Covert Hypnosis: An Operator's Manual Paperback – January 9, 2006

Paul Hogan seems to me to be way ahead of the game when it comes to the subject of influence. Somehow Robert Cialdini has gotten more credit from what I can tell for his book Influence. I read that later but it was all old information because Hogan had written about it here. This book is a secret that I keep on my shelf and I don’t let anyone see me reading it. It’s a fun read too, with a sense of humor. Hogan and I exchanged a few emails over it, he’s very personable it turns out. So I read all his other books. I guess you could say I have been impressed. Or maybe I was covertly influenced.

Despite the title, this book is about understanding how to help people envision your ideas and thoughts. There are many good concrete examples that illustrate methods for guiding conversations in a positive productive way for both parties. Implementing the lessons taught in this book has improved my business and personal relationships. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to build his "people skills."

Maybe this book does help becuase I was totally taken in by the marketing hype describing the book.First, this book has quite a lot of the shortcomings of many self-published books -- rampant typos, grammatical errors and unverifiable testamonials followed by unsubstantiated anecdotes sprinkled with factual errors.Second, it's regurgitated, dumbed down NLP for the masses.Third, the information is dated although presented as "new" and "cutting edge".There are many other books on NLP and body language that are a lot more helpful. Don't buy this book, especially at its inflated price. That's part of the ploy. If it costs so much it must have the "good stuff" in it, right? Wrong!I'm just very disappointed to be told that I need to lose weight, grow taller and dress for success to get my subliminal message across to make the sale.

Not for all

Gift

I have read most of the book. I won't say that it is useless, but that it is rather disapointing. NLP is a very powerful set of practices for influencing other people. The name of the book is the one thing the author did that succeeded in convincing me to buy this book. The book is mainly about how to become a successful salesperson, almost nothing about other practices of covert hypnosis. Thus the name of the book suggests a wider scope. Throughout the book, the author seem to plant the messages "buy my other stuff" and "use my knowlege", and he seems to do it in a very ineffective way. If at least he was able to use covert hypnosis more effectively for that, the way Bandler and Grider (the original developers of NLP) did, then I would be tempted to believe I can learn a lot more from him.Yet, the book is not useless. Some of the things written in this book are deep understanding of the selling business.

This is a good book with quality information. Kevin Hogan has written several good books on persuasion. I have read Psychology of Persuasion, Covert Persuasion and Covert Hypnosis in that order. Although a decent amount of the information in this book is covered in Covert Persuasion, there is a substantial amount of new information and tactics that can be applied to many situations in life. Overall this is a nice read for someone that would like to raise the bar at work and elsewhere.Working in the Formula Race Car of Sales "metaphorically speaking" anything that can give me an edge is worth looking at.Good job again Kevin

Some people work readily with cognitive behavioral therapy. Some people are happy to try hypnosis. And some people have the troubles they have because they work very hard to hang onto the psychological mindsets that bring them about. Covert hypnosis has many good ideas for using language to heighten suggestibility and covertly implant suggestions that would not be accepted if presented overtly. On the whole, this looks like a method of turning a conversation into a long-form induction, except that there isn't an explicitly denoted conversion to hypnosis.I am a certified hypnotist, but I'm a customer service agent by trade. I purchased this manual after reading the author's Psychology of Persuasion. I had hoped this would offer a more in-depth look at the communication strategies discussed in that book, and have not found this manual as helpful in that regard. If you are a therapist or work with people in other settings where wide-ranging, extended conversation is a given, this manual offers lots of good suggestions for guiding the conversation, all the way to planting suggestions for those resistant to change in a therapeutic setting. But if you're in sales, customer service or another profession where shorter interactions are the rule, I'd recommend the Psychology of Persuasion instead.