[Neurons] 2009 Meta Reflections #49

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Meta Reflections #49

November 9, 2009

 

IMPORTING NLP

BACK TO AMERICA

 

 

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, NLP dominated America more than
anywhere else in the world.  Once upon a time there were hundreds upon
hundreds of training centers -several in every major city and half a dozen
NLP Associations across the country.  Then there were numerous journals,
practice groups, and the talk of NLP was everywhere.  But no longer.

 

Today there are a dozen or so centers left and all are much smaller versions
of the former ones.  And today there are no Associations left nor are there
any magazines or journals.  And if you are like most people when they hear
this, they ask with astonishment, "What in the world happened?"

 

Also, once upon a time in southern California, NLP as a new model of human
development arose that caught the attention of the field of psychology,
psychotherapy, counseling, education, hypnotherapy, and many other fields.
And it was based on some solid researchers and world-class communicators-
people like Bateson, Korzybski, Satir, Perls, Erickson, George Miller,
Chomsky, etc.  And it thrived from the late 1970s through the 1980s.  Then
the movement began hitting some snags.

 

So what happened?  Well, I think that the demise of NLP in the United States
lies mostly in the hands of the very person who also did the most to create
it-Richard Bandler.  At the same time, he offered a new way to think about
and perceive human experiences he also seemed incredible skilled at creating
offense and disrespect for the model!  When I entered the field, his murder
trial in San Diego was just beginning. [Yes, that was quite an introduction
to the field!]  Prior to that was the lawsuit between him and Grinder; and
after the murder trial, the lawsuit he filed against Tony Robbins.  Then
there was all of the drugging with cocaine and heavy drinking and so on.

 

Yet what really created the demise of NLP in the U.S. was Richard's 1996
lawsuit for 90,000,000 dollars against eight people and "200 John Does"
(that's legal language for people to be named to the lawsuit"), a lawsuit
against the field of NLP.  And given his reputation for playing nasty or
hardball, that lawsuit scared a lot of people.  Actually, it not only scared
them, it scared the hell out of them so that scores of people began shutting
down their training centers, they stopped using the letters "NLP" in their
writings, presentations, businesses, and they distanced themselves more and
more from the community (what was left of it).  As a strategy for ruining a
movement, for torpedoing a field, for throwing cold water on fans of the
model- it was very successful!  Of course, if you are wondering as I have
heard so many wonder aloud and in writing, "Why would anyone in their right
mind do that?" - well, that's another question, and I can only guess at it.

 

The lawsuit was filed in 1996 and lasted till 2000 or 2001 when Bandler
lost.  He was then assessed some $600,000 to be paid to Chris Hall (no
relationship to me), NLP was declared in public domain, and he moved to
Ireland.  Yet in the past eight or nine years, the field has been very, very
slow to recover.  In fact, one of the strangest things now about the field
of NLP- it is thriving and growing and doing very well almost everywhere in
the world except the United States!  It is exploding in Russia and the
former Soviet countries; it is thriving and exploding in China and
throughout Asia. 

 

This is not to say that everyone helping with the spread is presenting high
quality NLP or being ethical in what they are doing.  Many are not.  In
this, the buyer truly has to beware and has to ask many, many hard
questions.  But that's the subject of another article.

 

Regarding bringing NLP back to the United States, it does not seem to be
arising from within.  There is some growth, but it is very small.   We
probably need solid NLP trainers in England, Europe, Latin America, Canada,
even Australia and that part of the world to bring it back and establish it
on more solid grounds.  In fact, if you are a solid quality NLP trainer,
there are dozens and dozens of major cities in the United States without any
NLP training- cities of a million or more people and not a single training
center. 

 

And this is also true of Neuro-Semantics.  At this moment, we do not have a
Neuro-Semantic Institute in the United States -Mexico, yes.  Canada, coming
soon.  But in the United States- no.  Nothing.  Zip.  Zadda.  I would, but
currently my relationship to the States is that I keep flying back home to
pay taxes.  In terms of living, I mostly live everywhere else!

 

Why am I writing about this?  Because here is a true opportunity for lots of
people and because most people around the world don't know about this.  Here
is an opportunity for someone, or several someones, for people in Europe,
Asia, Latin America or elsewhere make it their mission to import NLP back to
the United States.  What do you think?  The opportunities are immense.  With
dozens of major cities with populations into the millions and with over 300
million across the country, the States offer a vast market.  Who has the
business acumen to create Training Centers or Event Companies and bring a
high quality, ethical, and commercially viable business model to the United
States?  What Neuro-Semantic/NLP trainer will do that?

 

I train almost exclusively outside of the United States, but not by choice.
I do that because that is where NLP is growing and where Neuro-Semantics is
exploding.  For myself, I would love to conduct the Meta-Coaching System on
both coasts of the United States and a couple places in the middle, yet to
do that, we need NLP trainers training NLP Practitioner and/or NLP
Introduction courses.  There also need to be Neuro-Semantic trainers running
APG workshops on Meta-States. 

 

Now that NLP is "in the public domain" in the United States and in the UK,
and now that nearly a decade has passed since all of the commotion of the
lawsuits and the bad press of NLP, the time has come for there to be a
resurgence of NLP in the US.  And now that the original hype and all of the
new-age non-sense has passed, the time is ripe for a professional
development of NLP and Neuro-Semantics in the US.  Those who know how to
present NLP for business, for high quality communication, for modeling
excellence and those who know how to present the higher ethical and
professional standards of Neuro-Semantics and the vision of "walking the
talk" -you have a wonderful opportunity.  People need it.  Who will rise up
to take up the challenge?

 

 

 

 

Unleashing Leadership Workshop

 

The latest book in the Self-Actualization Series and in the Meta-Coach
series is Unleashing Leadership: Self-Actualizing Leaders and Companies
(2009).   As a leadership development workshop, discover how to identify
your leadership potentials and unleash them --- whether for self-leadership
or leadership in an opportunity that awaits you.

 

Dec. 11-13, Imola, Italy

            Sponsored by Bless You --- Nicola Riva and Lucia Giovannini

            Nicola at blessyou.it 

            Special gathering on Dec. 14 for Meta-Coaches and NS trainers 

at the home of Nicola and Lucia.

 

 

 

 

--- Meta-Coach Trainings coming 2009 - 2010

                        

1) Australia

       November 19, 20-27 - Coaching Mastery.  Sydney, Australia

      Sponsors: Laureli Blyth and Heidi Heron                  

      Heidi at nlpworldwide.com              Laureli at nlpworldwide.com 

 

 

2) China --- 2010

      Meta-Coaching in two parts --   January 17-22 and May 9-14  (6 days
each time): 

Includes also Module II (Coaching Genius).  

            Guangzhou, China:  Sponsor: Team Huang --- supported by
Neuro-Semantic Trainers: 

Mandy Chai and Wilkie Choi   For Chinese---   yeshow at 163.net .  For English
speakers: 

Mandy Chai: chaimansun at yahoo.com.hk 

 

 

3) Mexico --- 2010

     In two parts --- March 4-7 (March 3 for Team Leaders) and April 15-18
(April 14 for Team Leaders). 

     Sponsor: Salom Change Dynamics-  www.salomchd.com  (55) 30930687 ---
emilia at salomchd.com

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

(ISNS) International Society of Neuro-Semantics

The International Meta-Coach System

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA

1 970-523-7877

      <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com 

       <http://www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com/>
www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com 

       <http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

       <http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org

       <http://www.ns-video.com/> www.ns-video.com 

 

To sign up for a free subscription to the egroup of Neuro-Semantics
(Neurons) go to  <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com ---
you can  subscribe and unsubscribe there.   Meta Reflection articles by Dr.
Hall are sent out every Monday and meta-Coach Reflections sent out every
Wednesdday to the Meta-Coaches egroup.  Contact Dr. Hall at  meta@ acsol.net


 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20091109/0e5a36f9/attachment-0001.htm>