What's the Difference Between Covert Hypnosis and Overt Hypnosis?

Overt hypnosis, or conventional hypnosis, utilizes a situation in which the subject of the hypnosis absolutely knows he or she is being hypnotized. For example, overt hypnosis is often used to help people break bad habits, such as smoking or overeating. It can also be used very effectively as a means to overcome phobias like fear of spiders, fear of heights, and so on.

With overt hypnosis, a hypnotist has the subject of the hypnosis sit comfortably or lie down in a quiet room, so that he or she can be completely relaxed. The hypnotist skilfully puts the hypnosis subject in a light, trance-like state, whereby he or she can access the subconscious mind more easily, and implant suggestions to help change the bad habit or behaviour into something more desirable.

With covert hypnosis (oftentimes called "conversational hypnosis," as one of its terms), the subject being "hypnotized" has no idea that such a thing is taking place. And unlike overt hypnosis, there is no established "trance-like state" that the subject goes into, from the point of view of the common sense.

Instead, the person practising the covert hypnosis gradually uses techniques to implant ideas or suggestions during conversation that the subject probably would not have agreed with. Very skilful salespeople, for example, often use covert hypnosis techniques to get subjects to buy their products. Basically, the object of conversational hypnosis or covert hypnosis is to convince someone to do something. In fact, many people have either been subjects of or hypnotist themselves without actually knowing they were engaging in covert hypnosis, which tells you that in fact, it's very easy to learn hypnosis in this way even unconsciously; of course, although, you can also learn techniques so that you can do this consciously.

Steps to covert hypnosis

- Establish rapport

It begins with a "hypnotist" establishing rapport with his or her intended subject. Most often, the "hypnotist" simply agrees with his or her subject on the topic at hand. This causes the subject to relax, which makes him or her much more amenable to suggestion.

- Create confusion

Now, after the "hypnotist" has gotten the subject completely relaxed because rapport has been established, he or she creates confusion. For example, maybe someone has said something to the effect of, "All politicians are crooks." So, during the establishment of rapport, the "hypnotist" absolutely agrees: "I absolutely agree. All politicians are crooks."

This confuses the hypnotist's subject, because he or she wasn't expecting absolute, complete agreement. In fact, he or she was expecting at least some hedging ("Well, but you can't mean that ALL politicians are crooks"). By so completely agreeing, the hypnotist has created confusion in the subject.

Now, during this time of confusion, the conversation continues, and the hypnotist can gently say something to the effect of, "Are you SURE all politicians are crooks?" And of course, the subject is going to have to answer something to the effect of, "Well, no, I know that (insert name of politician) wasn't a crook. I didn't mean that."

Now, all of a sudden, the subject of the hypnosis is disagreeing with his or her own original point of view.

- Implant a suggestion

Next, the "hypnotist" gently plants a suggestion, another point of view, that the subject simply must agree with. It doesn't all have to happen in one conversation, either; in fact, doing covert hypnosis on a continuum, from one conversation to the next, is probably one of the most effective ways to completely "hypnotize" a subject without him or her ever knowing it.

That's the difference between overt versus covert hypnosis. With overt hypnosis, both parties (hypnotist and subject) know hypnosis is happening. With covert hypnosis, in fact, neither party may know it's even happening, although it's very possible as well that the "hypnotist" is fully aware of what's going on.

When is each technique best used?

In fact, either overt or covert hypnosis can be used to break bad habits, because the subject is willing to change and really wants to.

In any case anyone can learn covert hypnosis techniques, and it can be very useful in careers like sales.

You can even, for example, use covert hypnosis techniques to get a roommate to break a bad habit, establish better study techniques, and so on.

To study hypnosis you can visit the site of the same author IStartLearinigHypnosys.com, where you can find a link to download a free audio tapes course to begin with learning hypnosis. If you are more interested in the covert hypnosis techniques we suggest you to visit TheMagicOfCovertHypnosis.com.

What's So Great About Covert Hypnosis?

Let's face it; all of us wish we could be a little happier, feel a little less stressed out, and have things go a little bit better at least some of the time, when things are rough. Have you ever run into somebody who seems to simply exude good cheer, so that when you finish talking to them, you feel better?

That person may have been using something called "covert hypnosis." Although covert hypnosis can be used in a sort of shady way (such as the salesperson who makes you simply think you can't live without a particular product even though you very well could and can't really spend the money), it can also be used in a way to spread, well, happiness.

Happiness is contagious; have you ever noticed it? If you smile at someone, they're very likely to smile back at you. If someone is in a good mood, you're likely to leave with his or her good mood, too. Covert hypnosis works a little bit differently than that, though. With covert hypnosis, there's a sort of strategy to getting someone else to "agree" with you so that they become happier, too.

What is covert hypnosis, and how does it work?

Covert hypnosis is basically "conversational hypnosis" (another term it goes by). With conversational or covert hypnosis, the person managing the hypnosis (let's say the "hypnotist") uses a variety of techniques to slowly bring the other person (let's say the "subject") to his or her point of view -- even if the conversation starts out with the other person in complete opposition to your point of view.

Here's how it works.

- First, you establish rapport

First, you as the so-called "hypnotist" establish what's called rapport with your subject. That simply means that you absolutely, completely agree with what they say. So, let's say that somebody is really having a bad day and they say something to the effect of, "Life just plain sucks!"

Now, you as the "hypnotist" simply sympathetically agree, "I agree; life absolutely sucks, doesn't it? It's never going to get any better, is it?"

- Second, confusion is created

This absolute, wholehearted agreement with your subject confuses him or her. After all, they were expecting you to say something like, "Now, now, is it really that bad?"

Now your subject is off balance, so you can introduce a different point of view. Your subject will probably be taken aback and say, "What? Wait a minute; I didn't mean life was ALWAYS bad." And that gives you the perfect opportunity to:

- Implant a suggestion

With your subject off balance and confused, you can begin to introduce a different point of view, gently and slowly. For example, you can say something to the effect of, "Really? Life isn't ALWAYS terrible, you mean? Sometimes, it's actually good?"

Your subject is very likely to agree with you that at least sometimes, life is good, which puts them in complete opposition to what they said at first, which is that life "sucks."

- Take your time

Finally, covert hypnosis, or this type of mind hypnosis, doesn't have to take place during one conversation and in fact it's probably better if it doesn't. That is, you can gradually, slowly introduce your point of view to your subject, with the end result that you have, in fact, given them happiness. It may take a little time to go from "life sucks" to seeing life as something that's generally very happy, so take your time. That's what's fun about covert hypnosis. There's no timeline, you don't have to do it all at once, and best of all, you reap the benefits as much as your "subjects" do. In fact, you'll probably find that your happier, too, as a result of practicing this type of mind hypnosis.

The author of this article became interested in covert hypnosis techniques and NLP since he was 16 years old. Now he creates a site dedicated to this passion, which he called TheMagicOfCovertHypnosis.com, where you can find different interesting sources, among the other things a link to a 3 audio tape hypnosis/covert hypnosis course to download for free. He wrote many different articles about the covert hypnosis, we can recommend you to read his article, Leadership and Covert Hypnosis.