Indirect Suggestions
Direct versus Indirect suggestions
There are two main ways to make suggestions to someone under hypnosis. These are direct and indirect suggestions. When people think of hypnosis they think of the heavy voice commanding you to relax, close your eyes or go to sleep. This is known as direct suggestion. Sigmund Freud attempted to use direct suggestions at the beginning of the twentieth century but quickly abandoned it because he found it too difficult and thought the results unpredictable. Your subject needs to have a great level of trust in you; as a hypnotist and a person. You are asking them to do everything you say without thinking. You also need to hold a certain level of authority over the subject. If Freud, a well respect psychoanalyst and doctor had problems with this back in the early 1900's imagine how difficult it would be to induce hypnosis in someone walking in of the street in today's sceptical world.
Why should I use indirect suggestions.
Now conversational hypnosis is thought to be very subtle and covert. Direct suggestions clearly aren't going to work in this situation. Can you imagine walking up to a friend and telling them that they "are feeling very sleepy now." Not only is it unlikely to work but they might just think that you are a little bit bonkers.
Advantages of indirect suggestions
When you use indirect suggestions you are giving the subject more options. They can either follow the commands or ignore them. Simply giving a person this option automatically makes them more relaxed. They feel more in control of the situation and less likely to put up resistance towards your suggestions. You commands become less like "you are becoming more relaxed" and more like "if you want to go deeper into relaxation you can do that now."
The main aim of conversational hypnosis is to implant thoughts into a person's subconscious mind without them realising you are doing it. Even if your subject is aware that you are hypnotising them they still shouldn't be able to recognise the suggestions. The moment they realise where the suggestion is they begin to put up resistance. The perfect indirect suggestion happens without anyone noticing.
Have a look at the Conversational Hypnosis section now to learn how to hypnotize others.