[Neurons] 2019 Neurons #42 THE ELUSIVE OBVIOUS--- WHAT IS NLP?

Sun Sep 15 23:50:09 EDT 2019

From: L. Michael Hall

2019 Neurons #42

September 16, 2019

THE ELUSIVE OBVIOUS-

WHAT IS NLP?

For me, it is a simple thing to define is NLP.  Yes, I know that the
question, "What is NLP?" induces many NLP Trainers and practitioners into a
state of uncontrollable stuttering.  Yet the truth is that the answer is
obvious and right before your eyes-if you only have eyes to see it.  I bring
this up again because last week I read chapter 6 of Bruce Grimley's book on
NLP and Coaching, fantastically titled, "A New Theory of NLP."  After
collecting 14 definitions of NLP from "15 NLP experts from around the
world," and then writing a whole chapter on what NLP is, I was stunned that
not one time did Bruce or any of these "experts" say the elusive obvious-
NLP is a communication model.  Amazing!

One expert said that it "defies easy description."  Others quoted the
subtitle of NLP Volume I, "the study of the structure of subjective
experience" which is valid.  Steve Andreas came very close "An explicit and
powerful model of human experience and communication."

It's amazing that we have so complicated this question, "What is NLP?" and
turned it into an area of complexity.  Here's what I wrote two years ago as
a post here on Neurons as I argued that it is simply and essentially a
communication model (#30, July 10, 2017).

NLP: WHAT IS IT- REALLY? 

Morpheus asked Neo when they first met, "Do you want to know what it is?"
Neo answered with a question, "What is the Matrix?"  The question here is,
"What is NLP?"  Now some NLP people seem to have a challenge about defining
and describing what it is.  I suppose that's because as a meta-discipline,
it can be applied to so many things.  And yet, what it can be applied to is
not the same thing as what it is.  Identity is not the same thing as
applicaiton.

In terms of defining NLP, it is a communication model.  How do I know that?
Well, look at the title of the original books.  The two volumes of The
Structure of Magic is titled, A Book about Communication and Change.  And in
those two volumes, the authors present "A Meta-Model of Language in
Therapy."  Next, look at all of the communication models of NLP-

           The list of 12 linguistic distinctions (from Transformational
Grammar) and questions to enable a person get a fuller and deeper
representation of the person's experience is the Meta-Model.

           The list of the sensory representation systems and their
distinctions that comprise the language of the mind.

           The list of non-linguistic processes (calibrating, pacing, etc.)
for communicating.

           The list of meta-program distinctions of perceptual filters that
influence communication.

           The list of state or trance inducing linguistic and
non-linguistic forms, hence hypnotic communication.

           The list of communication guidelines such as "The meaning of
your communication is the response you receive."

It's a Communication Model!  And the original design was to look at how the
expert communicators in therapy (Perls, Satir, Erickson) communicated which
resulted in effective therapeutic change.  Later, others were modeled for
communication expertise in business, medicine, leadership, etc.  The
originators also used and quoted the Satir Categories of Communication, they
started with the linguistic formulations from Transformational Grammar and a
little bit from General Semantics.

In April (2017) when I was in London for the NLP Conference, we conducted a
short meeting for the NLP Leadership Summit and at the heart of the
conversation this year was membership as well as what is accepted as
"Neuro-Linguistic Programming."  One person suggested several new age
techniques around "energy."  That's when co-founder Frank Pucelik spoke up
to correct that mis-understanding.

              "I remember what we did at the beginning and a lot of it was
surely not NLP.  We studied these things (new age techniques and things from
Esalen) to try to find interesting patterns, to increase our observation
skills, or to find out if there was any truth claims in these strange
systems, and sometimes just for fun to see if we could do them.   We studied
many things including but not limited to, Psychodrama, Re-evaluation
Co-counseling, Art therapy, stage hypnosis, Castaneda (Don Juan, etc.), Bio
Feedback, Sensory Deprivation (Isolation tanks), Massage Therapy, Reading
Auras, Gestalt, TA (Transactional Analysis), Rogerian Therapy, Earth
Coincidence Control Office (John Lilly), Dolphin Communication Patterns
(Bateson) , Encounter Group Processes, Sensitivity T-Groups, Past Lives,
Occult Belief Systems, Pavlov, and many more.  But we never considered any
of these systems to be NLP.  We based NLP on all the processes that are
known to be NLP/Meta today.   The Meta-Model, Rep. Systems, Systematic Use
of Negations, Calibrations, Major Beliefs, Anchoring, Pacing and Leading,
The Milton Model, Satirs' Conjoint Family Systems, Brain Hemisphere
Functions, and the rest."

Those were "the wild days of NLP" and in those wild days, while the founders
explored lots of things, that in itself did not turn those things into NLP.
Later Robert Dilts along with the originators put together the first Volume
of NLP and sub-titled the book, The Study of the Structure of Subjective
Experience (1980).  That's because the elements of communication
(linguistics, sensory systems, non-linguistic responses, etc.) are
simultaneously the components of experience.  And if they are the components
of experience- then we can use the very tools of communication to model the
structure of any and every experience.  That's why NLP, as a Communication
Model, grew and expanded by the process of modeling.

Isn't that fantastic!?  The components of experience- then we can use the
very tools of communication to model the structure of any and every
experience.  Did you catch the connection?  The variables by which
communication works (an experience) are the very variables (structure) of
all experiences.  That's why and how the NLP model gives us the tools for
modeling the structure (form, patterning) of experiences.

I was not explicit aware of this when I first learned NLP.  It wasn't until
1996 that I explicitly woke up to this connection between communication and
modeling when Richard Bandler asked me to write a book on the 25-history of
the Meta-Model.  And I did.  The book (first titled, The Secret of Magic,
1997, and later re-titled, Communication Magic, 2001) was published by Crown
House Publications.  Prior to that (1992) I had added nine additional
distinctions to the Meta-Model from Korzybski's General Semantics.  And that
list was then published in NLP Journals around the world and was
incorporated in the second edition of Magic Demystified written by Bryon
Lewis (and Frank Pucelik).

What is it?  Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a Communication Model.
It describes how we are patterned (programmed) in and by the communication
processes within neurology and linguistics.  And yes, it can be applied to
anything "human," especially any and every human experience.   But it is not
everything.  It is not therapy, counseling, psychology, or hypnosis- even
though it arose from those disciplines.  It is not persuasion, sales,
management, leadership, or even coaching.  Although obviously as a
communication model, it will have lots of practical usefulness in these
fields.  Nor is NLP any of the many kinds of sci-fi "energy" programs that
are touted under the name of NLP. 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com   look for the special offer

Author of the stunning new history of NLP--- NLP Secrets.  

Investigative Journalism which has exposed what has been kept secrets for
decades. 

http://www.neurosemantics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/NLP-Secrets-2_sml2.
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