Most people think that Covert Hypnosis is something magical. I want to start by telling you that all good sales people, chief executives, marketers and movie makers are also great hypnotists because they are effective at causing you to go into an altered state. Covert Hypnosis is something that anyone can learn how to do, just like anyone can learn card tricks, or to ride a bike.

Covert Hypnosis is simply a way of communicating. The communicator, or hypnotist, understands that the conscious mind can serve as a distraction, and that if you can get past the "critical faculty" that separates the conscious mind from the unconscious mind, then you can embed suggestions directly into the unconscious mind to cause change.

In hypnotherapy, the exact same principles apply. In Covert Hypnosis, they are simply done faster, and without the knowledge of the other person.

Rapport is absolutely essential. You must make sure that you get rapport with the subject and maintain rapport. This skill is taught in any NLP class but comes natural to many people. Matching and mirroring someone's body position, tone, volume, and hand gestures is one way to establish rapport. Another way is to match the style of language they use. Once you have rapport, you can move into calibration and congruence.

Calibration is necessary in all Covert Hypnosis. Before you begin any hypnotic interaction you must pay attention to all of the external signs you're getting from the other person. Skin tone, focus of the eyes, tension in the face muscles, rate of breathing, etc. Your calibration will allow you identify rapport (or lack thereof) and trance. At first, the subject is not in trance and you'll be looking for indications of trance later in the process.

Congruence is a huge part of all interaction. When you deliver a message or make a physical gesture or movement, your entire body and mind must be aligned to the action. An example of incongruence would be to tell your wife she looks fantastic while looking at the floor and speaking quietly, rather than looking her in the eye and smiling. Incongruence breaks rapport, and lack of rapport makes Covert Hypnosis nearly impossible.

Now you are ready to create trance. If you have established rapport, are congruent and have calibrated your subject, then you are ready to create trance. Trance is created through hypnotic induction. This is a topic that could literally go on forever, but here are a few quick methods:

Pattern interruption is fast and easy. If a person is in the middle of a well-established pattern of behaviour (such as a handshake) and the pattern gets intruppted, then trance is created. This is because, for a brief moment in time, the brain does not know what to do next. It's automatic program has been cut short and there is a state of confusion.

Revivification of past trance states is another good method. For example if you say, "remember a time when you were on holidays, lying on the beach just soaking up the sunshine" ... you will cause the other person to go into their history log and recall those memories. This will actually put the person into a state matching that past state. If you pick the right past state, you can create a useful trance. Perhaps reminding the person about a time they were scared out of their mind is not as useful!

There are many other ways to create trance in covert hypnosis.

Give suggestions while the person is in trance. When you create trance, you must calibrate to verify that you notice a distinct change. Some classic signs are relaxed face muscles, defocused eyes, slower breathing from the abdomen rather than the chest and a slightly open jaw. But these are not rules, they are guidelines. Calibration is your only way to know for sure that someone has entered trance.

Suggestions can be direct or indirect. If you want to tell somebody very directly, "buy my product today" then they had better be in a deep trance. Usually you will not get a deep trance from fast methods of Covert Hypnosis. The lighter the trance, the more indirect your suggestions have to be. Metaphor, or story-telling, is a very good method of indirect suggestion. The unconscious mind is good at picking up the important lessons (or suggestions) from a story.

Remember to forget! Lastly, it's always a good idea to leave your subject with amnesia of the trance. You want them to remember to completely forget the trance and the suggestions. Sometimes amnesia is automatic, but it's always a good idea to make sure you suggest it. This can be accomplished by saying something as simple as, "It's important, sometimes, to remember to forget certain things ... NOW ... so that you can focus on what's really important". That's just one of many tricks used by practitioners of Covert Hypnosis.

To learn more about Covert Hypnosis you can visit my blog about the topic