I’m sick of this. All the so-called communication experts keep stating that your mind cannot process a negative command. They say “Don’t spill the milk” means you will spill the milk. They say your mind doesn’t respond to “no” and, in fact, ignores it. As a result, you end up seeing the rest of the statement as a command. Then you spill the milk.

Bull. The first words most people hear growing up are “NO” and “NO”. We quickly learn not to poop in our pants, or eat the dirt, or swing the cat by the tail, or spill the milk. The only reason we might still spill our milk is because of sheer awkwardness or awkwardness, not a communication problem.

This is one of the things that is missing in NLP and other communication modalities that claim to know how our brains work. They make wild claims and act as if they are universal truths. After all, no one really knows how the brain works. We are still learning. To say that we do not process negative orders is an arrogant statement. Assume divine powers. And it’s wrong.

Look at the title of this article. I inserted the word “no”. Why? Because the word actually helps make the title more interesting. Increase persuasion. If you had said “Read this article”, you might not have read it simply because it didn’t seem interesting. But add the word “No” and suddenly you’re curious. ‘Why doesn’t Joe want me to read this?’ you wonder. The word ‘No’ is seen and registered by your mind. You didn’t miss it, did you?

Again, communication is more than assumptions about how our minds process information. You learned the meaning of many negative words at the age of three. Your unconscious mind is well aware of what they mean today.

Do not tell others about this item. Do not pass this article on to friends and family. Don’t go buy all my books and tapes. Don’t send me money.

You see the word ‘no’ and you will do as you please. If you want to pass this article on to your friends, you will. If you don’t, you won’t. My attempt to fool you with a negative order is ridiculous. You are smarter than that. It is not like this?

Kevin Hogan, author of “The Psychology of Persuasion,” says, “Negative command words generally indicate that the person will more deeply remember or encode what was discussed. This does not mean that they will act one way or the other. It just does.” the command/idea/request most likely to be remembered”.

Exactly. Adding “No” to the title of this article just made it more memorable. It didn’t *make* you read this article at all.

The only time ‘don’t cheat’ works is to make someone *think* something. In other words, if I say, “Don’t think of Sophia Loren,” you can’t help but think of the famous actress. Purposeful thinking is different from action.

Yes, thought can lead to action. But what we’re focusing on here is communication. If I say, “Don’t think about buying my books,” you will *think* about buying them, at least for a second.

But if I say, “Don’t buy my books,” it doesn’t mean you’re going to run out and buy them. You are not a robot.

Let’s wake up Let’s realize that we are more intelligent than the generalized rules of language. Let’s stop pretending we’re all trained monkeys.

You do not agree?