ABSTRACT
A most significant variable in determining the effectiveness of hypnotic communication is the way the conscious and unconscious minds respond to a message. The communications you are exposed to are experienced on a conscious level to some degree where they are processed in a fashion characteristic of conscious mind patterning. The same communications, however, are processed simultaneously on unconscious levels in a different fashion. In using hypnotic patterns, suggestions are deliberately formed in order to convey meaning to the client's unconscious mind while his or her conscious mind is preoccupied elsewhere. Acknowledging the differences between conscious and unconscious characteristics is immediately relevant to the formulation of effective suggestions (Hilgard, 1986; Kihlstrom, 1987; McConkey, 1991).
