Mind Play

Forward (2013 Edition)

by Lady Ru’etha

For so many of us, in the beginning were the words.

Wonderful words: Compelled. Controlled. Obedient. Sleepy. Blank. Hypnotized.

Oh, they’re just words to most people. To some of us, though, they are so very much more. They hold the promise of endless delight, of release, of deep and orgasmic and blissful heat. They are the essence of desire fulfilled.

I wasn’t looking for those words in particular the night I stumbled onto the EMCSA, although whatever I was looking for was instantly put out of my mind. It was all there, and I spent an awed few weeks immersing myself in the words. I encountered blankpage, who is sadly no longer with us but whose words live on. I devoured Chewtoy’s funny and panty-dampening stories of John and his dream girl Meg. The What’s New page wasn’t enough, though. I wanted more!

At the time, it was still possible (if slightly nutty) to read everything on the Archive in alphabetical order by author. And early on in the a section, I struck gold: a collaborative series called Pleasure Cruise, primarily written by artie and Wiseguy.

Jackpot! This was what I had been craving: realistic, personal, consensual, insanely hot hypnosis, and here was a whole series of it! I immediately read everything both men had written and reached out in fan mail. Shortly after, I got responses, and fast friendships were forged.

(Side note: write fan mail! Not only did that get me friendships with all of the previously-mentioned authors, but it got me my beloved tranceslut, Jukebox. Plus, there are few things as vulnerability-triggering as putting out your fantasies for all to read. These folks deserve to know they’re appreciated.)

I am honored to count Wiseguy and his wife Dani as treasured friends. They are funny, intelligent, knowledgeable people. Most important, they care. This book was written to share so that more people can have the same kind of fun they’re having. Wiseguy’s expertise comes through clearly, and where he offers advice you’d be smart to take it. The clarity of writing for which he is well-known makes this an easy, quick read. Most of all, he gives total newbies a good grounding in the basics of taking these fantasies into reality while being in-depth enough to enrich the practices of the more experienced.

In the beginning are the words. Isn’t it delightful that the fun doesn’t stop there?

Addendum for the 2017 edition

When the first edition of this book came out in July 2013, the reception was more than I ever thought it would be. People bought it, read it, and used it to get started in hypnokink in far greater numbers than I ever anticipated. For the time, it proved to be exactly what we as a community needed.

But it was not without, shall we say, issues. The most (in)famous of those was a list of Rules for Ethical Hypnosis Play, which I’d quoted from a post on the MC Forum. That list contained some transphobic language that I should have removed, but didn’t. I failed to realize at the time how harmful that language was. It took the help of a couple of very good people, patiently explaining and guiding, to help me understand the harm done by letting that sentence stand. In the process they became very dear friends, and I still go to them when I need my social compass checked. (And thank you again, Daja and SpiralTurquoise, for being so patient with me, then and now.)

That incident led me to posting a statement on FetLife to make clear that the rule was not intended that way, but its presence in the book was still not good. I hesitated to do a revision right away because I felt it would be a disservice to those who had just bought the book – like when Wizards of the Coast sees sales drop on its current edition D&D books so it comes out with a new edition. And, frankly, I made some mistakes in how I managed my source files that made it exceedingly difficult to make changes – I’d have to modify three different sets of source files, each formatted differently. But it’s bothered me since then, and I knew that one day I would have to fix it for real.

That day is today. I also took the opportunity to fix some other bad wording, correct typos that slipped through my editing filter, and update some of the material that needed it. I hope you’ll find the changes to be positive, as they were intended to be.

-wg

September 2017

Addendum for the 2022 edition

So, here we are, four years later. A lot has happened with the community, and with me personally.

As I write this, we are just beginning to emerge from the pandemic, which took away our ability to get together. Like many people, I’ve only seen my friends and community in fits and snatches, over Zoom. Some conventions held remote sessions, like the London Hypnosis Workshop, Beguiled and Charmed! 2021; others folded completely and may or may not return, depending on what’s happening with their leadership and staff. A couple of events have done major disservices to the community, and while they may still be held I can no longer recommend them as safe venues.

But, thankfully, we really are finally emerging from all that. People are getting vaccinated, and that means it is safer to congregate again. Local groups, some of which have been operating remotely over Zoom, will start having meetings again when they feel safe doing that. Charmed! 2022 is in planning mode and will have in-person and online components. That basically means running two cons at the same time, which will be … interesting. But I think that’s going to be normal for at least a couple of years.

I’ve been telling myself I need to update this book (and the Study Guide) for over a year. Partly I can blame ‘pandemic paralysis’, like a lot of people. If I’m honest, though, it’s also taken me this long to get to where I feel like I can, maybe, write again. My stroke in 2019 cost me some of my ability to speak, which I’ve worked to get back, but equally devastating was the damage done to my ability to write, by hand or by keyboard. I’ve made a lot of progress, but I still mistype a lot so this is going to be looked through by multiple editors after I’m done with it and, probably, still have typos and homonym errors in it. That’s how my brain works now.

Let’s get into this, shall we?

-wg

May 2021

Necessary Disclaimers

The content in this book is meant to be read and used by adults for education and recreational purposes only. Nothing in this book should be interpreted as therapeutic or as instructions for doing any kind of therapy. The author explicitly urges every reader not to attempt any kind of therapy without the proper training.

Recreational hypnosis is fundamentally safe when practiced by consenting adults who are in good mental health. That said, all brains are different. If you are neuroatypical (have been diagnosed with a mental illness/autism spectrum disorder/ADHD/etc.) you and your partner may want to take extra time to clearly communicate about how you think you may react to suggestions and think through what may work best for you. If there are words/phrases/images that trigger things like trauma flashbacks or negative self thought, tell your partner about it so they can be avoided.

You, the reader, are solely responsible for what you do with the information in this book. Neither the author nor the publisher take any responsibility for consequences arising from the use or misuse of the techniques contained in this book.

For the entire erotic hypnosis community, who have given me so much.

Welcome

She’ll get over it, Claire told me. I think seeing that Spanish lady get all worked up, Monica got a little spooked. She was probably afraid she’d find herself listening to your voice, close her eyes, and then suddenly she’d be up in your room, naked, with an overpowering urge to jump your bones.

Yeah, I thought, that would about fit with my stage persona. I looked at Claire, who was trying so hard to be a friend, and smiled weakly. Wow. You aren’t afraid I’d do that, are you?

Afraid? No, she said, lowering her voice and gazing deeply into my eyes. I want you to.

– from Busman’s Holiday

About This Book

If you’ve ever watched a hypnosis scene in a movie or television show and found yourself leaning forward or shifting in your seat, then this book is for you.

All kinds of people are secretly (or not so secretly) fascinated by the erotic possibilities of hypnosis. Even after we find out that it isn’t really mind control, many of us can’t help but get turned on at the thought of either controlling someone, or being controlled by someone, into doing things we’ve been told we shouldn’t do … but really, inside, kind of want to.

Erotic hypnosis is all about fantasy: the fantasy of taking or giving up control, of seducing or of being seduced. It’s about sharing not only our bodies but our minds with someone we trust deeply. There is nothing more intimate than letting another person get into your subconscious, look through your deepest fantasies, and then bring them out to play.

Within these pages you’ll find instruction, advice, and perhaps even inspiration to help you get started enjoying erotic hypnosis safely and responsibly. The principles and ideas in this book are the same ones I teach at national events and local group meet-ups. My hope is that by putting it in writing it will find a wider audience than I can reach personally.

About the Author

Hi. I’m Wiseguy, and I’m a hypno-deve.

Like many in the community, I was hypno-kinky before I ever knew the term existed. As far back as I can remember I’ve always found myself sitting up and taking notice when a TV show or a movie featured a hypnosis scene – especially if the hypnotee was someone I found attractive.

TV being what it is, I was usually lucky that way. From Marianne McAndrew in Hawaii Five-O: A Bullet for McGarrett to Patricia Crowley in Please Don’t Eat the Daisies to Tanya Roberts in Charlie’s Angels: Attack Angels, I watched those scenes and remembered them for years even without the aid of DVRs and DVD. And the daytime talk shows that came on after school liked having hypnotists on, and again they had an amazing propensity for choosing my preferred type of demonstration subjects.

The interest in hypnosis went dormant in my teens when I picked up a new interest that was less likely to get me ostracized by my peer group for practicing it -- writing. I read voraciously and spent way too much time writing. I’d do articles for the school newspaper and yearbook and short stories for a literary magazine I started at the high school with help from a very indulgent English department. That lasted until I had to join the real world; I did a lot of technical writing in my day job, which left little energy for more writing afterwards.

Years later, as a married guy in my 30’s with children and a stressful day job, I rediscovered both interests at once. I was looking on the Internet for self-hypnosis pages for stress relief, and stumbled into the Erotic Mind Control Stories Archive (EMCSA), also known as mcstories.com. I spent a lot of time there reading the stories – I remember RC’s Hypnotized was my first – and getting hot. There were only two problems: most of the stories were atrociously written, and I quickly learned that my wife at the time emphatically Did Not Want To Know about my sexual fantasies.

Thus in 1999 Wiseguy was born. Writing hypnoerotic stories gave me an outlet for my creative impulses and a way to indulge my inner hypnokink while also providing high-quality reading material for other like-minded people.

When I first started writing stories, I had absolutely no idea how hypnosis actually worked or how to do it. If I was going to be a writer, though, I figured I had better do my research. So I cruised sites like the now-defunct hypnosis.com, reading inductions and deepeners. I bought books – carefully, lest my spouse discover them – and read them to learn more about hypnosis and what was and wasn’t possible. Through the mind control (MC) community I started to meet people who were doing more than just writing about hypnosis; they were actually doing it.

Shortly after that my 20-year marriage came to an extended and unpleasant end. I kept my ex-to-be from discovering Wiseguy, partly by laying low and partly by being a smart system administrator (I was, and still am, an IT guy by day). And I was a major stress case. I looked for a local hypnotherapist to help me manage stress and deal with the conflict.

It was a brilliant decision. I finally learned to go into hypnosis myself, and I got control of myself in a lot of key ways. I also discovered that I had actual talent – the recordings I made for myself to reinforce my hypnotist’s suggestions were, she told me, extremely well formed and well delivered. She told me I should seriously consider getting professional training and going into practice.

When the dust from the divorce finally settled, I signed up for a 130-hour training course and became a certified hypnotist a few months later. I practiced and wrote more stories, among them the hypnoerotic novel Busman’s Holiday. People waited five years for me to finish it, but eventually Busman’s became well known as a thinly disguised how-to manual on erotic hypnosis.

Meanwhile, my dear friend Lady Ru’etha had been quietly opening doors for me to take a more prominent position in the hypnokink community. She got me interested in her Realm of Bliss podcast, behind the scenes at first and then as a guest podcaster. Through her I started meeting other hypnokinky people who were undercover in mundane hypnosis circles. I came out of my shell a bit more and started to do online hypnosis play with a few people.

Then came Hypnoticon in February 2008. It was a never-before-seen event explicitly designed for the recreational hypnosis community. The attendee list was a Who’s Who of hypnokink legends: the original hypnotist from hypnovideo.com, one of the early sites offering real hypnosis videos; Aaron Glotfelter, whose hypnosisfetish.com website was a must-see of the time; Lady Ru’etha; and a number of well-known hypnotists and writers from across the Internet. I was there as Wiseguy, in public under that name for the first time. And it was awesome.

Not long after, I met a lady on the Mind Control Forum who wanted to explore erotic hypnosis. A play relationship quickly turned into a romantic one, and I found myself making regular trips to the Boston area. Lady Ru’etha introduced me to the New England Hypnosis Group and I rediscovered the joy of teaching. Becoming hypno Obi-wan to that group of talented and awesome people reminded me how much I have to share and how few opportunities there are to do it.

By 2010 the New England group were friends of mine, and they were organizing something new: the first annual New England Erotic Hypnosis Unconference, or NEEHU. In the years to follow NEEHU spawned a series of annual hypnokink gatherings across the United States which draw people from all over the world. It’s been my honor and pleasure to teach classes at all of them, and to help bring one to my home DC area. By 2013 I realized that as the community continued to grow I wouldn’t be able to keep up, and that the best way I could contribute to the larger community was to do what people have been suggesting I do for years: write a real, undisguised, erotic hypnosis how-to manual, Wiseguy style.

And here it is.

The BDSM Connection

Throughout this book you’ll see references to the BDSM community and language that is specific to that community. It’s hard to fully discuss erotic hypnosis without mentioning its uses in BDSM; not only are the two communities very closely linked, but a lot of BDSM principles apply to erotic hypnosis as well.

If you are not familiar with BDSM, that’s perfectly okay. The vast majority of the material in this book will still be useful for you – you may just want to gloss over the parts about hypno-flogging and bondage. For the sake of clarity, though, let me take time to explain a few of the terms I’ve borrowed from that community.

A scene is an encounter between two or more people in which they participate in a kinky activity. The scene might be a bondage scene, a flogging scene, or feature some other kind of sexy behavior. It does not necessarily have to include any kind of explicit sexual activity; in fact, in many dungeons oral, anal, and vaginal intercourse are not allowed on the premises. But whipping, flogging, and tying up naked people is fine as long as everyone involved is enjoying it. The word scene is also used with the definite article (the Scene) to refer to the BDSM/kink community in general. Some erotic hypnotists use the word scene as I do in this book, to refer to an encounter; others talk about a session or a trance.

We often use the word play to mean general kinky activity. It is commonly used with a qualifying noun that indicates what kind of kink is being indulged, such as needle play (erotic use of acupuncture and decorative needles), wax play (hot melted wax dripped on the body), and knife play (using knives and other sharp implements). The title of this book, Mind Play, is itself a nod to this convention as erotic hypnosis is all about using the mind. Others will refer to trance play or hypno-play when they are talking about erotic hypnosis.

In a BDSM scene there is usually a top, who controls the scene, and a bottom, who is acted upon. You may also hear people referred to as a dominant (dom/domme) or submissive (sub), though those terms usually refer to relationship dynamics more than to roles in a particular scene. A dominant is usually, but not always, the top and a submissive is usually, but not always, a bottom. It is also not unusual for a scene to have more than one top or more than one bottom. Many people in the Scene (meaning the community at large) are either a bottom or a top; others alternate, topping sometimes and bottoming sometimes. In the community someone who does that is called a switch because they switch roles depending on the situation.

Each dominant or top has their own style. I generally identify as a service top. My preferred role is to run the scene and to give the bottom(s) what they have told me they want. As such, I am pretty close to the middle of the spectrum. Erotic hypnotists run the gamut from the very gentle and permissive to the very domineering, alpha types.

Language and Gender

Language is very important to both writers and hypnotists, and I use some terms that may seem strange to those who haven’t heard me present. Let me explain some of those things up front.

Something you’ll notice early is that I almost never use the term subject to refer to someone who is being hypnotized. That’s unusual, especially in the hypnokink community; it stems mostly from my mundane-world training, which was heavy on Ericksonian principles. A subject is something you experiment on, and to me that word feels dehumanizing to someone that I should be treating with respect and care. So throughout this book you will see words like hypnotee, trancee, trance partner (or just partner), sub (short for submissive) and person used where you might normally expect to see subject. You’ll get used to it quickly, I hope. And if you choose to adopt the same habit yourself, that’s perfectly okay with me.

Another expression you may be used to hearing or using that you won’t find in this book is going under. The idea of being under hypnosis is a throwback to the days when people believed that hypnotists had some kind of mystical power to impress their will on others. My trance partners go into hypnosis, not under it.

As you read, you may notice that I frequently use the