User talk:GregA/NLP Overview

But often an expert is not aware of what he or she is doing and in traditional learning, the learner's pre-existing beliefs can get in the way of learning new things. To avoid this, NLP modeling methods intend to suspend the learner pre-existing beliefs during the initial imitation learning. As Einspruch & Forman (1985) state:

""when modeling another person the modeler suspends his or her own beliefs and adopts the structure of the physiology, language, strategies, and beliefs of the person being modeled. After the modeler is capable of behaviorally reproducing the patterns (of behavior, communication, and behavioral outcomes) of the one being modeled, a process occurs in which the modeler modifies and readopts his or her own belief system while also integrating the beliefs of the one who was modeled.""

- Einspruch & Forman, 1985

Map/territory distinction
NLP has a focus on careful observation and personal experience of the world because people tend to think and act based on their best available maps of the world. Bandler and Grinder held that even a person with an apparent problem behavior is responding based on the best information they had at the time. They credited Alfred Korzybski and his book, Science and Sanity, for this idea and for starting them on the philosophical path for founding NLP, specifically Korzybski's idiom, the map is not the territory that says people should distinguish between the actual world and abstractions of it. There is no direct mapping between the experience of the world and perception of it. Each personal point of view is already filtered by biology, beliefs and expectations. First there is a minimal threshold at which the receptors can detect changes in stimulus in the environment and limits to what frequencies and wavelengths can be detected. And second, the neurological and linguistics processes that act on the incoming information, generalize, distort and delete the information before it can ever be perceived in consciousness.

Principles and presuppositions
The principles and presuppositions of NLP are not the same thing. Principles are held to be true - however, NLP processes are concerned with "what works" rather than "what is true" - the presuppositions of NLP are considered useful and effective beliefs for a client to hold during a change process (ie: they "work").

Presuppositions and principles are often blurred in NLP training. Provided the presuppositions are congruently used during NLP processes, NLP considers the practitioners belief unimportant.


 * The map is not the territory
 * Life and mind are systemic processes
 * Behind every behavior there is a positive intention. Even a seemingly negative thought or behavior has a positive function at some level or in some other context. (presupposition)
 * There is no failure, only feedback. (presupposition)
 * The meaning of the communication is the response it produces, not the intended communication. (presupposition)
 * One cannot not communicate: Every behaviour is a kind of communication. Because behaviour does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behaviour), it is not possible not to communicate.
 * Choice is better than no choice. An idea from cybernetics that holds the most flexible element in a system will have the most influence or choice in that system.
 * People already have all the internal resources they need to succeed. (presupposition)
 * Multiple descriptions are better than one

Anchoring
Anchoring is a NLP term for the process by which memory recall, state change or other responses become associated with (anchored to) some stimulus, in such a way that perception of the stimulus (the anchor) leads by reflex to the anchored response occurring. The stimulus may be quite neutral or even out of conscious awareness, and the response may be either positive or negative. Anchors are capable of being formed and reinforced by repeated stimuli, and thus are analogous to classical conditioning.

Additionally NLP holds that anchors can be deliberately set and triggered verbally, through touch, or other unique stimulus, to assist self or others access 'resourceful' or other target states. Anchoring appears to have been imported into NLP from family therapy as part of the 'model' of Virginia Satir.

An example for yourself would be;

"Think of a time when you were really confident, when you were on the ball, when everything was going right for you. Really feel it, see yourself in that position again and double that feeling, imagine that you are there now and get deep into that experience using your imagination if necessary to enhance this feeling. As you experience that feeling, just before it 'peaks', gently clench your fist in a unique way E.G. Your thumb under your fingers(Physical anchor) and say a word like confident (Verbal anchor), as you imagine this image (Visual Anchor). Just before the feeling subsides release the anchors and 'break state' (i.e think and feel something else, get back into a 'normal' state). Important: Repeat a few times making sure you catch the PEAK of the experience. You will find that whenever you 'Fire' one of the anchors (i.e. say word, do gesture or see image) you will get that feeling back again of confidence. This can work with any emotion or feeling. I use one hand for 'up' emotions like energy and confidence, and other hand for 'down' feelings like relaxation and calm. Can be useful in interviews, relationships, public speaking etc.

This can work with others too. Consciously or covertly, so be careful when unconsciously anchoring negative states...e.g A hand on a shoulder of someone who is upset. If they have been feeling this emotion deeply while you or anyone else has had a hand on their shoulder, even when they feel fine again, one hand on that shoulder will be like firing an anchor and again they will drop into that state. Also, tone of voice can be a trigger, as well as gestures.

Commercialization, manipulation and persuasion
Many of the techniques used in NLP aim to effect persuasion and influence change in belief in others. The use of language patterns, trance, therapeutic metaphor, anchoring, reframing and the like. These have been used for both beneficial (therapeutic) and manipulative purposes (sales or personal gain). NLP makes no bones that its techniques are claimed to be potent ones, the question then is, how have they been used in practice?

(from elsewhere:) NLP practitioners have been quoted making wild and unsubstantiated claims - these are often seen as deliberately sensational and an unethical method of advertising to attract customers. NLP does teach that in certain contexts it is useful to help someone to believe something, even when that thing is not true, to enable change. Some of the beliefs taught are seen by Psychologists as 'unsubstantiated', but by NLP as 'useful' (NLP practitioners may or may not choose to believe these).

Popular culture and media
NLP, when mentioned in popular culture, often refers to its more 'spectacular' claims and potentials. When NLP is mentioned in the context of "the power of the mind", claims such as "you can achieve anything" are common - this is seen by scientists as a wild & unsubstantiated claim. (Note that NLP does not teach that this claim is true, but it does teach that believing it is useful - that if a subject believes they are capable of more it will enable a greater range of possibilities for them.)

NLP also teaches that people are unconsciously influenced when making decisions, and that they can give indications in their muscle and facial movements of their thought processes. The public perception of NLP, like hypnosis, is often mixed (sometimes deliberately) with public preconceptions and interest in the unknown.

Mind reading and magic
In 2003, English mentalist Derren Brown performed stunts and magical tricks on British television. In one stunt Derren played Russian roulette with an audience member. The trick involved Derren firing a loaded gun at himself, and he would only be safe if he didn't choose the chamber that the audience member had placed the bullet into. Derren has stated that NLP spurred his interest in developing skills in reading non-verbal signals (see also cold reading) and indirect suggestion - and some people believed that he was using this rather than mere tricks, and that he "may be an expert in NLP". Glenn Wilson, a psychologist, doubted Brown's mind reading and influence capability, saying it was a magic trick and Derren probably used stooges who acted as if they were from the audience. "Nobody has that much mind control over others or the capability of reading them that they'd risk a live bullet." Derren later revealed that this was in fact a trick, and local police at one show confirmed that no live ammunition was involved.

Other television features
In 2005, celebrity hypnotist and television personality Paul McKenna was shown applying NLP and other techniques on his Sky One show, 'I Can Change Your Life' to assist people with phobias, such as agoraphobia and addictions to gambling and shopping. In 2006, another Sky One programme, 'I Can Make You Thin', featured Richard Bandler and used NLP among other techniques to help people lose weight.

1970s: Founding and early development
NLP was co-founded and developed jointly by Richard Bandler and then UCSC assistant professor of linguistics John Grinder, under the tutelage of noted anthropologist Gregory Bateson, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, during the 1970s. At that time the Californian human potential seminars were developing into a viable industry. Gregory Bateson (see Esalen Institute) was influenced by Alfred Korzybski, particularly his ideas about human modeling and that 'the map is not the territory'. These ideas were adopted by Bandler and Grinder.

From 1972, the co-founders of NLP had an interest in the exceptional communications skills of gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, family therapist Virginia Satir and founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, Milton H. Erickson. Subsequently Structure of Magic Series (1975) and Patterns of Milton H. Erickson (1976, 1977) were published using those therapists as models. In the late 1970s, Leslie Cameron-Bandler, Judith DeLozier, Robert Dilts, and David Gordon worked with the co-founders and separately to contribute to the development of NLP.

1980s: New developments and scientific assessment
In the 1980s, shortly after publishing Neuro-linguistic Programming Volume 1 with Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier, Grinder and Bandler fell out. Amidst acrimony and intellectual property lawsuits, NLP started to be developed haphazardly by many individuals. Given the multiplicity of developers and trainers, there was to be no single definitive system of NLP.

Since the early 1980s, John Grinder collaborated with various people to develop a form of NLP called the New Code of NLP which attempted to restore a whole mind-body systemic approach to NLP

Richard Bandler also published new processes based on submodalities and Ericksonian hypnosis.

Anthony Robbins who taught NLP in the late 1970s, mass marketed various motivational products incorporating aspects of NLP (renamed as Neuro Associative Conditioning).

In the late 1980s, Sharpley's (1984, 1987) research reviews in experimental counseling psychology and by the United States National Research Council gave NLP an overall negative assessment marking a decrease in NLP research interest.

1990s: Controversy, division, and marketing
In July of 1996 after many years of legal controversy, Bandler filed a lawsuit against John Grinder et al, claiming retrospective sole ownership of NLP, and the sole right to use the term under trademark. Contemporaneous with Bandler's suits in the Supreme Court of the United States, Tony Clarkson (a UK practitioner) successfully asked the UK High Court to revoke Bandler's UK registered trademark of "NLP", in order to clarify legally that 'NLP' was a generic term rather than intellectual property.

Despite the NLP community being splintered, most NLP material acknowledges the early work of the co-founders, Bandler and Grinder, and the development group that surrounded them in the 1970s.

2000s: Legal settlement and government regulation
In 2001, the law suits were settled with Bandler and Grinder agreeing to be known as co-founders of NLP. Since 1978, a 20 day NLP practitioner certification program had been in existence for training therapists to apply NLP as an adjunct to their professional qualifications. As NLP evolved, and the applications began to be extended beyond therapy - new ways of training were developed and the course structures and design changed. Course lengths and style vary from institute to institute. In the 1990s, following attempts to put NLP on a more formally regulated footing in the UK, other governments began certifying NLP courses and providers, such as in Australia for example, where a graduate certificatein Neuro-linguistic programming is accredited under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). However, NLP continues to be an open field of training with no 'official' best practice. With different authors, individual trainers and practitioners having developed their own methods, concepts and labels, often branding them as "NLP", the training standards and quality differ greatly. In Europe, the European NLP therapy associationhas been promoting their training in line with European therapy standards. The multiplicity and general lack of controls has led to difficulty discerning the comparative level of competence, skill and attitude in different NLP trainings. According to Peter Schütz the length of training in Europe varies from 2-3 days for the hobbyist, to 35-40 days over at least nine months to achieve a professional level of competence.

Humanistic psychology
Grinder and Delozier (1987) argue that the epistemology of Gregory Bateson (and NLP) attempts to synthesize the overdrawn positions of empiricists and idealists. Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier (2000) say "In considering NLP as a science however, it is important to recognise that the epistemology of NLP is more 'subjective' and 'systematically' oriented than many 'hard' sciences, which tend to be more 'objective' and 'deterministic'. That is the patterns explored and identified by NLP are often necessarily contextual and influenced by the perceptual filters of the observer." ... "As a scientific approach, then, NLP tends to be more 'qualitative' than 'quantitative' and more 'structuralist' than 'materialistic'" ...

Technology
NLP critic Margaret Singer quotes Bandler as saying the term NLP was "phrased on the fly from several book titles on the floor of his car one night when a policeman asked his occupation." (p169). She also quotes Bandler as saying "it wasn't my job to do theory" and Tony Robbins as saying, "NLP is heavily pragmatic: if a tool works, it's included in the model, even if there's no theory to back it up....None of the current NLP developers have done any research to prove their models correct. The party line is 'pretend it works, try it, and notice the results you get. If you don't get the result you want, try something else'" Labouchere states that "NLP has a very pragmatic, applied focus on what is helpful, what works and how to replicate it (Bandler & Grinder, 1990). While NLP draws on and shares common ground with ‘mainstream’ cognitive psychology, it has, from its inception, continued to develop, refine, and apply its own unique range of concepts, models and techniques."

Partridge (2003) states that "NLP may be best thought of as a system of psychology concerned with the self development of the human being" and "It is concerned with the function of belief rather than its nature. It is not concerned whether a belief is true or not, but whether it is empowering or disempowering". Similarly, Stephen J. Hunt states that NLP "is a technique rather than an organised religion and is used by several different human potential movements". David V. Barrett (2001) also describes NLP as a technique or series of techniques, or a process. He states that that "the balance comes down against it being labeled as a religion".

Associations

 * Bandler: Society of NLP
 * Grinder: International Trainers Academy of NLP (ITA)
 * Europe-wide: EANLPt - European accrediting organisation for NLPt
 * German-based: List of German associations
 * Scandinavia-based: INLPTA Scandinavia
 * Swiss-based: International Association for NLP (IANLP)
 * UK-based: Association of NLP, Professional Guild of NLP, Neuro-linguistic psychotherapy & counselling Association (NLPtCA), GONLP/BBNLP

Research

 * Article on scientific validity of NLP
 * Database and review of academic research
 * NLP and learning research (University of Surrey)
 * Glossary of commonly used NLP terms
 * Lee Lady's comments about history and development of NLP
 * NLP Magazine - AnchorPoint

Skeptics

 * The Skeptic's Dictionary - see entry on NLP
 * Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience

Main namespace
Please consult Content forking, which says: "New drafts should be written in the "user:" or "talk:" namespace and not in the main namespace." The opening sentence of this article acknowledges this is a re-write of Neuro-linguistic programming and a work-in-progress; the page history indicates "first draft". This really doesn't belong in the main namespace, but should instead be a "Talk:" or "User:" page (and I see there is already a User:GregA/NLP which deals with the same subject). I will move this to User:GregA/NLP Overview; feel free to move this to some other title, but please keep it out of the main namespace. Thank you. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 15:57, 21 November 2007 (UTC)