Best products from r/hypnosis

A few things. First, as /u/TistDaniel said, practice. You may have heard the spiel, however hypnosis is generally said to use trance, which is a natural state, and hypnotic trance is just a formal use or creation of said naturalistic state. I would encourage practicing both with your boyfriend, and with yourself. Self-hypnosis is a great tool.

Second...have fun! Go into it being curious about it and finding out what is possible.

Third, focus on what you ARE good at. A few things that kind of stand out from your post:

> I sometimes randomly wake up (for no specifiable reason),

That's fine. On one hand, it's an opportunity for fractionation. Each time you "wake up" you can go deeper the next time.

> I sometimes have trouble following certain suggestions, and am never able to experience physical sensations due to hypnosis (orgasms are much too far of a reach, I can't feel simpler things like a sensation on a specific part of my body).

Again, focus on what you CAN do. Erotic hypnosis is kind of its own thing, however playing with the representational systems (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory, mainly the VAK) should help you get somewhere.

In more general terms, it sounds like he is going straight for the physical sensations. That is one strategy. Let's consider that has not worked for you. Great! Do something else. How about if you imagined something. We'll keep this G-rated, so imagine a vacation at the beach. I will guess here, however let's say you may not immediately be able to feel the heat of the sun or the mist of the ocean crashing against the shore, the texture of the sand, or whatever. That is not a failure. That is just (hypothetically) not playing to your strengths. However, you may be more visual, so you could perhaps tell me the color of the sky, if there are clouds, if you see people in this image or not, etc. Or perhaps you may be more auditory, in which case you may find it better to let the relaxing sounds of the waves, or even being on the beach and noticing your internal thoughts, listening to the sounds around you, or the sound of your breathing.

For erotic/orgasm stuff, similar principles are at play. If suggesting you experience certain physical sensations does not work, perhaps having you imagine something really erotic to you and having you describe it would give him something more productive to work with. It could be some picture or movie in your head, a certain person(s), what do you see them doing, what are they telling you, etc., etc. He could build that up in your mind, get you more immersed, and THEN notice how that makes you feel.

Point being, if we know that "trance" is something you do naturally (we all do), and we go in and out of trances, nothing you have said sounds all that out of the ordinary. And you are doing nothing wrong. If he is hypnotizing you, it is his responsibility to find out what works for you and over time you will get better at it.

So to get better, practice self-hypnosis, and have fun! The Betty Erickson Special is a pretty tried-and-true method. I like that for you because it will help you become aware of your thoughts and the sensations in your body, and strengthen your ability to note your senses. As well as being better at going into trance. Here's a video of Jess Marion and Shawn Carson demoing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDLjIKtKJCk&t=7s

For book recommendations, I will sound like a broken record. For erotic hypnosis, I highly recommend Mind Play by Mark Wiseman. It is a good book for normal hypnosis as well, however it will go over picking out your primary representational system and how to use it. There are also some great inductions and deepeners to play with. I got it because I was recommended to get it for the non-erotic stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Play-Mark-Wiseman-ebook/dp/B00DTIVTDM/ref=la_B00N6X3LJU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492436040&sr=1-1

Second, the similarly titled Mind Games by Robert Masters and Jean Houston. You can pick it up used for less than $4. It is a series of games teaching users how to go into trance, make personal changes, and get good at going into altered states.
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=masters&tn=mind+games&kn=&isbn=

I know that was a bit long, however I hope that helps.

Sure. There's a good explanation here, but I'll give you a quick rundown. This induction type relies on creating overload, as is explained more in-depth in this book and probably also in some other books which I haven't read yet.

"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. That's how the wikipedia article starts. The induction is a reference to that. An example is the best description of it:

----

Place your feet firmly on the ground, straighten your back, and imagine dipping your finger in salt and licking it. Perhaps, you can already feel your mouth start to water, as your legs start feeling heavier and relaxed.

It's amazing how the mind can control the body like that.You can almost taste the salt on your tongue. But your mind has its limits.Imagine a firm yet soothing voice is reading this text to you as you continue focusing on the taste in your mouth. You don't need to focus on keeping your feet on the ground as you perhaps start to notice the background noises in your room.

You see, there's a concept in psychology: The human mind can only focus on that many things at once. Heuristically, most people can keep track of about seven. Some one or two less, some up to two more. But you're likely one of the smarter people, so as you continue to listen to my voice in your head, reading this induction to you, I want you to keep focusing on everything I already mentioned. It's not that hard yet.

Focus on my voice. Focus on the taste of salt in your mouth. Focus on how your legs are pressing tiredly towards the floor, and focus on the background noises that you can safely ignore. We're only at four simple tasks, I'm sure you can do that if you concentrate as your mouth keeps feeling both dry and wet at the same time.

Let's add another one: Keep track of how your clothes feel on your skin. It's a peculiar sensation that is strangely relaxing and making you more conscious at the same time. It may be getting harder to concentrate on all those things at the same time, but keep trying, we're only at five. Focus on my voice in your head ... Focus on the taste on your tongue and the weight of your legs. Keep track of the background noises in your room and stay aware of the fact that you can ignore them while you focus on the weight of your head on your shoulders and how the cloth feels against your skin. Touching you in places it always touches you, but you only notice it now, as you focus on it.

And perhaps you realize that it is not really multitasking what you are doing. My voice. You're just switching from one task to the other very quickly. The taste of salt on your tongue. And switching kinda works. The weight of your legs on the floor. But you're straining to stay focused. Focused on the background noises. It would be so easy to forget a task on that list in your head. Notice the weight of your head on your shoulders. Letting a task slip away would be so relaxing, but you don't really want to lose track. Focus on everything, and don't forget your clothes.

My voice.Salt.The weight of your legs.Background noises.The weight of your head on your shoulders.Your clothes against your skin.

My voice.Salt.The weight of your legs.Background noises.The weight of your head on your shoulders.Your clothes against your skin.The temperature in your room.My voice.

That's seven. And I wonder if your mind is powerful enough to think of seven plus one things at the same time. Don't forget the salt in your mouth as your legs are feeling slightly heavier than they did just a moment ago. Acknowledge and ignore the background noises in your room as you concentrate hard so that you don't forget to keep focusing on the temperature in your room. Feel your clothes. Feel the weight of your head on your shoulders. And as the taste reminds you of the air near an ocean, you might spontaneously imagine yourself lying there on the beach. Notice how your eyes have gotten dry and are starting to feel tired. So heavy.

My voice. Salt. Your legs. Background noises.

You can focus on the feeling of heaviness in your eyes. The weight of your head. You'd like to close them but you cannot without continuing to read.

Your clothes against your skin. My voice. The temperature in your room. Your eyes. Salt in your mouth. Your legs heavy. And I wonder if your mind is strong enough to bear another thing on it. seven plus two. You're straining to not forget any. Focus on my voice in your head. Thankfully, I remind you of what you are trying to remember. Salt in your mouth and the weight of your legs. Hear background noises. And you're struggling to keep the order of the tasks in your mind. There's not much else there left, you just don't have any more free capacity. Try to notice the weight of your head on your shoulders and feel your clothes against your skin as you notice the temperature yet again. Concentrate on my voice. And allow yourself to think of how good it would feel if you could just stop. Focus on the weight of your eyes as you keep trying to keep track of everything. And now you can think about how good it would feel to focus only on the most important thing of them all.

Concentrating all your energies onto that one most important thing of all. Which is going to be so easy to think of, now that you are going to allow yourself to think of only one thing instead of nine.and that one thing is how good it feels to think of only one thing... thinking how relaxed you can be now... that you're only thinking of how relaxed you might like to be... relaxing in your mind... and in your body... no need to think anything at all, really... no need to do anything... nobody wanting anything and nobody expecting anything... and absolutely nothing whatsoever for you to do except to... relax.

Allow yourself to enjoy the peace for a while.

And then, feel yourself coming back out of trance as you start to move again. Allow your eyes to blink if they need to and take a deep breath. Wide Awake!

​

----

Here's my take on what this induction entails:

• Building a little overload and establishing some authorithy by giving easy-to-follow suggestions (feet on the floor, straight back)
  
• Using science for getting credibility
  
• It's strenuous, so it does not become boring
  
• It piles up things to focus on to build a huge amount of overload
  
• It allows the natural next step: dropping. That's like when you read a difficult paragraph in school/uni and your head just wants to shut down.
  
  I think it's a bit easier to perform in person though, because some people will noticeably be ready for the last step quite quickly and might stop trying to follow along, while others would be bored with just five tasks to focus on.
  
  Btw, I just wrote this example spontaneously, so it's likely not as good as you could make it if you know your hypnotee and adapt it to their suggestibility type
  
  ​
  
  Btw, I stole that last paragraph from the link at the start of this comment. I read it to see how they did that step and saw no reason not to take it as-is

Fair enough. In that case, you might check out this book, which synthesizes several approaches for intrusive thoughts and OCD that are helpful for a lot of people.

The reason I'm mentioning these solutions instead of hypnosis is there's very little objective evidence hypnosis is helpful for OCD, whereas these other approaches have been shown to be helpful.

Also, I'm not saying this is the case for you, but I think some people are interested in hypnosis as a treatment because it seems easier or less emotionally demanding -- just sit back and go into trance, and let the hypnotist fix you. This isn't actually the case, though. Hypnosis demands active participation from hypnotist and subject, and can be just as emotionally and mentally challenging as other treatments. Which isn't at all a criticism of hypnosis. But if you're going to commit to doing some mental and emotional work to improve your symptoms, you might as well start by investing that work in the approach with the best chance of success.

I recently just finished reading Behavior Modification 10e ^1, and I learned so much about how Conditioning and learning is involved in so many things we do. I believe that learning and hypnosis are related, and that hypnosis cannot persist without learning, specifically through the use of operant conditioning. For example, think back to a time you had a good subject that at first had no idea what hypnosis was. The first induction was likely used to explain what hypnosis is and how they may experience it for themselves. In doing this, you may suggest to them what they may eventually feel, in short you are creating an expectation of trance (you are making them more sensitive to hypnotic phenomena, which is a result of learning) which when you have sufficiently paced the client, some hypnotic phenomena develops, which is in response to your suggestions. If you give them effective suggestions to maintain the trance, then what you are actually doing is pairing natural functions (like breathing or awareness of certain things) with relaxation or some other desirable outcome that serves as a backup reinforcer that allows the trance state to persist. As this is reinforced, and is itself reinforcing, it gives the subject the ability to self-perpetuate the trance. This allows you the ability to suggest other things so that you can accomplish what was set out from the beginning of the session initially. (This is why pre-talks are so important, as you are using this time to associate parts of trance with desirable responses!)

And while you don't need to look into conditioning and learning to use it in practice right now, your understanding of your practice only grows the more you learn about hypnosis and the way people learn.

Another example:
You may give them a trigger to feel a little deeper or to go into a trance when they hear x or y, and every time they do this, you and the client are experiencing operant conditioning, reinforcement towards the desired response (which is initiating the behaviors that lead to the hypnotic state). The auditory cue of the word, depending on how discriminate you make the condition, will make this trigger occur more frequently or less frequently.

Hypnotic phenomena has been shown to be more easily produced in some people more easily than others. What that means varies: Because hypnosis is fixating one's attention for the purpose of achieving a goal of some kind, then there's many ways to produce hypnotic responses. Usually this can be done by finding the things they REALLY enjoy such as positive reinforcers.
People can use these as coping mechanisms, which in themselves are very reinforcing, and can be paired with other things to create higher order conditioning; to associate with a cue that may increase pleasure or produce relaxation during trance. For people whom are effective at dissociating, or those who have a strong sensitization to suggestion (prone to fantasy, are able to visualize and experience senses strongly when suggested) they may have learned to pair more senses with the things they've learned, so there's a breadth of associations themselves to produce 'hypnotic behavior' such as when reading the following sentence feeling the sensation of sucking on a lemon and the juice seeping into the taste buds on your tongue. Its a byproduct of our ability to comprehend and produce language; some of those learned words become associated with other senses and experiences. That is one reason why hypnosis is easier for some than others, whether they intended to while growing up or not. They may simply have developed specific learning strategies that encourage trance phenomena. (This can also be learned, and that is what hypnotists can try to mirror in their posture, breathing, speaking, etc. so the subject can learn through observation)

The biggest takeaway from my examples here is that hypnosis and the phenomena produced are not just a particular kind of learning, it is a multidimensional process of learning. The reinforcers and stimuli for each subject will be individualized but the goal is to learn how to apply them in a way that both parties want so that it achieves the goal of influencing the subject towards a desired outcome or away from an undesirable one.

^1 https://www.amazon.com/Behavior-Modification-What-How-Do/dp/0205992102/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527176363&sr=8-2&keywords=behavior+modification

One more, for recommended reading. (I get no money from any links below, BTW. Look them up yourself if you wish.)

My friend Richard Nongard wrote this one, and it's excellent.
https://www.amazon.com/Hypnotize-Practice-Hypnosis-Hypnotherapy-Correctly/dp/0557097843

A nice help for learning MANY inductions, that you can then modify, and you will soon learn to do without scripts at all. https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Hypnotic-Inductions-Norton-Professional/dp/039370324X

Another friend, Dantalion Jones. He tends a bit toward megalomania, and controlling others (which is largely impossible) but just ignore that. His techniques are quite good and he explains well.
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Control-Hypnosis-Without-Suggestion-ebook/dp/B00LP0WYOE

I recommend virtually anything from Igor Ledochowski, the #1 hypnotist trainer. He's even better than me!
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=igor+ledochowski&ref=sr_gnr_aps

Jay Tee
http://zapmymind.com

Two things will greatly help improve your memory:

1. Practicing mindfulness.
   
2. Practicing mnemonic (memory) visualization techniques.
   
   For the first, I highly recommend the book The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa (and the accompanying subreddit r/TheMindIlluminated). Practicing meditation in this way will develop extremely powerful mindfulness, allowing you to be very aware of what is happening in your experience at any given time. As a side-benefit, you also get enlightened, so that's nifty. :D
   
   For the second, there are dozens of books on memory techniques. My favorite is The Manual. I haven't practiced it much, but to give you an idea, a basic memory trick beginners can learn is to memorize an entire deck of cards in order. These techniques are amazing for studying in school, especially for things like biology or language where there is a ton of memorization involved.
   
   Also if you smoke a lot of marijuana, that will also not do you any favors. Reducing your consumption will help your memory a lot, as one of the effects of pot is loss of short-term memory, and what doesn't enter your short-term memory has no chance of entering your long-term memory.
   
   There are also a number of supplements ("nootropics") that help with memory, the choline family especially (look up CDP Choline and Alpha GPC and experiment for yourself).

I found these work really well for me. Super comfy and easy to relax in and I love the way they sound. Bluetooth. Washable. Good battery life.

Sleep Headphones Wireless,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SHBQY7Z?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Any book that take a scientific look on how we perceive and integrate stimulu. (Here is my choice).

Any Oliver Sacks book. Understanding the broken brain is a very good tool to get the healthy one.(start with this one)

There is that Crash Course Psychology.

For me it's a good to understand what are attention and perception, what is it to learn and the importance of working memory. You can get all that without understanding memory, but it would be interesting to.

It can be cool to have a general idea of when our brain use shortcut because it's important not to waste energy.

And then for the social side of it welcome to the field of influence.

For a bit of history, the declassified documents are on the source section.

Occasional stage/ street/ bar/ event magician/ mentalist/ hypnotist here.

Step one is buy this book if you're serious at all: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-New-Encyclopedia-Stage-Hypnotism/dp/1899836020

Step two is the same as performing any effect: practice and confidence.

Different environments will offer different difficulties and opportunities. Minimize the difficulties, maximize the opportunities.

Even more so than for regular effects, hypnotism requires you get the right subject. Don't be afraid to perform tests on your whole audience on the street. It'll help you get the right subject, prep them, and involve you spectators.

Finally, rapid inductions. It gives you the ability to execute them when distractions are low, and the are very powerful visually. The keys are building rapport, and total confidence.

Also check out /r/magic, /r/magicsecrets (info on access on /r/magic sidebar) and /r/mentalism (same process to apply as /r/magicsecrets).

Regarding the second thing, I feel like "Mastering Erotic Hypnosis" is actually good, despite the cheesy title. See e.g. here https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Erotic-Hypnosis-Comprehensive-Mastery-ebook/dp/B07L7YS3C8

I should disclose that I am a beginner and am not really able to judge the accuracy of the content. But it is a well-written book that focuses on how things work instead of just a bunch of scripts, and it has a good amount of focus on topics like consent or what to do in the cases when something does not work out.

I agree with the other comment, but if you have the money, I really enjoyed "Ormond McGill's new encyclopedia for stage hypnotism"