By Jason Wyse

The Charisma Enhancement seminar with Richard Bandler and John LaValle lasted six days in lovely downtown Hollywood, and since many of the details about lodging, format of the training, etc. are the same as for the Master Practitioner program, I'll keep this review short and refer you to the other one for more information.

As before, Bandler and LaValle split the training time relatively equally with the notable exception that since this was a course on public speaking, each member of the audience was required to get up in front of the class and give four presentations over the course of the week.

Many of the participants from the first course stayed over for the second, and we were joined by a number of new seminarians including twenty or so people from Japan. Now before I go on, I want you to know that the Japanese are a fascinating race of people to work with, and as many of them couldn't speak English or understand it very well, working with them on exercises was an excellent way for me to develop my use of analogue communication. The people who attended this training were also from as diverse walks of life as from different countries.

Three of the major themes of this training were nesting loops, building generative state chains, and building up powerful internal states for use when working with audiences. Some people initially claimed to have difficulty using these skills or not understanding what they were doing, but then I noticed these same people telling stories about their lives to other very intent listeners outside the classroom. Hmmm… I find it funny how this exact process seems to happen at most of the seminars I've been to with Bandler and LaValle.

Ah, I almost forgot to mention that Robert Anton Wilson also lectured during several afternoons of this seminar as well. Wilson is a master of spinning "different semantic funnels for different reality tunnels" and I found his discussions of the structure and multitude of ambiguous ideas drawn from many different languages in the writing of James Joyce to be most insightful. Of course, he spoke on other topics as well and also took some time to answer questions from the audience.

John LaValle taught a wide variety of useful skills, including some very explicit demonstrations of crowd control, answering questions from the audience, fractionation and building response potential, and nonverbal state elicitation with many useful tidbits about consulting and working with businesses to improve, including skills such as how body posture affect audience response and how to use the $10,00 dollar technique on managers.

The highlights of the course were the individual presentations – and it was wild to see how rapidly the group progressed in their speaking skills. The presentations were videotaped and experienced trainers including Kathleen LaValle, Stever Robbins, and Domenic Luzi were available on hand to watch the tapes with us and critique our performance. Several people could barely think of enough words to say to fill half of their first minute-long presentation, and by the end of the week John LaValle practically had to drag them off the stage when their time was up. Most of those with a phobia for public speaking also seemed to get over it by their final presentation (although I'm not sure how anyone holding a microphone and loudspeakers at their command and towering over the audience on a stage can be intimidated by rows of smiling, cherub faces who don't).

Richard Bandler seemed to be bristling with energy, and although LaValle had advised us to see how much we could pay attention to the structure of his communication, I found that as I listened I kept feeling drawn in to the content and sometimes back out again. Several evenings he ran marathon sessions, including one that lasted for over four hours! (I checked my watch and it was eight. I short while later I was wondering what time it was, so I checked and it was ten thirty! Holy time distortion, Batman!)

Personally, I found an immediate subjective difference after the first day in my ability to keep track of multiple channels and multiple levels of communication, and by the end of the week, I found that I was nesting loops with ambiguities, doing things I had never thought to try before. Stories seemed to appear out of nowhere and the stage felt much like a giant playground. Recently I was visiting some friends and we engaged in conversation for close to twelve hours, and found myself doing many new things. Sure enough, one of them asked for a ride into deep trance, and an hour later I was wishing that I'd remembered to bring a tape recorder because the strategies I'd wanted to run clicked in like clockwork and I've forgotten much of the stuff in the middle. No matter – I'm sure it will come back when I need it. In any case, I've definitely noticed a difference which I know will continue to develop as I have the chance to use it.

Of course, the Japanese and other people whose native tongue is not English seemed to grow better at understanding and speaking it over the course of the week, and I found myself surprised that I could almost understand their speech in addition to feeling strongly affected by their analogue. The broad mix of culture, strategies, and customs truly adds a unique element to any NLP seminar.

In short, the Charisma Enhancement seminar with Richard Bandler and John LaValle was exciting, challenging, and good learning experience. If your willing to jump in and try new things, develop your skills, and find what works and understanding it later, this seminar is a great opportunity to enhance your public speaking for Neuro-Linguistic Programmers, business and sales trainers, teachers, and others who want to make their communication more dynamic!

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