Hi Michael, I enjoyed your two posts and share some of your experience and outlook. Mike Yapko said something along the lines that "anything that is powerfully therapeutic can be equally antitherapeuitic - willfully or inadvertantly". In my experience NLP and hypnosis interventions both fit that category. I take with a large pinch of salt the presupposition that the unconscious will only choose safely and positively. Like you I act on the principle of trying to do the best for my clients/patients. Often what they need is the "installation" of a skill that they lack and for which they have no prior reference experience. Sometimes the "unconscious" best choice in the circumstances has been a pretty poor one! For example in the case of a phobia there is ample evidence that a counter-conditioning approach can provide lasting change with a whole variety of different states. I have not had much success attempting to use 6 step reframing yet a "mindless" collapsing anchors technique - or variation thereof - usually does the trick. Personally I think that there is great promise in New Code games engendering high performance states. My caveat is that the outcome is likely to depend on the underlying experience base from which the high performance state draws. Given a large number of disparate, previously unconnected resources I suspect will allow a better result. As you intimate in your spelling strategy example, if the resource is not already coded somehow then it is difficult to see how a high performance state will "magic" the result regardless. I have however heard anecdotal reports of poor spellers getting great rapport with excellent spellers and through DTI acquiring their strategy. Like much in NLP though, claims are easy, real back up evidence less forthcoming. I hope John gets the chance to reply more fully to your other points. Regards, Lewis.