18 - Sucking Onward

Before we wrap up, there are a few things I’d like to underscore:

• It’s incredibly helpful to demonstrate that distractions do not end an experience.
• An induction can be effective without relying on fancy language patterns or covert suggestions.
• You can, and should, collaborate with your subject to build phenomena.
• Validating your partner’s experience should be the norm.
• Often, an induction’s intentions are obvious if you break it down. Analyzing them is not out of reach.
• The process of an induction is usually more important than the individual suggestions in isolation.
• There’s no rush.

From Here

Hypnotizing someone takes practice - but it’s more about being in tune with your partner than trying to project a persona or aura of control. Simply practicing and repeating this process and taking notes in the exit interview will often give you all the pieces you need to create any experience you want.

For beginners - here are some things you can easily tinker with:

• Change the focus of the initial attention bouncing.
• Change the metaphor with the dream-like clouds.

Later, after you have some experience, try these out:

• Ask your partner to work with you, collaboratively and conversationally, to relax their legs to the point where they barely budge. There’s no failure, it’s just an experiment. See what feelings they get and iterate.
• Check out some other scripts. Look for themes, directions, or how they set up phenomena. Look at how they work with the subject, or how they authoritatively prescribe the experience.
• If you’re in the recreational space, experiment with more direct and authoritative styles, comparing the feel and effectiveness with a collaborative approach.
• Consider how you could modify the suggestions for leg immobility, and build a trigger around that for a different phenomena.

Just like you don’t want to rip your partner out of their experience, building skill in this takes time, and that’s fine. Learning how to do this is fun and rewarding. Stay in tune with the person you’re working with, and you’ll improve naturally.

Artistry and Presentation

By design, this guide presents hypnosis without flair or fanfare. I haven’t talked much about presentation, prestige, confidence or swagger. While these are all great things to keep in mind, they’re not at all necessary to practice and improve. I don’t mean to imply you should avoid them.

Nobody goes to see a Michael Bay movie to hear someone to narrate: “The hero robot punched a lot of evil robots. They made a mess, and I think they shoehorned a love interest in there somewhere between robots punching each other.” Similarly, hypnosis isn’t interesting in a recreational context because of its effects, but because of how its effects are experienced. Anyone can lift their arm up. It’s amazing to feel it lift up on its own.

Reading On

If you’d like to read more, I’d recommend Graham Old’s How to Do Hypnosis. Alternatively, you could try to analyze other inductions on Graham Old’s site.

For a deep dive I agree with, check out Binaural Histolog. Or, if you’re more into hypnokink, you can read through Learn Hypnokink to round out your perspective. I’d still give the book Hypnosis without Trance my highest recommendation, as you’ll learn how to work collaboratively suggestion by suggestion, rather than induction by induction.

(If I haven’t made it abundantly clear, go grab a copy of Hypnosis Without Trance. Seriously - it’s good. It’s the perfect mix of science and artistic bullshitting to maximize your effectiveness.)

Other options for continuing would be to read the Pretalk Toolkit, or find other resources at This Guide Sucks.

Also, if you haven’t already, take time to read my writeup on safewords and agency. When you have the chops for it, you can really help someone out.

Thank Yous

In closing, I’d like to thank Summer Vixen for reading through the sensory overlap guide and pointing out my typos and brain farts. If it wasn’t for it, you’d be reading about how to do an indiction. I’d also like to thank Sophie for ranting at me hard enough to include a more thorough safety section. Moreover, thanks to Binaural Histolog for generously sharing their perspectives and research, as well as pointing out where my writing doesn’t make sense or I’ve vomited typos. (You know the drill, but just because someone’s helped me out, it doesn’t mean they endorse what I say.)

In addition, this guide wouldn’t exist without Wordweaver’s encouragement and perspectives. Without them, and the book club they host, I’d still be lost consuming arbitrarily selected garbage. He’s been working on building a community of hypnotists interested in open discourse, with a lean towards staying abreast of current research and creating cool experiences. I’m grateful for all the support I’ve received there, growing from “I’m brand new, but I’m willing to read” to “I know my blind spots in knowledge.”

Now go have fun zonking some friends! This is a process and hobby, not a goal. If you liked my perspectives and would like to read more, I keep a collection of book reviews here.