Negative commands can be used effectively by stating what you do want to occur and preceding this statement with the word "don't."

"I don't want you to feel too comfortable."

'"'Don't have too much fun practicing negative commands."

Generally the listener will respond by experiencing what it's like to feel comfortable or to have fun practicing negative commands as a way of understanding the sentence.

5) Conversational Postulates. Conversational postulates are yes/ no questions that typically elicit a response rather than a literal answer. For example, if you approach someone on the street and ask "Do you have the time?" the person generally won't say "yes" or "no." She will tell you what time it is.

If you ask someone "Do you know what's on TV tonight?" it's likely that she will tell you the evening's programming rather than say "yes" or "no."

To make conversational postulates, you first think of the response you want. As an example, let's say you want someone to close the door.

The second step is to identify at least one thing that must be true if that person shuts the door. In other words you are identifying what your outcome presupposes. In this case it presupposes (a) the person is able to shut the door, and (b) the door is now open.

The third step is to take one of these presuppositions and turn it into a yes/ no question. "Can you shut the door?" "Is the door open?" You now have a question that will typically get you a response without directly asking for it.

6) Ambiguity. Ambiguity occurs when one sentence, phrase, or word has more than one possible meaning. Ambiguity is an important tool that can result in a mild confusion and disorientation which is useful in inducing altered states. In a normal conversation, unambiguous statements are highly valued; in hypnosis, the opposite is often true. Any ambiguity makes it possible for the listener to internally process a message in more than one way. This requires that the person actively participate in creating the meaning of the message, which increases the probability that the meaning will be appropriate for her. In addition, it is likely that one or more of the meanings will remain at the unconscious level. The first four patterns described in this appendix (Nominalizations, Unspecified Verbs, Unspecified Referential Index, and Deletion) all function to increase the ambiguity of the message.

a) Phonological ambiguity. Words that sound alike but have different meanings create phonological ambiguity. Such words include: right /write/ rite; I/eye; insecurity /in security; red/ read; there/their/they're; weight/wait; knows/nose; here/hear. The following words similarly have two meanings, although they both sound alike and are spelled alike: left, duck, down, light.

Other phonological ambiguities can be found in words which can either be used as an active verb "Lift your arm," or a nominal–ized verb "Give me a lift." Other examples are: push, pull, point, touch, rest, nod, move, talk, hand, feel.

Words that have phonological ambiguity can be marked out analogically and combined with other words to form a separate message. For example, "/ don't know how close you are to understanding now the meaning of trance." The message marked out can be heard as "eye close now."

b) Syntactic ambiguity. A classic example of syntactic ambiguity is the following: "Hypnotizing hypnotists can be tricky." This sentence can mean either that hypnotists practicing hypnosis can be tricky, or that putting hypnotists in a trance can be tricky.

The following sentence has the same form: 'They were milking cows." The pronoun "they" could refer to people milking cows, or to the cows themselves.

This kind of ambiguity is based on taking a transitive verb, adding "ing," and placing it before a noun. The verb + ing can then serve either as an adjective or as a verb.

c) Scope ambiguity. Scope ambiguity occurs when it is unclear how much of the sentence an adjective, verb, or adverb applies to.

"We'll go with the charming men and women." This could mean we'll go with the charming men and the women (who may or may not be charming), or we'll go with the men who are charming and the women who are charming.

"I don't know how soon you will fully realize that you are sitting here comfortably, listening to the sound of my voice, and you are going into a deep trance only as quickly as your unconscious mind wants… ." Here it is unclear whether the verb "realize" applies to the entire sentence or onlv to what precedes the word "and." If "realize" applies to the whole sentence, everything following "realize" is presupposed.

d) Punctuation ambiguity. This kind of ambiguity is created by putting two sentences together that end and begin with the same word.

"Your coat looks like it is made of goose down deeply into trance." Here the word "down" is the end of the first sentence,

"Your coat looks like it is made of goose down" and also the beginning of the following phrase "down deeply into trance."

"That's right now you've already begun to relax."

"I'm speaking clearly to make sure that you can hear you are, in the process of hypnosis."

"How are you able to go into a deep trance?"

C. Patterns in Metaphor

The final set of patterns is particularly useful when using metaphorical communication, as well as when using other kinds of hypnosis. There are many other patterns that are useful in effective story–telling. However, the following two are generally thought of as part of the Milton–Model.

1) Selectional Restriction Violations. This refers to the attribution of qualities to something or someone which by definition could not possess those qualities. For example, if I talk about a rock that was very sad or a man who is pregnant, I am violating selectional restriction, since rocks do not experience feelings and men do not get pregnant. The listener needs to find some way of making sense out of statements like this. If I talk about the experiences the sad rock had, and the changes it made, the listener is likely to make sense out of my statements by applying them to himself. "The rock can't be sad, so it must be me." This process is not a conscious one, but an automatic way of understanding what is said.

2) Quotes. This pattern involves making any statement you want to make to another person as if you are reporting in quotes what someone else said at another time and place.

Quotes can be used to deliver any message without taking respon–sibilitv for the message. Since you are apparently talking about what someone else said at another time, your listener will often respond to the message, but not consciously identify what he is responding to, or who is responsible for the message.

You can talk to someone about a client of Milton Erickson's who wanted to really learn about hypnosis. He listened to Erickson talk about hypnosis and thought that he understood. Then Erickson turned to him and said emphatically "You don't really know something until you've practiced every piece of it thoroughly!"