[Neurons] 2023 Neurons #29 THE DEEP SIDE OF NLP

Sun Jul 2 18:11:35 EDT 2023

From: L. Michael Hall

2023 Neurons #29

July 3, 2023

THE DEEP SIDE OF NLP

There's a disease in the field of NLP.  This disease has probably been
around since the beginning, but it really began showing up and doing damage
beginning in the 1990s.  What is this disease?  What shall we call it?
Several potential names for this disease dance around on my consciousness:

           "NLP is not enough."  After the initial excitement of
representation systems, eye accessing cues, transformational change
patterns, reframing, etc., many got bored with NLP and began looking for
something new, something different.  Anything new and different!  They were
probably highly optional and global (in their meta-programs) and simply did
not know how to recognize the depth or quality of NLP.

           "NLP only deals with surface things."  Those who only get a
superficial understanding of NLP, especially those who learn NLP in
three-days or even seven days, often have no real clue about the depth of
NLP.  For them, it only deals with the surface of things.  So they leave NLP
altogether or contaminate NLP with other things wehich they consider deeper-
integral (Ken Wilbur), M-Brain (the junk psychology which thinks people have
three brains), quantum mechanics (which may be 'sexy' but has nothing to do
with the macro level life that we all lead).  They also probably do not know
how to plummet the depths of NLP and probably lack the quality of thinking
that's necessary to do so.

           "NLP was good in its time, but that time is now over."  Anyone
with a prejudice against anything "old"-ideas, books, publications, etc. and
who think, "everything written before last year is irrelevant," dismisses
NLP as old and out of fashion.  For them, if it is old, it is no longer
relevant or useful.

The disease I'm referring to is a disease of shallowness and superficiality.
It's the same disease that infects people who want to "get rich quick."
They want solutions quick, if not sooner.  They are impatient and demanding.
They want things to be easy and simple and are ready to simplify until the
subject is so watered-down, it is unrecognizable.  They want things dramatic
and magical.

By way of contrast, Bob and I began Neuro-Semantic to "raise the quality,
ethics, and professionalism of NLP."  That was our original vision and
established our mission in the 1990s.  To that end, using the Meta-States
Model, Bob and I reviewed every single model and pattern in NLP.  We ran the
basic NLP ecology check on everything we did.  Our purpose was to quality
control the use of each pattern and model and thereby raised the quality of
NLP. 

What did we find?  We actually found a number of things that were not
ecological and that did not meet the tests of being practical, actionable,
or even consistent to the NLP presuppositions. One of our first discoveries
concerned the true status of sub-modalities.  As it turned out that they are
not sub- at all, but meta.  You first have to have a picture, then you can
step back and edit it!  That led to questioning the traditional belief
pattern using sub-modalities-we discovered that it just does not work.
Interviewing scores of NLP trainers, we found out that none of them could
make it work.  That led us to inventing the Meta Belief Change Pattern based
on the structure of beliefs (a confirmation of a thought).

We similarly expanded "time-lines" as I identified 16 kinds of "time."  We
did the same with meta-programs (today 70 have been identified and defined).
We re-ordered the un-ordered sleight of mouth patterns and updated it with a
much better name, Mind-Lines: Lines for Changing Minds.  That led to the
seven directions for reframing.

In addition to all of that theorical work, we decided to create a Society of
People who would apply NLP to themselves and who would operate by
collaboration and a code of ethics.  This soon expanded to the ISNS as the
community went international.  Then over the years, creating Institutes of
Neuro-Semantics in a dozen countries, we held people accountable to the
ethics and revoked licenses when someone behaved unethically.

As for the depth of NLP-we found that with every development in
Neuro-Semantics we were actually deepening NLP in numerous ways.  I
continued modeling using the Meta-States Model and that led to over 35
modeling projects covering topics that NLP had never touched on.  That's
because with the meta-level modeling that came from Meta-States, we were
able to model subjective experiences that develop over the long-term.  When
I later discovered the historical role of the Human Potential Movement and
NLP's history in it, that deepened the purpose and original intent of NLP-a
purpose that we keep alive in Neuro-Semantics today.

As we continued to focus on "the study of the structure of subjective
experience" this led us to thinking itself.  That's because inside of
communication, relationship, well-being, and everything else human is
thinking-all kinds of thinking.  Yes all of the meta-programs, but also the
structure of thinking itself.  And then the problematic forms of thinking
(e.g., cognitive distortions, biases, and fallacies).  As a result, we have
now developed three Brain Camps, one for thinking, one for learning, and one
for wise decisions. 

When you know the depth of NLP that Neuro-Semantics brings to this field,
you will never again need to look elsewhere.  What's inside is more
exciting, challenging, fascinating, and transformative than any new fad of
the month.  But there is a price.  You have to put on your thinking cap and
engage your mind fully.  Yes, you have to actually think.  For those who
want to develop their mindfulness, the truth is we have not even started to
mine the depths of NLP.  And mining the depths continues to be our ongoing
focus in Neuro-Semantics. 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

(970) 523-7877

drhall at acsol.net  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20230702/7d828bad/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.wmz
Type: application/x-ms-wmz
Size: 284914 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20230702/7d828bad/attachment-0001.wmz>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 96527 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20230702/7d828bad/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: oledata.mso
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 1618210 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20230702/7d828bad/attachment-0001.obj>