I am working off the following 6 assumptions for this. If any of these assumptions are false, then my whole argument is likely to crumble to dust and you can scroll down and leave a comment telling me I’m wrong on point X and move on :P
1. Hypnosis does not give someone “administrator access” to your mind, even if you trust them completely, and they tell you to do things you would normally do for them anyway.
2. Hypnosis is not a “blank and mindless state.”
3. Hypnosis is instead more accurately described as a state of hyper-focus, where you are usually more suggestible to commands/ideas.
4. Everyone has their own idea of “what hypnosis is/feels like” that can work for or against them when it comes to the effectiveness of trance.
5. I, personally, find hypnosis hot, sexy, and intriguing all by itself. Even without suggestions or elements that would make it hot in a traditional sense.*
6. I am approaching this primarily as a subject, looking at what the subject experiences in trance, and how those expectations work.
Once again, if these assumptions are false, I have made an error in my logic and I apologize.
Anyway, on to what this means:
So I got into hypnosis through media like cartoons, novels, movies, and the mind control/hypnosis scenes within them. From that I developed the idea that (a) hypnosis gave you “unlimited power” over a person’s mind, and (b) when someone is under hypnosis, they are uber relaxed and in a state of mindlessness/thoughtlessness, where the hypnotist’s words were the only things in the subjects head, if anything.
Of course, these aren’t true of real world hypnosis (save for special cases), and I eventually replaced idea (a) as time went on and I learned how the mind still keeps tabs on what you want while you are on trance, etc.
But idea (b) sorta stuck around. Perhaps because it’s a pleasant idea, especially for someone who over-thinks a lot, and perhaps because it wasn’t inconvenient like idea (a)***.
Eventually, the idea was challenged by idea ©: during hypnosis, you are still aware of what is happening around you and what you are being told, it’s just that you are more suggestible (slightly or not, depending on factors.) But you can still think, and think through the whole trance. I came across this maybe a few years ago, when I got more involved in the tumblr hypnosis community. It wasn’t *shocking*, but I still thought ‘maybe that’s just for some people, “Real Hypnosis™” is much more like idea (b)!“
So I feel like my logical mind knows “hypnosis is like falling asleep, things are a bit dampened, but you’re still aware,” while my emotional mind wants to be like “You don’t have to thiiiiinnnnnk while doing hypnosis and that’s fuuuuuuunnnn!” So I know what it SHOULD be, but I also know what I WANT it to be. And when it comes to expectations, these two ideas clash. Idea (b) usually wins though, possibly because emotion is stronger than logic 99% of the time.****
This is my problem. I expect hypnosis to be something that it isn’t. And on the occasion I get to experience it, my mind immediately wants to say “it didn’t work” or “maybe that was just a really light trance” or etc. Because it doesn’t fit my expectations or what I want from it. As you can imagine this does wonders for my confidence, in an activity where confidence is half the battle.
(Because I feel the need to clarify, I understand that some people may naturally feel a mindless state, and that such a state can be reached through suggestions and “practice” and such. I’m just saying that this usually does not happen naturally, and certainly doesn’t happen for me naturally.)
So, the obvious solution to this would be to change my expectations! To change the way I view hypnosis so I can enjoy it once again. And that… is so much easier said than done. These are expectations that I’ve had for years, and they are emotionally involved, making them difficult to remove/change. And even if I do consciously change to idea ©, my subconscious might still expect idea (b), and not allow me to fully enjoy/experience it.******
(I’m also a bit afraid to do this, because (as I said in assumption 5) I find hypnosis inherently hot, and I’m a little afraid if I change how I view it, I might loosen that association, and while I might be able to do “real” hypnosis, I will be left lusting after something that doesn’t exist, some “fantasy” idea of hypnosis, and that might do more harm than good. This is a minor fear, however, and I shouldn’t worry much about it, but I do :P)
So what should I do? How should I do it? I feel like changing my expectations would help me, but is it worth putting conscious effort into, or should I just “let it happen” somehow? Or is this just a non-issue and I’m missing the point?
*I include this because I understand many people see the results of hypnosis as the hot part (e.g. suggestions to pose, perform an action, or even just the feeling of being totally compelled to do something) instead of just the hypnosis itself. Others (myself included) see the hypnosis itself as hot, and may have varying opinions on suggestion (meaning, I find just watching someone go in and out of trance hot, even with no suggestions, and even when it’s not intended to be.)
**thinking about this, it may be more accurate to say I have a mind control fetish as well as a hypnosis fetish, but that hypnosis is actually applicable in real life so it gets “amplified”, so to speak.
***By “inconvenient” I mean that if hypnosis gave people unchecked power over each other, I would be much less likely to trust someone with that power. Also, the world would likely be a much different place.
**** For more evidence, look up the backfire effect, or visit the comments section of any argumentative YouTube video*****
***** Don’t do this. Bad idea.
****** I say ‘might’ here because I’m speculating. I may be giving my subconscious too much credit. I’m not sure.
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
