THE GAME OF HYPNOSIS
Are you playing or being played?
When I interact with hypnotists I find myself cringing whenever they talk about ‘trance’. It’s so hard to write that word without inverted commas, let alone without being a little bit sick in my mouth. But this post isn’t about the fact that ‘trance’ doesn’t exist – lots of people will agree with me on this – it’s about why people persist with the term even when they know it’s nonsense, and why they shouldn’t.
I think if you’re serious about hypnosis – as a hypnotist or a participant – then I think you need to get your head around the differences between the ‘game of hypnosis’ and hypnotism itself. The real hypnotism – the hypnotism studied academically, as a path to understanding it, its effects, and its place in society – is simple: it is entirely imaginative suggestions. Yes, you can give those suggestions after an induction, but it makes no difference. The whole topic is essentially suggestion and, while suggestion is very powerful, it does not require all the hangovers from mesmerism.
The ‘game of hypnosis’, however, is the thing of legend, of fantasy, of kink. It is the thing conjured up when a film uses it as a plot device. It is the thing we think about when we hear of ‘mind control’. It is the thing in Scooby Doo and The Jungle Book. It is the thing that Danny Boyle’s film Trance was based on. Or The Manchurian Candidate (all versions). Or Dean Koontz’s False Memory (great book). It’s the MAGIC that isn’t real.
The ‘game of hypnosis’ is the mind control we’d like to believe was real. It’s the thing that hypnotists will tell you is real. Even some academics want to believe in the magic (see Hypnotic Induction: Perspectives, Strategies and Concerns by Kumar and Lankton [Routledge] 2018), but they are chasing the same dream as the novice wannabe. If hypnosis was any other subject, these perspectives would be the ones presented in comics, to school children, as fantastical ideas on which to build dreams and plot ideas. Not the building blocks, or nuts and bolts, of a scientific discipline that needs further research and understanding. Or upon which a clinical endeavour could be developed.
And I’d like to separate the two in this post. I’d like you to think about which one you want to use – either as a hypnotist or a participant. Do you want to play with the power of suggestion – something we know to be real – or do you want to chase the dream of a mystical power that never existed?
A good question is Why Does This Matter? Well, given that trance is the result of a suggestion, and suggestions are variably responded to, insisting on trance – as a hypnotist or a participant – can lead to disappointment and lots of wasted time and effort. Yes, I understand that trance might be built into your fantasies, but maybe so were huge cocks or huge breasts (or both) and the ones you’re presented with (by the real human in front of you) might not be as huge as your fantasy demands. But working with what you have is the journey to fulfilment, and pining (or whining) for the ones you don’t have is the path to pain.
I know it’s fun to pretend that people can control your mind, or that you can control theirs, but it really is just role-play. You might as well just strap on some prosthetics and feel up the latex promises they offer. I’m not downplaying role-playing – far from it – I’m just encouraging you to realise that is what you’re doing. If you enter into the world of hypnosis and want trance to be a thing then you need to be aware that it’s ALL IN YOUR MIND and maybe also in the mind of the other person (or tape, MP3, script, etc).
But you don’t have to play with trance. You can evolve. You can find all the involuntariness and automaticity that trance offers through suggestions that don’t get anywhere near trance. You can cut through the nonsense and get to the good stuff directly. Without having to worry about depths, etc. Nobody needs to flutter their eyelids or drop their head in order to experience this.
Elevate your game. Play with the real products of hypnotism. And accept that trance is no more real than the words on a page, or the depictions in a movie. Move on and focus on the results of suggestions themselves. And (and this is a big ‘and’) if you really want to play with trance, then please – pretty please with a cherry on top – just suggest it like you would any other suggestion. And if it isn’t responded to, just adapt, change, repeat, etc, as you would with any other suggestion. It really is Just Another Suggestion.
Yes, even the one that is ‘Sleep!’. It’s not special, and you don’t need to worry about it. You can’t get stuck in it. It won’t take over your life. It isn’t essential to respond to suggestions. It isn’t even necessary to have a good time. Honestly, if anything, it’s a spice or flavour when the real meal is the fantastic food in front of you. You don’t need to worry about it at all.
What you need to worry about are all the other suggestions.
[Image credit: Witches’ Flight by Francisco Goya, 1797, Public Domain, WikiCommons. This is the painting stolen in the Danny Boyle movie Trance.]