I prefer a mix, personally, of unconscious and explicit training.
In the case of someone new to NLP, I'd recommend buying Using Your Brain for a Change and maybe Frogs into Princes. Then get a nice introductory tape set. Your recommendation of the New Tech of Achievement is good.
I'd then, if still interested, pursue advanced stuff. Bandler seminars on tape are good. Hypnosis in Munich is awesome. Someone who has played around with the techniques will be sensitized enough, I think, to what NLP is all about to pick up on a lot of the finer details, at least with multiple listenings. There is enough explicit stuff in most of Bandler's material to keep you occupied.
Then, if still interested, go to a training. There is no replacing hands-on, person-to-person training.
There is a great deal to NLP. So many different teachers, so many flavors of it. Grinder's approach is so different from Bandler's. Then you have Dilts and Delozier ... and even Tony Robbins.
It's important for an individual to know that the experience of what NLP is will be greatly influenced by who is doing the training. I disagree with some of the recommendations here, but the long and short of it is personal preference and learning style.
Good luck, NYC_Dweller. If you have the time and money, check out as many different people as you can.
[This message has been edited by babayada (edited July 23, 2004).]
