NO on "pattern interrupts". YES on Pre Occuptional Interrupters.

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for this...!

I know you've written about pre-occupational interrupters before (and it's also in Remote Influence), but I had to look up pattern interrupts...

So, Google at the ready, I chased down several articles about pattern interrupts online...

As is often the case with NLP, the real origin is Ericksonian Hypnosis, taken by the NLP guys and given a fancy name so they can market it and make money selling it...

Maybe you could explain further the difference between pattern interrupts and pre-occupational interrupters?

Not sure if anyone else is interested in this... If nobody else seems to be interested, we can talk about it in the next couple of days, and you can explain it to me in a private conversation...

Best wishes,

Dien

Use a big red nose, scratch off lottery tickets, the smell of cookies coming out of the oven...

OK, it may just be me and you Dien, but that's ok too. Most people have heard of Pavlov's dogs, but they don't know the rest of the story...which in part is:

When someone came into the room, the dogs did not react the same because of the DISTRACTION...animal instinct, still in humans...is to do an assessment when something catches their attention. Is there danger?

Now, I have these huge volumes of the work of Milton Erickson, most of it very difficult reading...but, what he understood with his clients, they "armed" themselves before seeing him, and he conducted experiments with associates who interacted before they came in...Tony Robbins does this when he tells the person, "we haven't started yet", and that snaps them out of this mindset of the problem.

Erickson used touch, sound, eye movement as a coordinated method to get "inside" the head of his clients...to interrupt their thinking and to replace it with something else, he knew the mind couldn't hold on to confusion, it needs to choose what to focus on.

Pavlov's dogs, once they sensed the intruder was not a danger, resumed their behavior as they were "programmed" to.

Erickson interrupted the "pattern" of the thought, knowing his clients were recalling the same neural pathway of the problem, so he chose to crink the hose, stop the flow, interrupt the thought...and replace it, when he could.

In order to stop the hose from flowing, there has to be a flow first. See?

On the practical side, walk into a store as a salesman, and ask for the owner, who shows up with a full hose of thought...he is instantly defensive, wallet protective and ready with the boot. A good salesman interrupts this thought..."I'm not here to sell you anything, I couldn't take your money even if you wanted me too, no, I'm here for a quick business survey."

That sort of thing. Now, a guy in the street selling potato peelers or someone in a store demonstrating white bread, needs to first gain attention. With the food item, the free sample, aided by the smell has already broken their shopping attention for the briefest of moments. Test for yourself any Sat. at Costco, watch how poorly the demo people do once the prospect has the sample.

A man in the grocery store shopping for the family off a list, might look like a mouse in a maze if it is not his regular routine, maybe someone is sick or gone...so he runs around trying to find his stuff. The demo person offers him a bite of a new pizza, he tries it, and then the sale begins.

His shopping behavior is new, but the other people in the store may be in a routine. So it is easy to interrupt their PATTERN of thought, because you know they are in one. But, say you are selling roofs that weekend in the grocery store. You need to break a PREOCCUPATION, ONE of the many from the Maslow Pyramid. Hail damage creates a storm of interest in new roofs, so the salesman wouldn't interrupt the shopping with the sample, but rather quickly get inside the bubble of preoccupation and set the cheese in the trap. So to speak.

Cialdini, in his newest book and we should start a study group, cause it is the best yet on the subject...would call the pitch at the supermarket for a new roof, PRE SUASION. It is the set up. The trap, the slippery slope of attention to completion by a true professional.

Patterns, for the most part, and you do understand this is all made up stuff to suit a purpose, are a built in reaction to a stimuli, Erickson was the stimulus which made them enter into a specific pattern of thinking.

Same as the Saturday morning grocery shopper who has a routine.

A PREOCCUPATION is a DEEPER stream of consciousness although on the surface they may look the same. Break a pattern for a moment, you sell a loaf of bread, break a primary preoccupation, you have a customer for life (or a much longer life time value).

OK, I'll shut up. I strongly suggest Dien you get a copy of PRESUASION, it is the best thing out there.

Gordon

PS. Likewise, Fascination can only occur eyeball to eyeball, you can't fascinate over the internet, including youtube or skype.