A little hiatus...

Unfortunately, life has become a bit too hectic lately, so I need to cut back a little. As a result, this blog will be on hiatus until February 10, 2008. Sorry about that!

Pushing past the wall...

I've hit a wall with my current subject. Due to an incredibly hectic schedule, we've only done a couple of sessions over the last three weeks. These sessions had to be kept short, which may have affected the quality.

In the sessions, I was focusing primarily on a couple of things. First, she has been getting frustrated because of the resolution of some bad habits. The biggest one is nail biting. I've finally gotten her to the point that she stopped biting her nails, but she was unhappy that this was solved through hypnosis, not through her own will. So in these sessions, I told her that the strength to stop was actually her own, and that she would continue to let her nails grow through her own ability. This, of course, has now failed miserably, because she believes the strength to stop flowed through me, not her, so left to her own, she felt the need to bite again.

The second area of focus was more of a confusion plan, and is more effective. She is still having a hard time visualizing and reacting to some triggers. In her trance, I had her believe she was awake multiple times, and each time had different triggers and visualizations. These included clothes disappearing and reappearing, boob growth, and people in and out of the room. Since she has full amnesia after each session, I reinforced the memory of each of these events, so she would feel that she was awake for them. The result, while not fully developed yet, has been a much more consistent response to the triggers while awake. I'm thinking that this is due to the logic check portion of her brain ignoring them more, but I'll need to study further.

As always, I'm up for any suggestions. I'm also working on a basic induction, trance, awake file for a different subject, so I'm looking forward to that challenge and some good results there.

Isn't This Work?

Sorry everyone, I haven't been able to post for a couple of weeks. Work sent me all over the country, which tends to mess up your schedule. Since I only do face to face hypnosis, it makes it really hard for me to do any sessions. I'll have a new post later this week. Also, I know some of you do sessions online. Any suggestions for IM, webcams, and how to handle the lack of visual feedback would be greatly appreciated!

If You Could Be Anyone...

Based on a comment by Lex, I decided to try a different experience with a current sub. So, when she was deep in a trance, I had her strip completely naked, and instructed her that when she opened her eyes, she would now have her best friend Lee's body. She wasn't coming out of trance, just opening her eyes and reviewing her new body.

I had no doubt that this would work, since she has hallucinated various things in the past, but only in the trance. She's seen and touched everything from phantom piercings in her body to entire rooms around her, filled with people that didn't exist.

When commanded to open her eyes, she looked up and down over her new body. I asked her if she wanted to touch it, and she gave me a short "no". I asked her if she liked the change, and she gave me a more forceful "no", sounding like she was nearing tears. I didn't take into consideration the concept of self-image, or her true image of Lee's body (as opposed to what she says). Lee is about twenty pounds heavier than her, with a "mushy butt" and small chest. This is the opposite of the subject, so she was very upset to see this as her body, especially since she's been working so hard at the gym.

After putting her back in her own body, granting her the memory of the experience, and waking her up, she told me how upset she was to have Lee's body. She never wanted to do that again, but surprisingly, she didn't want a better body either. She said that she'd then be disappointed to be put back into hers.

One other observation from the experience comes from having her look in the mirror while in Lee's body. I figured the mirror requires a deeper trance, so I wanted to see if it worked. It did, about 99%. When she looked in the mirror, she saw Lee's body, but she noticed her own belly button piercing. She later told me that she found that odd, since she didn't think that Lee had a piercing. She then started to feel angry that her friend got a piercing and didn't tell her! The fact that her brain was justifying its existence isn't surprising. My theory is that she saw it peripherally before her brain was able to hide it, and once it appeared, she couldn't make it disappear. I'd love to hear other thoughts on this! And as always, send in any suggestions!

Poll and Sexuality

I've posted a new poll today, and have added this posting for comments. As I mentioned in the previous post, Inhibitions and Morality, I've found that a lot of people view things as morals that are really inhibitions, including sexuality. I've also found that inhibitions respond well to hypnosis, where morals (like no murder) won't change. However, I want to see what you think! Answer the poll, and use this section to post your comments and thoughts! I am also posting one other thing for further consideration in the comments, because I'd prefer that people answer the poll first.

Hallucinations, Part 2

Ah, the power of conversation! I continued trying, and failing, to get my current subject to hallucinate while awake. She's seen some amazing things while in a trace, but struggles to see the simplest of illusions while awake. I did have one success, in that I suggested that she would see a small cartoon character on the corner of any TV screen (by the station logo), but only if she wasn't looking directly at it. It worked a couple of times. I suspect that the reason it worked was due to it occuring outside her focus, allowing the subconscious mind more control.

In conversations with her, I've discovered that the big problem is fear. She spent most of her childhood with a sibling that suffered from a moderate case of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, aka multiple personalities). Her sister had four alternate personalities that would be in control at various times. The part that really scared her was the blackouts. Each personality only remembers it's own actions, leaving huge holes in memory.

I have my own beliefs on DID that I won't cover here, but to a child growing up with someone who is showing these symptoms, this has to be very disturbing. Her fear has carried over to adulthood, where she is now holding back somewhat, trying in her own way to prevent this same affliction in herself. She does this by attempting to keep her mind "fully grounded", or in her words, "not allow anything that would be seen as crazy".

The other thing that I think is holding her back is the affliction of another friend. Her friend suffers from hypnagogia. In simple terms, when he is going to sleep or waking up, his brain will get into a state where he feels conscious, and can see and move, but he hallucinates. While I find this to be fascinating, and he handles it with good humor (along with some minor adjustments), she sees this as a potentially terrifying experience. So while she didn't specifically tie this to her explanation, I think it is also a big part of what's holding her back.

I'm now trying to assure her as part of the hallucination process, and working more slowly. Let me know what you think, and any suggestions are always appreciated!

Visualization and Hallucinations

I've been focusing a lot lately on trying to create waking hallucinations. While I've been successful at many different creations in my subjects, I've always struggled to create the true hallucinations in them.

Visualization is easy. Every subject I've worked with can create very elaborate scenes while in a trance. This isn't imagining these things in her head, she actually opens her eyes and sees them around her. One simple yet funny one had a woman who visualized herself floating six inches above the floor. She then spend the next few minutes trying to get "back" to the floor. I've had one subject who visualized being in a dungeon with other slaves. She could describe everything around her, and gave me a running description of what was happening.

The problem comes when awakened from the trance. A subject can easily see nipple piercings that aren't really there while in a trance, but they immediately disappear when awake. My latest attempts have used a continuation model to try to create the hallucination. For instance, my current submissive was told to strip naked while in a trance. She was then instructed that she would not feel naked when she woke up. She would still see and feel the same clothes she was wearing before. She would realize she was naked as soon as she stepped outside. I hid the whole session in amnesia and woke her up.

The instructions worked perfectly. But is it really hallucination? After realizing she was naked, I asked her about seeing her clothes. She couldn't remember seeing the clothes after the trance. She described it as more of not realizing she was naked, similar to putting on the wrong shoes or mismatched socks. She didn't see clothes where there were none, but instead never looked for the clothes.

I'm continuing my work on this one. Any suggestions, either through comments or email, are greatly appreciated!

Inhibitions and Morality

One of the great things about hypnosis is that the subject, regardless of how deep they are in trance, will not go against his or her own morals. Despite what Hollywood may portray, you're not going to have a hypnotized subject jumping off a bridge or committing murder for you. In the teachings of Freud, this moral system is known as the "super ego", and will override the id and the ego when necessary.

I believe that a lot of people have a mistaken view of the extent of morality. From my experience and studies, most people have very few moral objections. These usually include items affecting life, self-preservation, honesty, and loyalty.

However, if you ask a person about their morals, they'll get into various things that fall into the classification of inhibitions. These include many sexual limits, including multiple partners, bisexuality, certain sexual acts, and public nudity or acts. On a smaller scale, you can see this in any hypnotist stage show. If you've ever known someone who became a subject in these shows, you'll often see them do something that they'd never do in a normal state. This isn't pushing their moral limits, but a social inhibition. You'll see them dance with a broom, cluck like a chicken, or pretend to be a stripper. Can you imagine them doing this at the local bar (before alcohol)?

The value of this is obvious. I work with submissive women who are willing to push their limits. What they are surprised by is what limits they are actually able to push, and how far they can push themselves in hypnosis. How fun!!

You Will Not be Able to Resist This...

Once I figured out what I was doing, I had quite a few successes with triggers, commands, and instructions. The challenge is not in the suggestions themselves, but in getting the subject to the point where they can accept the suggestions and act on them at an appropriate time. This is mainly done through repetition. For instance, imagine when someone gives you detailed directions how to get to their house. The first time you visit them, you spend a lot of energy watching for milestones, wondering about turns, and thinking you may have missed something or turned the wrong way. Once you've been there, the next time you visit, you're more confident and can go without as much effort. After a few more times, you don't think about it at all and easily get there as if on autopilot. Getting to a deep, obedient trance is the same type of system. Either way, once you're there, it's time for the good stuff!

Here's a brief list of some of the things my subjects have successfully obeyed. This is by no means a complete list, but these are definitely interesting. A lot of these ideas came from sites in my links section. Items marked with an asterisk (*) have worked on all previous subjects.

Triggers

• Trance Now*: A quick induction trigger. This one is re-emphasized and strengthened each time, allowing for quicker, deeper trances.
  
• Mannequin*: The subject becomes a mannequin, unable to move, but able to still see and feel.
• Blank*: The subject cannot see, hear, or think. They have no memory of their blank time. The only thing they can respond to are other triggers. I use this a lot in conjunction with other triggers, which allows me to give the option on all of amnesia or full recall.
• Command-Obey*: On the word command, the subject goes blank and waits for the command. The word obey completes the command. Comes in very handy for random commands or triggers you want to install without doing a full induction.
• Skirt Now*: The subject immediately feels the desire to wear a short skirt, believing it to be her own idea.
• Horny Now*: The subject immediately feels an increase in sexual desire. Multiple triggers of this will multiply the effect.
  
• Relaxation: This subject would get very worried and tense at different things. This trigger (self-triggered when necessary) helped with that.
• Naked Surge: Whenever the subject took off the last item of clothing, a surge of pleasure would rush through her body for a few seconds. This showed the power of the subconscious mind over the body, even when awake. All subjects but the first one had this trigger.
• Maid Outfit: One subject purchased a sexy maid outfit at some point. I gave her the trigger that any time she cleaned, she felt the need to wear only this outfit.
  
• Slave collar: My latest subject has a slave collar, so while she usually only acts the role of a slave in private, the collar immediately makes her take on that role anywhere.

Commands

• Taste of Cum*: All subjects are taught to enjoy the taste of cum. My first subject asked for this specifically. It's fascinating to me that the sense of taste can be controlled like this, especially for something that's flavor changes every time.
• Attraction to women: One subject requested an increased attraction to women. This was well into her training, and came out of my theory on inhibitions. I'll post the theory at a later date, but the command was a success. This subject quickly became my date to strip clubs!
• Cum on Command*: This is my favorite command, and surprisingly easy to do. Like the deepening, it takes a couple of times to get completely comfortable, but I can now bring a girl back and forth from the edge of orgasm and a state of no excitement in a split second.
  

Instructions

• Nail biting: One subject had a bad nail biting issue. A combination of relaxation and substitution took care of it.
• Focus: Very useful for one subject who was in school and easily distracted.
  
• Heat, Cold, Pain, Light, Vibration*: The range of sensations can be caused while in a trance as well as through triggers. These include physical reactions, such as sweating, goose bumps, tears, and pupil dilation.
• Time*: It's amazing how much the sensation of time can be manipulated. I've had subjects who were in trance for an hour insist it was five minutes, and vice versa.
  

Do you have other ideas for me? Post a comment and let me know!

The Keys to Success

(As you may have noticed, my posts are kind of spread out. I posted these first few posts all at once, but I composed them over time as the desire struck. I wanted to have all my background posts up before I got into some of my current activities.)

The lack of initial success was very disappointing to me. I tend to be demanding of myself, so instead of appreciating my new found ability to induce trance, I scoured all the resources I could find to better understand the process. My breakthrough came in confidently setting expectations with the subject over a few days before the trance, combined with the discovery of a four helpful deepening tricks.

In my initial trials, I was still learning what was possible or not. You read lots of things on the Internet, but it's hard to tell what is true, and what is wishful thinking (I'm still waiting to meet the person who changed their gender through hypnosis). I did find some very valuable information, based on works from Freud, as well as studies of the works of Mesmer through Erickson. I also found a very radical theory from an Ivy League psychologist that I'm still trying to completely implement, but helped me greatly.

In addition to these sites, I found good examples of the exact things I was trying to do in a couple of other blogs and sites. These are all listed on my links section.

Based on my new information, I took any opportunity over the next few days to explain to my subject how the trance worked. I strongly tied it to the idea of id and ego from Freud, since she already understood these. I also explained how she had to work to get deeper, but that just like a path in the woods, each time you walk it, it becomes easier and clearer. I also developed a new theory of submission, that the conscious and subconscious can submit separately. This became very helpful, as you'll see shortly. I did this based on the theory of "demand characteristics", that the subject will exhibit the traits that the hypnotist expects. I won't get into the psychological studies of this, but I found some references to work in the 40's and 50's.

The next time I brought her into a trance, this was the knowledge she used as the basis for her trance. By better framing what the trance would be, I believe her subconscious would create the trance as I wanted it to be, and would better be able to plant triggers and suggestions for when she was awake.

Once she was in trance, I used four new deepening tricks. First, and most simply, I became must more authoritative in my speech during the entire process. My initial scripts were more based on the idea of guiding a subject, this time I became more commanding, especially by using the phrases "obedient", "unable to resist", etc. Second, I gave her a visualized gauge that she would be asked to check periodically to report on how deep she was in trance. As she saw herself deeper, it made the authoritative commands stronger. Third, I gave her a mechanism for deepening her trance. Instead of using only passive visualizations, like a ride down an escalator, I gave her a large knob she could turn, and each turn would bring her deeper into trance. This active visualization definitely worked much better. Lastly, I "separated" her conscious and subconscious minds. I had her visualize her conscious mind in a room she normally enjoys, then had her subconscious step through a doorway and locked her conscious mind in the room. This visualization helped her focus completely on the trance.

Using the above techniques now on an ongoing basis, I've now worked successfully with a few subjects. In my next post, I'll get into some of the triggers, commands, and changes I've been able to make.

Initial Trials

I started with hypnosis within the past year. Initially, I was skeptical of the application. I knew hypnosis was possible. I had family members participate in stage shows, and a close friend used hypnotherapy to quit smoking. However, my goal was to get true submission, not break a bad habit or turn someone into a chicken.

In my first attempt, I worked with a female sub I've known for years. She was skeptical, but willing to try. I was lucky in my choice; she's a very creative person, and I've learned since that creativity is very helpful for visualization.

My initial attempt was very disappointing to me. The induction took approximately fifteen minutes, and I needed to deeper her for about ten minutes further. I then tested the depth of her trance by sticking her hands together, then gluing her eyelids closed. Both worked for a second or two, but were quickly overcome.

When I woke her, I found that none of the triggers I had set worked. The most interesting memory from the trance was that her eyes kept moving, and she put a lot of effort into stopping them but couldn't. She was also very tired from the experience. She was very relaxed though, and this gave me the opening to bring her into trance again in the future.

Welcome!

Welcome to my corner of the world. I'm a man in my thirties. I've been slowly adding hypnosis to my toolkit in relationships with submissive women. It took me years of mostly frustration to get to this point. I've had a number of dom/sub relationships, both short or long term. Some were quite successful, while others not at all. However, I've also met some women who, while they wanted to be submissive and claimed to be submissive, couldn't succeed at being submissive. As soon as they reached a level of discomfort, whether from pain, embarrassment, or just lack of control, they would immediately reject and withdrawal from the current activity. This is not a case of limits pushed to far; these women would insist both before and after that they really wanted to do the activity. I came to think of it as a mental gag reflex. Since I'm looking for complete, willing submission, this caused a problem.

I've learned lately that this mental gag reflex is a response of the conscious mind. Whether through learned response, inhibition, shyness, or embarrassment, the conscious mind often can step in and block full submission. This is where hypnosis begins.

Through hypnosis, I've found that the subconscious mind can override the conscious mind's hangups and reach a much deeper level of submission. As an added bonus, some posthypnotic suggestions can create levels of domination that would not be possible otherwise. I'll get into both of these ideas more as I continue to post.

Before I go further, let me crush the dreams of a few of you. I only hypnotize willing subjects after fully discussing the upcoming session. Hypnosis will not make someone who's not interested in you your slave, and will not change anyone's morals or personality. OK, you can change personality for a short time, but that's really just role playing, right?

I'd also like to acknowledge Hypnomaster D from BDSM Hypnosis and Lex from Hypnosexy. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading both blogs, and they inspired me to transcribe some of my experiences. I will use a slightly different format, as I won't have any subs posting (at least not yet).