In this article, I’m going to talk about a very powerful trick performed by Derren Brown in which he seems to make a passenger on the subway forget which his stop, simply by talking to him. In actual fact the method used employs a technique also described by Luke Jermay in his publication “7 deceptions,” in which pattern interrupts are used along with the use of a technique used in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) called anchoring.

Anchoring describes a way in which a person is taught to associate a particular movement, gesture, or similar, with a certain action or feeling. In this way, when desirable, the action or feeling can be invoked by using the trigger of the movement or gesture. For example, if you have someone suffering from anxiety, you might have them re-live a time when they were very calm, comfortable, and happy, and whilst in this state you might have them “anchor” the state to something simple such as touching the middle finger and thumb of the right hand together.

In this way, whenever the person feels anxious, they simply touch their finger and thumb together and they should instantly be transported to a state where calmness replaces the anxiety.

In such a situation the anchor may take some time to set through repetition, and although unnecessary, hypnosis, or at least making the person very relaxed first, will help considerably. This notion may seem unrealistic, but in actual fact it is a naturally occurring sequence of events that we follow without even realizing it. The anchors are commonly recognized as habits or rituals, and all that the NLP method does is to artificially create a deliberate anchor to a pre determined activity or feeling.

For example, the association of having a cigarette with a cup of coffee, or after a meal is an anchor created unintentionally by a smoker. This can help tremendously when performing hypnotherapy for a client. The approach to breaking a difficult habit such as smoking, can be to destroy the associations or anchors, that subconsciously stimulate the desire for the cigarette.

Alternatively you could create an anchor to trigger a desired reaction. For example, for insomnia you might create an anchor of having a cup of cocoa to feeling very drowsy. It is essentially the establishment of a pattern, often through simple repetition, where a certain condition triggers a certain response. Derren Brown describes the creation of just such an anchor in his book “Pure Effect.”

During a spoon bending demonstration during his table hopping days, he approached a very excitable young woman in the queue for the restaurant, who was sure that she could see the “energy,” like an aura I suppose, responsible for bending the spoon (obviously it was really bent mechanically). During this performance she became very audibly excited, and as the effect reached its culmination along with her excitement peaking, he simply said “whooaa” as he touched her hand.

Later, whilst performing another trick, he wanted to invoke the same excited state in her, so he simply said “Whooaa,” and touched her hand again. She immediately returned to the same level of excitement that she had displayed previously. Obviously, this indicates that the more suggestible the subject, or the more revered or respected the performer is, the faster and stronger the anchor can be established.

Taylor Anderson runs Black Ops Hypnosis. He has extensive experience as a professional hypnotist, and can help guide you in the right direction when it comes to hypnosis products. Visit his site at Hypnosis Gallery for some of the best hypnosis products you will ever find.

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