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Who Am I (Connection) Stories
Igor: Welcome back, everyone. Did you have an interesting break? Did you share some stories about who you are? I think a starting point for us right now is to start to collect lots of stories. Everyone please stand up. Here’s how this is going to work. You’re going to do a regular mingling exercise like we’ve done before. This time as you meet someone, you’ll tell your story as quickly as you can. You’ll hear their story and it might remind you of some other who are you stories. Then you’ll move onto someone else.
By the time we come on and say change partners, move to someone else and tell a different story again about who you are, something that you like, something that you enjoy doing, something that is important to you. Just keep doing that as we change partners. Once we’ve done that for a little while, we’ll come back and see if we can tease out some useful versions of their stories.
Robin: To be clear, the ‘who I am’ story is the story that establishes human contact, that lets the other person know you’re a human being.
Igor:Which means you are a person that has motivation. You have things that you aspire to, things that you enjoy and things that your life is about. It can be small moments like watching your children sleep, it can be large moments like watching them being born, and it can be all kinds of things in between.
→ Do you have a rough idea of what I mean? It will get better as you talk to people, so you may as well start now.
→ How did that go?
→ Did you have fun with that?
→ Who had at least one story? It should be all of you.
→ Who had two stories?
→ Who had three?
That’s good. Still no gold winner but we’re getting close. What I want you to do is quickly review the two or three stories that you had, and I’d like you to pull out some little event within it, an icon, a person or something that will remind you of it. When you have it, just close your eyes, think of the room, start at the beginning and review the first story you told today. There’s the second story. If you had a third one, of course you go to the third location and there it is.
Then go onto whichever your fourth location was. Go to the next location and place the icon for the first of your stories just now, your first ‘who am I’ story. Just place like a cardboard cutout of it or just imagine a version of that touching on the object – whatever it is.
Then go onto the next location and do the same with the second icon, with your second story. Just see the icon and the location just touching it in some way, creating a shape. If you had a third story of course repeat it one more time to the next location and the final story.
When you’ve finished all that, you can go right back to the beginning again and just review all four or five stories or however many you had, so you can review them in a sequence. Just think about the icon and the location, and say oh yeah that’s the one. I remember that story. Oh yeah the story where this happened. Just quickly go through. Go through that routine three or four times just so that you can remember oh yeah that’s it, that’s it and you just recognize it. When you’re finished, open your eyes. Just do a quick mental review, and when you’re finished just open your eyes.
How many of you remember all of the stories you’ve been telling so far? It’s pretty easy when you place them in certain locations. It’s probably worth putting a few more stories in here, isn’t it? What shall I do for that?
Robin: Influence – that’s kind of what we’re working on here, the ways in which what we tell people about ourselves, the kind of picture that that gives people. Imagine the sales situation, which is probably the most focused example of influence and the situation in which we have the most distrust. Human connection is the first thing. People do business with other human beings and if you can demonstrate that, you’re halfway there.
Robin: The second thing people want to know is why are you here? What are you getting out of this? Can they trust you? What’s your motivation?
Igor: If they don’t know what you want, if they don’t know what your angle is, how can they possibly trust you, because they can’t predict how you’ll respond to whatever situation the two of you might get into?
Robin: Why are you here? What’s your motivation? Right now that’s our context. For example, for those of you who are hypnotherapists or hypnotists who see clients formally, how did you get into it? Why are you doing that? For many people it’s because they experienced the benefits of hypnosis in their own life and were motivated by that to help others. In a sales situation, you can be honest. You’re getting a commission on what you sell. Say you’re making a pitch for building a big retail park or something like that. You could be honest about your motivation. You can say look, I want to make as much money as possible in this situation.
If you say I want to make money, what’s the message you’re sending? I want to make money and I don’t care what happens to you. If you can demonstrate why you’re there and be honest about it, people don’t mind that you need stuff and that you want something for yourself. That is an accepted part of human nature and human transactions.
Igor: Provided it doesn’t clash with what they need.
Robin: Absolutely. Particularly if you can demonstrate to people why you’re here and how you can both win in the situation, that’s a very powerful thing.
Igor: For example, take two police officers. One is there because they want to serve and they genuinely want to keep the streets a safe place in the neighborhood. The other one is there because it’s a good job, they get a good pension at the end of it all and it’s a respectable job. You will interact with the two officers, who actually have the same role or function, differently would you not?
Robin: Take two trainers. One of them is there to genuinely serve and help other people. The other just wants to be on a pedestal and have everyone worship him.
Igor: The other one is humble enough to realize that someone must sit on the pedestal.
Robin: And to have observed that it’s clearly working for loads of people.
Igor: There you go, quite right. Do you understand the nature of the next ‘why am I here’ stories. Once again, please stand up and spend a minute each just telling stories about your purpose. To give you a context – because that’s going to make it a lot easier for you to find motivation because you’ll be motivated differently in different scenarios – you have a choice of two things. The first context, which I would recommend most, is think about some part of your life where you would like to have some influence over others, maybe as parents of children, maybe as a teacher teaching, maybe whatever your career is.
Of course if you’re a hypnotherapist, why are you a hypnotherapist? That’s really the simplest place to put yourself into and to tell a story about. The alternative, which will be more immediate but not as universal or as useful to you, is simply to think why are you here literally in this room taking this training? Those are two viable options. I prefer the first just because it fits your life more practically, but you have a choice. With that idea stand up, find a partner and off you go. Hopefully all of you had one story. Who had two stories? Three? Four?
Robin: Yes, a winner.
Igor: Four? That’s fantastic. Give him a round of applause. Congratulations. Very quickly review your two, three or four stories and just assign it an icon, something that happened within that story that will remind you of that particular story.
Once you have two, three or four icons for it, just close your eyes and begin with a mental review. Start with the first story that you told today. Look at the first location and say oh yeah I remember that. Then look at the second location, then the third, then the fourth. If you had more, of course you can go to the fifth and sixth as well if that was relevant to you. Whenever you get to the final location, the one just before the one that was empty, just take your first icon and go to the next location and place that one there.
Make sure it touches and alters the shape of the object so that it’s a carbon cutout or an image on top of it. Really think about it there. Then move onto the next location and put your second icon there.
By now you’ve collected anywhere between six and eight stories. If you have another story, then of course go to the next location and do that too. Some of you will have six stories. Some of you will have eight or nine stories, maybe even 10 stories, but just fill in the spaces.
When those spaces have been filled up with these icons, then just go back to the beginning again and just quickly mentally review them – first location, second, third, fourth. Just a flash of an image is enough. You don’t need to make sense of it yet. It just lets you know that oh yeah with that drawer comes that image, with that desk comes that image, with the knives comes another image and so on and so forth. Just go all the way through all the locations, and then repeat it again. Just do it two or three times just to lock that little journey inside your mind.
Whenever you’re ready just open your eyes again. Out of curiosity, how many here have at least six stories located there? That should hopefully be all of you. How many of you have seven? Eight? Nine? Okay eight it is.
Values In Action (Integrity) Stories
Igor: Let’s do some more filling, shall we? What should we usefully put into the next one?
Robin: We’ve made a human connection. We’ve addressed the issue of trust – why am I here? Those of you who follow my blog at robinmanuell.com will have already heard the Bee Story, the story about the bee. I’m strong and kind and I look after things that are weaker than me.
Igor: There, there. It’s okay.
Robin: If I tell you that straight out, you may or may not believe me. You may think I’m a little conceited, or you may have a reaction to such a blatant statement about my values and what’s important to me.
This summer has been a terrible summer in the U.K. It’s been really, really rainy and the bees are really confused and they keep turning up. Like early on in the summer this little bee came buzzing by and landed on the stairs. I saw this bee on the stairs. I was just walking up the stairs and I thought oh that’s a bit sad. I went into the kitchen and got a bit of cardboard. I ripped off a bit of cardboard from a cereal packet, dipped it in some water and soaked it, and then I dipped it in some honey. I took it out, picked up the bee on the bit of cardboard and put it on the windowsill. I just left it there and I watched it. If you check out the blog, you’ll see there’s a picture of the bee with its little tongue coming out.
They love it. He sits there and first he’s like buzzing, and then he starts to wake up. Have you seen a bee’s tongue? They’re huge. He sits there for ages sucking up the honey, sitting in the windowsill. After a bit, he’s like this. Windowsill, freedom. He zooms off into the distance and crashes straight into a wall on the opposite side. He picks himself up again and flies into freedom. It’s a funny story about a bee, but without saying anything I’ve just told you that I think it’s worth taking the effort to save a little bee. I’m demonstrating values in action.
The classic example of this in the sales context for example is hey listen, this car is alright and it’s great for the price, but I had another customer come in here the other day and she was looking at this, and I said to her for what you want you probably need a bigger boot size, so I suggest you go and get that car over there. (Why am I looking at you? Who knows?) I suggest you go and get that car over there from that dealer.
What have I just demonstrated? Integrity. I’ve demonstrated that I’m prepared to lose the sale to do the right thing for the customer. Do you understand values in action? I don’t have to do the bee thing again?
Igor: Just wait until you hear the monkey story. Do you get the idea of the values in action? Put yourself in a context where the stories will be of use to you. In other words, you’re interacting with someone specific. Imagine the people you’re meeting here are going to be those people, and then just present them with a story where you are living embodying whatever values you hold in that context.
Let’s put it this way. You can all think of a context where you want to be more influential. Is that correct? You can think of a specific context where you want to influence someone else – be it selling cars, be it influencing your kids, being a salesperson, a manager, a teacher, a trainer or hypnotherapist. You all have that, right?
People coming into that context – whether it’s your children, your students, your customers or clients – will have some kind of concern about whether or not you will be ethical. So, consider a story where you were ethical, where you did something that was important although not necessarily easy, or where it would be easier to not do it but you made the effort anyway, and then tell that story. Does that become easier now? Stand up, a minute each, find a partner, off you go.
Robin: That is quiet.
Igor: Yes, that’s nice. How did that go? It seemed like you had a lot more to say than you realized, didn’t it? Who had one story? Two? Three? Four? Fantastic. Once again, you know the drill. Review your three or four stories and see if you can find something within each story that is an icon that represents the whole story for you.
Whenever you’re ready, just close your eyes. Some of you have already started doing so. For those of you who are about to run out of locations, that’s okay. You can either choose a few extra things in the room that you hadn’t focused on before, or in a minute we’ll actually add an extension. For now just review whatever you did in the previous sessions. You’ve got about six to eight different stories there. Just review the locations, see the icon and say oh I remember. Two, oh yeah I remember. Three, oh yeah I remember, and then four and five.
Work your way through all the locations until you get to your first free location, at which point just insert your first icon from this last set of stories. You already know how. Once you get it set there, go to the next location and insert another icon.
If you run out of places, just find something else in that room that you’d not focused on before and add it on that. It could be something like the middle of the room, just the carpet in the middle of the room. You can place something there. You can put something on the ceiling if you need extra space. You won’t need that many extra slots.
Of course when you’ve put it there, if you have any stories left put one more in there, again on the next location. If you haven’t got a next location, just find something that’s easy to find, like the floor or the ceiling or a particular corner. Make sure that all the stories you told – whether it’s two, three or four – have somewhere in that room to go. Then do a fast mental review. Literally just look at each item in turn and recall the icon that comes with it – first location, second location, third location and all the way through to the end.
Do that two or three times and then come back with your eyes open. When you’ve reviewed them two or three times, come back with your eyes open. Just make sure that you recall all the stories you’ve been collecting today. They’ll be of use to you tomorrow.
As the last few people finish their mental review, put your hands up if you got between six and 10 stories collected so far. Hands up if you’ve got more than 10 stories collected so far. That’s impressive. That’s very good. Give yourselves a round of applause.
Would it be fair to say it’s easy to recall them all at the moment? These stories will continue to develop and you can use the same method to recall more stories. The point right now is that you get to have a stable amount of stories to begin with, and they will function as your seven key stories of influence, so you’ll have that at your beck and call, at your disposal whenever you want.
What I’d like to do now is help you to build that extension I promised you. It’s going to be exactly the same process you did a moment ago. Just treat it as a different room in your house.
You’ve chosen one room – bedroom, living room, kitchen or whichever it is. Mentally just choose another room. Then close your eyes, locate yourself there and then mentally just do an initial scouting. Just look around the room very quickly and just remember all the things that are there.
You don’t have to do it in any particular order. If you’re in the bedroom, it will be things like the bed, cupboards, desk, windows, curtains, carpet and stuff like that. In the kitchen, it will be a fridge, oven, sink, cabinets and stuff like that.
If you’re a minimalist and things aren’t really out on display that much, feel free to look inside the drawers. You might have your sock drawer. You may have your videotape drawer. You may have a drawer with other things in it. You can just open the drawers mentally and say oh yeah I remember the stuff that goes in this one.
Again, once you’ve got a mental review of what’s available to you, just choose a simple path. Start somewhere obvious. Choose a simple path and find at least 10 locations in that room, 10 distinct things that look different. Then trace that path – first one, then two, then three, all the way through to 10.
Just take a mental tour as if you were pointing it out to a friend. This is my sock drawer. This is my shirt drawer. This is my DVD drawer. Once you’ve found all 10 locations, repeat the same circuit two or three times just to make sure you clearly recall the path that you took. First you start in this place, then the second location and then the third and so on. Take all the time you need to review that inside your mind.
Whenever you’re ready, just open your eyes. There’s no hurry. Make sure you’ve reviewed it two or three times. We have about three-quarters of you back. The last few are just doing a quick mental review. It’s a simple process, is it not, to build your extensions? It’s a very simple process and it’s a really simple process to recall relatively large amounts of information because you have your first six to 10 stories or more and you can recall them very easily.
You can expand those stories and you can contract those stories. You’ve told them in short versions and longer versions. Tomorrow we’ll really play with that idea. For now you have an extension, a second room.
Some of you haven’t entirely filled the first room. That’s fine. You can finish doing that. Some of you need extra space. You need to have a mental living room, so let’s find some things to put in there. What would you put in the extension?
Robin: One of my friends and clients is a composer, a musician. She’s actually one of the top 10 biggest selling artists of the 1990’s in her genre, which is dance music. She has more than 350 published songs.
Igor: That’s a lot.
Robin: Yes, and something like 17 of those make 80% of her income, but she has to create a lot of stuff and she never knows which particular song is going to be successful, and when one song is successful she never knows why, but it’s a numbers game. She says she just keeps churning them out.
Teaching Tales
Robin: Which brings us onto our next category of teaching tales. That story was a teaching tale with an implicit unconscious teaching related to your current situation and why we’re getting you to tell all of these stories. You saw that. How many people got that? Thank you.
Igor: If you were to spell it out for them at the end of the story, the implicit or the unconscious part of the teaching tale becomes explicit or conscious, and there are times when that’s also useful.
Robin: Obviously Milton Erickson had lots of teaching tales, and you can read all about them. Zen Cohen and Sufi stories and Christian parables are all examples of kinds of teaching tales.
One of my favorites – simply because it illustrates this in a very simple way – is the tale of two monks who are traveling to get to their night hostile. It’s raining and they come to a river. Waiting by the side of the river is a beautiful maiden with a nice kimono on, and she doesn’t want to get the kimono wet.
So, one of the monks say here you go, love. He picks her up in his arms, wades through the river to the other side and puts her on the side of the bank. Then the two monks carry on the rest of their journey to the hostel.
The other monk is sulking a bit. He’s a bit irritated and just as they’re getting ready to go to bed, he bursts out to the first monk how could you do that? You know we’re not meant to associate with women. They encourage us in wicked ways.
The first monk says I left her behind at the river, but you still seem to be carrying her. There’s a clear sense there in which the metaphor of carrying something physically is also a metaphor for carrying something emotionally or mentally.
Igor: A man comes out of a bar and stumbles across his friend. His friend is a little worse for wear. He’s just crawling on his hands and knees around the lamp post, just desperately scrapping around. The man says hey George, what are you doing? What’s up? George is a little worse for wear having been in the bar a bit too long, and he says it’s terrible. I’ve lost my house door keys. I can’t get in the house. The man gets down on all fours to help his friend and they start scrapping around for 20 or 30 minutes. They’re looking everywhere. Eventually, in frustration he turns to his friend and says George, are you sure you dropped your keys here?
George says oh no, I dropped them in that dark alley over there, but there’s not enough light there to look.
For whom might these sorts of stories be useful? Clients? Have you ever tried to give someone advice and they won’t listen? Just let it go, man. Let it go.
Robin: One of the simplest ways of coming up with a teaching tale is to consider something that happened to you, a mistake you made or something that you had a struggle with and the experience you went through to solve or resolve that issue.
Igor: So, do you understand the idea of a teaching tale? It either presents the situation – and humor is kind of useful. You have two humorous examples of people being stuck in one way or another. It can be a personal example – yes, I went through that same experience essentially and I got bitten because I didn’t change, or I did change and therefore I managed to draw a victory. I think most cultures have stories that include the jester, the fool, the clown or something like that. They’re wonderful stories because they poke fun at society when society gets too rigid, and it makes fun of those things to show us that it’s good to have some rules, but sometimes it’s good to be able to go beyond them as well.
At this point, it’s useful for you again to think of a specific context. If you’re a salesperson, for example, and you come across the same kind of objection over and over again – I’ll give you a hint, the one that a lot of people always get frustrated by is that it costs too much – what story could you tell to teach the clients that it doesn’t cost too much? It might cost them too much to get something cheaper.
If you’re a hypnotherapist or a therapist, what kinds of stories can you tell that will help the problems that you will be facing? What are some of the things? I don’t know if I can do this? I don’t know if I’ve got it in me to change this way. Already I suspect you’re thinking of some things. If you’re a teacher or a parent and your kids aren’t doing so well in school, what kind of teaching tale will help them to persevere despite possible frustrations so that they can triumph? What is a specific context in which you want to influence? Think of a story within that. Once you start the storytelling, you’ll hear others, which you can borrow or adapt to fit your own circumstances and tell the next person in line. That’s one of the ways that stories grow. We hear them and either we share those stories or we adapt them to fit ourselves, and then share the spirit of the story in a different cloak.
Are you ready for the exercise? I guess the only thing left to do is to stand up. A minute each, off you go.
How did that go? Did you enjoy that? Too short? You start off saying I’ve got no stories to tell. Now it’s like stop interrupting me, I’m telling a story. By this stage, you’ve collected somewhere between 10 to 15 stories, which is pretty impressive, isn’t it?
Make sure that we have them at our beck and call, especially tomorrow when we start doing some refinement with these things in terms of how to use them in different ways.
Let’s get some icons. Just take a few minutes to think about three or so stories that you just told. Tease out an icon that will represent each one. This time rather than me guiding you through it, you know what to do.
Begin by reviewing all the other stories and the locations you’ve placed them in, and then carry on by placing one item at a time until you can go for a full mental review of everything, all 10 to 15 of them.
Make sure you review them three or four times so that you’re sure that they’re all set nice and simply. When you’ve done all of that, feel free to come back with your eyes open. Seeing as we have most of you back, you have five categories of stories and you know how to use them. Is that correct? You have a decent idea of where to use them or what their purpose is.
The next category is interesting. We could do it the same way we did a moment ago, which creates more stories, but actually we’d like to do something slightly differently. We’d like to show you how every story actually has multiple purposes and can be used in many different ways.
For the next category of stories, we’re not going to ask you to make up any new stories. You have quite a nice repertoire – 10 to 15 is a decent number. All we’re going to ask you to do is to reuse the stories that you already have in a way that will fit the constraints that we’re about to give you. What would those constraints be?
Robin: We have stories that introduce you and tell people who you are, why you’re here, that demonstrate your values in action, that provide metaphors and teaching tales that help people to reframe their experience.
Mind Reading (Empathy) Stories
Robin: I know that you’ve covered a lot of information since the beginning of today, so you’re probably tired and probably feeling a little bit overloaded. That’s okay because we’ll be finishing up soon and we’ll be giving you a chance to integrate properly and to get a chance to process everything that we’ve done today.
The last category of stories that we’re going to be talking about is mindreading stories, stories that let other people know you understand their situation, that you feel their pain, that you understand the difficulty of a particular context or situation or challenge that they face, that you’re able to put yourself in their shoes and understand how the world looks from their point of view.
Before you begin to tell a story, you may think there’s a mismatch. Something’s missing. Don’t worry about it. Just choose one of those stories that you’ve already come up with and start to tell it and see what happens. The way that we’d like you to do this is again in pairs. One of you is going to present a problem or situation.
Igor: It could be a child refusing to do homework. It could be a potential buyer objecting about the price. It could be real or imagined. It could be anything you want, just something that could be considered a communication problem or a block.
Robin: What we’d like you to do is simply respond by saying I know what you mean because [story], or I know how you feel because [story].
Igor: Use one of the stories you’ve already told today, one of the 10 to 15 that you’ve collected. All you’ll do is you’ll review your memory route and say for some reason that one appeals. Start telling it. Even if you don’t quite know why it fits, just notice what comes out. It’s a little ambiguous, I know, but you’ll enjoy it. Stand up and find a partner.
And you thought you didn’t have any stories in you. Now you’ve got a lot of stories. You’ve got 10 to 15 stories, and really the usefulness of those 10 to 15 stories is beyond just the five or six categories that we’ve talked about so far because that sixth category – mindreading – shows you how one story can serve many functions depending on what you emphasize and so on. You’ve had an experience of that, haven’t you?
There’s a seventh story, which we’ll come onto in a little bit, but before we do that I’d like for you to get an experience of just cementing in the stories you’ve got already.
Of course you’ve heard Robin tell stories about the accountant, the rock star, the little bee that could. You’ve heard him tell you about a cat, although you’re not quite sure what the cat story is all about yet because it’s not finished yet.
Notice these little titles that instantly summarize each of those stories and you can recollect them. I’d like you to sit next to a partner and over the next minute or so – no more than that – just rattle through all 10 or 15 stories you have in the same format.
I have a story about the accountant, the rock star. I have a story about the little bee that could. I have a story about the cat. I have a story about windmills. I have a story about the monk and the woman at the water.
They don’t need to understand your story. You do, but I want you to verbalize all the stories and just literally go through your rooms reciting them with a little headline for each one. Does that make sense to you?
You have one minute to go through all 10 or 15 stories, and then they’ll have one minute to go back, and then we’ll come back and do something. Off you go.
Did you enjoy that? Did you enjoy speaking about your 10 or 15 stories? Were you curious about everyone else’s stories? We’ll be doing more of that tomorrow.
Transformational Stories
Igor: For now there’s a seventh story that we haven’t covered yet. The seventh story in some ways touches a little bit on all of them, but actually goes beyond them all at the same time.
Robin: It’s a story that’s the kind of thing you find in dreams.
Igor: It’s the kind of thing that you will have experienced many times in your life often without realizing.
Robin: And myths and your personal heroic journey.
Igor: You’ll have been moved by it in other people’s experiences, their lives, and it has a lot to do with going inside.
Robin: And just taking the time…
Igor: To really appreciate…
Robin: You know what comes next…
Igor: That there are many ways to…
Robin: Make yourself feel comfortable now. Put your feet together on the floor…
Igor: And really everyone has the capacity…
Robin: To make yourself comfortable…
Igor: And focus inside…
Robin: Take a deep breath in…
Igor: And allow the mind to just drift, roll, float.
Robin: You’re aware of the room around you, even as your eyes are closed.
Igor: And there are many thoughts only you do not need to think them all.
Robin: Today has stirred up feelings.
Igor: It’s stirred up ideas.
Robin: Begun the process…
Igor: Experiences…
Robin: Of creating within you…
Igor: A real sense…
Robin: Of your own innate ability…
Igor: A purpose for being here…
Robin: To simply create.
Igor: And there’s a feeling that goes with that.
Robin: A feeling that brought you here.
Igor: It’s much like…
Robin: The feeling that will take you forward…
Igor: The way you fall asleep at night.
Robin: That’s right.
Igor: And the thoughts of the day just lazily drift around.
Robin: I don’t know if you remember the last thing you remember just before you go to sleep.
Igor: Become part of your dreams landscape.
Robin: You do, don’t you?
Igor: Things occur…
Robin: Just dream…
Igor: Experiences…
Robin: Sometimes as you lie there…
Igor: Coming together…
Robin: Preparing for sleep…
Igor: So nice.
Robin: Images, sensations…
Igor: And there’s no particular thought or idea or image to attach to it.
Robin: It’s just that as you…
Igor: Drift and go to sleep…
Robin: Sitting there…
Igor: And simply have the experience of…
Robin: You’ve been on a journey, haven’t you?
Igor: Being in that dream. In a dream you could be walking on a path.
Robin: You could open a door…
Igor: You could be in a lovely place with flowers and nature.
Robin: Into another world…
Igor: And stand and appreciate the sights around you…
Robin: As you stand…
Igor: The sense, the sounds…
Robin: You begin to feel lighter.
Igor: A place like this would be marvelous to walk in.
Robin: It’s almost like you begin to drift.
Igor: A path…
Robin: Up and up…
Igor: Would suggest a direction in which to go.
Robin: So that you can take wing…
Igor: Forwards…
Robin: Looking down…
Igor: Surrounded by those pleasant…
Robin: Landscapes stretching out…
Igor: Natural scenes…
Robin: Around you…
Igor: A plant, a rock…
Robin: The wind catches under your wings.
Igor: An animal…
Robin: Rising higher…
Igor: And the ease with which you can travel this path.
Robin: You begin to simply…
Igor: Going deeper and deeper…
Robin: Feel yourself guided…
Igor: Finding over there in the distance…
Robin: Towards a special place…
Igor: A green dense area…
Robin: You see in the distance a forest…
Igor: Like a forest, a wood…
Robin: Looking down the clearing…
Igor: Trees upon trees upon trees…
Robin: Whether you drift on a wind or…
Igor: And the curious thing is…
Robin: Simply feel yourself drawn there…
Igor: The path leads straight through that.
Robin: Looking down, you move over the landscape, seeing the path…
Igor: The rolling hills or the flat plains…
Robin: From that place, you can see so far.
Igor: Can be walked with comfort and ease.
Robin: Just float and drift until that feeling of being drawn seems to grow…
Igor: A person finds themselves at the edge of a forest…
Robin: More and more you’re drawing to that forest…
Igor: And knowing that stepping through the limits that delineate the outside world and the forest path…
Robin: Or floating above…
Igor: There will be some changes that occur…
Robin: Drifting down until a clearing…
Igor: It’s cooler in the forest, darker, the sounds more intimate.
Robin: You sense the forest around you breathing…
Igor: The sound of the trees with a slight breeze…
Robin: And you come to stand again…
Igor: And there a clearing in the middle of it all…
Robin: A clearing in the middle of it all.
Igor: And a house…
Robin: Waits for you there…
Igor: With a step…
Robin: You step up…
Igor: And a door…
Robin: And open the door moving…
Igor: Inside…
Robin: Deep inside…
Igor: The house…
Robin: Welcomes you…
Igor: Friendly…
Robin: With that familiar feeling…
Igor: Something important here…
Robin: Is waiting for you…
Igor: Find the right room…
Robin: And in that room what waits for you…
Igor: Is a person…
Robin: A storyteller…
Igor: Of great renown…
Robin: And great importance for you…
Igor: There’s a comfortable chair…
Robin: Because they have…
Igor: Right over there.
Robin: A story for you now as you sit down comfortably in that chair…
Igor: And really listen…
Robin: To the story…
Igor: Really listen…
Robin: The storyteller has to tell you.
Igor: And understand…
Robin: And whether you hear the story completely…
Igor: Sense it…
Robin: Or drift into a dream in which you see it…
Igor: Or just know…
Robin: And feel that you’re…
Igor: And experience this…
Robin: Receiving the gift of the seed, the beginning of something that can continue to
grow…
Igor: So rest comfortably…
Robin: In that place…
Igor: And as we’re silent for a while, really experience that story…
Robin: You’re told…
Igor: In the right way…
Robin: By the right person…
Igor: Now. And you can experience anything you wish with great comfort.
Robin: And whether you know what you’ve heard, or whether you forget for now to
remember…
Igor: Like a dream…
Robin: The message the storyteller tells…
Igor: Things can fade…
Robin: Will continue to resonate within you…
Igor: Or be clear, a comfortable chair in a room…
Robin: To work inside…
Igor: To remind you of an experience…
Robin: As you begin to hear the call…
Igor: The fading memory of a dream…
Robin: You know the way home, don’t you?
Igor: Out the door, down the steps, a clearing in a forest…
Robin: And all the way back home
Igor: Path or….
Robin: A flight…
Igor: Because you’ve had…
Robin: Just as much time as you need…
Igor: To realize that every night you dream…
Robin: And sleep…
Igor: And in those dreams, things of importance happen.
Robin: And everything you’ve learned today…
Igor: Gets to be reviewed…
Robin: And repeated…
Igor: Integrated…
Robin: In new and starling ways…
Igor: So that each morning when you awaken…
Robin: You won’t know how…
Igor: Something important did occur…
Robin: And you won’t know when…
Igor: You’ll realize what that was…
Robin: But you can…
Igor: As a person awakens…
Robin: Imagine just how good you’ll feel…
Igor: When those eyes finally do open…
Robin: And you begin to realize that you can…
Igor: Come back and awaken all over now…
Robin: In the satisfaction of having done a great job of getting through a lot of work today. I don’t know about you, but we thought we had a lot of material to cover today and we weren’t sure whether we were going to be able to deal with all of that.
I know that you’re all going to have questions, and there are some things that won’t be clear for you yet, but as you process over the next 12 hours, you can ask us tomorrow when you return.
Igor: Thank you very much everyone. See you in the morning.
Robin: Give yourselves a round of applause. Well done. I’m very impressed.