Here is a quick hypnosis and NLP technique that I often use:
When explaining the pre-talk to the person, tap a space on the table that is closer to them, and label it the “conscious” mind. Then refer to a space closer to you, and label it the “unconscious mind.” This way when you’re talking, you can put things into the space for the unconscious mind.
Note: When I say “label” it, I mean that you are referring to it in an ambiguous way. You don’t outright tell them, “this is your conscious mind, this is your unconscious” instead you say “your unconscious mind” while gesturing to the space closest to you.
The unconscious space is closer to you, so it presupposes that if things come from that direction, they must be intended for the unconscious mind. You are essentially creating a submodality shift — by aligning things on a line, for which close to you means “unconscious” and away from you means “conscious”.
We can also indicate messages to be for the unconscious mind by using tonal marking and by referring to a visual location with our eyes (example: looking over the person’s right shoulder every time a message is meant for the unconscious mind)
11 replies on “Conscious and Unconscious Mind Positioning (for Coaching and NLP)”
Elegant and useful thank you
Great technique….. I will for sure use this one!
Genius Taylor! Isn’t this how Erickson used to do some of his embedded commands, by speaking to one ear then to the other ear?
there are probably some that would benefit in some significant ways by simply considering and then interacting with your hypnosis materials from this common ground viewpoint that you have proposed… consider the advantages of being able to read or listen to or watch a different style of hypnosis , with the intent to learn the specifics of the how that method is directing the subject into this unconscious state.
Hey Antonio,
Yeah Erickson would direct certain things to the client’s unconscious mind by marking it that way. One of the ways he did it most was through tonal marking, which is varying his speech intonation patterns to communicate that parts of the message are meant to be interpreted unconsciously. Very useful techniques 🙂
Taylor while at work last night I thought of a way that a person could utilize this technique. You know that old age adage “on one hand you have x and on the other hand you have y”. I’m curious to know how this could be used in this context. “You know on one hand you have your conscious mind that keeps track of blah blah, and on the other hand you have your unconscious, that does blah blah”.
Taylor while at work last night I thought of a way that a person could utilize this technique. You know that old age adage “on one hand you have x and on the other hand you have y”. I’m curious to know how this could be used in this context. “You know on one hand you have your conscious mind that keeps track of blah blah, and on the other hand you have your unconscious, that does blah blah”.
I had already posted the above when I forgot about something that might be of some interest. In Matthew Chapter 6 of the bible Matthew says “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing”. I’m sure this could be integrated with the above logic of mine, and could come in handy with a religious person.
Whatcha think?
works for me
I especially love the idea of looking over the persons right shoulder when the message is intended for the subconscious. I’m going to use that with some of my clients today and see what happens.
nice post. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did anyone hear that some hacker had busted twitter yesterday.
I am definitely bookmarking this page and sharing it with my friends.
🙂