Friday 12 February 2010

The power of storytelling

Stories are our best way of learning.

Why?

Because your unconscious mind identifies with the main character and assumes 'he must be talking to me'.

That's why we use metaphors in hypnosis.

That's why children learn so quickly through song and the art of storytelling.

Like all renowned public speakers, Richard Bandler (the co creater of Neuro Linguistic Programming and one of the top hypnotists in the world) is a master storyteller. You think he's rambling and going off on a tangent but in fact he's drawing you further and further into the story and giving you embedded commands along the way.

The best comedians do the same thing. They will always come back to the punchline in the end.

For the initiated amongst us, this practice is called Nested Loops.

When I trained with Paul McKenna and Richard Bandler, they told us, "Don't take any notes. You're in this room for the next seven (and subsequently, nine) days with the three top hypnotists in the world. You WILL learn!"

And learn we did. For that period of time we were immersed in story telling - true stories, fairy tales, I once knew a man who....

So next time you want your child to learn something, try weaving it into a story.


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