Pacing and leading by OBAMA

Thanks to a toastmasters friend, I have now access to a very interesting document which I am studying with eagerness and great pleasure. The 60 odd pages document written by somebody who wants to run down Obama and accuse him of using covert or even illegal means in hypnotherapy to convince his audiences fascinates me. It is a recall to my lessons in NLP some 10 years ago and a refresher to the NLP techniques which I was supposed to acquire, possess and used. Although the intent of the document is to accuse President Obama for wrongfully using hypnotherapy to his benefit, I personally feel that the same document enhances my admiration for the man. Have I been hypnotised by his language?

The fine and precise analysis given, pays high tribute to the author of the document. From his quotes and numerous citations from learned experts in the field of NLP, namely Milton Ericson, he has shown that the author himself is versed in the subject and has researched and studied the speeches of Obama thoroughly. The referral to legal cases in the use of covert hypnosis is also interesting. I wish he could publish the same work on the Obama’s address to the Muslim World in Cairo.

What pleased me most is the demonstration of the use of NLP in the art of public speaking and the skills of mass persuasion. I shall gladly pass on this document to any reader who wants it on request.

Pacing and leading techniques for example:

Basics of Obama’s pacing and leading: The “because we need change, that is why I should be your next president” argument

Building on this basic framework, you do not hear specifics largely because much of Obama’s entire

presentation is pacing the audience. Obama’s sentence structure is often exactly what is taught by Erickson

in ways that cannot be coincidence. If he went into specifics, he would not be pacing, he would be

encouraging the use of the conscious mind, something he is attempting to avoid. Obama’s entire campaign,

essentially, can be summarized as:

1. The economy is bad, or the country is going in the wrong direction (pace) or we need to get an

education for every child (whatever statements no one can disagree with (pace) and therefore creates

a “yes-yes-yes” response, or “yes room.”)64

2. Change (can be used as a pace, an anchor, and/or a preprogrammed response)

3. And or because or that is why (conjunction linking statement)65

4. I will be your next President. (subconscious lead)

Saying that things are bad and we need change is only a logical basis for the conclusion that we need

someone able to solve our current problems for President – but the suggestion that the person to do this is

Obama is rationally under-supported or entirely unsupported. It doesn’t matter though, because the

connection is made on the subconscious level through the use of linking statements applied precisely per

Ericksonian techniques.

Obama says he offers hope, but actually much of Obama’s pacing is negative, e.g. based on how negative

things are. In fact, anger works well as an emotion with which to change behavior through hypnosis.

Notice how Obama rarely if ever smiles during the substantive parts within his formal hypnotic speeches. In fact, he has been described as looking angry.66 The hypnotic analysis is simple, angrily pointing while

frowning and making emotionally strong points in speeches send the subconscious message of a person in

commanding authority over you ordering you to act a certain way.67 Many feel is that Obama is the person

for whom to vote because he magically “inspires”, when in fact, Obama has commanded subconsciously.

Obama says he is the person with judgment, and he says he is the person to solve our problems because he

recognizes what is wrong, but these are logically empty arguments. His arguments based on his “ability to

see” what is wrong provides no real logical basis. His point is no more advanced nor specific than the

average listener’s viewpoint. He opposed the war in Iraq in 2003, but so did half the world, logically,

making Obama no more qualified than half the planet to be President. However, because he uses pacing and

leading so effectively, he says, “because we need change, that is why I want to be your next President” – it is

absorbed into the subconscious as absolute truth. The fact that this argument has no logic is irrelevant to

such feelings. Similarly, just because Obama powerfully says “its time for new energy and new ideas”

doesn’t mean he actually has any new ideas, but through his hypnotic techniques, that’s what people walk

away feeling.