This is my report for the hypnosis event in Wales, the weekend of November 16th. If you’re too lazy to read it all (shame on you!), it was fantastic over all. Really great atmosphere. A lot of engagement between people and both new and experienced people alike had a lot to do.
In fact, sometimes it was more a question of “which one?” rather than “and now what?”
It was deliciously exhausting.
In this report I will mostly be talking about the things that I’ve done or at least I was present for. This year, a lot of things happened in different locations at once. So I hope to be able to link to other reports that cover other angles and experiences. If you've written anything, please let me know!
Like usual, the arrivals were spread out a lot. From a few arriving way too early to two arriving even after midnight. They missed a lot of the fun, though!
The basic introduction, done by EnglishHarry explained the few rules and the many, many plans there were this year. With koala box, speed trancing, scheduled side-activities and lots of others. The (amazing!) helpers this year got green name-tags making them even more recognizeable as the consent team and all-around helpful people.
You can see the planning and handout I made here: Likes & Limits - Consent Workshop
Directly after the introduction, I had the honor and pleasure to give the consent talk this year. With the feedback from last year and inspired by one person in particular, I had made a much more interactive session.
The three parts went over very well. Audience participation started (understandably) slow but quickly got going. This resulted in a lot of good questions and moved the talk forward nicely. The exercises and resulting chaos helped people loosen up a lot.
Feedback from it was incredibly positive with one of the presenters even calling it: "No, not good, it was awesome!" There is still a lot of room for improvement but the format works so much better than a lecture.
I hope that it has helped people at least a little.
Oh this was delightful chaos. While the card was perhaps a bit wordy and left no space for the thing we had to fill in. It made everyone run around and talk to each other. Thank you so much for the idea and execution, Turtles!
Afterwards, there was a short break before many people went into the koala box activity while I kept a promise with a very fun dual induction somewhere private. It was a lot of fun.
The rest of the evening was some very fun nerdy chatting and one last trance before bed.
This is not all the sessions, merely the ones I visited myself. It was an incredibly busy day.
While the graph that was drawn was perhaps not the best, Ocnurb's style never fails to warm my heart. It was a really good talk about the various options you have when hypnotizing someone. And how many of these are forgotten.
It was really nice to hear this again.
A relatively soft talk about how triggers function and what elements you can look at to make them more effective. Mostly related to:
I wasn't quite happy with this talk. It didn't feel like the right thing for the big room. It would have been much better suited in the Front Lounge and practice triggers with people.
Lex showed off three very nice induction styles that use fractionation to make the trance very nice and deep.
The hand countdown was unique of the three, because it allowed for "partial" trance. Which added a nice layer of confusion on top of the fractionation. It was nice to see the frustration, confusion and the inevitable calm spread on the subject's face.
He also did a very nice eyes open/closed together with evening to bed and morning get up. Playing into the frustration of how you sometimes don't want to get up in the morning. The variation with another subject with caresses or the lack thereof did something similar.
The talk from Mel about playing in public, using private triggers to toy with a consenting but (un)suspecting subject in a variety of ways. It ended unexpectedly messy but no less entertaining.
I also stayed in the front lounge for a while. Enjoying how some newer people got the private space to learn new things that they could immediately practice. There was a very sweet victory dance when someone hypnotized someone successfully.
I shared a simple idea that takes some practice to execute with story-in-a-story about dragons. It was a lot of fun!
I had not expected this to be so much fun! The chaos of it was a bit overwhelming with the sound. But the randomness helped a lot in having a really nice hypno-workout. What impressed me the most was to see subjects hypnotizing other subjects and feeling increasingly more confident in their abilities. So many smiles.
For me the rounds were (and I think I forgot one):
Well of course I'm not going to share everything that happened there. That would be telling. But there were definitely a few highlights I can't help but share.
I had the challenging task of ringing in the next day. I'm not quite sure if it was the right time as a few people missed it because of the play party the night before and I don't think everyone was quite awake when they entered. That being said...
I had to preface this talk with a clear warning to the audience. This was fear play. Playing with insecurities, anxieties and consensual non-consent. Both of my subjects on stage I've known for years and there were some very clear limits discussed to make sure that this could be done safely.
Because trust is important. Very important. When you make someone afraid of you. Chasing them, making them feel like they are not sure anymore of what's real or not... Their unconscious needs to know at some level that when it's over, it will be okay again.
That warning done, I began.
I stalked. Preyed on and confused the two. One (@undeadpfromos) was more the type to freeze in fear, unable to move. Wide-eyed, shivering. While the other (@theavocado) tends to crawl and attempt escape. I had darkened the room and only lit the stage, beaconing off her space. It is very hard to put everything that happened in words exactly. There was this spark of hope when the crawler went to the other for support, only to feel that hope snuffed out...
While they surprised me with that move, all they did was give me more to play with.
There was a very sweet (and short-lived) victory when the one normally frozen in fear dared to move and support the other. It almost roused an applause. That glimpse of support fell away so deliciously when I took one down and dragged the other away.
The audience was completely silent. There is no way I can accurately explain the subtleties, the wide eyes, the atmosphere accurately with my words. It was intense.
When I stopped, putting them back where they started and turning on the lights, it was finally over. Both of them staying very firmly put as I caressed their necks for support while I explained more of what happened. A whispered comment by one in the audience, "That was like watching porn" did not escape my attention. When I repeated it to the rest of the audience, a ripple of confirmation spread.
It took me a while as well to come down from that high.
As a really beautiful note; a sub came to me later, telling me that the session (and brief chat afterwards) helped her talk about it with her dominant and have a monstrous fear-play session of her own. Awesome.
In this talk I mostly spend time with one of the previous subjects at my feet for some comfort while I listened to the lovely SensualSpiral describing how to use every day items for our own perverted needs. Apparently she likes that kind of thing.
Lex showed a few very nice ways in how to change atmosphere. That music can have a very nice impact on the feeling of the scene, for example. And demoed a nice example within this.
It was fun to share an idea I've had a long time ago in showing how we often play with weaknesses but that you can also play with strengths.
Playing with strengths to build them up:
Playing with strengths to take them away:
As they are guarded, often if they are manipulated in a fun way, it becomes a weakness before they even realize what happened.
The afternoon went by pretty quickly. Discussing hair-pulling techniques, more hypnosis, many more hugs and some private sessions with those that requested it, it was time for the closing before I knew it.
At the closing, we all thanked @Pebble60 with thunderous applause! And of course we mentioned the next event, in 4 months once more. HYDE
Thank you all so much. It was overwhelming in the best of ways.
So many hugs, sessions, nibbles and fruit. Oh, and delicious soups and sparkly lemon cake.
I'm sorry for all the things I've not mentioned here. This is not a comprehensive report and I'd need pages more to really do it all justice.
This year was an improvement on last year and I'm very much looking forward to help improve it even more!