Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns
We all know that words alone are only a small fraction of communication. The way those words are said constitute a much higher percentage of the communication received. In the same way, Hypnotic Language Patterns are hugely effected by the way they are said. The tonality with which they are said and the tonal shifts used to emphasize particular words or phrases (as addressed in a previous Blog post) are crucial. Also vital is the pacing and tempo of how you speak.

In today’s Blog Post we’re going to take a look at the use of…

PHRASING
In our last post we touched on Christina Hall’s exquisite use of punctuational ambiguity, but I’d like to also point out her brilliant use of phrasing.

Below we have the complete statement we quoted last week that Ms. Hall attributed to Richard Bandler. However, in the first example, we’ve altered the phrasing to be more the way most people would say it. Each phrase is essentially a complete sentence. 

Read these two examples out loud to yourself noticing what happens with the difference in how they’re phrased.

“Well, you know that you can sometimes feel confused and not know…

yet continue to learn…

because your conscious mind is very smart…

and your unconscious mind also learns in a variety of ways…

so why not let it do the work for you for a while?”

- or-

“Well, you know that you can…

sometimes feel confused and not know…yet…

continue to learn   because…

your conscious mind is very smart   and…

your unconscious mind also learns in a variety of ways  so…

why not let it do the work for you for a while?”

NOTE: Chris will vocally emphasize the conjunctions and always pays exquisite attention to the inflection of her voice. (Remember the upward inflection implies questions, a downward shift is congruent with a command, etc.)

To me, when I read the first paragraph, at the end of each line my brain gets to agree or disagree; the speaker has offered a complete thought or suggestion that I get to vote on. In the second paragraph I have no such opportunity. My imagination is captured by the speaker throughout because I’m continually wondering what’s coming next.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to experience first hand the importance of this. The issue of using Hypnosis for Pain Management was to become very personal to me, as I had elected to undergo surgery without anesthesia. In preparing for the operation my colleague and I discovered that when the suggestions were delivered as in the first example below it was less effective than when delivered as in the second.

Imagine yourself in the Operating Room, all prepped and ready to go. You hear the voice that says,

“You are deep in trance.
You will experience nothing but comfort.
You will breath easily and normally.
You will experience no discomfort.
You will have minimal bleeding.
You are floating in the middle of nowhere.

Well here’s what my brain would say at the end of each line:

“You are deep in trance. (No, not that deep really.)
You will experience nothing but comfort. (OK, I really hope you’re right about that.)
You will breath easily and normally, (Doing my best! In…out… in… out)
You will experience no discomfort, (OW! What the hell was that?!)
You will have minimal bleeding. (I’m bleeding?!)
You are floating in the middle of nowhere, (I wish! But right now I acutely aware I’m in a nightmare.)

Fortunately it didn’t come to that. While I can’t quote exactly what was said because I was in a pretty decent trance, I can tell you my experience of what was said was more like this;

“And, as you float gently down
into a deep and comfortable trance
you might find that you can
follow your breath in…and…
out. That’s right…
relaxing deeper
because you know a lot about how to
go into a trance… and
you don’t even have to try…to
listen to every word  I say…
You don’t
even have to be   here
You can go…in your mind’s eye…
To a beautiful beach… with many
beautiful… people and things
to   focus your attention
there now

Another great advantage of shorter phrases is you can create a nice rhythm with your speaking that itself facilitates trance. (This is especially true if you time the pauses to your client’s breathing.) 

Here’s an Idea:
For practice and for the fun of it, write out a script of your own and use all the different language patterns we’ve learned up to now. Now, of course, this is just for practice. You would never really do this in real life. These patterns are best used when you have a good reason to use them in the service of your therapeutic goal. But you know that, I’m sure.

In classes that I teach, I recommend to my students that they fold a piece a paper in half vertically and write your script in phrases down one side of the sheet of paper first and then down the second half.

Maybe you’ll want to do that too. Won’t you?

By the Way: We highly recommend the NLP work of Chris Hall. 

You can reach her here:  www.chris-nlp-hall.com

View from the balcony of the Camelot Hotel at Myrtle Beach, SC.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about working for John Morgan Seminars and traveling the country and doing 2 hour Hypnosis programs for weight loss and smoking cessation is that they actually work. Years ago I taught, in my hypnosis classes, of the superiority of private sessions because they were tailored to the individual. Basically I thought that large scale group hypnosis did not work and was essentially a rip off.

I was wrong.

For some people I believe group hypnosis programs work better than private sessions because of the added leverage of public commitment. Maybe, in some or even most cases, individual sessions might work even better, but I’ve discovered that when done right, large scale, group hypnosis does work. I get feedback about it all the time. Like just last week, we were putting on a program at the convention center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A few hours before the seminar we were setting up the room and a gentleman stuck his head in the door and said Hello. He told us he’d been to our event in Parkersburg, WV, a few weeks earlier and was now 20 days smoke free and didn’t even have any urges. He was here in Myrtle Beach at a convention for his industry and when he saw our sign felt compelled to come over and talk to us. He was extremely grateful and just wanted us to know. He said it was the best $69.95 he’d ever spent.

How cool is that?

Fact is our percentage of successful quitters is dizzingly high. I am sure the weight loss folk have a tougher time of achieving their goals but they do well too. What’s great about it is that for most people attending these things, they have little or no prior experience with this sort of change work or even this sort of thinking. It really is quite revolutionary for them.

Credit goes to John Morgan for creating these most excellent 2 hour seminars. They utilize a variety of techniques to assist in people getting the change they desire… from traditional hypnosis to Ericksonian patterns to NLP anchoring techniques. I met John years ago at a Dave Dobson “Funshop” and he really put Dave’s lessons to work, especially that “Pebble Kicking” thing we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

Me, I get to travel around, feel good about helping people, and stay in nice hotels like the one pictured. Plus, I can now order at Applebees without the need of a menu.
Does life get any better than that?

Ericksonian Language Patterns —
Embedded Commands are commands that are placed within the framework of a larger sentence structure, thereby sneaking by the conscious mind. e.g., “Very often, people find that they discover many useful inner resources while in trance.” Some suggested sentence openings: “Maybe you’ll… I don’t know if… A person may not know if… Maybe you haven’t…,yet.” (More about that yet soon, but not yet.)

Notice that the command part itself starts with a verb. You are telling the person to DO something. Here and now. So that verb tense is the present tense. “Do something.” Not “doing something” or “did something.”

If you were to tell someone directly to go to the store, you’d say

“Go to the store.”

To embed that command within a longer sentence and thus hide it a bit it might be more like,

“If anyone here wanted to be a dear, they could go to the store for me now.”

Here are some more examples:

“Maybe you’ll discover new resources you didn’t even know you had.”

“I don’t know if you’ll feel wonderful about it.”

“A person may not know if you’re drifting into trance.” (includes a pattern called switching the referential index.)

“Maybe you haven’t begun to enjoy that delightful feeling of trance, yet.”

A. Adding their Name
These commands can be made more powerful if you insert their name into the sentence structure just before the embedded command.

“One can, Elizabeth, feel comfortable in new situations.”

“A person could, Phillip, notice a growing sense of distance from that problem.”

“People don’t have to, Bob, listen intently to everything that I say.”

B. “Now”
“Now” is not a magic word. Sometimes beginning NLP students over use ‘now.’ Used effectively, it can enhance an embedded command, but it alone does not an embedded command make. Often the most effective way to use it is to… pause… before you use it and then use your best trance tonality when you say it. (If you run it into the sentence without this pause it can make the sentence sound too imperative and the person feel rushed.)

“You might want to learn to enjoy that meaningful pause . . . now.“

(Remember that without shifts in tonality, etc., there is no command at all. You must shift your tonality in a way that is noticeable and analogous to a command, right at the verb of the sentence. You are telling them to DO something.
Additionally, it is most useful to pause just a beat before the command. This further sets it apart in a very subtle, yet effective, way)

So, now, here’s an idea: Write your own examples. The best way to learn is by doing. Write them down and then practice saying them out loud with the proper tonal shift. Practice delivering them to a human being. Write at least ten. Twenty is better. Perhaps you’ll find that you utilize the eight sentence openings offered on this page and then go from there.

Use them on waitresses: “You might find you want to bring me a cup of coffee.”
on bus drivers: “People can… let me out at the corner.”

Be Respectful AND Have Fun.