Hypnotic suggestion

Researchers have been trying for decades to work out what makes a person susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Are some people more suggestible than others? If so, can we predict who will be more suggestible? Can we increase suggestibility? … and so on.

What has become clear is that there are four main types of hypnotic suggestion:

Results from research on ’susceptibility’, have been conflicting, to say the least! All the same, there are some clear cut indications of who may be suggestible.

According to one authority, susceptibility scales “typically contain a number of test suggestions which the participant will either pass or fail. Test suggestions are either ‘motor’ or ‘cognitive’ and also either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ in nature.”

OK - as you can see, writers on this subject like to talk mumbo jumbo. So let’s turn this into English! If you look at the above pic you will see what this means. People can be hypnotically influenced in four ways! So these tests look for a person’s suggestibility to:

Commands to DO
*commands to control actions eg - involuntary arm levitations
*commands to control thoughts eg - believe they are a chicken

Commands ‘NOT to do’
*commands to demand non-action eg - can’t bend arm
*commands to stop certain thoughts eg - can’t hear /see)

This all means that the first step to successful hypnosis is to be clear about the type of result you are after. Top salesmen that are “naturals” (research shows that they use a style which closely resembles hypnotic suggestion techniques) are clearly aiming at quadrant 3 (and sometimes even quadrant 4)

In other words, they are aiming to strongly influence thinking (target ends up “believing”, for eg, that they will be highly successful with…) in order to produce a desired outcome (a sale). Being able to tell which people are susceptible to this type of suggestion makes hypnotic suggestion more likely to succeed.

Research results on this will be in a later post but for now just consider the types of people that Scientology targets. Here is an organization that has specialized in using hypnotic suggestion techniques and that seem to have a clearer idea of who are vulnerable targets than researchers do! Now Scientology uses this power systematically to enslave vast numbers of people.

So we also need to understand that there is power in hypnosis - and that we have a responsibility to use it wisely!

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