This review covers two interrelated, consecutive workshops conducted in the same location. Gabriel Guerrero and Eric Robbie conducted the first two days of training on “Metaprograms.” Following a day off to relax and enjoy Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Richard Bandler and Gabriel (Gabe) Guerrero conducted five days of training on hypnosis and NLP.

Getting There

Last year, when we attended Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning™, we had a variety of weather-related travel difficulties, so this year we gave ourselves an extra day on the way down to Puerto Vallarta to help ensure that we would be well-rested and relaxed when the workshop on Metaprograms began.

The Hotel— Dreams Puerto Vallarta

As was the case last year, the hotel proved an ideal location for the workshop and provided excellent service and accommodations. Nestled between the ocean and coastal mountains, it offered a beautiful setting, and world-class amenities. The rooms are spacious; the staff is courteous and helpful; and the rates are extremely reasonable by U.S. standards.

Most of the staff spoke enough English and had sufficient desire to be helpful that we could make ourselves understood. The workshop registration fee covered meals for the days the workshops were being conducted. The food was ample, varied, and well-prepared. For most meals we had a choice between a well-stocked buffet in an open-air restaurant overlooking the ocean or four other restaurants featuring different cuisines.

Registration and Workshop Mechanics

Barbara Castro, Gabe’s wife and business partner, managed the workshop details. Joel had met and worked with Barbara at the DHE™ workshop in 2004, and we had exchanged email with her a number of times about Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning™ in 2005 and again this year in advance of the workshops. We received good information about the workshop schedule, the hotel, and travel in Mexico.

Barbara had arranged an efficient system for registration and distribution of materials and nametags. Those who had arrived early enough completed the registration process the evenings before the workshops began. Also, preceding the start of each of the workshops, Neuroing sponsored a cocktail party and group dinner to afford participants the opportunity to meet each other and enjoy some casual conversation.

On most days, the workshops began at 10:00A, with a 90-minute break for lunch at about 1:30P, and ended at between 7:30 and 8:00P. Morning and afternoon coffee breaks offered coffee, tea, bottled water, soft drinks, and a variety of snacks.

The Participants

About 40 people attended the workshop on Metaprograms, and about 130 attended “Applications of Hypnosis to NLP.” Most of the participants were from Mexico or countries in Central or South America. Native English speakers were a minority and included people from the States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The Europeans who were present typically had English as a second or third language. Many of those whose native tongue was Spanish also spoke good to excellent English. Joel and Debra both had the opportunity to work with participants who spoke no English, and we still had really good experiences relying on nonverbal communication and a little help from our bilingual friends. Both workshops were presented entirely in English.

Metaprograms

Gabe Guerrero and Eric Robbie decided to revisit Metaprograms because they are so often misunderstood. Metaprograms have, in fact, been misunderstood in the same way personality sorters, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), have been misunderstood. It is not a matter of a person's being either an extrovert or an introvert, but a matter of where and when a person exhibits extroverted or introverted behavior. Likewise, it is not a matter of whether a person is either a “matcher” or a “mismatcher,” but a matter of where and when a person chooses to sort for sameness or sort for differences.

The three principal themes of the workshop was that Metaprograms are

• Dynamic rather than static.
• Interrelated rather than isolated.
• Simultaneous rather than sequential.

Such a view precludes the tendency to oversimplify Metaprograms with the is-ness of identity: “Bill is a Mismatcher.” Metaprograms are both more complex and more foundational to NLP than most Practitioners (and even Trainers) have acknowledged.

As those of you who have trained with us know, we (Debra and Joel) had been looking at the polarities of Metaprograms as finding the balance necessary to know which end of the polarity to choose in which context, so the concepts presented in the workshop constitute a subtle increase in elegance rather than a radical difference. Some of what Gabe and Eric presented in the workshop is similar to our presentation of perceptual frames, and we will need to clarify the relationship between Metaprograms and perceptual frames.

We will be revising our materials on “Strategies and Metaprograms” to include what we learned in the workshop and putting the revised section online as a free download for those who have completed SCS Level 2 or NLP training (Practitioner/Master Practitioner) with us.

Our only complaint about the workshop was that it really needed to be three days rather than two. We had the opportunity to discuss the need for more time with both Gabe and Eric, and they agreed that an extra day would have helped with both understanding and incorporating the concepts presented. We suspect that the next time they present the material, it will be in a three-day format.

The Bottom Line

The word that best describes Gabe’s presentation style is dynamic. He has the charisma of genuine “stage presence”. He has developed a Bandler-like style of using extended metaphors to enhance participants’ ability to understand and remember critical information.

For Eric, the word would be erudite. Eric is one of the few who has been affiliated with Richard Bandler since the “early days,” and the depth and breadth of his knowledge are readily apparent. The day following the workshop, we were privileged to sit with Eric in a gazebo overlooking the Pacific Ocean and discuss the workshop, the role of intuition in NLP, and half a dozen books we really want to read now....

Along the way, Gabe and Owen Fitzpatrick (who was present for the workshops but not an official trainer) did a double induction to reinforce what we had been learning.

The information presented in the workshop is well-worth knowing. We both struggled with the amount of information presented in two days, but we are very glad that we attended. Having a third day will make a big difference in the comfort-level for most participants.

Hypnosis as an Application to NLP

At the end of the workshop on Metaprograms, Gabe said that the things covered in the workshop weren’t going to go away. He was right.

For most of the workshop on the applications of hypnosis, Richard Bandler was the morning presenter, and Gabe presented in the afternoon. Morning sessions, started at 10:00A and concluded between 1:00 and 1:30P, usually included one exercise and one coffee break. The afternoon sessions began after a 90 minute break for lunch and lasted until about 7:30P. Participants were invited to leave questions and requests for Richard, and he typically began the morning session by answering questions and responding to requests, including getting over phobias and other fears. Gabe started most afternoon sessions by inviting questions and comments from the participants.

As you might expect of a workshop entitled “Applications of Hypnosis to NLP,” we spent a lot of time in trance—Richard put us in trance in the morning; Gabe put us in trance in the afternoon. We worked in pairs or groups of three putting each other in trance and developing the abilities to go more deeply, more quickly, more comfortably into trance and to return quickly and easily to full consciousness.

As Richard has said on numerous occasions, “Hypnosis is not the exception; it is the rule.” The principal concepts behind “Applications of Hypnosis to NLP” were that we influence others by being able to choose our own states appropriately.

Using trance, we blended powerful, positive states and anchored them to help ensure that the combination of states would be more fully present more of the time. One of Richard Bandler’s favorite questions is, “How much pleasure can you stand?” The sad truth is that too many of us have not been able to stand very much. The focus of the workshop was on enhancing our ability to have more pleasure more of the time—to learn how to control our brain chemistry so that we are able to sustain a higher vibration. Whenever we work with others—and we are working with others all the time—it is our job to go first. When we feel good, we automatically share those good feelings with others. We are to “be ever blissful” not only because it feels good, but also because we are at our best when we are joyful.

Throughout the workshop, Richard and Gabe stressed the desirability of our being both free and responsible, free to choose behaviors that are right for us without impinging on the rights of others to choose their own behaviors. Richard said that nothing is worth arguing about, that arguing "gets you nowhere." To get where you want to go, just focus on it. He suggested that we think about direction rather than outcome, that focusing on the outcome won’t get us there. When we focus on what we want, rather than arguing with others about what we should want and why we want it, we move in that direction and give others the option of following.

The rumors of his death notwithstanding, Richard was sufficiently healthy and happy to dance a jig on stage to demonstrate that the reports of his death were much exaggerated. His closing session, which had us in “mixed state” rather than trance. was not only powerful, but also funnier than anything we had ever heard from a professional comedian.

And then ... Richard and Gabe did an outstanding double induction....

The Bottom Line

As was true last year, these were wonderful workshops in a wonderful location. We enjoyed watching pelicans fishing while we had breakfast in the morning, and, on the evenings we were out early enough to watch the sun set across the Pacific, we were privileged to watch the gathering of albatrosses taking advantage of the updraft created by the sea breeze blowing in against the mountains. The big, magnificent birds again showed us how they could move easily higher and higher until they practically disappeared into the clouds. The term for that kind of flight—which albatrosses share with hawks, eagles, and vultures—is called dynamic soaring.

As has been true for every Bandler workshop we have attended (regardless of location), this one was multilevel communication at its best, drawing on both conscious and unconscious resources and learnings, and creating opportunities for more pleasure in body, mind, and spirit. Both workshops allow you to take resources from the present into the past to change the way you feel about events that used to cause you to feel bad, and to turn around inside your mind, bringing better feelings into the present and then envision the future you truly desire and then, once again, turn around inside your mind to see how easy it can be to be more joyful now.

Planning Your Trip

We have some suggestions for those who are considering attending next year’s workshop, whatever it might be called. First, if at all possible, add a day or two so that you have an opportunity to arrive early and do some sightseeing before the workshop begins. If nothing else, having a little cushion of time before the workshop beings will enable you to be relaxed and comfortable when the workshop begins.

If you come from the U.S., pay for the taxi ride to the hotel in U.S. currency ($20 USD this year, not including a tip), and change your money at the hotel. Unless you are planning to do a lot of shopping from beach and/or street vendors, you will not need much Mexican money. The hotel and major businesses will be glad to do the conversion for you without charging a special fee. Stateside exchange services charge almost 10 percent for changing money, with a minimum fee of about $5 USD. Remember that a Peso is worth about a penny U.S., so a $20 Peso bill is worth about $2 USD—when you tip those who help you, you aren’t actually passing out $20 USD bills.

If time permits, learn a little Spanish before you go. You won’t need much to navigate, but knowing a little will help you feel more comfortable in your daily interactions with those whose English is limited. You will be glad to know that you really can drink the water at most hotels and restaurants. The water at such places is filtered, and (as is true in the States) bottled water is widely available. You also be glad to know that Mexican food is not all like what you might get at Taco Bell. The good hotels and restaurants offer a wide variety of cuisine, and not all of it is spicy. For those of you who like things spicy, that, too, is available along with really good Mexican beer (Joel’s favorite is Negra Mondella).

To learn more about our Mexican adventures in 2005 and 2006, ask your questions on the SCS Discussion list. If you’re not yet a member, send a blank email message to scs-discussion-subscribe@scs-matters.com, and enjoy.