Influence by Robert Cialidini, PhD

Title: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Author: Robert Cialdini, PhD

Format: Book

Source: Amazon

Price: $12.23 new (also available used and on Kindle)

Rating: Good

While hypnotists are by nature fascinated by hypnosis, it's fair to say that most of us are fascinated by the mind in general, and how to get people to do things specifically. For that reason, I've decided to review one of my favorite books even though it theoretically has nothing to do with hypnosis—rather it falls into the realm of applied social psychology, that is, social influence.

Cialdini is an academic, a college professor who describes himself as being very easy to take advantage of; this quality spurs him to dedicate his life to researching how "compliance professionals" get the rest of us to do what they want, whether it's buying cars, donating to causes, conserving water, or going on dates. He and his research assistants have performed countless experiments in addition to field research—that is, they've gone undercover to be trained in sales and other arts that are all about getting people to do things.

Though Cialdini teaches at a university, his presentation belies the stereotype of the dry, boring college professor. (I'd like to point out in passing that my college experience suggests that stereotype is wildly inaccurate.) The author boils hundreds of "compliance techniques" down to a handful of easily grasped principles of influence and then explores each one in a thorough and engaging fashion.

Influence is explicitly written for the benefit of people who want to arm themselves against compliance professionals. Each chapter has a section at the end on how to guard oneself against the principle of influence under discussion. However, those sections tend to be the weakest part of the book; ultimately, simply being familiar enough with the principles and techniques is the best defense a person can have. Indeed, grasping at straws, Cialdini sometimes ventures into the ridiculous, such as suggesting that we should never give tips to anyone who seeds a tip jar.

Ultimately, Cialdini's work is invaluable to anyone in sales and marketing—which, let's face it, all hypnotists are. Even the few who aren't entrepreneurs having to sell themselves are still in the business of influencing their clients to make change. So Cialdini should be a household name in the hyposis community.

In short, pick up Influence. It's a fun read that will spark your imagination about new ways to improve both your effectiveness and your marketing.


If you don't have time to read, check out Cialdini's lecture videos on YouTube. While not as in-depth as the book, the free videos serve as an excellent introduction or review of his ideas.

Mindfulness and Hypnosis by Michael Yapko

Title: Mindfulness and Hypnosis: The Power of Suggestion to Transform Experience

Author: Michael Yapko, PhD

Format: Book (also available on Kindle)

Source: Amazon

Price: $21

Rating: Excellent

While many of us in the vocational hypnosis community were looking the other way, a technique that involves deep breathing, progressive relaxation, focussed concentration, and a combination of guided and unguided visualization has taken the therapy world by storm. The new buzzword: Mindfulness—which is code for Buddhist meditation, carefully stripped of its spiritual connotations and then put through rigorous testing by the scientific research community. Not surprising to those of us who've been helping clients with these techniques for years, the research has proven what we've known all along: there is substantial benefit to be had from using concentrated attention and suggestion to transform experience.

Fortunately, Michael Yapko was not looking the other way, and in his new book, Mindfulness and Hypnosis, he lays out the parallells between the two techniques. Perhaps because he is writing to an audience familiar with mindfulness but woefully misinformed about hypnosis, he states early in the book that the two techniques are not the same thing.

(This contradicts a comment from an Indian client of mine who'd studied mindfulness meditation as she grew up in Mumbai; upon concluding a hypnosis session, she said to me, "This is exactly the same as meditation!")

However, after that statement, Yapko goes on to show clearly that Guided Mindfulness Meditation (GMM) and hypnosis use essentially the same processes, all depending on the power of suggestion. Yapko provides line-by-line analysis of typical GMM and hypnosis recordings to drive his point home undeniably. He goes on in successive chapters to lay out the similarities to such a degree that I find it hard to maintain the idea that hypnosis and mindfulness are separated by much more than semantics—the dividing line, if there is one, is very, very thin.

The final chapter, however, highlights the difference in a powerful way—demonstrating that hypnosis as it is practiced in modern offices goes one step beyond mindfulness in the service of the client. Yapko makes the excellent point that those who have studied mindfulness can learn from the centuries of research and exploration into the power of suggestion that the hypnosis community can offer. Likewise, he acknowledges that hypnotists can benefit by incorporating techniques of mindfulness into their practice.

Where it might have been tempting to write something divisive—after all, to a hypnotist striving for years to point out the benefits of these approaches, only to see mindfulness greeted like the prodigal son of therapy, a little "I told you so" would be well deserved—Yapko makes his points with brilliant diplomacy, clarity, and warmth.

Though, as I mentioned, Yapko is writing more for an audience of mindfulness advocates than for hypnotists, the book is an essential read for any hypnotist who wants to interact with professionals in our allied disciplines. We need a common vocabulary, and as the rest of the world wakes up to the value of what we've been teaching all along, we need to be able to interface and communicate effectively about the benefits of what we do. Michael Yapko has done us all a great service in writing this book.

Full Disclosure: Though I did not receive a gratis copy of Mindfulness and Hypnosis for review, Dr. Yapko did generously replace my copy of his seminal book, Trancework, when it was destroyed in an office fire last year. Despite my sincere gratitude for his generosity and high regard for his scholarship, I have gone on record elsewhere criticizing other works of his, and we have disagreed privately, so I do not believe that his kindness in any way colored my review of his latest book.