Thirdly, NLP includes within its descriptive vocabulary terms which are not directly observable. In the early part of this century, again profoundly influenced by the initial successes of the Newtonian model in physics, a movement called Behaviorism in psychology[3] established a well–formedness condition on descriptions of human behavior — namely, that only those events which are observable may be included in descriptions of human behavior. Individuals were represented as a black box devoid of knowable internal structure. While a case may be argued that within its historical context Behaviorism had a salutary effect, the long term outcome was stultifying. The behavioral scientist who accepted the Behaviourists dictum regarding observables found himself in the same position as someone who attempts to develop a theory of speed, frequency and trajectory of tennis balls passing over the net without allowing himself access to the tennis players themselves. Just as recent advances in physics have been intimately associated with a finer and finer analysis of what was previously considered an unanalyzable unit — witness the outstanding success in predicting function form structure in the proliferation of sub–atomic particles — so NLP proposes a vocabulary for the inside of the black box which has been demonstrated tremendously effective in business, education, law, and therapy — the vocabulary of representational systems and strategy. This vocabulary offers the NLP practitioner the most powerful set of behavioral organizing principles presently available — and, most importatntly, they work.
At present, you have before you a written representation of the model called NLP. I choose the term model deliberately and contrast it with the term theory. A model is simply a description of how something works without any commitment regarding why it might be that way. A theory is taxed with the task of finding a justification of why various models seem to fit reality. We are modelers and we ask that you evaluate this work as a model, ignoring whether it is true or false, correct or incorrect, aesthetically pleasing or not, in favor of discovering whether it works or not, whether it is useful or not.
Let me also reassure the reader that what you might experience as complex or difficult in the NLP model as you absorb the written representation is an artifact of the medium in which it is represented. In our various seminars for executives, attorneys, managers, salespersonnel, educators, therapists, and other professionals, the live presentation of NLP in a face–to–face context with immediate feedback has consistently resulted in a highly effective and enjoyable learning experience, as the reader can validate should you choose to join us.
In the introduction to the book we first published, Gregory Bateson paid us a very fine compliment:
".. .John Grinder and Richard Bandler have done something similar to what my colleagues and I attempted fifteen years ago … to create the beginnings of an appropriate base for the describing of human interaction."
That was the beginning of our efforts to build a description of not only what needs describing in human beings, but to include the position of the describer, and more importantly for NLP, what processes select what is worthy of description and the very processes building those descriptions themselves, i.e. subjectivity. Science avoids the limitations described by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. NLP exposes these scientific limitations as the very evolutionary tool to project our species into purposeful and productive unknowns.
This book is only the beginning of NLP, not the beginning itself nor the end. Discover the ecstasy of richer experience, thus the value of no end. Just more— new— old— now. The universe is as immense as your ability to perceive it. May you enjoy your journey.
John Grinder
and
Richard Bandler
I. Introduction
When a magician in top hat and cape calls for his beautiful assistant to lead an enormous elephant to center stage, we lean back in our chairs and prepare to enjoy the illusion. "Presto!" he shouts, and the giant Jumbo disappears, right on schedule. We smile to ourselves, knowing the "magic" was performed with mirrors, but feeling good just the same in deliberately allowing our perceptions to be fooled by a highly skilled entertainer. Were we to step onstage with the magician and his assistant, we would be entering another world — a world in which the mirrors themselves were visible and the elephant so near that we'd hear its breathing and feel the stage moving slightly as Jumbo shifted from foot to foot. There is something slightly disconcerting about being near the "source" of an illusion, but once we learn precisely how the "elephant disappearing act" is done, our enjoyment is enhanced rather than diminished — we learn to watch for and enjoy the skill with which the magician performs as well as retaining the option of taking pleasure in the illusion itself. We may begin to understand that the ability to make such distinctions is a very special and unique resource, one that extends far beyond the world of stages, mirrors and magicians in its significance.
Neurolinguistic programming is a model about the special world of magic and illusion of human behavior and communication — the study of the components of perception and behavior which makes our experience possible. The name neurolinguistic programming stands for what we maintain to be the basic process used by all human beings to encode, transfer, guide, and modify behavior.
For us behavior is programmed by combining and sequencing neural system representations — sights, sounds, feelings, smells and tastes — whether that behavior involves making a decision, throwing a football, smiling at a member of the opposite sex, visualizing the spelling of a word or teaching physics. A given input stimulus is processed through a sequence of internal representations, and a specific behavioral outcome is generated.
"Neuro" (derived from the Greek neuron for nerve) stands for the fundamental tenet that all behavior is the result of neurological processes. "Linguistic" (derived from the Latin lingua for language) indicates that neural processes are represented, ordered and sequenced into models and strategies through language and communication systems. "Programming" refers to the process of organizing the components of a system (sensory representations in this case) to achieve specific outcomes.
No matter what background or occupation you have, the reader has probably at some time or other had the experience of interacting with someone on the stage on which you perform, in a way that was particularly effective and allowed you to get some specific outcome that was of importance for you, the other person and/or a number of other people. This may have been the communication or learning of some important information, making a sale, solving a problem, or so on. Afterwards, though delighted with yourself, you may have had no real idea of what it was that characterized and distinguished that occasion, and the effectiveness, speed and elegance of your communication, from a normal situation.
3
Behaviorism in psychology was the reflex of Logical Positivism which spawned a number of improbable systems in various disciplines.