The Hypnotic Influence Black Book - s3.amazonaws.com · After learning the techniques in this black...

The Hypnotic Influence

Black Book

by

Dr. Steve G. JonesCopyright Statbrook Associates !1

Part 1: Credibility 4 Credibility Boosters 5 Building Credibility Through Stories 6 Essential Rules of Storytelling 7 The Hero’s Tasks 11 Nonverbal Communication 14 Don’t Speak? 14 Vocal Qualities 15 Vital Body Language 17 Part: 2 Trust 23 The Avenue of Complete Influence 24 The Avenue of Compromise 25 The 3 Basic Rules of Negotiation 26 The Avenue of Deadlock 26 The Avenue of Complete Separation 27 The Language of Trust 29 Genuineness & Sincerity 29 Personal Motives & Biases 30 Using Social Evidence 32 Indirect Influence 32 The Naked Truth 34 Chip Away and Rebuild 37

Copyright Statbrook Associates !2

Dear Friend,

Thank you for downloading The Hypnotic Influence Black Book.

You may be wondering “What exactly is Hypnotic Influence?”

Well, essentially it’s just the ability to gain cooperation from others using a set of hypnotic techniques.

This topic has a very wide scope and there are countless directions we go when it comes to this genre. And each direction has it’s own set of techniques or sub-genre.

Since my goal is not to overwhelm you I’ve chosen to focus on two very specific genres of hypnotic influence: credibility and trust.

Among all others, these are the two most important aspects of hypnotic influence. Without trust you cannot influence anyone. And credibility fosters trust.

After learning the techniques in this black book the next step is to practice executing them in real life situations.

This is exactly what I teach in The Art of Street Hypnosis.

You can learn more here:

Ok, let’s get started.


http://www.hypnoticlanguageacademy.com/street-hypnosis-followup

Part 1: CredibilityWhat is credibility and why does it matter to a hypnotic influencer?

If trust is a quality of a person that makes him dependable because of his honesty, strengths and virtue, credibility is a person’s ability to inspire belief. When you talk to a person for the first time, it’s possible that your subject doesn’t trust you at all and top of that, you have very little or zero credibility.

It’s not sufficient for your subject to just trust you. A subject might trust you enough to hear you out for hours, but you may not be credible enough to inspire full cooperation and most of all, action. Action, especially if it requires the substantial expenditure of personal resources, occurs only after a subject sees the speaker as a credible leader.

Can you establish your personal credibility through the special use of language?

If you already possess the credentials and expertise all that is left to do is to express your credibility through your use of language.

A truly credible speaker is a joy to interact with and many people agree that a person with high expertise often provides not only beneficial proposals but also “learning on the go”.

An expert can’t help but share his knowledge whenever appropriate and as an expert in your own field, you should be ready to sell your expertise to your subjects.


Credibility Boosters

Below are some hypnotic language patterns that you can use for particular objectives:

1. Action-Oriented - If you want to show your ability to follow through with your promises:

Context + Idea + Action → Follow-through

Ex. “To show you how serious I am with improving the performance of our department, I’ve performed a little research of my own and I’ve been able to correlate my results with our current data.”

2. Logical and Dependable - If you want to feature your ability to create sound decisions based on a particular logic that your subject can relate to:

Context + Idea + Logical Premise + Intended Action or Details of a Performance

Ex. “I knew dad was going to be away for a few days and I knew that you needed help at home so I told my friends that I will be helping here at home instead and I will catch up with them next week.”

3. Empathy and Responsiveness - If you want to show your ability to understand your subject’s needs and desires:

Subject Feedback → Restatement & Paraphrasing

Ex. “I understand that your business is having a hard time taking off because there isn’t enough space for the customers and the overall layout of the restaurant, as you said was ‘cramped and uncomfortable’.”


4. Exceeding Expectations - If you want your subject to be very happy and satisfied with what you’re bringing to the table (e.g. outcome, product, etc.):

Actual Outcome → Reduce Expectation (Under-Promising) + Exceed Subject’s Expectation

Ex. “I promised you I’d bring a light snack tonight so here are 2 pizzas and a large tub of chunky peanut butter ice cream.”

Important Note: Obviously, hypnotic language patterns can only do so much to bolster your positon as a credible individual. However, if you’re not going to substantiate your claims and promises with appropriate action, don’t expect miracles to happen!

The human mind has an extremely sensitive radar when it comes to detecting incongruities between a person’s words and his actions. If the two don’t match, rejection or at the very least, scrutiny, becomes imminent.

5. Competent Yet Honest - If you want to come across as knowledgeable and honest at the same time:

Context + Positive Aspect + Failure/Error/Weakness

Ex. “In terms of reliability, our software has been given 4.5 out of 5 stars by third party testers. This is due to our continuing development of its main code, which is taking place at the moment. I would say our system is 95% efficient in performing its job.”

Building Credibility Through Stories

Storytelling is one technique of hypnotic influence that you will love using again and again, for different purposes and in different situations.


Everyone loves an engaging/interesting/useful story and if you’re up to the challenge you can add this technique to your tool kit.

Masters of influence have used storytelling for centuries to captivate their audiences and improve their credibility. Not everyone is born with natural storytelling skills but don’t let this stop you from spinning a yarn!

Essential Rules of Storytelling

While it would be nearly impossible to pin down phrases or statements that make stories great, there are essential rules that you can follow to ensure that your stories enhance your credibility.

1. Dynamic Storytelling – A good story can almost immediately put a listener into a deep hypnotic trance. If your subject shows intense focus in your story, that doesn’t mean that you should make the interaction a one-way street where you’re going to do all the talking.

Remember: the hypnotic influencer is not the center of interaction, ever. The center of all things worthy of your attention is always your subject and one else.

Your subject’s feedback, which includes statements, observations and questions are the golden currency of influence because they allow you to move in and out of the subject’s mind in the effort to persuade him to accept your message or proposal.

If you’re planning to tell your subject a really good story, you have to anticipate questions. You must also be ready to sincerely respond to your subject’s questions whenever they arise. Don’t feel for a second that your subject is “ruining” your story because you keep getting interrupted.


If your subject is interrupting you because he wants to know more about your story, you’ve hit influence gold!

And this bring us to the next essential rule…

2. Genuine and Powerful Responses – When your subject interrupts you with a question about your story, you have to make your response or feedback count. It’s rare for a listener to go out of his way to interrupt someone’s storytelling, so all your subject’s questions should be considered important.

Your responses should not only be honest but it should also be insightful and when appropriate, charged with energy and emotions.

Let’s examine the four elements of influence that you’ve just read: honesty, insight, energy and emotion.

Honesty is obviously a necessary element to maintain the subject’s trust in what you’re saying. If you’re not honest with details, two things can happen: the subject might remember something you’ve said earlier that doesn’t match your response or your subject may think that you are trying to deceive him by “making things up”.

To make things less complicated, I suggest that you stick to honesty as much as possible when you’re responding to questions. However, honesty does not mean that you’re going to wreck your own position or story. Honesty means sticking to facts but at the same time, highlighting the positive aspects found in your story. The next element is insight. Insight is defined as a form of appreciation of the true nature of an object, person or event.

When your subject says that your story was “very insightful” (assuming that your subject is being genuine himself), it means that your story was able to give the subject a much deeper appreciation of the topic. In short,


you were able to enrich the subject’s mind and heart simply by sharing your story.

The third element of a meaningful response is energy. If you’ve read some books on body language or nonverbal language, you may have come across the idea of raising and lowering the energy level of an interaction, depending on the situation.

Your story should allow you to change the energy level of the interaction. However, it is your response or feedback to questions which will have the most impact on your subject.

Why? Because your response is very personal because it is addressed directly to the other person. You’re interrupting the flow of the story just to answer the question, which makes your response special and valuable, too.

The fourth element is emotion. By virtue of the mirroring instinct which remains active from childhood to our senior years, your subject may be influenced by the emotion that you assign to your responses.

Your response can be sad, happy, angry, indignant, etc., depending on the context and your actual response. Just make sure that whatever emotion you will be displaying will be beneficial to your main message.

Don’t lose sight of your main objectives as a hypnotic influencer. Use your objectives as permanent guideposts when applying any technique.

3. Influence the Subconscious Mind – One of the greatest strengths of storytelling is that it is a very powerful method of indirect influence. Of course, some practitioners of influence would use stories to preach or directly communicate what they want the subject to think, say or do.


History tells us quite the opposite: the biggest impact is often the result of indirect influence or when people are allowed to make their own conclusions as to what to say, think or do.

The freedom to think and decide for oneself is very precious and if you do not intrude upon that freedom, even for a brief moment, your status as an influencer would be as healthy as can be.

When you tell your subject a story, remember the old adage of “don’t tell, instead, show”. There’s a difference between “the cow jumped over the fence” and “the earth shook when Missy the Cow mooed defiantly and took a great leap over Farmer John’s immaculate white fence”.

You can’t generate as much impact if you don’t make an effort to engage the subject’s imagination directly.

There’s another reason why you should aim to tickle your subject’s imaginings: creative visualization occurs at the subconscious level. By tapping into a subject’s imagination, you are actively bypassing the critical conscious mind, which is responsible for the accepting and rejecting ideas.

Since humans can’t resist imagining things, tapping into this subconscious process is a logical choice for a hypnotic influencer.

A subject who actively uses his imagination to imbibe your experience and wisdom will feel as if he is embarking on a grand adventure. A sense of adventure is always tied to the theme of discovery, which is cherished by everyone. If you can make a difference in your subject’s life by imparting knowledge or lessons that would otherwise be difficult to acquire in real life, you can be sure that your subject would see you not just as a natural leader but a hero, too.


4. Create the Perfect Hero in the Subject’s Eyes – This may sound strange or even funny to some people, but bear with me as this is a very important lesson.

The archetype of the hero has always been deeply ingrained in different cultures around the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Western culture, Eastern culture or anything else in between.

If there is one thing that is common in all cultures across all time periods, it’s that there is always the presence of heroes.

Since you’re already telling a story, why not make sure that the protagonist/main character of your story becomes a hero, too?

Now, I know that many stories revolve around the speaker himself so some of you might be uncomfortable with the idea of portraying oneself as a hero. However, this is a tried and tested approach and you will definitely benefit from it if you are establishing your credibility.

The Hero’s Tasks

There are four things that a hero accomplishes in a story:

I. Common Ground – The old sages of persuasion and influence always warn the younger generations to avoid “power play” or using one’s social status to intimidate the subject into agreement.

Using authority, power or social status to gain agreement or to get what you want in any situation will only breed ill will, negativity and resentment. Resentment can actually destroy the relationship between the speaker and subject in the long term so you have to be careful so this doesn’t inadvertently happen.


Instead of resorting to forcibly gaining a subject’s agreement or support, it would be best to find common ground with the subject instead.

The same principles apply when you are relating the thoughts and actions of a hero in your story. An ideal hero doesn’t sound like someone you would avoid when you see him on the streets. A genuine and lovable hero has a tendency to level the playing field, which further legitimizes his role.

Think of all the classical heroes in literature. When you read about their stories, you are able to relate to them (well, at least some of them) and you may even feel that they are real instead of fictional characters.

The concept of “realness” or genuineness increases quickly when you’re able to present a hero that your subject can relate to.

II. Value, Power & Ability – A hero doesn’t become a hero for nothing. A hero is considered a valuable being because he possesses something substantial and remarkable. A hero may possess supreme intellect, the tactical skills of a great war leader, the knack for wealth, etc.

You have to make it clear in your story that your hero has a lot to offer and he’s the center of your narration because he has remarkable abilities.

The value of a hero has a direct impact on his social status in the real world. If you’re trying to impress your subject with a story that revolves around what you did when crisis struck, it’s important that you build up your story in a way that enhances how you are perceived as a person.

In many cases, the receiver of the story would intermesh his experience of interacting with you and the story you’ve just told. Your subject will be consciously aware that it’s just a story but in his subconscious mind, the traits of the hero in your story (assuming that the story was about you) belong to you.


III. Uncertainty and Surprise – Nothing makes a story more fascinating than uncertainty and the element of suspense/surprise. The best stories in the world are remarkable because the degree of uncertainty contained within tend to make readers breathless with anticipation.

A hero who performs surprising feats and makes “crazy” decisions can make a story fresher and even more relevant to the subject.

You can also make a plain story more interesting by withholding information in the beginning and revealing important details later on in the narration. By withholding important information, you will be able to keep your subject engaged and in-trance, too.

IV. Just and Good – Unless you’re talking to a group of people who adore comic book villains, it would be best to portray your hero as ethical and good. I leave it to you to analyze how you can integrate these two essential traits into your storyline.

Everyone loves a good hero. People love hating villains but they become emotionally distraught when a hero is harmed or becomes trapped by unfair circumstances.

Don’t deviate from the norm just to get your subject’s attention. Maintain your hero’s ideal form from start to finish and you can be sure that your subject will be influenced greatly by your story.


Nonverbal Communication

Don’t Speak?

Experts believe that more than half of what you’re actually saying is expressed through your posture, gestures and expressions. To recap, humans communicate through three distinct languages that aren’t always aligned with each other:

1. Vocal language – This includes the tone and volume of your voice, as well as your cadence (rhythm) and speech rate. Minor changes in a person’s vocal language can induce and deepen hypnotic trances.

2. Verbal language – This includes your jargon (special language associated with your expertise), everyday phrases, verbal expressions and the specific language patterns that you use to communicate with others.

3. Nonverbal language – Nonverbal language is responsible for expressing a large percentage of your actual message. Body language includes all your physical expressions from head to toe. The face, which has over forty muscles, is also notable for its involuntary “micro-expressions”.

***Why is nonverbal communication important to influence?

The two channels of nonverbal communication, vocal language and body language, play a crucial role in making you a more believable speaker. As


we have discussed before, our brains have the capability to “read” nonverbal signals to determine if the verbal and nonverbal components of the message are congruent or aligned with each other.

If there is strong incongruence between these two halves of the message, it is very possible that your idea or proposal is going to be rejected by your subject because silent alarms will go off in your subject’s mind. Body language also communicates a person’s mindset and emotions.

A hypnotic influencer must be able to express confidence and strength. If your body language isn’t consistent with your actual message, you may come across as weak or inconsistent and this can have a detrimental impact on your efforts in persuading your subject.

Vocal Qualities

So far we have been able to discuss different language patterns and scenarios where a hypnotic influencer would be able to create the best possible impact on his subject. Now it’s time for you to learn the basics of changing your vocal language depending on what you need to accomplish.

Here are the essential adjustments that you can make to ensure that you are using the appropriate vocal qualities when speaking to your subject.

Vocal Adjustment Details & Functions

Commanding voice Simply increase your voice’s volume a bit and firmly pronounce each word. A

commanding voice is needed when you are communicating an

important fact or if you’re making a direct proposal to your

subject.


Hypnotic voice Make your voice deeper to induce a hypnotic trance or

deepen your subject’s current trance state. Imagine an arrow going over a fence; this should help you regulate your voice

more effectively.

Energetic voice Use a higher volume and speak more quickly to energize a

lagging conversation. Use your subject’s nonverbal feedback so you can gradually pace him and

raise his energy level so you would have the same energy

level until the end of the conversation.

Emphasis Raising, lowering or deepening your voice to emphasize different points in your argument can help

deepen your subject’s hypnotic trance state.

Calming voice Sometimes a subject would be too energetic because he’s

genuinely excited, happy or agitated. You can help lower his

energy level by making your voice lower. Make a conscious effort to soothe your subject so

that he would calm down.


Vital Body Language

Body language has its own hypnotic patterns. If you can train yourself to use the appropriate posture, gestures and expressions when you’re trying to persuade someone, you will definitely improve your chances of coming across as genuine, credible and authoritative.

Mirroring voice It would be a good idea to mirror your subject in the beginning of a conversation to initiate rapport-

building. Mirroring does not mean that you have to

mechanically copy your subject’s vocal mannerisms! This may

come across as mimicking, which has a very negative connotation

in human communication.

Body Language Details & Function

Shrugging Don’t shrug. Shrugging communicates that you don’t

know or you don’t care enough to provide a sensible response to your subject. An expert will state that he doesn’t know the answer

but he will never shrug on purpose as it chips away at a

person’s credibility.


“OK” sign The American “OK” sign can mean “okay” or “money!” If

you’re trying to convince someone to buy from you, using

this sign can make it look like you’re about to enjoy an unfair

advantage.

Touching or covering the mouth or lips while talking

This gesture is subconsciously associated with lying. If you habitually cover your mouth

when talking because that’s your way of showing interest or focus,

I recommend that you avoid it from now on. Covering the

mouth may actually signify any of these two: that you have

insider information that you’re not sharing or you are actively

deceiving the subject.

Leaning forward You may lean forward to show your confidence or authority. However, this has to be timed

well so you don’t end up violating your subject’s intimate/

personal zones. Lean forward only when you’re about to say something very important to

your subject.

Placing personal possessions around you

This is a manifestation of a person’s territoriality and shows

the maximum comfortable distance between him and

another person. If your subject places a pen, bag or jacket in front or around him, avoid

leaning too close to him.


Showing your palm/s This is a sign of honesty and openness. Showing your palm/s to your subject means that you

are not hiding anything and you are being very open about the

details of your message or proposal.

Palm forward, facing upward This hand gesture changes the perceived social status of the

speaker. Essentially this gesture is saying that the other person is regarded as dominant and the

speaker is submissive. Using this gesture may defuse a situation

where the subject feels like he is being pressured to do something

because of the speaker’s social status. It can be an equalizing

gesture but it can also hurt your position in situations where the subject takes advantage of your

submissiveness.

Palm forward, facing downward This is the direct opposite of the “palm forward, facing upward”

gesture. This gesture communicates that the speaker is presenting himself as a dominant authority and that the receiver or subject should comply because of the speaker’s social status. This is a very authoritative gesture and may backfire in many situations

simply because no one likes being bossed around.


Palm forward, facing downward, index finger pointed

at subject

Apart from being a very dominant gesture, this particular

hand gesture can actually aggravate your subject because it

is a very forceful and hostile physical sign. Essentially what

you’re communicating with this gesture is “do this or else”. You can expect plenty of resistance from your subject if you choose

to use this gesture when trying to persuade someone to do

something for you because you will come across as unreasonably

dominant and aggressive.

Democratic handshake This handshake signifies that you see the other person as an equal.

Equalizing the playing field is always beneficial when

persuading another person to adopt your viewpoint. The

democratic handshake is firm and both individuals are

performing firm up and down pumps.


Crusher handshake The crusher handshake may sound appealing to people who

want others to feel “right at home”, but it’s actually a very

aggressive gesture. The crusher handshake is characterized by an uneven and overly strong grasp and more pumps than a person

would care to have during a handshake. If someone gives you

a crushing handshake, extend your other hand and equalize the handshake by shaking the other person’s hand firmly with both

hands. After shaking your subject’s hand three times,

withdraw the other hand your other hand should be released as

well.

Weak handshake The weak handshake is the worst possible handshake you can give another person. It’s soft and often

clammy, too! The weak handshake signifies lack of confidence and it does not

support a person’s credibility at all.


Rubbing your hands together Rubbing your hands together can signify that you are happy or

excited about something. However, the context of the conversation is extremely

important in determining the appropriateness of this hand gesture. If you are offering

something that will cost your subject a lot of money, rubbing your hands together may send the wrong message. You may

inadvertently communicate that you’re going to get a lot of money

from the transaction or that the subject is overpaying.

Fingers interlocked, elbows on the table, hands partially

obscuring the face

This gesture commonly signifies confidence in one’s beliefs and

values. However in most cases, it is a reflex gesture by people who

are aggravated, anxious or downright frustrated with

something that has just happened or is presently happening. Since this gesture has a very negative connotation, I suggest that you avoid it completely. Your hands

may also end up hiding your mouth completely, which may

signal that you are hiding something from your subject.


Part: 2 Trust

What are the four avenues of influence and how do they differ from one another?

The process of influencing another person often leads to four distinct avenues, like a crossroads of sorts. This crossroads is not apparent from the very beginning of a conversation. It only becomes visible when the distinct positions of the speaker and the subject are revealed through an exchange of feedback.

Arms crossed over the chest, belly or groin area

This is a very defensive gesture and communicates to your

subject that you are not very comfortable or confident with the situation at all. By crossing your

arms over your body, you’re actually instinctively protecting your heart, visceral organs and

reproductive organs (groin area). Instead of crossing your arms over your chest, simply place

your hands at your sides or use them to make open and sincere

hand gestures!


As a hypnotist-influencer, it is critical that you are aware of the implications of being in one of these avenues of influence so you will know where you stand and what you must do in order to succeed in persuading the other person.

It is always possible to repair a position within an interaction even if the dialogue itself has progressed to a point where the subject has become highly resistant to the speaker. However, if you are unable to tell if you are succeeding or not based on your subject’s feedback, then creating a sensible plan of action would be extremely difficult indeed.

The Avenue of Complete Influence

This is the most ideal avenue for genuine persuasion to take place. You will know that you have reached this avenue when you observe the following in your interaction with your subject:

1. The subject is in-trance and shows obvious signs of intense focus on the conversation and your message.

2. You have gained the subject’s full trust and he believes and accepts your entire message or proposal.

3. There is very little or no substantial refusal on the part of the subject. Any signs of resistance are resolved immediately and the subject even provides aid in solving perceived obstacles to full agreement.

It would be ideal if you can make this your target avenue whenever you set out to persuade or influence someone as the conditions are ideal and you will be able to end the dialogue with little risk of “erasure” or rejection once the conversation ends.

This avenue also offers the hypnotist-influencer a high degree of control over the conversation and the parameters of the idea or proposal. Now,


when a subject is unwilling to accept an idea or proposal completely, a second avenue of influence emerges: the Avenue of Compromise.

The Avenue of Compromise

The Avenue of Compromise emerges when the subject shows partial interest in agreeing with your idea but is unwilling to commit to it immediately. The subject will often find one or more facets of the idea or proposal undesirable and changes must be made before the subject can fully agree or accept the speaker’s idea or proposal.

It is at this junction that the hypnotist-influencer opens the table for a negotiation.

The act of negotiation is defined as the formal interaction that takes place when two or more individuals or entities wish to reach an agreement about something, usually by giving and accepting concessions or points of argument.

While it is true that not every hypnotist-influencer wishes to negotiate, this avenue of influence becomes unavoidable if the subject shows extreme restraint when it comes to accepting your idea.

A negotiation will not necessarily weaken your position but it may increase your subject’s control over the final outcome of the dialogue, which will consequently generate repercussions after the conversation.

If negotiation is inevitable (or unavoidable), aim to create an environment where mutual benefits become the order of the day. Show your subject that you are an ethical leader and that you’re trying to give him as much benefit as you possibly can without weakening your position.

Now, there will also be times when your best efforts will fail to bring a negotiation to a satisfactory close.


You have two options if you arrive at this point in time: bring in a mediator (another who will facilitate the dialogue so a compromise will be reached) or bring in a second negotiator who will support your main idea or proposal.

The downside to bringing another person into the equation is that your subject may feel that he is being slowly overwhelmed and this may cause him to back away and resist you even more strongly than ever. Weigh the situation very carefully before bringing in a second negotiator or mediator.

The 3 Basic Rules of Negotiation

1. Foster the spirit of cooperation. Do not force authority, power or social status if you don’t want to be rejected or resisted by your subject.

2. Emphasize mutual benefits. If equal benefit is impossible, offer concessions to make your idea or proposal more desirable.

3. Appeal to the subject’s desires or needs. Make your proposal relevant to your subject so that he would naturally want to accept or agree to it.

The Avenue of Deadlock

A deadlock occurs when two or more parties in a negotiation are unwilling to make any type of concession to move the dialogue along. This often occurs when the hypnotist-influencer is unprepared for the negotiation is not well-equipped to handle a stalemate.

When a deadlock occurs, it would be best to restart the dialogue and lay down the cards once again to see if there is a way to reach a mutually agreeable compromise. Often, miscommunication becomes an issue and the negotiation table may also become emotionally-charged.


If this happens, rebooting the interaction may help loosen the resistance of all the parties concerned. There is no guarantee that a deadlock will break in a single dialogue.

There are instances when two, three or more dialogues are needed to arrive at a desirable solution to the problem or issue that is causing the deadlock in the first place.

If time is of the essence it seems that nothing will come out of engaging the other party directly, arbitration is your only hope for a favorable outcome.

However, when an arbiter is brought into the interaction, the hypnotist-influencer loses power over the final outcome as the arbiter will be tasked with creating a solution that both parties will have to agree to.

You can regain some control over the situation by arguing your side competently and by utilizing the basic rules of negotiation to communicate that your stance is fair and just.

The Avenue of Complete Separation

This is by far the worst avenue to find yourself in as a hypnotist-influencer. If by chance you find yourself in a situation where you and your subject have become openly hostile to each other, it is safe to assume that complete communication breakdown has already occurred.

Unless something is done to remedy the breakdown, little can be done to persuade the subject to agree to your idea or proposal.

It can be extremely difficult to repair your position as an influencer when this avenue emerges so your best option is to avoid it as much as you can. Don’t let communication crumble just because your subject is resisting you.


If your subject is using tactics to influence you, do your best to work around these tactics so you can stick to your main objectives. If you can withstand personal attacks and unethical persuasion techniques, there’s a slim chance that you will be able to turn things around. But then again, it would be best to avoid this situation completely!

If there is one thing that a hypnotist-influencer can truly rely on, it’s the fortress of trust. Trust is defined as “a reliance that an individual can be depended on for his honesty, truthfulness, strengths and dependability”.

Trust is an immaterial concept but it has actually driven many aspects of human culture and modern civilization forward since time immemorial.

Modern trade wouldn’t have been possible if the first traders didn’t trust each other regarding the value of goods being exchanged. Even the concept of currency and money is based on a general trust in the economy, government and the long-standing value of precious metals.

In the field of influence and persuasion, trust is the most valuable “currency” that a speaker can possess. It is worth more than gold in many instances and it has the capability not only to persuade individuals but also whole social groups.

Notable statesmen such as Winston Churchill are well-known for their eloquent, fiery speeches that boosted the more of a whole nation in a time of uncertainty, violence and war. The common factor among all great orators, revolutionaries and statesmen is the trust that people willingly accord them.

Trust, like crystal, is valuable yet fragile. It is supported not only by words but by the consistency of our actions and yes, it can be broken. When a person begins seeing you as his natural leader and his trust grows,


you will be seen as someone who knows what’s best and what would bring mutual benefit to all concerned.

Now, in the previous workbook, we touched upon the concept of natural leadership. Practitioners of influence should be aware that the main reason a subject would ever agree to a proposal or accept an idea is that to a certain extent, the subject sees the speaker as a leader. However, there’s no guarantee that your subject will always see you as his leader. Because in order for this to happen, you have to be someone that the subject can fully trust.

How can you build the fortress of trust?

Trust is like a gigantic security blanket against all forms of resistance and rejection. That’s why you must exert as much effort as you can to gain your subject’s trust even before attempting to persuade him to commit to something, may it be an idea or plan of action.

The Language of Trust

Genuineness & Sincerity

An interesting fact about influence is that if you can show that can be honest throughout a dialogue, people will look up to you as a person with integrity.

A person with integrity automatically becomes a person who can be trusted because honesty is one of the foundations of trust.

You can use a certain phrasing style to improve your projection of sincerity and believability:

1. “I believe that _________________”2. “I think ___________________”


3. “My analysis of the situation is that ________________” 4. “I imagine that ________________________” 5. “What I can offer is _____________________”

Words such as “believe” and “think” allows the speaker to take responsibility for his statements. This technique is especially helpful during the beginning of a conversation with a person or group of people who don’t know you very well.

Being as honest as possible also dispels the idea that you have more to gain from the interaction than your subject.

Though your subject is probably already aware that you stand to gain something from the dialogue, this fact is somehow made less significant when the speaker shows consistent sincerity.

Being sincere or genuine doesn’t mean that you will purposefully break down your own proposal or general position just to please your subject. You can maintain a strong position without sacrificing your sincerity.

Don’t shroud your true intentions when interacting with others. If you do, you will be scrutinized and eventually, your subject/s will recognize that you have tried to hide your true position.

Personal Motives & Biases

When a speaker is trying to persuade another person, the subject of the conversation often analyzes the primary motive/s that are driving the speaker’s words.

Often, a person’s ideas or proposal is rejected if he makes it apparent that he wants to gain a bigger advantage in the dialogue. That’s why it is essential that you reframe your subject’s mindset about your idea or


proposal to make it appear that the proposal takes away something from you as much as it provides a benefit to the subject.

To make things easier, remember this language formula:

Context + Idea/Proposal + Reframe

Examples:

1. “If you help me clean the house now, I’ll have to help you clean your garage later so you can find all the tools that have went missing.”

2. “There’s a limited time where I can offer you a 30% discount on this car. It’s less commission for me but I’ll still make a sale and you’ll have a nice car to drive home.”

3. “Your teacher informed us that you need extra help with mathematics so I’d like for us to follow the school’s guidelines. We’re hiring someone to teach you math after school.”

Analysis:

In the first statement, the speaker provided the subject with an equal benefit. The speaker asks the subject for help and in return, the speaker will help the subject find his tools in the garage. The speaker’s position is maintained and mutual benefit for both parties is assured.

Of course, if the subject says “no” then simply use that feedback to reach an agreement that is acceptable for all.

In the second statement, the speaker made it apparent that he will suffer a minor disadvantage after offering an additional benefit to the subject.


However, he makes it clear that a sale is still a sale and that both parties will still benefit if the transaction is completed.

In the third and final statement, the speaker (presumably a child’s parent) makes it clear that hiring a tutor is a way of following the school’s recommendation about the child’s performance. The speaker is invoking a higher authority which displaces responsibility while strengthening the speaker’s position.

Using Social Evidence

In the event that the receiver of the message is highly disengaged because the speaker’s vested interest is widely known, a viable recourse would be to utilize social evidence.

Social evidence can come from a like-minded person or group of people that will fortify the speaker’s stance regarding the matter.

Using social evidence to improve one’s position in a dialogue still conforms to the general framework of conversational hypnosis because it supports the development of trust, which is a pre-requisite of effective influence.

Again, I have to emphasize that if you want to be an effective influencer, you have to utilize not just language patterns but also general strategies where hypnotic language patterns will become applicable.

Indirect Influence

When is an influencer not perceived as an influencer?

One of the major shortcuts that you can take to achieving subconscious influence is by expressing your message/idea/proposal in a way that doesn’t seem like you’re trying to convince the other person.


Usually, a person becomes resistant to an idea or proposal when he is directly asked to commit to it. Commitment is equal to expending different kinds of resources, like time, energy, financial resources, intellectual resources, physical work, etc.

Humans are instinctually hardwired to preserve resources, because resources are by nature limited or they can run out. So thousands of years ago, our ancestors learned the hard way how one must preserve resources because it can literally mean life or death.

Although human civilization has changed a lot in the past few hundred years, our primitive instincts remain largely intact.

The general formula for indirect influence is:

Context + Main Message → Indirect Message + Advantages

Examples:

Direct Message: “I want you to stop smoking.”

Indirect Message: “After 5 years of smoking cessation, the lungs are almost back to normal and the risk of developing lung cancer drops by 50%!”

Direct Message: “Buy this new laptop computer because it’s fast and has lots of memory and other good stuff inside.”

Indirect Message: “New laptops can store thousands of digital photos and videos, in addition to being able to run memory-heavy games from Steam like Grand Theft Auto V.”

Direct Message: “You need to start losing weight because the doctor said your heart is suffering from clots.”


Indirect Message: “I read that experts recommend 3 bowls of fresh salad a week for heart health and colon health. Fresh salad is just one of the tasty things we can try that can naturally bring down your weight.”

Direct Message: “The property on 3rd Avenue is pure real estate gold. Now the owners want to sell it at a reduced priced!”

Indirect Message: “A hot tip just came in that a luxurious bungalow in 3rd Avenue was just marked down after barely a week in the market.”

Direct Message: “You need to be more serious about your studies.”

Indirect Message: “People who finish high school and college are more likely to own luxury cars before they hit the age of 40. Unless you’re Bill Gates or Steve Jobs of course.”

The Naked Truth

The human mind has a fascinating way of accepting and rejecting information. On the one hand, it doesn’t like statements (or people) who make it apparent that they are going to benefit a lot if a proposal or idea is accepted.

However, when the naked or bare truth is presented, the fact that the speaker still stands to gain a benefit becomes less important. What becomes more important is that he was genuine and outspoken about the idea or proposal. The benefit becomes secondary to the fact that the speaker was very frank about what he stands to gain and the reality of the proposal itself.

Using the naked truth is similar to the reframing process needed to dilute or minimize the presence of a personal motive or bias, which we have discussed in a previous section of this workbook.


How does the naked truth work?

The naked truth works simply because it requires the use of negative statements. Humans are naturally inclined to use positive statements about themselves, their ideas, etc. We use positive statements because we want to appear superior and authoritative, which is a natural tendency given that we live in a highly structured and hierarchical modern society. But what happens when you turn this logic upside down? What happens when you disregard the hierarchies and what people perceive to be ideal and acceptable?

If you play your cards right and if you speak the language of trust, you can actually make negative statements your ally.

How can negative statements support an influencer?

Negative statements come in many forms and the meaning of individual statements change depending on the context and the previous/succeeding statements. In short, we are going to enhance the credibility of positive statements by adding negative statements into the mix.

The general formula is:

Context + Negative Statement + Positive Aspect

You may have noticed that in the formula, it is the negative statement that takes precedence. This is not a mistake: the strength of the naked truth is that it has a strong ability to disarm your subject’s conscious filters.

You see, the conscious mind is extremely adept in rejecting ideas that seem “too good to be true”. Unfortunately, this classification can extend to any positive statement that a person deems risky because it will involve commitment and the expenditure of resources.


But when you use negative statements to support the positive aspects of your message, your subject’s conscious filters are temporarily short-circuited and your subject becomes more willing to listen to you and accept your message because you were outspoken about the negative aspects of your idea or proposal.

This particular method is excellent when you have to promote something directly to a person or group of people. The common route that influencers take is hype or exaggeration. In many cases, this does work… But what if it doesn’t perform well with your subject or audience?

What if your subject/audience openly rejects the positive aspects of your idea/proposal?

Obviously, adding more hype to the equation will only make your subject more resistant. Before your subject becomes completely disillusioned with your message, it would be best to resort to the naked truth.

Examples:

1. “$300 is a lot of money, I agree. And money is hard to come by especially in this recession. So you need more value for your money. Value means you’ll get what you pay for and more, because I know this product from head to toe. It’s expensive but it’s cost-efficient because you’ll get things done more quickly. That means you won’t have any headaches in the long term.”

2. “Our software system was only completed last year, by a team of very young programmers. We had a lot of ups and downs but our team’s passion really carried the project forward. Now it’s up and running and we couldn’t be prouder of our work. Our support servers have 99.99% uptime and we have a strong technical support network, too.”


3. “This new European car is tiny! And it comes only in pink and green. Our own tests show that you can get 3x more mileage with every gallon compared to its nearest competitor which costs 4x more. It’s cheap, small and runs like a dream. I took it out for a spin last week and I visited my aunt in the next city. It drives so well I was actually surprised myself.”

Chip Away and Rebuild

Imagine that you are trying very hard to convince your subject to accept your proposal. He says no so many times that you’ve already lost count.

What do you do?

Do you continue “selling” your idea the same way or do you try a different method of persuasion?

If you want to reach the Avenue of Complete Influence, you need to back tract and recalibrate immediately. Because when a subject becomes accustomed to saying no, his mindset changes and his new beliefs about your idea/proposal may become infallible beliefs before the conversation is over.

If your subject is resisting your message, openly opposing his beliefs and values will only result in disaster and even more resistance.

Don’t play the “authority card” on your subject when he opposes your message. Even if you do know more about the issue, your knowledge will have little effect on him if he’s made up his mind to simply reject your idea.

The first thing that you should do is to harmonize with your subject’s ideas.


You’re probably thinking: should I break down my own position? My surprising answer is yes, you should!

Look at it this way: your subject has already made up his mind that your message is not worth agreeing to. He has probably broken down your idea/proposal a hundred times in his mind and each time he does it, he feels even more confident that he is making the correct decision.

Telling a subject that he is completely wrong about something is like throwing a piece of chicken in a river of hungry piranhas; there’s no way you’re getting your chicken back in one piece!

You can harmonize with your subject by using this general formula:

Context + Restatement of Positive Aspects + Notable Weaknesses

Example:

“I’m glad that you find this car interesting. It’s preowned so there are some scratches on the leather. The clutch had issues when we purchased it from the original owner so I personally made sure that the proper parts were replaced so it doesn’t give you any headaches. The tires aren’t brand new, they were about six months old when the owner decided to sell the car. The entire electrical system is working well although I noted that one of brake lights don’t “fire” properly.”

Analysis:

The sample monologue is a classic example of promoting something indirectly by citing weaknesses. As the speaker continues to describe the small weaknesses of his offer, the subject or receiver becomes increasingly disarmed. Instead of going into “reject mode”, the subject goes into “solution mode” – as in “how can I make this car perfect when I finally have it?”


In the context of promoting and selling something, citing the disadvantages of something after establishing the good points erases buyer remorse from the equation and primes the subject to buy because he will feel that he knows enough about what he’s buying to make a good decision.

In the end, this is what truly matters. The subject should feel good about his decision and he should have zero doubts about the offer. Again, a person’s conscious filters will be temporarily deactivated when you choose to lean toward outspokenness and honesty.

After learning the techniques in this black book the next step is to practice executing them in real life situations.

This is exactly what I teach in The Art of Street Hypnosis.

You can learn more here:

Talk soon,

Dr. Steve G. Jones


http://www.hypnoticlanguageacademy.com/street-hypnosis-followup

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