A Study in Language Skills for Sales, Hypnosis and Persuasion
By Kenrick Cleveland
Sentence fragments could be defined as incomplete sentences, where the "fragment" is designed to accomplish a specific mental or behavioral goal.
In this Special Report, I'll cover the construction and uses of sentence fragments in a number of different environments.
Careful study and practice of these techniques will amplify your abilities in hypnosis and persuasion giving you suggestion power beyond what was previously thought possible.
Let me first outline some of the theory behind the use of this pattern. Dr. Milton H. Erickson pioneered in the use of indirect, permissive types of suggestion. This type of suggestion could be seen as the opposite of the long popular "direct, authoritarian" types of suggestion.
Here's an example of both types of suggestion: The direct authoritarian suggestion - Go into a trance now! The permissive style - You may find yourself going into a trance as I speak OR as you think about my words in whatever way helps to facilitate you being able to alter your state of consciousness.
While quite a battle needlessly rages on about which method is superior, with practice and training it's my belief that you'll discover the following:
1. Both methods work.
2. You should choose the method that appeals to the person you are hypnotizing or influencing. (Refer to both my Home Study course and my Advanced Hypnosis Home Study Videos for specific methods of making this choice).
3. The use of the indirect permissive method is able to be done very covertly with, for example, no need for a pre-talk, should this be desirable as in the case of influencing someone indirectly who is not a client. Sales, would be a good example of this.
The use of the permissive, indirect approach is an elegant "natural" way to communicate that shows respect while eliminating resistance, as well as providing powerful linguistic environments to create your persuasive message. Dr. Erickson himself, in his prime, used both methods interspersed with extreme effectiveness. Thus your facility with both methods is necessitated if you want the flexibility to persuade and hypnotize at high levels.
In my opinion, sentence fragments can dramatically add to a hypnotists ability to use "patter" effectively and can be used at any time in the course of "normal speaking" to deliver suggestions more powerfully.
They work for a number of reasons. I'm sure, by now, that you are aware of the 7+/- 2 rule that states that your conscious mind has 7+/- 2 slots of information that it can deal with at any given point in time (Bandler and Grinder paraphrased). The power of these then. . . at one level. . .disarmingly simple. . . is the filling. . . and what does the conscious mind do. . . when filled?. . .
So, sentence fragments do fill the conscious minds limited ability to hold a number of separate things for conscious evaluation. What does happen when the conscious mind is overloaded? Think about it right now yourself. As if it were happening to you now. . . the overloading. . . so much to think about. . . the ease of not having to do anything. . . the comfort of slipping into agreement with me now. . . and staying there. . . in this comfortable state. . . when you think of these things. . . in the future, now. . .
This filling of the conscious mind is also facilitated by your conscious minds need to "fill in the blanks" so to speak. As an example, the last two sentence fragments in the paragraph above could be analyzed as follows: when you think of these things (which things do you mean and when am I to think of them). . . in the future, now (when in the future and in the future I'm to do what and does now mean to do it now as well or is it possibly the beginning of the next sentence or both?)...
Now just imagine if you were to add some of the 18 Most Powerful Words to this pattern. (If you don't know what these words are, refer to my home study course.)
Already I hear some of you saying that this sounds great for hypnosis, but sounds much to wordy for persuasion applications. I will get into that in just a moment - be sure, but first, how about a demonstration of these skills for a trance induction.
You'd like that you say? Well here goes. . .
As you read the induction, pay attention to how the sentence fragments assist in the induction process. Read the ellipses (. . .)with a good healthy pause. Reading it out loud may help you to "get the feel" for how it works.
A Relatively Formal Induction
As you sit there. . . listening to what I'm saying the things that will assist you to . . . enter a relaxed trance comfortably. . . with your eyes closed. . . you can begin. . . or start in any way that you want. . . thinking of several things. . . the second of which. . . can really mesmerize. . . and remembering. . . like you did as a child. . . those learning experiences. . . maybe 6 or 7. . . maybe in the first grade. . . back then. . . those little chairs. . . the numbers and letters. . .around the room. . . up on the wall. . . and already. . . you're altering. . . and. . . your unconscious. . . mind. . . can really learn. . . learning the difference between. . . a big O and a big Q. . . and whether. . . 6 was an upside 9. . . or. . . 9 was an upside down 6. . . and you learned how to turn those letters. . . into words. . . thoughts. . . complete ideas. . . deeper and deeper ideas. . . ideas that occupy all of you. . . as if. . . time. . . stands still. . . and a person could ask of yourself. . . is the body on this chair. . . pressing down comfortably. . . or is the chair pressing up against. . . supporting. . . ever so gently. . . yet securely. . . you begin. . . to orient. . . your mind. . . to begin to think. . . really think about. . . what you want to. . . change. . . now. . . you might start. . . to. . . create the change you want. . .
And so on you could go. . .
One of the best ways I've found to practice this skill, is to talk out loud and at length, using sentence fragments like the above. You'll find yourself developing a rhythm. And that's exactly what you want to do. In my earlier years (man, it's really hard, even now for me not to write in fragments, or to try and mark off my words with commas, to show the rhythm, that's in my mind - ha ha) I used to do group inductions with an old, loud metronome set between 45 and 60 beats per minute. Usually about 60 to start with and then as the trance progressed, I'd slow it to 45 beats per minute. To bring the group out of trance, I'd just start talking faster and without the rhythm.
Now, as you might have guessed, you can't really talk like the above for covert influence applications.
For covert applications, you need to make really sure that you have strong rapport. (A technique I teach called "backtracking" helps with this) And you need the ability to just. . . slip into sentence fragments. . . and perhaps. . . use commands. . . or other favorite techniques. . . like I teach in my Home Study course. This ability to just slip into the fragment way of speaking really opens up a rich environment linguistically in which you can put your embedded directives, binds, causal language patterns, 18 most powerful words etc. to great use.
The idea is to "talk normally" and to just slip a few "highly loaded" sentence fragments in that are designed to get you what you want - and then immediately transition back to "normal talking". As you do this, make sure and keep a straight face as it can be kind of humorous to slip in a "power packed" fragment or two and the person just looks at you like as if you are talking normal.
One of my favorite ways to use fragments is for the purpose of creating disassociation. Generally, when a trained person here's the word disassociation s/he thinks of conscious/unconscious disassociation. While a bit beyond the scope of this report think of using disassociation in the following ways as well - pain from consciousness - unpleasant experiences from pleasant ones - good decisions from bad ones - anesthesia from hypermnesia.
Want an advanced concept to think about? O.K. here it is. Is it possible, to create a conscious/unconscious disassociation - anchor it spatially - attach through suggestion and anchoring pleasant decisions to the unconscious state and bad decisions to the conscious state? Could you then amplify this by connecting anesthesia to the unconscious state and hypermnesia to the conscious state - thus making bad decisions extremely uncomfortable? Finally, could you link through suggestion etc. what you want the person you are working with/influencing to do to the unconscious/good decision state and any other decision to the conscious/painful state?
Think about it. . .
Do you want some practice with conscious/unconscious disassociation?
Alrighty then. . .
Here's a really good way to practice/learn fragments and conscious/unconscious disassociation patterns. Keep in mind that you can throw "the whole kitchen sink" into these fragments. Such as commands, binds, 18 most powerful words, double dissociative conscious/unconscious double binds (fancy huh), causal linkages etc. Let your imagination run away with yourself.
Here's how to do this: Just pick a statement from one side of the page, read it, then pick a causal word from the middle (if necessary), read it, then pick a statement from the other side of the page. Look them over and give it a try. It'll come real natural for you. Make sure and pause often and appropriately. . . You might also start with or end with a causal word or. . .
Mix and Match the Following. . .
your unconscious mind is diligently remembering a favorite time you entered into a profound therapeutic trance
--while
--your conscious mind recalls creating the change you want
another part of you. . . decides to create the wanted results. . .
--and
--you go deeper into trance
you watch yourself relaxing
--still
--you discover these new changes are permanent
I want to talk with you
--as
--your conscious self is absorbed elsewhere
you can do many things
--because
--your unconscious is learning that carrying out my ideas and suggestions makes you happy
And on and on you could go. This should spur you to write some of your own examples. Do use them and practice with them until they become second nature to you. You could even take these and add to them some of your own, if you'd like and read them to a client as you are inducing trance (might want them to shut their eyes first).
Be creative.
© 1997 Kenrick E. Cleveland
Copyright 2006 Influence Marketing, LLC
http://maxpersuasion.com/
Sentence Fragments in Persuasion and Hypnosis