I met SteedIRL (his Fetlife handle) at NEEHU, a dapper Irish gent in white goatee, pinstripe suit and homberg hat, and we had a fascinating conversation about how hypnosis might be combined with traditional Irish storytelling. Subsequently I got a kick out of his most irreverent use of Fetlife, and followed his efforts to learn about hypnosis, and to plant the seeds of hypnokink in Dublin and Belfast. Since my summer vacation took me somewhat nearby, I made it a priority to hang out with him and talk to Irish kinksters about hypnosis. Before I knew it, he'd created an event, and people were signing up!
I couldn't have wished for a better host, or better company. Soon after I got off the bus, we were on our way to the Palace bar, which was next thing to home for Flann O'Brien and other Irish literary greats. This was a tremendous thrill for me - in fact SteedIRL was the first (and to date, only) person to recognize that my pseudonym is derived from O'Brien's The Third Policeman. Which made me like him immediately.
There were more wonderful historic bars that weekend, and more pints of Guinness than I have ever drunk in a 48 hour period. SteedIRL is a terrific conversationalist, and we got into talking about art and literature as much as kink and hypnosis - in fact on the saturday before the study group, we hit both an art gallery and a performance of selections from classic Irish plays and books.
That afternoon six of us gathered in the back room of a coffee shop, and there was a wonderful enthusiasm in the air for learning about erotic hypnosis. Even though SteedIRL and I are relative beginners, it was nice to feel like we had something to share, with folks who were practically brand new to hypnosis and to the idea that it could go together with sex and BDSM.
I was glad to get practice with the inevitable question about the risks of hypnosis - I did ok, but I think I could have put it more concisely using the concept of RACK, Risk Aware Consensual Kink: like everything that falls under BDSM, there is a fair amount of trust and knowledge required, but as long as communication is extensive and partners' agency is taken seriously, adults can consent to do these activities with each other, for the sake of large amounts of pleasure and interest.
I hypnotized a volunteer in the class, using what I've come to think of as the blunt instrument of inductions, the Elman induction - even if you just met the person, and they're new to being hypnotized, this will probably work. Wiseguy even used it when he came to present in Boston (you can find an excellent script for it in his book, Mind Play). It went very well, just a demonstration of going into and coming out of trance, and he even said that the heartburn he'd felt coming on before the study group had receded! Even better was SteedIRL's demonstration of a couple of kinky human tricks with an established hypno partner of his.
Some of us went to yet another pub, where I learned that North Americans are famous for saying "awesome" a lot, and that the Irish equivalent is "grand", or for extra emphasis, "savage!"
That night I got turned away at the door of the big Dublin kink party, Nimhneach. I'd packed dressy clothes but not fetishy clothes, and I didn't meet their dress code. The door guy said the only way I could get in was if I took off my shirt and put bondage tape on my chest - amusingly, that is apparently their equivalent of the emergency dinner jacket at a high class restaurants - but I demurred. SteedIRL had warned me amply, and I fully support their dress policy. But it still stung, like a real-life version of those sweaty dreams about having to write an exam that you for some reason didn't get around to preparing for. Next time I will come correct, in a way that expresses who I am as a kinkster.
After more great conversation (and Guinness) with SteedIRL on Sunday, I was on my way to the next leg of my vacation - just as awesome, although not kink-based. I'm really starved for that kind of talk, absent my Boston Hypno Munch and study group meetings. Any time two hypnotists get together there are always lots of wonderful new ideas generated.
I'm so excited for SteedIRL's efforts to develop hypnokink in Ireland. As everywhere, there is some understandable caution, since it's such a new concept for most people, but that's an opportunity to talk about a modern, explicit-consent-based approach - a very different picture of hypnosis than the one people get from fiction and stage shows. And it's so cool to think of a uniquely Irish brand of hypnokink beginning, from many new hypnotists and subjects, learning and developing. I stressed to the Irish kinksters I met that as far as I can see, right now is ground zero for this new dimension of BDSM, and there are so many possibilities yet to be explored.
