How Ambiguous Can You Be?
In normal communication, it is often important to be specific. To be ambiguous causes confusion and misunderstanding… except when you purposefully want to build a trance within the human with whom you are speaking.
“But what exactly do you mean by trance, and why would I want my conversation partner in one?”
A trance is the same as an altered state. The term state is short for emotional state. An altered state, by definition, is any emotional state that you are not experiencing right now.
Every conversation that you have, you are changing your conversation partner’s emotional state and they are changing yours. In other words, you are placing each other into a trance. But is it the trance that you want them to be in? Is it the trance that you want to be in?
Suppose you are attempting to convince a friend to go to dinner with you. You describe the restaurant’s atmosphere, how the food is so great, and how much fun it will be to catch up with each other. What you are doing is painting a picture in their mind in order to change their emotional state to one that will be conducive to saying “yes” to your idea. You are effectively putting them into a trance.
The reason you want to develop a trance (a different emotional state) in your conversation partner is this…
Every time a human changes emotional states (goes into a trance), they become suggestible and open to new ideas.
Humans change emotional states an average of four times every hour. That means that you are going in and out of trances throughout the day without noticing. Worst-case scenario, you wait until you notice an emotional shift in your conversation partner and then introduce your suggestion. I would recommend, however, that you facilitate the trance by actively changing your conversation partner’s emotional state.
To purposefully develop a trance in your conversation partner, ambiguity is a powerful tool to use.
Ambiguity creates confusion, confusion forces your conversation partner to go inside their mind to find meaning to what you have just said, this going inside to find meaning is called a transderivational search, and you have successfully created a trance in your conversation partner using ambiguity.
Here are some ways to use ambiguity to develop a trance…
Syntactic Ambiguities occur when a sentence can be interpreted in more than one way or mean more than one thing. Syntactic ambiguities are not single words. They are created from the relationship between the words and the clauses of a sentence.
When your conversation partner can interpret the same sentence as having more than one meaning, then your statement is a syntactic ambiguity.
Simply keep in mind that using syntactic ambiguities creates a transderivational search in your conversation partner that can be utilized.
Added to your arsenal of skills, syntactic ambiguities have a powerful impact.
Here are some examples to give you a better idea as to what syntactic ambiguities are, how they are created, and ways that you can use them in conversation with your conversation partner…
Flying planes can be dangerous. (Are flying planes dangerous, or is the act of flying planes dangerous?)
Barb and Tom are visiting relatives. (Are Barb and Tom visiting some of their relatives, or are Barb and Tom relatives who visit?)
The dog was found by a bench by a lady. (Did a lady find the dog by a bench, or was the dog found by a bench that was by a lady?)
The woman tried to take a photo of a man with a flashlight. (Did the woman try to take a photo of a man who was holding a flashlight, or did the woman try to take a photo with a flashlight?)
And let's finish off the examples with a quote by Groucho Marx… “Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”
Syntactic ambiguities produce a trance state that you can utilize to move your conversation partner in the direction that you want. Have fun, write some out, use them, and notice the quick yet profound results that you get.
Scope Ambiguity is a handy tool to have in your box.
Remember, ambiguity creates confusion, confusion forces your conversation partner to go inside their mind to find meaning to what you have just said, this going inside to find meaning is called a transderivational search, and you have successfully created a trance in your conversation partner using ambiguity.
Scope ambiguity happens when it is unclear how much a verb, adverb, or adjective applies to a sentence.
For example…
“Old men and women steal!”
Who steals in this example… Old men and old women OR old men and women?
It is difficult to determine… impossible to determine… to whom the “old” applies.
This may seem trivial, but what would happen if you added scope ambiguity into a conversation with all of the other skills that you are mastering?
You would be a flippin’ master persuader… that is what would happen.
Suppose you were influencing a friend to be your “wingman” for the night, and you wanted to throw a scope ambiguity in the mix.
You could say…
“Dave, I promise you that there will be a beautiful woman for each of us.”
This sentence creates at least a mild state of confusion, because…
Are there two beautiful women… one for each of us, or is there one beautiful woman who will be with each of us?
Depending on the true meaning of this sentence, Dave could have a surprise in store for him later that night!
Let's take one more example…
“That was a great group of fascinating women and men.”
Who was fascinating… just the women or the women and the men?
Admittedly, this is not my favorite language pattern, but it is a tool that I pull out now and then.
When my son was 6-years-old, he was already a master at what you are about to learn.
He gets on a roll, and you cannot shut him up! You know there is a storyline in what he is saying somewhere, but the words… the sentences… the paragraphs… the minutes… the hours… they all seem to run together.
You’re now going to learn how to be like a 6-year-old using… Punctuation Ambiguity.
The key to developing a trance is creating a transderivational search… actually… a series of transderivational searches in your conversation partner.
Punctuation ambiguity is another way to do that. It is so subtle, and it has a very large impact.
So, what is it?
Punctuation ambiguity occurs when you put two sentences together in the following way…
The last word of sentence #1 is also the first word of sentence #2.
Let me give you an example…
“Tom, we’ve talked about several ways that I can help your sales staff increase their income. I get the feeling that you understand that this is a large benefit now by moving forward with this training.”
Did you catch the punctuation ambiguity?
“Benefit” in the above example is called a pivot word. In this instance, “benefit” has two meanings, both as a noun and a verb; and it can belong to either of the two sentences…
“I get the feeling that you understand that this is a large benefit.”
“Benefit now by moving forward with this training.”
Notice how there is no period separating the two sentences in the example.
Your mind must enter a transderivational search in order to give meaning to the two sentences.
What surprised me the most when I first learned and began to use punctuation ambiguities years ago was the fact that I never got caught. No one ever noticed them, and they would always accept the suggestion.
Start by practicing in a “safe” environment, such as the family dinner table. Perhaps you could say…
“On the way home today, a moving van’s door flew open; and this car was about hit with a very big piece of wood you pass the salt please?”
In this example, note that the word “wood” is also a phonological ambiguity. In other words, “wood” and “would” sound the same.
You will find that no one will question, or even catch, what you just said; and they will pass the salt.
Watch for the brief transderivational search as you execute the punctuation ambiguity. Artfully woven throughout a conversation, punctuation ambiguities will direct your conversation partner’s mind and install suggestions very quickly.
Let's take a few more examples to help you get a grasp on punctuation ambiguities…
“You’ll find that you can learn conversational hypnosis faster as you learn to keep your mind open up to new possibilities.”
“When you take a look at my references and experience, you’ll discover that I do very thorough work me into your training plans.”
“Earlier this evening, some stranger walked up to take my picture you and me having a very good time. I was a little surprised when she asked. You know what I mean?”
“I wonder if you can pay attention to your hand me the glass.”
“Have you ever let your imagination run away with you can write your number right here.”
“Last night, I was out late at the grocery store this information deep inside your mind.”
Get the idea?
The easiest way to learn, develop, and use punctuation ambiguities is to plan them out before you need them.
Write down the suggestions that you want to give, develop a sentence that ends in the word that your suggestion begins with, and put them together.
