How to I say to hang yourself, meaning that someone does the action of hanging to themself?
I'm aware that in English to hang oneself might mean to kill yourself by putting a rope around your neck, but I want a meaning along the lines of:

The spy hung himself in the chandelier and then jumped to ....
The boy loved hanging himself in the branches of the trees in the grandma's garden.

Question

How to I say to hang yourself, meaning that someone does the action of hanging to themself?
I'm aware that in English to hang oneself might mean to kill yourself by putting a rope around your neck, but I want a meaning along the lines of:

The spy hung himself in the chandelier and then jumped to ....
The boy loved hanging himself in the branches of the trees in the grandma's garden.

Answer

Before we can translate it to Russian, it must be correct in English. In both your examples, the meaning of killing oneself is still there (this makes both sentences sound comical).

We don't use "-self" if the person isn't attempting suicide. Just use "hang from": "The boy loved hanging from the branches..."

Answer

Both 'вешаться' and 'повеситься' mean 'to hang oneself'. If you just want to say 'hang' you use the verb 'висеть', 'повиснуть'. So 'The boy loved hanging in the branches of the trees' = 'Мальчик любил висеть на ветках деревьев.'; 'The spy hung from the chandelier and then jumped' = 'Шпион повис на люстре и потом спрыгнул.'.But 'Шпион повесился на люстре' = 'The spy hung himself from the chandelier'.