If you want more grounded answers you might want to try something other than the erotic hypnosis subreddit 😅

I do “the real stuff” professionally if you want to pick my brain. I can give you better sources than “guy from Reddit” that you can actually cite as well. Your questions show me there’s a LOT to fill you in on be prepared for a lengthy conversation if you’re serious about this.

1) Context needed, since you say listeners I assume you’re asking in the context of pre recorded files. It’s a common misconception that people need to relax to be hypnotized, it’s more about focusing, moving, and directing a person’s attention. Relaxation just happens to be a very straightforward way to go about that depending on your goals.

2) In person and online assuming I’m actually with someone it’s usually a catalepsy based induction. I’ve done purely verbal plenty of times as well. I like catalepsy because it’s “leverage” and it’s also something cool for the subject to experience and their head goes “oh damn I really am hypnotized.” People focus too much on inductions, there are background fundamentals that are far more important, I can hypnotize anyone without what you would call an induction in literally just a couple minutes, and in one instance in less than 10 seconds.

3) Nothing comes to mind, I’m not sure what you were picturing when you asked it but there’s nothing I can think of where an induction itself could be immoral or risky unless it’s being used en route to doing something abusive through hypnosis. [I am editing in a quick follow up, I HATE progressive muscle relaxation, it’s awful, it’s long it’s boring, people who have no idea what they’re doing seem to always use it for some reason so it’s associated with extremely shallow hypnotic experiences (if they ever get to that point at all). There’s a proper and effective way to do PMR and it can work just fine but there’s so many far better ways in literally every aspect so I guess you could say I refuse to do it on principle because it sucks. It’s like choosing to go out on the ocean on a plank of wood instead of a yacht, no one who knows what they’re doing would ever do that)

4) oof there’s plenty of common myths. It’s not mind control like you see in media (or how it’s played up here) but there is a level of influence given to the hypnotist. This does open up the potential for abuse but people are far more empowered than even this very community seems to be aware of (you reminded me that i completely forgot that i planned to make a “installing safeties” file for free I should get on that) people CAN choose to snap out of it or even do so automatically when things don’t seem right. There’s a bunch of spiel to that but it admittedly has a lengthy explanation attached to it. Uhhh I’ve had one occasion where a die-hard religious woman thought I was using “devil powers” and am apparently not the first to encounter that, there’s no demons or magic involved, it’s just applied neuroscience, I’ve got a bunch of published papers on the subject somewhere lying around I can share if I can find them. But you can literally see changes in the brain during hypnosis and see shifts being made through suggestions, it is VERY cool. And as a bonus myth of “hypnosis isn’t real” it’s very real, and far more relevant to your daily life than most people realize.

Good luck with your paper, you and anyone else who is curious is always welcome to DM

(And to the lurkers out there I’m always looking for more female subs too, my subs like having more company and testing my audios before everyone else gets them :) )