Training Trances
Overdurf & Silverthorn
1-55552-069-3
This is described on the cover as a book about Ericksonian hypnosis and the use of hypnosis in training.  This is not entirely true.
What the authors really designed the book to do is teach Ericksonian hypnosis by using hypnotic techniques within the text.  This works, almost too well - for a couple of months after reading this book I began to go into trance no matter what book I was reading!

Much of the book, a rich mixture of demonstration, explanation and exercises, is based on the authors' own training workshops and I found that this came across to very good effect.
I wouldn't suggest that any one book could make you an expert in a subject like hypnosis, but this strikes me as an excellent basic text for anyone wanting to study Erickson's techniques.  So, for hypnotherapists and the like:
Highly recommended  * * * * * *.

As a guide to the use of hypnosis in training in general, as explained above, I think the blurb writers have misunderstood the authors' intentions.
For anyone wanting to expand their training skills in other areas, sorry, this book won't help much. (But you may well find what you're looking for in O'Connor & Seymour's Training with NLP, see next review on this web page).

Training with NLP
O'Connor & Seymour
0-7225-2853-1
Another obvious basic text.  Even though I don't rate it quite as highly as Introduction this is still one of 'the' books for anyone interested in the use of NLP in a training situation (of the UK books, at least).
It has interesting sections on the use of "closure" (or rather stacked non-closure) as a way of holding audience attention, and how to close a training session with relaxation and hypnotic suggestion for subsequent success.
Recommended * * * * *

TRANCE-formations
Bandler & Grinder
0-911226-23-0
To my thinking this is one of the best of the Bandler & Grinder seminar transcript write-ups produced by Steve and Connirae Andreas.  Indeed, I think the combination of this book with Tranining Trances (see above) would be an ideal basic reading course for anybody interested in hypnotherapy in general, and Ericksonian hypnosis in particular.

Contrary to popular myth, Bandler and Grinder never did learn their hypnosis skills by personal contact with Erickson but rather by extensive study of videos, audio tapes and transcripts of his work.  This said, the resultant analysis and modelling may actually be the better for being one step removed from the subject.  Certainly, on the basis of this book (and subsequent behaviours), it is clear that Erickson's lessons were well learnt.

Rather than try to describe everything covered in the book, suffice it to say that just about everything you're ever likely to want to know about hypnosis and self-hypnosis is covered to some extent.  Moreover a short and excellent appendix (Hypnotic Language Patterns: The Milton Model) gives the best brief (10 pages) introduction to this topic I've come across yet.

Not for beginners, but otherwise a thoroughly good read for anyone interested in this area of NLP.
Highly Recommended * * * * * *

Note:   This book is no longer being published, but should be available through secondhand book dealers from time to time.

Turtles All the Way Down
DeLozier & Grinder
1-55552-022-7
On page xxi of this book, in the section of the Preface, headed Counsel To The Reader, we read:

"The reader might note that movement as a form of integration was an extremely important aspect of this seminar, as each day we danced, played music, and sang with TaTitos Sompa, TaMbemba, TaMalonga of the Kongo and Fred Simpson of California."

Produced by John Grinder's own company - Grinder & Associates - and distributed by Metamorphous Advanced Product Services, the back cover blurb describes this book as:

"the documentary, with added notes and stories, of John Grinder and Judith DeLozier's five day seminar, Prerequisites To Personal Genius."

It also says:

"The authors challenge you to reexamine the structures of your mind and the ways that all parts can be integrated into an internal dance."

I guess that's where TaTitos and co. come in, or rather don't come in!
The blurb ends:

You will learn how the skills of genius are readily available for cultivating your own personal excellence in a way that is respectful of the power of the unconscious."

To which, with all due respect, all I have to say is "Sez you!"

Seriously, though, whilst I'm happy to believe that attending the live seminar was an experience to be treasured, for me this book was an exercise in determination.  Which is to say, if I hadn't been reviewing it for this site I doubt if I'd have bothered to read past page 20 (the main text actually runs to 383 pages!).  Quite frankly I'd be hard pushed to point to anything I gained by struggling through the subsequent 363 pages.
I've long maintained that one of the primary pillars of NLP's success has been the excellent editing of early transcripts by Steve and/or Connirae Andreas to produce the classic works Frogs into Princes, TRANCE-formations, etc.  Turtles... re-inforces that view with a vengeance.  If NLP had had to depend on books like this to publicise the joys of neuro-linguistics I seriously doubt that it would ever have become anything more than just another Californian fringe psychology fad.

I'm quite sure there must be some people who think this book is brilliant.  Personally I think the presentation is poor, the content is anaemic and the continuity is erratic.  In short I can't think of a single reason to recommend this book to anyone.

Uncommon Therapy
Jay Haley
0-393-31031-0
Anyone who is seriously interested in NLP and/or hypnosis should read this book - over and over again!

Many books are described as 'classics' of their genre, few actually deserve the description.  Jay Haley's book is one of the exceptions.
The W.W. Norton paperback version is just over 300 pages long, which is just as well as the first 50-odd pages (Chapters 1 and 2) are purely Haley's own thoughts and observations - the longest introduction I think I've ever come across.
In my view this is an unfortunate piece of editing.  These two chapters are an attempt to codify the general principles behind the Ericksonian method and would have worked a lot better as a summary at the end of the book.  Readers may wish to consider reading the book in that order.

Chapters 3 - 9 are interestingly set out so as to deal with seven major aspects of adult life - courtship, becoming an adult, marriage, childbirth and dealing with young children, family problems, letting go (when your kids are ready to leave home), and 'the pain of old age'.
This style of presentation is extremely effective, and Haley has included a wealth of interesting and useful material, including many of the Ericksonian classics: The woman who was too fat to get married, the February Man, the Tomato Plant, the 'Incomplete Handshake' hypnotic induction, and so on and so on.

The one thing missing from this book that is to be found in Bandler and Grinder's Patterns of... is any kind of step by step modeling of Erickson's techniques.  Having said that, it is my belief that readers will learn much more by modeling Erickson for themselves, based on this material, than they will get from "on a plate" approach favoured by some other authors.
Highest Possible Recommendation * * * * * * *

Understanding Your Personality
Patricia Hedges
0-85969-670-7
Tad James reckons that most of NLP's meta programs are variations and combinations of the four pairs of characteristics which are the basis of the Myers-Briggs personality test -

   Extroversion/Introversion
   Sensing/Intuition
   Thinking/Feeling; and
   Judging/Perceiving.

This book provides a detailed view of the Myers-Briggs test, showing how it applies in the workplace, the home, the classroom and inside your head.  It doesn't include the actual Myers-Briggs test, though you can (surprise, surprise) obtain a PC disk version from Ms Hedges (or see end of this review).
Having said that, there are a number of mini tests which will give most people enough clues to work out which of the 16 composite profiles they are currently using.

This is a practical book rather than a scientific exposition of the M-B test, so for people who are interested in personality tests, this has to be a strong contender for your personal collection.  It is worth remembering, however, that personalities are fluid, not fixed.  These are, at most, indicators, never rules.
Qualified recommendation * * * * *

Unlimited Selling Power
Moine & Lloyd
0-13-689126-8
Again, not strictly NLP, but it features a lot of NLP-related material.  Bigger, and more expensive, than Kerry Johnson's book, this is a good read and worth the difference if you can get hold of a copy (it is an American import).
Definitely recommended, though not as an introductory text: * * * * * *

Using Your Brain for a Change
Bandler (eds Connirae &Steve Andreas)
0-911226-27-3
From the deliberately ambiguous title onwards this is pure Bandler - which is hardly surprising since the text is effectively a seminar in book form, based on a number of presentations Bandler gave in 1982.
It can be read as an educational exercise, or as an interactive experience.  Such is the quality of the editing that I was quite able to imagine myself strolling through town letting Bandler show me the world through his eyes, listen to it with his ears, and so on.  And a mightily enjoyable experience it was.
At the conscious level the book covers topics such as submodalities, learning, the "swish" pattern, etc. - very much with a view to how much of our experience is objective, and how much is subjective.  And since so much of it is actually (!) subjective - what we can do about the stuff we don't like.
A great book, with plenty of amusing and relevant cartoons by Gustav Russ Youngreen, and practical exercises and demonstrations throughout..
Fifteen years on this book is still Highly recommended * * * * * *

Note:   This book is no longer being published, but should be available through secondhand book dealers from time to time.

The World of Null-A (Part 1 of the Null-A trilogy)
A.E. van Vogt
0 7221 8746 7
I must admit to a certain bias where the Null-A trilogy is concerned as it was van Vogt's hints at the potential power of General Semantics that got me interested in this whole line of investigation.

First published as a three part serial in the sci-fi magazine Astounding Stories in 1945, this was an interesting attempt to demonstrate General Semantics ideas in a fictional format. Although not originally intended as such, this has become the first part of a trilogy describing the adventures of Gilbery Gosseyn (pronounced "go sane"!) in the 26th century.

Once described as the story of a "mutant with a double [brain who] doesn't know who he is and spends the entire novel trying to find out", this is actually an intriguing mixture of science fiction, philosophy and detective story.
Well worth reading on whichever level(s) you prefer.
Highly recommended * * * * * *

NLP and the New Manager
Ian McDermott and Ian Shircore
Texere 1-58799-098-9
(This is a re-issue of the book published by Orion Business, in 1998)
According to the brief biography ar the back of the book, Ian McDermott "works with many FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 corporations" - which raises the question of why this book is written in such a rambling fashion and contains so much padding.  Do the authors seriously imagine that the average manager has time to sift through so much dross in order to find the few nuggets it might contain?

As an example of the leisurely style of the book, this explanation - which one might reasonably expect to find in the Introduction, or at least towards the start of Chapter 1, doesn't actually see the light of day until the sthird page of Chapter 2:

"Rather than talk at length about the theory of NLP, we have decided to focus on the key issues managers have sought our help with over the last few years and look at them from an NLP perspective."

Funny, I always thought that NLP was characterised by being very short on theory and very long on "Just Do It!"
Either way, the decision to address 'real' issues, commendable as it might seem, still does not explain the amount of waffle that makes the book at least twice as long as it would be if the authors had approached their appointed task in a more business-like manner.

Indeed, had I not been reviewing the book for this site I think I would have given up on it long before I came to the seam of gold that suddenly appears in Chapters 11 and 12, starting on page 125.

These two chapters, covering the use of metaphors to understand what is happening in a company (Chapter 11) and the process and value of 'Benchmarking' (Chapter 12) might the book easily worth its weight in gold to any business which effectively implements the ideas contained therein.  To be blunt, apart from these two chapter, the book as a whole comes across as little more than a book-sized piece of PR for McDermott's previous books and his NLP training company.

Speaking of which, it would be really nice to see McDermott start to include "proper" bibliographies in his books.  Here, as usual, we get nothing but a list of his own books.  Which seems inconsistent, if not blatantly arrogant, when we have been told only a couple of pages earlier that:

"... there is a wealth of material available for those who are inspired to make a serious study of the business applications of NLP."

In the case of using metaphors in business it would surely be worth mentioning the internationally-renowned work on that subject - Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan.  (This is not an NLP book as such, but it has much to say that is relevant in the context of the use of NLP in the business context.)

So, with some considerable reservations, and based entirely on the immense value of the material in Chapters 11 and 12
Highly recommended   *   *   *   *   *   *