Higher - A Different Direction In Hypnosis

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:12:26 +0100

"And now you are feeling very sleepy ... very heavy ... and you drift down and down into a deep, deep state of relaxation ..."

That's our classical hypnosis, taking us "down" into relaxation and then unconsciousness, which always begs the question of, "Did I learn something here? Did something happen or did I just go to sleep?"

Well, hypnosis means sleep but I think we can safely extend that, go the other way and instead of ever deeper and deeper into unconsciousness, we might as well go HIGHER.

Killing The Part Of Me That Is My Father - Parts, NLP & Language

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:03:30 +0100

This parts conflict scenario is something that does happen, we are familiar with it, and so we are generally happy to accept the idea that people have "parts". In and of itself, that's already both dubious as well as problematic; where the concept of parts begins to move into insanity is when we start talking in terms of, "The part of me that is my father."

Logical Levels & The Genius Symbols

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:01:16 +0100

Understanding logical levels, what they are, how they work, and finding your way around the logical levels of a problem, system or ecology with accuracy and ease is a very important part of sorting information in such a way that it becomes USEFUL.

This article contains an introduction to the concept of logical levels as it is used in NLP, using the example of The Genius Symbols, and a logical levels diagram.

NLP Brainwashing Reframe Example

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:33:21 +0100

What's a reframe? Is NLP brainwashing? I got both questions today and I thought, hey we can put those two together into a single article where we can reframe brain washing using NLP and then both questions are answered!

The Candle

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:28:10 +0000

Here is a classic example of a NLP style metaphor teaching story that is also quite hypnotic.

What's particularly cool about it is that this really happened, so it's a true story, just phrased in a slightly more mystical fashion and with the requisite language patterns in place.

Enjoy The Candle ... :-)

Can You Read? Are You Sure ...?

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:32:14 +0000

I had a bit of a diatribe today about the word, "to read".

What does that mean?

To stutter out a string of letter pahonetically and somehow understand that this string of letters is supposed to mean "cat"?

No. I don't know what that is, but that's not reading.

Bill Gates Quote Is NLP In A Nutshell

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:45:56 +0000

Alright, so it's called NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming. What that means is that you can program your neurology with language, the language being the software for the neurology, and the neurology being the hardware that runs the software.

And here comes Bill Gates with a fabulous quote that really does sum up all of NLP in a nutshell.

Hypnotic Poem: Relax

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:17:22 +0000

What is the difference between a poem and a hypnotic induction? I don't think there is one. Both should take charge of the readers/listeners/subjects internal representations and take them wherever the poet or hypnotist wants to take them. Here is an example of a relaxation induction, rendered as a hypnotic poem, and suitably entitled, "Relax!"

NLP Diagram: The Map Is Not The Territory

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:46:04 +0000

The Map Is Not The Territory ... in this much quoted NLP basic statement lies not just a world of possibilities, but as many worlds of possibilities and potential as there are people who are making maps of the territory.

Here is a NLP diagram illustrating the basic principle of map and territory (also known as the "NLP Head"), internal representations, intrapersonal reality and how it comes to be that if we change someone's internal representations, we change their world.

NLP Internal Representations: The Alpha & Omega Of Communication Excellence

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:50:33 +0000

One - if not actually, THE! - master key to understanding how communication works and how we can use language, state, touch, movement and energy to "influence" what a person thinks and how they feel is to really understand what internal representations are and how they work.

In fact, the contribution Count Alfred Korzybski made when he wrote Science & Sanity and for the first time in human recorded history, laid out how reality, internal representations and language hang together in a "geared mechanism" can simply NOT be underestimated.

NLP Language & Energy Examples & Exercises

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:31:24 +0000

NLP language plus a little EmoTrance energy work make for an interesting combination. Here is an article from 2008 on taking apart a sentence about depression, and doing a bit of neuro linguistic programming with it, looking at the presuppositions, and FEELING the energy effects. Cool stuff!

Phonological Ambiguities - What Are They Good For?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:09:38 +0000

That's an interesting question. The first answer I have to that is that phonological ambiguities are fun and they always make me chuckle inside. Which is not something that one might easily say about a lot of other NLP patterns.

So I guess I better explain what a phonological ambiguity is for the newbies and then we can go on to wonder what they're good for, apart from keeping Silvia amused.

NLP Metaphor Story The Shortest Distance

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:21:52 +0000

What is the shortest distance between two points? It is held to be a direct line but that's NOT the whole NLP metaphor story ... Here we have one of those cases where real reality isn't like modelled reality.

Let me show you a picture to explain.

NLP Story: Timeline Orientation In Time VS Through Time

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:46:33 +0000

Here is an example of a simple NLP story which is of course also a metaphor, and an NLP training story about timeline orientation - in time vs through time. With a touch of conversational NLP and hypnosis changework. See if you can track all the patterns in the story, and in the way this NLP story is told. Good luck!

Singing NLP Reframe Plus

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:08:05 +0100

Once in a while, I have a little outburst with my NLP hat on. I do love it when that happens! NLP is SUCH fun, and simple things like the NLP reframe can be taken to SUCH extremes - and then it's even more fun. Now, to business. There is something more scary than public speaking. And that's ... singing in public!

Apart from basic NLP reframing, there are another happy dozen NLP patterns employed in this short sequence. See if you can spot them all - and if not, just lay back and enjoy!

NLP Patterns - How To Build A New NLP Pattern

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:33:57 +0100

How do you build new NLP patterns?

The simple answer is by modeling a strategy of some kind, and create a basic NLP model. Then you test it, refine it, write it up in a step-by-step fashion and so the model becomes a pattern.

Many people think that the first step to NLP modeling is ...

Mapping Across - Bug Fixing Your Mind

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:28:44 +0100

NLP Modeling is one thing - where you take a strategy that works in a particular context and you duplicate the strategy so that when you run it, you get the same beneficial outcomes as the original upon whom the model was based. A simple example of straight NLP modelling can be found here.

However, NLP modeling becomes much more fun and much more multi-dimensional when we extract a pattern and map it across to a completely different situation, environment or modality.

Here is an example of mapping across a strategy from bug fixing a piece of software to bug fixing your mind!

The Alex Model Of Dealing With The Crap Modern Business Throws At Us

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:47:17 +0100

NLP modeling is a fine thing.

Once you get your head around how it works, there are opportunities for modelling excellence everywhere.

There are strategies and patterns that people do which are blatantly so much successful that what you might be using yourself that you take one look at that and say, "Yes! That's brilliant! I'm going to do exactly what he's doing - it's working, and I want it to work for me, as well!"

One such NLP modelling derived models is the above "Alex Model". It is truly brilliant, and brilliantly useful in 1001 situations us modern folk find ourselves in on a regular basis.

Morphing Into Uncharted Waters

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:38:31 +0100

I just had a lovely NLP language/internal representations experience on a German translators forum. The poor guys there were tearing their hair out how to translate this sentence: "As the credit crisis deepens and morphs into uncharted waters, a little perspective is necessary on what it is costing, in both dollars and human terms."

Limitations of NLP?

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:02:09 +0100

This question arrived just now: What are the limitations of NLP?

I shall have a go in good faith to discuss "the limitations of NLP".

Help! My Boyfriend Is Into NLP!

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:42:14 +0100

This morning, I got a contact form which went something like this.

Help! My boyfriend attended an NLP seminar recently and ever since then, he's become creepy and I don't know if I like him anymore.

What can I do???

Why Metaphor Is A Really Bad Metaphor For Metaphor

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:30:30 +0100

The word "metaphor" derives from "amphora," an old system of carrying goods on ships much like containers are today.

These clay made, vase shaped containers all looked the same, and they were the same size, allowing for standardised handling, transportation and storage - but their contents could be quite literally, anything at all.

NLP People Needed In The Movie Business - Urgent!

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:01:21 +0100

I've just written a review for the Harry Potter movie Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince.

My biggest complaint is that the colours are dark and dingy, and there isn't enough LIGHT in this movie - practically as well as metaphorically.

Every NLP practitioner KNOWS from day 1 of their NLP training that ...

The Most Powerful NLP Language Pattern Is

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:36:00 +0100

People often ask me what the "most powerful NLP language pattern" is.

The other day I really thought, "Perhaps it's not the language we use, but the language we choose not to use!" and ended up with thought - could it be true that THE most powerful NLP language pattern is actually, SILENCE?"

Physiology Is The Royal Road Into State - The Game

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:38:38 +0100

"Physiology Is The Royal Road Into State" - that's a beloved NLPers saying and what it means, if you don't know, is that you can create state (how you feel/think/experience) by putting your physiology aka your body into certain positions.

Want to have some real good NLP fun with a neat state and physiology game ...?

The Apprentice - NLP 101

Thu, 28 May 2009 23:11:43 +0100

Something I've noticed a lot on this year's The Apprentice TV Show was and is that the candidates are constantly being hoisted by their own petards - or in other words, their own words are being used as the most devastating weapons against them. The way they are describing themselves is literally delivering the ammunition into the hands of those who want to shoot them down - and the way to avoid that is one of the most basic of all NLP 101s.

Bad Attitude, Wrong Attitude - Take A Different Point Of View

Fri, 15 May 2009 10:09:04 +0100

I've observed over the years how people get accused of having a bad attitude, or the wrong attitude and how that gets them into trouble in all sorts of ways.

But what is that? What is an attitude? How do you do that?

I've been using the term attitude in perhaps slightly different way recently.

NLP Intervention - Money & The Eucharist

Wed, 06 May 2009 03:30:49 +0100

This is an interesting story of a short but very powerful NLP intervention which showcases the understanding of presuppositions and language, internal representations and their relationship to words and symbols used to describe them.

It starts with a Catholic nun discovering during an EmoTrance exercise that she had confused the Eucharist with eating chocolate.

How To Be A Better NLP Hypnotist: The Top Ten Tips

Sun, 03 May 2009 16:46:36 +0100

People are always asking me what they can do to be a better NLP style hypnotist, which includes how to do better self hypnosis as well as conversational hypnosis, and what is known as covert hypnosis. Here are my top ten tips how to be a better NLP hypnotist.

NLP and Metaphor for NLP Beginners

Sun, 03 May 2009 13:06:23 +0100

In my opinion, the problem with NLP and metaphor is that NLP attracts and is marketed to people who are far more at home with lists, facts and conscious-style logic than those who have a natural leaning towards the far more fluid, information rich and interactive form of data flow that is metaphor.

Metaphor can't be learned by studying examples of metaphor, or by learning lists of metaphorical objects and occurrences by heart; metaphor can't be "drilled" (eeouwh! that hurts, so bad ...) and most of all, metaphor can NEVER be understood by dissecting language into its component pieces.

So the main method by which NLP analyses strategies and language is essentially entirely unsuitable for teaching or even understanding the organic processes of metaphor. What is to be done?