Cause and Effect implied

Cause and Effect implied is when a person makes a statement that implies that one thing causes another, or states that one thing is true, therefore the next thing must be true. The statement may be untrue, or there may be no direct link between the one thing and the other. ‘And knowing that you […]

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Analogical Marking

Analogical marking is one way of applying the Milton Model. Analogical Marking delivers hypnotic commands hidden inside normal speech as part of a conversational induction. Milton Erickson discovered that he could mix hypnotic commands into an ordinary conversation and have someone act on them provided the command words were subtly different in some way. This […]

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Unspecific Verbs

Unspecific verbs sound good yet are hard to pin down. They are similar to the unspecific objects in the Milton Model. The unconscious mind accepts the word in context and supplies its own meaning. Words such as ‘wonder, change, understand, think, feel’ etc., are non-specific and can apply to anything. ‘and you may be wondering about […]

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Unspecific Objects

Unspecific Objects are words that sound important but are actually quite vague and open to interpretation. Milton Model words such as ‘learnings, outcomes, resources, findings, consideration’ etc., can be used to ground almost any topic, which makes the suggestion much stronger. By using inclusive words the client finds closure from their own resources. If you […]

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Unspecific Comparison

Unspecific Comparison is a typical Milton Model statement will use words to imply something, and relies on the mind being to busy listening to the next words to really question the truth or logic of the what was just heard. In a classic Milton Model statement, a comparison is made, but does not specify what […]

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Inanimations

Inanimations are Milton Model statements that assign feelings or actions to things that cannot have any. Technically these are called Selectional Restriction Violations. A sofa cannot think, a plant cannot talk, but sentences can be constructed that sound that way and because our minds are specially tuned to metaphor, this type of suggestion will be […]

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Visualization

Visualization is a very common technique used in hypnotherapy and NLP. It involves creating mental images or pictures in a persons mind. Visualization is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the actual experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene in the physical world, yet is not actually present to the senses. Visualization […]

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Permissive Words

Milton Erickson used a variety of approaches in inductions. He could be direct and authoritarian or indirect and permissive. He was famous though, for his permissive, indirect approach that involved permissive language. Permissive Words Can Might Maybe Perhaps Possible Allow So, instead of “Relax deeply,” you might say “Perhaps you can relax deeply.”

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Truism (Truism sets)

A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device, and is the opposite of falsism. In philosophy, a sentence which asserts incomplete truth conditions for a proposition may be regarded as a truism. An example of […]

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Just-world hypothesis

The just-world hypothesis or just-world fallacy is the cognitive bias (or assumption) that a person’s actions always bring morally fair and fitting consequences to that person, so that all noble actions are eventually rewarded and all evil actions are eventually punished. In other words, the just-world hypothesis is the tendency to attribute consequences to—or expect consequences as the result of—a universal force that restores […]

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