Tension Inductions
Most inductions focus on relaxation and pleasant imagery. However, inductions are designed around focused attention and engagement in the hypnotic ritual — they don’t actually need to be pleasant. In fact, inductions based around anxiety, discomfort, and even fear can be very effective.
Discomfort and shock are time-honored ways of creating uncertainty, from the common yelling of "SLEEP!" in mesmerism, to the arm pulls and trust falls in street hypnotism, Erickson’s Psychological shocks. More broadly, intense physical exersions and shocks are common place in initiations, ranging from icewater baptisms to Navy SEAL Hell Week.
Ludwig and Lyle’s paper, Tension induction and the hyperalert trance provided an example of a "hyperalert trance" using tension-inducing methods that contradicted traditional relaxation-based inductions. Their subjects achieved all standard hypnotic phenomena - catalepsy, hallucinations, amnesia - while in a state of high physiological arousal and tension.
It may sound counterintuitive, but fear and arousal can actually facilitate hypnosis:
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Attention capture - Fear creates hypervigilance and narrows focus. When your partner is scared/aroused, their attention is intensely focused and easier to direct.
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Cognitive overload - High arousal floods the brain with sensory input and emotion. When overwhelmed, people look for direction/authority to resolve the confusion.
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Physiological intensity - Increased heart rate, adrenaline, heightened sensation makes experiences more vivid and memorable. Suggestions given during high arousal may be absorbed more deeply.
This has practical applications for kink scenes involving fear, threat, control, and intensity. If you’re already playing with kink involving consensual non-consent, monster scenarios, corruption/transformation, or other fear-based themes, you can leverage that arousal to deepen hypnotic responsiveness.
Pretalk and Negotiation
This is edge play, and it does come with risks. You will need extensive pre-scene negotiation to discuss hard limits and plan for abreactions. Crying, shaking, and intense reactions are normal and intentional in these inductions, so you will have to pay careful attention to your partner at all times.
People may not behave the way they expect when under intense physical stress. You may want to have a small sample session after a pre-talk, letting it stew for a few days, then have a longer negotiation before engaging in a full scene.
Overview
A tension induction will consist of four stages:
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Physical arousal
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Cognitive overload
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Direct commands
In addition, a tension induction can have a theme: whether it’s a external threat (tentacles, mind controlling aliens, droned citizens) or an internal transformation (robotization, dollification, corruption) that must be resisted, there should be a performance for your partner to play through.
Physical Arousal
Start with cardio intensive exercises like rapid pacing or burpees, and get your partner’s heart rate up. Once they are flushed and breathing heavy, move to exercises that interfere with proprioception, such as spinning until dizzy. Finally, have them hold stress positions.
Your partner could be doing this as part of running from a monster, keeping physically active to resist the transformation, or some combination of the two. For stress positions, they might have to stay extremely still and quiet or they will be heard or seen. The narrative provides them with the rationale, and their physiological arousal leads them into a "fight/flight/freeze" thinking.
Use familiar suggestions, and don’t overload your partner during high intensity exercise.
Cognitive Overload
Once your partner is in a stress position or is doing their best to hide or make no noise, you can start adding cognitive overload while suggesting they "freeze" in place.
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Be careful with cognitive overload, as you can push someone to the point where the freeze response makes it harder to safeword. Always monitor your partner carefully to check if they have gone non-responsive. |
Ludwig and Lyle detail several kinds of cognitive overload:
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Attention flooding: "Notice your heartbeat, the sweat on your skin, every sound in the room, the thoughts racing—"
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Rapid shifting: "Look here, now here, feel this, hear that—" (too much to track)
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Emotional flooding: "Every feeling rising at once, fear and excitement and curiosity—"
Have them close their eyes and raise their anxiety — the monster is approaching, your thoughts are already getting fuzzy as the alien music starts playing through their mind — and play the part. Be unpredictable. You can try to fractionate them, make loud noises, call out to them to join the hive mind. Engage their imagination and have them fixated on their inevitable ruin.
Direct Commands
Once it’s time to end things, you can have them release the stress position.
Give them clear and simple commands to follow. At this point, they’ve been captured or transformed: following direct commands should come as a capitulation and a release of tension. There’s nowhere to run, and they have to accept their fate.
If the scene is purely physical, you can have them follow direct commands under threat of punishment and reward, with the promise of good treatment if they behave.
If there is a mental component, you can lead them through deepening suggestions and move to another relaxation based induction once their new mindset has been established.