By Ken Restivo

I had the pleasure of attending Richard Bandler's Magickal Tranceformations workshop May 15-18 in San Francisco.

The seminar was held at San Franscisco University, a Jesuit college near the Haight District with the distinction of having issued Bandler his Ph.D. many years ago. Bandler stated that he couldn't find the hall to deliver his dissertation when that time came back then (he had cut classes so religiously), but we found the meeting room easily for this seminar. Braum and Domenic provided support, which involved hooking up a ton of PA and synthesizer gear, none of which Bandler acutally used, opting instead (thankfully!) for a more intimate circular seating arrangement and no PA, accompanied by a pleasant 60-cycle buzz emanating from the unused gear.

I'd been told by a fellow NLP'er that the weekend was likely to be a renamed version of his old Personal Trance-formations workshop, but I haven't been to any of the aforementioned workshops, so I can't say for sure. It certainly seemed different. And it certainly was magickal!

I'd completed the Master Practitioner course last summer and was expecting the rhythm of lecture-groupexercise-break-lecture-break-groupexercise, etc-- an active and social role. This was much more passive, we sat, while Richard had what seemed like the greatest fun on earth working his Art.

The amazing thing was three days solid of Richard just being Richard. This offered a fantastic (and Rare and Unprecedented) opportunity to really absorb the master at work. He talked incessantly, brilliantly, hilariously, and with an entertaining energy for three days straight; no mean feat for anyone, least of all for a man wrestling daily with Death. And the states that he led us through were dazzling.

I'll note here that most of my observations are "seems to" frames. In a weekend-long deep-trance workshop, it's like walking into a Fellini film or a Joyce or Wilson novel, you never know for sure what the hell is going on (and as Wilson says: "if you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit!"). So consider this as a subjective account of one man's experience of the events.

For me, the effect of such constant talking was to decisively and completely blot out all internal dialogue for extended periods of time. And that's no mean feat for an old writer like me. As a result, I experienced several different varieties of "ego-less" (as Jason Wyse called them) deep trance states. I sense as though (it's always hard to be sure ;-) he installed into us the ability to go into such states on command and to have conscious control over what happens in them.

The only effort asked of us was to submit specific, written goals for the seminar, prior to the start. Richard then read through them in our presence, and had us all laughing, poking fun (anonymously, of course) at some of our decision strategies, then installing better ones in their place. He then did an impressive amount of individual change work under the guise of talking to the group as a whole. Interspersed with general comments to all were specific installations designated for specific individuals seeking specific types of changes.

The effect of the constant, artful, byzantine, baroque, hilarious, virtuosic talking (as Robert Anton Wilson said of his own writing: "as opulent as a Moslem palace") was quite extraordinary. It was like visiting Firenze: total information overload. It didn't take long before the relentless onslaught of breathtaking language patterns-- from the inventor of such patterns himself-- began to cause a quantum leap. After a short time, I arrived at a decidedly new plane of consciousness-- a very deep waking trance-- where I could feel and see what Richard was doing to us over and above language, on perhaps a Magickal plane, but in tight parallel to the language he was using, and still conscious of same, at which point, the language seemed almost pointless, vaguely annoying, a primitive form of communication. Duh. It seemed Richard was using the language as a cover, a distraction perhaps, and the real work he was doing was of a very different kind.

Some of the fun inductions and anchors included "repeat the mantra: "FUCK IT!", "elemental, my dear", "the Gerbil", "Cat-Lick church", "Diamonds", "ever been to Dublin?", and "ReJoyce!". I caught a distinctive Irish flavor the proceedings, and don't know whether that's attributable to the Jesuit college setting, Paula's influence, Joyce's influence, or just their recent trip there. The few individual exercises he gave us seemed to be variations on Tantric breathing and Kundalini exercises, experiences with a couple different types of Time, as well as a couple Magick Tricks that I won't disclose here ;-).

Richard's interaction with the group was a real treat, allowed by the intimate setting (about 30 people in a small room). During the goals phase, Richard AmbiguScrambled (the AmbiguScrambler is the "machine" I imagine he installed into us to turn any serious or important word or phrase into something totally silly) one unsuspecting attendee's goal of going "around duress" into a wish for "a rounder ass" (although life would be more fun if it was easier to go "around her dress".) Also fun was his gripe about another attendee's handwriting being too small ("So? Hallucinate a magnifying glass and read it", retorted the bold but otherwise good-natured attendee. "Why should I have to drop into a deep trance just to read your shitty handwriting?" parried Richard, winking, and without missing a beat). All things in their time and place.

Again, this was very much a personal session, with no group exercises, so it wasn't conducive to meeting new people, though I did recognize and catch up with some folks from the LA session last summer, and met some new folks from the Bay area. Everyone walked out glowing and buzzing at a really cool rhythm, skin more vibrant, pores open, and casting away all our worries out towards the sunset from this the tallest spot in that section of San Francisco. Which is just what all of us need sometimes.

All in all, a fun and entertaining weekend, a supportive and open-minded group of people, and a great wire brush to clear all the daily gunk off of the brain and tune up the neurology for peak performance.

If I can expand and intensify this experience for a couple years before having to do one of these again, my bank account will be thrilled, but I definitely want to experience Richard Bandler again in this type of a forum in the future, and the gods only know what kinds of things he will have come up with by then!

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