Psychology of Influence - Give Them Meaning They Have Never Had, with Ke...

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Changing People - Changing Their Behavior with Kevin Hogan

Instant Rapport that Lasts Forever

Invisible Influence: Technique #117 - Instant Drama Resolution in Persua...

Covert Hypnosis - Why I Invented and Developed the Art

Covert Hypnosis had it's origin in my teaching at the St. Thomas Management Center as well as the Minnesota Institute of Hypnosis in Hypnotherapy back in the late 1990's.

At the time there was no one training skills that would be useful in communication that involved behavioral genetics, covert conditioning, subliminal technology using social psychology and neuropsychology as a foundation for this field.

NLP and hypnosis were essentially closed fields that were tangential but didn't really overlap with Covert Hypnosis.

Traditional Hypnosis could be isolated to the four basic categories.

1) Stage Hypnosis relies on role playing behavior.
2) Ericksonian Hypnosis revolves around the potent use of story (also significant in Covert Hypnosis).
3) Hypnotherapy which draws from an evolved psychoanaltyic approach. and finally
4) Direct Suggestion Hypnosis.

Erickson's work had taken some strange turns into "hypnotic language" which certainly has a place in subtle influence but the effectiveness of Ericksonian Hypnosis was far more about story and strategic listening than "language patterns."

NLP expanded for awhile in the late 80's and early 90's at which time the field essentially closed. No real research of substance was done to improve the technology thus rendering it less valuable as time went on. Nevertheless there were many useful behavioral change devices that come from NLP.

What was missing was a scientifically derived set of influence factors that could be taught and learned. Many of these factors would involve art. All would involve science. What worked would be kept. What didn't would be given up.

As time went on I continued to grow the study of Covert Hypnosis but many others took the rather captivating term and imagined that it would be a neat way of describing hypnotic language patterns and similar influence approaches that generally were not tested, proven or shown to be effective.

Covert Hypnosis originally struck me as combining behavioral genetics with subliminal technology which was just coming into it's own in the late 90's and psychological principles both social and individual which included a dash of the hypnotic but not as most think.

Really what drives Covert Hypnosis is the discovery and then application of influential factors from the environment, the context, from the individuals own expectations, and dealing with resistance and reactance.

Since then it has been studied at University under titles like "Covert Persuasion" yet another term I coined in the early 2000's and then wrote the first book and did the first research for.

That is a story for another day.

Covert Hypnosis is best noted as subtle but overarching influence. It is more science than art but there is art in effective application of often very large but unseen factors.

Kevin Hogan

Inoculation and The Power of Covert Influence

Inoculation is a potent tool of covert influence.

People are given a "dose" in the form of a message that causes a mildly painful reaction.

When the larger message with much greater potential pain is delivered later the resistant response to the later message is dramatically reduced.

You can observe this phenomena in your world where leaders think, plan and do the unthinkable. Had they attempted to release the virus pre-inoculation they would have caused revolt. Instead the masses are made immune to the virus which comes in many smaller doses and then changes over a period of a few years. Each subsequent change garners less resistance.

Historically this method has an almost perfect track record when played out at nation levels. You can utilize the same tool for good for others while leaders mess up the rest of the world around you...

The inoculation of/to those individual observable events unfortunately makes the whole much, much more menacing than the parts....and the parts are pretty distressing...doesn't bode well for the near future... this is one time i wish my vision was so blisteringly wrong and that living in ignorant bliss would be possible...but...

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Inoculation - A potent tool of Covert Hypnosis

Inoculation is a potent tool of covert influence.

People are given a "dose" in the form of a message that causes a mildly painful reaction.

When the larger message with much greater potential pain is delivered later the resistant response to the later message is dramatically reduced.

You can observe this phenomena in your world where leaders think, plan and do the unthinkable. Had they attempted to release the virus pre-inoculation they would have caused revolt.

Instead the masses are made immune to the virus which comes in many smaller doses and then changes over a period of a few years. Each subsequent change garners less resistance.

Historically this method has an almost perfect track record when played out at nation levels.

You can utilize the same tool for good for others while leaders mess up the rest of the world around you...

Follow @kevinhogan

What color should my website be?

"What color should my website be?"

If your customers compete against each other to get or use your product/service it should have more red.

If your customer/client feels themselves competing or negotiating with you on price you should have a blue background.

Red is a trigger for aggression/arousal.

Blue triggers calm.

Your job as a "marketer" is to think about what your client/customer is thinking/feeling when they ARRIVE at your page and if that is the state you desire them to be in. Notice that Facebook uses a blue background. "Come all day, stay, do nothing, don't worry, be happy, the universe will take care of everything." (See how that works?)