NLP stands for "NeuroLinguistic Programming", and it started in the early '70s with Dr John Grinder and his graduate student, Richard Bandler. Many others joined and the 'field' grew dramatically. Not everyone with NLP agrees with everything else said by everyone else. Such is the way of most things.

Taking Things Seriously

Well, there's the first thing -- or not. NLP is a body of knowledge on how to do things. So, NLP is a process, not a thing! It's difficult to buy and sell NLP, although some try to do that. And to talk about NLP like it's a something (like we're doing now) is also dangerous, because you can very quickly fall into the trap of believing what you're saying because the language allows you to say it. You might already know that many other words have been turned into nouns from verbs. These are sometimes called nominalisations. More on nominalising later.

Modeling

But then, what do we do when we do NLP? The answer is that we model. Now, this kind of modeling doesn't involve dressing up for a photo shoot, instead we take a human activity and extract just what makes it tick -- the essentials. How we do that is part of the technology called NLP. As an integral part of the process of modeling we test that the model works.

Many of the early models that were produced with NLP are used by many people and also, curiously, called "NLP". For instance, if you do an NLP practitioner course (the most basic course to get a qualification), much of what you'll be taught may be some of the techniques derived from study twenty years ago. Other courses (and this does very much depend on with whom you train) will teach you how to model and how to create your own techniques.

Richard Bandler has described NLP as "an attitude leaving a trail of techniques behind". It's up to you whether you decide to learn how to use someone else's techniques (very useful somewhere else, and possibly useful for you), or whether you decide to learn the strucutre behind the attitude, and be able to use it anywhere. This web site will introduce you to many of the techniques, some new, some old. Many people who do NLP often suggest them by name -- "I'd just use the fast phobia cure on that one", or "You might try some timeline work, some belief changes and then use a swish". Initially, it can all seem very complicated. This site has introductory articles on most of the commonly used techniques, but the best way to learn is being with someone who can do it all smoothly and precisely -- exactly what you'll find, amonst lots more, at any good training.

Basic mechanisms

NLP is based on a number of basic mechanisms: representational systems, anchors and strategies.

Representational systems

Representational systems are different modalities: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling (good!). Within each of these rep systems, or modalities, there are further classifications, or sub-modalities. They're just the different ways of describing the qualities of phenomena within the representational systems (or rep systems, or modalities).

Rep systems and sub-modalities are some of the ways that your mind uses to code information about a situation. The coding is often information about the state that you're in when you think a thought. A state is an internal position of bodymind -- like emotions or directions in thought.

Everybody has different codings, and one of the first things you'll do on an NLP course is to find out how you and your fellow students code information about happy events (amongst many others). The powerful step in using sub-modalities is to apply them to memories, or thoughts, with different associated feelings.

For instance, something that makes you feel sad can make you feel curious, or happy, or blissful, or satisfied, or anyone of a nearly infinite range of states. It can simply be a matter of changing the coding. Sometimes life can feel like you're a character in a bad movie, with the same familiar emotions running through you. NLP allows you to very quickly rewrite the script. Once you find that you have a script, and how it's written, it's hard to resist writing yourself in for more fun, excitement and pleasure in the future!

An excellent introductory book, that includes how to use submodalities is Richard Bandler's Using your brain for a Change.

Anchors

Anchors are ways of 'recording' useful states, that we use unconciously all the time. Your body and the submodalities of your thoughts (including what the prominent modalities are) all go to make a memory. And you are learning all the time. Simply placing your body in a certain position, changing it in subtle ways, can very powerfully change the way that you feel -- your state. Similarly, changing both what you're thinking of and how you think about it can change the way you hold your body.

Strategies

Strategies are sets of steps that all unconscious processes can be thought of. When we model, we frequently produce strategies. Each step of a strategy is often represented by a representational system.

Two useful models

Two of the earliest models have been added to the very foundations how NLP is done. They are both models of language, the ways in which we can use it and the responses that this gets us. One model, the Milton Model, is a way of being vague without sounding it. The second model, the Meta Model, is a way of specifying, of cutting through generalisations. The two models are inverses of each other and can be used together, one to specify exactly what is desired (using the Meta Model) and the other to persuade, or install that idea (using the Milton Model).

InnerBalloons

Last updated: 21 October 1997