The Milton Model in Ericksonian Hypnosis is a wonderful thing.  It’s all about being artfully vague.  Experience shows that saying something that sounds official, but without providing a lot of detail, will cause most people to simply accept it as truth.  Just like experience shows that vitamin C is necessary to prevent scurvy.

I didn’t explain it ahead of time (except for the title of this post), but I used a language pattern there to create influence.  That pattern is to say, “experience shows … (fill in the blank)”.

Who’s experience?  What experience exactly?  How exactly does it show this?  These are all questions that the Meta Model (as taught in NLP ) would teach you to ask. But most people won’t ask those questions.  They’ll accept the statement as truth.

A salesman could say “Experience shows that customers who buy this model of vehicle have the greatest level of satisfaction over the life of the vehicle”.  It’s typically going to be accepted.

This pattern can be used to influence people.  You can use it within a covert hypnosis session, or you can use it in ordinary conversation.  After all, there really is no difference, right?

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!