NLP

Neuro-Linguistic Programming - NLP - was developed in the 1970s by John Grinder, a Professor at UC Santa Cruz and Richard Bandler, a graduate student. I read once, somewhere, that Richard Bandler, co-developer of what has become known as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), has described NLP as "an attitude which is an insatiable curiosity about human beings, with a methodology which leaves behind it a trail of techniques."

NLP has its roots in general semantics and the work of Alfred Korzybski (pronounced "Kahshibski", 1879:1950). Korzybski first published using the terms 'Neuro-Linguistic' and 'Neuro-Semantic' in 1936, and then again in his 1941 preface to 'Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics'. In the 1930s and 1940s, Korzybski travelled the USA holding 'Neuro-Linguistic Trainings'.

Bandler and Grinder's first published work describing the original framework for NLP, 'The Structure of Magic: a book about language and therapy' was published in 1975.

NLP is known as many things...the study of the structure of subjective experience (an early description)...the study of human excellence...a great way to model people who get fantastic results ...and lots of other ideas, too...

NLP focuses on results. The early development of NLP was based on the work of Virginia Satir, a family therapist, Fritz Perls, known from gestalt therapy and Milton Erickson, hypnotist. The beginnings of what has become known as NLP were rooted in the study of language, behaviour, and change.

These people were powerful communicators, creating change in ways that seemed almost magical. And what was the structure of that magic?

For the creators and early developers of NLP, applying NLP was finding out how these communicators were consistently achieving exemplary results. NLP was learning to achieve similarly exemplary results, and teaching other people to achieve those results, too. Doing the things the exemplars did, getting the results they got, and refining the model of what they did to identify the difference that makes the difference...the essence of the skill, the things that have to be true to consistently get similar results. The models that arose from the modelling have become techniques, and new NLP techniques are derived through similar processes.

That early NLP modelling produced two NLP models which reflect the way we distort, delete and generalise information. The two models have come to be known as the meta model, and the Milton model. Meta modelling reconnects language with experience. Milton model languaging paces people's experience. Asking meta model questions elicits highly specified answers. Milton model languaging is artfully vague.

"And are these models NLP?"

Not as such...it's more accurate to describe the application of NLP as having produced the models, and NLP is more than technique. Today NLP continues to be known for the range of techniques that have arisen from applying NLP to learning more about how people achieve excellence - although the techniques are really the trail left behind by the methodology, the exploration. NLP has found homes in education, business, coaching, sport, therapy...and in many other contexts. The techniques that are taught, learned and utilised in these contexts are not always explicitly described as derived from NLP...and sometimes the people that are using some of the powerful learnings that NLP has produced don't know how what they know was discovered.

Whilst NLP has no formal written 'theory', everyone who learns about NLP finds out about the NLP 'presuppositions' sooner or later. If you hadn't heard about the NLP presuppositions before now, it is going to be an experience that you experience sooner, rather than later.

The Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming (UK) refers to "presuppositions held by highly successful communicators and therapists". In a moment, just for a moment, I'll ask you to step into an 'as if...' frame - to act 'as if' the presuppositions are true...to pretend, if you like. Of course, any of the ideas that are presupposed may or may not be true...and it's useful to behave as if they are...except for when it's not, of course. And more on that, later.

NLP Presuppositions

And there are many, many ways to language these ideas.

As you read through the content provided at metaphor.org.uk you'll notice how the presuppositions just seep out, sometimes. And sometimes it's less obvious. It's easy to say that you already have all the resources you need, and you already knew that change comes from within. A lot of the content here has been produced with Milton model language in mind. I thoroughly recommend that you choose the tone of voice in which you want to read these articles carefully. Choose a tone and pace of voice that is calming. Slow down. Breathe out, s l o w l y. You can resist the urge to relax only as much as you'd like to enjoy the feeling that you're feeling for as long as you'd like to feel that, now.

You can read more NLP ideas here, now.

The idea of metaphor is as old as the hills. Stories are rarely new. The best stories are often timeless.

metaphor.org.uk works with the idea of 'metaphors' as 'stories that change people'. It might be a big change, or a change that isn't quite as big as that. It might be a small and incredibly significant change. It might just be helping someone to say 'I can' instead of 'I cannot'. And maybe that's the biggest change of all.

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