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Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Awareness Pattern

By Kenrick Cleveland

"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." -Henry Miller

Persuasion is all about language. I love words. I love language patterns and word meanings and the tremendous world of linguistics. For over thirty years I've been studying persuasion. Of course there are some physical components to persuasion, but ultimately, persuasion is a world of words.

Aldous Huxley said, "Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people's experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things."

This is an amazing description. Language can either expand our universes or reduce our awareness. We maximize the benefits of our linguistic traditions when we study persuasion.

Language patterns qualify as one of my favorite aspects of persuasion/linguistics. The 'Awareness Pattern' is one of the most powerful patterns you'll ever learn.

The three words that I tend to like a lot in this category: aware, realize and experience. By simply saying one of these words you're making the person start the mental process that you mention. In other words, you're inciting them to become aware, to realize or to experience. These words are very important in your persuasion arsenal because everything that follows them is presupposed to be true. These words also force the issue of not will you do, but instead, are you aware of, which is far more powerful in persuasion.

As you gain skill in being able to use these words powerfully, you might think that someone may respond to the question, 'Are you aware of?' by saying, 'No.' I assure you when done properly this doesn't really ever happen but if it ever did, all you need to say is, 'Not yet, huh?'

Here is an example: The more you begin to construct in your mind the ways you'll be using these patterns, the more you'll begin realizing the profitable techniques you are learning. Are you starting to experience the growing awareness of what being involved in this program will bring you as I tell you about it and as you go through it?

Is the awareness of the power of these patterns starting to sink in? Let's go through this step by step. I'm not asking you if the language patterns have power; that's not a presupposition. I'm asking you 'are you aware of the power'. If you're not aware, it presupposes you need to be aware. And if you are aware, you'll respond that you are in fact aware. By saying, 'Yes, I'm aware,' then you know the power of the patterns and you agree they're starting to sink in. If you are not aware, then by hearing the question asked, you begin to become aware.

If you're feeling a little excited by this information, you're ready to learn more about how language can expand your universe.

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