4.58 Let’s Talk About Suggestions, and a peek at Thursday’s Episode

Transcript

We are talking today about suggestions. They come in all shapes and sizes, and when they’re suggestions that I plan to use repeatedly, I typically call them triggers. Those word runes that get nestled into your mind. Much like you may try to restart a campfire by blowing on it, a simple blowing on them makes them glow brightly again. In our world, that breath of air, it comes in the form of words.

There are many suggestions throughout my work, more than I could possibly list – not that I’d freely share all of them with you anyway – but for the more formal triggers, where we have been putting together a list, they generally have a name or perhaps a sound associated with them. The result is when you hear, or see, the word that particular emotion or feeling will cascade over you.

Making sure that you’re aware of the list of triggers, and you practice them, it’s staple of our enjoyment of each other. This is why we are revisiting triggers and I asked for your feedback a while ago about how you like to practice… and that has been an entire spectrum of answers. I’m looking forward to getting into that more with you.

But let’s step back a moment and talk about suggestions in general. Not a week goes by that I don’t get a message from someone stating they only respond to direct suggestions. That’s it. If it isn’t authoritarian style, they’re convinced it’ll never work on their strong-willed mind. And that’s ridiculous. Even outside of hypnokink, we respond to suggestions all the time.  The indirect suggestions of advertising have their way with all of us, unless of course, you’re a hermit completely cut off from the world – but if that’s the case, how are you listening to me?

I’m going to give you a confession, it’s not particularly juicy, but it’s still a Fact about Elswyth, that woman from the willow trees… and it’s the fact that I’m a ridiculously easy mark for anyone advertising outdoor bags or backpacks. Or messenger bags, have to add those ones in too. It’s that “ideal life” that they’re often marketing along with them, although in my case I continually struggle with finding that perfect bag for most occasions. I’m not really into purses, I have my “if you know, you know” handbag that works for most things. But man, talk to me about backpacks with space for wet shoes or easy storage for a rain cover and I am all in. My friends also know if they tell me they’re looking for a bag, and the reason why, that I’m on that hunt. Blend the hunting skill of Artemis with the fiery passion of Aphrodite and that is me on the bag trail.

And, when I share that story with someone who is the king of “I only respond to authoritative suggestions”, they will generally share in return what indirect suggestions, or messaging, works on them. I have no doubt that as I shared my story, you came up with similar thoughts about what pictures, imaging, influencer shorts, or whatever that manage to grab you by the collar and bend you to their whims, even if just for a few minutes.
Now, I realize for some of you that you’re just here. You’re blissfully unaware of debates about milton model vs meta-model style of hypnosis. Although, if you’re curious, the meta-model differs quite a bit from the Milton Model.The Milton model, it has more word play. You’re probably smiling at that. It offers a variety of options for constructing sentences containing these deletions, and distortions, and sweeping generalizations.

The listener, that’s you, needs to generate your own interpretation of what he hears by discovering that missing information within yourself. Those this Milton Model, the use of nonspecific language forms is intended to induce and keep this state, the trance state of course, in order to bring your unconscious and hidden resources into contact with your personality. That’s the idea, anyway. And while usually I am directing you to a very specific point, either in a visualization, or an emotion, or physical sensation, there are sessions that basically require this open-endedness so that you can get to the point where you – delightfully unique you – are supposed to end up. With these, you’re typically instructed to report back to me – all of those thoughts and feelings… hmm… does that sound familiar? All of my thoughts and feelings belong to…

You share those thoughts. You share those feelings. And I have an even deeper ownership of you.

Thursday’s session is going to be an experiment of sorts. I am going to use nine different structures of suggestions. We’ll spend more time on some than others, but all in all it should be a fun time for you to learn even more about yourself. I know that experiencing different types of hypnosis is exciting for you, you can’t know what has the most power over you without this type of variety in there. And as for those that believe there is only one way that works for you, I assure you that you are wrong.

There might be certain hypnotists that work best with you, but I swear it’s not because of one suggestion type. When I practiced more in a hypnotherapist capacity, people were usually both fascinated and skeptical when the inevitable “what do you do?” question popped up at social gatherings. And for my little nosy ones just dying to ask the question… when I get asked now I usually say, like, “digital content creator”. I just don’t think “Professional Mistress” is a career title my book club is ready to hear.

So along the lines of the responses to “What do you do?”, almost everyone has had some direct or indirect experience with hypnosis, and it’s often incorrectly assumed that whatever I do with hypnosis is similar to whatever anyone and everyone else who uses hypnosis does with it. Honestly, fw people have had enough exposure to hypnosis to be able to differentiate the types and applications of hypnosis from one another. This can be a major drawback; when the general public assumes that “hypnosis is hypnosis is hypnosis,” and either they assume it’s all stage hypnosis, or in the case of looking up hypnotherapy they figure all they have to do is shop around in order to find the most inexpensive deal with the most promises attached.

But I know that  exploring the various approaches and possibilities with a seeker has value. Just because someone doesn’t ask questions doesn’t mean he or she has none. It usually  means the person just doesn’t know what to ask.

So you don’t have to be an expert in all of this. You don’t have to have an opinion about the Milton Model and the Meta Model and anything along those lines. You just have to know how I make you feel. Right? And that I am the hypnotist for you. And then we go along.

So Thursday, it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be an Elswyth styled crash course on suggestions. You will need the S4 deepener on hand. It’s free and easy to find on the website. You will also need a sense of humour, sense of adventure, and the trust that by the end I will leave you in a good mood, feeling fantastic. You know where those good things come from, right?

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