I recently heard an argument that 'hypnosis' is really better called 'monoideism', the state of single-minded focus on one thing, which I rather liked. But in thinking about it, I realize that it can be both things.
It's true that some hypnosis feels like sleep, and 'hypnos', the very personification of sleep, fits well . You listen, and gently fade, your eyes closing, your thoughts closing, until there's nothing but nothing suffusing you. You fall away, and return, and the space between is nothing but inky blackness laced with jewel-like dreams. This kind of hypnosis is lovely, and leads to all those lovely tropes of 'you are getting sleepy', the heavy eyes, and looming exhaustion as you realize that you have stepped into a cognitive space that you no longer control.
This is also how many hypnotists play. You talk, you fall, and you fall deep into sleep, and wake up later, either fully used, or perhaps fully programmed. You sleep, and you wake, and there is a strong difference between the two. They control your sleep, and your sleep changes you, and opens you, and leaves you open to them. You are a sleeping toy, to change, and program, and use, and play with, and when you awaken, you experience a different world. Again, lovely. But, it does not describe us all. There is another way.
Instead of sleep, some of us play with focus. We are simply talking. You are interacting. We are conversing. Yet, after a while, you may not even realize that I am leading the conversation. You are following, more and more carefully. The world becomes vignetted, everything outside of your screen just a bit more black and white, and those other conversations just fade away. And, if I've done my job right, by the time you are under control, you may not have sufficient attention left to conceptualize this fact. Perhaps I will nudge you off to sleep, giving you the cognitive release that hypnotic subjects crave, or perhaps I will simply continue to guide you to our mutual benefit.
Some ask, 'how did you have this strong of an effect, I was never in trance??'. Alas, I do not know. So much of this enterprise is beyond our knowledge. But my conception, my thinking, is simply that attention is like water. When you are going about your day, it is a wide river, flowing chaotically, every which way, moving over and under and around all the many things competing for your attention. As a result, it is spread so thin, and flows so slowly. But, when you become more and more focused, all of that river flows through a smaller and smaller space. And it becomes so much more powerful. Much like a river flowing through a thin canyon can wear away rock so quickly, attention focused can carve paths quickly, falling in can sweep you away so fast, and water pressed through a small enough space can cut steel. I could tell you that you are a good toy, and good toys obey, when you have so many ideas, so many thoughts, so many things happening, and it would be little more than a splash of water against a hard stone. But when you are focused, so tightly, on my words, I can use your attention to shape and carve and wear away the parts which do not fit your new knowledge, about the nature of good toys. And you will learn so quickly, because the flow can carve you so quickly. Brainwashing, and rain-washing, not so different, I suppose.
Sleep is fun, of course. Heavy eyes, that feeling of being awake but just barely, drugged by my voice, can be quite pleasant. But it is no more necessary than a swinging pendulum, or relaxing one's feet, then ankles, or remembering to forget. Attention, here too, is all you need, to control and 'hypnotize' and shape and guide and lead to incredible experiences and depths of pleasure.
This is, perhaps, not a critical distinction. One can have fun hypnotic effects in many ways, and those waves of pleasure you crave can come from sleep, or from waking. But perhaps it is worth contemplating which kinds of hypnosis you seek, and which kind you give. I can provide hypnos, but my strength is in becoming the sole idea you have, and letting you simply fall into my words, and directing your attention to wash away everything but the perfect toy I want you to be.
But, perhaps equally important, it is worth remembering that sleep is not the locus of the hypnotic control. Sleep yields focus, if done properly. But so, too, does interaction. And you need not fall asleep to be an incredibly good subject, and to do exactly what you need to do to be a perfect little toy.
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