CarnalNation

Your most powerful orgasm in your entire life? Your body remembers it. So does your subconscious. In a trance state, your subconscious can be given the suggestion to relive those powerful feelings, so you can experience them again...and again... Now imagine the hypnotist intensifying your sensations with a “trigger”: one word that commands your pleasure to double, triple or even explode ten times or more than the original intensity, sending wave upon wave of excitement coursing through your body. And all without a single touch.

This form of erotic hypnosis incorporates a technique of “regression,” which takes the hypnotic subject back to a special time or experience. According to one hypnotist’s online discussion, it doesn’t matter who you were originally with, or what caused that powerful orgasm; all you have to do is focus on the sensations. And all the erotic hypnotist has to do is keep you riding the “pulsating waves” in the trance state, comfortably and safely.

Last week I attempted to describe the difference between erotic hypnosis and hypnotherapy used in the context of sex therapy or sexological counseling. It’s worth restating the distinctions, particularly as we get into some ethical considerations later.

Erotic hypnosis is used to create a direct experience of sexual pleasure in the hypnotic subject. It can create a “cum on command” or bring a person closer to a cherished fetish or kink. People have sought hypnosis in order to turn into an animal or adult baby; to heighten their ability to serve a mistress or master; or to free their gender expression from social fetters and inner constraints. And of course, hypnosis can immobilize a person without physical restraint.

Some erotic hypnosis is performed on stage, by a stage hypnotist. Some professional hypnotists do erotic hypnosis as a sideline, often under assumed names. Some erotic hypnosis is performed by amateurs or self-trained hypnotists (who may or may not charge for their services).

By contrast, the sexological hypnotherapist doesn’t aim to create the direct experience of sexual pleasure, though less direct sensual suggestions can be used to help a person relax, gain sexual confidence, or release sexual inhibition, shame or trauma. A sexological hypnotherapist uses hypnosis as a tool for problem solving and empowerment, to support the experience of sexual pleasure in the context of the client’s own intimate relationships. Hypnotherapy in this context can be used for a variety of complaints, from sexual compulsion or lack of desire to physiological dysfunction. It has even been used to create aversions to troubling turn-ons.

The distinctions between these similar uses of hypnosis are not entirely cut and dried. And it’s this capacity for blurred boundaries that may discourage some hypnotherapists from dealing with their clients' sexual issues. For one thing, hypnotherapists and patients alike may fear that hypnosis might be used to create opportunities for exploitation. Brenda Love’s Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices references an early case involving a physician who had used hypnotic suggestions to have intercourse with a married patient. As her husband was impotent, her subsequent pregnancy was a dead giveaway. The pioneering sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was asked to comment on the doctor’s abuse of hypnosis.

I also believe that among hypnotherapists (females especially?), there might be an unspoken fear that a client could become turned on during a hypnosis session designed to deal with sexual matters. It might be hard for some hypnotists to imagine a graceful and professional way to handle this, so they find it easier to “just not go there” and continue focusing on smoking cessation, weight loss and irritable bowels.

Still, the therapeutic and pleasurable possibilities of erotic trance have been cited by everyone from Jack Morin Ph.D. (author of The Erotic Mind) to Madonna, in her lyrics for “Erotica.” In the realm of the hypnotic erotic, scenarios of surrender and power, domination and control, spin faster than a rotating hypno disc. Judging by the wares on erotic hypnosis websites, I sense a new “war of the sexes” fought for fun and profit in the trenches of trance.

For example, there are men who look to hypnosis as an easy way to achieve fool-proof seduction of gorgeous young women. I recently watched Ross Jeffries in a video demonstration of a hypnotic technique to tease and pleasure a woman. Jeffries, who refers to himself as the “master teacher of Speed Seduction,” asks the young woman to remember some good feelings and then to give the feelings a color (pink). Then he has her focus on an invisible “pink ball” of pure pleasure which he cups in his hands. He builds her anticipation by holding the “pink ball” in his hands, moving it away from her, telling her she doesn’t feel the pleasurable sensations as much when it’s far away. He slowly brings it closer and tells her she’ll feel it more strongly the closer he gets. Suddenly he moves into her personal space and presses the pink ball (and his hand) onto her upper chest. She gasps, wriggles, and rubs her upper legs involuntarily. It may not have been the earth moving, but it’s clear she felt something. The men in the audience seem impressed. I can easily picture this neat stunt used to great effect on young coeds in singles bars.