The Power of Speech

The power to cause changes in people's minds through the domain of spoken language demands numerous masteries. That of elocution, rhythm, tonality, cadence, memory, mastery of the subject matter, and others. No genuinely useful speech exists without depth within the speaker both regarding the subject matter, and more generally, within the soul of the speaker.

Taking those as pre-requisites, there are means with which to draw the topic of a speech with special power within the minds of the listeners. The primary first step in any speech is the generation of authority. This is a law of hypnotism that is very well known. When people know you as an authority, they will be drawn carefully to your words, and will follow your thoughts. However, if you are not considered an authority by the audience, then you will not have much likelihood of convincing an audience, whether it be of one person or thousands, of performing an action, though you may hold their attention through other means.

What is the conception of "authority" ? Authority is held by someone who holds power within the domain of interest of the audience regarding the subject matter. For example, if a person is a master of poetry that is giving a speech to a union of auto workers regarding the latest in automobile build technology, no matter the level of influence that master of poetry has within his own field, it will not hold the minds of but a few of his audience members whose thoughts branch into his field, or whose thoughts are capable of drawing analogy. However, if a person who was in the field of automobile building, and was one of the Ferrari family, for example, or of the family of Porsche, then a large audience's mind could be very exactly and completely held captive, due to the power of influence, the power of legend, and the power of authority within its domain.

Therefore, the first of the laws of powerful speech is the establishment of authority. Many people whom we very well know historically have created authority through exorbitant bending of the truth. Examples abound, taking for example Frank Lloyd Wright, who had more versions of his biography than anyone can keep track of, and who had many lies clearly related to the gaining of a sense of authority in his early years, notably lying about his educational experience. It is clear that Wright considered that at all costs, credible authority had to be created and maintained very carefully, and any sort of expedient means was allowable.