You use hypnosis not as a cure but as a means of establishing a favorable climate in which to learn.
— Milton Erickson
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Milton Erickson defined a hypnotc modality as any state in which we are able to communicate with the unconscious mind
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B.S. Biology
2001 Virginia Tech
Biology
M.A. Education, Development, Curriculum, and Instruction
2005 Virginia Tech
Education
Hypnotherapy
Mastering Erotic Hypnosis: A Comprehensive Manual for Erotic Play, Fetish, and Kink.
Author
Based on 200 supervised clinical hours, Hypnotherapists Union
Local 872, AFL-CIO
Certified Hypnotherapist
Mastering Erotic Hypnosis: A Comprehensive Manual for Erotic Play, Fetish, and Kink.
Author
Hypnosis Motivation Institute DEAC/DETC accreditation,
recognized by US DOE
James Gordon and Rebecca Doll
Hypnosis and Kink Education
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How to do it safely and respectfully
Consent and Safety
Mastering the Art and Science of Hypnosis
What do you need to understand to be able to hypnotize anyone?
Two basic and two specialized types of suggestibility
Suggestibility
What it is and how to create it
Hypnotic Modality
How to evoke a hypnotic state
Inductions
How to increase hypnotic depth
Deepening
Including imagination and visualization
Hypnotic Experience
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The Objective Reality of Hypnosis
Advances in Neuroimaging
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The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.
— Robert Frost
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Consent and safety are the first steps towards mastering hypnosis
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That’s changing, but there’s still work to do:
Issues with Consent in the Hypnosis Community
Erotic Hypnosis Communites have not been seen as leaders in consent culture
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What do we know about hypnotizing people to do things against their will?
Hypnosis Against Your Will
Is it even possible?
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The people giving consent to engage in a BDSM scene or enter into a power exchange relationship must do so voluntarily, without being subjected to threats, fraud, coercion or deceit.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is choice
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Everyone involved must know enough so that the consent is given on an informed basis to the BDSM activities that are planned or to the power exchange relationship.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is informed
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BDSM takes place among consenting adults. A person must have sufficient mental capacity to give consent, and each person has a legal obligation to make sure that this is the case with all of their partners. In order to consent you must be in a clearheaded state of mind, not impaired by alcohol, prescription medicine or recreational drugs.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is given by an adult with a sound mind
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Consent is not a blank check. Consent must be clear as to what BDSM activities and/or what type of power exchange relationship is being agreed to.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is given within limits
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Anyone can revoke consent to anything at any time during the activity. If a prenegotiated and agreed upon safe word or safe sign—or any other pre-negotiated expression of a withdrawal of consent—is ignored, consent has been violated.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is revocable
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It is ethically and legally important in any scene that there should be a mutually understood means of communication between the participants, whether it’s plain speech, safe word or safe sign.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is communication
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When “serious bodily injury” occurs during a scene, it is possible that criminal prosecution for assault will take place even when consent was clearly and validly given for the BDSM activity that caused the injury. Refer to ”Consent as a legal principle” above.
Source: National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Consent Counts Summary
Consent is not a defense for causing serious injury
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Limits of “Safewords”
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Don’t �Negotiate
Impaired
Add
Nothing
Extra
Negotiate
all
Effects
Don't negotiate with partners when they are unduly suggestible.
We need to better define “unduly suggestible”
Hypnosis doesn't put anything on the table that would normally require negotiation
Negotiation to describe sex or invoke orgasm under hypnosis does not imply touching, or stimulating
Negotiate for any of the ways in which you are going to affect someone
Physical Touch
Sexual Touch
Sexual response
Disclosure of information
Any suggestions that go beyond the basic establishment of hypnotic authority
especially those intended to elicit:
Sexual behavior
Goods or services
Three Principles
For Consent to Hypnosis
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See the checklist in “Mastering Erotic Hypnosis” Appendix
Negotiation
Some quick high points
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Hypnosis is a natural capability of all people.
— Stanley LeFevre Krebs, 1906
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Why does suggestibility matter? My hypnosis has always worked on my community play partners!
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You too can be a recording device
Scripted Hypnosis without regard to Suggestibility
Works perfectly on skilled hypnotic bottoms
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Suggestibility
An introduction
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Direct v. Inferential Suggestibility
Response to information or a suggestion
Receives information
Feels a bodily
sensation
Perceives an emotion
Direct Suggestible
Receives information
Perceives an emotion
Sometimes
feels a bodily
sensation
if the emotion
is strong
enough
Inferential Suggestible
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Rough Distribution of Suggestibility
Direct Suggestibles tend to be more highly suggestible
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Two Special Cases
“Somnambulist” High Suggestibles and Intellectual Suggestibles
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Testing Suggestibility
Seat of the pants and other methods
Sometimes it may come down to a guess based on
body language and demeanor
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Communicating with the Unconscious
— Milton Erickson
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Creating a hypnotic modality is the key to inducing hypnotic trance
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Hypnotic Modality
The key to hypnotic state
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Three Concepts
For hypnotic modality
Don’t be an asshole
Demonstrate:
Self control
Respect
Neat appearance
Trustworthiness
Control of the environment
Establish Authority
Belief is critical
Penetrate the critical mind
Draw on personal experience
Prove the concept by hypnotizing someone else
Establish Why Hypnosis Will Work
Multiple senses:
Hearing
Vision
Touch
Redirect attention
Create Overload
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Other examples
of a hypnotic modality
School
Political Rallies
Religious Services
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the eyeballs must be kept fixed in the same position, and the mind riveted to the one idea of the object held above the eyes
— James Braid, 1843
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Hypnotic inductions
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Getting Ready
Induction is the final step
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Inductions
Only the focal device changes much
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A lot of very good erotic play takes place in a light state of hypnosis.
— Mastering Erotic Hypnosis
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Hypnotic Deepening
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There are dozens of different terms for depth, some self-contradictory
Hypnotic Depth
What is Hypnotic Depth
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There are dozens of different terms for depth, some self-contradictory
Hypnotic Depth
What is Hypnotic Depth
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Hypnotic Depth
Our measure of depth
Slightly glazed expression if eyes open
Closed up and down REM
Breathing more relaxed
Light
Transition to side-to-side
REM
Breathing deep and regular
Medium
Eyes may tend to roll up under the eyelids
Similar to trance possession or orgasm
Deep
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Communication in State
Options
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Challenges
The Formula
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Allow yourself to see what you don’t allow yourself to see.”
— Milton Erickson
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Hypnotic Play
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Creating Experiences
Three elements
Things that have happened to us, emotions that we’ve felt
Recalled experiences generate actual emotions
Recalling/Reliving
Past Experiences
We remember pleasure
and pain
Invoking past experiences can allow us to tap into specific sensations
Sensations
Combine recalled experiences to make something entirely new
Stitching Together
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Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts
— Eckhart Tolle
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Thank you
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