NLP

The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
This quote appears at the beginning of NLP: The New Technology
of Achievement and is also the conclusion of many who have used
neuro-linguistic programming, a science of mind that has swept across
the world in less than 20 years. Through NLP techniques, people have
rid themselves of a longstanding phobia in a few minutes, or quickly
left behind the burden of a horrible memory that has plagued them for
years.
We are so used to believing that change takes time, so comfortable
with the philosophy of no pain—no gain, that when a contrary practice
comes into being we are inclined not to believe it. The authors of this
book admit, "It seems so grandiose and unlikely that some people will
use that as an excuse to never examine it closely." We are stuck in a
time warp when it comes to psychology, believing that Freud's ideas are
still central even though they were published a century ago. Yet how
many people, Andreas and Faulkner ask, would be happy to drive
around in a 100-year-old car?
Thanks to advances in cognitive science and the development of
NLP methods, personal change is no longer a mystery—it can be fast,
reliable, even fun.
NLP: the beginning
In the early 1970s Richard Bandler was a maths undergrad at the University
of California with a strong interest in computer science and psychology.
He met an associate professor in linguistics, Dr. John Grinder,
and they began to lead weekly therapy meetings that involved copying
the content and style of the founder of the Gestalt movement, Fritz
Perls. This attempt to replicate the results of another person by adopting
their behaviors and methods (the German accent, mustache, and
chain smoking were eventually accepted as unnecessary) led to the discipline
of "modeling human excellence."
Research into phobias led Bandler and Grinder to the discovery that
people who detach themselves from their fear (e.g., in their mind they
watch themselves having the phobia from a distance) will lose it. A further
array of therapeutic techniques flowed from their work with famous
clinical hypnotist Milton Erickson. Bandler's Master's thesis became the
first volume of the seminal NLP work, The Structure of Magic.
A new technology of achievement
Essentially, NLP is about changing the way you think about thinking.
"Neuro" refers to the nervous system and the mental pathways of the
five senses. "Linguistic" refers to language and the use of words,
phrases, body language, and habits to reflect our mental worlds. "Programming"
is borrowed from computer science. Add them together and
you get a technology that reveals thoughts, feelings, and actions to be
habitual programs open to manipulation.
NLP: The New Technology of Achievement is one of the best introductions
to the discipline, written by a professional training team that
has links with NLP's founders. It has intellectual weight, but its real
value lies in its many exercises or "thought experiments." Read only
the first two chapters and you will already have a few methods under
your belt for instant change. Read the whole book and do the exercises,
and you'll have a mental toolkit to change your moods, behaviors,
and memories, shape your thoughts and actions, and live
according to your deepest values.
Chapters include:
? Getting motivated.
? Discovering your mission.
? Achieving your goals.
? Creating rapport and strong relationships.
? Persuasion strategies.
? Eliminating fears and phobias.
? Building self-confidence.
? Creating self-appreciation and self-esteem.
? Securing a positive mental attitude.
? Achieving peak performance.
NLP principles
The following are the "presuppositions" or principles underpinning
NLP:
1 The map is not the territory. We do not respond to the world as it
is, we act in accordance with our own mental map of it. We have a
much better chance of getting what we want if our map is continually
revised to take account of the territory. Doing this is much better
than trying to bend the world to fit your map.
2 Experience has a structure. We all have patterns or structures in the
way we think. By changing these, we literally change our experience,
including how we think about past events.
3 If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it. We can
model the thinking and behavior of people who are already successful
in order to achieve similar results.
4 The mind and body are parts of the same system. Our thoughts constantly
affect our breathing, muscles, etc., which in turn affect our
thinking. Control your thoughts and you control your body.
5 People already have all the resources they need. From our storehouse
of memories, thoughts, and sensations we can construct new mental
patterning designed to provide the outcomes we want.
6 You cannot not communicate. Everything about you—eye and body
movements, vocal tones, habits—is a form of communication. It is
not difficult to sense when what a person is saying does not match
with who they are.
7 The meaning of your communication is the response you get. People
receive information filtered through their mental map of the world.
How you communicate must be constantly adjusted so that the message
you want to be received is the one that is received.
8 Underlying every behavior is a positive intention. Violence masks a lack
of acceptance or fear, and yelling or criticism can express a need to be
acknowledged. Look behind what people do to find their positive intent.
9 People are always making the best choices available to them. We
make choices based on experience. More and better experiences
allow for more choices.
10 If what you're doing isn't working, do something else. Do anything
else. You'll only get the same results if you do what you've always
done.
NLP: The New Technology of Achievement amplifies these principles,
including the following points:
? Everyone has a "motivation direction," either toward pleasure and
goals or away from pain. The NLP team found that most people are
motivated by the latter, but with a change to toward motivation you
can focus on possibilities rather than on what you fear. This doesn't
mean living through rose-tinted spectacles, simply changing the way
you communicate with yourself. For example, after making your
usual negative comments, restate your goal. This order—negative
first and positive last—is a simple but effective motivator.
? Know the difference between a job and a mission. A job is usually
too small for a person; a mission needs a whole life to make it real.
Acknowledging the NLP principle that "If one person can do something,
anyone can learn to do it," you can take the successful attitudes,
decisions, and behaviors of people you admire and use them
to fulfill your unique mission. Film director Steven Spielberg, artist
Michelangelo, champion dog-sled racer Susan Butcher, and media
mogul Ted Turner are given as examples of people who are crystal
clear about what their life is about. NLP exercises can reveal your
life's passion and deepest values, from which your mission will
emerge.
? Change happens in an instant and should be natural and easy. No
matter how many times you try to get a computer to do something,
it will not do it if it does not have the appropriate software, or if it
can do it, you need to have a manual in order to give it the right
instructions. The human brain is much more sophisticated, but NLP
is designed to be its software manual, using the brain's own language
to alter and create new neural pathways.
With NLP you do not have to rely on willpower; with knowledge of
the technical means, change becomes easy.
? NLP's basic premise is that we can change our minds not simply by
having new thoughts, but by changing the way we think, i.e., by
choosing a different way to process the multitude of images, feelings,
and memories that exist inside us, so that they serve us rather than
sabotage us. We can diminish a bad memory quite easily by giving it
new associations (just some examples: hearing a happy song in our
minds each time we remember it, turning the memory into a "painting"
with our choice of color and frame, making it into an old blackand-
white movie, seeing ourselves smiling in the image instead of sad).
Once these new associations are made, how you feel about a memory
changes not only instantly but forever. Revisit it any time and the new
association will still be in place. Try it before you dismiss it.
? NLP gets you away from "either/or" thinking. In NLP there is a saying:
"If you only have one way to do something, you're a robot. If
you only have two ways to do something, you're in a dilemma. You
need at least three ways to do something before you have the beginning
of some real flexibility." Above all, NLP gives you choice in how
you want to change; there are few rules, only successful experiments.
? Everyone has internal voices. Turn them into great encouragers
instead of saboteurs. You can play powerful and uplifting music in
your mind whenever you need instant confidence, for instance. You
can learn automatically to hear laughter any time you encounter a
difficulty or challenge. Such methods put you in control of your
reactions and thoughts at any moment, and enable you to take criticism
and use it constructively.
? The brain does not know how to think negatively. If you continually
tell yourself "I want to lose weight," your brain will be impressed
with the word "weight" much more than the word "lose." Professionals
advise slimmers to have a "goal weight" that they focus on;
it is to this that they will make their body conform, not the losing of
something. NLP teaches you always to use positive language, focusing
on what you want, not what you fear.
? You can learn the ability to be confident in an instant, to be more
loving, or to "make real" your ambitions before they are acted out
in the world. Many winners use NLP without knowing it, in the
way they can see, hear, feel, touch, and taste victory in their minds
long before it actually happens. The feeling of winning draws thewin to it; designing a compelling future draws you toward the
actions needed to realize it. Those who become adept at creative
visualization appreciate the NLP maxim "not all dreamers are
achievers, but all achievers are dreamers."
Final comments
A psychology that sees the mind and body as machine-like and open to
manipulation is appropriate for the technological culture in which we
live, yet the overall effect of NLP is to increase the intensity and quality
of life. Despite its origins in computing and linguistics, NLP is really
about graceful human change.
Traditional clinical psychology is all about describing and analyzing
problems and finding out their causes. NLP, in contrast, focuses on possibilities
and how the mind works to produce results. If NLP could be
summed up in one phrase, it would be "People work perfectly." Our
specific thoughts, feelings, and actions have produced what we are
today; by changing these "inputs" you will get different results—a different
you.
Each of us is a bundle of emotions, behaviors, and potentialities, all
of which we must accept and even love in order to achieve what in
NLP is called "personal congruence," the perfect alignment of our
desires and values with our capabilities.