"A member of Simons' team approaches someone on street and asks for directions," says El-Hai. "As subject begins to speak, a crew of faux workers carrying a door abruptly squeezes between two. As door passes between them, person who asked for directions changes places with a third person." Again, 50% didn't notice they were giving directions to a different person.

Same thing happened when they had a waiter duck behind counter and a new waiter popped up. The diner kept on talking.

"We have limited attentional resources," concluded Simons. What we notice depends on how much else we're attending to, and this was true even when subject claimed to have great visual memory.

"Practical applications of Simon's work would be airline and highway safety," says El Hai. Scary thought.

Another application - watch it with cell in car! We have limited attentional resources.

NLP has also been used to help people establish rapport with others in an incredibly short period of time. Rapport is important for one key reason, unless you and person you are trying to influence are in rapport with each other, there will be very little agreement. If other person does not feel comfortable with you, and does not feel that you are 'like them', at least in general ways, that person will not feel good about accepting what you have to say and acting on that information. In short, you will not get what you want from that person.

Okay, so let's assume that you are somewhat familiar with basic ideas of NLP. You know about mirroring other person's body language. You know about speaking in their terms, whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. You even know about eye movements and what they refer to. This is only surface of incredible amount of power that a full knowledge of NLP will give you.

Some of more advanced techniques of NLP deal with what is known as pacing and leading. The central idea here is that if you say a number of things that are obviously true, such as we are in a room with 4 walls, that we are sitting at this table talking with each other, and that you are holding a glass of wine, then whatever you say next (which is not so obvious) will seem to be more true than if you did not include obvious facts. Guys, if your girlfriend starts to think that you don't love her, here is your salvation. Simply say a string of obviously true statements right before you tell her you do love her. Repeat this a few times and she will start to believe you.

And this works (to one degree or another) with those you just met. You can use this if you are a salesperson trying to convince prospect that your product is superior to your competition's product. You can use this to convince your boss that you are worth much more than company is paying you. And you can use this to convince that hottie that spending an evening with you will be better than anything else he/she could be doing.

This one concept from science of NLP is priceless! And there is much more. There is a whole segment in NLP on language patterns. There are some patterns which will help you discover exactly what someone means when they say something vague and mysterious. There are language patterns which contain hidden meanings which bypass conscious mind and go straight to subconscious mind (our focus for this article). And there are language patterns that can induce a hypnotic state without a formal induction ritual. Talk about an open door to subconscious mind!

There is so much information, that a brief article such as this one could not cover it all. There are numerous books out on market which explain many of theories of NLP. And if you're good at translating theory into practical application, any of these books will give you greater power in dealing with other people.

Good luck in your persuasion activities!