I found a video about covert hypnosis on the Internet that was deeply disturbing.  The hypnotist did a video to explain his method of using a suggestibility test in a covert manner.

Let me explain something to you:  Suggestibility tests are tools that are really designed as tricks.  They are designed to be used overtly in stage hypnosis or in clinical hypnosis such that when the subject “passes the test”, they conclude that they are very good hypnotic subjects.  The tests are designed in such a way that they pretty much cannot fail when used properly.  They are tricks, not tests. 

In this video, the hypnotist leads us through a completely usesless and silly explanation of how to do a suggestibility test covertly.  It’s hilarious because, in my opinion, it is totally useless and poorly done.  If you are studying covert hypnosis then you can watch the video as a lesson in what NOT to do.  Don’t do that test, don’t say “um” and “uh” so much when delivering hypnotic language, and don’t think that you can tell a story and embed full commands mid-sentence like this guy is trying to do.  Just don’t.

The best covert hypnosis should be based on Ericksonian methods.

Technorati Tags: conversational hypnosis, Covert Hypnosis

This morning I’ve been thinking about covert hypnosis tools.  The reason we call it “covert” hypnosis is because it comes across as very natural to people that you are working with (talking to).

One of the most natural things to do in conversation is to move your hands and to make gestures.  You can take advantage of this natural component of conversation by establishing an unconscious meaning to your own gestures.  When your brain (or someone else’s) assigns some kind of meaning to a gesture, then that gesture has become an anchor for the meaning. 

Some everyday examples can suddenly become obvious to you.  A guy winks at a girl, and she knows he is interested in her.  A person choking on a piece of bread will hold his hands to his neck to indicate this (since he can’t talk).  Putting your index finger on your temple is an anchor for “I’m thinking”.

In covert hypnosis you can establish anchors by performing a gesture at the same time as you elicit some kind of mental thought or psychological state from another person. 

A simple example would be to anchor “yes” and “no” to different places that you point to.  You can establish the anchors by pointing to the “yes” place when you establish rapport and talk about simple stuff.  Anything that gets the person to say “yes” or think “yes” is sufficient.  You can ask the other person any question where “yes” will come out of his mouth and as he says the word, you gesture to a location very subtly.  Then as you get him to say “no” to something else, you gesture subtly to another location.  You should actually do this more than one time per anchor because anchors are not set quickly unless the emotional state of your target is at a high level. 

Once your anchors are set, you can use them as you make suggestions.  For example if you wanted to suggest to your wife that it was time to buy a new big screen TV you might say, “I just love how the prices have come down on the new LCD TVs (gesturing to the “yes” spot), and I realize we weren’t planning on replacing our TV so soon (gesturing to “no” spot).  And with the price drops, I feel comfortable with the idea that we can go ahead and do this now (again gesture to “yes” place). 

That’s just a simple example of how to use gestures as anchors in covert hypnosis.  Hopefully you learned something from it. 

Technorati Tags: Covert Hypnosis

When you think about stage hypnosis I bet you don’t think that it has anything at all to do with covert hypnosis, do you?

One of the best hypnotists on the planet is Dr. Mike Mandel out of Toronto, Canada.  Currently in Toronto there is a big event on called the Canadian National Exhibition.  Dr. Mike Mandel does daily stage hypnosis shows at this event.  If you have ever seen him, and if you have any skill in covert hypnosis, then you’d realize immediately he is using covert hypnosis even before he gets anybody up on stage.

I encourage you to watch an excellent stage hypnotist such as Dr. Mandel.  Pay close attention to everything that he says and does prior to getting anybody up on stage at all.  You’ll notice that in a very conversational manner, he is getting people to enter a state of wanting to be up on stage.  He is embedding commands such as “want to come up on stage”.  Then, once the participants are actually up on stage he continues to talk to them in a very casual way.  As far as they understand, the hypnosis has not yet begun!  But it has … and it is all covert hypnosis.

Stage hypnosis can be so much fun to watch … and for me it’s all the pre-show stuff that is most interesting.

Technorati Tags: Covert Hypnosis, Stage Hypnosis

One of the most important things to keep in mind if you are serious about learning and practising Covert Hypnosis is the art of congruence. 

Congruence simply refers to the total alignment of all aspects of your communication.  Have you ever asked somebody how they enjoyed a movie, or a restaurant, only to have them say in an unconvincing way, “it was pretty good” … that is an example of incongruence. In covert hypnosis, and really in any form of communication, you shoudl aim to be totally congruent.  If a movie sucked, you should say so.  If it was fantastic, you should shout it from the top of the world. 

You can’t expect to influence someone else if you are not totally congruent in your communication.  So remember that whatever you are saying, you need to feel it 100%, and it needs to come through in your body language, your tone, your physical expression, your volume, your enthusiasm, etc.

I found a great blog posting discussing this topic here.  It’s worth reading.

Technorati Tags: conversational hypnosis, Covert Hypnosis

Perhaps the most powerful method of covert hypnosis is to tell a simple story.  The theory goes like this:  If you tell an engaging story to somebody else, the only way that other person can make sense of the story is to somehow relate it to him or herself.  As they do this, they enter a state of trance and get a message from the story.  This is as old as mankind, and if you read any children’s book you’ll notice the stories are really covert hypnosis with hidden (positive) messages for children.

Stories are the perfect covert hypnosis tool.  They occupy the conscious mind (because the listener is busy listening to the details) and the unconscious message is free to be delivered and understood.

If I knew a friend who seemed depressed, I might tell him a story about a cousin of mine who had a job that was a good paying job, but it was horribly boring and gave him no enjoyment.  I would then proceed to explain how much he hated the job, and I’d use vague language so that it would force the listener (the depressed friend) to search for his own meaning of what I was saying.   I’d go on to explain how my cousin got some really great advice from a trusted advisor.  I’d tell him that the advice was, “You need to find out what makes you happy and just start doing a lot more of it”. I’d tell my friend that about two weeks after hearing this advice, he happened to get offered the job of a lifetime doing exactly what he loved doing. 

Now let me explain a few of the things that make this covert hypnosis.  First, if you grab the attention of your friend and establish rapport, you know you can engage him in a story.  When he is fully paying attention to the story, it alters his state because he is relating to the story on a personal level.  This altered state is hypnosis.   When I  explain to my friend the advice that was given to my cousin, I’m really marking that advice out to my depressed friend.  He just doesn’t realize consciously.  But his unconscious will get the message.  Finally, by telling my depressed friend what the outcome was for my cousin in his job situation, my friend will get the message that if he spends more time doing what makes him happy, he’ll stop being so depressed! 

The story is told in a very conversational way, which is why it works as covert hypnosis.  You don’t pull your friend aside and say, “Hey Jim, I need to tell you an important story that will help you with your depression”.  That would wreck it!  Never explain the meaning of a story.  Ever. 

Try it out on somebody today.  Just tell any engaging story and have something burried within the story that will be helpful to the listener.  But don’t explain it.  Just tell it casually.  That’s covert hypnosis.

Technorati Tags: Covert Hypnosis

As a student of covert hypnosis, it’s essential that you build up a toolbox of words and phrases that can have multiple meanings.  For example, the word “right” can mean “correct” or it can be used to mean “the side other than left”.  When you use one of these ambiguous words multiple times in a communication with someone else, you create a state of confusion.  This is useful for covert hypnosis because confusion creates openness to suggestion.  In other words, if you want to do covert hypnosis then one of the tools you want to use is confusion followed immediately by a suggestion. The suggestion will often be followed be followed and the subject will likely not clue into the fact that you provided the suggestion in the first place. 

I found a great article discussing this topic here.  It’s worth checking out.

Technorati Tags: Covert Hypnosis