[Neurons] 2011 Meta Reflections #26

[L. Michael Hall]

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Meta Reflections 2011 - #26

June 6, 2011

 

 

WHERE DID THE IDEA OF "MAGIC" COME FROM

IN NLP?

 

 

A week ago, Bob Bodenhamer sent me a link to listen to a podcast of three
"experts" in stuttering talk about NLP.  Now Bob warned me that I would hear
"a lot of ignorance," but I had no idea that three people with advanced
degrees could wallow in as much ignorance and create as much mis-information
about NLP as those three did.  Afterwards I went to their website and wrote
a response giving them some feedback on the depth of their
mis-understandings and while I was at it, I chastised them a bit for talking
of things of which they knew nothing!  Their exploration of NLP actually
contributed to a significant increase of misunderstanding and confusion!

 

Now to their credit, they repeated over and over, "I have not studied NLP,"
and "I don't know if this is correct."  So where did they get their sources
on NLP?  From the internet!  From websites where people "sell" NLP.  So no
wonder they were so ignorant!

 

Now one of them did know about the first book of NLP, The Structure of
Magic.  And they mentioned that one of the author's name was Grinder, but
they didn't have a clue as to what that book was about.  They did not
indicate that they even knew it was a book on linguistics and based on
Transformational Grammar.  All they could focus on, and for an hour they
focused on it again and again and again, was the word "magic."  And from
that term they then went on a rampage against "magic" cues for stuttering
using NLP, quick "magic" formulas, "magical thinking," fast "magic"
solutions without depth, etc.  Hearing their rants, I told Bob later that I
was about ready to swear off ever using that term again!

 

When I awoke from the negative hypnotic trance the stuttering experts had
induced I realized that here were three people, supposedly "experts" in an
area, who were willing to do an hour program on why NLP was dangerous or
ineffective in helping stutterers who had not even taken the time to learn
about NLP!  So much for their credibility!  So in part, I wrote the
following to them:

"It is interesting that instead of looking at the success rate that Dr. Bob
Bodenhamer has had with people who stutter, moving them to the place where
they are fluent, you focus on such irrelevancies as the word "magic," other
"new" terminology, and out-of-context references. If you really want to
understand the Neuro-Semantic approach, I'd recommend you approach Dr.
Bodenhamer with the attitude of a learner to find out how he has done what
he has done."

 

"Ten years ago Bob and I modeled 'stuttering' as a neuro-linguistic process.
We worked with numerous people and took writings from General Semantics. Out
of that process, Bob wrote the book, Mastering Stuttering and Blocking Using
NLP and Neuro-Semantics (Crown House Publications).  Out of that process
also both we and many, many trainers and coaches around the world have
helped hundreds and hundreds of stutterers become fluid."

 

As a Post Note: the book is now being reprinted by Crown House Publications
in paperback under a new title:  Mastering Blocking and Stuttering: A
Cognitive Approach to Achieving Fluency.

 

So what is the story about the word "magic?"  Where did it come from?  Why
did Bandler and Grinder use that term in the first NLP book?  Most people do
not know.  So let me let you in on the secret.

 

In the book, The Sourcebook of Magic, Volume I, I wrote about the the
metaphor that's involved in the term "magic."

"Why the word ]'"magic?'  What's that all about?  In NLP, we typically use
the term magic in a special way.  It does not designate external magic or
any kind of actual magic that changes the laws of physics.  "Magic" here
means none of that.  The term rather refers to the seemingly wild and
wonderful and magical effects (the changes and transformations) that occur
when we know the structure of subjective experience." (p. 13)

 

"As an uninitiate to the secrets-such wild and wonderful ideas and
experiences can only seem like "magic."  And yet knowing what we know today
about gravity, aero-dynamics, the electromagnetic spectrum, artificial
intelligence, information processing via parallel processing units, etc. we
no longer think of such as magic.  The magic has been transformed into
knowledge and science." (p. 20)

 

Then in the book, Meta-States, Mastering Your Mind's Highest Levels, (2007,
p. 288) I wrote about the original source of the term "magic.  It came from
a wonderfully provocative piece by Gregory Bateson (1972), The Group
Dynamics of Schizophrenia, where he described "the world of communication"
and how it radically differs from "the world of physics and forces."

"The 'world of physics,' he said, innately involves the cause-effect
processes of Newtonian dynamics.  In this world, actions and things are
energized by the transference of energy from other actions and things.  Here
billiard balls move entirely and exclusively according to the physics of
impact and gravity.  You hit the ball with your cue stick and the ball moves
according to the energy transfer of that force.

 

"An entirely different set of "dynamics" occurs in the world of
communication.  When we kick a dog, the movement of the dog in response to
your kick is only partially explained by a "Newtonian trajectory."  To
predict the trajectory of the dog, the intensity of his response, etc. not
only involves the amount of force applied by the kick, but also by the dog's
own metabolism, internal energy system, learning history, relationship to
the kicker (!), and so on.  In a word, it depends on the dog's inner
psycho-logics (the meaning of the person kicking to the dog).

 

"Bateson commented that while we may use the word "dynamics" when referring
to psychological processes, we must remember that we use it in a different
sense from the way physicists use the word in the domain of physics.  In
distinguishing these two realms, "Bateson wrote, 

"This, I think, is what people mean by magic.  The realm of phenomena in
which we are interested [psychological, mental, communicational, etc.] is
always characterized by the fact that 'ideas' may influence events." (p.
229, italics added)

 

In so introducing the word "magic" into realm of communication, Bateson may
have unknowingly provided some of the inspiration for Bandler and Grinder's
book, "The Structure of Magic" (1975).6  If we inquire as to what precisely
Bateson meant by using the term "magic," and keep it within the Batesonian
context, we come to this statement:

"It might well be sufficiently confusing to be told, that according to the
conventions of communication in use at the moment, anything can stand for
anything else.  But this realm of magic is not that simple." (p. 230, italic
added)

"All communication has this characteristic-it can be magically modified by
accompanying communication." (230, italics added)

 

In this Batesonian context then, the term "magic" refers to the realm of
communication, and specifically to the cognitive-neurological understanding
about how ideas may influence events.  In the realm of symbolization,
Bateson contented that words and language is sometimes so plastic that
"anything can stand for anything else."  Yet, as he noted, it is not that
extreme.  It just feels that way sometimes.  Yet this does describe the
fluid and complex arena inside the human nervous system that transcends the
laws of physics.  And now you know the source of the term "magic."  May the
critics be silenced by information!

 

 

 

 

 

Do You Know About the First International Neuro-Semantic Conference??

.       It is Open to everybody!    Especially NLP people,
Neuro-Semanticists, and people interested in self-development,
self-actualization, Coaching, and Business development.


 

.       The dates are July 1-3 and then July 4 on "Secrets about Mastery" By
Colin Cox --- Neuro-Semantic Master Trainer, 3 times winner of Strongest Man
Contest in New Zealand.

 

.       You can check out the Schedule of Workshops on the website,
www.neurosemantics.com for the three tracks ---coaching, business,
self-development.  See the 22 speakers and workshop titles.

 

.       This is the inaugural Conference which will travel to various
countries around the world (Malaysia in 2013 and Hong Kong/ China 2015).

 

.       Only 3 weeks away --- now is the time to register for the
conference.  See attachment (Registration form).

 

.       And Coaching Mastery, Module III of Meta-Coaching for ACMC
credentials follows on July 6 through July 13.  Now is the time to
register!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----  www.neurosemantics.com
<http://www.neurosemantics.com/> 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                             ----
www.self-actualizing.org <http://www.self-actualizing.org/> 

1 970-523-7877                                               ----
www.meta-coaching.org <http://www.meta-coaching.org/> 

 

     

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