Cross-posting from the Hypnosis Technique Exchange . . . responding to a post from another list . . .

I’m curious is it even possiable to hynotize someone from an email

Yes. If you go get the Wendi Friesen book Hypnotize Your Lover you will find a chapter on hypnotic love letters written by yours truly . . . well, maybe not YOURS TRULY but definately by me . . . about using hypnotic triggers in letters or emails. I won’t say it’s the best piece I’ve written, but it is straightforward and the directions are easy enough to follow.

Of course, that particular technique uses preset triggers that a consenting adult couple has already conditioned in their erotic hypnosis play. If you don’t know how to set erotic post-hypnotic suggestions, then you might want to read my blog at Life of Brian in the hypnosis categories (no, I’m not selling anything . . . at least not there).

I would caution against email or chat-based hypnosis for anything but recreational uses. There are folks charging good money for "online therapy" via email and text-based chat for which I would suggest folks save their money for real face-to-face sessions with a competent real live hypnotist. In my opinion, the email therapists in particular are likely to do less good than their robust claims and hyperbole would suggest, despite the fact that some of them are rather well-placed individuals in certain large international hypnosis organizations. Face to face sessions for therapy are more reliable and less prone to hucksterism. That is, of course, my opinion. Others are free to disagree with me, but I find it very doubtful they’ll convince me otherwise. When doing online recreational hypnosis, it is also a good idea to use "positive frame words" to keep everything in an appropriate context.

For general hypnosis information, you might also want to check out the other categories there related to hypnosis, focused trance, influence, and guided imagery.

Or, you could also go through the archives at Hypnosis Technique Exchange where there is a whole slew of stuff on this particular subject for application in a variety of contexts. Heck, if you look though the message archives for EHypnosis you will find a number of examples of just what you’re talking about.

Of course, if you really aren’t all that familiar with hypnosis in and of itself, you might want to consult the main pages at Brian David Phillips Waking Dreams Focused Trancework for some very straightforward and useful resources (both free and commercial, albeit the informative sections of the site have a LOT of very useful material).

or in a chat room

Chat rooms are easy. I assume you are talking about text-based chats though as they’re easy. Chatrooms with audio (with or without video) are more than easy, they’re a piece of cake.

A lot of folks seem to think that you need eye closure to have hypnosis, this is not so. It makes things easier, but you don’t have to close your eyes to be hypnotized. Of course, eye closure does help increase focus on a focus trance guide’s spoken words and to help shut out outside interference.

A really nice workaround technique for online and text-based hypnosis is to include brief periods of eye closure. I have used the Elman induction via text-chat to good effect by merely including an instruction that once a person has done the eye closure and deepeners, they will . . . breathe in . . . breathe out . . . and relax . . . a few deep breaths bringing them down . . . down . . . deeper . . . down . . . and then once they’re at a nice deep level, they merely hold onto that wonderful feeling and open their eyes and continue reading. Yes, it works fine.

You can also simply use suggestibility tests adapted to your needs, utilizing eyes-open effects or tests as deepeners and engagement of imaginative involvement in the process.

or even via audio chat?

Of course, audio chat is possible. The same principles apply to audio chat that apply to telephone hypnosis . . . which works much more effectively than audio recordings which can work quite well with many folks. So, if a recording will work, of course an interactive system where they hypnotist can chat with the subject and utilize an audio feedback loop will work.

However, a real boon for audio chat hypnosis is the recent boom in webcams. Once you add a video stream to the audio hypnosis session, you have a very nice system for using the subject-hypnotist feedback loop in a very powerful way. By watching a subject’s responses, I can tell much more reliably if they are actually "getting it" or if they are having problems following my directions. For the recreational hypnotists, they can also ferret out and remove the various hypno-roleplayers who pretend to be hypnotized but who don’t actually follow the process – for whatever reasons. For me, I have no interest in hypnoroleplay . . . I love roleplaying games as in RPGs, LARPs, and Interactive Drama, as part of the gaming hobby and I have been known to combine my RPG interests with hypnosis by hypnotizing folks to experience the game as if it were completely real but I have no interest whatsoever in being involved in a hypnoroleplay session where folks pretend to be hypnotized when the real deal is so easy to achieve and far more satisfying.

Of course, with audio only or audio and webcam, there are still some very nice hypnotic tests and effects that won’t be possible since you’re missing the ability to actually touch a subject (the Elman arm drop test comes to mind, but there are a few others). However, any competent hypnotist should be able to surmount that particular limitation (if someone claims to be a hypnotist and they can’t figure out how to do a session that way, I have serious misgivings regarding their knowledge, skill, and experience) . . . albeit, given a choice, I would take a realtime real life session over cyberhypnosis any day. I like touch in my hypnotic work as there’s just so much you can add to the session (recreational or therapeutic . . . depending upon context . . . I also know when not to use touch and when it is inappropriate).

All the best,
Brian