TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN Prerequisites To Personal Genius John Grinder Judith DeLozier Grinder & Associates ACKNOV We wish to acknowledge to the other C.E. Asherbranner Suzanne Bailey Nancy Beplat Jean Blair Larry Burnett Published by Georgene Burton Grinder & Associates Britt Burton Cosette P.O. Box 67295 Scotts Valley, CA 95067 Carter Consuelo Casula Susan Master Distributor Connors Peggy Metamorphous Advanced Product Services P.O. Dean Carmel Box 10616 Portland, OR 97210-0616 Decroos Skip Ellis Carole Ellison All rights reserved. No part of this book Rosalie Fedoruk may be utilized in any form or by any Judy Francis Francis means, electronic or mechanical, including Friedman Sherrie photocopying, recording, or by any Funk John Funk information storage and retrieval system, Amber Goldstein without permission in writing from the authors. George Greenberg Sharon Grimm Copyright © 1987 by John Grinder and Thomas Grinder Judith DeLozier Editorial and Art Direction Allan Harris by Lori Stephens Printed in the United Christian Hart States of America Poppy Hawkins Jack Grinder, John. Hawley Turtles all the way down : prerequisites to personal genius / John Grinder, Judith DeLozier. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-55552-022-7 : $22.95 1. Neurolinguistic programming. I. DeLozier, Judith. II. Title. BF637.N46G75 1994 158'.9—dc20 94-32322 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to acknowledge to following people: the participants-the other end of the loop: C.E. Asherbranner Suzanne Bailey Phil Herman Kirk Nancy Beplat Jean Hughes Murray Blair Larry Burnett Johannsen Janece Kline Georgene Burton Bob Kurtz Britt Burton Cosette Phyllis Murray Linhart Carter Consuelo Catherine Long Kari Lyn Casula Susan Jerry Mader Stephanie Connors Peggy Mader Thomas Malloy Dean Carmel Susan Marcus Diane Decroos Skip Ellis Marshall Robert Carole Ellison McDonald Philip Milroy Rosalie Fedoruk Pauline Monson Jane Judy Francis Monteleone Patricia Francis Friedman Moore Marshall Sherrie Funk John Nechtow David Pounds Funk Amber Del Powell Alan Power Goldstein George Vera Reichenfeld-Tay Greenberg Sharon Jose Rodnguez Marne Grimm Thomas Ryan Antonio Santos Grinder Allan Steven Silverman Harris Christian Hart Poppy Hawkins Jack Hawley iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS John Simmonds Maureen Toth Steve Smolinsky Jane Mumtaz Vishal St. Sauveur John Karen Weihs Stone James Taylor Richard Zarro Joel Teague Sylvia Marilyn Zatkin Topel Deborah Zeigler Matundu Mamingi to our African and American drummer and dancer friends TaTitos Sompa TaMbemba TaMalonga Fred Simpson Thanks to Gary-Michael Bean for his suggestions and work. Thanks to our staff Laura Grinder Stephanie Mader Mark Carroll Jerry Mader Thanks to our friends who played such an important role in commenting. Bob Dilts Don Steiny Susan Marcus TABLE OF CONTENTS A Beginning ix Preface xi Prerequisites For Personal Genius Day One 3 Day Two 94 Day Three 180 Day Four 255 Day Five 338 Afterword 385 Footnotes 387 Bibliography 391 Reasonable men adapt themselves to the world, unreasonable men at- tempt to adapt the world to them- selves. That's why all progress de- pends on unreasonable men. George Bernard Shaw To our former teacher Gregory Bateson We hope he would be, at least, amused. John Grinder Judith DeLozier viii WARNING WARNING TO THE READER Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) represents a significant advance in the develop- ment of human choice. It places at the discretion of the skilled and balanced practitioner options for living with quality which were previously assigned variously to fate, chance, genetics, accidents and divine influence. It is important to me to explicate at least partially what I intend by the descriptive phrase, skilled and balanced. The skill issue points to the requirement in the mastery of any interesting human skill set for a commitment to practice, the personal discipline on the part of the would-be NLP practitioner to arrange his or her own context for exploring, learning and ultimately mastering of the actual body of patterning called NLP. Success at this task identifies a learner, and the result a technician. The balanced issue refers to two requirements, first, the learner's ability to integrate the skill set (mastered by the technician) into each and every area of their life, personal as well as professional. Secondly, once this integration of the technical skill set has occurred, the individual is faced with the awesome responsibility of exercising these choices with some wisdom. At this point, the caterpillar bursts the confinement of the cocoon, the technician transforms herself/himself into an artist. All the above is a somewhat circuitous way of cautioning the would-be NLP practitioner. The world at the moment seems rather overflowing with people purporting to offer training in NLP. It is here in selecting a mentor that you, the reader, may begin to exercise one of the most crucial abilities associated with artistry in the practice of NLP—namely, that of assessing the congruency of the purported trainer. If your intuitions caution you, if you detect a discrepancy between the verbal presentation of such a person and their actual behavior and performance, keep moving and looking for an appropriate model. If you are seriously interested in having access to quality training or business consulting applications which rest firmly on the foundation of NLP which I intended when I co-created the discipline, I invite you to contact me at: John Grinder QUANTUM LEAP P.O. Box 67359 Scotts Valley, CA 95067-7359 TEL) 408-457-0529 FAX) 408-457-2834 IX A BEGINNING William James is usually considered the father of American psychology.' He was once invited to deliver a series of lectures at Harvard on a topic of his choosing. These lectures were presented on the green and were special in that they were open to the public. After some deliberation, he chose boldly ?nd the title for his first presentation wasCan One Prove The Existence of God?, a topic sure to raise eyebrows in the early part of this century in New England. Thus, it was with some trepidation that he watched the audience file into the lecture hall and, sure enough, at the very last moment, a little old lady rushed down the center aisle and deposited herself from row center. Professor James presented his topic with his usual wit and charm. He noted as he worked his way through his lecture that the little old lady was very attentive and seemed to be enjoying herself—he did mark the fact that she seemed to laugh when no one else did. Nevertheless, all seemed quite in order. At the end of the presentation, which was very well received, the inevitable queue formed. And, of course, at the end of the queue was the little old lady. When her turn came, she looked up brightly at James and said: "Dr. James, I very much enjoyed your lecture. But I do still have one question." "Please, madame, ask your question!" returned William James courteously. "Well, Dr. James," she replied with a glint in her eye, "If there's no God, what keeps the earth from falling down?" James quickly reviewed his options—he considered such explanatory notions as centripetal force, gravitational systems .,. but wisely chose to respond in a way as to learn something from this woman. Turning his attention back to her, he said, "Madame, I would be happy to answer your question, but tell me what it is that you x A BEGINNING believe keeps the earth from falling down?" "Why, that's very simple. Dr. James, the earth is resting on the back of a gigantic turtle!" James mused to himself over her extraordinary response for a moment and then with a hint of triumph in his voice asked the obvious question. "The, pray tell me, Madame, what keeps this gigantic turtle from falling down?" "No! No! No! Dr. James," replied the little old lady, "You can't get me there—it's turtles all the way down!" XI PREFACE Immediate Context In March of 1986, the two of us, John Grinder and Judith DeLozier, conducted a seminar called Prerequisites To Personal Genius in San Francisco, California with people from North and South America, Europe and Africa. For over twenty-five cumulative years, we have developed models of people who were considered geniuses by our society. In this modeling, certain simple personal competencies were again and again uncovered—independent of substance—whether the genius was a master hypnotist, strategic corporate planner, dancer, or negotiator. These formal principles, while simple, are not easy. The task facing us was to assist the seminar participant in making the arrangements for the development and integration of these competencies—these prerequisites to personal genius. This document is the consequence of that San Francisco seminar and has the same purpose. It is, however, important to understand that there are profound differences between a seminar with face-to-face communication and a written document. The major difference revolves around the fact that the bulk of the communication in a face-to-face seminar is nonverbal and, of course, a written document relies exclusively on language. Thus, we were challenged with the task of developing a balanced document which somehow was faithful to the experiences of the seminar and at the same time coded exclusively in a linear verbal code. In order to accomplish this, inserts were added to promote universality and participation on the part of the reader and to fill in gaps which were covered by nonverbal communication in the face-to- face experience of the seminar. Thus the document you are about to read is partially a verbal transcript from the seminar and partially a translation of portions of the nonverbal communication from that xii PREFACE seminar into the verbal code. Further, while the seminar was completed in five days, it was, in a deeper sense, and is truly unfinished both for us and the participants—the process had been put into movement.