Being playful at the Hypnosis Technique Exchange, I was feeling impish on the Marknosis list where it was recently asked if repeated viewings of the Richard Bandler Neruohypnotic Repatterning seminar videos might help strengthen the acceptance of the skills that are “unconsciouslly installed” within the stories during the lecture . . .

Well, I suppose you could watch the entire series of lectures nine or ten times in a row and see how that works for you. Or, you could watch something else and read about the skills that were supposed to have been unconsciously installed and see if some conscious work in those areas doesn’t turbo charge the changes you may or may not be noticing right now.

I watched that whole seminar series from start to finish . . . and while the stories were entertaining, I honestly didn’t see or note any skills being explicitly taught or even mentioned except one . . . if there was unconscious installation of anything other than enjoying a few anecdotes, many of questionable veracity, I didn’t knowtice that either. 🙂 I did enjoy the Robert Anton Wilson references . . . but then as I love RAW’s work and slip references to him in a number of my own graduate seminars, what’s not to love. 🙂

Others are free to disagree with me, fine, no monkey off my back, but I have always been of the opinion that for “unconscious teaching” to really work well, it should be resonate with what is consciously being taught. That is, one uses story and example and the like to reinforce what is being explicitly instructed and practiced . . . I am a big believer in practice, practice, practice within the learning context.

However, I did enjoy watching the Neurohypnotic Repatterning seminar which seemed to be more about Bandler storytime and didn’t really introduce any new concepts, ideas, or techniques . . . at least that I have been consciously aware of, regardless of whether they have been unconsciously installed or not . . . I haven’t found myself using any new methods, techniques, or paradigms after having watched it either, at least none that I didn’t consciously notice myself coming across or developing based upon other experiences. Of course, perhaps I am especially dense and unaware of such things that have magickally happened in my brain and experience without my knowledge . . . and perhaps as I have written this, I have used certain phrases and key punctuation knotes to . . . in a subtle and yet unnoticed obvious way . . . install particular skills and ideas in your minD, dear reader, skills that you will notice becoming more obvious over the next few days as you realize these knew ideas are becoming more and more helpful and useful to you as you knotice changes that are very positive and very rewarding . . . perhaps, in that time, very soon, you will notice yourself writing a nice thank you knote to me, on a slip of green paper, as has ben franklin suggested, smiles and mails to my address, pal, pay attention. Perhaps . . . or perhaps not, thyme will tell as you knotice how good it feels to mail those fifty or so green sheets very soon . . . as the unconscious installation just happens naturally, isn’t that kneat? Yes. Believe you me, that stuff might even work Knowtice, what I mean?

🙂

While I may or may not have gotten much at the conscious level out of the neurohypnotic repatterning videos, all nine volumes . . . but I did find the fifteen or so minutes on the handshake interrupt to be valuable. It was nice to watch . . . albeit, it was most definitely not as described in relationship to Erickson (despite Bandler’s new claim that he made it up and Erickson never did that sort of stuff) . . . it was still knice to see. 🙂

Oh, that and the examples of what is so obviously Prestige Suggestion where Bandler would just pick someone and just stare ’em down or flick his finger and pop ’em right then and there. Not so much his technique at work but his confidence in his ability to pretty much pop anyone he wanted to and the overwhelming belief among the audience members that he could do just that. Very nice. A friend of mine who trained with Bandler many moons ago described similar effects and certainly Erickson and Elman and Spiegel all have examples associated with ’em that are of the same cloth . . . something I’ve no doubt Mark has experienced on one end as I am certain there are folks who attend Mark’s trainings based upon the umnpteen million posts on this list and others (my own included) where folks whisper in hushed awe at the great majesty of his hypnotic prowess so by the time some folks get to see Mark in person they’ve build up this image of “The Hypnotist” that they’re already popped before they even see him . . . he could fart in their general direction and they’d pop . . . that’s an image . . . the “hey, pull my finger” induction . . . as subject pulls finger, fart and say “sleep” and then “breathe in deeply and let the gentle sleeping gas lull you deeply into a relaxed state.” 🙂 Then again, I am of the school “anything and everything can be an induction” so I’m sure that would work. However, I’m not going to be the one who uses it . . . someone else can pop that one off and then tell us how it works for ’em. 🙂

All the best,
Brian