http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2004/09/12/political-training-with-democracy-for-america/ Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:24:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2004/09/12/political-training-with-democracy-for-america/comment-page-1/#comment-3299 Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist || Mike Murray on Hacking the Mind || July || 2006 Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:13:06 +0000 /?p=134#comment-3299 [...] The next technique he mentioned was using ambiguous content, so that the person can make it specific to their own experience (shades of filling in the blanks posts that I have yet to write). For instance, when hypnotizing someone, he could say “you will feel a sharp tingling sensation in your left leg”, but then he’d be right only some percentage of the time, and if he’s wrong, it breaks the trance. If instead he says, “You feel a sensation in your leg. Focus on it.”, then however they are feeling they stay in the trance. Another example he gave was “You will continue to breathe, focusing on the breath”; as he quipped, “I know they’re breathing - if they’re not, I’ve got a whole other set of problems”. This is reminiscent of the political training that I took: His [Bob Mulholland’s] example was make your message “Stop Bush!” If you leave it at that, the person that sees it applies their own context and interprets in terms of their own personal woes. If you keep on going and say “Stop Bush because he’s against gay marriage”, then maybe that person goes “Well, I don’t know how I feel about gay marriage, so maybe I don’t agree with this campaigner.” Use the voters’ ability to supply context to your advantage. [...] [...] The next technique he mentioned was using ambiguous content, so that the person can make it specific to their own experience (shades of filling in the blanks posts that I have yet to write). For instance, when hypnotizing someone, he could say “you will feel a sharp tingling sensation in your left leg”, but then he’d be right only some percentage of the time, and if he’s wrong, it breaks the trance. If instead he says, “You feel a sensation in your leg. Focus on it.”, then however they are feeling they stay in the trance. Another example he gave was “You will continue to breathe, focusing on the breath”; as he quipped, “I know they’re breathing – if they’re not, I’ve got a whole other set of problems”. This is reminiscent of the political training that I took: His [Bob Mulholland’s] example was make your message “Stop Bush!” If you leave it at that, the person that sees it applies their own context and interprets in terms of their own personal woes. If you keep on going and say “Stop Bush because he’s against gay marriage”, then maybe that person goes “Well, I don’t know how I feel about gay marriage, so maybe I don’t agree with this campaigner.” Use the voters’ ability to supply context to your advantage. [...]

]]>