I have thought long and hard about how I might describe the benefits of the modeling training. I am not so much looking for a description that is simply designed to sell the training, but rather a description that will enable you to understand the long term utility that this training will provide. It happens to be my personal favorite. But that is only because I enjoy learning new things, and do not like wasting time in the process. There have been many things that I set out to learn, only later to realize that what I was learning wasn't as useful to me as I thought it would be. With these skills I can learn as much as I want about a subject, or skill set, and if I decide that it isn't for me, then I have not wasted too much time in the process.

Now in the past, when offering a description of the benefits of this training, I would simply offer information about some of the learnings I have experienced, and the time it took me to experience them. But, the majority response to those offerings was that it couldn't be done. Or that I was making BIG claims. Yet, for me, what I have offered were simply my experiences. Just because they are different by the very nature that I was able to learn these things so quickly, doesn't mean that what I have offered isn't true. For me it has been. I will admit at times during the course of my life it has been frustrating listening to others tell me that what I AM DOING can't be done, but as time moves on, it become less and less of a frustration. The entire point of this training is to share a set of very specific skill sets, and a presuppositional base that goes with those skills. Then to finish off by building in methods that allow others to use what they have learned.

There are other reasons for developing accelerated learning patterns. Part of how I see it has to do with the rate at which we are changing as a species right now. With the advent of the Internet, information is moving to the end user more quickly than ever before. Years back, someone would write a book, and it would take TEN years for the information in that book to be disseminated through the hierarchy of people who choose what is going to be taught in our educational system. But back then, ten years was an acceptable amount of time, because things just didn't change that much, or that quickly. I guess if I looked for an example, my mind would go to what people call soap operas. I used to know a number of people who would watch these things. And sometimes they would skip a week, or two, turn on the show, and because of the way these shows were structured, not too much had changed. They could miss a week, and not miss anything at all.

But for us, those days are gone. The world we live in has become more competitive than ever. And, it's within that competitive loop that people are spewing new information, and new technology. And with the Internet, that ten years has turned into, well, now! By the time we become privy to any NEW information we can now assume that it is already old. Information is coming at us so quickly, that we need to change the operational metaphors we are using when thinking about making that information a part of our ongoing reality. We can not afford to classify information in a way similar to how we did when new information had a longer shelf life. There needs to be a new set of patterns that allows us to code new information to reflect it's short term nature so that we can have access to it, but still remain completely open as we continue gathering newer information. Perhaps it's time to also re-code how we think from I KNOW THIS, to I CAN USE THIS. This way, rather than getting stuck inside of a loop which only leads toward holding on to what is quickly becoming old, one can adjust based only on how useful that information remains. This would go along way in reducing much of the unhealthy stress being levied against the body as a result of a system which is either outdated, or one that no longer serves us as best as it can. Further usefulness will be discovered through adapting a new set of operational metaphors, which are as flexible as the landscape in which they are intended to function. All of which are part of this training experience.

Recently, I had the good fortune of presenting several trainings in Australia. In that country they are taught to drive on the opposite side of the car, and road. This may not seem like that big of a deal. But it is not just about the steering wheel, gearshift, and all of the controls being reversed, but so too are the directions on which you drive the car on the roads. Now, after so many years of driving on the side which is customary here in the United States, there needed to be an adjustment so that I could SAFELY drive in this new system. At first, I decided to make this adjustment in a manner which was similar to one which mirrors how the majority of people are taught to learn in general. But after trying it on, I knew that it would require a great deal of my conscious attention.

Now, on the first day of one of the trainings I asked the group, "How should I go about learning how to drive in this new system?" The overwhelming response indicated that I do it step by step. These responses also took into consideration a rather specific amount of time until proficiency could be met. To be more specific, I was told that it would take at least a week before I could expect to become comfortably competent in this new system. That by the time I did build this new driving map, it would almost be time to go home. Even though that was a majority group hallucination, I decided not to continue participating in that metaphor, but to instead discover what I could develop that would allow me to significantly speed up that process. I didn't have to do this in a vacuum though, as I had many examples to cull from considering the number of people in that room who have already developed the skill I was after. Had that not been the case, I would have had to build from scratch. But even when building something new, from scratch, there is much that can be culled from either previous experience, or from the experiences of other. The idea here, the presupposition I am operating out of, tells me that learning quickly is more efficient than having to do it slowly. Considering the number of things I have to learn on a daily basis just to keep up with the rapid rate we are developing as a species, if I had to do it the OLD way, the idea of ever getting ahead could hardly be realized. I do not want to be one step behind. Instead, I want to be several steps ahead. Perhaps even to the point of being involved in developing new technology myself, as is the case in my trainings.

Now, there was this man who used to do the talk show circuit to display his highly developed, and then, entertaining ability to say what you were going to say in a conversation with him, before you actually said it. It was a bit funny to watch this guy as he would pay attention to aspects of your nonverbal output, only to perceive accurately what you were going to say next. He was always at least two steps ahead of the person with whom he was communicating. He would sit there having a conversation with the talk show host, and as the host would begin a sentence, this guy would quickly say what the host was going to say. He did this very quickly, and was also able to do it fluidly. For me, it wasn't so much that this guy was doing some kind of trick. What I saw instead was a specific skill set. Here he was is such a high state of awareness, being totally focused on this other person, that he was able to detect what this other person was going to say before it was said. And he was doing it with amazing accuracy, and at a rate of speed which had to mean that he had developed an ability to either slow time down for the other person, or speed time up for himself. In either case, he was demonstrating to me that subjectively, the experience of time was not a constant. That we could actually speed it up, or slow it down. The same is true when in baseball the batter has his hitting eye on. If he can see the ball then he will have a good time at bat. Tell me, how does one see a ball moving at 100 miles per hour? And how can I use this notion of time manipulation in the context of learning? If the average response to my asking how long it would take to learn how to drive in a right hand system was about a week, how could I do that in say, an hour? Thirty minutes? Even five minutes? If time could be manipulated subjectively, then how could I drive for a week while only taking five minutes?

Most of the time, I will say 9 out of 10, the responses I get from people about learning have to do with time. It's like the majority of the people in this world have been convinced that it takes a great deal of time to reach a certain level of proficiency with a certain set of skills. It makes no difference whether this is true or not. But because it is believed, then people will tend to prove it out. When I look back at my childhood, I can see how I never managed to build any personal beliefs about learning being difficult. In fact, when I think about it now, I don't think I built any beliefs about learning, or having to learn. I was only six, almost seven, years of age when I wound up homeless. My perception was very simple. If you want to do something you don't already to, then you just do it. I realize there is more to it than that, but I never had to concern myself with any of the process involved. I just lived in a reality in which if I wanted to do it, I just did it. It wasn't until years later, when I began reading books on psychology in general, did I realize that people actually held belief systems about what could and couldn't be learned, who could and could not learn it, and how long it would take to learn something. When I became interested in learning something at this point, I simply found someone who could already do it exceedingly well, and asked, "How do you do it?" I didn't give it much though beyond that. If part of the process for learning that thing required that I read, then I would read as many books as I could find on the subject. Then I would talk to as many people as I could who were skilled or knowledgeable in that area. Then I would try it all on. But, it would only take me a SHORT period of time to reach a similar level of competency as the people I was modeling. Even at that point I didn't think much about how quickly I was doing it. It was JUST the way I had learned how to learn. When I took my first job as a field engineer, the people hiring me kind of felt sorry for me. Here I was telling them how much I knew and could do, but because they had a different MODEL for what it meant to have learned something to the point of competency, they just figured I would fall on my face, as I did not fit their model. I did not have ANY background in the field. And, it was in large part due to my ability to be persuasive, did I even get the opportunity. About a week later, they were calling me into the office asking me why I lied about my past. In their minds I just HAD to have had a great deal of prior experience to be functioning at the level at which I was functioning. But let me make this perfectly clear. To me, what I was doing was not at all exceptional. It was JUST the way I had learned how to learn. It was not something that I ever thought about, saying to myself "Look how fast I can learn this", because to me it was no different than tying my shoelaces. Just something I could do. And, as time moved forward, I began to wonder why so many others argued with me when I told them how simple learning really is when you know how. It really surprised me that others could not do what I could do. That is what led me into making this field my life. I figured I had something I could offer to others, something which would change the way they operated in life forever. And here it is some twenty-four years after I took that job as a field engineer, and I still have trouble believing that so many people have actually figured out the world. I mean they have closed the book. This is it, and that is all there is to it. Me, I can't even go through one training without coming out a changed man on the other side.

You see, when I became interested in electronics, I discovered that there were different models for training technicians. There was the model which trained the technician to trouble shoot to a particular BOX in the overall system which contained many different boards. This model supported only the replacement of the BOX, and the technicians in this model were not taught to think past that actual BOX. Then there was the model in which the technician was taught to trouble shoot past the BOX and down into the board level. This model trained the technician to not only detect what BOX contained the problem but also which board in that box needed to be changed. Then there was the model which trained the technician to trouble shoot, not only what BOX and what board, but to also be able to detect what individual component needed to be replaced at the board level, which was in the BOX, which made up one of the modules of a system. Then finally, there was the model that trained the technician as an engineer. This model taught the technician how to do all of the above, but also added in how to take it even further into each specific component. This way, when there was a particular malfunction that occurred consistently, this technician could function as an engineer. Thus, being able to redesign-- either what specific component was used, or to recalculate the parameters of a set of associated components which made up a particular circuit on that part of the board, which went into the box, which when then went into the whole system. I opted to learn how to be an engineer.

When most people think about learning, they do not take the PROCESS of learning apart to include all of the specific sub processes, and how they work. The word learning is just that, a word. Just because a person has had the experience of learning things in one way, doesn't mean that how they have learned, is the only way of learning. But, in order to learn how to learn with absolute efficiency, it is most useful to discover how learning occurs. What happens in the brain? What happens in the body? The HOW of how you have learned in the past merely depicts a particular process, or set of process that you have used. And it does not necessary reflect the true meaning of anything. If you can learn HOW the brain and body learns, then you can DESIGN new, faster, more efficient ways of activating the underlying process of how the brain and body learns. Learning is not a function of an amount of time. That part goes to the level of strategies (how), and presuppositions (about) learning. The modeling training is designed to teach you how to re-design the HOW, and to give you a different set of presuppositions ABOUT learning.

So here I am in Australia, and I am about to teach myself how to drive in a right hand system. The consensus it that it will take me a week to develop these patterns to the point of unconscious competence. So, I ask someone who has already reached a sufficient level of competency in this task to come up to the front of the room. I then ask, "Can you drive?" Followed quickly by, "How do you do it? Can you do it NOW?"

Now, I have already tuned myself up. I am using a state similar to the one that guy used when he was demonstrating that he could say what you were about to say before you said it, and I am paying attention to the other then verbal communication coming back to me from this person who I am now asking-How do you do it? Can you do it now? You see, a long time ago juggling was considered as a magical act. The majority of human beings had yet to develop the requisite ability for tracking the movements the juggler's hands made while juggling the balls. Thus, they chunked up, and called it magic. But, just because they had yet to develop the skill, didn't even begin to mean that the juggler wasn't using his hands and arms to actually throw and catch those balls. When I first read some of the works of Milton Erickson M.D. of Phoenix Arizona, I couldn't yet see some of the things in people to which he was referring. At first I thought it was all a metaphor. That people could not see such light changes in the color of one's skin, the slightest and most subtle minimal muscle movements which can occur when you ask a person which musical instrument they played. But as time moved on, and I continued to develop a greater degree of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic acuity, I began noticing there was so much more being offered in any communication than I had ever thought possible. Again, it's not magic, it's just there is so much more to our ability to accurately perceive, if only we take the time to develop it. And when in the process of modeling, these acute skills become a big part of the process in uncovering the differences between what a person says they do, and what they actually do. Let me continue with this example. . . .

What follows next is a quick set of responses---

Now, because I have trained myself to slow the perception of time down for the other person, or to speed it up for myself, I can track very subtle information. When I asked this person, "How do you do it, and can you do it now?" In answering, they have to go through their strategy for switching to their driving state. They show me with their nonverbal movements, including eye accessing cues EXACTLY where they keep each representation for there car driving strategy. Then, this person responds to the NOW part of my speech, and they quickly associate into the experience of driving and also offer me a physiological state that goes with the other pieces. I follow them into this state. I now have all of the parts, but few of the details. But I do not have much of it consciously yet. But my outcome is not in talking about it, but rather in developing first the ability to drive a car in this system as if it were normal to me. (What I do next requires that I can trust the information I received even though it has not yet become conscious. When learning how to catch a ball, I first watch another person catch a ball. Then I just do the same thing they did. It is a simple example, but still, if you actually think of all that is involved in the act of catching a ball, then you can realize how complex a physical process this really is. You have to get your eye coordinated with your hand. Then, you have to have all of the muscles in your shoulders, arms, chest, back, and your whole body coordinated with your eye. Then you have to make it all work together perfectly, right down to the exact timing of when you actually close your hand. Yet, no mater how you may try, you could never fully understand this process consciously. Sure, we can make descriptions for it, but none the less, it will always be something that is relegated to other than conscious processes when performing the activity, with the conscious parts focused on the intent, catching the ball. But, it is only when all of the conscious and other than conscious parts come together, do you have a situation in which you no longer have to think about it. You just catch the ball.)

Next, I take the information I was offered, and I change its MEANING to fit for me. I take my own strategies for driving and place them on the side. I then connect this NEW strategy to the appropriate place in my decision strategy for when I have decided that I am going to drive a car. We go to lunch, and I try it on. As I am driving I notice that I feel comfortable with everything turned backwards. Turns are easy and normal. I find myself automatically looking in the directions in which I am supposed to be looking. But, there is this one problem. I feel like I want to be sitting on the other side of the car still. So, after lunch I ask for a bit more detail about how they experience themselves inside the car. I had accurately modeled how they experience the world of driving from first person looking out of the windows of the car. What that person experiences as they are driving and with regards to the outside world. Now I NEED the other pieces. But I stop, and for the sake of doing it differently, I decide to finish this up using the notion of time.

Gee, I wonder how long will it take me if I just do it the old fashion way of leaving it to chance. This way, sooner or later I will get it down so that I feel comfortable and competent actually siting in the car. And then I decided to use the time of one week. I alter my own consciousness, and I build in a movie of driving the car around town. Then, I speed things up, and live that in fast time so that a week goes by in a few minutes. I then forget about it, and go on to the next subject being taught. Later that day I get in the car without thinking about getting in the car. I drive many places as I get out to see Fremantle, and downtown Perth.

The next day I am asked, "Well how did it go?" I answer "How did what go?"

"You know, driving the car?"

Me: "No I do not know, What do you mean?"

I had forgotten about having set out to learn it. It was just that I had, and that was that. I didn't need to put any more time into it. It would now take care of itself. If you are going to learn something which is purely academic, then you may need to practice what you are learning. But, when you learn an activity, practice is simply going to be built in to that learning just by engaging in that activity. If you are training for a quiz show, then deliberate practice may be a necessary part of that. But if you are going to learn how to drive, to communicate more effectively, to paint a house-any activity--then the practice part becomes synonymous with the actual activity. And if you build recursion into the loop, then you will automatically improve on the skills used as a part of that activity.

I could have achieved this result in many different ways. And since I have chunked, or modeled how the brain and body learn, my system of thinking does not confuse the HOW or process of how we learn, and the methods people use to get there. This training is designed to teach you, amongst other things, the difference between the map and the territory of learning, and the ability to map any model of learning down to the component level, and a step beyond. It is designed to teach you how to deliberately speed up your own ability to learn, and your own ability to model what others can do quickly. This way you can do those things as well. Sure, if you set out to model someone who can fly an airplane really well, it could be true that it took this person a long time to learn that activity. But, with the skills offered in this training, you will be able to chunk down to the specific parts of how this person is now able to do that activity. Then, you will be able to quickly sort for an order of importance, eliminating any unnecessary steps or pieces, thus allowing yourself to master that same activity in a fraction of the time it took this person to learn it in the first place.

Consider this. . . .

If you take something from NLP which is as simple as a well formed spelling strategy. Now, it's not that an NLP practitioner created this spelling strategy, but rather that it was modeled from a person who was using it. But, the person from whom it was modeled never set out to build in this particular strategy in any specific and deliberate way. That person was just learning how to spell. Perhaps there was a great deal of practice and much trial and effort before this person stumbled onto this very useful, but unconscious spelling strategy. Now, here comes this other person who also wants to learn how to spell very well. But now, with our assistance, this person doesn't have to take many similar steps. This person can avoid all of the trial and error. This person can now either install in himself, or have us help him, the strategy this other person happened on after much time and frustration. That means, we can take someone who has the greatest difficulty spelling words accurately, and in only minutes, teach that person how to spell. We can do this because of what I call Modeling Skills. And, when you are looking at learning how to do something which is far more complicated than just spelling, I want you to realize that it too is made up of much smaller pieces that also can be modeled as separate parts of an overall methodology. What you will learn in this training will teach you how to do that with precision. You then wind up being able to eliminate much of the noise, or many of the unnecessary parts to what you want to learn how to do. We will approach learning from the point of how we can do it quickly, accurately, and efficiently. This way it's no longer about keeping up. It moves you then to being able to stay many steps ahead. I believe that the future simply doesn't unfold. We all have the choice of either riding on the back of the bus, which may be fun at times, or taking the wheel and steering that bus in the direction we choose. In this training I offer you this simple challenge. You can continue doing it the way you have been doing it, which I believe is perfectly OK, or you can begin testing the limits others have set for us. In my eyes, there it's not that there are things we can not learn how to do, but there are things we haven't even thought of doing yet. Perhaps when we have tuned ourselves to the point in which we can learn wantonly, we will begin discovering new things which are truly worth learning. Things that will change the world around us, making our experiences of life like that of a curious child who is willing to imagine the impossible. It's not that it's not possible, it's simply that we are too busy keeping up, that we don't seem to have the time to discover the new, the different, and the exceptional. I am using this technology daily to quickly learn whatever I want. Now, I want to live in a world filled with others doing the same. People who are willing to discover just how much they have to offer. Just how much they can contribute to themselves, to their families, and in their work place. I realized a long time ago that Star Trek the Next Generation was about entertainment. Perhaps I am stuck here on this planet for a while after all, when I truly want to reach for the stars. . . . . .Come, learn, and let's reach together! You will have no trouble finding people who can tell you what can't be done. Join me, and I will SHOW you much of what CAN be done, while as a group we discover more.. We are young as a species, and have yet to begin our own trek of discovery. Many of the "limits" aren't really there. And if we continue looking at what we can not do, then when will we ever discover what we can? I know, if it seems to be too good to be true, it can't be true? Always? Come, join me, and if after the fist day you find this is not for you, then we can shake hands, part ways, and can at least say we are testing the water.

Stay well

Carmine