Hypnosis: Understanding The Mind

(First in a series of excerpts from the Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Training Manual)

by Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.

Conversations with hypnotherapists can occasionally lead to substantially differing paradigms as to how the mind works and how change occurs in human behavior. This article will propose an easy to understand paradigm as to how the mind works and how change occurs. We will also discuss how some philosophies of the mind are successful at creating change in some individuals and discover why no change at all will occur in others with what should have been effective. We will also look at the introduction of the final theory of every-mind which we hope will come close to living up to the title.
The first discovery of change in the physical form, which helps us lay a foundation for this article, comes from sacred literature. The Bible has many citations of individuals being healed by faith. Many others do not get healed. Again, faith (the lack of it) is cited as the reason a person is not healed. Interestingly, the faith was not a religious faith that was referred to in most cases. In other words it was/is not necessary to have unwavering faith in the godhood of Jesus Christ as so many have portended that is said to heal. Jesus, himself, said that it was simply their faith or lack of it, apparently in the process itself that created success or failure in healing. The power of belief in a process or a magic pill is not limited to ancient literature.
Studies have proven that the placebo response is roughly the equivalent of the power of expectancy. Even the least effective modes of healing (and behavioral change processes) are shown to be more effective than control groups where healing or change is left to happen randomly. This information will become the foundation for our first postulate.

1. Unwavering belief precedes some but not all healing and change, and lack of unwavering belief can precede some but not all failure in healing and change.Evidence for this is seen in my practice and every other medical and mental health practitioners practice in the world. No one who sees more than one client sees 100% of clients or patients get healed. However, there certainly are practitioners that see healing and change more regularly than others, over and above statistical chance. Additionally, many practitioners with greater education and expertise often attain inferior results to practitioners with little experience but a powerful attitude (operator attitude) for healing and change. Based upon this premise, we can offer our second postulate.
2. The practitioner of change and healing plays a role in the likelihood of healing or change in the client or patient. This can include but is not limited to a practitioners experience, education and operator attitude and expectancy.

Based on our first two postulates we can agree on the following:

• The client and practitioner are both important in the healing/change process.
• The client who has an unwavering belief in the certainty of healing/change is more likely to receive healing or the change desired than the individual who is less certain of improvement.
• The practitioner who has an unwavering belief in the certainty of healing/change of his client is more likely to facilitate the healing or the change of the client than a practitioner who is less certain.
• The clients faith in the practitioner aids in improvement.
• The clients faith in the process (whatever it is) aids in improvement.
• The clients perception of the practitioners belief in the process is critical to improvement.
• Although the process of improvement and healing is important to the result, the content (the emotional aspects including belief, faith, expectation) of the process is likely to be more important to the change or healing of the individual.

With these keys understood, we can see that the following should be in place in any healing or change work.

• the practitioner should be educated and experienced in his modalities of change and therapy.
• the practitioner should be certain of the efficacy of his skills and should know how to best present this certainty to the client for maximum placebo response.
• the practitioner should have a powerful method of dealing with the concerns of the client as to the practitioners skills, background, perceived success rate and expectancy level.

These are only two postulates of hundreds that aid the practioner in effecting change in clients. These are only two postulates that begin to help us understand the mind and how it works. In future articles we will discuss more postulates for understanding.
Click here for articles on HYPNOSIS AND HEALING: A Series.

Sale And Hypnosis 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.

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Burn Out: Escaping Living Hell (Part 4)

Transformational Process That Ends Burnout

You set up criteria for your new service, and then evaluate it by that criteria. The salesperson has to look at the process from the END. What is the customer GETTING? Is the customer solving a problem? Are they happy? Was it something that made them feel good? Something that will be profitable? ....then work back to the point of sale from the end result...the exact opposite of how motivational types do their thing....

When people are TOLD to believe in something after they have had their beliefs and values devastated...you cannot tell them to believe in the product or you will CAUSE FAILURE to happen even if your product is the best on the planet.

At this point, the salesperson MUST either sell themselves on the product or KNOW that this is what the marketplace wants or needs.

Every product has flaws. (Even a Lexus, albeit rare...)

It's OK to have flaws as a human and as a product or service. It's OK for your company to have flaws. If you had to find flawless companies (which are nothing but people) you would never do anything of value.

You begin the process of finding your product's value by an elicitation process.

You CAN stand up in front of your group or audience and ASK them to think about what their service does. Find out what problems it is solving. Detail what you are doing for THEM, the customer.

You DON'T try to find "good things" about your product. If you have to try and find something good about your product, you are selling the wrong product!

What if you sell life insurance.... Thousands of Coffee with Kevin Hogan readers do. There are hundreds of different companies represented.

Reality one: Everyone has a different price for life insurance. Each company has a certain likelihood of paying, which is why these companies are "rated." There is no perfect matrix of these variables. There ARE good and bad combinations though.

What if you are selling a 250,000 policy for 300/yr. The competitor is at 290 and both companies are rated the same.

Answer: You are being TOO sensitive. Breathe! I shop at Target instead of Wal Mart because the lines are faster and the store is usually cleaner. It's 10% more in cost on just about everything in the store.

YOU are worth the extra ten bucks for heaven sake. Salespeople rarely look past price and value to see that they are doing business with a human... THAT RELATIONSHIP is worth EVERYTHING.

Key Point: If you wouldn't sell it to a family member or close friend, you shouldn't sell it. It doesn't make a lick of difference if it's ten bucks more expensive.

If it's ten TIMES more expensive that is an entirely different thing. Now the salesperson is going to return to guilt, anger and fear mode. Stomach churning. They will sell in predictable streaks and suffer emotional turmoil.

Instead of trying to solve the problems a salesperson is experiencing...problems no one likes to talk about...realize that the problems are real, they are VERY normal, almost EVERYONE has experienced them, then work through the changes made with new companies or services.

Permanent change is so much cheaper than trying to keep a staff motivated. People are self-motivated once they have been able to clean out the junk from the past and eliminate the neurological connections and feelings from past selling experiences and know that those things have been dealt with once and for all.

The work can be done by the individual, it can be done from the front of the room if the trainer has a clue (unlikely) or it literally can be done in therapy. It's not a complicated process but it takes a little work. Work that once it is done, causes self-motivation and self-starting, the things that everyone wishes they had!

Covert Hypnosis, Influence, Persuasion, and Body Language.

Burn Out: Escaping Living Hell (Part 3)

What's happened is that they start to think that they "can't do it." ....that they were "good once," and just don't have the "knack" anymore. They are "burned out."

Can This Salesperson Be Saved?

This salesperson is not only salvageable, but can be a super star. Burnout is the body and brain's response to doing something it doesn't want to do....The good news is that the person might only FEEL like they don't want to sell...that they BELIEVE the same way because no one who gets it has come in and done reprogramming...(therapy.)

The person has already proven they have integrity. Whether they were fired or quit doesn't matter. They left the other company and went in search of something they could stand behind. They sought out quality and found it.

But they brought all the emotions, the negative feelings, the guilt, the anger, the disgust with them to THIS company. (If you haven't figured out that this happens in relationships all the time...come back and read this later!)

Here the sales manager tries to motivate his "good person" who "has potential."

Listen closely: THE SALES MANAGER is wasting his time. You can't motivate a person to do something that is emotionally linked to all of those dreadful emotions...not for more than a few days. It can't and won't work.

You can't motivate a person to perform past their deeply ingrained reactions to a certain environment and their unconscious beliefs... EVEN IF THEY ARE SCREWED UP BELIEFS.

The salesperson felt bad about themselves, the old company and the product they sold. The salesperson developed feelings of blame, disgust, internal integrity breaks, internal honesty breaks, for ALL three: themselves (which is NOT necessarily immediately repairable by simply quitting and going somewhere else), for the old company (whose people need to take responsibility for themselves) and the old product (which was THAT product not THIS set of products).

One big pile of engrams (anchors to old, bad feelings). In 1983, those of us who finally escaped selling... junk (a kind word)....We called these things called "cluster _ucks" or something like that....and gave ourselves new life....if we could get there...not only in company and product but in rewiring the reactions from the past relationships and unhooking them from the present.

....Because the feelings were horrible. And then you took your talents somewhere else and were literally afraid to sell things people wanted, needed and would love. The same feelings came back even when you cognitively KNEW you were selling a great product. It's the same as bulimia. You don't know why you aren't selling, you simply aren't...it makes no sense.

Listen, you could be selling hundred dollar bills for a twenty and still feel the same way inside. So the answer is not just:

• Selling a great product.
• Selling for a company that respects you.

It's about the past in the present.

If you sell something or manage people who do... pay close attention because this will transform you and your people...

Because most people who work at the good company know they have good products and didn't work for the garbage company, they believe that there is a very different problem and they fail as managers.

This is where the "believe in your product" stuff comes in. Someone stands at the front and says, "you gotta believe in your product."

Uh, no you don't...and you won't as long as the old style motivation strategies which never worked for more than a couple of days are used by managers.

You NEVER hear me tell you to believe in your product.

NEVER!

You don't hear me telling you to believe in your political party, church, religion, NOTHING.

Key Point: Because beliefs and emotional responses that have been shattered in the past must be formed IN NEW WAYS in the future.

It happens by examination and observation....and action.

You CAN choose to BEGIN to find value in your product or service. It has to be a CHOICE. A DECISION. A CONSCIOUS DECISION that, given all the facts is the RIGHT decision.

The person needs to see what their service is doing to help someone or they need to be able to imagine it very clearly. They have to FEEL good about their new set of choices inside. None of this is easy.

I was TOLD plenty of times to "believe in this product." Doesn't work like that when you have sales-bulimia.

What should you do? To be continued...

Burn Out: Escaping Living Hell (Part 2)

I know those feelings because I lived them in 1983. I was involved in the sale of "timesharing" and I sold "space advertising" that for most would be impotent. Timesharing at that time was all but a rip off. I didn't know that when I started there...every salesperson did when they left.

The promo was great. A free dinner at a very nice restaurant. Then the brief presentation...which is more than reasonable in exchange for the dinner... Then the interrogation, pressure, driving guilt, arm twisting and worse...until they signed up for a VERY expensive piece of ownership of a property that when they went to sell their "time", they would find was worth less than 20 cents on the dollar.

With this type of experience, the salesperson goes through "streaks" where they are very cold, selling nothing, usually at the beginning of the month...followed by "streaks" when things go better, usually at the end of the month. The moon? Position of the stars? No... Human conscience.

When sales dipped, the management wanted people to push harder.

...Reasonable if the product is good, but, fortunately, most salespeople are people and they unconsciously reacted to what they learned was a poor product by not selling any more than the minimum. When we/they didn't have to sell from necessity, the sales didn't happen. When you had to sell to put food on the table...you did. It was one way or the other.

...the result? Burnout.

By the way, I'm told timesharing is different today and if so, that is a wonderful thing. The idea of interval ownership is a very cool idea and done well, should easily be profitable for property owner and buyer. All that for another discussion...for today let's go on....

Now imagine this salesperson has been taking their "ups" and selling the heck out of them (an "up" is a disgusting word for someone that is sent up from someone or somewhere else, they are going to be "the customer". If you are interested in looking at the timeshare...and you traveled "up" to the resort, you were an "up.").

That salesperson has to take that emotional baggage, the guilt, the stomach churning, everywhere they go after working for this company or selling this product... until they do therapy...by themselves or with someone else.

A gentleman came up and talked to me at a convention last year. He asked if he could pull me aside and ask an important question.

He told me he worked for a major pharmaceutical company. He told me how their product lines were not good when compared to those of company X. He told me that company X products in fact almost always tested better in studies and that their sales and commissions were higher. He was frustrated.

"Kevin, how do I sell more against this kind of competition?"

My answer:

"Go to the local sales manager at Company X, tell him what you just told me and he will hire you ON THE SPOT."

And that is yet another problem. When you don't sell a good product or at least a product that is something people want or need or a good value...you have nothing but long-term problems that haunt every day...

But they usually don't get therapy...and they don't tell anyone...who would they tell? Their company? Their manager? Their wife? Their kids? Their neighbor? No, it's like telling people you are an arsonist. "Hey, I set houses on fire and I don't feel good about it..."

They go somewhere else and sell something that is a good product. Maybe they sell something of incredible value. Maybe they work for Johnson and Johnson or Proctor Gamble or go into business for themsleves....and simply produce the best stuff on the planet. That should take care of everything...right?

They stink there too. Now they finally have a good company, good product and they can't sell. What's up with that?!

To be continued...

Burn Out: Escaping Living Hell (part 1)

"Burnout."

With a few notable exceptions, you don't get it selling something you love...or doing something you love... "Slumps" are less common when the salesperson is selling a product or service he perceives as the best.

In management (at the office or in the home) it's the same story. Burnous is more than "real," it's a fact of life that is one of the most important RELIABLE signals your body will give your brain!

Let's see how this all works in real life and why banishing burnout before sales training could make a salesperson (manager or house-husband) healthy, wealthy...and pretty smart too.

3 Reasons Burnout Happens

Burnout happens for one of three reasons. The person doesn't like their product or service, or knows the product is deficient. The second is that the salesperson has personal self-sabotage issues that are not about the product or service. The third is that the person doesn't feel connected to the company or it's customers.

The problem lies in one of these 3 areas:

1. Deficiencies in the product (the company)
2. Self-Sabotage issues of the salesperson
3. Connection to company and or it's customer(s)

Imagine a person sells a junk product or something they currently believe is a junk product...something they aren't certain the recipient will really want or need. They have to force one sale and don't want to force another. They sell enough to get by...to pay the bills and quit. Their conscience, whether noticing consciously or not, stops when the bills are paid.

This person will "leave business on the table." Business on the table means they sold someone the low quality coat but didn't ask if they wanted pants, a tie and a shirt. They felt so guilty about one transaction they couldn't partake in another transaction with the same person.

Someone sells one piece of junk and they get paid their "draw" or salary. They need the salary to pay the bills and stay afloat in life.

To sell another piece of junk to the same person would definitely earn the person more money, but then they would feel twice as guilty for taking advantage of the other person. The person has a conscience... A crucial ingredient in a truly great sales person and a person...period.

So, they do the minimum damage and get paid just enough to keep going. Most of the guilt they push aside. It's there but it is sufferable.

How do I know? to be continued... check back soon!

The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking (Part 4)

Personal Identification - Thinking Without Thinking

• Consumers often abandon products when other social groups adopt them.
• Teens want to distinguish themselves from their parents.
• Jocks want to separate themselves from geeks.
• Rich Brits stopped buying Burberry once it became the brand of choice for soccer hooligans.
• Shanghai urbanites avoid the Volkswagen model that is preferred by the suburban nouveau riche.

Yet, the same teens who wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same jeans as their parents have no problem using the same brand of detergent!

A new study by Stanford researchers explores why some products are used by people to differentiate themselves from certain social groups.

"Prior work on individual drives for differentiation tells us a lot about who is more likely to prefer unique products or when people might be more likely to prefer them," write Jonah Berger and Chip Heath (Stanford University) in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. "But these approaches have less to say about where people diverge, or why people diverge more in certain domains."

In a series of experiments, the researchers explored the differences between products that convey identity information and products that do not tend to be identified with a certain group.

For example, in the pilot study, the researchers had undergraduates choose options in 19 difference product areas (e.g., power tools, hairstyles, soap, and favorite CD).

In each area, they were told that 65 percent of other students preferred Option A, 25 percent preferred Option B, and 10 percent preferred Option C. They were then asked which option they would choose.

Option C establishes the greatest desire for divergence from the majority. While 67 percent of undergraduates chose Option C for the category of favorite CD, only 6 percent chose it when asked about dish soap.

In a national, web-based survey that expanded on the pilot study (median age 38), the results were similar. A different group of respondents was asked to rate products either on self-expression ("how much it contributes to self-expression") or identity inference-making ("how much people use it to make inferences about others").

Thirty-one percent of participants in the national survey chose Option C (preferred by 10 percent of the population) for products that were ranked as highly identity-relevant. For products that were less identity-relevant, only 16 percent of participants chose Option C.

"Consistent with our focus on the social nature of identity-signaling, even though our internet sample came from a range of demographic backgrounds, participants exhibited strong agreement about which domains were identity-relevant," the researchers write. "The results underscore the social nature of divergence; individuals don't establish difference from majorities in every domain or any random domain -- they do so more in domains where others look for signals about their identity."

Article: Jonah Berger and Chip Heath. "Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity-Signaling and Product Domains" Journal of Consumer Research: August 2007.

OK, NOW you have a ton of information to go forward and reinvent yourself and your products.

More Articles Coming Soon!

The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking (Part 3)

More Thinking Without Thinking

— Changing the label on a wine changed diners' opinions of their wine, opinions of their meal, and their repatronage of the restaurant, according to a Cornell University study.

Forty-one diners at the Spice Box restaurant in Urbana, Illinois were given a free glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany a $24 prix-fixe French meal. Half the bottles claimed to be from Noah's Winery in California. The labels on the other half claimed to be from Noah's Winery in North Dakota. In both cases, the wine was an inexpensive Charles Shaw wine.

Those drinking what they thought was California wine, rated the wine and food as tasting better, and ate 11% more of their food. They were also more likely to make return reservations.

It comes down to expectations. If you think a wine will taste good, it will taste better than if you think it will taste bad. People didn't believe North Dakota wine would taste good, so it had a double curse -- it hurt both the wine and the entire meal. "Wine labels can throw both a halo or a shadow over the entire dining experience," according to Cornell Professor Brian Wansink (Ph.D.), author of the book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Bantam 2006).

To confirm this, a similar study was conducted with 49 MBA students at a wine and cheese reception. Again, those given wine labeled from California rated the wine as 85% higher and the cheese as 50% higher.

"Small cues such as origin or a wine or whether the label or name catches your eye often trick even serious Foodies," said co-author Dr. Collin Payne. "He (Wansink) has even conducted demonstrations of this at at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and Apicious Culinery Institute in Florence."

For restaurants and wineries, it's important to keep a keen eye on the possible halo or shadow of wine labels. Diners, on the other hand, should be careful to not overpay for a pretty bottle.

The study, published this summer in Physiology & Behavior, is one of the few to have investigated the chain-effect of sensory expectations.

Cool huh?

Now, here is the research about personal identification which I believe you will find fascinating... to be continued in Part 4 coming soon!

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Part 2)

The lesson is what can YOU do to "make your SELF," Coca Cola, McDonald's, or the superior appearing wine?

Let's find out...

Recent Coffee Challenge

Recently McDonald's won a surprising title. Consumer Reports reported that in blind tests that McDonald's COFFEE tasted better than Starbucks.

I think we both know what would have happen if the test had NOT been blind. But here's what's more interesting yet...

...I don't drink a lot of Coffee (mostly tea).

Influence Research: Power of Thinking Without Thinking...I was with my friend Mark Ryan on our way to a convention and he wanted to stop at McD's to get something to drink and he suggested Coffee. I remembered the white styrofoam cup and I saw no reason to do such a thing...but I was SO curious about how good it would taste...

...the gal gave us our Coffee and they came in these VERY cool cups that had text and color on them indicating stuff that I remember as environmentally friendly. (I didn't keep the cup nor did I think I'd be writing about it, but you get the idea.) It was almost as cool looking as "a Starbucks!"

My grandfather always talked to me about the "power of perception." He wanted me to write a book with that title with him.

Perception Causes Action
Every day I see how perception causes people to do things that logic or reality never would.

Later, at the very end of this article I want to show you some fascinating research about how OTHER PEOPLE'S CHOICES and PERCEPTIONS change YOUR choices!

Basically the concept is this. Everyone is snobby about something. Some people only wear Nike or drink Coke or whatever.

And THEN something interesting happens. People can wear the same clothes for years, but when some other group of people starts to wear the clothes (or whatever) that YOUR GROUP wears, you SWITCH to another brand!

KEYPOINT: You and I do a lot of stuff because it DEFINES our IDENTITY. As soon as the products we use fail to differentiate us from others we do NOT want to be identified with, we CHANGE our choices.

To Be Continued... Come back soon!

The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking (Part 1)

Imagine if you will....

There are two different bottles of wine in front of you. A glass is poured from each bottle.

Which will taste best?

I bet you're thinking that you won't know until after you taste them.

And you would be wrong.

The fact is that on average the wine will tase good or bad based upon your perception of the label on the wine.

Now STOP.

That is pretty profound.

The LABEL, the WORDS and APPEARANCE of the label determine how much you will like the wine.

And it doesn't just happen with wine. It happens with everything.


Power of Thinking Without Thinking
I'll show you some cool research later in this article as to how all of this thinking without thinking works, but last week, research was reported that children report that ALL FOOD that comes at McDonald's or in McDonald's, tastes better than those exact same foods served up at home.
That includes carrots and asparagus!

And this effect isn't just limited to wine drinkers and kids. It's broad spectrum...and even affects smart people like you and me!

Did you know that in blind taste tests, where Coca Cola is pitted against Pepsi Cola, that Pepsi is chosen as the better tasting brand about 60% of the time?

Here's what's more interesting....

....When the labels are visible, Coca Cola consistently is selected as the tastier choice!

That's how powerful "brand" is.

What's the lesson?

Part 2 Coming Tomorrow

"Can You Really Run Their Brain?... Do You Really Want To?" (Part 1)

How would you like to be able to trigger specific memories in other people's minds?

How would you like to be able to trigger specific emotions in their minds?

IF you can do these two things and new research shows that you can; you have the ability to change a person's state in a moment...alter their feelings instantly...and cause behaviors to occur where you wouldn't have been able to in the past.

You can't do it by simply endlessly chatting away. (OK that could cause boredom...which is a state!) You do it through elicitation with the realization that thoughts (memories) trigger emotions and specific feelings or emotions trigger specific thoughts.

Profound?
You bet.

Want to learn more?
I thought as much!

Researchers exploring the brain structures involved in recalling an emotional memory a year later have found evidence for a self-reinforcing "memory loop" -- in which the brain's emotional center triggers the memory center, which in turn further enhances activity in the emotional center.

The researchers said their findings suggest why people subject to traumatic events may be trapped in a cycle of emotion and recall that aggravates post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They said their findings also suggest why therapies in which people relive such memories and reshape perspective to make it less traumatic can help people cope with such memories.

The paper by Florin Dolcos, Kevin LaBar and Roberto Cabeza, was published online, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers are in Duke University's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Their work was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

"This study is the first to really test recall of emotional memories after a long time period," said Cabeza. "Previous studies had only allowed a short time interval, for example minutes, between encoding of the memory and retrieval. Hence, they could not distinguish between the process called consolidation -- in which memories are being established -- and retrieval. Also, they did not distinguish between true recollection of a memory and a vague familiarity. In memory studies, it's very important to distinguish between these two phenomena," he said.

In their study, the researchers showed volunteer subjects images that were pleasant, unpleasant or neutral while their brains were being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this widely used technique, harmless magnetic fields and radio waves are used to image blood flow in regions of the brain, and increased blood flow is a signature of higher brain activity.

The pleasant images were of romantic scenes and sports; the unpleasant images involved injured people and violence, and the neutral pictures depicted buildings or other emotionally non-involving scenes. The subjects were asked to rate the emotional aspects of the images they saw.

Then, a year later, the researchers showed the same subjects a combination of images they had previously seen and new images -- pleasant, unpleasant and neutral -- while their brains were being scanned. They asked the subjects to indicate whether they had seen the images before and whether the memory also brought back associated details. Such details indicated the impact of the picture on the subjects.

The researchers found that the subjects did recall the emotional pictures -- both pleasant and unpleasant -- better than the neutral pictures, and this recall was based on specific recognition of the pictures.

This recall was associated with a correlated higher activity in both the amygdala -- the region of the brain responsible for processing emotional memories -- as well as the hippocampus, the main memory-processing center. The study also revealed greater amygdala-hippocampal correlation during recollection of emotional pictures than during recollection of neutral pictures, they said. The researchers said that one way of explaining the "co-activation" of these two centers was that they could be part of a "synergistic mechanism," in which each activates the other during recall of an emotional memory.

Said Dolcos, "One way to interpret our result is that emotion can trigger recollection, and vice versa. The synchronicity between activity in the amygdala and hippocampus could go either way. The emotion enhances recollection, but at the same time by recollecting those events, you would also remember the emotional response. It could be like a loop in which the amygdala interacts with the hippocampus." According to Dolcos, this memory loop could help understand the searing recall of traumatic memories in people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"In such people, an emotional cue could trigger recall of the event, which would then loop back to a re-experiencing of the emotion of the event," said Dolcos. "Or, remembering the event may trigger the emotional reaction associated with the event, which in turn could trigger more intense recall, in a continuous loop."

Such insights into the nature of emotional memory support a therapeutic process that can affect "reconsolidation” of traumatic memories, said Cabeza. "Some studies have suggested that when you retrieve a memory it can not only be re-encoded, or reconsolidated, but you also put it into a labile state in which it can be transformed. While in such labile state, either the memory itself or the person's perspective of it may be altered." According to Cabeza, therapists working with people suffering from PTSD as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack have used this technique to alleviate its symptoms.

In further studies, the researchers plan to manipulate the degree of emotion experienced by the subjects, as well as how much detail is remembered, to explore the specific interactions among brain structures in processing emotional memories. They also plan to analyze activity of other regions -- such as those that process spatial, auditory, or visual information -- during emotional memory processing to understand their role. Such studies would yield insights into how emotional memories involve integrating multiple brain regions, they said.

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Covert Persuasion Tactical Power (Part 3)

Afterward, the subjects were asked if they saw the gorilla. Just 18 percent of the drinkers said they noticed the gorilla while 46 percent of the sober subjects indicated they saw the gorilla. The research was based on older research without the involvement of alcohol. The results were just as impressive. People simply don't see that gorilla. It SEEMS impossible, but what seems ridiculous is EXACTLY how our brain works in reality.

And it's a bit unnerving when you think about it!

TWENTY FIVE SECONDS! That's it. And in the middle of that 25 seconds, a gorilla shows up on the screen beating his chest and if you've had a drink, you didn't see it. More than half of those who didn't have a drink didn't see the gorilla.

The power of focused attention via suggestion is absolutely shocking.

Applications:

The applications are far reaching and can be applied to almost any persuasive setting. The covert nature of the behavior is obvious.

When you are writing copy or making a sales presentation it is VERY IMPORTANT to encode your targeted information into your client's awareness.

If you write for your website, make sure you tell people what to look for early on. ALL THE BROWN!!! Make sure you have not led them into some other world where they are asked to see green.

If you tell them that you have a money-making opportunity and then offer facts to support that. Talk about unrelated things and they will be filtered out making a story that is incomplete, incoherent and entirely forgettable.

"What we're looking for are ways to get this project done without spending tons of money on waste like x, y, and z. Our competitor isn't interested in that, and whatever you ultimately decide, those factors can't be forgotten..."

That client will be listening for x, y and z...and ways to get the project done, so you better do something with those four pieces...because that's what they are going to be filtering for...and what they will be hearing!

This works in text and face to face communication.

Whatever you direct the person's mind to is where they will be primed to pay attention to. Very much like a magician.

One worthwhile additional bonus:

If you say something negative about your competitor, your client WILL remember your competitor. It may not be good or bad...but they'll remember ...and if you haven't put a greater degree of emotion on your own product...they won't remember yours at all.... NEVER mention a competitor or anything about them, except in the context noted above..

One final suggestion: Write down the facts and keypoints from this article on a piece of paper and keep it on your desk for a week. Just one week. Refer to it everytime you write copy or review your sales materials and presentation strategies.

Many covert persuasion techniques will ever yield the results this one will!

Til next time!

Next Article Coming Up... 10 Steps You Can Use To Persuade Anyone!

Covert Persuasion Tactical Power (Part 2)

FACT FOUR: People who have had just one drink lose their ability to discriminate reality even more profoundly.

They REALLY see what they expect to see. They really feel what they expect to feel. They really see what they are told to see.

Here is the research.

After you read this section, I'll give you some tips on how to utilize this information in a persuasive context on the internet and in face to face communication.

People who were given a simple visual task while mildly intoxicated were twice as likely to have missed seeing the person in a gorilla suit than were people who were not under the influence of alcohol.

The study, appearing in the current issue of The Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, is the first to show visual errors caused by "inattentional blindness" are more likely to occur under the influence of alcohol. This phenomenon occurs when important, but unexpected, objects appear in the visual field but are not detected when people are focused on another task, according to Seema Clifasefi, a postdoctoral psychology researcher at the University of Washington.

While the research, a pilot study, did not test driving aptitude, the study has strong implications for people operating motor vehicles after consuming alcohol, according to Clifasefi, who is affiliated with the UW's Addictive Behaviors Research Center.

"Driving requires our full attention. We need to perceive information from a variety of sources when we are driving, but alcohol reduces our ability to multi-task. So we focus on one thing at the expense of everything else," she said.

"Say you have been at a party and are driving home after having a couple of drinks. You don't want to be stopped for speeding, so you keep eyeing the speedometer. Our research shows that you will miss other things going on around you, perhaps even a pedestrian trying to cross the street."

In the study, 46 adults ranging in age from 21 to 35 were brought into a bar-like setting. Half of them were given drinks containing alcohol to bring their blood alcohol level up to 0.04 -- half the legal level for being drunk in most states. The other half were given drinks containing no liquor.

After the volunteers had their blood alcohol levels measured by a breath test, they were taken to a computer monitor and asked to watch a 25-second film clip. The clip showed people playing with a ball and the volunteers were told to count the number of times the ball was passed from one person to another. In the middle of the clip a person dressed in a gorilla suit appeared, walked among the players, beat its chest and then walked away.

Results??? (You aren't going to believe this....)

Part 3 Of This Article Coming Soon!

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