Mastering Hypnotic Language - Further Confessions of a Rogue Hypnotist (6 page)

‘I am writing this book.’

What does this statement assume?

1. That there is an
   individual
   (me!).
   

2. That he is
   writing.
   

3. And that he is writing a
   book
   . Let’s try another.
   

So we assume someone/something is doing something (verb/action) for some purpose.

‘The cat sat on the rat.’

So we assume a cat, a rat and that the cat sat on the rat. Now, how do we make use of this in trance?

‘Everyone goes into trance sooner or later.’

‘Eventually we all rest and
drift into a daydream
do we not?’

What is presupposed? That you
will
go into trance! Not
if
but
when
. Both are truisms: see book 1 ‘How to hypnotise anyone,’ to understand truisms fully.

‘How soon will your trance deepen?’

We assume that trance already exists and can only deepen.

‘How much deeper into trance can you really go?’

Assumption: you’re already in trance but how deep can you
really
go? It suggests you don’t yet know how deep you can go, in other words you can go a whole lot deeper Mr! It also assumes discovery:
discovery is hypnotic!
As is curiosity.

‘And where will that feeling of comfort spread to next?’

Assumes comfort already exists, to whatever degree (they have to feel a degree of comfort right? Even in the big toe, who knows!?);
comfort is a sign of trance,
and that it will spread. It’s just a more precise way of using words. Words are your tools to achieve objectives. People with a wider vocabulary have a richer mental life, can think and communicate clearly and can experience reality with more depth. Don’t believe me?

‘The sky is blue.’

‘The sky was a soft Septembral blue. The cool autumn clouds caressed its surface like people sleeping on lilos (US: air matress).’

Now that’s too flowery for ordinary speech and a bit pretentious but how much more involved do you feel? Hypnotists should have some knowledge of word history. The word confidence comes from the Latin: the prefix – ‘con’ (meaning ‘with emphasis’), version of ‘com’ and ‘fidere’ (meaning faith) – so confidence literally means ‘having faith in oneself.’
Think about the meaning of words.
Know that the meaning of words changes over time. Those who have never befriended the dictionary before may need to do so. A 100 year old dictionary may seem a foreign language – original definitions are deliberately altered. Read amply: fiction and non-fiction. Have a wide range of interests. You must become an interesting person. By the way a good therapist will have a grasp of current affairs, history and approaching trends; if you don’t you will be a-historical, out of touch and unable to understand why people are coming to see you in the first place. Drug addiction was not a ‘pandemic’ fifty years ago: you need to know why it is now.

By the way good therapists need a full, rich life outside of work. Again: if you want, write out a few examples of these language patterns to train your noggin (brain) how to do it. It’s easy I promise: once you start practising the subconscious will start to do it all automatically so you won’t even have to think about it. You’ll start being vague or specific unconsciously: you won’t even know you’re doing it half the time.
Just being aware of presuppositions will protect you from manipulation.
News reader’s (anchors) use them constantly to mould public opinion. Ask yourself: what is being assumed? Is that assumption
evidentially
based? Am I being led to perceive things a certain way? Who benefits from me or you assuming this interpretation of events is true? And who losses out?

Remember that silly saying:

‘Never assume anything; it makes an ass out of u and me.’

A few more hypnotic assumptions…

‘Will your right or left hand feel heavy or light?’

Presupposes a hand will feel something. Also a double bind (either or choice).

‘Before you
go into trance
and make some amazing changes I’d like you to get comfy…’

This obviously assumes you will go into a trance! ‘Before you’ is similar to the ‘in a moment’ pattern; it primes expectations.

NLP bases its linguistics theories on Chomsky’s work. Chomsky’s work has been thoroughly disproven but reification also known as nominalisation predated him anyway. What is nominalisation? Taking a verb (action) or adjective (descriptive word) and turning it into an abstract, (static) noun. For example…

‘Relax,’ (verb) becomes relaxation (a concept).

Something concrete is turned into an abstraction. If it’s not a thing it’s a nominalisation…Which itself is a nominalisation – the verb – to nominalise – abstracted/turned into a concept.

Adding a ‘tion’ from Latin ‘sion’ on the end of a word does this.

‘Aggression,’ concept form. Reality – ‘He hit me in the face!’

‘Religion,’ concept form. A very brief word for a whole host of things – ritual, prayer, fasting! Concepts help us be brief.

‘Indoctrination,’ is the nominalised form of ‘to indoctrinate.’

‘Digestion,’ – to digest food, ideas.

‘Suggestion,’ - to suggest something.

‘Information,’- to inform. What information?

Note: nominalisations are very hypnotic. Concepts are vague, not agreed upon; they are open to interpretation, that’s the point: take…

‘Democracy.’

Now that means a lot of different things depending on who you ask.

‘Hypnosis’ and ‘trance’ are both nominalisations for highly complex processes. As is ‘sleep,’ a short word for something so very complex. Sleep is the best nerve tonic ever! Make sure your clients sleep is good, if not fix it.

‘Knowing,’ ‘understandings,’ ‘learnings’ – good hypnotic words.

‘Relationships,’ ‘experiences,’ and ‘processes,’ are very hypnotic too, as is ‘awareness’s.’ Sprinkle your hypno-babble liberally with such gibberish. Remember you are not trying to clarify, you are trying to hypnotise! Nominalisations are used in every day speech for the sake of brevity: we can’t explain all details, we’d get nothing done.
Speech is a shorthand for experience.

Here’s some more…

‘Wealth.’

‘Health.’

‘Attitudes.’

‘Beliefs.’

‘Perceptions.’

‘Persuasion.’ – to persuade.

‘Self-esteem.’ (A mythology – see book 3.)

‘Confidence.’

‘Fear.’

‘Joy.’

‘Love.’

‘Happiness.’

‘Experiential.’

‘Wellness.’

‘Disease.’

Remember the golden rule of nominalisations:
if it can’t be placed into a wheel barrow or on a shelf it’s probably a nominalisation.
It has no sensory referents.

As a hypnotist nominalisations are perhaps your best friend.

More…

Better…

Best…

Bigger…

Faster…

Sexier…

Worst…

Fewer…

Most…

Widest…

Longest…

Less…

A minority/majority…

Improved…

Outstanding value!

Excellent!

Useless/rubbish/incompetent…

Larger numbers…

Oldest…

Youngest…

Deepest…

Lighter…

Brighter…

Progress…

With non-specified comparatives a judgement is missing. According to whom? According to whose standard and criteria? Compared to what/to whom?

The following vague wordage can be useful to the hypno-dweeb…

Certain
…feelings, people, places etc. – never specified which ones.

Some
…feelings, times, people, events – as above!

Changes
…amazing changes, change you can believe in, change now etc. – what changes did you have in mind Charley?

Places/situations/environment
…Which places? Which situations? Leave it up to them!

Emotions/feelings/sensations
…feelings can change, feel positive emotions! That sensation in your hand.

Behaviours
…alter certain behaviours, find healthier behaviours.

Perceptions
…can alter, can they not?

One/person/he/she/someone/anyone/some people
…a person can change, one can feel good. (Which person? Well your subconscious thinks YOU dummy! Remember the subconscious processes all possible meanings/interpretations. But I never directly said you did I!?)

Appropriate
…this is a good fail safe word.

‘Make the
appropriate
changes.’

If you asked a woman in hypnosis to feel amazing feelings she might, conceivably orgasm! Be careful what you say,

‘Feel a wonderful feeling that’s appropriate to your changing experience.’

‘Changing experience’ is beautifully ambiguous if I may say so myself. Multiple level communication there.

Advertising uses such words, not just the ones in this section: all of them, to manipulate your thoughts and actions, as do cults, religions, atheists and political groups: anyone with an agenda.

Some words are suggestive of extreme generalisation, a good thing for a hypnotist to know about…
real change occurs when it generalises throughout a system.

‘
All
people feel good sometimes…’

‘
Most
things in nature are beautiful…perhaps you’ll notice the captivating colours of the clouds at sunset?’

‘
Everywhere
, throughout your life you feel confident…’

‘
Anyone
can learn something new…can they not?’

‘
Everyone
has good points about them.’

&

‘I look for the good in
everyone
’…these last two commonly held beliefs can be deeply dangerous. Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Hitler, Son of Sam and other infamous serial killers had good points? Be careful what you suggest.

I like to use the truism,

‘
All
suffering passes…’ with clients, if I deem it appropriate.

These sorts of all or nothing thinking can be the basis for depression. However some are also powerful ‘meta-beliefs’ on which hang the branches of potentially useful, helpful,
truly
life-affirming and healthy responses.

Hypnotic poetry is hypnotising.

Assonance
= vowels sound similar.

Alliteration
= consonants sound similar (the Anglo-Saxons preferred highly alliterative verse). Examples of tongue twisters are…

‘Peter piper picked a peck of pickled pepper’ (Alliterative.)

‘Nanny nudged Nicola’ (Both.)

‘How much wood, could a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood?’ (Both.)

‘Hear the mellow wedding bells & try to light the fire.’ (Assonance.)

As a by the by, tongue twisters can help with clarity of speech but don’t overdo it.

If you can weave a bit of the old alliteration or assonance into the hypno-babble it can make it sound nice for you clients. Don’t worry about it too much, just something to bear in mind. Ooh hypnotic ambiguity: bear/bare! Just knowing about these things can help you weave language with a more hypnotic rhythm and cadence. Reading good poetry will make your languaging better.

More hypno-phrases follow…

‘To the point where…’

Americans especially like using this phrase in conversation. It is a pseudo connector phase, a false linkage saying essentially,

‘X will lead to Y.’

Who says it will? In hypnosis people tend not to question such things. They are too overloaded. Talking quickly and emotionally will also overload people too as the Methodist Wesley knew only too well. Beware! I digress, anyway…

‘You can
relax in trance
to the point where nothing else seems important for a while, you know that feeling?’

‘Allow a wave of comfort to spread from head to toe to the point where you
feel blissful.
’

‘It’s funny how some people
enter trance
to the point where going even deeper just seems the right thing to do.’

What’s it like when…

This is a command to re-member/re-experience something.

‘What’s it like when you
relax?’

‘What’s it like when you
daydream?’

‘What’s it like when you
feel very attractive?’

‘What’s it like when you
have total self-belief, now?

Perceive…

Often used in media reports. Used to undermine and cast doubt upon.
The implication of the word perceive is that reality is plastic, nothing is real, everyone’s point of view is valid.
Don’t you ever believe it! By the way anyone who says there is no such thing as absolute truth is making a statement about absolute truth. Examples,

‘Some people perceive that crime is rising.’

‘Some people perceive the President doesn’t seem as powerful as he once did.’

‘You perceive x,y,z.’

In hypnosis you can say…

‘With new perspectives feeling can change.’

‘As new facts come to light our perception can alter, can’t it?’

‘Three people witnessing the same event will perceive it quite differently.’

‘Some perspectives are more helpful than others.’