NLP Tip - Embedded Commands for Covert Influence - Part One publication date: Sep 25, 2007

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During World War II the French Resistance often smuggled stranded British forces out of the country and safely home.
As you can imagine, they needed all the information they could get. The Nazis monitored all incoming radio bands
rigorously, but the BBC loaded particular broadcasts with secret messages, innocuous to the casual listener, but filled
with vital information to those who knew what to listen out for.

When Bandler and Grinder modelled Milton Erickson (the world’s greatest hypnotherapist) they found that he embedded
messages in ordinary speech that weren’t ‘heard’ by the conscious mind, but were heard by the unconscious. Erickson
evolved his approach to deliver messages his clients might resist if they heard them consciously. I’m sure you can think
of many situations where, no matter how positive your intention, a person will resist your message if they’re conscious of
it. These are situations where you can learn to use embedded commands.

Examples of Embedded Commands

Quotes – This is one of my favourites. When Bandler said “Learn to use quotes” he wasn’t joking, because when you’re
quoting someone else, the person you’re speaking to tends to treat it almost as a story. Your unconscious, of course,
will tend to process it as a direct instruction.

Negation – Negating something makes it harder to resist. “Don’t focus only on the benefits of my product, because it’s
important to take a balanced view.” If I wanted you to practice using this pattern, but thought you might resist, I could say
“Don’t practice this pattern too much.” I’ve delivered the ‘practice this pattern’ message, said I’m not telling you to do it,
and presupposed that you will practise it to some extent. If you’re the resistant sort, you might even go “I’ll practice it as
much as I want, and you can’t stop me!”

What happens… “What happens when you imagine becoming really good at this?” I’ve just asked you a question, but
to answer it, you have to imagine becoming really good at this! Cool, eh? What happens when you imagine the benefits
my training will give you? By the time you’ve finished the sentence, the process has already started.

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How Does This Work?

There are a number of factors at play with this. If I say “Don’t think of a purple zebra”, you have to think of one to
understand what I’ve said to you. Your unconscious translates each word into a set of representations. So when I say
“What happens when you imagine becoming highly skilled at this?”, your unconscious has typically done it by the time
you’ve ‘understood’ the sentence. Add to this the fact that your unconscious processes statements directly (without
regard to context), and that your unconscious can track all the little signals (body language, voice tone etc) and make
connections between everything that’s going on, and hey presto! You’ve got embedded commands. The conscious mind
tends to get ‘hypnotised’ by content. This leaves you free to interact directly with the unconscious mind.

In Part Two you’ll learn several ways marking out commands to make them even more effective.

NLP Tip – Summary

Embedded commands are not heard by the conscious mind, but are heard and acted on by the unconscious. Some
examples of embedded commands are:

Quotes – putting a command in words that come from someone else’s mouth makes the conscious mind think of it
almost like a story.

Negation – telling someone you’re not telling them something makes the conscious mind disregard the fact that you
actually are telling them by way of the embedded command.

“What happens…” – In order to process the question, the person has to imagine doing what you’ve embedded into the
question as a command.

• NLP Tip - From Idea to Reality - Part Two

• NLP Tip - From Idea to Reality - Part One
• NLP Tip – Focus for Results
• NLP Tip: You Are The Pattern-Maker – Part Two
• NLP Tip - The Power of Beliefs - Part Two
• NLP Tip: The Power of Beliefs - Part One
• NLP Tip - Embedded Commands for Covert Influence - Part Two
• NLP Tip - The Secret Semaphore - Part One
• NLP Tip - Time for This Moment
• NLP Tip - Power Chunking
• NLP Tip - The Secret Semaphore - Part Two
• NLP Tip - How to Create Rich Experiences - Part One
• NLP Tip: How to Know What You Want
• NLP Tip - Meeting Them at Their Map
• NLP Tip: Pivot Grammar in Hypnosis - Nick Kemp
• NLP Tip: The Awesome Power of Patterns
• NLP Tip: You Can Awaken From The Dream
• NLP Audio: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part Four - Psycho, Social Reality Testing - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Tip - The Familiarity Factor – Part Two

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• NLP Tip: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Being Present – Part Two
• NLP Tip - How To Activate Your Intuition - Part Two
• NLP Tip: Tap Into Your Unconscious Brilliance
• NLP Tip - How To Activate Your Intuition - Part One
• NLP Video: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part Two - Affirm Self Worth - Frank Farrelly
• The Beliefs of Communication Geniuses - Part Three
• NLP Video: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part Four - Psycho, Social Reality Testing - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Tip: More of This, Please
• NLP Tip: Reward The Desired Behaviour - Part One
• NLP Tip: Take People Literally
• NLP Audio: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part One - Assertiveness - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Tip – If NLP’s So Great, Where’s My Ferrari? – Part Three
• NLP Video: Weight Loss & Timelines - Part Two - Andrew Austin
• NLP Audio: Weight Loss & Timelines - Part One - Andrew Austin
• NLP Tip: Mental Toughness in Sport - Part One - Jeremy Lazarus
• NLP Tip – If NLP’s So Great, Where’s My Ferrari? – Part Two
• NLP Tip – Practical Intuition Part Three
• NLP Tip - Eliminate Objections Before They Arise – Part One
• NLP Tip - The Familiarity Factor – Part One
• NLP Tip - Eliminate Objections Before They Arise - Part Two
• NLP Tip – Changing the Frame - Part Two
• NLP Tip - The Ultimate Covert Communication Technique - Part One
• The Beliefs of Communication Geniuses - Part Two
• NLP Video: Meta Model - Set Up
• NLP Tip – If NLP’s So Great, Where’s My Ferrari? – Part One
• NLP Tip – Practical Intuition Part One
• NLP Tip - Acceptance and Choice
• NLP Tip: Nonverbal Metaprogram Elicitation - Part Two - Jonathan Altfeld
• NLP Tip: How to Resolve Resolutions
• NLP Tip: How Human Beings Experience Reality or The World “Out There― - Andy Duffy
• NLP Tip: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Being Present - Part One
• NLP Audio: Provocative Therapy Session - Public Speaking - Part One - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Tip: Nonverbal Metaprogram Elicitation - Part One - Jonathan Altfeld
• NLP Tip: Feeling Your Way Forward – Part One
• NLP Audio: The Magic Minute - Demo Two
• NLP Tip: Rapid Belief Change – Part One
• NLP Tip: Feeling Your Way Forward – Part Two
• The Beliefs of Communication Geniuses - Part One
• NLP Tip – Influence with Negation
• NLP Tip – Generate New Behaviours
• NLP Tip – Changing the Frame - Part One
• NLP Video: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part One - Assertiveness - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Audio: Provocative Therapy Session - Public Speaking - Part Two - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Audio: Meta Model - Set Up
• NLP Tip – Congruence: How to Be More You
• NLP Tip: The Hidden Power of Reasons
• NLP Audio: Coaching Demo - A Better Singer? - Jamie Smart
• NLP Audio: Confidence & Phobias
• NLP Tip – Practical Intuition Part Two
• NLP Tip - The Ultimate Covert Communication Technique - Part Two
• NLP Audio: Tibetan Star Technique - Michael Watson
• NLP Tip: You Are The Pattern-Maker – Part One
• NLP Tip: NLP Coaching – Evidence of Change

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 • NLP Audio: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part Three - Defend Themselves - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Tip – Feeling Better - Part One
• NLP Tip: Nonverbal Metaprogram Elicitation - Part Three - Jonathan Altfeld
• NLP Tip: Deep Rapport
• NLP Tip - How to Create Rich Experiences - Part Two
• NLP Tip: Increase Your Income While You Sleep! – Part One
• NLP Tip: The Manifestation Turbocharger
• NLP Tip: Reward The Desired Behaviour - Part Two
• NLP Tip - How To Activate Your Intuition - Part Three
• NLP Tip: Increase Your Income While You Sleep! – Part Two
• NLP Tip: Rapid Belief Change – Part Two
• NLP Audio: 5 Behaviours Elicited - Part Two - Affirm Self Worth - Frank Farrelly
• NLP Video: Godiva Chocolate Pattern Demo
• NLP Coaching Pattern 7 - Action!
• NLP Coaching Pattern 3 - Where? When? Whom?
• NLP Coaching Pattern 8 - Let's Pretend
• NLP Tip - Using NLP Coaching Patterns
• NLP Coaching Pattern 4 - What Drives You?
• NLP Coaching Pattern 5 - Keeping The Good
• NLP Coaching Pattern 2 - A Key Question For Real Results
• NLP Coaching Pattern 9 - Mind Reading Disrobed
• NLP Coaching Pattern 6 - A Question of Ecology
• NLP Coaching Pattern 1 - Let's Start From The Beginning...
• NLP Coaching Pattern 10 - Universally True?
• NLP Coaching Pattern 20 - A Great Response to "I Can't"
• NLP Coaching Pattern 15 - Transcending "Can't"
• NLP Coaching Pattern 45 - Ripping the Rug Out From Underneath Beliefs
• NLP Coaching Pattern 18 - Sweeping Generalisations

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