I second the recommendation for @h-sleepingirl and @cckitten78‘s podcast- the relevant episode is here. It’s a really good and in-depth discussion and 2 Hyp Chicks in general is a fucking treasure. Some of the points I’m making below are probably going to be stolen from them (although it’s been a while since I listened to that episode).
So- there are some people who genuinely experience a sense of “blankness” or not thinking during trance their very first time- just like there are some people who get spontaneous amnesia for trance their first time. These people are rare. Most people who are hypnotized- even very good subjects- deal with stray thoughts (at least some of the time).
There’s are also a lot of the times where a subject may not want to be blank and mindless. For example, if I’m doing a sexy scene with a partner, I don’t necessarily want to be blank and mindless. I want to be focused on being turned on and enjoying that feeling. Being able to be focused and absorbed is often much more useful in hypnosis than feeling entirely blank.
The driving analogy above is pretty commonly used to describe how some people experience trance.* Other people have other analogies. I personally kind of liken it to seeing a play or a movie. I went to see the play Fun Home a few weekends ago. As I was watching it, I kept having stray thoughts throughout the production- Is this play different from the book? Can I scratch my foot unobtrusively? Did I go on a date with the woman who played Alison a decade and a half ago? And if so should I say hi after the show or would that be weird?
But despite all of this, I was really, really absorbed in the show. I was also really really affected. I laughed at all of the jokes and wept constantly for the last 20 minutes of the show. Stray thoughts came and went, but they didn’t affect my ability to be captivated and focused and affected and, well, entranced by the whole show.
And when hypnosis is good, that’s how it feels for me. I feel like I’m responding naturally and totally to a situation even while my brain is sometimes giving me other irrelevant thoughts.** It’s like those thoughts are a radio in the background: there, but not something I necessarily need to attend to or be distracted by.
If you’re a subject struggling with distracting thoughts, @sweettist and @missmariecherry have some good suggestions above. I know @arihi has given some excellent advice on her tumblr before about utilizing your thoughts- being curious about if your thoughts change or feel different as you go into trance. I know I’ll often set the expectation with new subjects that stray thoughts may happen and that someone can be in trance while still having thoughts. While doing hypnosis, sometimes I’ll kind of give them meanings (ex. every sound that you hear, every breath you take, and every stray thought that arises and just drifts away helps you go deeper) or give someone an action to do with them (ex. sending stray thoughts up to float right above their head). There’s actually a whole bunch of things a good hypnotist can do to help subjects who have lots of distracting thoughts*** so it’s often worthwhile to let your hypnotist know if that’s happening so they can help.
My biggest piece of advice is to let go of the expectation of being mindless and instead just experience the trance you’re in. What does hypnosis feel like for you? How is this time different from or similar to other times you’ve been hypnotized? Think of it as building a skill where there are many different ways to be proficient (think singing maybe-an opera voice vs. a broadway voice vs. a whispy folk singer voice) rather than a mold you have to fit. ****
I hope this helps! (And thank you @sweettist for tagging me and for your kind words!)
*That state of driving-without-conscious-thought is a really common example when people teach meditation/mindfulness- it’s called “mindlessness”there. Only in meditation practice, you’re steering away from that state rather than driving right toward it like a hypnokinkster might.
**Also that I’m responding naturally and totally to a situation even though I know it’s kinda fake and could diagram the technical aspects of how it’s done.
*** @spiralturquoise and i taught a whole class about this at Entranced
****This whole paragraph, btw, is very much @arihi‘s advice restated
hypno-sandwich
