2019-05 - Hypnosis Amsterdam Meetup

This is a report of the Hypnosis Amsterdam Meetup - May 2019

Today’s meetup went very nicely. With 14 people in total, it was much less full than the 23 of last time, which actually works much better. Because we had planned to do more interactive things this time, the amount of people worked out very well.

Presenters: Matsuru and myself.

Group Hypnosis

After the standard introduction of “what is hypnosis” and checking with everyone if naughty suggestions would be acceptable, I did a slow, conversational induction with elements of confusion to put everyone (who wanted to participate) into a trance state. From that, a lot of indirect suggestions and open language allowed people to feel what they wanted to.

The induction was mostly based on conversational flow that lead into a confusion trick roughly based on Mike Mandell’s "list confusion" induction. From that I played with the feelings of group hypnosis. For example how you can hear the breathing of people around you slowing down.

Afterwards we discussed how the experience was for everyone and noting the differences. I also explained each of the elements that I used and how they work.

Elman Induction

This workshop was given by Matsuru. He first explained some of the basics, showing the induction with a volunteer and then going over each element in detail. He also discussed some of the most common deviations from the script and what to do. He had printed out the full script for people to practice with, so after splitting up in pairs, people went to do it themselves and we discussed more about how this went afterwards.

Handshake Interrupt

Demoed by me and, like the Elman Induction, first showed and then explained in detail. As it was shown the surprised reaction of the first volunteer was absolutely perfect. To much enjoyment of the audience.

A lot of people were surprised by how easy and effective it appears to be. I personally find pattern interrupts quite fascinating and I highly enjoyed explaining and showing them. The practicing afterwards was very fun to see as well.

Closing and feedback

While not mentioned in this report explicitly, there was a lot more socialising and practicing by the attendees. Apparently this was highly appreciated so I’ll do my best to keep this in future events.

There wasn’t as much feedback as normal, however there were a lot of compliments (thank you all!). It’s nice to see that the setting is growing closer to the ideal.

  • The timeline and atmosphere were all good.
  • There was a desire for more kinky/BDSM related things. This is something that will require a bit more preparation (and willing volunteers), so we’ll have to see.
  • The amount of people (14) was good. 16 would still work, but more than that and it would become much harder to practice.
  • The higher amount of interactivity was really nice!
  • Find a slightly better balance for the amount of information (related to inductions).

Again, thank you all who attended, see you next time!