Newsletter

Newsletter Summer 2005

Apologies to all who signed up for the newsletter: it has been 'off air' since last summer. As many of you know, my father died earlier this year, after a prolonged illness and much of my time has been taken up with family.

As you can see, we are up and running again and have some interesting articles, tips and news about up-coming events.

For those of you who know Liz Noble, it will come as no surprise to hear that she is back in Africa this summer (this is her third year). After her trip last year I asked if her NLP knowledge had been of any help - her reply was, 'Oh yes …it kept me safe and kept me sane!' She is sending regular updates and I am including her first message …. A timely window on Africa from someone with hands on experience.

Letter from Liz

You won't be getting many messages from me - it's taken 26 minutes to get to the point where I could begin to type. Expect the computer to crash at any second and then the joy of starting all over again. Dis Na Afreeka!! I'm OK and happy to be here and busy in the school and at the clinic.

Yesterday in the hospital (giving blood) the conversation ranged around and landed on education as a topic. Education is expensive, They all agreed. We watch the blood pooling into a plastic bag on the floor. Try ignorance says the doctor. Then you will know education is cheap!

The primary school that we talked about last year is now up and running and five classes of the smallest children you have ever seen stand to sing a song for me. "Good afternoon visitor" and then a round of In and Out The Dusty Bluebells: all rather surreal, as there are surely no bluebells here. Stay to cook the lunch in a smoky shack at the back and then agree to teach teachers for the next six weeks. There is not much I can teach these teachers. They are working in the semi dark in rooms that are partitioned sections of an old Ministry of works Canteen and have approximately nothing but chalk and a black board to work with. The children repeat everything and follow all contributions with "Thank you Teecha" Nevertheless this is a school and children are learning who were not learning before and, more to the point everyone of them gets a cooked meal every lunchtime. Many turn up at weekend and during holidays times crying for food.

Most children who do have a school place have walked upwards of five miles to attend. They carry their shoes on their heads so as not to wear them out and for the shoes to be clean for school. Makes me wonder again what we are doing to get it so wrong.
Today is Saturday so only the private schoosl are open for the morning. On the way to the internet place I am surrounded by chanting shouting whistle blowing all male crowd and assume that there will be a football match at the end of it. In fact at the head of the mob was a bull on a rope. Bull fights being a common event here (??) I thought they must be chanting something to do with bulls - getting the blood lust up - that sort of thing…….Turns out the song was "If you want to have sex, wear a condom. If you want to go all night, wear two"

Good Advice I guess Love Liz x

Notes from Nina

Have you given any thought to what you believe lately? I don't just mean your religious or spiritual beliefs; no, I'm talking about the beliefs that underpin your day-to-day, moment-to-moment living. What, for example do you believe about the world: that it's in a terrible state of imminent collapse; that technology will provide an answer to the world's problems; that everything is as it should be? What do you believe about people: that they are generally supportive and kind; that they are out to get you because people are inherently mean and nasty? I've given you fairly polarized options here, but we will all have beliefs of some sort about every aspect of life. Many of these beliefs will be out of our conscious awareness. Sometimes people even believe that their beliefs are facts!

Often out-of -conscious awareness beliefs are the most powerful and can exert huge influence over our behaviour: our beliefs can limit or empower us.

'If you believe you can or believe you can't - you're right'

Ever since I did my first practitioner, I've been fascinated by the whole area of beliefs. I remember my trainer, Dave Marshall, telling us the story of 'The Elephant Skin boy' as an illustration of how powerful the 'beyond conscious' mind can be ….. you can imagine my delight then when flicking through the various Sky channels one day, I came across a programmed dedicated to understanding the placebo effect . Placebos are used regularly in 'placebo-controlled' trials for new drugs: meaning that a proportion of patients are given an experimental drug whilst others take look-alike pills with no active ingredient. In double blind experiments, neither patients nor researchers know who is getting the placebos and who is receiving active ingredients.

Anyway as I watched, I realised that they were talking about the same story that Dave had told his wide-eyed practitioner group all those years before: there on the screen was the actual doctor who had been involved with the story. In 1952 Albert Mason was a young anesthetist based at a hospital in East Grinstead which had, after World War II become a specialist hospital for plastic surgery . Albert Mason, now a gentleman of very mature years, recounted how one day the surgeon he was working with, Mr. Moore, had been upset when the skin graft that he had carried out on a boy of 15, hadn't worked, and indeed had made matters worse.

The boy had been covered in warts with only a bit of clear skin on his chest and in an effort to help, the surgeon had tried to graft a bit of this clear skin onto the boy's hand. Now Albert Mason had been very interested in hypnotism and he suggested to Mr. Moore that perhaps he should try hypnotism on the boy. Albert recounted how Mr. Moore looked at him pityingly and said 'if you think you can cure him with hypnotism, go ahead!' So Albert did! It wasn't until the boy was almost totally free of his warts that Albert presented him to Mr. Moore. To say that the surgeon was stunned would be an understatement! When he recovered from his shock he said, 'He hasn't got warts, he's got Congenital Ichthyosis - you can't treat that with hypnosis': but Albert had! Congenital Ichthyosis was a condition that caused the skin to blacken and crack thus making it prone to infection. The prognosis for people with this condition was poor and they rarely reached old age.

The account of the healing was then written up in both the British Medical Journal and Time Magazine. Albert was besieged with people suffering from Ichthyosis: they came from miles around, but he was never able to reproduce the success he had had with the boy. Albert's reasoning for this was that by then he KNEW that Ichthyosis could not be treated with hypnotism and this was somehow communicated to the patient.

The film crew finally located the boy (now aged 67 in 2002) his identity had always been kept secret and we never got to see him, but it was confirmed that his skin had remained clear and he was fit and well. Albert had gone on to pursue a career in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy and he attributes this to his experience with the boy with Elephant skin.

I just love this story - not just for its happy outcome, but for all the questions it raises:
How did Albert manage through suggestion to cure a congenital disorder?
Why couldn't he reproduce his results?
How can we learn to tap into the body's undoubted self-healing abilities?
How did his knowing that Ichthyosis was incurable cause him to not be able to help anyone else?
What if doctors could learn to tap into the body's own healing mechanisms … what would the limits be?
What beliefs in our lives do we have that are either limiting or empowering us?
What might we be able to achieve or become if we could eliminate those limiting beliefs and fully manifest our empowering beliefs?

To track down your own beliefs, listen out for the words 'I can ….' or 'I can't ……' Ask yourself regularly … what am I believing about this situation/person? Our confidence or lack of it is often being boosted or undermined by a belief. Now when we are talking about empowering beliefs - all very good: if they are serving us well, then there's no need to change them .

The ones to become aware of are those insidious undermining beliefs that we might have that are serving to limit and restrict us.

Promise yourself that you will begin to discover and become aware of those beliefs that might be holding you back…….. and be sure that you believe it's possible, won't you?

'Changing Belief Systems with NLP by Robert Dilts'. Highly Recommended for anyone fascinated by beliefs - one of Robert's more accessible reads.

'Thinking, Changing, Rearranging, Improving self-esteem in young people',
Jill Anderson. This book is designed for use with older children. If the 'Americanisms' put you off, persevere: it is very practical.

Inner Sense News

We are all absolutely delighted that, having finally taken early retirement from his role as Professional Development Manager for Hampshire LEA, Terry Mahony has joined us as an associate. Terry's wealth of experience in training and mediation, not to mention his sense of humour (a pre-requisite for working with us!) will make a truly welcome addition to the team.

Terry will be running a workshop day on mediation and resolving conflict in January. This is a day that I think will be useful for those involved in formal mediation and for the rest of us, who live in a world peopled with others who do not necessarily do things the right way - meaning our wayof course!!!

The NLP Conference 2005
Last year's conference was a resounding success and is being repeated this year hopefully this means that it will become an annual event. This year Nina and I are presenting a workshop on state, self-esteem and performance.

Details for this year's conference:
19 - 20 November, Regent's College, Regent's Park, London
email: Jo Hogg at jo.hogg@ukonline.co.uk
www.nlpconference.co.uk

and finally …….

The NLP serious shopping strategy!
Exercised on an expedition to Altea market in Spain …. Note the focussed attention of the dedicated shopper!!

Out of shot are the hubbies, after wine and tapas they agreed we could buy anything!!!