Hypnosis has been with us since humans developed language.
It was used in many ways with or without intention and is continued to be used regularly today.
But the main difference is that today the techniques have been developed to a much more precise and effective level.
Practitioners have learned that although, for a hypnosis session to be successful, a full participation by the subject is needed, it isn't necessary for the subject to be aware that he or she is actually being hypnotized...
In fact, many times people that are deemed as "bad hypnosis subject" respond readily to what is today being called covert hypnosis.
You see, through testing, hypnotists have developed techniques to bypass the critical faculty of the conscious mind and talk directly to the subconscious mind, which is incapable of critically evaluating information and simply reacts to "commands".
The purpose of the critical mind is to analyze the incoming information, compare it with our values and evaluate it if it's important enough to act upon.
If it determines that it should be acted upon, it commands the subconscious mind to take action.
At this point the subconscious mind, as it's designed for, can't do anything but act and carry out the pre-programmed task at hand.
For example...
If you were to drive to the crossroads and read the sign that said your route is to the right, you're conscious mind would analyze the information and determine that you should turn right.
It would then command the subconscious to carry out the action.
You wouldn't think...
"OK, now I have to pull my right hand down a bit on the wheel, let go with the left hand and grab the wheel lower on the left side and as I release the right hand...
" you know what I mean.
You'd just turn right.
Your subconscious mind would react and do the pre-programmed task for you.
This also works for other things.
The conscious mind is there to make decisions and the subconscious is there to carry out the tasks given to it -- it's also called the reactive mind because it can only react to stimuli (has no thought capability).
So now, how does covert hypnosis work then? When a person implements covert hypnosis techniques, he or she intentionally and covertly creates states in a person that cause him or her to use significantly less critical thought so that he or she can slide suggestions in to the subconscious mind that without conscious rejection can do nothing but act on them.
There's a vast array of techniques in the arsenal of covert hypnotist to do just this and here's how one can at least partly resist them: 1.
) USE CRITICAL THOUGHT MORE OFTEN Always ask yourself "Is this decision really the right one?", "Did I consider all the options?", "Am I making an emotional decision or a rational one?", "Is what this person is saying even possible?".
These questions will prevent you from making rash and emotional (=subconscious) decisions and will turn on your critical thought that'll re-evaluate the situation.
Of course, once an emotional response was established it's hard to "undo" it, unless you realize that the proposal was a scam or something similar.
Here's a short example of how this might work...
On a lazy afternoon a long lost friend suddenly calls you.
"This is great", you think, "It's so nice to hear him after such a long time".
Your guards are down (= critical evaluation of incoming information is minimised!) and you readily respond to his cues with laughter, imagination etc.
After talking a bit, he tells you how he's now finally financially independent.
You get curious (= even more responsive!) and want to know more.
He proceeds to tell you that with minimal investment and a few hours a week he manages to make more money in a day than he did in a week before.
He also tells you how he never thought this was possible (= a simple technique called pacing) and that maybe he could "get you in" if you acted quickly.
He then focuses you on how easy everything is, explains that all you need is to get 5 people to join "under you" and you'll get the commissions on all of the new people they get and also commissions on what their new people get and so on.
He then asks you if you're in.
If you never heard about a "pyramid scheme", you might just "grab the opportunity" and go for it.
If you heard of it, you're internal alarms sound and your critical thought immediately analyzes the situation.
This time you were saved...
But...
if you never heard of it before, you just might go for it and get suckered like millions others in the world.
In such situations you should just stop...
and ask yourself "Doesn't the world run out of people after just the 15th.
round of people recruit new members?".
If you did this, you'd see that it's a scam and you'd be saved again.
This is just a simple example.
Covert hypnosis can be used in virtually any situation and as it's so subtle it's very hard to detect.
2.
) GET ACQUAINTED WITH THE WORKINGS OF COVERT HYPNOSIS This is the simplest thing you can do to quickly spot if the techniques are being used on you.
It's also a good way of getting the tools you need to effectively get people to do what you want.
As you can see, it's very easy to become a "victim" of covert hypnosis.
If you use the above suggestions regularly, you'll be above 99% of all the people and will also be less susceptible to many advertising messages that more and more use such techniques to get you as a customer.