If you or a client has a fear of flying, or any other phobia, you might want to try this NLP exercise called the “Fast Phobia Cure.”

For many, this will completely and totally alleviate the fear, but only if you actually spend some time going through the process outlined in your mind.

The process of the fast phobia cure involves replaying the visual memory of fear of flying (or other fear) – but in entirely different ways than a person usually does. This method disrupts the painful way fears are remembered and enables the person’s mind to re-code flying in a way that does not bother them. It is faster and more effective than older forms of traditional talk therapy, and this process is extremely beneficial for people who have a good ability to visualize.

Lets start:

Close your eyes and relax. Picture in your mind the inside of your favorite movie theater. Glance around the theater and notice that you have the whole place to yourself. Visualize the décor, and what the seats are like.

See the large screen up front, the rows of empty comfortable chairs, and the exit signs.

Look back for a moment to where the projection booth is up on the rear wall.

Now find your favorite seat in the theater, and settle into it. Take in the sights, sounds and smells of the theater. Feel the seat and floor underneath you.

Now up on the movie screen you can see a black and white still photo of yourself — a snapshot — a single picture of you – taken just before you have the phobic or traumatic experience that the movie is going to play in a few minutes.

Soon, the screen is going to show a black and white movie about you. This movie will have no sound; like a poor quality home video, it may flicker a bit.

Now that you are comfortable in the seat, watching the still black and white picture of yourself, before the movie starts, let your “mind” drift up into the projection booth where you can control the movie, while the physical “you” person remains relaxing in the theater seat.

Float your mind up to the projection booth now.

Look around the booth, and note the details of the walls, and the frame around the window, and the large reels of film on the projector, and see the long beam of dusty white light streaming towards the movie screen.

Look down and see the person sitting in their favorite seat watching the screen, waiting for the movie to start.

Now, push the button and start the projector. See the person down in the theater seat, and watch as they now see the scratchy black and white snapshot turn into a scratchy black-and-white movie, of you going through your experience in which you used to have a phobic response, as it begins to play on the screen.

If the move gets too intense for that person, you can adjust the projector to show only every third frame or so.

The movie starts at a time shortly before the fearful event – and plays on through the event – and then continues on to a time well after the event – then fades out.

As you watch the person in the seat, see that person watch the movie start up again – and play through past the event as before – but this time it stops on the final frame, well past the event, and freezes as a still image of you, after the event.

Now, float yourself from the projection booth down into the movie itself.

See the movie scene now through your own eyes. Notice that the movie now becomes fully dimensional – with full color, sound, texture, depth and so on.

Now quickly, play the film backwards, this time in color. The people move backwards, the sound plays backwards, with you in the movie, also moving backwards. Rewind it all the way back to the beginning. Good.

Now play the movie forwards, in color, with sound, with you in it.

Explore how you feel dealing with that situation in which you used to experience the phobic response. Are you more relaxed? In control? Secure with your surroundings?

Experience your new response of peace, calm and satisfaction. That’s it. Good.

Now, if you feel it would be helpful, you can play the movie backwards again. But this time, allow yourself to hear to funniest, most ludicrous background music you can imagine – something from a circus act or a disco nightclub, maybe.

Now, play the movie of your old phobic experience backwards, but with the silly music. Run it all the way back to the beginning. Excellent. Now relax.