Suggestion. What is it in psychology, methods, techniques, signs, techniques

Trance is a special state of a person, which is caused by a specialist or the person himself, thanks to the use of special techniques. Under their influence, the individual becomes suggestible. This is used in various fields, including medicine. The technique of hypnosis depends not only on the skill of the hypnotist, but also on what goals he pursues during the session. Today there are many schools and teachings, but many of them practice several of the most accessible and effective methods of suggestion.

Break pattern

The human brain is designed in such a way that it strives for everything familiar and wants to remain in such a comfortable state for as long as possible. Here we are talking about the so-called template. If this pattern is suddenly broken, the person falls for some time into an extremely suggestible state due to temporary confusion.

The following example can be given. Every morning a person is used to leaving home at the same time, walking across the road to the stop, boarding a trolleybus and getting to work. But one day, leaving the house, he did not find the stop in his usual place. The person is confused: how to get to work on time now. At this moment he is in a suggestible state. You can approach him and force him to do something simply by asking.

This state lasts, depending on the patient’s suggestibility and his ability to gather his will together, from 1 second to 5 minutes.

The hypnotist himself can break the pattern with his unusual behavior and plunge the person into a temporary trance.

Overload

This method is often used in so-called gypsy hypnosis. This technique of suggestion and hypnosis is simple to implement, but effective. Its essence lies in the fact that the interlocutor is bombarded with a large amount of information, which he is often simply physically unable to digest.

Most people can maintain focus on a phrase that is no more than 6-7 words long.

If this quantity is simultaneously increased in combination with a high speed of information delivery, a person ceases to understand what is being said to him and falls into a kind of confusion, akin to a hypnotic trance. At this moment, you can also suggest almost anything to him.

When performing this technique, you must adhere to the following principles:

• information is provided in large volumes;
• its delivery speed should be maximum, ideally in one breath, without separating words;
• the intonation should be monotonous, without emotional accents on the word that the consciousness could cling to.

The main thing is not to let the interlocutor come to his senses and seize the initiative.

Functions and role

In psychology, suggestion is an aid in the treatment of various diseases using relaxation methods. Hypnotic effects are used for the purpose of anesthesia or analgesia, to relieve patients from alcohol and drug addiction.

A psychotherapeutic conversation between a doctor and a patient who recognizes the doctor’s authority allows him to dispel fears for his health and remove the fear of surgery.

In public life, the technique is implemented both verbally and non-verbally. A humane option for influencing the psyche of healthy people is successfully used to improve performance.

Autogenic training techniques, as an active method of psychotherapy, effectively cope with the consequences of unfavorable situations in everyday life. Examples of social suggestibility include participants in sports and theatrical performances.

The role of suggestion is invaluable for the comprehensive development of the individual in the light of the pedagogical process. Research in this area was carried out by Bekhterev, who was the first to record the significant suggestibility of the child’s psyche. During collective influence, it is much easier to instill in children any qualities based on the authority of the teacher.

In his works on suggestion and education, Bekhterev pointed out the benefits of hypnosis in advanced cases of education, for eradicating bad habits among schoolchildren.

Natural trance

Almost everyone has either personally been in such a state or observed other people in it. A man is riding on the subway, immersed in his thoughts and dreams. He has a vacant look, now he is motionless and sees nothing in front of him. This is a natural trance. You can approach a person and encourage him to perform this or that action even before the moment the brain “woke up”.

Some people immerse themselves in this state consciously - through meditation or prayer, often by performing monotonous movements or pronouncing monotonous phrases for a long time.

Many hypnotists use pendulums, rotating objects, etc. to immerse the patient in this state.

After the object has fallen into a natural trance, it becomes more suggestible, more responsive to external stimuli. This could be the speech of a hypnotist, which sounds monotonous, but in an orderly tone.

Telling something to a person in a monotonous voice, accompanying the speech with repeated movements, you can put the interlocutor into a trance, even in the middle of a busy street. As soon as his gaze becomes “absent,” you can, without changing the speech tempo and intonation, order something to be done or instill certain information.

This method works especially well if a person is in a relaxing environment or when the atmosphere around is equally rhythmic and monotonous. This could be the sound of rain, the sound of train wheels, etc.

Self-hypnosis

This subtype of suggestion is a technique of self-government. A person constantly inspires himself with any thoughts, imposes emotions and a desire to act. The influence on one’s own self is actively used in pedagogy, education, and independent learning in various sciences. Self-hypnosis is a psychological suggestion that helps you overcome your own fears and achieve your goal.

The main forms of this impact are:

• affirmations – text and speech suggestions;
• visualization – images and pictures that create a mood and embody a specific goal;
• meditation and self-hypnosis - suggestion of thoughts.

Self-hypnosis does not always give a positive attitude; often a person unconsciously inspires himself with a negative outcome of events and mentally lowers his self-esteem. This does not allow the individual to develop and improve normally. Therefore, self-hypnosis should always be positive and conscious. The effectiveness of the impact depends on a person’s susceptibility to attitudes, as well as their quality - incorrect and unrealistic attitudes are usually not perceived by the subconscious.

Suggestion through emotional influence

You can also put a person into a trance through a vivid emotional experience. To do this, the hypnotist can appeal to the subject's memories using the phrases: “Has it ever happened to you?..” or “Do you remember how?..” Thus, the hypnotized person becomes emotionally open to further suggestion.

There is also such a secret technique of modern hypnosis as layering of realities. Its essence is that the hypnotist begins to overload the subject’s consciousness, telling him stories one after another, which gradually become more complex emotionally and situationally. The interlocutor’s consciousness begins to tire and gradually opens up.

About promotion

It becomes definitely clear what the methods of persuasion are aimed at. Methods of encouragement - do they have a psychological impact on a person? The technique of this method is aimed at stimulating and reinforcing the positive behavior of the student. But it is important to remember that encouragement should not turn into praise, as this will slow down the desire for activity. This is especially necessary for preschool, school and teenage children.

Psychologist O. Zaporozhets, having studied this method, came to the conclusion that encouragement and praise from teachers and relatives has a good effect on the activities of children. This influence includes two stages. On the first, praise will act as a direct positive reinforcement of activity. On the second, direct reinforcement will gain internal, subconscious motivation for further action. To resort to this method, it is necessary to take into account objectivity and fairness. Also, do not forget about the age and individual characteristics of the student. The practice of rewarding a person with material resources in a family often leads to big problems.

Anchoring

Each person has a set of psychological and emotional anchors - stimuli to which certain memories, reactions, etc. are attached. An example would be a person's name. He will react to his own name being spoken out loud, even if it was not addressed to him.

Of course, we are talking about the so-called conditioned reflex. Often such anchors for the formation of a conditioned reflex are formed very quickly. You only need to get into an unpleasant situation in a dark alley once in order to experience fear of all dark alleys in the future.

Another example is that the sound of a song, some object or smell can trigger a flood of suddenly flooding memories.

You can induce anchoring in your interlocutor yourself. It is important that the anchor is specific. This could be an unusual object in the hands, a special kind of cough, an unusual word, etc. If you demonstrate such an anchor for some time and stimulate it by evoking certain emotions in the subject, then in the future it will be enough to demonstrate the anchor - and the desired emotion will be evoked at the subconscious level, even if there are no objective prerequisites for this.

If necessary, you can also re-anchor, that is, evoke other emotions associated with the same anchor. This technique is often used if you need to remove phobias, negative impressions, etc.

For the method to work as powerfully as possible, it should be installed at moments of peak emotional experiences.

In practice, this method can work something like this: the hypnotist created an atmosphere of trust and positive emotions, then demonstrated an anchor. After repeating the situation several times, he can be sure that the person has become attached to his anchor. Now, if you need to force the subject to do something, it is enough to evoke positive emotions using an anchor, and then ask him to perform certain actions.

Psychological techniques

The method of persuasion, examples of which are presented in the article, is widely used by psychologists. Let's look at their main techniques:

1. Fundamental. Direct speech to the interlocutor, who is openly introduced to the necessary information that serves as the basis for evidence of the truth.
2. Contradictions. Identifying inconsistencies in the arguments of the persuaded and carefully checking personal arguments for consistency in order to prevent a counterattack.
3. Drawing conclusions. Arguments are not revealed immediately, but gradually. Seeking agreement at every step.
4. Pieces. The arguments of the person being persuaded are divided into strong, medium, and weak. The former are mostly not touched upon; the main target is the latter.
5. Emphasis. Emphasizing certain points in the arguments given by the interlocutor (“you say it yourself”).
6. Ignoring. It is used if the fact that the interlocutor cited cannot be refuted.
7. Two-sided argumentation. To be convincing, they talk first about the advantages and then about the disadvantages of the proposed method of solving this issue.
8. Boomerang method. The interlocutor is given back his own arguments, but directed in the other direction. Arguments for are turning into arguments against.

Suggestion of mental images

Modern theory, technique and practice of hypnosis often works with mental images. An experienced hypnotist knows what images should be evoked in the patient for maximum relaxation, so that he becomes suggestible and opens his mind to influence.

However, everyone can use this technique in everyday life. To do this, you will need to form the most vivid and clear picture in the interlocutor’s head so that this image is firmly fixed in the head. Over time, such an image will begin to “live” in the mind on its own, developing and supplemented with new details.

Suggestion of mental images and methods of leveling them

By encouraging a girl to marry himself, a young man can paint a bright picture of their future together. And the father, in order to force his son to study better, promises him a game console and describes in vivid images how great it will be to play it, what wonderful and exciting games it will be.

Of course, for such a technique to show good results in practice, you yourself need to have a wonderful imagination, be able to draw the most vivid pictures for your interlocutor, so that he is imbued with and falls into such an emotional state when everything that was said seems to be the pure truth.

Requirements for promotion

Please pay attention to the following points:

1. It is necessary to encourage the child’s actions that set an example for others.
2. With this method, age and personal characteristics must be taken into account.
3. Encouragement is effective only from authority figures or microsociety.
4. The method cannot be used on the same children.

In this principle, the main thing is that children or employees feel a sense of pride and satisfaction for good results in work or school.

Hidden command method

In everyday communication, a person consciously or unconsciously emphasizes the words that are most important to him. Experienced speakers and pleasant interlocutors can skillfully place such semantic and emotional accents through pauses, gestures, changes in intonation, etc. Usually people on a conscious level simply do not pay attention to this. However, their subconscious can be “deceived” in the right direction. You just need to highlight the desired phrase in your speech in one way or another.

If a young man invites a girl to a cafe, he might say something like this: “I really like this cafe. It’s so cozy, there’s a calming atmosphere, you can relax and think only about good things.” The last part of the phrase is pronounced with a changed intonation, so the girl forms a command on a subconscious level: think only about good things.

Another example. After a quarrel that just happened, a young man can say to a girl: “Right now we’re all on edge. We’ll talk when you calm down and cool down.” That is, he programs the girl to calm down and cool down.

Hidden influence must have two levels of perception. You cannot combine the conscious and subconscious, otherwise there will be only one level, the conscious, which does not work. That is, the call must be implicit. It must be present in a hidden form, veiled within the semantic content that affects consciousness.

For hidden commands to work, they need to be highlighted in one way or another.

All other information should be just a frame for the commands. It is better to pronounce minor phrases monotonously, ordinarily. As an option, a short pause before and after the key phrase.

If you need to motivate a person directly to perform some action, it is recommended to select word forms in the imperative mood, skillfully veiling them in speech.

Characteristics and Signs

The result of the impact on a person’s consciousness depends on the degree of suggestibility of the individual. Any type of communication can be equated to suggestion, but its main type is hypnosis.

The main characteristics of hidden hypnotic influence are the following methods:

• Manipulation of the psyche through influencing the victim’s inherent stereotypes by creating a sense of guilt, using human weaknesses.
• Harmless but unethical methods of neurolinguistic programming that work on the basis of human communication abilities.
• The use of criminal hypnosis is accompanied by a loss of clear control over the mind, which is necessary to stimulate illegal actions.
• The zombie technique is used by sectarians to recruit by immersing new members in an environment of caring love, which turns into complete dependence.

People with a weakened psyche, those under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or the mentally ill are best susceptible to hypnotic influence.

Hypnotic suggestion can be positive or negative, and the hidden influence is recognized by the following signs:

• copying gestures, communication style, breathing rhythm of the interlocutor;
• feeling of awkwardness, guilt, impatience in making decisions;
• excessive fussiness and activity with involvement in one’s problems;
• unnatural behavior with excessive gesturing and shifting gaze.

A person under the influence of hypnosis is overcome by pleasant fatigue, he is subject to sudden drowsiness, and there is no clear thinking. Externally, the hypnotic effect of the suggurant is manifested by a fixed gaze, dilated pupils, an unnatural posture, and slight redness of the face.

To protect against such suggestion, it is necessary to train willpower to ensure maximum resistance of the subconscious under extreme circumstances.

Suggestion through dreams

Until now, sleep is largely a mystery to physiologists. Despite the fact that the process is well studied, there are still many “blank spots” in it. However, it has been experimentally proven that a sleeping person is most open to hypnotic suggestion. This means that you can “connect” to the consciousness of the sleeping person and give him certain instructions.

Do not confuse hypnotic sleep with natural sleep. The so-called hypnotic sleep, also known as trance, is induced by one of the methods described above: monotonous speech, performing repetitive movements, maximum relaxation and invoking mental images. In this case, we are talking about natural physiological sleep.

Technique for performing hypnosis: first you need to wait for the REM sleep phase - it occurs approximately an hour and a half after falling asleep. You can determine that this phase has begun by eye movements, changed breathing rates, etc.

Now you will need to sit down at the person’s head and repeat a word rhythmically, in a whisper or in a low voice, for 2–3 minutes. You can just say “Sleep, sleep, sleep.” This is done so that the sleeping person establishes a connection with the outside world - with the speaker.

To make sure that such a connection exists, it is recommended to smoothly change the rhythm of what is spoken. If a person’s breathing changes depending on the tempo of spoken phrases, then you can proceed to the next stage of hypnosis - directly to suggestion.

The volume of the voice increases slightly, but the phrases are still repeated monotonously, in time with the breathing of the sleeping person. You should say something like this:

“You sleep, you feel good and comfortable, you are safe. You fall asleep deeper, deeper. You want to talk to me, talk to me.”

Now you can ask the person to say their name or answer a few simple questions. If he answered, then we can assume that the sleeper is now completely in the power of the hypnotist, and after that you can inspire him with what is required.

About coercion

Methods of persuasion and coercion require their correct use on the interlocutor. These two techniques absolutely cannot be separated from each other; there is a dialectical connection between them, a single objectivity of character, and their use is determined by the level of development of relations in society.

The technique of coercion is a method of influence that has two factors: moral - psychological and physical. It is essentially similar to belief. After all, in both, the main task of the presenter is to get the interlocutor to start thinking like him. As when using the method of persuasion, in coercion a person first justifies his immediate point of view, resorting to various evidence. Therefore, they are considered to be the main ways of psychologically influencing one’s interlocutor.

The act of persuasion is almost one of the most difficult and requires certain rules. The main point in this process is to argue the position and strive to make it accepted by other people. Methods of coercion and persuasion are designed to force the interlocutor to do what you need.

Suggestion technique at a distance

Speaking about the techniques of suggestion and hypnosis, we cannot ignore the topic of suggestion at a distance. Unlike hypnosis, this has not yet received scientific substantiation, but everyone has had to deal with such a situation when you can think about a person - and at that moment he suddenly called. Or you can be so on the same wavelength with your messenger interlocutor that suddenly the same thought occurs to both of them.

Using the correct practice of suggestion at a distance, you can introduce the necessary information without direct contact with the interlocutor. There is an emphasis here on telepathic abilities. It is generally accepted that thoughts are material and propagate through waves of a certain frequency. Waves can be transmitted to any distance - it is only important to amplify them and not “contaminate” them with extraneous thoughts.

However, another person may not be on the same page at the moment, going about their daily activities or being in a whirlwind of worries. To be able to introduce your waves into his consciousness, you will need truly enormous strength.

That is why it is most advisable to conduct telepathy sessions at a time when the target is sleeping, or better yet, in the early morning.

The technique itself is simple:

1. You need to take the most comfortable and relaxed position possible.
2. Disconnect from all extraneous stimuli.
3. Focus on the thought you need to inspire. The idea needs to be formulated as clearly and understandably as possible.
4. Now you need to focus on the other person, try to enter his emotional state.
5. Repeatedly inspire him with the desired thought and clearly imagine that the person is performing the suggested action.

Who can be indoctrinated and who cannot?

Strictly speaking, with great talent and skill as a suggestor, almost any person becomes a suggestend, that is, an object of suggestion, but everyone is susceptible to suggestibility to varying degrees. The easiest way to work with a person is:

• those with low self-esteem and fear of being judged by others;
• inclined by nature to occupy a subordinate position, led;
• possessing high emotionality, lability of the nervous system;
• trusting;
• dependent;
• not having strictly logical thinking.

To understand what kind of personality is in front of you, you need to conduct a series of psychological tests. Sometimes such a person can be seen without testing for behavioral characteristics. He sits on the edge of his chair, is in no hurry to express his opinion, is nervous when communicating, and is inclined to take a conciliatory position. Most often, this is a melancholic person - a person with a weak nervous system and a pessimistic outlook on life.

Potential leaders, strong personalities, among whom choleric and sanguine people predominate, are rarely suggestible. They are characterized by self-confidence and the ability to defend their position. However, under certain conditions you can also work with them.