The "Mathieu Bich Presents" Collection NLP and Magic, Other Secrets First Edition 2009 Benoit Campana 2010 Createx Translated from French by Jane Zenino All rights reserved in all countries Certificate of deposit N D255-461 2
NLP & MAGIC Other secrets Benoit CAMPANA The Mathieu Bich Presents Collection 3
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EDITOR S NOTE I discovered Benoit along with NLP in 2007. Both at the same time what a meeting! Benoit is witty, extremely cultivated and hungry for multidisciplinary knowledge. When you meet him for the first time, you are surprised at how different the man is from the one you imagined him to be when reading his CV. He is unerringly good-tempered and slightly exuberant and always ready to embark on new adventures. I remember the first meal we had together. At the time, I thought that NLP was more allied to psychology and at the end of the evening I asked him if he had managed to glean any information about me without me knowing. He laughed and told me that you can t practice NLP while doing something else and that it requires intense attention and concentration. He began to enlighten me that evening and we have been meeting ever since to exchange our knowledge and experiences. I have often been blown away by Benoit, first when he began to explain the basic techniques of NLP to me, and above all when we were doing our exercises and he asked me questions, all the while watching my every movement. He is so concentrated and serious that you understand who you are dealing with; whatever you do, he has already divined it. It is as if, instead of being part of a dialogue, you are watching a discussion between him and your brain! The surprising thing is that not only does he retrieve information without you mentioning it, but he also sends you some without you being aware of it. You know when you watch a spy film and there s always a guy who says: That man s lying! He looked to the right when I asked him a question, but he s the one who pulled the trigger because he scratched his nose when I sneezed. Well that s nothing compared to what Benoit can do. I never thought that this level of excellence in such a domain could exist! 5
NLP is not easy. It requires long training and true knowledge, not to mention a great faculty of concentration which enables you to take in information, treat it and then talk about it with formulae and precise terms related to what you have just heard a few seconds previously. NLP is extremely interesting and all magicians should evidently master the basics in this field. I have found that NLP has much in common with magic as well as with Zen philosophy that I have remained very close to ever since Dominique Duvivier introduced me to it several years ago. NLP will be very useful in your magic, but also in your everyday life; it helps you to understand and explain things better, deal with conflicts and negotiate, and even brings self-understanding. Before reading this book, take a mental photo of the magic you are practicing today and try to remember it, for once you have finished the book you will never practice magic in the same way again. I can only envy you, the reader, as you are going to discover a domain that you never knew existed, and you will probably love it. I am leaving you in very good hands, for in addition to technical qualities, you need real talent to achieve what Benoit achieves. Warm regards Mathieu Bich 6
PREFACE Magic is a mystery for each and every one of us because we remain children to the end of our lives. We all need the extraordinary, the beautiful and the unexpected. Magic can occur through a magician s gestures, but what people don t realize is that our own gestures, ideas and desires can also come from magic; we can conjure up wonderful moments or situations which make us happy or unhappy. Performance magic requires regular training, concentration, courage and reserves of patience. This is true of all of life s achievements. Benoit CAMPANA has brought together determination, aspiration and courage in a discipline that he admires with the intention of giving this aspiration to others. He is the practicing example that wanting is succeeding. Over and above any obstacles, limits or blocks that he may have encountered in his life, he has become a dexterous and elegant expert in surrealism, mentalism as well as a specialist communicator acting with respect for others. Training, discipline and surpassing oneself depend on two essential elements: believing in what you do and being passionate about it. The self-image that we acquire all through our childhood can have heavy consequences in our lives. This image isn t transformed by an intellectual representation but by general activity which calls on emotion. To achieve this, it is necessary to disconnect from judgments, rationalism or all desire for good opinion. To become dexterous with his hands was a daring challenge and Benoit achieved it through concentration, hard work, unremitting determination and the belief that it was possible. Wanting to link this to humanism, compassion and the development of others was the real test. 7
This unpretentious book conveys the idea that there is an essential dimension to our acts, which is not simply doing things for their own sake in order to satisfy some pleasurable personal objective, but also considering each and every individual as important and giving back to the hearts of people of all types and ages, the values that they are searching for such as sharing, friendship, joy and an awareness of their own worth all this in the brief moment of a magic show. Benoit not only gives us techniques, but also a sense of letting go, a brief moment when the notion of time disappears, when true magic passes between magician and spectator, when barriers crumble leaving us carefree and giving us pleasure and a sense of sharing. A temporary harmony that makes us feel good. Michelle-J NOEL Qualified teacher of NPL (International NLP Trainers Association). Director of CFRCE. 8
FOREWORD If magic requires rigorous, repeated, regular and unrelenting training in order to achieve excellence, then NLP linguistic magic requires exactly the same qualities. We could remain happy doing our double lift, the force or other turns, but over and above our action, there is a subtle dimension: prestige. We find the same thing in music, whatever the instrument. We can content ourselves with playing pieces by heart, but success belongs to those who go further in exploring emotion or feeling, that extra something which makes all the difference. Of course, before anything else, you have to want it. I m now going to tell you a story. A young fifteen-year-old boy won first prize for Saxophone at the Conservatory of Toulouse, and so already played very well and had acquired a certain technique since beginning the instrument at eight years old. His parents moved house and he had to change conservatories, enrolling in one in Paris. It was here that he met a new teacher who was a soloist in the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. The teacher agreed that the young man produced a fine sound and played very well, but that he had one fault: he didn t place his mouth in the correct way necessary to produce a pure sound which would allow the spirit of the work to become revealed. When the young man went home, he was completely demoralized and it seemed that he didn t know how to play anymore, and that never would he be able to change his technique which had become fixed after so many years. His mother then told him her story. She said that she used to play table tennis very well in her youth and played in matches 9
regularly with friends. On a rainy day in the holidays she had nothing to do so she decided to take table tennis lessons; here she learnt that she should tense her arm for the forehand and change her posture for the backhand. Everything she was doing was wrong; in short, she didn t know how to play anymore. At first she was shattered and totally blocked, but then she asked herself, do I want to become an international professional table tennis player, or do I want to continue playing as an amateur with friends for fun? The answer was clear: stay an amateur and play for fun. So she stopped taking lessons and resumed her own technique. Thus she told her son, life is made of choices. You can either keep on playing as a good amateur as you did before and get great pleasure from it without reaching the top, or you can practice and put everything you have into it with the goal of thrilling the audience when you interpret a piece. But you don t have to. There are thousands of people who make do with very little and are happy all the same. The young boy decided to thrill his audience and so practiced for hours to become a virtuoso. He found that habits can be forgotten or corrected and so he attained the 1 st prize of the Conservatory of Paris. That young man is Benoit CAMPANA. For him then, pushing his limits was not unknown and he experienced the same process with magic. He could have been satisfied with the dexterity of his hands, but he decided to bring that extra something to his audience: personal enhancement, attention, recognition and aspiration. For him, this is called prestige. Happy reading, Michelle-J NOEL 10
CONTENTS ABOUT NLP I WHAT IS NLP? 1 Presentation 2 What does NLP mean? 3 Communication ------------------------------------------------------------------- NLP AND MAGIC I THE ALLIANCE OF NLP AND MAGIC 1 Approaching a spectator II CREATING THE RAPPORT 1 Observing, calibrating and synchronizing 2 Eye Accessing Cues 3 Details of synchronization III REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS AND SPECTATORS 1 The VAKOG 2 Words outside the realm of consciousness 3 Using NLP with a mentalist effect 4 Presuppositions of NLP in the service of magic 5 Having an objective, an intention 6 Recapitulative of the basics of efficient communication IV HYPNOTIC COMMUNICATION IN A ROUTINE 1 Truisms 2 Presuppositions 3 Compound suggestions 4 Seeding V INTEGRATING TECHNIQUES IN YOUR TURNS 1 The pack that changes color 2 Hypnosis VI CONCLUSION VII THANKS 11
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ABOUT NLP 13
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1 Presentation WHAT IS NLP? Born in the 70s of a mathematician, Richard BANDLER and a linguistics professor, John GRINDER, Neuro- Linguistic Programming is a collection of concrete and efficient tools for communication and change. Practiced all over the world, NLP is a discipline which was developed to answer the following question: How do certain individuals achieve exceptional, quick and long-lasting results? To answer this, John GRINDER and Richard BANDLER closely observed great communicators in judicial, therapeutic, business and educational fields. At first, the aim of the collaboration between these two creators was to decode and model the work of FRITZ PERLS, the father of GESTALT therapy. This was called the meta model / excellence model. Then, other therapists of the time became interested in the idea: Virginia SATIR: the mother of family therapy Eric BERNE: Transactional Analysis Milton ERIKSON: Eriksonian Hypnosis John and Richard were influenced by the great thinkers of their time from the PALO ALTO school and drew their sources from: Paul WATZLAWICK: one of the pioneers and founding members of the Palo Alto school (theoretician in communication theory) Alfred KORZYBSKI: founder of general semantics and the origin of the 1 st principle of NLP: the map is not the territory Noam CHOMSKY: Transformational Grammar John LILLY: author of flotation tanks Allan WATTS: Hindu Wisdom Gregory BATESON: Anthropologist And many others. 15
2 What does Neuro-Linguistic Programming mean? Neuro We can control our emotions and choose the most appropriate feeling (also called internal state ) at any given moment in the same way that we can neutralize troublesome or painful emotions. Linguistic This involves understanding others and making ourselves understood without need for interpretation. It means communicating efficiently with those around us, negotiating, conveying difficult messages gracefully, as well as having a different opinion from, or saying no to our personal or professional circle in a flexible and acceptable way. Programming From what we have experienced since childhood, we develop very precise internal functioning programs or we bring into practice the mental patterns of our parents or grandparents. These unconscious programs become automatic. We can program our brains, define objectives, attain our goals or modify inappropriate mental maps. NPL gives us a very logical way of thinking which enables us to implement strategies to attain our goals or solve our problems. 3 Communication More than just a means of communication, NLP is a subtle art. It is a body of coherent tools intended, for the most part, to perfect our communication. What does communicating better mean? Understanding others, making ourselves understood, negotiating, convincing gracefully and honestly are just some of the techniques that NLP can bring. 16
It is also a state of mind, a life philosophy. When I began NLP at the age of 15, my first lesson was to learn not to judge, not to interpret and not to infer. I found this to be very difficult but I practiced assiduously and I am still practicing today. This first lesson involves remaining neutral in all situations, being a very attentive listener, tuning in to the person you are talking to without comparing their story with yours. (This isn t easy as the brain always makes connections.) This implies the understanding that everyone has their own truth and that ours is not truer than our neighbor s. What does understanding others mean? This phrase, already for me at the age of 15, was a philosophical concept that I believed in, like everyone else. Let s say that I wanted to. In NLP, we distinguish between two ideas: deep structure and surface structure. In communication, there is what we call surface structure and deep structure. Let us start with the second notion, the basis of our reflection, which brings about the desire to speak, to explain, to be understood and which, in turn, becomes the surface structure. a) What is deep structure? Deep structure is what has been lived through or experienced, everything that we see, or have seen, heard, felt, smelt and tasted since we were born. We experience events with our education, our beliefs, our own judgments and all this through our five senses which we call VAKOG. V: Visual You are visual external. You can see the pages of this book, the lamp you are reading by, your hands, etc You are also visual internal. With your interior camera you can imagine a scenario that you would like to take part in, or you can remember the color of your first girlfriend or boyfriend s eyes, etc 17
A: Auditory You are auditory external. You can hear the sound of your footsteps, the rustling of the pages as you turn them, etc You are also auditory internal. You can hear in your mind your favorite song, the applause at your last successful performance, etc K: Kinesthetic You are kinesthetic external. You can feel the texture of the book s page, a sharp pain if you trap your finger in the door, cold, heat, someone s caresses, etc You are also kinesthetic internal. You can feel all the emotions of your first kiss or the pleasure and joy of the holidays when you were at the beach or the swimming pool that summer, etc O: Olfactory You are olfactory external. (Smells). When you put your hands in bleach, the smell stings your nose. You choose perfume or smell your cake cooking in the oven. You are also olfactory internal. Imagine that you are holding a rose in your hand. Slowly move closer and breathe in the smell of the imaginary rose. Perfumers dream up perfumes and many good cooks smell food. My grandfather, who was a very good cook, never tasted his dishes; he used to say, I can smell when there s enough seasoning and it was perfect. G: Gustatory You are gustatory external. You can taste an Indian dish that you like or the taste of the food that you eat reaches you, etc You are also gustatory internal. You can imagine what a chocolate pizza or coffee with salt would taste like and it is often imagining the taste of an ice-cream or a cake which makes those with a sweet tooth want to eat them. b) What is surface structure? Surface structure is the conscious expression of deep structure. It includes words, spoken sentences and behavior too. This means that when someone speaks, the words that they use are a means of expressing past experience (deep structure) in terms of what has been seen, heard or felt, but intentionally. 18
I like to give the following example. Imagine two babies: baby A and baby B. A is born. His diapers are never changed and he smells. His food is too hot and his mother never cuddles or kisses him. There is a lot of noise and he hears quarrelling, shouting and his father yelling. One day, the baby will say his first word: Mama. Now let s take baby B. B is born into a peaceful family. His food is always at the right temperature and it is delicious. His mother talks to him softly, kisses and cuddles him and always leaves on the nightlight so he can go to sleep without being afraid. His diapers are changed regularly and he smells of baby powder/cream/hygiene products. One day, this baby will say his first word: Mama. Both babies say Mama but the deep structure of this word is not the same for A and B. This is just for one word. Imagine a whole conversation made up of hundreds of words, ideas and beliefs. Understanding other people means being interested in, looking for, detecting their deep structures and making sense of them. In NLP, we don t stop at the language we hear. We take interest in a person by showing concern, by finding out the real meaning of what they are saying, as well as their intention. This is no longer a philosophical concept but a concrete reality which must be integrated in order to continue in this direction. As a result, you will no longer argue with a friend, stranger or even a spectator by attributing intentions to them that they do not have. The advantage of taking time to understand the people around us is that each individual obviously interprets his or her own experience in terms of his or her filters and beliefs. What is a belief? It is an idea that we have of the world, or ourselves, which we have generalized as a result of our experience. We realize, therefore, that very negative beliefs, based on errors of interpretation or judgment, can block or destroy relationships or lives. It is here that we can change restrictive beliefs, making them more positive or more relevant to the life we wish to lead. 19
How can you change someone s beliefs? This is an ethical question that we must address. If someone s beliefs lead him or her to success or to good relations with others, even if I believe differently, I don t say anything as it would be completely useless or even manipulative. In fact, our own beliefs are no truer than the person s in front of us. The technique for changing beliefs was initially intended for, and used in, a purely ethical and constructive framework. Unfortunately, many people took advantage of it to get rich or to gain power over other people. So NLP could be considered as manipulation, but it all depends on how it is used and also how it is taught. At the outset, it is a neutral tool intended to help and respect others. I recently met a salesman who showed me his highly elaborate sales technique which incited people to buy, sometimes against their will. Of course it included techniques common to NLP, but it is not NLP. In any case, not the NLP that I was taught. In this book you will learn nothing that will give you power over one, or several, spectators; nothing that will make other people think that you are a genius. What I am teaching here is how to enhance the spectator s self-esteem, how to give him strong emotion appropriate to the magical effect that you want him to experience, how to leave him with an unforgettable experience, how to talk to him and which words to use so that the effect that you are going to produce will be an extraordinary adventure. You will surely go through some soul-searching. Indeed, you will realize that you often used to do magic for yourself, but you should not look to the past and judge yourself; nor should you feel any resentment. There is a premise in NLP which is, people make the best choice based on their available information. You have made the best choice; you have worked with your tools and your knowledge. Today, I am offering a new approach to magic and listening to the spectator. The spectator is the intention. Your first lesson, as it was mine, (and I suggest you practice this exercise every day) is to be a subtle observer who takes in information without interpretation, judgment or presupposition. 20
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