[Neurons] 2024 Neurons #58 BANDLER FINALLY WISES UP

[L. Michael Hall]

*From: L. Michael Hall*

*2024 Neurons #58*

*December 30,  2024                                 *



*BANDLER FINALLY WISES UP*



My first thought was that maybe he’s spying on Neuro-Semantics to find out
what we’re doing, so that he would then be able to be the inventor.  But
that’s far too paranoid of an assumption, so I rejected that one.  Maybe he
has secretly been reading the Neuro-Semantics website.  Anyway, what he has
been doing most recently is following very much the same line of thought
and focus that I have been doing since 2016, namely, talking about *thinking.
*In 2016 I began writing about “The Next Big Thing” in NLP and
Neuro-Semantics, namely, *critical thinking.*  Two years later, I
published, *Executive Thinking *(2018).  That then led to the whole series
on *thinking*—now going on 14 books.

1) *Executive Thinking: Activating Your Highest Executive Thinking
Potentials *(2018).

2) *Thinking as a Modeler *(2019).

              3) *Thinking Hypnotically *(2020).

              4) *Hypnotic Conversations for Unleashing Potentials *(2020)

              5) *Humorous Thinking *(2020)

              6) *Executive Decisions: Deciding Wisely *(2020)

              7) *Thinking Metaphorically: Becoming a Skilled Metaphorian *
(2021)

              8) *Executive Learning: Learning How to Learn *(2021)

              9) *Executive Wisdom: *Being One of the Wise Ones (2022)

              10) *Inside Out: Empowered from Within *(2022).

              11)* The Meta-Place: *A Model of the Mind and Thinking
Landmarks (2023)

              12) *Thinking for Humans:*   (2024)

              13) *Strategic Thinking *(2025)

              14) *Unconscious Thinking *(proposed for 2025)



I found out what Bandler has been up to when I recently purchased *Patterns
for Problem Solving* (2023).  Here Bandler devotes the first 161 pages to
reproducing his 1975 *The Structure of Magic *and adding in a few (very
few) comments.  The book actually begins on page 162. After that he focuses
on *thinking.  *And in doing so, he says that the Meta-Model was designed
for problem-solving.  To that end, he frames things in terms of *thinking:*

“What the most successful therapists did ... they got people to *engage in
new thinking. *  If you change the way you *think, *it changes the way you
feel and therefore changes what you’re capable of doing.” (iv)  “The
Meta-Model is full of terrific questions that help us *to think *differently.”
(171) “Our model enables us to effectively and decisively challenge the
various biases that originate in *people’s thinking *when they make
decisions.” (178).   “Most of this is about getting people *to think *on
purpose.”  (181).  “The Meta-Model provides us a way of gaining insight as
to *how people are thinking *and what is missing or distorted in their
model of the world.” (192).  “The mindset for solving problems
involves *thinking
through *the right questions to ask.” (200) “The Meta-Model is designed to
enable you to help people to *think differently *about their problems and
uncover solutions they couldn’t see before. (211) (italics added).



What Richard and Owen present however, is *only* representational
thinking.  That’s all —the VAK.  And in doing that, he makes the same
mistake that NLP has made from the beginning, namely, assuming that *all
thinking is sensory-based thinking.*  So with beliefs and decisions, he
assumes these are pictures and self-talk which people have in their heads.
That’s where he got the mistaken idea that you can change beliefs by
changing the cinematic features (sub-modalities).  But you can’t.  Give
that assumption there is also not a single consideration for logical or
meta levels at all.  For him, the problem in beliefs and decisions are the
pictures and the self-talk.  That’s all.



Now inasmuch as he refers to a 2019 book, *Thinking on Purpose,* I bought
it and, again, the *only kind of thinking that is addressed there is
representational thinking.  *That’s it.  Nothing else.  As if there is no
additional kind of thinking!  Now true enough, in 1975 when NLP was first
introduced, the idea that we think in pictures, sounds, sensations, and
words was *revolutionary *and led to many processes that can quickly
resolve therapeutic and personal development issues.  But that’s only the
beginning.



Without an awareness of the whole *meta place of the mind,* and the unique
meta-level structures of the thinking landmarks there (beliefs, values,
memories, anticipations, identities, metaphors, intentions, etc.), you can
only update and improve the quality of thinking at the representative level
and not at the meta-levels.



Overall, I’m delighted that one of the founders of NLP is slowly coming
back to the true nature of NLP and the Meta-Model— *it is actually a
thinking model.*  I began suspecting that when Bob and I wrote *Figuring
Out People *(1997) when we detailed *the thinking patterns *which we call
meta-programs.  So at least Bandler is moving in the right direction.  And
who knows, maybe he will stumble on the idea of the self-reflexive thinking
that’s within meta-states and then realize that there are many, many other
kinds of thinking.



As a footnote: He and Owen also quoted much of what I wrote in *Communication
Magic *(1997/ 2001) about the linguistic wars after Chomsky, but of course,
not giving any credit (50-51).  Another distinction to make; he always
speaks about the “brain” and never the mind, and makes no distinction
between them.  Another thing he will need to learn.













*L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director *

*Neuro-Semantics *

*738 Beaver Lodge*

*Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA*

*               1 970-523-7877 *

[image: 132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover]
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