Conversational hypnosis works on the principle of being able to influence and persuade during general social conversations. Before I go any further let me point out that people have and do use social 'meaningless' conversations to persuade others to into eating at to a restaurant where they don't really want to, buying thousand dollar products, and going to bed with them.

Further, conversational hynposis is taught widely in the car dealership and federal agency occupational fields. Simply put, conversational hypnosis is a way of directing a conversation towards where you want it to go without using intimidation or coercion.

I was originally introduced the concept of conversational hypnosis by Steve G. Jones, a clinical hypnotherapist well-known in the US. Taking his conversational hypnosis course was far more applicable than learning clinical hypnosis where only a formal structure can be applied. Conversational hypnosis on the other hand can, and is, applied in personal interests, business transactions, and relationships.

How it works

Conversational hypnosis works by using words in a way that controls the amount of suggestability present in any conversation. This is done using conversational patterns, anchors, and metaphors.

One way that you can apply conversational hypnosis is simply by peppering sentences with emotive words that put others into a state of ease, comfort, and relaxation. Have you ever heard someone talk who kept saying "it will never work... the worst situation is... we can't do that... we can't do this... the problem with that is... the problem with this is..." and noticed how you felt? You most likely felt tense, uncomfortable, and unwilling to be around this person or to take on what he had to say.

Now when you begin using 'monotone language', rhythmic language, and positively charged words in your conversations correctly you will to control the outcome and the emotions surrounding social conversations. Throwing words into sentences such as "naturally... easily... freely... effortlessly... lightly... comfortably" etc. increases the delivery of your content and the listener's likelihood of accepting it.

Most of the time we either accept or reject what the person is saying subconsciously before even considering it or thinking about it. The secret to suggestion is beginning with indirect statements and finishing with direct statements. By practising conversational hypnosis you'll find that emotional attachments and personal beliefs far outweigh the content of any conversation no matter how good the content itself is.

How do I find formal training?

In my experience conversational hypnosis is mostly taught online. The couple of courses that I have found are actually quite in-depth, with Steve G. Jones' training program being about as comprehensive as a full NLP Practitioner Certification (which costs $3000 and up, in constrast to Steve's online program for $99).

First program

The first training program I came across is called "Power of Conversational Hypnosis" which has an attractive website and offers a lot of free bonuses. However for the price tag I found the programme to be a bit amateurish. It doesn't present itself as the most ethical of methods, and is slightly over exaggerated (claiming that you can use conversational hypnosis to convince a shop owner to hand over all of his money unconsciously).

Steve G. Jones' program (Highly Recommended)

The second program that I invested time in is "Ultimate Conversational Hypnosis" by Steve G. Jones - a program which is twice as cheap, and by my standards, a far more professional and polished program.

Steve has a PhD and (non-exclusively) you can clearly tell that he knows what he's talking about. Overall the "Ultimate Conversation Hypnosis" program is one of the most enjoyable audio trainings that I have ever downloaded. The techniques are really fun, ethical, and effective. The training comes with about 20 hours of audio, 3 audio books, and a couple of hypnosis sessions for personal use (one of which is amazingly well put together).

Being serious about learning conversational hypnosis really requires taking a focused online training, as merely reading and collecting articles about it will never add up to achieving a level of personal competence with the techniques.

Since I took the course with Steve I've been recommending the program to anyone who wants to learn how to use hypnosis and NLP in their everyday life, relationship, and business. It is by far the most gimmick-free (apart from the ugly website) and professionally designed training program that I have come across on the subject of hypnosis.