by Jacara » May 10th, 2006, 6:49 pm
Doesn't really matter. You can go into trance with your eyes open.
My understanding is that if you follow one of those scripts where you keep your eyes open until they just can't stay open anymore and then they close, that represents your conscious mind going to sleep (although your subconscious can still hear the hypnotist), but that would just be a deeper level of a pre-existing trance. You were already tranced if you were following the suggestions about "your eyes getting heavy" so there's no reason you can't keep them open the whole time.
Correct me if I'm wrong, someone who's got more experience with this. I've only hypnotized one person and since I do a good amount of it in IMs, it's important that she keep her eyes open for it :P