vibration. I've been known to have underwear come to life and start stroking, caressing, licking, and fingering the wearer to orgasm. Undershirts and bras seem to be particularly fond of tickling people into submission.

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Discussion Points 1. Besides tickling and vibration, what other sensations would you use in erotic play? 2. Should safe words be required if you are engaging in public play?

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Exercise 1. With a willing volunteer, practice the various sensation games in this chapter. 2. Create your own sensation play suggestion set and test it out on a willing volunteer.

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Hypno-BDSM Not everyone who practices erotic hypnosis is into BDSM, but the two communities do intersect quite a bit. And why not? Power exchange is a strong underlying theme of a lot of BDSM activities; in a lot of ways, erotic hypnosis can be looked at as a form of power exchange in which one person gives another temporary control of their mind to another. That's sexy. It also helps that the capabilities of the subconscious mind make it possible to use erotic hypnosis in ways that the BDSM community can appreciate. Sensation play can work nicely with impact play; hypnotic control of the body can blend in with actual bondage. And once someone is tied up and hypnotized, all sorts of fun things can happen.

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Presenter Notes BDSM is sometimes a touchy topic for erotic hypnosis groups, so know your audience. There are a fair number in the community whose only kink is hypnokink; that contingent, while they may appreciate the fun you can have with purely hypnotic bondage or impact play, may be turned off by a presentation with actual rope or floggers. Similarly, a lot of people who came to erotic hypnosis from BDSM look at hypnotic bondage and wonder what the point is. Fortunately, BDSM and erotic hypnosis are both big tents. If you know which tent the majority of your audience is from, you can tailor your presentation in that direction. For an audience of BDSM fans who are getting into hypnosis, you can talk about blending the hypnotic with the physical and stress the convenience of being able to use hypno bondage for improvised play when there is no rope at hand. For an audience who are not as into BDSM, you can stress the safe nature of hypnotic play because it's all in the mind. Demos are always good; pick out a few from your audience and demonstrate what they are into. If you have a hard-core pain slut in the group who is into hypnosis as well, then pick them to demonstrate hypnotic impact play. Take two people who are into bondage and hypnotically superglue them together. Everyone can have a lot of fun with this if you know your audience.

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Subspace as Trance In BDSM people often speak of subspace, a state of mind that submissives can enter into during a scene. People experience subspace in different ways. Some get very passive, feeling warm and floaty and letting go completely to the will of the top(s); some dissociate, almost floating out of their bodies and losing touch with physical sensations like pain; some actually focus on the pain, feeling every sensation acutely and ignoring everything else around them. Subspace, as you can probably guess, is a form of trance. All of the characteristics of hypnosis – focused concentration, increased suggestibility – are present in subspace. And like conventional trance, subspace feels different for everyone and is often different for the same person from top to top or scene to scene. Someone who goes into subspace easily will also trance easily because they've been doing it already for some time. Explaining this can go a long way toward helping someone experienced in BDSM to understand what erotic hypnosis is about. You can even engage the BDSM side of your audience by noting how they already know how to get someone into subspace, and they might’ve noticed that their partner is more suggestible when they are in that state.

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Hypno Bondage Using hypnosis it is possible to simulate being tied, chained, gagged, strapped down to a table with plastic wrap, and just about any other kind of physical restraint you can think of. What's the point, some ask, when you can just use real rope/chain/straps/plastic wrap to do the same thing? Hypno bondage shines in several situations where the use of conventional bondage gear isn't practical. Spontaneous scenes can take place at any convenient time and place. Because nobody can see the imaginary handcuffs, you can actually do hypno bondage play in public if you like. And when traveling, using hypno bondage means never having to explain to the TSA why you have a wooden yoke, shackles and a ball gag in your luggage. (You also don't have to fit those things into your luggage.) Another advantage of hypno bondage is that, because it all happens in the mind, it is possible to do things that are impossible, impractical, or unsafe with actual physical implements. You can bond two people together with hypnotic super glue, pull someone to the wall and hold them there with an imaginary high-tech tractor beam, or put hypnotic duct tape around someone's head without it getting stuck in their hair. There is also a safety advantage to imaginary bondage. It takes a certain amount of training and practice to learn how to tie good knots and to gauge how tightly you can tie someone without harming their circulation. Hypnotic restraints are never too tight or too loose because the hypnotee's imagination sets the tightness exactly where they want it to be, and their circulation remains intact regardless. Also, it is pretty much impossible for someone wearing a physical gag to say a safe word, but a hypnotized person can feel gagged yet still be able to speak to say a safe word. Here is an example hypno bondage scene using a combination of rope and chain. In just a few moments, you are going feel as if you are bound, gagged, chained up, and completely helpless. Your subconscious mind knows at the deepest level that we are playing a scene, that the ropes and chain and gag are all in your mind and that you 345

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are really perfectly safe and protected, but it can choose to hide that information from the rest of your mind for the duration of the scene so that you can experience all of the feelings you told me you want: to feel bound, gagged, and helpless, and to feel aroused and excited by the danger that most of your mind believes you are in. That deep part of your subconscious, the part that knows you are completely safe and protected but hides that fact, also knows that all of your safety suggestions and safe words are always fully effective to protect you. Even while your mind thinks you are gagged, safe words come out of your mouth automatically when they are appropriate without your mind even realizing that you spoke them. Just imagine now that you have been taken to a dank, cold, concrete cell and shoved down onto a hard chair. You are blindfolded; your eyes remain closed against the blindfold. A foul-tasting rag has been shoved into your mouth and another tied over the lower half of your face, making it impossible for you to speak . The strong, brutal men who brought you here also do not speak as they grab your arms and extend them out in front of you, forcing your hands together. (Pull the hypnotee's arms forward and together, and have them clasp their hands.) Now, feel a rough, almost wiry, hemp rope wrapping around your wrists, securing your hands together. The rope is so tight that no matter how hard you try to pull your wrists apart they simply can't budge; the more you try to spread your wrists apart, the harder that rope bites into them and holds them together. Your circulation always remains intact, but you are hopelessly bound at the wrists. Go ahead and try separating your wrists, and feel how tightly that rope holds them together. That's right; stop trying now; there is no hope of you escaping or separating your wrists until someone removes the rope. Next, just imagine hearing the sound of a chain being tossed up and over a beam in the ceiling. As your jailers yank on the chain you hear it scraping against the wood beam. Your hands are grabbed and lifted, and you feel the cold steel chain looping once, twice between your tied-up forearms. There is the snap of a 346

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padlock, and then more scraping as you feel your arms being hoisted upward. That's right, hoisted higher and higher … feel your arms being pulled toward the ceiling, harder and harder, making you stand up. (Help the hypnotee to stand up.) The chain keeps pulling, pulling, until your arms are pointing straight up and your body is stretched all the way up, erect, reaching for the ceiling. One inch more and you'd be on tip-toes. Good. Now, imagine rough hands shoving your ankles together. It may feel as if you are about to lose your balance but you manage to stay standing, with your feet together supporting your weight. (Ensure that the hypnotee is standing, feet shoulder width apart, arms raised straight up and together.) Another rough, unyielding rope loops around each ankle, spreading your legs to shoulder width. The harder you try to bring your feet together, the more firmly those ropes bite into your ankles and hold your feet in position. You can only manage to shift a little bit as needed to maintain your balance, nothing more. Imagine trying to pull down on that chain between your arms, and realize that the harder you try to pull on it the more you realize that there is no slack in that chain at all; your arms are securely held at full stretch, your wrists and ankles firmly bound together, nothing you can do but wait to find out what you will endure next. The people who bound you take a moment to grope your ass, then you hear them leave. The door clangs heavily as they exit. The example makes use of several common language constructions in hypno bondage: Emphasis on the sensations of being tied, chained, etc. engages the hypnotee's imagination, which is of course a function of the subconscious. Even if they are not kinesthetic, the subconscious gets the message of how it is to pretend to be bound. The more you try to move , the more you find that they 347

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do not move. This is also designed to instruct the subconscious to enforce the imaginary bondage. It is normal to struggle, and many rope bottoms enjoy the sensation of struggling and failing. Drawing in other senses. In this example I used mostly sensation and hearing because I had already stipulated that the hypnotee is blindfolded. Unless you know that your hypnotee is talented at visual hallucination with eyes open, it's usually better to keep their eyes closed and let them imagine the scene for you. Note that I'm leaving the hypnotee in a safe but not entirely comfortable position. There is lots of emphasis on remaining safely balanced on feet, but standing there with arms raised high above the head is going to be tiring for the arms and shoulders. Most people can handle that for a few minutes, but the longer you ask them to hold it the more uncomfortable it will become. In some scenes, of course, that's a bonus. To conclude the scene, have the hypnotee imagine you releasing them from their bonds. I'll leave that suggestion set up to your imagination because I want to continue this for the next topic.

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Hypno Impact As we explored in the previous chapter, the subconscious mind is capable of replaying sensory experiences, altering them, and even inventing them from whole cloth. Naturally this comes in handy when you want to indulge in a little impact play. Hypnotically simulated impact play has the same advantages as hypnotic bondage: you don't need training in how to safely use a flogger, cane, whip, etc.; you never have to worry about hitting too hard or too softly; it's very difficult to injure someone with an imaginary implement; and you can do it anywhere, spontaneously, without toys or tools. Mind you, a lot of impact bottoms like the bruises, welts, or red marks that a well-wielded implement leaves, and you won't get those with imaginary implements; that's a definite downside for some people. Here is an example of how the bondage scene from above might continue and incorporate hypnotic impact play. Let's suppose that in negotiations we learned that our hypnotee likes sharp stinging sensations and has enjoyed physical impact play with a cane. As you stand there, helplessly bound and chained, blindfolded and gagged, you may wonder just what kind of torment I have in store for you. You'll find out momentarily. First, though, I'm going to remove your gag now – I don't want anything interfering with the sounds you make. Feel the gag falling away from you now, leaving your mouth free. I know you've been caned before. I have here a special cane, very light, very springy, guaranteed to raise welts wherever it hits you. Just imagine the sharp sting of pain as I strike you on the thigh with it NOW! (clap your hands). That's right, feel the hot rush at the point of impact, feel the welt already starting to rise, the throbbing pain rippling out in waves from that spot. And until I release you, each and every time you hear this (clap) my cane whacks you again. Each time I clap the cane strikes another spot (clap!). Each time I clap the cane strikes harder, the pain is sharper, that heat and throbbing more intense. And if I name a 349

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body part and then clap, the cane strikes that part precisely in the most agonizing way, still sharper, more intense with every strike. The back of your left thigh (clap) … your stomach (clap) … your belly button (clap) … the middle of your back (clap) … each strike more intense, more stinging, more throbbing, more heat. You can continue in this vein for as long as your bottom can take it. If you're playing a sadist (or if you really are one), work your way to evermore-sensitive body parts, or just keep clapping and let them move the sensation around to wherever their subconscious wants to feel it. When your partner has had enough, release them from their hypnotic bonds so that the clapping trigger will end, then move into aftercare.

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Hypnotic Objectification The desire to be objectified is popular in BDSM. Objectification can take a number of forms, all of which involve dehumanizing the bottom so that they become a thing. That thing may be a piece of furniture, an ornamental statue, a living blow-up doll, or anything else your joint imaginations can dream up. Hypnosis plays well in objectification type scenes. Using hypnosis, you can lock your partner's muscles into any position they can hold, and they can have the experience of being helpless to stop you or others from touching, positioning, and using them as they see fit. When negotiating an objectification scene, make sure that you are clear on what your bottom finds exciting about being an object. Get consent for the kinds of things you intend to do to them, and be as specific as possible. Get very broad consent for touch, because for many there is a great thrill in being touched in places they normally wouldn't allow but can't prevent. This is especially true if you intend to bring third parties or strangers into the scene. I'm going to presume in the examples that follow that you have negotiated all of the indicated physical contact with your partner in advance.

Floor Lamp One popular form of objectification is to make human furniture. By assuming an appropriate body position a person can easily become a foot stool, a chair, a table support, or any number of other things. Give them a prop and the options expand even more. To make a human floor lamp, have a bright flashlight or hand-held work light on hand. Battery powered is most convenient, of course, but if there's an outlet nearby you can make a point of plugging in your “lamp” before turning it on. Get your bottom into trance, position them standing next to your favorite easy chair, and proceed: Stand right there, absolutely still. That's right. Your body moves only enough to assist me while I strip you to the waist. 351

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(Remove enough clothing to expose the hypnotee's nipples.) Good. Now, your hands close around the light I am about to give you. I will shape your grip so that you can turn it on and off. (Give them the portable light. Position their arms and hands so that they are holding it at an appropriate height for your purposes and they can easily manipulate the on/off switch with minimum physical movement.) Very good. Now, feel every muscle in your body locking into position exactly as you are right now. Your arms, hands, fingers … legs, feet, toes … neck … head … shoulders … spine … all locking exactly into position. The more you try to move in any voluntary way, the more firmly locked into position your muscles and joints become. Just like that. Open your eyes, remaining deeply hypnotized, staring blankly ahead. That's right. Until I instruct you otherwise, you are now my floor lamp. You stand exactly here, in exactly this position, unmoving. You may blink, you may shift your weight to remain stable on your feet, and in a moment I will explain the other ways you move on my command, but otherwise you remain absolutely still and stiff, a piece of furniture. Your mind slows down, thinking only of how still and stiff you feel and how important it is to remain so until I instruct you otherwise. Because you are now my floor lamp, I need to be able to turn you on and off when I need more or less light. Each time I twist your right nipple like this (twist), you automatically, instinctively, unthinkingly, make this movement. (Move the hand/finger as needed to turn the light on.) Each time I twist your left nipple like this (twist), you automatically, instinctively, unthinkingly make this movement. (Move the hand/finger as needed to turn the light off again. If it's the same movement, then you don't need to program both nipples.) You remain this way, my floor lamp, for as long as I need you to be. I will instruct you when I am through with you; until then my floor lamp is all that you are, and your only purpose for being is 352

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to provide me with light when I want it. Now that you have a new floor lamp, you can sit down in your chair and do some light reading. Naturally you'll have to get up several times, and being energy-conscious you'll want to turn the lamp off when you leave the chair and back on when you return to it. You can keep this up for as long as your partner's endurance will allow. When you see them starting to quiver it's time to end the game. A similar suggestion set can be used to turn your hypnotee into a coat and hat rack, a footstool, or most other pieces of furniture. Add a flat lightweight board and they can become an end table. Do be aware of your physical size and theirs before trying to use a hypnotized partner as a chair, sofa, or bench – it's very easy to injure someone who is just trying to be obedient to you.

Human Sculpture Not everything in your home needs to have a utilitarian purpose. With a little hypnosis, one or more trance partners can become a highly attractive piece of art. This can be especially fun during a party. Drop your partner(s) into trance and position them as you want them to be for your artwork. Remember that a lot of truly classy sculpture involves nude figures. Make sure they are not straining to hold the position before you give them their instructions: Right now, feel your muscles and joints locking into position exactly as they are right now. Your arms, legs, feet, hands, back, shoulders, neck, head, face, all locking into position as if you were carved this way from stone. Open your eyes now and just stare blankly ahead at nothing. Until I instruct you otherwise, this is your position. You can blink, breathe, shift your weight as needed to maintain balance, but otherwise your body remains absolutely stiff and still. You are my decorative sculpture, a piece of art, nothing more. Your mind is blank, aware only that you are a statue, that you remain absolutely still and silent, looking blankly ahead, 353

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regardless of what may be happening around you. Others may approach you to examine and appreciate the artwork; they may touch where and how they please, for as long as they please, and no matter what you remain absolutely still and silent. You remain this way until I instruct you otherwise. You'll note a lot of similarity to the floor lamp example. Whenever you want someone to remain absolutely still, this language is a good way to do it. Always make sure they know they can blink, breathe, and shift their weight to stay balanced but stress that all voluntary movement is locked, frozen, or whatever language you choose. And notice that I didn't say “you can't move or speak” – that would be suggesting the negative; instead I use, “you remain still and silent.”

Exhibitionist A more interactive form of objectification is to “force” your trance partner to put their body on display for others to ogle or appreciate. If you’re going to do this, you need to make sure that the others are okay with it and that those who are not into it have the option to decline the display. Otherwise you may be imposing your partner on others who do not want it, and that’s just rude. In this example, for simplicity of language, I'll presume that your hypnotee is female-bodied and wearing something that can be easily lifted or pulled down to expose the upper or lower body, like a sheath dress. It would be simple to change the wording for a male-bodied person or to accommodate different clothing. Until I instruct you otherwise, you have an overpowering desire to show people your body. You feel compelled to approach as many people as you can, especially people you don't already know, and talk to them. In particular, you introduce yourself and offer to show them your breasts. Any time someone accepts that offer, you automatically lower the top of your dress and show them your breasts. Your body does this for you, whether you think you want to or not, and you keep your breasts exposed until that person asks you to put them away 354

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again or walks away from you. As soon as the person you are showing your breasts to asks you to put them away or walks away from you, you can readjust your dress to cover your breasts again. If the person declines your offer to show them your breasts, you thank them and move on to someone else. When you encounter someone you already know, you feel an irresistible impulse to ask them if they would like to see your ass. The longer you delay in asking the more urgently you need to ask if they would like to see your ass. If the person accepts, you turn around and lift your dress to show them your ass, and continue to show it to them until they ask you to stop or walk away. Once they ask you to stop or walk away you can lower your dress again. If the person does not accept your offer to see your ass, you thank them and move on to someone else. You continue this way, always looking for people to meet and show yourself to, until I instruct you to stop. The compulsions to approach people, to tell them your name, and to show them your body gets stronger and stronger with every conversation you have. If someone declines your offer you thank them and move on to someone else. You could, of course, simply have your partner walk around naked showing off their body parts if the environment is appropriate for it and their clothing doesn't lend itself to flashing.

“My pussy is missing!” Here is an amusing little trick you can play with an imaginative partner: Today we’re going to play a little trick on your conscious mind. Upon waking from this trance, you will find that your (pussy/cock/nipple) has disappeared. Your subconscious mind always knows that your (body part) is perfectly safe and you will get it back at the end of our scene tonight in perfect working condition, but your conscious mind absolutely believes that it is suddenly gone. 355

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If you look for (the part), you can stare right at the place where it should be but your conscious mind completely misses it, like when you’re looking for something that is right in front of you but your conscious mind just doesn’t recognize it. If you feel for (the part), or anything touches you there, it just feels like a normal brush against a normal area of skin. To your touch the area feels smooth, unfeatured, and gives you no particular sensation at all. Your (body part) remains missing, despite all of your attempts to find it, until I hypnotize you again and restore it to you. Until then, the harder you try to see, touch, or locate that missing part the more you realize it’s gone. From here, there are many places where you can go. You might suggest that certain people at the party might know the location of the missing part; your partner might feel compelled to ask around and yet embarrassed at having to admit that they’ve lost track of an important body part. If someone is disbelieving, they might feel obliged to “prove” that the parts are gone (of course, only if the person is willing.) They might need to convince you to give their body part back, which may require them to do you a particular service or favor, or perform a ritual to “earn” it back. Let your partner’s hot buttons be your guide here and you will both have a lot of fun.

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Discussion Points 1. What are some other BDSM activities that you could incorporate hypnosis into? 2. What sorts of things might you need to negotiate with your partner before making them a nude sculpture at at a leather party? How would you ensure that no third party unknowingly breaches one of your partner’s limits?

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Exercises 1. Find a willing volunteer and play with hypnotic bondage and/or impact play. Get creative with your restraints – try some things that are silly or unrealistic. 2. Find a willing volunteer and turn them into a piece of sculpture for a little while. Get their feedback on what it's like.

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Doll Play Doll play is a form of objectification in which someone is treated like an inanimate human-shaped play toy. Depending on the type of doll being portrayed, it can appeal to a variety of interests. Using hypnotic suggestion you can create a rag doll, an action figure, a wind-up doll, a blow-up doll, a puppet, a voodoo doll … the list goes on and on. You saw a little of this in the previous chapter on Hypno BDSM; in this lesson we delve deeper into types of dolls you can play with.

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Presenter Notes My friend ZanyMo, one of the leaders of the TES Hypnokink SIG in New York, inspired this chapter. At the NELA Fetish Fair Flea #44 Zany did an entire 90-minute class on doll play and showed me some really interesting aspects to a form of play I hadn't done much with up to then. The big thing that got my attention was the variety of things you can do with your dolls. Having a number of willing demo volunteers will help a lot in presenting this material. Zany had several up front at once and that made it possible to do things like have the dolls lock arms, pick up action phrases from each other, pose together, and the like. In teaching this material I would totally do that, using a variety of different dolls to illustrate the differences.

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About Dolls Dolls come in many different types for many different uses. They all start from the same basic concept: the person who becomes a doll is frozen in place (or so relaxed they simply can't move themselves), staring forward at nothing; a simple, unthinking toy whose only purpose is to be played with in whatever way its owner wishes. Your doll may be exactly that and be very satisfying for you and your partner. Or, as with the dolls you buy at the toy store, you can build in additional features that change the experience for both of you.

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Basic Dolls A basic doll is a no-frills (or few-frills) doll: it's not articulated, it doesn't move or speak on its own; it just stands or lies there waiting for someone to play with it. For a partner who is into objectification, this is a very easy thing to do. For all of these examples, I am going to presume that you have your partner in trance already and have obtained consent for the physical activities I'm going to suggest for uses. Please make sure that you do!

Rag Doll A rag doll may be the simplest kind of doll there is. Even this, though, requires a deep level of trust with your hypnotee because they will need to remain totally physically relaxed while you move them, drag them, and play with them. As you lie there now, listening to the sound of my voice and drifting deeper and deeper with every breath you take, I want you to imagine what it feels like to be a rag doll. A rag doll is a wonderfully simple thing, isn't it? There are no posing joints, no internal electronics or motors or gears … just a floppy, limp, lazy shape stuffed with some cotton or yarn. How easily, I wonder, can you let your arms and legs become just like the arms and legs of a rag doll? Feel them getting floppy, lazy, loose and limp … so droopy and limp that it's just too much trouble for you to even think about moving them on your own. They may feel heavy, or light, and they may be warm or cool; it doesn't really matter which, or what, as they become increasingly loose and limp, floppy and relaxed, the more you think about them. Feel your fingers now closing together, as if your hand was just a mitten shape with fingers drawn on it, your thumbs sticking out 362

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and the other fingers together. Feel your toes, together in a bunch, just like the feet of a rag doll, where the toes are often just drawn onto a rounded, floppy, limp foot. That's right. And you know, rag dolls have no spine. Your back, shoulder, neck, head, all just relax and sink into the (bed, couch, chair), totally loose, totally slack, totally limp. You continue to breathe, and with each breath you feel every muscle in your body relaxing more and more completely, making your body all the more loose, limp, floppy, lazy. Have you ever looked at a rag doll's face? Eyes staring forward blankly, focused on nothing at all … mouth closed, formed into a friendly smile … feel your own face now taking on that form, staring blankly ahead, mouth closed and smiling. You continue to blink, of course, whenever you need to, but your conscious mind may even be unaware that you're doing that because it's receding further and further into the depths of trance while your mind is clear, open, and still. You are my rag doll. Now that you've created your rag doll, you can play with it. You can position its floppy arms and legs, or cuddle with it. A lot of rag dolls come with changes of clothes, so you could undress your rag doll and dress it up in something else or just leave it bare. If you do that, bear in mind that unlike the small rag dolls you can buy in the toy store a human rag doll tends to be heavy. If you haven't had practice at dressing and undressing unconscious people, you may find this a lot more difficult than you expect. A rag doll doesn't really stand up, though you can sit one on the floor and lean it into a corner. Whenever you move your doll's arms or legs they should just stay flopped wherever you put them.

Fuck Doll It's a fairly simple matter to upgrade your rag doll into a fuck doll. For purposes of this example, a fuck doll is the equivalent of one of those lifesized dolls that people buy to have sex with. It is basically a rag doll (or could be a rigid doll instead of floppy) with a few special features added. 363

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And now, it's time for my rag doll to transform into a fuck doll. A fuck doll has one purpose only, and that is for people to gratify themselves with it. (For a female-bodied fuck doll:) As I spread your legs open, imagine that center seam between your legs opening, ready to receive anything that I choose to insert into it. At the same time, the seam where your ass should be also opens, so that if I want to I can put something in there as well. And of course, as my fuck doll, your mouth should always be ready to be fucked. (For a male-bodied fuck doll:) A cock is no good to anybody if it's not hard, is it? So just imagine now that I'm unsewing the seam between your legs here and inserting a little air pump. As I pull and stroke on your cock, it activates the pump, and you feel fuckdoll blood flowing into your cock, getting it stiff and ready for me. Good. And since I've opened that seam, I'm going to sew it shut again but leave an opening over the anus so that you can be ready to receive … well, anything I choose to put in there. A fuckdoll's purpose, after all, is to be fucked, isn't it? (For either:) Feel your mouth now opening up, your lips forming a round O shape … that's right … and of course, those lips become the one part of your fuckdoll body that always remains stiffly in position, always ready to receive a cock and please it. Now you have a much more value-priced version of a Real Doll or similar blow-up toy, to be used for your pleasure (provided you have consent!).

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Puppets A puppet is a movable model typically used for entertainment. Some are worn and moved by the operator inside, while others are controlled by strings or wires or rods manipulated from above or below.

Marionette A marionette is a puppet that is controlled from above using strings or wires. In our case the strings are imaginary – you will be the one moving your puppet's limbs, head, etc. – but for someone who wants to experiment with giving physical control to another, the marionette is a fun way to do it. Start with your hypnotized partner either sitting or standing, as you wish. Now, as you relax your mind and body for me, I want you to imagine that you are becoming a marionette – a doll controlled by strings. All over your body, at every joint, at every limb, you feel a series of strings being attached to you. Those strings lead upward to a frame you can't see, where I can control every move of your body by tugging or relaxing the strings. Whenever I move your arm, leg, head, hand, foot … any part of your body, really, you feel the strings tightening and loosening, tugging and releasing, to make that movement happen. Your muscles remain relaxed, holding only enough muscle tone to hold whatever position the strings place you in. So when I move your arm like this (illustrate by moving an arm) you feel those strings lifting and pulling your arm into place and holding it there. That's right. And until I cut the strings, you remain like this, controlled by the strings, staying where I place you whenever I move you, relaxed and yet holding position. While you are my marionette, you continue to blink, breathe, and shift your weight as you need to in order to remain safely balanced and comfortable. You remain silent, and your eyes stare blankly in whatever direction your head is facing. 365

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When I tell you that I'm cutting the strings, you feel the strings falling away and your body relaxes; your arms, shoulders, neck,and head can drop down, and if you are sitting or lying down your legs can also drop; if you are standing you remain safely standing and balanced while the rest of your body relaxes. Now you can move your marionette around in any way you'd like, and they will feel the “strings” manipulating their body. Turn their head, move their arms, have them bow or kneel or walk or crawl, whatever you negotiated or what seems like fun. If you have more than one marionette, you can make them dance together or put on a play. As you move your marionette, mention how they can feel the strings pulling at them in that way to help maintain the sense of being a puppet on strings. This can also work very well with verbal commands, with a bit of rephrasing.

Action Figure Action figures are typically made with articulated joints, so they can be posed in any number of positions, but unlike the marionette there are no wires; the joints have enough friction built into them that when moved they remain in that position until you move them again. A lot of action figures have additional features built in. It's common for an action figure to have a button or a pull ring that you can activate to make the figure speak a phrase – usually a random choice from a list of phrases programmed into it. Some action figures have physical features, like Kung Fu Grip or a spring-loaded arm movement. Let's establish the basic action figure first, then add features. Start with your partner in trance. You are now my toy action figure. Imagine that your whole body is made of firm plastic, and every joint is articulated to allow me to move and position you in any way that I wish. Your arms, your legs, your neck and head, your jaw, your hands and feet, your shoulders and hips, all move only as I move them, and when I stop moving them they remain in whatever position I leave them 366

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in, still and holding. While you are my action figure you continue to breathe and blink normally, and you are always able to shift your weight or make tiny movements to make sure you remain safely balanced and comfortable. That's right. The initial setup is pretty simple, just establishing that they only move when you move them. It's always smart to emphasize that they can blink and breathe and shift as needed to stay safe and comfortable – nobody wants their doll breaking itself. Now let's give our action figure a few phrases. Action figures come in all different sorts, of course; you may want to specify that this action figure is a superhero, a ballerina, a ninja, etc. and assign phrases that fit the persona of the doll. For this example, we'll keep it generic. Because you are an action figure, you can be programmed with a list of action phrases. From now on, whenever you are an action figure, when I press the button right here (touch a spot somewhere on the body, usually the back or base of the head) you automatically respond by saying one of your action phrases. I'm going to give you three action phrases. Your first action phrase is, “I'm a dolly, play with me.” Since that is the only phrase you have right now, you say that automatically whenever I press your button. (Demonstrate by pressing the “button” a few times and making sure the doll responds with the action phrase.) Good. Your second action phrase is, “I want to make you happy.” Now that you have more than one action phrase, each time I press the button you automatically pick one phrase and say it. It doesn't matter which phrase you say, just the one that comes to mind first. (Demonstrate again by pressing the button several times. You should get each phrase about half the time.)

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Very good. From now on, whenever I add a new action phrase to your list, you choose any phrase from the list, either the new one or an older one, each time I press the button. Here is another phrase to add to your list: “Let's do something fun!” Add that phrase to your list now. (Try the button a few times. You should get a mixture of the new phrase and older ones.) Over time you can develop a lengthy list of action phrases, but you will have more success if you introduce them one at a time and practice them. Some action figures are also designed to either perform an action or respond to a specific action. Let's give our generic doll a couple of those features. You know, action figures sometimes have extra features built into them. From now on, you are one of those action figure dolls with extra features built in. I'm going to give you those extra features now. Whenever you are an action figure and someone presses your belly button like this (Demonstrate the press), you automatically giggle, like this: “Heeheehee.” Because you are a doll you may not actually feel any sensation of being tickled, but you always respond to that press on the belly button with “Heeheehee.” (Press the belly button and make sure you get the programmed response.) There is also a special spring-loaded mechanism built into your left butt cheek. Each and every time someone squeezes your left butt cheek like this (demonstrate), you instantly, automatically, stand up straight and tall, with your arms straight down at your sides, and stare straight ahead. You do this automatically, instantly, every time you are an action figure and someone squeezes your left butt cheek like this (demonstrate). Depending on what the persona of your doll is, you may select other actions that are more in theme with the doll. A ballerina doll, for example, might 368

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pirouette when you squeeze their shoulder; a soldier doll might salute when you poke them in the chest. You can spend a lot of time setting up your doll's action phrases and features, so it's fairly common to make this a recurring suggestion that you can use regularly, adding or changing features of the doll as you go. All you need for that is to designate a trigger that activates “action figure mode” and another to deactivate it again.

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Ventriloquist's Dummy A ventriloquist's dummy is a specialized type of puppet. If you're above a certain age, as I am, you may remember seeing a ventriloquist act on television or in a stage show; if not, you may have seen them parodied, or you have have no clue what I'm talking about. Just in case, I'll explain a bit. A ventriloquist is someone who can make it appear that their voice is coming from an object somewhere nearby. The classic ventriloquist act involves the actor and a dummy – a puppet, usually seated in the actor's lap or on a chair next to the actor, whose head and mouth are operated by the actor's hand. The actor plays the “straight” role, talking with the audience and asking the dummy questions; the dummy is the comedian, making wisecracks and (frequently off-color) jokes intended to shock and embarrass the actor. The art is in moving the dummy's mouth and making it appear as though the dummy is speaking independently of the actor, whose lips do not appear to move as the dummy speaks. Using hypnosis, you can eliminate the years of practice it takes to learn ventriloquism and go straight to the fun part, the show. Sit your hypnotized partner down in a chair, or in your lap if that's comfortable for you both, and set up the game: And now, you become my ventriloquist's dummy. A ventriloquist's dummy is a puppet whose body is loose and limp. So feel your arms and legs now going limp, loose, and lazy. Hands just flop into your lap, legs relax, knees relax, feet just dangling at the ends of your legs. That's right. Always able to remain safely seated, but until our act is over your arms and legs are just loose, limp, and floppy, unable to move by themselves. Good. I'm going to hold you by the back of the neck here. (demonstrate) By moving my hand this way and that, I can turn your head or raise and lower it. When I squeeze like this (squeeze), your eyes and mouth open wide. If I let go of you, your body relaxes and you stop speaking until I put my hand back there again. 370

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A ventriloquist act is a comedy act. When the act starts, we are going to sit here and have a conversation with the people around us. I will be leading the the conversation, and you will be listening. Like any ventriloquist's dummy, you are playful, bratty, wise-cracking, sarcastic, irreverent – you say things just to amuse yourself, that may shock or insult the people around you in a light-hearted sort of way. You interrupt anyone if you have a rude, or bratty, or playful remark that you want to make – in fact, you have to; the remarks just flow out of your mouth, unedited, uninhibited, whenever they pop into your mind. You continue to be my dummy, making wise cracks and trying to shock people, until I say that the act is over. As soon as I say that the act is over you drop all the way down into a deep, peaceful, trance and you cease to be my dummy any longer, completely back to your normal self and deeply, happily hypnotized. This one is a lot more fun if you have a partner who is a little snarky to start with and at least a few onlookers to be your “audience.” The sharper your partner's wit – and yours – the more fun you will have with this doll variant.

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Discussion Points 1. Doll play usually involves a lot of physical contact, and frequently involves moving people's arms and legs for them. What would you do to help improve the safety of your doll play? 2. What other kinds of dolls can you think of that would be amusing to emulate with hypnosis? What would your suggestions to the doll be?

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Exercises 1. Take a willing volunteer and turn them into the doll of their choice. 2. What action phrases and other features would you give to these types of action figures: Doctor Who (your choice which one) a firefighter a genie

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Memory Play The ability to manipulate memory is one of the most interesting things that hypnosis brings to the table. If you've ever seen someone hypnotized to forget their name, which is a pretty common trick in stage shows, then you've seen a taste of what hypnosis can do with memory and recall. Realizing that you've lost time or can't remember something that obviously happened, or watching someone experience that, can be erotic in itself for some people. For others, the fun lies in conspiring with their partner's subconscious mind to create surprises or set up scenes in which their partner is in the dark on some key piece of information. This chapter will get you started with some of my favorite memory play games. To dive deeper into what is possible with memory, I strongly recommend the book Hypnotic Amnesia by LeeAllure and DJ Pynchon. It's an extremely thorough treatment of how to induce amnesia and what you can do with it by two amazing hypnotists who are experts at memory play.

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Presenter Notes Memory play is a popular topic, and tends to draw people with all levels of experience. It's also something that people tend to get excited about. So you'll likely get a good audience for this topic. Memory play is so popular, and so much a part of some people's fantasies, that I've noticed a tendency for people to jump right into it when they are still new to erotic hypnosis. That's fine, unless they try something very advanced and then get discouraged because it didn't work the first time. That happens a lot with memory play because it requires a higher level of trust and belief than simpler games. So encourage those in your audience who are still in the early stages to start simple, make sure they've got a deep level of trust and belief, and work their way up to the more elaborate memory games. Because so much of it takes place entirely inside the hypnotee's head, it can be challenging to demonstrate memory play. People in an audience can't really tell what a demo volunteer is experiencing much of the time, so you have to do more explaining and hope that your demo partner is the expressive type. Also, you don't have a lot of time to develop trust and rapport with a demo partner that you pull from the audience, so elaborate memory games are very hard to demo unless you have a pre-arranged partner that you've worked with before.

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Hypnosis and Memory Before we delve into the mechanics of playing with people's memories, let's get a few things straight up front about what you can and can't do with hypnosis and memory. Memory is generally divided into two broad classes. Short term memory is the ability to hold a fact or concept in the mind and use it right away, for example to remember someone's email address long enough to type it into the To: line on an email or enter it into your phone. Short term memory is a function of the conscious mind; it has a very limited duration and requires some degree of concentration to sustain, which is why people keep repeating that email address until they can use it or commit it to some other medium. We are also very limited in how many things we can keep in mind at once – the famous rule of seven plus or minus two that we discussed in the chapter on confusion inductions. Long term memory is the ability to store information and retrieve it later. Anything that you've known for more than a few seconds is in your long term memory. Long term memory is a function of the subconscious mind. When we learn something (which is really what long-term memory is), it starts in the conscious mind and then gets handed off to the subconscious to store. A set of connections is made at the neurological level that codes that information, both the data itself and one or more connections to other, already known pieces of data. Those connections act like indexes and are used to retrieve, or recall, that information later when it's needed. The librarian who maintains those indexes and pulls up the answers when we need them is the subconscious mind. Forgetting is, in essence, a failure of the subconscious mind to retrieve information that had been stored in the memory previously. Science is still unclear on exactly how this happens. One popular theory (just a theory, not proven) is that patterns and connections that are not used tend to be overshadowed by newer ones, so that over time the information we do not access gets more and more difficult to recall. The indexes, if you will, get lost so the information can't be found. Sometimes a new experience creates new connections to those old patterns and they become accessible again, such as a 40-year-old vacationing in Mexico and suddenly starting to 376

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remember a lot of the Spanish they took in high school. Since it is the subconscious mind that handles the process of storing and recalling memories, you can use hypnosis to alter that function. Hypnotic suggestion can inhibit the subconscious from recalling something you want “forgotten” or store the memory of an experience that hasn't actually happened (the infamous “recovered memory” phenomenon). There are, of course, practical limits on what you can do with hypnosis and memory. A fundamental truth of memory play is that nobody ever really forgets something just because a hypnotist told them to. Those patterns and connections are still there in the brain; you've just gotten your partner's subconscious to agree not to retrieve them for the time being. Someone who wants to remember always can, eventually. Successful memory play requires a high degree of trust between the hypnotist and the hypnotee. The ability to learn and recall is a survival trait; trying to tamper with it can easily trigger resistance from the hidden observer. The stronger the trust you and your partner have established, the more willing their subconscious mind will be to let you mess with that vital function.

Tips for Effective Amnesia Suggestions The phenomenon of “forgetting” something as a result of a hypnotic suggestion is called hypnotic amnesia. As explained above, though, it's not really a loss of memory, just a conspiracy to prevent retrieval of the memory. As such, how you word the suggestion can help make it more palatable to the subconscious mind of your trance partner. A few things that I've found to be very helpful are: 1. Be very clear in your suggestion that the subconscious can always remember whatever it is, and they are simply agreeing to hide that memory from the conscious mind. I've found this to be effective for a very broad range of people, where telling them to “forget” often fails. 2. Make it clear that this request is temporary, and give a specific instruction as to when it is okay for the conscious mind to remember. 377

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The longer the time period you want them to “forget” for, the more trust you need from your hypnotee. Any permanent amnesia suggestion will end if the thing being “forgotten” suddenly becomes relevant or important to them. 3. Provide a positive suggestion on what to do if the conscious mind tries to remember, such as, “Each and every time your conscious mind tries to remember what we've agreed to hide, the memory stays hidden away in your subconscious mind, and instead the conscious mind only remembers something completely unrelated, like a TV commercial or a favorite TV show.” For most people memory play takes a bit of practice to master. If your hypnotee is new to it, start with simple, short-term memory games like Pop Quiz (below) and work your way up to longer, more elaborate scenarios.

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Pop Quiz This is a fun memory game that you can play either one-on-one or with a group. Because it is very short-term and innocent, it's usually a good place to start with someone who is new to memory play. Start by getting your partner into trance, and then set up the rules of the game: In a few minutes, I'm going to count to three. On the count of three you come completely out of hypnosis, wide awake, fully alert, and in the mood to play a quiz game with me. The game we are going to play is very simple. One of us will ask the other a simple, obvious question about themselves, something very direct like 'What is your name?' or 'Where do you live?' If the other person answers correctly, they get a point. If they don't answer correctly or can't remember the answer, the other person gets a point. The first one to reach 5 points is the winner. You really want to win this game, so you'll be very excited about playing. I will even let you be the first to ask a question. However, once we start playing the game, something very weird happens: each and every time I ask you a question, no matter how obvious or simple the question is, the answer to that question just disappears from your conscious mind. Your subconscious always knows the answer, of course, but the harder your conscious mind tries to find that answer and speak it the more you find that it just won't come to you – the answer is right there on the tip of your tongue but you just can't find the words. If someone else speaks the answer, to your conscious mind it's just unrepeatable gibberish that makes no sense. If you see the answer written down somewhere, it's just a meaningless jumble of letters to you instead of the answer. After a few seconds of trying to remember, you give up and admit that you don't remember the answer. This happens to you each and every time I ask you a question until the game is over. As soon as the game is over, your conscious mind is once again completely able to recall all of the answers that it was 379

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unable to remember during the game. It's important that you understand that your subconscious mind always remembers the answers to the questions I ask; it is only your conscious mind that forgets, and only for the few minutes that we're playing the game. If you are comfortable doing that with me, please give me a nice, big smile right now. (Wait for the smile.) Good. To make this more fun, I am also going to ask your subconscious mind to hide from your conscious mind the fact that we've agreed to keep it from remembering during the game. When you come out of trance your conscious mind believes that you have agreed to the game and that no other suggestions were given to you during your trance that would affect your memory. After we are through playing the game you can allow your conscious mind to remember everything we did in trance, but until then will you agree to keep this a secret between me and your subconscious mind? (Wait for some kind of affirmative response.) Good. Now, coming all the way back on three, conscious mind completely unaware of the agreements we've made on remembering. One, two, three... As you can see, the suggestions are worded very carefully to be reassuring to the subconscious mind and to make very clear that this is a temporary, short-term thing. That makes it a lot easier for an inexperienced hypnotee, or someone you've just met and are doing a demonstration with, to trust you and accept the suggestions. To play the game, just ask your partner a very simple, obvious question. Good ones to go with are things like: What is your first name? What city/town do you live in?

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How old are you? What is your job? Every once in a while I'll demo this at a convention and people will look at their name badges to get their name – that's why the part about “if you see the answer written down...” is in there. You can, of course, turn this into a less innocent game by altering the penalty for failing to answer. I've seen and played variants where a wrong answer required the person to remove a piece of clothing, or to drink a shot (not a great idea, as drunk people can't focus well enough to stay in trance), or to perform some kind of service for the person who asked the question. Use your imagination and have fun.

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Blank The most all-around handy memory toy that I've played with is the “blank” trigger. This trigger places your hypnotee in a blank state, where they do anything they are told (within their limits, of course) and consciously remember nothing at all that happens, even the fact that they were in a trance state at all. This can be used for all kinds of entertaining mischief. From now on, each and every time I touch you anywhere on your body while saying 'blank' you automatically, instantly become blank. While you are blank, your mind is completely passive, empty, idle. Your body remains exactly in the same position unless I tell you otherwise. You think nothing unless I tell you to think it; you do nothing unless I tell you to do it; you say nothing unless I ask you a question or tell you to speak. While you are blank you automatically obey any instruction that I give you immediately and completely, even as your mind remains blank. You remain blank until I say 'unblank'. As soon as say 'unblank' your mind goes back to its normal state, but your conscious mind is completely unaware of everything that happened while you were blank. Your conscious mind is always completely unaware that you were blank – to your conscious mind, it seems as if no time has passed. Your subconscious mind always remembers what happens while you are blank and always makes sure that you carry out any suggestions I give you while you are blank. Whenever I tap your hand three times and say 'recall' your conscious mind can then remember everything that has happened up to that point while you were blank. What this establishes, in effect, is a pause button for your partner's conscious mind. You can trigger the blank state, change anything in the environment that you want, and then when they unblank it appears to them that the change happened instantaneously, as if by magic. You can play all kinds of entertaining games with this. Here are a few that 382

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I've enjoyed.

Disappearing/Changing Clothes With the blank trigger established, try this: 1. Blank your partner 2. Instruct them to remove a piece of clothing and hand it to you, then resume their original position. 3. Hide the clothing out of sight. 4. Unblank. To your partner it will seem as if the piece of clothing suddenly disappeared. For an extra element of fun, suggest while they are blank that they had never been wearing that item in the first place, so they are completely nonchalant about it being missing. Hearing their conscious mind rationalize why they have been semi-nude all day is fun. For another amusing variant: 1. Blank 2. Have your partner remove a piece of clothing and give it to you. 3. Hand them a substitute piece of clothing that goes on the same body area and have them put it on. 4. Have them resume their original body position. 5. Unblank Now it appears and feels to them as if their pants (skirt, shirt, blouse, shoes, whatever) just magically changed while they were sitting there. At MEEHU 1, I was playing this game with someone when I realized that I had, without really thinking about it, packed several shirts that were identical except for color. (I had recently gone down a shirt size, so I'd 383

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bought a bunch of new shirts in the smaller size at the same time.) This gave me the idea to do this: 1. With my partner in mid sentence, Blank. 2. Take off my own shirt and put on a different-colored one. Also transfer my eyeglasses, pen, and name badge to the new shirt. 3. Unblank I did this a few times, changing colors every time she noticed the color change. For a grand finale, I kept the same shirt and she suddenly found herself wearing one of mine instead of her own.

Hypnotic Teleport This one is very simple in concept, but you have to use a little showmanship to really sell it. Tell your partner that you've been experimenting with using telekinesis – the ability to move objects with the power of your mind. It takes focus and concentration, but the movement is instantaneous. Then “demonstrate” it: 1. Make some kind of grand gesture, like arm waving. I often quote The Amazing Mumford: “A-la-peanut-butter-sandwiches!” and then Blank. 2. Memorize your current body position. 3. Move your hypnotee to a different location within the same room – a different chair, for instance, and preferably seated so they can see you. Have them resume their original body position. 4. Return to your original body position. 5. Unblank. To your hypnotee, it seems as if they teleported across the room in an instant. As I explained in Mind Play, you can also have a lapse in concentration and “accidentally” teleport their body without their clothes. 384

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Laying out the clothes so that they look as if the body disappeared from inside them helps sell the illusion. If you prefer a less theatrical approach, try this while you are sitting down somewhere having an innocuous conversation with your partner: 1. Blank 2. Move to a different seat 3. Unblank Do this without any preamble at all – your sudden shift in position is a complete surprise. Deny that it's happening – no, you've always been in that seat. Repeat until your hypnotee realizes you're messing with them, which tends to be pretty quickly unless you suggest otherwise.

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Memento This is my name for a technique that LeeAllure loves to use with regular play partners of hers. Lee credits the Doctor Who villains known as The Silence, but it also reminded me of the 2000 movie Memento. This is a good one to set up at the start of the day. From time to time during the day, I will do something that causes you to have an orgasm. It doesn't matter what that is, and it may be different each time. However, for today, each time I give you an orgasm, you fully enjoy that orgasm and then, the moment the orgasm is finished, your subconscious mind takes control and does two things for me: first, it causes you to take this marker, which you'll keep with you, make a hash mark on your forearm, and put the marker away again. Then, it takes the memory of that orgasm and of marking your forearm and hides those memories away in a box where only your subconscious mind can find it. Your conscious mind is completely unaware that you've just had an orgasm or marked your arm. In fact, your conscious mind ignores the hash marks on your arm and any physical sensations lingering from the orgasm; to your conscious mind it's as if that orgasm never happened. If anyone else happens to point out the marks on your arm, your conscious mind just says, “it's nothing” and changes the subject without even thinking about the marks at all. Every time you orgasm today; every time, you mark your arm with another hash mark and then hide the memory of the orgasm and the marking from your conscious mind. At the end of the day, when you undress for bed, then and only then does your conscious mind notice the hash marks on your arm. As soon as it does, you remember each orgasm from the day, in order, and as you remember them you re-experience each orgasm in rapid succession until you've remembered and re-experienced every orgasm from the day. As soon as that final orgasm of the day subsides, your conscious 386

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memories of everything that happened during the day return; the memories are out of the box and available to your conscious mind, and you can remember them again any time you want to. I'll admit I have a fondness for playing with suggestions whose effects build up over time, so when I heard Lee describe this I had to add it to my collection. You do have to be a little careful about using it, of course – have plans for the day that will make it easy for your partner to make the hash marks, but where having them will not generate a lot of attention. And since it may take a few days for the marks to fade, make sure they can wear longsleeved shirts!

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Mystery Trigger I love bratty subs. The playfulness of a brat appeals to the playful and mischievous side of my own nature, and the result is stuff like this: In a few moments, I will count from one to three. On the count of three you come completely out of hypnosis, fully awake, fully alert, feeling refreshed and energized, happy and content. You also have a distinct feeling that there is something about this session that you can't remember – that I've given you a trigger that is going to take effect later today, but I've also hypnotized you to forget what the trigger is and what it does. Throughout the day, you feel a growing sense of anticipation, wondering what the trigger is and what it will do. You will try to remember, but the more you try to remember what trigger I gave you and what it does the more you remember only that you can't remember because I hypnotized you to forget it. The harder you try to remember the more impossible it becomes to remember. That may frustrate you, or excite you, or arouse you, or maybe all of those things, and those feelings can get stronger and stronger the more you try, and fail, to remember what the trigger and its effect are. You get more and more preoccupied by the anticipation, the certainty that there is a trigger and the inability to remember it, wondering when it will take effect and what it will make you do, as the day goes on. You may ask me about it, but the more I deny placing a trigger the more convinced you are that I did. You remain this way, totally convinced that I've set a trigger for you that will take effect at some surprise time during the day or evening, totally unable to remember what it is or what it does, until I tell you that what I actually did was suggest that you believe you have a trigger, but not actually give you one. As soon as I explain that … (Insert a suitable reward suggestion.) The first time I did this with someone it was a long-distance play 388

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relationship so we only spoke on the phone. I must have gotten 30 texts on my phone that day, all variations on “What did you do?” For that partner, the idea that she might suddenly feel an overpowering urge to do something strange, possibly a little embarrassing, was a huge hot button. This inspired little bit of improvisation was one of the most diabolically satisfying things I ever did with that partner.

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Discussion Points 1. When would it be appropriate to ask your hypnotee to hide a memory permanently? What would be the possible repercussions of doing so? 2. Hypnosis can be used to create false memories as well as to hide real ones. What erotic uses could there be for creating false memories? What ethical and safety pitfalls can you think of in doing so? 3. Suppose you want to play a hypnotic game called Groundhog Day, where your hypnotee automatically repeats a series of actions over and over, realizing that they're repeating themselves but unable to stop doing it. How would you word the suggestions for a scene like that?

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Exercises 1. Establish the 'blank' trigger with a willing volunteer and play with it by changing things in the environment while they are blank. 2. Gather a small group of volunteers and play Pop Quiz with them.

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Transformations Transformation is a broad topic. For purposes of this chapter, a transformation is a hypnotic scene in which the hypnotee undergoes a temporary change in their personality, beliefs, or behaviors. We'll look at some of the classic transformation types and give examples on how they can be done.

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Presenter Notes Transformation is a topic that a lot of people are curious about, but relatively few hypnotists (at least in my experience) have actually explored in depth. It is a good topic for a workshop for intermediate to advanced hypnotists, and if you have a few enthusiastic demo partners on hand it can be a lot of fun to demonstrate different types of transformations. It's important when you do transformations to be extra aware of safety concerns. If someone is going to act like an animal, crawling on the floor or climbing on furniture, make sure they aren't going to abrade their knees on a rough floor and be there to spot them in case they slip while trying to climb up on a coffee table. (And make sure the coffee table can hold them.) When you can, use suggestions to limit the activities of your transformed partner – for instance, you might suggest that the animal is the type who loves to stretch and mew and pad around on the (carpeted) floor but has no interest in climbing the furniture.

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More Than Meets the Eye Hypnotic transformations are about altering the way someone thinks, behaves, and/or feels. In some ways you can think of it as creating a character as if for a role play, but then interacting with the character instead of taking them through a prearranged plot. As such, your suggestions for creating the transformation will focus on the aspects of that new character. When you are setting up a transformation, make sure that you provide suggestions to cover the various elements you will need: How the character thinks, feels, and behaves. A robot will be very mechanical and logical, probably intelligent; a bimbo will likely be bubbly and ditzy. Give as many specific, positive (Do X, not Don't Do Y) instructions as you can to help define the character. How the character interacts with other people in the area, assuming you intend to allow them to do so. This may be as simple as suggesting that anything others might say that doesn't seem to make sense they simply disregard. Your partner's limits will have a lot to do with these instructions, as you want to make sure anyone who is not aware of the parameters can't breach them. Appropriate safety suggestions. Acting out some types of personalities might introduce physical safety issues such as a desire to climb, jump, or do physical things the hypnotee's body may not be able to do safely. The hidden observer will prevent obviously harmful actions but there is a lot of room for unexpected consequences that the hidden observer is no better equipped to anticipate than you are. A specific trigger or action that restores the hypnotee to their normal self. Whether they remember what took place during the transformation or not may be a negotiated point. Transformations are often done as a sort of fantasy fulfillment game. There's nothing wrong with that, but it sometimes means that there is a temptation to push limits in order to embellish the fantasy. Be careful to 394

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stay within negotiated limits.

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Bimbo A very popular form of transformation is to turn someone into a bimbo – a ditzy, slow-witted, usually very oversexed person. Fans of this have even coined a name for it, bimbification. The word “bimbo” is usually applied to a female-bodied person, but the technique itself has little to do with anatomy and can be equally well applied to a male-bodied person. The male version is sometimes called a himbo, or a dumb jock, but for convenience in this example I'll use the word bimbo to apply to male- or female-bodied people. As you adapt the example to your specific partner, feel free to substitute their pronouns of choice for the neutral ones in the example. The stereotypical bimbo persona is overtly sexual, so it's important to negotiate carefully with your partner so that you understand what being a bimbo means to them. That will let you define the character so that its behavior meets your partner's expectations while staying within their limits and yours. In a few minutes, I'm going to count to three and have you return to your waking state. On the count of three you become fully alert, fully aware, but you are different from your normal self. When you come out of this trance, you temporarily become a bimbo. As a bimbo, you are far less intelligent than your normal self. You have trouble understanding complicated ideas or long words; these things confuse you. Talk about any complicated topic just seems like gibberish to you; you hear the words but the meaning completely escapes you. You find it hard to concentrate on anything unrelated to sex for more than a few seconds without feeling as if your brain is tired. This feels perfectly normal to you; it's how things have always been. People talk a lot about things you don't understand, and when they do you might get confused but you just shake it off and forget about it. A bimbo is very proud of their body and is always happy to draw attention to it and show it off. Bimbos wear revealing clothes and look for every opportunity to talk about their body, to ask people 396

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their opinion of their body, and show off their body. Bimbos enjoy being naked and jump at any excuse to take off clothes or flash someone. A bimbo has an extremely powerful sex drive. Bimbos crave sex all the time. Anything they hear that can be taken in a sexual way, they take that way, and they usually find it amusing enough to giggle at and repeat. Bimbos find everybody attractive and want to have sex with anyone they talk to. As a bimbo, you also know that you have the ability to get people horny by showing off your body and flirting with them, and that doing this makes people want to please you by doing what you ask, so you take every opportunity you can find to flirt with people, to make them aware of your sexy body, to touch them in familiar, intimate ways, and to proposition them for sex or for a favor you want. A bimbo only talks about things that are interesting to themselves, so as a bimbo you talk mostly about sex, clothes, fashion, and make small talk about the weather and the immediate surroundings. You are always eager to point out when something turns you on, and you are always ready to compliment someone on how sexy they look. While you are a bimbo, you stay near me and only interact with people that you already know or whom I tell you are okay. If anyone else talks to you or seems interested in you, you politely excuse yourself and come back to my side. You have that powerful sex drive, and you really do want to have sex with anyone you can, but before you actually go to have sex with anybody you must come to me first and ask my permission. No matter how horny you feel or how much you want it, as a bimbo you can only have sex with someone if you first get my permission. If I do not give you permission you accept that and tell the person that you will have to take a rain check and your sexual desire for that person fades away. While you are a bimbo, you are fully aware of everything you do, say, and think but to you this all seems like everyday, normal behavior. It is perfectly acceptable to be ditzy, to laugh easily, to be sexy and to want sex, to talk about and show off your body, to 397

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flirt and touch people, because that is what bimbos do. You remain a bimbo, acting and thinking as I've described, until I put my hand on your shoulder like this (demonstrate) and say, 'back to normal.' As soon as I do that you are no longer a bimbo; you think, talk, and act the way you normally do in your everyday life. You remember clearly and completely, easily and effortlessly, exactly how it felt to be a bimbo and all of the things you said and did as a bimbo, but you stop being a bimbo once I touch your shoulder like that and say, 'back to normal.' The structure of this example is pretty direct. First I define what a bimbo is – how a bimbo thinks, behaves, and talks to people. Then I add some safety parameters designed to keep my bimbo safe by limiting who they interact with and making sure they won't slink off somewhere to have sex with anyone who accepts their proposition. (The hidden observer would prevent this anyway, but I believe in showing my partner that I take responsibility for their safety at all times; it helps their subconscious to relax and let them play.) Finally, I give a clear signal to end the transformation. Depending on your partner's limits, my definition of how a bimbo behaves may not be appropriate. You will need to alter it to suit what your partner is comfortable doing in whatever environment you are playing in, and to accommodate any limits of yours as well.

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Robot Another very popular fantasy is to be turned into a robot. Like dolls, robots come in many varieties; make sure you know what sort of bot your partner would like to be, and what the characteristics of that bot are. A generic, service-oriented robot might be done like this: From now on, whenever I touch this spot on your back (demo) and say, 'robot mode activate', you automatically, instantly become my robot. As a robot, you think and act as my personally programmed robot servant. You move stiffly and deliberately, perhaps even feeling or hearing the gears and servos inside your robotic body smoothly rotating and flexing as you move. You speak in a flat, monotone voice. You speak in complete sentences and use formal, technical words like 'affirmative' for 'yes' and 'negative' for 'no.' You refer to yourself as 'this unit' and to me as 'controller.' As my robot, you are programmed to follow my orders to the best of your ability. Any task I instruct you to do, you do immediately. Nothing can distract you from completing the task I give you. In between tasks you remain by my side, waiting for your next instructions. The only actions you take without my instructions are those necessary for you to remain at my side as I move around, and whatever actions you need to take to fulfill my instructions to you. A robot has no emotions, so when you speak it is always in a very calm, monotone voice. You feel absolutely calm, clear minded, and unemotional the entire time you are my robot. A robot has no inhibitions or fears, so anything I instruct you to do you do immediately. If I instruct you to remove clothing you do it and feel perfectly normal and natural about it, because robots are not modest; a robot's body is just a thing designed to look and feel like a human's body. 399

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A robot has no independent thoughts of its own, so the only thoughts that go through your mind as my robot are those necessary to follow my instructions. If others engage you in conversation you speak only if it is relevant to the instructions you are following; otherwise you simply say a robotic “please excuse me” and continue with your current task. If I give you a task that is outside the physical limitations of your robot body, you warn me of the limitation and wait for further instructions. You only obey the instruction when I have modified it so that it is within the abilities of your robot body. You remain my robot until I press that spot on your back again and say, 'deactivate'. Once I do that, you return to your normal, everyday self in every way. You always remember clearly and completely everything that happened while you were a robot. This creates a very generic, service-oriented robot albeit with one specific instruction to encourage nudity. (After all, a topless wait-bot can be fun at a gathering of kinky friends.) You can use this as a starting point and then add additional “programming” for other purposes such as a sex bot, which is very popular. If your partner is skilled in singing, dancing, or playing an instrument you can easily turn them into an entertainment-bot who does those things.

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Animal Animal transformations are very popular. Usually it's a domestic animal, like a cat or dog. Sometimes an imaginative partner will want to be something more exotic. Animal transformations can be particularly tricky, so be careful. Find out what your partner's idea of the behavior of the animal is, and compare that with the physical capabilities of their body. Be on the alert for things that might cause accidental injury, like excessive crawling on a rough floor or rapid bounding across a room full of furniture. One very talented hypnotist I know told me of a time when she transformed a volunteer into a seal and had him jumping around the room, only to discover later that he had unknowingly abraded the tops of his toes to the point where they bled. The guy was having the time of his life, but then couldn't wear shoes for two weeks. Nobody intended that to happen, and nobody anticipated it; sometimes, when we get absorbed in anything, we don't foresee those sorts of consequences. Another special point with animal transformations: make sure that your instructions limit the “animal's” range of travel. You do NOT need someone acting out being an ape, for example, leaving the apartment and dragging their knuckles down the hall while you chase after them calling, “Sleep!” (That's only funny until it happens to you.) The most commonly asked-for animal transformation, especially with partners who identify as female, is the domestic cat. I happen to be extremely allergic to cats myself, but I am more than happy to indulge this fantasy in the occasional human. On the count of three, your mind and behaviors become those of a domestic cat. Cats are fastidious creatures, very clean, very neat, so as my cat you naturally spend a lot of your time cleaning yourself. Cats do this without any regard for decorum, so you freely lick your paws and stroke your body anywhere you feel like, anywhere that hasn't been stroked lately, to make sure you are always clean and 401

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well-groomed. Cats love to curl up next to a human and be petted. As my cat, you are always on the lookout for someone to stroke you and pet you. You rub your body against theirs to get their attention, make purring noises, and if you can you settle yourself on their lap to be petted and stroked. If the person does not respond, you can either become more insistent about getting their attention or you may move on to a different human, as you wish. Cats are easily distracted by laser pointers. While you are my cat, if someone shines a laser pointer anywhere near you, you become alert and chase the dot wherever it goes, as long as it goes somewhere you can reach without having to climb or jump on furniture. You do this instinctively, uncontrollably, any time you see the dot from a laser pointer. When they are not chasing a laser pointer dot, cats move deliberately, graciously, smoothly, crawling on all fours in a precise manner and at a dignified pace. (Optional, depending on the circumstances and your relationship with your partner:) Everyone knows that cats do not wear clothing. Any time you become my cat and find yourself wearing clothing, it feels wrong to you. Your paws and limbs move in whatever way they need to until you have removed all of that clothing. Once you are free of the clothing, you pile it up into a little pillow on the floor that you can curl up on while you clean yourself. While you are my cat, you remain in this room unless I tell you to go somewhere else, in which case you stay in the place I tell you to go until I call you back to me. You are only interested in the people and things in the room where you are; anything happening outside of that space you ignore. You remain my cat, acting as I've described, until I take you by the scruff of the neck like this (demonstrate) and say, “that's enough.” As soon as I do that you return to your normal, everyday self, no longer hypnotized, fully human again. You 402

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remember clearly and completely, easily and effortlessly, everything that happened while you were my cat. An alternative sort of transformation, popular with role-playing gamers and those who dislike crawling on the floor, would be to become a cat person instead of an actual cat. From now on, each and every time I squeeze your shoulder like this (demo) and ask, “What's new, pussycat?” you transform into a cat person. As a cat person you are human, but your personality takes on some of the traits of a domestic cat. You become very fastidious, wanting everything to look neat and clean, especially yourself. You frequently look in mirrors or reflective surfaces and check your hair, making sure it is neatly arranged, and your clothes, making sure they are neat and flattering. Any quick modifications you can make to your clothing to make you look sexier, such as undoing an extra button or removing an unnecessary item that covers you too much, you simply do without thinking about it Cat people crave physical attention, so as a cat person you naturally, automatically snuggle up close to people and rub your body against them to get their attention. You want and expect them to put their arm around you, to stroke and caress you, and if they do you purr with contentment. If they don't you try harder to get their attention or just move on to another person if you wish. Cat people are very sensual creatures. As a cat person you love the feeling of smooth caresses and soft fabrics against your skin. As with anything that you enjoy, feeling these things makes you unconsciously purr with contentment. When you move, your body moves very deliberately, and in ways designed to evoke sexual desire in those who see you. You let your hips sway as you walk. You make and hold eye contact with people as you walk by them in a flirty, sensual way. Because cat people crave physical attention you stay near me as much as possible, at least in the same room as me. You have no interest in answering the door or going outside as a cat person. 403

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You remain a cat person until I squeeze your shoulder again and say “back to human.” As soon as I do that you return to your normal self, no longer a cat person, though you remember clearly and completely, easily and effortlessly, everything that happened while you were a cat person. By taking the attributes of the animal and applying them to the human form, you can avoid some of the potential risks of doing a full-on animal transformation. And for some, that is quite enough to enjoy.

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Drugged Drink In all of the transformations we've done so far, the hypnotee has assumed a new temporary personality with different attitudes and behaviors from their norm. In this one, your hypnotee's persona remains the same, but they are overcome by the effects of an imagined drug. This is a very popular fantasy, particularly when the “drug” is some form of knock-out drops or date rape drug, and of course if your partner is interested in that sort of thing it's much safer (not to mention more legal!) than obtaining and using an actual drug. You can also use your partner's imagination to take a little dramatic license with how these things actually work. In a few minutes, I'm going to count from one to three. On the count of three you come all the way out of trance, fully awake, fully alert. For the time being, your conscious mind remains completely unaware of all of the suggestions I'm about to give you until I tell you that the game is over. Your subconscious knows and remembers everything, of course, but until I tell you that the game is over your subconscious can hide all of this information from your conscious mind, so that when the suggestions take effect it is a complete surprise to you. At some point this evening, I am going to hand you a drink. When I do, you automatically take the drink from me and begin to drink it, in a perfectly normal way, as if it is a commonplace thing. You drink it steadily, so that within a few minutes of my giving it to you the glass is empty. As soon as you put down the empty glass, the imaginary drug that I've placed in your drink takes effect. You begin to feel woozy, dizzy, as if you are very drunk. It seems hard to keep your balance, though you always manage to avoid falling or tripping. Your tongue feels thick, and if you try to speak you find yourself slurring your words like a drunk person does. Then you become increasingly sleepy.

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You realize that someone has drugged your drink, and that very soon you will be passed out and helpless. You come to me to tell me that someone has drugged you, and that you need me to help you. When I tell you that the person who drugged you was me, the drug completely overpowers you and you pass out in my arms. While you are passed out, your conscious mind is completely asleep, unaware of anything that happens. Your subconscious mind remains alert and aware, able to respond to my questions and assist me in moving your body as I need to. Even though your conscious mind is drugged and asleep your subconscious can always answer questions and can always say safe words when they are appropriate. You remain in that passed-out state, your conscious mind asleep and unaware while your subconscious remains aware and communicative, until I tell you to wake up. When I tell you to wake up your conscious mind becomes aware again, though it continues to feel groggy and woozy for several minutes as if you had a drug hangover. The drug that I give you is completely safe, and only affects you in the ways that I’ve described here. It never makes you feel sick or queasy, never has any effect or after-effect that you would find unpleasant. When we have finished the rest of our game, I will say that the game is over. Once I say that the game is over, your conscious mind can then remember clearly and completely, easily and effortlessly, all of the suggestions I've given you and all that happened while you were passed out. When you've accepted all of these suggestions and your subconscious has committed to following them so that we can enjoy our fantasy game, you can give me a nod. (Wait for the nod.) Thank you. One, two, three...

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The example is designed to simulate the stereotypical drugged drink scene, where your partner succumbs and then is carried about, used, or perhaps kidnapped as their fantasy and your limits dictate. By varying the suggestions you can instead simulate a marijuana high, a stronger-thanusual alcoholic buzz, or any number of other drug-like effects (such as the Lust Potion from Chapter 19). This is definitely edge play, even by erotic hypnosis standards, so negotiate clearly and carefully before you do a scene like this. You may notice that I do not actually name the drug, and there is a deliberate suggestion about it having no effects other than what is specified. This is important in general, and especially if your partner has any knowledge of pharmacology or real-world drugs with effects similar to what you are suggesting. The subconscious is quite capable of producing unpleasant symptoms that it believes should be present with Drug X, and the knowledge of those effects could trigger the hidden observer to object to the whole scene.

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Discussion Points 1. What are some of the things you would want to bring up in negotiations before doing a bimbo scene? A robot scene? 2. Your partner wants to do a drugged drink scene during an actual play party at a dungeon, and they want to be completely surprised when it happens. How would you negotiate this? Would you make any special arrangements with the dungeon staff?

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Exercises 1. With a willing volunteer, negotiate and then perform a transformation scene similar to one of the examples in this chapter. 2. Create your own animal (or animal-like human) transformation suggestions for the following animal types: 1. Dog 2. Gorilla 3. Snake

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Hypnotic Orgasms Mundane hypnotherapists are often judged by whether they can get someone to quit smoking or lose weight successfully. Erotic hypnotists tend to be measured by how good they are at giving people orgasms. Neither of those litmus tests is entirely fair, of course, but it pays to recognize them and be prepared.

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Presenter Notes How you present this is going to depend heavily on your audience. When I present “Kinky Human Tricks” at a Dark Odyssey event, where people tend to check their inhibitions at the door as a matter of course, it's easy to find volunteers eager to have an orgasm in front of a group. At an *EHU, it's hit or miss. In smaller groups, say less than 20 people, I have yet to get a volunteer from the audience for an orgasm demo. What I generally do is bring someone with me whom I know is okay with having a public orgasm or two for educational purposes; that way, if I don't get a volunteer I have someone I can turn to. Your venue also plays a role in how adventurous your audience may be. People having an orgasm tend to make some noise, and it's fairly distinctive noise. If your usual meeting place is the community room of someone's apartment building, expect some reluctance on the part of your audience. If you're in a dungeon, or a private space without strangers walking in and out, your audience will probably feel safer about letting their hair down. It's possible, I guess, to teach these techniques without actually demonstrating them but I don't think it would be very satisfying for anybody. An ideal format would be to describe the technique, demo it with a volunteer, and then have the class break up into pairs (or more) with partners they brought along for that purpose and practice it on the spot. You'd need a pretty uninhibited crowd for that, of course. If you can at least arrange a demo, people can take that home with them and practice in private.

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Foreplay With orgasms, as with so many things hypnosis-related, there's always more than one way to do it. People are different. Some people are like exotic sports cars, able to go from zero to screaming orgasm in a few seconds. You can do some really fascinating things with someone who can come quickly, recover quickly, and do it again and again. You can also get spoiled and start expecting everyone to be that responsive. To continue the vehicular analogy, a lot of people are more like the family sedan. They are fully capable of going from zero to orgasm, but it takes some effort to build up the momentum and doing it repeatedly uses up a lot of fuel. You can still do a lot of fun things with these people, but you'd be well advised to go for quality over quantity. In previous chapters you've already seen several ways to build someone up to the point of orgasm. Because hypnotically-induced orgasms are such a prominent topic, though, let's look at a few more.

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Come on Command The classic erotic hypnosis fantasy for a lot of people is to be made to (or to make someone else) orgasm instantly on command. If your play partner is one of those sports car types, you can probably get away with just: From now on, each time I snap my fingers and say 'orgasm now' you immediately experience a sudden, gripping, very pleasurable orgasm that stops you in your tracks until it subsides. Most people can benefit from a bit more preparation than that, though. The approach I usually take to come-on-command goes like this: Now, as you allow your mind to drift, blank and open, hearing the sound of my voice and allowing my words to become your reality, I want you to remember a time when you had a really strong, satisfying, memorable orgasm. Perhaps it surprised you by how good it was, how much pleasure it brought. And I don't know whether that especially good orgasm was one you had with a partner, or in a group, or perhaps from pleasuring yourself. It doesn't really matter; all that matters is that you let your mind choose that orgasm now. And when you have one in mind, give me a nice smile. (Wait for the smile.) Good. Now, allow your body's memory to really immerse itself in the sensations of that orgasm. Remember how aroused you felt at first, the pleasure you experienced. Remember the sounds, the tastes, the sensations. And of course the more you remember, the more easily your body can feel those sensations, that arousal, that pleasure, again now. Surround yourself with that memory now. If there's an image in your mind, bring it all the way in close; make it bold and sharp and all around you. If there are sounds, sounds you make or perhaps other sounds, bring them in close, hear them right next to you, right inside you. Whatever you felt during that orgasm, 413

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really let yourself feel that again now, in all its sensual glory. Your hypnotized mind is so powerful that it can actually reproduce all of the arousal, all of the pleasurable sensations, all of the desire that led to that wonderful orgasm … that's right, just like that … and it can even make that memory, those sensations, that arousal, that pleasure, stronger and stronger right now, stronger, more pleasurable, more arousing, more intense … (Keep suggesting increased arousal, pleasurable sensations, just like that wonderful orgasm only stronger, better, etc. Get ready to put your hand on their shoulder.) And you know, it's perfectly natural as your mind replays all that pleasure, all that arousal, making you so aroused again right now, that your body may want to have that orgasm again. It wants to have that wonderful, long, strong, surprisingly pleasurable orgasm all over again. And it can, but not yet. Not until I squeeze your shoulder and say 'come for me now' will those feelings burst out in a long, strong, wonderful, pleasurable orgasm just like that great orgasm you remember, only better and stronger and more pleasurable even than that one. (Keep suggesting increasing arousal, pleasure, erotic energy building, etc. until your partner looks ready to come. Include in your suggestions that they know they will come gloriously when you squeeze their shoulder and say 'come for me now' but not before. When they are clearly ready to orgasm, put your hand on the shoulder without squeezing.) Remember this feeling... (Now squeeze the shoulder.) Come for me now! (Let them enjoy the orgasm until it slows down, then continue.) Your mind is so powerful it can give itself an orgasm just like that, just by remembering and amplifying that memory. And now, you know that you can have that orgasm again and again and again, each and every time I squeeze your shoulder like that and 414

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say 'come for me now.' If someone else squeezes your shoulder and says 'come for me now' their words have no affect on you at all; only when I squeeze your shoulder and say 'come for me now' will you re-experience that wonderful orgasm you just had. Each and every time I use this trigger to give you an orgasm your body responds automatically, instinctively, immediately by reexperiencing all the arousal, all the pleasure, all the sensations, getting stronger and strong, bringing you back to orgasm as quickly as your body can experience it. Each time your body responds to me squeezing your shoulder and saying 'come for me now' the orgasm is longer, stronger, more enjoyable for you, more pleasurable. Any time you become aware that I am about to touch your shoulder your body stops in place to allow the touch; you may even find that just when I lay my hand on your shoulder, even before I've squeezed it and said 'come for me now,' your body gets tingly with the beginnings of arousal, and that's perfectly okay. (Lift your hypnotee's arm and hold it straight out/up.) And now, you can let your subconscious mind slowly lower your arm back down into its original position only as quickly as your subconscious mind completely accepts this new trigger and adds it to your permanent habits and behaviors, so that each and every time I squeeze your shoulder and say 'come for me now' you automatically, unthinkingly, instinctively, immediately have that wonderfully long, strong, pleasurable, intense orgasm. (Repeat until the arm comes down.) Very, very good. This way of establishing the trigger combines some NLP with the hypnotic suggestions. Putting your hand on their shoulder becomes an anchor that generates arousal even if you don't trigger them to orgasm right at that time. You can use that to generate anticipation in someone who needs more time to build up to their orgasm, so they have a head start when you do use the trigger. I also avoid putting too much emphasis on them immediately having the orgasm. Since a lot of people can't go from zero arousal to orgasm instantly, 415

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the wording gives them permission to let it build up and then come. With practice and reinforcement they'll find themselves responding faster and faster. Most people don't seem to mind putting in the effort to practice this one.

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Orgasm Gun In 1997 Trey Parker and Matt Stone released their movie Orgazmo, in which the hero's “orgazmorator” renders his enemies helpless by causing them to orgasm. (It's classic Parker/Stone, a hilarious send-up of the porn industry; if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and buy the DVD – you'll want to watch it more than once.) I borrowed that idea for a fictional story called “Play Time” (2000), which centers on a toy ray gun that has been hypnotically imbued with the same ability, at least for one of the characters in the story. And it's something I've used more than once in playing with people because it's so much fun to do. To use this technique, you'll need a prop. A toy ray gun that lights and makes sounds works nicely, which is why I use it in the example below, but that’s far from the only option. I've also been known to use a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver (I have a few different ones). If it appeals to you or your partner, you could instead point a Harry Potter-style magic wand at them and say something like, “libidinous!” In a moment, I'm going to count to three. The next time I count to three, I want you to open your eyes while remaining deeply in trance, and focus your gaze on the object in my hand. One, two, three. (Hold out the gun and point it at them.) When I fire this toy gun at you, notice how it looks and sounds. (Fire the gun the same way you intend to when you use it.) Commit to memory now how that looks and sounds, and then close your eyes again and just let yourself drift deeper. Good. When I fired that toy gun at you a moment ago all it did was light up and make sounds; it had no effect on your mind at all. From now on, though, any time I point this toy gun in your direction and fire, in your mind it shoots a ray that strikes you and envelops your body in a glowing burst of powerful erotic energy. When I point this toy gun in your direction and fire, that energy envelops your body and penetrates it from all sides, bringing with it overpoweringly intense feelings of arousal, as if the glow were 417

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stroking, caressing, kissing, licking you in every delicious, erotic way you can imagine, in every place on your body where it feels so good to be stroked, caressed, licked, or kissed. The erotic energy, the sudden overwhelming erotic pleasure, is so powerful that it completely distracts you; you stop whatever you are doing, your thoughts are completely derailed by the sudden burst of arousal. You may even find that your knees get weak and wobbly, so that you need to sit down or steady yourself, the erotic burst of energy is that powerful, that distracting, that overwhelming. Imagine how that feels, how your body reacts to that sudden, overpowering arousal. Each time I shoot this toy gun at you, the erotic energy ray strikes you and that incredible, arousing energy overpowers you, and it lingers with you for at least 10 seconds. For at least 10 seconds all you can do is feel that arousal, wallow in it, let it get stronger and stronger and stronger, pushing out every other thought from your mind, interrupting anything you may have been doing or thinking at the time. If I shoot you again during those 10 seconds, you feel a new burst of that erotic energy combining with the first one, twice as powerful, twice as arousing, twice as distracting. If your hands are free you may be unable to resist the urge to touch yourself, caress yourself; you absolutely need to sit down, or lie down, or slump to the floor in a way that is safe. And each time I shoot you with the gun while you're already feeling the arousing effects, the new burst of energy is twice as powerful as the one before it, twice as arousing, twice as distracting, twice as overwhelming, and lasts at least 10 seconds. Now obviously if I keep shooting you with the gun while you're already helplessly, overpoweringly aroused, unable to stop yourself from caressing and touching yourself while you focus all of your attention on how aroused you've become, you will very quickly be so overcome with arousal that you simply have to orgasm. When that happens, you do orgasm, and your orgasm is unusually strong, extra long, extra satisfying, and leaves you breathless and blissful. If I happen to shoot you with the gun while you're having an orgasm the orgasm doubles in strength, doubles in length, doubles in intensity. 418

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The more I shoot you with this orgasm gun the more automatically, irresistibly, powerfully it affects you. The more you try to resist the feelings of arousal from that energy, the stronger it gets and the more you realize you have to succumb to it. (Raise your partner's arm in front of them to shoulder height.) Now, imagine yourself being shot with the orgasm gun. Imagine how it feels, overpowering you with arousal, arousal that pushes everything else out of your mind, stops you in your tracks, makes your knees weak and your body quiver. Imagine it getting stronger and stronger each time I shoot you. Imagine yourself getting so aroused that you orgasm loudly, hard and long, helpless to contain it. And when you're subconscious mind has fully accepted this response, installed this response as a permanent reaction to me shooting you with the gun, you can allow that arm to lower back into your lap. (Bring your partner out of trance and shoot them a few times.) This technique is different from come-on-command in that a single use of the trigger isn't likely to cause an orgasm, but several in quick succession will. That's good for those who need some build-up to get to a state where they can have a really good orgasm. With practice you'll find that they start getting to orgasm more quickly, with fewer uses of the gun.

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Brain Massage This one started as an improvisation that I did when playing with someone at The Society in Hartford, CT. We had so much fun with it that I've started using it in other play sessions, and Chew Toy actually turned it into an induction for a recording on his site (http://www.gentlybitten.com). Now, to really relax you, I want you to imagine something a little strange: I want you to imagine that I can actually reach inside your head and massage your brain. You know how wonderfully relaxing a massage can be … skilled hands working on every muscle, every joint, working out every bit of tension and tightness. Imagine how good it can feel right now to have my fingers skillfully, gently massaging the various parts of your brain and how easily that can cause your brain to completely relax. Let me start in the frontal lobe, where your brain does most of its conscious thinking … where it plans, organizes, solves problems, pays attention. As my fingers gently caress the folds of your brain, smoothing it out, relaxing it, notice how that judging, analyzing part of your brain just drifts off into a restful sleep. Planning, organizing, problem-solving … they can all be done another time. You can even begin to notice how it is more and more difficult to pay attention to anything in particular … Ideas that float into your head just seem to float right back out again … that's right. And now, as I move on to the motor centers, notice how with every stroke of my fingers your muscles relax. Your arms and legs get heavy, loose, limp and floppy, like a rag doll's, as the part of your brain that controls them relaxes into sleep. Very good. You may even start to become less and less aware of your physical body, as the part of your brain that keeps in touch with it relaxes and sleeps, and that's perfectly okay. Your body is safe and secure.

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Moving on now, feel my fingers beginning to stroke and caress the emotional center of your brain, where all off that stress, tension, worry, anxiety, frustration resides. Imagine every stroke of my fingers releasing more stress, more tension, more aggravation, more worry, frustration, anxiety … feel it all dropping away as the emotional center gets smoothed out, relaxed, soothed. And in place of those other emotions, the massage brings on a profound feeling of calmness, happiness, even bliss. Just like that. Now, imagine my massaging fingers stroking the language center of your brain. My fingers reach in and caress, soothe, smooth out that area, and as I do all that inner dialog that you were having breaks up into phrases … the phrases break up into words … the words break up into individual letters … and the letters just fall away as the language center of your brain relaxes so deeply under my touch … that's right … leaving nothing behind but stillness, quiet, calm. Finally, let me just move a little further over and massage the pleasure center of your brain. As my fingers caress, stroke, soothe, and relax the upper areas of your pleasure center you can feel a steady flow of endorphins entering your system. The endorphins quickly circulate throughout your body, making you feel so blissful, relaxed, happy, content … and the more I stroke, caress, soothe, massage the more of those endorphins get released, and the more you feel bliss … contentment … maybe even a little high. Yes, like that. But you know, deeper down inside your pleasure center is that spot that controls your sexual arousal and pleasure. Imagine me now, massaging more deeply, finding that arousal spot, that pleasure spot, and stroking it … caressing it … working it in every delightful way. Feel the sudden onrush of arousal that causes, powerful arousal, getting stronger and stronger with each and every stroke of my fingers on that part of your brain. The more I stroke, the more aroused you become, as if I was directly stroking your (insert appropriate erogenous zone) in the most perfect, pleasurable, arousing way. 421

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That's right, feel that pleasure and arousal growing, building, intensifying, more and more as I continue to stroke deeply into your pleasure centers. Stronger and stronger, more and more pleasure, more and more arousal, building and building, getting you closer and closer to a beautiful, powerful, incredibly satisfying orgasm. (Continue “stroking” until your partner has an orgasm.) This does not have to lead to orgasm, of course; you could do the brain massage and just induce a pleasant, dreamy, blissed-out feeling without pushing the arousal/orgasm buttons. Chew Toy's induction does that. I should also point out that I've taken a lot of liberties with brain anatomy here. Unless your partner is a neurobiology geek, they probably won't care.

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Five-Point Palm Exploding Orgasm Technique This trigger is by far my favorite orgasm-inducing technique. It was inspired by the movie Kill Bill: Volume 2 and its famous Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. Before using this on someone, make sure you have consent for touch. You'll need to be able to touch on the chest roughly over the heart, and in my experience you will likely need to hold on to your partner to keep them from falling out of their chair or dropping to the floor when you use the trigger. A master of martial arts once taught me the legendary Five-Point Palm Exploding Orgasm technique. I'm going to show you how it works and give you a delightful, intense, extremely pleasurable orgasm. Will that be okay with you? (Get some kind of positive response.) Here is how the technique works. When this technique is used on you, nothing in the world can stop you from building up to a powerful, intense, satisfying, extremely pleasurable orgasm. To perform the technique, I touch you like this. (Touch them over the heart with your extended fingers five times, turning your hand slightly between each touch. Sometimes a hypnotee's subconscious will cause them to feel the vibrations and experience the affects while you're describing them. If that happens just go with it; the trigger will still be implanted and they'll have already experienced the result.) When I touch you that way, it sets up a series of vibrations within your body. Those vibrations start at your erogenous zones, teasing and tantalizing your body into an instant state of sexual arousal. But the five-point palm technique affects the entire body, not just your genitals. The vibrations quickly spread, getting stronger and more pleasurable with each breath you take, until 423

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every party of your body is feeling arousing, erotic tingles that just keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Your mind becomes so distracted by the sensations that all you can do is focus on how aroused you are and notice how you get more and more aroused, feeling more and more pleasure, every second, with every breath. Those vibrations keep getting stronger and stronger and your arousal builds and builds, doubling and doubling, no matter how hard you struggle to control it. The harder you struggle against the arousal the more powerfully those vibrations affect you, stimulating you in every part of your body in the most incredibly arousing way you can possibly imagine. The harder you try to resist becoming more and more aroused with each breath, with each second, the more overpowering that arousal becomes. (If your partner is experiencing the arousal now, slow down as you go through the next part. Mention the orgasm only when they are ready to give in and come.) The vibrations flow through your whole body, from the top of your head down through the tips of your toes. Every part of your body gets aroused, including your mind. You find that the vibrations keep getting stronger and stronger, the arousal continuing to build, overwhelming and overpowering, until your entire body gives in to a fantastic, powerful, full-body orgasm that brings you the most intense pleasure you ever thought you could feel. The orgasm lasts and lasts until your body is completely satisfied, completely spent. Only when you've come as much as you can do the vibrations subside, leaving you feeling blissful, happy, and absolutely satisfied. (If your partner just had an orgasm, give them a minute to recover before you continue.) Each and every time I use the five-point palm exploding orgasm technique on you the effect is stronger, more compelling, more pleasurable than the time before. Any time you notice that I am about to use the technique on you, your body freezes in place, unable to duck or block me, because your body craves those orgasms and you know how good they make you feel. 424

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When your subconscious has accepted these suggestions and made them into a permanent part of your habits, beliefs, and behaviors, you can give me a nice, big smile. Again, this allows the orgasm to build as rapidly or as slowly as your partner needs it to. While they are feeling the vibrations, you can give them additional suggestions to promote a more satisfying response. I will often suggest that the sound of their own moaning or the squirming of their body, if they do that, only makes the arousal more powerful. Over time, repeated use of this trigger does seem to result in training the hypnotee to orgasm more quickly. The touch gesture that I use involves having my hand spread out and fingers curved, as if reaching to turn a very large knob or dial. The exact sequence of touches doesn't matter as long as you do it consistently; my usual method is to do the five touches and turn my hand just a little between each touch, like opening a safe: center-right-center-left-center.

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Enabling Tantric Orgasm This technique was inspired by a play session with LeeAllure. Lee is one of the very few hypnotists who have blanket permission to play with my mind. When it comes to orgasmic hypno-play, many male-bodied hypnotees are at something of a disadvantage. For most male-bodied people, the emotional/neurological phenomenon of orgasm is tied to the biological process of ejaculation, which then in turn leads to a refractory period during which it is very difficult for them to get physically aroused again. That makes it difficult to give that hypnotee multiple orgasms in the same scene. Fortunately, hypnosis has an answer for this. Using hypnotic suggestion, it is possible to teach a male-bodied person to have all the emotional and many of the physical sensations of an orgasm without ejaculating. This is often called a dry orgasm or a tantric orgasm. Someone taught to do this can orgasm frequently and intensely with no refractory period to deal with. One way to enable tantric orgasms in a partner is to use the Control Room metaphor from Chapter 16: And now, (hypnotee's name), imagine a long, sloping corridor leading into the deepest parts of your mind. Sloping gently down and to the right, we can follow this corridor all the way to the core of your being. Now just imagine that right here, near the end of the hall, is a door marked “Control Room”. If you listen closely you may even hear the hum of machinery beyond the door, an industrial sort of sound, busy, smooth. The door is locked, of course, because the things behind it are so important, but it always opens for you. Imagine now opening the door and entering the control room of your body and mind. The room is filled with panels of controls, each marked with its function. There's one for body temperature, one for respiration, for heartbeat, for metabolism, for stress levels … anything your mind controls, which is everything in your body and mind, has a control panel in this room.

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Everyone's control room is different, of course. I can't tell you what the panels look like, or what style of controls are on them, but you can notice this yourself as you survey the room. However the room seems to you, in your imagination, is right. In your imagination, move through your control room now and locate the panel that controls your sexual response. You'll notice a readout indicating your current arousal level, various knobs, sliders, and switches for enabling your erogenous zones and making them more and less responsive to pleasurable stimulation. And somewhere on that panel, you can locate a control for your orgasm response mode. This control determines whether you ejaculate when you orgasm or not; it may have settings for Always, Never, and When I Want To. Or it may be labeled in some other way. Locate that control, and describe it to me please. Let your hypnotee describe the control. Responses will vary greatly, of course. Some will describe a dial with the three settings you suggested; for others it will be a switch, or a slider. As long as there is a setting equivalent to “When I Want To” you can proceed something like this: Great. Now, just take that control and move it to the When I Want To setting. As you do, you may feel a shift inside, as your subconscious mind alters your orgasmic response so that you can choose whether or not to ejaculate when you orgasm. And once you've made that change, and you feel inside that the change is done, you can give me a nod. Sometimes, your hypnotee will tell you that they have no such control, that the control is stuck, or that they only have one setting (usually Ejaculate). If that happens, you have a couple of options: You can suggest that there is a box on the shelf with a new orgasmic response control, and all of the tools they need to properly install it. Have them open the box, remove the old control, and install the new one, which of course has the When I Want To setting on it. The control is easy to install; it plugs into the panel with a simple wire connector that can only fit one way, so they can't make a mistake. Then, with the new control installed, they can set it for When I Want To. 427

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If their description of the control is more computer-like, tell them that they can upgrade the software in the panel to enable the orgasm response control. Have them pick up a USB stick, software DVD, or other metaphor that works for their mind and install the software update. After the update installs, the orgasm response control is present and can be set. If they are as geeky as I am, there may be a keyboard and display screen on the panel. If so, you can have them enter a command (or write a script) to enable the When I Want To ejaculation response and save the configuration change. Once you've established a control and enabled it, explain what the change has done: From now on, you can orgasm easily, naturally, and you can ejaculate if that's what you want to do at the time. But you also have the ability to orgasm in your mind, in your brain, in your body, but without ejaculating. When you orgasm this way, you feel every bit of the pleasure, every bit of the excitement and the rush and the feelings throughout your body that you've always experienced with an orgasm except for ejaculating. As a result, you can be delighted and pleased to discover that your body can easily become aroused again, even right away after an orgasm, and you can orgasm again much sooner than you could if you chose to ejaculate. You can orgasm intensely, frequently, as often and as hard as you want to, and then when you want to have that physical release of ejaculation you can have it, or not, as you choose. Once you've established this with a male-bodied partner, exercise it right away – use one of the other techniques in this chapter, or another one of your choosing, and give them an orgasm. Then, when it would normally be too soon after an ejaculatory orgasm, do it again. With practice the tantric orgasms they experience will be every bit as powerful, explosive, and satisfying as the ejaculatory ones.

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Discussion Points 1. Hypnotists take different approaches to orgasms, as they do everything else. What is your preferred approach to inducing an orgasm – quickly, or slowly? Touching, or not touching? 2. Suppose you are doing a scene in which you have negotiated bringing your partner to orgasm hypnotically but did not discuss touching. As their arousal get stronger and stronger, you hear them ask, “Please touch me!” What do you do?

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Exercises 1. Find a quiet, private place and bring yourself to orgasm using selfhypnosis and as little touching as possible. 2. With a willing partner, practice one or more of the techniques in this chapter.

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Advanced Lessons

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Dual Inductions and Co-Topping Perhaps the ultimate in confusion inductions is what is technically called a multi-evocation: two or more hypnotists working in concert to induce trance in one or more hypnotees. I like the term dual induction because it's less pretentious-sounding and covers the most common case (two hypnotists). The combination of two voices, saying seemingly different things at the same time, is both fun and highly effective for almost everybody. And when you've got two hypnotists, it's perfectly natural to explore some of the dynamics of co-topping.

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Presenter Notes People seem to really enjoy this topic, so be ready to have fun with it. You'll need a co-hypnotist, even if they're not a co-presenter. It's better if you and your co-hypnotist practice together a few times so that you have a feel for each other's rhythm and language. It'll make it easier when you do inductions in front of an audience. Note that you do need at least a moderate level of experience to do this well – ideally, enough that you can improvise an induction and adjust your wording to blend in with your co-hypnotist. New hypnotists are often intimidated by that and tend to worry about going blank in the middle of the induction. The nice thing about this technique, though, is that it's pretty hard to screw up – no matter what you and your partner are saying, as long as it isn't the same thing you'll achieve the confusion effect you're looking for. When I present this at an *EHU, my co-presenter and I generally do several demonstrations, showing the technique and then variations on it. That fits easily into an hour, but if there's more time the best way to spend it (in my opinion) is to let your audience break into threes and practice it. It's pretty common when discussing dual inductions to start getting questions about co-topping. That's why the co-topping material is in this chapter. You don't have to present them together, of course, but they do seem to go together.

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Two Hypnotists Are Better Than One The dual induction is a technique in which two or more hypnotists work together to put someone (or multiple someones) into trance. The concept is very simple: each hypnotist speaks at the same time, using a different spoken induction. Because the conscious mind is single-tasking, it can't process both sets of words simultaneously; it has to choose one to focus on at a time. While your hypnotee's mind is listening to Hypnotist A, processing that induction, everything that Hypnotist B says goes straight through to the subconscious. When the hypnotee's attention shifts to Hypnotist B, everything A says gets a direct path to the subconscious. The result is the mother of all overload effects. A dual induction is a lot of fun for the hypnotee. Most people drop into trance very quickly and very deeply, even if they've never been hypnotized before, thanks to the powerful confusion/overload element of multiple voices. It can also be a lot of fun for the hypnotists, as they develop rapport with one another and start playing off each other. That rapport comes in very handy in a co-topping scene. There are some situations where it is better not to do a dual induction, though. If your play partner is a very anxious type, or someone who gets agitated by overload situations, a dual induction is a bad idea. If they are comfortable with a standard, seven-plus-or-minus-two type induction, then they can probably handle this technique.

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Dual Induction Technique In its simplest form, a dual induction is simply two independent inductions happening at the same time. For this purpose it's best if the inductions are primarily spoken – I'll explain more about this after the example. If we assume one hypnotist on the left and one on the right, a typical dual induction might go something like this: Hypnotist A

Hypnotist B

Just relax now, and let your mind empty itself. As I count down from 10 to 1, imagine that with each number I count you become twice as relaxed, twice as calm. And I don't know at precisely what point you'll pass from simple relaxation into deep trance, but it really doesn't matter when you do it because trance is a perfectly natural, normal thing to do, isn't it?

I wonder if you can imagine yourself, as you look to me standing beside you, in your mind's eye. Noticing how relaxed you look, how still you feel, how quiet your mind becomes. And as you think about that, you can do whatever it takes to make yourself appear even more relaxed.

10, imagining a wave of relaxation starting at the top of your head and moving down to the tips of your toes.

You may even imagine that your body is entering a sort of suspended animation … suspended animation in a warm, comfortable, safe place

9, another wave, twice as relaxing, just flowing so easily down, and down.

Your mind drifting free of the body, so easily now, as the body relaxes

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8, so easy, so natural, to relax, to let go

And you may begin to notice as you drift freely

7, twice as relaxed, that's right … you're doing perfectly

How wonderful it feels to be so in touch with your inner self,

6, another wave of relaxation, noticing how easy it is for your mind to drift, to float.

Your real self. Hearing our words and allowing them to mix and mingle in your mind,

5, twice as relaxed again, feeling the difference in those arms, those legs, as they relax and get loose, limp, lazy.

Jumbling together, swirling around, chasing out every conscious thought as you relax more and more.

4, noticing how your breathing just naturally slows down, your thoughts slowing down, relaxing away, drifting on down...

Those arms, those legs, that body, so far away now, connected but distant, as you drift in your own energy.

3, twice as deeply relaxed, getting ready to let it all go, all the way down,

And it's okay now to let your body be … just be … to spend this time, your time, to really become aware

2, feeling so good, so relaxed, so drifty and dreamy, and wondering how good it will feel to relax twice as deeply again on

Of your inner self, your true self, that self that knows how good it can feel to drift and dream,

1, that's right. So deeply relaxed, so focused, so ready

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to let your mind open up and just let it all go

may bring, open to letting your conscious self go

NOW

NOW

On the left, we have a brief countdown-style relaxation induction. On the right, something a little more imagination-based, with a dissociative theme to it. In the middle, befuddled into a nice, deep trance, we have the hypnotee(s). Just reading the two scripts simultaneously at more or less the same pace is enough to achieve the end result for a lot of people, but if the two hypnotists are skilled enough to work without a script (which I always encourage), they can enhance the experience by working together. They can pick words and phrases from each other's speech and use them, either in the same sense or a different sense. They can coordinate their pacing so that they are both talking at the same time as much as possible. And for a truly delightful effect, when they note the hypnotee starting to drop, they can coordinate so that they finish together with a simultaneous “NOW” and watch the hypnotee's head drop. Most spoken inductions work well as part of a dual. A couple of caveats apply: An induction that requires the hypnotee to follow a lot of directions is probably not a good choice, since they are not going to be listening to you for some of the time and will therefore miss directions. An instant induction, which is usually a physical jar or jerk of some sort, doesn't blend well with another person's spoken induction. With dual voices trance sets in quickly, so an induction that takes several minutes to unfold (like a seven-plus-or-minus-two variant) will be harder to work with and is likely to get cut short. 437

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Pacing and leading works nicely as part of a dual induction, as do short relaxation inductions and Ericksonian metaphors. If you both want to count, have one count down while the other counts up.

Variations Once you have the basic two-person technique down, you can have fun trying a few variations on it. For an extra zing, try adding spatial movement to the dual voices. I love sitting a hypnotee or two in chairs, then having my co-hypnotist and myself walk around them in circles as we do the dual induction. In addition to the dual voice confusion you get spatial confusion, and a sense of being sucked down into trance by a verbal whirlpool. If you have limited moving-around room, you can put one hypnotist in front and one in back. Then, as you do your inductions, lean alternately left and right, always keeping the hypnotee's head between you (so one of you leans to the hypnotee's left while the other leans to their right). Change positions every few seconds, and your hypnotee will get an interesting rocking sensation even though they're sitting still. You can also add a kinesthetic element by having one or both of you stroke an arm, shoulder, leg, or side of the face as you speak. The sensations of touch, whether you touch in unison or not, will add to the confusion and overload. There is no reason to stop at two hypnotists. One of my first co-topping scenes was one in which I, Lady Ru'etha, and our friend Sweets tripleteamed my wife-to-be Dani to drop her into a deliciously deep trance and give her a mind-blowing orgasm. This is truly a case where the more the merrier. Similarly, these techniques work just as well with multiple hypnotees. It may require more movement to do the spatial variations, but it's all quite viable. At NEEHU 6 LeeAllure and DJ Pynchon put an entire room full of people into trance by walking around the room in circles, opposite each other, while speaking different inductions.

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After the Induction Once your trance partner is hypnotized, you can continue to use both voices to give suggestions and/or play out the scene. Depending on what you want to achieve, you can decide how to blend the two hypnotist voices (or not). If your scene is primarily based around creating an emotional state, such as arousing someone to the point of orgasm, then one very powerful way to do that is for both hypnotists to keep going the same way they did for the induction. Two separate sets of suggestions with the same goal, spoken at the same time, can be used to bombard the hypnotee's mind and produce a very intense experience. Weave your words together, playing the phrases across, and that effect only gets more powerful and interesting. Or, you can have one giving suggestions for a particular emotional state or goal while the other gives suggestions that deepen, or that are aimed at increasing the feeling of being overwhelmed, overpowered, unable to resist, etc. You can also start to alternate voices, with A speaking a sentence or suggestion and then B either echoing it or adding another. Doing this well demonstrates that A and B are in sync with one another, a dual entity, and that can add depth to some kinds of scenes. If you do this, both hypnotists have to know where the scene is going so they can both contribute to getting it there. See the notes on co-topping that follow for some specifics. You can also simply have one hypnotist drop out and let the other one do the suggestion work. This is perfectly valid and makes sense if one of the hypnotists is the primary partner of that hypnotee. In that case the other hypnotist is in a supporting role, so the primary partner should do most of the suggesting. The other hypnotist may want to add quiet, background suggestions about submitting to the primary (using their name).

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Co-Topping Co-topping is a BDSM concept that we can apply to erotic hypnosis even when there is no BDSM-like content in the scene. It is simply two or more dominants running a scene together with one or more submissive partners. There can be some challenges in co-topping. For starters, communication is vital because the more people you add to a scene the more opportunities there are to miscommunicate or misunderstand each other. Every voice needs to be heard in negotiations, and everyone's needs, wants, and limits need to be voiced and respected. When two or more tops are running a scene, they have to be in good agreement as to what the scene is about and how they expect it to unfold. The two dominants' styles may be very different, so they need to work out how they will mesh them to create a good scene for everyone. With those challenges, though, come some very satisfying benefits. Cotopping is a great way for a less experienced top to learn from the more experienced one, picking up tips and tricks they can use when they play with others. Two skilled tops can play off each other, generating more energy that adds passion and power to the scene. Co-topping also creates opportunities to bring different skill sets into the scene. For example, one top might be a skilled hypnotist and the other a skilled rope top. The hypnotist can entrance the bottom and then “freeze” them and whisper arousal and submission suggestions in their ear while the rope top binds and flies them, and perhaps trigger multiple orgasms while they are suspended. There are also benefits for the bottom(s). They feel that increased energy that the co-tops are generating and join into it. For those that enjoy being objectified, two tops can talk about the bottom as if they were not present. They can also combine their abilities to overload the bottom with sensations, for example by one using hypnotic suggestion to control the perception of pain while the other wields a flogger or cane.

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Negotiation Negotiations can get complicated in a co-topping scene. As mentioned above, the more people you involve in a scene the easier it is for someone to misunderstand so everyone needs to make sure they are being heard and that they understand what is being agreed to. When I co-top, I like to have two negotiations. First, the whole group assembles to establish everyone's desires, limits, and expectations and set the basic parameters of the scene. Then the co-tops get together to generate ideas, select their roles, and discuss their co-topping preferences and protocol. I've actually done this with the bottom present but hypnotized to be unaware that the co-top and I were speaking about them, which is pretty hot by itself.

Execution Executing a co-topping erotic hypnosis scene is not that different from a one-on-one scene. If both tops are competent hypnotists, a dual induction is a great way to start. Not only does it put the bottom(s) into a good, deep state, but it also helps get the tops into rapport with each other. That rapport helps them maintain flow throughout the scene. During the scene, I find it helpful to apply some of the rules of improv: Yes, and... – Whatever either of you says or does in the scene that establishes a fact, that is now real for the duration of the scene. The best thing you can do is acknowledge that and then add to it. For example, if your co-top says, “We have your co-conspirator in the next cell” you might say, “That's right, so there's really no benefit to you in refusing us; if you won't talk, we'll simply torture him until he does.” No pimping! “Pimping” in improv refers to putting the onus on another person to complete your idea. For example, if one of you points to the other and says, “My associate here has a particularly fiendish plan to make you talk, and he's going to tell you about it right now” that would be pimping. It puts the other top on the spot, 441

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which can break the smooth flow of the scene. It is important when co-topping to respect the position of your hypnotee's primary partner. If the primary is one of the co-tops, they should have the lead role unless they decline it. As the scene plays out, defer to the primary whenever there is a question about which way to proceed. And remember that the primary will know their partner’s limits and preferences better than you do. While the scene is going on, all of the co-tops need to keep a close watch on the bottom(s). Note their body language and reactions. If you have any doubt about whether they are okay, check in. If a scene is going to be edgy, I will make sure to reinforce what safewords are in play, make sure the hypnotee(s) understand and agree to use them automatically whenever they are appropriate, and emphasize that no other hypnotic suggestion can ever interfere with their ability to use a safeword.

Aftercare Depending on the intensity of the scene, some decompression time may be warranted when the scene is over. This is a good time to give each other feedback. Talk about what you enjoyed in the scene, what you would have done differently, or what you noticed in your scene partners that helped you. Make sure that everybody has processed, or is in a good head space, before you go your separate ways. Co-topping is challenging. It requires good communication skills, rapport, and a willingness to cooperate in creating something awesome. The reward is often a scene that simply couldn't be done, or couldn't be done as well, with only two people.

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Mutual Hypnosis In mutual hypnosis, each participant in the trance is both hypnotist and hypnotee. It's a technique that requires a certain degree of confidence on the part of every participant, but the results can be very interesting. The 1969 book Altered States of Consciousness is a compilation of articles assembled and edited by Charles Tart. One chapter is a report by Tart on a series of experiments he conducted with two volunteers, referred to as Bill and Anne in the paper. By having Bill hypnotize Anne, and then while she was still in deep trance having Anne hypnotize Bill, both Anne and Bill reported much deeper trance experiences than they normally had on their own. For Anne, the ability to go into deeper trance more quickly and easily persisted even after the mutual trancing experiments ended. Before you start your session, select an environment where you and your partner can be comfortable, can see each other clearly, and can maintain some sort of physical contact. The contact can be holding hands, resting a hand on a leg, or anything else that you're comfortable with; it helps to promote rapport and non verbal communication between you. You can be sitting or lying down, as you wish. Place your partner into trance, maintaining that physical contact as you do. Eye-to-eye fixation inductions are great for this because of the intimate feelings they provoke, but you can use any induction that you're comfortable with. Deepen to a moderate trance depth, and then continue: In a few moments, I'm going to count from one to three. On the count of three you open your eyes, remaining deeply hypnotized as you are now, and make eye contact with me. You then use whatever words come to mind to hypnotize me. As you hypnotize me, you feel the deep sense of rapport, of connection, that our minds establish, and the more I relax the more you relax. When my eyes close, your eyes close, and you can deepen my trance using whatever words happen to come into your mind at the time. Once we are both deeply hypnotized we can each make suggestions, any suggestions that our minds 443

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desire. Every suggestion either of us makes affects us both, and with every suggestion we make we can easily slip deeper down into this shared state of profound deep trance. We remain in this profound, mutual, deep trance state until (choose either an amount of time, or an event of some sort that you plan to have during the trance). Then we suggest to each other rising out of trance and returning to our full waking state. One … two … three. When your partner opens their eyes, go ahead and make eye contact. When you look into the blank gaze of a hypnotized person, mirror neurons in your own brain start firing off and lead you into a similar state. (I used this technique at NEEHU 6, leading a hypnotized Lizzidoll around to several other people and having her hypnotize them just by looking into their eyes.) Once you are both in trance, you can each start making suggestions. Depending on your relationship and limits, you might do any number of things, such as: suggesting increasing arousal, leading yourselves to a mutual orgasm continuing to deepen, just looking for a really deep shared trance experience begin a guided imagery scene in which you explore an imaginary world that you create together with your suggestions Since you are both in trance, and may be experiencing time distortion, it's a good idea to establish when you will bring each other out of trance again. You can use a given time – say, 20 minutes – and when one of you senses that the 20 minutes is up you will wake yourselves. You could also set an external signal, like an alarm clock, to indicate when it is time to come back. If you are doing a shared fantasy or some kind of erotic scene, you can agree to bring yourselves out of trance when the experience is over. As long as you agree on the timing, the details are not so important. Practicing mutual hypnosis has some interesting side effects. Just a few sessions together caused both Bill and Anne to develop greater skill at going 444

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into trance, whether they did it together or in more conventional settings. If one of you is less adept at achieving deep trance states than they would like to be, practicing mutual hypnosis could be a fast way of helping them get better at it. Hypnotic play in general has a tendency to promote strong emotional connections between people who play together. When you practice mutual hypnosis this is even more the case, so be prepared to handle the feelings that may come up between yourself and your mutual trance partner. This is an advanced technique and probably best saved for people that you already feel close with.

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Discussion Points 1. How could you achieve the same effect as a dual induction with only one hypnotist? 2. Suppose you are at an erotic hypnosis convention and are approached by a rope top who wants you to co-top a kidnapping scene where their bottom is hypnotically “chloroformed” and abducted, then tied up nude and molested by one of the kidnappers. Assuming you agree, what are some of the things you would cover during negotiation with the pair? With just the top?

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Exercises 1. With two willing partners, practice performing a dual induction. Rotate through so that each of you gets a turn being the hypnotee. 2. With a willing partner, practice mutual hypnosis. Pay particular attention to what the trance experience feels like for you, and how it differs from your normal trance play.

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Consensual Non-Consent Even today, with all we've learned about hypnosis, a disturbing number of people still view the things we do with erotic hypnosis as a form of rape. Part of the blame for this falls on the media, who love to sensationalize stories with headlines like “Hypnotist thief puts shopkeeper in trance before robbing him” (The Telegraph, December 2014) because “Con artist confuses shopkeeper and robs him” is far less interesting. Part of it is the sleazier elements of society, where people combine hypnosis or NLP with coercion and fast-talking to try and breach people's boundaries, sometimes successfully. The pickup artist community has a culture of bragging about their conquests, as if the people they pick up in singles' bars would have had absolutely no inclination for a hookup if not bamboozled by mad NLP skills. In the erotic hypnosis community we – meaning myself, the community leaders, and my fellow teachers – have gone to great lengths to establish a culture of consent. In a culture of consent, those who use influence techniques, either hypnosis or NLP or something else, do so only with the prior, informed, conscious consent of the person they use them with. The line between full, conscious, informed consent and predatory behavior is neither sharp nor well-defined; it is a murky gray area, where things become very dependent on the subjective experiences of those involved. Within that murky area is the concept of consensual non-consent.

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Presenter Notes This topic can be challenging to teach for some of the same reasons that ethics gets touchy. Everyone has their own idea of how much explicit consent is required for a given scene. At some events the rule requires explicit verbal consent for any touch, even something like people in an intimate relationship innocently holding hands while watching a scene. At others, anything goes as long as the Dungeon Monitor has been alerted ahead of time that a con-noncon scene will be taking place. Both approaches are equally valid, as is pretty much anything else people may come up with. It's hard to lay down rules when the subject is this squishy. My advice to you as a presenter is to find out what your most popular local venues state in their rules for this sort of thing and teach to those rules. If your community group has recommendations or standards, use those as well. With the diversity of opinions and experiences, you probably should do this as a round table discussion rather than as a lecture so that everyone is encouraged to participate and there can be a full exchange of ideas.

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What is CNC anyway? Kinkipedia defines consensual non-consent (CNC) as “a mutual agreement to be able to act as if consent has been waived.” In parts of the BDSM community, though, the same term is used to describe a scene in which there is the appearance that one or more of the participants is not consenting, though in actual fact consent was negotiated and obtained prior to the scene. The whole concept, regardless of which definition you use, is controversial in part because it is so difficult for an onlooker to distinguish a real consent violation from a CNC scene, which raises the possibility of someone suffering serious psychological harm. Most CNC play requires an extreme degree of trust and understanding between the partners in the scene. It is not for casual play, and not for people who have just met and are exploring erotic hypnosis together – the chances of a miscommunication are just too high in those cases. The best context for CNC play is that of an existing, stable relationship in which all of the people involved fully trust one another and know what each other's limits and desires are. Hypnosis brings its own variations to CNC that are unique to the hypnotic relationship. Surprise inductions, in which the hypnotee is simply dropped into trance without warning or preamble, are one example. There is also the concept of pushing, where soft limits are stretched deliberately to create an experience that may expand the hypnotee's horizons. Combined with memory play, you can create scenes in which your partner believes they are being taken without consent even though their consent was actually obtained ahead of time.

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Surprise Inductions Imagine being at a convention like NEEHU, in one of the socializing areas, talking to someone. A new person enters the room, walks up behind the person you are talking to, and suddenly your conversation-mate goes limp and falls back into the new person's arms. Did you just witness a consent violation? Maybe. Maybe not. (Either way, though, it’s rude.) For some people, the idea that they could be taken into trance with no warning, no formalities of asking permission or making sure it's a good time, is an incredibly hot thing all by itself. Now consider the possibilities for a hypnotic “kidnapping” scene and you can see why getting explicit consent before every trance induction might spoil certain kinds of scenes. This is a case where a little CNC can be fun and enjoyable for everyone involved. It's also one where you don't necessarily need a strong preestablished relationship. To satisfy the requirement of consent, you simply need to establish with your partner that they are okay with you performing surprise inductions on them. If you know each other well and trust one another sufficiently, this may be an ongoing agreement; with someone you've met at an event, you might give them your consent (or obtain their consent) for the duration of the event. Either way, you've now established consent and you can feel free to indulge in surprise inductions within whatever limits were specified (such as, “Not when I'm attending one of Wiseguy's classes.”). For the hypnotee, having given consent in advance this way can actually heighten the sense of anticipation. The act of being asked for consent and giving it, of course, practically promises that at some point or points they'll be getting dropped by surprise; if they kink on that, it will only make it more satisfying when it happens. The downside of doing surprise inductions is that others who witness it may not know that you obtained consent in advance. Be prepared to answer questions if they are asked.

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If you want to do surprise inductions, the two most common methods are the pattern interrupt and the reinduction trigger. Reinduction triggers are discussed in Chapter 13. One of the advantages of using one in a convention setting is that it's very hard to question whether you have consent – after all, you have to have installed the trigger at some prior point so clearly your partner consented to it. Some people consider it cheating to use a reinduction trigger, though. Pattern interrupt inductions are fast enough to take people by surprise. The classic form is the handshake induction; two examples of handshake inductions are described in Chapter 15. With someone you already know, of course, it would be strange and suspicious to come over and start to shake hands. What to do? Remember that the mechanism of the pattern interrupt is general; any time you can create surprise and get someone experiencing that what-the-fuck? state of mind, you have successfully interrupted a pattern and can start giving them suggestions. Examples of non-handshake patterns you can easily interrupt include: Hand them an object, and as they start to take it from you pull it away and place their hand in front of their face. Continue as with the Bandler version of the handshake (Chapter 15). Come up behind them while their attention is on something else. Quickly put your arms around them (for support and surprise) and command, “Sleep!” Alternately, swipe your hand downward in front of their face and say “Sleep!” If they start to get up from a chair, let them get about halfway up. Reach over, push them back down into the chair, and say “Sleep!” With a little creativity you will think of several more.

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Resistance Play One of the all-time great tropes of hypnosis in the media is the idea of the all-powerful charismatic hypnotist whom no innocent can resist. We can probably thank Mesmer for that; he believed and taught that the ability to mesmerize was an innate quality that certain individuals, such as himself, possessed, and that his induction was a matter of imposing his will upon the magnetic fluid in his subject to cause trance. As a modern professional hypnotist I spend a lot of time reminding people that it's their mind; they can always resist or refuse anything I say to them if they want to. For some people, though, it's a lot sexier to feel that Mesmer was right – that they might try to resist, but must ultimately succumb to the hypnotist's power. And as long as everyone knows, if only subconsciously, that they're enacting a fantasy there's absolutely nothing wrong with indulging it. In hypnotic resistance play, the hypnotee willfully tries to resist the suggestions of the hypnotist in order to feel the sensation of inevitable surrender when their resistance fails. The thrill for the bottom is in the struggle, in the feeling of being taken or overpowered. That is why I put resistance play in this chapter, because it can appear to an onlooker as if the hypnotist is actively disregarding their partner's refusal to consent or deliberately pushing them to cross their own limits.

Resistance and Brats I often hear people refer to brattiness as a type of resistance play, but that isn’t always the case. To me, the essence of a brat is playful equivocation. A brat doesn't generally refuse to comply with a suggestion; instead they look for loopholes that will allow them to comply with the letter of the suggestion while producing a result other than what the hypnotist wanted. That might include wisecracking or back-talking as a way of distracting themselves or delaying their response to, say, an arousal-inducing suggestion. When there is no loophole, a brat will playfully complain or poke fun at the situation.

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In resistance play, there is no looking for loopholes or complying in unexpected ways; the hypnotee actively tries to resist the suggestions. That's an entirely different dynamic; it becomes a battle of wills more than a battle of wits, whether the hypnotee is bratting or not. And with resistance play, you both know that the hypnotee ultimately has to lose the battle or there won't be a scene.

Induction Resistance A very common resistance game is for the hypnotee to resist being hypnotized in the first place. When you approach your partner with their favorite shiny bauble dangling from your hand, they may look away or close their eyes, for instance. Which is fine – you can shift gears on them and do a different style of induction, perhaps along these lines: If you don't want to look, that's perfectly okay with me. In fact, go ahead; do your best; TRY to resist that temptation to look, to watch, to follow … TRY to resist that desire that you know is in your heart … the desire to submit, to surrender, to obey … Keep your eyes averted, or just close them down so you can't see … that's right … even now, you're finding it easier and easier to do as I suggest, to avoid letting your gaze get captured, because deep down you know that once your resolve weakens, once you sneak even a tiny peek, there's no avoiding that wonderful, floaty, drifty feeling that always comes over you as I take you into trance. You know that feeling well, don't you? Try not to think about it; whatever you do, do NOT think about how it feels to be captivated, seduced, lulled into that deep, peaceful, obedient state of trance … because the more you think about that feeling, the more you remember that feeling, the more you crave it … the more you need it … the more you feel it creeping into your mind again, even now, as you TRY to resist it … TRY to avoid it … but the harder you TRY, the more difficult it becomes as that trancey, drifty feeling get stronger and stronger … pulling you down into blissful obedience, whether you consciously think you want to or 454

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not … that's right. Because even as you TRY to resist the pull of my voice, the overwhelming craving to just surrender into trance for me, you just can't stop yourself from imagining what it feels like when you simply can't resist any longer … when it's just too hard to keep trying … and my words, echoing through your mind, make it so easy to just … let … go … NOW. This induction is based on the common technique of accessing a previous trance. Get someone to remember what being in trance feels like and they automatically start feeling it again because that's how memory works. Every admonishment not to think about it naturally causes the person to think about it, as in the classic “Don't think of an elephant.” Combine that with the repeated use of try, which always implies failure, and you end up with a pretty aggressive version of a standard, usually passive technique and an induction that can really set the tone for a hot resistance scene.

Suggestion Resistance Perhaps your partner has succumbed to your induction, but still wants to play at resisting your suggestions. As long as they are playing at resistance – meaning, they are not actually opposed to the suggestion but just want the thrill of being “made” to obey – you can use a few tricks to turn their resistance against them. One of my favorites is the language pattern “the more/the more.” This pattern ties together a cause and an effect, regardless of how unrelated the two things might be. For example: Isn't it interesting how the more you try to resist my command to remove your shirt the more that shirt seems to get itchy, tight, and uncomfortable? Haven't you noticed yet how the more you struggle to defy me the more that part of your mind that wants to obey gets harder and harder to ignore? I like to use “the more/the more” to tie an emotional response to a partner's 455

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resistance – preferably an emotion that will weaken their resolve, of course. You might try something like: I love watching you try to resist me, because the very act of trying to resist causes you to become increasingly aroused. That's right, the more you try to resist the stronger that arousal becomes, and of course the more aroused you become the more your body wants to give in, to submit, to obey. If they continue to resist, and you're sure you're not crossing any limits, eventually they are going to want to orgasm. At that point, you add: And now, of course, you've spent so much energy resisting, gotten yourself so aroused, that your body yearns to orgasm. And because I'm not cruel, I will allow you to orgasm as long and as hard as you like – but only when you obey the command you've been trying so hard to resist. Another amusing (for the dom) variation on that theme is to set up a cycle where a resisted suggestion reinforces itself the more they try to resist, as in: You might TRY to resist what I've just suggested, of course, but the more you TRY to resist my suggestion the more powerfully it repeats itself in your mind. The very act of TRYing to resist causes my suggestions to repeat in your mind, getting stronger and stronger each time you do it. The more you try to resist, the more powerful my suggestions become. The more you try to think of anything other than obeying me, the more you find that your mind focuses on my suggestions, unable to think coherently about anything else until you obey. Other interesting variations on this theme include: Use sensation play to generate an unwelcome sensation, like tickling or poking or itching, that persists until the hypnotee follows the suggestion. If your hypnotee likes to be poked, spanked, or tickled, instead suggest numbness. I've been known to have numbness start in their erogenous zones and spread out from there the longer they resist. 456

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For an auditory partner, choose a song or sound that annoys them greatly and have them start hearing it, getting louder and louder until they obey. These are all harmless and playfully cruel ways to win the resistance game. And when the hypnotist wins, everyone does.

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Turning the Tables A popular fantasy with some tops and many switches, “turning the tables” is a scene where the hypnotist and hypnotee switch roles partway through. The typical example is one where the hypnotee seizes an opportunity to hypnotize the hypnotist and then takes over topping the scene. There are several ways in which you could set up a turning-the-tables scene. In this example, the turning point and method are specified in advance: In a few moments as I count from one to three you come all the way back, fully awake, fully alert, but not entirely in control of yourself. Your body is under an overpowering post-hypnotic suggestion to perform a sexy strip tease for me. You might try to resist that suggestion to do a sexy strip tease for me, but you find that your body just does it, automatically, unstoppably, no matter how hard you try to stop it, and with every piece of clothing that comes off you become more and more powerfully aroused.. However, you discover that you do have some control over what you say and do during the strip tease. You realize that I'm watching you closely, and that if you are sneaky and clever about it you can use your body as a fixation object, drawing my attention closer and closer, and hypnotize me as you strip. The more you see me falling under your spell, the more it arouses and excites you, filling you with lust. You must complete your strip tease, but once you have you deepen my trance until I can no longer resist you and then use hypnotic suggestions to seduce me into fucking you. Knowing exactly how the transition will occur and what will happen afterward has appeal for some. If your partner is only marginally comfortable topping, a scene like that gives them enough boundaries to still feel that you are ultimately in control. If your partner is also a skilled hypnotist and your relationship is such that you both are comfortable with a more open-ended scene, you might do 458

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something like this: In a little while, we will go out to dinner together. Starting as soon as we leave, and lasting until you go to sleep for the night, you find that you just automatically do anything that I ask you to do as long as I say 'please'. Any request at all that includes the word 'please' is an irresistible hypnotic command that you immediately, automatically obey to the best of your ability. Every time you obey a request because of this suggestion, you feel a little surge of erotic pleasure, arousal and desire. The more out of the ordinary the request is, the stronger that surge of erotic pleasure, arousal, and desire becomes. Naturally, when your conscious mind realizes that I'm using a posthypnotic suggestion to get you to do things for me, you may want to retaliate in some way but starting right now your conscious mind is completely unable to remember any of the hypnotic triggers you've set up to use on me; they're all carefully hidden away in a closet in your subconscious mind, safe and sound but completely unavailable to your conscious mind temporarily. The harder you try to remember any of those triggers the more thoroughly they hide away from you. The memory of those triggers, and your ability to use them, stays hidden until I say the phrase 'Johnny Mnemonic.' Once I say 'Johnny Mnemonic' all of those hidden memories come back to you and you can once again use and remember any triggers you've set for me. Each and every time you obey a request because I said 'please' you get more aroused, feel more desire, and have a stronger wish to get back at me, but the more those triggers hide themselves in the back of your mind. In order to get back at me, you'll have to think of a way you can hypnotize me by surprise. Once you've hypnotized me, you can give me any suggestions that you like within our usual agreed-upon limits, including the suggestion to tell you what will restore your memory, but with every suggestion you give me you become more and more aroused, lusty, and horny for me. 459

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When your subconscious has fully agreed to this game, and to hiding the memory of this trance session from you until after you've successfully hypnotized me tonight, you can give me a nod. (Wait for the nod and emerge.) In this variant, both you and your partner have a lot of leeway for improvisation and spontaneity. All you know is that at some point your partner is going to try a surprise induction on you and that they will be in a frame of mind where sexytimes are extremely likely.

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Hypnosleep The term hypnosleep was coined by Dave Elman to refer to a technique for inducing trance in someone who is currently in natural sleep. He devotes an entire chapter of his seminal book Hypnotherapy to the technique, including accounts of sessions he performed on his own son. If hypnosleep is executed successfully, the hypnotee goes back to sleep and wakes in the morning with no conscious idea that the hypnosleep session even took place. As you can imagine, this makes the technique very easy to abuse. Using it without prior discussion and informed consent just about guarantees the destruction of all trust in a relationship. Using it with prior discussion and consent can make for a fascinating CNC experience as your partner wakes in the morning and starts acting on posthypnotic suggestions they don't remember receiving. The process for hypnosleep goes like this: 1. Watch your partner closely. Note their breathing rate; someone in deep sleep typically breathes six to eight times per minute. 2. In a quiet voice, say: This is (your name) speaking. You can hear me clearly, but you can't wake up. You can hear me clearly, but you can't wake up. Repeat several times 3. Very gently touch a finger while saying: This finger I'm touching now can wiggle when your deep mind is listening. I'll know you're hearing me when this finger wiggles. You can hear me and respond but you can't wake up. Repeat until the finger wiggles. Stop if your partner starts to wake. 4. Make your suggestions. Do not expect any verbal response, but if you need to ask yes/no questions you can use ideomotor response (this finger for Yes, this one for No) to get answers. Use very simple 461

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words, and be careful not to touch or jostle them too much. 5. To end the session: And now, you can return to sleep and let your conscious mind remain completely unaware that I was even talking to you. Dave Elman wrote in Hypnotherapy that the hypnosleep technique could actually bypass the critical factor completely, meaning that you could get someone to accept a suggestion that violates their morals. Elman didn't intentionally test this (at least not that he wrote about), but he does describe his experience using hypnosleep with his young son, without his son's knowledge. The boy woke during one of the sessions, and from then on Elman was unable to get him back into hypnosleep. That strongly indicates that Elman was wrong about the ability to completely override the hidden observer – his son no longer trusted him and would not cooperate anymore. Discussion Points 1. What would be some good ways for someone to advertise their willingness to be hypnotized by surprise at an event? 2. What risks can you think of in doing resistance play with someone you've just met? 3. Suppose your partner expresses an interest in being hypnotized in their sleep. What kinds of guidelines would you want to negotiate for this?

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The Esdaile State For most erotic and recreational purposes there is no need to stress over depth of trance. Having said that, it feels great to spend some time in a deep trance state. The Esdaile state, or “hypnotic coma,” is generally accepted as the deepest known hypnotic state. Knowing how to take someone there gives you a delightful reward you can lavish on a worthy trance partner.

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Presenter Notes I've taught about the Esdaile state at several events, and it always surprises me how many people are curious about it even after I explain that it's not particularly good for erotic uses. The curiosity of kinksters is probably limitless, and I love it that way. The best way to teach about this is to demonstrate it. You can choose a volunteer from your audience, but be aware that if they've never been in the Esdaile state before you can't tell in advance how much work it will take to get them there. This is one where I usually select my demo bottom in advance; most of the time it's my wife Dani, because I know how quickly she can go there. Because the amount of time it can take to get someone into Esdaile for the first time is so unpredictable, I would recommend against doing a hands-on during your class. Instead, do the lecture and demo, take questions, then end the class part and follow up with mentored practice time. That will allow you and some volunteer mentors to circulate and offer advice when needed while giving everyone enough time to work with their partners at their own pace. Your audience gets practice time but you don't have to worry about minding the clock and keeping control of the group.

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A Little History In the mid 19th century Dr. James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon working in India, discovered that he could use mesmerism (as it was then called) to anesthetize patients before surgery. His results were so impressive that when an independent commission reviewed his work and confirmed Esdaile's results Esdaile was awarded with his own small hospital in Calcutta. Esdaile (or, more accurately, assistants working under his direction) induced in his patients a profoundly deep trance state which is now formally known as the Esdaile state. Because people in this state tend to appear as if their vital functions have gone minimal the state is also sometimes called the “hypnotic coma.” Until recently it was widely believed that the Esdaile state was interesting but useless for most therapeutic purposes because people in Esdaile did not respond to suggestions, including the suggestion to come out of trance. The state was used primarily for its original purpose, for surgery and drug-free natural childbirth, and that was about it. In more recent years, however, research led by Kevin Hogan and Ines Simpson has shown that a person in Esdaile can and will accept suggestions, but for most actually responding in any physical way is just too much work. Simpson and Hogan have developed protocols for communicating with people in the Esdaile state and conducting effective therapy there.

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Why Esdaile? Erotic hypnosis is not therapy. Most of the time you won't want your partner so zonked out that they can't move or speak. So why go the the effort to take someone that deep? Before we dismiss using Esdaile for scenes, consider that there are some fairly common fantasies that involve one person “molesting” another person who is either under anesthesia or otherwise rendered unconscious and unresponsive. The Esdaile state is as close as someone can get to that condition without actually using drugs or blunt force trauma. As an added benefit, when the scene is over they will be able to remember clearly how it felt and what was done. The main reason to put someone into the Esdaile state, though, is that it feels absolutely awesome. People in Esdaile often report feelings of euphoria. Stress, worry, and tension melt away just from being there, before a single suggestion has been made. For someone who loves to be hypnotized, Esdaile time can be a wonderful treat.

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Getting There Taking someone into the Esdaile state for the first time can be a lengthy process. It's not difficult, just time-consuming. Before you start, make sure that your partner is seated comfortably and securely. They are going to get very floppy, so a standard-issue straightback or folding chair is not ideal. When I demo this at a convention, and folding chairs are typically all that's available, I sit right next to my demo bottom and put an arm around them so I can hold them safely. (Obviously you need to get consent first for that degree of physical contact; luckily, I've been told that I'm very cuddly.) Start by doing an induction. Any induction is fine, so pick one that is well suited to your partner. Since the ultimate goal is extreme depth, I often use the fractionation induction from Chapter 5 to get started. Move from your induction directly into deepening. You can use typical deepeners (see Chapter 6), or you can do another induction or two. If you started with the fractionation induction, doing a relaxation induction like Body Scanning would be an excellent deepening technique. I will often follow that with the furniture store deepener (Chapter 6); if you prefer a staircase or counting down deepener will work fine too. The goal is to get your partner deep enough that it's difficult, but not impossible, for them to form words. Once their verbal responses are slow, quiet, and a little bit mumbled, they are ready for one more deepening exercise. This deepener comes from James Ramey and is very frequently used to induce the Esdaile state. And as you relax now, so deeply, it may feel to you as if you've reached your personal bottom … the deepest you've ever been. And it feels so good to be there, doesn't it? Nice and deep. But you know, there is another level of relaxation and trance below this one. Twice as deep, in fact, as where you are right now. It's the basement of relaxation, level A. And to get there, all you need to do is instruct your mind to do whatever it needs to do 467

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so that you become twice as deeply relaxed, twice as focused, as you are right now. Go ahead now and tell yourself to let go and go twice as deep … take as long as you need … and when you're twice as deep as you were a moment ago, just say to me, 'A'. (Wait for them to say “A”.) Good! And you can notice how wonderful it feels here in the basement of relaxation, at level A. But there is another level even deeper than this one … level B. To get there, all you have to do is instruct your mind to TRIPLE the relaxation you feel right now. Go ahead and do that now, and when you've become three times as relaxed in your mind and body, it will be a struggle to speak, but say to me, 'B'. Take as long as you like … as long as you need … to get three times as relaxed. (Wait for “B”. It may be very muffled and indistinct, so listen closely and watch for lip movement. When you get it, take one of your partner's hands and rest it over yours.) Very good! And you know, as beautiful and calming as Level B is, there is one more level that is even deeper, more relaxing, more wonderful than this one … Level C. And all you have to do to get to Level C is to instruct your mind to relax five times as deeply as you are right now. At Level C you become so relaxed that it's simply too difficult to speak, so instruct your mind to increase your relaxation, increase your focus, until you are five times as deep as right now, and when you've finished you can just let this hand squeeze on mine to let me know you've reached Level C. Take all the time you need … that's right … (Wait for the squeeze. It will likely be a very light squeeze.) At this point, your partner should be in Esdaile. The Esdaile state is marked by a few specific traits that you can easily test for. 1. Without saying anything at all, lift one of your partner's arms into the air. It doesn't have to high; shoulder level will do. Hold it there for a second or two, and then start to let go. If the arm stays in place, you have spontaneous catalepsy (prolonged maintaining of body 468

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posture without suggesting it), which is one of the attributes of the Esdaile state. If the arm flops when you let go, deepen some more – invent a Level D, or E, and simply continue the deepener from there. Keep testing for this until they pass. 2. Lower the arm again. Now choose one of your partner's hands and pinch the area in the middle of the back of the hand. Pinch it hard enough to make a small mark that fades in a minute or so. People in Esdaile experience spontaneous anesthesia (loss of sensation without suggesting it); if they don't respond to the pinch, they pass. 3. This test is absolutely optional – I don't like to do it because it's kind of rude. Yell, “WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!” loudly at your partner. If they don't respond at all, they pass. (This does not mean they did not hear you yelling – trust me, they did. Which is why I don't like to do this test.) If you've got spontaneous catalepsy and spontaneous anesthesia, your partner has achieved the Esdaile state. Praise them for it, and let them enjoy it. While your partner is in Esdaile, you actually can give them suggestions. However, you probably should avoid suggestions that involve any kind of verbal response, body movement, or powerful emotional state. If following your suggestion is too much work, your partner may ignore it entirely or they may try to follow it and get pulled out of Esdaile doing so, which will make them unhappy with you. You can establish basic ideomotor signals, along the lines of “twitch this finger for yes, this one for no,” to communicate. One thing you might very well want to do is establish a trigger that takes your partner from any other trance state into Esdaile.

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Coming Back Being in the Esdaile state is a little like deep sea diving: when you're down that far, it's a very bad idea to come up too quickly. While a rapid wake-up from Esdaile will not jeopardize anyone's life, it can be extremely disorienting. When I emerge someone from Esdaile, I first ask them to come up from Esdaile into a regular deep trance. It is not unusual to get some grumbling here – the Esdaile state feels amazing, and it's pretty common for people to not want to come out just because you ask them to. It helps if you can give them a reason, such as an obligation or another activity they enjoy. In some hypnosis books I've seen it commonly recommended that when a “subject” (as they insist on labeling the person in trance) is reluctant to emerge you should say something like, “If you don't come out of trance RIGHT NOW you will never be able to achieve this deep state again.” Personally, I can't think of a worse thing to say to someone you're supposed to be taking care of! Be nice! If your partner is reluctant, tell them that you understand they may not want to come up right now because it feels so good to be in that deep state, but you need them to come out now because . And they can always come back to this state later, when there is more time to enjoy it. Given a decent reason, everyone I've ever done this with has come out of trance for me. Give your partner a few minutes in a non-Esdaile trance state. Ideally, have them do a few things that involve moving the body and talking so they start to shake off that physical lassitude that Esdaile can bring. Then bring them the rest of the way out. Even with this gradual emerging it's still fairly normal for your partner to feel a little disoriented or fuzzy, sort of like someone abruptly awakened from a nap. And of course they are still highly suggestible. So stay with them until they are all the way with it and feeling fully alert again.

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Beyond Esdaile? Walter Sichort Sr. was a famous hypnotist, stage performer and teacher from the 1950s. During his stage act he routinely put his assistant into a deep trance state in which she stood stock still while he lifted her and rotated, creating the illusion that the assistant, whom he always had dressed in an angel costume, was flying. Sichort called this super-deep trance the catatonic level of the Esdaile state; after his death in 2000, his disciples renamed it the Sichort state in his honor. From there things got a bit ugly. Some of Sichort's students gave the state another name, which they trademarked and defended vigorously. Their heavy-handed marketing chased a lot of researchers away, and there is still wide disagreement about whether the Sichort state is really something “deeper than Esdaile” or just an extreme manifestation of the Esdaile state. I don't claim to have the answer to that one, and I haven't found a reason to pursue it.

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Discussion Point 1. How would you use the Esdaile state with a regular play partner?

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Exercise 1. With a willing volunteer, follow the process in this chapter to take them into the Esdaile state. Verify that they’ve gotten there by testing for it. Let them enjoy it for a while and then emerge them.

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Where to Go From Here Congratulations! If you've read the 27 individual lessons, considered the discussion points, and performed the exercises, you should be feeling pretty confident in your knowledge of erotic hypnosis. So what do you do next? Practice! Hypnosis, whether you're the hypnotist or the hypnotee, is a skill. You can read about it and talk about it for years, but you don't really get good at it until you start doing it. So get out there and hypnotize people. Or, if you prefer to be on the receiving end, get some people to hypnotize you.

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Local Communities By far the best way to find people to play and practice with in person is through a local erotic hypnosis community group. There are dozens of these groups that we know of and probably scores more that we don't. These community groups are the best thing to happen to erotic hypnosis since the Erotic Mind Control Stories Archive (mcstories.com). Before these groups came into being, the only real options for a budding erotic hypnotist were to practice within their own circle of friends and acquaintances, thereby coming out to them as hypno-kinky, or to hang out in IRC/Yahoo/etc hypnosis themed chat rooms with the hope that they might find a competent, considerate, and ethical partner. Community groups give you a third, extremely useful, alternative. Most have regular meetings, often monthly, where you can socialize with each other, discuss erotic hypnosis or other related topics, and either engage in practice and play right there or make play-dates for another time and place. The community offers safety, in that you and your potential partner can get to know each other before you make any decision to play and anyone who acts unethically or unsafely gets called on it quickly and publicly. Generally you can be as anonymous as you need to be within the group, because everyone there understands the need for discretion.

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Events Throughout the calendar year there are larger erotic hypnosis events like these: NEEHU, the New England Erotic Hypnosis [Un]conference (http://www.neehu.org), is the longest-running and best-known of the major erotic hypnosis events. Held every March in Hartford, CT. It is organized by Mephki and features attendees and presenters from far and wide.. MEEHU, the MidwEst Erotic Hypnosis [Un]conference (http://www.meehu.org) takes place every July in the Chicago area. It is organized by HypnoMaestro and leaders in the Chicago and Wisconsin erotic hypnosis scene. WEEHU, the WEst Coat Erotic Hypnosis [Un]conference (http://weehu.org), happens in the San Francisco area in the fall and is organized by Dr. Headcrash, panavatar, and their team in the San Francisco Bay Area Erotic Hypnosis Group. The *EHUs are spiritual kin; though each has its own distinctive flavor and atmosphere, they share a number of common characteristics. NEEHU 1 was a pure unconference, where all of the programming was spontaneous. The practical reality, it soon turned out, is that people prefer to know at least roughly what they're going to get when they buy plane tickets, hotel rooms, and admission to an event so all of the *EHUs since then contain both preplanned classes and a space and time for unconference-style programming to spontaneously happen. *EHUs are a Friday-through-Sunday affair with classes by day and play parties by night; the highlight reels of many peoples' experiences are the spontaneous fun things that happen at those parties, or in more private playgroups that just happen by chance. I've been to every *EHU so far and I fully intend to keep that up as long as I can, they're that important and that much fun. Aside from the large conferences there are also smaller but equally satisfying and fun regional events such as:

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Deep Mind Dark Wood (DMDW), a smaller, less structured gathering of erotic hypnosis enthusiasts. Organized by Lee Allure and Mr. Dream, both rock stars of the New England and New York scenes, respectively, DMDW is a hypnotic retreat in the beautiful Berkshires of central Massachusetts. The program tends to be more experiential than class-like, with plenty of opportunities to bond with the group and explore things out of your comfort zone if you wish. The Fetish Fair Flea (FFF) is a very large event put on every winter by the New England Leather Alliance (NELA). The Flea is primarily about the vendors – NELA books a huge array of vendors of every conceivable kink-related goods – but in recent years they have added an educational element as well, with classes in many topics including erotic hypnosis. NELA has an active hypnosis Special Interest Group (SIG) that sponsors meetings in New England. TES Fest is another very large annual event that includes erotic hypnosis content. Organized by The Eulenspiegel Society in New York, TES Fest combines vending and education to make a summer festival for all things kinky. TES has a very active and vibrant erotic hypnosis SIG who put on great erotic hypnosis programming. LeeAllure puts on an annual London Hypnosis Workshop in London (of course). The agenda varies, but each workshop is typically two days packed with instruction and practice time from one of the best natural hypnotists I've ever met. Many other large BDSM organizations such as Dark Odyssey and Black Rose have started including erotic hypnosis topics as the demand for them has grown. If you want to see erotic hypnosis at your local kink convention, don’t be afraid to ask! New events spring up all the time. In 2014 there was Deep in the Minds of Texas (DMTX), an event similar in format to DMDW but organized by Romeo, founder of Descent Hypnosis Radio. Local community groups usually hear about these things early, which is another reason to belong to one.

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Teaching As you mature and grow in your erotic hypnosis journey, I hope you will share the knowledge and experiences you have with the rest of the community. Remember all those big conventions I mentioned just a page ago? Everyone who teaches at those is a volunteer who contributes their time and skills to the con in order to help everyone get better and have more fun. You do not have to be a marquee name in the community to give a class. Maybe you've discovered an interesting induction, or found that you particularly enjoy a specific kind of play. That's great; come to a con and tell people about it. If you can describe what you're passionate about, demonstrate it so others can see how cool it is, and answer a few questions you can teach a class. Look back through Chapter 2 and you'll find a bunch of techniques you can use to help you structure it for success. Every annual convention is always looking for new people to put on the presenter roles, because every new speaker brings new ideas, new attitudes, and fresh perspective to their topic. Now factor in all those local community groups, who need fresh material and new faces to keep their members excited and curious, and you'll understand why I believe we can never have too many teachers in this community.

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Online Communities As you might expect, a lot of the local community groups were able to form and sustain themselves by communicating over the Internet. In the early days there were IRC channels where hypnofetishists gathered to trance each other and discuss the finer points. As things moved on from there, online communities have formed. One of the best-known online hypnosis communities is Hypbook. Hypbook is dedicated entirely to erotic hypnosis enthusiasts. In addition to the many discussion groups and forums hosted there, Hypbook also has regular Live Learning events in which a speaker will give a talk on an erotic hypnosis topic which is then recorded and archived for future reference and listening. For those who are most interested in finding trance partners, sleepychat wants to be your hypno-matchmaker. This is a robust and energetic site dedicated to helping people find partners to play with. A frequent haunt of mine is the MC Forum. The Forum exists as a meeting place for fans of mind control fiction; at first it focused almost exclusively on the Erotic Mind Control Stories Archive (mcstories.com), but there is a growing interest and sub-community there of authors who write and publish short fiction for sale as ebooks through Amazon and other outlets. The Forum also has a section, moderated by Daja and me, dedicated to real-life erotic hypnosis experiences and advice. It's a good place to get questions answered by a number of experienced hypnotists and hypnotees. In addition to dedicated hypnosis chat/community sites like hypbook.com and sleepychat, hypnokinksters may be found on more general BDSM sites like Fetlife, a social networking site for people who are into BDSM and related kinks, including erotic hypnosis. Interestingly, you can't actually search FetLife for the word “hypnosis” (a thorny issue much discussed, but which boils down to the tyranny of credit card processors). The largest erotic hypnosis group on Fetlife (https://fetlife.com/groups/123) has over 13,000 members. Linked from there is an extensive list of online erotic hypnosis discussion groups (https://fetlife.com/>groups/55155/group_posts/4346843). You can also find a listing of many regional Erotic Hypnosis groups at 479

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https://fetlife.com/groups/123/group_posts/604922; that list is updated whenever we hear of a new one. Those who are looking for help getting a group started, or want advice or pointers from more established group leaders, can join the Erotic Hypnosis Communities Group (https://fetlife.com/groups/73115). Hypnation.org is not a community per se, but it is a great way to find out what's going on in the communities. Mephki maintains this website to help people connect with their local communities and with the ever-growing list of known regional hypnosis groups on Fetlife. In addition to a list of local groups across the world, hypnation.org also features a calendar that community leaders update with their events. And still, after all these years, we have IRC. There are a number of robust, busy channels for those who enjoy online trancing, but they vary greatly in their definitions of acceptable conduct. Do your research and ask around before you play with anyone through one of these channels.

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Going Pro Some people find that while they can do all sorts of fun things with erotic hypnosis, they want to take it further and start using hypnosis to help people. Being a professional myself, I completely understand that and I applaud anyone wise enough to recognize that the training of an erotic hypnotist does not qualify them to start doing therapy. There are a number of professional training options out there. How much education you need and what other requirements you have to meet in order to practice hypnotherapy varies from country to country, and within the United States it varies from state to state. As a result, the standards tend to be set by the private professional organizations who provide the training. The most recognized professional hypnotism certification is that of the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH), based in Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA. NGH is the oldest of the professional organizations and has members and chapters worldwide. NGH certification classes are taught by NGH Certified Instructors, who must abide by the NGH standard of at least 80 hours classroom time and 20 hours of independent study and practice. NGH mandates a certain set of topics, but every certified instructor adds material and presents it as they wish, so the actual course content and training experience is largely determined by the instructor. Another well-known professional organization is the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (IMDHA), based in Laceyville, Pennsylvania, USA. As you might expect from the name, IMDHA focuses on promoting hypnotherapy to complement health care practices; their goal is to have a practicing hypnotherapist at every major health care facility. IMDHA offers training through approved schools, which may be actual colleges or training centers or individual trainers. Their standard is currently 220 hours of instruction, and as with NGH the instructor has a lot of latitude to add material to the standard curriculum. The International Association of Counselors and Therapists (IACT) is a sister organization to IMDHA, with similar training methods and requirements. They are less focused on the medical arena and more on generalized professional counseling. 481

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A professional certification course from any of these leading organizations is a serious investment, typically around $2000 US or higher depending on the instructor and the program, plus your travel and lodging expenses if the class is not in your local area. When training with one of these organizations it is unwise to mention your erotic/recreational hypnosis experience, as these professional organizations tend to strongly disapprove of both erotic hypnosis and non-professional (meaning, “not certified by somebody we recognize”) hypnotists. At the risk of seeming self-serving, I will mention that I use my status as an NGH certified instructor in my mundane-world practice to offer NGH training to people in the kinky community who want to become professional hypnotherapists. When I offer a class this way I advertise it only in the kink community, so everyone can feel comfortable and safe talking about their experiences and asking about anything. I use a distance learning format, with lectures and exercises done online through a videoconferencing service and homework assignments done either in writing or recorded on digital video and uploaded to me for review; that allows me to charge a lot less for the class (because I'm not renting a classroom) and saves participants the cost of travel and lodging. I normally announce these classes on FetLife, on Hypbook, and on my blog (http://mindplaybooks.com) a few months before they start. Let me stress one more time that this level of training is not necessary to be an erotic hypnotist. You can learn all you need from the large and small events held during the year, especially if you have an organization like TES or NELA or Society of Janus nearby. The only reason to take one of the courses I've described here is if you want to practice hypnotherapy professionally.

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Have Fun Whatever you do with the skills you've picked up, always remember that mind play is still play. No matter how much we learn and practice, there are always new things to try, experiments to do, off-the-cuff inspirations to indulge. It's easy sometimes to get so focused on doing things “right” that we forget this is all supposed to be fun. So get out there, play safely, and have fun.

-wg

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Appendix

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Notes on the Discussion Points This book has been deliberately structured to serve dual purposes. One was to provide a text for self study, similar to the various technical certification self-study guides I've bought and used over the years. The other was to provide ready-made topics that can be presented to a group as a class so that one person can teach many – sort of like the Teacher's Edition of a typical school textbook. To serve both purposes, I included in almost every chapter a set of Discussion Points. The purpose of these is to generate conversation; they are deliberately open-ended questions with any number of potential “correct” answers. In order to be truly useful, though, there still needs to be some way that you can tell whether the discussion has covered everything important. If you're seeing this material for the first time, or studying it on your own, it's easy to miss things. So in this last chapter, I'm providing something analogous to the answer key from a textbook. For each discussion point I'll provide my thoughts on the sorts of things that should come up in discussion, and sometimes a statement of my own preferences. The questions are so open-ended, however, that you may easily think of things I didn't, or a perspective that I don't have. When that happens, don't automatically assume that Wiseguy is right; consider my points and yours, and reach your own conclusions.

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Chapter 3: Erotic Hypnosis 101 1. Some people routinely say that they can't be hypnotized. Are they right? Why or why not? Strictly speaking, yes and no. On the one hand, hypnosis is a perfectly natural state that serves a survival purpose; anyone who truly cannot go into trance is likely to be plagued with all sorts of physical and emotional maladies, so anyone who is making this assertion who does not appear to be psychotic is probably wrong, at least in the literal (and admittedly pedantic) sense. What they probably mean is that they cannot be guided into hypnosis deliberately by another person. We can argue semantics on this, too, but I'll leave that up to your imagination. Bear in mind that hypnosis is ultimately something we do ourselves, not something someone else does to us, and that it is highly dependent on belief and expectation. If someone's belief system says that they cannot be hypnotized, that belief can easily prevent them from cooperating with a deliberate induction (even if their conscious desire is to experience it!). If it were ethical to do a surprise induction this person might very well drop into trance for a few seconds, but keeping them there – in clear contradiction of their belief system – would be very difficult. So for all practical purposes, they are right. 2. Someone you know casually comes up to you and says, “Some time I'd really like for you to hypnotize me without my realizing it and make me do something a little embarrassing.” How do you respond? Chapter 27 (Consensual Non-Consent) actually covers the first part of this situation, but I put this question in the 101 chapter because it comes up surprisingly often. There are really two questions here to consider. One is the person's request to be hypnotized by surprise or stealth. The other is the request to “make me do something a little embarrassing.” How you respond to the requests is going to depend on your relationship with the person doing the asking and on the policies of the venue and group where you are meeting. 486

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Some groups are very stringent about explicit consent, so even if you have this request (which pretty much constitutes advance consent) it might be a breach of meeting rules to do an unannounced surprise or stealth induction during a group meeting or function. Remember, someone observing the act who does not know about the advance request would think you were being predatory. On the other hand, if the requester is someone you encounter regularly outside of the group, you can certainly fulfill the surprise induction request at some other safe and appropriate time when only you and they are involved. It then becomes a question of whether you are interested in doing that. The more insidious request is the “make me do something a little embarrassing” part. Unless you know this person extremely well, how do you know what their definition of “a little embarrassing” is? At a minimum, you need to have a clear discussion about what sorts of things this person would deem appropriate and what settings they are applicable to. For instance, a suggestion to twerk might be a little embarrassing at a sports bar but extremely embarrassing at a fine dining restaurant. There is also the question of what will happen if the suggestion you give is more than just a little embarrassing. In theory the person's hidden observer will veto the twerking in the fine dining restaurant … unless that person has a fetish for being humiliated, perhaps, or wants to believe that your suggestion actually compels them beyond their ability to resist. Then they might do it, and blame you when they get ejected from the restaurant. Or they might feel the urge to do it and be highly uncomfortable throughout dinner because of the need to consciously suppress that urge. Ultimately, any answer can be right depending on the circumstances. Ones I would hope to hear floated include: “Okay, sure, but we need to have a more specific negotiation about what you mean by 'a little embarrassing' first and when it's appropriate to do that.” “No. I'm sorry, I just don't do that sort of thing.” “Hmmm … I'm not entirely opposed to that, but I'd feel a lot better about doing it if we got to know each other better first. It's too easy to misjudge otherwise.” 487

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“Sorry, no. This group has strict rules about explicit consent and respecting limits.” 3. What are some of the things you would want to ask someone before you hypnotize them? This question is anticipating the safety and ethics talk (Chapter 4) a little, but it's always good to get people thinking about what they may need to know to play safely. The first thing on a new hypnotist's mind might be to find out what previous experiences this person has had with hypnosis. If they are brand new, that brings with it a set of expectations that may or may not be right; if they are very experienced, they know what to expect and can pretty much plunge right in. I would ask about previous experiences that they enjoyed, particularly how they were placed into trance and what they did during the session, because those are clues to how to have a good session now. If you are planning to start a scene, you would want to negotiate what will happen during the scene. Find out what they like, what they dislike, and any hard and soft limits they have. If your scene will involve physical activity, ask if they have any injuries or physical limitations that might come into play (for instance, a bad knee or a stiff neck). The last thing I usually ask is, “Are you ready to go into hypnosis for me now?”

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Chapter 4: Safety and Ethics 1. Chris is 5' 2” and 110 lbs; Fran is 6 feet tall and 200 lbs. They have been paired up to practice standing instant inductions. What precautions should they take? There is a serious difference in physical stature to contend with here. The obvious problem situation is when Chris is doing standing instant inductions on the much larger Fran. One thing Chris needs to do, as stated in the chapter, is make sure to be braced so that they can catch Fran without getting knocked down. Of course, that assumes that Fran will pitch forward instead of dropping straight down. Ideally, Chris may want to recruit a couple of spotters who can assist if Fran starts to drop in an unexpected direction. The height and weight disparity also affects Fran as the hypnotist, though. It can be awkward trying to do a standing induction on someone who is much shorter than you. Fran needs to be prepared to reach lower when catching Chris, so that Frans' arms can actually get below Chris's – otherwise the attempt to catch could easily turn into a tight hug, which leaves room for Chris to slip through and push Fran off balance. When you do standing inductions it is also incumbent on both of you to make sure you get permission for touching in order to catch your hypnotee and prevent them from falling. Make sure you explicitly say that you may need to put your arms around them to catch them. I've had situations in demos where someone slipped in an unexpected way and in order to catch them my hands ended up in places that most people consider private. As long as you keep them from falling and get your hands off those private places as soon as possible, most people will understand and forgive you. 2. You have a hypnotee, with whom you've been socially friendly for a while, in trance and are guiding them through an erotic fantasy scene. You can tell that they are close to orgasm but not quite getting there on suggestion alone. A light touch or two, on the inner thigh or perhaps a little higher, would probably do it, but you didn't anticipate this and so didn't ask permission. What are some things can you do now to bring them to orgasm? 489

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The key variable here, of course, is in your relationship with the hypnotee – which in this case I've defined as “socially friendly.” If, as I hope that implies, you are not on intimate terms with this person then actually touching them in a sensitive place without permission is out of the question. It's better to leave them wanting the orgasm. However, there are a couple of alternatives you could try: Suggest that they imagine being touched in those areas by someone who knows exactly how they love to be touched. Suggest that they feel so incredibly aroused that they barely even notice as one of their own hands reaches down to touch them in that intimate way (and actually let them do it). Either one might do the trick without putting you in the position of overstepping boundaries. 3. Consider this trigger: Each and every time you hear the phrase 'tied up' your arms cross behind you and you feel them bound at the wrists. The harder you try to pull against the bond the more firmly your wrists remain tied together. You remain bound in this way, unable to separate your wrists, until I tap them three times like this. Then normal movement returns to your arms and you are no longer bound. What is wrong with this trigger? How would you reword it to make it safer? There are a couple of problems with this trigger: 1. It is an open trigger – anyone can activate it just by saying 'tied up.' 2. The trigger phrase is a very common one that can easily occur in situations where the response would be awkward, inappropriate, or dangerous. 3. The trigger response requires the physical presence of that hypnotist to end, which could be very difficult if it is triggered accidentally when the hypnotist is not around. Any changes that eliminate these problems would be fine. At a minimum, 490

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the reworded trigger needs to be tied to a specific person, made more difficult to trigger accidentally, and (unless the reworded trigger requires the physical presence of the hypnotist to activate) not depend on a specific person's presence to end the effect. An example would be: Each and every time I touch you on the arm and say, 'I see you're all tied up,' your arms cross behind you and you feel them bound at the wrists. The harder you try to pull against the bond the more firmly your wrists remain tied together. You remain bound in this way, unable to separate your wrists, until I tap them three times like this. Then normal movement returns to your arms and you are no longer bound. 4. You are starting a scene with a new hypnotee in which they wish to experience hypnotic amnesia. You begin by having them imagine walking down a corridor in their mind until they come upon a locked closet where they can hide memories temporarily. Your partner immediately starts sobbing and crying out, “Don't lock me in the closet again! I'll be good, I swear!” and clutching the chair. What do you do? Could this have been anticipated through reasonable means? This is a classic example of an abreaction. The suggestion itself is perfectly innocuous, but the hypnotee's own experiences came to bear and turned it into something frightening. As the section on abreactions says, your responsibility is to get your partner out of that head space. So suggest immediately backing away from the closet, safe and protected, coming back up the corridor, the closet getting further and further away. Calm them, bring them to their safe place if they have one, and when they have calmed down bring them out of hypnosis. You can play the amnesia game another time. Now, could this have been anticipated through reasonable means? It depends. If your partner in this scene is someone you know well, and they've alluded to being locked in the closet as a child, then I'd say that was a very poor choice of metaphor and the incident could have been avoided. On the other hand if this was casual play with someone you don't know intimately and they didn't volunteer that information (as most people wouldn't, because what could it possibly have to do with kinky hypnosis?) then definitely not. 491

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Either way, though, you would of course apologize for calling up those memories and spend as long as you need with them to make sure they're okay and back in a stronger head space.

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Chapter 5: Starter Inductions 1. Under what circumstances would you use each of these inductions? The only hard and fast rule in hypnosis is that there are no hard and fast rules in hypnosis. This question is really aimed at getting people used to thinking about how they would choose an induction for a given partner. Eye fixation is a good induction to use for anyone who has talked about seeing one done, particularly if they start to glaze over a bit as they describe watching someone else get hypnotized that way. If you do it with a pocket watch or crystal, you have decades of Hollywood propaganda working in your favor as well. People also tend to assume that you should use eye fixation on anyone visual, but that's an oversimplification – sure, visual people like looking at things, but eye fixation can also work well for nonvisual people. Relaxation inductions are good for someone who is twitchy, nervous, or stressed out. They are also really good for people who find the slow surrender of the induction process itself erotic. Like the eye fixation option, people tend to have the expectation that a relaxation induction will succeed so it's also good for someone's first induction, and for people who are kinesthetic. The fractionation induction is great when you are going for a very deep trance state, because it will typically get you there in a fairly short time. It's also an excellent choice for people who have had difficulty getting into trance using conventional relaxation or fixation inductions. The Dave Elman induction is a great general-purpose induction, useful for just about anyone. I tend to use the Dave Elman a lot for first-time hypnotees, because it keeps their conscious mind too busy to sit there asking whether the induction is working or not. It's also a great choice for people with a strong submissive streak because it's all about telling people what to do and them doing it. 2. What is your favorite induction? What is it about that induction that makes it your favorite? 493

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Everybody’s answer will be different, of course. Mine changes periodically as I rediscover old inductions or pick up new ones. My current favorites are the fractionation countdown from this chapter and Terence Watts’s “From Five to Nine” (known in *EHU circles as “the office supplies induction”). I rediscovered the fractionation count by watching Melissa Tiers do it in a group setting and noticed that it tends to drop people very deeply in a short amount of time, which is always good in an induction. Since then I’ve used it a lot and it really appeals to me. “From Five to Nine” is a confusion induction. What I enjoy about it is that it’s highly imaginative, keeping my trance partner mentally active while they are sliding into trance. It’s also more interesting for me to do because of that.

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Chapter 6: Going Deeper 1. Some hypnotists give suggestions like, “And now, take a nice deep breath in, and as you let it out you drop ten thousand times deeper...” Is this really effective? Why or why not? If you are doing this chapter with a group, let the hypnotees in the group relate their experiences before weighing in. My personal experience is that no, the “ten thousand times deeper” approach is not very effective. It's very difficult for for most people to conceive of what “ten thousand times deeper” actually means or feels like (though I do know someone who calculated 11 factorial in her head while in trance, so there can always be exceptions). It's usually more effective to stick with easier relative steps such as twice as deep, three times as deep, maybe at most five times (and I typically only do that in rare cases). You can get a long way by doubling repeatedly. 2. You have hypnotized a partner and intend to do a hypno-bondage scene with hypnotic flogging. How would you test to ensure that your bondage and impact suggestions will be accepted? Bondage is about restricted movement, so any suggestion that freezes a joint or sticks a small body part to something else would be a good test for bondage. Try suggesting that two fingers are held together with tape, and the harder they try to separate those fingers the tighter that tape holds them. That is just one possible answer to testing for bondage. Hypnotic flogging is a sensation game, so I would do a sensation-based test. Since you will be going for a strong sensation, I would probably start by suggesting an imaginary nipple clamp biting down on one nipple and watch their face for reaction. Then, use suggestion to increase that sensation or decrease it. If you can get them to regulate the sensation of the nipple clamp, imagining a flogger will be easy for them.

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Chapter 7: The Language of Suggestion 1. What are some examples of suggestions that we give ourselves? Do they have influence? The suggestions we give ourselves vary greatly from person to person, obviously. Some common ones are things like: I'm just not good at <whatever> I have to (or can't) do this myself. I have no willpower. These self-suggestions always have influence. One thought alone may not seem like much, but we tend to think these things habitually, and suggestion repeated often enough without challenge becomes a belief. 2. What are some of the factors that affect how much influence a suggestion has on us? Common factors include: What is our opinion of the person (or entity) making the suggestion? We are more likely to accept a suggestion coming from someone we like or admire – that's why celebrities get paid to endorse products. Have you ever found yourself dismissing a product you've never tried because it was endorsed by someone you dislike? Does the suggestion agree with our existing beliefs? People are hardwired to be more accepting of ideas that square with our existing belief systems. Suggestions that defy what we believe to be true are more likely to be disregarded. Have we gotten the suggestion multiple times, from different sources? The Big Lie theory of politics is based on the simple truth that the more often people hear something, and from the more seemingly different sources, the more inclined they are to believe it unless they have compelling evidence to the contrary. 496

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3. Which is the better way to word a suggestion, directly or indirectly? This is an obvious trick question. There is no inherent advantage to one form of wording over the other as a general principle. What makes one more appropriate than another is the mindset of the person making the suggestion and the one receiving it. If your hypnotee is accepting and acting on your suggestions then it doesn't matter whether you phrased it directly or indirectly.

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Chapter 8: Fun With Modalities 1. Which modality is easiest for you to work with? Why is that? This is a matter of pure personal preference, so any answer goes. In the beginning, a lot of people find it easiest to work with someone who has the same primary modality they do. For others whatever their first regular partner's primary modality was becomes the one they are most comfortable with simply by virtue of practice. Ideally, of course, a good hypnotist should be able to adapt to any modality. 2. What would you do with someone who wants to get better at imagining visual things? People can and do get better at working in senses that aren't their primary ones. Usually the key is to start simple and work your way up. For this example, I would start by having them just imagine a solid color filling the field behind their closed eyelids. If they are kinesthetic I might suggest wrapping themselves up in that color; for an auditory, allowing them to experience whatever sounds are associated with that color. When they can readily imagine the color, you might try adding a pattern to it (“Now, imagine that red field is dotted with yellow polka dots...”), or forming the color into a shape. As your hypnotee gets more adept at these simple exercises make the shapes and images more and more complex. Your hypnotee may never get to the point where they can stand in the back yard with their eyes open and see themselves at Wembley Stadium – heck, a lot of visual people can't do that – but with patience, practice, and desire they should be able to get pretty good at visualization in their minds.

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Chapter 9: Your Hypnotic Self 1. New hypnotists are often tempted to exaggerate their experience in order to inspire belief and expectation in a prospective play partner. Is this a good idea? You can make a case for or against this, but I lean heavily against. Hypnosis requires trust and belief; if your hypnotee finds out that you have lied about your experience – and if they've been with an experienced hypnotist before, they will figure it out – then they will be unlikely to play with you again or recommend you to anyone else. I would rather hear you say “I'm a new hypnotist, I've been working on my technique, and I really need someone who I can do a trance with and give me feedback” than claim to have tons of experience you don't have. 2. If you've never done a hypno-bondage scene before and your partner wants it, should you tell them it will be your first time? If your partner asks about your hypno-bondage experience, then I think you have to answer honestly about it. Just because you haven't done it before doesn't mean you can't figure it out on the fly, and since you've read this book you probably have a basic idea of how hypnotic bondage works. If your hypnotee doesn't ask, then it's entirely up to you whether you want to state up front that it's your first hypno-bondage scene.

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Chapter 10: Being the Hypnotee 1. Suppose you are adept at self-hypnosis and are playing with a new hypnotist whose technique is a bit awkward and not working for you. Would you simply use your self-hypnosis skills to go into trance yourself? What, if anything, should you tell the hypnotist afterwards? This is squishy; there's a good case to be made for any approach. If you use your self-hypnosis skills to take yourself into trance, you may find that you can still get enjoyment out of the suggestions that come after the awkward induction. It will also help to build the new hypnotist's confidence, which might make for an immediate improvement in their style. On the other hand, you are not obligated to bolster a new hypnotist's fragile ego; if you really aren't feeling the induction, stop the hypnotist and explain as best you can why their induction is failing for you. Honest communication is important. If you do end up trancing yourself, I would expect you to give the hypnotist some constructive feedback. “That induction wasn't really doing it for me, but I didn't want you to give up so I tranced myself. I think you might want to practice that one a few more times before you do it with a live person” is gentle and yet truthful and helpful. 2. Why would a dominant allow their submissive(s) to hypnotize them? People get very committed to their chosen roles and labels, so I like to ask people who have full-time submissives whether they ever allow this. And, I'll admit, I tend to automatically respect a hypnotic dominant who allows their submissive(s) to hypnotize them sometimes. Hypnosis is a cooperative process, and the rapport that you build in doing hypnosis flows both ways. Allowing your partner to trance you helps to strengthen that bond and gives you both confidence in each other. If you like to play with others, this also gives you the opportunity to train your submissive in how to hypnotize so they can then top others while being topped by you.

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Another very good reason why a dominant would allow their submissive to hypnotize them is that it's a great form of service. A submissive can hypnotize their dom (with permission, or by order) and give them pleasure without expecting or requiring anything in return other than the satisfaction of pleasing the dom.

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Chapter 11: Testing and Convincers 1. What other suggestions might make a good pre-induction test? Anything that shows a willingness and ability to focus and imagine can be used as a pre-induction test, so there is a near infinite list of possible good answers. A couple of mine would be: Ask them to imagine that feeling they get when they first wake up in the morning, no longer asleep, but not really ready to get up and start moving yet … that distant, dreamy, sleepy sort of feeling. See if their eyes start to glaze over, stare, or flutter a bit. (Testing recall of a previous trance state.) Just make eye contact and start describing what going into hypnosis may feel like for them. Watch for their eyes to start to glaze or unfocus. (Testing ability to imagine by suggestion) Have them extend their arm straight out, close their eyes, and imagine a thick steel bar directly underneath that arm, stiff and rigid, holding the arm exactly where it is no matter how hard anyone presses down. Repeat once or twice and then press gently down. If you feel resistance, press a little harder. (Testing arm catalepsy by suggestion.) 2. What other suggestions might make a good convincer? Any suggestion that your partner remembers following can be used as a convincer. I will sometimes set one up specifically for this purpose. When I do, it's usually a posthypnotic suggestion with a harmless or benign effect, such as: And from time to time today you may notice that you are particularly aware of the color red. The color red is more vibrant, more interesting, more sexy to you than it has ever seemed before, and that can remind you that inside, something in your mind has changed.

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This is great if you're wearing a red shirt; or you can substitute whatever color you are wearing for red.

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Chapter 12: Confusion Inductions 1. If you were going to construct a list of Nine Things designed for an auditory person, what would they be? What about for a visual person? Do you necessarily need to cater to your partner's modality if you're doing an overload induction? To cater to a specific modality, I would have 5 to 6 of the Nine Things tied to that sense. An auditory version is tricky in a quiet environment because there often aren't five or six distinct sounds in the area you can reference. However, you can get the same effect by having the hypnotee imagine or remember specific sounds, such as: The moans of a lover in ecstasy The sound of their own voice The ticking of a metronome The chorus of their favorite song The phrase, “Relax and let go...” Similarly, a visual person with their eyes closed is not really going to see much, but you can use their imagination to call up images like: The face of a person having an orgasm A balloon of their favorite color A pet they have, or would like to have A toy they played with as a child The wallpaper on their computer desktop Catering to a specific modality is not really necessary, though, for the Nine Things type induction to work well. In fact, you could make an argument that using images for a visual, sounds for an auditory, etc. actually makes it 504

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easier for their mind to keep up; by that logic you would use more auditory and kinesthetic items for a visual person. Ultimately people are individuals, so there's no hard and fast rule about this. I usually don't tailor the list of things unless there is something in the environment that is so prominent I can't ignore it. 2. How could you take the Confusion Countdown and make it even more confusing? There are a number (so to speak) of ways to add more confusion elements to the countdown. A few that I've played with include: Have the hypnotee do the counting, with some sort of imaginary erasing or a mantra phrase like “deeper relaxed” between each number, like in the Dave Elman induction. While they are doing that, you are free to keep up a steady stream of suggestions to confuse their counting and relax their mind. Have them count by threes or sevens instead of individual numbers. Every other number will still be odd or even unless they make a mistake in their math. If you do this, you might want to have them start from one and count up instead of down from 100 – you're less likely to run out of numbers. Work both ends into the middle: that is, have them count 100, then 1, then 99, then 2, 98, 3, etc. Again, this requires more conscious effort and gives you more opportunity to slip suggestions into their subconscious while they do it.

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Chapter 13: Setting and Using Triggers 1. Why would you use a trigger instead of a simple posthypnotic suggestion? This largely comes down to personal preference, so almost any answer is going to have merit. One common reason for creating a trigger is so that you can use the effect repeatedly, since a non-trigger post-hypnotic suggestion is typically only used once. Triggers are also very familiar to fans of hypnosis, so they tend to expect that a demo of hypnosis will include at least a couple of triggers. (Think of any stage show you've seen; I'll bet you several triggers were set and used during the show.) 2. A potential play partner comes to you with a request: they want you to give them a trigger that makes them grant three “wishes” (requests that they must fulfill if they are possible) to anyone who possesses a prop lantern they have with them. Would you do this? If so, how would you word the trigger? What limits, if any, would you place on the trigger? This one is designed to set off ethical and safety alarm bells. It's not really about the mechanics of the trigger, though that should also be a point of discussion. Let's suppose for a minute that you agree to the request. To meet ethical and safety standards, you may want to consider including limits like these: Each “wish” must fall within the submissive's hard (or soft, if you're playing careful) limits and physical capabilities or it is automatically forfeited and has no effect. The wishes must be made at the time the person gains possession of the lamp, in the genie's presence, and must be something the genie can do in a reasonable amount of time. The wisher must continue to hold the lamp until the wish is fully granted or the wish ends immediately. 506

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If the wisher gives the lamp to someone else before receiving their three wishes, they forfeit any remaining wishes. Any one person can only get a maximum of three wishes from the genie in a 24-hour period. Those restrictions should make the suggestion reasonably safe for the person requesting it, particularly if it is time bound to a specific event, such as a play party already in progress. The trigger event would be something like, “When anyone holding the lantern says, 'I wish...' whatever they then wish for, you must fulfill” followed by the restrictions and rules. It would be perfectly reasonable for a hypnotist to decline this request, though. If there is no dominant partner watching over the “genie” it would fall to the hypnotist to monitor how the trigger got used and to intercede if the “genie” seemed to be distressed or uncomfortable with anyone's wish. That's a lot of responsibility to take on for someone you don't know during an event for which you may have had other plans. 3. What are your favorite triggers? What makes them your favorite? Any answer is a good one, of course. My favorites are already in this book: the “Pleasure” trigger, because I love the response it gets when it hits people; and the “Simon Sez” (all-purpose) trigger for its versatility.

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Chapter 14: Fractionation 1. What do you suppose would be good ways of making sure someone is all the way back to their fully alert self after a fractionation exercise? It can take some time – several minutes or a lot more, depending on how much fractionation they've been doing – to get someone fully alert and with it again. The more you can engage their analytical mind the more it will tend to clear the fog. Ask them what they'd like for their next meal, or what traffic is probably going to be like on their route home – anything that requires them to make a judgment or compare things will help engage their conscious mind. 2. What would be the benefits of Auto Fractionation as described above? I pretty much admitted in the text that this is a creatively lazy exercise for the hypnotist. Bear in mind that for a lot of hypnotees fractionation itself is a reward and a desirable thing, so using auto fractionation lets you give your partner a treat without requiring a lot of talking and focus on your part (but do pay attention anyway, because you're still responsible for them!). There are particular attractions to doing this with a brat, as their antics as they accuse you of being lazy and try to resist the suggestion to count down again will be very entertaining for you. Another advantage of this technique is that you can get a sense for your partner's timing; how long does it take for them to come up and go down again? What physical signs can you detect that reveal how deeply they are dropping? And of course it's great practice for them at going in and out of trance.

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Chapter 15: Instant Inductions 1. Milton Erickson often used his handshake induction on people who had not given consent to be hypnotized or touched. How would you use the handshake induction ethically within the erotic hypnosis community, where explicit consent is required and expected? This harkens back to Chapter 4 on safety and ethics, and is a bit of a preview to Chapter 27 on consensual non-consent. The simple answer is to reach an agreement with that person that they are open to being tranced by you using a handshake or other surprise induction whenever they are in a safe environment. That simple answer always raises other questions, though, such as how others would know that a consent breach has not just taken place. It's a good discussion to have. 2. Would you use an instant induction on someone who isn't sure they they can be hypnotized? Why or why not? This is a yes or no question, but either answer can be supported. There are certain advantages to doing an instant induction with someone who isn't sure they can be hypnotized. The speed of the induction gives them very little time to think about whether they are going into trance or not, and since the phenomenon of transderivational search is wired into our brains a smoothly executed instant induction should work. Whether they stay in trance once the initial surprise is over and their conscious mind can start doubting again is another matter. Since it is very difficult to get someone so deep that they won't analyze in the few seconds that you have, there is also considerable risk that the person will go into trance and then pull themselves out again. A lot of pretalk stressing how everyone with normal brain functions can and does go into hypnosis can help, especially if you are dealing with someone who has genuine self-doubt as opposed to someone who is emotionally invested in the idea that they are unhypnotizable. Ultimately, though, I can completely understand and support the position that an instant induction on someone like that is risky compared to, say, a good confusion induction or fractionation. 509

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Chapter 16: Hypnotic Favorites 1. At what point in an ongoing play relationship would you construct a safe place? What if you need one and haven't created it yet? This is a judgment call. If your play is pretty benign, meaning you're just having fun and staying well clear of any known land mines and limits, then you probably don't need one. If you start talking about pushing boundaries, playing with consensual non-consent, or playing at the edges of your partner's comfort zone then I would recommend having a safe place ready. If you find that you need one and haven't built it yet, build it on the spot: have your partner imagine a place of absolute safety and then take you there with them, away from whatever is causing them upset, right away. It's not ideal, but it's better than staying in the jaws of the monster. 2. You have a new submissive who has difficulty achieving orgasm even during intercourse. Would you use the control room to adjust their “orgasm threshhold” so that they find it easier to orgasm? This is a rarity: a discussion point where there really is only one right answer. Making the adjustment in question crosses the line from play into therapy. Someone who is not trained in hypnotherapy has absolutely no business going there, especially as this particular tactic makes no attempt to unearth the cause of the difficulty before trying to force-fit a solution. Someone who is trained in hypnotherapy will know better than to conduct therapy with someone they are involved with, and would refer the case to a colleague. So either way, it's a solid and emphatic No. 3. What other “favorites” do you have? What makes them favorites for you? You should get a variety of different answers for this, all of which are right. Most of my personal favorites have made their way into this book or are in Mind Play: the “Simon Sez” trigger, “PLEASuuuuuuuure!”, “Blank”, and the Five Point Palm Exploding Orgasm Technique probably rank highest 510

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for me.

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Chapter 17: Long Distance Hypnosis 1. Safety is a major issue when trancing online with people you don't know. What safeguards would you recommend to someone trying hypnosis online for the first time? Depending on the experience level of the group discussing this, you could get a number of good answers. Some common safety precautions include: Only play in channels with rules against predatory behavior and where those rules are actually enforced. Prefer channels that automatically log sessions and retain them for a period of time after, so that you can review those logs if you have any doubts as to what happened during a session. Play only with people you know, or who are vouched for by someone whose judgment you trust. Never agree to send photos, video or audio to someone who is not willing to do the same for you. If it is your first play session with a given hypnotist or hypnotee, have a friend monitor the session and invite your play partner to do the same Negotiate as if you were doing the scene in person – that is, include all of the information that you would for an in-person session, and terminate the session the moment one of those limits is crossed. Report people who try to abuse you to the appropriate monitors. There will likely be other ideas as well. 2. What are your favorite programs to use for voice or video chat? Nothing changes as quickly as technology, so bear in mind that everything I say about video chat software is likely to change before too long.

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My favorite at the moment (spring 2015) is Google Hangouts. It works well on every platform I’ve tried it on and the quality I get is pretty consistent. Others are more fond of Skype, which I used to use regularly but, as I mentioned in the text, the quality and support have gone downhill for nonWindows users. On smartphones, though, I’m told the Skype client is very good. If you are and your partner are both using Apple products, FaceTime becomes another viable option for video chat. For audio only, a new option that is just starting to become widely available for smartphones is Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), also called High Definition Voice. VoLTE uses the data network to transmit digitized voice. The result is a call made from a cell phone that sounds extremely clear and clean, without the fuzziness or noise that is common in cell phone calls. Voice quality over VoLTE rivals that of a good Internet connection with a quality mic, which makes it a viable option when Internet bandwidth is limited. 3. What are your favorite hypnosis chat rooms? This is another one where any answer I try to give is bound to be dated very quickly. The only one that I frequent nowadays is the chatroom on Hypbook.com.

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Chapter 18: More Inductions 1. The Heart Coherence induction is designed to be used with a trance partner who is feeling anxious or agitated. Would it be better to do a longer pre-talk to address the source of their anxiety first and then use some other induction? Why or why not? This is another judgment question where either answer could be right. If you are starting a scene with someone who is anxious or agitated, it's a good idea to at least ask what you can do to help them feel more comfortable. Sometimes it's a good kind of agitation – they may be eager to start the scene, a little apprehensive about what is about to happen (especially if they are new to hypnosis) yet excited at the same time. Sometimes it's stuff they bring with them that has nothing to do with you, with the scene, or even with hypnosis. You are not their therapist (even if you are a therapist – play and therapy never mix), so it's not your job to try and resolve their outside anxieties. As far as the Heart Coherence induction vs. a longer pre-talk, either approach is valid. The longer pre-talk might be more effective with an inexperienced hypnotee, especially if their jitters are coming from fear of the unknown. With someone who has already had the lecture, who knows what hypnosis is about and is just unsettled, there's no real value in more pre-talk so you might as well just go into the induction, whether it's Heart Coherence or something else.

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Chapter 19: Arousal and Desire 1. Some of the applications in this lesson mention using them in public. What sort of things should you consider before engaging in public play? What would you do differently from using the same technique in private? Public play is a huge turn-on for some people. Much like the sex-in-public fantasy, there's the thrill of doing something sexy in full view of an unsuspecting world, risking exposure and embarrassment. Ideally, your goal should be to do it in a way that leaves the people around you unaware of your activity – otherwise you're effectively coercing others into being part of your play without their consent, and that's egregiously rude. Everyone has their own limits as to how far they're willing to go in a public setting, so there's no set correct answer here. Some things to consider before engaging in public play might include: What is the intended setting? You can get away with a lot more in a darkened movie theatre than you can in a public park in daylight. How much sound cover do you need? Moans and gasps can be loud or quiet; will the effort required to keep quiet be a turn-on, or is there a real risk that you can't be quiet enough to avoid drawing attention? Will you be under direct observation? Needing to maintain a neutral appearance may place some activities out of bounds. Are there security cameras monitoring you? This is more common in public spaces than a lot of us would like to believe. Is that an attraction for you, or a deterrent? Will people who know you in the vanilla world be in a position to witness your play? Depending on those factors, you might want to add suggestions that increase pleasure the harder they struggle to remain quiet (but don't say “try to remain quiet” unless you want to hear noise) or to appear as if they are 515

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not feeling the arousal. 2. What do you think would happen if you used the hypno-pheromone technique with someone with whom you have never been physically intimate? This is a pure hypothetical, so what would happen would be a function of the individuals involved. The kinds of reactions I would consider plausible would be any of the following: The person completely ignores the suggestion. (Probably the most likely.) The person sniffs the air and mentions that you smell nice. The person acts much more interested in you, flirting and touching more than they normally do, but does not take it further. The person feels the compulsion to be attracted to you but rejects it and wants to get away from you instead. The person already had a subconscious desire to be intimate with you,so they respond to the suggestion as it was given. (Probably the least likely response, and ethically very squishy!)

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Chapter 20: Sensation Play 1. Besides tickling and vibration, what other sensations would you use in erotic play? Lots of different sensations come to mind here. Soft fur stroking across the body; the cold steel of a knife blade playing over the skin; a mouth and tongue on the genitals; needles penetrating the skin; rope wrapping around the body; sexy smells and tastes; the stroke of a violet wand; the list could go on and on. 2. Should safe words be required if you are engaging in public play? Again, this is a judgment call. My personal opinion is that if you are pushing the limits, where there is a good chance that you might draw attention or bring unpleasant consequences to yourself, then you should have a way to pause or end the play quickly before that happens. Others can disagree and be equally right.

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Chapter 21: Hypno-BDSM 1. What are some other BDSM activities that you could incorporate hypnosis into? This is a pretty easy question in an audience of people who are in the scene. Any activity that tends to bring on subspace is a great place to use hypnosis, either to get the bottom into that space faster or to deepen the state once they're there. Anything involving a body sensation can be simulated through hypnotic suggestion: hypno-needles, hypno-knives, hypno-caning, hypnoviolet-wand, etc. 2. What sorts of things might you need to negotiate with your partner before making them a nude sculpture at at a leather party? How would you ensure that no third party unknowingly breaches one of your bottom's limits? This will depend on the partner's limits and desires, of course. Some obvious ideas include: Being nude in front of strangers is one thing; being touched by strangers can be quite another. If your bottom does not want to be touched, or is willing to be touched in certain areas only, you need to make provision for that. The position of the “statue” should be up for negotiation. It needs to be a position that is comfortable enough to sustain without causing muscle cramps or undue fatigue. If the “statue” will be in place for an extended time, think about self care needs like bathroom breaks, food and drink, and the temperature of the room where they will be hanging around naked. A good way to make the sculpture's limits known would be to attach a sign, perhaps on a 3x5 card or a sheet of paper nearby, with what is and isn't allowed. With a little advance planning this could even be positioned like the placards at museums that identify the sculpture, artist, and any interesting history. 518

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Chapter 22: Doll Play 1. Doll play usually involves a lot of physical contact, and frequently involves moving people's arms and legs for them. What would you do to help improve the safety of your doll play? Something I generally do is to make sure I include this: No matter how I move you, you always automatically remain safely balanced. Any little body movements you need to make to remain safely balanced, your body makes automatically without thought or effort. That helps to ensure that as I'm moving someone's legs around they will do what they need to in order to help me without tripping and falling. 2. What other kinds of dolls can you think of that would be amusing to emulate with hypnosis? What would your suggestions to the doll be? A robot is a reasonable variation of the doll; suggestions might include speaking in a mechanical monotone voice, stiff body movements, and the like. (Robots are covered in Chapter 24.) Other ideas might include specific super heroes, fashion dolls that you can undress and dress, department store mannequins, sex-bots (robot programmed to perform various sexual acts), etc. Have some fun with this one and let people brainstorm.

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Chapter 23: Memory Play 1. When would it be appropriate to ask your hypnotee to hide a memory permanently? What would be the possible repercussions of doing so? People can disagree, but I would never advocate trying to achieve permanent amnesia. If the event in question is minor, it probably makes no difference as we tend not to dwell on these things anyway; if the event is major, it will continue to have emotional impact even if the conscious mind is no longer aware of it. There are serious ethical considerations involved here, among them the line between play and amateur therapy. 2. Hypnosis can be used to create false memories as well as to hide real ones. What erotic uses could there be for creating false memories? What ethical and safety pitfalls can you think of in doing so? Creating false memories is not something that we do often, but it is possible. I've seen people hypnotized to recount a wanton sexual encounter they'd recently had with the hypnotist (whom they had just met at the start of the show), for example. It might be interesting to have someone “remember” a particularly hot, sexy play session they have already had with you (which is provided by their imagination) and get so turned on describing it that they want to repeat it with you right now. The biggest pitfall to this sort of play, of course, is that the memories are not real. As long as you make sure to remove them afterwards, to remind the subconscious that they are fantasy memories, not real ones, there should be no lasting issues. 3. Suppose you want to play a hypnotic game called Groundhog Day, where your hypnotee automatically repeats a series of actions over and over, realizing that they're repeating themselves but unable to stop doing it. How would you word the suggestions for a scene like that? The first challenge here is defining the scope of the activities to be repeated. Trying to repeat an entire day, a la the movie, is asking a lot and would be very cumbersome to do. On the other hand, a few minutes' worth of activity 520

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is easy to remember and, if the activity makes no lasting changes to the person, easy to repeat. One way of doing this might be something like this: In a few moments, I will say the phrase 'Groundhog Day.' As soon as I say 'Groundhog Day' to you, your mind and body automatically get stuck in a repeating time loop. You get up out of your chair, check out your hair in the hallway mirror, then go to the kitchen and bring me a piece of candy from the dish on the counter. After giving me the candy you go to the middle of the room and lift up your shirt to show me your bare chest, then you return to your original seat. After thirty seconds, you repeat all of those actions again. You continue repeating that series of actions, waiting 30 seconds between each, until I tell you that Groundhog Day is over. You can take no other actions during the 30 second pauses other than to speak or move in your seat. Your conscious mind is fully aware that you are repeating yourself, but the more you try to break the sequence or do things differently, the more you find it impossible to do anything except repeat the sequence exactly the same way each time.

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Chapter 24: Transformations 1. What are some of the things you would want to bring up in negotiations before doing a bimbo scene? A robot scene? Many good answers are possible here. For the bimbo, it's important to find out what your hypnotee's definition of a bimbo is. Some may see the bimbo as giggly and dumb but without the sexual aspects; others may see the bimbo as calculating, playing dumb while using her body to get her way. So find out what your hypnotee wants to be and define the bimbo that way. If the hypnotee's definition includes being sexual, find out how far they want to take that and build in limits – for example, “You love showing off your naked body and being touched on the ass, but no matter how much you are enjoying that you feel no interest in actually having intercourse with someone you don't know intimately.” With the robot, the big variable is typically what the robot is programmed to do. Is it a sex-bot? A butler or maid? A secretary? Find out what the hypnotee wants to be, and when you word the “programming” make sure their limits are respected (“As a sex-bot, you are programmed to give people orgasms using your hands; your programming does not permit you to engage in oral or genital intercourse...”). 2. Your partner wants to do a drugged drink scene during an actual play party at a dungeon, and they want to be completely surprised when it happens. How would you negotiate this? Would you make any special arrangements with the dungeon staff? This is going to depend heavily on the rules of the hypothetical dungeon, so if there is one that you or the group frequents that would be good to use as an example. At a minimum, before agreeing to top a scene like that, I would talk to the dungeon staff and make sure they are aware; I would describe the scene and make it clear that no actual drugs will be involved. I would have the hypnotee present to confirm that they asked for this and are consenting to it, and only if the dungeon staff are okay with that would I do the scene. 522

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Depending on the hypnotee I might invite the dungeon monitor to observe the hypnosis session that sets up the scene as a gesture of trust and good faith. Things to negotiate with the hypnotee would include what they want done with them once the “drug” takes effect, any safe words they want (or the dungeon requires), limits, and at what point they will remember that this was a pre-arranged scene with their consent.

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Chapter 25: Hypnotic Orgasms 1. Hypnotists take different approaches to orgasms, as they do everything else. What is your preferred approach to inducing an orgasm – quickly, or slowly? Touching, or not touching? There are no wrong answers here; it's just a matter of discussing options. Often it's the hypnotee who really dictates how these things will happen. A lot of people need some build-up before they can have a satisfying orgasm; others can come at the drop of a hat (or any other designated trigger) and be ready for more almost right away. So if you're going through the book by yourself, think about what you prefer; if you have steady partners, talk to them about their preferences and what makes the ideal orgasm. Then give it to them. 2. Suppose you are doing a scene in which you have negotiated bringing your partner to orgasm hypnotically but did not discuss touching. As their arousal get stronger and stronger, you hear them ask, “Please touch me!” What do you do? Your relationship with this partner is everything here. If the kind of touch they are asking for is something you do regularly do in similar environments, with their consent, then you can plausibly take the request as consent to do it again. If you have any doubt at all, though, don’t do it. But what if you haven't? It may be tempting to take the request as giving consent, since they are asking you to do it, but I wouldn't do that – someone already hypnotized and in the grip of powerful arousal is not in the right frame of mind to give informed consent. Sure, they probably do want you to touch them, but what the subconscious wants and what the conscious mind has agreed to are not always in sync. Touching them could be considered a breach of consent, and this partner would be entirely in the right to complain about it afterward. So what can you do? I would go back to the similar question in Chapter 4: you can either have them imagine being touched as they wish, or give them a suggestion to touch themselves where they wish to be touched. Either 524

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keeps you on the right side of the line (assuming that one of their limits wasn't “don't make me touch myself”) while doing right by your partner.

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Chapter 26: Dual Inductions and Co-Topping 1. How could you achieve the same effect as a dual induction with only one hypnotist? The most effective way that I know of is to use technology. You can make a recording of yourself giving an induction and play that back, with the speakers on one side of your hypnotee, while you do a live spoken induction on the other side. It's clunky, of course, because the recording has no ability to pace and no idea when to stop, but it works. A more effective option is to record both inductions and mix them with a program like Audacity so that one plays in each ear concurrently. I've done recordings like this for people before and they are a lot of fun to make and to listen to. With that kind of tech you don't even need to limit yourself to two voices; I've done recordings where I've had a male voice and a female voice each speaking an induction (swapping sides periodically for a fun spatial effect) while the same voices also repeat short mantras and affirmations in the background from one side or both. For a hypnotee wearing stereo headphones and listening to that, it's seriously trippy. 2. Suppose you are at an erotic hypnosis convention and are approached by a rope top who wants you to co-top a kidnapping scene where their bottom is hypnotically “chloroformed” and abducted, then tied up nude and molested by one of the kidnappers. Assuming you agree, what are some of the things you would cover during negotiation with the pair? With just the top? This is similar in a lot of ways to the drugged drink scene question from Chapter 24. With the pair together, aside from learning everyone's limits, I would want to cover how to handle the dungeon monitors so they know what's going on and are okay with it. I would want to establish what my role in the cotopped scene is. Since my co-top is skilled with rope, and is presumably the bottom’s primary partner, I would assume that they will handle the tying and molesting and I would provide the hypnotic “chloroform” and other mind effects needed to pull off the scene. I would want the bottom to define 526

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clearly how they end up naked, what they mean by “molested,” and which of the kidnappers they wanted doing those things. We should also discuss how much the “victim” realizes about the identities of the kidnappers – are they strangers? Are they masked? With just the top, I would want to discuss more about our specific roles and limits. What characters are we playing in the scene, and how do we interact? I would expect to be a subordinate to the rope top, but it's important to define that relationship. Am I just there to provide the “chloroform” and then hand the bottom over to the rope top to finish the scene? Do I stick around looking menacing so the top can threaten the bottom with me? At what point do we allow the “victim” to wake up? Does this top have specific limits as to what they want me doing (or not doing) with their partner? Do I have limits as to what I'm willing to do with the others in the scene? Again, there are many options here; I've only listed the ones that come to my mind in a hypothetical sense.

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Chapter 27: Consensual Non-Consent 1. What would be some good ways for someone to advertise their willingness to be hypnotized by surprise at an event? This is an actual debate that takes place periodically during the lead-up to various events, and so far I don't think anyone has come up with a fully satisfying answer. One option that's been tried is to provide something you attach to your convention badge (and can remove at will) that advertises that you want and consent to be hypnotized by surprise. The problem with this is that it's indiscriminate; there is no way to say, “I want to be surprised … but only by people I know.” That effectively limits the usefulness of the flag unless you're open to being hypnotized by literally anyone at the event. As much as I admire the community for how well it polices itself, I can totally understand if someone is not comfortable going quite that far. Something I've seen done recently involved wearing two specific tokens in a visible place: one token for hypnotists and another for hypnotees. Wearing the hypnotee token meant you were open to being hypnotized at any time by someone wearing the hypnotist token. This seems like a very good idea to me, but it depends heavily on there being an existing level of trust and comfort between everyone wearing the hypnotee token and everyone wearing the hypnotist token. The larger that group gets, the more difficult it becomes to ensure that relationship is there. If you come up with a creative idea that seems workable, go to the FetLife group of any of the erotic hypnosis conventions (NEEHU, MEEHU, WEEHU, and DMDW all have them) and suggest it. Or send me an email ([email protected]) and tell me about it so I can pass it on to all of the con organizers. Please! 2. What risks can you think of in doing resistance play with someone you've just met? The big trick in resistance play is sensing how far you need to push the resisting partner to give them the result they want, and what ways they most 528

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love-to-hate to be pushed. The better you know someone, the easier it is to make those calls. Also, sometimes when doing resistance play you will accidentally run up against a limit. Maybe something in the environment changes without your noticing right away, or your partner has a squick that you didn't know about. When that happens, play resistance can become real resistance and your partner may be reluctant to safeword but definitely wants you to change approach. The better you know your partner, the more likely you are to pick up on the signals that this is happening. 3. Suppose your partner expresses an interest in being hypnotized in their sleep. What kinds of guidelines would you want to negotiate for this? While the non-consent aspect of hypnosleep makes it seem scary, you actually would negotiate this pretty much like any other erotic hypnosis scene. What does your partner want to get out of the hypnosis? How will you prove to them that you did it? What limits do they have? What are your desires, expectations, and limits? Do they want to know when you plan to do it, or should it be a complete surprise?

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Chapter 28: The Esdaile State 1. How would you use the Esdaile state with a regular play partner? Any way they wish, really. I use an Esdaile session to reward a play partner for a particularly good scene or for surprising me in a happy way. I also use the Esdaile state with my wife Dani as a super-charged stress relief technique.

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The Mind Play Study Guide

Also by Mark Wiseman Mind Play: A Guide to Erotic Hypnosis The original guide book that has introduced thousands of people to the world of erotic hypnosis. All kinds of people are secretly (or not so secretly) fascinated by the erotic possibilities of hypnosis. Many of us know that hypnosis doesn't really have the kind of mind-melting power we see in movies. Still, we can't help but get turned on at the thought of either controlling someone, or being controlled by someone, into doing things we've been told we shouldn't do ... but really, inside, kind of want to. In paperback and electronic editions; available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other outlets worldwide.

Read Wiseguy's erotic fiction on: http://www.mcstories.com http://www.asstr.org/~Wiseguy

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