Neuro-linguistic programming

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) was proposed in 1973 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder as a set of models and principles to describe the relationship between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic, both verbal and non-verbal) and how their interaction might be organized (programming) to affect an individual's mind, body and behavior. It is described by the original developers as "therapeutic magic" and "the study of the structure of subjective experience" ..

NLP is based on New Age principles such as body language cues derived from the observation of “therapeutic wizards” . Some techniques include behavior change, transforming beliefs, and treatment of traumas through techniques such as reframing and the "meta-modeling" proposed for exploring the personal limits of belief as expressed in language.

The practice initially attracted mostly therapists, although it eventually attracted business and sales people, and New Age believers . NLP has been applied to a number of fields such as sales, psychotherapy, communication, education, coaching, sport, business management, interpersonal relationships, seduction, occult and spirituality.

NLP has been criticized in scientific research reviews which conclude that it is scientifically unsupported and largely ineffective Several reviews have concluded that NLP is merely pseudoscientific mass-marketed psychobabble.. NLP is identified as a dubious therapy and described by US-based NGO National Council Against Health Fraud as charlatanry and fraudulent .

Overview

Foundational Assumptions

Distinct from its formal presuppositions, NLP incorporates a variety of foundational assumptions that precede the presuppositions. These are:

1. There is a mind-body (and some also include spirituality) connection

1. The mind is broadly composed of a conscious and a subconscious (or unconscious) component .
2. A person's experience of the world is processed and organized exclusively in terms of the five senses .
3. Physiology, sensory representation ("submodality") and emotion comprise internal state
4. Behavior is the result of systematically ordered sequences of sensory representations ("strategies") .
5. Internal state has important influences on a person's ability to perform in any context
6. Internal state mediates experience and influences or determines behavior .
7. Internal state and strategy -- hence behavior -- have a discernible and communicable structure .
8. People exhibit their internal state in their language (verbal and non-verbal) .
9. Since behavior and its substrates -- internal state and strategy -- can be codified, a person's skill can be reproduced in another person .
10. Behavior is learned .
11. Direct and objective knowledge of the (external) world is not possible .

Common techniques and practices

• Meta model: questions to recover distortion, generalization and deletion from a speaker ).
• Representational systems: verbal and non-verbal cues such as eye movements, sensory predicates, breathing rate, and body posture are calibrated to identify the modality, type and sequence of internal Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic representations .
• Perceptual positions: a situation is considered from different points of view of those involved, typically self, other, and neutral observer .
• Swish: Repetitively swapping negative mental imagery for positive mental imagery to affect a behavior change.
• Dilts' Neurological Levels of Learning: categorization of information into a hierarchies consisting of environment, behavior, competency, belief/value, identity and purpose (or spirit) .
• Visual / Kinesthetic dissociation: separates the see-feel synaesthesia that drives responses to a stimulus. The NLP "phobia cure" uses two place dissociation
• Rapport: pacing and leading attention by matching, mirroring or cross pacing verbal and non-verbal behavior such as breathing, sensory predicates , and gestures.
• Submodality modification: deliberately altering the coding of internal sensory representations such as location, size and brightness of internal images

Modeling

NLP modeling is an activity claimed by NLP proponents to duplicate behavior, expertise or excellence, or to reproduce the "magic" abilities of experts . It is considered by some practitioners to be at the heart of NLP . It can be thought of as the process of discovering relevant distinctions within these experiential components, as well as sequencing these components, aiming to achieve a specific result. NLP proponents claim that it is used to discover and codify patterns of excellence as demonstrated consistently by top performers in any field . It has also been applied to clinical conditions, such as the "skill" of schizophrenia and notable dead people of whom we have only writings, such as Jesus of Nazareth . It has been argued that modeling in general is unverifiable (Carroll 2003 p81).

Fundamentals

Presuppositions

The presuppositions of NLP are sometimes described as an epistemology Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975a). [- The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy]. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. pp. -. -. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)</ref>. A presupposition (linguistic term) is a background belief that is treated by the NLP practitioner "as if" it were literally true.

The fundamental presuppositions are:

• The map is not the territory. "NLP epistemology" follows Alfred Korzybski (1933) and Gregory Bateson's (1972, 1979) postulations that there is no such thing as " objective experience". The subjective nature of our experience never fully captures the objective world. It is assumed that each of us creates a representation of the world in which we live - that is, we create a map or model which we use to generate our behavior. Our representation or map of the world determines to a large degree what our experience of the world will be Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975a). [- The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy]. Palo Alto, CA: cience & Behavior Books. pp. -. -. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)</ref>.
• Life and 'Mind' are Systemic Processes. The processes that take place within a human being and between human beings and their environment are systemic . Our bodies, our societies, and our planet form an ecology of complex systems and sub-systems all of which interact with and mutually influence each other. This assumes that looking from different vantage points may result in quite different and yet equally valid descriptions and emphasis of what is important in the system .

These presuppositions are considered groundbreaking by NLP proponents because of a contradiction with the modern scientific Aristotelian view that reality can be objectively measured , and the psychoanalyst view is that the presuppositions upon which NLP are founded are not valid (Strean 1995),

The other commonly related presuppositions are derived from the these two fundamental presuppositions .

B.A.G.E.L. Model

The B.A.G.E.L. Model specifies the five elements (in mnemonic form) that purportedly comprise the behavioral cues that indicate an individual's internal processes. The B.A.G.E.L. Model is predicated on the notion that internal processes are subjectively represented in sensory terms: visually, auditory, kinesthetically and least likely, olfactory and gustatory.

Eye accessing cues, body cues, and representational systems

File:NLP neural elicitation2.JPG

Eye accessing cues of NLP (for a normally organized right-hander)

A core NLP training exercise involves learning to calibrate eye movements patterns with internal representations ; . According to NLP developers, this core tenet loosely relates to the VAK guidelines below. See chart :

• Visual: eyes up to left or right according to dominant hemisphere access; high or shallow breathing; muscle tension in neck; high pitched/nasal voice tone; phrases such as “I can imagine the big picture”.
• Auditory: eyes left or right; even breathing from diaphragm; even or rhythmic muscle tension; clear midrange voice tone, sometimes tapping or whistling; phrases such as “Let's tone down the discussion”.
• Kinesthetic: eyes down left or right; belly breathing and sighing; relaxed musculature; slow voice tone with long pauses; phrases such as “I can grasp a hold of it”

NLP theory explains these breathing and mental processing according to the varying levels of chemical composition in the blood that affects the brain, and “Visual” people tend to be fast visual thinkers and can seem untrustworthy to “kinesthetic” thinkers because thinking by feeling is inherently slow . It is further claimed that matching VAK predicates can build rapport with individuals. Some authors use internal Verbal/Auditory/Kinesthetic strategies in order to categorize people within a thinking strategies or learning styles framework for instance, that there exist visual, kinesthetic or auditory types of manager.

Meta-model and Milton Model

The meta-model is a set of thirteen language patterns Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975a). [- The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy]. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. pp. -. -. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)</ref> developed from their observations of Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls, and is proposed as an information gathering tool, and to challenge (theoretical) distortions, generalizations or deletions in the speaker's language . The meta-model can be reduced to the asking "What specifically", or "How specifically?" to clarify unspecified syntactic elements .

The meta-model involves the identification of the abandoned theoretical concepts of Chomsky's transformational grammar Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975a). [- The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy]. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. pp. -. -. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)</ref> The inverse of the meta-model is the Milton-model elicited from the work of Milton H. Erickson. It is said that the use of non-specific language patterns can allow the client to make their own meaning for what is being said.

Varying Concepts

Brain lateralization

Hemispheric differences (brain lateralization) is used to support assumptions in some versions of NLP. Robert Dilts propose eye movements (and sometimes gestures) correspond to visual/auditory/ kinesthetic representations systems and to the specific regions in the brain . For example, the left side is said to be more logical/analytical than the right side, which is said to be more creative/imaginative or that regions of the brain are specialized for certain functions such as mathematics or language .

Models

Aside from the fundamental Metamodel, Milton Model, and Representational Systems, NLP proponents also did research in beliefs, meta programs, the George A. Miller's T.O.T.E. model. Longstanding practitioners Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier claim that the SMART model, amongst others are also part of NLP.

New Age

NLP is largely a New Age development, and is often promoted in combination with other related new age developments. This is partly due to related New Age notions that were common at the time of development, and the enneagram promoted by Virginia Satir (REF) and also a result of practitioners modeling spiritual concepts. Bandler often used anecdotes and metaphors about the occult in his workshops and large group awareness training LGAT seminars and teaches workshops in practical shamanism. Some practitioners claim that NLP can be used to “create both positive (+) and negative (-) psychic energy which operate at polar opposites from each other”.

Alternate Brands

Individual trainers have often introduced or idiosyncratically developed their own methods, concepts and labels, branding them under the "NLP" name :

• John Grinder teaches New Code of NLP
• Anthony Robbins teaches NAC (Neuro Associative Conditioning^TM)
• Michael Hall teaches Neuro Semantics^TM
• Tad James teaches Advanced Neuro Dynamics^TM and Time Line Therapy^TM
• Richard Bandler himself now teaches his own offshoot of NLP, called DHE (Design Human Engineering^TM)
• Margo Anand promotes a form of NLP called SkyDancing Tantra^TM

Background and Applications

Background

One of the earliest influences on NLP were General Semantics (Alfred Korzybski) as a new perspective for looking at the world which included a kind of mental hygiene. This was a departure from the Aristotelian concepts of modern science and objective reality, and it influenced notions of programming the mind. Korzybski General semantics influenced several schools of thought, leading to a viable human potential industry and associations with emerging New Age thinking. By the late 1960s, self-help organizations had become financially successful. The Esalen human potential seminars in California began to attract people, such as Fritz Perls , as well as Gregory Bateson, Virginia Satir, and Milton H. Erickson.

While at Kresge College, University of California, Santa Cruz, John Grinder then an Assistant Professor of linguistics was invited by Richard Bandler, then a fourth year undergraduate student to visit his Gestalt therapy group . Between 1973-1979, under the mentorship of Gregory Bateson, the co-founders collaborated, and published several books including The Structure of Magic Volumes I & II (1975, 1975a), Changing with families and Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, Volumes I & II (1977, 1978) based on the patterns of Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, Milton H. Erickson.

The practice of neuro-linguistic programming attracted mostly therapists at first although it eventually attracted business people, sales people, artists, and "new-agers" . As it expanded, Leslie Cameron-Bandler, Judith Delozier, Stephen Gilligan, Robert Dilts, and David Gordon (Therapeutic Metaphors, 1978) made further contributions to NLP and the seminars of Bandler and Grinder were transcribed by Steve Andreas into a book, Frogs into Princes. This was published in 1979 and drove the demand for seminars which in turn became successful human potential attractions .

Since the mid 1990s NLP has become more widespread, and following the example of Richard Bandler (who attempted legal action to claim the bulk of the field as his own personal intellectual and commercial property because he could not resolve the dispute through the use of NLP) The dispute between Bandler and Grinder over trademarks and copyright was resolved in court of California in 2000 who deemed NLP a generic term

Applications

Some of the original developers, notably Richard Bandler and the stage hypnotist Paul McKenna, have encouraged these trends and the resulting fragmentation and move towards "pop NLP" has discredited the subject in the eyes of many people NLP is sometimes applied to coaching and for personal or business development, including motivational communication and systems thinking .

Some of these involve day long, or several day periods of large group awareness activities including the introduction of authority figure guest speakers and promotion of New Age products. For example, Anthony Robbins promotes NLP as a "systemic approach for change" through his seminars, and other products. NLP trainers and consultants are now applying NLP rituals and techniques in some HR application areas.

"Therapy"

NLP is considered a fringe or alternative therapy . Although several aspects of NLP have been found to be largely ineffective , NLP is used, or suggested as an approach, by a few mental health bodies, including the National Phobics Society of Great Britain , MIND , USU health , the British Stammering Association , the Center for Development & Disability at the University of New Mexico Center for autism , ASCA Survivors Counselling . Around 1978, NLP practitioner certification was set up as a 20 day program with the aim of training therapists to apply NLP as an adjunct to their professional qualifications. In Europe, the European NLP therapy association ^[3] has been promoting their training in line with European therapy standards.

New Age and Occult Applications

For example, Bandler often used anecdotes and metaphors about the occult in his workshops and large group awareness training LGAT seminars and teaches workshops in practical shamanism. Proponents state that NLP is compatible with any religion or spiritual context .

Scientific analysis

In relation to current understanding of neurology and perception, NLP is in error , and instead of being grounded in contemporary, scientifically derived neurological theory, NLP is based on outdated metaphors of brain functioning and is laced with numerous factual errors .

The 1988 US National Committee (a board of 14 prepared scientific experts) report found that "Individually, and as a group, these studies fail to provide an empirical base of support for NLP assumptions...or NLP effectiveness. The committee cannot recommend the employment of such an unvalidated technique" In addition, Edgar Johnson, technical director of the Army Research Institute heading the NLP focused Project Jedi stated that "Lots of data shows that NLP doesn't work". NLP has failed to yield convincing evidence for the NLP model, and failed to provide evidence for its effectiveness .

The conjecture that a person has a preferred representational system (PRS), which is observed in the choice of words, has been found to be false according to rigorous research reviews . The assertion that a person has a PRS which can be determined by the direction of eye movements found even less support .

A single critique by Einspruch and Forman (1985) stated that Sharpley's review of NLP contained methodological errors. However, Sharpley refuted this and provided further experimental evidence to demonstrate that NLP is ineffective and in error in both method and model.

Thus, objective empirical studies and review papers have consistently shown NLP to be ineffective and reviews or meta-analysis have given NLP a conclusively negative assessment, and the reiterated statement is that there is no neuro-scientific basis for any of NLP's claims, or any scientific support for its claimed efficacy .

Due to general disillusionment with NLP, its mention in psychotherapy journals and books is becoming increasingly rare . NLP proponents have provided no scientific support for their claims, and as such NLP is considered inappropriate for thorough clinical studies .

Professor Robert Carrol states that it is impossible to determine a "correct" NLP model, and that applying one particular model to everyone is over-simplistic and will be no substitute for hard earned expertise and cannot be verified through statistical methods.

Criticism

NLP has been criticized by clinical psychologists, management scholars, linguists, psychotherapists and cult awareness groups, concerning ineffectiveness, pseudoscientific explanation of linguistics and neurology, ethically questionable, cult-like characteristics, and promotion by exaggerated claims.

False claims to science

Critics say that NLP often associates itself with "science of communication" in order to raise its own prestige .

As with any other science, theory is central to behavioral science. However, Gregory Bateson in page ix of the Structure of Magic Volume I claims that, "The behavioral sciences, and especially psychiatry, have always avoided theory..." Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975a). [- The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language andTherapy]. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. pp. -. -. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)</ref>. The co-originators have also stated, "We are not psychologists, and we're also not theologians or theoreticians" . However, proponents claim that the Milton-model is based on the behavioral patterns of Milton H. Erickson and that if these patterns can be 'formalized it will make a solid foundation for a science of communication' (1977 p.81) yet Grinder & Bostic St Clair (2001) say that "the coding phase of NLP modeling is at present an art". Some proponents have marketed exaggerated claims about NLP such as false connections to neuroscience and have marketed the original developers as 'scientists' . Advertising bodies in the UK have asked for NLP proponents to avoid promoting NLP as a new science

Pseudoscience

NLP has been classed as a pseudoscientific self help development. Authors such as also state NLP is pseudoscience, and have criticized its promotion as self-help, and psychologists such as Singer and management experts such as have criticized quasi-spiritual and unethical uses within management and human resources developments. The National Council Against Health Fraud classify NLP is a "dubious therapy".

Numerous extraordinary and unsupported claims have been made by some NLP promoters. There have been claims that the heightening of perception using NLP can allow a novice martial artist to beat an expert , and that it is possible to develop photographic memory through the use of NLP

Historically, NLP has claimed rapid cures and treatment of traumas, the use of popular new age myths such as unlimited potential, left/right brain simplicities, past life regression, and the use marketing/recruitment models.

Pseudoscience is prone to certain fallacies and characteristics. These can be; Overgeneral predictions, pseudoscientific experimentation, dogmatic adherence or recycling of un-validated claims . The characteristics of pseudoscience are more specifically shown thus

• The use of obscurantist language (for example, meta programs, parapragmatics, sub-modalities etc.)
• Over-reliance on testimonial and anecdotal evidence
• An overuse of ad hoc hypotheses and reversed burden of proof designed to immunize claims from falsification
• Emphasis on confirmation rather than refutation (for example, reliance on asking how rather than why)
• Absence of boundary conditions
• The mantra of holism and eclecticism designed to immunize from verifiable efficacy (Claiming that NLP is unmeasurable due to too many factors or to simplistically “do what works”.
• Evasion of peer review (If claims were true, why were they not properly documented and presented to the scientific community?)
• Reversed burden of proof (away from those making claim (NLP promoters), and towards those testing the claim (Scientists)).

Pseudoscientific arguments tend to contain several or all of these factors, as can be seen in this example that shows ad hoc hypotheses and holistic argument as an attempt to explain away the negative findings, and an emphasis on confirmation and reversed burden of proof etc.

Modern neuroscience indicates that NLP's notions of neurology are erroneous and pseudoscientific in regards to: left/right brain hemispheric differences , the association of eye movements or body gestures to brain hemispheres, and in the universal division of humanity to 40% visual, 40% auditory and 20% kinesthetic , in the adherence of NLP to positive/negative and psychic out of body energy . NLP is also based on some of Freud's most flawed and pseudoscientific thinking that has been rejected by the mainstream psychology community for decades.

Ethical Concerns

Ethical concerns of NLP’s encouragement towards manipulation have been raised. As such, NLP is seen as encouraging people to find more ways to manipulate individuals against their will within seduction, sales and business settings. NLP book titles include "The Unfair Advantage in Sales" and "The Science and Technology of Getting What You Want" and “Get Anyone to Do Anything”.

The therapy and coaching fields require an ethical code of conduct (eg: Psychotherapy and Counseling Federation of Australia Ethical Guidelines). It has been found that NLP certified practitioners often show a weak grasp of ethics .

NLP is also criticised for unethically encouraging the belief in non existent maladies and insecurities by otherwise normal individuals

NLP has also been described as a "commercial cult", and has been criticized within the business sector for being coercive, including undue and forced adoption of fundamental beliefs and intense confrontational psychological techniques, tantamount to forced religious conversion . Its various forms, such as those promoted by Grinder, and Tony Robbins are said to be ill conceived and coercive in some business settings .

Questionable Applications

Currently, there is criticism from psychotherapists about the promotion of NLP and other dubious therapies within psychotherapy associations . NLP certification for therapists in general still does not require any professional qualifications .

• Human Resources: As with other pseudoscientific subjects, human resource experts such as Von Bergen et al (1997) consider NLP to be inappropriate for management and human resource training . NLP has been found to be most ineffective concerning influence/persuasion and modeling of skills There is a general view that NLP is dubious and is not to be taken seriously in a business context . Within management training there have also been complaints towards NLP concerning undue and forced adoption of fundamental beliefs tantamount to a forced religious conversion.

Many such courses appear to depend more upon charismatic appeal, wish-fulfillment, quick fixes, and lack of critical faculty, than actual quantifiable results, and so are often considered pure pseudoscience. The original fad of NLP has undergone further controversy and abandonment since the further realization that it is simply a popular cult, and the divorce of Tony Robbins despite his commercial promotion of "Perfect Marriage" counseling has led to a great deal of disenchantment from his own followers . The various claims NLP proponents make have no clinical support and are grossly misleading .

• Education: Although NLP has no reliable neuroscience foundation, it is sometimes considered as part of "accelerated learning" or "brain based learning". There is no reliable evidence to support the use of NLP within education, and as such, the use of this unvalidated method is discouraged by educational experts (REF).

• Cosmetic Effect Claims: Dubious treatments such as hypnotic breast enhancement and penis enlargement often claim to use NLP processes to produce this effect (REF).

Much of NLP is now largely targeted for niche markets (particularly commercialized, cut down or self-help usage), and may be more controversial or esoteric, sometimes charismatically or evangelistically taught If such miraculous effects had actually been achieved, then why have they not been properly documented by the people making these claims, and presented to the scientific community? .

• Occult and New Age Practices: NLP is often criticized as being a dubious new age therapy. Practitioners sometimes attempt to model spiritual experiences, which inherently, are lacking in scientific support. NLP's new age background often leads to it being sold in combination with shamanic methods of magic such as those by (by Richard Bandler) or Huna (by Tad James).

Cult characteristics

NLP has been referred to in scientific research reviews as a cult , and a destructive or amoral pseudoscientific psychocult [4], and in research it is often considered to be akin to a cult .

NLP is adopted as a pretext for applying ritual, authority control, dissociation, reduced rationalization, and social pressure to obtain compliance from the cult's victim or to induce dependence on the cult .

See also

• List of NLP topics
• Empiricism
• Epistemology
• Communication
• General Semantics
• Hypnosis
• Humanistic psychology
• Large Group Awareness Training
• Linguistics
• Persuasion
• Soulwork
• Transformational grammar

Developers

• Richard Bandler*
• John Grinder*
• Robert Dilts
• Leslie Cameron-Bandler
• Judith Delozier
• Stephen Gilligan
• David Gordon

(*)Grinder & Bandler are considered the co-creators/co-originators of NLP.

External links

• Official Website of John Grinder; co-creator of NLP
• Official Website of Richard Bandler; co-creator of NLP
• Official Website of Robert Dilts
• Article addressing the scientific criticism on NLP research
• Lee Lady's comments about history and development of NLP
• Criticism from Skeptic's Dictionary
• ^ Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy & Counseling Association (UK)
• Professional Guild of NLP