Persuasion Artist

How to Build a Hypnotic Language Pattern from Scratch

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photo credit: Day 57 - On the Nature of Language

Watch over my shoulder as I create a hypnotic language pattern using key conversational hypnosis fundamentals, in this post I’ll create a language pattern and you will see exactly the formula I use to generate it. This is going to be like a cheat sheet that you can use to create your own hypnotic language patterns that is far more organized and structured than my other post How to Create Your Own Hypnotic Language Patterns. Persuasive Themes

So you are talking with someone you would like to influence about the weather, or a movie, or things you are both interested in, or whatever and you find something that you can use to start a language pattern. You want to start talking about something interesting, something that is rich with meaning and or requires imagination.

Examples of good conversational themes:

• Progress
• Improvement
• Communication
• Transformation Sales
• Inspiration
• Spirituality
• Motivation
• Attraction
• Adventure
• Happiness
• Vacations
• Exotic Places
• Doing what you love
• Relaxation Dreams
• Poetry
• Arts (dancing, singing, acting etc)
• Love
• Destiny
• The Mind
• Desire
• Passion

I live in Los Angeles and there are a lot of actors here, so I’ll use that one. So lets say she’s an actress and she’s talking about how much she loves acting. So I am going to use acting as the focus of my pattern.

Transitional Phrases

Once you have your theme picked out the next thing you do is transition smoothly from the current topic to your language pattern topic, by using a transition phrase, so it sounds more natural and conversational.

Here are some examples of transitions:

• It’s just like
• This reminds me of
• This makes me think of
• Here is something else
• It’s interesting you mention that because…
• It sounds a lot like…
• Another fascinating story is…
• Now this goes right along with what you were saying…
• Since we’re on that subject
• We can also look it this way.

So perhaps in the acting example where I can tell she is really passionate about the art of acting I might start by saying.

I can tell you really love acting. It reminds me of…

Quotes are Your best Friend in Persuasion

I love quotes because you can get away with saying pretty much anything by saying someone else said it. I use quotes so I can separate myself from what is being said, as well as you some other persuasion strategies I’ll mention in a moments.

Here are some examples of ways to structure quotes:

• My friend, sister, cousin niece, etc. was saying
• This (some guy girl) was saying
• A teacher of mine once said
• I was watching this show the other day and the person they were interviewing said
• I was having a dream the other night and this person in my dream said
• I was reading an article, book, magazine and the writer/ author said

I also like to put quotes within quotes, like “I was watching a TV show and they were interviewing a man who was an expert in psychology and he was telling a story about a little boy who overcame blindness, and this little boy said…” it is easy to put quotes in quotes and when you do the conscious mind has trouble keeping up and this confusing creates a light trance state.

Now when I add quotes my pattern becomes:

I can tell you really love acting. It reminds me of article I was reading the other day, and the author was talking about acting and actors and the difference been actors and great actors. He said actors memorize their lines find a neat way to say them and then just parrot what they memorized when the camera starts to roll, but great actors he said experience acting in a totally different way.

Great actors he said memorize the lines, but they have no idea how they will deliver the line when the camera starts to roll because they are totally in the moment. You know what it’s like when you…

I cheated a little here and added another strategy that I didn’t intend to initially. I compared two things that are similar but different. Whenever you compare two things that are similar but different it forces the person to listen very closely to what you are about to say, this narrowing of focus also adds to the trance state.

Pronoun Sifts

Part of the reason for using quotes is that now you can use the I YOU shift. If you don’t remember what the I YOU shift is it is talking about something your or someone else has experienced and using your language to speak about it in the second person. So instead of saying I feel relaxed when I go on vacations say I love going on vacations, it’s like you can just leave your world behind and you can step into a place of relaxation and peace.

This is so irresistibly persuasive because the unconscious mind does not know which you you are referring to and treats it like a suggestion.

Here are some examples of I You Shifting also called Pronoun Shifting:

• What’s it like when you
• What happens when you
• You know what it’s like when you
• Just like when you
• And you could
• As if you could
• They were saying that when you
• And they told me; you…
• So I thought to myself you
• I could hear the voice inside say; you…
• And the lyrics said; you…
• And it was like just as if you

Read more about this persuasion strategy How to Combine Hypnosis with Stories for Covert Persuasion DYNAMITE

Hypnotic Lead-Ins

Hypnotic lead in are any type of phrase that requires a person to go inside and access their imagination. Any time you say something require use of the imagination the person must go into a trance.

A hypnotic lead-ins here are some examples:

• Imagine yourself
• Pretend that you
• Think about how you
• Notice yourself
• Observe yourself
• Let yourself
• Allow yourself
• Anticipate what it would be like
• See yourself
• Allow yourself to
• Give yourself permission to
• Imagine what it is like to
• Realize what it is like to
• Realize what it is like to
• Utilize your ability
• Embrace your ability
• Access your ability
• Expect to choose to
• Decide to
• Commit to
• Begin to
• Beginning to
• Start to

Here is my example with pronoun shifts and hypnotic lead-ins:

I can tell you really love acting. It reminds me of article I was reading the other day, and the author was talking about acting and actors and the difference been actors and great actors. He said actors memorize their lines find a neat way to say them and then just parrot what they memorized when the camera starts to roll, but great actors he said experience acting in a totally different way.

Great actors he said memorize the lines, but they have no idea how they will deliver the line when the camera starts to roll because they are totally in the moment. You know what it’s like when you are on stage and…

Descriptive Language

Now the next step is one of my favorites because this is where persuasion becomes an art, using beautiful and descriptive language that creates a state. You do this by describing a state very thoroughly. If you say it with tonality that matches the state the person will go into that state.

To describe a state ask your self questions about the state you want to create ask

• What triggers it?
• How does it happen?
• Where does it happen spatially or in the body?
• How quickly does it happen?
• What does it lead to next?

So when I add descriptive language to my pattern:

I can tell you really love acting. It reminds me of article I was reading the other day, and the author was talking about acting and actors and the difference been actors and great actors. He said actors memorize their lines find a neat way to say them and then just parrot what they memorized when the camera starts to roll, but great actors he said experience acting in a totally different way.

Great actors he said memorize the lines, but they have no idea how they will deliver the line when the camera starts to roll because they are totally in the moment.

You know what it’s like when you are on stage and you are in that beautiful magical moment right before you get on to perform you feel that adrenaline rush flowing all through your body . And then (snaps fingers) instantly your mind just goes to a different place, a place where you aren’t worried about what people think, you aren’t thinking about what happened yesterday, you aren’t worried about tomorrow, you just step into that magical place inside your mind…

Embedded Commands

Next come the embedded commands. If you want a quick lesson on embedded commands I just posted a video tutorial about how to use embedded commands. Remember that embedded commands work best in patterns, so try to use at least three.

Here are some examples of embedded commands.

• Feel Better
• Find solutions
• Make progress
• Achieve your goals
• Do your best
• Become calmer
• Change
• Enjoy life
• Have fun
• Be at peace
• Feel successful
• Feel good
• Feel happy
• Appreciate yourself
• Feel stronger
• Buy now
• Listen to me
• Believe me
• Trust me
• Like me
• Open to me
• Do it
• Go for it

Here is my hypnotic language pattern example now with embedded commands.

I can tell you really love acting. It reminds me of article I was reading the other day, and the author was talking about acting and actors and the difference been actors and great actors. He said actors memorize their lines find a neat way to say them and then just parrot what they memorized when the camera starts to roll, but great actors he said experience acting in a totally different way.

Great actors he said memorize the lines, but they have no idea how they will deliver the line when the camera starts to roll because they are totally in the moment.

You know what it’s like when you are on stage and you are in that beautiful magical moment right before you get on to perform you feel that adrenaline rush flowing all through your body . And then (snaps fingers) instantly your mind just goes to a different place, a place where you aren’t worried about what people think, you aren’t thinking about what happened yesterday, you aren’t worried about tomorrow, you just step into that magical place inside your mind where you just become one with the moment to the point where you begin to feel free, just completely free.

And the more you feel free the more you feel passion the more you feel passion the more you feel that feeling of being in the moment…

Anchor the State to You Using Binder Commands

When you use your language to anchor the state you created to yourself, you will be associated with all those good feeling emotions.

Here are some examples of binder commands:

• …Now…
• …Right Now…
• …Here…
• …Now, here…
• …To me…
• …With me…
• …And me…
• …For me…
• …before me…(be for me)
• …Me and You…
• …Like me…

So now my hypnotic language pattern is complete using persuasive themes, transitions, quotes, pronoun shifts, hypnotic lead-ins, embedded commands, descriptive language, and binder commands:

I can tell you really love acting. It reminds me of article I was reading the other day, and the author was talking about acting and actors and the difference been actors and great actors. He said actors memorize their lines find a neat way to say them and then just parrot what they memorized when the camera starts to roll, but great actors he said experience acting in a totally different way.

Great actors he said memorize the lines, but they have no idea how they will deliver the line when the camera starts to roll because they are totally in the moment.

You know what it’s like when you are on stage and you are in that beautiful magical moment right before you get on to perform you feel that adrenaline rush flowing all through your body . And then (snaps fingers) instantly your mind just goes to a different place, a place where you aren’t worried about what people think, you aren’t thinking about what happened yesterday, you aren’t worried about tomorrow, you just step into that magical place inside your mind where you just become one with the moment to the point where you begin to feel free, just completely free.

And the more you feel free the more you feel passion the more you feel passion the more you feel that feeling of being in the moment…Now with me I never had been interested in acting but I can see why people like you love it so much.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted in Language Patterns, NLP, covert hypnosis, embedded commands, persuasion | 12 Comments »

Embedded Commands Video Tutorial

Hey Persuasion Artists,

Embedded commands is obviously one of the cornerstones of conversational hypnosis.  If you are new to embedded commands you might have found my article Hilary Clinton is using Covert Hypnosis a tad complex. If it was confusing no worries, I just found this video on how to use embedded commands, that will make embedded commands easier to understand. In this video tutorial this gentlemen breaks down a few examples of how embedded commands work and how along with a few good examples.

Note: I do NOT think his voice is a good example of proper tonality, however he still provide an excellent lesson on how to use embedded commands in hypnotic language, enjoy.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Posted in covert hypnosis, embedded commands | 1 Comment »

Hillary Clinton is Using Covert Hypnosis

A couple weeks ago I got an email from a reader who asked me “if covert hypnosis is as powerful a persuasion tool as you claim why don’t I see politicians running for office using it?”

Well, first of all if they were any good you wouldn’t see it, what why it’s called covert hypnosis.

But that’s still a fair question. I did a little research on the speeches of some of the 08’ presidential hopefuls to see if I could spot any covert hypnotic language patterns. After a few days of digging through Youtube and Google I found very interesting things in the way Hillary Clinton selects her language.

I observed the Senator using a covert hypnosis strategy called embedded commands.

In this post I am going to explain briefly how embedded commands work, I am going to give a few examples of embedded commands I have found in the blogosphere, then I will reveal how Senator Hillary Clinton used embedded commands in a speech and book. I will also reveal the mistakes she made in using embedded commands.

Obviously I am making a strong claim here. I hear people saying “Politicians using covert hypnotic language? No way! I am sure they just are being themselves and speaking from their heart.”

Yeah right!

Contest my claim in the comment box if you like, but whether you agree with me that she is using covert hypnosis in her speech or not, if you are interested in learning persuasion this post is still a powerful case study of covert hypnosis as well as a detailed lesson about embedded commands.

The video of her using this language pattern is in this post as well so you can see for yourself in a moment. Naturally, you will want to read this entire article first to catch it in the video and so you can understand how and why she is using this language pattern.

By the time you are done reading this article you, like me, will also become aware that covert hypnosis is used my politicians.

photo credit: Hillary Clinton Barack Obama

What is an Embedded Command?

Embedded commands, also called embedded suggestion, are hidden suggestions and commands woven into a sentence or paragraph. It works kinda like subliminal messages. Here is an example taken from my article How to Create Your Own Covert Hypnotic Language Patterns:

“…underneath all of (those powerful emotions) you are just having fun, and this causes you to begin feeling really good. With me it’s a little different, I really have to get to know a person first and then feel really and comfortable around them.”

FEEL REALY GOOD WITH ME is the embedded command.

Embedded commands work very powerfully in persuasion because you are persuading you are not communicating only with the conscious mind of a person, in fact you are mostly communicating with the unconscious mind. Hypnotic languages such as embedded commands lead the unconscious mind.

Just like the little pieces of bread lead Hansel and Gretel to the candy house, embedded commands lead a person to the action you want to persuade someone to do or emotion you want someone to feel.

The embedded command I caught hidden in Hillary Clinton’s language was YOU LIKE ME.

The YOU LIKE ME command is another way to use embedded commands that I have not shared on this blog yet, so lets take a look at a few examples of the way it is used properly before we look at how Hillary used it because she made a couple errors. Here is an exert from a seminar book my Richard Bandler the creator of NLP using this pattern in a sentence.

“Now this is my basic sales program: Induce good feeling; attach it to product. Or very importantly, you can also induce it and attach it to yourself, because you are a part of this, especially if it is a service, because you, like me, want the best for yourself. You like me want the best for yourself. Now this is a language pattern and we are going to get into those. They’re fun.” (Bandler and La Valle, 1996, p 39-40)

What Bandler did in the above example was frame the language by putting the YOU, before the LIKE ME in a way that makes sense conversationally. He did this by saying a sentence with “you, like me” in it and then explains how you are alike so the conscious mind is satisfied, but the unconscious hears the embedded command YOU LIKE ME

YOU LIKE ME as an embedded commands works because is has two possible meanings, it can be used meaning you like me as a person, or you have an attribute that is like me so you are like me. Psychologically this suggestion works because the unconscious cannot distinguish which LIKE it is and processes both.

Here is one of the ways I use this persuasion strategy is my sales:

“I really enjoy a product that has XYZ feature. I also know that YOU, LIKE ME, and so many of my other customers also appreciate this type of feature in a product.”

Here is another example I came by on a UK blog called Call Centre Helper that trains customer service associates to use NLP in customer service:

“One of our team leaders took over a call from a customer who was particularly angry. They took the time to listen carefully to the caller in full before answering: “We, like you, want to get this matter resolved for you as soon as possible”. They also said: “You, like me, probably get frustrated when things are not delivered on time.

The team leader quickly calmed the caller down. What the caller was not necessarily aware of consciously was that they liked the team leader and that the team leader liked them, simply because they had been told as much.” – From article Making NLP Work in your Call Centre

Here’s another example I stumbled across a really great blog called Your daily un-interrupt-ed pattern of Hypnosis where the author sifnit shares another example of this type of embedded command:

…here’s an example that could be used for seduction, its one that I’ve been thinking about using and I just haven’t gotten around to testing.. Say your meeting a girl (or guy for that matter) and you’ve got decent rapport, for example your either just meeting them or one of you is leaving.. Where a handshake might have been appropriate here’s what you could do…

Reach out your hand, before your hands connect pull your hand back and gently hold on to their hand with your other hand, look into their eyes and say “I bet YOU LIKE ME think its a bit awkward shaking hands like this, come here and give me a hug”, open up both hands, inviting them to come forward and hug you, do this with warmth and empathy and its highly unlikely they won’t come forward… exerted from the article The Psychology of Hypnotic Pattern Interrupts

photo credit: Hillary Clinton 1

Obviously there are many ways to use the YOU LIKE ME embedded command. Here are the ways I have noticed Senator Hillary Clinton using this language pattern one of her speeches and in her book:

“There’s an old saying I love: You can’t roll up your sleeves and get to work if you’re still wringing your hands. So if you, like me, are worrying about our kids; if you, like me, have wondered how we can match our actions to our words, I’d like to share with you some of the convictions I’ve developed over a lifetime”-It Takes Village by Hillary Clinton

And finally here is the way that Hillary Clinton opened one of her speeches; “I know that many of you, like me… were disappointed by recent remarks that he made.”

If you are thinking, oh I am sure that is juts her natural way of speaking and writing. Maybe, but I doubt it. The words a politician’s use can make or break them in moments,

Because of this millions of dollars is invested into consultants to make sure they are wearing the right color, have the right haircut, and to strategically selected the right words of their speeches. It is all carefully prepared and planned.

So it is possible that Hillary did not know she was using covert hypnosis in her speech, and she just delivered it the way she was instructed by her speech writer speech consultant?

Possibly, but if that’s the case Hillary’s consultants should pay extra close attention here, because here are the mistakes I think Hillary made in her use of the YOU LIKE ME commands.

Covert Hypnosis Mistake #1: She had no rapport with the audience.

I personally think it is a waste of breath using hypnotic language in a speech or in any persuasion arena in the first few sentences. You need to gain rapport in those first few moments, and if you can’t get rapport try a persuasion strategy other than embedded commands and language patterns.

Hillary used the YOU LIKE ME language pattern with in her first couple words. Like most persuasion skills, if you have no rapport it will not work and the people will reject you much in the way the audience obviously rejected her.

One of the strangest things in persuasion I have noticed is if you don’t have rapport and you use language pattern you will sound manipulative, but if you have good rapport you can use them blatantly and obviously and they will still be effective.

Covert Hypnosis Mistake #2: She used the pattern only once.

We call a hypnotic language pattern a pattern because they only work when used multiple times. Hillary used the pattern only once in the Video. In all fairness to her, perhaps she would have made it a pattern if she was allowed to finish her statement before the audience stopped her. And she did use the pattern twice in the same paragraph in her book, but I aim for the same commands at least three times in my persuasion.

Covert Hypnosis Mistake #3: She Isn’t Congruent.

In order for persuasion to be effective, your words must match your overall energy. I wrote all about it in my article, The Hypnotic Power of Congruence. People are smart and they pick up on this lack of authenticity easily.

In sales you should never sound like a salesman, you should sound like someone who cares about helping a person who needs your product solution. If you are a man persuading a woman, you should never sound like a guy trying to pick up chicks. Naturally if you are a politician, you should never sound like a politician. When Hillary speaks I feel like I am watching a politician.

Congruence always sounds like authenticity, passion, compassion, and conviction behind your words. I didn’t feel that from Hillary in this speech or any speech of hers. When she said you, like me I sure as hell feel didn’t feel like her because there was no emotion of likeness behind her words.

In my humble opinion this is where Barack Obama really had an edge over her. People say Obama is charismatic or speaks with such passion, what they are talking about is his congruence. Powerful congruence can me more hypnotic than any clever language pattern.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted in Language Patterns, NLP, covert hypnosis, embedded commands, persuasion | 9 Comments »

Who is the Presidential Hopeful I Caught Using Covert Hypnosis?

photo credit: Half-n-half

I have been getting some emails and blog comments inquiring on how to use embedded commands with persuasion. The next post I am working on is going to give some more info on how to use embedded commands effectively in persuasion. Hopefully this will all be ready by tomorrow. I also found a really good video on how to use embedded commands, I will also share.

Also, I am going to reveal which Presidential hopeful I believe made a poor attempt at using embedded commands in a speech, how they were using it, and where they screwed up?

A very big P.S. I will do my best to use discretion in this post as the big three things people get very sensitive about in conversation are religion, politics, or sex. Let me say I study persuasion not politics, and this is not a political blog. I do not want to make that post a political debate. I don’t care who you vote for or what party you belong too. If you are offended by my blog post about politics and covert hypnosis, then I’ll say in advance sorry no mean to offend you. If you choose to unsubscribe Godspeed.

Otherwise, get ready for a fascinating post on embedded commands tomorrow.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Posted in Language Patterns, covert hypnosis, embedded commands, persuasion | 5 Comments »