Politics, Sure, but What the Heck are They Talking About?

I once had a dream that I went with a friend to the Gates of Hell. It was a huge crater in the Earth covered in sick green shrubs and centuries of wrecked and ruined structures all down the slopes leading into the darkness. It was unnaturally cold and quiet, and the misty air was filled with sadness. 

As we stared into the depths, we became aware of strange, wispy, ghostly forms, flying around and around in the depths. My friend asked me what they were, and I, apparently heir to occult knowledge, told him they were the hopes and dreams, loves and hates of people who had died before they ever had a chance to resolve them. They fly around and around like lost dogs looking for home. Over thousands and thousands of years, some take on enough power and intelligence to achieve lives of their own, and they escape from the pit as demons, often very, very different from the innocent feelings they started out as, and they go forth into the world to influence people and events in ways that no one can imagine.

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Here in the USA, we've got a presidential election coming up, and the internet is abuzz with all kinds of discussions. People with more common sense probably avoid political discussion like the plague, but I'm fascinated being able to learn the thinking of people with views very different from my own, and for me, the internet is an ideal place to learn. There's a lot of juvenile noise out there, but there are people representing all different kinds of politics who can have an intelligent, if heated, discussion, and that's where you'll find me.

However, there are these things I come across in discussion that confound and frustrate me, and, like the demons in my dream, seem to have a life and intelligence of their own, yet impose a powerful influence on people's thinking. And like those wispy spirits, they seem to have metamorphosed into something very different than their original incarnation. Stranger still, people possessed by these sprites assume that everyone else knows and understands them in the same way that they do. I guess you could call them memes, mind viruses, or even brain worms. NLP might refer to them as metaphors or nominalizations.

What I'm talking about are these catchphrases that people of a like mind all agree upon so insistently that they can no longer be broken down into their the component facts that once spawned them, and they have become an emotional hot-button, rather than information. In nearly all cases, these demons have wrapped deliberate disinformation around a core of fact.

Now, when I talk politics on line, I usually find myself in disagreements with people both on the left and on the right. What I see when these demons are at work is a normally thoughtful, rational individual will become emotionally charged and completely intractable when these demons are invoked. I always try to ask "what do you really mean?" or "can you define it better" or just, "I don't get it, explain it." But they never do.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Things like:
All the candidates are the same!
All Christians are hypocrites!
You don't want government involved!
All Southerners are racists!
All Muslims are a threat!
Benghazi!
Socialism!
Free stuff!

And so forth.

They're generalizations. They're false, but some evidence could be found to show they're occasionally or conditionally true. The people will fight before they stop to really examine them. My experience is that these demons are pretty intractable. When they come up in conversation they're usually embedded deeply into a person's belief structure --their map of the world-- and so, are very hard to approach objectively.

But like something from an old Vincent Price movie, these evil influences spread through entire groups of people who embrace them willingly, an the demons bend and twist otherwise intelligent people to do their bidding.

I wish a I knew a way to exorcise these conversational demons, but the people so possessed seem to love them and won't give them up for anything. But at least you can be vigilant against getting possessed! Don't get sucked into the emotion of it. Don't accept the generalizations, don't be afraid to examine your own beliefs and always be willing to change and correct yourself if you're wrong, even if you've invested a lot of time and feeling.

What do you think?

TRY!

There are some words that are dear to the hypnotist's heart, and few as much as the word TRY!
"Try to keep your eyes open.."
"Try to remember the number.."
"Try to feel the pain of your injury.."

But what makes it such a power word? Well, yes, it implies failure, and it's a sneaky command to do the opposite of what we seem to be asking the client. We don't say "Keep your eyes open" when we want the client to close his eyes, even though that is usually how the client perceives it. (And isn't it terrible that when a kid is having trouble in school we tell him to "TRY HARDER!!" Think about it).

On a deeper level, though, it's more than a covert reverse-suggestion.

When we use the word TRY, we're really telling the client to begin to substitute our suggestion for their own empirical experience. "Try to open your eyes, and you'll find you can't." Words like try reprogram, for a little while, the clients perceptions of his own experience in a way that make those experiences seem to support and reinforce the truth of OUR suggestions.

Powerful stuff.

What other treasured words can you think of that will also encourage the client to accept our suggestions over their own experience?

The Easiest Embedded Commands

They say, "before you begin to learn Zen, the trees are trees and the flowers are flowers. Then you begin to learn Zen and the trees are no longer trees and the flowers no longer flowers. But when you've learned it all, once again, the trees are trees and the flowers, flowers. I don't know much about Zen, but I do know a little NLP, and I know that saying is very true for NLP. For example, once upon a time, a greeting was a greeting, and I never thought twice about it. Then I began to learn NLP, and everything became an opportunity to practice a skill, greetings included. The only difference is that with NLP, even after greetings become greetings again, they're still opportunities to practice. Here are two that I had fun with, and I think you will too. For decades, I'd pass coworkers in the halls at the places I worked and they'd absently say "How are you," to acknowledge my presence. If I was busy, or unmotivated, or in that office fugue-state that many of us spend our lives in, I'd absently respond "fine, thanks." That's how it goes in most places, and no one thinks twice about it, but it's a great opportunity that folks like us shouldn't let pass! Here are some ways you can use it to improve your skills, learn about consciousness, and brighten the day for the people around you. First one: I didn't like the numbness that infects offices and so, just as often, I'd respond with something like "too early to tell!" or "just terrible!" You can imagine that it stopped 'em cold. Invariably, they'd stop, and look up with a confused, blank stare. Of course I delivered the line with a big smile, and when they saw the smile, they got the joke, and it made them smile, too. What was going on? In NLP lingo this is a break state, a technique that breaks, momentarily, whatever mental state the other person happens to be in. See, no one ever asks "how are you" because they really want to know. It's just an automatic ritualized way to acknowledge another's presence. Since it is a ritual, there's also a ritualized response, "fine, thanks," and as long as the the expected response is given, the pattern is completed with very little conscious awareness. When you give an unexpected, non-ritualized response, it disrupts the expected pattern, and the person who initiated the sequence is suddenly brought totally into the moment. That's why they stop and look up at you: they need more data so they can adapt their pattern and complete it. This process is instantaneous, and mostly unconscious (instantaneous responses are usually mostly unconscious responses). As soon as they look at you they get the data they need: your radiant smile! It's not the expected response, but still gives them input they need to complete the pattern and get on with their day. The difference is that you've brought their awareness fully into the present, if only for a moment, and in that moment, your smile has also embedded a suggestion for happiness into their psyche. Cool, huh? Here's another: When they say/ask "how are you" look 'em in the eye and respond "Feeling fantastic!" Have a warm smile and exaggerated tonality, so you're really projecting "feeling fantastic" with your voice, too. What's happening: Again, they initiate the ritual pattern with their greeting. You respond using direct but natural eye contact as you say "feeling fantastic!" Notice you DON'T say "I'm feeling fantastic." Rather you want to issue the command to feel fantastic, in a way that should elicit (bring up) feeling really good. It's almost a direct command, but it's embedded in the ritual context of the greeting. It's also issued at the same time as you make eye contact, so that their attention is split between two sensory inputs, and they're less conscious of either. Finally, as they're bringing up the feeling of fantastic-ness, they're looking right at you so the good feeling is anchored to you! It doesn't obviously have much impact at first, but will condition them to feel good when they see you! If the explanations make this all seem complicated, just ignore them, but please do the techniques and see what thay can do for you! Feel free to post your responses and questions! You can download this article here: Easy Embedded Command