NLP in the courtroom: using built-in commands
Are you ready to take on the lawyers who are educated in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)? Adding these methods to your practice can actually be enjoyable as you win handsomely with a smile on your face.
As you consider the benefits of being able to communicate with unconscious minds in the courtroom while on the surface you are simply stating the facts, you may be curious as to how this could be accomplished.
Unconscious communication bypasses the “critical faculty” which is not your old law professor, but the logical conscious mind. This embedded command can affect what a person is thinking, feeling, and doing.
The embedded command requires two parts. The first is the opening. This really occupies the conscious mind in a kind of error loop. By doing so, the unconscious mind is open to suggestion. The opening can be any of a selection of hypnotic language patterns that the founders of NLP learned from the father of hypnotherapy, Milton Erickson.
The second part is pronounced after a pause and a lowering and slowing of the voice in a phrase beginning with “you”. This is given in the command tonality, which means that your voice drops at the end of the phrase.
Examples of the opening are sentences like “You would agree, wouldn’t you?”
This can be followed with your embedded command.
“You’d agree, wouldn’t you? (pause, lower voice here, speak slower) you understand the trauma these kids have been through.”
“As you sit there considering everything that’s been said (pause, lower your voice here, slow down the delivery) you can feel the (specific discomfort) of the (person feeling discomfort).”
Built-in commands can also be accented with an appropriate hand gesture. If you do that, make sure you’re using that hand gesture specifically for that command. This combines anchoring with built-in commands. As they experience the feeling, you are anchoring the feeling with your gesture.
Now, if you notice that the other lawyer is using this strategy, you can effectively spread it by using the particular gesture and pinning it to something absurd. You can start with “There was a day when we all really felt like the earth was flat.” He would carry on with this for a few more sentences while creating a sense of absurdity in the courtroom. He then uses the gesture, in the same place where the other lawyer was standing, thus destroying the unconscious connection they made.