"Before we begin, I'd like to describe the goals we're going to be working to achieve with today's session. If these goals don't interest you, or if you don't feel safe and comfortable with them, you can simply make the choice to stop listening and find a different experience to enjoy. You are always in control of your trance state, and any suggestions you hear will only apply if you feel safe and comfortable accepting them.
"The goal of today's trance is to train you to experience hypnotic paralysis on command. This may be in response to a verbal trigger, or in response to any one of a number of stimuli negotiated between you and the hypnotist you consent to invoke this state in your body. There are no specific hypnotic triggers I'm asking you to accept--we're going to teach your mind to recognize situations that are invitations to freeze, and to enjoy those situations when they occur. This is more flexible and open-ended than a trigger, and may result in you experiencing hypnotic paralysis unexpectedly... although, again, only when it is safe and comfortable for you to do so.
"Although there are points in this session where you may be encouraged to pay less conscious attention to the hypnotist, there are no direct amnesia suggestions incorporated into this session, and no suggestions or triggers that are intended to be forgotten after the session is over. Even so, spontaneous amnesia does happen to some people during hypnosis, so you may find yourself experiencing difficulty recalling details of the trance experience. If you enjoy forgetting your trances, your mind is going to work to make that happen. You have permission to remember or to forget as much of this session as you want--again, within the boundaries of what is safe and comfortable for you.
"This session contains permissive language directing you to disrobe and touch yourself. If you believe you will have difficulty resisting these instructions, please wait until you have some privacy to begin. If you do not feel safe or comfortable following any of the described suggestions or instructions, this would be a good place for you to stop. Otherwise, please get comfortable for me so that we can begin.
"And I'd like you to begin by taking a moment to think about what relaxation really is. Many hypnotists will simply start their induction by telling the subject to relax, but that's a word that has a lot of meanings to a lot of different people. Maybe the first thing you picture when you think about relaxing is lying in a warm, soft bed, letting the dark and the quiet gradually ease your mind closer and closer to deep, restful slumber while the tension in your muscles slowly, gently unwinds and your thoughts drift away one by one. That's a lovely kind of relaxation, and there are times when that peace and calm are exactly what you want and need.
"But it's not quite what we're looking for. After all, if you were asleep, you couldn't listen to the sound of my voice as I paint that lovely picture in your mind, could you? You'd be too drowsy to really pay attention, so limp and loose and tired and languid that everything would just fade away into a blissful dream. And while that's very pleasant, and you can already imagine that loose, drifty sensation of pleasant exhaustion brushing up against your thoughts and slowing your breathing into long, lazy breaths... in... and out... you can find a different kind of cozy, dreamy feeling to see inside your head. A nice, restful middle ground between sleeping and waking. We can go into it together, in fact.
"In this happy, comfortable daydream, you can picture yourself resting in a cozy reclining chair, one that's just exactly as soft and padded and restful as you can imagine. It's tilted back just a little, just enough to allow all of your muscles to unwind their tension into sweet, sleepy lethargy without moving at all. Not quite so far that you fall asleep, but enough to let you settle back and really enjoy the peaceful, passive feeling washing over you. The room is exactly the way you like it--maybe it's got a little bit of warm afternoon sunlight coming in, not so much that it bothers your eyes but just the right amount to soothe and calm you. It's a safe place to rest. You can probably see it inside your head right now, can't you?
"That's right. Of course you can. And we've all had those lazy afternoons where the chair is so comfortable and the room is so peaceful that there doesn't seem to be any real reason to get up at all. You're not sleepy, not exactly, but you're so cozy sitting just where you are and the padding is so soft under your body and your muscles are so loose and limp and lazy that it feels too much like work to stir yourself. And there's nothing you really need to get up for, either. There's no urgency to anything, no needs you have to attend to, just that happy and peaceful lassitude swamping your limbs and holding you down with nothing but easy, gentle relaxation.
"That's what relaxation really is. That's what trance really feels like. It's not sleep. It's just that lovely, cozy, warm, gentle comfort of resting and unwinding and letting your thoughts wander out of your head, one by one. Letting your calves and your thighs gradually ease into limp, loose, heavy lethargy, letting your arms sink into the armrests until you can't even imagine wanting to struggle against the weight of your own exhaustion. Letting your drowsy, drooping eyelids slip shut and simply going along with the flow of my words, not really thinking about anything in particular but just listening to my voice and allowing it to guide you deeper into peace and pleasure. It's so easy to picture that, isn't it? It's so easy to give in to that delightful picture inside your mind and let it become more real to you than the world around you.
"And that feeling, that delightfully heavy feeling in your limbs... it's almost impossible even to imagine moving when you're that relaxed, isn't it? You're so comfortable exactly where you are, with all your muscles unknotting and all that tension slipping away and all that energy slowly ebbing from your body that you don't even want to try struggling against it. The more you think about trying to get up, to lift your limp, lazy arms, even just to twitch a little simply to see if you can, the more it seems unthinkable to you. Almost absurd, really. Perhaps you're trying right now, just trying to make one finger tap against the armrest to see whether you can, and it's just so deliciously, blissfully difficult that even trying tires you out more. And more. And even more, until you can't move at all. Until you don't want to move at all.
"It's almost like that happy, drowsy, dreamy sensation is winding around your body, wrapping around your wrists and your ankles and tugging them down, down, down until they simply won't budge at all. You can picture it like a soft rope, snaking gently around your elbows and your knees and pulling just tight enough to keep you from moving while remaining so blissfully comfortable. An invisible rope caressing your thighs and your shoulders like smooth velvet, a rope that only you can see and only you can feel but one that feels so gentle that you don't even want to try to fight it. The rope slides across your waist, over your chest, even slipping around your forehead, pinning you in position with nothing more than the promise of just how good it can feel to let go and sink into its delightful control. That velvet rope holds you down, now. You can't even imagine struggling against it.