META-STATES LAUNCHING FROM THE BIRTH PLACE OF NLP

While the Meta-States Model was birthed in 1994 and recognized in the field of NLP in 1995 by the International Association of NLP Trainers as “the most significant model developed in 1995 for NLP,” during the entire 20th century, I had never presented the Meta-States Training in Santa Cruz. Now I did present a couple of the patterns in Santa Cruz at Millennial Project (2000). I presented the Meta-Yes Belief Change pattern and Mind-to-Muscle pattern—so that was a small bit of the APG training. But now, here in the 21st century, finally the Meta-States Model has been presented in Santa Cruz!

For that to happen, it took two guys with the vision and commitment— Damon Cart and Logan Christopher with NLP Gym. What’s amazing is that NLP Gym is today the only full-time NLP Training that’s going on in Santa Cruz. As Damon said, “I thought there would be an NLP Trainer Center on every corner in Santa Cruz.” But no. For years, only NLPU has been there, which is a summer (July and August) training. For that Robert Dilts returns each year in the summer and has presented NLP Prac. and Master Prac. trainings. So the only year round NLP Training going on there is what Damon and Logan have been presenting.

For me it was very special to train AGP in Santa Cruz. This is where NLP started in 1972 and officially became NLP in 1975. So returning to the NLP birthplace made the experience seem especially special. Additionally, because NLP has been so damaged in the United States, it was important to use this as to re-launch things and get it started right ... so having two men who share the sense of vision and abundance that I do made it all the more valuable.

One of the special things that happened was the video-recording by Tom Welch. I met Tom in 1997 and over the years he has video-recorded APG, NSTT, and many other trainings. And many years ago he created www.nlp-video.com to promote the videos. Yet one thing he had never videoed was the format of “APG in Stages.” But now he has. Tom and his son, Tom Welch Jr., who is the web-master for Neuro-Semantics, flew in from the east coast and recorded NLP In Stages. Eventually, they will make the training available on DVDs.

While we only had a small group of 30 people, we did have people from many states—mostly California and then one from West Virginia, Washington DC, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas. We also had one person from Canada and three from Costa Rica. We had several licensed Meta-Coaches and two Neuro-Semantic Trainers. So overall, had a great launch there in Santa Cruz and plans are to return to Santa Cruz each year to keep NLP and Neuro-Semantic NLP alive and well in the United States.