So ... as you probably noticed from the last couple of short posts, it was a busy weekend for me and sleepingirl. Now, I have time for a more relaxed description of what went down.
Our first official stop was at a college in Amherst, MA. (I'd love to plug them, but the contract they had me sign actually forbids me doing so without written permission, which I neglected to get. There are several colleges in Amherst.) We were invited by a student group that promotes education and healthy discussion of sexuality, kink, and related issues.
We found the venue without too much confusion and met our hosts, then proceeded to set up the space. Our plan was to do a three-part program. First, I would do Erotic Hypnosis 101 for the whole group. Then we would divide the group into tops and bottoms and have sleepingirl take the bottoms to another room for a talk on negotiation (from the bottom side), safety, and being a better hypno-bottom while I worked with the hypnotists on negotiation from the top, safety and ethics, and tips and tricks for developing your hypnotic style and presence. Then we would rejoin the groups for some mentored practice time.
Things didn't quite work out that way. The space really only had one room of usable size, so we hastily planned out how to manage that. Then the turnout was a lot less than we were expecting because of a schedule conflict (Parents' Weekend), so it turned into a much smaller group than planned. That actually helped, because it made it very easy to tailor our presentations closely to the interests of that group. For example, most of the group were switches, so we abandoned the split-up-into-two idea and simply took turns discussing aspects from both sides of the watch. The group was curious and full of great questions so we did a lot of demonstration and Q&A, and because they were much younger than the usual EEHU audience they didn't have a lot of first-hand experience, so we spent more time on basic techniques like different types of inductions. In the end, while we didn't do a lot of what we originally planned, we did give them what they needed and everyone left happy. I'm looking forward to returning in the spring.
The next event on our schedule was at The Society in Hartford CT. The Society is the venue for NEEHU, of course, so I'm very familiar with the space. The staff were wonderfully welcoming and a lot of good friends were there -- DaSade, sleepingirl and cckitten, AmHypnotic and MentalConfetti, LeeAllure, CalamityBrain, Decordazon, MrDream and ZanyM, Setsudo, and more. The Master Charles room filled up with people, most of whom I did not know. That meant I would be introducing new people to the erotic hypnosis community, which is always exciting.
The topic for the night was Subtle Suggestion: Combining NLP and Hypnosis. It's one that I've done a couple of times now but is still very much a work in progress. For the Society, I expanded the NLP material and did some simple exercises with the group before moving into the integration with hypnosis. The crowd was great; they participated, they played, they were lively and interested, and we had a great time. An exhausted sleepingirl was kind enough to be one of my demo bottoms (she knows how much I love playing with her mind), and I was fortunate to meet Mistress Rheea and do some demonstrations with her as well.
As it happens, one of the people who came to that class was Enlightenment14 (FetLife name). We talked before and after class, and he arranged for me to do a guest spot on Valley Free Radio (WXOJ, 103.3FM) the very next morning. I called in and talked to Rick Haggerty for about 30 minutes about erotic hypnosis, the community, and of course Mind Play. We didn't actually get to the NLP aspects, but from what I've heard so far the community who heard the broadcast was pleased.
If you didn't hear it, you can download or stream the audio of that show from their archive site. My spot is during the second hour, from 9:15 to 9:45 (which would be 1:15-1:45 of the recording).
It was a great weekend. Sleepingirl is a rock star for all the right reasons -- she is frank, very sharp, supremely talented, and really understands the nuances of being kinky, bottoming, and teaching. I loved co-presenting with her, and I hope we can do it more often.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Sunday, October 26, 2014
More weekend coolness!
Sleepingirl's and my visit to Amherst went delightfully well -- so much so that I fully intend to return to Amherst next year. They are a great group of people.
We had a fantastic turnout at The Society for my NLP and Hypnosis class, which was a further-developed form of my "Subtle Suggestion" class. It was great to reunite with dear friends that I see far too infrequently, and to start hatching a few plans for the interval before NEEHU 6 in March.
As it happens, I'm squeezing in one more appearance while I'm in town. One of the people who came to class tonight invited me to be a guest on Valley Free Radio for tomorrow morning's "Kickin' It for Peace, Culture, & Education" show. The show runs from 8-10am Eastern time; I will be on during the 9-10 hour talking about erotic hypnosis and NLP. The station streams online, so if you aren't in the Florence, MA area you can listen through the website.
-wg
We had a fantastic turnout at The Society for my NLP and Hypnosis class, which was a further-developed form of my "Subtle Suggestion" class. It was great to reunite with dear friends that I see far too infrequently, and to start hatching a few plans for the interval before NEEHU 6 in March.
As it happens, I'm squeezing in one more appearance while I'm in town. One of the people who came to class tonight invited me to be a guest on Valley Free Radio for tomorrow morning's "Kickin' It for Peace, Culture, & Education" show. The show runs from 8-10am Eastern time; I will be on during the 9-10 hour talking about erotic hypnosis and NLP. The station streams online, so if you aren't in the Florence, MA area you can listen through the website.
-wg
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
This Weekend
I'll be in New England this weekend (October 25) doing two appearances.
First, in the afternoon, the always-delightful sleepingirl and I are doing a 3-hour erotic hypnosis workshop for edu.kink, an organization in Amherst, MA that does weekly workshops on various aspects, of sex, sexuality, and kink. We'll be presenting Erotic Hypnosis 101, then splitting the group so that sleepingirl can give specific advice to hypnotees while I do the same with the hypnotists. Then we reunite the groups for mentored practice time.
Next, we drop in on The Society in Hartford, CT for an evening class on erotic NLP and hypnosis. This is a class I've done at MEEHU and WEEHU 2, and it's still evolving so it will be different from either of those. The class takes place during a play party (I believe we start at 9pm but I'm not positive), which is open to members of the Society and their escorted guests. There is a door fee of $20 for non-members, who must have a member with them.
Can't wait to see New England again!
-wg
First, in the afternoon, the always-delightful sleepingirl and I are doing a 3-hour erotic hypnosis workshop for edu.kink, an organization in Amherst, MA that does weekly workshops on various aspects, of sex, sexuality, and kink. We'll be presenting Erotic Hypnosis 101, then splitting the group so that sleepingirl can give specific advice to hypnotees while I do the same with the hypnotists. Then we reunite the groups for mentored practice time.
Next, we drop in on The Society in Hartford, CT for an evening class on erotic NLP and hypnosis. This is a class I've done at MEEHU and WEEHU 2, and it's still evolving so it will be different from either of those. The class takes place during a play party (I believe we start at 9pm but I'm not positive), which is open to members of the Society and their escorted guests. There is a door fee of $20 for non-members, who must have a member with them.
Can't wait to see New England again!
-wg
Sunday, October 5, 2014
WEEHU 2 recap
WEEHU 2 is behind us now, and what a weekend it was! There were challenges, both logistical and other. There were also awesome moments, and over the whole weekend the scales tip toward awesome pretty decisively.
For the second year in a row, travel to WEEHU was made way more difficult than it had to be by forces outside of anyone's control. Last year it was the shooting at, and subsequent closure of, LAX airport; this time it was the fire in the radar control tower outside Chicago, which caused ripples across North America with flight connections. Dani and I were stuck in San Diego for 3 extra hours (which wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't confined to Terminal 1 of the airport there), which caused me to miss both of my scheduled Friday afternoon classes. Fortunately Hypnoguru stepped into the void and ran "The Art of Teaching Hypnosis" and "Kinky Human Tricks" for me so there was no need to disrupt the schedule.
We did make it to San Francisco in time for the Friday night play party at The Citadel. The party's theme was "A Taste of Kink." There were experts there in a number of kinky disciplines: knife play, caning, single-tails, flogging, needle play. Professor X and I were there representing erotic hypnosis. People circulated through the space getting 5-minutes "tastes" of whatever they desired. There was a good mixture of people new and curious, experienced, and enthusiastic about erotic hypnosis and I had a ball doing 5-minute scenes with them. By the end of the tasting Dani and I had been up for 22 hours straight and were fading fast; we caught the WEEHU-provided shuttle back to the hotel and crashed.
Saturday morning proved hectic thanks to a busload of French tourists who had also stopped at the convention hotel for the night. The hotel restaurant was packed and the staff were clearly not prepared for it; breakfast took a little more time than anyone expected. The restaurant also wasn't really set up for large groups, so there was no real chance to commune with our fellow attendees over breakfast. We got onto the first shuttle and headed over to the Citadel to help open up.
The first class of the day for me was Erotic Hypnosis 101, and as usual I got a nice crowd of new and curious people. For the demo scene we did some voodoo doll play, with my Dani as the voodoo doll and troublethewater (her Fetlife name) as the volunteer. Both of them were delightful and we had a great time with it.
Next up, immediately following, was Subtle Suggestion, my NLP-and-hypnosis class that I added to my roster for MEEHU. I'd added material to the outline because I finished way early at MEEHU, and I still ended up with about 10 minutes extra. We spent it talking about other applications of NLP, working hard to stay out of therapy territory. I'm going to have to add some more material to this for NEEHU 6.
One thing I enjoyed about WEEHU 2 was that I did have more downtime than usual. It was good to have the chance to sit in on Hypnomaster_D's class on Global Suggestion, a technique he has developed for speaking directly with the subconscious and getting cooperation from it even without a formal induction. I'd heard about it and read some on Fetlife, but seeing it actually used and established with someone was fascinating.
After lunch with Lady Ru'etha and some friends at a place called Show Dogs (which was extraordinarily tasty!), I taught Hypnotizing the Analytical Mind, an expanded version of the Live Learning class I did on Hypbook in August. Rather than just teaching confusion inductions, this class takes a holistic view of working or playing with an analytical-minded person with emphasis on getting the basics right -- rapport, setting expectations -- before lunging into a complex confusion induction that may not be necessary or the best approach.
Another free period followed, and then it was time for Deeper, Faster, Easier, my hypnotee-oriented class on getting better at going into trance. There was a lot of interest in this one and we used the time well, teaching the audience self-hypnosis and doing some fractionation with them to help break down any barriers.
To close out the class day Dani and I sat in on LeeAllure's class on doing hypnoplay in public places. There are few things I enjoy more than watching Lee teach; her mischievous brand of hypno-sadism was fully on display in that class and it was a great cap on the day.
Dani and I had a mission for the Saturday night play party: to practice our dual inductions on as many volunteers as we could muster. It's one thing to practice at home with an empty chair; to make sure our timing and nonverbal cues were right we needed some live volunteers. As you might imagine, it was not difficult at WEEHU to find people willing to be tranced by us. Even with LeeAllure and DJ Pynchon offering dual inductions too, we had plenty of eager hypnotees to work with and it helped Dani's confidence tremendously. We also got a chance for some social time with the always-busy Mephki, which was a treat.
Breakfast was less hectic Sunday as the French tourists were gone. We got to talk with some of our fellow WEEHUers in the restaurant and rode the early shuttle with panavatar and Fleur, who was still limping from a serious ankle sprain on Saturday (one great thing about an EEHU is that Doctor Mephki is always in the house). We helped set up chairs for the final day of classes.
Dani and I indulged ourselves in another LeeAllure class, this one on hypnotic amnesia. Then it was time for what is usually the highlight of my EEHU, Kinky Human Tricks. The audience turned out to be small, which made it hard to develop the room energy that I usually get for KHT, but we had some great demos of sensation play and freeze play and of course the Five-Point Palm Exploding Orgasm Technique. I felt a little bad because my volunteer for the 5-point technique was building to it slowly and we ran out of time before she could get all the way to orgasm. Things like that happen sometimes because I don't generally pre-select my volunteers. It's worth the risk because even when I "fail" it helps people to understand that not everything works the way you want it to the first time out. I'd rather someone think, "Well, it didn't always work for Wiseguy either" rather than "How did I screw this up?" when faced with a similar situation on their own.
After lunch (we went to the food court at the nearby mall), it was time for the class I'd been looking forward to most: Dual Inductions, presented by myself and my wife Dani. This was Dani's debut as a presenter, and she was everything I knew she could be. Our timing was good, her voice work was exceptional, and we dropped our volunteers with no difficulty at all. I'm unspeakably proud of Dani for showing the EEHU community that she has skills in her own right.
Our last class of the day, in the last timeslot, was All the Way Down, my class on really deep trance states. We were in the very comfortable upper lounge, which suited the topic nicely because this is the one in which I take someone into the Esdaile state to demonstrate how it can be done and why you would want to do it. I used Dani, as her reward for doing so well in the dual inductions class, and she enjoyed it quite a bit. I was also honored to meet Dossie Easton, who taught the shadowplay class on Saturday, and to have her sitting in for All the Way Down.
There was no formal plan for after-con dinner -- or, rather, there was a chaotic mix of partially-formed plans -- but Professor X took the initiative and got us a reservation for a large group at a kink-friendly restaurant she knew nearby. That gave us a chance to dine and chat with people we hadn't been able to get much time with, like Professor X herself and Hypnomaestro and SweetGasp (among many others). There were hugs, there were goodbyes, and there were see-you-at-NEEHUs.
It was a great time once again. Next year, I'm flying on Thursday instead of Friday!
-wg
For the second year in a row, travel to WEEHU was made way more difficult than it had to be by forces outside of anyone's control. Last year it was the shooting at, and subsequent closure of, LAX airport; this time it was the fire in the radar control tower outside Chicago, which caused ripples across North America with flight connections. Dani and I were stuck in San Diego for 3 extra hours (which wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't confined to Terminal 1 of the airport there), which caused me to miss both of my scheduled Friday afternoon classes. Fortunately Hypnoguru stepped into the void and ran "The Art of Teaching Hypnosis" and "Kinky Human Tricks" for me so there was no need to disrupt the schedule.
We did make it to San Francisco in time for the Friday night play party at The Citadel. The party's theme was "A Taste of Kink." There were experts there in a number of kinky disciplines: knife play, caning, single-tails, flogging, needle play. Professor X and I were there representing erotic hypnosis. People circulated through the space getting 5-minutes "tastes" of whatever they desired. There was a good mixture of people new and curious, experienced, and enthusiastic about erotic hypnosis and I had a ball doing 5-minute scenes with them. By the end of the tasting Dani and I had been up for 22 hours straight and were fading fast; we caught the WEEHU-provided shuttle back to the hotel and crashed.
Saturday morning proved hectic thanks to a busload of French tourists who had also stopped at the convention hotel for the night. The hotel restaurant was packed and the staff were clearly not prepared for it; breakfast took a little more time than anyone expected. The restaurant also wasn't really set up for large groups, so there was no real chance to commune with our fellow attendees over breakfast. We got onto the first shuttle and headed over to the Citadel to help open up.
The first class of the day for me was Erotic Hypnosis 101, and as usual I got a nice crowd of new and curious people. For the demo scene we did some voodoo doll play, with my Dani as the voodoo doll and troublethewater (her Fetlife name) as the volunteer. Both of them were delightful and we had a great time with it.
Next up, immediately following, was Subtle Suggestion, my NLP-and-hypnosis class that I added to my roster for MEEHU. I'd added material to the outline because I finished way early at MEEHU, and I still ended up with about 10 minutes extra. We spent it talking about other applications of NLP, working hard to stay out of therapy territory. I'm going to have to add some more material to this for NEEHU 6.
One thing I enjoyed about WEEHU 2 was that I did have more downtime than usual. It was good to have the chance to sit in on Hypnomaster_D's class on Global Suggestion, a technique he has developed for speaking directly with the subconscious and getting cooperation from it even without a formal induction. I'd heard about it and read some on Fetlife, but seeing it actually used and established with someone was fascinating.
After lunch with Lady Ru'etha and some friends at a place called Show Dogs (which was extraordinarily tasty!), I taught Hypnotizing the Analytical Mind, an expanded version of the Live Learning class I did on Hypbook in August. Rather than just teaching confusion inductions, this class takes a holistic view of working or playing with an analytical-minded person with emphasis on getting the basics right -- rapport, setting expectations -- before lunging into a complex confusion induction that may not be necessary or the best approach.
Another free period followed, and then it was time for Deeper, Faster, Easier, my hypnotee-oriented class on getting better at going into trance. There was a lot of interest in this one and we used the time well, teaching the audience self-hypnosis and doing some fractionation with them to help break down any barriers.
To close out the class day Dani and I sat in on LeeAllure's class on doing hypnoplay in public places. There are few things I enjoy more than watching Lee teach; her mischievous brand of hypno-sadism was fully on display in that class and it was a great cap on the day.
Dani and I had a mission for the Saturday night play party: to practice our dual inductions on as many volunteers as we could muster. It's one thing to practice at home with an empty chair; to make sure our timing and nonverbal cues were right we needed some live volunteers. As you might imagine, it was not difficult at WEEHU to find people willing to be tranced by us. Even with LeeAllure and DJ Pynchon offering dual inductions too, we had plenty of eager hypnotees to work with and it helped Dani's confidence tremendously. We also got a chance for some social time with the always-busy Mephki, which was a treat.
Breakfast was less hectic Sunday as the French tourists were gone. We got to talk with some of our fellow WEEHUers in the restaurant and rode the early shuttle with panavatar and Fleur, who was still limping from a serious ankle sprain on Saturday (one great thing about an EEHU is that Doctor Mephki is always in the house). We helped set up chairs for the final day of classes.
Dani and I indulged ourselves in another LeeAllure class, this one on hypnotic amnesia. Then it was time for what is usually the highlight of my EEHU, Kinky Human Tricks. The audience turned out to be small, which made it hard to develop the room energy that I usually get for KHT, but we had some great demos of sensation play and freeze play and of course the Five-Point Palm Exploding Orgasm Technique. I felt a little bad because my volunteer for the 5-point technique was building to it slowly and we ran out of time before she could get all the way to orgasm. Things like that happen sometimes because I don't generally pre-select my volunteers. It's worth the risk because even when I "fail" it helps people to understand that not everything works the way you want it to the first time out. I'd rather someone think, "Well, it didn't always work for Wiseguy either" rather than "How did I screw this up?" when faced with a similar situation on their own.
After lunch (we went to the food court at the nearby mall), it was time for the class I'd been looking forward to most: Dual Inductions, presented by myself and my wife Dani. This was Dani's debut as a presenter, and she was everything I knew she could be. Our timing was good, her voice work was exceptional, and we dropped our volunteers with no difficulty at all. I'm unspeakably proud of Dani for showing the EEHU community that she has skills in her own right.
Our last class of the day, in the last timeslot, was All the Way Down, my class on really deep trance states. We were in the very comfortable upper lounge, which suited the topic nicely because this is the one in which I take someone into the Esdaile state to demonstrate how it can be done and why you would want to do it. I used Dani, as her reward for doing so well in the dual inductions class, and she enjoyed it quite a bit. I was also honored to meet Dossie Easton, who taught the shadowplay class on Saturday, and to have her sitting in for All the Way Down.
There was no formal plan for after-con dinner -- or, rather, there was a chaotic mix of partially-formed plans -- but Professor X took the initiative and got us a reservation for a large group at a kink-friendly restaurant she knew nearby. That gave us a chance to dine and chat with people we hadn't been able to get much time with, like Professor X herself and Hypnomaestro and SweetGasp (among many others). There were hugs, there were goodbyes, and there were see-you-at-NEEHUs.
It was a great time once again. Next year, I'm flying on Thursday instead of Friday!
-wg
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