Covert hypnosis

Last updated

Covert hypnosis is an attempt to communicate with another person's unconscious mind without informing the subject that they will be hypnotized. It is also known as conversational hypnosis or sleight of mouth. [1] (although both Conversational Hypnosis and Slight of Mouth can also be done overtly). It is a term largely used by proponents of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a pseudoscientific approach to communication and interaction. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

The objective is to change the person's behavior subconsciously so that the target believes that they changed their mind of their own volition. When or if performed successfully, the target is unaware that they were hypnotized or that anything unusual has occurred. Arguably there is a debate about what hypnosis is, and how covert hypnosis should be classified. "Standard" hypnosis requires the focus and attention of the subject, while covert hypnosis seems to focus on "softening" the subject by using confusion, fatigue, directed attention, and interrupted sentences. This is most similar to salesmen talking to customers when they are tired. Critical thinking and questioning of statements likely requires mental effort. [7] [ improper synthesis? ] The theme of "covert hypnosis" appears to be along the lines of causing the subject to enter "down time". [8] Regardless of whether "covert hypnosis" fits the standard definition of hypnosis, fatigue appears to impair critical thinking. [7] This might explain why interrogation, military training, and cult-recruitment practices prefer to deprive their new recruits of sleep. [9]

Technique

Covert hypnosis is a phenomenon not too different from indirect hypnosis, as derived from Milton H. Erickson and popularized as "The Milton Model" [10] in style, [11] but the defining feature is that the hypnotized individual subsequently engages in hypnotic phenomena without conscious effort or choice. Covert hypnosis, like "Ericksonian Hypnosis",[ clarification needed ] "operates through covert and subtle means... to reach deeper levels of consciousness than are touched by the surface structure of language". [12] It is the concept that an individual, 'the hypnotist,' can control another individual's behavior via gaining rapport. [13] During hypnosis, the operator or hypnotist makes suggestions. The subject is intended to not be completely aware, on a conscious level, of the suggestions.

The hypnotist gains rapport [13] [14] with the listener(s) and the hypnotist maintains psychological congruency [15] (the act of truly acting towards your goals without hesitation[ clarification needed ]), both linguistically and in one's nonverbal communication. As the subject listens while feeling a psychological connection with the hypnotist and the hypnotist displaying behaviors such as confidence and understanding, [13] the hypnotist then presents linguistic data in the form of metaphor:

The Metaphor presents a surface structure of meaning in the actual words of the story, which activates an associated deep structure of meaning that is indirectly relevant to the listener, which activates a recovered deep structure of meaning that is directly relevant to the listener. [16]

In other words, this process builds most likely unconscious states within the listener, and then associates those states through covert conditioning, also known as covert anchoring, thereby forming unconsciously controlled behaviors and thoughts. Often methods of tricking the listener to believe that the hypnotist is talking about something else other than the subject are employed, for instance, by shifting use of time and use of identity in language. One famous example is employed by Milton H. Erickson "and a tomato can be happy". [16]

An example

A state of forgetfulness may be elicited by talking about what it feels like to be in that state in a manner that implies the other person is currently experiencing it. Once this state is at a heightened peak the hypnotist can then talk about that state, relating to a concept like the unsuspecting subject's name (a phenomenon called name amnesia), and the subject will suddenly be unaware of his/her name on questioning (provided the suggestions implied immediate effect and the subject is suggestible enough to be influenced in this way). The purpose of covert hypnosis is to shut down or at least reduce the analytical part of the subject's mind, lest they suspect something. This may be achieved fairly quickly by someone with practice. [13]

In the media

Real estate trainer Glenn Twiddle in June 2010, appeared on the Australian television show A Current Affair . The segment explains how he teaches real-estate agents these techniques to use on unsuspecting buyers of property. [17]

In fiction

In fiction "covert hypnosis" has been featured in television series, though rather overrepresented. In The Mentalist , covert hypnosis is portrayed in an episode when a perpetrator uses it to control others and attempts to kill her employer. [18] In an episode of The X-Files , a man with a brain tumor gains additional skill in hypnosis, and he utilizes it to escape police captivity. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypnosis</span> State of increased suggestibility

Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.

Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy is generally not considered to be based on scientific evidence, and is rarely recommended in clinical practice guidelines. It is regarded as a type of alternative medicine.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy, that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's 1975 book The Structure of Magic I. NLP asserts that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and acquired behavioral patterns, and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP can treat problems such as phobias, depression, tic disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, near-sightedness, allergy, the common cold, and learning disorders, often in a single session. They also say that NLP can model the skills of exceptional people, allowing anyone to acquire them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton H. Erickson</span> American psychiatrist (1901–1980)

Milton Hyland Erickson was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. He is also noted for influencing brief therapy, strategic family therapy, family systems therapy, solution focused brief therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming.

Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. One may fill in gaps in certain memories with false information given by another when recalling a scenario or moment. Suggestibility uses cues to distort recollection: when the subject has been persistently told something about a past event, his or her memory of the event conforms to the repeated message.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Grinder</span> American linguist (born 1940)

John Thomas Grinder Jr. is an American linguist, writer, management consultant, trainer and speaker. Grinder is credited with co-creating the pseudoscience known as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) with Richard Bandler. He is co-director of Quantum Leap Inc., a management consulting firm founded by his partner Carmen Bostic St. Clair in 1987. Grinder and Bostic St. Clair also run workshops and seminars on NLP internationally.

Richard Wayne Bandler is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help. With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s, which is considered pseudoscience.

The Nancy School was a French hypnosis-centered school of psychotherapy. The origins of the thoughts were brought about by Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault in 1866, in Nancy, France. Through his publications and therapy sessions he was able to gain the attention/support from Hippolyte Bernheim: another Nancy Doctor that further evolved Liébeault's thoughts and practices to form what is known as the Nancy School.

Suggestion is the psychological process by which a person guides their own or another person's desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by presenting stimuli that may elicit them as reflexes instead of relying on conscious effort.

Transderivational search is a psychological and cybernetics term, meaning when a search is being conducted for a fuzzy match across a broad field. In computing the equivalent function can be performed using content-addressable memory.

The development of concepts, beliefs and practices related to hypnosis and hypnotherapy have been documented since prehistoric to modern times.

Practices in Scientology make extensive use of techniques drawn from hypnosis. They are used in 'auditing' and in the Training Routines widely practiced within the Church of Scientology. Hypnosis, in this context, is defined as language and nonverbal communication employed to induce heightened responsiveness and suggestibility. The Church of Scientology denies that its practices involve hypnosis. The organization says that it will not permit individuals who say they have previously experienced hypnosis – as either a subject or practitioner – to participate in Scientology training, with the stated reasoning that there is a possibility of harm caused by the prior exposure to hypnosis.

Nicholas Peter Spanos, was professor of psychology and director of the Laboratory for Experimental Hypnosis at Carleton University from 1975 to his death in a single engine plane crash on June 6, 1994. Spanos conducted multiple studies that challenged common beliefs. He tried to distinguish the difference between common beliefs about hypnosis and what was actually occurring. These studies conducted by Spanos led to the modern understanding that hypnosis is not an altered state and is actually suggested behaviors that the participant chooses to go along with or not. Along with this, Spanos conducted studies regarding dissociative identity disorder in which he stated that multiple personalities are not a product of trauma but are based on social norms.

The methods of neuro-linguistic programming are the specific techniques used to perform and teach neuro-linguistic programming, which teaches that people are only able to directly perceive a small part of the world using their conscious awareness, and that this view of the world is filtered by experience, beliefs, values, assumptions, and biological sensory systems. NLP argues that people act and feel based on their perception of the world and how they feel about that world they subjectively experience.

For over a century, hypnosis has been a popular theme in fiction – literature, film, and television. It features in movies almost from their inception and more recently has been depicted in television and online media. As Harvard hypnotherapist Deirdre Barrett points out in 'Hypnosis in Popular Media', the vast majority of these depictions are negative stereotypes of either control for criminal profit and murder or as a method of seduction. Others depict hypnosis as all-powerful or even a path to supernatural powers.

William Joseph Bryan, Jr. (1926–1977) was an American physician and a pioneering hypnotist. He was one of the founders of modern hypnotherapy and his work notably found use in psychological warfare during the Cold War. He was a great-grandson of United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.

Perspectives on the abduction phenomenon are explanations that are intended to explain claims of abduction and examination by apparently otherworldly beings. The main differences between these perspectives lie in the credence ascribed to the claims. Perspectives range from the assertion that all abductions are hoaxes to the belief that the claims are of objective happenings and separate from the consciousness of the claimants.

Stage hypnosis is hypnosis performed in front of an audience for the purposes of entertainment, usually in a theater or club. A modern stage hypnosis performance typically delivers a comedic show rather than simply a demonstration to impress an audience with powers of persuasion. Apparent effects of amnesia, mood altering and hallucination may be demonstrated in a normal presentation. Stage hypnosis performances often encourage audience members to look further into the benefits of hypnotism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypnotic induction</span> Hypnotic process

Hypnotic induction is the process undertaken by a hypnotist to establish the state or conditions required for hypnosis to occur.

Post-hypnotic amnesia is the inability in hypnotic subjects to recall events that took place while under hypnosis. This can be achieved by giving individuals a suggestion during hypnosis to forget certain material that they have learned, either before or during hypnosis. Individuals who are experiencing post-hypnotic amnesia cannot have their memories recovered once put back under hypnosis; it is therefore not state-dependent. Nevertheless, memories may return when presented with a pre-arranged cue. This makes post-hypnotic amnesia similar to psychogenic amnesia, as it disrupts the retrieval process of memory. It has been suggested that inconsistencies in methodologies used to study post-hypnotic amnesia cause varying results.

References

  1. ↑ Dilts, Robert (1999). Sleight of Mouth: The Magic of Conversational Belief Change. Meta Publications. ISBN   978-0-916990-43-5.
  2. ↑ Thyer, Bruce A.; Pignotti, Monica G. (2015). Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice. Springer Publishing Company. pp. 56–57, 165–167. ISBN   978-0-8261-7769-8. As NLP became more popular, some research was conducted and reviews of such research have concluded that there is no scientific basis for its theories about representational systems and eye movements.
  3. ↑ von Bergen, C. W.; Gary, Barlow Soper; Rosenthal, T.; Wilkinson, Lamar V. (1997). "Selected alternative training techniques in HRD". Human Resource Development Quarterly. 8 (4): 281–294. doi:10.1002/hrdq.3920080403.
  4. ↑ Druckman, Daniel (1 November 2004). "Be All That You Can Be: Enhancing Human Performance". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 34 (11): 2234–2260. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb01975.x.
  5. ↑ Witkowski, Tomasz (1 January 2010). "Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?". Polish Psychological Bulletin. 41 (2). doi: 10.2478/v10059-010-0008-0 .
  6. ↑ Sharpley, Christopher F. (1 January 1987). "Research findings on neurolinguistic programming: Nonsupportive data or an untestable theory?". Journal of Counseling Psychology. 34 (1): 103–107. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.34.1.103.
  7. 1 2 Burkley, E. (2008). The role of self-control in resistance to persuasion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 419–431.
  8. ↑ O'Connor, Joseph (2002). Introducing Neuro Linguistic Programming. Harper Element.
  9. ↑ Jahoda, G. (1989). "Some Historical and Cultural Aspects of Suggestion". Suggestion and Suggestibility. pp. 255–261. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-73875-3_20. ISBN   978-3642738777.
  10. ↑ Robert B. Dilts; Judith A. Delozier (2000). "776 MiltonModel" (Online encyclopedia). Encyclopedia of Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Programming and NLP New Coding. NLP University Press. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  11. ↑ Erickson, Milton H. (1976). Hypnotic Realities: The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion . Irvington Publishers. ISBN   978-0470151693.
  12. ↑ Cohen, Michael H. A Question of Time. p. 8.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis. p. 37.
  14. ↑ Haley, Jay (1993). Uncommon Therapy. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   978-0-393-31031-3.
  15. ↑ Gavin, James. Lifestyle Fitness Coaching. p. 41.
  16. 1 2 Norton, Robert; Brenders, David. Communication and Consequences: Laws of Interaction. p. 207.
  17. ↑ Geoff Shearer (9 June 2010). "Real estate agents use hypnosis to seal property deals". The Courier Mail. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  18. ↑ "Russet Potatoes", The Mentalist, Season 1.
  19. ↑ "Top 15 Episodes of The X-Files". Listverse.com. 2011-11-25. Retrieved 2017-02-23.

Books

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.