User:FT2/NLP

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Contents 1 Research articles 1.1 Summary findings 1.2 Abstracts and detail 2 Recognition by other bodies 3 Corrections to existing impressions 3.1 Sharpley (1987) 3.2 Heap (1988) 3.3 British Psychological Society 3.4 UK Council for Psychotherapy 3.5 Platt (2001) 3.6 Druckman (1988) 3.7 Carroll (2003) 4 Existing editorship 4.1 Comments of some editors 4.2 User: HeadleyDown 4.3 User: JPLogan 4.4 The strange case of Morgan 1993 5 Appendix: Other neurological research related to NLP 5.1 The map is not the territory 5.2 Primary representation System 5.3 Neurological basis of submodalities 5.4 Meta-analysis of sensory information 5.5 Remembered and Constructed Images Use The Same Pathways As Current Images 5.6 Cross-referencing between Modalities 5.7 The TOTE Strategy (or model) 5.8 States 5.9 How Learning Affects The Brain 5.10 Neural Networks Are State Dependent 5.11 Rapport: The Work of The Mirror Neurons

[edit] Research articles

Here is some of the research and abstract citations (and outline of what was researched) that appears not to be represented in the article. I haven't reviewed them in depth, they are a mixture of full papers and authors' abstracts, but taken together they suggest to me that the scientific view on NLP is "not proven and still being investigated", rather than "snake oil and pseudoscience":

I was not able to find full copies of some research I was curious to read. So I looked further afield:

[edit] Summary findings

• Asbell (1983) found that predicate matching was perceived as the "most helpful" of 4 strategies and gave higher ratings for counsellor empathy.
• Baddeley (1991) found positive correlation between predicates and certain predicted eye movements
• Bott (1995) found that NLP gave "partly positive results" for treating psychogenic weight loss
• Brandis (1986) found that success at self-anchoring, when utilized, was "strongly related" to changes to parental anger responses
• Buckner (1987) found that "coefficients of agreement (Cohen's K) between participants' self-reports and trained observers' records indicate support for the visual (K=.81, p<.001) and auditory (K=.65, p<.001) portions of the model", and that "interrater agreement (K=.82) supports the NLP claim that specific eye movement patterns exist and that trained observers can reliably identify them"
• Davis (1984) found that "[NLP]'s structure, terminology, and sound theoretical principles resulted in gathering valuable process information" when counselling prelingually deaf adults
• Einspruch (1988) found "marked improvement" over an 8 week period in a test of 31 patients who undertook NLP phobia treatment
• Koziey and McLeod (1987) found that the NLP V/K technique produced a "positive reduction in anxiety in teenage rape [trauma]"
• Loiselle (1985, University of Moncton, New Brunswick) tested various spelling strategies and found: control=no change, "visualize"=10% better, "visualize up/right" (ie NLP Visual) = 20-25% better, "visualize down/left" (ie NLP Kinesthetic)=15% worse.
• Almost identical results were obtained by Malloy (1989) - the NLP spelling strategy produced a 25% improvement in spelling ability (and 100% retention) compared to no change in a control group but that spellers told to visualize in what NLP claims is a Kinesthetic manner (down/left) were scored around 10% worse.
• Yappo (1981) found that when subjects were put in trance using a variety of inductions in different sensory systems, and EMG (electromyograph) and self-assessment were used to measure effects of predicate matching, both measures showed that deeper trance was induced when the preferred sensory system was used
• Macroy (1978) found that more dysfunctional families "substantially" correlated with meta-model violations, and concluded that "challenging metamodel patterns is an important way to enhance the ability to achieve satisfaction socially"
• Cheek (1981) demonstrated that NLP Milton Model language use is capable of reaching and influencing the unconscious mind, by inducing 3000 patients to respond with formal yes/no hand signals to questions, whilst fully anaesthetized.
• Forster Jansen Margenrot Unterberger (1993) investigated the conditions which are decisive for rapport and concluded that the NLP Milton Model was "very helpful"
• Frank (1997, Germany) investigated NLP in social work, finding "enormous changes" and that "very many of the people indicated that they could increase their adaptability, feel technically more competent and make a more intensive self reflection", summarizing that it had "fallen out very positively"
• Genser-Medlitsch & Schütz (1997) tested the effects of NLP master practitioners working on 55 clients with severe DSM conditions (schizo-affective, psychosis, psychosomatic, depression, dependency, etc), many on psychiatric drugs. The control group of 60 had milder symptoms. After treatment of the NLP group, 2% felt no different, 98% felt better or much better, none felt worse (control group: 48% no different, 36% better, 15% worse). After therapy, the clients who received NLP scored higher in their perception of themselves as in control of their lives (with a difference at 10% significance level), reduced their use of drugs, used more successful coping methods, and reduced symptoms such as anxiety, aggression, paranoid thinking, social insecurity, compulsive behaviours, and depression. Positive changes in 25 of 33 symptom areas (76%) occurred as a result of NLP, positive changes in 3 areas occurred in both NLP and control groups. The researchers concluded "It could be established that, in principle, NLP is effective in accordance with the therapeutic objective." (Genser-Medlitsch & Schütz, 1997, Does Neuro-Linguistic psychotherapy have effect?)
• Konefal (1992) found that "[r]esults confirm the effectiveness of neurolinguistic programming in lowering trait anxiety and increasing the sense of internal control"
• Dietrich (2000, "traumatology") reviewed NLP V/K dissociation trials, and concluded that NLP was "promising" and that "intrusive symptoms, avoidance behaviors, and interpersonal and occupational functioning improved for many of the participants in the studies reviewed"
• Muss (1991) examined the impact of NLP V/K technique on 19 insurer-referred police officers who met DSM-III post-traumatic stress disorder criteria, following up at 3-24 months. Most stated it had greatly helped, in long term followup 100% of those reached confirmed freedom from recurrance.
• Reckert (1994) studied one-session anchoring as a way to treat test anxiety, with "positive results"
• Sandhu Reeves Portes (1993) found that NLP mirroring, when done effectively, had "significant effect" on client measurement of empathy in a cross-cultural counselling scenario
• Swack (1992) trialled the NLP "10 minute allergy cure" on a small group of 10 individuals, both in isolation and with full NLP followup in the case of failure. The initial results were 70% (7) success with 30% (3) relapse over time; of the 3 however, 2 fully recovered when other NLP techniques such as Timeline and V/K dissociation were also allowed to be used.
• Visual submodalities have been shown to affect kinesthetic states, for example room color has an effect on temperature perception (Berry, Journal of Applied Psychology 45/4) and packaging color changes the effectiveness of the placebo effect (Buckalew and Ross, 1981)
• Unterberger Ulbrich (1998) found that when NLP was used to treat serious chronic conditions in clinical trials, comprising 12 hours over 3 weeks, they "prove to be quite successful procedures" and "significant results show up", noting that "the participators in the training judge the success of their rehabilitation measures throughout more positively than the members of the control's group".
• Weerth (1992) tested 29 people who were trained in general non-specific use of submodalities, finding that numerous direct effects were reported, spontaneous long term "emotion relevant" use was occurring, and that "successful uses of the trained methods could be assessed in around 66% of the participants" in everyday life. A six-month followup confirmed durability of changes.
• Wilhelm (1991, Germany) tested the "swish" pattern for nail-biting, finding "significant variations of the nailbiting" and that results were stable up until followup
• Janvier & Ghaoui (2004) noted that "The trained observer can consciously note these [body languages] and use the information gained to interact using Neuro-linguistic programming language (Craft, 2001; William A. Janvier & Ghaoui, 2003b; Sadowski & Stanney, 1999; Slater et al., 1994)" and "[significant indication] that using [NLP] in Human-Computer Interaction does indeed improve memory retention by some 15% (p=.0001)"
• Trevor Day (2005, PhD project) states "Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is becoming increasingly influential in classroom practice (e.g. Ginnis, 2002)" and reports "early success using NLP modelling with sixth form students" (presented at British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference at the University of Glamorgan)
• Steed, Slater and Usoh (undated) found that when working with virtual reality systems (eg architects walk-through), a traditional model of presence purely in terms of exogenous factors was unsuccessful, but "[a] tentative model based on the endogenous factors of the subject using Neuro-Linguistic Programming did however provide a good prediction of a person's reported sense of presence"
• Brown& Graff (2004) found "[s]ignificant correlations between meta programme patterns and the students’ assessment performance" and that specific NLP meta-programs identified tended to also correlate with good or poor performance in specific subjects.
• Lund and Lund (1994) tested NLP on asthmatics, finding that whereas a control gropup deteriorated predictably, the NLP group gained a significant reversal of their deterioration, as measured by lung capacity. Unstable lung function measurements fell to under 10% in the NLP group, and sleep disorders and use of inhalers and acute medication both fell to zero in the NLP group. (reported at Danish Society of Allergology Conference 1994, and European Respiratory Society Conference 1994)
• The University of Wales Institute School of Education (2003) reports that "the three main learning preferences are visual, auditory and kinesthetic; therefore, teachers need to use a variety of different resources and activities to ensure that children are enabled to learn through their preferred system. This belief is supported by... Shaw and Hawes (1998), Smith & Call (1999), Burgess (2000), Beere (2000), Cheshire County Council (2001) and Ginnis (2002)."
• Baxter (1994) found that NLP reframing used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder in place of Prozac resulted in the same raised serotonin levels and reduced caudate nucleus activity as control subjects who took medication only (as measured by Positron Emission Tomography scans of the brain)
• Platt (2001) observed that whilst studies evaluating specific NLP points in isolation such as predicates, representation systems and eye movements tended to give positive results only around 15-35% of the time, when he examined studies of the effects of NLP applied in its complete context, in this case phobia cures, "56% found positive evidence to support NLP's effectiveness."

You will notice an interesting pattern here. On the whole, the ones which reported NLP as working or of interest, seem from a casual glance to be those which tested it by its results and effectiveness in toto. By contrast the tests which failed seemed to be more likely to be those which attempted to evaluate NLP on the basis of one element in isolation, such as eye movements, or used NLP skilled subjects as an integral part of the experimental design (Buckner).

This is also supported by the view of Platt (2001) who observed that whilst studies evaluating specific NLP points in isolation such as predicates, representation systems and eye movements tended to give non-correlative results around 66-80% of the time, those that actually studied the effects of NLP applied in its complete context, such as phobia cures, found that "56% found positive evidence to support NLP's effectiveness." His main concern was what NLP calls "ecology", and evidence of durability. Some of the long term studies that Platt could not find are referred to above. This is also supported by Swack (1992) who found in a small trial of 10 that the NLP "10 minute allergy cure" gave 70% (7) success with 30% (3) relapse over time when no other technique could be used, but of these, 2 fully recovered when other NLP techniques such as Timeline and V/K dissociation were also allowed to be used.

[edit] Abstracts and detail

"The present study examined effects of reflection, probes, predicate matching, and casual conversation on perception of counselor warmth, threateningness, helpfulness, and quality of counseling relationship ... Predicate-matching received higher warmth ratings than reflection or non-counseling, and was rated less threatening than reflections and probes. Predicate-matching was also rated most helpful of the four techniques ... Predicate-matching also received higher ratings on the relationship scales than reflections or probes." (Asbell, 1983, effect of predicate matching on perceived counsellor warmth)

"Results failed to support the neurolinguistic programming hypothesis although post-hoc tests located some distinctive eye-movement trends [but t]here was a tendency for the auditory remembered questions to be associated with a greater number of predicted eye movements than expected by chance. Visually remembered and auditory constructed questions tended to be positively associated with predicted eye-movements both within and across eye-movement instances." (Baddeley, 1991, eye movement v. predicted movement)

"The support program is based on methods of the NLP and showed partially positive effects." (Bott, germany 1995, evaluation of a NLP based treatment for psychogenic weight loss)

"The Parent Training Procedure (PTP) is a highly structured intervention which utilizes Anchoring, in which external stimuli ("anchors") are associated with inner response strategies in order to stabilize, transfer, and combine them. One technique used was the Collapse Anchors procedure in which one anchor, associated with appropriate inner resources or abilities, is "fired" simultaneously with another anchor, associated with an inner representation of a problem situation. ... a post-hoc analysis revealed that a strong experimental effect was demonstrated by four (half) of the Experimental group subjects, dubbed the "High Change" subgroup (the other four, the "Low Change" subgroup). The differences between these subgroups could not be explained by differences at pre-test, which were negligible, nor by the differential effect of the two programmers. Analysis of the Programmer's Checklists revealed that the subgroup differences were strongly related to the differential success of the Self-Anchoring portion of the PTP ... Recommendations for future research are made." (Brandis, 1986, NLP treatment for reducing parental anger responses using self-anchoring)

" Two NLP-trained observers independently viewed silent videotapes of participants concentrating and recorded the presence or absence of eye movements posited by NLP theorists to indicate visual, auditory, or kinesthetic components in thought. Coefficients of agreement (Cohen's K) between participants' self-reports and trained observers' records indicate support for the visual (K=.81, p<.001) and auditory (K=.65, p<.001) portions of the model. The kinesthetic (K=.15, p<.85) portion was not supported. Interrater agreement (K=.82) supports the NLP claim that specific eye movement patterns exist and that trained observers can reliably identify them." (Buckner, 1987, eye movements)

"NLP was the communication model utilized to interview participants. Its structure, terminology, and sound theoretical principles resulted in gathering valuable process information relative to "successful" and "unsuccessful" behaviors." (Davis, 1984, Use of NLP communications approaches to improve interview techniques for prelingually deaf adults)

Dr Judith Swack showed that allergies in humans can also be removed by psychological means, in a small study of ten people who had a variety of allergies (cats, dust, flowers, cigarette smoke etc). Seven of the ten responded to the NLP "ten minute allergy process" by become completely response-free. Over two years, the results reduced, as three of the seven regained some allergic response. Interestingly, of the three who initially got no success with the allergy process, two became allergy free following the use of other NLP techniques (eg Time Line Therapy and V/K dissociation). In this study, the success of the 10 minute process outside the context of NLP generally was initially 70% and on long term followup 40%, and the success of NLP in treating allergies was 100%. (Swack, 1992, A Study of Initial Response and Reversion Rates of Subjects Treated With The Allergy technique)

(The classical confirmation that allergies can be triggered by psychological means without the presence of an irritant, and hence that it is scientifically plausible they could also be removed psychologically, comes from "Pavlovian Conditioning of Rat Mucosal Mast Cells to Secrete Rat Mast Cell Protease II", 1989, in which allergies in rats were classically conditioned upon non-irritant triggers such as camphor scent)

"There is a growing body of empirical literature on Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). A review of this literature by Sharpley (1984) failed to consider a number of methodological errors. In the present article the authors identify six categories of design and methodological errors contained in [empirical studies] through April 1984. These categories include (a) lack of understanding of the concepts of pattern recognition and inadequate control of context; (b) unfamiliarity with NLP as an approach to therapy; (c) lack of familiarity with the NLP "Meta-Model" of linguistic communication; (d) failure to consider the role of stimulus-response associations; (e) inadequate interviewer training and definitions of rapport; and, (f) logical mistakes. ... Suggestions are offered for improving the quality of research on NLP." (Einspruch, 1985, observations on NLP research)

"Thirty-one phobic patients seen in group/class treatment programs completed Mark's Phobia Questionnaire and Fear Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory before and after 8 weeks of treatment. Seventeen patients seen in individual therapy completed part of the phobia questionnaire before and after treatment. Results indicate marked improvement by those who were treated. Findings suggest that NLP holds promise for becoming an important set of therapeutic techniques for treating phobias." (Einspruch, 1988, phobia cure evaluation)

Visual submodalities have been shown to affect kinesthetic states, for example room color has an effect on temperature perception (Berry, "Effect of Coloured Illumination Upon Perceived Temperature", Journal of Applied Psychology 45/4) and packaging color changes the effectiveness of the placebo effect (Buckalew and Ross, 1981, "Relationship of Perceptual Characteristics to Efficacy of Placebos", reported in Psychological Reports)

"V-KD has been cited [by Koziey] as showing a positive reduction in anxiety in teenage rape victims" (review of Koziey and McLeod,1987, use of V/K dissociation in rape trauma, "Professional Psychology; Research and Practice")

"Thomas Malloy (1989) at the University of Utah Department of Psychology completed a study with three groups of spellers, again pretested to find average spellers. One group were taught the NLP spelling strategy of looking up and to the left, one group were taught a strategy of sounding out by phonetics and auditory rules, and one were given no new information. In this study the tests involved actual words. Again, the visual recall spellers improved 25%, and had near 100% retention one week later. The group taught the auditory strategies improved 15% but this score dropped 5% in the following week. The control group showed no improvement." (Malloy, 1989, Cognitive strategies and a classroom procedure for teaching spelling)

Yappo put 30 subjects in trance using a variety of inductions in different sensory systems. "After each induction, their depth of trance was measured by electromyograph and by asking them how relaxed they felt. On both measures, subjects achieved greater relaxation when their preferred sensory system was used." (Yappo, 1981, effects of matching predicates on hypnotic relaxation, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 23)

"In those families where people were less satisfied, substantially more metamodel patterns were being used, especially deletions and unspecified nouns. This study supports the notion that challenging metamodel patterns is an important way to enhance the ability to achieve satisfaction socially" (Macroy, 1978, determining whether metamodel violations are linked to poor communication)

"In one of the clearest demonstrations of the [NLP/Milton Model] ability to communicate with a person's (literally) unconscious mind, Cheek induced 3000 fully anaesthetised patients to produce hand movements as signals for "yes" and "no" [to answer questions], obviously without their conscious knowledge." ("Awareness of Meaningful Sounds Under General Anaesthesia." "Theoretical and Clinical aspects of Hypnosis", Symposium Specialists, 1981)

That was about 1/4 of the way though my list of NLP citations. Here's a few highlights of the rest from 1990 onwards:

"It seems to be also very helpful if they correspond well in linguistic formulation to the Milton Model of NLP" (Forster Jansen Margenrot Unterberger, 1993, Which conditions are decisive for rapport)

"The question about impact of the individual NLP interventions (the Meta model, verbal and nonverbales Pacing and leading, the attention of the body language as well as the Reframing models) [was responded] particularly positively ... The social educators consider the feedback of the client and the secondary profit of the problem behavior now substantially more intensively. Enormous changes were registered also in the formulation of goals and the attention to their ecological compatibility. Moreover, very many of the people indicated that they could increase their adaptability, feel technically more competent and make a more intensive self reflection ... According to these positive experiences the answer to the question whether NLP is meaningful as further training for social paedagogues, has fallen out very optimistically." (Frank, 1997, using NLP in social work, approx translation from German)

55 clients with serious DSM afflictions from schizo-affective disorder to psychosis, depression, dependency, psychosomatic and PTSD were seen by NLP master practitioners. These disorders were more severe initially in the test group than in the control group of 60 on all scales, and their use of psychiatric drugs was higher. After treatment of the NLP clients, 2% felt no different, 98% felt better or much better, none felt worse (control group: 48% no different, 36% better, 15% worse). After therapy, the clients who received NLP scored higher in their perception of themselves as in control of their lives (with a difference at 10% significance level), reduced their use of drugs, used more successful coping methods to respond to stressful situations, and reduced symptoms such as anxiety, aggression, paranoid thinking, social insecurity, compulsive behaviours, and depression. the research showed that some positive changes also ocurred in the control group and could not be accounted for by the therapy, including some of the reduction in psychosomatic symptoms, social isolation and some paranoid thinking. Altogether, positive changes in 25 of 33 symptom areas (76%) occurred as a result of NLP therapy, positive changes in 3 areas occurred in both groups, and no significant changes occured in 5 areas. The researchers concluded "It could be established that, in principle, NLP is effective in accordance with the therapeutic objective." (Genser-Medlitsch & Schütz, 1997, Does Neuro-Linguistic psychotherapy have effect?)

"Significant within-person decreases in trait-anxiety scores and increases in internal locus of control scores were observed as predicted. Results confirm the effectiveness of neurolinguistic programming in lowering trait anxiety and increasing the sense of internal control." (Konefal, 1992, NLP training, anxiety and locus of control)

"The studies reviewed for this paper suggest that V/KD, although currently at an experimental level of efficacy and in need of further well-designed empirical study, may be a promising treatment for at least some forms of Posttraumatic Disorder. Intrusive symptoms, avoidance behaviors, and interpersonal and occupational functioning improved for many of the participants in the studies reviewed." (Dietrich, 'traumatology' aug 2000, review of V/K dissociation in trauma treatment)

"An uncontrolled study with a sample of 19 British police officers referred for stress management by a medical insurance company. Of 70 officers seen, 19 met DSM-III criteria for PTSD ... Treatment effectiveness was evaluated by the participant's verbal self-reports immediately following the procedure, at a one-week follow-up interview, and at long-term follow-up interviews occurring in an interval anywhere from three months to two years after V/KD treatment. Muss reported that most of the participants (exact number was not specified) stated that they "felt as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted; others did not remark on any immediate change". All 19 officers reported "feeling well" at the one-week follow-up. [Long term follow-up comprised] 10 were contacted by phone and five were reviewed at the clinic, the other four could not be contacted. All [fifteen] confirmed freedom from recurring intrusive images and a return to normal behavior." (Muss, 1991, use of V/K Dissociation for trauma)

"This study evaluated NLP anchor collapsing as 'brief therapy' for test anxiety. As a control the author selected mental training, often introduced in the literature as [the usual] treatment procedure. Positive effects." (Reckert, 1994, Test anxiety... removed by anchoring in just one session?)

"Examined the effects of neurolinguistic mirroring vs nonmirroring of selected nonverbal behaviors on empathy, trustworthiness, and positive interaction in a cross-cultural setting among 60 Choctaw male adolescents (aged 14-19 yrs) and 2 White female counselors ... There were significant mirroring effects on the empathy scale of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory." (Sandhu Reeves Portes, 1993, effect of NLP mirroring and cross-cultural counselling)

"Apparently the NLP techniques used in training prove to be quite successful procedures for the promotion of health. Although the training only comprised one period of 3 weeks (12 training hours), significant results show up. Thus the participators in the training judge the success of their rehabilitation measures throughout more positively than the members of the control's group." (Unterberger Ulbrich, 1998, Effects of NLP interventions with chronical diseases [chronic illness of the back, cancer, allergies and asthma] in clinical tests, approx german translation)

"29 people attended 4 seminars on theoretical and practical characteristic uses of submodalities. Numerous direct effects were reported and a half year later were queried as to their durability as well as spontaneously resumed self-application of submodality work. The descriptive evaluation disclosed emotion-relevant effects in the case of all seminar participants, whereby more and less effective submodalities showed up. Further in everyday life, different successful uses of the trained methods could be assessed in [?close to] two-thirds of the participants. From this suggests itself the theoretical and practical relevance of this partial concept of NLP." (Weerth, 1992, study of the submodality concept in NLP)

"Spelling was tested again by Loiselle (1985, University of Moncton, New Brunswick). Four groups of pretested average spellers were given the same spelling test (using made up nonsense words they had not seen before). Each group had different instructions and each obtained different results in their spelling test: Group A was simply told to "learn the words". (scored same as pretest), Group B was told to "visualize the words as a method of learning them" (scored 10% better), Group C was told to "look up to the left", which NLP claims helps visual memory (scored 20-25% better). A further group, Group D, were told to "look down to the right", which NLP claims helps feeling kinesthetically, but may hinder visualizing. People in this group scored 15% worse than pretest. These were almost identical results to Malloy (1989)

"The related technologies brought both significant variations of the nailbiting and the growth. The swish-technology showed clear advantages vis-à-vis the switch-technology. To the follow-up moment, the obtained results were further stable." (Wilhelm, 1991, various NLP submodality techniques tested on nailbiting)

Bradford University's staff website provides an overview of a paper "Universities in Transition" subtitled "Devising a framework for effective staff development interventions" which states "Further inspiration and guidance has come from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)" (Sayers & Matthew, 1999)

""[E]ye-gaze, eye-focus, eye-movement, pupil size all output messages to others (Catania, 1992; Cotton, 1995). The trained observer can consciously note these and use the information gained to interact using Neuro-linguistic programming language (Craft, 2001; William A. Janvier & Ghaoui, 2003b; Sadowski & Stanney, 1999; Slater et al., 1994) and create more effective communication and understanding by using the correct communication preference verbal responses... In short all of the above can be used in the commercial world to increase a potential customer?s understanding and desire for a product... [Ghaoui & Janvier]'s evaluation has significantly indicated that using these in Human-Computer Interaction does indeed improve memory retention by some 15% (p=.0001)" Can Human Interaction make the Computer more effective (William A Janvier & Ghaoui, 2004b, presented at the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, 2005) [1] (DOC)

"Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is becoming increasingly influential in classroom practice (e.g. Ginnis, 2002) despite the lack of strong evidential support from educational research... Trevor Day experienced early success using NLP modelling with sixth form students... This paper offers recommendations for classroom practice using NLP modelling. It also discusses how students' predispositions are likely to influence their responses to NLP approaches." NLP modelling in the classroom: students modelling each other's good practice using adapted neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approaches (Trevor Day, 2005, PhD project, Department of Education University of Bath, presented at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference at the University of Glamorgan) [2]

"This paper describes the sense of presence in immersive virtual environments [such as architectural walk-through]... to try to isolate and evaluate factors that can influence it... Firstly we constructed a model of presence purely in terms of the exogenous factors of the virtual environment and the display system. This was unsuccessful as people had widely differing reactions to the same stimuli. A tentative model based on the endogenous factors of the subject using Neuro-Linguistic Programming did however provide a good prediction of a person's reported sense of presence." (Steed, Slater and Usoh, late 1990s or 2000's, Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments)

"Meta programmes, part of the model of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), are a well documented approach to identifying an individual's personality traits as evidenced by their behaviour or language. This study attempts to identify whether there are any associations between students’ meta programme patterns and their performance in summative assessments – and therefore do students with certain meta programmes do better in their summative assessments? A total of two hundred and thirteen first year undergraduates completed the Motivation Profile Questionnaire (MPQ) to identify their meta programme patterns and their questionnaire scores were compared with their performance in summative assessments. Significant correlations between meta programme patterns and the students’ assessment performance were found. In some cases the correlation was positive which suggests that students with certain meta programme preferences perform better in their assessments. In other cases the correlation was negative suggesting that students with other meta programme preferences do less well in their assessments. The ‘people’ meta programme was negatively correlated with performance for Accounting and Finance students whilst it was positively correlated with performance for other Business students. Therefore identification of meta programmes could have implications for successful completion of modules." Student performance in assessments: an exploration of the relevance of personality traits, identified using meta programmes (Brown& Graff, University of Glamorgan, 2004)

"... Most had never heard of NLP before, and many were completely unbelieving in it, or terrified of it. Their motivation to do NLP was generally low. The lung capacity of adult asthmatics tends to decrease by 50ml a year average. This occurred in the control group. Meanwhile the NLP group increased their lung capacity by an average of 200ml (ie, reversing four years of damage in a year). Daily variations in peak flow (an indicator of unstable lung function) began at 30%-40%. In the control group they reduced to 25% but in the NLP group they fell to below 10% . Sleep disorders in the control group began at 70% and dropped to 30%. In the NLP group they began at 50% and dropped to 0%. Use of asthma inhalers and acute medication in the NLP group fell to near zero." (Lund and Lund, 1994, Danish Society of Allergology Conference 1994, and European Respiratory Society Conference, Nice 1994)

The Journal of the Cardiff School of Education, Vol.2 March 2003, at the University of Wales Institute, includes the following in a paper on Multiple Intelligences by Emmajane Milton:

"Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has shown that information is absorbed through our senses and in order to access information as fully as possible, learning needs to be multi-sensory. When a person uses one internal sense consistently it is called their preferred system in NLP and this preference influences the way a person learns and communicates. The three main learning preferences are visual, auditory and kinesthetic; therefore, teachers need to use a variety of different resources and activities to ensure that children are enabled to learn through their preferred system. This belief is supported by O’Connor and Seymour (1990), Shaw and Hawes (1998), Smith & Call (1999), Burgess (2000), Beere (2000), Cheshire County Council (2001) and Ginnis (2002)."

"Clients with obsessive compulsive disorder had raised activity in neural networks inside the caudate nucleus of the brain (demonstrated on PET scans of the brain). Drugs such as Prozac raise serotonin levels and the caudate nucleus activity is thus reduced. Baxter found that when clients repeated a simple reframe to themselves, the Positron Emission Tomography scan showed the same raising of serotonin levels and the same lowering of activity in the caudate nucleus." (Baxter, 1994, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry)

[edit] Recognition by other bodies

Believed current (2004-2005) unless otherwise stated

• Psychological and other bodies:
  • The British Psychological Society, which lists NLP alongside Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Hypnotherapy as 3 therapies that come under the remit of the UKCP, providing a link for people seeking these therapies. Further, its 4th Annual Continuing Education Program included a key-note speaker talking on NLP (Leanne Harris, University of Hertfordshire) -- See below (next section).
  • The UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapists) includes the Association for NLP's Training and Counselling arm as a member -- See below (next section).
  • Washington State Psychological Society lists NLP amongst the therapies it will recommend a counsellor in. [3]
  • The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy lists NLP as a skill it will mention if a therapist has, in its directory, for clients seeking therapists. [4]
  • The Wisconsin Psychological Association considered NLP worthy of a full day preconference session at it's 2005 National Wellness Conference, under the heading "Sessions Approved for CEUs [Continuing Education credits] for Psychologists". PDF
• Non-government health organizations:
  • The National Phobics Society of Great Britain lists not only the fast Phobia Cure, but also NLP in general, along with CBT and desensitization, as "therapies offered". [5]
  • Hertfordshire University publishes a leaflet by MIND, a major UK mental health charity, on asserting oneself. It only lists three bodies as "further contacts": the British Association for Counselling, the British Autogenic Society, and the Association for NLP. [6] (PDF)
  • Dementia Care Matters, in association with Bradford University, included a seminar on NLP rapport skills at the 2004 Communication in Dementia Care and Dementia Care North conferences. [7] (PDF)
  • The organization "athealth.com" which organizes continuing education for mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, pediatricians, family practitioners, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, counselors, researchers, educators, school psychologists, course number Course No. C5907-A36 is entitled "Diffusing Reflexive Anger: A Neuro-Linguistic Programming Approach", described as being "directly in the therapy room to watch as leading therapists demonstrate their approaches in unrehearsed clinical sessions with real clients (not actors). Viewers will see firsthand how strict focus on the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic components of experience enables rapid change with Melissa, a real client struggling with repeated outbursts of anger ... [and how] Andreas, using this client's own language and logic, creates that all-important willingness to forgive." [8]
  • Utah State University Student Health and Wellness Center lists NLP as one of its six "Outpatient treatment for adults and adolescents with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, food addiction", along with psychological care, cognitive therapy, assertiveness training, body image awareness, and relapse prevention. [9]
  • The British Stammering Association lists NLP as an "option in stammering therapy", stating that "More and more speech and language therapists working with adults who stammer are also trained in counselling and they will be able to discuss your needs in line with their own training and approaches. Some may incorporate Person Centred Counselling, Personal Construct Therapy, Brief Cognitive Therapy, Brief Solution Focussed Therapy, Process Orientated Psychology, Hypnotherapy or NLP ( Neuro Linguistic Programming) in their work." [10]
  • Project DISCUSS, at the Center for Development & Disability, at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center, School of Medicine, which investigated methods of treatment of Autism, includes NLP in a post-research list of "possible intervention techniques for persons with autism spectrum disorders". [11]
• Police and law enforcement use:
  • Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council Regional Police Academy and Training Center offers an inter-agency course on interview and interrogation, subtitled "Neuro-linguistic Interviewing and Interrogations for Confessions" [12]
  • The International Association of Chiefs of Police includes NLP as one of only two named interview methods for advancing gang, trafficking & homicide investigations: "Enhancing Firearms Trafficking Investigations Suspect Debriefing & Interview Techniques: Detection of Deception, Kinesics, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Statement Analysis, Reid Technique and others." [13]
  • The "FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin" (August 2001) has an article written by two instructors in the Law Enforcement Communication Unit at the FBI Academy, covering in depth how NLP can be used in the interview room, and to build rapport. It comments "Experienced investigators continually employ this technique, usually without even thinking about the mechanics or the process involved" [14]
  • The State of Georgia's Public Safety Training Center runs two courses on NLP, stating that its methods are "field proven":
    • Course L07A05031 is an "advanced level course of the latest techniques in determining truth or deception, and in the case of deception, obtaining a legal confession. Methods included are: Statement Content Analysis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, [and] Multiple Suspect Elimination... the latest and most powerful techniques of detection of deception and convincing strategies."
    • Course L07A05041 is simply titled Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and is "an Advanced Interview Technique Course [...] designed for the experienced officer with emphasis on combining other information gathering procedures with Neuro-Linguistic Programming... The participants will be provided a working knowledge of Neuro-Linguistic Patterning... This course is fast paced, with field proven methods for attaining more information in Interviews via the active processes presented." [15] (PDF)
  • The UK's National Police Leadership Centre (part of Centrex, the Central Police Training and Development Authority) includes "advanced communication skills, coaching skills, negotiation, conflict resolution and neuro linguistic programming" as specific elements of its Senior Leadership Development Programme intended for "Chief Inspectors, superintendents or police staff who are members of a command team" [16]
• NLP is on the syllabus of:
  • Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education in Psychology and Communication lists an NLP course as one of its options. [17]
  • Suffolk University, Boston's Spanish campus lists NLP on the syllabus for their Intensive Reading Skills course, reference ENG90 [18]
  • The "Attorney Communication & Persuasion Techniques" course under "ADVANCED TRIAL ADVOCACY", part of the Litigation Skills program, at the University of Houston Law Center, states "The theoretical orientation of the content material is taken mostly from the science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is a practical system that combines effective communications with human psychology. It is the leading edge of communication skills training throughout industry, among professions, and within education." [19]
  • Fayetteville State University Department of Social Work's Master of Social Work program course "SWRK 540: Social Work Intervention with Individuals and Families" includes NLP on the syllabus [20] (DOC)
  • California State University lists an NLP course reference EXSP 8944 under its continuing education for Business and Management. [21]
  • Millersville University of Pennsylvania course WSSD 582 (Sports Psychology) states "Focuses on the latest psychological skills training techniques for both coaches and athletes. Information from the annual conference on sport psychology for coaches will be presented. The latest techniques in neuro-linguistic programming and its implications for coaches and athletes will be utilized. Students will be introduced to and learn the latest mental training techniques of Olympic and professional athletes." [22]
  • University of Surrey which runs a 3 year postgrad MSc in "Change Agent Skills & Strategies" for HR and change professionals in organisations and communities which includes: "Module 2: Individual Change and Development Methods of personal development and change, with emphasis on the understanding and experience of core processes and assumptions, types and levels of change, and issues of working with personal change in an organisational context. Specialist input is given on modalities such as: Transactional Analysis; Gestalt; Neuro-linguistic programming; Psychosynthesis and Co-counselling (others may be available)" [23] (PDF)
  • BirkBeck (University of London) Diploma in Applied Psychology, module 19 is listed as NLP [24]
  • American River College California's Management school course MGMT 332 (Team Development) "This course focuses on the extension of the basic business knowledge of teams, with a focus on practical application of the knowledge and tools of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)..." [25] (PDF)
  • Towson University, Maryland , course PSYC 642 (organizational behavior) lists NLP as one of the three subjects taught under Communication Effectiveness Models [26]
  • St Petersburg College, Florida, lists NLP under its "HUS 1920 Professional techniques for human services personnel" course syllabus. [27]
• NLP is used in management and staff training by:
  • The Seattle federal Executive Board Alternative Dispute Resolution Consortium's 2005 workshops offered a course on NLP in dispute resolution, calling NLP a 'powerful tool for change'." [28] (PDF)
  • The Educational & Staff Development Unit at the University of Central England in Birmingham runs an "Introduction to NLP" course (April 2005/06) [29] course details [30] (DOC)
  • The London School of Economics ran a staff NLP course (2002) [31] followed by a pilot NLP-based course (positively received, now being repeated) on "Coaching: unlearning to learn", an "evaluation of a pilot project which explored whether coaching can make a significant difference to the emergence of future leaders in Higher Education in the UK" [32] (PDF)
  • Queens University of Belfast has a staff training course on NLP under "communication" [33]
  • London South Bank University has a staff training course on NLP under "leadership and development" [34]
• In the UK, the National Health Service ("NHS") is one of the country's largest employers. At a quick glance, NLP is in use at a minimum by:
  • Highland Primary Care Trust: Workshops were offered on [subject list]. All the workshops included techniques and approaches based on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Over the two years, almost 400 Healthcare Professionals from all disciplines have participated in the workshops. [35] (DOC)
  • The Welsh NHS: "...most valuably NLP provides practical tools for communicating and working effectively within a diverse team" [36]
  • Cambridge Mental Health: refers patients to the Association of NLP [37]
  • The NHS Modernisation Agency: Identifies NLP based rapport skills as an important part of human skills training. [38]
  • Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust: 2003-04 Annual report states as an achievement that Continuous Personal and Professional Development has been devised "based around the basics of Neuro Linguistic Programming" [39] (PDF)
  • Green Park Healthcare Trust: Courses based upon NLP [40] (PDF),
  • Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority: One day workshop, "NLP is a powerful set of tools and approaches" [41] (PDF)
  • NHS South Yorkshire Academy for Health and care Improvement: Also runs a 1.5 day course for NHS staff only [42] which is currently booked up and has a waiting list [43]
  • City & Hackney teaching Primary care Trust runs a one day NLP course entitled "Coaching Practitioner & NLP Training For Doctors" as part of its Stress and Management Skills Training [44]
  • Guy's, King's & St.Thomas's Hospitals Medical & Dental Schools, highly reputed London hospitals, introduced NLP training to its staff in 2003, "[s]upported by the testimonials of GP's" (ie, general practitioners), commenting that "it is based on ... more than 400 patients whose recovery was considered to be extraordinary in the light of the diagnosis and prognosis they had received. From this it emerged that precise and consistent communication between doctor and patient appeared to be one of the most powerful components of the healing equation." [45]
  • The NHS Cancer Action Improvement Team: "An ongoing training programme, using the tools of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), is improving health professionals’ communication skills, and giving them techniques and strategies to help people cope with the experiences of living with cancer. They will then be able to pass these skills on to others. The response from the health professionals has been very positive. They found the improved communication skills and new techniques valuable and relevant to their work, and intend to continue to use their enhanced skills in practice. The project is being evaluated by Chester University College. Results so far show a strong positive response to training and support from professionals and patients and carers." (2004 newsletter) [46] (PDF)
• NLP is also apparently taken seriously by:
  • The editors of "Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching" which in an editorial note to an article states (Vol. VI, 2001), "During the past ten years, [NLP] has been quite influential in 'English as a second language' as taught in England and in Europe in general." [47]
  • The Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, Anne McVey, Ph.D., lists NLP under "Additional training" on her formal OSU psychiatry department profile. [48]
  • Penn State college of Medicine lists NLP on its Faculty Expertise database [49]
  • Derby University's Centre for Guidance Studies 2005 schedule includes one day seminar: "This one-day seminar will explore, review, compare and contrast these approaches so that careers guidance professionals can integrate the best of these into their practice. The seminar will deal with the various approaches... using a model borrowed from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) that incorporates identity, personality, skills, beliefs, behaviour and mood...." [50] (PDF)
  • California Institute of Integral Studies lists in its Fall 2005 conference, a seminar entitled "Beyond Framing: How Deep Neuro-Linguistic Programming Communicates" [51]
  • Dr. Stanley H. McCreary, of the Central Christian College of the Bible, Missouri, previously at Yale and Chaplain in the US navy, lists NLP master practitioner in his list of trainings.
  • The Head of Actor Training of the Theatre Arts Faculty at University of Oregon, Professor Robert Barton, lists his principle interests as "Actor training, especially Shakespeare, period styles, voice, and neuro-linguistic programming" [52]
  • Richard M. Gray, Ph.D., Treatment Coordinator, U.S. Probation Department, Brooklyn, New York, April 2005: "Since its inception in 1997, his 16 week "The Brooklyn Program" has helped hundreds of federal probationers live sober, personally directed lives. A remarkable 55 percent of participants remain drug free for a year or more. And this is working with individuals whose participation is mandatory, typically the most difficult client population... a program that uses NLP techniques and approaches..."
    • A colleague is cited as saying, "More than just the statistics that showed Dr. Gray’s success with NLP, I saw the program’s effectiveness in the faces of the probationers, parolees and releasees who participated. Where they were previously negative and uninspired, I observed them transform into a positive force. I saw it in how they interacted with each other and their families, and I saw it in how they interacted with Dr. Gray himself."
    • New York Governor George Pataki is quoted as saying, "The effectiveness of your Brooklyn Program is evidenced by the interest of, and use in, other jurisdictions, here in this country as well as over in South Africa." [53]
  • The profile of Diane Siegel, at the Executive and Professional Coaching Program oat the School of management at the University of Texas at Dallas, states that "One of her unusual tools shows up in both coaching and training, Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) is the foundation for workshops and presentations which apply NLP technology to specific topics" [54]
  • The North East Institute, an associate body of the University of Ulster, is "is currently seeking applications from suitably qualified and experienced people in any of the curriculum areas we deliver and who wish to be included on the Institute’s Emergency Register for Part-time Lecturers for the academic year 2005/2006." The section titled "applications are encouraged particularly in the following areas:" includes NLP in the list. [55] (PDF)
  • Several (mainline) pronunciation texts include a wide range of NLP-derived explicit strategies for pronunciation homework and real world practice (Grant 1993, Dalton & Seidlhofer 1994).
  • The Department of Management Studies at Visvesvaraya Technological University, Bangalore, India, ran a course on "Neuro Linguistic Programming for Managerial Effectiveness" which "received good support and applause from the participants who were corporate executives" [56]
  • Louisiana State University lists NLP as a "resource" under "Social Work Resources" [57]
  • The Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, awarded a 2004 fellowship to Lieutenant Colonel LoQuasto, in respect of modeling and other simulation methods combined with neuro-linguistic programming methods applicable to training. [58] (PDF)
  • K.DuVivier, a senior instructor of Legal Writing and Appellant Court Advocacy at The University of Colorado School of Law, wrote two separate articles for Colorado Lawyer in 1999, outlining how NLP principles can be used by lawyers seeking to write more compelling briefs. [59]
  • The Japan Association for Language Teaching published a full series on the benefits of using NLP in teaching (Vol. 21 no.2 feb 1997), covering anchoring, linguistics, and strategies. [60]
  • The International Association for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, whose 2005 annual conference includes an seminar entitled "NLP for your students" as virtually one of the first sessions on day 1. [61] (PDF)
  • The NLP model of Milton Erickson covers linguistics, regression, observation, metaphor, non-verbal communication, utilization and many other techniques (of which the "Milton Model" is one component part). Milton Erickson wrote of NLP's modelling methodology and its results: "Although this book by Richard Bandler and John Grinder is far from being a complete description of my methodologies, as they so clearly state, it is a much better explanation of how I work than I, myself, can give. I know what I do, but to explain how I do it is much too difficult for me." (The Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson M.D., preface). These models are the backbone and an integral underpinning within almost every aspect of modern clinical hypnotherapeutic practice.
  • George Lakoff, professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and one of America's foremost linguists, credits NLP methods specifically as being responsible for significant Republican voter influence and perception modification in the 1990's, citing three instances in his books:
    • "The Willie Horton ads, for example, used an old NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) technique of "Anchoring via Submodalities," linking Dukakis, at an unconscious level in the viewer’s mind, to Willie Horton by the use of color versus black-and-white footage, and background sound. After a few exposures to these psy-ops ads, people would 'feel' Willie Horton when they 'saw' Dukakis."
    • "[I]t's no coincidence that the most psychologically effective ad that the Bush campaign used in 2004 wasn't the wolf ad (that was #2) but one that had two specific NLP-based posthypnotic suggestions embedded into it, telling people that "in the quiet" and "when you're alone in the voting booth" that they "can't take the risk" of voting for Kerry. It looked like a simple check-list ad, but was saved for the last minute and played so heavily because it was so psychologically sophisticated and potent."
    • NLP language-based anchoring was used strategically by Newt Gingrich (ex-Speaker of the House) in his quest to "frame the word 'liberal' as 'something akin to traitor', an effort that ultimately led to his infamous 1995 'secret' memo to GOP leaders titled 'Language: A Key Mechanism of Control'... The result according to a decade of politicians and talk show hosts memorizing and parroting Newt’s word list is that, in much of the public’s mind, morality and patriotism are associated with conservatives while liberals are thought of in the terms described above." [62]
  • Prof. Lakoff also states "Even if by today's cognitive science research standards some of the original NLP research must be called inadequate, we now can classify NLP research projects as fitting in the field of cognitive science." For example, Lakoff & Johnson describe "the major findings of cognitive science" as (1) abstact concepts being largely methophorical (ie "The map is not the territory") and (2) the mind being inherently embodied (ie "Body and Mind form a systemic whole"). (Philosophy in the Flesh, 1999, introduction) [63]
  • The Phonetics Teaching & Learning Conference 2001 proceedings includes a paper presentation on Innovative approaches: "New developments in pronunciation pedagogy have been affected by clear influences from other disciplines such as psychology, neuro-linguistics, drama and technology... A brain-friendly approach to teaching practical phonetics, which manifests itself in the use of multisensory modes, i.e. auditory, visual, tactile and kinaesthetic reinforcements, is demonstrated to enhance acquisition by appealing to different learning styles... The Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) perspective is also advocated as it deals efficiently with affective and emotional factors related to learning pronunciation and facilitates an accurate production of L2 [second language] sounds through such techniques as relaxation, suggestion, visualisation and others." [64] full paper (PDF)
  • The UK Cabinet Office's National School of Government runs a course "NLP for Managers", for "Experienced managers who have had previous management training and development". It states that "[NLP] is increasingly used in both public and private sectors to improve performance and flexibility at an individual, team and organisational level." [65]

[edit] Corrections to existing impressions

[edit] Sharpley (1987)

Let's start with Sharpley, represented as a major critic of NLP in the article, and a source used in Heap's 1988 review:

"There are conclusive data from the research on NLP, and the conclusion is that the principles and procedures suggested by NLP have failed to be supported by those data. Perhaps NLP principles are not amenable to research evaluation. This does not necessarily reduce NLP to worthlessness for counseling practice. Rather, it puts NLP in the same category as psychoanalysis, that is, with principles not easily demonstrated in laboratory settings but, nevertheless, strongly supported by clinicians in the field." (Sharpley, 1987, p. 105)

[edit] Heap (1988)

Heap himself says of his own research into matching predicates (1988) that:

"Einsprech and Forman are probably correct in insisting that the effectiveness of NLP therapy undertaken in authentic clinical contexts of trained practitioners has not yet been properly investigated." [66]

and

"On the balance the findings have been negative but a number of positive outcomes have been reported, enough to suggest that there may be some beneficial effect of matching, perhaps not specific to predicates but to more general linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour, as indeed NLP writers themselves have suggested. For example, Mercier and Johnson (6) have concluded that with increasing familiarity, client and counsellor tend to converge in their usage of certain linguistic structure such as verb phrases." [67]

[edit] British Psychological Society

The article says that "The British Psychological Society classes NLP as 'quintessential charlatanry' ". In fact this is diametrically incorrect.

The Society not only rates NLP as sufficient standing to mention in their biographies [68] but also refer interested users to the UK Council for Psychotherapy, who are interested in finding an NLP therapist, grouping it together with Psychoanalysis, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and Hypnotherapy which are also not part of their remit [69] (The BPS is more psychoanalytically oriented judging by its board)

Indeed the British Psychological Society reports that in 2001 its NorthWest Chapter has held an NLP introduction event for its members. "This one-day event is aimed at psychologists, consultants, HR professionals, counsellors and students, or anyone with an interest in the practice and application of NLP."

Further, the British Psychological Society's 4th Annual Continuing Education Program (CEP) conference included a keynote speaker Leanne Harris (University of Hertfordshire) entitled "Exploring the use of neuro-linguistic programming as a first person methodology: Studying the use of imagery in changing the quality of experience". Its abstract reads:

"After years of being dominated by 3rd person objective research methods, there are now calls within psychology for a shift in this perspective to one which embraces both objective and subjective ways of knowing as equally valid and inextricably linked in the search for the understanding of human experience and behaviour... In particular, the workshop will draw on methods which have been developed outside academic psychology but which appear to have much to offer as an approach to exploring subjective experience, namely neuro-linguistic programming. NLP claims to be the study of the structure of experience. It makes use of questioning techniques which do not make assumptions about the content of experience, but rather seek to elicit the structure of the experience and how that structure affects the quality of an individual's experience. The workshop will incorporate an experiential elicitation session based on the NLP sensory sub-modalities model... The session will conclude with a discussion of the applicability of such techniques for psychology research."

Forgive me if this doesn't sound totally like the BPS hold NLP to be "quintessential quackery." Whatever the source, it seems clear this information is diametrically in error.

[edit] UK Council for Psychotherapy

So I looked up the UK Council for Psychotherapy. They are the umbrella accrediting body for psychotherapy in the UK:

In 1994 the ANLP (British NLP association) Professional and Counselling Services was awarded a representative on the Governing Board of the UK Council for Psychotherapy [70]. It continues to be a member organization in good standing of that body at the present time. NLPtca.com website and UKCP 2005 members list PDF

[edit] Platt (2001)

Platt (2001) in his article "NLP - No Longer Plausible?" is stated to have concluded that he found "NLP to be ineffective". But in fact he identifies that whilst it produces poor corerelation in isolation, when used in context it has produced positive results (noted above). He concludes (and this is far from "rejection") that it needs to temper its claims, and accept it has limits on its effectiveness:

"Does that make NLP bogus? No, it does not. But the research and the findings of the investigators certainly make it clear that NLP cannot help all people in all situations, which is frequently what is claimed and what practioners assert. In that sense NLP is no better than any other process or system. The immoderate claims that are made for NLP might be viewed a little more critically when viewed against this background. What conclusions can we draw from this body of evidence that casts more than a shadow of doubt over certain aspects of NLP? Well frankly, a degree of objectivity and healthy cynicism of some of the claims made would be a good start. I would also suggest that a realisation that NLP will not always work and that some other systems or approaches might be better applied would also be useful."

[edit] Druckman (1988)

Druckman (1988) who is stated to have said "There is no evidence to support either NLP assumptions or NLP effectiveness", in fact said a little more than this:

"Studies of the effectiveness of NLP are limited in a number of ways. The dependent measure used in most studies is client-counselor empathy, as measured on a paper-and-pencil scale (e.g., Hammer, 19831. This is not a satisfactory index of the therapeutic effectiveness of the counselor. One can find a counselor very empathetic but nonetheless ineffective in modifying behaviors or feelings. There are no studies comparing the effectiveness of NLP as an influence technique with other interpersonal influence techniques. None of the studies testing aspects of NLP has used NLP-certified Trainers as counselors, therapists, or eye movement monitors; thus studies that fail to support NLP are subject to the criticism that, if properly trained people had been used, the results would have been more positive."

"Many of the studies are concerned with testing whether influence attempts that match the PRS are more effective than those that do not match... Since the emphasis on the Preferred Representational System (as distinguished from the representational system currently in use) has been explicitly disavowed in informal communication, the relevance of this negative finding is diminished."

"Respected and responsible people who have been trained in the system report positively."

[edit] Carroll (2003)

Carroll (2003) is portrayed in the article as research. In fact it is an opinion entry, for a skeptic's website. A plausible hypothesis is that it is therefore less likely to be neutrally written. It is written in a somewhat sarcastic tone, and at times grossly misinformed:

"...when someone tells me that the way I squeeze my nose during a conversation means I am signaling him that I think his idea stinks, how do we verify whether his interpretation is correct or not? I deny it. He knows the structure, he says. He knows the meaning. I am not aware of my signal or of my feelings, he says, because the message is coming from my subconscious mind. How do we test these kinds of claims? We can't. What's his evidence? It must be his brilliant intuitive insight because there is no empirical evidence to back up this claim. Sitting cross-armed at a meeting might not mean that someone is 'blocking you out' or 'getting defensive'..."

(These are not NLP methods or approaches at all. This is straw man)

"While I do not doubt that many people benefit from NLP training sessions, there seem to be several false or questionable assumptions upon which NLP is based. Their beliefs about the unconscious mind, hypnosis and the ability to influence people by appealing directly to the subconscious mind are unsubstantiated... You cannot learn to 'speak directly to the unconscious mind' as Erickson and NLP claim, except in the most obvious way of using the power of suggestion."

(but see Cheek research above which did just that)

The article's conclusion is that: "This is not to say that the techniques won't work. They may work and work quite well, but there is no way to know whether the claims behind their origin are valid. Perhaps it doesn't matter. NLP itself proclaims that it is pragmatic in its approach: what matters is whether it works. However, how do you measure the claim "NLP works"? I don't know and I don't think NLPers know, either. [...]"

[edit] Existing editorship

[edit] Comments of some editors

(1) You say NPOV but did you assert a POV from aprofessional who opposes the claims. In all are there any favorable articles to balance the NLP article with counter aguments. One might say the editors are choosing their articles with this piece of writing. I know I would. User:Justin

(2) The first paragraph of the "overview" section ended with this: "It is also promoted in various specific forms including as a quick fix or lay therapy, in some management training programs, and for more fringe practices such as NLP trance seduction, and psychic or occult practices."

Wow. That has got to be the most POV overview of a topic I've ever read on wikipedia. "quick fix", "lay therapy", "fringe practices", "occult practices" are all highly POV and highly critical of NLP.

NPOV policy says to present BOTH views, which means you folks need to present the PRO NLP view before you start hitting it with the criticism point of view. FuelWagon 02:54, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(3) "Pseudoscience" reads to me (as a sceptic) as a very strong condemnation, on the line with "devious". "Fails scientific tests" and "Is often too vaguely formulated to be testable" or similar would seem neutral to me. Eivind Eklund? 09:49, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

(4) My goodness, if NLP is not a claimed panacea then nothing is, even from the beginning. The nlp books claim that NLP will allow you to attain the excellence you deserve in life, and master all aspects of your life to high states of excellence, and that is in the text, not just the adverts... it is claimed that nlp improves or cures anything and all things even spiritually, and caters for everyone from saints to sinners to everyone in between. The word PANACEA should be clearly stated in the opening. This can be compared with Dianetics for the sake of further clarity.DaveRight 03:38, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

"I also want to point out that hypnosis is not a panacea." (Trance Formations, p.7)

"You want to become competent at whatever you do. That does not mean to get phobics, who shake in their boots while their blood pressure blows through the roof, to believe, "This is not fear." The object is to get them to stay calm and alert, and to stay in their own lane, and to drive across the bridge, which remains standing. Ask yourself; "Can we build better?" To build those things we have to be able to suspend whatever belief system we already have. Keep it out of the way... Those things get very, very personal. We're talking about basic beliefs regarding human capability. Here's the only truth about that. Nobody knows." [Time for a Change, p.3)

(5) The point of NPOV is being ignored, misunderstood, or misapplied here. You do not present the view of some topic from the point of view of its critics. Nor do you present the view of a topic from the point of view of its fringe followers... FuelWagon 02:41, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(6) Headly Down, TBP asked you a poignant question before one you seem to have forgotten to answer. In fact he/she asked you four times with out answer or explaination. Do you know anything about classic NLP? Please answer it will speak volumes. 58.178.135.242?

[No response]

(7) Greg,Alice, Is "NLP promoter" used in any of the reputable sources? --Comaze 08:00, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(8) I can't speak for the other "neutral editors who are NLP trained" (you are not neutral), but we are attempting at the moment JUST to have NLP represented as it portrays itself... we haven't really got to the scientific arguments which come as a natural stage 2. Personally I'm not asking for a compromise either, I'm asking to represent both sides, and where we can show a single viewpoint lets do it... It is unfortunate that if you believe all questions are invalid, then all discussion dies, doesn't it? GregA? 12:26, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(9)

Alright, I don't know what is going on here, but it would appear that there are multiple people who are entirely clueless about NPOV policy. That or they are disregarding NPOV policy in order to advocate against NLP.

1. First of all, the article should be presenting the NLP point of view using language from a pro-NLP source or website, not using some NLP critic's version of what NLP claims to be, but using what NLP supporters actually claim it to be. I don't know anything about NLP, but it is abundantly clear that the pro-NLP poitn of view in the article was written by a vehement critic of NLP. That the article started out saying "NLP is a pseudoscientific concept" when I first came to this article is a red flag that NPOV has been completely subverted, trashed, and bulldozed by POV warriors.
2. Secondly, your sources suck...
3. Thirdly, start quoting your sources the more disputed and biased the terminology becomes. Paraphrasing "nonsense" or "pseudoscience" or "psychobabble" won't cut it. If someone uses that biased of a term, it needs to be reported in a verbatim quote. This is sloppy editing throughout. And it is some of the most biased editing I've read.
4. Fourthly, if you are an anti-NLP editor, and if you have no muscle around the idea of "writing for the enemy" (and it would appear that there are no anti-NLP editors here who actually are familiar with the concept of "writing for the enemy"), then you will have to recuse yourself from editing any pro-NLP section. This goes back to my first point, that the pro-NLP point of view must be written from NLP supporters, but it must also be written from their "best foot forward" or whatever you want to call it. When you are writing the pro-NLP section you must essentially write as a pro-NLP advocate, using their words to present their poitn of view. Then when you report the anti-NLP point of view, you basically write as an advocate for the anti-NLP point of view, using their words and their "best foot forward". If you cannot do this for both views, then you should only be editing the views that you can edit and report the view's "best foot forward", whatever side that may be.

My knowledge of NLP is nill, but reading this article tells me nothing about what NLP claims to be. That right there is a red flag that the article is not doing its job as part of an encyclopedia. I don't care what agreements you came to before, I don't care what negotiations you've had before, I don't care what you've done prior to this point, one thing is abundantly clear:

This article sucks. It is blatantly POV. It blatantly advocates against a topic. It fails to present the point of view of supporters of the topic with their best foot forward. And it appears that a number of editors have hijacked this article to make sure that happens.

Now, if someone threatens arbitration, this will be the first thing that shows up. And I'll make bloody sure that this is the first thing to show up. If you're a POV warrior using Wikipedia to advocate against something, you need to find a different encyclopedia to edit. FuelWagon 23:22, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] User: HeadleyDown

(1) Headley, your language is designed to disparage NLP. It is nothing to do with straight talk.

GregA. If my language is ever disparaging, it is completely understandable considering the unqualified desire to promote NLP on this article. A great deal of criticism of NLP and NLP promoters is also disparaging, and those views will be presented.HeadleyDown 02:03, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree it's quite understandable that you're disparaging. Still, when you start perceiving things in a disparaging way and then looking for supporting articles, it leads to more bias in the page - it's understandable but needs to be avoided. GregA? 03:02, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(2) Ahh.. good - so my guess at your disagreement was correct. You'd like me to be more specific. Could you tell me why a nurse wanting to help people is an okay goal, but NLP practitioner wanting to help someone is not specific enough?

The NLP goal is mostly to do business by selling psychotechnology that is scientifically unsupported and pseudoscientific.HeadleyDown 02:09, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately that's a rather biased description and combines many judgements, and lacks an understanding of motivations of why someone would model, and why someone would apply their skills to therapy or coaching. There's a general interest in helping people. GregA? 03:02, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

[No reply]

(3) By NLP language, I am referring to the way NLP promoters keep using inaccurate phrases stolen from linguistics and twisted into a different and completely inappropriate context in order to make them sound like they know what they are talking about.HeadleyDown 02:09, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(4) And again you appear to willfully misread my words.

• Erickson: First, the question is, is Erickson's work snake oil? I think you'd have a hard time selling that view. Note that Heap is not referencing Erickson's work so much as the cult-like following it attracted. Erickson himself was a clinician of international standing and recognition in his lifetime, and his work has been clinically deemed to be significant. Citations available if needed. Or see the article on his life and work for more. Unless you want to present a case (despite the evidence) that Erickson's work has no validity, I think you have to acknowledge that Grinder and Bandlers methodology, analysis and models drawn from it, which he acknowledged were better than he himself could have done, were also significant.
• Fallacy: Your original statement was (summarized) "its not good enough to say genuine practitioners can achieve results, because it's hyped to the public too". That is a fallacy. Especially, I have never come across good quality NLP saying A will always cause B. It's always "this is a rule of thumb but always check it in each individual case".
• Arcane: 1st quote "In short, you seem to be alluding to some arcane skill that cannot be reproduced", 2nd quote "I did not say the skills were arcane". Make your mind up.
• Misreading: My comment: "core NLP is objectively verifiable by a third party... by the nature of the field, good quality NLP can be retrospectively reviewed eg on video, and a commonsense connection discussed even by non-NLP practitioners between action and effect (unlike most pseudoscience)". Your comment: "...you are saying the skills are unattainable and untestable by good rigorous and peer reviewed studies into NLP". Is it just me, or are you reading the exact opposite of my words?
• Wholism: No Headley, saying that a skill is complex and has many aspects, and it is not always clear in any one circumstance which may have been the critical one, is not wholism. Gods sake man, learn what these words mean. Wholism is saying that something cannot be understood analytically by examining its parts. I bullet pointed some 10 parts to look at, and observe that because it is multi-faceted in this way, it is more complex to design a good test for it, but that (as stated above) none the less, the parts and their impacts are objectively separable.

The problem with your viewpoint is, it is becoming more and more obvious that it is circular and POV: "NLP is pseudoscience, therefore any clinical evidence to the contrary must be unscientific and any statement suggesting objective verifiability can be safely ignored". User:FT2

(5) One of your "evidence" citations (Morgan) turns out to be using NLP and not to actually be any form of researcher at all, but merely a relayer of others research which was used to make it appear (incorrectly) there were two sets of conclusions. Another (Heap, 1988) you have selectively quoted to avoid disclosing his full view on NLP. His full comment even on the limited scope of matching, if you had read it, included:

"On the balance the findings have been negative but a number of positive outcomes have been reported, enough to suggest that there may be some beneficial effect of matching, perhaps not specific to predicates but to more general linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour, as indeed NLP writers themselves have suggested."

That's quite a far stretch from snake oil and complete pseudoscience. Don’t ever, ever, quote scientific research that way, Headley, without checking sources, citing the critical caveats, and giving a neutral view of their findings. When I ask you to justify something, in a reasonable factual tone, I do not honestly expect dismissive hyperbole back. TBP 12:55, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

OK TBP. So far I hear you telling me how to behave - ever ever! I see you removing fact (Morgan's contribution to his 1993 paper includes the words devious, indirect, dubious attributed to NLP). I see you wanting to misinterpret my own words towards your point of view. I see Heap is scathing of NLP, and his final words conclude that NLP is completely unsupported and do not even qualify for expensive clinical studies. People looking in will come to their own conclusions. I want to move on and focus on the cited facts.HeadleyDown 13:23, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

(6) A Note from the peanut gallery....(please forgive the lack of formal Wikipedia formatting I just signed up the other day - I've been following this for a week or so now and I've noticed a tendency for the "antiNLP" group to consistantly ignore "ProNP" arguments. The only comment I can make on this (we all have our own viewpoint) is this example:

The Platt article is constantly cited throughout. Yet the article published in the same magazine the very next month as a reply by Susan Knight was never mentioned anywhere.

And for the record I am a Chemical Engineer, with a MS degree in Industrial Chemistry (so I know more about "science" than most). I also am an NLP Trainer (trained by Tad James) and hypnotherapist. User: JohnStrasser

Hi JohnStrasser. Believe me a week is nothing here. I have had to put up with the same old argument and deletions of fact and twisted accusations for months. The arguments presented today are simply reiterated and oversized nagging that has been dealt with many times over. It will probably continue, but I don't care. The facts remain. Scientific views say that NLP is unsupported, pseudoscientific, and those views will be heard... HeadleyDown 01:44, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Headley... the "scientific views" say, when you do research that includes reviewing and summarizing other research in a field, you review both papers that show the view you incline to, and those which tend to support or suggest the opposing view, both, neutrally. I see no evidence you have dont this. Your view is nicely summarized, one couldn't summarize more honestly if one tried: "I don't care". But NPOV means caring and checking both sides... and reporting a balanced article on the field neutrally. I don't see that your logic or knowledge justifies a claim to be competent in the field to do that.

How hard exactly have you looked for scientists and science not concluding NLP is pseudoscience, or whose papers included indicators such as qualified interest, recommendations for further research in the light of suggestive but not conclusive results, or out and out positive findings? If you found any, shouldn't you include them? And if you didn't look properly, then by what right are you trying to say what NLP is or is not? TBP 03:29, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[No reply, ignored]

(7) Hi TBP. I can't speak for everyone, but the amount of refs on this article is astounding and I certainly can supply more. Nearly all of the refs I have were collected from libraries and photocopied. I can check them all. I have looked at many papers (similar to Platt's efforts) and overall they fail to support NLP. For the sake of this article we only have space for reviews of those studies. All of the refs I have on Lilienfeld, Levelt, Drenth, Eisner, Carroll, Singer, Heap, plus all the follow up books by heap and others state in clear terms that NLP is scientifically unsupported. I see no reviews that say NLP is supported.HeadleyDown 07:32, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Just as an aside, I have done my best to phrase the research neutrally (eg, scientifically unsupported, pseudoscience etc), but the more that supporters and promoters will try to delete and deny, the more likely it is that the fact will come back with the actual harsh words attached as happened today (devious and so on)....HeadleyDown 07:32, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

(8) I have updated the section on principles and presuppositions. It's now factual, in the sense that 1/ it does not, so far as I am aware, claim anything that is not commonly understood to be the case, 2/ it describes NLP neutrally, 3/ No claims or statements are made that are unverifiable as far as I can tell, 4/ It explains both terms. Any criticisms please bring here, do not full-revert as I am unaware of anything controversial or disputed written in that section. FT2 16:01, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[Response: Full-reverted by headleyDown, no discussion or explanation, no consideration of valid material added]

(9) You claim you have a scientific approach. And that you have cited papers and therefore are certain there is nothing of merit in NLP and it is all complete pseudoscience. I am concerned because from here, I see you deleting competent edits and avoiding genuine neutral discussion, brushing it off with dismissal. That may not be how you see yourself, it's how you appear at the moment here. User:FT2

Referring to my claim to scientific approach. For the past months NLP promoters have been working hard to remove cited facts from this article, and even recruiting vandals from newsgroups in order to do it and asking each other to do it. Messages have been placed on my and other non promoter's talk pages warning us to stop vandalising, and threatening to block (Comaze). This slur campaign has been conducted by a long standing fact deleting NLP promoter with a commitment to push a Bandler/Grinder viewpoint only. Considering that other proNLPers have followed some of Comaze's actions, I consider him the ring leader, and you a follower of his activities... HeadleyDown 11:33, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

(10) So my question is this. Did you actually search for "NLPpro" articles and research like you did for "NLPanti" articles, to check there were none? Did you look specifically for articles that supported NLP's claims, or which showed qualified interest and recommendations for further research in the light of suggestive but not conclusive results? Did you find any? If so, why haven't you moderated your view based upon them? If there are none, where is discussion of this? User:TBP

TBP. I searched all references and found that the overwhelming majority of scientific findings were negative, and the pro-NLP ones were feeble (according to the 95% readings you are supposed to obtain in empirical studies).

(11) It was always new age (stared in Esalen seminars)HeadleyDown 05:42, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

That is just one POV. Other POV says that NLP challenges flakey New Age thinking, such as the importation of energy into the discussion of communication (Bateson, 1972, 1979; Grinder & Delozier, 1986). Bandler (Therpeutic Metaphor, Gordon, 1979) basically says that spirituality and shamanism, etc. are simply powerful metaphors. HeadleyDown's argument here seems to be straw man or biased towards New Age ideas (not science at all).. --Comaze 06:18, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

(12) ... This raises both its strength and weakness: proponents say that it can be applied to any goal one wishes, and that the rest of NLP is methods to achieve that and balance it with wisdom. Critics say that it opens NLP to abuse, fraudulent claims, mysical forumulae and pseudoscience that are untested. At best it changes lives for the better. Unfortunately it can also be used unscrupulously to manipulate and destroy too. Proponents recognise this, but argue you cannot not influence, and therefore it makes sense to learn to do so with wisdom and for good reasons. Critics say that there is no control over this, or over any aspect of its usage whether sensible, harmful, or even empty and fraudulent claims of magical results.

That is what I would think a reader needs to know about NLP "goals". In wikipedia style, it is clear, it describes and explains without advocating, and gives both views, but ultimately a balanced view at the end. User:FT2

The most balanced view is that of science. It will be emphasized (unsupported, pseudo, hype, etc)HeadleyDown 05:42, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

(13) I stand by my previous comment. Please, just for me, could you pick one non-trivial example of a statement I added, that you feel is not supported factually and inaccurate. Thanks. FT2 05:37, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

[No example in response, by HeadleyDown. Ignored.]

(14) Hello Comaze ... You are the main cause of FT2's edits being completely reverted. You are not only irritating me, but you are irritating everyone else who wants steady progress.HeadleyDown 03:20, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Headley, two requests, amicably. First, if that is so, then please take care to rveert only what is incorrect, and to carefully allow to stand what is not. Fully reverting as a shortcut and timesaver is not appropriate asif edits contain some good points and some poor ones. Second, could you look at Homeopathy, an agreed pseudoscience, and how such a conflict is treated in a mature article. That's how NLP should be, in my view, and what I am struiving towards. A description of NLP with critical or opposing views where appropriate, and a strong criticisms section, all supported by references. Can you look at that article and see what you think? FT2 12:41, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

[No response]

(15) [condensed for brevity. The subject is ESP in NLP]

"For those of you remaining, I'm going to have you learn to become "psychic"... I' going to have you all do some crystal ball gazing, or if you prefer, palm-reading. The point of this exercise is that it's an excellent way to further develop your ability to perceive minimal non-verbal cues. Being able to do this makes all the difference when you're doing hypnosis, and you need systematic ways to develop such perceptual skills... You will actually be using the kind of subtle visual and tactile feedback from the other person that you have been using in the last few exercises." (from Trance-Formations p.206, Bandler and Grinder, 1981)

[...] by implying that NLP practitioners have some keen sense of mind reading abilities you are right and wrong. It is not Mystical it is observational apoint you should make in this article. User:Justin

Alice et al, remote ESP simply isn't part of the normal NLP discussion. Neither is remote influence. As with "engrams", any source that try to label this as part of NLP is suspect: Years of tracking NLP shows me it isn't used. There is a fringe set of NLP users that believe in ESP/remote influence, there is also a (significantly larger) fringe set that believes in "psychic energies", EFT/TFT, and similar. As what is taught as NLP is fluid, this may enter some seminars - it still isn't considered part of NLP. --Eivind Eklund? 09:22, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Excellent quote Comaze. It clearly shows the focus on non-verbal cues (and how some people think that's psychic)... though it also is obvious how easily someone can misquote this kind of thing. GregA? 09:38, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Greg, I've got about 100 other quotes like that one from Bandler and Grinder that say ESP/Psychic is simply cold reading using sensory acuity skills (Frogs into Princes p.98). I also have ~30 quotes and references from Gregory Bateson (1972, 1979) as well as John Grinder and Judith Deloizer (1986) talking how intolerant they are of fuzzy New Age thinking (ESP, psychic, energy, ...). I can provide page numbers, just ask. The closest thing to "psychic" is a quote from John Grinder/Richard Bandler (1979) stating, "I don't know what other information is available to us outside the five sensory channels." Comaze 13:23, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

What has become very obvious is that Grinder and Bandler have used vernacular terminology that is often mistaken as literal. Likewise they often talk about mentalism, or psychic tricks, as a way of emphasizing that such tricks are nothing more than exceptional observation, and that precision observational skills, especially of unconscious communication at the micro level, can be crucially important in a clinical or communications setting. FT2 14:59, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

[...] Modification is always a better option than the deletions (even after references are provided) by people who simply want to censor. HeadleyDown 02:19, 1 November 2005 (UTC) ["people who simply want to censor"? Is that what the above reads like?]

(16) Do we have to go to arbitration or can we get somewhere with the article? I'm happy with either way. GregA? 12:22, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Do what you like, Greg. Just remember your track record on deletion of cited fact, statements to request deletion of fact via other promoters, and incitement to vandalism, and willingness to ignore the balance of mediators, and your complete unwillingness to accept fact. Arbitration will definitely expose the more damning facts about NLP cults, legal problems, scientific reviews of pseudoscientific theory, let alone ineffectiveness, and the continued ridiculous proclamations of NLP magicians. Suits me. Regards HeadleyDown 13:59, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Well :) Thanks for your support on arbitration Headley.

PS. Don't presuppose I have a track record. For the record, I answered your accusations and asked some follow-up clarifying questions of my own which you ignored. Instead you make your claims where it suits you and where it's not obvious you're avoiding questions you can't answer. You ARE good at distracting from the subject at hand, which is a pity. GregA? 22:59, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] User: JPLogan

(1) "The whole thing is pop psych"... "completely pseudoscientific". All of it? Or how much? Can you quantify even vaguely that statement? Do you even know? Your phrase There are some very presumptuous statements... is not inapplicable to your own words. You mention NLP charlatans and NLP misguided. What about NLP teachers who were teaching the material in "frogs into princes" or "reframing"? Is that all pseudoscience junk? I hope not because chunks of that have been grandfathered into a variety of other fields and approaches, as recognized valued tools and attitudes.... hardly "charlatanery" or "misguidedness".

I am quoting the British Society of Psychologists.JPLogan 10:50, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

could you give a link please? I've gone to their site and searched for NLP and found nothing related. GregA? 03:02, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

[not only no reply, but in fact had JPL checked he would find that the British Society of Psychologists have 3 references to NLP on their site - one a talk they are hosting, one a mention in a speaker's bio, and one a referal for those seeking NLP therapists that ranks it with Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Hypnotherapy as coming under the umbrella of the UK College of Psychotherapists accreditation]

(2) [I have] removed the bit about "inventing" words - to be fair most fields create words for the things they study and use. Or do you think we all spoke about "ids" and "dynamic pressure" before freud and fluid dynamics came along? I've modified this accordingly, seems a straw man to raise "they have their own technical vocabulary of words invented for use in their field" as a fault. So do most fields. (Logically, if they want to describe something, they either have to invent a new word, or borrow one and use it in a more specific or different sense. There is no other choice, which would you like them to do?) User:FT2

Thanks for pointing this out. Many scientists and critics state obscuriantisms as an indication of a pseudoscience. I like the ones mentioned already, I think we could post more of these to show exactly how words are misused in NLP, plus I will be sure to emphasize the scientific views towards NLP use of jargon. Its usually quite funny.User:JPLogan 10:48, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Removed highly POV and uncited final sentence "Nevertheless, the extended addition of pseudoscientific buzzwords and anecdotal promotion suggests that it will continue to operate on a commercial scale, with a disregard for objective proof of its proposed assumptions or claimed effectiveness." User:FT2

I'm sure someone will find a citation for it. I think perhaps you should start hunting for POV you place in the article before you actually place it. I am also getting the strong impression you have a promotional agenda. Wanna make some money out of NLP? User:JPLogan 10:48, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

(3) Titled "To non-promotional NLP editors" Hello non nlp promotional editors. Progress has been good as regards mediation and they will continue to improve as long as we all stay cool. Since the article has been well covered and cited, and those citations have been verified multiple times even in mediation, it is time to accept the facts. The mediation requests have been satisfied as regards citations, and there are clearly more to come that can satisfy them further. However, it is clear that some NLP promoters are using whatever tactic they can to antagonize even after statements from the mediator, they try to make it appear that questions have not been answered, to add hyperbole and jargon, and generally confuse conclusive scientific findings by adding minor single and irrelevant speculative NLP studies. They also seem to be attempting to break the 100Kilobite barrier on file size. The solution is to stay cool, take a harder scientific line (exclude single minor speculative studies) and do not stand for any self-destructive NLP promotional behavior. NLP is about neuro, linguistics (neuro linguistics) and programming. It uses scientific sounding jargon and misplaced concepts in a confusing way, and therefore must be clarified using scientific studies, neurology, psychology and other reliable and neutral sources. The solid evidence presented has indeed been covered in the archives multiple times. * If an NLP promoter insists that they have not had their question answered when it has been covered before, simply stay cool and refer them to the archives.

• If an NLP promoter insists that the scientific studies are wrong, or that science is wrong in general, then they are using a pseudoscientific argument, and can be directed to the archives.
• If an NLP promoter makes multiple edits in order to make editing harder then simply revert. If it is convenient, try not to delete any valid edits in the process, but if it is not convenient, simply revert the lot.

[...] Best regards JPLogan 04:29, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The strange case of Morgan 1993

This was the discussion on the article talk page:

Considering how little regard NLP gets from reputable sources, Dr Morgan's scientific followup and final word assessment is entirely relevant. It is also the view of a world renowned clinical hypnotherapist. ATB Bookmain 04:23, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Dylan Morgan... "world renowned clinical hypnotherapist".

• Dylan Morgans Bio [71] which if he was "world renowned" would presumably say so, lists no signs opf world renown. he was "editor" on a Psychotherapists journal, and lists his work gained due to his qualifications as: These qualifications enabled me at various times to be: Road Manager for a Rock Band; Civil Servant at a Government Research Establishment (the Official Secrets Act limits what I can say about this); one of the Paparazzi - I still have a collection of informal pictures of the Royal Family and the Scottish aristocracy; Lecturer at Universities; Photographer for The Edinburgh Tatler and Horse and Hound; Private Tutor; Winner of the Flowering Scythe Award for my Gardening; a Telephone Samaritan; a World Expert in noise generation by jet engines and high speed helicopter blades; and I have travelled to Russia, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Yugoslavia and Sweden for Conferences and other purposes. (!)
• Morgan cites his skill area as Ericksonian hypnotherapy. Erickson's methodology is the one unpacked within NLP which Erickson himself credited for explaining it "better than he could". Grinder and Bandler were the people who initially made Milton's skills - the ones that Morgan uses - accessible to the world, in "Patterns in the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton Erickson, Vol 1 + 2". Before then Erickson's work was renowned, but not well understood and close to unreplicable by third party therapists. It doesn't sound much like Morgan's calling their work "pseudoscience" if he bases his career on it.
• Morgans works are (apparently) not peer reviewed. I could not find academic approval for any of what he called "Morganic" hypnosis. If an NLP trainer labelled his personal development "Morganic NLP", I think we'd hear "pseud" faster than you can say "hypnotic handshake"...
• Erickson has a Wikipedia article. Gilligan has a wikipedia article. Apparently Dylan Morgan doesn't. The only single reference anyone has made to this "world renowned" expert is here. Not conclusive, but noteworthy.
• I have looked on Google for dylan morgan hypnotherapy. There is not one significant credible link in the first 100 that indicates any professional reference other than that one might expect from a practitioner who has a practice, has published books, and has a website with reference material. (By contrast, a search for stephen gilligan hypnotherapy -- a genuine "world renowned clinical hypnotherapist", and protege of Erickson -- has within the first page many references to interviews, conference speeches, pages referring to him as an expert, and the like)

Morgan appears to have no especial standing to qualify him to make a statement any more than any other individual hypnotherapist. He is not evidenced as being especially academically reputed, nor apparently were the views you quoted academically (much less formally peer) reviewed, they are in the form primarily of an opinion regarding Heap's work. Morgan is most assuredly from the look of it not a world renowned expert, and his own self-written bio does not especiallly reflect the usual evidence of lifelong world renowned clinical expertise. His article is posted, apparently in full, on his own website [72], and clearly is a mere discussion and opinion of Heap. Last but noteworthy, his hypnotherapy site contains enough hype to more than qualify for labelling as "hype", in the manner you label and dismiss NLP.

It disturbs me that there is invention of fact (in this case, an attributed standing) to support a POV source. What disturbs me more is that it had to be fixed several times, reverted each time, and that even so he is considered a source of enough standing to warrant his comment being posted in the article.

[edit] Appendix: Other neurological research related to NLP

This is a summary of extracts on neurological research relevant to NLP, from the paper "Putting the 'neuro' back into neuro-linguistic programming" (Bolstad, 2003). [73] (PDF)

[edit] The map is not the territory

Everything we experience of the world comes to us through the neurological channels of our sensory systems. There is no direct connection between the sense organ (the retina of the eyes, for example) and the specialised brain area which handles that sense.... Only 20% of the flow of information into the lateral geniculate body comes from the eyes. Most of the data that will be organised as seeing comes from areas such as the hypothalamus, a mid-brain centre which has a key role in the creation of emotion (Maturana and Varela, 1992, p 162). What we "see" is as much a result of the emotional state we are in as of what is in front of our eyes.

Because the brain is a system with feedback loops, this process goes both ways. What we see is affected by our emotions, and it also shapes those emotions.

Emotional information altering the perception of colour is actually fed into the visual system at the lateral geniculate body, as mentioned above. The area of the visual cortex which makes final colour decisions is very precisely located. If this area of the brain is damaged in a stroke, then the person will suddenly see everything in black and white (acquired cerebral achromatopsia). At times a person will find that damage results in one side of their vision being coloured and one side being "black and white" (Sacks, 1995, p 152). Full colour experience [is] an illusion; but it is the same illusion that our brain performs at every moment (Sacks, 1995, p 156, based upon a demonstration by Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid instant camera, 1957). That is to say, the colours you are seeing right now are not the colours out here in the world; they are the colours your brain makes up.

[In another experiment] a picture of a white face was sent to one eye, and that of a black face to the other eye, at the same time. Both English speaking South Africans and "coloured" South Africans reported seeing a face. But Afrikaners tested could not see the face. They saw nothing! At a level deeper than the conscious mind, they could not fuse a black face and a white face (Pettigrew et alia, 1976).

[edit] Primary representation System

A. Luria identified the separate areas associated with vision, hearing, sensory-motor activity, and speech (the latter isolated on the dominant hemisphere of the brain) as early as 1966. By the time NLP emerged in the 1960s, then, researchers already understood that each sensory system had a specialised brain area, and that people had preferences for using particular sensory systems. Robert Dilts (1983, section 3, p 1-29) showed that different brain wave (EEG) patterns were associated with visual, auditory, tactile and visceral thought.

The claim that which sensory system you talk in makes a difference to your results with specific clients was tested by Yapko (1981). He worked with 30 graduate students in counselling, and had them listen to three separate taped trance inductions. Each induction used language from one of the main three sensory systems (visual, auditory and kinesthetic). Subjects were assessed before to identify their preference for words from these sensory systems. After each induction, their depth of trance was measured by electromyograph and by asking them how relaxed they felt. On both measures, subjects achieved greater relaxation when their preferred sensory system was used.

[edit] Neurological basis of submodalities

Colour is one of the first fourteen visual submodalities listed by Richard Bandler (1985, p 24). (The others were distance, depth, duration, clarity, contrast, scope, movement, speed, hue, transparency, aspect ratio, orientation, and foreground/background)

[T]here are cells which respond only to the submodality of motion. These cells were found in the prestriate visual cortex of monkeys’ brains in the early 1970s. When the monkey watched a moving object, the motion cells were activated as soon as movement began. In 1983, the first clinical cases were found of people with these specific cells damaged, resulting in central motion blindness (akinetopsia). A person with akinetopsia can see a car while it is still, but once the car moves, they see it disappear and reappear somewhere else. They see life as a series of still photos (Sacks, 1995, p 181).

Neurologically speaking, size, motion and colour are specialised functions... Many other such functions have been neurologically identified, including brightness, orientation (the tilt of the picture), and binocular disparity (depth and distance).

The first research on the neurological basis of visual submodalities was done by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel in the 1950s and 1960s. They showed that even these core submodality distinctions are a learned result of interaction with the environment. We are not born able to discriminate colour, for example. If we lived in a world with no blues, it is possible that the ability to "see" blue would not develop. (Kalat, 1988, p 191-194)

The submodality of orientation was tested by Blakemore and Cooper (1970). Newborn cats were brought up in an environment where they could only see horizontal lines. The area of the cortex which discriminates vertical lines simply did not develop in these cats, as demonstrated by checking with electrodes, and by the cats’ tendency to walk straight into chair legs. Similarly, cats raised where they could only see vertical lines were unable to see horizontal objects, and would walk straight into a horizontal bar. These inabilities were still present months later, suggesting that a critical phase for the development of those particular areas of the brain may have passed.

This relationship between submodalities and the "feeling" of an experience is likely to be the neurological basis of some important NLP processes, called submodality shifts.

[edit] Meta-analysis of sensory information

From the visual cortex, messages go on to areas where even more complex meta-analysis occurs, in the temporal cortex and parietal cortex.

There is an area of the temporal cortex which creates a sense of "familiarity" or "strangeness". When a person is looking at a picture, and has the "familiarity" area stimulated, they will report that they have suddenly "understood" or reinterpreted the experience. When they have the "strangeness" area stimulated, they report that something puzzling has occurred to them about the image. If you then explain to them "rationally" that the object is no more or less familiar than it was, they will argue for their new way of experiencing it. If stimulated, they will tell you that it really has changed! It feels changed!

The analysis done in the parietal cortex is even more curious. This area seems to decide whether what is seen is worth paying conscious attention to. For example, there are cells here which assess whether an apparent movement in the visual image is a result of the eyes themselves moving, or a result of the object moving. If it decides that the "movement" was just a result of your eyes moving, it ignores the movement (like the electronic image stabiliser on a video camera).

Interestingly, if one of these meta-analysis areas is stimulated electronically, the person will report that there have been changes in their basic submodalities. Researchers have found that if they stimulate the "familiarity" area, not only do people report that they get the feeling of familiarity, but they also see objects coming nearer or receding and other changes in the basic level submodalities (Cairns-Smith, p 168).

[edit] Remembered and Constructed Images Use The Same Pathways As Current Images

Edoardo Bisiach (1978) studied people with specific localised damage to a specific area of the posterior parietal cortex associated with "paying attention visually". When this area of the cortex is damaged on one side, a very interesting result occurs. The person will fail to pay attention to objects seen on the affected side of their visual field. This becomes obvious if you ask them to describe all the objects in the room they are sitting in. If the affected side is the left, for example, when they look across the room, they will describe to you all objects on the right of the room, but ignore everything on the left. They will be able to confirm that those objects are there on the left, if asked about them, but will otherwise not report them (Kalat, 1988, p 197; Miller, 1995, p 33-34).

Bisiach quickly discovered that this damage affected more than the person's current perception. For example, he asked one patient to imagine the view of the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, a sight this man had seen every day for some years before his illness. Bisiach had him imagine standing on the Cathedral steps and got him to describe everything that could be seen looking down from there. The man described only one half of what could be seen, while insisting that his recollection was complete. Bisiach then had him imagine the view from the opposite side of the piazza. He then fluently reported the other half of the details.

The man’s image of this remembered scene clearly used the same neural pathways as were used when he looked out at Dr Bisiach sitting across the room. Because those pathways were damaged, his remembered images were altered in the same way as any current image. In the same way, the depressed person can be asked to remember an enjoyable event from a time before she or he was depressed. However, the visual memory of the events is run through the current state of the person’s brain, and is distorted by this process, just as their current experience is distorted.

The successful artist Jonathon I suffered damage to his colour processing areas at age 65. After this a field of flowers appeared to him as "an unappealing assortment of greys". Worse, however, was his discovery that when he imagined or remembered flowers, these images were also only grey (Hoffman, 1998, p 108).

If we change the activity of the system for processing visual information, both current and remembered images and feelings derived from them are changed.

[edit] Cross-referencing between Modalities

Submodalities occur neurologically in every sense. For example, different kinesthetic receptors and different brain processing occur for pain, temperature, pressure, balance, vibration, movement of the skin, and movement of the skin hairs (Kalat, 1988, p 154-157).

Even in what NLP has called the auditory digital sense modality (language), there are structures similar to submodalities. For example, the class of linguistic structures called presuppositions, conjunctions, helper verbs, quantifiers and tense and number endings (words such as "and", "but", "if", "not", "being") are stored separately from nouns, which are stored separately from verbs. Broca’s aphasia (Kalat, 1988, p 134) is a condition where specific brain damage results in an ability to talk, but without the ability to use the first class of words (presuppositions etc). The person with this damage will be able to read "Two bee oar knot two bee" but unable to read the identical sounding "To be or not to be". If the person speaks sign language, their ability to make hand signs for these words will also be similarly impaired.

Changes in the visual submodalities are inseparably linked to changes in other modalities. Office workers in a room repainted blue are more likely to complain of the cold, even though the thermostat has not been touched. When the room is repainted yellow, they will believe it has warmed up, and will not complain even when the thermostat is actually set lower. (Podolsky, 1938).

[edit] The TOTE Strategy (or model)

The developers of NLP used the T.O.T.E. model to further explain how we sequence sensory representations. The "TOTE" was developed by neurology researchers George Miller, Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram (1960), as a model to explain how complex behaviour occurred. The feeling of depression can be thought of as the result of repeatedly running this strategy, called "ruminating" by researchers (Seligman, 1997, p 82-83).

Miller, Gallanter and Pribram (1960) had recognised that the simple stimulus-response model of Pavlov could not account for the complexity of brain activity. Of course, neither can their more complex TOTE model. Any map is an inadequate description of the real territory. The TOTE model suggests that each action we take is a result of an orderly sequence A-B-C-D. In fact, as we go to run such a "strategy", we also respond to that strategy with other strategies.

To use another NLP term, we go "meta" (above or beyond) our original strategy. The developers of NLP noted that "A meta response is defined as a response about the step before it, rather than a continuation or reversal of the representation. These responses are more abstracted and disassociated from the representations preceding them. Getting feelings about the image (feeling that something may have been left out of the picture, for instance)... would constitute a meta response in our example." (Dilts et alia, 1980, p 90). Michael Hall has pointed out that such responses could be more usefully diagrammed using a second dimension (Hall, 1995, p 57). This emphasises that the TOTE model is only a model. Real neurological processes are more network-like (O’Connor and Van der Horst, 1994). Connections are being continuously made across levels, adding "meaning" to experiences. The advantage of the TOTE model is merely that it enables us to discuss the thought process in such a way as to make sense of it and enable someone to change it.

[edit] States

The NLP term "state", is defined by O’Connor and Seymour (1990, p 232) as "How you feel, your mood. The sum total of all neurological and physical processes within an individual at any moment in time. The state we are in affects our capabilities and interpretation of experience". A simple experiment demonstrates why this is not true. We can inject people with noradrenalin and their kinesthetic sensations will become aroused (their heart will beat faster etc). However, the emotional state they enter will vary depending on a number of other factors. They may, for example, become "angry", "frightened" or "euphoric". It depends on [...] what they tell themselves is happening, for example (Schachter and Singer, 1962). The same kinesthetic experience does not always result in the same state.

In most cases, what creates serious problems is not so much the fact that people enter such states. What creates disturbance is how people feel about feeling these states. Satir says "In other words, low self-worth has to do with what the individual communicates to himself about such feelings and the need to conceal rather than acknowledge them." (Satir and Baldwin, 1983, p 195). The person with high self esteem may feel sad when someone dies, but they also feel acceptance and even esteem for their sadness. The person with low self esteem may feel afraid or ashamed of their sadness.

Such "states about states" are generated by accessing one neural network (eg the network generating the state of acceptance) and "applying it" to the functioning of another neural network (eg the network generating the state of sadness). The result is a neural network which involves the interaction of two previous networks. Dr Michael Hall calls the resulting combinations "meta-states" (Hall, 1995), a term used within NLP for the same phenomenon. Our ability to generate meta-states gives richness to our emotional life. Feeling hurt when someone doesn't want to be with me is a primary level state that most people will experience at some time. If I feel angry about feeling hurt, then I create a meta-state (which we might call "aggrieved"). If I feel sad about feeling hurt, a completely different meta-state occurs (perhaps what we might call "self-pity"). If I feel compassionate about my hurt, the meta-state of "self-nurturing" may occur. Although in each case my initial emotional response is the same, the meta-state dramatically alters and determines the results for my life.

[edit] How Learning Affects The Brain

What does "learned" mean? The human brain itself is made up of about one hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. These cells organise themselves into networks to manage specific tasks. When any experience occurs in our life, new neural networks are laid down to record that event and its meaning. To create these networks, the neurons grow an array of new dendrites (connections to other neurons). Each neuron has up to 20,000 dendrites, connecting it simultaneously into perhaps hundreds of different neural networks. Steven Rose (1992) gives an example from his research with new-hatched chicks. After eating silver beads with a bitter coating, the chicks learn to avoid such beads. One peck is enough to cause the learning. Rose demonstrated that the chicks’ brain cells change instantly, growing 60% more dendrites in the next 15 minutes. These new connections occur in very specific areas.

California researcher Dr Marion Diamond (1988) and her Illinois colleague Dr William Greenough (1992) have demonstrated that rats in "enriched" environments grow 25% more dendrite connections than usual, as they lay down hundreds of new strategies. Autopsy studies on humans confirm the process. Graduate students have 40% more dendrite connections than high school dropouts, and those students who challenged themselves more had even higher scores (Jacobs et alia, 1993).

[edit] Neural Networks Are State Dependent

How do messages get from one neuron to another in the brain? The transmission of impulses between neurons and dendrites occurs via hundreds of precise chemicals called "information substances"; substances such as dopamine, noradrenaline (norepinephrine), and acetylcholine. These chemicals transmit messages across the "synapse" or gap between them. Without these chemicals, the strategy stored in the neural network cannot run. These chemicals are also the basis for what we are calling an emotional state, and they infuse not just the nervous system but the entire body, altering every body system. A considerable amount of research suggests that strong emotional states are useful to learning new strategies. J. O’Keefe and L. Nadel found (Jensen, 1995, p 38) that emotions enhance the brain’s ability to make cognitive maps of (understand and organise) new information. Dr James McGaugh, psychobiologist at UC Irvine notes that even injecting rats with a blend of emotion related hormones such as enkephalin and adrenaline means that the rats remember longer and better (Jensen, 1995, p 33-34). He says "We think these chemicals are memory fixatives. They signal the brain, 'This is important, keep this!' Emotions can and do enhance retention."

However there is another important effect of the emotional state on the strategies we run. The particular mixture of chemicals present when a neural network is laid down must be recreated for the neural network to be fully re- activated and for the strategy it holds to run as it originally did. If someone is angry, for example, when a particular new event happens, they have higher noradrenaline levels. Future events which result in higher noradrenaline levels will re-activate this neural network and the strategy they used then. As a result, the new event will be connected by dendrites to the previous one, and there will even be a tendency to confuse the new event with the previous one. If my childhood caregiver yelled at me and told me that I was stupid, I may have entered a state of fear, and stored that memory in a very important neural network. When someone else yells at me as an adult, if I access the same state of fear, I may feel as if I am re-experiencing the original event, and may even hear a voice telling me I’m stupid.

This is called "state dependent memory and learning" or SDML. Our memories and learnings, our strategies, are dependent on the state they are created in. "Neuronal networks may be defined in terms of the activation of specifically localised areas of neurons by information substances that reach them via diffusion through the extracellular fluid. In the simplest case, a 15-square mm neuronal network could be turned on or off by the presence or absence of a specific information substance. That is, the activity of this neuronal network would be "state-dependent" on the presence or absence of that information substance." (Rossi and Cheek, 1988, p 57).

Actually, all learning is state dependent, and examples of this phenomenon have been understood for a long time. When someone is drunk, their body is flooded with alcohol and its by-products. All experiences encoded at that time are encoded in a very different state to normal. If the difference is severe enough, they may not be able to access those memories at all, until they get drunk again.

At times, the neural networks laid down in one experience or set of experiences can be quite "cut off" (due to their different neuro-chemical basis) from the rest of the person's brain. New brain scanning techniques begin to give us more realistic images of how this actually looks. Psychiatrist Don Condie and neurobiologist Guochuan Tsai used a fMRI scanner to study the brain patterns of a woman with "multiple personality disorder". In this disorder, the woman switched regularly between her normal personality and an alter ego called "Guardian". The two personalities had separate memory systems and quite different strategies. The fMRI brain scan showed that each of these two personalities used different neural networks (different areas of the brain lit up when each personality emerged). If the woman only pretended to be a separate person, her brain continued to use her usual neural networks, but as soon as the "Guardian" actually took over her consciousness, it activated precise, different areas of the hippocampus and surrounding temporal cortex (brain areas associated with memory and emotion).(Adler, 1999, p 29-30)

Freud based much of his approach to therapy on the idea of "repression" and an internal struggle for control of memory and thinking strategies. This explanation of the existence of "unconscious" memories and motivations ("complexes") can now be expanded by the state dependent memory hypothesis. No internal struggle is needed to account for any of the previously described phenomena. The "complex" (in Freudian terms) can be considered as simply a series of strategies being run from a neural network which is not activated by the person’s usual chemical states. Rossi and Cheek note "This leads to the provocative insight that the entire history of depth psychology and psychoanalysis now can be understood as a prolonged clinical investigation of how dissociated or state-dependent memories remain active at unconscious levels, giving rise to the "complexes"... that are the source of psychological and psychosomatic problems." (Rossi and Cheek, 1988, p 57).

Dr Lewis Baxter (1994) showed that clients with obsessive compulsive disorder have raised activity in certain specific neural networks in the caudate nucleus of the brain. He could identify these networks on PET scan, and show how, once the OCD was treated, these networks ceased to be active. Research on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has also shown the state-dependent nature of its symptoms (van der Kolk et alia, 1996, p291-292). Sudden re-experiencing of a traumatic event (called a flashback) is one of the key problems in PTSD. Medications which stimulate body arousal (such as lactate, a by-product of physiological stress) will produce flashbacks in people with PTSD, but not in people without the problem (Rainey et alia, 1987; Southwick et alia, 1993). Other laboratory studies show that sensory stimuli which recreate some aspect of the original trauma (such as a sudden noise) will also cause full flashbacks in people with PTSD (van der Kolk, 1994). This phenomenon is Pavlov's "classical conditioning", also known in NLP as "anchoring". State dependent learning is the biological process behind classical conditioning.

[Note: Using NLP with state dependent learning problems forms a large part of the subject matter of the book 'Trance-formations']

[edit] Rapport: The Work of The Mirror Neurons

In 1995 a remarkable area of neurons was discovered by researchers working at the University of Palma in Italy (Rizzolatti et alia, 1996; Rizzolatti and Arbib, 1998). The cells, now called "mirror neurons", are found in the pre- motor cortex of monkeys and apes as well as humans. In humans they form part of the specific area called Broca’s area, which is also involved in the creation of speech. Although the cells are related to motor activity (ie they are part of the system by which we make kinaesthetic responses such as moving an arm), they seem to be activated by visual input. When a monkey observes another monkey (or even a human) making a body movement, the mirror neurons light up. As they do, the monkey appears to involuntarily copy the same movement it has observed visually. Often this involuntary movement is inhibited by the brain (otherwise the poor monkey would be constantly copying every other monkey), but the resulting mimickery is clearly the source of the saying "monkey see, monkey do".

In human subjects, when the brain is exposed to the magnetic field of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), thus reducing conscious control, then merely showing a movie of a person picking up an object will cause the subject to involuntarily copy the exact action with their hand (Fadiga et alia, 1995). This ability to copy a fellow creatures actions as they do them has obviously been very important in the development of primate social intelligence. When this area of the brain is damaged in a stroke, copying another’s actions becomes almost impossible. The development of speech has clearly been a result of this copying skill. There is increasing evidence that autism and Aspergers syndrome are related to unusual activity of the mirror neurons. This unusual activity results in a difficulty the autistic person has understanding the inner world of others, as well as a tendency to echo speech parrot-fashion and to randomly copy others’ movements (Williams et alia, 2001).

Mirror neurons respond to facial expressions as well, so that they enable the person to directly experience the emotions of those they observe. This results in what researchers call "emotional contagion" – what NLP calls rapport (Hatfield et alia, 1994).