The Internet Hates Hypnokink

Tumblr’s NSFW purge affected all different kinds of kinks, but for fans of erotic hypnosis, it was just another in a long list of sites that are pulling their content.

By Jacqueline Gualtieri

Good luck finding content like this on the web. (Art: Evan Sklar)

Hypnokink creators know the internet hates them. Some websites consider it a form of “non-consensual sex” that “glorifies sexual violence.” Others lump it with bestiality, rape, and child exploitation, defining it as a “fringe sexual fetish.” 

The kink, which is also refered to as erotic hypnosis, manifests itself in different ways.

Some people practice with partners, one being the ‘tist and the other the subject, to enhance sexual pleasure. Some create hypnotic videos or audio, guiding listeners into trances that expand their minds and take their arousal to new heights. Others just stick to creating content around the concept as a whole, by writing stories with mind-controlling protagonists or by making images or GIFs of  hypnotized subjects. 

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But these days, the minute that GIF of a hypnotized cartoon woman shows up on Tumblr, it’ll get taken down seconds later. And if you were to try to sell such content on Patreon, you’d be risking getting banned from the site altogether. Even platforms like Reddit, which have channels for all sorts of kinks, have plenty of posts that mock hypnosis content proving, once again, that the world wide web has some major beef with hypnokink. 

Over the years, hypnokink creators have been chameleonic, managing to find homes in different online platforms — but now those platforms are taking steps to ban their content, too.

Patreon is the latest in a long string of online platforms to call for the removal of erotic hypnosis content. Earlier this year, the platform began sending out letters to hypnokink content creators, warning that anyone with material of this nature would have their accounts removed. 

The list included, but was certainly not limited to, hypnosis audio, roleplay videos and photos, fictional stories that included hypnosis, and comics with hypnotized characters.

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Hypnosis has been around for thousands of years. From the sirens in Homer’s Odyssey, who lured sailors to their doom with their irresistible singing, to the priest Imhotep who used suggestion therapy in the dream temples of ancient Egypt, inducing pliable states of consciousness in people has long been a thing. 

Hypnosis kinkers — who use the method to experience fantasies that they can’t otherwise experience, as well as to remove inhibitions or take their mind to heightened states of arousal — were around for many years before the internet gave them the ability to find like minded individuals. 

As the internet became more common, online communities were able to develop, forming on sites like FetLife in 2008 and Tumblr in 2007.  For years, these sites were known for being more adult-content friendly than other platforms, like Facebook or Instagram. 

With the rise of Patreon, which launched in 2013, hypnokink creators were able, for the first time ever, to actually make money embracing their kink by selling art, stories, and audio around it.

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But over the course of the past two years, content bans on a number of these once-friendly sites have repeatedly censored and dismantled hypnokink communities. 

Princess Emma is a longtime hypnokink creator who recently had to remove her content from Patreon and now posts it predominantly on Twitter. Before Patreon, she had attempted to sell downloadable guided hypnosis tracks on Etsy, but they were quickly removed because Etsy had already begun pulling files that supported violence or harm towards others — and hypnokink apparently fell into that category.

 “I know I'm not alone,” Princess Emma told OK Whatever through email. “I feel like this is just another case of cracking down on sex work for no good reason. At this point, there isn't much of a reason to have a Patreon. What can we even post? It's better to just put our time and effort into some other site for monetization or selling. But those options get fewer and fewer every day.”

FetLife, which once helped the hypnosis community find each other, has now banned a number of larger hypnokink groups, including the New England Erotic Hypnosis (un)Conference, also known as NEEHU, which occurs every year in Connecticut. 

In a testament to the size and strength of the hypnosis community, NEEHU has continued to gain traction through Twitter and Discord since getting the boot from FetLife, and it’s preparing to host its eleventh conference in 2020 in a larger venue than they previously needed.

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Following in FetLife’s footsteps, Tumblr was the next platform to hit the hypnosis community hard. In 2018, the blogging platform banned all adult content, which included erotic hypnosis materials. Some creators returned to Tumblr after their accounts were deleted, rebuilding from scratch and posting more neutered versions of what they’d been putting out before.

Their content still includes hypnosis, but lacks any and all sexual undertones, as well as images that could be considered pornographic. 

But losing all of their followers and being limited in what they can share has made a return to Tumblr less than appealing for most creators. Many haven’t come back at all. Especially considering the fact that Tumblr’s traffic in the past year has been dismal, creators are even more wary of returning, knowing that it is unlikely they’ll ever be able to get the same sized audience back.

To go from having a huge community on Tumblr to having no community at all can be difficult for anyone who wants to connect with people who understand their kinks.

Some creators have taken to Twitter, but it still means having to rediscover those old connections.

One hypnokink content creator, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of backlash from Patreon for having spoken out, said that she’s one of the people who received a letter from the funding platform about her content being under review. Through her Patreon, she sells stories with erotic hypnosis undertones, as well as historical essays about stage magic and forgotten hypnotists. 

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Ultimately, despite receiving the warning letter, her account was left alone, but she knows she’s one of the few lucky ones. Loads of other hypnosis creators have had their accounts locked or taken down entirely. 

Before “the purge,” she’d been an active user on Tumblr for four years. Now, even though she has retained her Patreon page, she’s actively trying to find another platform to share her work. The problem is the only ones that will allow erotic content for pay suck or have limitations. 

“I have looked into other funding platforms,” she said, “but all of them are either right-wing cesspools or ban adult content outright.”

Of course, it’s not abnormal for  funding platforms to ban adult content. But even funding platforms that allow for adult content don’t seem to want let hypnokink into their ranks. In fact, Clips4Sale, a popular site that can help amateurs monetize their porn production, won’t even allow the words “hypnosis” or “hypnotized” in their titles.

One of the most aggravating aspects about the internet’s attack on hypnokink is that for many of its practitioners, online was where they first learned about the kink. As a fringe interest, finding those who understand and relate to it can be difficult. The internet once gave people a way to make those connections with others. It even gave kinksters an opportunity to make money. 

For Princess Emma — who has been making hypnosis videos since 2012 — the internet provided a way for her to understand why she felt excited when hypnosis was discussed.

“When I was young and hypnosis would be brought up or seen in movies, I would feel a certain way,” she said. “At some point, I watched The Jungle Book and looked up about the Kaa scene online. From there, I found the hypnosis community, primarily on YouTube, but on a few other sites as well. As I got older, and explored more, I found the erotic hypnosis scene, and that blew the door open and connected the dots of why I felt like I did about hypnosis.”

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So what do you do when the thing that introduced you to something  suddenly starts slamming doors in your face? It’s not clear — yet. 

But Princess Emma, and others, are hopeful that with time more people will come to understand their unique kink and see that’s it’s not what Patreon and other websites are making it out to be.

“I hope one day, as the hypnosis scene gets bigger and bigger, that these misconceptions will go away,” Princess Emma said. “The cynical side of me says that's very unlikely, but I'm hopeful! [Hypnosis] can help things feel more real, more intense in a good way. I think a lot of people are closed-minded and won't even give it a try. That too, I hope will change.”

She might be right to be optimistic, even in the face of the continuous content bans. After all, the hypnokink community existed before the internet, before FetLife, before Tumblr, and before Patreon. And, with a bit of luck and a lot of determination, it will hopefully continue to exist even after their bans.

Jacqueline Gualtieri is a Bay Area-based writer who's still a Jersey girl at heart. She's also been a preschool teacher, a librarian, an influencer ghost writer, and a digital media marketer.

Evan Sklar is an artist, illustrator, and photographer straight out of Brooklyn, where he enjoys walking his dogs and complaining about the weather and public transportation.

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