In The Times
(full article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...100581,00.html)

''He is also sceptical about much of alternative medicine, though initially he considered practising it. “After about seven years learning hypnotism I had to choose some sort of career. I’d done some low-level therapeutic stuff, helping people with phobias and obsessions, so I thought I should go for a qualification and I joined an NLP course.”

NLP, popularised in the early 1980s by the American Richard Bandler, uses hypnotic techniques to embed ideas in practitioners and their clients, such as visualising themselves as successful and positive. Though many of Brown’s stunts seem to use its techniques — subliminal verbal suggestions cued up by gestures or friendly physical touches — he fears that NLP has become another cult. “It’s now huge, unchecked and unaccountable, full of nutty thinking. It’s staggering the sort of faith involved,” he says. “One guy I knew thought that he could use NLP to learn to juggle: he tried getting inside the head of a juggler friend of his to find out what unconscious processes he went through. This guy reckoned he was doing really well, but plainly he couldn’t juggle. Other people were using techniques they believed ensured they would never grow old.''

lol

He makes some good points IMO about the cult like mindset some adopt

I think he makes some interesting points but I'd be wary of broad statements like ''full of nutty thinking''.

Most NLPers have probably heard stories of people expecting unrealistic things from NLP, I don't think that should be considered a reflection on NLP itself.

Even though they're in the minority, there's always a few nuts in the bunch.

There are a few nuts in NLP for sure, but that's only inevitable considering the amount of nuts in the world. ;o)

hmmmm.

checked out the following site to see if we nlpers are part of a cult.

http://www.cultinformation.org.uk/links.html

couldn't find nlp in there. Also read elsewhere that the word 'cult' is so loaded with meanings for different people that it is known as a 'skunk' word. Isn't that cool?

also, do a google on the words ''join us'' - you get 215 million links!

my friend joined a cult and changed her name to Joy Nuss.

.

.

is this amway?

I personally think that the nut quotient in NLP is rather high, but that, like all things, is in the eye of the beholder. I also believe the nut quotient in Real Life is rather high...

This goes with my other perceptual framework that specifies that 90% of everything is crap. The corollary is that 10% of everything is fantastic, so that's the 10% that I focus on.

If you want to see NLP portrayed as a cult, read the Wikipedia entry and then read the Wikipedia discussion of it. There you can learn that NLP is Scientology, that it's dangerous and that it doesn't work.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Whoa, I was way off the mark, thanks for that. I'll be ritualistically burning all my NLP books now.

Whew, a lucky escape.

I wonder what the N.Q. on this site is? Hmmm, think I'll go now. . .

Clodagh,

I use the Groucho Model to determine the NQ of any group or forum. What's the Groucho Model, I hallucinate that you ask? Simple! I never join any club that would have me as a member.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Ah, Paradox therapy. . . You are a dark horse.

I've been called a part of a horse before, but I'm not sure that's the same thing...

All depends on whether or not you have a torch and the horse is patient. . .

well in certain cases Derren's spot on...

as is ''There are a few nuts in NLP for sure, but that's only inevitable considering the amount of nuts in the world''

just look at the lynch mob 'cult' that surrounds a certain larger than life giant NLP 'guru'

Oh, you must mean Michael Neill... hes an animal!

;-)

Martin.

its the McKenna ninjas you want to watch out for...

And i did hear that JG has trained some killer monkees.

the trouble with lynch mobs is that they are always hanging around. I say they should be suspended.

It's true about the ninjas, even now all the people in the room that you can't see are ninjas...

He seems to have done pretty well out of NLP. I wonder if it's that he doesn't want other people to learn his secrets?

...err scuse me, Vince you should know better! Ninja's - being one myself, are ''people of perserverence''. Paul doesn't have any, and isn't one, you'd see the reflection from the glasses and head a mile off! haha...only joking Paul - put the shuriken away.

If you check further you will see that Derren is not primarily using NLP, a mistake often made of course

Interesting thought that ''Derren is not primarily using NLP''... after all, what is NLP?

Where are the walls, floors and ceilings that defines and constrains what NLP is?