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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.
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:
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following is not a sales page, I am in no way affiliated with the following program and you will not see an affiliate link from me in this post. I do not care if you buy this guys stuff or not. This is important news in this persuasion industry that I wanted to share.
Even though I keep hearing the name Marc Hogan name all over the persuasion forums and persuasion blogs, I have never purchased any of his products, so I cannot personally testify to the quality of material.
But apparently Marc comes highly recommended as a teacher who is highly skilled and has quality material by a few of my fellow persuasion bloggers.
If your goals are directed more towards persuasion and daily social interactions I highly recommend Marc Hogan and his S.T.E.A.L.T.H.™ Influence & Sales Mastery 8 DVD Set. He is in the UK, but ships just about anywhere. This is some of the best hands-on instruction I’ve seen anywhere. The DVDs may seem expensive ($394), but they’re worth it. There isn’t any filler and they cover just about all you’ll ever need. It’s hard to really use this stuff until you actually see and hear it, then go out and try to apply it.
Marc Hogan’s site is http://www.persuasion-skills.co.uk. I am not affiliated with Marc Hogan in any way, but I have no problem recommending this product. If he had an affiliate program, I’d be the first to join. -Allen Parks Covert Metaphor
According to Marc in a statement to his list, he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse and is contractually obligated to stop selling his products to the general public by the 23rd.
He swears this isn’t marketing bullshit. Word out on the street is he’s not one to pull marketing stunts of this type.
His sites are already linked to another site that he will be 100% involved with after the 23rd and fully out of offering trainings or products to the public.
I guess everyone does have a price.
Marc’s flagship product, S.T.E.A.L.T.H. Persuasion is being sold only until the
23rd at a deep discount or until they’re gone.
S.T.E.A.L.T.H. stands for: Signal Tracking Elicitation Anchoring Language Trance Heuristics.
With the code, instead of paying $374.00, you’ll pay $191 if you want it through
the 23rd. Two quality bonuses are offered also. Especially if you are
interviewing for work right now. One of the bonus items will be better for you
than the S.T.E.A.L.T.H. offer.
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.
People get attached emotionally to physical objects all the time. We do this often with objects that hold sentimental value. Imagine what it would be like if you could trigger these intense emotions in others and naturally, easily, and all the time.
Now imagine what it would be like if you could make your prospect attach strong emotions of pleasure and desire to your product?
With persuasion and covert hypnosis that’s what happens with anchoring physical objects.
It happens when you elicit a feeling and anchor it to a physical object, so that every time your subject becomes aware of the object they feel the emotion you elicited.
Here is a videowhere you will see Kim McFarland anchor strong emotions to sugar packets.
2. Like Me Hate Them
This one is easy and completely covert and very simple. Elicit a bad emotion anchor your competition in it. Elicit a good emotion place yourself or your product in it. Here’s a video of Tom Vizinni demonstrating this one:
3. Anchoring Amnesia
I believe this anchoring strategy is from Kenrick Cleveland’s off the market Dark Side of Persuasion course. The Dark Side was a controversial course where Kenrick teaches persuasion strategies that could cause serious harm to people. Kenrick also made purchasers sign an agreement that they would only use the Dark Strategies as self-defense only.
Anchoring amnesia is probably less practical of a skill unless you just want to just f*ck with people. Some find it humorous others find it cruel. This is the only one of the bad ass anchoring strategies I would advise against using. Read my Warning and Disclaimer before watching this video of Kendrick Cleveland displaying anchoring amnesia.
4. The Swish Pattern
The NLP swish pattern is a strategy of anchoring similar to the “Like me, Hate Them” strategy above. With the swish pattern you elicit a feeling of uncertainty in your subject and then elicit a feeling of absolute certainty. Next, you fire the anchor when you speak of something you want them to be certain of or uncertain of.
For example is sales, you could make your client uncertain about your competition or make them absolutely certain that your product is the best for them.
In the following video world famous mentalist, and my hero, Derren Brown uses this type of anchoring it to make a woman forget the color of her car.
Using hypnotic language patterns is a powerful skill you will want to master if you want to use covert hypnosis to influence people. Hypnotic language used conversationally puts people into light trance, where your suggestions will be better received.
Language also patterns guide a person’s emotions, and when you can guide a persons emotions, you naturally influence their actions because humans do things for emotional reasons.
There are language patterns you can read in a book or course and memorize to use in your covert hypnosis arsenal that will net you some results. But obviously creating a unique hypnotic message works best because you are tailoring your suggestions to the subject of influence.
A general formula involves finding someone’s values, criteria and/or trance words, and then using a combination of hypnotic language patterns.
Let’s say for example you ask someone a value elicitation question like “what’s important to you in a relationship?”
And let’s say the response is someone who’s funny, so they can have a good time, and ultimately feel good <– TRANCE WORDS or criteria
Once I have their trance words I will use hypnotic language to get them feel that state, and connect it to me.
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.
I just made up, so it isn’t a hypnotic language master piece, but you get the idea. I used the persons “hot buttons” and combined then with hypnotic language to design the message.
What are the language patterns I used?
I told a story about a person telling a story.
Who am I talking about? Brenda? Shelly? Or the subject of influence. That’s hypnotic because the conscious mind loses track of who I am talking about. And you probably already know confusion is one of the doorways to trance.
“You suddenly reach the point”
When an internal process or emotions happens all of a sudden you are not in conscious control. When we do things automatically it is an unconscious process. When you describe an unconscious process you cause people to experience them inside= TRANCE
“A part of you” How can a part of you do something, while another part of you is doing something else? Sounds like you are doing more than one thing at once. That is only possible with help from the unconscious. Again describing unconscious processes is always very hypnotic.
I did some other sneaky stuff with embedded commands you may or may not have noticed, but that goes beyond the scope of this article. I’m sure by now you are beginning to get the point.
Five Ways To Master Creating Hypnotic Language Patterns:
The way you become naturally competent and anything is through practice. The following are methods you can use in your persuasion practice.
1. Write Out The language patterns
The goal is to get to the point where you are not trying to use language patterns, it’s just a natural part of who you are. Writing out examples of language patterns causes you to make the hypnotic language a part of who you are. Kenrick Cleveland recommends writing language patterns for at least 15 minutes a day. Just write out sentences like:
-Listening to this information today causes understanding
-Thinking about my competition causes you to not want to go to shop around
-Focusing on what you want causes all of what I am saying to make sense
-Underneath that objection is the need to know more of what I have to offer
-Beyond the desire to talk is the desire to really connect deeply with a person
-Moreover, you will naturally come to the conclusion that this is the right choice
-The more we talk today the more you will become aware of how right this is for you.
I will eventually have a list of a lot of language patterns you can play with on my blog.
In the mean while if you really want to excel at language patterns go to any of Kenrick Cleveland’s Max-Persuasion seminars. They are priced on the high-end of the seminar racket, but thinking about the price causes you to realize just how much more persuasive you will be after attending
Writing continuously causes you to naturally make these hypnotic patterns a part of who you are. Just keep writing and writing and writing until 15 minutes is up, some of what you write might seem off and that’s okay because underneath your error lies the path to true persuasion mastery. What’s really fascinating is that when you look over the patterns that you really like, it causes you to become even more excited about learning covert hypnosis, to the point where you find yourself looking foreword to practicing again and automatically using them in your everyday speech. Use
2. Hypnotic Flash cards
Putting hypnotic language patterns and trance words on little flash cards and then practice describing an emotional process are using random cards picked from the deck is a great way to rapidly make hypnotic language a natural part of who you are.
If you were to purchase Ross Jeffries Speed seduction home study course you will get a deck of flash cards that you can use to exercise using language patterns. I resisted doing it because; well I was just being lazy. It wasn’t until my friend found my cards at work one day and began practicing with them that I realized the power of this exercise. He knew nothing about persuasion other than traditional sales training and he knew nothing about hypnosis. But using this ONE SINGLE method he began to notice his sales went up!
Words that describe any unconscious process or things that happen outside of the conscious minds awareness work great. This works great with words like suddenly, realize, come to the conclusion, ponder, wonder, imagine, etc.
3. Notice The Process of Your Strong Emotional States
Reading the pattern I made up above again causes you to quickly notice that describing a state that resonates with a person’s values and trance words, is the keys to hypnotic language. The way you can practice this is by taking time to describe your own states.
Here’s a tip on how to do that. When describing a state think of where it happens, how it happens, how fast does it happen what does it lead you to conclude.
Here is an example:
You are at work sitting behind a desk, thinking about the task you need to do. When all of a sudden you feel hungry. At first you put it off, perhaps you want to get things done, or it’s not quite lunch time yet, and this causes that hunger to quickly begins to build and move from your stomach up your throat and into your mouth. Until you find yourself desperately craving that warm juicy meal. You might even begin to just stop what you are doing and imagine just how good it is going to taste that delicious snack you’ve been waiting for. And the more you see yourself eating in your mind, the more you become overwhelmed by this incredible hunger until you naturally come ot the conclusion that you need to eat now.
Hungry? Me too.
You go in and out of trance states multiple times throughout the day, why not use them to become master at putting other into trance?
4. Listen to and model the masters
Surprisingly, what I feel really caused me to cross over from just using language patterns randomly and into the land of using becoming a hypnotic language pattern artist was simple listening to the masters like Kenrick Cleveland, Richard Bandler, and Ross Jeffries. Maybe it’s some strange personal development law I’m making up but I now believe that if you listen to the way they talk long enough eventually you will use the same language they do.
5. Analyze Meta-Processes
Meta means underneath or beyond. The more you think about the drives and emotions people have beyond and underneath all the actions they make, the more you will understand how to use criteria and trance words. Think of the action or the state that is your cake and you want them to tell you your recipe. If you want to create connection in others, find out how they get connected by asking elicitation questions. Examples of elicitation questions are “How do you know when you X?” “what’s it like when you X” or “What’s important to you about X”
There can never be enough said of the virtues, dangers, the power of a shared laugh. ~Françoise Sagan
Why are funny commercials the most memorable ads? Why are the funniest guys getting the most girls? Why are salesmen that can make their customers laugh closing more?
Laughter is a type of trance state.
Funny ads are always incredibly hypnotic because laughter is a very powerful state that our unconscious mind associates with feelings of fun, playfulness, detachment, openness, etc.
Laughter is powerful. If you can make the people you are trying to persuade laugh, they will automatically anchor those same positive emotions from laughter to you or your offer.
In short, find a way to MAKE EM LAUGH!
Here is my collection of the most persuasive ads I have found in 2007, and they all had me in stitches, enjoy:
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: Lafayette Hater
