Sunday
or
Who am I, this Time?
In reviewing my blog for Saturday night, I realized I had totally forgotten to mention one funny moment.
After the second Hypno-egg battle, I asked Fay if it would be all right to take some pictures of her with the Hypno-egg. She agreed. The only problem was that we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the common areas.
So the two of us grabbed the egg and went into her room, closing the door behind us. I turned off the lights, and starting taking pictures. What followed were some of the best pictures I think I’ve ever taken. These Pictures. Though, to be fair, having such a gorgeous (and tiny) model really helps.
The problem was that we were both so keyed into the Hypno-egg, which was glowing all the colors in that otherwise pitch-black room, that we found ourselves about to drift away. We both had this panicked moment that we were going to be lost until someone came looking for us.
With what willpower I had left, I knocked the Hypno-egg out of Fay’s hands. That broke the spell long enough for us to turn on the lights and get someone to turn the darned Hypno-egg off.
The following morning, Lee and I put together a class based on the Hypnotic Amnesia book we’ve been working on. We took advantage of the “Unconference” aspects of the weekend and took over one of the convention suites. We were gratified to have a packed house, as we went over the basis of the book, how one could use hypnotic amnesia in a variety of play-scenarios, and did some demonstrations in front of the class. It was my first ever hypno-class that I co-taught, and I thought it went very well. I think I’m fortunate in that I’m bit of a ham, so “performing” in front of an audience comes pretty easily to me. We had very cool conversations and questions, and, overall, it made us both motivated to move forward with the project.
I sat in on the “switches” class briefly, where SweetGasp was leading a rollicking discussion on issues hypno-switches face. I also poked my head in to the NLP class. I have this thing, it seems, where people who are “practicing” NLP make me very tired. The instructor was very good, but there was something about the presentation (much as when I have watched videos by others on the subject) that threatens to put me to sleep.
I next found myself in the confusion induction class Wiseguy was teaching. It was very similar to the class he had taught in New Hampshire that I had also attended. Close by was Emiliana and Fay. A few minutes into the class Wiseguy read a script which was part induction and part short story. I had heard it before, but still let myself drift a little. As I drifted, I slowly turned to the left and saw Fay looking at me and smiling. She pointed over her shoulder, where Emiliana was drifting her own way into trance. Later she said she felt as if she had drifted off for only a couple of minutes. The script was at least 20 minutes long. She was more than a little surprised.
Later on Sunday, I had another first, in that I taught my very own class. I had told Mephki that it would be a good idea to have a class about how to avoid “Con-drop,” which is to say, the physical and emotional funk that people often find themselves in after they’ve attended a convention. She agreed that it was a good idea, and said, “Why don’t you teach it?” And since it turns out it’s really difficult for me to say “no” to a smart, awesome woman, I said “yes.”
It was a smaller affair than the hypnotic amnesia class, but I thought so many people brought things to the table in terms of taking care of themselves physically and emotionally, and I found it to be extremely productive. Special thanks to LeeAllure, Setsudo, and PhotoJoseph for their contributions to the class.
Afterwards, some of us went to the “Building Communities” class, where we discussed different issues common to the various Unconferences. HypnoMaestro was fantastic about taking in feedback about what needed work (a few things) and what was brilliant (almost everything) about the weekend.
By now it was late in the day on Sunday, and we helped everyone with the clean up of the common areas. We found ourselves ready for dinner 45 minutes before the scheduled time and Tesdenic, Fayvie, Emiliana, LeeAllure, Sebastian and I headed over ahead of the crowd. The restaurant was about a 10-minute walk from the venue, and by the time we got there, most of us were pretty hungry. So we decided to get a head-start on dinner. We were sat in the front part of the restaurant. Dinner was great, but as we were served, the crowd started coming in, which lead to the fairly awkward situation wherein we directed all of MEEHU to the back part of the restaurant, where MEEHU had reserved tables. We saw everyone pass us, and give us slightly puzzled looks. (It wasn’t anything personal, I swear. We were just hungry.) HypnoMaestro, Isis and Lady Inamorata gave brief speeches thanking everyone for attending, and it looked like everyone had a fantastic time.
We finished dinner and repaired to the hotel. Lee and I had an experiment to conduct on someone else. Ms. Mesmer (who some may remember from my NEEHU blog as my partner in crime for the Corsair Doctor Who scene) had volunteered to help us with one of our experiments: a dual induction. Lee and I went to the suite she was sharing.
After setting up, with her friend TigerLily watching, Lee and I sat on either side of her and recorded us putting her under a deep, deep trance. Well, I say we recorded it, but our first attempt didn’t record properly. So poor Ms. Mesmer had to put up with us hypnotizing her again. We had her forget a random group of numbers, and then had her forget that she had even been hypnotized the first time. She was a fantastic subject to work with.
Afterwards, we were talking about our Doctor Who scene at NEEHU, and we quickly agreed to a redux. In fact, TigerLily also wanted to participate. So Lee hypnotized me into “being” the Doctor, and I placed both of them into a trance with my trusty sonic screwdriver. TigerLily really liked pain, something Ms. Mesmer didn’t. So I had them hold hands, and set my sonic to “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow” of their sensations so that whatever pleasure Ms. Mesmer would feel would be transformed into pain on TigerLily’s end, and vice versa.
I then ran through the various pain, pleasure, and tickle settings on the sonic with each of them. I also may have experimented with the orgasm settings as well (I’m only Time Lord.) I may have brought them as close to an orgasm as I could and then have them ask to be pushed over the edge. Did I say ask? Maybe beg. My memory is a little fuzzy on that point.
Later, Tigerlily said she was impressed with how I stayed in character throughout the scene. I can only say that: (1) Lee’s suggestions helped and; (2) when you have two extraordinarily sexy women writhing on the couch because they are having fun believing you’re the Doctor, you stay in character come what may. (Mrs. Pynchon: “Give, give, give, DJ.”)
Needless to say, it was a fantastically hot scene, and I felt rather elevated and in “top space” for most of the rest of the evening.
However, at some point, and I’m not sure exactly when it happened, Lee took a felt pen and drew hash marks on my arm. Now, for those of you Doctor Who fans out there, hashmarks are a reference to the Silence, an alien race that you only remember when you’re looking at them. The only evidence you would have for knowing that they were there (or behind you) would be the hashmark you’d make on your arm for each one you’ve seen. In this case, Lee hypnotized me into forgetting that she had made the 7 or so marks on my arm, and covered them up with my sleeve. Then she told me that for every hashmark on my arm I saw, I would have an orgasm. After enjoying the orgasm or orgasms (depending on how far up my arm she pulled my sleeve to reveal the hashmarks), and over about the following 30 seconds, I would forget everything about it: the hashmarks; having the orgasm(s); and even the fact that the hashmarks on my arm caused the orgasm. Every time I saw my arm the memories, and the orgasms, would flood back to me.
[Note: I believe I covered this earlier in my blog, and this may very well count as “Too Much Information,” but the hypnotic orgasms I experience aren’t “orgasms” in the classic sense. When I have them, they feel like my brain is dumping endorphins and serotonin into my system. It’s a pleasurable feeling, and certainly orgasmic. Over time, and with practice, the sensation has gotten more and more powerful.]
The only reason I remember any of this is that, to make it easier to “forget” the sensations, I was told that I would remember everything after the weekend was over. So some of what I’m recounting slowly emerged over the next few days.
We made our way down to the “rainbow” room, where we played a game of “Hypno Truth or Dare.” The game is played much like regular Truth or Dare, although, obviously, with more hypnosis. We had a lot fun playing it, and I recall Lee “daring” me to show my hashmarks to everyone else in the room. There were about 15 people in the room, so seven times fifteen equals… oh, never mind, you get the idea.
Emiliana was also there, and Fay, Lee, Seb and I marveled at how far she had come over the weekend, from a total neophyte to someone who had actually drifted into trance at Lee’s capable hands. We would have shared that with her, except that Emiliana had, in fact, drifted away from the room, and we could not find her. Normally, we would expect a grown adult to take care of herself, but (as my own experience with fractionation had shown) people shouldn’t “wander off” shortly after having spent the day in one form of trance or another. Sebastian, Fayvie and I all went looking for her throughout the hotel. We ultimately found her, on the same floor, having been pulled into a conversation about Captain America and fanfic. She was mortified that she had put us through any sort of worry, but we were merely relieved that nothing untoward had occurred.
At some point we (Lee, Emiliana, Fay, Seb and I) wound up in Fay and Emiliana’s room. Emiliana turned to me and said, “Pynch, can I hypnotize you?”
Who was I to say no?
(To be fair, I had earlier offered to be her guinea pig if she were interested in trying out the experience from the other side of the pocket watch, so to speak.)
I sat across from her and she had me look into her (very lovely) eyes. I wish I could remember the exact words she used. Regardless, it was very clear that she is a natural. I know she said something to the effect of, “as you listen to my words, they will feel like honey pouring through your mind.”
I believe my thoughts went something like: “Oh… that’s good. I know where she got that from. Very nice use of that…. Oh… yes, well put….. and…..”
I was out.
She brought me up a short time later. Yes. She is a natural.
Lee and I watched Seb set up a game of hypno-freeze tag between the girls, and Lee enjoyed periodically tormenting (cough) me by showing me the hashmarks.
We got to spend some time with Tes and AmHypnotic, the latter of whom was one of the first people I had met at NEEHU. AmHypnotic had also offered to hypnotize Emiliana earlier in the weekend, but when she declined, he made it very clear that he was going to respect that boundary, but that the offer was still open if she changed her mind. I mark this out because it underscored the extent to which issues of consent and respect for boundaries undergirded the entire weekend. Everyone was informed of the need for consent before doing anything. Moreover, my understanding is that there were very few, if any, incidents of even creepy behavior throughout the weekend. Emiliana mentioned AmHypnotic’s attitude specifically as contributing to her sense of feeling—and being—safe throughout the Unconference.
Towards the end of the evening, I had a chat with Sleepingirl. She enjoyed continually asking me about the hashmarks on my arm. I felt like a goldfish in a bowl. An alternately very happy and then very perplexed goldfish.
After some more partying and sober socializing, I wound my way into bed. As I drifted off to “actual” sleep, I thought that the best part of the weekend was behind me. I was very, very wrong.
NEXT TIME: Saying good-bye! More Pynch-rage! A Zoo! A Park! A perfect moment! Things I forgot to include earlier!