From: ohumukin@spectra.com (Kawika Ohumukini)
Subject: NLP and what the .... are we talking about???
Organization: Spectragraphics Corporation
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 17:39:29 GMT

Hi,

These discussions are getting very confusing to me.  I have posted
and replied for several months now and enjoy the discussions very
much.  I appreciate the pro and cons of NLP and always read with
an open mind.  I was first introduced to NLP by Tony Robbins (TR)
and was very enthusiastic and felt compelled to discover more from
his teachers, Grinder and Bandler.  So I read several of their
books.  So my knowledge of TR's techniques spawned me to apply it
but also to investigate it more.  Find out what the founders were
thinking when they applied it.

But if I had never tried it and noticed some immediate changes in
both my thoughts and actions, I never would have investigated it
more.

Decisions only take a moment, getting ready to make the decision
takes minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades and
some people never decide.  

Understand that what we are talking about here, since noone has
produced any major piece of "scientific study" of NLP, is our
beliefs.  A belief is simply a rule or generalization of what must
happen in order for something to be "true" or experienced.

Note that none of the supporters of NLPs' possibilities have ever
stated that "this is true and this is true".  Rule #1 in NLP is
that nothing is true or real.  If you think that something is true
you are truly interverted and are not taking into consideration that
what is "true" to you may not be what is "true" to someone else.
If one person says, "The ball is blue" and another says, "The ball
is green", who is right?  Does not each believe they are right or 
that their perception is "true"?  No amount of scientific evidence
may convince that either is right or wrong.  If two people are
standing at a intersection and they witness an accident and person #1
says, "Car 1 hit car 2" and person #2 says, "Car 2 cut off car 1" who
is right?  Are they both not right because their experience is 
translated by their beliefs?

If you want to be scientific great, do what you believe to be the
right approach.  But understand that to make generalizations or
an attempt to classify all supporters of NLP is only your belief and
it may not be true for all of us.  The strength of NLP is to exercise
your ability to understand another persons, and yourself, beliefs.
We do it all the time anyway.  Have you ever been sad or depressed
and you walk up to someone you know and say,
"You know I really feel bad and this thing really stinks right now."
How did that person react?  Did they go, "Yea tell me about it I'll
listen" or did they say, "Get happy, I'm doing fine, either cheer up
or get out of my face!"  Which of these two people are you going to
talk to and feel they understand you and you may be willing to "open
up"?  Probably the person who is willing to listen and maybe even
begin to feel what you are feeling.  This happens constantly between
people.  Or conversely if you are happy and energetic do you feel
connected to someone who is depressed or lazy?  Probably not, at
least maybe not at the level you would have liked.  How many times
have you ever told someone something that got you totally enthusiastic
and they confusingly looked at you as if to say, "What are you so
happy about, can't you see that it's totally ridiculous?"

That's a primary theory of the NLP model, the ability to enter into
another persons experience and give them the best tool you know of
to help them to change should they choose too.  It's feedback in it's
basic form.  To delude yourself that therapy is anything more is to
live as if your beliefs are the universal truth and you will do nothing
more than try to instill your beliefs on someone else.

To all the disbelievers, who I believe are correct for them, I 
suggest you try a technique.  If it doesn't work then your beliefs
that NLP doesn't work "for you" will have been justified and you will
have the satisfaction of knowing "you were right for you".  If it does
work you have gained a tool to make changes in yourself and others.
It's a win-win proposition.  But if you simply make claims that "what
you haven't even tried" doesn't work, it comes as pessimistic statements
which really means your afraid.  You may be afraid you will waste time,
look foolish, break a belief or value you hold, be non-scientific, or
whatever.  Give it a shot and I wish to hear your results.

Remember fear is our brains way of telling us that something bad might
happen.  It is the survival mechanism our brain posseses.  It says that 
your brain is doing it's job.  But to control your thoughts and actions 
before hand may give you the tool to overcome fear when it appears quickly
and elegantly without missing a beat.

Have a great day!

Kawika


Philisophical quote people put at the end of their messages:
"To fear to fail and then trying it and failing, do you not feel the
 pain twice?  So just try it, if you fail at least you only failed
 once"