The Hypnotee Guides the Way

Had an interesting experience which underlined for me how paying attention to the hypnotee's experience is all important. I was guiding her through the "floating in space" deepener, describing how she was drifting out of her body, up through the ceiling of the house, and into the sky. I described Boston from the air, then the whole northeast, then all of the united states, ending up with the image of peacefully floating way up there above the world with a gentle night wind brushing past. 

After the trance, my hypnotee told me that she had struggled with it, because my words weren't matching up with her imagination. She was floating up very quickly, and when I said, e.g., "you can see the lights of the skyscrapers of Boston", she thought she had blown past that height a long time ago. She experienced a readjustment - maybe even a drop! And that disrupted the trance a little. How strange is the subconscious, that it accepted my suggestion that she would float up out of her body and into the air, but insisted on picking its own velocity?

This was great feedback, because then for the second trance I first of all, took into account that she would rise up much more quickly, and second, added language that she would pick her own pace, and hit certain heights when it felt natural for her. The deepener was much more effective for her without the distraction of the height mismatch.

So, listening is 90% of how you get to be a good hypnotist for a particular hypnotee. Later I guided her through a hot hypnotic bondage visualization, which I based entirely on repeating imagery from a specific bondage scene she had just told me about. (and luckily the sound of someone receiving a good spanking just outside the door was something that her subconscious mind could actively incorporate into her experience!) I think this approach can be a reliable standby: listening to a treasured sexy memory, and then using hypnosis to help the hypnotee reexperience it vividly. The more details from the interview I can incorporate, the better. The hypnotee guides the way.