NLP & Energy: Adding Energy To NLP
by Dr Silvia Hartmann
To this day, nobody can explain properly what NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming is supposed to be.
That's alright.
I was taught that it was a methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques.
And so it does.
I like NLP a lot and I've gotten a huge amount out of my interactions with NLP.
- The first and most important thing that NLP teaches is to PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS THERE.
And takes me straight to the heart of the matter and the very reason for the existence of this site, and that would be the concepts of energy.
Energy Is There
I am going to try and put this as simply as possible.
There is at least one, if not more than one, invisible dimensions that are currently not being measured by science, and therefore, are deemed to not exist. I won't waste my time talking about how deeply childish it is to presume that because you cannot see or touch something, it just isn't there and must be "all in the mind"; it's just not worth talking about any longer.
Suffice to say that way back when I was still working with animal behaviour, I found a Factor X that influenced animal behaviour IMMENSELY, and that was the direct root cause for a multitude of previously unexplained behavioural problems in caged and companion animals, as well as being at the root of a multitude of health problems.
For more details of "my road to energy", please see EmoTrance.Vol. 1, which contains the developmental history of EmoTrance.
It took me a while to understand that my Factor X was what is known as "energy" - something we cannot see, but that must be there, or else certain phenomena wouldn't exist at all.
Further, and I can say this with real authority, until and unless you factor Factor X into the equations of social mammal behaviour, they do not resolve and none of it makes any sense.
But when you take that leap of faith, and you DO factor energy into the equation, all of a sudden the behaviour of social mammals, and that includes human beings, becomes MATHEMATICAL in its precision of cause, and effect.
Now, all of a sudden, EVERYTHING makes sense.
This includes the strange things that people say, "He is a pain in the neck," - "She broke my heart," - "Revenge is ice cold," - "I have a frog in my throat," - "I fell into a burning ring of fire," and the multitude of other phrases and expressions WHICH DESCRIBE THE HUMAN CONDITION and which do not make any sense whatsoever unless you accept that there really is something there, and that something is what people are talking about, complaining about, killing each other over, and it is absolutely REAL.
Now, people gestures and body postures begin to make sense.
Hands are showing you something THAT IS REALLY THERE, there are NOT waving around aimlessly or randomly.
Eyes are looking at something THAT IS REALLY THERE, there are not just rolling around as some after-reflex of neurons firing in the brain.
Ears are hearing sounds and voices that have no physical existence - but those things are also really there, and until and unless you start ACTING ON WHAT IS REALLY THERE, rather than constantly trying to suggest that not just the entire human race, BUT ALL SOCIAL MAMMALS are totally deluded and are constantly reacting to nothing at all and for no good reason whatsoever, I'm afraid there will never be any decent descriptions of the human condition, nor any treatment techniques to help with the problems we have, and that's a fact.
So, energy is real.
If you cannot handle that, try and think of it as a form of Factor X, and just TRY IT ON, see if your personal equations start to resolve, your questions finally find an answer, and the world starts to make LOGICAL sense all of a sudden.
From there you can go on to a greater acceptance of the concept of energy.
If you cannot handle this kind of mental movement to withhold judgement at least until the first tests are in, then I cannot help you at this point and I wish you well for the future, for the hope that someone who is completely energy blind will have one day, an ENLIGHTENMENT EXPERIENCE, is always there, and always present.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, and now I'm found,
was blind, and now I see."
This is yet another example of a FACTUAL DESCRIPTION of REAL human processes which begins to make sense once you understand the reality of energy.
We live in OCEANS OF ENERGY.
The practical evidence of that is all around us, just as the evidence from the eye accessing cues was always there, but nobody seemed to notice this, at least not at the conscious level.
Now, what does this have to do with NLP, you may well ask.
This is the deal.
Of course it does!
All models and methodologies that even deal remotely with anything relating to human beings need to get ENERGY WISE, and the sooner, the better.
If you are a serious student or practitioner of NLP, try this.
Find an old video or a DVD of Virginia Satir on stage, working with a group of people.
Turn the sound completely off.
WATCH what she DOES so you can't get sidetracked into what she SAYS.
Watch carefully as her hands move "invisible objects" and watch even more closely how the people whose "invisible objects" (we call those energy forms, or ereas at a pinch) have been moved RESPOND TO THIS EVENT WITH BEHAVIOURAL EVIDENCE THAT SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED TO THEM.
Direct cause, and effect.
Before Bandler and Grinder came along, did nobody ever really PAY ATTENTION to what people do and how they think, how they work?
I do not blame either of them for not noticing these energy events, or if they did, not talking about them in public.
And it is absolutely true that there was so much about the LANGUAGE that was still unknown, and unlearned, and totally unnoticed, that they had a lot to do and figure out.
However, starting with the language is in many ways the equivalency of tacking a horse, starting from the tail.
Or putting the cart before the horse, if you will.
- The conditions in the human energy system DIRECTLY CAUSE STATE, and state causes the choice of words ABSOLUTELY, and once again, in a mathematically precise cause-and-effect correlation.
To put it in a nutshell, you change the conditions in the energy system, and the state change is free of charge and a result, cognitive changes are free and a direct result, and this reflects in changed words and changed language eventually as well.
There is a whole lot more that energy can do for NLP, and how embracing the simple concept of there being energy systems and energy forms can transform the effectiveness of NLP, and finally bring the magic that those who chased language patterns or endless submodality distinctions never managed to achieve.
From the concept of the energy mind to replace the idea of the un- or subconscious mind to get a better metaphor and structurally more adequate description that then leads into a trail of techniques that are fast, successful, NATURAL and delightful, to being able to deal with energy forms swiftly, ecologically and elegantly; from the ability to enter states and CHANGE STATES in a whole new way, to the potential of much more accurate modelling, and the modelling of THAT WHICH REALLY MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!, from unlocking language to a whole new level altogether and finally getting to grips with metaphor and how to use metaphor for real change; and so much more besides, once you bring energy into NLP, you literally have an explosion of possibilities and potential.
NLP was always a collection of ideas and modalities, of insights from here and there - taking THE BEST and using it to learn something new that can help the rest of us get better at what we are trying to achieve.
You don't have to go far to bring energy into NLP.
Just look at Virginia Satir, who is already an accepted - if rather neglected - component of the original set up, and really pay attention.
Take it from there.
It's so exciting, so ENERGIZING, to open the door into this multi-dimensional Universe, where energy exchanges are happening all the time, and where it is ENERGY EXCHANGES which are causing our problems, as well as providing exactly those things that human beings are so hungry for, and can end up searching in vain for an entire life time.
I have spent the last 20 years designing methods to investigate and test energy aspects of emotion, thought and behaviour.
I have created a simple tool that comes from a simple, basic theory on how energy works which is called EmoTrance. You can find the full EmoTrance Primer here.
The greatest problem with the "invisible worlds of energy" has been in the past that people have run off into delusion and pretence, and I've done my best with EmoTrance and also with my ongoing metaphor/energy project codenamed Project Sanctuary, to bring logic, common sense and reality into our dealings with energy systems and their manifold manifestations in every day life.
I have always endeavoured to remain extremely scientific in my dealings with this topic which in the past has proven to be a real can of worms for humanity; and I have done this, you could say I have dedicated my life to this, because the realms of energy, tricky though they may be, HOLD THE SOLUTIONS TO OUR PROBLEMS.
They hold the answers to our oldest questions, and without understanding energy, the world simply doesn't make any sense at all.
With it, the world and all its many strange occurrences becomes not only logical, but even predictable - and for that alone it is worth it to not take my word for it, but to TEST FOR YOURSELF if my presuppositions and techniques make sense, and work in practice.
I personally look forward to using this website to not try and remedially re-educate the skeksis, sorry sceptics, or convince anyone of this, that and the other.
I'm way past that now.
I'm going to collect some patterns and ideas that come across my path for those who like to play with such things, keep their minds and their hearts (!) open and free, and see where this attitude of delight in exploration can take us before we die.
With best wishes,
Dr Silvia Hartmann
March 2009
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