Conversational Hypnosis Techniques

Before attempting to explain conversational hypnosis, also referred to as covert hypnosis, it might be a good idea to explain the principle behind it. First, there is nothing mysterious about hypnosis. It’s a natural state of mind that everyone experiences at least a couple of times each day. Let’s get started with a definition according to a master hypnotherapist, Dave Elman.

"Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human mind is bypassed, and selective thinking established."

Okay, this definition often prompts more questions than answers so let’s break it down. First, the critical faculty. This is a reference to the conscious mind or the reasoning mind. The primary function of your conscious mind is to make sense of things in your environment and to keep you safe.

The Gatekeeper
I look at the critical faculty as the gatekeeper. It’s this part of you that determines what makes it to your subconscious mind, the seat of your inner self. The subconscious is the true rudder of your life having taken in impressions since birth and consequently building your personality piece by piece. If you’ve received a steady flow of constructive and nurturing impressions (input from environment, family, media, etc.) chances are good you’re fairly well balanced.

If you’ve had less than optimal input, you may be functioning at a less than optimal level. Since the gatekeeper has a job to do, it’s often difficult to fool it. If you’re looking to make a lifestyle change and repeat, I’m happy and productive, the gatekeeper is right there to set you straight reminding you of all the times you’ve been less than happy and productive. That’s where hypnosis comes in. Hypnosis occupies the gatekeeper while ‘selective thinking’ is established. Selective thinking is nothing more than new, productive impressions.

That’s hypnosis in a nutshell. So how does that apply to conversational hypnosis? Let’s look. First it might be a good idea to define conversational hypnosis. It doesn’t require much of a definition. It’s a series of techniques, skills and observations used by an individual that are designed to persuade someone. It’s not about mind control. In the truest sense mind control is only possible through the use of physical force. Let’s look at the basic components of conversational hypnosis.

Rapport
Before you can have any influence on another you first must establish rapport. This may be accomplished in several ways. The easiest inroad to rapport is to identify common ground. Things like your hometown, home team, school, career, the weather and other like interests are excellent rapport builders. To further advance rapport a practitioner might subtly emulate the speech, breathing, gestures and body movements of the subject. The subject finds himself relating to the practitioner without conscious awareness because he feels the practitioner is ‘just like me.’

Confusion
Once rapport is established the practitioner may seek to speak in a manner designed to cause mild confusion. Why? Remember the gatekeeper? If the critical factor is busy trying to make sense of something that isn’t quite making sense, that opens the way for selective thinking or suggestions. In the case of conversational hypnosis, the suggestions of the practitioner.

There’s an old joke in the form of a question that’s been floating around for years. It goes something like this, "If it rains tomorrow, will you be walking to work or taking your lunch?" Silly? Yes. But this an exaggerated form of the type of confusion that will occupy the gatekeeper if presented seriously.

Here’s a more realistic example from an imaginary sales meeting: “Until I was coming here today to discuss the benefits of your new system I thought that yesterday might have been better but here I am now, go figure, huh? When you can enjoy benefits from more inflow of capital and cash then you’ll buy directly the system now.” Exaggerated still… Can you see why rapport must be in place? The sentences are designed for two purposes. One is confusion, the other is suggestion.

Suggestions
With the gatekeeper under a bit of pressure to comprehend the unusual input, the mind is ripe for suggestion. But wait. Take a look at the actual dialog above. There are sales suggestions built right in. Notice: “discuss the benefits” “your new system” “enjoy the benefits” “benefits from more inflow of capital and cash” “inflow of capital” “you’ll buy” “you’ll buy directly the system now”

Not only do we have a fair amount of confusion going but the practitioner is blending the suggestions right along with the confusion. Of course a skilled practitioner won’t deliver a steady barrage of confusion. He’ll present it subtly and intermittently, mixing it with more rational language.

Rapport, confusion and suggestion are the bare bones of conversational or covert hypnosis. There are lots of NLP techniques available that allow the skilled observer to virtually get inside the head of a subject and deliver a message almost guaranteed to persuade. And that would be a hypnosis learning topic for later but for another learning time when you absorb more covert hypnosis skills yes, another time, yes to more skills, okay?

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