Hypnofetishism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hypnofetishism is the linking of hypnosis (or other forms of mind control) to sexuality, sometimes known by other names such as "erotic hypnosis" and "erotic mind control."

1 History
2 Practice
3 Online Community
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] History

Hypnofetishism has a long history, stretching as far back as the ancient world. Western culture (and many others around the globe) is filled with early myths of seduction by some form of mind control: the Sirens of the Greeks and the witches of the Middle Ages both had a hypnotic aspect in their sexuality.

Premodern stories and legends -

The Story of Lorelei <ref>http://members.lycos.nl/Shades/mermaids/mermaidslegendslorelei.htm</ref>

The Incubus

In medieval legend, an incubus (plural incubi; from Latin incubare, "to lie upon") is a demon in male form supposed to lie upon sleepers, especially on women in order to have sexual intercourse with them.

The Succubus

In medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi; from Latin succubare, "to lie under") is a female demon which comes to men, especially monks, in their dreams to seduce them and have sexual intercourse, drawing energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death. This legend was an explanation for the phenomena of wet dreams and sleep paralysis. From mythology and fantasy, Lilith and the Lilin (Jewish), Lilitu (Sumerian) and Rusalka (Slavic) were succubi.

Lilith

Mark of Cornwall

Modern Tales

Götterdämmerung

A look at "The Chronicles Of Narnia" (external link)

Trilby (See also: Svengali)

A special note should also be given to the tales of vampires, one of which being Carmilla. From the wiki entry:

Carmilla is richly atmospheric, eerie, unsettling and deeply frightening to those of a nervous disposition. It was first published in a collection of short stories, "In a Glass Darkly" in 1872. Its setting is a parochial section of Styria province, Austria.

Carmilla, the title character, is the original prototype for a legion of female (and often lesbian) vampires. Though Le Fanu portrays his vampire's sexuality with the circumspection that one would expect for his time, the reader can be pretty sure that lesbian attraction is the main dynamic between Carmilla and the narrator of the story. Carmilla selected exclusively female victims, though only became emotionally involved with a few.

Erotic Hypnosis began to surface in the popular imagination over the past fifty years. Many books and pamphlets (external link to the 'Hypnosis in Media' website) on hypnosis contained open sexual themes.

As well, many cosmetic advertisements use the theme of hypnosis. <ref>http://www.hypnosisinmedia.com/Miscellaneous/Cosmetics/index.html</ref>

Hypnosis on the Silver Screen

On the silver screen the fetish began to make inroads into the mainstream. Films such as "The Hypnotic Eye", "Flash Gordon", and "The Manchurian Candidate" exposed the public the hypnosis en masse. The following descriptions are from the Hypnosis in Media website<ref>http://www.hypnosisinmedia.com/index2.html</ref> :

A B&W thriller about Desmond, a suave, handsome French stage hypnotist who hypnotizes and seduces beautiful women and then lets them be disfigured by Justine, his jealous (of their beauty) assistant. Acting on Justine's prompting, Desmond exclusively selects pretty young women for the final segment of his act, giving one a post-hypnotic suggestion to return to his dressing room at the theater later that night, where he re-hypnotizes them into a compliant but normal appearing trance state and takes them out with him on the town. When he is finished and they return to their home, his assistant Justine takes over, suggesting the women perform some apparently innocuous act (like taking a shower) that will actually disfigure them (the water being scalding hot). (Source)

A second example of this can be seen in 1936's "Flash Gordon":

In the second chapter of the series, 'Tunnel of Terror', Dale Arden is ordered placed in a hypnotic trance by Emperor Ming's 'dehumanizing' machine, which projects a flickering light onto Dale's face, entrancing her. The machine's operator's instructions are to ensure that the hypnotic trance lasts only as long as needed to perform the ceremony. Ming plans to marry the entranced Dale, but Flash rescues her in the nick of time. (Source)

In both these films an evil male hypnotist is using woman to his own ends, but in the Manchurian Candidate the situation is changed dramatically. Here a soldier is manipulated by others with little sexual connotation. What is important about this movie however is that the idea of mind control is no longer a fiction resting on outer space or improbable assaults but on the perceived real world activities of the communists. Mind control arrived as a possible reality.

The premise of the film was that, in the 1950s, the Soviets had developed a technique based on "brainwashing" and akin to hypnosis, whereby a person could be snapped into and out of a trance, ordered to do things with full compliance, and have no memory of such actions afterwards. United States soldiers fighting in the Korean War were thus captured, taken to the People's Republic of China to be brainwashed, then covertly released back to the American forces. To cover their tracks, the Communists would implant false memories in the American soldiers' heads and provide a subconscious trigger whereby the soldier could be snapped into and out of hypnosis. Even after full reintegration with American society, they would have no knowledge of their having been brainwashed or the triggers which set them off. (Source)

An interesting look at the actual beliefs in the public mind concerning brain washing since the Korean War can be found here

[edit] Practice

Currently, this fetish can be experienced on its own or in combination with others, like D/s or BDSM. On its own, the hypnofetish involves the use of hypnosis for an erotic thrill, that only a fetish can bring. This should not be confused with hypnotic submission, which is the BDSM or D/s (dominance & submission) version of hypnofetish. Frequently hypnofetish contains BDSM or D/s, being hypnotic submission, and sometimes, they do not. A hypnofetishist can be intensely aroused by watching someone be hypnotized, acting as a hypnotist, or as a hypnotic subject. Some hypnofetishists are interested in erotic hypnosis, in which post hypnotic suggestions of a sexual nature are given to the subject, but no explicit sexual content is necessary in hypnofetishism. Often hypnofetishists enjoy hypnotic scenarios that are of the same dynamic as their sexual orientations; for example, a heterosexual male usually prefers hypnotic scenes involving women and men, or just women, and is less likely to be interested in strictly male scenes than a homosexual male hypnofetishist.

[edit] Online Community

There are predominantly several ways that the erotic hypnosis community manifests itself - stories, image manipulations, discussion groups, and commercial or noncommercial hypnosis fetish websites.

Many people learn of the fetish from the massive amounts of literature available online. Ranging from dark tales of mental erasure to lighter tales of consensual experimentation, the Web has become a storehouse for thousands of pieces of hypno erotica or fiction.

Some methods of mind control fantasy include:

Subliminal Messaging - Borrowed from the popular culture fixation on this mind control technique stories often include the use of televisions, music, and PCs to send hidden messages that work via hypnotic suggestion.

Telepathy - Sometimes given a supernatural edge many stories feature a telepathic controller, sometimes even a whole society of telepaths. A major work called "The Book" used telepathy. Telepathy may or may not be incorporated into this fetish

Drugs - Many stories feature the use of drugs and also tend to be of a more 'clinical' setting.

Hypnosis - Simple hypnosis is featured extensively with long or short inductions and styles.

Online community includes:

The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

This website (see link in External links below) is a large database of thousands of stories around the theme of erotic mind-control. Stories are color-coded by content, and have letter codes giving further information as to the content of the story ("md" for "male dominant", "in" for "incest"). The site also has a section of Readers' Picks that includes the favorite stories of various readers. The works of 'Downing Street', 'Tabico', 'trilby else' and 'Colleen Whyte' are particularly popular based on picks by readers.

Image Manipulations or Manips

This is the common practice of creating fetishistic images from scratch or modifying an existing image. The original images are as wide-ranging as the stories, from bizarre alien abductions to more mundane images of subjects listening to music. The modified photos are mostly of models or celebrities doing vaguely hypnotic things (dazed expressions, whitened eyes etc). These images almost always have some subtitled text explaining the eventual submission of the subject.

Discussion Groups

There are quite a number of discussion groups now discussing hypnofetish and hypnotic submission.

Commercial Websites

Hypnofetishism is increasingly becoming a commercially viable service as many providers (predominantly in Britain and America) have set up shop on the Web. With services ranging anywhere from fantasy descriptions or outright role-play to S&M. This industry is rapidly expanding. This may mark the beginning of the fetish's acceptance in wider consumer culture.

Noncommercial Websites

Some communities practise hypnosis fetish or hypnotic submission without commercial interest, but for fun. Their sites may include hypnosis chatrooms (voice and text), downloadable software, stories, scripts, transcripts, and text trances, and information on this fetish, mp3s, and discussion. These communities are growing, sometimes driven by commercial providers who want to improve their name recognition by offering free-for-all communities.