In this, the last of my series on “The Laws Governing Hypnotic Suggestions”, we will discuss the Law of Association.

From my book:

“The Law of Association is part of our learning modality, whereby we begin associating feelings or states to things that we develop an identification of. We can use this when working with clients, by creating new positive associations to events, thoughts or behaviors that once had negative associations, or vice versa in the case of aversion therapy.

Another application of the Law of Association states that if a client accepts the first suggestion, they will likely accept the second suggestion and so on. One way of accomplishing this is by creating what’s known as a ‘yes set’ or ‘agreement frame’. Get the client to agree on a couple of obvious ‘truisms’ before making your suggestion for change. When they agree to the truisms, then they are likely to agree with the suggestion. Sales people use this technique a lot, because it’s human nature to find pleasure in saying ‘yes’ and pain in saying ‘no’. Once we fall into the pattern of saying ‘yes’, then it’s difficult to change gears and say ‘no’.”

The Law of Association is one of the most powerful laws governing behavior. Most of what we learn is through identification, association and repetition. By understanding this we can better help our clients break old habits, and develop more beneficial and positive behaviors.

The Law of Association can be further broken down into a series of sub laws:

• The Law of Contiguity
• The Law of Similarity
• The Law of Contrast

The Law of Contiguity states that we associate things that occur close to each other in time or space. For example, we often think of thunder and lightning together, because the two often occur one after the other.

The Law of Similarity states that when two things are very similar to each other, the thought of one will often trigger the thought of the other. For example, when we think of coffee, we often think of tea as well.

The Law of Contrast states that the thought of something is likely to trigger the thought of its direct opposite. For example, when we hear the word “happy,” we often think of the word “sad.” This is a particularly useful understanding, because we often identify things as what they “are,” based on what we know they are “not.”

In therapy, we use the Laws of Association in the form of triggers and anchors. We will often anchor a positive feeling or behavior to be triggered by the events associated to the undesired feeling or behavior, thereby firing off the new behavior via the Law of Contiguity.

This Law, and the subsequent sub laws, are worth more in-depth research and conversation. See how many associations you can identify in your research, and then apply that knowledge to your change work with your clients.

That’s all I have for now.

Michael C. White, C.Ht.