How To Be Naturally Hypnotic In All Your Interactions

Enhancing Hypnotic Effects

Welcome back everyone; I hope you had a nice break. Before the morning break, we started exploring some simple things that you can do to step into this role as an excellent, exquisite, masterful Conversational Hypnotist a bit more.

We picked up a whole bunch of things. You got the idea of talking with a bit more authority, and you got the idea that coaching them to become physically better trance subjects had an enhancing quality to it. There’s some idea around doing something similar with their mindset that you’ve been thinking about over the lunch break. You’ll get to jump into the deep end and get creative in a moment.

Definitely the idea of altering your voice qualities has something to do with this enhancing effect that we’re looking for. Ratifying and letting them know that they’re doing a good job and pointing out things that they’re doing well already is also pretty useful.

Exercise

So we’ve collected a number of things. What I’d like you to do now is do the same thing again with a partner. I’d like you to fill in as many of those things as you can in 20 seconds apiece. In other words, focus primarily on the idea of hypnotic thoughts that you’ll be introducing, but carry on coaching them with some physical characteristics.

Keep reminding them that they’re doing some good things as they go along.

See if you can alter your voice quality and make it more “hypnotic,” whatever that means to you. In other words, what can you do to enhance the experience that’s anything but the actual words that you’re using? Focus on the Trance Signals and the hypnotic thoughts and we’ll see where that takes us. I’m going to be kind to you, we’re going to take 30 seconds apiece, it’s the longest time you’ve had so far. Find a new partner. Off you go.

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POCHV ©Hypnosis Training Academy All Rights Reserved So how was that? Was that interesting? Was that fun? Not too taxing I hope, except that there was not much time, was there? It’s going to get worse, don’t worry. So you’ve started to put everything together and it’s starting to have an enhancing quality.

Who here as a subject, that’s pretending to be the world’s greatest subject, is starting to feel a little bit good now actually as a result of them talking? Who here, even in those 30 seconds, when it’s time to switch roles is starting to say no, no, let them carry on a little bit, this is nice. Anyone getting to that point? Of course you’re just doing that because you’re pretending really well, aren’t you? Or does something else happen when you pretend a bit too much? Just an idea.

Now the next question I have for you is, whilst you were doing all this coaching and talking to them and presenting some hypnotic thoughts, did you notice them doing something which may have looked more hypnotic, but that they might have difficulty doing on purpose?

So for example, did anyone see their eyelids fluttering wildly or did their eyes start spinning around, like they’re part of the Exorcist or something? Did you notice little things like that happening? You might see a pulse on their neck slowing down. Some people see it on the arms or the ankles, something like that.

These are things that people can’t control consciously. These are not inside of their voluntary control are they? There are some things that are occurring that are involuntary, but it’s kind of nice to be able to coach them to do that too, right?

I’d like you to have the experience of doing that, except we’ll see how easy it is or how hard it is to do.

Exercise

For the next one we’re going to take your time back a little bit to about 20 seconds. You can do as much of this stuff as you want, but there’s one thing that I want you to actually focus on, and please don’t do any of the other stuff at the expense of this.

Close Your Eyes

Coaching: Trance Signals Ratifying

Hypnotic Voice

Cognitive: Hypnotic Thoughts Voluntary v Involuntary

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POCHV ©Hypnosis Training Academy All Rights Reserved When you’re coaching them on their Trance Signals – relax your shoulders, which is something that they can consciously do; change your breathing, which is something they have conscious influence over – but if you’re going to add something that would make them look more hypnotic, that they have no conscious control over, like eyelids fluttering, eyes maybe rolling up or going through REM movements, pulse changing, temperature changing and things like that.

Go ahead and suggest that anyway as part of the coaching and see whether it helps or takes away from the experience. Very quickly, 20 seconds apiece, off you go.

Was that interesting?

Student: For the first time I let go. When you said, right, that’s it and he said to me up, up, up, I went no, no, no. I enjoyed it, which I didn’t think it would happen and it did.

Igor: We haven’t gone onto Conversational Hypnosis yet. We’re just building some basic building blocks, but this is exactly why Conversational Hypnosis can be so powerful, because they’re not expecting it. They’re not trying to help. They’re not trying to resist. They just let it happen, what naturally happens, and it makes your life so much easier.

I got this idea from a book that I was reading about a therapist. It could have been Grinder and Bandler but I’m not quite sure now. They talked about a lady who comes into their therapy clinic and sits down and starts sobbing. This is terrible. My life went to pieces. People hate me. She starts sobbing.

He turns around and says I’m sorry we haven’t started yet. Just give me a minute to get my desk ready. She says oh I’m sorry doctor, stops crying immediately.

People have an immense capacity to pull themselves together in the right context. Although we won’t be focusing on therapy here at all and this is more about influence and persuasion in life in general, a lot of crossover of course exists there. My preference is to get it done before they know you’ve started because if they know you’ve started, they’ll start doing things to make it harder. Why not be done before it gets hard? Not a bad idea.

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Student: I found that when I mentioned the eyelids fluttering, the eyelid fluttering stopped.

Igor: Thank you very much. This is getting curiouser and curiouser, isn’t it?

There’s something very interesting going on there, and it’s something that as hypnotists we need to take into account. Did you notice anything else?

Student: What I noticed is my thumb started flicking involuntarily.

Igor: Thank you.

So you’re starting to collect things that are happening outside of your conscious involvement. Are you starting to get a little bit of this?

Did anyone here have the opposite effect when they heard the idea that they can flutter their eyelids or have something happen that they don’t have any conscious control of - did anyone have a sense that it detracted from your experience, took away from it?

That’s a lot fewer people than I expected, but well done. You’ve obviously pretended to be greater hypnotic subjects than I thought.

Language Softeners

Let’s do something to soften things up a little bit. If I tell you that your eyelids will start to flutter and they don’t, maybe you’ll be kind enough to ignore it, or maybe you’ll try really hard and then something else happens, or maybe you’ll just get cross with me and say how am I supposed to do that, you idiot? Who knows, right?

We want to introduce a very simple kind of language. I think most languages that I’m aware of have a version of this that helps us to deal with these situations. It’s basically moving from the language of certainty – which uses words like will or must or do this now, the imperative – and we move to Language Softeners that are more about uncertainty.

If you’re uncertain about something, what kind of language do you use? Maybe, possibly, you can. Which is the quickest way to Heathrow Airport? I don’t know which

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You definitely wouldn’t go this way, but you might possibly find that this is the route that you’re looking for. You get the idea?

Throw out some words like that:

Language Softeners:

Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly, Could, Might, May, Now or Later, Suppose

This could be a very long list and different languages of course, will have different versions of how long that list is, but for now let’s take this idea and put it into what we’ve been doing.

Exercise

Now I’d like you to take 30 seconds apiece and do as much on that list as possible. The thing that I want you to focus on most of all is introducing the idea of Language Softeners. However, I do not want you to use them exclusively. I want you to switch between the imperative and the softened or conditional version of that.

In other words, tell them what’s going to happen – you will experience this, you will do that, I want you to do this now – and then you’ll switch and somewhere along the lines you’ll say maybe you’ll do this or maybe you’ll do that, and possibly this and possibly that. Do you get the idea?

I want you to be able to switch backwards and forwards between them a few times to notice two things in the 30 seconds that you’ll have. First of all, how do you feel talking in these different styles? Secondly, as the hypnotist what are you perceiving in terms of how your clients are reacting? When you’re the subject, notice how the different styles impact on you.

You can do as much of the rest of this as you want, but focus on the idea of Language Softeners and particularly turning them on and off within that 30-second window, and notice how that impacts on you and on the session that you’re beginning to develop.

Start now.

Interesting? What did you notice as either hypnotist or subject when those styles were switching, put your hands up.

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like a teacher or somebody telling me what to do. But when I just got the suggestion to feel my hands, I thought yes, he’s actually right, I can feel my hands.

Igor: Was it the way they presented it – you must notice your feet now and you didn’t want to, or you could feel your hands, and you went yah, I actually can, is that the sort thing? So there must be something about the language that goes between the people being told what to do, which very few people like, and the more permissive style.

So this is a very crude sort of way of experiencing what people call direct and indirect hypnosis, or more accurately, permissive hypnosis that gives options. The direct, or more authoritarian does not give options. Both have their value.

Let me ask you this, did anyone here have the opposite experience, in other words, they liked it when the person told them, do this, do that and when it started going into you could to this, you could do that, they thought, just stop washing around like an idiot and whatever? So if one of you want to stand up and tell me about that.

Student: For me it is better if someone is more direct because I don’t have to wait.

For me this is faster and it feels better.

Igor: So you preferred it, in other words it enhanced the experience when someone was more direct about things, right?

So what’s going on here? We have two different styles and we have two different reactions to each of those styles. Why is that happening?

Authority Principle

Well let’s think back. We talked earlier about the idea of authority, yes? I don’t know if you’re aware of this but our state of mind is linked to our vocabulary. Let me give you a quick example of this. Has anyone here ever been angry, I mean really furious with someone in their life? I know you guys are too Zen like for this, but you can imagine someone behaving like that, right?

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POCHV ©Hypnosis Training Academy All Rights Reserved And of course when you’re angry or furious with this particular person, you’ve gone up to them (sweetly) “I don’t think that what you said was very nice, let me just help you move on a little bit.” That’s the kind of language that you used, isn’t it?

Or did you do something along the lines of “You bleep, bleep beep, ever, bleep, bleep, bloody bleep, bleep, bleep again then bleep.” Is that more the sort of language that would have come out?

Your state of mind selects your vocabulary. In other words, your vocabulary expresses a state of mind. They’re linked, does that make sense? So you can often tell how people are feeling from how their talking, especially if you pay attention to their nuances.

One of the things that could have happened, we’re going to experiment with that right now, is that when you’re switching from the authoritarian, the direct style, which is the language of certainty, do this and do that, and you switch to the more permissive style, language softener, which is the language of uncertainty, you may have accidentally switched into a more uncertain state of mind as well. Which is what you’re referring to when you say, get on with it, I just want to have the result.

You see it’s one thing saying, well, let’s just experience this for a moment. Close your eyes and go into a trance. And open them again. (spoken with confidence and authority) Now, c, close your eyes now, and go into a trance, please? (spoken timidly and uncertainly) Same language essentially, but my delivery has switched. So now you’re probably feeling, get on with it, right?

Now let’s switch it around (speaking timidly and uncertainly) you could feel your left hand. Once again, you’re feeling a little unpleasant about that, I should imagine. I am again exaggerating this a little bit. As opposed to (spoken with confidence and authority) you really could feel the temperature in your left hand, could you not? Did that trigger the same thing inside you? (student said no) The second one was a lot better, was it not? (yes)

So, the language was still the same, it’s still the language you said you didn’t like. Now let’s try your version here (points at first student) – just close your eyes and go into a trance. Was there any resistance there? Come on back when you’re ready. Did you say No, I’m not going to do it!? Why?

My language was the same, it’s still the teacher telling you type language, the difference is in the delivery of that language. Remember, we’re coming back to this point again.

We talked about it earlier. What most people think is authority is tyranny wrapped up in

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POCHV ©Hypnosis Training Academy All Rights Reserved a nice package. It’s typically when someone who is uncomfortable with authority gets put in a situation of having to have it - like a teacher - that the only way that they can try and get control is to overdo it.

Most people think of authority as those instances of someone who’s been inept enough at trying to do it, that you’ve noticed. And all those other times when you haven’t noticed, you’ve responded to it quite naturally.

So I need you to separate the idea of authority from the caricatures that you may have had in the past, because authority, all that is, is a sense of – competency is part of that, is a sense of, this is just natural, why wouldn’t you do this? Right?

Why on earth would I waste time saying, um, maybe, possibly, you could see it inside your heart to find a reason to really stand up and go over to the light switch and turn it on. Life would be very long, if that’s how things happen.

Or you could say, it’s a bit dark in here, why don’t you switch the lights on? That doesn’t feel the same sort abusiveness, shall we say, there. Do you get the idea here?

So something in your tonality. Something in your state of mind. Something in your mannerisms will change the way that your language is perceived.

Exercise

To do this I want you to do another exercise. I’m going to give you 40 seconds just to have a little bit of more play time with this. I know it’s a crazy, long time. It’s all right, 40 seconds apiece, you know.

I want you to switch between imperative language, you will experience this, you will experience that and using language softeners, the language of uncertainty.

There are basically four mixes that you’ll have.

1. You can use the imperative in a confident tone or in an authoritative tone. It doesn’t have to be overbearing but there’s a sense of why wouldn’t you?

2. Then you can do the same kind of imperatives with some hesitation or some uncertainty, you don’t know how they’re going to react.

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you feel this, or maybe you’ll feel your left foot different from your right foot.

You’ll do one hesitantly – maybe you could feel that foot now.

4. Then you’ll do another one as though it’s the most natural thing in the world, which it really is, so you might end up noticing your left foot more.

Do you understand the difference? We’re going to cycle between the idea of authority and uncertainty as a mental attitude and between imperative and the more conditional

In document Igor Ledachowski Power of conversational hypnoasis - Transcript Manual (Page 25-50)