From: lad@ausom.oz.au (Lyn Dawson)
Subject: NLP Article
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 20:01:28 GMT
Organization: AUSOM - The Apple Users Society of Melbourne

Interview

"The Story of Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Mind Magazine, 1990

Eighteen years ago in California, a computer scientist names Richard Bandler decided that
monitoring human beings would be more fun than monitoring computers.

Bandler was then working part time at a small psychological publishing company and became
interested in the psychotherapeutic theories of Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls.  In collaboration
with is Linguistics Professor, John Grinder, Bandler began modelling the language patterns
that Satir and Perls used in therapy.

Together Bandler and Grinder set out to try to recreate the "people-changing
genius" they saw in Satir, Perls and later, Milton H. Erickson, by reviewing audio and video
tapes, extracting the language patterns they saw and formulating a model.  This approach was
to eventually be labelled Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and continues today to be
used by practitioners in the areas of therapy, education and business.

MIND recently talked to one of the many students on which Bandler and Grinder tested their
embryonic NLP model back in the early 70s, Terry McClendon (pictured) - the man credited
with bringing NLP to Australia.

Article follows:

Terry McClendon knows more about NLP than just about anybody else in Australia.  As a
young University of California psychology student he discovered an enthusiastic band of
academics and practitioners who were founding a radically new approach to psychotherapy.
He was captured by the concept that began in 1972 and continues today to use and extend the
theories of NLP into both the therapeutic and business fields.

In the early 70s, Richard Bandler and John Grinder spent their time around the Santa Cruz
area practicing techniques they had developed from modelling Satir and Perls.  By 1974 they
had written the first book on the subject, "The Structure of Magic I", which concentrated
primarily on language patterns and information gathering techniques.

Terry McClendon explains the idea behind modelling language patterns:  "From these
models, patterns of various neuroses were achieved and techniques developed to fit those
particular patterns."

"For example, Fritz Perls often worked with what NLP programmers would call a
'simultaneously incongruous' individual - 'the top dog/under dog' or 'I can't/but I'd like to,
syndrome'.  Models were developed to suit that form of incongruency or bring about change
when applied to that form of incongruency.  Communication patterns were modelled and the
structure unravelled, either as a representation of an internal experience or an external
experience."

Bandler and Grinder then borrowed the theory of classical conditioning from Pavlov and
began working with stimulus responses, actively using classical conditioned to associate a
touch or picture or sound with a psychological state.

"They were able to recreate a psychological state by firing off the particular stimulus.  For
example, the mood "I would like to " and the mood "but I can't" are produced by two
different stimuli.  If both states can be fired off at the same time by creating both stimuli, then
two patterns can be defined, integrated neurologically and a new and distinct behaviour
pattern created."

The progress towards a definitive model of NLP continued in the years 1972 to 1974 as
techniques became more sophisticated though there was no empirical research done and the
model was seen very much as a user-oriented tool - "if it works fine, if it doesn't you do
something different."

The big move forward, says Terry was "the discovery of accessing cues".

"With these we could see how someone was thinking through cues such as eye patterns,
language patterns, the use of eccentric descriptive words, gestures, and breathing.  Once this
information had been extracted the obvious application was in a therapy situation.  Knowing
what a person was thinking, the thought process could be modelled and a rapid rapport
established.  From there a technique could be applied, designed to suit the structure of the
client's problem."

At this stage the research took an interesting change of direction as Bandler and Grinder
turned their investigations toward the famous hypnotherapist, Milton H. Erickson.

"They started modelling his hypnosis patterns - a brave approach at that time, because
hypnosis was a naughty word.  You just didn't do hypnosis because all you ended up with
was symptom substitution and you probably ran the risk of doing some sort of psychological
damage.  But they did it anyway and said 'OK we are going to model and teach people to be
good hypnotists'.  They modelled the patterns of hypnosis because they figured there was
something about that unconscious or hypnotic state which facilitates change.  So they
began to develop techniques which could operate on the conscious level and still get the
results achieved on the unconscious level under hypnosis."

By the late 70s a model had emerged called "Reframing".  According to Terry this was
"nothing more than an attempt to bootleg the results of hypnosis and do it at a conscious level
so it could be acceptable to psychologist and psychiatrists".  Other similar based techniques
arose and the users of these techniques were now seen as NLP practitioners.

But according to Terry McClendon none of the individual techniques developed from all this
work are in fact NLP.  Rather it is the case that NLP is the model, based on the process of
modelling, from which the techniques have developed.

"Neuro-Linguistic Programming consists of the modelling principles used in the
methodology to create the models.  The model is the simplest form of basic formula for
accessing cues.  If you can understand the accessing cues of behaviour, you can deduce the
sequence of sensory representations an individual goes through both internally and externally
to create the outcome.  That outcome could be to drive a racing car or shoot a rifle, to have a
problem, to be a successful test take or a poor mathematics student.  It is all the same - a
structure and sequence of sensory representations people go through to achieve an outcome.
NLP is the model used to extract that information.  A series of several techniques can then be
applied, depending on the area of work."

"The term Neuro-Linguistic Programmer itself is however misleading.  I' a Neuro-Linguistic
Programmer which implies I program, which is not the case A Neuro-Linguistic Programmer
is a person who uses the NLP methodology as a modelling tool.  For example, when I
practise therapy, the first thing I want to do is found out when you have a problem and
secondly, how you create it for yourself.  Once I find that out, I then recreate the structure of
the problem in myself.  Now if NLP works, I should be able to create the same effects as a
person who has a phobia of say, birds or lizards.  In other words, I can come up with the
exact physiological responses they get, because I model the structure of their problem.  Once
I model it, I understand how their problem was created.  Given that information and my
knowledge, I can then use the appropriate technique to change their problem."

"The model is the important thing.  A lot of people learning NLP don't think in terms of
modelling a personality, they think in terms of "here a problem, here's a technique that will
fix it'.  What they should be thinking is 'here's a problem:  how is the problem structured;
what is the model of the problem; and given that information, what technique is going to be
most effective?'"

Terry McClendon's own psychological training and experience as a marriage guidance
counsellor left him feeling very ineffective in actually changing people for the better.  As he
became more and more enmeshed in the theory and training of NLP he discovered that he
finally had something to offer his clients.

"As a counsellor I wasn't really equipped to do anything, let alone change people.  It was
frightening, someone comes into your office and there I am, wondering 'what do I do?'.
We, when we learned NLP we had something very constructive that we could do with a
client.  We had a series of interventions and tools that we could apply to help the people
change, as opposed to just sitting there and chatting with them for half an hour, taking the
money and going home.  It was such a buzz to actually have some concrete tools and
resources to use, instead of the same one or two techniques we ran through with everybody
who came to the door".

Like most therapeutic approaches however, NLP is not a quick "fix it" solution for the
everyday individual.  It involves and entire philosophy, language and set of psychological
tools.  As Terry will tell you, to become a competent Neuro-Linguistic Programme demands
considerable investment in time and effort.

"It takes at least two years to be a good Neuro-Linguistic Programmer - you can't pick it up
at a weekend workshop.  You might be able to grasp the fundamental principles in a month-
long program, but it will take a further six months to integrate those basics into a cohesive
theory.  They you will have to go through another year of training in other areas.  There's
about 28 different publications to read.  If you want to be a trainer you should be familiar
with them all - they hypnotic language patterns and hypnosis skills, experience in therapy,
classroom teaching, business, sales and negotiations, computer and meta programs.  NLP is
not just something that you know,  It is something that you do as an individual integrated
within a model, which means you have to be able to recreate for yourself everything you do
with other people, otherwise you are not going to be able to model the variety of people out
here in the world.  Developing and creating the necessary flexibility in yourself takes time."

In 1979 Terry McClendon brought NLP to Australia.  He was invited to conduct a series of
lectures in Sydney and they proved so profitable that he made repeated visits over a number
of years.

Further invitations to lecture and train led to his emigration to Australia in 1982.  NLP
certification programs were begun in Victoria that same year and Terry has taught the
program every year since.

"We set up The Australian Institute of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in Sydney which now
has a management committee that handles the institute and contract me to conduct two
programs a year - a 20 day NLP program and a program on Erickson Hypnosis.  The rest of
my work concerns applying the NLP model in companies such as ICI and various recruiting
companies throughout Australia."

Some of Terry's most successful work in recent years has been with what Neuro-Linguistic
Programmers call sub modalities, or sub components of representational systems within the
NLP model.  Sub modalities of the auditory system include:   volume, tone, rhythm and
location; sub modalities of the visual system include;  clarity, brightness, colour number of
images and location; and sub modalities of the feeling system include:  pressure, temperature,
location and intensity.

"There's a law in cybernetics which says if you change any component or sub component of
a system, then the outcome of the system is going to be changed.  With NLP you can alter a
belief by changing a sub modality in the representational system."

"Image for example that you believe in the existence of a red cup on the table in front of you
and that you sub modality for this belief is its brightness, clarity and also the colour.  If you
are asked to change the colour to black and white in your mind, you have changed a sub
modality in your belief.  It is still the same cup but you say 'I don't believe it's there.  I don't
believe it's a cup.'"

"In the same way when you believe something to be true, you hear a certain voice in your
head, saying 'I believe that to be true'.  If an auditory sub modality such as tone is changed,
so that the voice tone is different, you are no long going to believe it to be true because it
does not satisfy your criteria."

"Everyone has their own unique criteria of understanding and their own combinations of sub
modalities for belief, for being successful, for being motivated and so on.  Therefore, a
Neuro-Linguistic Programmer uncovers an individual's crucial sub modalities for various
states or feelings and changes their behaviour by changing the sub modalities of their
experience.  For example if a client comes in and say 'I  really want to have a wild erotic
relationship with a woman, however I find that I am just not motivated enough' the NLP
expert can say 'Are you motivated to do anything?'  If the client is, for example, motivated to
mow the lawn, you elicit these sub modalities and transfer them to the content of a good
relationship with a woman.  You create the same feeling, the same sound, the same quality of
image, resulting in the same motivate to chase after a woman as to charge around the garden
with a lawn mower."

"I have recently had a few clients where sub modality treatment has been incredibly
successful.  An it's successful because you are taking people's own resources and giving
them back to them in an area where thy need them.  We are not putting in anything that does
not already exist, or in NLP jargon, the techniques are 'ecological'.  We work within the
normal and natural, ethical, moral and physical attitudinal constraints of the person's
psychology.  The techniques using sub modalities are naturally ecological and therefore
compatible and successful.  That's what makes NLP so effective".


Further comment or articles would be appreciated.
-- 
Lyn Dawson		InterNet:	lad%ausom.oz.@sol.cc.deakin.oz.au
East Brighton
Victoria
Australia		"Practice senseless acts of kindness and random beauty"
Newsgroups: sci.psychology