Category Archives: Belief

Scary Forests

Raining Buckets In Their Brain

Language is a funny thing.

Written language has only been around for a few thousand years.

Spoken language maybe a hundred thousand.

Nobody’s really sure, since there was no way to record when people started speaking.

They can only guess.

Interestingly, this is also why we can’t really pinpoint when phrases were invented.

We can only look back and see when they appeared in print.

Even this is iffy, since lots of books and newspapers were printed and that was that.

If the actual paper or book isn’t around, we have no way of knowing exactly WHAT phrases were used.

So when researching phrases like, “Raining cats and dogs,” there’s no way to KNOW when it started being used that way.

Sure, there are plenty of interesting theories, but since things are spoken for a LONG TIME before they are written down, even the guy who first WROTE, “raining cats and dogs” maybe didn’t know why it meant that.

Only that it meant that.

This is an interesting subject for linguistics.

They can actually test whether we think of a phrase as a singular thing, or as a collection of things that mean something else.

They flash words and sentences, and by recording how quickly (or slowly) our facial expressions and other non-conscious behavior responds, they can tell if we need to TRANSLATE that phrase into a meaning or if we IMMEDIATELY take in the whole phrase to “mean” something.

Like the phrase, “kick the bucket.”

We interpret that phrase the same way we interpret the word “die.”

Linguists have a theory that when most people associate a phrase (like “kick the bucket”) with a single meaning (die) then it’s part of the common language.

Once it gets to this point, nobody needs to know WHY it means what it does.

Of course, that doesn’t keep us from having fun guessing.

The cool thing is that this is just as true for each WORD in our language.

Nobody knows when or how or why the sounds were put together to mean certain things.

All we need to know is that when we make these certain sounds in certain orders, we will conjure certain ideas in the brains of other people.

Which is pretty cool when you think about it.

(Which most people don’t).

By taking the time to learn how to put words and sounds together, you can purposely create some amazing ideas in other people’s heads.

And since YOU’LL be the one making those crazy ideas in their mind, to them it will seem like you’ve got super powers of mind control!

Street Hypnosis

Coke and Popcorn Flash

The Popcorn and Coke Pattern

There are a lot of goofy math problems that find their way online.

They are allegedly “simple” problems that were given to kids, but adults can’t figure them out.

One made the round a couple weeks ago.

It was a simple arithmetic problem.

The difficulty was in what they call “order of operations.”

You’re supposed to do multiplication before addition.

If you don’t do things in the right order, you get the wrong answer.

They also have something called the “distributive property.”

For example, if you were a math student, and you saw this: 8(3x+4) then you take the “8” and multiply it by both the “3x” and the “4.”

The “8” gets “distributed” evenly across the “3x+4” expression.

But when the same thing happen in language, it can get confusing.

And if you’re a hypnotist, confusion is pretty fun to play with.

(Unless you forget to take it out of your pocket and wash your pants. Then it gets all over everything…)

Because when the mind is confused, it will grab hold of anything that sounds normal, even if it’s a command to cluck like a chicken.

Sometimes, the distributive property is easy.

I’m going to eat some candy and popcorn.

The “eat” HAS to be applied to both the “candy” and the “popcorn.”

Because otherwise, the popcorn is all by itself without a verb.

And when you leave nouns all alone without verbs, they tend to get lonely and run away.

And since popcorn is better popping than running away (because you were mean and left it all alone without a verb) our kind human minds tend not to treat it that way.

(I know, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever).

But what if you walk up to candy counter (the one where you were going to get your popcorn and candy from) and said:

“I’d like a large popcorn and coke.”

They person taking your order might understand, but they might not.

They would probably repeat it, to be sure:

“Large popcorn and a large coke?”

Because they assumed the “large” went with both the popcorn and coke.

(Distributive property of adjectives).

But what if you responded:

“Wait, you have cokes in different sizes?”

This would you mean you thought that popcorn came in different sizes, but coke only came in one.

Their brains would need to freeze just for a minute.

They naturally assumed you wanted a “large popcorn” AND a “large coke.”

They just repeated it to make sure.

Now they have to go back a few moves in their mind, so they can try and pace YOUR WORLD where there is ONLY one size coke.

Kind of like if you’re playing chess, (without writing down all your moves) and you realize you’d made a mistake and have to recreate the board from a few moves ago.

Even people that play chess don’t flip flop around in conversations to go back before assumptions were made.

This is just one simple example you can try today.

Go to any fast food place.

“I’ll take a large X and Y.”

Then they verify that you want large X AND large Y.

And you stare at them and ask sincerely, “Whoa! I can get Y in different sizes?”

And watch their face as their brain freezes momentarily.

Of course, the more you practice this, the LONGER you’ll be able to keep them on the edge of “reality.”

Click Here To Learn How

Brain Bombs Blasting Beautifully

Embrace The Rabbit Hole

The idea of a rabbit hole comes from Alice in Wonderland.

She went down, following an actual rabbit, and had a pretty messed up adventure.

So when somebody describes something as a “rabbit hole” or “going down the rabbit hole” they mean getting involved with something that keeps getting more and more confusing.

It’s generally associated with conspiracy theories, or some kind of “hidden truth” that is continually revealed.

Recently, (last decade or so) the “Red Pill” has been used to describe understanding the “complexity” of this “Rabbit Hole.”

(Interesting that both metaphors originated from the same source)

But the thing about “rabbit holes” and “red pills” is that don’t HAVE to be associated with any kind of “evil conspiracy.”

It certainly FEELS GOOD to think you “understand” the way things really are.

But consider this.

Reality itself is something we can NEVER understand.

Not even partially.

The more PURE science you study, the more you’ll realize that we humans don’t know much.

The limit of human understand has been described as the shoreline of an island.

The bigger our understanding gets, the more we realize that there is a MASSIVE ocean out there MUCH BIGGER than our “shoreline” can EVER get.

Which makes the idea of a “red pill” rather silly.

Since it’s IMPOSSIBLE to understand the way things REALLY are.

Ever.

The truth is that NOBODY understands the way things really are.

If we did, we’d never have to GUESS whether or not to carry an umbrella with us when we lave.

If we did, investing would be SIMPLE.

And sports would be BORING since we could predict the outcome.

In fact, sports wouldn’t even EXIST.

What would be the point?

Luckily, there will ALWAYS be a degree of uncertainty.

And luckily, the RABBIT HOLE will ALWAYS be there for us.

No matter how far we are willing to go, the rabbit hole will accommodate us.

It’s up to YOU which direction you want YOUR rabbit hole to go.

Down into confusion, goofy mirrors and red queens running on treadmills?

Or up into continued exploration and understanding, where your knowledge, skills and appreciation of LIFE can continue to EXPAND?

Click Here To Learn More

Keep Your Focus

Compartmentalized Efficiency

Some people like to keep everything in their life compartmentalized.

Other people allow for plenty of spillover.

For example, if you absolutely HATE the idea of taking any work home with you, then you have a rock solid boundary between your work and home life.

On the other hand, you might prefer doing stuff at home, rather than work, because home is more productive.

Then there are folks who work from home, so home and work is the same.

The same table upon which they build their empire is the same table they make a pizza on a couple hours later.

Hobbies, work, social life, dating life, neighborhood groups, all are areas that can either overlap, or be separate.

Some people are so careful about compartmentalization that they don’t like the ice cream to touch the cake or the peas the carrots.

But as humans, we also have a drive to be efficient.

If you had to take a bunch of glasses from your living room into the kitchen, you’d naturally pick up as many as you could carry.

It would be silly to make a separate trip for each glass.

The more efficient you can be, the more time and energy you can save.

Of course, everybody has their own “set point,” or balance between how much compartmentalization they have, and how much efficiency.

One way to approach this is how you view your hobbies.

If they are PURELY “pastimes” then their only purpose is to make the time go by quicker.

On the other hand, they could be VERY PRODUCTIVE.

And if you can ENJOY these hobbies as much as they benefit your skills, then you’ve found an easy path to continual improvement.

If you don’t already do so, consider the hobby of “lifelong learning.”

Meaning try to some find something that would be interesting to learn, interesting enough so you would enjoy doing it, and would also improve your skills in some area.

Fortunately, there are TONS of online learning systems, courses, videos etc.

Which allows you to be able to learn pretty much anything.

And if you also “learn how to learn” this will rapidly accelerate your progress.

Click Here To Learn More

Castles In Their Mind

Thought Extraction Technique

Once I was at a movie theater, I went there on the spur of the moment.

I had no idea what any of the movies were about, so I asked the guy selling tickets.

He gave me a quick rundown, and made a suggestion.

I took it and was satisfied.

Asked-for advice, when given genuinely, is usually very helpful.

On the other hand, few of us like unasked for advice.

The reason has to do with the presuppositions that go along with the advice.

The main presupposition is that the person giving the advice knows more about the situation than the person receiving the advice.

Imagine you were standing in front of a movie theater, trying to decide which movie to see.

Only you had plenty of information on all the different movies.

You were just debating which of them you wanted to see the most.

Then some voice comes out of nowhere and says, “Don’t see X, it sucks.”

Now, depending on WHO said that, and what they looked like, how the behaved, etc, you might take their advice, you might not.

But YOU would still want to choose whether to take their advice or not.

Which means now you’re choice is MORE complicated, especially if the person giving the advice is not your “type.”

Whenever two people talk, it’s like there’s a battle of ideas. A contest of thoughts.

The ideas in your head, and the ideas in their head.

Asking for their ideas and comparing them to your ideas is one thing.

But having them try and FORCE their ideas into your brain (which is essentially what we do when we give unasked for advice) is not so friendly.

Doing the opposite, however, is a LOT of fun.

Instead of putting YOUR ideas into their mind, take THEIR ideas and expand them.

Most people have vague desires, wants, wishes, etc.

But instead of trying to match your specific advice to their vague desires, do the opposite.

Take their vague desires, pull them out of their head, and make them bigger, brighter, more specific.

IF you use ONLY their words and ideas (to make their ideas bigger and more specific) it will have a pretty cool effect.

They’ll feel REALLY GOOD, and they’ll associate those really good feelings with you.

You can use this with pretty much ANYBODY.

Friends, bosses, children, clients. Even people you’ve just met.

Click Here To Learn More

Raining Cats and Dogs

Get Your Mental Black Belt

Once I got into a discussion with a friend of mine over the origin of the expression, “raining cats and dogs.”

We argued over what it meant, so we looked it up.

Turns out that nobody really knows. There are a few sort of plausible explanations.

My favorite was from back in the day when English people were pretty filthy.

They would just throw their garbage out onto the street, and wait for the rains to wash it away.

So when it rained particularly heavy, they would see all the garbage flowing down.

Often times, mixed in would be dead animals. Cats and dogs, specifically.

So people would joke that it was “raining cats and dogs.”

Now, whether or not this is the “correct” “meaning” for this particular expression doesn’t really matter.

The English language is FILLED with metaphors like this where EXPERTS have zero clue where they come from.

Sure, everybody’s got their own pet theory, but they are really just guesses.

Kick the bucket, buy the farm, sell somebody down the river, and on and on.

Stephen Pinker, a famous linguistic tells our that our brains don’t really need to know WHY they mean what they do. All we need to know is that both “kick the bucket” and “buy the farm” means to die.

So when somebody uses it, we understand what they mean. If enough people around us are using it, we’ll start to use it to, usually subconsciously.

Most of our beliefs are like that.

We picked them up without really questioning what they mean or how they got there.

Public speaking is scary, talking to pretty girls is horrifying, making money is difficult, losing weight is hard.

But since SOME people on Planet Earth live their lives in direct OPPPOSITIION of these beliefs, that CAN’T be objectively true.

Only true for US. And only true because we don’t question them.

The good thing about beliefs is you can CHANGE THEM.

Sure, it takes effort. One MUST go through the natural learning process.

Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and finally unconscious competence.

Imagine getting to the unconscious competence level of the following beliefs:

Money is good.

Making money is easy.

Talking to attractive people is fun.

Persuasion is easy.

Staying in shape is easy and natural.

What happens to your life then?

Few are willing to question their beliefs, let alone do the work to change them.

Just like few people willing to get a black belt in a martial art, or take the time to learn something complicated like Photoshop or a foreign language.

But all it takes is effort, and consistency.

What are you waiting for?

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Emotional Freedom

X Ray Vision

Get X-Ray Vision Into Their Minds

In Japan they have an expression called “reading the air.”

It means to understand the subtext of a conversation.

Here’s a pretty common one. Guy and his girl are at a party.

Some other girl comes up and starts talking to him. He thinks it’s just a normal conversation.

His girlfriend, on the other hand, sees it as direct threat against their relationship.

Since females are much better at “reading” body language than guys are, she can see all the subtle cues of flirtation.

To her, this “other woman” is completely throwing herself at him.

Later on, they get into a fight. She says, “How could you do that?!”

He says, “Wha??”

And she later complains with her friends about men being so dense.

Maybe you’ve been in this situation before (on one side or the other).

The truth is that in ALL human communication, there are MANY levels. Most we ourselves don’t even know about.

One of my favorite lines is from a Tom Clancy book, “The Sum of All Fears.”

About a third of the way through the book, he explained what it meant. When you get a group of experts around a table, you don’t get the sum of their experience. You get the sum of their fears.

Think about that next time you’re in a meeting. Everybody tends to be most concerned with keeping bad things from happening AS MUCH as trying to make something good happen. (Bigger profits, more market share, etc.)

One of the big breakthroughs of NLP was that it leveraged Noam Chomsky’s theory of “transformational grammar.”

Meaning you could look beyond the “surface structure” of what people were saying, and see what they REALLY mean.

Their fears, their desires, what they are going to do next, etc.

If all you do is pay attention to the surface structure, you can easily run into trouble.

But when you can not only see what the other person really means, as well as communicate on that level, it’s like getting conversational super powers.

Even if you never want to do any persuading or influencing, it makes social situations a LOT more enjoyable.

Like putting on X-Ray glasses and seeing into people’s brains.

This is exactly what happens when you start writing out the Covert Hypnosis language patterns.

After a while you’ll see a whole new world that few people know exist.

And since you’ll be able to read people a lot better, you’ll be much more likely to create fantastic relationships, for WHATEVER reason you want.

Learn More:

Covert Hypnosis

Time Shifting Magic

When I was a kid, I was in boy scouts.

And every summer we went on a long backpacking trip.

About a week, carrying all of our stuff on our backs.

Usually we would park at trailhead. Then walk up a long set of switchbacks.

These are trails that criss-cross up a really steep set of mountains.

Then when you’re on the other side, it’s like a completely different world.

Because the only people that you see (which aren’t very many) are people that walked there.

It’s fun on the way up, looking down at the parking lot. Seeing our cars getting smaller and smaller.

Then when we come out on the other side, a week or so later, it’s a welcome site.

After sleeping in tents, eating freeze dried food and no showers, seeing a bunch of parked cars, even from a long ways off, is pretty refreshing.

See things from different perspectives is useful.

One way easy way to do this is see how we use language.

I’m sure you’ve heard the famous Einstein quote about insanity.

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

One way we “do” the same thing is talk about things the same way.

Like if you’ve got a “problem,” you use it as if it were a real “thing.”

I’ve “got” this “problem.”

I don’t know how to get rid of this “problem.”

I need to put “this” behind me.

What happens when you describe your “problem” in a different way?

This is slightly different than the useless “I don’t see problems, I see opportunities!” bumper sticker mindset that some people spout .

For an example, think of a problem you HAD a year or so ago, that is now resolved.

Now think of something useful you learned from that.

Something really useful, not, “I learned that people are idiots.”

Now, when you look at a “problem” in the future, instead of saying “how can I get rid of this,” or something similar, ask yourself, “When I DO solve this, I wonder what I’ll learn?”

That simple replacement, when you take out the “if” and put in the “when” is very powerful.

Just say these two sentences, out loud if you can, to see how they affect your emotions.

If I get rich I’ll be able to buy a nice house.

When I get rich I’ll be able to buy nice house.

The difference may be subtle, and you may need to really WORK to believe the second one, but when you do, a whole new future of opportunities will open up.

You’ll think of new ideas, dream new dreams, and start taking new action.

Instead of waiting, you’ll be doing.

That one simple shift, (when instead of if) is only ONE of the many language patterns in the Covert Hypnosis book.

You can use them on yourself, to “fix” your own problems.

You can use them with others, to help them with theirs.

You can use them pretty much anytime, anywhere with anybody.

Get Started:

Covert Hypnosis

Pushy Boy

How To Avoid Pushy Persuasion

Most people hate to be micro-managed.

Meaning that your boss (or husband or wife) is standing right over your shoulder.

Telling you exactly what to do and exactly how to do it.

Humans are hard wired to have a strong need to feel in control.

Only when WE decide WE want somebody else to tell us what to do, is it OK.

This is why unasked for advice is almost always taken the wrong way.

There you are merrily going along, and some goof comes and tries to tell you what to do.

Think about what this means. They think they know MORE about the situation than you do.

Which may be true, but part of being human is discovering and learning on our own, instead of having some busybody sticking their nose in our business.

Which is why most of us absolutely HATE salespeople.

They are pushy, obnoxious and are always telling us THEIR reasons why we should do things.

If they are being sneaky, they might use some manipulation tactics. You want to buy something for $200. They try and sell you something for $500. They push it really hard. Finally, you “win” and buy the one in the middle for “only” $300.

Lucky you!

Most people are so turned off by these ultra pushy and manipulative sales people that they’d never DREAM of working in sales, despite the ENORMOUS amount of money you can make with very little education.

However, even if you aren’t in sales, you ARE going to have to persuade people.

You might persuade that girl or guy to date you.

Or that boss to hire you instead of the fifty other candidates.

Or your wife or husband to watch and action movie instead of a romance.

The truth is that it’s very difficult to squeeze through life without having some kind of persuasion skills.

Luckily, you don’t have to be pushy, or manipulative, or sleazy.

You can use THEIR ideas to help them understand YOUR point of view.

And when they finally agree to do what you want them to, it will be THEIR idea.

They won’t feel conned, they won’t feel tricked, and they won’t feel suckered.

They probably won’t even realize you “helped” them come to a decision.

And they’ll start to associate YOU with their decisions to get what they want.

Which can help out in a lot of ways.

To be sure, doing this is a skill, and it takes practice.

There’s no magic words or shortcuts.

But it is a skill that few people know exist, let alone know how to use effectively.

Get Started:

Covert Hypnosis

Mother Nature Always Wins - She Is Persistent

Become A Social Super Hero

I had this friend that was into making jewelry.

She would buy these rocks, and put them in this tumbler.

(not the blog, and actual tumbler).

And had a really rough surface on the inside. The rock would go in, tumble around for a couple days, and come out smooth.

Kind of like how ocean waves relentlessly pound rocks into sand, only a lot quicker.

It’s also why rocks at the bottom of streams are smooth, while rocks out in the wind are rough.

The thing about Nature is she is relentless. She never gives up. She always wins.

There’s an ancient Chinese Proverb that says, “If you wait by the river long enough, you can see the bodies of your enemies floating by.”

Which means patience, above all, will win. If you are rash, and take action, you may win, but you may end up biting off more than you can chew.

I know, we only have one life, right? We don’t have eons of time to slowly wear down our rough spots into smooth edges.

But think about this. What if you started FIVE YEARS ago, doing some kind of skill improvement, for ONLY ten minutes a day.

What kind of skills would you have now?

What if you start now, what will you be like a year from now?

One of the paradoxes of human life is we don’t want to do things unless we are GUARANTEED to see an IMMEDIATE result.

Nobody buys books on how to get rich slowly, or lose one pound a week for two years.

We keep trying these goofy plans time after time, and NEVER get anywhere.

Meanwhile, those slow and steady tortoises are kicking our ass!

Here’s one way you can DRAMATICALLY improve yourself over the next year.

There’s a whole section in the Covert Hypnosis book on practice drills.

Where you take each pattern, and write out a bunch of examples.

A fantastic way to do that, while boosting your own self confidence and social skills at the same time, is take those exercises and write to yourself.

Instead of some imaginary person sitting in front of you that you are selling to or trying to seduce, write the patterns to yourself.

And use the patterns to persuade yourself that you are ultra confident. Super intelligent. Powerfully attractive. Socially outgoing. Massive self esteem.

If you do that, not only will you become a ninja with the patterns, but you’ll also SLOWLY transform yourself into a social skills super hero.

Able to sell anything to anybody, and sweep anybody off their feet.

Get Started:

Covert Hypnosis