Embedded Commands: Use These Powerful NLP Techniques

Subliminal influence via embedded commands, how do you do that? It may have been part of the advertising classes during your bachelor’s degree in marketing. We also extend subliminal influencing techniques in this article to everyday life. You probably clicked on this article because you were looking for examples of embedded commands and subliminal messages and techniques. You will definitely get it here! 

To influence subliminally we use embedded commands, but what are they?

You could give ‘subliminal’ the following synonym: ‘hidden’. If you want to actively get started with subliminal communication, read on. Because here you will learn how to communicate with embedded commands , or subliminal messages.

Embedded commands, also called subliminal messages and indirect suggestions, are an effective tool in your communication. With this technique you package the imperative (subconscious communication) in a normal sentence (conscious communication). In this article you will learn all possible examples of embedded assignments (part of the NLP Practitioner curriculum ). 

Why are subliminal messages so important in communication?

Subliminal messages are the means by which resources and encouragement can be transferred to, for example, a coach client. A common way of doing this is the use of metaphors.  If you want to awaken resources, virtues and qualities in someone, then indirect suggestion is indispensable.

Does subliminal influence also lend itself to other languages than English? Certainly!

The subliminal techniques in this article all stem from the NLP method, and to be specific: the ’embedded commands’ technique of the English milton model. Due to the structure of the English language, it is easier to do this in English, but for example in Dutch you can also provide excellent embedded hypnotic suggestions.

Technique 1 – The best subliminal technique for embedded commands: changing the personal pronoun

In this first technique we make use of ambiguity. An additional advantage of this language pattern is that it occurs naturally in every other language outside of English. This will prevent the listener from even realizing that you are doing this on purpose. How does this technique work? You start in the I-form, but at a certain point you switch to the you-form, causing subliminal direct commands to be put in your language.

Examples:

• “ I remember very well the first time I went into hypnosis. I felt wonderfully relaxed and then you (!) Notice that you go deeper and deeper into a trance. You go into a trance and you go deeper and deeper. ”
• “ I love going to the beach so much. I love smelling that salty air, hearing the sounds of the waves. You (!) Feel the sand on your feet, which reinforces that wonderful feeling with you, now … ”
• In the following example, the ambiguity is in changing the third storytelling position – “The Client” – to the you form. ‘The customer determines what his desired outcome is. The coach then makes a proposal for the client. The client accepts the proposal and makes the investment. The final step is you can you start feeling good about having made the right purchase.

An even more ingenious variant is: (He said 🙂 I do x and {command}.

Examples:

• I ‘m nice and totally do it, Debbie.
• And I, just go for it, Debbie!
• And I, of course , let it happen, Debbie!
• He, is becoming obsessed / fascinated, Debbie!
• And then x happened and I always do the following: (I) allow these feelings to develop / grow stronger, Debbie.
  And realize this is happening.
• Many people in my circle of friends find it special, such a  “go for what you want” attitude.
• I believe that …
• I enjoy it …
• Some people just sit down, relax, and listen. I am one of them too. Do you know what I do then? I sit, relax and listen, Debbie.
• Debbie, some people have no idea whatsoever what is happening. And some people know about themselves, “I, Debbie, am developing absolute clarity about it.”

Technique 2 – Using the whole verb as imperative

Examples:

• Over the years I have developed an idea of ​​how people live humanly. He is a person who understands, values ​​and develops his body. Someone who KEEP WHAT IS STILL USEFUL AND REMOVE WHAT IS NOT USEFUL.
• To some extent, you can UNDERSTAND that, DEBBIE.
• You don’t have to GO, of course, DEBBIE.
• I’m curious: how do you RELAX, DEBBIE?
• You can also VISIT our WEBSITE. NOW we continue with …
• I don’t know if you can SIT DOWN, DEBBIE.
• ………………………………… .. BECOME HAPPY, DEBBIE.
• ………………………………… .. GET INTERESTED, DEBBIE.
• ………………………………… .. GET CURIOUS, DEBBIE.
• A customer then went to BUY the PRODUCT.
• ……………………………………. USE PRODUCT.
• You don’t need to UNDERSTAND HOW THIS WORKS to use it.
• You don’t have to help me with the dishes.
• People really don’t need to RELAX.
• If you were to think: “Give {your name} a 10” / “Give me a 10”, would that point be high enough? “

Technique 3 – Mark the embedded command with ‘analog marks’

Subliminal influence requires commitment from your whole body. Look at the person when you say it and ‘mark’ the decisive subliminal message by, for example:

• Raising your eyebrows.
• Just pause for the assignment.
• Change your tonality, preferably lower notes.
• Gesture at the decisive word. Do use the same gesture consistently with the same word.
• Adjust your volume: give the command in a whisper, or louder.
• You can also switch positions with your body to ‘mark’ the assignment.
• Looking at the other person’s left eye during the command to enter the unconscious. The left eye is connected to the emotional center of our brain and the right eye is connected to critical thinking. This is because each eye is connected to its opposite hemisphere: from the left eye to the right hemisphere and vice versa.
• Pointing to the person.
• To laugh.
• Touching the person during the embedded command.

Why are commercial breaks on TV and Spotify louder than normal programs? The messages are extra marked!

Always make the same mark at “relax”. For example, that marker is a short pause before and after the imperative.

• Everyone can relax .
• Can you imagine how relaxed you can be?
• Have you ever been so relaxed that you simply fell asleep completely automatically?
• Now I want you to find out for yourself that relaxing , Debbie, is normal.
• I wonder if you can relax in a few moments , and feel comfortable doing so.

Technique 4 – Embedded Question

Example:

• I wonder how easy it is for you to keep your eyes closed.

Technique 5 – Embedded Commands VS Embedded Suggestions

The difference between suggestions and commands is that for suggestions you are not giving a literal command, but very elegantly presenting and establishing a seed or a frame. This is a positive suggestion: “OK we’re having too much fun!” You can also hide this, making it an embedded suggestion.

Examples:

• And the moment you notice that things are becoming more and more natural …
• And that waiter had a smile on his face and said: Welcome, how nice to have you here. Nice to see you again! And I knew: There is a fine, kind man here. It is happening. It’s on.
• And when I read that, I thought, “You’re part of it.”
• Who has ever been to the movies? Well when the movie starts you have to broaden your knowledge that you are in a movie theater, right? You have to forget that people are around you and there are 4 walls, correct? That you are in a room, shared with other people. You have to hallucinate all that away, to fully believe the presentation you are watching. To fully focus on the presentation and to believe: everything said in the presentation is true! However? Or not then?
• And when you are busy with what you love to do the most … And you feel all those nice feelings NOW WITH ME it is true that I sometimes have a passion that I would like to do all day long.
• I think there are about 100. What do you think? What do you estimate ?

Other examples of suggestions:

• Do you now see how everything works? The way I coach is to give you different types of information, which are tied together with a conclusion at the end, which makes you think: wow! This is really great!
• You may find that your understanding of your future has become much clearer, and that it feels different from a vague picture of your future. That feeling can convince you to think, “Oh my god, he’s a great coach!”
• These thoughts come up.
• You realize it is happening.
• I am very  impressed by his talent.

Technique 6 – Use a wrong sentence structure to give a subliminal message

See the example below:

• ‘You are completely free and you can just keep all information to yourself. And you just have to tell me the things you want to tell me everything. You can tell it as freely as you want. ‘

Technique 7 – Subliminal influence comes into its own in quotes: Extended Quotes

We are not yet done with our subliminal influencing techniques. You can also process embedded messages in the ‘quotes’ technique to be able to apply subliminal influence in a simple way.

How does the extended quotes technique for subliminal messages work?

When you speak in quotes, the resistance of your audience is automatically lowered. It is far away on a conscious level and not happening now, which can eliminate the critical factor. For the subconscious, however, the quote does have an effect on the now, because the subconscious does not distinguish in time.

Fairytales are a good example: as soon as we hear “Once upon a time”, we switch to story mode. We no longer need to activate our critical factor – a defense mechanism to discuss or to question things – because ‘it’s just a story’.

Your unconscious will think, “Oh, I’m going to open myself up and just like my childhood I’m going to absorb everything and listen to everything instead of being critical.” Giants, trolls, bankers who are honest … It doesn’t matter what you say.

You can use this for example for embedded suggestions and messages. Continue to the next topic smoothly after giving a command.

Examples of subliminal messages in quotes

• As a well-known NLPer once said: you can just look someone in the eye and say: now go into a trance and feel the comfort it brings.
• I once read a nice article about NLP. It said …
• My friend John used to say to me: relax deeply and relax completely and feel really good. I don’t know why he said that but he always said that.
• I was on vacation with Piet, who told me about his aunt, who said it is always good to…
• My friend John once went to an NLP therapist and heard him say open yourself up to it.
• And he really didn’t say the following, Debbie, close your eyes.
• I went to the dentist and I said to myself, you have to calm down, and, you know, you have to make things happen the way they do.
• I have a colleague who sells a lot and he said to a customer: this is exactly what you need. You must buy this now!
• That reminds me of a video of a guy on YouTube who talked about NLP and all, and I watched his video and he stopped, looked into the camera and said, you have to subscribe to this channel now, you have to like this, leave a comment, not only that but you should also share this video on all your social networks. Not only that, but you also need to click on the link below and go to my website and sign up for my email list.
• Let me tell you a story about …
• I was with Doctor X and he did something I have never seen anyone do, namely …
• A coach recently said to me: let my ideas roll through your mind. Now. Which is good. And think what it will be like to at least imagine what it is like to go along with the things I say.
• So he said, I am happy and I feel love, Debbie.
• I met someone today, and we had a little talk, and that other person looked at me and said to me, ‘You know, I’m really glad I met you …’
• John was a good friend of my grandfather, and he had a beautiful boat called Marie Xeleste, and a very special boy worked on that boat … You could look at him … And simply FALL IN LOVE … Debbie … Now …. To what you now see before you …
• I recently went to my therapist. You really should start listening to the coach , I told myself.
• You really should have a coffee with me , the 6-year-old girl said to her doll, isn’t that cute.
• I asked my neighbor why he is always so happy. Make yourself comfortable, he replied.
• Do you know what that one top athlete always thinks before an important match? Relax completely. 
• I am a person you can trust, he said. (Tip: an extra way to mark this is to unnoticeably point to yourself at “Person you can trust”.)
• My teacher used to say to me: PAY ATTENTION / You pay attention tad very carefully.
• A friend of mine always says, A person can feel happiness / excitement , Debbie.
• “Really! And then he said to me, “Scratch your nose, now …”
• “And at that moment he just whispered to me: ‘Just relax, you don’t have to do anything’…”
• Last year I met a woman … Who said she knew a man … Who mentioned something about … That his father had told him … That Tad James had told a story in training 4 years ago … about the one time Richard Bandler was quoting Virginia Satir … Who always said that …
• The quote can also be about something completely different from the context of the quote. And then after that golf game, Gary Player went home, and he thought to himself, “You better study your map tonight.”

Tell people what you think of them, with quotes!

For example, use the extended quotes technique to express what you think of someone in an extremely subtle way. For example, you can say in the form of a quote: I can’t believe you’re so stupid / motherfucker / wow, I’m really happy to have met you / I’m happy to have met people who are really involved with everything and really making a difference.

• I was at the supermarket this morning and there I saw a kid who was whining really bad, and her mom had had enough and said why are you always misbehaving! can’t you just be quiet! But that was that woman. I would never say such a thing.
• My 4 year old nephew was playing with a girl and he said to her: you are very beautiful.
• I am so glad you are such a good family, because in the previous family I had to look at every person and say shut up.
• I had tried so hard at work … It was for a very important client … And then my boss came up to me and he said, “How can you be so stupid!” ( pointing to the person you’re talking to).
• As a child I played a game that taught me English. I learned words like, “Pig! Donkey!”

Go several layers deep into the quotes

You can also apply multiple layers of quotes:

• I spoke to Piet, who said that he had heard from Marietje: just relax.
• My neighbor told me her friend said her husband watched her and said and you feel good about this!
• My friend used to tell me that his grandfather always said, It doesn’t matter if you feel that feeling flowing through you in a way that you MUST respond to it, or if you feel it feeling through you where you feel it must be done now? What’s important is that you have to find your own reasons for doing it that feel and sound good to you.
• Last week I was with a friend, and he shared something about what he heard his colleague say …
• As the character of Tom Hanks said in that stand-up comedy movie: What did the taxi driver say about how best to get to the Empire State Building? Practice, practice, practice!

These were all subliminal influencing quotes techniques! Make sure to mark the commands, for example with a silence.

Technique 8 – A good tool for subliminal influence is the use of ‘language softeners’

By using language softeners , you can elegantly penetrate even the most harsh suggestions in a subliminal way.

• “It’s not important whether you’re going to hit the target or not , Debby. The important thing is that it doesn’t detract from who you are.”

Technique 9 – Just deliver your ‘indirect’ subliminal messages directly!

You can also just give direct commands, while making them seem very normal, making them feel indirect again. This is very useful, for example, when giving a presentation.  If you just sprinkle the following commands through your presentation, you literally give your audience commands to properly memorize the next thing you are going to say:

• Please understand me correctly …
• Believe me…
• Pay attention, this is important …
• Remember this…
• You will start to feel a natural tendency to …

Technique 10 – Use negative phrases, reverse psychology, and provocative conversation

In many cases it is very powerful to formulate positively , but there are two exceptions:

• Exception 1: When the other person is a ‘mismatcher’ and tends to be the opposite of what other people say.
• Exception 2: When you are in deep, hypnotic rapport with each other. Subconscious messages are then very easily accepted.

An excellent technique for naturally generating subliminal messages in your language is to use negatively worded messages,  reverse psychology and provocative influence.  Read the related articles and you will automatically learn how to give more indirect suggestions like the example below:

“I don’t want us to go to Efteling, little brother!”
“I don’t want that at all: going to Grandpa together, now …”
“You don’t have to: make your dream come true, Debbie!”
“Don’t have too much fun, Debbie!”
“You shouldn’t read this article too quickly .”

Want to learn more subliminal techniques? Read the article about ‘priming’

With subliminal priming you can make someone familiar with a certain concept, so that it is no longer new when you consciously introduce it ‘for the first time’. It is difficult to explain this in one sentence, but in the article you will find all the information.