I’m sure you already understand why you’d want to use hypnotic language patterns in the first place: to make your suggestions fly “under the radar” of the critical factor and make it more likely that your hypnotic suggestions will be accepted.
Now, keeping in mind how important it is to overlook the critical factor, I’m going to teach you subtle and effective ways to use your words to make a person have a hypnotic experience and accept your suggestions on a subconscious level. By now you should definitely know how vital it is to be able to influence a person’s subconscious mind in the hypnotic process. In fact, you can’t really hypnotize another person without being able to. With that in mind, let’s now take a look at the language pattern that can help you start influencing people on a subconscious level effectively.
Direct vs. Indirect Suggestions
There has been much debate among hypnotists over the years about whether giving direct suggestions (commands) is as effective as giving indirect suggestions (embedded commands). I don’t want to debate the topic, and I’m not going to downplay direct suggestions. I think they have their place. However, I want to give you a general rule of thumb, you can check it yourself, that makes me lean towards hints as the most effective: People don’t like to be told what to do! They like to feel like they have a choice in the matter, and most of the time they do!
Be permissive with your suggestions
Let me give you a good example of direct and indirect hints using a very clear analogy that most of us can relate to in one way or another.
Imagine that a parent wants their children to clean their rooms and the children have been reluctant to do so. Instead, the kids are now watching a favorite cartoon on TV. Now the father has a couple of ways to get the kids to comply with his wish to clean their rooms.
Option #1: Give them a direct command.
Seeing the kids watching TV instead of cleaning their rooms, the frustrated father yells in a menacing voice, “Go clean your room NOW or else!” Now this can be effective, but is that the way he really wants to relate to his children, or anyone else? Children will most likely resent their parents and eventually rebel as they get older. When they get older, they can reject your suggestions altogether!
Option #2: Give them an indirect suggestion.
Now let’s look at a different approach. This time, when the father sees his children watching TV instead of cleaning the rooms, he calmly walks over to the TV and turns it off. He then says in a calm but firm tone of voice: “When you go clean your rooms, then you can go back and enjoy watching tv.” If the children complain, the parent simply “stands firm” and repeats the suggestion in the same manner as above. The children now have a decision to make. Eventually, if the children want to watch TV, they will. Go! to clean your rooms!
Let me point out a few things in the example above.
- Words in italics are the embedded command.
- Suggestion repetition is a powerful tool to ensure that the other person’s subconscious mind accepts your suggestion.
- The father “assumed” the desired result. Notice that the father did not say, “Yew go clean your room.” Instead, the father said, “When go clean your room.” In other words, the way the parent phrased that suggestion assumed that the children would, in fact, certainly go clean their rooms. This left no doubt in the children’s subconscious minds that they would eventually they would clean the rooms. See how powerful that is?
- The father gave the children a choice. True, the options were limited, but they still had a choice. Having a choice is almost always better than having no choice at all.
- The father gave the children a compelling and positive reason to act on his suggestion. Notice how the father said, “Then you can go back and enjoy watching TV.”
That last point reminds me of another rule of thumb I’d like to share with you: People (even children) like to have reasons for what you want them to do. If you want people to do what you want in hypnosis, then give them a good reason!
Now, can you see why I feel like hints are so much more effective? Delivering your suggestions (commands) in this way makes it much more likely that people will act on them because they are subtle, permissive, and not overly direct.
How to deliver embedded commands effectively
You can really use almost any sentence to deliver an embedded command. Just think about what you want the other person to do, and then think of a sentence that has that hidden command buried in it. Once you have what you want to say in mind, you can use the following tips to deliver that embedded command in the most powerful way possible.
“Highlight” built-in command
In order for the person’s subconscious mind to really pick up on the command and act on it, make the embedded command stand out in a subtle way. There are several ways to do this.
- When giving the actual hidden command, quickly change your voice to a more commanding tone. Do this quickly and don’t be too obvious. After you’ve spoken the hidden command, immediately change the tone of your voice to your conversational tone to finish the rest of the sentence.
- Touch the person at the exact moment you are giving the command. Be careful with this one and make sure the other person doesn’t mind being touched. Also, be sure to touch the person in a pleasant, non-threatening way. Only touch people in a respectful and friendly way. Last but definitely not least, be careful where you touch the person. I recommend the arm or the shoulder.
- “Mark” the command with some kind of gesture. You can slightly raise your eyebrows, shrug, or wave your hand at the exact moment you are giving the command. You can really use almost anything. You can even tap your foot on command. Again, make sure you’re subtle and not too obvious about what you’re doing.
When you do one or any of the things mentioned above correctly, you are highlighting the command and putting special emphasis on it so that the other person’s subconscious mind notices it. Also, because you’re being subtle about it, the person isn’t even aware of what you’re doing! This is powerful stuff, right?
Ok, so I just have one more tip I want to point out to help you really master embedded command delivery. (Did you catch the hidden command in the last sentence?)
Be a little wave with your suggestions
People can get a little defensive and even resist your suggestions when they think you’re talking directly to or about them. This is because they feel insecure in some way or think that you are telling them what to do. As I said above, this is not good.
Fortunately, there is a way to deliver your suggestions that will prevent people’s insecurities and defensiveness. All you have to do is be a little vague about who or what you’re talking about. Let me give you an example. Imagine for a minute that you are hypnotizing someone and you want them to relax because they seem so tense. There are a couple of ways you can phrase your suggestion to get the person to relax.
Option #1: Be Specific
For example, you could say something like, “Now I want you to release all the tension in your body.” This could work, depending on the circumstances. Alternatively, the person might be thinking, “Do you want? It’s been a hard day, I don’t care what you want” or “If I could relax right now, I wouldn’t come to you to hypnotize myself!”
Option #2: Be Wave
Instead of being as direct and telling the person what to do as in the example above, you could say, “A person can start relax very deeply now and really start to enjoy certain pleasurable sensations as you continue delve into hypnosis.”
Alright, let me point out a few things in the example I just gave you:
- There are actually three commands embedded in that sentence.
- I’m not saying who exactly I’m talking to, so there’s nothing for the person to resist or get defensive about.
- I am giving the person a good reason to start relaxing, which is to enjoy certain pleasant sensations.
- I did not state what pleasant sensations the person would experience. I let the person choose which pleasant sensations he wants to experience.
- I am giving the person time to follow the suggestions so there is no pressure. Notice how I used the words “begin”, “begin” and “continue”.
- I assumed that the person would go deeper into hypnosis by saying “like the person” instead of “if the person.”
- I have not told the person what to do. All I have done is indicate what a person can do. There is nothing to resist or get defensive.
Wow, that was a lot to glean from a single sentence!
Well, that’s all for now. With the purpose of really master this hypnotic language patterna person can go back and read this article several times. In my next article, I’ll show you another very powerful language pattern. Stay tuned!
