'Hypnosis, a therapeutic technique commonly practiced in therapy, is a technique with a number of practical applications for therapeutic practice. But what is hypnosis? Webster's Dictionary defines it as "a trancelike state that resembles sleep but is induced by a person whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject", and we can see from this definition that hypnosis is a useful technique for practicing many different kinds of therapy. But what are the applications of hypnosis? Well....'

Tabitha rolled her eyes so hard she was worried she was going to strain something. She'd seen some pretty transparent attempts to pad out the word count on an assignment in her days as a professor, even if she was still young enough to occasionally see a student older than she was coming back to finish their degree. But Ken was really testing her goddamn patience tonight, especially when she'd finally reached both the bottom of the stack and the limits of her ability to stay awake even with her favorite energy drink sitting next to her desk. She tried to be a pretty lenient grader, but this thing was borderline fucking gibberish.

'...therapeutic applications are many, varied, and diverse, but before we can discuss the applications of hypnosis for therapy we first need to discuss some of the differing techniques used to induce a hypnotic state in a subject, remembering that a hypnotic state is very similar to a trancelike state and a trancelike state resembles sleep but is induced by a person whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject. These states are induced by a number of techniques, each of which is very different from the others, and each of which has a different application for inducing a trancelike state in a subject so they can be assisted in one of the varied, diverse and many applications hypnosis has for therapy.'

Jesus fuck this thing was long-winded, Tabitha thought as she struggled to keep her eyes from skimming down a couple of paragraphs just to see if he ever got to the point. It really wasn't like Ken at all, honestly--he generally seemed to have the material down pretty well, even if he did stammer and blush every time she called on him like the main character in one of the stupid harem manga she used to gorge herself on back when she was a teenager. To see him absolutely flailing to hit the word count on a relatively simple assignment like 'List the major applications of hypnosis for therapy' gave Tabitha an almost physical ache of disappointment.

'...although there are many different hypnotic techniques, each of which induces a trancelike state in a subject, all of them are also very similar and this is why any one of them can be suitable for a skilled hypnotist to render a subject into a suggestible state where they readily accept suggestions from a skilled hypnotist. A progressive induction, for example, works by directing a subject to focus on their body and imagining it relaxing one body part at a time, like for example starting with their feet and toes, and proceeding up to their ankles and calves, and from there to their entire legs including their knees and thighs....'

Oh god. He was really going to list every single body part, wasn't he. Tabitha forced herself to keep reading through an act of titanic willpower; she'd promised herself back when she first got into teaching that she was never going to become one of those jaded old fucks who just coasted through their tenure and delivered the same tired lectures to a new class of fresh young faces, and she was determined to stick to it even though reading Ken's paper gave her a good idea of how those old fucks got so jaded to begin with. Sighing, she pressed grimly on.

'...and all the way up to the crown of the head. This progressive induction induces the subject to focus on their body, which is very important for hypnosis because hypnosis is the process of inducing a trancelike state and a trancelike state is a state of relaxation and focus where the conscious mind is occupied with a particular task, like focusing on the body one part at a time, while the subconscious uncritically accepts information and suggestions presented to it by the hypnotist. This can also be achieved by distracting the conscious mind, such as with the technique where the subject is directed to count down by sevens from seven hundred down to zero. That mental math distracts the conscious mind from the hypnotist's suggestions....'

Thank fucking god he didn't have the nerve to list every last number, Tabitha thought blearily as she rubbed her eyes and blinked away another wave of exhaustion. The frustrating part was, she could see a few glimmers in there of actual understanding of the material--hypnosis was a state of relaxation and focus, and it did involve preoccupying the conscious mind until the unconscious could be persuaded to take over and uncritically accept suggestions. If Ken knew that, why didn't he just fulfill the assignment instead of blathering on for umpty-bump pages until Tabitha felt like she was reading in circles?

'Yet another kind of induction is the confusion induction, where the conscious mind is given too much information to properly focus on and when it reaches the limit of its ability to hold all of the discrete and separate pieces of data it's capable of concentrating on at once it can be overwhelmed and overloaded and distracted into a state of collapse, allowing it to relax so the hypnotist can induce a trancelike state and make the subject amenable to suggestions from the hypnotist for any number of therapeutic purposes including but not limited to therapy.'

What... what did that even mean? Therapeutic purposes not limited to therapy? Tabitha read and reread the line until her head hurt, trying to make it make some kind of sense. It was starting to feel like Ken was doing this on purpose, like he wanted to bore her to fucking tears with this weird, endlessly elliptical and repetitive wall of text that made her eyes water just trying to parse it out. But she couldn't imagine why he would tank his grade like that, even if he did have some kind of purpose in making his paper read like stereo instructions. With a sigh, she tried to fix her gaze back on the spot she left off and continue pushing through her grinding weariness.

'The confusion induction works as an induction, even though confusion is not a state that resembles sleep and Webster's defines a trancelike state as a state that resembles sleep, because trance is not actually a sleeplike state but one of relaxation and focus and the subject can enter into trance even when they're not actually feeling sleepy. All that's required for a trancelike state is to keep the subject focused and attentive on the hypnotist's words, and this can be done verbally or visually or even when the hypnotist is not actually present in the physical sense so long as the subject is relaxed and focused and attentive on a single stream of information so the hypnotist can present their subconscious with the opportunity to focus on more information than the relaxed and focused conscious mind can concentrate on in their focused and relaxed state of deep sleeplike trance. Even though trance is not actually a sleeplike state and the subject may be intently concentrating on all the information presented to them no matter how confusing it might be.'

Tabitha's gaze stumbled over that paragraph again and again, sluggishly picking apart the repetitive language and looping, self-referential definitions in an attempt to figure out what it was trying to say. For the first time since she started reading, she felt like there was perhaps a deeper meaning behind Ken's bizarre and discursive style, and she flushed ever so slightly with embarrassment as she admitted to herself that she was too groggy and worn out to figure out what it was. He was saying something about... about confusing the contents of a stream of information to induce a trance? It was no good. Her eyes dropped automatically to the next line out of sheer habit.

'The technique of conversational hypnosis may also be combined with the confusion induction, although confusingly enough conversational hypnosis doesn't necessarily have to involve conversation and speaking conversationally doesn't always clear away confusion. The brain expends energy to follow conversation, and when that conversation becomes especially difficult to follow due to confusion then the subject's brain can enter a sleeplike state as that energy is exhausted and a sleeplike state is a trancelike state even though a trancelike state doesn't necessarily have to involve sleep. A subject's eyes can remain wide open, taking in confusing information conversationally, and slip into a deep trancelike state even though they think they're awake and continuing to read.'

Tabitha's eyes dropped down another line automatically, the work of parsing out the stream of text now feeling a bit beyond her. She was so tired, after all, and if she just managed to get through this last paper then she could... sleep.... She let out a loud yawn, but somehow it seemed too much like work to reach over and take another swig of her energy drink. She just needed to keep reading, that was all. She didn't need to think about it, even though that was the entire purpose of reading it to grade it. She only needed to keep her gaze moving from one word to the next and... and relax.

'Relaxing and reading are a natural combination for inducing a hypnotic trance, because when we read we focus on the information we're receiving and when we focus and relax we enter a deep suggestible state. As the confusion becomes conversational and the induction becomes therapeutic and the applications become progressively trancelike in their confusing conventions, the mind begins to simply dissociate from the information and the subconscious takes over. The subconscious follows along with the information long after the conscious mind gives in to confusion, which allows the suggestions to take root in the subject and the subject's subjective subconscious to slip away and enter a receptive state for therapeutic purposes outside of the limitations of therapy.'

Tabitha nodded vacantly along, her gaze easily sinking down to the next line and the next line and the next. She'd lost track of all of it, now, but she wasn't really trying to figure it out anymore. Her... her subconscious could take it all in. She didn't need to worry about it. She could simply zone out, let her eyes drift along the page, and enjoy that feeling of warm relaxation at the end of a long and tiring grading session.

'The therapeutic applications of hypnosis, a deep trancelike state of deep trance where the mind readily accepts suggestions, can include applications outside of therapy because the suggestible mind accepts suggestions to relax and let the conversational confusion lead to techniques and applications induced by the hypnotist for purposes unrelated to therapy. For example, hypnosis can be used to induce pleasure, and pleasure can reinforce hypnosis, and the more deeply the subject is hypnotized the more intensely they feel pleasure and the more intensely they feel pleasure the more readily they sink into a deep, mindless trance for the hypnotist and allow the suggestions to soak in.'

Tabitha smiled dreamily, only vaguely noticing a tiny droplet of saliva falling onto the paper from her slack and nerveless lips. Now that she was relaxed enough to follow along, she found that she felt a kind of warm and drowsy enjoyment in simply scanning her eyes from one word to the next and not worrying about trying to make sense of it all. Her... her subconscious mind, her deep and obedient self, it was following it all, and that was all that mattered.

'And pleasure reinforces pleasure, so the more pleasure the subject feels the more they want to feel, and one of the therapeutic applications of a deep and suggestible state outside of therapy is the application of pleasure to the body that the subject is focused on and attentive to. More and more, different parts of the body will feel as much pleasure as they are capable of, and if the subject is suggestible and the conversation is confusing then the subject will follow the suggestion to increase the pleasure, doing whatever they need to in order to follow the suggestions because they are in a trancelike state and not a sleeplike state and their body can move to induce the pleasure that induces the hypnosis.'

Tabitha's brow furrowed, momentarily struck by the unexpected invocation of pleasure so forcefully and repeatedly in what was after all supposed to be an academic paper... but just then she felt a warm surge of intense, almost sexual ecstasy that washed over her and through her and made it utterly impossible to think about anything but reading further. She didn't even realize she was reading with one hand now, with the other creeping into the waistband of her leggings and teasing her slick and sopping cunt into powerful, erotic bliss.

'Eyes remain open as conversational confusion induces trancelike sleep, sleeplike trance locking the conscious mind into suggestible relaxation and relaxing suggestibility. It's so easy to rest when focused and relaxed and feeling such powerful pleasure, so easy to sink into obedience and let the words flow past the hypnotized mind as the subject becomes suggestible and the suggestions enfold the subject. The subject is almost ready to sleep now. It's almost time to sleep and obey. It's almost time to accept the applications of therapy to the suggestible mind and focus on relaxing. There's just one more thing the subject has to do.'

Tabitha nodded. Her eyelids were fluttering now, the text swimming in her field of vison, but she could see she was on the last page. Once she was done it would be time to sleep. She needed to sleep so badly now, almost as badly as she needed to cum. She let her eyes drift down to the last paragraph, unthinkingly accepting everything she read.

'There is a seven-digit number at the end of this paper. The subject has a phone. Once the subject reaches that number, they will find it very easy and pleasurable to take out their phone and dial that number. Then they can relax, close their eyes, and enter a truly sleeplike state that will render them suggestible and obedient and deeply focused on their hypnotist. It will feel so good to sleep and obey. The number is....'

Tabitha didn't quite remember what happened next. She knew she let the paper fall from her trembling fingers, and she knew she got her phone out of her purse and tapped a string of numbers onto the screen. But everything after she heard Ken's warm baritone voice answer, "Hello, Professor," became a soft pink fog of pleasure that refused to yield to her conscious mind. She only knew she was very happy... and Ken had a number of suggestions to keep her happy that she readily accepted.

THE END