The Grey Cardinal's Preparatory Course

“These are techniques, not a human trait. You can learn this…”

How to influence other people? How to influence yourself? How to influence yourself in order to influence other people?

Any communication, any interaction is an influence. Will it be conscious, controlled by you and for your goals, or spontaneous and “as it goes”—that choice is personal for everyone. As does everyone decide for themselves whether they will build their life according to their own desire or as it happens; whether to allow others to control them, or to control themselves.

People are controlled by emotions. Their emotions. Their experiences.

People are controlled by Fear and Desire.

And if we want to control ourselves or another person—to exert influence, affect, etc.—then we need to create a situation of Fear and Desire: so that the person is afraid and wants something. The most important influence is the ability to evoke the right emotional impulse in a person, and the second is the ability to direct it. Can you do that?—Then you’ll be able to steer a person toward the desired action. Don’t know how?—He will understand everything, but act according to his own will—toward what his own desire and his own fear push him toward. Or what someone else instills in him.