The thing with these advanced NLP-style persuaders and conversational hypnotherapists...like the Stever Robbins type of guys, (there are many many of them out there...)
First off, anyone who has been immersed in it for decades, has a profoundly different way of looking at the world, and at people.
Very serious intellectual arrogance is part of that system, as they generally are very intelligent people, in terms of raw intellect. Lets face it, they are "smarter" than most people, and they know it.
They start to really believe that people's "conscious mind" simply gets in the way, so they do everything they can to by-pass it, and deal directly with the "unconscious" mind of their clients and customers.
This is where all of these covert techniques come in.
They start to get very arrogant, and think of people like objects, or like computers. They think and SAY, why deal with the application level, when they can alter the OS coding?
Or like when you hire a piano tuner, you expect them to go into your piano, and fix it, and not tell you how they did it, right?
So that is how they think. If you go to the advanced training seminars, that is exactly how they think, and what they teach. They think of themselves as "surgeons" who go into the mind, and "change it", without the conscious awareness of the subject.
They are proud of that.
They tell themselves if they TELL people what they are doing, the "conscious mind" will just get in the way.
So that is very similar to Byron Katie, that is probably why Stever Robbins like her so much, and promotes her business.
There are registered, licensed hypnotherapists, who also do that to a degree. The difference is that you know what they are doing, and you have some trust with them, and that is discussed in advance.
But these type of covert hypnotherapists, they take it much further and try to play a GAME and pretend they are not doing anything.
And most of them are also utterly ruthless capitalists and entrepreneurs, unlike a hypnotherapist like Dr. Milton Erickson.
Stever Robbins has said he believes its perfectly fine to upsell high-margin products at seminars. Of course, if you are a greedy entrepreneur, you want to sell people worthless junk for top-dollar if you can get away with it.
So they have the "ethics" of Wall Street salespeople, and apply it to a type of "group therapy".
Voila. The LGAT seminar.
And there really isn't a "bad guy" in a sense, as basically all of them really do sees themselves as superior people and "good guys" . To them, anyone who questions their methods is the bad guy.
Its just that over the years, they get more and more desensitized, and power corrupts.
The more power to Influence people they get, the more they WANT.
And the older NLP-hypno method of telling people what you are doing to them, AS you do it, is now old fashioned. It doesn't work as well, as pretending you are doing nothing.
They just call that Conscious Misdirection.
A normal person calls it lying and deceit.
And if confronted, they would say..."what is a lie? what isn't a lie, everything is a lie"? And just start twisting from there.
The bottom line is that the advanced persuaders know they HAVE to conceal their techniques, as if the conscious mind of the people is aware of it, then it does not work as well.
Then their sales techniques don't work very well.
But in the end, the people who stay in that business, and watch "soccer moms" get their heads turned inside out, and mortgage their houses and hand over the cash for some stupid rip-off seminar they have attended 3 times already, have something wrong with their "conscience"...in every case.
People who have a normal conscience, cannot stay in that business, when you see people getting scammed. Most of them just get out.
Some of them speak out, as we have heard from some of them.
Then who stays in the seminar business? Those who enjoy doing that to people.
In the end, they really don't care, and literally believe its wrong NOT to take their money.
And they rationalize it with either not caring, or don't think about it, or think its FUNNY and laugh like Ross Jeffries in that video, or believe some Libertarian stuff, or Ayn Rand Virtue of Selfishness, etc.
In the end, they see themselves as superior people, especially when they try to say in their advertising and blogging they are humble! They know humility is more appealing.
For those who have known many of these advanced NLP style persuaders and hypnotists, the only solution is quite drastic.
Every word they say has to be double-checked.
Never do any "phone-coaching" as that has to be recorded and reviewed carefully.
Every "Story" is assumed false, until proven, as they have no problem making up Stories, and presenting them as "true". (what a normal person calls lying).
They always try to charge more than 10x what they are worth, don't pay it, its a rip-off.
Never take ANY story, or even anything they say at "face value", as they are generally trying to do something else.
And when they TELL you they are doing some complex technique on you, they are usually lying to distract you.
Yes, they are probably some of the most slippery people on the face of the earth, not your average bullshit artist or salesman.
Their abuse of the powerful techniques has completely backfired on them, to the point where their word and name is Mudd.
Most important, don't give them any money, don't believe their exaggerated salespitches and hype, don't buy their coaching crap, or other products.
But sadly, they know to avoid educated customers, which is why they are targeting the New Age market, where there is millions to be made, and no real questions asked.
And like Byron Katie, they have figured out a mental-Judo system of Questions, to cancel-out any real questions people might have, and turn it around on them.
Or perhaps the Stever Robbins Manipulation 101 [
www.steverrobbins.com] is more your style? There are many ways to skin a cat.
Also, don't forget to "play dumb" when asked about your techniques. Just say you are a Success Coach and play the banjo on weekends, and are an amateur Ericksonian hypnotist and amateur brain surgeon.
Even better, just pretend you are an Enlightened idiot savant, and have no idea of what you are saying or doing or what you ate for breakfast.... its the new thing.
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forum.culteducation.com]
MANIPULATION 101 by Stever Robbins.
Notice below:
- PRE-FRAME the debate so objections are IMPOSSIBLE
- non-verbal signals to trigger emotions
- lock people into your point of view, even if they disagree.
This is not even the tip of the iceberg with this guy, and he is using those methods currently trying to confuse his connection with Byron Katie and others.
Byron Katie uses all of the methods listed below, and many more.
_________QUOTE excerpt for analysis_____________________
[
www.steverrobbins.com]
Manipulation 101: Advancing your agenda when logic fails
Have you ever won an argument with logic? [...]
That's because human beings aren't rational -- they're emotional. And learning the rules of emotion is the only sure-fire way to align, motivate, and bring people to agreement when pursuing a larger vision. This presentation will give you tools from linguistics and cognitive & social psychology you can use to advance your agenda within your company, industry, and life.
Come learn:
How to create commitment and buy-in to your agenda that gets stronger over time.
How to use non-verbal signals to trigger emotional responses in your listeners.
How to present your case in ways that lock people into your point of view, even if they disagree.
How to "pre-frame" the debate so that objections are impossible.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2009 03:45AM by The Anticult.