Are You? If Not, Why Not?

A bell rings.

The ringing bell vibrates the air surrounding it.

The ringing bell vibrates the air surrounding it and into the objects surrounding it.

The ringing bell vibrates the air surrounding it, the objects surrounding it, and the air within other rooms in microscopic waves.

The waves fill the room.

The ringing bell's waves fill the room.

The ringing bell's waves fill the room that I am in.

The ringing bell's waves fill the room that I am in and the objects resonate in twine.

The ringing bell's waves fill the room that I am in and my body resonates in twine.

I am an object.

I am an object that resonates in twine with the bell.

I breathe the air the vibrates.

The air vibrates into me.

My flesh is penetrated and saturated by the vibrations.

The bell's vibrations penetrate and saturate my body.

The bell's vibrations penetrate and saturate my body and my breath.

I am no more than an object to the bell.

I am no more than an object in the room that responds to the bell's ring.

The bell's vibrations fill the room and fill my Self.

I am the air and the objects.

I am connected to the bell.

The bell connects me to all things around me.

I am all things around me.

The bell vibrates, and I resonate in return.

oh my fuckning

50 posts!

Which would you say hinders the establishment of operant conditioning more, presenting the stimulus without prompting the desired response or prompting the response and not presenting the stimulus? I’m struggling with getting it to work. For normal reasons.

I would say, "presenting the stimulus without prompting the desired response".

Lengthy explanation of Operant Conditioning and how to use it below!

A common mistake in hypnosis and conditioning would be to give the reward or stimulus in general too frequently. In operant conditioning, we have what are called "schedules of reinforcement", which speak to frequency and technique in the timing of providing stimuli.

Providing the reward every time would be called "Continuous Reinforcement". This is a fine method of conditioning, but it is far from the most effective.

Partial Reinforcement Schedules are any means of conditioning that don't provide the stimuli every single time.

Fixed Ratio & Fixed Interval

Charts used from helpfulprofessor.com.

Fixed schedules suffer from a relatively predictable problem.

Fixed Ratio schedules are when a stimulus is provided after a certain number of behaviors are completed.

Fixed Interval schedules are when a reinforcement stimuli is provided at regular intervals (say, every hour).

The issues with Fixed schedules comes in the fact that we are aware of things (sadly). If a pattern is predictable, then we are both able to anticipate when it's about to happen, lessening the impact of the reward, and we know that right after the stimuli is finished, we won't be getting another one for a predictable amount of time.

Not only are there often lulls immediately after the stimuli, but the conditioning holds far, far weaker than both continuous and the other type of partial schedule.

When the stumuli stops being provided at the regular time (that singular moment being the only time where it feels possible), then its far easier for that anticipation to be flipped on its head and have a very negative impact, very quickly undoing any progress.

As a solution, we have...

Variable Ratio & Variable Interval

Charts used from helpfulprofessor.com.

Variable schedules are deeply, deeply effective. This is how gambling becomes addictive to people, but also how many other things are conditioned into creatures.

The one you should choose depends on what it is that you want to do.

Variable Ratio

This is the schedule you should follow if you want to enforce a behavior that you want to happen often. An example in the hypnosis sphere (most especially my hypnosis sphere) would be getting someone to start barking as part of their regular means of talking and typing.

All that is necessary to do is encourage the behavior initially, start the engines with rewards (either hypnotic triggers or just praise), and to only do it sometimes and at random.

Variable Interval

This is the schedule you should follow if you want to enforce a more continuous behavior that you want to happen steadily. This would be something more like obedience, giving a reward for good behavior at random, but importantly within a reasonably similar range each time.

You can't do it one hour then 48 hours later then 12, you should have something like a range of variance and stick to that, so long as the exact timing is not anticipatable.

This can also be done for singular behaviors like barking, if you wish for the conditioning to be much slower, and also to simply not be related to an amount of times being done.

Both methods build conditioning that takes a very, very long time to undo or fall away. In the case of many behaviors, unlike what is shown in the charts, they can become a near-permanent part of someone's existence, never quite going away without active efforts to do so.

If you get someone to bark consistently, and they do not have a reason for it to stop, it will become a part of themselves in a way deeper than you may ever expect.

As a fair warning, these methods of conditioning, as stated prior, are essentially forming an addictive loop for someone. It is not nearly so strong as gambling in most cases, but with the wrong person, the wrong environment, and the wrong precautions, you can steer into very unhealthy territory very, very quickly.

...it can be quite fun to condition people, though.

So, to again answer the original question: not only is "prompting the response and not presenting the stimulus" perfectly okay to do, it's actually better than doing it every single time.

Follow me for more interesting posts, and do ask me more questions. I'm telling you to do it. Be good and come up with something, okay?

I'll see you later! ^w^

doesn't eveybody?!?

Trance Tips

Here are a set of suggestions for going into trance I have shared a few times on Second Life, and I've had good feedback on them. Some of the text assumes that hypnosis is exciting for you - ignore those bits if it's not a fetish :)

There's a lot of stuff down below, but it boils down to just a few simple things. See if any of them work for you.

When a hypnotist gives you a suggestion, act on it even if you aren't hypnotised.

When you are being tranced, imagine going into hypnosis

Know that you can always reject a suggestion and wake up from a trance

If your mind wanders, don't worry. When you realise your mind is wandering, just relax and focus on the words of the hypnotist .

repeat in your head everything the hypnotist says: if it says, "you are feeling sleepy," tell yourself, "I am feeling sleepy."

Try to get into a comfortable position for the trance, and if you become uncomfortable during the trance, just let yourself shift back to a comfortable position and then relax: you might need to do this several times but you can stay in trance while doing it.

If you have a FEAR OF LETTING GO, check out that section below.

Whenever you think about how hard it is to go into trance, tell yourself, "Everyone can go into trance. I can go into trance. I just need practice." You'll get there.

Look for a safety trance and use it. If part of the reason you aren't going into trance is an unconscious fear, this will help allay that.

Don't be impatient - it'll come in time.

EXPLANATIONS

You know I said it took me a while before I started to go into trance? During that time, I joined a lot of hypnosis groups and asked for advice, and read a lot about hypnosis. Here are some of the best tips I got, that I can remember:

FAIT ACCOMPLI

Hypnosis cannot happen without consent or permission. Also, if you ACT like you are being hypnotised, this can trick the conscious mind into becoming hypnotised. This is why during a trance, hypnotists ask a lot of questions with answers that are always "yes". Every time that you agree with the hypnotist, you get closer and closer to trance. You are conditioning your mind to do what the hypnotist suggests. Likewise, if the 'tist tells you to do something, like raise your arm or close your eyes, just do it - you are training your mind to be obedient to hypnosis. If the tist tells you that you can't open your eyes, no matter how hard you try, then let yourself strain and tense your eyelids, but don't open your eyes. You know it's not real to start with, but don't tell yourself that - tell yourself it is real, you can't move or open your eyes or whatever. At some point, your mind will learn that this is the proper way to act, and you'll respond automatically. That's a delicious feeling.

HYPNOSIS IS NOT (QUITE) MIND CONTROL

In fact, no matter how deep you are or how helpless you feel, you can ALWAYS reject the hypnotist's instructions. If the tist tells you that you can't move, you can always reject that suggestion - but you will feel so good that you just don't do it. THAT is what hypnosis is - it's not being controlled by someone else, it's surrendering control to someone else. If there's an emergency, like a fire alarm, or just some disruption like an insistent knock at the door, or a hypnotist gives a bad suggestion ("give me your credit card number"), you will instantly wake up. This demonstrates that you can wake up when you need to, or when you really want to. The thing is, under hypnosis, it feels so good, that you just don't want to - so you lie there, feeling weak, helpless, and horny. Eagerly waiting for instructions.

RELAX AND CONCENTRATE

These two ideas seem a bit contradictory. Hypnosis is a state of focused concentration: you concentrate on the hypnotist or source of hypnosis, to the exclusion of everything else. While your mind is focused on the hypnotist, your body relaxes. Don't be disheartened if your mind wanders and you lose focus - this is normal. It happens to me in every trance. I'm being told to sink deeper, and I'll suddenly remember a funny line from a comedy, or remember a task I meant to get done. But this is fine. When you notice it happening, just tell yourself to relax, to focus on the words or the spiral or whatever - to let whatever it was fade away so you are focussed on the hypnotist again. It's perfectly natural for your mind to wander like this, and it doesn't stop you from trancing. As I say, just relax, and focus on the spiral or the words, and you'll be happily falling again.

Also, don't try too hard: if you are excited about going into trance, and desperately want to do it, this can stop you from relaxing and focussing properly. So, just try to put all that out of your mind, clear your mind, relax, and focus on the words.

One good way to achieve this is to simply repeat in your head everything the hypnotist (or hypnotron) says to you. If it says, "you are feeling sleepy," tell yourself, "I am feeling sleepy." This helps focus your attention on the trance.

YOU CAN BE IN TRANCE WITHOUT REALISING IT

I mentioned I'd been trancing for a long time before I finally fell into trance. The truth is, that was the moment I learned to recognise I was in trance - and I suddenly realised I had been going into trance for a while already. I just hadn't been able to recognise it. For many people, trance just feels like being calm, or relaxed. It doesn't feel very different from being awake. When they do it regularly, only then do they realise they were going into trance all along. People who are going into trance without realising it WILL still obey suggestions given unless they reject them. Sometimes they reject suggestions because they think they are not hypnotised. "I'm not going to do that, because I'm not hypnotised." So the suggestion doesn't work.

So, you never know, it's possible you are going into trance already, but the fact that you think you aren't means it's not working for you. So remember to follow the FAIT ACCOMPLI rule above: tell yourself you are going into trance. The unconscious will sooner or later make it true.

FEAR OF LETTING GO

One thing that holds a lot of people back from going into trance (and this was my big stumbling block, too) is some sort of fear. Fear of losing control, of being at the mercy of someone else, or whatever. Now, there is no reason to fear, since you can always break a trance and reject a suggestion. But fear is irrational and knowing there is nothing to fear doesn't always help. In my case, I only got over this by almost giving up: I had come to the conclusion that hypnosis was never going to work on me, so there was no point worrying. And then, suddenly, I went into trance.

But there is another way to get around it. Here is a suggestion that was given to a hypnosis group by a veteran hypnotist. As you are getting ready to go into trance, imagine you are splitting into two people. One of you will be lying down, falling into trance, and the other will be hovering above, watching your sleeping form. The watcher, your guardian, will be alert, ready to wake up the sleeper if anything uncomfortable happens, while the sleeper can relax perfectly in the knowledge that they are being watched over. Visualise this, and imagine watching your sleeping self succumbing to the suggestions as they are given. I have used this technique (I use it a lot generally) and it works for me. It's worth a try.

Finally a third thing you can do is go though the trance without entering trance: watch, read or listen (as appropriate), but don't fall into trance. You can then assure yourself that you feel safe doing that trance. Next time, play the trance and let yourself go - you will probably get a little deeper than you were.

POSTURE AND STIMULATION

One final set of advice: try to get comfortable. Slide down in your chair so your head is supported at the back, or get a cushion and put it behind your neck. If during the trance you start feeling uncomfortable, let yourself shift to a more comfortable position - you CAN move around, even respond to questions, while remaining in trance. If the discomfort isn't too great, wallow in it and tell yourself - "this is uncomfortable, but I can't move because I'm in trance." That is a great little suggestion you can give yourself to make a trance more effective. If a trance tells you to play with yourself, or you feel the need to touch yourself, RESIST that suggestion. Physical stimulation will easily break a trance until you're able to go deeper. Instead, imagine you are doing what the tist tells you - imagine touching yourself and imagine feeling how that would make you feel.

CONCLUSION

Whew, that's a lot of text. I hope you find it helpful. And hopefully, others will add to it. I'll add a bunch of hypnosis-related names that pop into my head here and run the risk of offending a bunch more people by forgetting to include them in the moment...

@scifiscribbler @ellaenchanting @ladyruetha @jukeboxemcsa @curiosa-hypnotica @hipnoespadachin @sweettist @hypnoobiwan @tennfan2 @sex-obsessed-lesbian @theleeallure @h-sleepingirl @accidental-muse @loveablerogue1 @hypno-sandwich @deepthrall @hypnopassion @erogenousmind

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