Anchoring is one of the most profoundly effective tools that NLP has. Usually it is thought of in terms of the garden variety version covered in most NLP Practitioner programs.
That is to elicit a state from your client / audience and then anchor it with a particular gesture or phrase or touch or tone or any combination of these.
This is etremely effective if properly executed.
There are some nuances you can bring to this though. Far and away, I find the most subtle anchors involve using voice tone. It is amazing what you can do with this and not be noticed at the conscious level. A perfect example of the power of vocal variability comes with a highly skilled actor.
Next time you are watching a DVD, loop one of the scenes. In the first instance just watch it with the sound down while reading the subtitles. Note the tone and variability with the voice in your own head. Then watch the same scene with the sound up and notice the variability with each word. A good actor, like a skilled NLP Practitioner, can have something like 6 tonal shifts in just 4 words – and yet it is never noticed by the vast majority of those watching.
This is the perfect foundation for trance – almost a definition of a good movie.
Along with this, I find the most powerful anchors are other people’s gestures at key times – when they are stating something they believe strongly in, an event that occured that they are relating to, an opinion we want to engage on our terms ….
One of the better outcomes to be aiming for in your NLP interactions is to begin using ‘their’ gestures as soon as possible. Even if it isn’t anchoring a specific state but just re-connecting with an event it is a very powerful way of maintaining the current trance. How to elicit these ‘conversational’ trances and use them effectively is for another post.
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