My dad was a psychiatrist (MD) who used "clinical hypnosis" as a technique during therapy. (Stage hypnosis is very different.) I won't go into the clinical details because this post is about the experience of being under hypnosis. I was hypnotized before I could speak in full sentences, and throughout the years that I lived at home. Same for my five sibs. Even in my 50s I still use some of the techniques for relaxation and pain control. Disclaimer: I'm a hypnotist's kid, not a hypnotist. Just because I know how to pronounce the words doesn't mean I understand them in depth. Anyway...
As you read this, you are not aware of the pressure of your bottom on your chair seat. Until I bring it to your attention. The same is true for the tounge in your mouth (see, you did it again) and a million other things. We constantly filter a huge volume of sensory input, and pay attention very selectively. We have to. One hypnotic induction technique is to point that out, and eventually focus the subject's entire attention on the practitioner's voice. To me, that focus is the essence of being in a hypnotic trance. Self hypnosis is much the same, but you focus on your own mind's voice. It is intense and relaxing at the same time.
I often experience a similar mental state when dressed. I am aware of the pantyhose on my legs, or the softness of a slip. At its best I somehow experience sensory focus all over my body -- yes, I know that's contradictory -- and I feel like I am immersed in the experience. In a trance, surrounded by softness and femininity. As I get used to being dressed full time it is becoming routine and I am not aware of it, except... when I become aware of it. In another thread I said that when I'm doing the dishes I'm just doing the dishes, until I have to adjust my bra strap. Amy called them "sweet reminders". It is like a momentary return to the comfort and relaxation of a trance. I experience it, inhale, exhale, then move on. In a sense I feel like I am in a light trance the entire time I am dressed, and sometimes dip down into the deeper parts. Getting undressed at the end of the day is like "counting backward from ten, you will start to wake up..." and I return to normal spacetime.
I wonder how closely a hypnotic trance corresponds to the mental state that so many crossdressers report: simply feeling more alive, in focus, and "in the moment"?
PS: I have a theory that Sheer Energy pantyhose are so popular among this group because they remind you that they are there.