According to Bolstad and Hamblett, supporting the body's immune system assists in the healing of cancer. They consider this to be the core of what NLP contributes to cancer treatment. Interestingly, very little advice is given by many oncologists (cancer specialists) about how to assist the immune system.

Supporting the mind-body theory of cancer treatment is analysis by Dr. Brendan O'Regan, a neurochemist who has collected a database of 3,500 medically documented cases of spontaneous remission of cancer. Dr. Charles Weinstock leads the New York Psychosomatic Study group, and has commented on these cases: "Within a short period before the remission, ranging from days to a few months, there was an important change, such as a marriage, an ordination, the birth of a grandchild, or removal of a relationship that was unwanted. There was a psychosocial rehabilitation of one sort or another, and then the cancer was healed."

Pretty wacky stuff, eh? Yet there was enough supporting information that told me I wanted us to learn more. And we did.

Accelerated NLP Practitioner Certification Training
NLP is a complex discipline to learn. It can often take months of concentrated training. We didn't have months. Denise and I have a business to run. Yet we didn't want to just read a book or listen to some tapes. We wanted to learn how to use NLP to help the ZATZ team connect better with clients and prospects. We wanted to be taught by actual people.

It turns out that the basics of NLP can be taught in about a week of intense, concentrated study, what's called an accelerated training program. We found one such program, taught by Advanced Neuro Dynamics, based in Hawaii. Lucky for us, it turned out that the company's main training program was happening in less than a month.

Denise and I decided to take the plunge, sign up for the course, and buy plane tickets to Honolulu. Sometimes life at ZATZ is tough.

Seriously, though, this was a measurable investment. The course itself costs three thousand dollars. Then, factor in air travel, hotel, food, etc. However, I believe training is one of the most important investments a company can make, and this showed some serious promise. Armed with our plane tickets and course confirmation, Denise and I got to work.

Apparently, one way that Advanced Neuro Dynamics crams all that information into a seven-day training course is to make you work before you get there. A few days after we registered, we were greeted at work by a couple of large packages. Inside were a set of textbooks and two sets of 20 training CDs. We were each expected to read the books and listen to all 20 CDs before we arrived in Waikiki.

Nobody ever said this stuff wouldn't be work. Just, hopefully, valuable.

We each had different study patterns, but for me, the pre-work consisted of listening to the CDs on the way to and from work, and for an hour or so each night. Even so, I still didn't finish them by the time we were ready to leave for the plane. Travel from New Jersey to Hawaii takes about fourteen hours, so I had more than enough time to get caught up by listening to the remainder of the training CDs while on the plane. I brought a lot of extra batteries for my CD player! But you know how it is when you're with a friend on a plane, and I only listened to one more of the CDs.