How to Plant an Idea in Someone’s Mind

If you’ve seen the movie Inception, then you’ll know that DiCaprio’s character is a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious minds of his victims. However, his criminality leads him to become an international fugitive. Because of this, he accepts a deal for one last job that will see his criminal record being wiped clean. The job? Rather than stealing information from people’s subconscious minds – he’s asked to implant an idea into one.

Of course, Inception is just a movie – pure fiction. But the idea of planting an idea into someone’s mind is not.

You can’t necessarily access someone’s dreams, but you can have access to their subconscious, where their most influential thoughts and ideas come from.

It’s where inception can take place.

The Subconscious Mind’s Secret

The subconscious mind is a like a giant memory bank that stores all your beliefs, memories and life experiences.

And the information stored in your subconscious mind affects the way you behave and act in life.

Interestingly, the way the subconscious mind works is that, as well as affecting your behavior and actions, it can also affect your perception of events. To give you an example of this, think back to when you were at school. If you loved school, positive memories will quickly come into your mind. Conversely, if you hated school, negative memories will pop into your mind. (You may also notice that it’s virtually impossible to stop the memories coming back to you.)

The subconscious mind is more than just a storehouse for our thoughts and emotions, however. It’s also constantly at work perceiving our surroundings and experiences.^[1]

Inception in Reality

Since the subconscious mind picks up little things it’s exposed to, influencing it involves some subtle ways.

Step 1: Find the nugget

Try listening and observing closely to see what a person cares about most.

If you do this, you’ll quickly understand that almost everything a person does will be based around the things and people they care most about. In fact, this is how our identities are formed.

One trick to find out a person’s interests and motivations is to ask them lots of questions. Be curious about their lives, and you’ll learn about the things they are concerned about. For example, just by asking what their plans are for the weekend, you might discover the places they like to go, and the people and groups they like to hang out with.

Step 2: Build the dream

Once you’ve formed a clear picture of a person’s identity, the next step is to frame your ideas in their particular language.

By understanding a person, you’ll know how they talk, what they like, what they don’t like, and what their hopes and dreams are. With this knowledge, it’s easy to start with their needs and wants, and continue to talk in a way that they will accept and feel comfortable with.

For instance, if you wanted to sell an accountancy service to a freelancer, you’d have the best chance of succeeding if you spoke in their language. In this case, it would most likely involve you talking about freelance work, and the inherent risks and benefits of it. If you showed that you understood their world – they would be open to listening to you.

Step 3: Inception

Next, instead of telling them directly about the perks of your idea, talk around the outskirts of the idea.

To do this, toss hints, but don’t say everything. Instead, let the person think that it’s them discovering it. It’s always easier for people to execute an idea if they think it has come from themselves.^[2]

Continuing the example of selling an accountancy service to a freelancer, if you’ve managed to grab their attention through your understanding of the freelance life, then the next and final step, is to leave some positive suggestions in their mind. You could do this by explaining how your service has helped other people save time, hassle, and penalties for late tax declarations, etc.

The idea is that you drop just enough hints to the person that perhaps in a day or two their subconscious mind will prompt them to take action. In the example above, this means they’ll likely contact you asking to take up your service.^[3]

Persuasion Is a Superpower

In life, it’s vital to be able to persuade others.

A good example of this, is when you need to interview for a job you really want. If you’re nervous and unconvincing, you’ll leave the wrong impression – and most likely fail to land the job. If, on the other hand, you know how to plant the right ideas and impressions into the interviewers’ subconscious minds – you’ll have a great chance of securing the role.

So, follow the three simple steps above, and start to become a powerfully persuasive individual. Your success in life depends on it.