Why Hypnosis is NOT Simon Says
The first answer is that this explanation points to a wrong model of control — and hypnosis isn't about control. Simon Says assumes you have full executive control, and that the game consists of maintaining it while filtering orders. Simon Says has a very clear structure: there's a leader who gives orders, there are players who decide whether to follow or not, and the whole point is to mess up. In the game, the goal is to keep the filter active. You get distracted for a second, you do what Simon didn't say, and you're out. It's a game of selective attention and error.
And hypnosis doesn't work like that.
Because the subject isn't deciding in the same sense. It's not that decision disappears, but it stops being deliberate. It becomes automatic. The "no" doesn't become impossible… but it does become difficult. And not because you're a "good player", but because the inhibition system is working differently. It doesn't disappear: it arrives late.
Hypnosis does the opposite.
It asks you to let go of that control. To stop filtering. To allow the suggestion to pass without constantly running it through "this yes, this no." It's the difference between a state of vigilance… and a state of openness. It's not about deciding whether Simon said it or just said it without Simon. The suggestion passes — and more importantly: it doesn't feel like obeying. It feels like the action was already yours before you could question it. It's something external that feels internal.
Simon Says teaches you that hypnosis is about following orders. That the hypnotist commands and the subject obeys. And so whoever learns through that metaphor… is going to try to command. They'll use a commanding tone. They'll expect obedience. And when the subject doesn't "obey", they'll think the subject is resisting, or isn't suggestible, or that hypnosis "doesn't work on everyone."
In hypnosis (properly understood, from an experiential and non-authoritarian perspective):
Power isn't in "who commands," but in collaboration and attentional direction.
In Simon Says, the player is responsible for not messing up.
In hypnosis, the operator is responsible for formulating the suggestion in a way that can become experience within the framework of what the subject already brings.
If the subject doesn't "follow," it's not that they lost. It's simply that Simon didn't know how to give suggestions — not orders — in a way that made the subject want to keep playing. The suggestion didn't find relevance, safety, or a path in.
✦ᛉumeᛋᛇ✦