Two Cautions

Let's pull this topic out from the comments and confront it front and center:

Play carefully.

If you're going to put your favorite submissive into a trance and call forth her subconscious, there are a couple of things you need to be cautious about.

The first you might call "the two girlfriend problem." If you're particularly successful at bringing out her subconscious, and empowering that subconscious to help you control her conscious mind, several things can happen. You will probably like her subconscious a lot. She will like you a lot. You will find yourself having to choose which side of her mind you want to talk with tonight, or play with. Her subconscious, who is fully aware of both sides of the mind, may ask you which one you prefer. Her conscious, who may or may not realize what her subconscious is like, is likely to become jealous of the time she spends in the dark, not too sure what you're doing with the "other woman." In an extreme case, the subconscious really will lobby to be left in charge for long stretches of time. (Megan hasn't, but other subconsciouses have.) Danger there.

c has commented several times about what this feels like from the subject's point of view. My own advice is to side with the conscious side every time. You're already messing with her head more than enough. Anyway, I find that over time a strong, caring subconscious and an adventurous conscious will find ways to communicate with each other, if not even blend a bit. In the mean time, take steps to reduce the shock of going in and out of trance. Nothing rattles a person more than to wake up in a different location, wearing different clothes, with signs of unusual activity in her nether regions.

The second challenge is an ethical one: What to do when the subconscious shares a deep secret that she is keeping from the conscious mind? Should you tell? You are surprisingly likely to encounter this: Of the subconsciouses I've spoken with at length, about half of them had helped the conscious mind years ago by grabbing hold of a particularly painful memory and locking it away. It's often rape or some other sort of sexual aggression, but sometimes it's another physically or emotionally painful event. The most severe case I've encountered: A woman in her mid-20s with no memories from before she left home at age 17, thanks to a very protective subconscious. The act of locking up these memories seems to spawn leftover obsessions that, to the conscious mind, arise out of nowhere. Again, my advice: Respect her mind for how it's coped with the agony, keep the secret, and don't meddle in something we don't understand.

Those are the biggest hurdles I have encountered. But if you're aware of them in advance, you ought to be able to get over them.

Breath Play

I don't know about you all, but I love breath play. Without going anywhere near the danger zone, I can put a level of control and fear into the game that is hard to match. And it requires no equipment but your hand. Or hands.

I know it's controversial -- the edge is hard to define -- and so I haven't talked much about it here. I've edited out a couple of c's better exploits because she and K push breath play pretty far.

But I've found a way to use hypnosis in breath play, and I think it's above reproach for safety and sanity.

It's simple, too. You can set it up in advance with your sub's subconscious. Or, if you've set up a simple way to give new commands in mid-scene, you can slip it in then.

"In a moment, you're going to start holding your breath, while I start counting. At 10 you'll have an orgasm. At 20 you can breath again. OK ... start."

I think you'll find the results are explosive.

Limitless?

Let's talk about "limits". If you're into BDSM, you've probably spent a lot of time discussing them, probably early in a relationship. You've probably filled out one of those "lists". And with any luck, you and your partner have a sane, solid agreement on where the lines are drawn.

So what happens when it turns out that a sub's subconscious, hypnotically conditioned to obey the dom, may be playing by different rules?

In our case, e has a few hard limits. Back when we both thought this was something mediated entirely by her conscious self, she said: no extreme pain, blood, needles, scat or full confinement (severe claustrophobia). I was perfectly fine with all of those, although I'm working with her on her claustrophobia and have done some illusionary blood, needle and scat play.

But her subconscious, marion, has different limits. She doesn't have claustrophobia, and I suspect she loves needles.

What's more, marion has said that she'll obey any instruction, regardless of the consequences. She has warned me that she is extremely literal in her obedience to commands.

This isn't to say that she wants to override e's limits. "They're important to her. i wouldn't want to hurt her emotionally, even if she could handle something physically."

But what if I gave her an order that violated one of those limits? What would marion do?

"i don't really know ... i'd try to work out a way to get around it, look carefully at Your language ... don't know if the struggle would wake her or not, though i doubt it. i might ask a question, but ... i have a hard time saying no to You."

So I suppose it's an obvious question: Whose limits are in force now?

The answer is pretty easy for me. This isn't a game of "gotcha". Marion might not enforce e's limits, but I will. Just as any dom can choose to ignore his sub's limits, and promptly lose her trust, I could ignore hers. But I'd be a fool to do so.

I asked marion what she thought of this.

"People need to respect their partners ... and the reasons they have limits. Hypnosis isn't an excuse to blow through them."

Careful What You Ask For

This is e's subconscious, although you can call me marion, as D has given me that name now.

I wanted to take some time while e was 'away' to make a quick post myself. There have been so many interesting things going on lately that i thought i should add my two cents in, coming from a somewhat unique perspective.

I thought that it would be good to talk a bit about do's and don'ts as far as hypnotizing is concerned, and things that you'd definitely need to keep a close eye on. Keep in mind that i'm not an expert and can only speak for myself and e.

It's really important to make sure you as the Dom or Domme or Hypnotizer, whoever you might be, keep very good track of what's going on with the hypnotizee. I think that D keeps somewhat of a running list of the major 'programs' that He's installed with me. This is really important so that one isn't giving conflicting messages. It will also help you avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls.

We luckily haven't run into a big conflict yet, where D tells e to do one thing that is in direct conflict with another, so i'm not quite sure what would happen. Either the new command would override the first, or the first having already been in place would stick, or some strange new combination would appear, having completely unpredictable results.

Another thing you want to keep very good track of is trigger words. When you implant a trigger for some specific activity, i highly suggest that you; 1. Use unusual words that your hypnotizee won't likely encounter in every day life and 2. WRITE THEM DOWN!!! It would be really unfortunate if you or someone else accidentally triggered something at a dangerous or embarrassing moment. Forgetting might be just as bad -- as weeks or months later you could use it unintentionally.

Both D and e have mentioned her "accidental pee" in the kitchen. This is a great example of another possible hazard with permanent triggers. e was programmed that when she snapped her fingers i would blank out the memory of what would happen and she would wet herself. There weren't any conditions put on this trigger, so she snapped and i delivered in technicolor.

Choose your words carefully; think about what you want to say before you say it. i'm fairly certain that D often writes out His commands before they are given to us to avoid any mistakes or unexpected turns. A few badly placed words and your hypnotizee could be in an unpleasant situation. You wouldn't want to frighten or hurt her, unless of course you meant to.