Covert Metaphor

The following is a stream of consciousness which I wrote sitting at a café one morning. I was thinking about things which disturb me, and this is what came out. Read it carefully because there are a few key components of persuasion and manipulation sprinkled about.

What do I find disgusting and revolting? Now as I attempt to produce an answer I can’t think of much that really gets to me. Where some people might tend to resist the image of blood and guts, I think what makes me cringe the most is the effects of successful persuasion and manipulation which break all ethical boundaries; those insidious techniques used against people to ruin lives.

Even slightly more mild examples make my skin crawl. I can’t stand watching small children parrot every commercial they see, or spew forth religious dogma on cue like trained puppies, their parents smiling so proud. Vomit.

I see it everyday when someone manipulates their partner using emotional techniques of give and take. The willing victims are those who don’t analyze their own actions, question their own beliefs, and accept everything at face value. Is an unexamined life really worth living?

It is a disturbing thought to think humans may be nothing more than organic vessels carrying loads of useless memes around, infecting each other at every opportunity.

If there is such a thing as absolute truth, I have only seen glimpses of it indirectly. That is through pure intuition, devoid of any symbols, stories, language or thought.

It is possible to translate this experience into language and art, but you are still left with only symbols which represent the experience. This is the reason language will always fail to give that which it promises.

It may seem perplexing to some that I study and teach techniques of persuasion and manipulation when I find many of its effects revolting.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, life does not work without it. We are all manipulators. Every child manipulates its parents, every lover their partner. It is inescapable.

Of course not all outcomes of persuasion and manipulation are negative. Wouldn’t you try to persuade a friend who might be walking down a path of self-destruction? It all depends on the context doesn’t it? Context is everything in this game.

There are some recent ads targeted at teenagers against the use of methamphetamine (speed). I’ll take two of these ads to clarify the point I am trying to make. The first billboard shows a young man with lesions on his skin, dark circles under his eyes, and a caption reads, “Actually, doing meth won’t make it easier to hook up.”

Imagine if we changed the context and put him in a completely different environment. For example, change the background and put him underneath a tropical sun standing before a beautiful pool, surrounded by a group of skimpily clad bikini models. The caption remains the same, but the story changes completely.

The second billboard is a picture of a filthy toilet stall and a caption that reads, “No one thinks they’ll lose their virginity here. Meth will change that.” Now keep this caption but instead of a filthy toilet stall, replace it with an image of a beautiful room, a large ornate bed with silk sheets and a young attractive half-naked man with muscles. The effects will obviously be different. The context tells an entirely different story. Context is being used to control the masses on a daily basis.

Also, recognize the type of appeal being made in these ads. They are targeted at teenagers who tend to be more susceptible to emotional appeals rather than rational appeals. Ads using rational appeals are declining because of an increase of less-educated people.

Speaking of stories…

Humans are hardwired for stories it would seem. Depending on your own stories is what determines your life outcome. The stories you consistently tell yourself determines your own reality. Is yours a story of frustration, sadness, and failure, or one of success, happiness, and health? Do you hate your job? Well, that’s a story too.

Perceive what is behind the language, symbols, and metaphor. Recognize the context and write your own story.

admin :: Dec.23.2007 :: metaphor, persuasion, psychology, storytelling, symbology, propaganda, deception :: No Comments »

So many beginners in persuasion become enamored with NLP and conversational hypnosis techniques. They memorize patterns, use anchors, and mirror body language. Eventually many of them end this path by giving up and are left, rightfully so, believing all this persuasion stuff is hype.

I can’t fault anyone for this. Language patterns, hypnosis, and other technical skills are very attractive. This is the stuff that sells because it looks like magic. You are promised ultimate power if you purchase the right underground techniques. I got into it for the same reason, but soon realized specializing in only the technical side of it makes for one really strange person, and not a very persuasive one.

Those truly amazing individuals who persuade with ease possess well-honed social skills before anything else. They have a deep understanding of the psychology of human behavior. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

So, master your interactions with people first. Find out why they do the things they do. Learn to smile and be at ease. Then you can safely apply the technical aspects of persuasion. Otherwise you end up looking like a robot who speaks with such complexity, no one can understand what you’re trying to say.

admin :: Nov.19.2007 :: persuasion :: 3 Comments »

I wrote in an earlier post about finding out how people spatially code ‘yes’ and ‘no’. It is always beneficial to gesture in either direction, depending on your desired outcome. This technique can be used in combination with anchoring certain words to yourself.

Unconscious gesturing seems to be a natural part of conversation. People point to themselves, point into space, move their hands in unison to emphasize words and so on. Most of us probably never make a conscious note of the gestures being used in a conversation, which allows those who are conscious to deliver unconscious messages. Now say that ten times fast.

This works best when you are persuading someone that you are the best choice over someone or something else. This can be anything from convincing a company to hire you over other candidates to showing your date how much more attractive you are.

First, find out roughly where a person’s ‘no’ resides; the left or right side is sufficient. When you speak of anything negative, you will gesture to that side of the person you are talking to. When you speak of something positive, you will point to yourself with your finger around your solar plexus or heart level. It may take some practice until you begin to do this almost without thinking. At that point it will look more natural. When I first started playing with this I would stand in the mirror and use a script corresponding to my objective. It looked very mechanical and unnatural in the beginning, but trust me, keep it up and it will begin to just flow.

To demonstrate the technique I will use a simple interview example.

“How do you know when you find the perfect candidate? You probably have to interview quite a few people, I would imagine, before you finally find the most qualified person for the job…now…When that happens I’m sure you feel totally at ease knowing that you can stop interviewing other people. “

So, you would be obviously pointing to yourself when you say the words in italics and you would point to their ‘no’ direction when you say any words in bold. You may also notice there are embedded commands in there as well.

This can be used for numerous situations. Pick an outcome, write a simple script, and then practice in the mirror for a few days. Once you think you got it down, go and really do it.

By the way, I’ve never had anyone ask why I was gesturing in a certain way. Just make sure you don’t pause too long with each gesture.

admin :: Sep.17.2007 :: persuasion, covert hypnosis :: 2 Comments »

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.” -Dune by Frank Herbert

What ever happened to those fire and brimstone preachers bent on putting the fear of hell into their followers? Well, they still exist, but allow me to recognize one Johnathan Edwards who in 1741 delivered a sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Some of it went a little like this:

So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

You can find the whole sermon here.

It is very educational to study these kind of texts to identify and recognize different types of persuasion, propaganda, and brainwashing techniques being used. Most all literature from large organized religious institutions can be studied in this manner. You may even want to visit different religious organizations in person and tell them you feel lost and are looking for the right path, but you’re just not sure what that is. Make sure you bring a small digital recorder and hide it well so you can later transcribe the conversation and take some time to see what different techniques were being used on you. Religious recruiters are well trained, just like military recruiters. Yes, indeed!

In this particular post I am recognizing fear as the prime persuader and motivator. Fear is extremely effective.

So, let’s jump ahead two centuries later to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. In Hitler’s Reichstag speech of December 11, 1941, he declared war on the United States:

Since the beginning of the war [in September 1939], the American President Roosevelt has steadily committed ever more serious crimes against international law. Along with illegal attacks against ships and other property of German and Italian citizens, there have been threats and even arbitrary deprivations of personal freedom by internment and such. The increasingly hostile attacks by the American President Roosevelt have reached the point that he has ordered the American navy to immediately attack, fire upon and sink all German and Italian ships, in complete violation of international law. American officials have even boasted about destroying German submarines in this criminal manner. American cruisers have attacked and captured German and Italian merchant ships, and their peaceful crews were taken away to imprisonment In addition, President Roosevelt’s plan to attack Germany and Italy with military forces in Europe by 1943 at the latest was made public in the United States [by the Chicago Tribune and several other papers on 4 Dec. 1941], and the American government made no effort to deny it.

You can find the whole speech here. This particular translation is true to what was really said in Germany. The New York Times wrote their own version to instill fear into Americans as well.

Although Hitler doesn’t use Hell and he isn’t trying to convince his listeners to give up their lives to Jesus Christ, Johnathan Edwards and Adolf Hitler are both using fear while threatening consequences. This does a wonderful job of motivating and persuading people.

Let’s take a look at a more recent speech made by President George W. Bush on April 16, 2007:

Families gathered here understand that America is not going to be safe until the terrorist threat has been defeated. If we do not defeat the terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they won’t leave us alone — they will follow us to the United States of America. That’s what makes this battle in the war on terror so incredibly important. One of the lessons of September the 11th is what happens overseas matters to the security of the United States of America, and we must not forget that lesson.

The consequences of failure in Iraq would be death and destruction in the Middle East and here in America. To protect our citizens at home, we must defeat the terrorists. We defeat them by staying on the offense and we defeat them by helping young democracies defeat their ideology of hate. And it’s hard work. But it is necessary work, and thousands of men and women who wear our uniform understand the stakes.

The bold italics are my doing. You can find the whole speech here.

Again, this speech is using the exact same techniques of fear and consequence to motivate and persuade its audience. The speaker threatens their listeners with terrifying consequences if their prescribed actions are not met.

Study all three speeches in order to find their similarities. It doesn’t take much effort.

admin :: Aug.28.2007 :: persuasion, psychology :: No Comments »

The “Sacred Science”

This technique is somewhat abstract and a bit hard to explain without going into lengthy examples. I’ll try to summarize it nonetheless.

The purpose behind this technique is to establish your teachings as holy and sacrosanct, so much so that they are beyond question. So sacred are your teachings that they cannot be violated or criticized. And while your teachings are sacred and beyond any critical thought, they must also be scientific and logical, making any would-be debunker seem not only unsanctified, but illogical and unscientific as well.

This reminds me of a friend of mine forced into a 12-step rehabilitation program because his employer surprised him with a drug test. He tested positive and was then forced into an aggressive one year program in order to keep his job. The funny thing is that it has been about fifteen years since he touched anything. It was just bad timing. And yet he is now being told by his rehabilitation councelors that he’s definitely an addict, which they base of course on “scientific” fact.

They’ll lie with statistics, as well as make statements which seem like established facts. For example, “Everybody knows that spiritual healing works.” This example uses another advanced language pattern as well. Can you tell me which one?

Just remember it this way:

1. Your teachings are sacred and therefore unapproachable. For someone to even question them shows their ignorance of the universe and its purpose. Your purpose and the purpose of the universe are one.

2. Use lots of pseudo-science to back up what you’re saying. A good example of this is the Law of Attraction and Quantum Physics. You can pair just about anything together and make it sound good. Then you can dig up plenty of examples to “prove” your claims.

Loading the Language

The purpose of loading the language is to limit the usage of language by restricting creativity and using repetitive words and phrases. This method is often found in political and religious cliches. Those people which identify themselves with a certain group will use many of the same keywords. The beauty of this is your followers don’t really need to understand the phrases they are parroting. Note the similarities to advanced language patterns used in persuasion, only in the case of brainwashing it is used to replace a person’s vocabulary and limit their self-expression, making it much easier to lead them. Basically, the true purpose of the public education system. Bahahahaha!

“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!” (Just ask any Christian you know what Hallelujah really means. They don’t know. Who are you to question God anyways!?).

“He understands the voters.”

“You need an upgrade.”

Are you scratching your head at this point? It really is abstract and hard to grasp which makes it all the more powerful. The less powerful one feels by using loaded language, the more they will use it to mask their own fear and guilt. Again, are we really saying anything to each other?

Doctrine Over Person

This is very much how it looks. Don’t modify the teachings, but create new rationalizations in order to cause people to conform. Just look at the core teachings of all major religions. They don’t modify their fundamental beliefs to fit in with a more contemporary perspective, isn’t that right? They change the people to fit the same doctrine.

The same goes for history. Each country rewrites history to fit in with its own doctrine. It no longer matters what really happened so long as they submit to whatever you have arbitrarily decided as true.

We all live in a totalist environment even if we’ve been told otherwise. The majority and the masses comply to the environment’s doctrine for the most part without question. Then there are those few who are like “mutants” for lack of a better term. The mutants may comply to a certain extent, but know there are alternate versions of reality to experience. I imagine many of this blog’s readers are like this and many of them will find themselves immune to techniques like Doctrine Over Person. The reasoning behind this is the majority of people do not have a strong self-made identity and easily accept any identity that is given to them. The “mutants” have a strong sense of individuality and therefore are less prone to believe in outside influences.

Do you see how similar we are? You are one of the elite. You are special. Join Me.

The Dispensing of Existence

This makes me think of a song by a favorite band of mine called Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio. The song is called The Perplexity of Hybris. What we call hubris the Greeks called hybris.

Among the roses where I stand
Torn and scratched disguised by blood
I watch the puppets stagger in their unlife
Caught in the web of perplexity

I glorify myself
I glorify myself for who I am
I glorify myself
I glorify myself for what I am

Screams of frustration echo
While my feet walk across the shells of the damned
In these realms of demise
Where life seeks its mark

Listen to my laughter
High upon the wind
I walk the path of my choice
Trampling those who seek to stand in my way

A bright glowing star
Shines almost invisible
Down into the crypts in the city of worms
Where life pursues in darkness

This is my life
And I rightfully praise myself for my accomplishments
My intellect guides me
As my life ceaselessly progresses

What is hybris in a world that thrives on contempt?
What is hybris in a world that fosters shame?
What is hybris in a world where blind are made to lead?
What is hybris in a world where abstinence is a deed?
What is hybris in world where the fools are highly praised?
What is hybris for a god in a world of the impaled?
What is hybris for a god in a world that spews on strength?
What is hybris in a world where virtue is repent?

We have the divine right to destroy those that do not submit to our chosen doctrine. Our path and only our path is the one true path to freedom. All others are false and deserve to be destroyed. Our God is the only true God. Blah blah blah…

Does this remind you of anything going on in the world right now?

The dispensing of existence need not be physical. You can cause the fear of extinction and annihilation by forcing others to choose a path of existence of the future. This is an easy task in a society where people are not longer self-reliant. Loss of house, job, credit cards, bank account, driver’s license, spouse, family is for the most part equated with death. You must now obey the doctrine or your personal identity which was created for you will be stripped away. So don’t question too much and just follow along.

admin :: Aug.23.2007 :: persuasion, psychology :: No Comments »

“Guilty on all counts.

I’m glad I was caught. I was mentally deranged.

Now I am cured.

I ask only for you to accept my love of our leader.

I ask only to be shot while my mind is still clean.” - Movie adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984

In 1961 psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton wrote Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, a study of brainwashing. Chapter 22 of this book appears to have caught the most attention, and was probably responsible for helping a handful of cults get their start in the 60’s and 70’s. It was in this chapter that Dr. Lifton expounds on eight specific techniques of brainwashing, which evidently were being used in China. Aspiring charismatic leaders now had eight techniques of ‘ideological totalism’ to control just about anyone. People ask me quite a bit how does one start a cult. Well, here it is. In my opinion these eight techniques are the best place to start.

Just keep in mind how many so-called reputable business and religious organizations use these very same techniques to convert and keep their members. Perhaps even our own government? Hmmmmm.

Now join me as I show you how to start your own cult starting with the first four techniques today and the last four techniques tomorrow.

Milieu Control

A milieu is a physical or social setting in which something happens. If you control the environment, you can control most of the communication going in and out of it. If you’ve been reading this blog up until now, you will undoubtably understand how powerful it is to have control of your own or someone else’s internal state. Our internal states can change through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic communication. Take control of the environment and you will take control of a person’s internal state and communication, leading then to change in beliefs. Your version of the “truth” should permeate their whole reality, making it difficult for any other contradicting ideas to get in.

Mystical Manipulation

At this stage you will define your purpose as divine, something higher than yourself. You are one of the chosen few or perhaps you are the “chosen one”. This will give you the justification to do whatever you want to, and if it is questioned, then the subject can be told that their questioning indicates ignorance on their part. To question your ultimate path of truth shows that they understand very little of this world. You can have sex with all your members, take drugs, and abuse your followers. Who are they to question? You have a direct connection to God and they’re not advanced enough to understand why only you, the master of the universe, are permitted to do such things.

“God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.” - President Bush

They may at some point begin to submit, out of trust or mistrust, but any chance of independent thought or action will have become minimized due to the anticipated pressures of the environment.

“Remember, you must have faith brothers and sisters. You cannot question these higher truths because they are beyond your understanding at this time. You must just accept them and have faith until your day comes.”

The Demand for Purity

It is here we must deal in absolutes. There is either good or evil. Everything is in black and white. Anything which deviates from your truth and beliefs is impure, and should be treated appropriately. Use the weapons of shame and guilt as punishment. Since you are chosen you have the power to judge, but you have the power to forgive as well.

This was a common tactic during the Cold War. The captors would strip the prisoner naked or give them a room without a toilet or running water. Good behavior was rewarded with a toothbrush or shower, etc.

Governments do this as well. They get people to identify with totalist polarizations of black and white, knowing individuals will eventually apply these same judgements to themselves.

For example, you know what it is to be a good American don’t you? Anything outside of that and you may be siding with terrorists. After all, freedom ain’t free and soldiers are dying in the Middle East so you can live the life you do. Shame on you or your neighbors.

The Cult of Confession

Now where have I heard of confession before?

The use of confession helps a subject to purge themselves of all impurities you have shown them. In reality it doesn’t matter if they are guilty of them or not. In the history of brainwashing many prisoners confessed to crimes they did not commit.

Although it appears that confession is meant to give relief to the subject, the true reason is to exploit the subject and their vulnerabilities even further. In this way they will never maintain any kind of balance. If I, the chosen one, can judge myself, I have the right to judge you even more.

“I once was lost in sin…”

admin :: Aug.19.2007 :: persuasion, psychology :: 1 Comment »

I find that many people who become interested in hypnosis and persuasion will naturally gravitate towards magic, sleight of hand, psychological illusions, and mentalism. There is a good reason for this.

Magic and mentalism rely much on misdirection. They lead your attention to one place so you’ll overlook what they’re really doing. Conversational hypnosis and persuasion, of course, work in a similar way.

Derren Brown caught my attention because he supposedly uses hypnosis, NLP, and other methods of persuasion. Sometimes he will explain what he did at the end of the show, like using embedded commands for example. I wasn’t always convinced. His conversational hypnosis skills are not THAT good from what I’ve gathered, but his skill of misdirection is phenomenal.

It wasn’t until I began to study magic and mentalism that I realized what he was really doing. His misdirection had persuaded me to accept his explanation, but his explanation may not have been what he’d really done at all.

Although it helps, you don’t have to study magic and mentalism to understand and use misdirection in conversational hypnosis and persuasion.

Any type of language pattern that causes a person to go inside themselves can be used for misdirection. Also, misdirection doesn’t necessarily have to be verbal. You can interrupt any kind of physical pattern or routine by simply deviating from it. For example, when you shake a person’s hand you have certain unconscious expectations because you’ve gone through the motions so many times.

When someone shakes your hand in a way you’re not used to or not expecting, it causes you to pause and perhaps start an internal dialogue, “What the hell was that?” Every so often someone comes and shakes your hand with a grip of steel or a hand which feels dead. Although they may not be consciously misdirecting you, the action still causes you to go internal and assess the situation.

So far I’ve covered a few different techniques.

Chaining nominalizations is a wonderful method of losing someone’s attention because they have to think constantly about what you’re really trying to say. They are forced to start applying their own meanings to the words you are using. Chaining nominalizations and using them with double binds actually takes a lot of practice before it really starts to flow, so it isn’t a method I recommend to beginners. For example…

“I can really appreciate your ability to make the excellent decision to commit to this project or the wonderful experience of your realization to accept this opportunity for growth.”

Uh, yeah…what did he just say exactly? Misdirection. There it is.

Or you can embed commands within stories. You’re not telling them to do anything, the characters in the story are.

One of the most simple ways to misdirect is to use an interrupt. Humans are pattern machines. They get into a rhythm and let their conscious minds drift. You can confirm this just by going out to the store or a restaurant. Look for someone who has a job which is routine. I’m always using interrupts to break people out of their trances.

For example, there are so many stores now that offer some sort of rewards card, be it a book store, grocery store, or coffee store franchise. It is routine to ask the customer if they have the right card or not. The usually expect one of two possible answers, yes or no. If you deviate from this pattern, you will interrupt their trance, and they will briefly go internal to make sense of what you just said. Perfect misdirection, allowing you to throw in whatever you want.

I usually just interrupt people’s patterns, but I don’t take it any further than that.

“Do you have our preferred rewards card?”

“What colors do your cards come in?”

“…” A few seconds pass. “Um, I’m sorry what did you say?”

admin :: Aug.15.2007 :: persuasion, covert hypnosis, NLP, advanced language patterns, hypnosis :: 1 Comment »

I’ve mentioned before that your body responds to your internal state. Even if you try hard to hide your terrible feelings about someone, there will be those who will pick up on it. That internal state will express itself in the way you talk, walk, or sit.

A simple test, which I find very amusing, is to bring up a certain memory charged with emotion. Really get into it as if you are there all over again. Then once that emotion has taken you over, go ahead and pick a random stranger and ask them directions to somewhere, even if you already know how to get there. Write down your internal state, your own physiology as you perceive it, and their reaction. Make sure and try to maintain your awareness externally and listen for their tonality and watch their facial expressions and body language.

Try out every emotion you can think of: happiness, sadness, anger, curiosity, love, hate, and so on. Repeat emotions as often as necessary until you begin to recognize different patterns emerge. This is not something you can just read about. You need to experience this. Just remember to really feel that state before you approach someone. Ask three or four people a day for a few months, and note down every thing in your journal.

After you get a feel for how this works, you can try eliciting states in others. First you must establish rapport before you start asking someone questions that might elicit a certain emotion. Once you have rapport, begin by asking questions that will make them go internal and elicit a state. For example, if you were in an interview you might ask something like the following:

“Tell me about a time when you hired the perfect candidate. How did you know they were the right person for the job?”

Now listen to their vocabulary closely. What kind of representational system is predominant? Are they using visual, auditory, or kinesthetic words? What kind of language are they using?

When you are sure they are at the height of their internal experience, you can repeat what they said, using their language, and anchor their state by marking off a word or making a certain gesture. You can innocently just scratch your forehead or run your fingers through your hair.

Then later when it’s your turn to talk about yourself, use the same vocabulary, and trigger the anchor. Now they will associate that state with you.

This can be done with anything, really. Next time someone is describing a wonderful time they had somewhere, get them to enter that state again and anchor it. Then whenever they see you, go ahead and trigger that anchor. After some time they’ll begin to associate you with those feelings of fun, laughter, and wonder.

admin :: Aug.13.2007 :: persuasion, NLP :: No Comments »

I’ve covered illusion of choice which can also be referred to as a double bind.

“Do you want the red one or the blue one?”

Adding words that represent the dimension of time in a double bind can be very powerful as well.

“Do you want to go now or in a few minutes?”

“Will you be hiring me today or shall I start next week?”

These questions presuppose your intended outcome and bind the listener to make a choice either now or later.

I wrote yesterday about the autonomous flow of thoughts arising during trance, and this can be used as an advantage in time binds.

“Please let me know when your ready to make a choice. We can proceed as quickly or slowly as you like.”

You strongly imply here that your desired outcome will definitely take place. It is difficult not to presuppose something when using any of these advanced language patterns. Even if there is a gap in time, the unconscious is given a strong psychological implication which it feels it must carry out. So if not today, then certainly later.

I know reading about these patterns day after day can be overwhelming, and it does take time to digest before you can go out and begin using them naturally, which means perhaps you’re beginning to recognize now how you’ll be utilizing this information almost if by magic before the end of this week or the next.

admin :: Aug.06.2007 :: persuasion, covert hypnosis, advanced language patterns, hypnosis :: No Comments »

A good hypnotist can openly or covertly influence the direction of the autonomous flow of thoughts associated with trance.

In a therapeutic setting, the hypnotist is usually focused on getting the subject to physically relax. They may tell the subject to keep still, stop talking, and close their eyes. These are direct suggestions, but if the subject is already relaxed, they may find the indirect approach easier to accept.

“You don’t have to talk or move or make any sort of effort. You don’t even have to hold your eyes open.”

In a relaxed or trance state the subject is already predisposed not to do anything, so by suggesting they don’t have to do anything, makes it that much easier to accept. You have of course actually suggested they shut up, keep still, and close their eyes.

In terms of persuasion, I haven’t seen that much written or applied using suggestions of not doing or not knowing. I tried thinking of direct suggestions which could be turned into indirect suggestions of “not doing”, but then it occured to me that people use these type of suggestions all the time with each other.

“It’s only 11:00pm. You don’t have to go home just yet.”

“You don’t have to worry about it. It’s only money after all.”

“You can just sleep over here tonight and not worry about driving home tired.”

I’m sure you can think of many other examples.

After some time you’ll begin to see how all these patterns begin to build upon each other.

I don’t know whether you’ll read all of my posts today, tomorrow, or throughout the week or just make frequent visits to this site, because you don’t have to learn this material all at once, which means you can just take your time and read through slowly and enjoy yourself now.

That last sentence consists of an illusion of choice, several presuppositions, cause and effect, not-doing indirect suggestion, conjunctions, and embedded commands. Again, it works better spoken than written. The more you practice writing and talking these out, the easier it gets to construct them on the fly. It’s almost like learning a new language, but once you get it to flow, you’ll be surprised how easy you’ll be able to apply it to any situation.

I hope by now you can begin to appreciate your acceptance of the decision to commit yourself fully to learn conversational hypnosis, metaphor, and persuasion using this site. You’ve come a long way.

admin :: Aug.06.2007 :: persuasion, covert hypnosis, advanced language patterns, hypnosis :: No Comments »