5 Misconceptions about Erotic Hypnosis from Popular TV shows

Most people often first discover hypnosis through movies or TV shows. Most of which portray hypnosis unrealistically. Dracula, for example, could enthrall a woman with a single glance. Within a few seconds, his power overwhelmed and intoxicated his victims, filling them with the desire to do anything he wanted. In Charlie’s Angels, a villain used strobe lights to entrance, brainwash and enslave several women during a 2-minute typing test. By the end of that two minutes, they were mindless puppets.

It is dramatic and sexy, but completely unrealistic. If you only saw this once or twice, you could laugh it off. But seeing hundreds of similar portrayals leaves many people with lasting misconceptions.

5 Misconceptions about Hypnosis

Pop culture descriptions of hypnosis create several misconceptions:

• Hypnosis overwhelms you. (It is really a cooperative effort)
• You’re either awake or in a trance. (There are a spectrum of trance depths.)
• Anyone can instantly go into a deep trance. (Most people enter light trances, and must practice to reach deeper trances.)
• You believe and do whatever the hypnotist says. (Even in a trance, you can reject suggestions.)
• Hypnosis instantly transforms beliefs and behaviors. (It merely helps plant the seeds of change.)

Hypnosis is a Cooperative effort

Being overwhelmed by desire or passion is a common sexual fantasy. That’s why it’s such a prevalent themes in contemporary and paranormal romances. When you see vampires like Dracula or Damon in The Vampire Diaries entrance and enthrall their victims you see hypnotic domination as an sexually overwhelming force, a weapon that robs the victim of free will.

Real hypnosis is always a cooperative effort between hypnotist and subject. The hypnotist guides subject, the subject follows. Active and receptive, Yin and Yang. Hypnotists use a variety of techniques, such as eye fascination (i.e., pendulums, spirals), guided visualization (progressive relaxation), overload (confusion, pattern interruption), or storytelling techniques. But the subject must follow respond appropriately go into a trance. With eye fascination techniques, the subject must allow their mental rhythms to synchronize with the pendulum or spiral. With guided visualization, the subject must mentally visualize the suggestions. Even with overload techniques, the subject must allow themselves to be overloaded.

Trance is a Spectrum of Conscious States

Movies and TV shows need to compress their stories down to it’s bare bones; eighteen minutes for a comedy, forty minutes for a TV drama, and roughly two hours for a movie. So when they show hypnosis, they show subjects quickly going into a deep trance and quickly returning to full alertness. This gives the impression that, like a light switch, trance is either on or off. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Hypnotherapists have traditionally defined three distinct trance states: hypnoidal (light), cataleptic (medium) and somnambulistic (deep). Some hypnotists also recognize a fourth state, called the Coma or Esdaile state. But trance states aren’t really as discrete as the definitions suggest. Trance is better described as a spectrum, like color. We define all light with a wavelengths between 450 and 495 nm as one color, blue. But within this range, there are an infinite number of gradations. Awareness (including trance) also consists of gradations, many between full alertness and trance and many within each recognized trance state.

Signs of a light trance include: 1) If you feel a strong rapport or emotional connection with the hypnotist or his words, and 2) When you can see in your mind images of what the hypnotist describes, but also hear their words clearly. Signs of a medium trance include catalepsy, not being able to move, and only remembering the images in your mind, not the words that inspired them. Signs of a deep trance include lost time, i.e., remembering very little of the session.

Deep Trance Requires Conditioning

The compressed nature of movies and TV shows also create a false expectation about how easy it is reach a deep trance. Especially with scenes like the one in Charlie’s Angels. Stage hypnotists contribute to this expectation when they appear to pick random volunteers from the audience. (The selection isn’t really random.)

A few people can easily enter deep trances. But the majority need to train and condition themselves for it. Trancing is like walking or any other physical skill. You start with baby steps and build up to more advance levels. When you learn to walk, you first learn to keep your balance. You take a few steps at a time, and build up to walking across the room. With practice you build up to walking to school, then running marathons. It’s the same with hypnosis. You start with a light trance that may only last a few minutes. And you work up to longer and deeper trances. And just like running a marathon, remaining in a prolonged, deep trance requires dedicated practice.

Even in a Trance you can Reject Suggestions

On TV hypnotized characters instantly accept and believe whatever their told. When the hypnotist tells Dick Van Dyke that he’s drunk, he acts drunk. When a hypnotist tells the Charlie’s Angels character to betray her friends, she obeys. It’s dramatic and sexy, and sometimes very funny, but far from the truth. Even in a trance, your mental defenses never completely disappear. You will reject suggestions that contradict your fundamental beliefs, or that you consider harmful. (Unless you have a fetish for being forced to do things against your will.)

Suggestions given in Trance Must be Reinforced Afterwards

People do not construct beliefs or change habits solely from one hypnotic suggestion. We construct them from a combination of ideas and experiences that support each other through a web of belief. And it can take time to make a permanent change.

It’s like taking guitar lessons. The teacher will suggest a new way to finger certain notes. Then the student must go home and practice those fingers a few hundred times before they become a new habit. Sometimes, the student will determine that they can’t do the new fingering and will either revert the old fingering or try something new. But if they practicing their own fingering, then the teacher’s suggestions will fade from the student’s memory.

Hypnotic suggestions work the same way. If the subject ignores them, they grow weaker. If the subject reinforces them, the suggestions grow stronger, eventually growing into new beliefs or habits. You may reinforce them by re-listening to the hypnotic recording, repeating the suggestions to yourself or simply acting in accordance with them. It can also be helpful to surround yourself with people who help you reinforce the suggestions. As a wise man once said, ” surround yourself with people who will help you become the best version of yourself.”

What you should really expect from Erotic Hypnosis MP3s

In most self-help hypnosis recordings, the hypnotist begins with a brief introduction, explaining the purpose of the recording. They guide you through a relaxation exercise. Then they offer direct suggestions to change your attitude or behavior. Most erotic hypnosis recordings, work the same way. You know you’re in a trance if you feel more relaxed than usual, if you don’t feel like moving, or if you feel emotionally affected by the hypnotist’s words.

Hypnotic Dreams’ recordings are a bit different. Like standard hypnosis, I begin each recording with an introduction that explains the purpose. But then I lead you into a story where you see yourself being hypnotized and responding to suggestions. This storytelling approach (based on Milton Erickson‘s techniques) is a form of guided visualization that engages your imagination and sense memories to evoke emotional responses. This, in turn, helps you become more receptive to suggestion.

When you begin to see yourself in the story, you’re entering a trance. When you feel fascinated, eager to hear more, sexually aroused, or otherwise affected by the hypnotist’s voice or words, you’re experiencing the emotional resonance that enables you to be receptive to hypnotic suggestion. And after listening, when you find yourself continuing to feel aroused, thinking about these words, or seeing yourself enjoying a similar scene in real life, you know you’ve been hypnotized.

For a more technical description, read How Erotic Hypnosis Works.