Pre-success story...

[groomlakeguy]

This isn't a true success story, really, in the sense that it involves a file from this site. Or indeed any file at all.

But, last night while lying awake in bed, on a whim I decided to try a quick trance just by myself. The clock radio was on, playing some soft music.

Now, I'm a very rational person, always analysing everything that happens to me. I've been fascinated by hypnosis since I was 9 or 10 years old, and I first tried self hypnosis, unsuccessfully, when I was around 12. Ever since then, I've gone through periods where the interest has flared up again, and I've tried to get myself into a trance, even a light one. Never any definite success at all. Maybe a very light relaxed state a couple of times, but nothing more than that.

But yesterday (actually today, as it was 3 am...) I finally did it!
This time, there's no doubt I was in a real trance. My hands, lower arms and my legs (pretty much the entire lower half) felt numb, dissociated. Of course, I kept as still as I could, not wanting to ruin the nice state I was in. I imagined my right hand to rise, and jerkily, it did. I didn't really feel it move, and I certainly didn't consciously move it, and yet, it had risen completely off my thigh, about a centimetre up.

At this point, I was so excited by how it all felt that my pulse started to quicken, which unfortunately woke me up.
But even waking up was a new experience. I found myself needing to stretch tremendously, which has never been the case after any of my previous attempts, not even the ones I've previously considered mild "successes". I was even slightly disoriented upon wakening, which was unpleasant as a feeling, but a good sign that something out of the ordinary had happened!

I think what finally helped me across the line was the fact that it was an impromptu attempt, with no real expectations (I did it mainly to help me fall asleep as I wasn't tired!) and less than perfect conditions (or perhaps not, as it were) with the radio on and all...
It could very well be that I've tried too hard in the past.

Well, now that I've got this success in the bag, it's time to move on to some of the files from this site. I have a couple of old (non-EMG) relaxation/induction files that I plan to edit together with a few of the female-voice induction files from this site, to form a long and continuous induction file. I'll try to use that regularly, to get my mind used to it. Then, I'll try Female Orgasm first, I think. Maybe I'll even jump the gun a bit... :)

One file I'd love to have work is TrigFreeze2. However, the fact that the trigger is so well-known makes me very uneasy about it.
Same with a couple of other files I'm interested in. It's the compulsion bit that fascinates me. I'm not at all into humiliation, so while TrigMasturbate, TrigOrgasm, TrigHardon and maybe a few others like that would be cool in my own home, the thought of them accidentally triggered elsewhere is frightening!

We'll see what happens. Baby steps in the beginning, is the way to go for me. Then perhaps I'll be making great leaps in a few months...

[Hyp-know-fetish]

There's a file that makes all other files self-triggerable and only self triggerable. So you need not worry about it.

I prefer self-hypnosis to the files. For one, most of my trances are erotic, and I don't like the idea of EMG, another guy, being the one pulling the strings. Also, self-hypnosis can be made more personal, addressing your name, not saying, "if you are a guy, etc...". That kida ruins the trance.

If you're interested, I've been writing in my journal about an ambitious self-hypnosis project: To see if I can do FurryTransformation in less time than most people do with the files. It's public entries, so anyone can read them.

[groomlakeguy]

I know about that file, but I'm not sure I want such a general "ban" on outside triggers...
ChooseTrig might be a better option. We'll see first how successful the actual triggers themselves are... :D

I'm going to avoid the male (sorry EMG) files as much as possible, for much the same reason. However, until all of the ones I'm interested in have been done with female voices, there's not much option. I'm too unfocused to pull it off on my own.

[groomlakeguy]

Edited a few of the induction files (took out the info babble at the start and the awakenings) and strung them together to form a long series of inductions back to back. Plus the middle part of the FemaleOrgasm file in there twice in a row. Then got into bed and put my headphones on.

Unfortunately, during playback, iTunes refused to move from one file to the next, for some reason, so after the first induction, all I got was silence... I waited a bit, and then got up to start it up again. Got back in bed, and the same thing happened again...

After that, I decided to remove the file it got stuck on, and continued with the rest. Yet again, it got stuck at the end of the first file played.

Got up again, and edited the files together manually using QT Pro, and tried a fourth time.

I had no trouble getting into what I felt was a trance. Body relatively numb. My hands rested on the top of my things, but after a while, they felt like (even though they never moved) they slowly stretched out to meet each other, especially the fingers.

However, the FemaleOrgasm file did nothing to me. I tried to imagine it all, but there was nothing. :(

After that, I got up to turn the computer off and then just went to sleep.
Better luck next time, I hope...

[groomlakeguy]

Ok, I tried something new the other night. First, I strung together all the induction files I had, with only the induction parts. Everything else edited out. Four different ones, in sequence, all in all.
Then, immediately following that, an edited version (no induction, no awakening) of the GS TrigFreeze2 file, three times in a row, followed by two different awakening edits.

Felt deeper than ever before, especially after one of the inductions, which sadly wasn't the last, as the next actually seemed to bring me back up a bit...

After that, I got up and tried the freeze trigger.
Well, after reading the "Freeze Success" thread, I decided to follow the advice in it, and not try to challenge the freeze. I was most definitely playing along. Did it maybe 15-20 times, but after that I still didn't feel that it happened in any way automatic, it was still very much a voluntary process, in an effort to facilitate future success or at least to prevent a build-up of resistance.

Now, of course one could always debate whether a phenomenon is real or not, regardless of how it comes about. That the fear of "breaking" the imagined freeze is actually a rationalisation for why I shouldn't move, thereby creating the same effect, even though I don't perceive it that way.

However, since it's my subjective perception of the freeze that counts to me, I'm afraid I'll still have to rate it as a failure, so far. Or at least as an absence of success.

Now, yesterday, after having gone to bed, I decided to repeat a self-trance. I made myself recall the feelings in my body and mind from when I felt really deep the previous couple of times. It worked well. I felt I got down to the same level in just a few minutes, compared to around 10-12 minutes the first time. What was even more surprising was that when I brought myself back up, I found that over half an hour had passed, when the first couple of times had barely taken fifteen minutes. Yet this time it felt as if much less time had passed, perhaps only ten minutes or so!

I have a distinct impression that I tend to move up and down while in trance, so that one moment, I feel quite "there" and aware, and the next I "jump" after having felt blacked out for a moment.
People with more experience of trances commenting on this would be appreciated.

Is there any objective method to find my trance "depth" that I can do myself?

[dgrade]

I'm going to answer you backwards because you're approaching this in the same backwards manner that I used to.

However, since it's my subjective perception of the freeze that counts to me, I'm afraid I'll still have to rate it as a failure, so far. Or at least as an absence of success.

...

Is there any objective method to find my trance "depth" that I can do myself?

You are aware that the experience is entirely subjective, but you are trying to be objective in your observations which is marring your experience. This is not just semantics, but an over-sight that is not discussed enough in hypnosis literature.

You are a consciousness that is experiencing its self subjectively. If your subjective experience is objective you are subjectively objective. This is a pitfall for those of us that are analytical, but it came be over-come. For me, I spent a lot of time meditating objectively on what it means to be subjective until overtime I was meditating subjectively on what it means to be subjective.

After that, I got up and tried the freeze trigger.
Well, after reading the "Freeze Success" thread, I decided to follow the advice in it, and not try to challenge the freeze. I was most definitely playing along. Did it maybe 15-20 times, but after that I still didn't feel that it happened in any way automatic, it was still very much a voluntary process, in an effort to facilitate future success or at least to prevent a build-up of resistance.

"Playing along" is part of the experience when you are being objective. When you are being subjective you experience the experience without analyzing it. You are having successes when you find yourself playing along, it is only your observations that are failures.

Consider that the sciences of the mind are infantile and poorly understood. There is great debate on every facet of psychology. One of the most common schools of psychology (Freudian) is also the most debunked. Do not be so arrogant as to suppose that you can understand in a short time what others have spent millennia trying to grapple with. In my case, realizing this humbling truth was helpful in dismissing my analytical hang-ups.

There is a time and a place for everything. Being analytical is a great personality type for success in life, but it is not in hypnosis. You need to learn to turn it off when you don’t want it.

[groomlakeguy]

Yeah well, in any case, my curiosity took over, and in a weak moment, I decided to challenge it. And sadly I really was just playing along.
:(

[hypslave4her]

Hi Dgrade,
I feel that your response here was a bit heavy handed; the person (groomlakeguy) was just writing about his experiences ( which are valid, regardless of what others think, to him and maybe others.) You attempt to be rhetorically clever, but are merely pedantic.
"If your subjective experience is objective you are subjectively objective. "
Come on, really.
Some one has been watching too much Sesame Street.
Yes, there is a time and place for everything, (anyone for biblical references, Ecclesiastes....) it is not wrong to be analytical about ones experiences with or in hypnosis, that is how we progress intellectually, by thinking about what the evidence shows us.
This is a journey, everyone's on board. Let's help each other.
Perhaps meditating on "what it means to meditate" would help everyone to move forward.

or maybe just play along.
Groomlakeguy, keep trying, if it is meant for you it will happen.
As the old ones say in the ancient arts, " Practice, practice , practice; by yourself. A little bit at a time."

[dgrade]

Hmmm I didn't mean to be heavy-handed, but I appreciate the comment on my pedantics. Though I was trying for more amusing than sinister with my prose. I may have missed my mark.

But I was, and am, speaking from experience when I say that a I believe over-coming the "Am I just playing along" syndrome requires fully appreciating what subjective exsistance is all about. (i.e. You are soly the imagination of yourself.) This is, of course, only necessisary in a great few who are nature's scientists, always observing and cataloging objectively... again I speak from experience here.

[groomlakeguy]

I did get your point, dgrade. And you're right in some ways.

Anyway, my latest adventure was another repeat of the kind reported in my first post. Got myself into a very interesting state this time.

For the first time, almost my entire body felt numb and "missing".
My arms from my armpits and down, and my legs all the way down from the waist, were just... gone! :) That's the best way I can describe it.

I felt as if my torso and head had fallen out of the body's bottom, and that my arms and legs were left "above". Really weird feeling.

Too weird, unfortunately, because I got so excited by this that my heart rate shot up to well over 100 bpm. And that pretty much killed the feeling off...

Well, onwards and upwards, I guess! :D

[hypslave4her]

Ok, folks,... it seems I didn't see the humor in dgrade's post; it can be hard when you can't "hear" the words. Oops, my bad, sorry.
Anyway, it seems that groomlakeguy does "get it' and is having some success.
Having been trying various files myself for 6+ months with limited results, I can understand his questioning "is it really working or am i conning myself?"
When I get out of my own way and approach it with no expectations it seems to work, but thats difficult ; who wants to do something and not care about the results?
Kind of " yeah, I really truly wanna do this but I don't care if it works" thing.
So that's my $.02 ,... gonna go put on the headphones and hope I get more than a nap, nah, don't care really.