Picking And Choosing: Power Persuasion Metaphors
Kenrick Cleveland
Many folks consider the concept of 'energy' to be somewhat new agey. Personally I consider it to be an integral part of understanding the self. And understanding ourselves, is absolutely the first step in learning to persuade.
Recently I taught a seminar in Tucson and focused almost exclusively on core drives. I absolutely believe that when we understand core drives we can put our fingers right on our prospect's and client's triggers, triggers which are universal.
The Ancient Indian concept of Chakras are definitely considered 'woo woo' by a great many people, but are an excellent metaphor, if nothing else, for the core values and drive within each of us. Chakras are energy vortices along the body, each corresponding to a need.
No matter what our spiritual or religious affiliation is, these energy centers are intrinsically involved with the idea of self mastery which, I wholeheartedly believe, is interrelated with persuasion. As persuaders, we have the ability to pick and choose from the abundance of life. We can take what works, and leave what doesn't on all levels--spiritual, economic, political, popular culture, in business. . .anything at all. We take what is valuable and form our worlds from what we've gathered.
I also have a personal belief that there's a certain reality to the different kinds of energy flows in our bodies. Chinese medicine practitioners would refer to that as Qi (pronounced Chi) and they can trace those energetic flows throughout our bodies in energy rivers called meridians. Meridians control different things in our body, corresponding to different organs, and to the extent that we have some awareness of this, we can use it to help ourselves. So call it DNA or Qi or Chakras or meridians. . . it's all power.
In that spirit, how can we absorb value from chakras, as one of my students suggested, even simply as a metaphor?
Here's a brief rundown of how the chakras correspond to our core drives. One, the base, is related to security and has similarities to our fight/flight mechanism. The second chakra is concerned with sexuality related to the fourth core value of reproducing ourselves. The third chakra is about power and is similar to the third core value of fight.
So as we get higher into the chakras they have to do with love-based decisions, discrimination and wisdom, mind, prayer and higher consciousness. These correspond nicely with Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow was an American psychologist in the mid 1900s. He created a scale in the form of a pyramid that is strikingly similar to the chakra system. His contention was that if the base needs of breath, sleep, food, water, were not met, then there was no advancement. Obviously, if we don't breathe, sleep, eat or drink, we don't require creativity, higher education, morality, because we're not alive.
At the bottom of the pyramid are two of the four core values in addition to biological functions. The physiological basis for physical human existence-food, water, air, sleep, sex, excretion and homeostasis (internal balance)-has extreme power where persuasion is concerned. Obviously, we're not really able to utilize air or sleep (unless you're selling mattresses) or excretion or homeostasis (unless you're a doctor). The next level up for Maslow pertains to security-the fight and flight core values-and also corresponds to the third chakra of power.
Also for purposes of persuasion, there are imperative psychological needs that are represented at the top of the pyramid including: the need to be needed, the need to feel hope, the need to believe problems are a result of something outside ourselves, the need to be noticed and understood, the 'law of being right', and the principle of giving people a sense of power. These fit in with the rest of the chakras-the fourth one representing love and energy, the fifth one representing communication, the sixth one requiring an inner sense of knowingness, and finally that higher spiritual plane which is represented by union, bliss, God.
Through the elicitation of criteria and rapport gaining, we can correctly and thorougly tap into these needs. When you create rapport with your prospects and clients, they feel noticed, necessary, listened to, and with that we can get to the real core of safety, security, sustenance and reproduction.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion strategies.
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