I’m a relative baby in the NLP world having used it with clients for just over a year (soon to do my Masters though!). I’ve got some great results but I have to say I can be skeptical. As I worked with a scientific community for a long time it really takes experiencing something directly myself and proof to evidence things for me. Also some of the tools are so straightforward you think “Waaahh! How can that elicit fundamental change?” (of course it depends on the practitioner!)
Studying NLP I have always been fascinated by perception, how we see things and the filters (distortions, deletions, generalisations) we apply to incoming information that forms our internal representations. The NLP communication model includes the notion that our five senses take in up to two million bits of information per second and that our conscious mind can only process 7+or-2 chunks of information per second. Even the most aware person is subject to all their own individual filters coloured by experiences, values, beliefs, attitudes and memories.
The closest I have come personally to really examining this model is quite recently and it is to do with a very familiar thing -myself- so I felt it was a good case study!
OK – I have not changed my appearance in any shape or form whatsoever, I look exactly the same as I did a few months ago. But I genuinely see something completely different. Never thought I’d quote an obnoxious (so called) “rapper” especially one with a ridiculous name like Dappy but “When I look in a mirror, I don’t even recognise myself”. I couldn’t possibly describe what has changed but I actually see a totally different person and some days I could walk past a mirror and it takes a few seconds before I realise it’s me.
FREAKY, huh? For lots of people that would have them running straight to “Schizos ‘R Us” but I think it is Fas – Cin – Na – Ting! To have come literally face to face with this phenomenon of perception is reality in such a direct way is an amazing learning experience. I’ve always known that our “view” is coloured by our knowledge, our predispositions and our feelings, but have never experienced it so clearly as with this, because the only thing that has changed is INSIDE (my internal representation). There have been massive changes in my life in this period which means I have obviously changed…..and my physical appearance doesn’t look any different but what I see has.
This has not been a conscious effort and has evolved naturally. But how we see ourselves, others and situations is pretty critical to our projection on the world and our own empowerment. This is pretty damn significant to me in my understanding of the NLP model – It may not be rocket science but after all the theorising and study it has actually PROVED to me that we can literally and fundamentally govern how we see things and if something so fundamental as our self-reflection can change, then we can teach others to do it. This is precisely what the application of NLP does.
This must be what body dismorphics or people with eating disorders do albeit in a negative manner, the power of their own mind, and the experiences and filters are so strong they actually physically see that negative image.
It has been an amazing IN-SIGHT and such a great step forward in my understanding of how I can apply this amazing tool to help others.
And better still, I like the changes I see.
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change
Dr Wayne Dyer
I did my NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioner training with Emma James NLP, training which gives results not just theory.
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