In the 37 years since the first Enlightenment Intensive, three minor forms have been found to allow the dyad to "changes over." Let me explain. In the dyad there are two people - one active and one listening. Three methods have been found to change who is active and who is listening. The dyad has then been said to have changed-over. The listener becomes the active partner and the previous active partner is now the new listener. The dyad is then said to have gone through a change-over. The three methods have the following names:

Five minute change-over

Cycle Change-over

Modified Cycle Change-over

The original form or the five minute change-over system ( In pejorative slang called 'The Gong Tape' ) a tape player is used to determine how long your turn lasts in a dyad as the active partner. Your turn lasts until a gong rings and a person says "That's it - thank your partner" - another gong rings - and the person says "change-over" and the gong rings again. The three gongs helps to break you the active partner out of your process of struggle and delivers you back to your partner and your new role of helping them. The actual change-over process takes about 15 seconds, and people learn how to just drop their issues and change-over to a listener. This process of alternating direction every five minutes is terminated by four gong rings and the speaker giving you new direction, usually a five minute break, followed by food or another activity or maybe another dyad session. This dyad form has been used for over thirty years and is still in widespread use today.

The Cycle Change-over system was developed by Lawrence Noyes (Scanda) while teaching the classical technique in Australia. He reasoned that talking for 5 minutes can be awkward for both the talker and the listener. He wanted a closer coupling between the two people, so he empowered the listener to acknowledge the speaker and recognize a cycle change-over. It seems more like normal conversation, since one person thinks, considers, and hopefully contemplates until something comes up, and then it is communicated to the listener, and the listener then says "OK" or "thank you" or some other understood acknowledgment, and then the roles reverse.

Osha Reader modified this strict definition to allow the talker to signal when they are finished. (Usually a head nod - or "thats enough" said by the active partner.) This form is called Modified Cycle Change-over. The talker may bring up something from their contemplation - pause and then contemplate again and bring up much more. This allows the talker to dig deeper and to not worry about being cut off by an over active listener.

Like everything in Life, you can find people who feel strongly about each of the three systems. The cycle change-over is a bit harder to teach, since the listener must use judgment (with Noyes pure process) that they don't need with the 5 minute cycle change-over method or with Osha's modification. On the other hand, people don't feel comfortable going into deep contemplation, if their partner has short quick answers. I know it may be hard to believe but all three systems work equally well. I have been to all three types, and it only takes me about 20 minutes to adjust to the difference, and then the next three days I focus on my question. Unfortunately there is no trick to allow you to gain personal truth without confronting reality. One can always find excuses, so don't get side tracked. I wanted to let you know before you attend an Enlightenment Intensive, that they come in three flavors. Just take it as it comes and don't lose sight of your goal to be in direct contact with your truth as it really is for you.

There is one variant form of the Enlightenment Intensive, it is experimental and not yet fully viable and is called "the Enlightenment Workshop". It is not for beginners but for people who have attended two or three regular three-day or five-day Enlightenment Intensives. The Enlightenment Workshop is a one-day process similar to the normal Enlightenment Intensive, except it is more relaxed and less intense. It is more concerned with long term enlightenment experiences (making Enlightenment a part of your regular life) and less concerned with breakthrough events (the first time experience of enlightenment). In a workshop that ends that evening, the coach does not want you so deep into a first time experience that you cannot drive yourself home. Workshops are more to work the "bugs" out of a previous experience.