Covert Hypnosis

Covert Persuasion

2011-09-27T12:52:00.001-07:00

The Subliminal Factor: Causing Successful Subliminal Persuasion

(Part One)
Kevin Hogan

I’ve found 13 factors in creating effective subliminal messages. There are probably more.
In this series of blog posts, I want to show you a number of these factors and discover how you can use them at the office, the club, the bar and with almost anyone you choose.

Part of my mission on this orb has been about giving my friends the edge in life. The edge over the competition, against the scamsters, the edge on achievement of goals and desires.

All subliminal influence that IS effective…is because the triggers are hardwired like telephone lines your brain.

For example:

People buy the “Instant__________” because they are greedier than they are smart.

• Instant Billionaire
• Instant Influence
• Instant Weight Loss
• Instant Fame
• Instant Pick a Desire

And, there is a *lot* of money to be made in the “quick buck business.”
I can confirm to you that I was asked to co-venture a promotion where you would spend $10,000 (I would get paid 1/2) and the claim was that you would be able to simply “imagine” and “think” about something and it would manifest. No kidding. And in fact, I am regularly asked to put someone’s junk in Coffee for you to look at….and try to kindly refuse. Let someone else do it. I’m having Coffee with you.

Now, if I tell you that something which is claimed to be spectacular… is true…, there is a reason to consider the proposition (which is why I was chosen to be a vehicle of the message to you). You’ve trusted me for 5 or 6 years or however long you’ve been with me on Monday morning. And you know that if it’s in Coffee, it’s worth considering. You’ve been “primed” to know that what we talk about is worthy, trustable and typically falls in the realm of usefulness, value and fun.

So, many would consider that $10,000 is worth exchanging for Kevin Hogan telling them that they would get something for nothing, virtually instantly, like unexpected piles of money in the mailbox. (And I am not kidding, that is precisely what this “opportunity” that I let you miss was about.)

How and why was this amazing program going to work?

• Because you imagine it.
• Because it’s the nature of the universe.
• Because it’s understanding the nature of the universe and utilizing that.
• Because you did affirmations for it.

And that is total garbage and though I rarely name names, don’t ever fall for it.

Let me ask you this. Do YOU have a greedy side?

How about the people you live with?

Your customers?

What do YOU think and then tomorrow we’ll look at the research…

Covert Hypnosis and Resistance

2011-09-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

When Resistance is Likely, Distraction Triggers a Receptive Mind

One of my favorite Covert Hypnosis 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!

Covert Hypnosis Tricks

2011-07-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Covert Hypnosis Tricks offer you a proven way to make difficult things easy. This is true whether these "things" are influencing your Self or someone else.

Here's an example or two of tricking the brain.

Common problem:

Someone has been trying to lose weight forever. All you need to be healthy is to lose about 30 pounds. You count calories....but you always seems to go over your set amount for the day. You usually does well in restraining your Self during the day but then at night you decide to reward your Self with a large amount of junk food.

Sound right?

OK

2/3 of American adults today are overweight. How did this happen? Were Americans born without a self-control gene?

Besides having easier access to fatty, fast, processed foods, what else makes this country grossly less healthy than the rest of the world?

When people feel they have made progress towards a goal, it's like a switch turns off pursuit of that goal. When people eat smaller portions of foods throughout the day, they feel they have made progress towards their goal, their self control switch turns OFF and they allow indulgence.

People have a tendency to choose smaller rewards immediately, instead of choosing a larger reward for later.

In this case, one prefers to indulge now isntead of feeling good about theirselves later. To get to a point where you can resist immediate small...fleeting rewards to obtain a later larger reward...takes mental discipline.

Here's the first Covert Hypnosis TRICK.

1) Get rid of the junk food. Mere exposure to the problematic foods increases cravings for the food. If you must keep some problematic foods around, hide them. (really) Keep them on a different floor of the house. (really) When one experiences a craving, you are far more likely to get up from their current task and consume the food if it is closer in proximity to them.

Getting rid of the temptation is the first trick.

Here's the second Covert Hypnosis trick.

The average person fills up their gas tanks about twice per week. If no other junk food is kept in the house this is the perfect opportunity for a reward. 2 times per week you are given the opportunity to indulge by running into the gas station mart and grabbing a -small- treat. Without the constant impulse of going for the junk in the house, who knows, maybe you'll forget to indulge all together and opt for that bowl of fruit at home instead.

Here's the third Covert Hypnosis trick.

Eat alone, TV off. New studies have shown people eat over 200 calories more in front of the tv or with people. And they don't realize it.

Humans (and particularly American humans) grossly underestimate the amount of calories they consume. When people savor their food and eat slower, they will feel fuller before consuming our full meals. The brain doesn't register being full for about 20 minutes after you start eating, so people think (fallaciously) that they need to keep eating because they don't feel full quite yet.

Here's the best Covert Hypnosis Trick: Eat off of the smallest dishes you have. You'll eat more and feel fuller if it APPEARS you have a big portion.

Remember Covert Hypnosis is bypassing the Critical Factor of the brain without resistance. This is the best kind of trick...when the brain is absolutely convinced one thing is happening when in fact, something else is happening.

Ah, and here is a bonus trick:

Eat, then shop. Much more is purchased when you go shopping hungry. Even if you aren't going to the grocery store, your hunger will take priority over fulfilling other needs, so you'll hurry, probably purchasing more than you intended in the first place.

Feeling those hunger pains? Don't be tricked, you may not actually be hungry.

We do not necessarily experience hunger pains because we need noursihment. We experience hunger pains becauase we train our bodies when to expect food, especially if we have a routine day. Remember Pavlov and his dog, classical conditioning? A way to combat this? Switch it up. Eating our larger meals at different times of the day can keep our bodies on their toes. Little snacks don't hurt either, constantly stimulating the digestive system throughout the day with SMALL snacks keeps up our metabolism-wait too long between meals and our metabolism halts.

Know what you want in life and THINK ABOUT IT OFTEN: the less people think about their future selves, the more people will be willing to indulge. If you don't have plans for the future, maybe it's time to start.

Those that are conscientious about their future health and wellbeing-because it is vital to reach their goals-are more likely to put off immediate indulgence because they see it as vital to their future selves to deny that Reeses or Tirimasu. Even just thinking about how you want to look and feel about yourself in a few years before ordering that triple chocolate cake can give you sufficient motivation to say, 'no thank you'.

The new book Covert Hypnosis 2020 is blisteringly cool...take a peek.

And for those of you wanting to learn Covert Hypnosis Tricks for other purposes than looking more attractive to others, think about each trick and match it to your specific scenario. Block out the trick. They are simple but it takes a little practice to get the concept of APPLICATION shifting.

Covert Hypnosis and What Influences

2011-07-23T10:16:00.001-07:00

Covert Hypnosis and What Influences

Nice guys finish last...unless they have a porsche?

Peacocks with the largest and most elaborate plumage will win the right to mate with a female...then says 'see ya' and leaves the female to parent his offspring. Peacocks are notorious for their wasteful displays that serve no other function but to spread their seed to as many peahens as possible, along with their low parental investment. They would have been the perfect companions for Ghenghis Khan. It is thought that 1/6 of all people are his descendants. Kudos

Analogously, it has been a common belief for years that men with flashy cars attract women.

But is this really true?

A new study conducted by Jill Sundie and colleagues published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology confirms this phenomenon with a resounding "YES".

Spending money on extra expensive goods is called conspicuous consumption. Usually these take form in sports cars, designer clothing and shoes, among other things that scream bling.

Men that are conspicuous spenders (think Porsche) that readily display their wealth tend to

-look for short term sexual relationships or one night stands
-attract far more females than more frugal men (think Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic)
-spend lots of money in hopes of romantic flings

However, females CAN and DO see through wasteful spending and showy displays.

Females will only prefer the conspicuous spenders if the female is also looking for short term relationships. Excessive spending signals to females that the males are looking for fun, and would probably be more interesting on a date.

Excessive spending DID NOT give men an advantage if they were looking for a long term mate:

Guys...if you are interested in a long term relationship but like to show off your wealth...your message is probably being lost in translation.

Women are more likely to go for the frugal spender if they are looking for something more long term. Flashy cars and expensive clothes won't get men anywhere if females are looking for someone who is loyal, can invest in a family, and would be a good father to their offspring. Marriage material.

Females can be conspicuous spenders too...but it's not because they are intending to attract a mate. Ask any woman...men just aren't on the top of their priority list. Sorry guys.

Covert Hypnosis for the Self?

2011-07-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Can You Use Covert Hypnosis to Imagine Your Way to Success?

This is not about sitting back and waiting for the universe to deliver success while you daydream or "imagine" it.

But new research does suggest that both mental imaging and daydreaming can be a factor in future performance.

That we can in fact "dress rehearse" for success in our mind..

and daydream our way to solutions...

Here is the latest.

Association for Psychological Science (2011, June 24). Imagination can influence perception.

"Imagining something with our mind's eye is a task we engage in frequently...But how can we tell whether our own mental images are accurate or vivid when we have no direct comparison? "

...How can you TRUST them to guide you, to serve you?

.. the article above refers to a study done by Joel Pearson of the University of New South Wales, Rosanne Rademaker of Maastricht University, and Frank Tong of Vanderbilt University, who wanted to test how accurate our knowledge is of our own imagery performance.

Here's the question: If you "imagine" yourself completing a task successfully, how helpful will this be?

They believe that the results of their test show that..."our evaluations of mental imagery bear a direct relationship to our performance on perceptual and cognitive tasks in the real world".

We can see how things might have been.

We can see how they might be.

Being able to imagine objects and scenarios is "one of the fundamental abilities that allows us to successfully think about and plan future events," says Pearson.

So as PART of your preparation for your next speaking gig
you might want to ponder running through a successful dress rehearsal in your mind, with as much vivid detail as possible.

In addition, research shows that while we are "daydreaming", we are problem solving for the future.

University of British Columbia (2009, May 12). Brain's Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream.

A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously
thought.
"
Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness," says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream – much more active than when we focus on routine tasks."

The study further points out throught the use of fMRI scanners, that our brains "executive network" – associated with high-level, complex problem-solving becomes activated when we daydream.

"The quantity and quality of brain activity suggests that people struggling to solve complicated problems might be better off switching to a simpler task and letting their mind wander".

Have you ever taken a nap when your mind was just overloaded with data and then woken up with a clear head about what needed to be done?

Cognitive Overload is a common tool of skilled hypnotherapists. It isn't always effective but there are times when obviously...it is.

Daydreaming is essentially the same thing...switching to a rote task(mowing the lawn) while the brain is still working but you are not aware that you are still in "high gear"...but your brain is.

And when you get to your computer again, the solutions are there.

Learning Covert Hypnosis is one of the most valuable things you can do to understand yourself, subtly influence others and get pretty much everything you want in life.

Covert Hypnosis and Control

2011-07-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

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 persuading, 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.

Rationalization is psychologically required in humans. People must create an internal resonance between their behaviors and their beliefs.

The person who just went bankrupt, must say, “money isn’t everything.”

What are the facts about control, having, and happiness?

How do these biological truths relate to your influencing others or selling your products and services?

KEY. Control: The more you perceive you have, the healthier you are likely to be. 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. People need a significant amount of control to experience 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 be your customer forever.

Covert Hypnosis on Choice

2011-06-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Covert Hypnosis on Offering Choices...

There is nothing logical or rational about the way people buy or make their decision to say yes to you.

Logic would tell you that people want the best product. They don't. Logic would tell you that people want the most choices possible and that they make decisions logically...Nothing could be further from the truth.

Do people really always want to experience free choice?

Even more interesting is research released from Stanford. Researchers went to a grocery store and set up tasting booths in the store. On one table they had 24 jams that the people could taste. On another there were six different kinds of jams. As you would expect, 60% of all people who stopped at the table with 24 jams tasted a jam.

Only 40% of those stopping at the table with six jams tasted there.
What's shocking? Listen carefully: 30% of all people who stopped at the table with SIX jams purchased one of the jams. Only 3% of people who stopped at the table with 24 jams purchased any of them! The ramifications are enormous...

The larger number of options (in jam, religion, spousal choices, jobs) creates what we call cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is what happens when you hold two or more beliefs or ideas and don't know which to choose. It makes us feel overwhelmed. People like to have choices...it gives them freedom.

If you give people too many choices they will simply freeze and do nothing.

Covert Hypnosis: The Drivers

2011-06-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Understanding Covert Hypnosis is understanding the drivers of human behavior.

Example:

You may have less money to spend this year than last.

This makes you even more curious about what drives you to make the decisions you do....why are you spending those precious dollars the way you are?

You, like everyone else, are really 2 people, operating from both your conscious mind and your unconscious mind.

Your old car needed to be replaced. You were thinking of getting a hybrid. But you bought a red sportscar.

You went out to eat with friends and were going to just get a salad. But the smell of the steak on the grill was SO good....

According to Sad Gaad , University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption, at the John Molson Scool of Business at Concordia College, there are several drivers for what we buy and his thesis is that they are based on evolution.

1. He thinks we buy that steak for dinner because our ancestors ate cooked meats and that's how they survived. Our logical, conscious mind may say, "A salad would be good for me", but our unconscious mind is saying that we didn't survive for all this time without red meat and plenty of it!

2.Because of the primal need to reproduce, that hybrid car is just not cutting it. Men go for flashy sports cars because they believe they will impress women. Saad says his research shows that simply driving an expensive sports car boosts a mans testosterone.

3. Saad also thinks that men are the overwhelming users of pornography and that this is both evolutionary and of significance to marketers. However, with increasing inroads make by the Internet, soft porn, and using differing definitions of "pornography" ...one might see that gender gap begin to close.

[Gender Differences in Pornography Consumption Among Young Heterosexual Danish Adults
Published online 13 October 2006 Springer Science+Business Media Inc. 2006]

4. Love for our kin evidenced by gift giving. Gift giving is a consumer trend that is not likely to slow....economic downturn or not. Saad states that 10% of what we spend is on gifts for our "kin". It's probably more than that if we expand our definition of "kin" to what Oprah Winfrey called family in this months "O" Magazine...that circle of love where you are accepted for who you are....and she included her pets...

Pets?

Last year, Americans spent more than 48 billion on their pets (In 2010 $48.35 billion was spent on our pets in the U. S. www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp).

That's actually more than the average American family spent on technology last year.(May 24, 2011...Home of the San Francisco Chronicle...The average American household spent $1,179 on consumer electronics last year...).

And its not a big secret why we give gifts to those we care about or to those we want to influence...from time immemorial, it has made us feel good to do so!

Pondering these drivers might make you a better salesperson, marketer, or small businessperson. One of the members of my Inner Circle said that when she realized that buyers bought Workers Compensation Insurance not just as a commodity but to protect the people they worked with every day, their WORK FAMILY, it changed her whole approach to sales and she was much more effective.

There are actually more drivers in your unconscious mind. If you would like to learn about all of them and how to make them work for you go to

Covert Hypnosis Reframing

2011-06-24T10:17:00.001-07:00

A Core Skill in Covert Hypnosis is Framing and Reframing.

Today we look at Reframing.

Reframing: What it really means to reframe...and do it well.

Test Yourself

I want you to participate in a Reframing Game that comes from
Kahneman & Tversky (1984)... Simply read this scenario and write down
the answers before going through the evaluation.

Imagine that we are preparing for the outbreak of a dangerous
disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative
programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the
scientific estimates of the consequences of the programs are as
follows:

If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved.

If Program B is adopted, there is a 1/3 probability that all 600
people will be saved and a 2/3 probability that no people will be
saved.

What do you advise? Program A or Program B? Once you record your
answer, read on.

There are two other options now.

If Program C is adopted, 400 people will die.

If Program D is adopted, there is a 1/3 probability that nobody will
die and a 2/3 probability that all 600 people will die.

Write down your choice of program C or D then read on...

Kahneman and Tverskey found that 72% of their subjects chose the
"sure thing" program A over the "risky gamble," Program B. However
they obtained almost the OPPOSITE results when the question was
framed the opposite way. 78% of the same people (doctors) then chose
option D which is identical to option B. (C is identical to A)

In other words if someone chose A they logically must also choose C.
If someone chose B they logically must also choose D because they are
the same exact responses. However, the framing or perspective that is
given seems to shift people's thinking significantly.

Covert Hypnosis Key : Reframe with this in mind - The majority of
people will do far more to avoid losing something they already have
than they will to get something they don't have.

KEY: Fear of loss is a much greater motivator to most than the
possibility of gain.

Need more evidence? (Say "yes", as that is the logical response!) More
Covert Hypnosis tomorrow!

Hypnosis Can Extend Life (part 1)

2008-07-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

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 Covert Hypnosis or Order the E-book

Priming: Explosive Secret of Persuasion Revealed

2008-07-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

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.

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?

2008-06-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-06-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

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:

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Eliminate the "call back for approval."

Eliminate "buyers remorse."

Eliminate, "I'll think about it."

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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)

2008-06-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

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...

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Scripts: What Works?

2008-06-10T13:29:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-09T12:04:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-06-05T08:54:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

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 â€“ 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)

2008-05-15T14:45:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-05-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

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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18 Motivation Tips for a Productive Day (Part 2)

2008-05-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

6. Have an outcome to achieve with every action you do.

No matter what your work is, if you have your outcome focused directly ahead...extra enthusiasm and drive is added to your actions. The predetermined outcome motivates you, inspires you and helps you to never forget your purpose.

7. Importance of sleep...

In real life, you typically don't even have proper time to take a nap. The stress levels in work rise even more if you don't pay heed to your health and sleep peacefully. A small nap can do wonders. It can rejuvenate your whole body and bestow you extra energy to complete your pending tasks. Same goes with taking breaks during working hours. Rather than distracting, they will help you to focus more on your work with added zeal.

There comes a point in most days where I get up and go to bed for 10-45 minutes. Without that brief break, my productivity would drop dramatically.

8. Flowers and plants motivate.

Add simple plants and flowers to your surroundings. Flowers have an aesthetic beauty in them and help you by rejuvenating the entire atmosphere. It will permeate "positive vibes" in the entire surrounding and literally cause higher productivity.

Texas A&M University reported the effect of flowers on the workplace. The experiment was carried out with the staff members of hectic official workplaces that were involved in problem solving procedures. The addition of flowers enhanced their motivation and productivity. It was gradually discovered that the employees of both the genders had more innovative thinking and ideas when they had flowers in their workplace. Plants help prevent monotony in the workplace. They can create a pleasant and maybe even more "enthusiastic" environment within which to work.

9. The importance of your approach...

Knowing when to persist and when to change and THEN persist matters...

Are you annoyed that things are not turning out the way you had planned? Take a break and contemplate what went wrong.

Fix things.

If the problems still persist, the loophole lies in your approach towards the task. Trying out new ways of perceiving the task will not only give you new insights, but also bring out more possibilities.

Always remember that there are multiple ways to handle any task. Most of the time, people who get bugged by constant failure don't try adopting different approaches. If you do so, you will obviously find one approach that will not only motivate, but also inspire.

10. Try changing your routine. Become familiar and accepting of change. Let it be OK. Even a small change in your existing routine will make a difference and help your motivation level bump up a notch.

6. Have an outcome to achieve with every action you do.

7. Importance of sleep...

There comes a point in most days where I get up and go to bed for 10-45 minutes. Without that brief break, my productivity would drop dramatically.

8. Flowers and plants motivate.

9. The importance of your approach...

Knowing when to persist and when to change and THEN persist matters...

Are you annoyed that things are not turning out the way you had planned? Take a break and contemplate what went wrong.

Fix things.

To Be Continued...

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18 Motivation Tips for a Productive Day

2008-05-09T08:37:00.001-07:00

In the process of shifting people's motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic, there are a lot of things people can do to increase their level of motivation.

Ultimately, motivation is rooted in human desires, but until you have created a complete shift in the feeling(s) of motivation, there are a number of things that you can do to move forward.

There are strong passions and desires that drive behavior, but most people live lives that are devoid of passion and counter to their deepest desires. One of the strongest motivators, that of Fear, is typically hooked into a "fear" of change, causing people to want to maintain the status quo...and maintaining the status quo doesn't allow for success or any achievement...and a life devoid of personal pride and a sense of importance.

So what can you do?
What can those you help/coach/influence do to be more motivated?

1. Reward yourself for the work you did. This will boost your morale and cause you to take more similar actions in the future since you know that your entire effort will be at the very least - self-acknowledged.

2. Allow yourself to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of a task. Few things are more convincing than this ultimate feeling of accomplishment. If you have this feeling, it nurtures a sense of self-worth and a spirit that nurtures a belief that you can face just about anything.

3. Learn something from every task - even the humblest things you do. I was a janitor for two years. There are few jobs more humbling. No matter what task you do, it teaches you something and CAN bring you closer to your most deeply felt desires in life. You comprehend, learn and evolve and thus are more responsible to achieve a goal that once seemed impossible for you.

4. The magic of deadlines...

Setting deadlines prevents you from procrastinating about small things that can be executed by you only if you don't give more preference to your personal comforts and temptations. Deadlines make you to control yourself in a professional and self-disciplined manner.

5. Motivation works better for most people with a back up and support system.

Whether its financial problems or simply emotional challenges...when you are the sole entrepreneur of your business, it's tough to fight against all odds. If you have a reliable support system, even if they cannot erase all your problems, they can always help you by being there.

To Be Continued... Check Back Soon!

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Hypnosis: Understanding The Mind

2008-04-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

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

by Kevin Hogan, Ph.D., D.C.H.

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.

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.

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

2008-04-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Most work at one specific time. When?

Quick story:

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

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...)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

It will literally change your life.

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Burn Out: Escaping Living Hell (Part 4)

2008-04-19T16:15:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-04-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-04-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-04-15T13:29:00.001-07:00

"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:

Deficiencies in the product (the company)

Self-Sabotage issues of the salesperson

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)

2008-04-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-04-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-04-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-04-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-04-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Intrigued? Discover the secrets to what separates Covert Hypnosis from every other compliance technology. Discover what even the experts don't know about how the mind interacts with the unconscious mind.

Looking For More Articles Click Here

Covert Persuasion Tactical Power (Part 3)

2008-04-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-04-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

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!

To Read More Artciles On Covert Persuasion Click Here!

Covert Persuasion Tactical Power

2008-03-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

What do YOU want them to think?!

At least a dozen times I've asked hundreds of people in an audience to look around a room identifying everything that is brown and instruct them to remember what they see because this is a very important experiment.

Then I ask everyone to close their eyes.

Everyone knows where everything brown is because each of their brains have been instructed to focus and find all brown...and they have been told that this is an important task.
"Now, point to something green."
No one can do it.
Those that point somewhere inevitably fail.
No doubt you may have participated in this fascinating experiment in the past as well.
The Fascinating Human Brain
It's an amazing thing about the human brain. We can retain an unbelievable amount of information.

But in this case, we can't remember where *anything* green might be...
We weren't told to look for it...
Imagine your friend teaches a grade school class and little Billy is acting up in the back. Your friend tells a fellow teacher about the experience.
"The kid is always acting up. He's probably 'ADD' and I wish he was on his way out. He's driving me nuts."
"Huh. I guess I've never seen it in his behavior. He can be talkative but he never misbehaves in my class and he's a pretty sharp kid. Sometimes even helpful to the other students."
Your friend looks at the fellow teacher as if he has lost his marbles.
Your friend will not likely ever see the student in any way other than he has and the other teacher will likely not change his view that the student is a pretty good kid.

Here's what happens when the second teacher visits the first teacher's class to observe...
Weeks later, the teachers agree to exchange notes on the student again. They've both retained their original opinion.
Today, the second teacher decides to sit in with your friend in his class. He sits at the back of the room and takes careful experimental notes on the young boys behavior noting anything that diverges from sitting and being quiet.
At the end of the day, the student had contributed four answers to questions for the class, spoke out of turn once, helped another student once, stopped an argument another time and laughed ridiculously loud once at a joke another student told.

"Did you see him today? The kid was back at it again. He was smarting off and disrupting the class again."
"Actually, he was pretty well behaved."
"You've got to be kidding!"
"No. I recorded everything he did today."
Your friend looked at the record and simply couldn't believe they were talking about the same child.
Your friend saw what he expected while the actual record showed a very different picture of what really happened.

KEYPOINT: You remember what you expect to see.

And don't worry, your friend isn't crazy.... He also looked for everything that was brown and saw what was brown.... and nothing else.
As soon as you have an attitude, opinion or emotional connection to something or someone else, you immediately filter your awareness of that stimulus through those attitudes, opinions and emotions.
It's how the brain operates. It's how the brain must operate or it would see something new and have to start from scratch analyzing what "is" and what causes what attitudes, emotions and opinions.
That would be incredibly time consuming and cause the destruction of the human race. (I'll come back to this.)
Unfortunately as helpful as this "filtering" is in general, it creates a very interesting life for each of us.

FACT ONE: We see what we expect to see.

FACT TWO: We don't see what we don't expect see.

FACT THREE: We see what we are told to look for...and not much else.

This week we found out something even more incredible. When a person drinks a drink of alcohol something amazing happens when it comes to people seeing what you want them to see...

To read more articles about Covert Persuasion Click Here!

Part 2 of this article coming soon!

Covert Hypnosis and Story

2007-05-29T10:50:00.002-07:00

Covert Hypnosis and Story
Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.
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?
Covert Hypnosis: An Advanced Course in Subtle Unconscious Influence The Master’s Secrets Revealed! (Vol. 1 - 8)
“This is THE advanced course in subtle influence! Remember when you read Covert Hypnosis: An Operator’s Manual, and you got that WOW! feeling inside?! Well, that was just the beginning. In Covert Hypnosis: The Master’s Secret Revealed, you are going to learn how to subtly move inside the minds of anyone you communicate with. In trance or out…this is the most powerful material on Covert Hypnosis on the planet. Period.” Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.In CD 1, Kevin Hogan reveals specifically the secrets of how to weave the exact messages you want others to act upon into stories that captivate listeners.
CDs 2 & 3 show you how to motivate and compel other people to change their behavior as quickly as is humanly possible. Benefit: You can utilize these covert tools with your own unconscious mind because they link into the core drives and desires that you have!
CD 4 reveals ALL 22 elements of Covert Hypnosis for this first time anywhere! Never before released by anyone, anywhere. The complete Covert Hypnosis Model for change is here. Business? Sales? Consulting? Coaching? Therapy? Learn specifically how to generate change in their thinking with the Covert Hypnosis Model.
CD 5 gives you all the tools necessary to take a person's deepest drives (sex, eating, acquisition, connection, etc.) and fuse them into building compelling outcomes (the girl of your dreams, lose weight, acquire wealth, meet new people easily). Ignore either aspect, and failure is assured. Successfully meld the two in the unconscious mind and amazing things can happen.
CD 6—Pattern Recognition: Getting someone to think about something is one thing. Getting someone to feel driven to DO something and then watch them do it like magic is something else entirely. Learn so much in just this one CD!!!
CD 7 - This is 2003 neuroscience and research that reveals how to rewire the brain. Some neuroscientists call it "sculpting." It's not something that happens instantly and it requires the use of both hemispheres which can be pretty tricky if you don't know what you are doing.
CD 8 - You are going to learn some unique techniques in the eighth volume of Covert Hypnosis. Not only are you going to learn the truth about values (when they are critical and when they are MEANINGLESS) but you are going to discover the values of the unconscious mind! The unconscious mind and conscious mind do not correlate to each other but they both correlate to the behavior of every person you meet.
Intrigued? Discover the secrets to what separates Covert Hypnosis from every other compliance technology Discover what even the experts don't know about how the mind interacts with the unconscious mind.
More Information about Covert Hypnosis or to order
Covert Hypnosis Blog

The Secret Law of Attraction Exposed Live

2007-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

The Secret- The Law of Attraction - The Seductive Movement Completely Exposed

The hit movie and runaway best selling book have struck a chord in Americans.

What is it about The Secret that has captivated the minds of millions?

Authors of The Secret say that your mind vibrates electromagnetic waves
that entrain with other objects and living beings that vibrate similarly in the
universe and bring them magnetically to the individual. "Like attracts like,
just like a magnet." (Magnets: Opposites attract.)

Specifically, Author Rhonda Byrne says that you can "think of a feather
and it will appear." She says that it's "as easy to attract $10,000 as it is $1."
And, she says it's all a law that is proven by science and was known by
Churchill, Einstein, Plato and Beethoven, to name a few.

She quotes Buckminster Fuller as having said that there is an abundance
of wealth on the planet, "enough for $12 MILLION dollars per person.

What possibly could be wrong with such a law of science?

One co-author says, 'It's like the law of gravity..."it works all the time, every time."

Wednesday night you can join Blair Warren, Dave Lakhani and Kevin Hogan
and find out just what lies behind the claims of The Secret. Find out what Oprah and
Larry King didn't tell you...and why...

* Is there really a Law of Attraction that works like gravity...every time...
all the time?
* Is all you have to do to get ANYTHING you want in life, "picture it in your
mind, get a good feeling about it, be open to receive it?"
* What was the influence of Spiritual Beings on the exposition of this Universal Law?
* Why were some people cut from the movie at the last minute?
* Why have the promoters of the book and movie stopped doing television and media interviews?
* What dangers lie in your family because of The Secret?
* Why is The Secret the single most potentially destructive book published since Mein Kampf?
* If The Secret is so dangerous, why did it attract some of the world's best marketers?
* Someone told you, "The Secret worked for me. I know it's for real." Find out what that really means.
* Do Countries really attract genocide? (Lesson Two of The Secret says "yes." What's the truth?)
* Do little girls really cause their own rapes and murders. Secreters say "yes." What's the truth?

To register for this special 90 minute event of the year, simply use either link below.
https://plus33.safe-order.net/kevinhogan/securedteleseminar.htm

The Secret - Law of Attraction Teleseminar

or email thesecret@kevinhogan.com and our staff will email you back, your
call in number and personal identification code to use when you dial in.
Please also have your email address handy when you call in. This teleconference
is a public service and the panel members are not being paid for their time.
It all begins at 6 PM Pacific, 8 PM Central, 9 PM Eastern. If you have a question,
mail it to question@kevinhogan.com and we'll do our best to get your question
answered live. Maybe we can even get you on the air!

The Secret Law of Attraction: The Lie

2007-03-08T23:36:00.000-08:00

www.kevinhogan.com/TheSecretLawofAttraction-RhondaByrne.htm

The Secret- The Truth Behind The Lie of the Century

Rhonda Byrne says that if you don't want to get fat....

"If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it."

Anyone who believes this is a naive or deplorable human being.

Replace the word, "overweight" with a different word, like "handicapped," "people with Cerebral Palsy," "people with Muscular Dystrophy," "people dying of AIDS," people who are paralyzed," "people who are homeless," "people who are starving."

See the problem?

The great teacher's philosophy is if it is ugly, look away, if it feels good, do it; if you don't want it, don't look at it.

People have said, I should "just try it."

Huh?

Why?

I want to become a sociopathic sicko like the Law of Attractioner.

No thanks, I'll use the ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE that I developed about 2002 and take advantage of how the brain works to achieve success.

When people can simple LOOK AWAY from the child with cancer or the burn victim so they can "feel good inside," I'm sorry, that's a bunch of first class crap. That is horrifying to me. I don't want to "try" anything that has this level of cruelty no matter how much chocolate syrup someone puts on it.

And you think I exaggerate the horror of her teaching?

This ....woman.... goes this far and FURTHER.

Here is her response to a question about the women and children being raped and butchered in Rwanda?

"If we are in fear, if we're feeling in our lives that we're victims and feeling powerless, then we are on a frequency of attracting those things to us ... totally unconsciously, totally innocently, totally all of those words that are so important."

Yup, she's saying it's the women and children's fault.

So the Law of Attractioner ladies, are obligated to believe that if they have been raped, it's their fault anyway. They deserved it because that was the result they got.

Insane logic?

A friend of mine attracted a speeding ticket the other day because he was speeding.

The Attractioner works from result to premise.

You got it, therefore, you asked for it.

Same for children that are molested.

Same for those who starve.

Oh yeah, that's making me feel real good inside. Nice warm fuzzy.

It's become almost a religious cult fad that has an obvious viral effect. Lessons to be learned for all marketers here....

But WAIT

There is another problem and this one is even MORE SERIOUS.

People can attract genocide as easily as they can a new BMW. They can attract a feather even if there is no bird.

Shoot.

This is a LAW of SCIENCE.

We are so screwed....

There is nothing to "believe in."

IT is going to "WORK" whether you like it or not.

Like gravity.

Nothing to believe in or "try."

It just WORKS.

Except when it doesn't of course...which is...always.

It wouldn't draw my ire except that it causes pain on the individual and societal level and strips people of their hard earned money.

Marketers....James Cameron, the movie producer has caught onto this and has now indicated he believes that the bones of the family of Jesus have been found. And millions will believe and go see his movie. I'd explain why those bones almost certainly are not from Jesus or his family but time permits one topic today.

Marketers...a lot of people never put their brain in gear. You read the story about Mother Mary in the pizza pan...an obvious miracle...a sign...proof of God...

I mean after all you know what Mary the Mother of Jesus looked like right? You know she uh....wait...they didn't have camera's back then and Jews didn't draw or paint images of people as it was an abomination to their God. Oops. Well IF we knew what she looked like, trust me she'd look like the lady in the pizza pan.

Now, let's just pretend that that was a PHOTOGRAPH in the pizza pan and there have been camera's for two millenia....

What are the odds it would be the Mother of Jesus?

Why would it be the Mother of jesus?

Why wouldn't it be your Mom or Mine????

As soon as you give people what is called a "Prime" they are influenced to believe whatever that Prime was and will think in "contexts" related to the prime.

If I say George Washington...then ask you to write down the name of a man, most people write down the name of a historical figure in American History....like Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin.

if I say Jesus, Christians tend to write one word names like, Paul, John, Mark, Matthew, Thomas.

That's one kind of priming.

Is the photograph in the pizza pan Mary the Mother of Jesus?

Obviously not, but millions will tell you it is, because it "looks just like her," except we haven't a clue what she looked like. Not a clue in the world. But we are primed by the thought of having TV, cell phones that take pictures, you name it....and never remember that there were no images of people in those days painted or drawn by Jews.

And are they the bones of Jesus family?

Why Jesus the son of Joseph and Mary and not one of thousands of other families? The probability is so tiny it's barely worth looking at. (And yes they should look and check it out)

Now you take all this DaVinci-esque cool stuff and pop it on the cover of THE SECRET and you are primed to BELIEVE.

To say this is brilliant marketing is to fall short. It is beyond brilliant. This TV producer with no thought or care for humanity and the human condition certainly can make a quality production. She understands how mainstream women think. She has captured it brilliantly.

And the marketers out there hawking the book did a great job. The best amazon promo I've ever seen.

But really, am thankful that The Secret is a Lie, The Secret isn't anything close to a physical law like gravity.......

.... because if it were true, I would have the ability to cause people's death just by thinking about it...worse...they could cause mine....or I could cure people just by thinking about it...or worse...they could give me some horrible disease by using their thoughts to manipulate the physical universe....

Which of course is one step short of insanity...or every plane that went up would crash and every person with a fear of heights would fall to their death.

Those with a fear of spiders or snakes would attract thousands of them to theatrical terror.

Now STOP.

You think I'm being sarcastic but that is what Rhonda Byrne says happens when you live in fear of something. That's why all the poor Rwandan women and children were butchered, murdered....remember?

And if people stop looking at you, realize it's because people who have THE SECRET don't want to look at fat people. That's how you lose weight.

I kid you not. Rhonda Byrne SAID that in the same interview she explained how the children of Rwanda brought on their own genocide. (not the fault of the killers, the fault of the CHILDREN)

From Newsweek: "The Secret" is saying. Its explicit claim is that you can manipulate objective physical reality—the numbers in a lottery drawing, the actions of other people who may not even know you exist—through your thoughts and feelings. In the words of "author and personal empowerment advocate" Lisa Nichols: "When you think of the things you want, and you focus on them with all of your intention, then the law of attraction will give you exactly what you want, every time." Every time! Byrne emphasizes that this is a law inherent in "the universe," an inexhaustible storehouse of goodies from which you can command whatever you desire from the comfort of your own living room by following three simple steps: Ask, Believe, Receive.

Thankfully, no one, has that kind of power or ability....nor would want it.Kevin Hogan

Subliminal Messages: Exposed Part Six

2006-09-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

"Feelings are often slow," he said. "In a frightening situation, you run first, feel afraid later."

To tease apart emotional reaction and subjective feeling, Winkielman and colleagues devised two different experiments.

In both studies, subjects were first asked to rate how thirsty and hungry they were. Next, they were subliminally exposed to a series of photographs of happy, angry or neutral faces -- masked each time by a neutral face. Consciously, the subjects were aware only of seeing the second, neutral image, which they were then asked to classify as male or female. Immediately afterwards, they were asked (in varying order) to interact with the beverage and rate their moods.

Happy and angry expressions were selected as primes, Winkielman said, because it is easy to extract a simple positive and negative interpretation from them: Grins and glowers are flashed at us in approval and reproach since Day 1 and are essentially equivalent to "stop" and "go" signs.

The researchers chose drinking in part because ingesting an unknown substance can have obvious biological consequences and is therefore not a trivial act -- even if, as in this case, the drink is made of nothing more than water, sugar and lemon-lime Kool-Aid.

In the first experiment, 39 undergraduates freely helped themselves and drank as much as they wanted. Unknown to them, the amounts poured and consumed were recorded using an electronic scale. Thirsty participants poured and drank more than twice the amount of the beverage after happy primes than after angry primes.

In the second experiment, 29 undergraduates tasted a small, predetermined sample and were then asked to evaluate it after one sip. Those at the high level of thirst reported willingness to pay 38 cents (U.S.) after happy primes and only 10 cents after angry ones. They also expressed desire for an additional half cup instead of one to two sips.

Learn more of the most important findings.

What Are Some of the Most Important Findings?

***5*** It's all about the predisposing factors being acted upon subconsciously...The Subjects Motivation.

In both studies, thirst proved a necessary precondition for influence. Moderately thirsty participants were only moderately affected. And those not thirsty, not at all. Thirst also correlated positively with ratings of the beverage's deliciousness and thirst-quenching abilities.

"Motivation matters," Winkielman said. "Your motivational state -- your level of need -- prepares you to process relevant information and gives value to the stimulus. Otherwise, the emotional message falls on deaf ears."

***6*** Better act fast or it won't matter.

Can Advertisers Benefit From This?

To businesspeople or politicians tempted to apply these findings to advertising, Winkielman says: It won't work. The effects of subliminal expressions were too short-lived. By the time people arrived at the store or polling booth, all influence would have worn off.

The studies were supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Results were published earlier this year in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, with coauthors Kent C. Berridge of the University of Michigan and Julia L. Wilbarger of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kevin Hogan is the author of The Science of Influence, Psychology of Persuasion, Covert Hypnosis and Selling Your Self to Others. http://www.kevinhogan.com/ has 392 articles about influence and persuasion...enjoy.
Stop off for more information: Subliminal Achievemen

Subliminal Messages Part 5

2006-09-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

L. Ron Hubbard wasn't that on target with "engrams," but one thing is for sure...Pamela Anderson can excite a cell that wasn't turned on by Jennifer or John Lennon.

And that's crucial in understanding subliminal persuasion. (When I first read about this in popular form last week, I was VERY skeptical. The research bares it out though and my skepticism has been quelled.) I'll go into the research about all of this later in the summer, it's beyond "pretty incredible."

The brain acts on external and internal impulses.

And that's where visually stimulated subliminal persuasion begins. Without someone's awareness, you can cause them to want to drink, for example, via subliminal perception. Carefully look at this example.

Out-of-lab scenarios should start popping into your mind shortly.
What did the researchers learn? Continue the article to find out.

What Does New Research Show?

***1*** People alter their consumption behavior based on subliminal exposure to faces.

In studies led by Piotr Winkielman, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, people altered their consumption behaviors after exposure to subliminal facial expressions.

***2*** Subliminal perception of smiles and frowns have profound effects on behavior.

Hidden smiles persuaded thirsty subjects to pour more and drink more of an unidentified beverage than did neutral expressions. Frowns had the opposite effect.

***3*** Subliminal perception of happy faces cause people to be willing to spend more money...a lot more money.

Study participants who were unconsciously "primed" with happy faces also reported being willing to pay up to triple the price for the mystery drink. And they reported wanting another half cup instead of just a sip or two more.

***4*** The entire process is covert at the emotional level. People have no idea their feelings have CHANGED.

Remarkably, the test subjects, whose actions had been influenced by these emotional cues, were not aware of their feelings having changed.

"This is the first demonstration that you can influence consequential, real-world behavior without affecting conscious feeling. We can change what you do, without changing how you feel," Winkielman said.

Winkielman, coeditor of the forthcoming book Emotion and Consciousness, believes the findings, presented at the American Psychological Society annual convention in Los Angeles, May 26-29, support the existence of unconscious or "unfelt" emotion.

"Emotional states operating outside conscious awareness can drive behavior. The subjective experience of a feeling is not always necessary to the process," said Winkielman.

Subliminal Messages, Exposed. Part Four

2006-09-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Covert Subliminal Persuasion:

Seven Facts that Will Change the Way You Influence Forever
(adapted from The Science of Influence Library: 37-48)

Can People Be Influenced Subliminally?

The girl sees the word "sex" on the TV screen and of course she hypnotically becomes unyielding in her quest to dominate you. (Or guy, if the case is appropriate.) We all dreamed of it when we were younger (it wasn't just me, was it?)...and the images didn't fade much with time.

In the last 15 years, subliminal perception and influence has been put back on the front burner, albeit very quietly.

The first discovery to share with you is that audio subliminal recordings simply don't work.

Priming in Persuasion...and Subliminal Influence

Priming is a way we can covertly influence, as we've discussed in The Science of Influence CD Library in numerous contexts. Priming is all about activating conscious and unconscious associations with intention.

Some quick examples of every day priming:

• Someone says, "Mr. MacDonald was a nice old man," and the listener has a 'thought' to go to McDonalds and get a hamburger.
• Someone asks you what TV show you want to watch tonight. They are playing "Who are You" on the CD player in the background, and they say, CSI. "Who are You" is the theme song for CSI.
• You hear a commercial for The Apprentice, or 24, or the upcoming special about Elvis on TV. You think, "I wonder what Kevin Hogan will write about in Coffee this week."

Want to know why auditory subliminals don't work? Continue the article below.

Why Don't Auditory Sublminals Work?

Why didn't the subliminals work?

Simple. The brain couldn't get the message from outside in the world to the inside of the brain, as there was no vibration for the ear and then auditory cortex to work their magic. It was a shame, too, after all the recordings we bought for better grades and self-esteem in college. (or was that just me again?) Like sleeping on a book and praying for the information to be pumped in by osmosis...well you get the picture...

There's still people who produce "subliminal CDs", but I can assure you that the zealotry of the producers of such materials is utterly and totally unwarranted. They don't work and it's been shown in every single scientific study ever done about it.

What about video?

An entirely different and very enticing story!

The visual cortex WILL respond to stimuli which are not in conscious awareness and which are NOT able to be seen with conscious attention and effort. The visual cortex will take this information that isn't or can't be seen and share it with other parts of the brain CAUSING actions to be taken on the stimulus.

Scary cool.

What Does New Research Show?

Research out this week shows that if you show a picture of Pamela Anderson to someone, there are literally single cells (neurons) in the brain that "know" that is Pamela Anderson. These neurons react to Pamela (and who wouldn't?) in a "knowing way." In other words it's DIFFERENT neurons that react when pictures of The Beatles are shown and different from those of Jennifer Aniston and so on.

Now don't get the idea that "memory" is single cell....

Covert Hypnosis

Subliminal Messages Part Three

2006-09-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Factor Three: Know the Priming Factor Before Attempting to Influence
FASCINATING: Priming SADNESS enhanced the persuasiveness of an ad for a CD with Mood Restoring music when people expected to interact with someone.

A neutral stimulus (an oval) showed no change in whether people would buy the CD or not.

Now, the only way you come up with these kind of results is by understanding the process of nonconscious "thought," and fortunately, essentially, no one does.

Let's do something simple for using subliminals in a supraliminal environment. (Fancy way of saying the subliminal image is actually visible in consciousness and possibly even observed but not likely to be DEEMED as important in influencing behavior.)

Factor Four: Don't Dilute the Message

If there is too much noise in your office...too many competing messages...then no environmental prime is going to be that big of an influence (if at all) on someone's behavior or decision making.

Imagine you sell car insurance and people come to your office to consider buying. Here are two exaggerated extremes. Which do you think is going to CAUSE more people to purchase car insurance.
Factor Five: Wire into the Non-conscious Mind
A) A photograph of a family, smiling in their car as they drive down the road. Everyone happy and making lots of eye contact, enjoying the ride.
B) A photograph of a car mangled with people standing by the scene crying, tearful, in agony.

The answer is B.

The horror of B will FAR outsell that of the pain of A. Remember the person is in the office to consider buying insurance. Seeing a happy family is nice. It's pleasant. It's comforting and causes good feelings inside. But the prime of the accident and what that "means" to the nonconscious mind of the fence sitting individual is overwhelming and CAUSES a purchase decision.

Think about homeowner's insurance. Hurricane coverage doesn't come with homeowner's insurance. It's a separate policy. But the way you SELL homeowners insurance is to show the remnants of a hurricane and all the surroundings THEN show the agent giving a check to the family. Nothing sells like that picture because it wires into the drivers and motivators of who we are as people.

Factor Six: Placement Matters

The location of the photo of the car accident with mourners matters as well. If it's on the desk...that's manipulative and you just killed the sale. People do not OVERTLY wish to be manipulated. (The antithesis is an entirely different article.) If it's on the side wall and visible but not standing out when the people walk in, then it does it's job.

(Technically that would be a supraliminal "image" right? Not subliminal....)

Subliminal Messages, The Truth Part Two

2006-09-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Subliminal Messages, The Truth
Part Two
Copyright Kevin Hogan
Exciting Developments in the Field of Subliminal Persuasion

Now, let me tell you straight away that I think the idea of being at a website and having subliminal cues there is nothing short of exciting. The idea of having subliminal messages on the restaurant table or at the bar simply fascinates. Using subliminals to get the girl to say "yes," or the client to say "yes"....it's all exciting...and you should be able to know how to do it.

If I invest 200-300 hours into subliminal research, I'm going to write four articles about that work....and then I'm going to create a program of perhaps 5-10 CD's and let you own what I know.

You could do all the same research at approximately 20-40 times the cost... but you COULD do it. There are no secrets in HOW to discover what works, there are plenty of secrets in knowing what works.

My place is to save you the 9,999 attempts at creating a light bulb before finding the one way that works. What would Edison have paid for that?

Exactly.

The subliminal pull occurs when several things are already in place.

Factor One: Person Being Persuaded Must Be Motivated

The person to be persuaded needs to be present. (I swear to you there are people that will tell you that you can influence Bill in Tucson with your mind power because of Quantum blah blah....)

KEYPOINT: The person has to have some motivation. (Remember we talked about the "thirst" study where people who were not thirsty were not motivated to drink or buy *anything* when subliminally "persuaded."

Only those that were already thirsty reacted to very specific subliminal messages. Almost all sumbliminal messages fail because people don't know how to create them so they are effective.)
A recent study showed that people who knew they were going to be interacting with someone else responded to an ad for a CD that would put them in a good mood.

Those people who were not going to be getting together with someone were not motivated in any way by the subliminal messages to purchase the CD.

In other words, the conscious awareness that they were going to be getting together with someone was a prerequisite to buying a CD that would restore their mood.

Understand that. If you don't want to go to church Sunday or have an aversion to going to church or want to watch the football game or whatever, my subliminal messages for you to go to church are going to fail, period.

Factor Two: Subliminals Wire into Motivation and Desires

KEYPOINT: If the girl is on the fence and your subliminal hits the right button, she'll happily come off the fence. But if she is repelled, all the subliminals in the world won't cause motivation. As a rule: Subliminals WIRE INTO MOTIVATION and DESIRES, OR, they direct the individual to do or think ONE specific thing.

Return to the "interaction study" for a moment. What do you think motivated people to buy the CD when exposed to the advertisement???

• A message that said,..."feel better and buy the cd"
• "appear happier to the next person you meet"
• "this cd will make you feel good!"
• "feel good!"
• "feel better!"

See, all those affirmation goofballs will tell you that is the kind of stuff that will work. It doesn't. The people who bought the CD were exposed to a subliminal SAD face!

http://www.kevinhogan.com

Subliminal Messages: The Truth Revealed Part 1

2006-09-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Your Subliminal Edge
Copyright 2006, Kevin Hogan

Factors that Cause Successful Subliminal Persuasion

I've found 13 factors in creating effective subliminal messages. There are probably more.

In this article I want you to find out some of these factors and discover how you can use them at the office, the club, the bar and with anyone you choose.

Part of my mission on this orb has been about giving my friends the edge in life. The edge over the competition, against the scamsters, the edge on achievement of goals and desires.

People buy the "Instant__________" because they are greedier than they are smart.

• Instant Billionaire
• Instant Influence
• Instant Weight Loss
• Instant Fame
• Instant Pick a Desire

And, there is a *lot* of money to be made in the "quick buck business."

I can confirm to you that I was asked to co-venture a promotion where you would spend $10,000 (I would get paid 1/2) and the claim was that you would be able to simply "imagine" and "think" about something and it would manifest. No kidding.

And in fact, I am regularly asked to put someone's junk product in Coffee with Kevin for you to look at....and try to kindly refuse. Let someone else do it.

I'm having Coffee with you...I don't have a list...I have readers of Coffee. It's a crucial philosophical difference and approach to business and life.

Now, if I tell you that something which is claimed to be spectacular... is true..., there is a reason to consider the proposition. You've trusted me for 5 or 6 years or however long you've been with me on Monday morning. And you know that if it's in "Coffee with Kevin Hogan," it's worth considering. You've been "primed" to know that what we talk about is worthy, trustable and typically falls in the realm of usefulness, value and fun.

So, many would consider that $10,000 is worth exchanging for Kevin Hogan telling them that they would get something for nothing, virtually instantly, like unexpected piles of money in the mailbox. (And I am not kidding, that is precisely what this "opportunity" that I let you miss was about.)

How and why was this amazing program going to work?
• Because you imagine it.
• Because it's the nature of the universe.
• Because it's understanding the nature of the universe and utilizing that.
• Because you did affirmations for it.
And that is total garbage and though I rarely name names, don't ever fall for it.

Let me ask you this.

Do we all have a greedy side?

We Are All Wired for Greed

Look, we ALL have a greedy side. It's nothing to feel bad about. We are biologically hooked up that way long before birth. We all have our pride, lust, envy, avarice, vanity, and whatever the rest of the fun things were that when you O.D. on them, they become sins.
(Because, in excess they can cause self destruction.) Everyone has these traits. Mother Teresa did. Gandhi did. Everyone.

KEY POINT: We all have desires that drive us beyond rational thinking and decision making.

You can buy a CD that claims it's filled with subliminal messages that will do XYZ for you, and it is garbage. Pure garbage. I always keep my fingers crossed that those selling such things at least believe that they are performing a service...because when I see people burning dollar bills it pains me...because you only have so many and every purchase in life IS AN INVESTMENT.

So, when we are talking about subliminal persuasion, you can know that it is more than "real." It is profoundly and amazingly powerful. Without hesitation, it is that which is most exciting to me in the field of influence and covert hypnosis, and it is that which makes me the most nervous.

The Negative Side of Subliminal Persuasion

The two negatives are simple.

First, you can misuse every form of influence. We saw the results of influence for random killing in London on the tube a couple of weeks ago. Persuasion is powerful. It is VERY easy to cause people to kill complete strangers (and loved ones) for absolutely no reason other than a belief. Someone once said to me, "hypnosis can't be used to make someone do something they normally wouldn't do." Just about ANYONE can cause anyone else to do something they normally wouldn't do. There's nothing unusual about it.

Secondly, I become concerned because when we're talking about subliminal persuasion, 10 people will come out of the woodwork, make a subliminal DVD and put it on the market, make a few thousand bucks and it will do absolutely nothing for the unwitting customer.
There are so many conditions that have to be met for subliminal persuasion to be effective and that probability that the huckster has studied it and tested it approach nil.

And they will attempt to sell us this DVD which was made based upon what was written here or something I released...but buyer beware...they don't have the whole story....

They are already cropping up...and I mention no names.

I want to share with you today, factors that cause success or failure in Subliminal Persuasion.

Kevin Hogan
www.kevinhogan.com

Power of Changing Perception

2006-04-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

The Power of Changing Perception

Copyright 2006 by Kevin Hogan

Here are the names of four cities.

Canton, Ohio
Champaign, Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
Cleveland, Ohio

If you had to pick one, which of the four cities would you consider living in? Say that city's name out loud or write it down.

If you had to pick one, which of the four cities would *not* consider living in? Say that city's name out loud or write it down.

The vast majority of people say they would consider Chicago but not Cleveland, even if they have not been to either city because of perceptions they have of the cities.

Why?

Perception.

Look again....

Seeing the Big Picture

I showed half of the people in the room at Influence: Boot Camp a piece of paper with the word "Detroit."

I showed the other half of the people in the room, the word, "Michigan." (Detroit of course, is one city in the huge State of Michigan.)

I then said, "Write down how many murders happened last year, in the city or state you just saw."

Results: Should be that Detroit has 1/10 the murders of the entire state as Detroit has a population of one million and the state has a population of 10 million. In real life Detroit had 385 murders, total in Michigan about 700.

Our project showed that the median number of murders predicted in Detroit was 437. In Michigan only 430.

The results are similar to most studies with other groups using this city and state.

So what's up with this?

The population of Michigan is 10 TIMES the population of Detroit, but people think that more murders happen in Detroit than in the entire State of Michigan. (Remember Detroit is one city IN Michigan.)

It makes no sense.

Of course.

Because humans aren't "make sense" creatures.

We are perception creatures.

(OK, I won't use the word "creature" again...)

We think Detroit = violent crime in our minds. Doesn't have to be real. It's just what we perceive to be true. Could be an accurate perception, could be inaccurate. It's what people perceive.

Similarly, people think Michigan = nice place in our minds. Doesn't have to be real. It's just what people perceive to be the case. Could be accurate. Might be inaccurate. It's what people perceive.

This is the Power of Perception.

How does perception affect our view of the world?

How Perception Affects Our View of the World

People's perceptions skew their view of everything in the world. Their perceptions (generally inaccurate) cause the world to be different from what the world is really like. That changes how people decide about things... changes whether they will react to your message in a good way or a bad way. Changes whether people will like you or not.

If you have the perception that there are more murders in Detroit than all of Michigan, how likely are you to move to Detroit? To buy a house there?

Exactly.

Perception changes the possibilities for persuasion. So, quite often to change the potential results for persuasion we have to change people's perceptions.

So people have developed all of these beliefs and attitudes...perceptions...about pretty much everything. They have skewed perceptions about Democrats and Republicans. They have opinions about Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. They have strong attitudes about Americans, Europeans, Arabs and Aussies.

How Do You Change Perception?

Well of course, that's in large part what The Science of Influence 1-48 is all about, but let's look at one very powerful strategy.

PRIOR to delivering a persuasive message, you want to elicit subsets of agreement that combine to form perceptions about bigger things.

Big Example: You want someone to vote Democrat (for Senator Clinton, say, in the next Presidential election) and the person you are talking to is a Republican (or Libertarian, like me).

You have a challenge on your hands...

Most Blue people don't vote Red and most Red don't vote Blue. So you have your work cut out for you. But there is a way...

What are Republican values? (In the good ole' days it was low taxes, strong military, smaller government, pay off national debt)

You ask, "Before I ask you how you are going to vote, would you consider a candidate that was in favor of a strong military for the defense of the United States?" (That's tough to say no to.) If the person says yes, you put a check mark on a piece of paper.

You ask, "Are you in favor of reducing taxes for everyone, cutting spending across the board, and ultimately eliminating the deficit?"

You ask, "Are you open minded enough to consider voting for someone outside of the Republican Party if they shared these views with you, promised to stick to these views and you still could be comfortable voting "the ticket" for the other candidates?"

Now, in our hypothetical question, we've eliminated the question, "Would you vote for Senator Clinton?"

Why and how does this work?

We've taken values that she must adopt when she runs for President or she won't get elected. And then we've not threatened the person's sense of identity by not asking them to switch party. That's like asking a Muslim to become a Christian or vice versa. It's rather insulting....and people don't like to be insulted.

And by the way, notice it's "Senator Clinton". Why? Here are three pictures:

Hillary Clinton (not good)
Senator Clinton (good picture)
Mrs. Clinton (not good) It's all in the perception.

And you didn't insult the person.

Now you say, "I know this sounds a bit wild, but Senator Clinton has taken a strong stand on these issues because of XYZ reasons. It's hard to say how many Democrats will support this move toward the center but she needs your vote to accomplish your goals."

You have to tell the person that you know this sounds ludicrous. But there it is in black and white. People's resistance will come down if YOU state the obvious so they don't have to.

Make sense?

(By the way, I do think Sen. Clinton will run in 2008, I personally won't likely vote for her, and as long as there is no significant 3rd party candidate, I think she has a very, very good chance of winning if she does adopt these positions.)

Work the subsets before tackling the entire issue. Build an unconscious mind case for your proposal and then ask the more difficult question.

Then you have taken the first step in learning the power of changing perception.

Science of Influence Master's Home Study Program by Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.The ability to influence is the single most important element in communication in business, in running a professional practice, in maintaining intimate relationships and obviously, in selling. Every useful communication involves the power of persuasion.

You want people to believe what you say. You want them to understand what you say. You want your message to be accepted and acted upon. Period. Without effective persuasion and influence none of this is possible.

The Science of Influence is the master's home study course. What makes the Science of Influence different from every other program about persuasion is that this material is fresh, potent, tested, and has nearly all of what you will discover is new! There is no rehash of past salespeople or scholars. This is the culmination of years of selling synthesized with the last five years of academic research into compliance gaining, persuasion and influence. No one has a program like this designed for you. I guarantee it.

In Volumes 1-12 you are going to learn incredible new tactics for defusing resistance and overcoming the knee jerk response of people that say "no." Unlock the mystery of the "freedom of choice" and how critical the number of choices a client/customer has are going to impact her decision to buy from you now!

You already know that you can frame a message that will virtually guarantee success or you can
state your message the wrong way and hear a "knee jerk no." Now, I'm going to show you HOW!! Creating persuasive frames in business, your profession or your personal life is a skill that will literally bring you your hearts desires! I want to show you specifically how to create frames for your messages so you can customize your product/idea or service to your clients in such a way that they will be instantly ready to say "yes!" to you.

Anticipated Regret is dealt with in the Omega Strategies section of the program. Look for specific strategies and techniques to conquer this oft-encountered situation.

Discover how skeptical and non-skeptical people perceive and respond to persuasive messages in a VERY different fashion. (Hint: If you don't know this information you will automatically lose almost 1/4 of all of your encounters.)

Determine whether you should suggest your client's future to her or whether you should have them offer you details on what they think it holds once they say "yes" or "no."

You're also going to learn:
Specific techniques to get beyond "no" in the most difficult situations.
How to design frames that influence and recognize those that do not.
How to dramatically increase your chances of "yes" in every single meeting.
Hypnotically enter another person's mind and reshuffle their deck!
Learn the exact presentation order for your product, solution or idea when proposing it. Start to reap the rewards of becoming a master of influence while you study in the privacy of your home!
More information about influence or to order

Also available:Science of Influence: The Tactics and Techniques of Persuasion.

Attraction Principle in Covert Hypnosis

2005-12-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

THE ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE in Covert Hypnosis:

By Kevin Hogan

I introduced The Attraction Principle to...the world in 2002.

How would you like to draw almost anything into your life that you want? What would happen if you actually could make yourself a magnet to people, money, and everything that is good!??!?!

The Attraction Principle is a pattern I developed that seems like a metaphysical concept, when in reality it is a principle grounded in science. The Attraction Principle helps you use Covert Hypnosis to direct your client's thinking so they have the tools necessary to reach almost all of their goals.

You See That Which You Already Have in Your Mind

An illustration will help start us out.

In 2000, I decided to purchase a Honda Accord. Consumer Reports said it was the best car in its class. (Even better than the Camry I once owned.) So, I simply went to the Honda dealership and asked to buy the Honda Accord. I didn't even know what a Honda Accord looked like. I just brought my checkbook and pen. They showed me a bunch of models and ultimately I bought a gold Accord. It rode beautifully on the test drive and I was fine with it. I wrote the check and shortly thereafter I was out the door.

As I was driving over to the office I noticed several things. The first thing I noticed was that there were a LOT of Honda Accords and quite a few that were seemingly as new as mine! Everywhere I looked on the road I saw the Honda logo and most often it was attached to the Accord. I hadn't remembered seeing an Accord in weeks before my 20 minute drive to the office. This day I saw a dozen Honda's en-route. I was really quite surprised at just how many people owned these cars!

(Now that's the self hypnosis version of Covert Hypnosis!)

Of course I ultimately remembered that I used to see Toyotas. I saw Toyotas everywhere for the previous ten years. I saw Avalons and Camrys. Celicas and Corollas. Everywhere. But now of course I owned a Honda and my reticular activating system in my brain was picking up Hondas....everywhere. My brain had a new filter and antenna. It filtered out all the other cars and brought to my attention all of those cars which were like that which I owned and now liked.

That's how the brain works. Women know that when they buy a shirt or a dress they notice that everyone else wears the same thing! Of course no more people own the shirt or the dress today than did a few days earlier but indeed the brain now filters out all of the unimportant stuff and filters in all of that which is "yours" or important to "you." The brain is a remarkable piece of craftsmanship.

The Difference between Success and Failure

Now, what's wonderful is that the Attraction Principle is just like this. Napoleon Hill figured this out 75 years ago...and it wasn't new then. Even in old writings like the Bible there are hints on "that which you think on is yours." People call this manifestation. Of course manifestation is just one of two key parts of the Attraction Principle. The other part is ACTION. Getting clients to take action though is a bit more challenging than simply thinking of attractive things and people they want in their lives!

Some people can get a real clear picture of what they want in their mind and they are presented opportunities everywhere to acquire that thing or state of mind but they don't take action on accomplishing or acquiring the desired object.

The Attraction Principle in Healing

Let me share with you how powerful the Attraction Principle is to me.

When I found out I had Hyperkeratosis/Leukoplakia on my right vocal cord earlier this year, I knew I had a pre-cancerous lesion and that I could be in serious trouble. I knew I had to take as much action as possible to help the Mind/Body link start whatever healing process could possibly take place.

I went to the University of Minnesota medical library and read everything I could about Hyperkeratosis and Leukoplakia. Most of what I read was very ugly. The reality of cancer was fear-provoking, but I knew from my Mind Body research that the more you know about a disease or disorder the better your chance is to recover for it. I finally found the medical book that had the surgical procedure for removing the leukoplakia. I memorized the procedure. I knew that I would have to have general anesthesia, something I did NOT want to experience. I knew they would put a mouth guard on my teeth to protect it from the tube that would get inserted into my throat. I learned how to use the laser that would be used to shave the leukoplakia off my cord and I learned how to take a biopsy...I saw it go under the microscope and I heard the lab people saying, "the cells are fine, no signs of cancer at all."

I did this operation between 20 and 50 times per day in my mind. The one- hour procedure could be done in about 5 minutes in my mind. Sometimes I did the procedure in my mind and I was fearful. Eventually it became boring and more matter of fact to where I seriously determined that I could do it on my self with a local anesthetic!

Four weeks to the day after the diagnosis I went back for a recheck. I still could hardly speak and had no volume. And, on that day, August 7, the doctor said, "It's gone."

Just like I had imaged it hundreds of times. Of course it was gone, I had done the surgery over 500 times in the four weeks.

The Attraction Principle:

Imaging x Action = Result

Now, don't think that every imaging will manifest itself in real life because you think it will. Also, don't believe for a moment that just because I took all the right actions by researching hyperkeratosis and leukoplakia that it means that everyone will get well in similar circumstances. I simply utilized the resources I had at hand and was fortunate enough to have a positive result.

Of course, this can be a chronic condition. Many people have hyperkeratosis, it's removed surgically and it comes back. I know that I also have to take other actions to make sure that doesn't happen!

For the Honda, of course there are lots of other cars out there. I still see Toyotas and other cars but I see a lot more Hondas than other cars because it is important to me.

What you want to do for your clients is determine who and what they want in their life and clearly image that or that person. Do they want a business partner, a boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, money, travel to an exotic location? Whatever it is, that's the starting point. That’s got to become the clarity and certainty of ownership. Just like the surgery. It has to be obvious and second nature that the result is there.

Next, you must help your client make a mental map of specifically what they will do in order to acquire that result, person, type of person or thing. Everything starts with a thought but without action, the concept of manifestation is simply a leading cause of frustration. Your client must do and be prepared to offer energy and value for that which they want and desire.

What follows is the blueprint for utilizing the Attraction Principle in session. This is not a script as will become obvious. It is a model that you can adapt to every client’s specific needs!

The Attraction Principle Pattern

Prompt 1: “Close your eyes and allow yourself to breathe. Focus on your breath. (Have your client take three deep breaths, in/out and put all of their attention on their breath.)There have been many things and people you have wanted in your own life…for some time…and now…I would like you to focus your attention and intention on just one very specific thing or person or kind of person you want to appear in your life….now…When you have this in mind raise your right finger.

Prompt 2: Now what I want you to do is tell me, in great detail, an experience where you have this person or place in mind.
(They describe this to you.)

Prompt 3: Excellent. Now, I want you to tell me, in great detail, another time (place) where this person/thing is in your life…in the very near future…
(They describe this to you.)

Prompt 4: Excellent. Now, I want you to tell me, in great detail, another time (place) where this person/thing is in your life…in the very near future…
(They describe this to you.)

Prompt 5: Now what I want you to do is tell me all of the specific steps and the sequence of steps it will take fulfill this manifestation into your life.

(They should give you a detailed process. If they don’t prompt with “and after you X, what happens next?” “And then what” THE PROCESS THEY DESCRIBE TO YOU SHOULD BE AN OBVIOUS SEQUENCING THAT ASSURES THEIR DREAM/PERSON/GOAL/RESULT/OUTCOME.

Prompt 6: Excellent. Now, in great detail, describe for me why you must allow this person/thing to come into your life beginning now.
(They describe this to you.)

Prompt 7: Wonderful. Now, bring the picture of this person/place/thing clearly into your mind in such a way that it is very enticing and makes you excited and energized. –pause-
(OR whatever emotions are appropriate to this specific person/place/thing!)
…allow yourself to experience this now and see all of the enjoyment, excitement (again be appropriate to the context of the desire) and happiness this will bring you and tell me when will you begin the process of bringing this into your life?

Prompt 8: Very good. Now, pay attention to your breathing and when I say the number one, you can open your eyes and feel energized ready to bring in to your life all that you richly deserve. 3…2…1…

Use the Attraction Principle Pattern of Covert Hypnosis and experience the Power of the results!

Bibliography

Hill, Napoleon. The Law of Success. Napoleon Hill Foundation. 1990.
Hogan, Kevin. Covert Hypnosis Manual, Network 3000 Publishing. 2001.
Hogan, Kevin. Through the Open Door: Secrets of Self Hypnosis. Pelican Publishing. 2000

What is Covert Hypnosis Anyway

2005-12-21T13:18:00.000-08:00

What is Covert Hypnosis Anyway?

Part One: What is Hypnosis?

Kevin Hogan

This is the first of three parts. Let's start with talking about what "hypnosis" is, because once that is clearly understood...how a person can be hypnotized with their eyes wide open and chatting away....it's easy to understand what covert hyponsis is.

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.

A great tennis player is completely “in the zone” when playing the game. There are no thoughts of what to make for dinner, the trip home or paying taxes. Her thoughts are completely involved in the game and when the tennis player is really good the thoughts almost seem to disappear and she is simply playing the game as if she is a part of the game.

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.

More about hypnosis? No problem: http://www.kevinhogan.com/

Have a great day!

Kevin Hogan

Covert Hypnosis Power

2005-12-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

Covert Hypnosis is a phrase I re-coined in 1999 after it had been out of use for over 40 years. In this blog you will get some of the most powerful techniques of covert hypnosis as well as tons of related information about techniques for persuasion, internet marketing, selling, and influence.
Let's start out here....

INFLUENCING MINDS THROUGH STORIES
Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.
copyright Kevin Hogan 1999, 2005

What's your story?

How the Power of Covert Hypnosis Elegantly Persuades

http://www.kevinhogan.com/

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, as you will read about in my book, The 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 as the body language expert 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?

Interested in the power of covert hypnosis. Visit the http://www.store.kevinhogan.com/ and find out how you can learn this and a whole lot more.

Kevin Hogan
Author of the original,
Covert Hypnosis: Influencing Human Behavior