Where does hypnosis fall for you in your fetishes and fantasies?
A long time ago, well not all that long ago I suppose but Internet Years are about the same as Dog Years, the term Erotic Hypnosis was used to describe a very particular thing:
It was hypnosis with an erotic context.
If you were a hypno-fetishist it meant one thing, you liked Erotic Hypnosis.
All however many of us sort of floated around the same few sites, I should clarify that I am talking about Femdom Erotic Hypnosis mind you, liked basically the same sorts of things, and that was about it.
Well, nothing is ever “that simple” but for the purposes of explaining the way the scene, the term, the market, and not least of all how all of us have changed, we’ll pretend that in this case it is.
When you take a wide look at where we are today there is still a pretty solid core of people that are classic hypno-fetishists, but the term Erotic Hypnosis has expanded into an umbrella term fro any kind of fetish play that can utilize hypnotism as a component of the experience.
This may seem like splitting hairs, but I promise you that this is important for 2 reasons:
1. If you want to understand anything you have to know what it is. Knowing what it is also includes knowing what it is not, so it is important to be able to identify the thing you are examining’s qualities as it relates to itself and as it relates to other things.
2. The monumental changes to the scene are by and large a very good thing. There is more money, more diversity, and the opportunity for all of us to figure out, find, and satisfy our desires in this scene is easier than ever before (provided that you know what you’re looking for).
The seed change for the scene came from a groundswell of increased interest from both consumers and providers.
Long story short, that initial group of hypno-fetishists were all essentially underserved by their market options and as high speed internet made access to porn easier and easier it became obvious that this was a market that could be expanded.
To keep this from becoming a treatise on the history of Erotic Hypnosis (that’s coming one of these days), the simple version of the story is that other fetish content providers started folded hypnosis into their brand and into their toolbox. Given what can be accomplished with hypnosis it became a natural fit with financial domination, humiliation, feminization, “forced” gay/bi fantasies, and everything else we’ve seen over the years.
Of course there has always been a behavioral activity component to Erotic Hypnosis, be it adult babies, or bondage, but as access to more obscure fetish content became easier and easier, this sort of results oriented content became more plentiful.
This has also lead to the rise in role-play hypnosis content. That content being devoid of any technique but having hypnosis themed stories, and experienced.
For some, these changes and evolutions have become troublesome.
The reasoning can range from people feeling as though their scene, or their place of belonging has been taken away from them and/or devalued, to the more common and more practical problem of being taken for a ride because you thought you were buying one thing, but you were getting something else entirely.
This leads to the ultimate question, where does hypnosis fall for you?
From my experience in this scene there seems to be two polls that people fall under. They are:
Hypnosis as Purpose and Hypnosis as Tool.
These are not mutually exclusive, nor is it the only category or measurement. If anything, this is akin to the strongly agree to strongly disagree range you see on personality tests for job applications, teacher evaluations, and surveys etc.
Broadly speaking though, what this all means is people tend to be attracted to either the idea of being hypnotized and find it hot, or they tend to be attracted to the things that hypnosis can provide such as behavior modification etc.
In short, do you like how it feels or do you like what it does?
Do you like the idea by itself or do you like what it can give you?
Again, these aren’t mutually exclusive binaries, nor do they apply to everyone.
For some people the experience of sharing hypnosis is inherently more intimate than erotic. For some people that connection is something that they feel they don’t have or won’t have in their day to day lives.
For other people the fantasy of hypnosis is the attraction. It isn’t about being hypnotized, it is about the idea of it.
Obviously, there is no right answer and there is no more real, or better answer because you just like what you like.
For some people hypnosis has a crucial role in a traditional D/s relationship (Dominant/submissive) and in as much hypnosis is used as part of that power exchange.
If you look into at the core components of most sessions, be they videos or MP3s or what people want/expect from a live session the D/s component forms the foundation of what a session is.
The term, Hypno-Domme (or whatever it is) is a combination of hypnotist and dominatrix, and you see similar naming conventions with hypno-mistress, goddess, princess, etc. Each of these terms has an origination in the D/s community, and as some of the first pros were pro-dommes first, you can see that D/s is ingrained in the commercial aspect of this scene.
Further, there is the fundamental component of power exchange that comes from the increased suggestibility and vulnerability that comes from being put in a trance, so the hypnotist and subject inherently engage in a relationship that can be easily converted into a D/s relationship
Additionally and just as crucial to the core of what we think about when we think about hypnosis sessions, is the model of the traditional clinical session.
The traditional clinical hypnosis session is structured as:
Induction, Deepener, Suggestion.
We see this in recordings, videos, and in live sessions and is employed out of basic practicality.
In a live session the hypnotist hypnotizes you and responds to your responses and works with you. The hypnotist helps you find a level of openness and suggestibility where you can more easily accept the suggestions you are give, which are ideally the suggestions you want to help you experience what you want.
Life changes, behavioral changes, and changes of outlook and thinking habits are core components of the practice of hypnosis as it is taught, and these components are also easily applied to D/s, fetish, and fantasy experiences.
The ability for hypnosis to be used in visualization also inherently lends itself to creating internal fantasies just as much as stage hypnosis components lead to expressing external behaviors ranging from barking like a dog to being frozen etc.
When we look at Erotic Hypnosis as the sum of its parts we can see that even though the term has expanded to include more it is more accurate to say that the components of what hypnosis offers in an erotic and fetish environment are simply being more fully capitalized on.
This is happening because there is a market to support it, and that market exists because we each want different things.
So, where does hypnosis fall for you?
(After all, you could look at where you fall but despite the picture this isn’t multiple choice, this is about you knowing what you like and what you want.)
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.
