Psychological Phenomena in Trance by sleepingirl

Psychological Phenomena in Trance by sleepingirl

The act of doing hypnosis is one that we naturally understand as playing with the mind. Therefore, it stands to reason that we need to be familiar with certain things about how the mind works in order to be effective. We don’t want to blindly say words that others tell us are hypnotic -- we want to have a thorough understanding of the way that a given person can process hypnosis. This doesn’t mean anticipating exact shifts; we always want to be curious and open to the way that our partners react. But having some baseline knowledge about the way that hypnosis can feel can be helpful.

Think of this as a list of ingredients -- these are some basic psychological principles that affect the way people feel, process, and operate. This is an encouragement to think less about hypnosis as a process that induces “trance”: Think more about hypnosis as a multifaceted approach that includes the whole of someone’s experience. Moving away from a trance-focused perspective allows us to be more holistic and utilize every moment in our scenes, every aspect of our partners. The main takeaway here is this: The way we think is the foundation to hypnosis, because we hypnotize thinking brains. Even the sexy ideal of “not thinking” in hypnosis is a perceptual trick -- we are always processing in some way.

Talking about someone’s internal experience can be very hypnotic, so this is part of why we are striving to understand what their internal experience actually is. If you experience hypnosis yourself, start thinking about how these elements come into play, and don’t be afraid to ask your partner about their experiences. Have a dialogue with them, even within the scene. What they tell you is valuable and usable.

Perception Changes

We could say that perception changes are fundamental to hypnosis -- the process of doing hypnosis is one where the subject’s perception shifts. A person’s capabilities are tied into their perception: Someone who perceives themself to be in a welcoming environment might be more capable of speaking comfortably, someone who thinks of themself as a productive person might have an easier time getting work done, someone who fully believes they are hypnotized might find themselves responding strongly to suggestions.

• Frame/Perspective Changes

One of the ways to think about this is considering the “frame” that the subject has. A frame is the contextual perception that a person has about something. “Glass half full/half empty” is an example of framing: the same thing can be perceived in two different ways depending on the observer’s perspective -- this is often used to describe the “optimistic” or “pessimistic” framing. A hypnotic example might be one where the hypnotist relates hypnosis to sex -- the subject’s experience will be different if they see hypnosis as a casual, non-erotic act versus a sexually intimate one, even if the content doesn’t change.

You can think of different possibilities in broad terms. You could consider qualitative terms: Can your partner perceive an experience as being good/positive/beneficial, or would they get something out of perceiving it as bad/negative/detrimental (such as “evil”)? Or, what could you relate the experience to -- is it like sex, dancing, playing with a pet, being caught doing something naughty? You could think about a temporal aspect: Is your partner focused on what is happening right now, versus anticipating something or thinking about something that has already happened? Or perhaps there is a sort of personal/impersonal context: How direct are you being about their experience? Are you describing how they are feeling or what they are in a very personal way, or are you being more indirect? Are you talking about your own feelings, or describing how “someone” might respond while you do these things to them?

Think about how all of these different frames could change the experience. What kind of context does this put on your suggestions and the scene as a whole? You can do some thought exercises where you think about a single suggestion or idea and change it simply by changing the frame. For example, think about the difference between “You are deep in trance” versus “Imagine yourself in a situation where you feel deep in trance.”

• Voluntariness/Activeness

Another frame that specifically relates to hypnosis is the feeling of being active or behaving in a voluntary way to suggestions and trance. Often, subjects new to hypnosis will experience this feeling as something negative because they have a desire or perception that trance should feel involuntary or controlling. But this is a normal experience, and more so even a useful and exciting one.

Participating in hypnosis in an active way can open up a lot of possibilities. It can create an atmosphere of collaboration and intimacy, and we can use what we know about framing to contextualize it as such. For example, telling a partner to do a specific action can actually help suggestions because there’s no pressure to “make” something feel involuntary, and because participation and motivation make opportunities for success and creativity. You could tell your partner to think a specific word over and over in response to your suggestions, like a mantra, and that gives them something to do -- it makes them a participant. You could even leave this open-ended -- “As I talk to you, you should respond to me internally with your own words -- say things to me in your mind that make you feel good.”

An erotic framing for this can be found in the connotation of “obedience” -- “obeying” something has an implication of being voluntary. While “mindless obedience” is a trope of hypnokink, regular obedience is when someone is given a suggestion or command and they carry it out with their own capabilities and will. There is plenty of eroticism to be found within the idea of someone participating in their own submission, of using their mind and resources to surrender.

• Involuntariness/Passivity

The sense that something is happening to the subject, something that they are just passively observing and not affecting, is perhaps what many consider to be the goal of hypnosis. While we know that it’s not necessary, it is nevertheless a mindset that can help hypnotic response and is often what hypnokinksters are seeking. The fantasy of the subject who responds mindlessly and automatically is often a core one for many of us.

This is also a place that many subjects, regardless of experience, can find difficult to get to. Some of this stems from erroneous expectations -- such as always expecting trance to be passive, or not understanding that passivity can ebb and flow through the scene. But it also can come from a) subjects not recognizing an action/process as involuntary, and b) hypnotists attempting to make someone respond involuntarily in a way that is not natural or easy.

We can attempt to get a handle on understanding “automaticness” of response when we think about qualities that naturally make responses more automatic. For example, speed factors heavily into this perception of something being involuntary -- a fast response literally leaves less time for the subject to feel like they are “doing” something to make it happen. Simple responses, such as thinking/processing a single word as opposed to a long phrase, also tend to be easier. And responses that are already unconscious are automatic. For example, having feelings or motivations about something, conditioned behaviors (which we’ll discuss further on), and some physical automatic actions like blinking, breathing, or swallowing.

Anything that reasonably does not take much or any effort is going to be easier to perceive as automatic. Passivity often comes down to perception -- hence why we’re thinking about it in terms of a perspective. It is the perception that the subject is not putting effort into something that creates this quality, sometimes tied into their ability to dissociate from that feeling (which we’ll talk about). Generally it is just helpful to understand when your partner might be responding more automatically because it is something you can encourage or ratify. You can do this even by using the feeling of active participation as a stepping stone, and leaning on these more simple, fast, unconscious responses. For example, perhaps you talk for a while to your partner directly, telling them to imagine certain things, think certain things, move their body in certain ways. You can then transition to more passive language: “Now you feel yourself…” “Watch yourself respond to…” “Notice when you…” while giving very easy, effortless suggestions.

Physical/Sensory Experiences

As hypnotists, we are often trying to be keyed into our partners’ state, and much of the time we do this nonverbally. We are observing our partner’s physicality to try to understand trance. But this goes beyond thinking of certain behaviors as “signs of trance.” We should think about each change in our partners’ bodily responses as representative. A person’s outward behavior is reflective of their internal experience, and it helps us a lot to understand what those internal feelings are so that we can remark upon them to ratify the scene or use them.

• Physical Changes

The “traditional” observable signs of trance are things like loss of muscle tension in the face or the body, slumped posture, stiffness or stillness in parts or the whole body, glassy/teary/reddened eyes or dilated pupils, fluttering eyelids, eyes rolled up, changes in breathing either slower or quicker, changes in swallowing, and more. While it may seem counterintuitive that some of these signs can contradict each other (such as limpness and stiffness), this confusion can come from the mistaken idea that they are signs of a specific state. In reality, any shift in someone’s physical experience should be taken as a sign that their experience has changed in some way.

For example, if we notice that our partner’s eyes have been open and unblinking for a little while, we can infer some things about what they are internally experiencing. There may be a sense of strain in the muscles that control the eyes, there might be the prickling of tears or dryness, there might be changes in their vision like blurriness or darkening. You can try holding your own eyes open for a little while to see what it feels like for you -- you could even make this a hypnotic exercise by imagining yourself as a hypnotized person. What do you notice? How would you describe those feelings to someone?

• Hallucinations

When we talk about hallucinations, the idea that generally comes to mind is someone vividly seeing/hearing/feeling something that isn’t there. But hallucinations describe a more broad category of experience -- they don’t necessarily represent or mimic reality, nor do they have to be believed as “real.” A hallucination for our purposes can be understood to be any time a person has a sensory experience that is a response to trance, suggestion, imagination, or is spontaneous, but doesn’t necessarily correlate with reality.

For example, we can even think of the body heaviness associated with trance as being hallucinated. We can also look at phenomena such as mental visualizations or other imaginative experiences -- whether they’re visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. It does not actually matter if the subject knows that the sensory experience is a result of trance or is not “real,” except when dealing with their expectations. For this reason, it’s good to encourage your partner to take sensory and imaginative perceptions at face value, as interesting changes in their own right that don’t depend on some sort of unrealistic belief.

Consider the idea of someone remembering some event or moment. Hypnosis isn’t necessary, nor does this experience of a memory have to be one that is more vivid than our usual process of remembering something. Yet, there is a quality of hallucination to memories, because of the need to construct broad or detailed aspects. You can try this exercise yourself: Think of any memory -- a meal, a conversation, an event, anything. You don’t have to do this in any special way to make it “stronger.” But do this a few times and just notice what your imagination does and how your perception subtly changes. What sensory aspects are involved? Even though you are just mentally imagining it, how does your perspective on reality shift? Do you stop focusing on what your eyes are seeing for a moment? What’s it like to imagine sounds or feelings while knowing they aren’t “real”?

This quality of hallucination is very helpful to us as hypnotists because it teaches us that the capabilities for hypnotic response are ones that we already have access to -- it’s just a matter of recognizing and encouraging them. They can happen spontaneously as a subject goes through their own unique process in hypnosis, or they can be the result of a suggestion. You can spend time “teaching” your partner to recognize their imaginative sensory experiences as ones that are hypnotic, thus expanding their ability to relax into them.

Focus changes

We could say that changing someone’s focus is one of the primary ways that hypnosis functions -- when we talk, we drive shifts of attention from one concept to another. The quality of focus that our partners give us when we are hypnotizing them is not simplistic -- there isn’t just one way to pay attention to something, and hypnosis doesn’t guarantee a specific outcome.

• Mindfulness

Mindfulness is often associated with meditation, therapy, and other skills where a person is focused on and paying attention to their own internal artifacts, usually with a goal of nonjudgmental observation. For our purposes of hypnosis, we’re very interested in any time someone focuses internally, because that shift to inside and the quality of paying attention to one’s own responses and processes is naturally hypnotic.

The key of mindfulness in this context is being present. It is an awareness that can be broad or specific on what is happening in the moment and inside of someone’s process. The moment that a person makes a shift to look at what is happening internally is one where they limit their external focus to some degree, changing or even narrowing their perspective on the world and allowing themselves to give greater depth to their own experience. This can be driven consciously, whether by the subject or hypnotist, or it can happen spontaneously as a result of engagement or wandering thoughts. A greater awareness leads to the ability to notice the smaller, subtler shifts of their experience and trance. Being aware of those shifts can be key to a subject’s experience -- usually there’s a desire to feel hypnotized, to believe that they’re hypnotized. You can encourage this by directing and tuning their attention to be more internal and mindful.

Meditation and therapy usually teach that the key of mindfulness is to not evaluate the feelings that we’re observing so as to better accept them. But in hypnosis, evaluation is natural. We want to include and allow for introspection because it’s something that every person is used to doing -- we don’t want to work against someone’s process. Some evaluations might be things like, “Am I doing this right? How does this feel? Am I enjoying this? What is my favorite part?” These won’t necessarily be conscious questions, although they can be. But we can use our understanding of our partners making judgments to influence their trance and the judgments themselves. Directing someone to focus on their internal experience, to be very much in the moment of understanding what their thoughts are saying is a great way to take pressure off of your partner to be “blank,” a difficult perception to achieve. You can nudge their thoughts by narrating them: “You’re so focused on exactly what is happening to you, right now, the way this feels, and your brain is just saying, ‘Oh yes, I love this, please, more…’”

• Dissociation

Dissociation may be thought of in some contexts as a full disconnect from emotions or reality, but it more generally refers to any sense of detachment from feelings, concepts, beliefs, or experiences. Mild dissociation is a natural occurrence -- for example, when we feel like we’re suddenly sort of watching ourselves do something, or we feel like we’re observing an event from an outside perspective, or we feel like we’re not controlling or in touch with our emotions or behaviors.

Dissociation has some correlation with hypnosis -- while it’s not necessary nor is it expected as a trance response, it is one of the ingredients involved in the experience of something feeling involuntary. A passive frame of reference is one where we generally feel disconnected from the actions -- someone who feels as though they are acting automatically may already be dissociated in some way. Thus, we can also invoke aspects of dissociation when it suits us: If we want a partner to feel as though they’re not the ones controlling their responses, we can encourage them to feel like an observer in their own body, or shift their perception of consciousness outside of themselves so that they’re just watching.

Dissociation is also something we can think about as a different perspective -- we can even visualize it as though the person is in a different location from their body or inside their brain. This kind of changed perspective can aid us when we’re looking to change the way that someone is observing something. Putting someone in a different “place” can allow them to see something from the outside looking in -- it’s an opportunity to point out how beautiful, humiliating, sexy, hypnotized, or any other quality that they might be. This is particularly useful when we’re looking to focus on a single response. For example, perhaps we want our partner to really key into intense arousal. We could tell them to mentally take a step back from the feeling and watch it grow inside parts of their brain and body. Adding a sensory quality can be helpful here, especially if it isn’t usually correlated with the response -- in this example, arousal is physical, but we could direct our partner to visualize it as well. We can also move someone away from analyzing their own process by telling them to step themselves away from their inner voice making evaluations -- let them watch it happen, adjust the “loudness” or other qualities of those thoughts.

Association

Association is one of the most powerful tools we have in hypnosis. It is a core concept of how we process in all aspects of our psychology -- by making connections between concepts, actions, memories, and thoughts. It is one of the bases for the way that we think.

• Operant/Classical Conditioning

Conditioning is a loaded word in hypnosis kink -- it often implies intentional change in a brainwashing context. But conditioning is a fundamental psychological concept that describes the way that humans learn and grow. Operant conditioning is when someone’s behavior changes based on rewards or punishments, like encouraging a submissive with praise. Classical conditioning is when someone’s behavior becomes associated with a stimulus, like Pavlov’s dogs or hypnotic triggers.

While intentional conditioning is a rich and fascinating subject, we also want to be very aware of the conditioning that happens on its own. Conditioning is a “learning” process -- it affects the development of many behaviors and ideas. For example, even erotically enjoying hypnosis is conditioned to some degree, whether a person grew up with a fetish and reinforced their feelings about it through repeated exposure, or they were introduced to it later and had sexy experiences that made them want to come back to it. For this reason, we want to be conscious that the time we share with our partner is genuine and positive -- we want them to develop a good association with us and “teach” them that doing hypnosis with us is fun.

Conditioning doesn’t have to be something that happens over an extended process -- even a single instance can associate two things. Anchors and triggers can happen very simply and spontaneously when a subject is experiencing something and then keys into a word, action, or other process. For example, they might be very turned on in a scene and you happen to touch their arm or say a word that resonates with them -- later, repeating that will likely cause some arousal. They may even feel arousal when they reenter the room that they were in, or sit in the same position.

• Associative Memory/Thoughts

While operant and classical conditioning generally involve discussion of behaviors, equally important to us are the associations that are formed in the mind. We form associations that have to do with emotions, such as being scared or excited by different ideas, or beliefs based on how we feel. We also form associations that have to do with our memories, where we remember things based on linked concepts, such as pairing names to faces, or associating a specific activity with a partner.

We are always creating associations when we hypnotize someone. Any metaphors we use, for example, tend to build connections, like if we guide our partner through a visualization of walking down stairs or a hallway to facilitate trance. These associations are complex, as they tend to constantly enrich the concepts and ideas that someone has, and the way that we think about concepts is never simplistic. You can examine this yourself by thinking about hypnosis and exploring all of the different things that that connects to in your mind: What people, tropes, actions, words, feelings, places, events, or other concepts are connected to that? How are those associations different now from how they used to be, say, a year ago? Can you identify moments that changed them?

All of those associations are ingredients for us to play with with our partners. Everyone we meet has similarly complex webs, and we affect each other in each interaction. The information that your partner shares about themselves is valuable, and calling upon the things that they’ve told you lets them know that it’s important to you and adds to the intensity of your play. Think also about the associations that you’ve created for your partner in the time you’ve been with them, even if it’s someone you’ve just met.

Regression

Regression is commonly discussed in the context of therapeutic hypnosis, but is not seen as much in the erotic realm. Intentional regression (for the purpose of therapy or play) is certainly a technique, but what we might call “unintentional” or spontaneous regression occurs to us all the time, inside and outside of trance. This is not to say that someone will suddenly begin acting like a child, nor is it always a defense mechanism, nor is it always obvious.

We can understand regression for our purposes to be any thought process or behavior that stems from someone’s past. When a subject has a hypnotic experience that makes them feel the exciting feelings that they first had when being hypnotized, that’s regressive -- they’re in touch with a “younger” frame of mind and thus, those capabilities. We are not talking about scenes where someone is suggested to be “new” to sex or hypnosis here -- while those are certainly possibilities for play, we are mostly just trying to be aware of how to understand certain behaviors/processes in our partners.

Regression contextualizes a lot of different hypnotic responses, because we draw upon all of our experiences and memories when we are doing hypnosis -- we as people are the whole of our lives and past history. Our capacity for wonder, imagination, relationships with authority figures/letting someone else take charge, curiosity, and more stem from our past and development.

You don’t need to invoke regression specifically to be aware of this, but you can take advantage of the change in capabilities that someone can have when you shift their perspective. For example, when we tell someone to remember back to a time when they were extremely deeply hypnotized, we’re calling on those feelings and abilities. Similarly, if we talk to our partners about how their imagination used to be so much more vivid and how they can still access that, you’re calling on the hallucinatory qualities of childhood pretending, all of which can be useful for immersive experiences.

Why are these important?

At the beginning of this article, we talked about the idea that we want to know as much as we can about human processing because it is literally how we hypnotize someone. Hypnosis isn’t about creating a special state with easily definable qualities. It is about affecting the processes that are already there, knowing what they are, using them to change the way that someone is paying attention, feeling, experiencing. We are not really doing a lot to create some magical “other” process -- we are working within the bounds of human experience and psychology.

This is important for you to know as a hypnotist, and equally important for you to allow your partner to learn this. The tools for immersive, excellent hypnotic experiences are already a part of a subject’s mind. They are things that they do every day. The only difference with hypnosis is an increased awareness on them by both parties, the hypnotist taking advantage of and guiding them, and the allowance to do this in a way that is different from our everyday lives. We don’t usually walk around immersed in our internal experience in a way that makes us feel incredible things, imagining thoughts, feelings, memories, images that consume us in an intense way. This is what hypnosis is for.