The Newbie Guide to Hypnosis

Language is a mighty lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works: it can stop fear and banish grief and create joy and nurture pity.
— Gorgias
Language is a Mighty Lord

You’re interested in hypnosis, and you want to hypnotize your partner, for many possible reasons. There’s lots of tips and blog posts, but nothing makes any sense and it’s all overwhelming and you’re terrified that you’ll try and fail.

It’s okay. You’re not alone. Everyone was where you are now. There is a plan. This guide will take you from being a newbie to being a hypnotist.

Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about hypnosis to begin with. After you go through this plan, you’ll be in a good place to do more, but this is all about getting familiar, getting comfortable, and having fun.

What’s in this guide?

This guide is organized into several sections to teach you the basics of hypnosis.

To begin with, we’ll talk about getting started with the overall stuff common to every hypnosis session: how to behave, how to bring up the topic with your partner, negotiation, and managing risks in hypnosis.

We’ll go through several inductions to build up your comfort level and expertise using different inductions and get familiar with a basic framework of hypnotic sessions.

Next up is a section on giving suggestions, organized around the concept of how perception works in the human brain and what it implies for how we construct our conception of reality.

There’s a section for hypnotizing neurodiverse people. Good news everyone: if your partner is ADHD or autistic, they can be hypnotized using these techniques!

By this point you’re educated and comfortable with hypnosis, so next there’s a broad discussion on tailoring inductions and branching out and experimenting more in sessions.

We’ll go into the theory of hypnosis, explaining some of the underlying psychological mechanisms and talking about how to make hypnosis more effective.

Finally, there are some recommendations for further reading and resources.

Don’t worry about understanding all of this at once. If you get a general sense of the components, that’s all you need for now, as you can follow the practical exercises without having to refer back to this page.

What’s not in this guide?

This guide is geared towards hypnotists and how to hypnotize people. This guide also does not focus on hypnosis in theraputic or entertainment contexts. There is some talk of sex and kink, but it’s mostly incidental.

If you are looking for a guide on how to be hypnotized, I recommend Vreahli’s Subject’s Guide.

If you are looking for a guide on hypnokink, I recommend sleepingirl’s learnhypnokink.com and the Mind Play Study Guide.

If you are looking for a hypnotist for therapeutic purposes, look for a certified professional. Do not rely on other hypnotherapy certifications. Your hypnotist should have some of these books on the shelf.

If you are looking to practice hypnosis in a therapeutic context, I recommend training with someone from the certified organizations and reading through the recommendations.

Disclaimer

While this guide is safe for work, it does have links to material that may assume erotic hypnosis and/or kink. Please use your discretion, and do not read this if you are underage or in an inappropriate place or situation.

Canonical Link

The canonical URL for this guide is https://binauralhistolog.com/newbie.

How you can help

If this guide has helped you and you feel you want to give back, the best way to do it is by contributing the most valuable resource of all: your time and attention.

  • If you see a typo or badly worded sentence…​

  • If you think a section is unclear…​

  • If you have a hot tip…​

  • If you just want to talk about what worked or didn’t work for you…​

Then please go to the feedback page and let me know. You can make this guide better by letting me know what you think.

Testimonials

anonymous:

First of all I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR NEWBIE GUIDE!!!

It has been insanely helpful to my partner and I and it has brought us places we never knew we could go. I have also used it as a jumping point to connect with other great hypnosis information that you have linked. Before I found your guide I had been going through layer after layer of poorly constructed, consent evading, bland, dry, and genuinely manipulative information (and not in the sexy way!). Your guide was insanely helpful to show me how to pick and prod at my partners hypnosis kink in a way where the green flags RACKed up. It was and is a breath of fresh air amongst a lot of the bullshit that seems to honestly purposefully be neither Safe, Sane, nor Consensual.

Thank you for all the work you have done here, if my partner and I hadn’t already been dipping our toes into kink, we might have actually followed some of that bullshit out there. I want you to know that what you have done here in providing good, solid, high-quality information is so so very helpful. And yes, I know that your guide is not the end all be all but it has been a great launching point. I can tell it has been constructed with love and care and attention to detail. And so like,,,, you got a venmo or something?

wirelessmousegirl:

I dont know if you read these, but your newbie guide for hypnosis was really helpful, finding info on the is stuff is very hard, especially when you dont know where to look, so having so much consolidated in one place really helps. Thanks a bunch!

Latvoman:

Hey, just wanted to say that you are literaly my hero! I used mostly your blog, the resources you hyperlinked, cross referencing with other stuff I found. But I am glad you have put so much info online, especially everything about the safety, pretalk, negotiation.

Sephwalker:

Can attest that your guide is fantastic and brimming with good advice and information. Between your guide and the book Mind Play, my fiance and I have been able to play around with hypnosis, and we find it incredibly addicting, in that we’ve done iit every night for a little over a week now. Really the main thing I’d like to do is practice the fuck out of the Elman induction.

Two weeks ago I thought hyp osi was a bunch of fake bullshit, now we’re knee deep in it everyday. Thank you for your wonderful guide!