ASF Gold

Suggestive Predicates (or 'Weasel Phrases')

The following list comprises a group of predicates designed for use in the construction of suggestive sentences. The suggestion proper will ordinarily immediately follow any of the given predicates, the purpose of the latter being to 'set up' the structure for the words that follow. As an example, the predicate that heads the list below can be fused onto a tailing phrase as follows:

'Are you curious about why your feet are on the floor?'

The listener may or may not have been curious before the question was put, but one thing is for certain now - that they have to audit the position of their feet in order to make the question meaningful: the question thus unobtrusively directs the listener's attention at their feet.

Such suggestive predicates as these, which have attracted the unfortunate name of 'weasel phrases', were one original technique developed by Dr Milton H. Erickson in his seminal work on conversational hypnosis.

A further detailed discussion as to how these powerful structures work in NLP terms follows the list.

After you come to....
After you've...
And the more you (X)...the more you (Y)
And as you...
Are you curious about...
Are you aware that...
Are you still interested in...
As you hear these words they...
As you... ...then...
As you consider this...
Be aware of what you can sense...
Before you think...
Can you imagine...
Can I ask you to...
Can you visualise...
Can you...
Can you remember...
Could you...
Do you think that...
Do you remember when...
Do you...
Do you ever...
Don't think of...
Has it ever occurred to you that...
Have you noticed that...
Have you ever wondered...
Have you...
Have you ever...
How would you feel if...
How do you know that...
How do you feel when...
I don't want you to be...
I want you to learn...
I know you are curious...
I saw someone do this in minutes once...
I wonder if...
I don't know how soon...
I wonder could you...
I would like to suggest that...
I want you to bear in mind...
I want you to become aware...
I can remember...
I'd like you to pretend that...
I'm wondering...
I'm curious to know...
If you could...
In my experience...
Is it that you are...
Is it possible...
Is it that you have...
Is it that there is...
It is useful that...
It's just like...
It's impossible...
It's good to know that...
It's useful that...
It's good that...
It's either (A) or (B); which is it...
It's not important that...
It's as if...
People can loosen up easily...
Perhaps you are...
Perhaps you can...
Perhaps you could...
Perhaps you're wondering...
This can be learned easily...
What do you think would happen if...
What would happen if...
What's it like to...
When you notice... ...then...
Will you...
Would you...
You come to...
You are learning to anticipate...
You can become aware that...
You know about these things...
You will feel...

The Effect of Suggestive Predicates in a Live Environment

A 'weasel phrase' is a predicate that sets up the material that immediately follows it as a powerful suggestion. When a particular type of sentence is constructed one of these such phrases, a sentence which refers to the immediate environment of the listener (especially to the physical being or ongoing activities of the listener), it can offer communication on more than one level since there is:

a) an apparently 'normal' abstract word string that requires decoding and interpreting in the ordinary manner of everyday oral communication
b) a non-ordinary content of the word string referring to immediate, ongoing events that demands attention and verification in modalities other than the auditory (Ai)

Accordingly, an astute operator can use such a sentence to pace - by use of content that refers to the obvious BUT AN 'OBVIOUS" THAT THE LISTENER IS DIRECTED INTO VERIFYING BY NON-VERBAL MEANS - or to lead, by directing by means of subtle suggestion the non-verbal attention in a given direction of the operator's choice - and subtle suggestions are all that is needed in order to get the thought train rolling. Additionally, and the author of this paper found this difficult to comprehend at first, single, suitably constructed sentences with suggestive predicates can present a system of complex verbal signals AND both a pace and lead simultaneously, such is their power.

Let us examine a couple of examples of this dark(?) art. In number 1, it is assumed that the listener has both feet resting on the floor andthat this fact is obvious to the operator - and anyone else who cares to notice.

The basic sentence to be explored is:

Example 1: 'Are you aware that/your foot/is resting on the floor?'

Breaking this down into the three constituent parts we have:

• 'Are you aware that...' (the suggestive predicate)
• '...your foot...' (reference to a physical part)
• '...is resting on the floor?' (query about what is obvious... to the operator)

This appears to be such a trivial question, but it really causes the listener to work hard and fully process it in order to understand what is going on. The processing might be viewed thus:
i) listener has to carry out normal linguistic processing on the sentence to determine the basic meaning. Words are checked for context, basic meaning, syntax, and what they might mean in the present setting.
ii) listener has to process the meaning in depth. Does he/she have a foot? Which foot is it (the original question was ambiguous in that it didn't specify)? Where is that foot (feet)? Am I aware of what it is doing?

In order to actually process the meaning as in ii) above, the listener must become (kinesthetically) aware of the foot, that there is a foot, and determine what it is currently doing. Additionally, and since the foot is a priori resting on the floor as the operator knew, the implication by the operator that the foot is resting on the floor is a very subtle pace, ONE THAT IS VERIFIED KINESTHETICALLY AND IS THUS ACCOMPANIED BY LEADING ATTENTION INTO KINESTHETIC MODALITY It is no ordinary question that is being put in those eleven innocent sounding words, it is a powerful pacing question that simultaneously contains a covert kinesthetic lead: the listener has to 'respond' or work in Ai and K modes together in terms to make sense of what is going on..

Example 2: 'Are you aware that/ you can become aware that/ you are blinking?'

• 'Are you aware that...' (the suggestive predicate)
• '...you can become aware that...' (convolute the predicate into an ongoing process)
• '...you are blinking?' (statement of the physically obvious... to the operator)

The end result of this question is that the listener becomes aware of - has their attention directed towards - something that was ongoing yet previously outside their awareness... and they don't have a lot of choice in the matter. Again there is a pace (the listener is blinking), and a lead (the listener was made aware of the fact by the question), In addition to the lead caused by the search for:

• verification - this time in V and/or K modalities - the more complex
• question structure "how does one process if one is aware that one can become aware?" is immediately resolved in the performance of the act itself - another pace.

Example 3: 'I want you to become aware of the process that takes place when you become aware of your left hand'
This puts the listener in an almost impossible position since the process - by being suggested - will occur in a trice as the operator enunciates the sentence and the listener will probably miss it. Once they are aware of the left hand they will find it impossible to become unaware of it and start again (any attempt to do so will have them trying to be aware of how a awareness arises of the left hand - which is awareness of the left hand. An astute listener could observe how awareness of some other body part comes into being of course). Once again the complex word form - becoming aware of becoming aware - is present along with the kinesthetic lead to the left hand and the pace indicating that a process of becoming takes place.

Example 4: 'Has it ever occurred to you that...'
Whatever follows this phrase may or may not have occurred to the listener: one thing is for sure, it is going to occur to them now. The suggestion that follows the phrase will have to be processed by the listener in order to make sense out of it. In other words whatever is said, if it is said in terms of a certain physical sense or modality, will lead the listener in that modality whether they like it or not. If pacing statements are made, they will become immediate self-fulfilling prophecies insofar as the listener is concerned and, if they are made to refer to a particular mode, they will lead in that mode.

Dan Scorpio in a message posted on alt.seduction.fast , alt.language.patterns and alt.psychology.nlp
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.language.patterns/msg/33b306a4b18b6a6...