Drug of Choice Technique - for Feeling Good *Without* the Drug

IMPORTANT: This technique, and people who use it, are not advocating drugs to anyone. We're advocating having increased access to remembered good feelings of any kind -- without the use of any substances at all. In NLP there is a reasonably well known "hypnotic induction" called 'the Drug of Choice' Technique or Induction.  This tends to be really popular at workshops where mature adults get to safely re-experience things they haven't played with since college years.  Coaches and therapists have used this technique to help smokers feel the results of smoking, without breathing in nicotine and smoke.  These are only some of the applications of the technique.

I've detailed this process below for your education and enjoyment.

I've known properly licensed therapists and psychologists who have reported good results using this process with drug users.. to help condition them to stop using the drugs. The reasoning seems to be that if they can access the feelings now without the chemical, that they used to get with the chemical, then the person can lead a healthier existence. Obviously, unless you're a licensed therapist, don't play with this for actual drug users.

Do me a favor and leave the ethics discussions out of this thread and don't presume you know, just from reading this post, what I am or am not advocating. I'm in favor of good feelings -- without needing them chemically induced.

Also, learn these techniques for the process, not for content. You can use this to spin just about any feelings you've had in the past, not just drug-related.

In other words... this could be used to elicit product satisfaction in buyers.  It could even be used for re-inducing sensual and sexual feelings, too... use your imagination, people!

The Drug of Choice Technique

Certainly this sort of thing is best 'shown' or demonstrated live, as there are lots of nonverbals and skills that one can tie in to amplify the results. If you try this and don't get strong results, trust me, it ain't the technique that isn't working, it's your application of it. I get profound results -- with myself or others -- every time.

If my description here, when you try it, fails to generate a strong response in people, then it is those nonverbals and ancillary skills that are the difference that makes the difference.

I say that because the drug of choice, to an untrained eye, is a really, really simple sequence to follow.

But I've seen people follow the steps and get nothing, whereas if I'm talking to someone who has experienced marijuana, for example, 3-5 minutes after I begin, they'll be profoundly high. I have yet NOT to get a strong result with this.

So here's the process, in a nutshell, leaving out all the stuff that is easy to observe, not so easy to type:

If anyone you know has ever asked the question ''Remember when we were SO high...'' the people answering that question might say ''yes'' but they wouldn't experience the drug state, because they were being asked about a completely different state than they're presently in. Any answer is at best going to be dissociated.

However, the drug of choice process aims to give people a clear and rapid pathway into the sensations of having their state altered. It takes the idea of a very different static state, and gives people a pathway into it, that their bodies will remember, given the right stimuli.

So I ask the person to PRETEND to do, physically, whatever the first thing is, that absorbs the substance. If it was Ibuprofen (or Advil(R) headache/bodyache medicine), then I begin by asking them to PRETEND to break up the pill into 10 tiny pieces, and PRETEND to take one tiny piece at a time. In this way they're not in danger of pretending to take more than one actual dose of ibuprofen. If they wish to recreate a marijuana high, then I have them PRETEND to inhale from a joint, or a water pipe, etc.

After they do the PRETEND physical action (which not only becomes their somatic anchor for the start of the process, it actually already IS their somatic anchor for the start of the process), I ask them...

''OK, after a few moments or minutes passes, what's the first thing your body feels?''

And *usually* you get a useful response (sometimes they give out unrelated info -- experience teaches you how to sort for useful info here). And you repeat that back to them, reflecting the nonverbals, going into the sensations, yourself.

Then you ask them to shake it off and go back to neutral again. And when they look normal again, have them PRETEND to repeat the initiator anchor/movement.  Then you walk them through ''a few moments pass, and then, you begin to feel [first feeling],'' and you show them the feelings using their nonverbals and pointing to your & their body to reference each feeling. And go into state to help bring them into it.

Then you ask ''and what's the one next thing you feel?'' etc etc. And you repeat & reflect that back to them.

Then you take them back to neutral.

Each time... you keep repeating the process... And it builds a state/sensation chain in the subject.

Neutral, Anchor, ask for 1st feeling. reflect that back.

Neutral, Anchor, 1st feeling, ask for 2nd feeling. reflect that back.

Neutral, Anchor, 1st feeling, 2nd feeling, ask for 3rd feeling, reflect that back.

etc. etc.

With most people, it only takes 3-6 steps before just firing off the anchor rushes them into state.

And once it's built... each time they fire off the anchor, the faster they go through the chain.

Additional Points/Nuances to Optimize the Technique

Now, here's where all those other skills came into play. If you the leader are neutral the whole time, you may as well not have done it for the poor results that would have produced. You have to lead them into it.

Also, if you were thinking about it at the time, then not only did they anchor the start, but so did you, with or without their awareness (it matters not).

Then you can test your anchor while they're neutral, and see how fast you can bring back their response(s).

Applying this elsewhere?

Now, for discussion, take all this outside the context of the word "drug." Because if you remove the word drug from the title, you can call this the ''feeling of choice'' induction... and use the exact same thing at a coffee date... to elicit what it's like to slip into a jacuzzi and feel so sensually relaxed...

You can use the same process while working to establish trust with a client or vendor, to help them make great decisions.

You can use the same thing with a partner who's angry with you for something to lead them into what they felt like when they wanted to compromise... or what they felt like on the last occasion when they felt they needed to better understand something instead of making assumptions.

You can use the same process with a group to remind a nonfunctional team how they managed to turn lack of productivity into feelings of teamwork and contribution and success.

The list goes on & on!