How to Combine Hypnosis with Stories for Covert Persuasion DYNAMITE
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I cried as I walked home that day. I lost my job, I was days away from losing my apartment and I was coming to the realization that if I didn’t find a way to make some money quick I would be sleeping in my car.
One of my friends Shawn was a salesman, and he said he could get me a job, but I had to be able to sell. “I don’t know how to sell” I said. Shawn gave me a book, and said “Read it, this book will tell you everything you need to know about selling”
That night I read the book. At first it seemed like a foreign language, it was the first time I read about Neuro Linguistic Programming, matching and mirroring, rapport, presuppositions and other NLP and hypnosis based communication.
One of the things this book said that I will never forget is what it said about stories. It said that underneath the masterful language of the most powerful persuaders in history is the ability to tell a persuasive story.
Why are Stories so Persuasive?
photo credit: Down the rabbit hole
1. Stories are Entertaining
You can’t persuade people who are not listening. People just don’t resist listening to a good story. It grabs people’s attention by the ears and gets them to focus entirely on you.
2. Stories Leverage Cultural Programming
We have been read stories since we were children; people are programmed to listen closely to every word as soon as you say once upon a time, or long ago, or the other day.
3. Stories Induce Trance
You don’t need to be swinging a watch in front of someone to lead them into a trance. All a trance is a narrowing of focus. When you tell a story well you are inducing a type of trance.
4. Stories Generate Rapport
If your story captures and leads a person’s imagination they will feel more connected to you.
That actually reminded me of the first time I was hypnotized. The hypnotherapist used a strategy for using stories to induce trance in me. The strategy worked like this; the hypnotist begins to tell a story that seems to be related to my problem, then before that story reached it’s conclusion, the hypnotist begins another story within the story, and then another story within that story, then one by one he ends each story until finally he ends with the story he first began.
photo credit: where are you going Alice
Confused? I sure was, but that’s the point. Good hypnotists know that confusion is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to induce a trance. When the subject is hearing multiple stories it is difficult for the conscious mind to keep track of what is going on and they go into trance.
You should know by now reading this blog that when people go into trance, the critical factor goes down and direct suggestions and embedded commands have greater strength. Strength that allows the hypnotist’s message to be completely engraved in your mind.
This book taught me how to use this type of story in sales presentations.
The beauty of these hypnotic stories wasn’t in the use of embedded stories within the story alone, but that he used embedded commands within the story.
If this article is confusing that’s okay, I just want you to remember this phrase and it will all make sense, I YOU SHIFT.
A fundamental part of covert hypnosis and persuasion is the used of embedded commands. These are indirect commands that you can hide in your language that people will pick up on subliminally.
The I You Shift is what will give you the opportunity to use embedded commands with people easily. While I haven’t talked about embedded commands much yet with you on this blog I soon, and I’ll recommend some places where you can learn more about embedded commands.
The I You Shift is little covert hypnosis trick that is sneaky as hell, sounds totally normal in the English language, and is so simple you can begin using it today.
It works by talking about an experience and elaborating it but then speaking about your self in the second person- YOU.
Here are Some Examples of the I You Shift :
photo credit: Conceptual art for Disney’s Alice in Wonderland
The other day I went to the beach, it was so relaxing, it’s like YOU just step into this place of total ease and comfort
I was talking to my friend about this product and he said, it’s just like YOU can relax so easily knowing it’s the best on the market.
Notice where the I becomes a YOU but technically I am still talking about myself, so it’s conversationally okay.
Here is an example of a combination of embedded stories, the I You Shift, and embedded commands.
The Other day I was speaking to a client, and what she said was, isn’t it interesting how a part of you can begin to feel incredibly good about this product, while another part of you can begin to imagine all the wonderful and exciting ways you will take advantage of a product like this, to the point where you wake up in the morning and just feel really good about making the decision to buy. Now with me, and my perspective, I thought was surprised that she could feel all that so naturally and easily, but when I thought about it, it made sense because this product has a proven track record of getting or clients results.
Notice how I start by telling a story about speaking with a client, and the story my client told me, and then notice the way I am able to easily embed direct commands and suggestions indirectly.
The embedded commands are: begin to feel really good, begin to imagine, feel really good, and the sneakiest one is the last one “..making the decision to buy. Now, with me and my perspective…” the embedded command is BUY NOW WITH ME.
photo credit: Marching Card Guards from Alice in Wonderland
I didn’t realize it until years later, but as I was reading the book Shawn had given me I was reading a book that changed the course of my life forever; leading me eventually to being one of the top sales people in a large company, financial comfort, , and becoming a master hypnotist.
More About Persuasion and Stories from The Blogosphere:
Emotional Persuasion through Storytelling- By Kenrick Cleveland
Create Simple Personal Stories to Influence Others – By Allen Parks
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7 Responses to “How to Combine Hypnosis with Stories for Covert Persuasion DYNAMITE”
By Saje on Apr 30, 2008 | Reply
Interesting article Bill. Did you say you were going to reccomend some resources on embedded comamnds? I really would like to see how these work. Honestly, I am a little skeptical that just by telling a customer things like BY NOW or FEEL GOOD, will make want to buy from me instantly, but am curious about learning more
By Bill on May 3, 2008 | Reply
Hey Saje,
Thanks for commenting, tell ya what I’m working on a post about embedded commands right now, hang tight and I’ll get it too ya guys. I understand skepticism, some of these strategies cam seem like I’m teaching magic. All I can say is its smart to do research before you try applying them in the real world, so that you feel congruent in these skills. There is so silver bullets here no stretegy works 100% of the time, and no one closes 100% of the time, but these skills will give you a dramatic edge above people who are not using them, no doubt. I appreciate your comment and thanks for reading
-Bill
By Barman on May 8, 2008 | Reply
What was the book?
By Bill on May 8, 2008 | Reply
“Unlimited Selling Power” How to Master Hypnotic Selling Skills
By Jacob on Jun 5, 2008 | Reply
I wanted to get your take on something that has always bugged me. In your sample story above you have the sentence “begin to feel incredibly good”. You italicize the last three words so as to indicate when to start the downward inflection tonality. Now, I have experimted with using my tonality change as soon as I use the word “begin” or “start” but most of the time I just use it on the actual “feel command” itself. Have you ever expeimented with this? Why don’t you have to use tonality starting with the “begin” word if it is part of the command and yes I know that we should keep the commands as short as possible but without using a change in tonality at the right time won’t those words just get assimiliated as regular conversation even though we assume they will “begin” or “start” to do something just because we use that word?
By Bill on Jun 7, 2008 | Reply
This is a great questions Jacob.
1. I commend you for experimenting with these skills; I would continue experimenting with both and see what nets you the best. Persuasion is an art and I think it’s important to develop your own style. Also both methods you described work
2. Because embedded commands power multiplies through repetition, I DO BOTH when I am running a pattern and I might say “it was such a beautiful day the other day, you know what it’s like when the sun is shining and you can just FEEL the warmth just lightly caress your skin and it just feels REALLY GOOD, I love it how you can walk out side and just experience that, its almost like a part of you FEELS it’s going to be a REALLY GOOD day. My EXPERIENCE has been when I am doing patterns, people know I am doing something but it FEELS SO GOOD to hear someone talk LIKE THIS they just GO WITH IT.
3. Also what I learned from Kenrick Cleveland was that it is not only your tonality that makes embedded commands work, but it is your intention. Say the commands with intention to get a result. A little psudo-psychological, but it makes sense when you think about how energy flows where your attention goes.
Thanks for your comment and your questions Jacob, I hope this helps
-Bill
By Jacob on Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
To add a little more to this, now that my “nets” were open to recieving this, I noticed RJ doing both on his older tapes. Sometimes he did just the commmands and sometimes the whole sentence, ie” begin to..” etc. It just still seems clumsy but needed when you get it too long. Also, Kenrick Cleveland advises to keep the commmands short as do most NLP guys. Thanks…