i was answering a question about my interest in hypnosis and thought you all might be interested in my answer:

as early as i can remember encountering concepts of mind control/hypnosis, it made me feel different in a good way. obviously as a child i didn't have the understanding of what that meant like i do now, nor was it an inherently sexual interest for me, but that appeal was always there. i sort of forgot about it as i grew up though and never really encountered it much until march/april of 2024 i came across an erotic hypnosis porn video (i think it was using bambi sleep audio but i cant really remember) and as an initial skeptic, was blown away at how easily i fell into trance and how well the suggestions worked.

i had already been "prescribed" daily guided meditation practices by my amazing, trauma-focused psychiatrist at the time, something that i hated until one day it clicked and i truly had the transformative, altered state of consciousness that one can achieve with methods such as meditation and hypnosis. as a fan of drugs, i was instantly hooked. because this was like a waaaaaaay safer, less stigmatized way to get high lol.

additionally, i am someone with a naturally dominant personality in my day to day life. as we've discussed, i am a natural born leader and have achieved so much success, especially for my age, that it's genuinely remarkable. but ive never really felt pride in these achievements because due to my dominant, ambitious personality, these were all things that i just figured i *had* to achieve. like widespread success was something i just naturally expected throughout my life. not in an arrogant way though. in fact, my dedication to productivity has been quite debilitating at times. which leads me to my entire point with this section...

hypnosis lets me relax. i am not exaggerating when i say that in my 25 years of life, hypnosis is the first thing i have ever done to relax. i mean like, ive tried doing the normal "relaxing" things throughout my life, but i always caved to productivity and was riddled with illogical guilt that was so uncomfortable, i would stop whatever i was doing to "relax" (me having a history of substance use disorder should come as no surprise to anyone given this information lol) but with hypnosis, i dont have any of that. and ive been able to incorporate it into my daily schedule so that i get it in healthy doses, which has greatly improved so many other aspects of my life.

tldr; i largely credit discovery of hypnosis to be what has saved my life. no exaggeration. no dramatization. i am very much being literal with that statement.