When Resistance is Likely, Distraction Triggers a Receptive Mind
One of my favorite Techniques
Festinger and Maccoby conducted an experiment in which they attempted to prevent members of their audience from inventing arguments to refute messages being presented to them. (AKA resistance in hypnosis.)
This was accomplished by simply distracting the audience somewhat while the communication was being presented. Two groups of students were required to listen to a tape about the evils of college fraternities. The argument was powerful and was obviously not going to be well received by the audiences.
During the presentation to one of the groups, the audience was also distracted by a highly entertaining silent film. (That group is engaged in TWO tasks simultaneously.) The other group was not disturbed by a film. They simply listened to the tape.
What were the results of the experiment? The students who were distracted by watching the film underwent substantially more opinion change against fraternities than did the students who were not distracted.
The distracted mind is easier to manipulate and create change in than the undistracted mind.
Resistance is inherent.
Expect it.
Anticipate it.
Erickson said there was no such thing as resistance. Erickson was wrong. We now know that there is resistance. There is resistance AND there is reactance.
There is resistance in the mind of every human being to that which the individual does not believe to be true. There is resistance in the mind of each person to that which creates fear within the individual.
If any ego state is not in alignment with what messages are being shared between two people, resistance will be experienced. Be aware of this now. The resistant person more often than not needs to experience pictures he creates in his mind, not pictures created by you. (See: The Hypnotherapy Handbook, Hogan)
Your task is simply to direct people to the right pictures!
One of my favorite Techniques
Festinger and Maccoby conducted an experiment in which they attempted to prevent members of their audience from inventing arguments to refute messages being presented to them. (AKA resistance in hypnosis.)
This was accomplished by simply distracting the audience somewhat while the communication was being presented. Two groups of students were required to listen to a tape about the evils of college fraternities. The argument was powerful and was obviously not going to be well received by the audiences.
During the presentation to one of the groups, the audience was also distracted by a highly entertaining silent film. (That group is engaged in TWO tasks simultaneously.) The other group was not disturbed by a film. They simply listened to the tape.
What were the results of the experiment? The students who were distracted by watching the film underwent substantially more opinion change against fraternities than did the students who were not distracted.
The distracted mind is easier to manipulate and create change in than the undistracted mind.
Resistance is inherent.
Expect it.
Anticipate it.
Erickson said there was no such thing as resistance. Erickson was wrong. We now know that there is resistance. There is resistance AND there is reactance.
There is resistance in the mind of every human being to that which the individual does not believe to be true. There is resistance in the mind of each person to that which creates fear within the individual.
If any ego state is not in alignment with what messages are being shared between two people, resistance will be experienced. Be aware of this now. The resistant person more often than not needs to experience pictures he creates in his mind, not pictures created by you. (See: The Hypnotherapy Handbook, Hogan)
Your task is simply to direct people to the right pictures!
