[Neurons] 2010 Meta Reflections #26

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2010 - #26

June 7, 2010

 

 

THE MIS-NAMING OF 

"MASTER PRAC."

 

 

Yes they mis-named it!  And what a tragedy that mis-naming has created.  Yet
as with most things human, they undoubtedly were doing their best and simply
didn't imagine, didn't think, didn't project themselves into the future to
consider what consequences that name would have.

 

How could they have known that 35 years later people with just a month of
training in this field would use the title, "Master Practitioner," stress
the Master part, and consider that they have arrived, they know-it-all, they
don't need to study anymore, they have arrived at Guru-dom?!

 

The history of NLP "Practitioner" and "Master Practitioner" is itself an
interesting one.  Since 1978 when Leslie Cameron Bandler put together the
first "Practitioner" that was some 36 days long, the Prac. course of NLP was
designed to introduce the basic NLP models and give people the essential
competencies to use the models and patterns and to begin to think in terms
of these models.

 

And that means what?  That means understanding the basic Communication Model
of NLP.  That's why NLP is- a model of how human beings communicate, first
to themselves (also called "thinking," "awareness," "being conscious") and
then to others (also called "talking").  Modeled from three experts in
communication, three "world-class professional communicators" NLP presented
itself as being able to identify the essential structure of communication
verbally and non-verbally.

 

The verbal part predominated at first.  Using the dominating linguistic
model at that time, Transformational Grammar (TG), Grinder introduced the
majority of the jargon of NLP by sticking in all of the TG language:
transderivational search to your referential index, selective restriction
violation, nominalizations, etc.  In The Structure of Magic, the language
part was recognized as the "meta-representational system."

 

None of that was new, nor was the sensory representational systems (seeing,
hearing, sensing, smelling, tasting).  That had been around for a hundred
years in the field of Psychology, from the very beginning of Psychology as a
field separate from Philosophy.  But there was something new, and radical-
Using the sensory representational systems as the languages of the mind.
That was new.  And Bateson noted this in his Preface to The Structure of
Magic commenting that he and his colleagues had been search for that for
decades.

So first came the Meta-Model, then the Representational Systems, which
includes calibrating to a person for recognizing representational systems
(eye accessing cues and the like), then the TOTE model for Strategies, the
Milton Model (and reversing the Meta-Model to use it for trance), the
Sub-Modality distinctions, and the basic Time-Line model, and with these
models, lots of patterns, processes, and exercises.  And at first Prac. took
a long, long time.  But eventually, the process was streamlined to 21 days
of 8 hours or so of training each day, and this still remains that in many
places.  We increase the hours to 12 hour days, require extensive reading
and preparation ahead of time and can get through the content in a minimum
of 7 days when we really push it.  And what accelerates the learning of NLP
in Neuro-Semantics is half a day on Meta-States since that's what explains
the "magic" of NLP.

 

Then there's Master Prac.  It really has nothing to do with mastery, it is
mostly more stuff.  More of the NLP model: Meta-Programs, Advance Modeling,
Extensive Reframing using the old "sleight of mouth" patterns (or
Mind-Lines), Meta-States, Advanced Trance, Advanced Time-Lines, and again,
lots and lots patterns, processes, and applications to personal development,
therapy, business, selling, leadership, etc.

 

Many years ago I asked Wyatt Woodsmall, 

"Why was Meta-Programs put in Master Prac. rather than in Prac.?  After all,
a person really needs to know about meta-programs from the beginning?"

His answer was simple and succinct: "Because they were not invented when
Prac. was invented!"  "Oh, so that's why!"  (Of course, the story of their
invention is in Figuring Out People, 2007).

 

When I first began training Master Prac. I tossed some things in about
"mastery," what it is, how long it takes (the "ten year rule"), the attitude
required, etc. and we ended Master Prac. With a "pathway to mastery"
celebration.  Today I think that's a mistake.  While the 15 to 24 days of
Master Prac. does take basic NLP further, and provides a more indepth
understanding, if we're honest, it really has nothing to do with mastery and
it actually is perpetuating the "get rich quick," "get smart quick," "get
instant expertise" myth that's clings to NLP like a leach sucking its blood.

 

No one is a "master" of NLP after a two or three week intensive course or
after a year if you stretch it out to 6 or 8 weekends.

That's not how mastery works.  Even I knew that after my first experience of
Master Prac.  At my first Master Prac. I wrote the notes that is now the
book, The Spirit of NLP (1996).  And in that book, the idea of the spirit of
NLP is the idea of continuous learning, an unending, ongoing attitude of
exploring, discovering, and ferocious curiosity.

 

In an interview in Moscow recently, I was asked about Master Practitioners/
Trainers who consider that they have arrived, who segregate themselves from
everybody else and present themselves as having reached the pinnacle of the
field.  "What about them?  What would you say to them?"  

"I'd say that 'You have missed the whole point!  You do not understand the
basics of NLP if that's your attitude!  Your license to train ought to be
revoked and you ought to go study it afresh and learn to develop the spirit
of NLP.  Your journey to mastery has hardly begun- there are many new
developments in the field and unless you are staying involved, collaborating
with those who are doing things in this field, every day you are falling
further and further behind!'"

 

 

 

This Week's Neuro-Semantic News

We are wrapping up the completion of NSTT (Trainers' Training ) in Hong Kong
and the graduation is this Thursday.

Then NSTT Colorado Begins June 19.

 

 

 

 

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

       www.meta-coachfoundation.org 

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

 

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(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


 

 

 

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