Dave Dobson
Dr. Dave Dobson
Dedicated to the memory of David Rolland Dobson. Died February 22, 2008.
Who was Dave Dobson?
Dr. Dave Dobson, of Other Than Conscious Communication fame
Richard Bandler, one of the founders of NLP, was quoted as saying that every time he teaches, he hears the voice of Dave Dobson in his ear.
Dobson left behind no writings. He was forever in the process of writing a book The Mythical Kingdom of the Mind that never came to light.
At any moment in a training Dobson was working with the people in the room helping them outgrow some of their less useful patterns. While Dave was demonstrating one of his techniques, he might be working non-verbally with multiple individuals in the room and most people never knew what he was doing.
Excerpted from Healing Stories From The Wizard Of San Juan Island by Harlan Kilstein. © 2024 OTC Publishing Corp.
His life
A short biography
Dave Dobson died on February 22, 2008. He had lived on San Juan Island for years, had his office on Ferry Street, and had run his seminars and his fun shops out of Friday Harbor. He had taught people how to pay attention. He had told them jokes. He had sent them home changed in ways they couldn’t always explain.
In his own stories, Dave says that one of his first jobs as a kid was as a bus boy at the Multnomah Hotel in Portland, Oregon. He worked for the Oregonian. He was in practice in Los Angeles. On San Juan Island, his street had a little park with a big tree and a viewpoint, and Shaw Island about five miles away.
Dave called himself the world’s worst teacher. Unless, as he said, he had a gifted student.
From Harlan Kilstein’s books on Dave Dobson, The Wizard of Friday Harbor and Healing Stories From The Wizard Of San Juan Island.
In Harlan’s words
Discovering Dave Dobson
I began studying NLP soon after it was developed. I began reading every book I could find, and I began attending seminars around the country and around the world.
Along the way I heard of Milton Erickson the legendary hypnotherapist and of “another Erickson” – Dr. Dave Dobson.
Unfortunately, it took nearly 30 years to journey to see Dave and discover what Other Than Conscious Communication was.
It did not get off to an auspicious start. Together with my friends Jim Van Wyck and Menachem Kasdan, we were baffled by Dave’s teaching.
Only a sentence blurted out by Clifford Saunders revealed something was going on that we didn’t realize.
It was completely out of our awareness, yet it was happening right in front of us.
That night – though he was sworn to secrecy – Cliff pointed out some things we should look for.
It was as if someone raised the blinds on a dark room.
We became “repeat offenders” and I spent the next eight years journeying to study with Dave and learn his system.
Dave called himself the world’s worst teacher.
Unless – as he said – he had a gifted student.
Dave hoarded his teachings.
When I transcribed his brilliant Pain Alleviation seminar as a birthday gift to him, he was outraged.
It became the only example of Dave’s teachings that ever made it into print.
Excerpted from Healing Stories From The Wizard Of San Juan Island by Harlan Kilstein. © 2024 OTC Publishing Corp.
His teaching
Steal my stuff
Watching Dobson teach was watching mastery in action.
“Steal my stuff,” he yelled at one Fun Shop.
The number one thing Dobson wanted was for people to use his teachings. “Steal my stuff,” he yelled at one Fun Shop.
In many of Dobson’s Fun Shops he would invite you to hang your beliefs on an imaginary coat rack. Set aside your beliefs and prove to yourself his teachings and techniques work. After you’ve proven that they work, feel free to take back your old belief systems.
Excerpted from Healing Stories From The Wizard Of San Juan Island by Harlan Kilstein. © 2024 OTC Publishing Corp.
© 2026 Harlan Kilstein. No Fault Counseling.