I think NLP can be beneficial but it would depend on the approach taken. I have known a number of NLP practitioners and instructors. What I have frequently observed seems to be the desire to create another 'better' but still false reality. Some are 'successful' in a material sense but actually even further from the absolute truth of the moment than when they began their practice.

The warning bells begin even with the name - neuro linguistic PROGRAMMING. In my view, what we need is less programming not more. If it were called Neuro Linguistic Deprogramming I would have less of an issue with it - some of the tools can be used very powerfully to get rid of conditioned behaviour patterns.

Unfortunately I witness lots of people using the tools to manifest the reality they want rather than surrendering to what is.

Take pain for example. It is just a judgement of a true feeling. If you are awesomely okay with the feeling, the pain and the illusionary reality we build around it disappears. However NLP and Hypnotherapy would encourage us to create a different reality without the pain. In my experience this approach is fatally floored. In this new reality you are 'sweeping the pain under the carpet' - but it is still under the carpet! However now it is hidden so you can't find it anymore except that it reappears somewhere else and worse still you have serious difficulty tracking down the route cause of the pain - the route cause being lack of connection to wholeness within.

That's why for example people who use hypnotherapy to give up smoking end up with another addiction that can be equally damaging.

Worse than this though, it reconfirms a false identity - for example 'here I am, the person with no pain'. Our true journey on the other hand is to move to the place of no attachment to identity at all. In advertantly by not accepting the absolute truth of the moment, we give energy to the 'problem' and rather than dispelling the route cause, give energy to it.

Best wishes

Chris

IMO, it depends on what context you are asking.

Spiritually, I concur wholeheartedly with Chris. Read this article from Mother Jones' Diary about Richard Bandler, one of the founders of NLP. What level of inner peace and tranquility does it sound like NLP brought him?

http://www.geocities.com/bandlertrial/index.html

If you read some of the early Bandler - Grinder books, they take an almost manipulative "if I just push button A, I can get response B" kind of approach. Oddly enough, NLP is used quite a bit by Ross Jeffries, a "pick-up artist" who teaches seminars on how men can find and have casual sex with women. Try googling for "pick up artist NLP" or "Ross Jeffries" and you will find descriptions of how NLP can supposedly be used for dubious purposes.

However, I have found value in some of the NLP information with regards to communication. It has made it easier for me to communicate with people having had an understanding of modalities - the particular sensory systems that people think in.

Regards,

-- ST

In my view, one needs to apply the right tool to the right problem.

I classify problems according to how they apply to distinct layers of our humanity. For example, the layers and associated therapies I have heard of or had some successful experiences with are:
emotions: Hoffman Process, Family Constellations, Gestalt
body: yoga, Pilates, Rolfing, 5Rhythms dancing
intellect: many books by Chopra, Oriah, Tolle, Wilber
spirit: meditation, visualization, Shamanism.

I think it is a big mistake to mix therapies across layers. For example, an intellectual approach to long-standing emotional issues seems highly problematic to me.

Once you have cleared the issues on one level you can progress to address the other levels, in whatever order works for you.

I hope this helps, I understand it's a bit terse...

I can only speak for myself.

My encounter with NLP has been a nightmare. I know of two occasions in the past few years when NLP was used by another to manipulate and control my actions.

I was dealing with a woman who was very skillful at using NLP methods, and she ended up getting me to do all kinds of things to help her acheive her goals. I felt helpless, as if I was hypnotised, yet very willing to comply with her requests. I amazed myself at was I was capeable of allowing to happen, and how niave I was.

But looking back, she told me everything my ego wanted to hear and made me feel like I was a totally amazing person. She engineered a whole situation, and I allowed it to happen. When I fully admited to myself what had gone on, I felt used and manipulated by someone who treated me as an object to acheive her ends rather than a sentient being. I am appalled at how NLP can be (and is being) used to control and manipulte. Big thumbs down from me. Beware!

Turtle