NLP: Neurolinguistic Programming
Original Developers: John Grinder and Richard Bandler
NLP Presuppositions
1. The map is not the territory.
Slogan of Alfred Korzybski, founder of the General Semantics school. We do
not respond to the world directly, our emotions, thoughts and behaviours and
reactions to our mental "map" of the world.
2. Experience has a structure.
The structure of human experience can be mapped, understood, and
changed.
3. If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it.
Successful people can be modelled in a way that allows other people to learn
and utilise their skills.
4. The mind and body are parts of the same system.
Change the mind and you affect the body, change the use you make of the
body and you change the experience of the mind.
5. People already have all the resources they need.
People already have an enormous wealth of unutilised resources in the form
of their existing memories, skills, and knowledge. This unused potential can
be tapped into in order to create new solutions.
6. You cannot not communicate.
Your body language and voice quality constantly express your internal
experience in a way that either confirms or undermines the content of your
speech.
7. The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
Communication is basically meant to generate change in other people, if their
reactions are not what you desired then you are not communicating
effectively.
8. Underlying every behaviour is a positive intention.
People aren't fundamentally wicked or self-destructive, they just go about
things the wrong way.
9. People are always making the best choices available to them.
Changing our model of the world gives us more choices, when we have more
choices we are free to make better decisions.
10. If what you're doing isn't working, do something else.
Adapt your behaviour, and your model of the world, to the feedback that you
get from your experience.
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
Key Components of NLP Modelling
Sensory Sub-Modalities: The notion that making changes to the format and
style of our mental images, inner dialogue, imagined sensations, and other
experiences are crucial to personal change. Sub-modalities are the
changeable sensory components, such as the volume or pitch of a sound, or
the brightness or size of an image.
Language Patterns: The notion that the verbal structure of sentences can
influence the way we respond to their content. Language patterns, such as
nominalization, embedded suggestions, scope ambiguity, etc., can be used to
influence other people through verbal communication.
Eye-Accessing Cues: The notion that when the eyes move in different
directions it indicates different types of mental activity, e.g., creating new
images, or remembering old ones. This is one of the more controversial
aspects of NLP as the claims have never been verified despite several
research studies. Bandler and Grinder's original model contained basic errors
regarding the functioning of the brain, which they subsequently corrected.
Some Key NLP Techniques
Fast Phobia Cure: The technique of watching a movie of a traumatic situation
played in reverse to disconnect feelings of anxiety.
Visual Kinaesthetic (V/K) Dissociation: Watching a movie of a traumatic event
or phobic situation in black and white, and two steps removed, to create a
sense of emotional dissociation.
Anchoring: Basically the same as setting up a "trigger" or "conditioned
stimulus" in traditional therapy. The use of a key word, image, or gesture to
evoke a positive resource, e.g., using the words "true self" and the gesture of
clenching the fist to evoke feelings of confidence and motivation.
Perspective Change: The Walt Disney Model. Similar to "shuttling
perspectives" in Gestalt therapy. Viewing a situation either from a self (first-
person associated), other (second-person associated), or neutral (third-
person/dissociated) perspective to experience insights and emotional
changes.
Six-Step Reframe: Using (ideo-dynamic) signals to allow communication
between different "parts" of the self, so that internal conflict can be resolved.
Similar to part therapy, ego-state therapy, and Gestalt therapy.
Compulsion Blowout: Used for treating unwanted habits like drinking,
smoking, fingernail biting, eating large cream cakes, etc. An associated image
of the compulsive behaviour is shaken up by making it very small and distant,
then very large and close up. This is usually followed by anchoring a feeling
of aversion to the object or behaviour (aversion therapy).
Swish Pattern: Often used for personal development or sport performance
enhancement. An associated image of the problem situation is rapidly
(Swish!) swapped for a dissociated image of the goal to be achieved.
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
