Persuasion, Subliminal Persuasion and Propaganda... From The Bible to Evolution
By Kevin Hogan, Author of Covert Hypnosis

I confess that I read things, see life, and business, a lot differently than most people do.

For me, people in sales and marketing are heroes. Without them there is no company, no hiring of Uncle Joe to work in Engineering, the Lab, or the Front Office.

"If I can persuade, I can move the universe." - Frederick Douglass

Douglass is one of my heroes. He was a black slave who escaped to freedom in the 1840's and became a well known abolitionist and orator.

People who can't persuade are impotent....

The Definition of Persuasion

Persuasion is the purpose and intention of communication.

You tell your spouse, "My, you look gorgeous..."

Why?

You have an intention.

Are you simply broadcasting the news to her? ...Newsflash: Jane looks absolutely smashing, film at 11.

No.

You are communicating a message to her that has at least two purposes. Sharing a fact with her, and, persuading her of that fact, and perhaps there are other reasons as well.

"Eat your food, young man." My Mom never gave up on getting me to eat vegetables. She was persuasive and had multiple intentions.

She wanted me to eat so I wouldn't be hungry, she wanted me healthy for lots of reasons, she wanted me to have a better life.

"Honey the dog is outside." Another newsflash?

Of course not. It's a message of multiple intentions most of which are persuasive the least being, "hey at least I put the dog out," or perhaps, "see I do pitch in, I put the dog out," or perhaps, "I put the dog out, let her in later on because I'm off to bed."

"I love you." Certainly that isn't a persuasive message...

...but it is. One of the most intentional persuasive messages there is.

It might mean, "You are great and mean the world to me and please know that," where you are trying to create a bridge from your feelings to hers.

It could mean something in the future. She doesn't know you broke her necklace and when you tell her tomorrow, you'd like her to have built up a set of messages that create an image so she doesn't take your life when you tell her what happened.

Or it might mean, "Let's go to bed," or, "I appreciate you," again with the purpose of creating an image of you in addition to sending a message of appreciation. One thing is for sure there are covert messages happening here...

Does all persuasion have these covert aspects?

Is All Communication Designed to Persuade?

This isn't to say that all communication is intentionally designed to persuade other people to your way of thinking. That is simply not the case.

Life would be much easier if people would communicate with the intention to persuade. Most people simply communicate without thought or plan and then that message, however it is received becomes persuasive for something, about something, in the person's mind. i.e. People Babble.

It's extremely hard to create a message with or without intention that doesn't persuade.

"It's 78 degrees outside." Oh my, the weatherman says it will be a nice day, I won't need a jacket.

No...The weatherman said it was 78 degrees. You made up the rest. But it was a persuasive message because it got you to change your behavior. The weatherman personally might not care what you wear to work. He might have simply been "reading the weather" to get paid. But his message still persuaded.

Negotiation and Persuasion

"Dear God, Please let Daddy get a new heart. I really love him a lot."

People attempt to persuade God. In fact a lot of people attempt to persuade and negotiate with God asking for more and offering less than in any other negotiations they enter into.

In the Bible Abraham bargained for the Cities of Sodom and Gommorrah.

"Lord, if there are only 20 just men in the Cities won't you spare them destruction?"

"OK Abraham, if there are 20..."

"....if there are 10"

"Yes, Abraham..."

And then Abraham finally hit God's least acceptable result. He (God) made sure those that had an ounce of possibility in them, were out of town and then he went nuclear...and this wasn't all that long after he wiped out the entire earth with a flood.

The Bible says that God has a temper, but it also shows on numerous occasions that He can be successfully bargained with.

In the New Testament, The Apostle Paul took the Jewish Religion and the story of Jesus to the Greeks and Ephesians and a bunch of other people on his tours north and west of Israel. His entire purpose and message was persuasive.

Paul would compliment those with different religions on their religiousness and devotion to their Gods, he'd build rapport and then come in with a message about the Unknown God and then record that he "successfully persuaded many that day."

He was good.

Was Paul being ETHICAL using covert persuasion?

The Root of Persuasion

Persuasion is what caused us to develop language in the first place. As a species we needed stuff. We learned to speak so we could ask for help in getting that stuff.

And, persuasion is simply the stuff of life.

What is Subliminal Persuasion?

Subliminal persuasion is the experience you have when you aren't completely aware of everyone popping 20 dollar bills in the collection basket, you have a 10 but for some reason you decide to dig for another 10 and make it twenty.

A significant percentage of the actions you take are because something you were not consciously aware of caused you or primed (prepared you unconsciously) to act in a specific fashion.

"Subliminal" can mean "invisible" or "covert" but it can also mean...what it means...stimuli that you are not aware of.

In the last decade more research has been done on subliminal and supraliminal messages than the previous century before.

We now know that audio subliminal messaging is a great scam and that most video messages designed to subliminally persuade, don't work, because they simply don't work in how the brain accepts information.

But scientists and researchers in subliminal persuasion now know what does prime and persuade people at the unconscious level.

We can cause someone to drink X over Y or X over not drinking at all.

And those things can be done while looking at a computer screen and having an image of the word "drink" revealed at a duration too short for conscious awareness to pick it up, even if you're "looking for it."

The research in subliminal messages is nothing short of mind blowing in potential. The ability to change short term behavior can assist in changing long term behavior. The ramifications are beyond measure in society.

Propaganda and Persuasion

Propaganda is persuasion on a large scale.

I used to tell audiences, "I have propaganda at the back of the room. Please feel free to pick it up, check it out and ...."

One day a Jewish man came up to me and he was angry. Suggested that I was supporting evil by just using the word "propaganda" in a sentence.

Why?

Because I used the word, "propaganda."

I told him that while I could appreciate his point of view, I was speaking only from a scientific point of view. There is nothing special about the word "propaganda." It's a message crafted to persuade more than one person. It's designed to persuade many about something I or the creator feels passionate about.

It certainly could refer to Hitlerian propaganda about the creation of a superior race, but that is a really narrow minded view of a term that covers a lot of ground.

Commercials are propaganda. Marketing messages are propaganda. What your teacher teaches your kids and my kids teacher teaches my kids, is propaganda.

The man who came up to me was propagandizing his ideology to me. Now I wasn't going to tell him that, because I had learned over the years that logically debating with a disgruntled audience member can put you in the psychiatric admitting room at the hospital. It's a waste of time.

Fact is...Propaganda is a necessary tool in a free society to differentiate yourself or your company or your religion or political ideology from another.

Propaganda is news with a spin and intention, and all news has a spin and all spun news has an intention.

When I took journalism at the University of Wisconsin 25 years ago, I found the most difficult factor in writing news articles was being "objective." Today, of course, there is no such thing as objective news. Walter Cronkite is long gone from the news stage and the era of trying to get it "right" without a message attached to it is simply no longer possible due to how our world "runs."

If you want to watch your favorite TV shows and read your favorite newspaper, your favorite church publication, your favorite company newsletter, you will have to wade through "spin." They can't afford to publish without it. It's no longer possible to compete with objective news. Whether CNN, Fox or Al Jazeera, they all have an agenda. And that is the only way it can work in the 21st century.

Propaganda and subliminal persuasion in no way demands that Kevin Hogan gets something out of you being shaped by a message I send. The same is true for you sending messages.

Can YOU really use propaganda!?!?

The Outcome of Stimuli

But the fact is that all stimuli creates and alters context.

It all means something.

Few people grasp the gravity of this.

They want me to teach them the "right words" or "sentence fragments" or "language patterns."

And I smile.

Sure, there are some persuasive words and patterns of language. But for the most part those things are teeny tiny in getting your message heard, listened to, believed, accepted and evangelized upon.

Priming: A Powerful Subliminal Message

Put one of those smiley faces on your refrigerator for a week. See how your family's behavior changes that week (assuming they use the fridge as much as the people here do.)

And put one of those smiley faces in the bathroom....

And sit back and watch subliminal persuasion go to work....

About the Author:
Kevin Hogan is the author of Covert Hypnosis, a guidebook that Dr. Joe Vitale (star of "The Secret" movie) has said to be "the most powerful stuff I've EVER seen for selling, persuading, and motivating." Kevin is the nation's leading body language expert. He is a dynamic, well-known international motivational and inspirational keynote speaker, consultant and corporate trainer. He has trained persuasion, sales and marketing skills to leaders in the government of Poland, employees from Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Meespierson, Auntie Anne's, Cargill, Pillsbury, Carlson Companies, Fortis, Great Clips, the State of Minnesota, 3M, The United States Postal Service and numerous other Fortune 500 companies. He recently spoke to The Inner Circle and at the Million Dollar Roundtable (MDRT) convention.


The Most Closely Guarded Underground Secrets to Control Anyone at Any Situation - Revealed!

Click Here to Get Insider Access

The viewing and use of this website signifies your agreement, acceptance, and understanding of our:

Legal Disclaimer  l  Terms and Conditions  l  Privacy Policy  l  Earnings Disclaimer