BASIC NLP CONCEPTS

The originators of NLP, and most of the developers of NLP, seem to want to put a spin on NLP that would make it unique. So they preached the myth that “NLP has no theory!” And many of us believed it for years. I did. Eventually, however, I began to think that through and realized it was a marketing device that came from the Bandler/ Grinder spin room.

Coming from many theoretical sources (as I have noted in the Contributors of NLP series) and in the History of NLP series), Neuro-Linguistic Program certainly has a theory. Yes, it is not explicit and even to this day, forty years later, for most people studying NLP, the background philosophy and psychology is hidden from sight.

That our theory has a hidden nature and is not fully recognized even applies to some of the most respected Researchers in the field of NLP. Some of them seem to not recognize it. I say that because, since NLP comes from directly from Cognitive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology, all of the research done in those fields count for NLP! That is, any research validating or offering substantial evidence for Cognitive Psychology as well as for Humanistic Psychology applies as research evidence of credibility for NLP.

What is the theory of NLP and where is it? It is mostly in the so-called “NLP Presuppositions.” From “The map is not the territory” (Korzybski) to all of the presuppositions about communication (“The meaning of your communication is the response you get,” “You cannot not communicate.”), to those about systems (“The element in a system that has the most flexibility will have the most control in that system”), the presuppositions reveal the hidden theory of NLP. Here you will find basic premises from Cognitive Psychology, Systems, Self-Actualization, Developmental Psychology, Phenomenology, and Constructionism. And those are the disciplines from which NLP arose.

I write these previous four paragraphs to set up the next series of posts that I want to put out here on Neurons— Basic NLP Concepts. And there’s a reason for this new series— lots of people who have studied NLP and who are even “Practitioners” of NLP do not know the basic concepts. I know that because in the advanced Neuro-Semantics that we do, mostly Trainers’ Training and Meta-Coaching, many people ask about some of these basic concepts and are often surprised by them.

In Trainers’ Training, we put out a 22-page document, “The Exam,” that we ask everyone coming to NSTT to fill out. Then at the training, we go through the Exam and talk about the answers. One of them that happen every year, and that happened in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, was about the NLP Presuppositions. In addition to the 20 that we have in User’s Manual of the Brain (Volume I), there were another 20 or 30 that people presented as possible ones. Some could have been, others were in direct contradiction to the theory and philosophy of NLP. Here are the 21 presuppositions that Dr. Bob

Bodenhamer and I put in User’s Manual.

Mental Processing and Encoding Presuppositions:

1. The map is not the territory, but is useful as the structure of the map corresponds to the territory.

2. People respond according to their internal maps, not according to reality.

3. Meaning is context dependent.

4. Mind-and-body inevitably and inescapably affect each other.

5. Individual skills function by developing and sequencing of representation systems.

6. We respect each person's model of the world.

Human Behavior and Responses Presuppositions:

7. Person and behavior are different phenomena. A person is more than his or her behavior.

8. Every behavior has utility and usefulness in some context.

9. We evaluate behavior and change in terms of context and ecology.

Communication Presuppositions:

10. We cannot not communicate.

11. The way we present our communication affects perception and reception.

12. The meaning of your communication is the response you get, regardless of your intention.

13. There is no failure, only feedback.

14. There is an ecology in every system and so should be checked to make sure that a change does not ruin the system.

15. The person with the most flexibility of behavior and responses will have the most influence in that system.

16. Resistance primarily reveals a lack of rapport.

Learning, Choice and Change Presuppositions:

17. People have all of the necessary internal resources they need to succeed.

18. People are response-able and able to choose their responses in thinking, emoting, speaking, acting, and relating.

19. People have the ability to experience one trial learnings.

20. People make the best choices open to them when they respond.

21. The best communication and responses increase choice.