Has anyone here heard of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)?

[Morthawt]

I am just curious if anyone else has either heard of or uses NLP. It is used all over the place from sales, training, therapy, coaching, persuasion, questioning people, etc. It is an eye opening set of technologies that are really interesting. Things from getting clearer information from people, delivering information to people in a better way, seeing things differently, feeling how you want to feel etc.

So, have you heard anything about it? Make use of it yourself in some capacity?

[Lucio]

This looks suspiciously like an opener for a spambot followup...

[BobF64]

Yes, and it doesnt work on everyone.

All it makes me want to do is punch the person in the face.

[Morthawt]

This looks suspiciously like an opener for a spambot followup...

Hardly. I am just curious if anyone else knows or uses it. I find it a mind opening thing to see all of what is possible.

Yes, and it doesnt work on everyone.

All it makes me want to do is punch the person in the face.

Why do you say that? NLP does work on everyone, it is all a matter of what "technique" is being used and for what reason and by whom. Car sales people and telemarketers learn NLP, although they aren't told it is NLP they rebadge it as "sales training" but the good sales trainings are based on NLP techniques.

I just find it really useful. For example, before learning a bit of NLP I would have jumped to conclusion that your comment about punching "the person" in the face was referring to me and get all responsive about it, but after learning a bit of NLP I detect much easier the lack of clarification about whether you are referring to me as the poster or people trying to use NLP on you.

[opel80uk]

Why do you say that? NLP does work on everyone, it is all a matter of what "technique" is being used and for what reason and by whom. Car sales people and telemarketers learn NLP, although they aren't told it is NLP they rebadge it as "sales training" but the good sales trainings are based on NLP techniques.

And not everyone is susceptible to sales training. It's why people like Derren Brown get people to fill out questionnaires before shows, and then carefully picks people out based on their answers.

[Morthawt]

Thats true, but everything is a subjective thing though. Sure not "everything" will work on every person, but the technology behind it is useful on or for everyone in some form.

[DanceswithUnix]

Thats true, but everything is a subjective thing though. Sure not "everything" will work on every person, but the technology behind it is useful on or for everyone in some form.

ISTR there was a bit in Derren Brown's book that was pretty dismissive of NLP.

If you are interested in this sort of stuff, I can highly recommend his book.

[TheAnimus]

Damnit, I saw NLP and thought this would be the interesting subject of natural language processing & machine learning

[kalniel]

Damnit, I saw NLP and thought this would be the interesting subject of natural language processing & machine learning

Yeah me too.

[TheAnimus]

Yeah given that my old Uni did a classic *Greendale* moment of some PR nonsense about Turing tests. Not been a good month for NLP in the news/forums!

[Morthawt]

ISTR there was a bit in Derren Brown's book that was pretty dismissive of NLP.

If you are interested in this sort of stuff, I can highly recommend his book.

Its funny, Derren is dismissive of NLP yet a lot of what he does came from NLP. He has said on some interviews how he learned some NLP, went to seminars. I know someone who read his book and he even told me he is really dismissive of NLP. I do not know why. He does mix things as he says on his intro, showman ship, this, that, but when he says psychology he is really referring to probably far over 50% NLP.

[DanceswithUnix]

Its funny, Derren is dismissive of NLP yet a lot of what he does came from NLP. He has said on some interviews how he learned some NLP, went to seminars. I know someone who read his book and he even told me he is really dismissive of NLP. I do not know why. He does mix things as he says on his intro, showman ship, this, that, but when he says psychology he is really referring to probably far over 50% NLP.

I read his book, I have been to his live shows, he is a really scary man

What he does comes from being really good at understanding people. He once went to a seminar on NLP, and he wasn't impressed. He scoffs at people who say he uses NLP. I shall try and dig the book out as I can't remember why he was so dismissive.

[Morthawt]

I do not have his book because I am a very rare reader and very picky if I do read a book. But I remember someone I know telling me about it. I have seen him on youtube saying he got NLP books, went to the seminars etc. It is like he wants to distance himself from it. Perhaps for fear of licensing issue or Richard Bandler? lol no idea.

[BobF64]

I just find it really useful. For example, before learning a bit of NLP I would have jumped to conclusion that your comment about punching "the person" in the face was referring to me and get all responsive about it, but after learning a bit of NLP I detect much easier the lack of clarification about whether you are referring to me as the poster or people trying to use NLP on you.

Thats called "an ability to read".

If I was referring to you specifically, i would have said "it makes me want to punch you in the face".

Perhaps I just get exposed to people who are really bad at NLP.

[Morthawt]

If you want me to explain in great detail I will...

Someone before you made the comment "This looks suspiciously like an opener for a spambot followup..." then you replied with two lines:

"Yes, and it doesnt work on everyone."

Then

"All it makes me want to do is punch the person in the face."

So in a forum environment people tend to reply to things in order of what was said. So I took your "doesn't work on everyone" statement to refer to my initial post and then I was unsure if your "All it makes me want to do is punch the person in the face." was regarding me supposedly being a spambot account (the person being the "spammer") or someone trying to use NLP with you for some purpose and in that case "the person" would be the other guy trying to use it with you.

Meaning is subjective, people typically make their meaning and stick to it, whereas someone exposed to some of the Meta Model/Linguistic Reframing (from nlp) is far less likely to fly off the deep end.

So hopefully you now know what I meant. I just chose to keep it simple and not comment on that part. Having "an ability to read" is not always enough, clearly.

[DanceswithUnix]

I do not have his book because I am a very rare reader and very picky if I do read a book. But I remember someone I know telling me about it. I have seen him on youtube saying he got NLP books, went to the seminars etc. It is like he wants to distance himself from it. Perhaps for fear of licensing issue or Richard Bandler? lol no idea.

If you are a rare and picky reader, then get his book. Really. You will love it. I just re-read the relevant section.

Or in NLP terms: You are using words "telling" and "seen" implying that audio and video are primary representational systems to you, but if you model the behavior of Derren (because he is measurably good at this stuff) then you would find that he learned a lot of his craft through reading books, so you should try and emulate that.

But yes he does distance himself from NLP. Not because he has any fear from Bandler, it was a course with Bandler that put him off but gave him a certificate to prove that he can practice NLP. In fact he says he has two certificates, despite not asking for the second one, it just turned up after a year

It sounds like there are some useful techniques there, you just don't need the NLP fanfare and silly claims to make use of them.