The Language of Confusion in Hypnosis

Now normally we don’t like to try to confuse people.  When done purposefully it can seem in a way cruel.  However, confusion related to Conversational Hypnosis can be a fascinating and powerful tool as the master hypnotist Milton Erickson has shown us throughout history.

Milton Erickson was a great hypnotist and one of the pieces of his profession he was most admired for was his ability to get the most stubborn and resistant people into a state of hypnosis.  His secret weapon in this was simply to confuse them.  Confuse them to the point that the critical factor within them is too busy trying to get unconfused and make sense of it all.  This allowed him to simply slip past the critical factor and induce a hypnotic trance in those who were very resistant.

So let’s take a closer look at Mr. Erickson’s secret weapon of confusion. How can confusion be used to create a positive outcome, after all that is the point of hypnosis in the first place.

Confusion in Conversational Hypnosis is very powerful. The language of confusion with in the context of hypnosis will allow you to do things that would normally not be allowed due to the strict surveillance of the critical factor. 

Your ability to confuse people will assist you in sneaking by the critical factor to insert your suggestions into the unconscious itself.  When you master the technique of confusion you will be able to bypass the critical factor easily and efficiently.

So how exactly do you get past the critical factor with the language of confusion?  Confusion will simply keep the critical factor busy trying to sort out all the different messages that it has received; it gets all tied up, giving you the opportunity to send in the suggestion with little to no detection by the critical factor.  The unconscious at this point is like an open door just waiting for you to walk into.

The goal here is to get enough confusion going that the critical factor is completely overwhelmed and preoccupied.  The first way to really concentrate the language of confusion is to layer it in, much like you learned to do with ambiguous messages.  When you use this layering effect is sure to include double meanings as this is what really gets the confusion going.

Layering the double meanings on top of one another, each time using a different context for the word and doing it repeatedly will be a difficult task for the critical factor to sort out.

 Let’s give an example in which you use the words ‘left’ and ‘right’ in your conversation.  Just these two words, left and right, with all their different meanings and in all different contexts, one right after the other.  As the conversation proceeds the meanings will start to get confused.  Your listener’s critical factor will want you to slow down so it can analyze it all, however the information from you will just keep coming. 

The quick smooth relay of all the different meanings of the same words used in different contexts will be very overwhelming to the critical factor.  The confusion becomes so much that the critical factor will just give up at some point and let down its guard.

This language of confusion can be used anytime you come across a word with multiple meanings.  Keep in mind that the word and its meanings will need to fit into the context of what you are trying to get across to your listener.  It seems that the need for adequate context would limit your abilities here, it does to a point but you will be surprised at how often this layering can still be done.

Another confusion pattern in called the double negation.  It is otherwise known as double negatives.  The way the double negation confusion pattern works is to use two negatives in the same statement, you can use more but you should start with two and work up from there. 

In this technique the mind has difficulty because it does not like to deal with negatives.  Negatives are confusing because if you really stop to think about it, a negative does not exist.  Dealing with something that is non existent is more difficult than dealing with things you can see, hear, and touch.

When your mind hears a statement about something you don’t have there is a process to go through in order to understand that statement.  First your mind recognizes the subject, (the thing you don’t have) then it has to take it away realize what you are left with. 

It is important to understand how hard the mind is working here, mainly because most people never think about it.  Speaking with one negative comes so easily that unless you read this you may never know how hard your mind is working when it hears more than one negative in a statement. 

So how double negations work is you make a statement with two or more negatives in it.  For example, “I don’t have a piece of gum that you can’t chew.” After you have made a statement to a person with two or more negatives in it you will simply attach the suggestion to the end of it.  “I don’t have a piece of gum that you can’t chew anymore than you can relax right now.”  Notice how you focused on figuring out whether or not I actually have a piece of gum for you?

Statements with two or three negatives are generally confusing enough to the mind that the critical factor will too be busy dealing what you do an don’t have that the suggestion you attach to it will slip in unnoticed.

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