I was listening to an audio program about conversational hypnosis in which the trainer was talking about the use of embedded suggestions. While the audio program was discussing one-to-one interactions, embedded suggestions are also potentially useful in educational settings. Two common ways of using these suggestions are given below.
Method 1
Create an embedded suggestion in three or less words and insert it into a phrase that is not conveyed directly as a command or instruction to the students. For example, if the suggestion is “Do homework”, you can embed it in an anecdote or class reading like the example below:
Research has shown that students who always do homework are also the same students who achieve well in other areas of their life. In contrast, students who do not always do homework are less likely to be successful in other areas of life.
Here, the embedded suggestion do homework was repeated twice within the natural flow of a story about other people, but at an unconscious level the students in your own classroom will hear the suggestion.
The effect of embedding suggestions is vastly increased by using analogue markers. By this, I am referring to changes in your voice tone, gestures, or other changes at the point where the embedded suggestion occurs. For example, you could raise the volume of your voice very slightly as you say the words do homework. Or you could make a unique gesture such as raising one hand slightly as you say that phrase. Or you could combine the raise in volume with the raising hand.
If you are presenting the embedded suggestion in a text, you have various options for analogue markers. The least subtle is to emphasize the embedded suggestion by putting it in capital letters (DO HOMEWORK). However, this is equivalent to shouting in a conversation and you may achieve better results if you use a more subtle analogue marker. For example, you can capitalize the first letter of each word of the embedded suggestion (Do Homework), or you could italicize the words (do homework) or italicize the first letter of each word (do homework). You could even send a subtle signal to the unconscious mind by using a different font for one letter in each word.
Analogue markers can be very subtle and yet still have a powerful effect. The unconscious mind is always on the lookout for changes because it is changes in the current situation that provide the most interest. So a slight change in volume or a subtle gesture may not even be noticed by the conscious mind and yet is enough to allow the unconscious mind to recognize the marked phrase as important in some way–especially if the phrase is associated with the analogue marker several times.
Method 2
An additional method of using embedded suggestions in your teaching or training involves all of the suggestions above, but is based on the idea that the words of the embedded suggestion do not need to all come together, but instead can be spread out over a longer phrase. An example is given below for the suggestion do your homework:
If you decide to do something, then it is good to think of your reasons carefully, so whether it is at home or at work, you can really check if it is worth doing.
As in Method 1 described above, apply analogue markers to the words of the embedded suggestion. Be careful not to apply those analogue markers to any other part of the communication, so that the unconscious mind can combine the marked words into a single coherent phrase.
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Students are bombarded with teachers giving them instructions and can happily let those direct commands to go in one ear and out the other without having any real effect, and embedded suggestions offer a powerful and subtle way to help your students to learn more effectively. Try experimenting with some embedded suggestions in your classes and let me know how you get on!
©2010 by Brian Cullen