Note: The following analysis is derived from a paper distributed October 25, 2008 by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. in Tucson, Arizona. It was co-written by Dr. Wil Horton, founder of the National Federation of NeuroLinguistic Psychology, and a co-author who wishes to remain anonymous.
I urge any and all to read the original 66-page document for more detail and footnotes.
Hope-Gnosis: An Analysis of
Obama's Hidden Hypnosis Techniques
Barack Obama's speeches utilize the hypnosis techniques of Dr. Milton Erickson, M.D., who developed a form of “conversational” or “covert” hypnosis that could be hidden in seemingly normal speech and used on patients without their knowledge for therapy purposes.
Here's an overview of the hidden hypnosis techniques Obama uses in his speeches:
Trance Inductions
In the primitive stereotype of hypnotism, a shiny moving coin and soothing voice puts the conscious mind of a subject into a kind of sleep. “Conversational hypnosis” relies on a variety of scientifically-derived vocal techniques to essentially do the same thing: lull the cognitive centers into a trance.
Obama's speeches contain all the classic hallmarks of hypnotherapeutic trance induction, as can be seen in the example of his “turn the page” speech to the California Democratic Convention in 2007, which journalist Frank Russo described as having “had the California Democratic Convention spellbound for 23 minutes”
Unnaturally slow language.
This common hypnotic technique forces the listener to hang on every word, allowing the subject time to respond to suggestions, imagine images, and feel sensations conjured by the hypnotist. The unnaturally slow speech holds focus intensely, because the mind waits for new input, and is meanwhile left analyzing what it has just heard. This intense focus of the conscious mind frees the subconscious mind to act beyond normal constraints of what the conscious mind thinks is real or normal or even proper.
Obama's speeches often use an unnaturally slow language to start, so that it is almost impossible to listen at all without hanging on his every word.
The best example of how he uses this technique in the “Turn the page” speech occurs at 5 minutes, 30 seconds, when he controls the tempo of his speech to make sure everyone is kept in trance. He says “Why would you want to go into something dirty and nasty like politics?” Then, he realizes he is speaking too fast, and repeats the sentence, slower, much slower, and with an extra, extra long pause before the word “politics” to slow down the audience mentally to his unnaturally slow rhythm.
Long pauses after 4-8 word concepts.
Pauses during speech are a primary technique of conversational hypnosis, because they force the mind to wander. A pause in speaking by the hypnotist, even is only for a split second, isolates in the subconscious the word before the pause, while your conscious mind is left hanging. The subconscious is thus freed to receive information and hidden messages.
Professional Hypnotherapists use a rhythm of phrases of few words, almost like a melody, because it holds attention, and because it accesses the non-dominant hemisphere where music is interpreted.
One can hear this pattern at the very beginning of Obama's speech (notes added):
It has now been a little over two months (pause) since we began (pause) this campaign for the Presidency. (pause) In that time we have traveled all across this country. (pause) And before every event we do (pause), I usually have a minute to sit quietly and (pause) collect my thoughts. (pause) And recently, I've found myself (pause) reflecting on (pause) what it was that led me (different tone, and thumb and forefinger anchor for “me”) to public service in the first place.
Commanding delivery.
The tonality of the hypnotherapist is very important, as the subconscious must will only act the way you want it to if it recognizes a commanding voice. Hypnotherapists for this reason use an emotionless, even, stern tone, often while frowning, to send the subconscious message of commanding authority.
Notice in the video clip (and in the substantive parts of all his formal speeches) how rarely if ever Obama smiles. It's easy to see why Obama has so often been described as unemotional, almost angry, in his speeches (even though the words in the speeches can be full of emotion). This may be puzzling in the political arena, where charisma is prized, but the hypnotic analysis is simple: he's trying to instill a commanding voice over the subconscious.
Storytelling.
Storytelling is a primary hypnotic tool because it takes us to another time and place, engages the imagination with images and metaphor, and tells the conscious mind “it is only a story”—all of which allow information to pass into the subconscious. In one of the most popular conversational hypnosis courses available online, the Power of Conversational Hypnosis, the first principle taught is how to “Use Simple Stories About Trance Themes”, or in other words, tell stories about processes which are hypnotic, such as relaxing on a holiday or being fascinated by a film.
Obama follows precisely this technique in the beginning of almost every one of his speeches. In the “Turn the Page” speech, he opens with a simple story in slow hypnotic rhythm about himself “sitting quietly”, “collect his thoughts”, and finding himself “reflecting.” “Sit quietly” is a trance theme that is known as “isomorphic” because it precisely mirrors what is happening with the subject, e.g. sitting quietly. It is also an embedded command, because when people sit quietly, something they were asked to do many times as children, their thoughts turn inward or internally—as in trance. Notice how the story is in past tense, but the trance theme (command) comes out in present tense. Notice also how Obama puts the focus on this word “quietly” with the pause afterward, to use it as a hypnotic message, as the silence emphasizes the last word spoken.
Obama's second storytelling language pattern about a trance theme is “collect my thoughts.” Though Obama says it from his perspective, to make sense of it your subconscious also hears it as collect “my” thoughts, and thus the minds of everyone in the audience is commanded to go deeper into their own thoughts, and deeper into trance. Notice again this story about past actions is again delivered in present tense.
When Obama uses his third trance theme, “I've found myself reflecting,” he's using a word (“reflecting”) that Dr. Erickson considered one of the key words to use in a trance induction sentence, because it matched the internal state of the human being undergoing trance induction. Obama's pause after “myself”, and then again after “reflecting” cause the audience's subconscious mind to pick up on these commands. Again, “reflecting” is in the present progressive tense to be a command for his audience to go deeper into a trance state.
Obama then directs this focus, as he says “reflecting on (what it was that led) me.” Obama's emphasis and use of a different tonality for the word “me” can clearly be heard when one is listening for it. When not consciously focused on that emphasis, it is just heard by the subconscious. After three separate stories with trance themes, delivered in hypnotic slow speech, the subconscious mind is waiting for clues about what to be so focused and reflected on, and surely enough, Obama tells our subconscious minds, “me.” Because he is speaking, the message is actually to focus not only on him, but his voice. Then, perfectly timed, at the same moment Obama says the word “me”, he flashes his thumb and forefinger hand gesture, his classic anchoring tool (see below).
It's clear at this point, even at the beginning of the speech, that Obama is knowingly and intentionally performing a clinical Ericksonian hypnotic induction and putting his audience in trance. He has hidden undetectably in normal-sounding speech what a hypnotist would do to start an induction by saying “sit quietly, begin to internalize your thoughts, collect your thoughts, reflect, and focus on me and the sound of my voice.” He is talking to your subconscious mind, preparing it for deeper induction and programming, while you think he is just telling you a story about himself sitting quietly and reflecting. Then, for the rest of the speech, your subconscious mind will be receptive to messages on this level that you won't even be aware.
Using and repeating vague statements.
Another way of simultaneously distracting the conscious mind and engaging the subconscious is through repeated use of vague or ambiguous statements. While the cognitive (linguistic) part of the conscious mind has to select between alternative meanings (“the trans-derviational search for meaning”), the unconscious mind, as Erickson writes, “responds to openings, opportunities, metaphors, symbols and contradictions. Effective hypnotic suggestion, then, should be 'artfully vague,' leaving space for the subject to fill in the gaps with their own unconscious understandings - even if they do not consciously grasp what is happening. The skilled hypnotherapist constructs these gaps of meaning in a way most suited to the individual subject - in a way which is most likely to produce the desired change.”
Obama continually uses vague statements that cannot be tied down to a specific meaning, including “yes we can”, “hope,” “believe,” and “change.” In fact, he gets audiences to chant them. When Obama says “change,” it can mean a lot of different things to everyone. He is not specific in what he means because then he would stimulate the cognitive capacities of the audience. Instead he allows the message of change to slip into the subconscious, as a command, that he has associated with himself in a number of subconscious and conscious ways.
In the California speech, as just one example, he uses the term “change” nine times, the term “hope” six times, and the evocative phrase “turn the page” 14 times.
Raising of emotion.
Emotion is a subconscious reaction, and can be connected to other subconscious elements, including commands. For this reason, the deliberate creation of emotional responses in the subject is a fundamental technique in hypnosis to make the subject more programmable. This is most often accomplished through visual and sensory imagery in the hypnotist's speech, because it uses the subject's own imagination while listening to the speech to bring them deeper into trance.
Obama uses a visually, cognitively, and emotionally stimulating language that forces your mind to follow slowly by experiencing his phrases, instead of just listening to them. His California speech is full of such vivid imagery, such as “turn the page”, “a breeze is blowing across this nation,...and change is in the air,” and “write the next chapter in American history.”
Being hypnotized is enjoyable, affecting both serotonin and endorphins in the body. “There's a new breeze blowing across this nation...” is a visual and hypnotically captivating statement that makes your subconscious associate relaxation, pleasure, and other emotions and your most tranquil moment with his voice, preparing you for his following sentence, “and change is in the air.”
Dr. Gail Saltz, Professor of Psychiatry, New York Presbyterian Hospital, in an interview on Anderson Cooper 360, June 7, 2008, spoke of the effect of Barack's emotional word choices on the unconscious mind:
Obama used words like “change,” “hope,” “action.” They have high emotional valence, particularly at this time. Clinton used words like “conversation” and “leader,” and they didn't have the same emotional valence. If you think about it, a campaign is really about PR and marketing. And interestingly, the father of public relations was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. He used those same concepts of the subconscious. And that's what we're talking about here. It's not the conscience meaning of the word: it's the unconscious emotion it evokes. Because when it's out of your awareness, it has the ability to make you behave and do certain things that you wouldn't if you knew it was present.
Hypnotic Anchoring
Anchors are visual symbols and gestures that call to the subject's mind when they appear, like the sound of the bell to Pavlov's dog, a post-hypnotic suggestion. Since in Obama's case the suggestion is to vote for him, he deploys at key moments of emphasis in all his speeches gestures that mimic the act of voting in the voting booth.
This one mimics the act of paper ballot voting:
This one mimics push-button machine voting:
This clip shows how these hand gestures are explicitly tied to the behaviors he wants to program. In it Obama says:
A light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, “I have to vote for Barack”
Using his typical hypnotic command language (“you will…vote for Barack”), he points up into the air as he says “you will say to yourself” then uses the thumb and forefinger hypnotic anchor for the words “I have to vote for Barack.”
Obama's use of hypnotic anchoring techniques is quite pronounced and sophisticated. For more details, consult the source document.
Pacing
Pacing is the hypnotist's frequent use of statements that are immediately and verifiably true to the listener in the simplest terms. Their purpose is two-fold: to trick the critical facility in the brain into letting information from the hypnotist pass through to the subconscious, and to train the subconscious to accept the hypnotist as a source for absolute truth. Obama uses a variety of statements that no one would disagree with, like “we need change”, “we are the hope of our future,” and “yes we can.” They are logically meaningless but they hit a chord, a subconscious chord, especially in younger people, and are his most powerful words.
One can look closely at how Obama uses pacing words in 2008 Democratic National Convention Speech in Denver. In this speech, he uses the pacing statements “now is the time”, “as I stand here before you,” and “this moment.” a total of 14 times. These statements are undeniably true in the simplest terms, because of course now is the time, and if he is there speaking, of course he is standing before us.
People not trained in the science of hypnotherapy may view these language patterns as innocent parts of his rhetorically rich speech. The key to seeing these phrases as hypnotic pace statements is to notice that none of them are logically connected to what follows them. For example, Obama standing there has nothing to do with the American Revolution, just as it is impossible to create paid sick days for all Americans at this very moment. The pacing phrases are connected without exception to imagination and dream words. This is a standard hypnotic technique, to allay the conscious mind with seemingly factual information while keeping the subconscious mind vulnerable with imagery and fantasy. In Obama's case, the association is made between his powerful presence and all the dreamed for things he speaks of, which the subconscious is tricked into believing he will magically make happen.
In this speech, Obama essentially says “as I stand before you tonight” three separate times, around the beginning, middle, and end of the speech:
1. That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
2. The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
3. But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
Obama says “now is the time” six times throughout.
1. Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
2. Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy.
3. Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American.
4. Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
5. Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
6. And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Obama also says essentially “this moment” five times, with words before or after “moment” to make it absolutely immediately and verifiably true:
1. We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
2. This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.
3. You have shown what history teaches us - that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington.
4. America, this is one of those moments.
5. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future.
Leading
After pacing lowers the subject's cognitive critical factor defenses, the hypnotist will implant a “lead” - the command or absolute unquestionable truth he places in your subconscious. Paces are connected to the lead through the use of the linking words including “and”, “as”, and “because” or “that is why.” These words contain an element of causation, which mirrors the way the subconscious mind accepts information. Saying, for one example: “We need change...and...that is why I will be your next President” is a basic pace and lead. No person can disagree with “we need change.” Change is inevitable anyway, certainly when problems exist. However, the fact that change will happen, or that we need change, has absolutely nothing to do with being a valid reason why the choice for President should be Barack Obama. It's the same when Obama describes how bad the economy is, and how bad government is, and then follows with “and that is why I want to be your next President.” When he has only listed problems, the logical derivative is only that someone who is good at solving those problems should be President. But he has not made any logical argument as to why it should be him.
As a Harvard attorney, Obama knows clearly that his speeches have faulty logic. But the use of these basic words as hypnotic linking statements in your subconscious, connects an absolute truth you believe deeply, from a (now) trusted source of absolute truths, to a new message that is slipped past the critical factor because it comes from the same trusted source, using the fundamental way your brain processes information. The subject walks away believing we need change, therefore we need Obama. It works because it links statements the subject knows subconsciously to be true, with statements from the hypnotist, which the hypnotist tricks the subconscious mind to believe are connected, and absolutely true at the subconscious level.
A typical example of pacing and leading is what Obama said regarding healthcare at the Health Care Town Hall on June 5, 2008:
It's time to finally challenge the special interests and provide universal health care for all. That's why I'm running for President of the United States, because I believe that health care should be guaranteed for every American who wants it and affordable for every American who needs it.
Standard politicians on this topic would undoubtedly say something along the lines of “I decided to run for President because I believe in health care reform,” and then list their background and/or accomplishments in the area, and their ideas for how to improve things. This approach forces the cognitive mind to evaluate the credibility of the candidate, since they don't really know what the candidate believes, and to think through logically whether the ideas for change make sense to them. Notice how much more powerful hypnotic techniques are. Here Obama implants a subconscious lead (“I'm … President of the United States”) between a series of emotionally powerful pace statements, using that powerful connector “because.” Healthcare should be guaranteed for everyone who wants it, and affordable for everyone who needs it; who doesn't believe that? The strength of that belief, and the subconscious emotions behind it, powerfully connects the audience with Obama's implanted lead of being President. Logically, it's nonsense, since most of the population would run for President if believing these things about heath care was a valid reason to decide to run. But logic is not the key to the rousing applause Obama received after uttering these lines. The audience has simply associated their own beliefs with Obama through hypnotic techniques.
Stacking Language Patterns/Critical Factor Bypass
This process of pacing then leading, pacing then leading, again and again, as well as using other hypnotic language patterns is called “stacking language patterns” (as in, one on top of the other). The hypnotist blends the process with embedded commands, anchors, emotional transfers, pre-programmed response adaptation and other techniques. The goal is to make the cognitive part of the mind distracted, bored, worn down, tired, and stop being critical because it is too much work. This is called critical factor bypass, and it essentially tricks the subconscious mind into accepting commands as absolute truths which include not only those approved by the conscious mind, but outside commands from a hypnotist who can implant any suggestion he wishes.
The key to how Obama uses stacking language patterns lies in the length of his speeches and the hyper-confidence he exhibits when delivering them.
Doing what Obama does once or twice doesn't work as effectively, but doing it throughout a speech, and continuously throughout a campaign, subconsciously brainwashes you. Obama speaks for 40-50 minutes, 20-30 minutes longer than most political speeches. Have you ever wondered why Obama gives these long 40-50 minute speeches? Probably not, because most people do not even realize time has gone by. The time is required to repeat and continually pace a large audience with statements that are undoubtedly true and lower our critical factors' defenses, in order to slip in the hypnotic command (the lead) e.g. ...“and that is why I will be your next President.”
The hyper-confidence Obama uses, after having used multiple language patterns to lower rational defenses, is because he must speak in a way that your subconscious mind will have no reason to doubt. This does not raise suspicion because politicians generally have to sound over-confident, e.g. saying they will win. The reason Obama sounds so hyper-confident with certain language patterns is because he has to in order to input a command effectively so your subconscious takes it as absolute truth.
Non-Dominant Hemisphere Programming/Causality Bridges
Accessing the subconscious, the non-dominant hemisphere, requires that the dominant hemisphere be distracted. A common and fundamental Ericksonian technique in which the dominant hemisphere is distracted is having the client count. Politicians, of course, love to spout numbers in speeches, but have you ever noticed how differently Obama uses numbers? He rarely uses statistics at all, or any number that would back up a logical point. Instead he uses numbers at key points of his stories and most emotional passages.
A good example is found in his St. Paul, Minnesota speech in June, 2008, after the last Democratic primary. This is how the speech begins:
Sixteen months have passed (pause) since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol (pause) in Springfield, Illinois.(pause) Thousands (pause) of miles have been traveled. (paused) Millions of voices have been heard. (pause) And because of what you said (pause) because you decided that change must come to Washington (pause); because you believed (pause) that this year must be different than all the rest (pause); because you chose (pause) to listen not to your doubts or your fears (pause) but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations (pause), tonight we mark the end of(pause) one historic journey (pause) with the beginning of another (pause)—a journey (pause) that will bring a new and better day to America. (pause) Because of you (pause) tonight, I can stand here and say that I will be (pause) the Democratic nominee (pause) for President of the United States of America.
One will undoubtedly notice many of the hypnotic induction techniques discussed here in this passage, but of note here is the distraction technique. In other words, he's asking you to count numbers, e.g., “sixteen months”, “thousands of miles”, “millions of voices heard.” The dominant hemisphere is sent on an assignment and thus occupied, making the non-dominant hemisphere and subconscious more susceptible to suggestion. He asks you to imagine sixteen months, so you do. You follow where the storyteller takes your mind and so you try to imagine thousands of miles, and continue following along where he leads you. However, the conscious mind cannot imagine a million voices, the number is too big, though Obama tricks you with the first two numbers into trying, by leading you down a path of increasingly difficult concepts to imagine consciously. Notice how cleverly he leads you down a path that causes the dominant hemisphere to be distracted. Your mind tries to imagine a million and finds itself on an assignment it can't perform, tuning out, and exposing your subconscious mind.
Then, immediately after this distraction, notice the causality linking statements, FIVE of them, back to back, “because of what you said... because you decided change must come to Washington... because you believed that this year must be different... because you chose to listen to your doubts not your fears... becauseof you” - all pacing and leading techniques with the causation already embedded, with the paragraph ending with the words “President of the United States” as the effect brought about by all those “becauses,”thereby becoming subconsciously linked. This is known technically as Causality Bridges, and it's one of the most effective tools in the hypnotherapist's kit.
Emotion Transfer
Now we look at “deep structure”—how the last passage might be interpreted at the subconscious level. Under the fundamental hypnotic principles of “deletion”, “distortion”, and “generalization”, the mind alters the content it receives as it goes into the subconscious—a translation which is used and planned for by hypnotists. While your critical factor is distracted and captivated by Obama's trance, your subconscious may be receiving a message something like this: [this is one possible translation with partial analysis added] “we stand together ... my voice is being heard...because you said...because you decided that change must come...because you believed [anchor] this year must be different than all the rest...because you chose [anchor] to listen [trance theme in storytelling] your greatest hopes and highest aspirations...we bring a new and better day...Tonight I can stand here and say [pacing] I will be the Democratic nominee [no visible hand gestures on the video] ‘the President of the United States'” [Pointing hand gestures downward (as if on a touch screen or push button voting) command gesture]. An apparently innocent yet powerful paragraph on the surface structure, it's actually intended to be received as clear commands to feel as one with Obama and hear his voice. He programs into you that you have already chosen, you have already decided, and you already believed. Before your conscious mind can say “wait, did I decide that?” he rewards you by conjuring up your own feelings “greatest hopes and highest aspirations.” Then, the “because”s come together for the lead, with hand gestures, “President.”
Now one might argue that half of this is coincidence, and the other half is just him being a great and powerful speaker. But let's look at it.
Why would he speak so slowly? We know he speaks faster in interviews and debates—why speak so slowly in speeches? What about the acceleration of his rate of speech to the lead? Why such storytelling? Why the exorbitant use of visualization and imagination? ...Which lead the audience down a path of imagining things until asking the imagining of something that can't be consciously imagined? Why the five “because”s at that point, and why the unusual message structure from someone who speaks so well? Why the hyper- confidence for specific words like “decided”, “chose”, and “believe” with pauses after each one when they are not supposed to be the end of neither the sentence nor the idea? Why the repeated stating of the obvious and undeniable “I stand here tonight?” (used in all his speeches) Why no hand gesture for “democratic nominee”- why only for “President? And finally, how come all of these “coincidences” can all be explained by a single reason —applying the fundamental principles of hypnosis?...Which causes exactly the type of mesmerized effect everyone admits they have from him?
The Ethical Dilemma
Dr. Erickson was adamant that only doctors be allowed to practice his techniques because of how strongly he felt about how dangerous such science could be in the wrong hands. The reason is that they are intentionally designed to sideline rational judgment and implant hypnotic commands we are unaware of and can't even consciously question.
We can see his concerns writ large in the “Obama phenomenon.”
If Obama simply lied, we voters would be able to use our rational judgment to make a logical decision about what is the truth, and what we should believe, and what we shouldn't. However, because he is implanting subconscious commands we are not aware of consciously, into the deepest parts of our emotional and subconscious psyches, he is actually taking away our ability to make those rational judgments. He is making the decision and taking away even our ability to question the commands he is hypnotizing us with. We never even know the commands are being implanted, and we are tricked into believing that our feelings are coming from deep inside us.
View the Entire Analysis
