Fun with Elicitation

The topic for today is eliciting states.

How about this: you get someone to make a picture, and then you “grab” that picture, and change it to a color in your hand, and then as you bring the color closer, you turn it into a squirt gun and start squirting them with it!

Can you imagine yourself using this technique? I literally did this with a person who is very visually-oriented today (we were working with pleasure states) and it was so funny – everytime I fired the squirt gun they had a very visible response. Then I turned it into a phaser like in star trek and just held down the button!

Of course, at the end I gave them the power in such a way that they can fire it off themselves and feel good now for no reason at all. I did that by using an imagined sliding anchor, like a DHE-style control panel.

How about this: Tell your client to imagine they were in Willy Wonka’s elevator and, if you know anything about Willy Wonka’s elevator, it always bursts thru the ceiling, which is just what we want!

So, how do we elicit states?

1. Direct commands. “Now in a second I want you to feel a really good feeling, all thruout your mind and body”

2. Description. “Have you ever felt that first tingle of pleasure starting at your feet and then moving upward at the perfect speed, right under your skin but at the same time barely touching it?”

3. Description/questions coupled with physiology . “How would you be breathing if you were really certain right now? What would your posture be like? Would your head be up or down? What kinds of thoughts would you be thinking?”

“You know the other day I saw a really successful guy, and he told me that people can choose to have their facial muscles relax but at the same time grin a little bit, he said that there’s a process where you can really start to feel yourself standing more upright, and where what happens when you start to think about being successful and you start to describe how that will feel, your body starts to make these changes happen instantly…”

4. Pacing and leading. (and feel it yourself.) “Wow it sounds like your life really isn’t doing that well right now, but have you noticed how you’re already starting to move past that? And as you pick up speed towards what you do want to have happen and you start to think about that, you know I even see that your eyes are clearer now… I wonder, if you could just pretend to go into a totally neutral state right now, one where you are thinking clearly and your breathing becomes deeper, what does that feel like?” (etc, move into the other languaging)

You elicit the state, lead them where you know they want to go, and then once you’re done, give them back their own power so they can return there every time. They’ll remember you forever.