#hypnosis basics

My name is Vox.

In this script,

I will be teaching you

About hypnosis

While also hypnotizing you

In a post I made not too long ago, I talked about what I think are the fundamentals of hypnotising someone are, because I think people are unnecessarily intimidated by how complex and hard to learn hypnosis seems to be.

So I thought I'd build upon it a bit, and thought what direction to go with before I settled on this extension of that last statement: Newbie 'tists tend to get overly invested in the need to only learn by doing it.

There's a bunch of causes for this: For one, playing it more fun, and there's a lot of motivation and desire to find someone cute to zonk, for sure. I also think booklearning isn't given as much due as it should be, because it takes longer and is more complicated/less fun than reading a script at someone.

But I've... ranted, I'll be honest :P, about that before (because I had no choice but to booklearn about hypnosis for years so I'm a big advocate of it), so instead let's be more constructive this time!

What I'm going to do, is use what I talked about last time, and run through applying that to trying to actually learn how to zonk people! Or rather,

How to booklearn hypnosis!

Alrighty then! I'll use the good ole' Elman as the example here. Why the Elman? Because it's generally the one induction always recommended, due to its versatility, and it's also one of the most daunting to learn as a newbie, because it is big, long, involved, and complicated.

Note this isn't meant to teach you how to do an Elman, but rather applying the ideas of breaking down inductions and so-on. I'll also talk about what you don't learn from books later on, just to be thorough. If you haven't read the previous post about my fundamentals, I suggest you do, as I'll be referring to them a bunch.

Let's define things to start with: I'm using what I mentally refer to as the Wiseguy version of the Elman, which roughly goes: 1. Eye catalepsy 2. Fractionation 3. Arm raises/drops 4. Counting backwards and losing the numbers 5. Zonk successful!

So we have a big-arse script to look at, where do we start? By breaking it down, starting with the key components of the entire induction. Because if we want to understand its minutiae, we need to understand first what it's trying to do at a broad level.

What the Elman does, is almost metaphorically throw the kitchen sink at a subject. It's a string of rapid-fire mini-inductions/deepeners/convincers, delivered rapidly in succession. The idea being, at least some of them will work, for any given person. Hence why it's broadly effective and recommended.

From there, we could go in a bunch of directions. We've identified that the Elman consists of several distinct sections, so we could go into those individually in detail. We could look at how they're woven together into a big cohesive induction. But, we're already looking at it broadly, so let's continue that idea while we're there!

Why is it rapid-fire? Why are they in succession? Again, we're looking at the broad why are we doing this of the entire induction. The answer here, is that doing it fast, and moving rapidly between distinct mini-inductions, keeps the subject on their toes, keeps them focused and interested, and doesn't give them much time to process what exactly is going on.

Also, the ordering of these things. Now, this is quite malleable actually, but there's a general progression of starting with things that are easy, and provide some real oomph into the moments the subject can realise "this is working! o.o", and ends with the "harder" to do stuff, that transitions well into more deepeners and such. Because once they've lost the numbers (or letters, if you want), their mind is probably pretty clear and relaxed, which is exactly what you want!

And that leads me to another big key component of the Elman that I nearly forgot about! Why these specific mini-inductions? Now, a lot of different things can be thrown into an Elman, it's very modular and flexible. But if you look at each, a key thing is they all have built in feedback mechanisms, both for you as a 'tist, and for the subject. Those being: Inability to open eyes, opening and closing their eyes at specifics commands, how their arm feels as you lift it, and actually letting the numbers fade.

Obviously this is fantastically useful for you as a 'tist, because you can tell quickly if it's working the instant you hit one of those feedback points. They also serve as a good moment for the subject to realise it's working and that you know what you're doing!

Alright, now let's hit those individual components. Briefly :P. We understand what the overall induction is trying to do, and why, now let's look at the how.

Eye catalepsy: So this part is a great example of how everything you do has an effect. A big thing here is choice of language, where you're picking words ("try", "fail", "when you know they won't open") to imply, and create the expectation, that the subject will not be able to open their eyes. You're setting them up to lose, or expect to lose. Also knowing that naturally, if you let them try long enough they'll succeed, so you cut them off the moment you see them failing.

Fractionation: Again, everything you do has an effect. Often hand gestures and stuff like that are recommended to emphasize the opening and closing of eyes. You're also taking advantage of fractionation in general, to rapidly deepen their relaxation. And it's a good example of working with your subject and reading their responses, because you can keep repeating it as needed.

Arm raises/drops: Pretty similar to the fractionation section, imo. However you can work off the expectation built prior of countups/downs you might have created earlier, and that they have in general (i.e. counting up means coming out of trance, counting down means going deeper). I'll also point out your language choices here are good, because you can really cconvey to your subject the difference now with how their arm feels compared to normal.

Counting backwards and losing the numbers: Right, so this is a big chunk of pratter, and also a bit of taking advangtage of normal things. We almost always do this with counting numbers (or the alphabet) backwards, because it's harder than forwards, and thus takes more mental effort to remember. We also throw extra words in sometimes to the counting, because that also makes it harder to remember the next count, if you have to focus also on the extra words! Also, this is the part of the Elman where pratter happens, and you need to focus it towards losing the numbers and so-on.

Alright, that's about all I'm going to say on the Elman in detail, lest this gets too gigantic! XD Well, one more thing about expectations. You tend to start an induction like this by being super confident that it will result in trance, because you want them to believe you, naturally! :P

Now then, the second part of this:

What don't we learn from books?

While I'm the biggest advocate of booklearning for hypnosis you might find, there are things it doesn't prepare you for. Not that you won't be effective (you will be!), but you'll quickly notice things you can work on that you didn't realise would need work. So I'll hit a few of them to prepare you for it in advance! :)

Keeping up with your mouth: To start with, you'll talk faster than you can think of what to say. Simply because at the beginning, you're keeping so many things in mind at once because you still need to think about them, that it just slows down everything. It's like driving initially, really. You'll get used to it, just expect more pauses and umms and stumbling than you'd think.

Vocabulary: If like me you aren't an English major, your vocab is probably going to be limited, and that takes work to improve on. You just won't notice what you naturally gravitate towards for a while.

Precise feedback reading: Now, books will tell you generally what to look for when you're zonking someone. But they won't cover everything, and it takes some experience to really read your subject well, and notice subtle things.

Pratter: Personally, I've found doing good pratter is more of an art than a science, so reading didn't help me too much there as opposed to raw practice.

Alrighty! That's all I want to write for now, it's already a lot! :P

This all looks complex because of the length, but it's stuff that in words I'd explain in like 5 minutes or so. You can also do similar for any induction/deepener/technique you want, just happens the Elman is a big and complicated one, so it gets more to write about!

With some practice, it's not hard to do this kind of breakdown quickly and easily, too. :)

This is something I put up as a discussion topic in the AusHypno discord server, and since I wanted to put something up here and I put some effort into this, I figured I'd flesh it out a bit more and do so!

So, we all run into those times during hypnoplay when things just don't work right. An induction utterly flops. A suggestion doesn't work. A suggestion works, but only partially, or in ways that aren't great.

What I'll do here is run through a few ways and tips to help figure out when something isn't going right (although it's often obvious), how to fix it up, and some general advice on mentality, to make those times not so much of a problem.

The best way to figure out when something isn't working is communication, seriously. Being able to ask "Did this work?" and "How did this work for you?" lets you get the info to work those questions out, although in some cases paying attention to the feedback you get can tell you as well. Similarly, for the subjects, communicating issues you're having can avoid that too. No hypnotist wants to find out after a session that you got a bit triggered (in the not fun way) by something done. Not to mention, even when you're in trance you can communicate things across, even if it takes having to wake back up to do so. In which case, you then get the fun of being dropped again! XD Something not working right (or at all) isn't the end of the world! I cannot stress this enough! Your mentality about something has a huge impact on what the result actually is.

If your mentality is "Shit the induction failed game over." then yes that'll be true, but if it's "Oh ok that didn't work, let's try something else then! ^.^" it becomes not a big deal. Whoever you're playing with will catch onto your mentality, and it'll affect their perception of it too. Laugh it off, learn from it, and be positive about it. You haven't failed, you've just learnt new information about the other person. And don't be afraid to take a few minutes to regain your composure or mindset if you need to in those situations. Better to go at it fresh after a short break than to plough on when you're stressed or frustrated.

Oopsies in inductions: Inductions don't always work perfectly. If your first attempt at an induction doesn't work, try a different style. Ask your subject what wasn't working if an induction fails (assuming you didn't just faceplant it!), and switch styles up. Not every induction will work with every person, it's a fact of life. If a straight up Elman doesn't work, try a confusion induction, for instance. Or sometimes the same style, but delivered differently, will do the trick. For example, maybe knowing exactly what you're doing them beforehand helps them go under, or maybe it actively makes it harder. Or maybe you were trying to engage a sense they aren't very good at, and you need to switch that up. Learn how your subject works. Every bit of information you can learn about them and how their mind works will help you.

Oopsies in suggestions: Similar to the inductions point, try a different approach to the same suggestion. An easy example is amnesia, there's heaps of ways to go about that, and if you pick the right approach you can get it with people who've previously not had it work for them. Or maybe, just skip that suggestion and try something else, and figure out ways of getting to it more incrementally. No point beating a dead horse. One last point, if a suggestion is working in a way you aren't happy with, it is pretty easy to go and "edit" it and change how it works a bit. Besides, you gonna pass on an excuse to zonk them again? :P

I've touched on this a bit before in various spots, but some, ahh, recent experiences, ok, flubs >,.,>, have put this back into the front of my mind again.

That being, failure when trying to hypnotise someone.

I'm sure most hypnotists have a few stories under their belt of when inductions just didn't work. Maybe the chosen induction wasn't good for the subject in question? Maybe technical difficulties ensued? Maybe they couldn't keep their words going smoothly? Maybe they tried something that's a bit beyond them yet? Maybe they tried an idea that sounded good, but doesn't work? Maybe they just got too nervous?

Regardless, the obvious result is obvious. A non-zonked subject, and a potentially embarrassed hypnotist.

There's a strong tendancy to view failures, especially among people newer to all of this, as complete deal breakers. Things went wrong, session over, no chance of getting the person in trance anymore. Time to pack up and go home.

And that, my readers, is silly. There isn't any reason why something not working has to be such a big deal, and it's entirely, and easily possible to recover from something like that.

But ok, let's not just talk down at people. There's reasons why people tend to think that way. Let's dismantle those, shall we?

The biggest, and most obvious reason to treat a muckup so seriously, is a matter of confidence. Both on the hypnotist's end, and the subject's end.

For us hypnotists, yeah, it's a big of an ego blow, especially if you're already nervous about something working or not. But it isn't really a bad thing to happen. An often true fact of life is you learn more from failing than you do from succeeding. If everything worked, hey it worked! Job's done! (Ok not really, but you get what I mean!) If it didn't work, then you can suss out why, and learn more from it. Do you need to understand the subject in question better? Do you need to pick apart your own technique a bit and find out what to work on? I'll come back to this shortly.

The bigger worry would be from the subject's point of view. Generally speaking, the whole hypnosis process depends at least on some level, on the subject being confident that the hypnotist can hypnotise them. So the worry is, if they mess up, the subject is going to lose that belief, and any subsequent attempts are going to be less effective. Now yes, this is potentially true, but it doesn't have to be, and this worry can be remedied pretty easily.

In my opinion, most of that can be fixed with attitude. ...No, not that kind of attitude.

I've talked about it before, but if you approach a non-success as not a big deal, it's not going to be as big a deal. No, really. This all sort of comes back to confidence. If you're confident in your abilities and knowledge, you can recover from something, especially if you convey that confidence across. There's a worlds difference between "Oh no it didn't work I can't trance you shiiiiiit!" and "Welp, that didn't work, probably because X, Y, and/or Z. How about we take a breather and try something easier/more suited for you?".

My approach, when I flub, is that latter one (surprise surprise). I don't view there being much point in hammering home at somethig that isn't working, for whatever reason (caveat, if you have a very good subject you can half flub and still push through and it'll work). It's a bit embarrassing, but it's easier to recognise that point, stop things, discuss a bit, and then after a bit hit things from a different angle. Maybe an induction that's a different method, or one that I know better.

It seems counter-intuitive, but I personally find it works to take said breather. It lets you calm down yourself, it gives you a chance to talk to the subject, and get across that yes you know what's going on, and what'll fix it, and you can explain to them what'll change in the next approach, to give them confidence it'll work this time. Essentially you're going to project your own headspace onto the subject to some degree regardless, so better to get a handle on yourself, and be confident you've got the situation under control. Shit happens. To all of us. Eventually it's going to happen, so why treat it like the world's ending?

(Obviously there can be other approaches that'll work just as well. This is just my personal one, but it's worked perfectly every time thus far for me. If anyone does things way differently do tell!)

And moving back to what I left behind a bit earlier. It's a learning opportunity. Talk it through with your subject, especially if it's a case that something isn't suited to them. Failure is the best chance to learn, and pull things apart for yourself.

If they're able to convey things that didn't work for them, that's brilliant! It means you can think through what'll avoid those issues, or how to change your technique to compensate for that. And then that'll stick with you for the next time you run into someone similar. Often we only learn via experience.

If it's something on your end, it's a good chance to sit down afterwards, and again discuss it with the subject (especially if they're switchy, or knowledgeful too!), and figure out things you can work on to make it work next time. Maybe it's a practice thing, and you just need to keep doing it to get the words or the pratter right. Maybe it's a technique thing, and you've gone too far too quickly, and need to break it down and go from a simpler approach before you go nuts with complexity.

Especially if you'll be doing more with the same person, you can steadily work on bits and pieces of what didn't work, and get a good sense of progress, which can be hard to pin down precisely sometimes!

So here's another slightly better fleshed out writeup of something I did for the AusHypno discord discussion channels, the topic of which being about communication in hypnoplay and the basics about it, so why is it important, how do you do it, what do you communicate about, and so-on. Let's just jump into it!

Why is communication important in hypnosis play?

Communication is important for a number of things:

Ensuring things are consensual, and limits aren't being crossed, and if something is pushing them, to be able to point it out.

Adjusting things that don't work, either fully or partially.

Feedback for improving things for next time.

Negotiating what to even do in a session.

Ensuring both people are educated in how to handle aftercare and things like that, and know each other's needs.

Answering questions beforehand, and clearing up misconceptions about hypnosis for newer people.

Giving better clarity into a subject's head, so the 'tist knows how to make things work for them better.

The better you can communicate clearly, the better you'll be able to handle most of these points! And hopefully, the fewer "uh-oh" moments you'll run into! Simply put, you need to communicate things you want to other person to keep in mind and account for!

What do you communicate about?

Answered in the above, really. XD

How do you discuss things like limits, consent, and what you intend/want to do in a session?

There's a couple of ways this can go, it's sort of personal preference, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach.

You could:

Expressly agree on what will happen in a session, down to details, and not deviate.

Say what things are ok/not ok broadly, and allow freedom to hit those things.

Simply say "don't do this", and let everything else happen.

Broad consent, if you know the other person well.

Generally, the more you know a person, and the more you've played with them, the less you need to negotiate at each session, as you get to know their preferences and limits better.

Usually (in my experience), you'd sit down and discuss stuff some time before sessions, so as to figure out planning for them, and if you're going to do more of them later, you chat in-between and figure out what went well, what didn't, what the other person might want to do, and so-forth.

This is where I'd love more people to chime in, as that's how I approach it, generally I start broad when talking to people, then narrow it down to specifics the first few times, and then steadily broaden it again as I get to know them.

As things progress, you'd probably talk less about specific suggestions and on more broad and open things, such as when is it alright to play or throw triggers around and such. Some people go straight to that first, and that's fine too! The whole point is to avoid ending up in a situation where someone leaves a play session feeling like something happened that they didn't want, and as long as your communication covers those possibilities and avoids that, then you're good to go!

And how do you go about answering questions and clearing misconceptions about hypnosis beforehand?

I'm gonna link to a past blog post I made on this sort of thing, because it's easier, and then explain a few brief points.

And what I want to mention specifically, is don't over-complicate things, because explaining something is pointless if they don't understand what you're telling them. And when you're doing that, let them lead and prod what they want to know. Ask some open-ended, leading questions if they aren't sure what to ask, but if they're rolling, let them roll and go where they want to go/need to know.

It's better to take the extra time to talk, than jump into it with the other person feeling like they still have more questions and/or doubts about things, in my opinion. : )

A little while ago I made a post or two about essentially what hypnosis play involves and in that I gave some brief vague-ish descriptions of things that could be done. I had the thought "Why not make a bit of a more organised list of some of the more common suggestions/triggers and so-on?", to expand on that and give newer people a better idea of the kinds of things that happen. So that's what I'm doing here!

So then, I'll run through all the common/basic ideas I can think of, and give a brief description of each and maybe some uses and reasoning. If later on I think of more, or want to go a bit more complex that can be a separate post:

Reinduction triggers: These are quite simple, and almost certainly one of the first things any new subject will run into. They're pretty straightforward: When X happens you go back into trance. Incredibly useful, it bypasses the need to go through a long induction each and every time you want the subject back in trance. Beyond that, it allows a lot of fun messing around (because being able to drop someone instantly is fun) and makes getting someone deep much easier (via fractionation).

"Freeze" suggestions: Quite simple, quite common in stage stuff. Some (or all) of the subject's body becomes unable to move. Like most suggestions, this can be attached to a trigger phrase or not, so while it could just be a simple "You will wake up unable to move your arm until I say otherwise" (a great basic convincer for someone new), it can also be "When Y happens you will become unable to move, until Z". This one is a bit of a building block for a lot of other suggestions, and can be done in a few different ways (for instance being stiff and not moving, or limp and not moving).

"Blank": Again pretty simple, the subject's mind goes completely blank and thoughtless for the duration. In reality, a bit more complex than that because everyone reacts differently, so this will work in slightly different ways for each person. Again it's a pretty common building block for a lot of other things that frequently happen in hypnosis play (for instance, doll play). Also tends to be that most people into hypnosis enjoy some degree of being a bit mindless, and for a lot of people this can segue easily into amnesia stuff.

Fractionation: Not a suggestion, but still a common element of a lot of hypnosis play. Because most people like going really deep, and the change of experience that happens as they go down more and more, and start to stay in that fuzzy head-space even when awake. I've talked about this in detail elsewhere, so I'll leave it at that.

Fixations: A bit of an opposite, although similar direction to blank. Basically getting someone to focus completely on a specific idea/thought/object/phrase, to the exclusion of all else. Fun to make re-inductions easy (focus on this hypnotic object!), or for people who like having their thoughts controlled/directed. Also mantras are a thing a lot of people in this like too, and those can often fall under here quite easily.

Creating sensations/emotions/feelings: Another fairly basic idea, that can turn out to be very complex depending on what and who. Basically telling someone "You will feel/experience this" (visual hallucinations, phantom sensations, and such), or enhancing/creating/reducing certain emotions or feelings or states of mind in a subject. The sensations part can vary quite a bit between very easy and very hard depending on the subject and how their own senses work in their brain, and how the other ones are phrased can have a bit effect too. Again a fairly common building block of like roleplaying through hypnosis and such.

"Compulsions": Similar to the previous, basically "you will feel like you must do X". Again a fairly common convincer suggestion for new people ("you will feel compelled to giggle and it will get stronger and stronger until you do"). I figure listing this explicitly is useful, although most of what I can say about it has already been said!

Looping: Similar to the fixations. Getting someone to repeat actions/words/thoughts over and over, until told to stop. Works in with all the thought related suggestions above, and compulsions.

Direct control over someone's body: Very simple idea. An easy example is "your hand will follow what I tell it to do". Essentially, it's puppeteering part or all of the subject's body. Again, fairly basic in that it builds into a lot of things.