Conversational Hypnosis

Posted August 1, 2009 by MoM Digital Media in Hypnosis Blog | No comments yet

Is it possible to be having a conversation with someone without even being aware that this person is giving you suggestions, winning you over and controlling the direction of the conversation? Yes it is!

Although people are generally trying to persuade people all the time, conversational Hypnosis interweaves Hypnotic techniques in a seemingly normal conversation to persuade the listener at an unconscious level. When a listener is aware of the techniques, it can help them by reducing the effect and giving them the opportunity to end the conversation if they choose.

Technique 1:Linking one thing to another.

Although there is no relationship between two subjects, the trained conversational hypnotist can create one by saying something like… “An the fact that you’re here now listening to me means that you can make that decision easily”…what? What does the fact that your there, listening have to do with making a decision…everything now, because as the person says “you are here now listening…”, you’re internally agreeing with the statement because it’s true…and while your agreeing, the rest gets accepted at an unconscious level more easily. After all, the fact that your reading this article means that you’ve already begun to feel better about strengthening your defenses against such tactics…doesn’t it?

Technique 2: Imbedded commands.

When having a conversation, the Hypnotist can deliver messages that will be recognized as independent commands by the Unconscious mind. This is achieved by change tone, timing or analog marking a statement within a conversation. For example someone might say “It’s a nice day to go to the park. I like it there because…you can really relax….in a place like that.” In this example, “you can really relax” is the command that is being given. This is said with a slightly different pace or tone, or the person may change the way they look at you when they say it. This marks out that part of the statement just enough for you to notice unconsciously. If you are listening to someone who is really good at imbedded commands, you won’t consciously know that you’ve been given a command at all, unless you know what to look for and now you do and can…feel good about it!

Technique 3: Vague language.

Hypnotists use vague language to allow people to relate their own experiences to what is being discussed. For example, “there have been times in your life when you enjoyed learning something new, times when you just found that…learning is easy… and allows you to…experience a sense of satisfaction…that is empowering and makes you…feel good… about all the decisions you make.” In this example we used vague language…”times in your life when you enjoyed learning something” could be applied to anything learned and even though we don’t know what the listener has picked as an experience, we link it up with the embedded commands…”learning is easy”, “experience a sense of satisfaction” and “feel good”. Later in the conversation when we ask the same person to make a decision, they are more likely to….feel good…. about the decision they are making, aren’t they?

This gives you some idea about how people can use these 3 techniques to persuade you during what appears to be a regular conversation. By having an initial outcome in mind (knowing what they want out of the conversation), these technique can be used in even more powerful ways to persuade the listener to make supportive internal representations, relate past experiences to future decisions and give direct instructions to the unconscious mind with through embedded suggestions that lead to the outcome they have in mind.

Hypnosis for Business – Focus and Agreement

Posted March 29, 2009 by MoM Digital Media in Hypnosis Blog | No comments yet

By Linda Ferguson

If I were to argue here that the heart of business communication is hypnotic, you would probably be alarmed. Most professionals have little understanding of hypnosis and less interest in something they see as either manipulative or nonsense. Those professionals have never encountered hypnosis as it was practiced by Milton Erickson.

There are many and varied accounts of the practice of Erickson and his remarkably effective techniques for communicating in ways that elicited positive, productive behaviours. Common to all of them are two essentials: the ability to use respect and rapport to build agreement and the ability to build focus within that agreement. Understood in this way, Erickson’s communication should be required study for all business people.

Erickson began with the premise that no one can or should be forced to change. All influence springs from agreement based on respect and rapport. The would-be influencer must first study and replicate the thinking and experience of the person to be influenced. This involves a disciplined, structured approach to observing and communicating experience.

Imagine for a moment, that you enroll in a course in Ericksonian Hypnosis. You will learn to communicate with one person at a time. As you do, you will build the skills necessary to influence decision makers without putting anyone in trance. You may find the same strategies useful as you work with groups or write.

One of the first steps in your study will be to become more skilled in calibration: the ability to notice physiological difference and assign meaning to that difference. You will begin to learn to read people as experts might read a blueprint or a piece of art.

Another word for the willingness to engage with the details of another’s experience is respect: you will practice respect when you notice and accept the particular elements of thoughts and feelings that characterize a colleague or client.
Rapport means demonstrating respect by replicating some aspects of the experience of the person with whom you are agreeing. Rapport comes naturally with people with whom we have lots in common; it is the first thing to go when we put what we want to say ahead of building agreement.

Agreement that is based on talking in the same tone of voice or sitting in similar postures is general and easy to achieve. It is not normally useful in itself; it is an excellent starting point for building the more focused agreement that will allow you to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

You can build on rapport when you use agreement as a structuring principle for speaking or writing. Instead of ordering what you have to say by logic, chronology or importance, you can move through material in order of agreement. In other words, it is possible to start with obvious agreement (as you did when you read the statements in the opening paragraph) and gradually come to more focused agreement.

Focus involves moving from the imprecise to the increasingly precise. Focused agreement means first of all focusing on agreement. By selecting words, points and arguments that are general enough to gain agreement, you can practice a communication strategy that is guaranteed to be influential.

As agreement is formed, it gains momentum. It requires less attention – and therefore fewer resources – to stay in agreement than it does to notice and assert difference. By remaining focused on choosing the words and arguments most agreeable to the receiver, you can learn to focus the agreement using more detail and more precise language.

Ericksonian communication rewards study and practice. Maintaining focused agreement requires increasingly fine calibrations of the receiver’s state and presuppositions. You can learn to continually pay attention to the state (or predicted state) of the receiver and adjust your words and strategies to match it.

Influence in an Ericksonian model begins with a focus on agreement and results in an agreement with focus.

About the author: Linda Ferguson, Ph.D. is a senior partner with NLP Canada Training Inc.,Toronto, Canada. NLP Canada provides intensive training in the practices and principles of NLP. Drawing on fields from the arts to business to neuroscience. Learn more at www.nlpcanada.com