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So let's get started with the concept of brainwashing.
I love that question - "Is NLP brainwashing?"
My NLP aspect goes wild on that one, and what it wants to say is,
"Oh yes! NLP washes your brain most wonderfully!
It washes it free of all the accumulation of dirty, grimy, pointless old shit - of old wives tails, of negative conditioning, miserable belief systems inherited from the venerable ancestors, the illogical rubbish that is spewed at us all around, from politicians and priests and those who want to sell us snake oil ...
Think of NLP as this wonderfully logical wave, full of oxygene and fresh energy, that falls upon your tired, aching mind like a cleaning storm, a tsunami, a huge wave that lifts you up above all the bullshit of muppet society to where the air is clear, and you can surf at your leisure, at your will, beneath the blue sunshine of truth at any time you choose to do that!
All hail to getting our brains washed!
By God, do we need it!
There isn't a one amongst us who doesn't hold really stupid, illogical beliefs, values and attitudes about this, that and the other.
There isn't a one amongst us who didn't make negative meta-comments and create self fulfilling prophecies of doom to bring down our own potential and creativity in a moment of crisis.
There isn't a one amongst us who would REALLY benefit from a good old brain washing, indeed!!!"
So that's what my NLP aspect would say when confronted with the notion of brainwashing.
If you consider the idea of brainwashing now, does that feel a bit different than it did before?
When you were thinking in terms of Korean communists doing stuff to prisoners to break their spirit and turn them into some sort of robot?
Do I sound like some sort of robot to you?
LOL ...
Alright, so that was an example of a reframe.
Brainwashing -> Washing the brain.
I'm all for the latter, and NLP helps you do exactly that - spot where the dirt is, and hopefully, in the hands of a good practitioner, help you clean it out, get rid of it, and start to think clearly, and logically.
I reckon that NLP is probably the best anti-robot making device out of unwitting people that you can lay your hands on.
Can a good NLP practitioner brainwash you in both senses of the words? Yeah, sure.
As I always say, NLP is like a bring a bottle party. It doesn't come with any form of morals, or ethos. It's simply how things work. What any given person does with it, is always down to that one person. So there are people who use NLP for "persuasion" and "mind control" and "speed seduction" and all that jazz.
You can bemoan this, and bewail the fact that there are thieves and cheats and liars amongst us living human beings, but what does that get you?
Where does that get you?
Nowhere, that's where!
If you are really, really worried about being manipulated, hypnotized, enculted then NLP and learning NLP is THE defence against the dark arts, let me tell you.
When you know NLP, you learn to spot the language patterns, the logical fallacies, the houses of cards that manipulators will build up with state, words, movements, internal representations.
And then you are in a position to choose to go with it or to simply laugh your head off and say, "Bloody hell I can't believe that guy just said that! And I can't believe these SHEEP didn't notice it and are going along with it with wide eyed innocence ..."
So yeah.
Let's redefine brain washing as a good thing that we all want to undertake, so our brains get to be nice and clean, and can work as fantastically well as the Creator designed them to be able to work. That's real and proper brain washing, and NLP can certainly help with that.
As to the other, the robot making, the slave making, NLP is the best defence against the dark arts of manipulation there is, because you learn the structures of all of that works from the ground up starting at the NLP practitioner level and from the word "Go!"
- Knowing MORE about language, internal representations, state, and how all of that hangs together to produce BEHAVIOUR is - valuable, priceless, and a real step towards being a free thinking human being, especially in the long run.
SFX March 2010
PS - For an example of the NLP washing machine effect, see also: The Reality Washing Machine Pattern by yours truly.
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