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Edited on Wed Jun-14-06 05:20 AM by EST
that "creationism" proponents are amenable to logic, is a fundamental (pardon the wordplay) weakness. No amount of logic and factual argument will sway the proud owner of those emotionally derived assumptions.
One way, short of instant enlightenment, to get an intellectual foot in the mental door of your intended target is an old salesman technique called mirroring.
Accomplished practitioners can be effective even on the phone, but beginners need to be physically with the subject. By the way, this method even works on dogs!
Start out by watching TV, strangely. Turn the volume off and lipread, watching for emotional cues in the actors. A good exercise is to get a movie that you have not memorized and follow the plot, as best you can, with no sound. You can turn the sound up, later, to check yourself.
The idea is to start learning to read people: when to press and when to back off. The only way to succeed with anyone is to make sure they have the sense that they, themselves, made the decision to start agreeing with you. This is not an ego-booster for you, since the objective is to win enthusiastic agreement, not just overpower and win. Practice, practice practice.
Next, when you are in conversation or even just being with the object of your attention, watch what they are doing and copy it, leaning when they lean, squat when they do, talk like they talk, all as a mirror. Your object may not know why, but they will recognize you as friendly and interested and they will like you, feeling that the two of you are simpatico: mutual close friends in a dangerous world. Mirror their emotions, getting excited when they do, all the little things they do so when you, eventually, take a different direction from theirs, they will unconsciously feel strong internal pressure to continue in the relationship. Remember, transformational spaces they will go through have to be their ideas, although you are invisibly guiding.
These are only a few steps but they are essential. There is more to learn but this will get you started and as you gain confidence and experience, prepare to be astounded.
Those well versed in the art can walk up to a total stranger and be in relationship with that person inside of two sentences. A good salesman can have his object begging for whatever he's selling and absolutely clear it was their plan all along. There are more things to learn, later, but even a medium mastery of mirroring is a good time investment and will surprise you with your powerfulness is dealing with others. Always hold in your mind that everyone loves to buy but they hate to be sold. Leave your ego in the closet.
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