So . . . zombies are all the craze right now . . . comic books, movies, television shows, and video games. Well, what if you could use hypnosis to experientially enter into the game and experience the events of the game as if it were real? Nope, we’re not talkin’ holodeck fiction here, you can really do this.
Okay, this is either an awesome idea or a very very bad idea . . . actually, it can be both or either, depending upon who is doing it and whether or not they follow simple saftey guidelines I’ve discussed on this blog time and time again . . . for the folks who do it right, it can be awesome, for the one’s who do it wrong, it can fuck you up and by fuck you up I mean really big time fuckity fucked fucked up. We’re talkin’ let’s install our own very real post-traumatic stress disorder fucked up.
I recently read about a mod for a PC game that has become quite the rage. The DayZ mod (see http://www.dayzmod.com/) for the game ARMA II (see http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4639/) has really taken the internet by storm. The good folks at Kotaku are calling it pretty much the best zombie apocalypse video game ever made for very good reason (see http://kotaku.com/5908753/this-might-be-the-greatest-zombie-game-ever-made). Also see http://kotaku.com/5910279/pc-zombie-darling-causes-sale-explosion-arma-devs-happy-to-help) and http://kotaku.com/5909970/the-terror-and-the-laughter-behind-the-pcs-latest-zombie-craze.
Essentially, the game has a great deal of realism . . . no, I don’t mean the realistic game play as there are some bugs still in this alpha mod. I mean the game world circumstances set players up to feel as if they really are in the circumstances of the game. Their vicarious experiential empathy is set up to full throttle. Players often learn to band together into groups to survive cooperatively while others develop sociopathic strategies of kill and steal, becoming bandits who prey upon other survivors. One major factor in the game is that it’s in real time and that death is permanent, with no respawns of characters. Once a character is killed it is deleted permanently from the servers so the player has to start completely from scratch with a new character to continue playing the game. One becomes less foolhardy or foolish as in other games with their unlimited supplies and lives. In this game, life is precious and resources scarce.
If you check youtube you will find a number of videos of folks playing the game . . . you get a sense of the tension and the fear and the cooperative sensibility. You also get a sense for the death toll as sagas will often show how a large group is eventually whittled down into a few.
I find it fascinating how you can hear the players voices indicate genuine distress when a traveling mate has been wounded and how they will sacrifice their own safety to improve survivability of the group and how they sometimes get so caught up in the game they scream in fear or cry in emotional distress. Lots of whining, lots of emotional roller coasters.
Here’s a video from one such saga to give you an idea:
Now, having seen that, you get a bit of an idea . . . go watch more videos online if you have an interest.
Let’s get to the real meat of this matter . . . many of you are already familiar with my more than a whole lot extensive use of a trance process I call the Vicarious Experiential Machine which is a form of deep trance modeling or hypnotic identification in which a person can improve skill sets via a deep trance identification of a visual stimuli. Premium members on this site are already familiar with this session:
This image is from a session I had with an Indian actress in Mumbai in which she wished to work on her dance skills and did so via this particular pattern. Pemium members can view the entire session and an explanation of the process.
Please note, you must be a Premium Member of the site to access this video, it’s a simple signup – go to the Membership page to join or renew your Premium Membership or more robust Platinum Premium Membership. Here’s the video:
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This is a typical demonstration for one of my seminars. Notice the teaching style is informal and fun but I stick to content and provide instruction. The students were practicing this same induction and much more rather quickly.
Here’s a photo of another approach.
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I have another demonstration of this process in my EROTICATRANCE erotic hypnosis training video set in which a person uses hypnosis in order to visualize an erotic skill set and then replay it with experiential vicarious sensations that are vivid and rather powerful. Here’s an image from that session:
In this session, I asked our volunteer trance partner to select an erotic skillset that he wished to improve in and then asked him to imagine a scene in which someone performs the skill and then accelerate the sensation so that as he visualized he also felt the sensations in his own body.
Now, I know you may be wondering how this sort of deep trance imagined visualization ties into something like an interactive video game which is an eyes open visual medium. The complete process allows one to watch a video and feel the events in the visual stream – it can be video or film or computer or even photographs; heck it can even be text on the written page but for our purposes video games would be fair game – as the events in the video game can be felt viscerally as if they are real.
Typically, for my hypnotherapy clients who wish to improve physical skillsets I ask them to bring in a video that they can watch of someone performing the skill perfectly and then I use this pattern so that we accelerated actual improvement via imagined connections via basically the person’s neurology . . . those mirror neurons are essentially thrown into high gear with this sort of thing. I’ve worked with world class golfers, competitive swimmers, martial artists, dancers, and more with this sort of approach with very good effect.
Obviously, it can be used for strictly recreational effect to in which a person watches a video in experiential trance in order to feel a new sensation or experience. Since I’m a 3D aficionado, I recommend giving stereoscopic media a go as well. A thrilling roller coaster video becomes so much more thrilling when you experience it as if it’s really happening to you.
There are more intriguing uses for this as well such as seen in this photo.
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This photo was taken during my recent Eroticatrance Two training in Los Angeles in which I taught a bunch of folks advanced erotic hypnosis techniques. Our trance partner volunteer is hypnotized and watching a video I prepared especially for the training complete with hypnotic trigger words and activation protocol related to the vicarious experiential machine. The folks standing in the background are his classmates in the training who were so intrigued by his very obvious very powerful responses that they came around to take a peek at what video was associated with such powerful sensual response.
The setup is as follows: This content is for members only. . . . needless to say it was an interesting experience and quite a powerful one at that.
Actually, the video went much longer than we used in class but his reaction was so intense and so exhausting that I cut it short a bit. He did say that he wasn’t sure he could have handled any more . . . so, it’s a good thing I used the five minute video for the demonstration rather than the forty-five minute video included in some of the training materials for participants to play with.
Once can do this sort of thing with an appropriate intimate significant other, although it should be kept in mind that you really need to have consent . . . hypnotizing your wife to feel the experiences of an adult film Big-Breasted Bisexual Babes in Bondage is not a good idea unless she has a genuine interest or fantasy regarding bi-sexual or bondage experiences. Seriously, don’t fuck up your relationship by trying to sneak in something you know your partner is uncomfortable with.
As an aside, as to the Eroticatrance Two footage, I am currently in the process of editing the video footage and it looks pretty good.
Now, back to our zombie friends. The thing about intense material within hypnosis is that it can feel pretty intense and for some folks that can be way too much and even cause issues. What is fun for one person might not be so much fun for the next.
Be sure to take a look at some of our previous discussions on this general topic:
- Vicarious Experiential Memory Machine . . . see http://briandavidphillips.net/2004/07/17/vicarious-experiential-memory-machine/.
- TRANCEPLAY: Hypnotic Holonovels and Games and Art (Trance-Based Hypnotic Virtual Reality) . . . see http://briandavidphillips.net/2005/01/12/t-r-a-n-c-e-p-l-a-y-hypnotic-holonovels-and-games-and-art-trance-based-hypnotic-virtual-reality/.
- Vicarious Experience and Real Experience: Of Mirror Neurons and Trance Processes . . . see http://briandavidphillips.net/2005/12/27/vicarious-experience-and-real-experience-of-mirror-neurons-and-trance-processes/.
- Stepping inside and eXperiencing Fantasy AS IF it’s Real or the Joys of eXperiential Fantasy Trance . . . see http://briandavidphillips.net/2010/02/14/stepping-inside-and-experiencing-fantasy-as-if-its-real-or-the-joys-of-experiential-fantasy-trance/.
Once you’ve reviewed that sort of material and had a chance to really think about the upside and downside of experiential hypnotic zombie gameplay, then watch this sort of thing and ask yourself if a zombie horde really is something you’re looking to encounter:
Then again, like the players of this game, you’re ready to go and ready to say, “let’s do this.”
Still interested?
In that case, be sure to have a dissociation suggestion that allows the trance partner to pull back from the experience if it gets too intense, an automatic fail safe that reminds one that it’s just a game and that it’s only as vivid or as intense as the unconscious wishes to make it in order to enhance the positive aspects of enjoyable gameplay as well as a simple trigger that allows the gamer to simply disconnect at any time.
Here are some useful articles from elsewhere on the effect of mirror neurons and video games. Mirror Neurons are specifically activated via the Vicarious Experiential Machine process:
- Empathy and Conditioning Violence . . . http://www.gamespot.com/features/empathy-and-conditioning-violence-6143438/.
- Making Gamers Cry: Mirror Neurons and EmbodiedInteraction with Game Sound . . . http://uwaterloo.academia.edu/KarenCollins/Papers/1029188/Making_Gamers_Cry_Mirror_Neurons_and_Embodied_Interaction_with_Game_Sound.
- Exploring Mirror Neurons: Rethinking Performance and Communicative Processes . . . http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=843.
- Mirror neurons in Video Gaming . . . http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/minds/mirror_neurons_video_gaming_2006.html.
- Mirror Neurons and Video Games . . . http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/07/mirror-neurons-video-games.html.
Want to listen to an example audio recording of this sort of approach with a model for hypnotic patter?
The Vicarious Experiential Memory Machine Extended Audio Recording – 27 minutes, 12.7 megs. Working via the activation of mirror neurons, this is the full session for conditioning to the technique that allows you to experience video, film, or series photographs interactively as a deep trance modeling event. From the DTM (Deep Trance Modeling) collection.
This recording is a bit dated and represents the work I was doing a few years ago, current procedures are streamlined for patter effectiveness as well as to enhance the trance partner’s experience.
Included here is the audio recording for streaming play (please note, you must be a Premium Member of the site to access this audio recording, it’s a simple signup – go to the Membership page to join or renew your Premium Membership). Here’s the recording:
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There you have it. We have a number of other videos and audio recordings in the Special Free Membership Bonus Items category for the blog as well as Premium resources.
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If you would like to learn more about using hypnosis techniques, feel free to surf the rest of this website and consult our Core Skills and many more other hypnosis training programs as well as other products found in our online store at http://briandavidphillips.net/store/ (you may wish to check out our package programs for even more value).
Live Trance and Prosper,
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
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