I have been studying education, therapies, growth experiences, and other
methods for personal change since I was a graduate student with Abe Maslow
over thirty years ago. Ten years later I met Fritz Perls and immersed
myself in Gestalt Therapy because it seemed to be more effective than
most other methods. Actually all methods work for some people and with
some problems. Most methods claim much more than they can deliver, and
most theories have little relationship to the methods they describe.
When I was first introduced to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, developed
by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, I was both fascinated and very skeptical.
I had been heavily conditioned to believe that change is slow, and usually
difficult and painful. I'm still amazed that I can usually cure a phobia
or other similar long-term problem painlessly in less than an hour --
even though I have done it repeatedly and see the results last. There
is no hocus-pocus to NLP, and you will not be asked to take on any new
beliefs. You will only be asked to suspend your own beliefs long enough
to test the concepts and procedures of NLP in your own sensory experience.
If you are skeptical, as I was, you owe it to your skepticism to check
this out, and find out if the claims made about NLP are valid.
NLP is an explicit and powerful model of human experience and communication.
Using the principles of NLP it is possible to describe any human activity
in a detailed way that allows you to make many deep and lasting changes
quickly and easily.
A few specific examples of things you can learn to accomplish are: (1)
cure phobias and other unpleasant feeling responses in less than an hour,
(2) help children and adults with "learning disabilities" (spelling and
reading problems, etc.) overcome these limitations, often in less than
an hour, (3) eliminate most unwanted habits--smoking, drinking, over-eating,
insomnia, etc. in a few sessions, (4) make changes in ways that are more
satisfying and productive, (5) cure many allergies and other physical
problems -- not only most of those recognized as"psychosomatic" but also
some that are not -- in a few sessions and (6) resolve grief, usually
in a single session.
These are strong claims, and experienced NLP practitioners can back them
up with solid, visible results. NLP in its present state can do a great
deal, but it cannot do everything.
". . . if what we've demonstrated is something that you'd like to be able
to do, you might as well spend your time learning it. There are lots and
lots of things that we cannot do. If you can program yourself to look
for things that will be useful for you and learn those, instead of trying
to find out where what we are presenting to you falls apart, you'll find
out where it falls apart, I guarantee you. If you use it congruently you
will find lots of places that it won't work. And when it doesn't work,
I suggest you do something else."
NLP is only about twenty five years old, and many patterns are still being
created.
"We haven't even begun to figure out what the possibilities are of how
to use this material. And we are very, very serious about that. What we
are doing now is nothing more than the investigation of how to use this
information. We have been unable to exhaust the variety of ways to put
this stuff together and put it to use, and we don't know of any limitations
on the ways that you can use this information. In this brief introduction
we have mentioned and demonstrated several dozen ways that it can be used.
It's the structure of experience. Period. When used systematically, it
constitutes a full strategy for getting any behavioral gain."
Actually, NLP can do much more than the kinds of remedial work mentioned
above. The same principles can be used to study people who are unusually
talented in any way, in order to determine the structure of that talent.
That structure can then be quickly taught to others to give them the foundation
for that same ability. This kind of intervention results in generative
change, in which people learn to generate and create new talents and behaviors
for themselves and others. A side effect of such generative change is
that many of the problem behaviors that would otherwise have been targets
for remedial change simply disappear.
In one sense, nothing that NLP can accomplish is new. There have always
been "spontaneous remissions," ămiracle cures," and other sudden and puzzling
changes in people's behavior, and there have always been people who somehow
learned to use their abilities in exceptional ways.
What is new in NLP is the ability to systematically analyze those exceptional
people and experiences in such a way that they can become widely available
to others. Milkmaids in England became immune to smallpox long before
Jenner discovered cowpox and vaccination; now smallpox -- which used to
kill hundreds of thousands annually -- is eliminated from human experience.
In the same way, NLP can eliminate many of the difficulties and hazards
of living that we now experience, and make learning and behavioral change
much easier, more productive, and more exciting. We are on the threshold
of a quantum jump in human experience and capability.
There is an old story of a boilermaker who was hired to fix a huge steamship
boiler system that was not working well. After listening to the engineers
description of the problems and asking a few questions, he went to the
boiler room. He looked at the maze of twisting pipes, listened to the
thump of the boiler and the hiss of escaping steam for a few minutes,
and felt some pipes with his hands. Then he hummed softly to himself,
reached into his overalls and took out a small hammer, and tapped a bright
red valve, once. Immediately, the entire system began working perfectly,
and the boilermaker want home. When the steamship owner received a bill
for $1,000 he complained that the boilermaker had only been in the engine
room for fifteen minutes, and requested an itemized bill. This is what
the boilermaker sent him:
| For
tapping with hammer: |
.50 |
| For
knowing where to tap: |
$
999.50 |
| |
$1,000.00 |
What is really new in NLP is knowing exactly what to do, and how to do
it.
Steve Andreas
That's how you open up possibilities. It starts with a dream. Then it's
a matter of turning that dream blueprint into reality. As a person begins
to embrace their own self worth and open themselves up to the idea of
what is possible, they'll attract abundance and prosperity into their
life. The outer world is a reflection of our inner world. If someone is
feeling good on the inside, generally it will show on the outside and
they'll draw positive experiences into their life. That's the way life
works. |
