By John T. Cox, DHC

During a beautiful week in August 1999 on the campus of the Dominican College in San Rafael California in a room with wood panel and glass walls sitting in a group of eager learners while listening to a story about hypnosis and change, an earthquake happened. The native Californians all said "Ho Hum" and looked at their watches while the more 'intelligent' people ran wildly and with amazing rapidity out the sliding glass doors into the warm sunshine beneath the stately tall trees.

Change is like that moment when an unexpectedly recognizeable new stimulus rolls through stimulating motion.

Monday

The five day training began with John Lavalle and Joseph Riggio sharing the center stage. Joseph described his thinking about the relationship between the sensory, conscious, and transconscious parts of each of us and how there is a primal pure-form existing within the transconscious state. He also described a goal in learning how far you can go with the least number of words. John began by describing the use of language to change states of mind and how the "linking across" that occurs in jokes and in learning new things "tickles" the mind and it feels good. Following their introductions, John led the group through exercises to learn the elements of NLP language skills. Joseph handed out a script called "Ode to Ellman" which we read to each other as a first step in going beyond hypnosis.

Tuesday

Joseph, taught about attitudes and creating your environment and knowing which angle to illuminate in order to approach where you are going. One goal is to teach us to mediate the space between ourselves, find the point on which things balance, and rotate the tiniest point in that manifest space. We were given another script and told to read it to each other. A significant point for this exercise was to learn what parts of their sensory input the client (ourself?) is missing because "where the deletions are is driving their experience." John taught about attitude and creating a state of mind and body which allows you to feel good and then make a decision. John has gotten better over the past three years at creating the right kind of classroom swagger and intensity to create a critical mass for attitude changes. John led us through exercises about how to make people feel great while anchoring those states in all representational systems. Joseph returned to teach us the structure of trancework and in developing our own well languaged approaches to using that structure. His description of the structure is to 1) fixate the client's attention, 2) get the client to go inside, 3) encourage the client that it is safe outside, 4) deepen the client's trance experience, 5) utilization - the actual change work, 6) close.

Wednesday

Joseph introduced the idea of directional intentionality, a simple and yet profound state of mind which allows us to be fluid within and a part of situations and an environment while also creating a precise path towards a specific outcome. From within the state of all possibilities there will be a path along your directional intention that you take to get to your specific outcome. John continued teaching about language, presuppositions, and how to challenge people's beliefs by challenging the adjectives and adverbs. His challenge to us is to find the shortest number of words we can use to challenge a statement. Of course, his shortest was merely a glance with a rasied eyebrow. I wonder how many people caught that! We did an exercise with spatial locations of verb tenses. I found this to be fascinating, especially when I discovered that most verbs had a similar pattern except for the ones related to my own problem behaviors. I used this to create a technique to modify those verbs by mapping the tenses to the "standard" pattern. Joseph continued with an elaborate description of Ulysses, the Minotaur, and Penelope which he related to entering into a state of all possibilities and leading your way back to where you are now to create a path to get there. This part really was an in depth analysis of classical literature twisted into a powerful mythological NLP and hypnotic change metaphor.

Thursday

John demonstrated conversational change with member of the class and he also demonstrated using extravegant, outrageous, and even seemingly ridiculous methods. I was enchanted by his story of the same word in two languages - BATMAN and Die FledermausMann - which he used to work magic with one of the class (and eventually with everyone). This was John at his most creative. We learned about eliciting states in people and working at the neurological level. Joseph had us putting together the scripts we had written, his archetype for trance, the language patterns, and all of our observational capabilities in exercises. He went from person to person teaching them just what adjustments to make to voice tempo, rhythm, speed, etc. to increase the effectiveness of the trance experience.

Friday

John and Joseph began to wind and thread all of their teaching into a tapestry of learning on this final day. One of them said that we should "use language that is dangerous to people's limitations." Joseph emphasized that we should hold that manifest space for the client until they can do it themselves. The client's baseline changes suddenly. The day was spent moving us through all sorts of states of wonder, curiousity, confusion, awe, ecstasy, and desire. Joseph emphasized that learning leads to critical mass which lets us ride the quantum wave, a theme for the whole week.

When the course was over and I had said my goodbyes to friends old and new, I walked across the beautiful lawn of the Domincan college under the towering redwwod and eucalyptus trees, sunshine warming me from the outside, I knew that these ideas and skills that I had learned and enhanced really were an earthquake rolling through the landscape of all possibilities in my mind.

Summary

We worked hard and had fun all week. Each night we had a load of homework to do and got together in groups to do it after dinner. There were five script handouts which we read to each other, analyzed, and modeled. There was a nicely formatted NLP manual with descriptions of all the language patterns. Each day we performed three or four exercises which we could do out on the lawn in the warm sunshine. There was a cafeteria neighboring the training room and a number of nice restaurants down in the town 2 miles away. I stayed at the Doubletree about five miles away and shared a room.

I have seen John four times at various training courses and each time I grow to appreciate his skill more and more. He emphasizes language and attitude and has always provided good solid advice in many forms. This was the first time I saw Joseph. He is intensely intellectual sounding at first. I think this is because the ideas he is working with are about transcendent states and the archetypes of myth and theology. They make a fabulous team. Both John and Joseph demonstrated their unique abilities to use the skills and ideas of NLP to help people break free of their limitations. I recommend training with both of these fine gentlemen individually and as a team. Each of them brings years of experience and a wide variety of viewpoints to both NLP and hypnosis.

I find that my work with clients is more creative now and that the idea of generating and holding a space between provides for the manifestation of that special moment when a sudden shift can change the entire direction of a mind.