Hypnosis Can Extend Life (part 1)

Patients with Hodgkin's disease or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma live longer if they receive relaxation and hypnotherapy treatment along with standard chemotherapy. Similar approaches has resulted in mixed results for other cancers.
Leslie Walker of Hull University studied 63 patients with newly diagnosed cancers, all of whom were receiving chemotherapy and standard anti-nausea drugs. The patients were split into three groups. One group was given relaxation tapes, another received the tapes plus hypnotherapy to reinforce their effect. The third received neither.
Walker followed up the patients 13 years after diagnosis. "We found that the patients who had received relaxation or relaxation and hypnotherapy lived significantly longer," he says.
New lease of life
On average, patients in the relaxation and hypnotherapy group lived an average of 10.7 years after diagnosis, patients who used only the tapes lived 8.7 years and patients with neither lived 7.8 years.
But Walker stresses that the patients differed in age and the stage of disease when treatment started. So although the differences are significant, translating hypnotherapy plus relaxation into three extra years of life is not possible, he says.
How the relaxation and hypnotherapy may increase survival is not clear. Other studies of cancer patients have found that similar treatments can boost levels of killer T cells. But researchers have not been able to link this rise with increased survival.
"Chemotherapy and radiotherapy tend to suppress immune system functioning, so small interventions may help patients be more resistant to these effects," Walker says.
COVERT HYPNOSIS: An Operators Manual for Influential Unconscious Communication in Selling, Business, Relationships and Hypnosis by: Kevin Hogan
Covert Hypnosis is the utilization of techniques and strategies to change the perception and behavior of others in a completely unconscious way. The optimal applications for covert hypnosis are in the fields of selling, advertising, marketing, relationships and of course, therapy.

"I got chills up my spine as I started flipping through your new book. I'm afraid I'm either going to have buy all rights to this thing from you and take it off the market, or buy all copies to keep you from selling it. This material is the most powerful stuff I've EVER seen for selling, persuading, and motivating--- without anyone but you knowing it. Truly amazing. You've hit another one out of the park and over the stands." -- Joe Vitale, author of the best-selling series of "Hypnotic Writing" ebooks, including the new "Hypnotic Writing Swipe File" www.mrfire.com

This 100,000 word manual includes truly up to the minute scientific breakthroughs in the area of unconscious influence. For the simplicity of the reader the book is written with examples pertaining to either therapy or selling situations but of course the approaches discussed herein would apply equally as well to pastoring, teaching, training, and other relationship and group situations.
You will learn:

• Covert techniques for sports performance.
• Over 150 specific non-verbal communication techniques.
• How to stand and sit with people so they like you and believe your message.
• Strategies for pre-hypnotic therapy.
• How genes influence people’s decisions and how to know in advance what they are.
• The basic thinking process of covert conditioning.
• The 253 words that change people’s minds verbally and in print.
• How to use 20 of the most powerful hypnotic language patterns ever spoken.
• Discover the core 16 desires of every person you meet.
• Find out the 11 new metaprograms that no one has previously discovered.
• Over 800 questions that help you direct the thinking of others.
• The truth about distraction and confusion.
• How suggestion can change visual recall.
• Two complete models for presenting material to others in a persuasive manner!
• How to make minor alterations in your physical appearance to influence others.
• How to tell a story so that the story delivers the message you want send!

I’ve shared this material with companies that have paid me $5,000 per day. I’ve shared this information with the government of Poland to help construct strategies to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. I’ve never put most of this information in print before. Now, instead of paying $5,000 per day to have me teach this to you, you receive it in this dense manual for less than $100. A lifetime accumulation of research and practice are now available for your success building and relationship enhancement!
Now in e-book form!
Learn more about subtle persuasion or Order the E-book

Priming: Explosive Secret of Persuasion Revealed

adapted from The Science of Influence c. 2003 by Kevin Hogan

Been curious about the Science of Influence Home Study Program? Check this out!!

Do these four "thought exercises" with friends, groups (best!) or on your own.

Record your answers, then read on to discover how this information will forever change the way you do...everything in life, particularly, influencing others!

(a) Read this scenario:

John is intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and jealous.

Mark is jealous, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, and intelligent.

Quickly, which person do you think you would like more, John or Mark?

(Write down your answer now, before reading on.)

You have a lot of company if you said John. Most people do, and the reason is simple. Although the same traits were used to describe John and Mark, the principle of primacy primes the mind to filter everything else you learn about someone through the first characteristic, that of being intelligent in John's case and jealous in Mark's case As each characteristic is mentioned in order, it becomes less and less important.

(b) Guess-timate the total of each of these multiplication problems. Show the first equation to one person and the second equation to another. Each person gets only five seconds each.

a) 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = ?

b) 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8= ?

Write down your answers now.

The average guess for problem A is 2250. For B? 512.

The correct answer is 40,320!

Why the big difference in guessing and the huge distance in both cases from the right answer? People group the first few numbers together in each set and then guessed based upon this information.

(c) How are you perceived?

Group one (or person one if you are doing this with only two friends) is shown these words and asked to remember them.

"adventurous", "self assured", independent" and "persistent"

Group two is shown this set of words and asked to remember them.

"careless", "conceited", "solitary" and "stubborn"

Now, each has 15 seconds to describe and evaluate the following person: Donald is a parachutist.

The descriptions given by the individuals or groups will be heavily slanted toward the words they had to remember....Group A typically finds Donald careless and a daredevil. Group B typically finds Donald a free spirit.

KEY: Whether you realize it or not, everything you watch, listen to, read, and think about influences the NEXT thing you consider.

(d) Say the following word five times then continue reading.

"Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood."

What color does a traffic light have to be to proceed?

Did you say red?

Go back and look at the question. Interesting eh?

These four scenarios all take advantage of our brain's programming for primacy. We tend to lose the ability to consider much information after the first important piece and in fact, we tend to filter or disregard information that doens't match our current information, whether or not the new information is valuable.

KEY: There is an enormous amount of research, old and new, that confirms that what happens "first" in some experience, event or situation is that which alters our perceptions of all others. There is also an equally large amount of research that shows that what happens "last" in some experience, event or situation is extremely important in our perceptions and beliefs.

Are the two in contradiction? No. The brain tends to remember that which happens first and last in sequences, events and life in general. The balance between the two (primacy and receny) is very interesting. One experiment shows that when two speakers are giving speeches one right after the other with no break, the first speaker tends to be received better and appreciated more. However, when speakers (say candidates for office) can choose between speaking this WEEK at a meeting or before a group or NEXT WEEK, they must choose the later event as people will forget what happened last week and the freshness of this week's speaker and her message will be ultimately weighed in a much better light. When considering "going first" or "last" the key determining factor for "positioning" is the elapsed time between the events. The shorter the elapsed time, the better it is to go first. The longer the elapsed time, the better it is to go last.

Let me ask you a few questions, may I?

What was the first school you attended?
What was the second?

Who was the first person you kissed?
Who was the second?

What was the first apartment you rented?
What was the second?

What was the first car you actually owned?
What was the second?

What was your first job?
What was your second?

OK, I think you get the idea!

So, we know we have a hard time remembering things in the middle! We are good at beginnings and endings. How do we use this enlightening information?!

Priming people to accept a message is all about starting out with a great impression, something big, a promise, a big smile, something that "sets the stage" for everything that can happen later. Remember, that what happens first, will be REMEMBERED and will serve as a filter for everything that comes after. To successfully do this, you can get the Science of Influence Home Study program that will show you hundreds of secret and powerful tactics and persuasion strategies for half price this week!

What Color is Most Persuasive?

There is a color that has an incredibly powerful effect on people at the nonconscious level. Want to know what it is?

Better...want to know what kind of motivation it's linked to?

(How's that for a sales and marketing advantage no one has proven for you before?!)

The Color Red Affects How People Function

The color red can affect how people function. Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic. Researchers at the University of Rochester have now found that red also can keep us from performing our best on tests.

If test takers are aware of even a hint of red, performance on a test will be affected to a significant degree, say researchers at Rochester and the University of Munich.

The researchers' article in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General on the effect of red on intellectual performance reveals that color associations are so strong and embedded so deeply that people are predisposed to certain reactions when they see red.

Andrew J. Elliot, lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, and his co-authors found that when people see even a flash of red before being tested, they associate the color with mistakes and failures. In turn, they do poorly on the test. Red, of course, is traditionally associated with marking errors on school papers.

"Color clearly has aesthetic value, but it can also carry specific meaning and convey specific information," says Elliot. "Our study of avoidance motivation is part and parcel of that."

The Study of Avoidance Motivation

Four experiments demonstrated that the brief perception of red prior to an important test--such as an IQ test or a major exam--actually impaired performance. Two further experiments also established the link between red and avoidance motivation when task choice and psychophysiological measures were applied.

The findings show that "care must be taken in how red is used in achievement contexts," the researchers reported, "and illustrate how color can act as a subtle environmental cue that has important influences on behavior."

Elliot and his colleagues didn't use just any color of red. He assessed the colors using guidelines for hue, saturation, and brightness, and purchased a high-quality printer and a spectrophotometer for the research. He was stunned to learn that results from earlier work on color psychology by others didn't control for saturation and brightness.

The article's hypothesis is based on the idea that color can evoke motivation and have an effect without the subject being aware of it.

"It leads people to do worse without their knowledge," says Elliot, when it comes to academic achievement. In one of the six tests given, for example, people were allowed a choice of questions to answer. Most of them chose to answer the easiest question, a classic example of how to avoid failure.

The researchers believe that "color carries different meanings in different contexts." If the context changes, the implications do, too. Elliot's next study will focus on physical attractiveness.

Co-authors of the article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, a publication of the American Psychological Association, are Arlen C. Moller and Ron Friedman, graduate students in the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology at the University of Rochester, and Markus A. Maier and Jörg Meinhardt at the University of Munich. The work was funded by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation, and a Friedrich Wilhelm Bassel Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to Andrew Elliot.

7 Powerful Frames to Paint Your Selling Picture in (part 2)

Please go to 7 Powerful Frames to Paint Your Selling Picture In, Part 1 for the first part of this article.

5. How the Enemy Makes A Sale for You
When it seems that there is no competitive edge to your product or service, you can utilize a genetic predisposition that was alluded to in the topic above. You can assist in creating an enemy to bind people together. The Internal Revenue Service is an enemy that has been able to bind the thoughts of the public together. This has been done by our elected officials so we will vote for them. The enemy can be "good" or "evil." Appearances of good and evil are in the eyes of the beholder, of course. Mc Donald's doesn't like Burger King. Microsoft doesn't like Netscape.

KEY. Create or identify an enemy that needs to be fought and then define how you, or, your product or service will help in the fight against the common enemy. An enemy can be a person, a group, a nation, or a non-living thing, like drugs, cigarettes, associations, churches, newspapers, etc.

How do you utilize this principle of genetics in your favor? President Clinton, in the wake of the Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky hearings was able to take focus off of himself by finding a common enemy of almost all Americans, Saddam Hussein. The strategy of "talking war" was brilliant as it bound the nation as it did seven years earlier in the Bush administration. The real threat of biological weapons in the hands of Iraq was enough to take Clinton/Lewinsky off of the front page of the newspaper and put Hussein, UN Inspectors and talk of war on the front pages. This created a new perspective in the public's thinking about the significance of the Jones/Lewinsky scandals.

Bill Clinton did a good job of making Saddam Hussein a common enemy.

Creating or identifying a common enemy is an excellent tool for building rapport and increasing compliance. If you can assist your customer to become frustrated with the status quo, his likely future, the success of his competitors, he is more likely to act in a positive manner on your request for his compliance.

The concept of using anger, disgust, fear, hatred and negative emotions in effective selling and marketing is as old as monetary exchange. For years we have seen commercials about how disgusting roaches are to have in the house. We spend billions on security systems every year in America, but only once the customer has experienced through future pacing or in actual case history of his security being violated. People will purchase products to relieve pain, reduce anxiety, be less depressed...and these products go far beyond medications! Some people buy magazines, books, CD's, computer games, internet services, cars, houses, groceries, all to reduce negative emotions.

6. The Have's and The Have Not's...Have or have not got Control
"Money doesn't bring you happiness."
"People care too much about money."
"Money isn't important."
"I don't need things."
"I don't like being around all those control freaks."
"All I need to be happy is..."

When you are selling, you pace the client's actions and beliefs, but, also realize that he is only human and therefore programmed like most other humans. Your customer will often state something that he really doesn't believe, because, he wishes that what he was saying was true.

What are the facts about control, having, and happiness? How do these biological truths relate to your selling your products and services?

KEY. Control: The more you have, the healthier you are. Control is what keeps you focused and aware. People who experience a great deal of control in their lives tend to be healthier. When people feel in control or they feel your product or service will put them in control they are likely to buy from you now.

If your customer is to succeed in life and move up the ladder of success and survival, he needs problems, the ability to solve them and the victories that come from defeating his problems. Control is analogous to personal power. Personal power is the ability to take action and achieve. The ability to meet life's challenges head on and win is not only useful in raising self esteem and self efficacy but also the general health of your client!

If your product or service will give your customer more control in his life and she realizes it, then she will buy your product. PERIOD. Without control people become hopeless. When people become hopeless you are once again able to help your customer. If your product or service can generate hope, you give new life to your customer...literally. If your customer sincerely believes that your product or service can help him, then you can literally help him change his life.

KEY. We need a significant amount of control for happiness. If you can paint a clear picture of how you can help the other person regain control in some area of his life or business, he will buy anything from you.

7. Selling Testosterone
Men who are rich in testosterone often find themselves in great trouble or achieving great success. Testosterone inspires confidence and aggression. Most entrepreneurial types tend to be high in testosterone and tend to be confident of their ability to achieve in business and life. Knowing this allows you to pull a useful mind string. Appealing to the core urges of a man in some manner is useful in awakening his confidence and "go for it" attitudes.

KEY. Help your client re-experience past victories in any aspect of life and you will probably succeed in creating a "testosterone rush." Linking your product to this rush, will enhance the probability of compliance.

Testosterone is tied to "winning" in men. An excellent manner of instilling a testosterone rush into men is to have them recount a story of a time when they overcame the odds and "won." This normally creates a testosterone surge in men and builds confidence. By successfully linking this internal state to your product or service you almost assure yourself of making a sale.

BONUS:
8. See You at the Top
One of my all time favorite self development books is See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar. When Zig wrote this book he had little if any idea that the book would go on to sell 1.5 million copies. Zig could have predicted such an outcome had he known the genetic draw of humans to gravitate toward leaders in a group. Not only do we want to be like the leader in a group, we want to be liked by the leader in a group.

The higher up the ladder a person climbs, the more "friends" a person has. Now, it should be noted that these friends may be "fair weather friends," but clearly those who wish to consider themselves friends of the leaders in groups are far greater than those who dwell near the bottom of the societal ladders. Therefore you have an opportunity to appeal to an individual's pre-programmed desire to first be at the top of the ladder and second, to be friends of the person at the top of the (or "a") ladder.

You may have the opportunity to share with your customer that if he moves up the ladder in his group that his health will improve. Recent research shows that those who are higher up the "ladder" have less hypertension. Health benefits are going to be a good justification for any action in the 21st century and this is one that is truly worth noting when it ties in with your products and services.

KEY. People want to either be at the top, be seen with the people on top or be given hope that they may be able to make it to the top. Your product or service should somehow be able to help your client up the ladder.

Imagine how powerful you would be if you actually knew all the persuasion tactics in existence. What would you do? How would you influence others? What would you want?

Science of Influence CD Set Part II Volumes 13-24

with Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.

Persuasion tactics are very specific pieces of the persuasion pie. There are 59 tactics that can be utilized in the persuasion process and they are ALL detailed here for you. No one on the planet has ever released a program containing every tactic of influence and persuasion. They are here for the first time.

You will:

• Conquer Your Market
• Motivate Your Clients
• Profit in Surprising Ways From Your New Knowledge

This program breaks new ground in persuasion.

100% Legal!

• Eliminate the "call back for approval."
• Eliminate "buyers remorse."
• Eliminate, "I'll think about it."
• Eliminate your competition.

Learn more about advanced influence techniques

• Biography •• Body Language • • Catalog/Store •• Tinnitus •• Influence/Persuasion ••o

• Need a Speaker? • Appearances

7 Powerful Frames to Paint Your Selling Picture In (part 1)

This information is not for the faint of heart. Here we share concepts, tips and techniques that are held closely to the vest by the masters of influence.

In our continuing study of what determines why people buy and why they decide to do the things they do, we have learned that all is not logical and rational in the real world. This article will give you 7 brand new key insights and frames in which to paint your selling pictures.

I guarantee no one has ever shared this information with you!

1. The Best of Times...The Worst of Times:
Are you Selling Security or Adventure? It only makes all the difference in the world...
When times are relatively good, on average, we are biologically programmed to venture out and increase risk and adventure in our lives. When times are bad, on average, we are likely to be much more conservative.

When participating in the sales process it is very useful to know whether your client (and the economy in general) is going through good times or bad. If she is going through good times you can appeal to her desire to experiment, her need to expand her horizons and explore. If she is going through bad times, you need show how your products will allow her to meet her conservative needs. The emotional appeal of your product is very important in determining whether you will make the sale or not. People will justify their purchase logically, but first need to fit the product into their emotional filters.

KEY. Appeal to your customer's need to take risks and participate in adventure in good times. When experiencing bad times, appeal to your clients needs of security and safety.

Does the economy allow you to appeal to their sense of adventure?

Should they be taking the plunge or being conservative?

It's up to you to find out from your customer!

2. Your Appeal Should be to the Many, not Just the One
Our genes do not simply generate the tendency for us to survive and care for the self, but they virtually command and carry out a powerful compulsion to care for our children and the larger groups that we are part of. In fact, almost all of our genetic make-ups are so designed that we will help the larger groups we are part of survive before they will save themselves. (You witnessed this in all too vivid a fashion on 9/11/01.)

Not only is that an altruistic act, it is part of most people's genetic programming. The compulsion to care for others in our group is very powerful. Almost all people are pre-programmed to act in the best interests of the following:

• Themselves
• The Family
• The Group
• Society
• God

What kind of group might your customer belong to?

What about family?

Your appeal should be to the many, not just the one.

The big mistake that salespeople make is that they only appeal to the customer's best interest when they should be appealing to the customer's interest in how your product will help his family, his employees, his civic groups and church organization, society as a whole and even God. There is an old Mc Donald's commercial that illustrates how to appeal to the greater genetic needs. The theme song, "You deserve a break today, so get up and get away, to Mc Donalds..." plays in the background. The image is that of a man who has had a long day at work and the theme initially plays to his deserving a break. The genetic motivator however is not self-satisfaction. The motivator is when you see Dad and Mom and the kids all driving off to Mc Donald's together.

KEY. What a person may not be able to justify for himself can often be justified if it becomes obvious that it benefits our family, or society, or the group with which we belong.

3. Who Your Customer Wants to Be Like
In all species, including humankind, the masses are compelled to be like the leader of the group(s). Your appeal to your customer therefore, should in part be one of installing the desire to be like the leaders in his or her field. This could mean being a better parent, a better employee, a better supervisor. Your job is to show how your products and services help your customer be more like the leader(s) of the group(s) he is most intimately linked to. In general, we imitate our leader's behavior. As a sales person, we therefore want to show how using our products will make the customer more like the leaders.

4. Positive Attitude? Here's the Truth for Salespeople
Research completed last year reveals that projecting a positive attitude is not nearly as helpful to the self when contrasted with the impact that it has on others. When your customer sees your positive attitude it gives them optimism and encouragement that you are a good person to be with and buy from. "Generating" a "positive attitude" is very important to sales success, because it improves the relationship you have with others. Not feeling positive? Be the actor playing the role. Stay focused, eyes on the target and reap the rewards!

Let's be honest though: Generating a positive attitude for one day because you are down and out due to the taxman, a fight with the kids or a spat with the in laws is one thing. Generating a positive attitude because you are not able to truly be happy with what your life work is, is quite another.

You can only work off your reserves for so long before you need to do what is right for YOU and YOUR LIFE. Don't sell something or be involved in a company that doesn't get your juices flowing for any longer than is absolutely necessary. Find work that you would do for free! That's usually the work you ultimately get paid the most for.

To Be Continued...

>More Articles on

• Persuasion
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Scripts: What Works?

Most work at one specific time. When?

Quick story:

Went to Lenscrafters in Burnsville Center near my home. Vision "white" and "foggy" in right eye. Told her that everything was cloudy. The "doctor" completed her exam on my eyes. Said "healthy eyes," gave me a prescription and off I went with glasses. The script was useless. Glasses did no good...at all. By Wednesday no change w/ or w/o the glasses on.

Went to my regular real eye doctor, Dr. Ottenstrauer in Eagan, for a real examination. Told him the same thing I told the "doc" at Lenscrafters. He looked concerned...focused. Immediately he found the cataract on my "lens" in my right eye. Surgery required in a few months. No glasses prescription necessary. "Use readers you can get from Target. Your script will likely be different after surgery..."

Lenscrafters only cared about making the sale. My real doc cared about my eyes. I returned my glasses to Lenscrafters and gently suggested the "doc" take the eye exam more seriously. Cataracts: Number one cause of blindness. I asked my real doc if cataracts were hard to see in the examination. "Not this one..."

Sure. I got ripped off in more than one way but what does that have to do with scripts?

Everything. You see, Lenscrafters has the same goal for every customer and it isn't to have me become a loyal customer. It is to sell me a pair or two of glasses when I walk in the door. If the goal was to manage the health of my eyes and sell me a pair of glasses IF I needed them and not a surgery that would save my right eye from going blind, a different experience would have happened. It's their script....

Unfortunately people can't use the same script over and over. Long term, they don't work.

Why don't sales scripts, therapy scripts or any other kind of scripts work after the first few weeks? ( With the notable exception of a script/screenplay...)

In the theater each person has a set of lines within a script for an entire play. The play has the same context and same tone every time it is performed. The same exact lines are said in every play. It is 100% scripted. Each scene is blocked out. All the characters do and say the same thing every night.

If you say the same words to everyone you talk to... you take that person out of the equation and they know it. They feel it. They respond precisely as they should.

Click.

Scripted words will get a response from a very small percentage of the people you come into contact with. To be sure, quite a number might say "yes" today but they will not fulfill their part of the deal as soon as they are out of your presence. This is true in all human interaction. Therapy, management, selling, dating.

Why?

You obligated them to act without taking into consideration WHO they are.

No empathy = no true commitment.

Say a bunch of words that someone else wrote and you treat each person like an irrelevant piece of baggage.

Managers, salespeople, maybe some therapists think that scripts are useful. They aren't. Yes, on day one, they provide a framework for learning. From day two forward they teach your people to treat other people like luggage. Any success with a script will be very short lived.

The person on the other end doesn't know the lines...well O.K., they know one line...

"No."

Even when they are twisted into a "yes." The answer will be "no" when they are off the phone, out of the house or have escaped from the office.

I have a confession.

A million years ago, I wrote scripts for salespeople.

I also wrote scripts for hypnotherapists.

Both ideas were big mistakes. Skeletons in my closet.

Oh, they were "awesome." They read well. They sounded great to others who weren't the customer or client. They had cool metaphors, great stories, perfect leverage points. They had everything except for someone who cared about the other person...which after a period of time... I finally realized was the first key to success.

I repented and saw the errors of my ways. The results were predictable. Like every other great script writer, they started out very good and soon deteriorated. They always do. Guilt replaced the boredom that replaced enthusiasm in the mouths of those uttering words...taking the only human element out... of the scripts.

So what DO you DO?

Think: Empathy. Feeling. What do THEY want. Why? What kinds of things are important to them or need to be important to them! What would be fun for them. What might they like?

Requirement: Discovery. Curiosity. Empathy. Sincere interest that will sell you forever. Because they are buying you first and your service much later.

Then you need a Play Book.

A play book is what the coach pulls out for each down of the game. Depending on the location on the football field, whether winning or losing, by how many points and how much time is left on the clock the choice of plays narrows to a few excellent options.

A play book is a set of templates of plans that you would like to execute. Depending on the other person's response the actual play will vary a great deal from usage to usage. Sometimes a long touchdown will be the result. Other times a 5 yard loss.

One thing is certain if the ball were handed off to the running back to the hit hole where the Guard was and Ray Lewis is the next human in sight, it would be wise to abandon any "script" and *think!*

Thus...a playbook. A set of templates, designs, actions and response and responses to actions.

The baseball manager knows whether the hitter hits right handed or left handed pitching better or worse and will bring in the best pitcher for the job. The results will vary but knowing the variables, knowing the quality of the players you face, their strengths and weaknesses, knowing what to do in each situation is what makes a great manager.

In business, a lot of managers run from a "script." That's why they stink.

Good managers have dozens of templates that adjust to each situation. Excellence. The same is true of all great salespeople, speakers, therapists.

You can't teach improvisation from a script. You teach it by teaching the person the various outcomes that will happen in different situations and settings. Improvisational ability is one of the qualities of charisma.

Sounds like a lot of work. A lot of time. At first it is...then you have so many successful clients and customers you don't have time to fail anymore. And that is one of the great differences between success and failure.

It will literally change your life.

Get your Free subscription to Coffee with Kevin Hogan. Learn the latest in persuasion, selling, body language, mind/body and have fun while you do. It's all free!! Go to www.kevinhogan.com for more information.

INFLUENCING MINDS THROUGH STORIES

What's your story?

How One aspect of Covert Hypnosis Elegantly Persuades

December 1991.

It's a rare moment when I can be glued to the television watching an 80-year-old man talk to a 50-year-old man...I am a stimulus nut. I like to listen to The Beatles while I watch E!'s Brooke Burke tour me through Ibiza... while I am creating the next chapter for my next book. If there are a couple of source books on the coffee table open for documenting my ideas, I have almost enough stimulus to keep me producing 'til 3A.M...

...but on this night some 10 years ago, the channel landed on a television show called, "The Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell, interviewed by Bill Moyers."

"We are drawn to the Hero's Journey," Campbell said. (Readers Digest of Hero's Journey: Someone who could be anyone, goes away, finds enlightenment -- Moses, Jesus, Paul, Buddha--and comes home to save his people.) Campbell pointed out that certain myths are common to every culture and universal in appeal. I learned so much that night. After studying the Bible and other sacred literature for most of my life, a light went on inside of my head. I finally realized that these stories are common to dozens of cultures around the world. I knew that of course, but what I didn't understand was what that really meant. The stories were written to help create meaning for the lives of the many. More: Look how successful they have been!!

The insights I gained from Joseph Campbell would change how I perceived individuals and cultures and their beliefs for the remainder of my life. People's personal stories and the stories of those they admired/worshipped became critical to gaining insight into the human mind. This triggered a life long fascination with understanding how these stories are filed in the brain, how you can change impoverished stories and how you can help more people take the Hero's Journey so they can become the hero of their own life.

It seemed to me virtually everyone could participate in their own Hero's Journey.

How? One thing was for sure: The craving the human brain has for the Journey makes it something that must be driven from an evolutionary standpoint. Specifically, the desire of curiosity and the drive to learn. Meaning in life is adaptive from a human survival perspective and I believed that this could create great change for people IF you could get them to believe that they were worthy of great things in their life.

To the point of today though, how can YOU utilize narrative to elegantly persuade...to covertly create change in the unconscious minds of people...now?

The answer is in some respects simple and other respects difficult.

On one level, I have always been amazed that people scoff at scientific research and still believe nonsense that is a total fiction even after given overwhelming evidence to the contrary. (This is the Law of Consistency, according to my book, Psychology of Persuasion). My personal philosophy is one of personal evolution. Each day learn more, apply more that you learn, and discover the best possible strategies for X that exist with current knowledge.

Most people don't understand and they don't believe statistics when compared with a good story. I could share irrefutable statistics with a group of cigarette smokers that research proves smoking cigarettes will ultimately kill them and those around them in greater percentage than nonsmokers, BUT when I tell a persuasive story of ONE person living to 100 who smoked cigarettes her entire life, the group is utterly convinced that smoking isn't bad and that the research is "crying wolf."

If you have a scientific mind, this probably makes you grate your teeth. Don't let it. Instead, start telling stories. People want to hear stories. It's how they think and believe. It's what they believe. Statistics are somewhat complicated and take deep thought sometimes. A brilliantly told story immediately clicks in to the brain and becomes truth. People don't have good recall of facts but they can at least in part remember a story.

But what kind of stories? Most people tell stories that are incredibly boring. How do you tell a story that will be persuasive and create change in the minds of others?

People identify with certain stories and how the story teller (the salesman, the speaker, the leader, the manager, the therapist, the teacher) tells them. If the story teller brags about her greatness, the listeners turn her off. If the story teller shows how her solutions are ingenious, the listeners turn her off.

The first of seven keys to telling a persuasion packed story which you want believed is to be certain that you have identified who you are. What are you going to say that will cause me to want to listen to you in the first place and believe you in the second place? This seems to be an easy point...at first glance, but in reality it isn't easy at all. Everyday people are bombarded with thousands of messages, especially in the form of advertising, all asking for belief and compliance. We believe some and act on some of those we believe.

Getting someone to listen to you is no easy thing. Most people are thinking of their responses, their resistance's, their objections as they listen to you talk. The truly great story eliminates the need to object and resist.

I start almost every presentation or seminar I give with a story. It usually will be one with humor in it. Never a joke. But always humor...lots of it. I might tell the story about how I did the body language assessment of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky for the New York Post. In a different setting, I might discuss how Al Gore lost the election by misusing his body language in the third debate with George Bush. I might tell the story of when I met the Princess. The stories are memorable and have great humor. I'm not the star. I'm secondary to the event. There is no arrogance about the story teller, I'm just like my listener and happily surprised to be playing an important role in the scheme of analyzing national events for the media or meeting someone particularly exciting.

Woven into these stories... you learn not only about the national figures but you learn self revelations from myself. I explain that I'm a conservative who actually liked Bill Clinton. You learn all kinds of tidbits about me, most of which are non-threatening, but enough to stimulate some emotions about what I'm communicating about. In all of my opening stories at a seminar you learn in a very covert fashion that your story teller (trainer/speaker/seminar leader...me) is feeling excited about being on television or radio (just like you would be), has a great deal of expertise based on the story itself, is not arrogant or pompous (huge turn off for listeners), is funny (massive laughter experienced in audience), seeks no harm and only good for everyone involved while having a playful demeanor that is fun.

This all comes through in the telling of the first story with several very short "asides." Just how to do that and helping you discover the other six keys of persuading with narrative will be dealt with more in future E-zine's.

For now, realize that a well told story is powerful in change potential. A poorly told story is guaranteed to lose clients, lose sales and cost you enormously. Watch the stories that inspire and excite you. Look at the communications you receive that cause you to take action. Discover what changes you and then you will begin to have a hint at what might change others as well.

That reminds me of a story.

January 1999

Morning in Las Vegas. I was at the Venetian. About 11AM I go downstairs to the casino to play some Pai Gow Poker. I sit down at 3rd base and look up to see two stunning women standing around the chair at first base of my table. Both were wearing form fitting white t-shirts and white pants. (Not that I noticed.)

I looked at my cards and my first hands were likely to be losers. I placed them and happened to look back up over toward first base. Now sitting at first base between the Girls of Playboy was the man who played "Mini Me" in Austin Powers. He was wearing a brown smoking jacket and I remember how odd looking it was to see someone especially Mini Me in a smoking jacket in a casino... Then I smiled and realized that I was no one to question Mini Me's taste in clothing. The two Girls of Playboy massaged his back while the dealer scooped up my green chip.

I smiled and said, "Good morning."

He said, "Good morning."

"How's it going?", I inquired.

"Great. Thanks..."

The dealer took his two green chips. He looked up at one of his friends.

"...Couldn't be better."

I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. I wonder where you get those brown smoking jackets?

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Hypnosis: The Final Solution for Weight Loss? (Part 2)

During chronic stress, however, the system does not turn off, and glucocorticoids, which were formerly inhibitory, have an over-riding excitatory effect on brain stress networks. Glucocorticoids in the system remain elevated, maintaining high levels of corticotropin releasing factor, which in turn regulates adrenocorticotropin; both key inciting hormones in the chronic stress response system. This creates a positive feedback loop between the stress systems of the body and brain.

From their studies, the researchers concluded that rats with chronically elevated glucocorticoids developed pleasure-seeking/or compulsive behaviors, which included drinking sucrose (rather than saccharine), eating lard, running on the wheel and taking a drug. They then observed changes that took place in the stress response system in the aftermath of eating the comfort food - an increase in abdominal fat and an end to corticotropin releasing factor and adrenocorticotropin secretion. They also observed an inverse relationship between abdominal fat and the expression of genes in the motor zone of the hypothalamus, where the stress response is initiated.

"This seems to be the body's way of telling the brain, 'It's ok, you can relax, you're refueled with high-energy food,'" says Pecoraro. The message is clearly being transmitted in the middle-aged man or woman with a gut. "This body type represents the classic distribution of fat from stress." The new model may explain why losing weight is notoriously difficult, he says. Losing weight is literally stressful, which makes a person feel anxious, and stress hormones make a person crave high energy foods, which blunt the feelings of stress and make one feel better.

The Dateline Weight Loss Challenge Results

The competitors:

• Weight Watchers
• Slim Fast
• Atkins diet
• Extreme exercise
• Hypnosis
• Jorge Cruise weight-loss program

The participant with the most impressive record was Marc, a pastry chef, who used hypnosis to lose 13 pounds in a single week. You can read the complete article here: MSNBC

With this program, Dateline demonstrated hypnosis and hypnotherapy to the public. It was a terrific way for people to see the powerful and effective ways that hypnosis can help program your mind for success.

Other results:

Lynne - extreme exercise and a daily 1,300-calorie diet.
Her weight did not change in three months.

Mark "Gio" - used the Slim Fast diet
After 1 week on Slim Fast "Gio" gained 3 pounds.

Kathy - did Weight Watchers, stayed under 20 points/day
Lost 4.8 pounds in one week ("I starved all week.")

Eleanor - at 300 pounds used an 8 min. weight workout
Eleanor lost three pounds in the first week.

Rick - followed the Atkins low-carb diet. Also exercise
Lost 13 pounds

Marc, using hypnosis, reported that he did not suffer while dieting. He was happy. He felt good and it happened naturally.

After 3 months...

Kathy... lost 18 pounds.

Eleanor... lost 24 pounds.

Lynne... lost 14 pounds

Marc... lost 40 pounds
(And didn't suffer during that time.)

Marc reports that he's very happy with the hypnotist. He's motivated and doesn't feel like anything is holding him back. He now enjoys exercising and has developed a greater love for healthy, nutritious food. In fact, he says he wants to, rather than feeling he ought to. All he wants now is healthy food, he says.

Dateline presented an objective look at the different weight loss methods available to the public today. It was very interesting how hypnosis was demonstrated to be effective and fast. Hypnosis is painlessm, and effective in programming the mind to feel good and desire naturally good foods and healthy diet and lifestyle.

Hypnosis: The Final Solution for Weight Loss?

Hypnosis may be one of the final solutions to weight loss. Strategies to control stress may just be the best tools to reduce weight for the long term. Research released recently mirrors research I did from 1998-2000 with the Minnesota Institute of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy.

Stress appears to be a major cause of weight gain and reducing stress levels seems to have a cause/effect relationship on people's weight.

UCSF researchers have identified a biochemical feedback system in rats that could explain why some people crave comfort foods - such as chocolate chip cookies and greasy cheeseburgers - when they are chronically stressed, and why such people are apt to gain weight in the abdomen.

The finding, to be published on-line in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on a glucocorticoid steroid hormone (corticosterone in rats, cortisol in humans) that plays a key role in the stress-response system.

In their study, the researchers determined that 24 hours after activation of the chronic stress system - which stimulates a flood of hormonal signaling from the hypothalamus to the adrenal glands glucocorticoids prompt rats to engage in pleasure-seeking behaviors, which include eating high-energy foods (sucrose and lard).

The animals develop abdominal obesity, and the negative aspects of the chronic stress response system, otherwise ushered in by the glucocorticoids, are blunted. The researchers suspect that the metabolic signal to inhibit the stress system comes directly from fat depots.

Stress Can Be Inhibited or Curbed

The finding offers an explanation into how chronic stress can be inhibited, or curbed. While the body's acute response to stress - say to being cut off in traffic by a speeding car - diminishes through a naturally occurring inhibitory feedback mechanism of the adrenal stress system, its chronic response to stress - in which a barrage of threats, scares or frustrations occur over days, weeks or months -- becomes chronically excited.

Over time, the elevated stress level can initiate a host of deleterious effects on the body - a loss or gain of weight, depression, obesity (associated with type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke), and a loss of brain tissue.

"Our studies suggest that comfort food applies the brakes on a key element of chronic stress," says study co-author Norman Pecoraro, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of senior author Mary Dallman, PhD, UCSF professor of physiology. And it could explain, he says, why solace is often sought in such foods by people with stress, anxiety or depression. It also could help to explain bulimic and night-binging eating disorders. Dallman, who has spent years studying the regulation of the stress response system, developed the new model of chronic glucocorticoid feedback.

Eat or Be Eaten?

Evolutionarily, the drive to eat comfort foods makes sense, says Pecoraro. In the animal kingdom, it's an eat or be eaten world, and a body under constant, or chronic, stress may preferentially eat high-energy foods to stay in the game. Under the model that the research team has proposed, glucocorticoids would both prompt vigilance to threats and send a signal to the brain of a chronically stressed animal to seek high-energy food. If it were successful in finding such food, stress and its attendant feelings would be terminated.

In regions of the world where people struggle with wars, epidemics of disease and chronic food shortage, the need to seek out high-energy foods would be great, as well. In the developed world, where stress is more often found in a commuting office worker, people seem to be seeking the same solution – and finding it at every street corner, says Pecoraro.

"If, after the near-miss on the freeway, you get into work and almost lose your job during an argument with your boss, and have a fight at home that night - and these types of events are relentless -- you're going to have chronically elevated adrenal hormones [ie., chronic stress]," he says. There has to be a brake on the system, and, for some, it's chocolate.

Ways to Self-Treat Chronic Stress

Importantly, there are other ways to treat chronic stress: exercise, yoga, meditation, sex and baths all stimulate neurochemicals that activate regions of the brain that stimulate pleasure. Relaxation techniques may work by reducing the psychological drives on stress output, which can be the root causes of stress. (Drugs and alcohol do not provide sufficient metabolic feedback, and may even stimulate further stress, and its attendant compulsions for pleasure.)

As for the use of food, there are serious health consequences of a diet high in fat and sugars -- abdominal obesity (which can lead to cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes and stroke), and cardiovascular disease itself.

"In the short term, if you're chronically stressed it might be worth eating and sleeping a little more to calm down, perhaps at the expense of gaining a few pounds," says Pecoraro. "But seeking a long-term solution in comfort foods - rather than fixing the source of the stress or your relationship to the source of the stress -- is going to be bad for you."

Stress, of course, is a strategy that evolved to enable the body to deal with threats - those ranging from the crouched lion ready to pounce, to the possibility of losing a job. It promotes quick, though somewhat inflexible, physical and mental responses, vigilance and attention. In the immediate response to a perceived danger, the body experiences the familiar "adrenaline rush," in which the adrenal glands initiate a flood of hormonal signals that quicken the heart rate, constrict the vasculature to prevent bleeding to death, and provide energy to the muscles. Minutes later, a slightly slower response is orchestrated by hormones from another region of the adrenal glands, providing such defenses as an anti-inflammatory function. Once an acute threat has subsided, these hormones are shut off through an inhibitory feedback system.

To Be Continued...

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What is Hypnosis Anyways (Part 2)

Two things happen when you are completely in the moment in this kind of everyday trance. The first is that the world dissolves around you and you become part of the experience. You don’t experience the game, you are the game. The other thing that happens is that you are completely focused. You don’t worry about what other people think of you, you don’t think anything that isn’t relevant to your actions, you simply experience the moment as you are.

This “flow state” is the optimal state for peak performance and one we will return to over and over again throughout this book. When you are in flow, everything you experience in flow is like making love. It could go on forever and you would be happy and successful, never wanting to leave.

Your Real Biorhythms

Many years ago the idea of biorhythms became popular. There were supposedly three cycles of time that everyone experienced, beginning at birth. These cycles would give you various high and low points, say emotionally and intellectually every few weeks. Over time it became obvious that these specific biorhythms simply didn’t exist.

However there are biorhythms that do exist. Most women, for example, have a periodic menstrual cycle though it is by no means predictable from month to month. There are also daily rhythms that almost everyone experiences called Ultradian Rhythms. These cycles begin about every 90-120 minutes and they vary from person to person in both when they begin and how long they last. These periods of “spacing out” happen to just about everyone, every day, several times per day. Almost everyone experiences these cycles. Using these cycles can benefit your health, happiness and can completely change your life! The Ultradian Rhythm phenomenon will be discussed in some detail midway through this chapter.

So What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis comes from the root word “hypnos” which means sleep. Sleep, however, has nothing to do with what hypnosis is. (“Psychology,” by analogy, literally means study of the soul, and of course, psychology is nothing of the kind. Similarly the word “hypnosis” is a misnomer, meaning nothing like what it’s literal origin is!)

Hypnosis is the ability to access specific every day trance states of mind at will, both dissociated (divided) and associated (possible flow state). Hypnosis is also the umbrella field of study of altering states of mind and consciousness to create change in your mind which will ultimately create change in your body and your life. Hypnosis will help you heal, create change and help you pursue your life’s dream. Come join us on the journey to the deepest parts of your mind and change your life forever.

Hypnosis: An Everyday Experience

What is a trance? A trance is a narrowing state of attention. Trance experiences include a simple every day daydream, “spacing out,” being completely “into” an erotic experience, or being worried about something that might happen. In each of these cases, your attention is focused in a specific area and you are not consciously thinking about everything else that is going on around you.

Each and every day you experience many trances. On any given day you may live through trances of frustration, annoyance, depression, anxiety, and a host of other unwanted experiences. All of these trance states can be changed through self hypnosis. Self hypnosis is a process whereby you take control of the trances you experience on an hour by hour, and, day by day basis.

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What is Hypnosis Anyways? (Part 1)

You’re driving your car to the office or work. Somehow you arrive safely even though you are a bit surprised that you don’t remember much of anything that happened from the time you left your driveway to the time you pulled into your parking space. How is that possible?

You got in the car and you drove. You should be able to remember the turns you made, the signs along the way, and the exits you took to get to work, but you don’t. The reason? You were in trance. You may have always wanted to ask a hypnotist if he could make you forget what happened while you were in trance. Now you don’t have to wonder because you do it every day on your own!

There are several kinds of trance (what some people mistakenly call hypnosis). One kind of trance is what we call the dissociated trance. This means you have two very distinct “tracks” going on in your mind at the same time. In the case of driving your car to work and not remembering the commute, you don’t remember it because you were partially dissociated from the driving experience.

The unconscious part of your mind was pretty much driving the car and the conscious part of your mind was “sitting in the passenger seat,” maybe having an imaginary conversation with your boss, your spouse, a customer or your kids.

Whatever the conscious part of your mind was doing, it wasn’t driving the car or you would remember the signs, the roads, the commute and the other cars, but you don’t. The reason you don’t remember is because your conscious mind was distracted by thinking about other things it considered more important than driving.

When someone asks you what a hypnotic trance is like you can tell them, “it’s like when you are driving a car and you can’t remember how you got where you were going to.” The unconscious mind drove the car to work and your conscious mind sat in the passenger seat having conversations with others or maybe watching movies of what the day would be like.

The conscious mind was in deep thought. The unconscious mind was driving the car. We call this experience “dissociation” or “divided consciousness.” This is a common everyday trance experience that nearly everyone is familiar with. It’s that simple!

What is very interesting is that if someone had pricked you (once) with a pin, or pinched you, while you were driving, you almost certainly wouldn’t have consciously felt a thing! Most people experience these dissociated states of mind each and every day.

What are some other examples of the dissociated trance state?

Have you ever read a book or an article and at some point you realized that you didn’t remember what you had just read and had to go back and read it again...and again? (Your conscious mind was focused on something other than the book and your unconscious mind was trying to read the book!)

Can you recall a time when you were listening to someone talk to you but you were really involved inside with your own thoughts and weren’t able to keep up with the person talking to you? (Your conscious mind was busy at work and your unconscious mind was nodding your head but your attention wasn’t really “all there.”)

Have you ever cut the lawn or made dinner, only to barely remember the experience as you were busy “inside” thinking or talking to yourself? (This is like driving to work and not remembering how you got there. Two very distinct tracks going at the same time and you did a good job at both.)

It is worth noting, by the way, that in some cases the unconscious mind does a good job when the conscious mind is busy doing something else. When does this happen?

When the unconscious mind is guiding an activity that is primarily physical in nature or an activity that has been done many times, the conscious mind can attend to other more thoughtful projects on the “inside.” Unfortunately when most people try to do two different “thinking” activities at the same time, the results are usually not as good.

It is very difficult to keep track of two conversations at the same time. It’s also difficult to be “inside” talking to yourself while listening to someone talk with you and then attempt to process both sets of communication. In fact, it just doesn’t work.

The Power Trance and Other Everyday Trances

The Everyday Trance of divided consciousness is the ideal trance for managing pain and reducing the effects of symptoms. It’s necessary to experience divided consciousness if you are going to ride a bike and think about other things at the same time. There is another kind of trance that is experienced by many people everyday and it is called the “flow state” of mind or the associated trance. You might also call it the Power Trance because of the amazing things that people can do while in this state of mind.

This kind of trance happens when you are thoroughly engrossed in some activity that you obviously are challenged by or simply love to partake in. You may have found yourself reading a book and being oblivious to the world around you. Maybe you remember a time when you were watching your favorite TV show and found yourself crying because of the reality of the fictional drama. Perhaps you have played a game and lost track of everything outside of the game to the point where the rest of the world just “disappeared.”

During these kind of experiences you become completely wrapped up in whatever you are doing. What’s going on in the outside world just becomes unimportant. You lose track of anything outside of your desired experience. These periods of everyday trance remind us how easy it is to associate to, or step into, a different reality other than our own. Remember this as you read on!

Have you ever played a game or done some activity where everything else around you just seemed to disappear?

An excellent chess player will play an entire game of chess and not think of anything but that game of chess. We call this being associated. The chess player has no other thoughts, no other distractions. The chess player’s mind is only in the chess game.

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