This blog may be provocative, although my intention is to make it thought-provoking. The issue is what I am seeing as the frequent use of the “hypnotic voice” by Enneagram professionals in their videos on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

As a young PhD student in the late 1970s, it was drilled into us to NOT use a hypnotic voice when teaching, leading guided imagery, meditations, centering activities, or in any other context. The exception would be if  (a) we were trained and licensed hypnotherapists and (b) our clients had come to us knowingly and explicitly for a hypnotherapy session. But the reason for not using the hypnotic voice wasn’t because of these two factors. It was because using the hypnotic voice is manipulative, generating an unconscious positive reaction to a particular message. It can be used to “sell” a product, to sell a training program, or even to sell a positive message. Still, the person using the “hypnotic voice” is making the decision for the person receiving the message. And thus, manipulation is involved.

What is the hypnotic voice?

This voice has a number of characteristics:

Calm, soothing voice tone
Even voice tone with minimal inflection
Much slower than normal speech
Uses few questions
Rarely using upticks at the end of a sentence
Softer voice than normal
Deeper or higher voice than normal
Use of repeating words at regular intervals

Why are so many Enneagram people starting to use the hypnotic voice?

Here are some guesses, but since I do not use it, these are speculations. Before suggesting possible reasons, the bigger ask is for you to self-reflect if you use the hypnotic voice yourself. Why?

Some of the whys include the following:

Mimicking someone you’ve heard using it so you think this is the ways it is done.
Wanting to sell something – yourself, an idea, an offering – and thinking this is the best way to do it.
You want to be perceived as wise – a guru, a holy person, a mystic, a spiritually advanced human – and think this is how they talk.
You’ve been coached to speak this way.

More reasons to NOT use the “hypnotic voice”

Besides the manipulative aspects of using the “hypnotic voice,”  most “hypnotic voices” sound fake, so the person using it also feels fake. As an Enneagram teacher, sounding fake or inauthentic is never a winning position. We are, I hope, trying to help people become more real, not more fake. Even if you are adept at the “hypnotic voice”, and few people are, it is also a form of “spiritual  bypass.” You can convince yourself, even self-hypnotize, that you are more developed or evolved than you actually are. And you can hypnotize others into thinking they are somehow more transformed than they are. In addition, the Enneagram can be perceived as “Woo-Woo” or “New Age.” The “hypnotic voice” only reinforces this perception.

How to not use the “hypnotic voice”

Tempting as the hypnotic voice may be, here are two very simple ways to not use it. The first is to be aware of this voice and to choose not to use it. And if you do, stop!

The second way, which I learned in my PhD program so credit to my instructors, is to do the activity yourself while you are asking others to follow your directions. For example, if you ask them to imagine a beautiful blue horizon with a destination at the end of it, imagine this blue horizon yourself and follow your next directions just as they would follow theirs. Doing this keeps you in your own body and experience, and the “hypnotic voice” is no longer there. It really is that simple!

About Ginger

Ginger Lapid-Bogda PhD, author of nine Enneagram books, is a speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach. She provides certification programs and training tools for business professionals around the world who want to bring the Enneagram into organizations with high-impact business applications. TheEnneagramInBusiness.com | ginger@theenneagraminbusiness.com