Ok, so after running the first weekend of my latest hypnotherapy diploma… I am getting asked ‘those’ questions… Similar questions that I get asked following a speaking event, or a seminar…

“Were you doing hypnosis on us while we were not expecting it?”… “I felt funny after you spoke, were you doing something else while you were speaking?”

Those brave and knowledgeable ones don’t ask questions, they make statements…

“I saw you doing a tapping thing with your toes, that was hypnotising us, wasn’t it?” or “I could tell you were using your hands in that particular way to make us feel different, weren’t you?”

Hmmmmm…

In my field, when you are inherently using all that you know, it is not a case of ‘consciously applying’ these things on purpose… They are just happening. Any good communicator, trained or not, gets asked these things and because of my specialist area of interest, everyone is asking me about Barack Obama… Let me explain…

Many people have highlighted Obama’s Denver Democratic National Convention 2008 speech in which some believe he uses commands as he is programming the audience to vote for him on November 4th.     
 
Obama’s wonderfully hypnotic command that “a light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, ‘I have to vote for Barack’”

I love it! My point is, what else is he supposed to say? It is beautiful, elegant language that you would expect from any person who may be president of the USA. Yet many people are saying he is unfairly using hypnotic techniques…
 
I remember when the boxing community were complaining that is was unfair the Nigel Benn had seen Paul Mckenna for hypnosis. Hahaha! Do they think that hypnosis was somehow sneaking anabolic steroids into his bloodstream. How was it not fair? The guy was still the guy — just with a better and enhanced mindset.

Obama is an incredibly talented speaker — even if he is using hypnotic techniques on purpose — so what? He is simply amplifying and doing what many people do anyway… It is an impotent argument to suggest that it is somehow unfair… It verges on laughable to suggest such.

So, back to that speech… He said:
 
“a light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, “I have to vote for Barack”’  
 
If we take the sentence apart… notice how voting for Obama is made absolutely compulsory with the words “have to” — precisely as a hypnotic command. He creates a compulsion…I wish some of our politicians would use some of that kind of urgency… He is not asking for a vote — he is telling his audience how they will vote. He is moving them into the future, he is illuminating their future ith light and having them feel like they made a good decision…  Fabulous stuff.  
 
Notice the language “light shining down”, and “it will light upon you” a description of some almost supernatural (perhaps subconscious?) force… He is using very visual language to connect with his audience… I find it awe inspiring… I find it to be hypnotic… He paints a picture with heavenly qualities… Do you think I am hypnotised by him?  

Some have highlighted this speech as an example of Obama using hypnotic hand gestures too, followed by what we refer to as an anchor.

Obama, while saying this sentence uses both his pointing gesture as a supposed hypnotic command implantation, and his thumb and forefinger gesture as a hypnotic anchor, back to back.   
 
In fact, when you watch any video clip of this speech, many interpret Obama as using hypnotic hand gestures.   
 
As he says “you will say to yourself” — he points up into the air, pointing is a hypnotic gesture for commanding someone to do something, to perform a specific act. Then, he uses his typical thumb and forefinger hypnotic anchor for the words “I have to vote for Barack.” Brilliant. Good for him. Making his audience feel good.

I find Obama to be incredibly congruent while he speaks and that resonates well with me… Regardless of whether or not he does any of this stuff on purpose as many of his opposition believe…
 
There is so much more that he does that is beautiful to watch and to highlight what makes him such an engaging and influential speaker — lots that in my fields we notice… But these fields are often built upon modelling.

Heck, we see what other people do well and do more of it… That is what Obama does well… I like seeing these hypnotic processes, I liked watching Martin Luther Kings speeches, JFKs speeches, Winston Churchill’s speeches, Nelson Mandella’s speeches … These are brilliant people at work and we can learn much from how they communicated. I am pleased Obama’s abilities are being analysed and questioned, and I hope he wins.