In Erotic Hypnosis, like in all art, there’s a never-ending dialoged about what constitutes real and valid.
As the scene continues to grow and change, this conversation becomes more complicated and people become progressively more invested in the outcome.
In short and for some people, the conversation comes down to who is real and who is fake. This is a conversation akin to rockists in music, and other similar subsets of fandom that value what is genuine in process and creation as much as what the end result is.
This article is in no way, shape, or form, a value judgment about what you enjoy or the people that create it.
Seriously, I’m not talking shit and I’m not throwing anyone under the bus. This is an effort to try and examine and define a term and the desire for that term to exist.
Now, the answer to the real/fake question matters because it either validate or invalidate that particular fan type’s fantasies as well as the time, money, and emotional investment they’ve spent to experience them.
We can call these people Hypists.
(It’s fun because it sounds like a combination of hipster and elitist, but is really just a goofy smashup of hypnosis elitist. And, being one of these people to a certain degree, I take no issue with this label I have created.)
Hypists want Real Hypnosis.
But, what does that even mean? It seems both practical and obvious that if you are hypnotized by something it’s real hypnosis right?
I mean, isn’t the end result of being hypnotized to be hypnotized, so if you want to be hypnotized shouldn’t that be what you’ve come for?
If that’s good enough for you, and there’s really no reason it shouldn’t be, stop reading now.
I mean it.
The rest of this might just make you angry.
But if you’re a Hypist or curious about this, how do we talk about Real Hypnosis?
How do we recognize it and how do we define it when trance can already be such a subjective and elusive experience?
How can we meaningfully explore what is and is not Real Hypnosis. And why does it matter?
I think I have an idea and I would like to try.
Let’s look at the basic structure of being hypnotized, and then unpack it based on what we know about hypnosis, trance, and any number of other things:
A woman says she is going to hypnotize you.
She speaks to you, she asks you to do certain things, and you do.
You enter a trance state.
She has hypnotized you.
By saying she is going to hypnotize you, she deliberately declares she has the intention to hypnotize you.
A woman declares she has the intention to and is going to hypnotize you.
She speaks to you, she asks you to do certain things, and you do.
You enter a trance state.
She has hypnotized you.
By her intentions and her actions you have entered a trance.
A woman declares she has the intention to and is going to hypnotize you.
She speaks to you, she asks you to do certain things, and you do.
You enter a trance state.
By her intentions and actions you have been hypnotized.
All hypnosis is self-hypnosis and a hypnotist creates the conditions for a subject to let themselves enter trance.
(Shout out to Cause and Effect by Nikki Fatale and Hypnofantasy for some of this language)
A woman declares she has the intention to and is going to hypnotize you.
She creates the conditions for you to let yourself enter trance when she speaks to you, and asks you to do certain things, and you do.
By complying with her instructions you allow yourself to enter a trance state.
By her intentions and your actions you have allowed yourself to be hypnotized into a trance state.
She has hypnotized you.
This woman is not necessarily a hypnotist.
Hypnotism is a verb.
I am hypnotizing you.
You are hypnotizing me.
He/She/They are hypnotizing us.
We are hypnotizing them.
Hypnotism is a practice.
Hypnotism is an art.
Hypnotism is an art and a practice.
I practice hypnosis, you practice hypnosis, they perform hypnosis, etc.
Hypnotic is an adjective.
This, that, those, are hypnotic.
Her voice is hypnotic, she is using hypnotic language.
She performed a hypnotic induction.
She used hypnotic language to perform a hypnotic induction.
She hypnotized me with a hypnotic induction that used hypnotic language.
She is a hypnotist.
She practices hypnosis.
She practices hypnosis on me.
She uses hypnotic language to create hypnotic inductions that she practices on me.
Hypnotist is a skill set dependent title.
Hypnotism is a skill set.
A person with the hypnotism skillset is a hypnotist.
To be a hypnotist one must have the hypnotism skill set.
To develop the hypnotism skillset one must practice, study, understand, and be abel to perform hypnosis.
(This doesn’t mean certificates, it means skills).
Anyone can learn this skillset, just like anyone can learn to play music, or dance, or paint etc.
A hypnotist that does not have the hypnotism skillset is not a hypnotist just as a musician that does not know how to play music is not a musician, or a scientist that does not know science is not a scientist.
A script is a written document that is intended to be performed.
A hypnotic induction can be scripted.
Anyone can perform a script.
Actors perform scripts.
Not everyone that performs a script is an actor.
A hypnotist can read a hypnosis induction script.
Not everyone that reads a hypnosis induction script is a hypnotist.
Anyone can read a hypnotic induction script.
Anyone can read a movie script.
Not everyone that reads a movie script is an actor.
Not every actor is a believable actor.
Not everyone that reads a hypnosis script is a believable actor.
A believable actor that performs a hypnosis induction script can hypnotize the listener.
A believable actor that performs a hypnosis induction script can hypnotize the listener, but they are still an actor because they do not have the hypnotism skillset.
A hypnotic induction script is written by a hypnotist.
Anyone can write a script with hypnotic language.
Hypnotic language is not hypnotism.
Hypnotism uses hypnotic language.
A script with hypnotic language is not a hypnotic induction.
A hypnotic induction uses hypnotic theory and is created by a hypnotist.
A script with hypnotic language, that is not an induction, can be used to hypnotize a subject.
A hypnotist that has hypnotized someone puts them into a trance state.
(Given, of course, that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Spoiler Alert: we’ll come back to this in a big way at the end)
Hypnotic language helps the listener enter into a trance state.
A script with hypnotic language in it that is performed can put someone into a trance state.
A person can enter into a trance state many ways.
A person can be hypnotized into trance.
A person does not have to be hypnotized to enter trance.
A person can enter trance without their own deliberate intention to enter trance.
Hypnotic actions and items can help a person to enter into a trance state.
Entering a trance state does not mean the person is hypnotized.
Hypnotists perform hypnotism.
Hypnotism induces trances.
Hypnotism can use hypnotic language and hypnotic images to induce trance.
Trances can be induced by hypnotic languages and images.
Hypnotic language is not hypnotism.
A person using hypnotic language is not a hypnotist.
A person can be hypnotized and put into trance by someone who is not a hypnotist.
A believable actor can use hypnotic language to put a person into a trance.
An actor performs.
A hypnotist performs.
The actor has the performance skillset.
The hypnotist has the hypnotism skillset.
Performance is a part of hypnotism.
Hypnotism is not a part of performance.
A performance can be hypnotic.
A hypnotic performance is not hypnotism.
A performer that does not know hypnotism, but is believable enough to convince the audience that they do, can hypnotize someone because all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.
A hypnotic performance of a script that is either a hypnotic induction or just uses hypnotic language can put a person into a trance.
A person in a hypnotic trance is in a hypnotic trance regardless of how they arrived there.
As such, Real Hypnosis is and can be defined as anything that creates the conditions for the subject to enter trance via their own self-hypnosis.
We feel this to be inherently true.
However, entering a hypnotic trance is not proof that a real hypnotist hypnotized you.
Herein, perhaps lies the real issue.
It seems that the Hypist is less interested in Real Hypnosis, as we understand now that Real Hypnosis is achievable in any number of ways.
The question now, the real desire it seems, is to be hypnotized by a Real Hypnotist.
It is a desire akin to those rockists mentioned earlier, and their desire to listen to music made by the people that perform it, as in no songwriters.
Now, let us move on to this question:
What is a Real Hypnotist?
We already know this answer, as we know that a hypnotist is someone with the hypnotism skillset.
A woman declares she has the intention to and is going to hypnotize you.
She creates the conditions for you to let yourself enter trance when she speaks to you, and asks you to do certain things, and you do them.
By complying with her instructions you allow yourself to enter a trance state.
By her intentions and your actions you have allowed yourself to be hypnotized into a trance state.
What we know from the above is that there are any number of ways and combinations of skillsets, and tools that can enable the above to have happened. The end result of the above is that you are in a hypnotic trance.
We also know that the end result of being in a trance state does not prove one way or the other that a hypnotist or performer hypnotized us.
However, regardless of the end result, there are fundamental differences between a hypnotist and a performer beyond what is explored above.
Someone who is a performer or a writer, someone who is skilled and believable at either or both of those things, is creating an impression of what a hypnotist is and does.
Regardless of the outcome of that impression, it does not change the fundamental difference between what is the actual and what is a copy.
A copy, no matter how good, will always just be a copy.
This is not a statement of value, but a statement of fact.
An apple is an apple and an orange is an orange. Both are tasty, both are fruit, you eat both, but they’re not the same thing.
Now, why does this matter?
For the Hypist, it matters because their fantasy is not to be put in a trance, their fantasy is to be hypnotized.
For some people, the ends, the suggestions given, the behaviors and desires that they are given permission to experience and feel by trance, are less enticing and compelling than being hypnotized.
This person enjoys the craft, the technique, and the feeling of being hypnotized, and they want to experience this in the most genuine and real way possible.
A performance, someone acting like a hypnotist, is a degree of abstraction that separates the person from their desires and fantasies.
It is the same idea behind why a fan of The Rolling Stones who wants to see them in concert would rather see the Stones than a Rolling Stones cover band.
One is the genuine article, the other is doing an act.
Also, and this is a point of practical logic, a hypnotist will fundamentally be better at the actual technique and practice of hypnotizing people than a person acting like a hypnotist.
This is simply because one is the real thing, and the other is not.
Sticking with the band analogy, there is only one Mick Jagger
The inherent proficiency difference is because the hypnotist has studied and trained to develop the hypnotism skillset, and that makes them an expert at what they do.
A trained hypnotist understands how and why what they do works.
A trained hypnotist has the fundamental knowledge and abilities to perform their art with a greater capacity for meaningful and lasting success.
In a meaningful way, that ability is the focus of the fetish, the hypnotist’s ability to hypnotize someone is what is fetishized.
It is because a Hypist has a hypnosis fetish first and foremost.
It is what makes the hypnotist attractive, it is what makes the hypnotist appealing and compelling.
Just like a person who wants to be tied up, really wants to be tied up, a hypnosis fetishist really wants to be hypnotized.
Now, you may be asking the obvious question:
“If you can be hypnotized by someone who is not a hypnotist why does it matter?”
It matters because of primacy, and it matters because of a desire for a genuine and real experience.
An impression of hypnosis is less real than actual hypnosis performed by a hypnotist, and this is regardless of the end result.
A photocopy can have all the same words as the book it was taken from, but it’s still not the book.
Yes, the end results may be the same, and yes there have been remarkably talented teams of people that have made great and enjoyable stuff, but the end result isn’t what truly matters if one is trying to recognize why the two are different.
After all, trance can be reached in many ways and getting drunk lowers inhibitions just as well and also makes you suggestible too, but not of those things are hypnosis.
One can argue that the Hypist cares about Real Hypnotists and Real Hypnotism simply because that is what they are attracted to and desire at their core.
For some people hypnosis is a tool that allows them to vicariously feel and experience desires and sensations they would not otherwise have.
For some people hypnosis offers permission to recognize and act upon or recognize parts of themselves they would not feel they otherwise could.
For some people the inherent intimacy of being hypnotized is the attraction.
It could be one, or more likely several of those things that motivate people to want to be hypnotized and experience trance.
For the Hypist, the desire is to be hypnotized. To them, hypnosis is of and by itself inherently erotic.
It is not the intimacy, it is not the possibilities, it is not the permissions, it is the act of being hypnotized.
That is the desire.
It is in the finding of material that meets the Hypist’s desires that the need for definitions, the want for clarifications, and the occasional irritation and anger come from.
In the ever-growing Erotic Hypnosis scene the number of people that can meet the Hypist’s desires and criteria is far less than the people that cannot.
Or in the words of a Domme I know, “Does anybody care about the hypnosis anymore?”
And make no mistake, there are Hypist Dommes just like there are Hypist subs.
So in closing, none of this really matters to you, nor should it, unless it does.
And if it does matter to you, then it only matters to you and like-minded people. After all, we’re the ones that care about these fine distinctions.
And seriously people, do not come at me with the whole, ‘That’s only your opinion man” thing because yes it obviously is no matter how I framed my argument.
I know I use a lot of postulates as a base of fact, just know that this is all really one giant conditional statement.
Next time we’ll look at the other side of this topic too, and spoiler alert for that, I have some very good things to say about that as well.
Anyway, if you have questions or ideas for future articles, of if you just want to reach out and say hello, feel free to drop me a line.
Also, if you appreciated this article, I’ve created a $1.00 tip goody. I was thinking about selling the articles themselves like I do free stories, but this seems easier for everyone in the long and short run.
