I got the inspiration for that while reading a post about a blogger who crashed and burned trying to use covert hypnosis via binder commands, state elicitation, embedded commands, and descriptive language to pick up a woman at a night club. Here is a snippet of their conversation:
Me: “Isn’t it funny how music can sometimes evoke those warm and pleasant feelings inside you that just make you happy to be here… with me, that’s how it works, how about you?” Her: “What?” Me: (louder): “Khm… Isn’t it funny how music can sometimes evoke those warm and pleasant feelings inside you that just make you happy to be here… with me, that’s how it works, how about you?” Her: (a bit confused and after a short silence): “Yeah, it really depends on what drugs you’re on, dude.” She laughed and left to find her friends.
Obviously that did not go so well, but I give him credit for trying. Read the whole article Covert Hypnosis Dynamics Examples if you wanna know the story and read the comment I left to helping him with a different approach to the same strategy.
In my upcoming post about how to not use covert hypnosis I’ll expand on the comment, and show some ways how to make this type of persuasion more smooth and effective, so that it is natural and compelling rather than eerie and creepy.
I have been getting asked more and more about the Dark Side of persuasion. I refer to The Dark Side material as the manipulative covert hypnosis strategies so messed up that they can really cause psychological or even physical damage to a person. These are strategies I would never skills that I would never use unless my life was in jeopardy.
I know some twisted people want to learn so they can use the Dark Side material to have power over others, some want to know how to defend themselves against the power and some are just curious. I did promise in an earlier post that I would write a blog about how to protect yourself from people who are trying to use the dark side of persuasion against you. It’s easier to defend against these than you think; and I promise out soon.
I WILL NOT teach the Dark Side material. 1. Because it’s freakin EVIL and 2. because I don’t know the dark side material. But I do know enough to share so that you’ll be able to recognize it being used on you. To satisfy the curiosity of some readers I also will be making another list post that lays out some of the hard-to-find the Dark Side strategies, some of the forbidden patterns and other things that NLP trainers have banned.
I know this will sound strange, but I will also share a strange story about how some jerk-off NLP trainer used the dark side persuasion material was used on me and what I did to block it.
You are going to want to bookmark this one guys. I have compiled a list here, in no particular order, some of my favorite NLP, covert persuasion, conversational hypnosis, and covert hypnosis strategies.
This is one of my best posts on this blog to date. Never have I crammed so many different persuasion strategies into one post. I sincerely hope enjoy these juicy persuasion tips.
These strategies will not make you a persuasion master that is able to spin words into gold overnight, but it will give you a firm idea of what the most powerful and potent covert persuasion strategies are built upon, as well as reveal the fundamentals of the art and science of persuasion.
These persuasion fundamentals will plant some healthy seeds of knowledge in your brain causing you to continue learning and practicing the art and science of persuasion in a way that gets you the results you desire.
Some of these strategies might seem as foreign as learning Algebra in Klingon, but you can relax in knowing that everyone who has gotten powerful positive results using this material has been there as well.
Whenever I write a post like this, where I lay out the hard-core covert persuasion strategies on the table, I get a lot of positive and negative feedback. So I will take a moment to address the haters.
A lot of you critics and naysayers read this type of post and think “oh, that wouldn’t work one me.” Or “I’m so smart; I’ll catch someone doing that”
To all my un-fans and anti-readers, I say to you with a large grin on my face, how do you know these strategies won’t work? Maybe it will. Maybe you are the kind of person who always knocks things before you give them a fair and intelligent assessment.
Did you know that even now as you read this post there are people around the world using these same skills for sales, marketing, even seduction?
Well, I gotta tell you in the right context, in a way that wasn’t obviously manipulative, and with a persuasion artist who knows what he’s doing it can and will work. In fact, if you live in America it most likely already has worked on you through the media.
Even you don’t see yourself using these strategies of persuasion I would encourage you to at least learn the basics of persuasion so you will be aware of when it is being used you are being used on you in a negative way.
Once I learned these strategies I felt like Neo the first time he saw The Matrix. I was able to hear them all over the radio and in TV commercials; I could hear people who don’t study the art of persuasion using them unconsciously. Believe it or not, some people talk like this without ever reading one book on covert persuasion, we call them naturals.
I even heard one of the 2008 presidential hopefuls using one of these patterns! Trust me it, she is NO natural. LOL, and it doesn’t seem to be helping her too much in the primaries.
Bragging-Right 2008 by Bill Alexander
I will also say that I have full license to brag about all of these techniques, because none of them were invented by me. As a Persuasion Artist I paint the picture, but I didn’t invent paint. This article is not me speaking it is the ideas of from the results of decades of trials by hypnotists, therapists, NLP practitioners marketers, psychologist, masters of the mind and persuasion geniuses.
So when you really think about these covert persuasion strategies, you will naturally realize it’s not Bill Alexander speaking but the voice of wisdom, experience, and truth speaking through Bill Alexander.
Stacking stories is telling a story inside of another story, inside of another story so that the conscious mind can’t keep up with what is going on and goes into a light trance. Notice the way my article How to Combine Hypnosis with Stories for Covert Persuasion DYNAMITE is written for an example of this, as well as how to use hypnotic language with story telling as well.
Sub-Modalities:
This is an advanced strategy that I have not used yet, but would love to learn. Richard Bandler the co-founder of NLP discovered that people place different beliefs in different places in their mind.
For example, when you think of something that you believe is absolutely true you and you imagine it, you might see that image directly in front of you. When you think of something you wouldn’t like to do you really don’t want to do, you might see the image of it in the lower left corner of the screen of your imagination.
The neat thing for persuasion artists, is that we can use this by eliciting where they place in their imagination things that feel good, or things they take immediate action on and use language and or physical gestures to place ourselves or our product in that place. Or we could elicit from them where they put things that used to me true but no longer is true, and place our competition there.
I know this is heavy, so here is a video if Kenrick Cleveland displaying persuasion with sub-modalities.
Embedded Commands:
Embedded commands are commands hidden in a sentence and are marked out by a change in voice tone or physical movement and meant to deliver those commands to the unconscious mind without the awareness of the conscious mind.
Example:
What would it be like to get really excited about learning persuasion skills?
I’m curious as to whether you begin to feel curious about these covert persuasion skills to the point where you feel compelled to use them.
I wonder how quickly you’ll feel the anticipation to persuade and influence others where ever and whenever you want.
Values Hierarchy:
Elicit their values in a company, product, relationship, opportunity etc. Then ranking them in order of importance, and then stating them back to them in order of the least important to the most important, and as you use a tone that amplifies that feeling they get from the value it will intensify the feelings. Then you will link those intense feelings to yourself or your product using binder commands and or physical gestures. (see binder commands below)
Anchoring:
Anchoring is one of the easiest and most profound strategies of covert hypnosis. In essence you are creating an emotional button for a person, that you can push any time you want them to feel a certain way. You elicit a state, and then you link or anchor that state to a specific gesture, sound, or object.
An example would be using good tonality say “think of a time you self really relaxed, what was that like?” then as you see them going to the state make a unique hand gesture. Now every time you want them to feel relaxed you make that unique hand gesture.
This one you have to try to believe, but trust me it really works, and it is so easy you can probably do it today. You might not even realize it but when you say something that elicits a negative response from someone, or offends them, or breaks rapport etc. that person is going to unconsciously associate that emotion to you.
When you state something that gets a negative response from a person you can detach that negative response by physically moving your body from where you were sitting or standing.
An advanced strategy I am experimenting with is after I move from that spot I will point to it whenever I talk about my competitor.
A conventional persuasion strategy is to use the painting of a beautiful picture of what you want your prospect or client to experience with your product as bait, in such a way they are compelled to bite on the bait and take action. This works because people generally will not take action on what you want them to do unless they can clearly see what the outcome will look like for them.
Persuasion Artists take this strategy a step further. We use what hypnotists and NLP practitioners call time distortion. Time distortion is placing a subject mentally in the future where they are enjoying the decision they made and looking back on the interaction with you being the catalyst for it all.
In persuasion we do this by getting subjects to imagine that same bright future and then leverage that even more powerfully by making their self from the future look back on the image of us interacting as if it were the past and that working together, buying X product, or having X experience was what caused it all.
This works wonderfully because A. It elicits a light trance state for suggestions embedded commands to go into the unconscious without resistance B. It presupposes that they are going to love what you want them to do. and C. People do not resist a decision they have already made.
“Imagine a time in the future, and looking back on this moment having been the start of it all.”
Binder Commands:
This type of command works exactly in the same way embedded commands work, except they are used to link an emotional state to a specific person, thing, or an action.
Like me, to me, do it, now, with me, experience that, taking place now etc. are examples of binder commands
The other day I was talking with my friend Brenda and she was telling me a story about her girlfriend named Shelly, and she said “Isn’t it interesting when you are meeting someone for the first time and you suddenly reach that point in the conversation where something inside you just naturally clicks, it’s like a part of you can begins to realize that you really want to spend time with this person, while another part of you can look forward to moments where you’re laughing, and good times you’ll be having together. And underneath all of that 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.
Tonality:
This is a simple, but vital part of the persuasion process. In order to be effective at persuasion, your tonality must match the state you are working to elicit. I call this congruence; I wrote a whole article on congruence called Beyond Covert Hypnosis: The Hypnotic Power of Congruence
Also, dropping your tonality to mark out certain words or phrases in your speech to bypass the conscious and send messages (embedded commands) directly into the unconscious mind of the subject or client. In the following example I put the embedded commands in bold:
“Notice this SIGN of quality. And you know we are offering you a good deal, if you HEAR what I am saying.”
Naturally the words Sign and Here would be where you drop your tonality. Obviously making SIGN HERE the embedded command.
This is finding out the unique behavior that this individual need to experience in order to take action. In sales I call this eliciting a buying strategy. You could ask questions like:
“Out of curiosity, have you purchased a product like this before?… and just so we are on the same page, how did that work or how did you know it was the right product for you?”
Then they might respond by saying, “oh, fist we did a little research online but that was frustrating, so we went to a few stores and heard the salesman’s spiels at different stores, all the prices were about the same, so we just bought from the salesman we liked the most. The product we chose seemed to fit our needs the most, and seemed like a good value, and it just felt right”
Now, what I do here is I cater my presentation to what I quickly gathered from them by eliciting their buying strategy.
In the example above I know that research online was frustrating so they might not be interested in detailed technical specs features, so I will make that part of the presentation as short and sweet as possible.
They shopped around so they obviously are price conscious, so I would do everything needed to convince them that we have fair pricing.
I would also get rapport the best I can because they seem to buy from people they like.
And finally I would use every covert persuasion strategy I have to elicit a state of a gut feeling that is just right.
Mirroring:
Matching externally the subjects vocal attributes, breathing, posture, physical gestures, representational systems, etc. is a classic way to gain rapport with people. You can also match values, by eliciting those values and simply agreeing with those qualities. See my article on rapport for more on this. See my popular article 8 Covert Methods to Instant Rapport and Charisma with Anyone Fast for some advanced matching strategies.
Presuppositions:
A presupposition is a statement or question that presupposes something or things have to be true in order for a statement to make sense. Combine presuppositions together for maximum effect, but only utilize when you are in rapport and have already elicited a light trance state, otherwise they will either overwhelm a person or you will just piss em off.
Example: “After we have talked about this opportunity and you find yourself completely compelled to buy, I wonder how easily you will find yourself imagining how good it will feel to work with us.”
Stating what someone else said and using that to create a state in a person, is one of my favorite tools because it allows you to say things that you might not be able to say directly. This works very smoothly because you are not saying the commands yourself, it is what someone else said, and therefore it generally is received with less resistance.
And even if it doesn’t get your outcome, you have separated yourself from it in advance. I personally have experienced my results with embedded commands go through the roof as soon as I hid my commands in quotes.
Example1: “The other day I was talking to another client of mine and she said right before she decided that this was right for her, she likes to just stop for a moment, and go inside and imagine just how good it’s going to feel to experience a product like this.”
Example2:The other day I was talking to my best friend John and he said, “Isn’t it interesting how a part of you can come to the conclusion that you really want this, while another part of you can begin to get excited about all benefits an experience like this provides.”
Creating Parts:
Have you ever heard someone say “Part of me wants this, while another part of me wants this” or “Part of me wants to go on a diet, while another part of me wants to just go home and watch TV.” This ambivalence is because people are running into their unconscious habit patterns. The conscious mind wants one thing while the unconscious mind wants another. You can use this psychological pattern to over come objections.
Get past objections by saying “I know a part of you wants to shop price, but I know that there also is a part of you that does want to buy this now. Because that part has heard everything were are talking about today and knows the value of what you are getting from us.” I then would build up praise and support that part to the point where the objection has no ground anymore.
Double Binds:
Double binds are giving someone two decisions but both decisions lead them to what you want them to experience. This illusion of choice is heard in the mouths of car salesmen across the country as they attempt to close their customers. “Would you like to buy now or should I just get started on the paperwork?” *sigh* please, don’t employ this direct and manipulative method it just annoys people.
Instead I use double binds to lead people into different emotional states, and I use it as indirectly as possible so that I don’t get any resistance.
I don’t know whether you are beginning to feel excited about this opportunity, or just feeling really good about or company, but either way etc…etc…etc.
Comparison Patterns:
The strategy here is to compare two similar but different sates (one of which is the state you want them to go in) and then you use describe that state and amplify it with embedded commands, language patterns, and presuppositions, etc.
“The other day my friend was talking about the difference between liking a product and loving a product, and he said…”
“Have you ever though about the difference between will and willingness, see a lot of people think they are the same thing but actually…
“Have you ever thought about the difference between anticipation and compulsion? ”
The art of pacing and leading is stacking truisms and then strategically throwing in suggestions to take them in a new direction. It’s pretty slick. You do this by stating undeniable truths a person cannot argue with in their internal or external environment. Then lead by adding a new idea or action you want them to take. Read my article Covert Persuasion Tip: Using pacing and leading to persuadefor more on this.
Softeners:
Some of the criteria and elicitation questions in covert persuasion can seem like strange questions when said the wrong way. If you are in car sales and you ask a prospect “what is important to you about a car?” in the same tone you ask what color car are you looking for? people will look at you funny.
If you are on a date and you ask “where exactly in your mind you do see us having a great time together” in the same tone you ask where are you from, it will probably be your last date.
Part of what helps this is having good calibration, which comes in time as you develop your persuasion instinct.
It is super easy to ask these questions when you use softeners. Before asking an elicitation question soften the question by tagging phrases in front of the question things like, “I am curios… I am wondering… just so we are on the same page… or I like to understand people I work with so just so we are clear…”
Tag Questions:
I was reading an article about an NLP trainer named Jaime who was telling a story of two girls from London arguing. She said that most of the girl’s sentences ended with the word “innit?” Now, being American to me “innit” sounds like a funny way to butcher the phrase isn’t it, but the NLP trainer recognized something profound underneath the language.
You see, “innit” is an abbreviation of “isn’t it”, & putting “isn’t it” on the end of a sentence makes the sentence difficult to disagree with, doesn’t it.
“Isn’t it” is an example of a tag question, & using tag questions is a great way of making it easier for people to agree with you &, after all, you want people to agree with you, don’t you. This seems to have something to do with the fact that you introduce a negative into the situation, & negatives get processed differently neurologically than linguistically (“isn’t it” is an abbreviation of “is it not”, which is a particularly cool / weird sounding tag question, is it not?.) -Jaime Smart
What I do is say tag questions in a commanding tone instead of like a question; I also nod my head which is a non-verbal cue for agreement.
Embedded Tag Questions:
Combine the power of tag questions and embedded commands and you have embedded tag questions.
Example: Don’t worry if these persuasion strategies sound strange or confusing, or even weird. Even if a few of these persuasion strategies seem a bit advanced that’s okay, because the more you read this blog the more it just makes sense. Doesn’t it feel good to have a resource like this to quickly and easily learn these persuasion strategies?
This was a great article wasn’t it?
What Are Your Thoughts Guys? I’m All Ears. Leave a Comment and Share Your Perspective.
They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” -Carl W. Buechner
Many people want to learn how to use conversational covert hypnosis to be more effective in their persuasion. Don’t get me wrong, hypnotic language patterns are an important part of the covert persuasion process. However, I could give you list after list of hypnotic language patterns, and covert suggestions and commands, but if the hypnotic suggestion is not said in a way that really moves a person, it has no power.
It is not only hypnotist’s words but the way he delivers the words that capture and lead the minds of others.
I am going to give you a persuasion tip so valuable that if you learned only this one skill, you would be more persuasive and more influential than someone who knows all of the slickest hypnotic language patterns.
People are Moved by Congruence
A lot of people hear the word persuasion or covert hypnosis and their gut reaction is to associate it with doing and saying things that are sneaky and manipulative where hidden underneath your words is some malicious agenda.
To me, persuasion is all about the opposite of what most people perceive it to be. The greatest persuasion artist I have ever known was also the most honest.
I know it might sound hokey, but I firmly believe to be that top salesman, or charming and charismatic person you want to be socially, you must speak from a sincere heart. In persuasion what we call this authenticity is congruence.
In psychology and NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming), congruence could be defined as rapport within oneself, or internal and external consistency, perceived by others as sincerity or certainty. - Wikipedia
If you want to move, persuade and influence people you must speak with congruence. Congruence is when your words match your overall vibe.
When you persuade with congruence you radiate a confidence and conviction in yourself and your product that makes you irresistible to your prospects.
Fundamentally the key to being congruent is believing in yourself, and your product. Obviously, if you don’t believe in your product then you really shouldn’t be selling it.
There is another level of congruence that I would like to share and that is at the level of the hypnotic language patterns. As you study covert hypnosis you will realize that you are using precise language that speaks to people’s imagination and emotions.
Hypnotic language patterns are not magical words that if you say they will automatically put someone into a buying trance. The patterns must be used with skill and art in order to be effective.
I have heard some people say that they tried using language patterns, and they did not work, or they felt weird talking like that. In my experience if someone is struggling with language patterns in their persuasion, 90% of the time it’s because they are being incongruent.
Imagine a man using these language patterns to attract a women. Imagine him as a guy who has a wimpy high toned voice, his voice trembles with insecurity as he speaks, he also can’t make direct eye contact with a beautiful woman for more than half a second, and his knees are shaking with immense fear.
Now imagine him using the seductive and romantic lines of legendary lover of Don Juan DeMarco to attract the woman.
The girl would probably laugh in his face, as heobviously is trying to be someone he is not.Naturally he would sound incongruent.
He would be epitome incongruence.
Here is another example. The following phrase is a hypnotic language pattern called time distortion:
”Imagine a time in the future where you are successful working with our company, and looking back on this moment as having been the start of it all “
Now if you are using this pattern and you are genuinely excited for this person, because you have a legit solution you will naturally in your mind go into the future with them and your excitement will power the pattern and multiply the effects.
Obviously if you are in your head saying “I hope they like me” or “this is the 12 client I’ve met with today, just buy them damn thing already”, or “gee, I hope this sneaky covert hypnosis stuff I learn from Bill works” you are not being congruent.
How do you fuel your words with congruence?
Here is a Secret I Learned from Watching Actors about Congruence
Good actors are some of the world’s most powerful hypnotists. A good movie will make you go into a trance of laughter, attraction, fear etc. Think of a movie you really enjoyed, what were the strong emotions you felt, even though your conscious mind knows it’s all fake!
Now, good actors are not just reciting memorized lines and then thinking up a cool way to say the line. That would bore the heck out of the audience and themselves after the first few performances; some actors have to do plays hundreds of times.
How to they keep that emotion alive? How do they keep the audience engaged? Many of them use a strategy called theMeisner technique where they make themselves really feel the emotion from something they have personally lived.
If an actor’s character is in love, they think of a time when they were in love in their real world. If the actor is enraged, they think about what really would upset them. They do this in such a way that it doesn’t even become ‘acting’ in the pretending sense. They use their imagination in such a way that they are going through a real and powerful emotional state inside.
As a result they move the audience to those same powerful emotional states as well.
Creating Powerful Emotions Inside People’s Minds with Congruence
When you are using the hypnotic language patterns I would encourage you to use a similar strategy as actors to move people to powerful emotional states.
The persuasion mantra here is: You can’t lead anyone into an emotion unless you go there yourself first.
As you say the language pattern feel for yourself what you are describing and it will naturally lead them there as well.
If you are using a cause and effect language pattern to induce excitement in your prospect by saying, “speaking with me today about this opportunity causes excitement” think of a time when you were excited, feel your own excitement and speak the language pattern through that emotion.
After all people aren’t only buying your product; they are buying the feeing that your product will give them. Anyone in sales has heard the famous sales philosophy; people buy for emotional reasons.
When you get yourself emotional about what you are selling and allow yourself to feel the energy of the positive powerful emotions behind every hypnotic phrase you will be congruent. And the more congruent you are the more you will get the results you want in persuasion. In such a way that you will quickly notice your sales, success and income increase to levels beyond what you thought was possible.
It has been an interesting week, the article I wrote last Thursday 8 Covert Methods to Instant Rapport and Charisma with Anyone Fast got me more love mail and more HATE mail than any thing I have ever written on Persuasion Artist. And in the past week I had over ten times the traffic to my blog than I did all of last month!
Thank you to everyone who read the posts and left comments, you are appreciated.
However, I do need to address something important with you.
If you have been on my blog for more than 20 seconds you know that I am teaching highly advanced and strategies of conversational covert hypnosis.
Sometimes I wonder if I should be sharing this information, not because covert hypnosis is dangerous, not because covert hypnosis is manipulative, and not because I spilled the beans on some underground top secret hypnosis intelligence and the covert hypnosis secret society has put a hit out on me.
The reason that I sometimes wonder if I should be sharing these things is because most people don’t understand what hypnosis really is.
This is obvious to me when I get comments and emails from people saying that what I am sharing here is immoral, manipulative, or just hocus pocus mumbo jumbo.
And I can understand that logic because society has been socially programmed by the media for many years on what hypnosis is not. With displays of mind control and making people do things against their will, and people barking like dogs.
So, if I may get one thing straight.
If hypnotists could make people do things against their will then it would be a hell of a lot harder find information on the subject, I would not be sharing it on a freaking blog of all things, and hypnosis would be the most tightly guarded secret in the universe.
Currently on the planet Earth hypnotic language is not a magic spell no matter what Hollywood would have you believe. So if you were hoping I’d eventually share a magical script to say to someone to get them to do your bidding you will be extremely disappointed.
Conversational hypnosis is much more complex than memorized scripts, much more beautiful than that, and much more fulfilling than that. Hypnotic language is about connection, it’s about making others feel good, it’s about using our beautiful minds, it’s about passion. And the more you study these techniques with me or with any other teacher the more you will realize there is nothing creepy or manipulative about it
The biggest secret of hypnosis is that all powerful communication is some form of hypnosis.
Is this powerful communication dangerous or unethical?
In just the way fire can be used to cook a meal, it can also be used to burn down a house; hypnosis can be used for good or evil. Martin Luther King was a powerful hypnotist and so was Hitler.
But, yes there is a dark side of persuasion and hypnosis, which I am going to write an article on next week, so you will know how to protect yourself if anyone is trying to manipulate you using these strategies.
Furthermore, I would encourage you to really look inside yourself and think deeply about how you can use persuasion and influence.
Whether you are a casual reader or someone who goes out into the world and uses these methods; I would encourage you to use influence and persuasion strategies for good and not for evil.
I am having some exciting things come up in the next few weeks, more case studies, an online forum, experiments that the readers and I can all do together, I’m working on a podcast, and even some contests.
I really am interested in creating an online community of people who are passionate about this beautiful technology of persuasion and influence and excited about what we can all learn from each other.
I’ll keep ya posted.
My name is Bill Alexander, I am a hypnotist, and I love that I have learned a rare skill that enables other people around me to feel really good. I apologies to no one for my passion and my desire to learn this technology.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
I have been getting some interesting emails from my readers about the robber in Italythat supposedly hypnotized the cashier into giving him money from the register.
Some of you want to know if this is really possible.
I mentioned how Italian police are looking for a man, who robbed supermarkets by hypnotizing the checkout staff into giving him money. See the video for yourself.
He waited until he got to a female bank clerk and, according to the video footage, appears to hypnotize her into handing over more than £600.
He then calmly walked out.
The cashier who was shown the video footage reportedly has no memory of the incident. She only realized what had happened when she saw the money missing.
The question of the week is is this type of hypnosis possible?
there is another video on youtube you can watch called The Heist where Derren Brown used hypnotic technique to influence three people to rob an armed guard, only using covert hypnosis strategies.
The catch is that was after selecting the four most suggestible people out of twenty participants, and many days of covery conditioning and programming.
Then out of those four three of them actually went through with it.
So yes, it is “possible” to manipulate people to do dangerous or devious things with hypnosis.
At the same time, I question if this is what happened in this news story with the robber and the cashier in Italy, because it would be EXTREAMLY difficult to hypnotize someone like this.
Something similar was reported a while back with a bank robber hypnotizing a bank staff into giving over money. Turns out that the “staff” that was allegedly “hypnotized” was in on it from the beginning and were prosecuted.
Whether the Italian Job is b.s. or genuine hypnotic phenomena it is despicable and this type of propaganda gives legitimate hypnotists a bad name.
This is a long one guys, but if you are new to the realm of covert hypnosis and persuasion this will give you a good foundation to start from. We will talk about the differences between therapeutic hypnosis, and conversational hypnosis. What is trance? How hypnotists uses trance. Why covert and conversational hypnosis works? Where did conversational hypnosis come from? Plus a little about the ethics of conversational hypnosis.
In order to understand covert hypnosis, we must understand hypnosis, and to understand hypnosis, we must understand trance.
What is trance?
Trance is simply a narrowing of focus on one thing, such that the world around you begins to fade away, and you become entranced in the message or image you are focusing on.
You go into and out of trance every day.
Remember in school when the teacher would be talking in front of the class and while a part of you knows you are in a classroom sitting at a desk and you know the teacher is talking, mean while another part of you might be deeply daydreaming.
And of course there are different ways to daydream. There is the quick thought of maybe a conversation you had earlier where you just aren’t paying attention to the teacher, but then there are those daydreams where you go off for minutes into a your own little world. And the more you imagine those images inside yourself the more the rest of your environment begins to fade away and disappear to the point where the teacher could even say your name to make sure you are paying attention and you don’t even hear her.
We all do things like this when we are driving, when someone is talking but or mind is preoccupied, when someone attractive walks by, when watching a movie. You also narrow your focus and go into a trance when you are having sex, or a roller coaster rides, or when you get very scared. These are trance states, these in a sense are all forms of hypnosis. Thinking of examples like this, where we zone out, or zone inward rather, causes you to understand hypnosis and trance even more.
A Hypnotists Trance:
Now, naturally when most people think of hypnosis they think of the guy with a watch swinging it back and fourth in front of someone face or those hilarious spinning spirals we have all seen in the movies.
A hypnotist job is to create or induce a trance in you. Most hypnotists use language in a way that helps someone enter a trance state. A hypnotist gets someone to relax using suggestions and commands to relax, followed by language that allows you to focus on imaginary things that allow you to go deeper into trance.
Why does hypnosis work?
Why are hypnotists able to help people to change bad habits like smoking, help people overcome phobias, and make people dance like Brittany Spears in front of an audience of strangers?
Research has show that people are highly suggestible when in a trance state. Meaning a hypnotist can get people to do things they might not normally do, here’s how that worls.
You have two main components of your mind, the conscious and the unconscious.
The conscious mind
The conscious mind is the part that is awake and aware. It’s the rational, problem side of your mind. It is the part that controls your speech center and gives you things to talk about and communicate with others.
The Unconscious mind
The other is of your mind is the unconscious mind. Some people call this the subconscious or your other than conscious mind. The unconscious mind controls all your sensory perceptions, as well as other bodily function like breathing, heart rate, etc. You unconscious mind also controls long term memory, and the heart of your emotions.
While we would like to think that we are in conscious control, most of what we do is by habit or unconscious responses. The unconscious mind is the part that is really in control, it dictates most all of what we do. There is a lot of science to back this up. I just found an article on wired titled Brain Scanners Can See Your Decision Before You Make Them where scientists are now saying that every decision you make has already been made by your unconscious mind long before you even realize it is what you want to do.
Think of the unconscious mind as the cruise control in a very powerful that most people can’t turn off. I don’t like that metaphor because it sounds like we have very little power over our mind. But in reality most people, who procrastinate, who fail at diets, who cant stop smoking is how we see evidence of this in all of our lives.
Now along the same lines of the metaphor, what a hypnotist does is he is able to take control of the car and drive you to where you wan to go. Perhaps to the place of freedom from addiction or a phobia.
Covert and Conversational Hypnosis
A scum sucking bastard would use these same skills to selfishly take you where HE wants to go, despite your best interests. Yes these people are out there. See my warning and disclaimer for more on this. Police in Italy are currently looking for a thief who allegedlyhypnotized a cashierinto giving him money from her register.
An ethical persuasion artist, like myself and hopefully all of my readers, takes control of the car and takes you to a place that you BOTH want to go. Perhaps a business transaction that is a win win for all involved. I have learned with Kenrick Cleveland and he has my highest recommendation on how to use these powerful skills with integrity
Covert and conversational hypnosis is using your verbal and non-verbal language in every day casual conversations to lead the unconscious mind into making a new decision or coming to a new conclusion. So artfully that only an expert would know you are doing something, underneath your words.
Covert and conversational hypnosis is based much on the work of Dr. Milton Erickson. Dr. Erickson has been dubbed the grandfather of modern hypnosis and some say the greatest hypnotist there ever was.
As the ledged has goes, Dr Erickson was a psychiatrist who wanted to use hypnosis on his in his psychiatry practice; the only problem was it was illegal for Doctors to use hypnosis with patients.
Knowing the immense power hypnosis bad beyond psychiatric treatments, good Doctor then went on to develop a system to hypnotize patients just by talking to them!
Covert Hypnosis Was Born
This method he created paved the way for modern hypnotherapy and was later modeled by Richard Bandlerand John Grinder to help build the fundamentals of Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP.
Bandler and Grinder were some of the first trainers in this new form of powerful communication, going on to training top sales people, managers, and politicians. Today there are NLP, covert hypnosis, and persuasion through conversational hypnosis trainings around the world.
So, here you are reading an article about persuasion, reading at a speed that is best for you, focusing on the information that you identify and resonate most with, coming to new conclusions about just how more persuasive you can be.
And as you ponder how persuasive you can become, what you’ll find is the more you focus on those conclusions, and the more you think about what you are reading now, the more this message begins to ring even clearer to you, sounding you off to go and get exactly what you want out of life.
Ok, if just went into a deep trance and hit your face on the keyboard my apologies (just kidding)
Obviously my opening two paragraphs are covert hypnotic language patterns. This pattern is called pacing and leading. The art of pacing and leading is stacking truisms and then strategically throwing in suggestions to take them in a new direction. It’s pretty slick. You do this by stating undeniable truths a person cannot argue with in their internal or external environment. Then leading would be adding a new idea or action you want them to take.
Pacing and leading works because there is less resistance from the person to do what you are suggesting when you soften the statement with things they can’t resist. Old-school sales courses refer this to a “yes set”, but this is a lot more covert and hypnotic and when done with the proper congruence and tonality.
This hypnotic language pattern will allow you to lead any conversation covertly and smoothly.
Here is a popular formula for pacing and leading:
Pace, Pace, Pace, Lead
Pace, Pace, Lead, Lead
Pace, Lead, Lead, Lead
Lead, Lead, Lead, Lead
*Assignment: read the first two paragraphs in this article again above and see if you can locate the different pacing sentences, and different leading sentences.
Here is a sales example, and I will mark the pacing and the leading:
(pace1)You’re here for some pretty important reasons, (pace2) reasons that caused you to come here today (pace3) like most of my prospective clients you probably have some questions, and (lead1) you will naturally use the information from those questions to make an intelligent decision today.
(pace1) and as we are talking about these things, (pace2) there will be some things I say that will make sense and some things that really make sense to your specific situation (lead1) and the more you focus on those specific things (lead2) the more you begin to realize that our product and your needs fit together in a really harmonious way.
(pace1)and that can seem like a tall order at first (lead1) at the same time as a result of our interaction today you will become even more aware of how true that is, (lead2) not because we need to sell or convince you that this is right for you (lead3) but because the right decision, with us, will always feel natural and easy, just like it has for all the other clients we serve.
Man that was really good one, I think I’ll use that one today! If you can’t hear the effectiveness of that pattern then check your pulse!
Study that and model if you are in sales, that is a really good use of hypnotic pacing and leading. When said with congruence, it will come across as someone who is confident that they are able to meet their client’s needs.
Use your new powers for good not evil, -Bill “Persuasion Artist” Alexander
Here is a quick and easy persuasion model, that with little effort can become natural and easy for you. Allowing you to influence and change the minds of those around you.
There are many variations of this model, but here is an excellent one for beginners and effective for advanced persuasion artists too.
1. Get rapport (get their trust) by becoming as much like them as you possibly can.
2. Elicit their criteria by asking the right questions. Asking the right questions, like “what’s important to you about X?” elicits a very high emotional state.
3.Anchor that good feeling state to what state to you or what you want them to take action on.
4. Use embedded commands so it’s clear to their unconscious mind where you are taking them.
Hello, my name is Bill "Persuasion Artist" Alexander. I am an avid student of persuasion and Influence.
I have a strong fascination for the mind, and I am passionate about the words, actions, and energies that influence the minds of others.
This is a blog of my insights on capturing and leading the imaginations of others using psychology, hypnosis, NLP, suggestion, and subconscious communication. I’ve been called a genius and I’ve been called dangerous.
All powerful forces can be used for good or evil. I encourage my readers to use these strategies for good and not in a harmful and manipulative way. Please see my Warning for more on ethics and persuasion.
Keep an open mind, feel free to ask me anything, I respond to all comments quickly, and I encourage and welcome intelligent discussion and debate. The content here is all free, so enjoy.
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photo credit: Scootie
I have been getting some interesting emails from my readers about the robber in Italythat supposedly hypnotized the cashier into giving him money from the register.
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