Let’s discuss shall we.

Now, first things first – and to put my discussion in context – yes I am an NLP Master Practitioner, however I also have a Master’s Degree in Business so I’m well used to the reductionist model of breaking everything down to measurable, repeatable and finite levels and the rigours of testing for scientific proof.

One of the main arguments against NLP is the fact that many of the techniques have no scientific proof, for example:

1. Eye patterns and their link to the representational systems of Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Internal Self talk (Auditory Digital). Many studies have failed to find any empirical link between eye patterns and  representational systems, including Beale (1981), Poffel and Cross (1985) & Cody (1983)
2. The link between the words and the representational system of the speaker. Again studies have failed to find any empirical link between what people say and the way they represent the world, including Faulkender (1985) and Lange (1981).

I could go on… but you get my point!

NLP Where’s The Evidence?

So how come NLP is so popular with seemingly little scientific evidence?

The reason (in my opinion) is the paradigm in which we live. We live in the paradigm of scientific reductionism, we want to reduce EVERYTHING around us to a set of scientific and repeatable experiments. And if you are thinking ‘Yeh, that’s right, that’s the only way’ then you are probably thinking that because you live in this paradigm too!

However, what this approach fails to do is to understand the reasoning behind NLP plus, and here’s the big one… they are researching the wrong thing!

NLP is not really interested in why things work… all it wants to do is to understand how the client does something and then fix it.

One way that NLP is used is in performance enhancement and success management in life and business. Now, one can look at this claim (that NLP helps in success) and decide to break it down for research, we could choose to research many things such as:

1. What is the link between NLP mental rehearsal visualisation and success. What is the process and is it scientifically verified?
2. When an NLP practitioner uses Strategies, do these exist, are they repeatable and scientific?
3. If a practitioner elicits a clients Values, can they really be re-sequenced and is the entire process repeatable and empirically verifiable?

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever bought a car, and then noticed that there are actually loads of other cars on the road that are the same make and colour as yours? Yep, I thought so! Why did this happen? Can it be broken down in to scientific steps? Do you care, or is the fact that this phenomenon works all that really matters – proving why it works is not really especially useful – interesting perhaps, but even if we can’t prove why it works the phenomenon still exists all the same.

NLP is the same. If a client is asked to focus on what they want, by using visualisation techniques – does it matter that it can’t be researched and proved? Or is the fact that the client is now able to go out and spot opportunities that were always there but missed before the really important thing? Much like the car, bringing it in to your awareness, no matter how this happened is what’s important… so it’s the result that validates the process, not the ability to scientifically prove it.

The same goes with values. Whether or not we can prove that we can move values around e.g. to make ‘money’ more important is irrelevant. What matters is that when we go through the process the client is more focused on ‘money’ or ‘fun’ or ‘love’ (or what ever other value has been moved) and so does more in their life to attain more of this.

For me the proof is in the pudding, using NLP with clients and on myself has proved massively valuable in helping us achieve success and other things in life. We’re able to spot opportunities to be happy, be successful or anything else that otherwise we would have missed. We’re able to understand another persons point of view and avoid arguments better, we’re able to negotiate better and we can now see a clear focus of what we are trying to achieve in life and business and can identify the paths we need to take to achieve it.

In these examples, NLP has absolutely worked and continues to work – why, or how, or can we prove it? Can we verify how we moved our values, can we verify how we have changed a strategy or the process for removing a limiting belief… Who cares, so long as the practitioner is able to assist the client in getting results then that’s all that really matters!

NLP is more than just a series of techniques, it’s an attitude of continual learning, creativity and of the use of mind’s natural ability to do amazing things… whether it can be studied or not!

Did you enjoy the Olympics?

Do you perhaps feel more motivated afterwards?

The UK athletes certainly seemed to thrive on the motivation that the crowd gave them, winning more medals than we have for many years in Team GB. But why is this, surely if an athlete has trained then the training is all that is required to get them to gold?

What input did the crowd have on their training? How did the crowd manage to influence the muscles and tendons that drove Team GB to such great successes?

I find these questions fascinating as once the athletes had trained, the thing which really drove them to success was what was going on in their head! So can we capture this, can we understand what went on in their head… And can we bottle this!

My firm belief is that this extra factor really can be bottled (okay, so perhaps not literally) and used at will.

So how do we do this?.

Is there a particular smell, sound, film or music track that triggers an old in motion a you? Perhaps there is a smell or sound that is linked to an intense emotion from your past, and all that you need to do is to smell that smell or hear that sound and the emotion comes flooding back. This is the essence of anchoring in NLP and as a way that we can tap into emotions at will.

This natural anchoring happens when an emotion is at its most intense, and there is then an associated action that subconsciously links the emotion and action together. In other words let’s say there is a song that makes you cry because it reminds you of when you broke up with our girlfriend or boyfriend many years ago, what probably happened was that when that emotion of sadness was at its most intense, that specific music track came on the radio or was played in the car. Your unconscious mind made a link between the music and the emotion, and all that your unconscious mind then needs is the trigger of the music and it has a way to recall the emotion.

We can use this natural phenomenon to deliberately recall emotions such as motivation, excitement or happiness (for the hard-core and NLPers, yes I know these are states and not strictly emotions!).

Did you know that your mind cannot tell the difference between a very vivid imagination and reality? We can also utilise this fact in anchoring.

If you want to be able to access a state of intense motivation all you need to do is to vividly recall a specific time when you felt totally motivated, you need to imagine seeing that time through your own eyes, seeing what you saw, hearing what you heard and feeling the emotions of that intense motivation. Then, when this feeling is at its most intense, simply touch your forefinger and thumb together. Your unconscious mind will then use touching of your thumb and forefinger together as a trigger to access that state of intense motivation.

You simply then need to repeat this process over and over, thinking of a different specific time when you felt totally motivated. Then imagining this time, looking through your own eyes, seeing what you saw, hearing what you heard and feeling the emotions of intense motivation-then when those feelings are at their most intense touch your forefinger and thumb together.

I suggest you do this at least five times, continuously stacking more and more of the intense emotion of motivation onto this physical anchor of touching your index finger and thumb together.

What you will then find is that when you need a state of motivation, all you need to do is touch your forefinger and thumb together and you will find it easier to access that motivational state. The more you practice this, the easier it will become.

So, what I am really hoping for, is that the athletes used this anchoring technique to anchor the feelings of the intense motivation that they got from competing in front of the home crowd at the Olympics this year. If they did they will be able to use this anchor in the Olympics in four years time and perform just as well.

Here’s to Rio 2016…