Revealings about the serious errors and the noxiuous unfortunate aspects of the neuro-linguistic programation (NLP)

by yoga teacher Monica Dascalu

          “And be no part in the seedless deeds of the darkness,
but blame them openly” (Ephesians 5, 11)

The NLP and the perverting of the spiritual values

You all know the famous expression: “A gram of practice weights tones of theory.” This true axiom of the Yoga system was brought in the West’s attention by Mahatma Gandhi. At the Misa Yoga School classes, it is a fundamental practical principle. You probably don’t know the contemporary variant of this expression, offered as a teaching to the American young people who want to be successful in business: “A gram of hypocrisy weights tones of ambition.” This is a very expressive example of perverting the moral values. The moral values are not too appreciated in the modern society. We think that there have been periods in the humankind’s past and there will also be some periods of grace in the future when the authentic, divine values will fully manifest and will be truly appreciated by the human beings. When there is a state of inner purity, when people are more connected at the level of the soul to the nature, to the divine things and qualities, to the elevated subtle worlds, to God, the moral values are at their turn respected and naturally cultivated.

But in the social and moral chaos that exits these days on this planet, each person is interested in satisfying quicker and more often only his own goals. The selfishness and the vanity have become highly prized on the scale of false values. The lie, the anger, the pride, the hypocrisy, the merciless, the hate, have turned to be considered the qualities of the strong man, the jealousy is considered a proof of love, and the revenge a justified action. The personal desires and lusts have begun to cloud the people’s minds and they became the main purpose in life.

The sublime soul values which are in the nature of the man born for a divine essence, who walks the way of finding God (the fearlessness, the heart’s purity, the steadiness in knowledge, good will, the control over the senses, the sacrifice, the love for the sacred writings, the decision of not hurting anyone and anything, the respecting of the truth, the renunciation, the absence of the anger, the devotion, the inner acceptance, the lack of the tendency to gossip, the compassion for all the beings, the gentleness, the humility, the inner strength, the forgiveness, the patience, the determination, the absence of jealousy and of pride) had become, in the present stage of moral decay in which the humankind exists, to be considered aspects that show weakness and which the “strong” men, appreciated by the society, mustn’t manifest-according to this perverted vision.

Absolutely, the famous 16th chapter from Bhagavad Gita, India’s sacred book is still nowadays very in actuality. The moral doesn’t change with the fashion, because the divine laws remain unchanged. This true guide of wisdom and good behavior-chapter 16 from Bhagavad Gita-indicates very precisely which are the qualities that must be  cultivated because they get the man closer to God and which are those specific to the demonic nature, lead to decay and degradation. According to Krishna’s teachings, there are 2 types of human beings-the wise ones and the ignorant ones; those in whom the divine nature predominates and the others in whom the demonic nature prevails. For example, self-knowledge is a divine quality, while the ignorance is demonic, the tenderness and the kindness are divine qualities, and the violence and the wickedness are demonic features.

The persons who have a demonic character don’t know what is bad or good to do, or even if they know, they don’t want to stop from doing some bad deeds. They don’t respect the truth, lack inner purity, are selfish and proud.
These reflections have been the result of a controversial subject: the NLP practices. In a previous article we started to reveal this hollow field that promises to the greedy and easy to fool people “the rapid success in any field”. We offer you through a new article “The errors and the problems of neuro-linguistic programming are brought into light as well as by the scientists from different fields, but also by the system’s trainers “we go deeper into the subject. It is amazing what explanations can some intelligent, but laked moral values, people find to justify the hunger for earning money and power. The NLP “experts” are those who invented the concept of “positive manipulation” meaning manipulation made “in the interest of the manipulated one”. The whole NLP is a mixture of “petty thefts”- some valuable ideas and concepts from other fields are combined in a system that has as a motto “the purpose excuses the means”. There is no general theory, no experimental validation, no long term scientific study-only a very strong power to convince the people and to manipulate them, which the practitioners acquire it and through which they convince the weaker minded ones of their so called success.

What is stunning for us is not necessarily the success to the public that these methods have-because this success shows exactly the level of the human society moral decay-but the fact that there are also Yoga practitioners who, in spite of the accumulated knowledge, prefer to put aside the moral rules and to practice NLP methods from materialistic interests. These ones even become to say that the accusations brought by the scientists to NLP are similar to the media campaign led against MISA. Practicing their convincing power, these false yogis will try to make you believe with evidences of the kind that NLP is attacked by the freemasons. They won’t hesitate to compare the sociopath who invented the NLP, Richard Bandler to the great Tibetan yogi Milarepa. The later practiced during his youth the black magic and for compensating its devastating effects, he followed a long term ascetic life under the supervision of a great yogic master, Marpa. You probably know that there is nothing similar to the spiritual ascetism in NLP, so this comparison is ridiculous.

In order to scatter all the moral confusions that still persist at some yoga practitioners, we will elaborate a series of articles in which we explain Krishna’s teachings from the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. We intend to approach one by one the aspects pointed by Krishna regarding the manifestation ways of the demonic states that are present at some human beings. We hope that this way we will help you become aware when it is necessary, of these tendencies or their manifestation and we will offer you some practical and efficient modalities to overcome them.
As to the fact that “one warned man is worth two”, this series of articles is meant to put you in guard, to warn you in order to know how to act in the confront with the invisible enemies (which are the demons that attack the aspirants who engage themselves full of devotion on the spiritual path).Knowing how to act in the situations when you deal with some tests, you will be able to face much better the tries that may appear. 

Knowing these things you will be able to understand better what happens in your being in some testing moments you deal with in the very day life and you will be warned about them. In this sense we must become aware that in all the occasions of our lives when we are tested, we go through difficult experiences or we deal with all kind of challenges, we always have the freedom to choose the good or the evil. And this thing also applies to the NLP techniques.

The NLP psycho fraud was invented by a violent, drug addicted sociopath. Richard Bandler tried to kill his father when he was 10 years old. It is only one of his murder attempts.
 

”I am a bit sociopath, but my illusions are so strong that they become real and only for me.” – Richard Bandler, the NLP founder

Arrested and charged with murder. Big consumer of alcohol and drugs, at the age of 10 years old he wanted to kill his father through electrocuting him. He threatened with death several persons and he admits himself he is “a bit sociopath”. It is not about a character known as a dangerous criminal, but of the mentor of a whole generation of business men: one of the parents of Neuro-Lingustic Programming-NLP, a man who pretends he “programs” the others in a few seconds and controls them mentally. His name is Richard Bandler.

NLP is regarded by some as a method that assures the success in life. The used methods to get success point too much on the control over the others. A large number of NLP classes overloaded the Romanian market too and many naives fell in their trap. Far from being a form of self knowledge and evolution, of improving the communication and the relationships with the others as NLP is presented to the naives, it is in fact a subtle form of manipulation.

The NLP beyond appearances

The NLP manipulates on one side the ones who attend these classes, and on the other one it teaches them how to manipulate the others. The NLP experts realize so easily this unusual control over the others through the fact that they exploit their weaknesses; among others, the method is successful to the public even through the fact that it flatters and feeds insidiously their pride. A visible, quick and completely negative effect is the exacerbation of the pride to all the method’s followers. Here is what distorted and degrading vision offers NLP to his disciples: the people-of course the other people-are considered a sort of computers (or robots) easy to program if you know the buttons you must press.

“Those who attend NLP trainings are programmed to believe that the given program allows them to set the others how they like” says the psychologist B.L.Beyerstein in the International Journal for Mental Health. This “programming” is nothing but an agile manipulation. In order to reach his goals, the NLP follower considers himself rightful to manipulate the others without taking into account what is good, ethical or moral or to think about their will or the free will. Among others, the total absence of respect and regard towards the other people characterizes the NLP practitioners. NLP came into being in the 70’s starting from the studies elaborated by the linguist John Grinder and the psychology student Richard Bandler. These two had in mind to study the communication manner of some successful psychotherapists. What it resulted, the so called “science” of Neuro Linguistic Programming is in fact a mixture of linguistics and hypnosis that tries really hard to imitate the communication manner of some celebrities from the psychology field: Fritz Perls-the father of Gestalt therapy, Virginia Satir – well – known family psychotherapist and Milton Erickson-hypnotherapist.

NPL – a psycho fraud based on pride and hypnosis

 
Inspiring largely from hypnosis, the NLP is based on the idea that people can programmed or reprogrammed like a computer, being so easy to be determined to apply communication and behaviour methods. The NLP is presented in a representative work as being: “a communication model focused on the identification and the use of some patterns in the thinking process that influence the verbal and non-verbal behaviour to grow the communication’s efficiency.”

In an official paper we although find a different definition: ”NLP is a technology that elaborates and uses the  human behaviour patterns in the purpose of forming persons and organizations to attain better their aims and to accelerate their learning process.” Starting from this definition, it is easy to understand why the NLP has become even more a manipulation and control tool used intensively in business, politics, advertising, mass-media. Initially presented to the world of the psychologists as a transformation and personal development instrument, the Neuro Lingusitic Programming has become to be nowadays controversial and viewed as “The New Age exponent”, a “psycho-fraud”, a “pseudo-fraud” or even a “sect invented by a madman”.

Some other people consider that NLP is a brand like any other one for which the financial interests are predominant. This is testified by the trials in which Richard Bandler, one of the NLP’ parents dragged his associate John Grinder in order to obtain the exclusivity on releasing the certificates. As the business spread world widely, the checked in sums for such trainings are enormous, of some million dollars. After separating from Grinder, Bandler associated in 1994 to a former stage hypnotist, Paul Mc Keena, with whose help he sustains NLP sessions in Great Britain. The way in which they take place is very expressively depicted by an English journalist, who participated in 2006 to such a “course”: “You would think that in the Ibis hotel’s conference room from London takes place an evangelical show in which miraculous healings are promised. Certain music is very loud in the room, and the 600 participants seem electrified. It seems indeed there are a lot of people who need to be “fixed”, but it’s not a show of miraculous healings. The presenters are atheists, and the public is formed of some big companies’ employees.”

The specialists’ opinion

The critics that the specialists in psychology bring to NLP are numerous. First of them is that NLP is not at all a science, as its creators pretend. NLP doesn’t even have a unified theory, but it is elaborated like a mixture of theories and patterns copied from different psychologists. If it were a science as they pretend, it would be natural that its results were proved by rigorous studies and researches, made on certain standards. Or the results obtained by famous researchers illustrate that on the contrary NLP is an agile scheme because its effects are temporary. The short period of the results owe to the fact that the NLP techniques operate rather on a negation or a forced replacement of some memories with some other elements, without acting on the profound causes. Other studies, such as those of Cody, demonstrate that the use of manipulation techniques based on the language, taught at the NLP classes, really affect communication and relating to others, but in the way that the person who applies them is perceived as less dignified to be trusted, so she will be isolated from the others.

The psychologist Corballis shows that “even the pompous name of Neuro linguistic Programming is a deceiving one, meant to give the impression we deal with a science and one of the most moderns. In reality, NLP has nothing to do with the neurology, with the linguistics or any other neuroscience.” This is why many specialists consider that NLP is rather a brand of the fraud and deception, a profitable business for its founders, but a damaging and useless one for the people who let themselves “programmed”.

He electrocuted his father at 10 years old
 
“I heard of Richard Bandler for the first time in 2002,when an ex officer in the special forces told me that several years ago, Bandler “reprogrammed” in a few second a skinny girl, transforming her in an elite shooter. Intrigued, I looked for more information and I found out how worshipped were Bandler’s theories in the years 70-80 and how Al Gore, Bill Clinton and a great part of the most wealthy 500 presidents of big companies declared themselves his fans, writes Jon Ronson in an article published in the British newspaper The Guardian.

Richard Wayne was born in 1950 in New Jersey, USA. He suffered from his childhood from a speech difficulty that made him be a lonely child and then a shy adolescent who created his own world made of unfulfilled ambitions. Since then he has discovered his capacity of imitating other successful persons’ behaviour – that would become later in NLP terms “patterning”. He was dreaming of playing the drums like Buddy Rich, but his talent was mediocre. He managed that at the age of 16 to teach drum lessons to the son of a psychiatrist-Robert Spitzer, from whom he read the first psychology books. Through him he met Virginia Satir – well-known in the world of psychology as being one of the family psychotherapy representatives. She wrote on Richard Bandler in 1988: ”He seemed malnutritioned (physically and emotionally).He gained my sympathy with his intelligence, but meanwhile I was feeling in him a great instability and inner uncertainty.”

After the high school Bandler studied philosophy and one of his few friends from that time used to say about him: “there is certainly a limit beyond which nobody can reach him. He didn’t feel good with himself or between us.” In 1970 he registered at Californian University from Santa Cruz to study psychology and he met John Grinder. As he has studied the drummer Buddy Rich-through imitation, called afterwards “patterning”, Bandler began acting like two great psychotherapists-Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls, the creator of Gestalt therapy. He succeeded in this with great accuracy, being able, as some of his friends from that time tell, to talk, to gesticulate and to behave exactly like they did.
In an interview published in the British newspaper The Guardian in May 2006 Bandler makes some shocking reveals on his childhood, reveals that explains mostly his violent and contradictive behaviour as an adult.

Richard Bandler: “I was a compulsive child (according to Larouse Dictionary compulsion is pathological tendency to act. Irrational gesture generated by inner contraction to get rid of the fear or the tension that appears in the absence of making that action. A classic example is that of the persons who wash their hands repeatedly, ending with causing themselves wounds from the fear of not taking germs). As a child I liked to shoot to the target. I remember I was standing in the court of the house up to three o’clock in the morning and at the weak light of a bulb and shooting at the target with the arrow, again and again until I got it perfectly.”
Jon Ronson: Where from did this compulsive behaviour come?
R.Bandler: Maybe from the fact that I was alone most of the time. It was a sort of self motivation. My mother was always away at work and my father was violent and dangerous. In fact my natural father left us when I was five and he was very violent. My mother remarried with a drunker and a fighter well-known in the navy. He was very violent, he has broken me many bones. But I won in the end. 
Jon Ronson: How is it so? (I was expecting him to reply me: well look at me now, I roll in an expensive car, I own a villa in Haway, adds Jon Ronson).
R.Bandler: I electrocuted him. Not in the way that I killed him, though I could have done it. I waited for a rainy day. I put under the rug from the door the wires of an electrical cable and the other end I passed it through the keyhole. I had my hand on the switch and when he got to the rug I pushed the button. I heard a loud cry and I saw him rolling on the stairs. He was in the hospital for 6 months.
Jon Ronson: How old were you then?
R.Bandler:10 years old.

After this interview, the author noticed: “I remembered then that Bandler tells those who were abused during their childhood: just forget. Tell the voices that remember you of childhood to shut up”. It is a method through which Bandler himself avoids without success to deal with demons from his past. “It is obvious that Bandler never succeeded to forget this childhood’s frustrations, as he teaches the others to do it. After this episode, he moved to California, where he alone declares, the adolescent Bandler became a “juvenile delinquent”. He has been diagnosed as a sociopath. As we are going to see in the upcoming lines, all these elements that describe this illness are found in Bandler’s life and behaviour. In psychology the sociopathy is described as: “disorder which implies difficulties to establish harmonious social relationships, insensible, arrogant and despising behaviour to the rights, the feelings and the sufferings of the others, the absence of remorse feelings and self blaming, nervousness, impulsiveness, aggression to contradictions and oppositions, incapacity of learning from mistakes and sanctions, the tendency to blame the others and finding excuses for the own conflictual behaviour. At the extreme mode, violent behaviour, false perception of the others and the absence of correct evaluation of the committed acts’ consequences.” Here is what Bandler says about himself in a rare moment of sincerity:
R.Bandler: “Yes I am a bit sociopath but my illusions are so strong that they become true and not only for myself”. Strange and at the same time dangerous explanation, given the fact that such a mentally disordered person becomes to teach the others how to come back to normality, considering that he can play with the others’ minds.
 

“If you have an unfortunate past, create a better one. The others can control you only knowing your personal history.” – Rchard Bandler

 
Richard Bandler became to be considered a kind of NLP genius after he has held hundred of seminars for thousands of people form the whole world, he was consultant of some big corporations and was collaborating with the army and the CIA for the training of the personnel from the special troops. In 1986 an unexpected event for all those who fell under the spell of this glamorous image, was revealing the fact that Bandler was leading a double life. After this episode, instead of the self-confident character who was giving everyone lessons about how to reprogram themselves in order to have a normal life and a successful career came into scene a real psychopath.

In 1980 his first wife intended for divorce, bringing proofs that Bandler threatened with death her and the men who dared to come close to her. In the same period he separated from his associate John Grinder. Haunted by his childhood’s unsolved frustrations, Bandler took refuge in alcohol and cocaine. But he was continuing to hold NLP sessions earning up to 4000 dollars per day.

In an investigation published by Mother Jones magazine in 1989 there are revealed to us testimonies of some close friends: “Parallel to his real life there have been created a legend which he assiduously cultivated. The story of his life has become an amalgam of reality and fiction, suffocated in gin and cocaine, distorted by the NLP’s ideology that furnished intellectual justifications to reinvent his past: “If you have an unfortunate past, he wrote in one of his books, create a better one for yourself. Everyone has to dispose of several kinds of life scenarios”. Bandler had a vast collection of such stories on his professional and personal life. Although he didn’t have any doctorate, Bandler called himself doctor and so did those who promoted his books. Depending on the person he had in front of him, Badler described himself as being computer programmer, or musician, although he had few knowledge in those fields. He was telling for example that he had been a professional rock musician, that he had a strip-tease bar when he was 16 and that at 18 he already was a millionaire, that he had the black belt in karate, etc. Through NLP Bandler had found the fact that he imitated the speaking manner, the gestures and the positions of other persons. Bandler told to a writer that he longs to retire to his house from Haway to write, then to say to a scientist that he hates writing. He had almost lost himself in such many imitations, deceptions and manipulations. “I don’t even know if the man I used to know still lives somewhere inside of Richard, one of his colleagues said. In the past 20 years he had become almost invisible”.

These multiple personalities that Bandler displayed were the result of the feeling of a great inner vulnerability. Bandler was a being who thought everything in the terms of controlling the others, for fear of not being controlled. Here is what he stated in front of some students: “The others can control you, only by knowing your personal history! And in his paranoid vision he had done everything possible to rewrite this personal history, teaching the others how to become false like he was.

Charged with first degree murder
 

In 1986 Bandler lived in a house built by one of his new friends: the drug dealer James Marino. He was drinking heavily and cocaine supplied by Marino and this one’s concubine Corine Christensen. ”His house looked like a fortress: bars at the windows and reflectors, fence of 3 meters high and guard dogs. Each room had heavy doors with automatic lockers and a voice analyze system allowed the access in the house even for his friends. Besides Bandler disposed of a small arsenal formed of knives, pistols, rifles and semi-automatic guns.”

In the autumn of 1986, James Marino intended to break up with Corine and move to Florida with another woman. While they were together at a party Marion was attacked by a big guy that beat him up, wounding him seriously at the right eye. Marino was then convinced that the attack was planned by Corine so that she could take over the cocaine business. Marino told this to his friend Bandler who, very nervous, called Corine and registered the conversation as he used to do o many times: “Why is my friend hurt? Who beat up my best friend? I’ll ask you two more questions and then I’ll blow your brains up,” his voice is heard on this recording. Eight hours later, Corine was lying on the living room’s table with a bullet in her head, shot by Bandler’s gun. His clothes had the victim’s blood. James Marino and Richard Bandler were arrested, both confessing then they were present in the moment of the murder, but they were blaming one other.

After the trial, both Bandler and Marino were inexplicably acquitted and the case was never solved. It was obvious that one of them or even both had committed the crime, being the only present persons there. Absurdly, the reason of their release was that their testimonies contradicted one other and the Court couldn’t decide which of the two the doer was. Bandler had declared previously that his own mistake was that being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Obsessed with guns and murders
 

The trial revealed a violent and aggressive Richard Bandler. Many behaviours that priory were overlooked because of his status now they were viewed in their true light. For example one of the episodes is that when Bandler, wanting to illustrate his favourite theory according to which anyone can be determined to have certain behaviour if you use the right system, threatened one of his students with a gun he was wearing in the pocket. The student was a psychiatrist who was refusing to agree to what he dictated. Let us remind that in the illness description of which Bandler suffers is also mentioned: “aggressive reactions towards contradictions or oppositions.”  “Nothing can convince me, was joking the psychiatrist, except for a gun.” “I have one for you right here, answered Bandler. You can’t even imagine how crazy can I be. How many normal people would carry a gun in their pocket? I wouldn’t even have to kill you, hurting you is enough. I’ve done weirder things than this one.” The psychiatrist backed up before these evidences. ”Very well continued Bandler. Otherwise I would have shot you with a blink.” The audience laughed then, but afterwards they all agreed that Bandler pushed it too far.

His associates told that they were threatened several times by Bandler. ”I only have to dial a number and due to my connections I can wipe you from the surface of the earth in a second.” And those who took part at his seminars confessed that they were always shocked of the jokes he made during the classes which had each time to do with the violence, the killing or the death threatening of someone. Such “jokes” are told by Jon Ronson too in the article from the Guardian:” I went up to the springs of Amazon, narrated Bandler during his seminar in London. I threatened those gurus to tell me their secrets; they are cooperant enough when you hold them hung above a precipice.” Then Bandler comes again with the same scenario, this time in India: “There was an Indian guru. I was holding him above a precipice on a rock and I told him; my hand starts to get tired. You have seven seconds to tell me your secrets. Well he had told them to me right away and in perfect English!” And the “jokes” continued on the same subject: “I don’t have unsatisfied clients. And do you know why all my customers are a success? Because I killed all those who complained.”

What in another context could have seemed innocent jokes or the extravagance of an immature adolescent, repeatedly made, almost obsessively by a man with such antecedents, should raise a lot of question marks to those who think about following his teachings. With such a “parent” –crazy, cocaine addict and violent like Bandler, the NLP could only have a vicious character.
The errors and the problems of the Neuro linguistic Programming are exposed by the scientists from different fields and also by the system’s trainers.

NLP came into being in the 70’s starting from the studies elaborated by the linguist John Grinder and the psychology student Richard Bandler. These two had in mind to study the communication manner of some successful psychotherapists. In the preface of their first book, Virginia Satir, one of the participants to this study, wrote: “this book is the result of the efforts of two young meninter4sted in discovering how the changes in the human behaviour take place and to document the process, offering a theoretical pattern. It seems that they succeeded in describing some predictable elements that determine the change in the interaction between two people. Knowing these things makes possible their use in a willing and aware manner to induce the change.”

Apparently, the intentions of the twos were commendable, although only from the beginning, almost nobody realized that they weren’t interested in the healing process itself, but only strictly, in finding a changing method of the human behaviour. Could Virginia Satir guess at that time that she participated at the elaboration of one of the most perverse manipulation instruments? Nowadays NLP is far from being a therapeutic technique – on the other hand, it is not recognized as being one by the psychological or psycho-therapeutic organizations, which reject it in a great majority. However, the method is largely used by all those who are first interested in the human behaviour’s change in their own interest.

Using NLP in marketing and sales, the consumers are determined to buy all kind of products, even the harmful ones or those that they don’t even need. In business NLP is a precise instrument to determine the wanted result in the case of a negotiation. In politics, NLP became the number one psychological weapon to make deceiving discourses and to win the electors’ confidence. In the army, NLP is used for the training and the psychological conditioning of the soldiers, so that these ones take down without mercy and remorse the human targets. In justice, the lawyers and the prosecutors use NLP to influence the decisions of the judicial courts or to skillfully get certain testimonies. NLP is in reality, a dangerous psychological weapon, a perverse manipulation tool, a shrewd way of using the power of the word, a commercial system based on the machiavellic idea that the purpose excuses the means.

NLP – A field that brings more to illusinism and witchcraft than to psychoterapy

 

“The witchcraft is concealed in language we talk. The fishing net which you can spread or fasten is under your control as long as you are attentive at what you already have (the language) and at the structure of incantations which we bring out.” (1) So it begins the first book written by Bandler and Grinder, a kind of PNL Bible, named “Structure of magic”. The title and content make it appear more as a illusionism or witchcraft book than one in which it is revealed a new derivate science from the latest discoveries of experimental psychology, computer field, cybernetics, neuroscience and linguistics, as its authors said. The chapters have as well titles in the same manner: “incantations for growth and potential” or “How to become witch apprentice”, creating the illusion for readers that they are given the clue of some paranormal powers through which they can have complete control on the others minds.

PNL continued to develop in the same spirit as it started. People who have curiosity to look for this subject on google find out numerous pages of propaganda and advertising PNL. Most of them promise miraculous healing, immediate results without many efforts, resolving all problems such as loosing weight or freight of talking in public, airplane sickness, finding out a “partner” ( weird vision upon a couple relationship) or, even, for women to get pregnant. Money, power, influence, health, achieving different goals, fulfilling all desires, all what a human can dream! A picture which has not been met since the Middle Age, when swindlers used to praise their magic potion in front of the open mouth mass.

Regarding the therapy value of PNL, we let Christian Balicco, doctor in Psychology, adviser in the field of human resources and a member of American Psychologist Association, to talk: “We note- and it is a dramatic finding- that some people do not hesitate to transform into psychotherapists after only few weeks of training, most of them without having any clinic formation. In front of such ambition- that of aiding, of taking care of another- we cannot stop thinking about the health and psychic balance of these “practicians” and we are concerned about the dangers which those who are naive enough to consult them are exposed to. Yellow Pages are full of such “psychotherapists” which introduce themselves as PNL specialists. Even the fact of wanting to become a “psychotherapist” can be a forward of this manipulative process as it makes the first coming one believe that PNL is the “miracle method”, the only one which can explain all human behaviours. Repeating this kind of message in different various ways is a method of strengthening, found in all techniques of conditioning. Higher the prices pretended and the cashed amounts by these famous “master practicians”, more effective this way of proceeding. These amounts of money represent for some persons the proof of training content quality and of efficacy of this method (if it is expensive means that it is serious and gives good results), and also the proof of status of these specialists who teach a pseudo- knowledge (if it is expensive means I work with true specialists).”

Without forgetting each time to be proud of the obtained results, NLP omits though to also talk about their stability. As regarding the healing, it brings only temporary relief of some symptoms. This happens due to the fact it is not at all concerned with the understanding and removing of the causes that produced them, as Philip Hodson, member of the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy, also states: “although NLP can treat some symptoms, the causes remain untouched. “Even more, he gives this vision a great value: “NLP succeeded in breaking some patterns of the classic, traditional psychology which is excessively focused on the issue and on the cause. Even nowadays most of the psychologists believe that the behaviour change is a long term process that requests a great effort from the patient”(20) writes Ionut Ciurea in a NLP informative note.

“NLP fascinates all those who are attracted to a superficial and naïve psychology which explains them only “how” (to proceed), continues the psychologist Christian Balicco, without never being concerned with also the “why”. It casts a spell on all those who consider legitimate the use of a technique without knowing its conceptual bases. It has a great impact especially on those who believe that everything can be stated,without priory checking the methods that led to draw those statements. Mostly used by practitioners with no real formation, NLP allows the quick application of a “recipes” assembly, supposed to help a certain kind of people to find their psychological balance (in the psychology field) or to improve their communication skills with the others. In fact, it is nothing but a gigantic manipulation. Not by hazard, Y.Winkin, teacher of communication anthropology who worked with the people from the Palo Alto School, qualifies NLP as an “intellectual fraud”, “self-confidence exploitation” and “manipulation of ideas and people”.(2)

“Bandler said he created the NLP so that everyone could do what they liked”-Christopher Tomasulo, NLP trainer. “The NLP works don’t cease to state that this practice is based on the experimental psychology discoveries on the linguistics, neuro-psychology, information science, systems’ theory and so on. But if we take a closer look to the things we find only generalized borrowings. One of the NLP great discoveries it is the fact that at the basis of any experience or knowledge lay the beliefs. It is well-known that this epistemology has been already adopted by scientists from the works of Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos and Feyerabend. NLP didn’t come up with anything new in this field. NLP  misleads even by its name, using the term ”programming” because it is not based on any of the contemporary information theories. So as the word neurolinguistics makes us believe that is an application of this science, while it is very far from linguistics. It uses bombastic terms in order to hide the charlatanism. To conclude, NLP is characterized by a complete absence of any scientific and methodological basis, it makes use of deceiving terms to fool its clients who will pay dearly for something that is worth nothing. Its methods don’t bring anything new compared to other theories. In conclusion, much ado for nothing.”(4)

The fact of stating the others’ ideas as its own, of presenting them as original discoveries, giving them a perverted meaning doesn’t stop nowadays the parents of NLP to fight among themselves for the copyright. “The last method of communication left to be invented by Grinder and Bandler is that through the lawyers’ mean. And this because Bandler sued Grinder. The communication “specialist” or better said the expert in copyright, claims now the full paternity and rights(to use the name, the methods, the concepts and even some verbal phrases)on the NLP” wrote R. Bruyer and S. Kalisz in a NLP study.(4)

“Bandler and Grinder  trained over fifty five thousand people and wrote more than a dozen of books on the techniques they “discovered”, but never published any scientific study on those methods. This is also because the scientific world  regarded suspiciously on their researches. Even more, their contestants affirm that the positive results are overreacted. Grinder and Bandler omitted, from a scientific point of view, to conceive a solide basis for their discovery, being too much preoccupied with the selling of its applications. Meanwhile, the discussions on the social consequences and on the  author’s sense of responsibility  concerning this subject increase,” writes Bogdan Ficeac under the title” The fascinating power of neurolinguistic manipulation”.(5)

 

Likely to be true, the scientific world didn’t fall under the “magic” in which those two folded their discovery. It regards NLP as it is: a mix of ideas, behaviours or theories pulled out of the context and attached to other fields. The immediate consequences are the impossibility to find a coherent definition, the lack of a unitary structure and of some stable and repeatable results.
 
As to the definition of the field, the NLP representatives’ points of view are so diverse so it creates a bigger confusion instead of clearing things up. One says that NLP is “the study of subjective experience”, another that it is “a new approach to communication and change”, other “a new approach to personality”,“another attitude”, yet another “technology that builds and uses behaviour patterns”, other also a technology, but one of “reaching performance in any activity field”.

“No matter which would be the proposed definitions, the strategy is always the same: behind a false conceptual hermeneutics, it tries through a more or less obscure discourse, the dissimulation of numberless anti-truths, sometimes naïve, other times rude. Such definitions as “NLP is a process or the modeling of a process”, ”epistemology of the experience” or “manual for brain use”  perfectly illustrate these attempts” shows the psychologist Christian Balicco.(2)
This method of NLP elaboration is a very perverse one. On one hand, it makes the NLP users to feel right about invoking the validity, the credibility and the authority of some domains with which they have no connection at all. On the other hand, it allows that NLP should become a sort of bottomless sack in which anything can fit or, on the contrary, from where anything can come out. In the NLP vision, the content or the principles doesn’t matter, as long as the used words are only some frames that can be changed in order to create a better picture.   
A conclusive example is even what happened at the first NLP international congress that took place in Berlin 2006.Daniel Bichis, the Romania’s representatives, said: “I talked the whole night to the other members of the new reflection group (interesting name, it reminds of the reflection room from the freemason initiation). Many of the original ideas which came out 30 years ago were no longer sustained by the experimental data. Also some of the basic axioms can be reformulated.”(6)

These realities make of NLP a doubtful field, even for some NLP trainers who started to come into their senses from the initial magic.

Which are the NLP’s issues – on the opinions of some trainers? 

 
We saw the NLP opponents’ point of view; now let’s hear the ones working in the field. In 1997 more NLP trainers published in the “Anchor Point” magazine an article having the title: “Dealing with the NLP hidden face.”(7)

“This article, wrote Michael Hall, one of the authors, was conceived from the concern which Nelson Penaylillo, NLP trainer, confined to me in an e-mail. Nelson came up with a list of issues which in his opinion exist in the NLP field. This list was completed and explained by trainers dr. Bob Bodenhamer and Peter Kean:

1. Lack of consciousness – up to now none of our published works talked about the NLP weaknesses too. NLP has many problems, one of them being even the stubbornness with which it refuses to admit these issues.

2.The use of the term ”programming” – “programming” from the NLP name, it certainly makes many people ask themselves how much reframing we actually do(shortly, ”reframing” is a NLP term which refers to the shift of perspective, of the frame).Adding to this the fact that we use the subconscious aspects, it’s no wonder people say NLP manipulates them. This term leaves in the people’s mind the idea that the trainer does something to them with or without their knowledge. This technology operates in an impersonal, inhuman way, without any concerns for the people.

”Which do you think is the solution given in this article? ”Hall, in an article published in June 1995 in “Anchor Point” even purposed that in the name NLP, programming should be replaced with psychology. “Typical NLP mentality – if something doesn’t fit well, we change the name and that’s it! And this is the case when psychology rejects NLP considering it a vulgarity.”

3. The bad reputation that NLP is a manipulation
– too many NLP practitioners forced too often other people and their realities. Nelson said: “Imagine you could work harder if people didn’t know that what you do is NLP! Perhaps we crossed the line through too much arrogance.”

4. Difficulties in having a job from teaching NLP – the human change technology called NLP can make someone produce changes in other people, but in many countries this doesn’t turn you in a therapist as well. And not all of them succeed to become immediately capable of the necessary transformations in order to get the wanted results in 1 or 2 sessions. It takes sometimes years for a person to become truly effective. Even more, those who work in the psychology field must take also into account a very pragmatic aspect-how will someone be able to earn his living when becoming so efficient he will cure a phobia in only 2 sessions? Perhaps Bandler charges 500 dollars per session but who else can afford such a sum? We can clearly see that the main concern is not the healing of a suffering person, but earning more and more money.

5. The NLP failures – many people really tried NLP and they realized it doesn’t give any results. We already have studies and experiments that tested certain aspects of the NLP model and they reached the conclusion that these don’t work. “I teach my students that NLP sometimes works, other times it doesn’t”, says Bodenhamer.

 

6. The lack of training quality and of certification – to be a NLP practitioner has become at everyone’s hand, so that it turned meaningless. Anyone can do this in six, ten or twelve days. This shortening of the training period weakens the importance of the NLP practitioner certificate.

7. The lack of a community sense – in 1996 Kean pointed out this issue, even wondering if there is a NLP community. From the first trial between Bandler and Grinder not only we have had a number of continuous fights in our “community”, but these even happened between those who create the “real” NLP.Nelson shows and the primal impulse given to a field sets its direction and style. In the case of NLP the iconoclastic personalities of Bandler and Grinder and even those of Fritz Pearls, not mentioning Milton Erickson who they instructed(NLP technique that consists in imitating, copying of some behaviours, attitudes, ways of thinking and speaking, etc)have encouraged too much the egocentrism, the competition, the incapacity of being with another person, etc.

8. The lack of regulations – Who regulates this field? Who assures the control over the maintaining of a high quality level? Nelson says “the NLP domain functions in a manner that seems without any control. Anyone can make trainings sessions, can set up an institute or come up with all kinds of things in the name of NLP.”

This is the NLP seen by its own trainers and the picture is quite dull. There are also many other things that reveal the true face of NLP as a method that manipulates and amplifies the ego.
 

NLP – More than manipulation

 
Apparently innocent, with good intentions and high objectives, NLP is in fact a collection of manipulation techniques meant to control and to change the people’s behaviour through mental programming and hypnosis. When you tell a NLP practitioner that he manipulates, here are two variants for his reaction: whether he will admit it but he will try to prove that it is about a “positive manipulation”; or he will rejects it violently and he will talk about NLP as being a method of persuasion, influencing and mind control through which one could really protect himself from manipulation. Both responses are nothing more than new attempts to manipulate.

We showed before how NLP was conceived starting from the wish to find an efficient method of changing the human behaviour. Bandler and Grinder came shortly to discover the power of hypnosis in this direction. They were especially interested in Milton Erickson’s work that succeeded, through a strong confusion created between the rational and emotional aspects of the human being, to induce what it’s called the “conversational hypnosis”.

Stefan Buzarnescu in “The sociology of public opinion” defines manipulation as being: “the action of determining a social actor (person, group, community) to think and to act in a compatible way to the initiator’s interests, and not with its own ones, through the use of persuasion techniques that intentionally modify the truth, leaving although the impression of thought and decision freedom. The purpose of manipulation is to inoculate a convenient agreement, using the misleading through false proofs, and the irrational patterns. The real intentions of the one who transmits the message remain unnoticeable to its receiver”. (8) 
 
Through definition, the manipulation is something bad, negative, that must be avoided. However, NLP came up with a story-that the other practitioners learnt it then from Bandler’s books –through which they try real hard to convince the public how good (for who) the manipulation is. We find out from their story that there is also positive manipulation, made- you have well guessed, probably because you’ve heard it many times from the NLP practitioners –“in the manipulated person’s interest.”
 

”Most of the times NLP is called manipulation and there are good reasons for doing so. NLP is manipulation because it acts and makes use of the most advanced instruments that give immediate results,” writes Marian Rujoiu, NLP trainer in a presentation article published on the internet .”We can distinguish between positive and negative manipulation. We cannot state under any circumstances that the manipulation would be good or bad in its own nature. The positive manipulation is the manipulation in the manipulated person’s interest. But why should I protect myself from manipulation? And let’s stop pretending we are only the victims of the manipulation. When we accept this passive role and we realize that we’ve been manipulated all the time in a negative way the only responsible person is ourselves.”(Reason proper to the CSM which concluded that the Misa yogis abused themselves in 2004). ”You don’t have to ask yourself the question: “Does he want to manipulate me? “Perhaps he wants to manipulate you with good intentions (the road to hell is paved with good intentions, says a wise saying).You have to be glad if someone acts in order for you to reach your goal, you have to be happy when somebody speaks to you so that you understand (it doesn’t matter on what subject), you have to be full of joy if somebody wants a better life for you. Should it be right for us to refuse this good that comes through this manner of manipulation only because we are dealing with a skilful man?” (9)

The upper passage speaks for itself. Besides the fact that manipulation is through definition something damaging, deeply negative and so it has been since the very beginning, it appears another controversial aspect-who decides which is the interest of the person targeted for manipulation? The user of the method? The person? In what way can this react if not being asked? Or the manipulator asks him from the start: “may I manipulate you a little in your own interest?” And that one suddenly makes a happy face and replies relieved: “But of course, sure, go ahead!”

The new Machiavellism

 
Where from did these NLP users learn such a distorted, perverse vision? From the one and only Richard Bandler who proves beyond any doubt that principles are only a question of “reframing”!

“Don’t you dare thinking that the reframing is useful only when you have something negative and you turn it into something positive”, he writes. “Sometimes a strong dose of fear, uncertainty and suspicion can be very useful. It sounds a bit devilish, isn’t it? Other people told me that too. Including a nice social worker while he was participating at one of my workshops I held in America.

He asked me then: Do you mean it is ok to be shrewd?
Me: Yes. This is exactly what I’m telling you.
He: I was so good at doing this when I was young but I haven’t done it for years. Would it mean to manipulate?
Me: Of course. I think this a good example that shows reframing is truly necessary.” concludes Bandler. But why so? Because that man still had in him a bit of consciousness and he realized that manipulating is bad? Without being “reframed” by Bandler would he have missed his chance of becoming a good NLP user?
And Bandler continues:

“Virginia Satir (one of the psychotherapists Bandler and Grinder formed) made some role plays which were nothing but reframes through psychodrama. Each person had to play the part of someone else. If you didn’t like somebody it was the perfect time to get revenge. I don’t know how it happened but I always got to play somebody’s negative side. I always got to be Machiavelli. In one of these games I had to play someone’s manipulative side. I think this is because I best fitted the part. And suddenly during the game, the person in question stopped and said: “But I like this side of me. I never really thought about it, but my skill to manipulate helped me get a lot of good things.”

“Anyway, in the humanist psychology was created the frame that “manipulation is bad”. If you look up the word in a dictionary the first definition of manipulation is: to work or to use the hands, to manoeuvre or to use skillfully, to control or to use artfully. It has nothing to do with good or bad, it has to deal with being capable of making something efficient. If your frame is “anyone who manipulates is bad” this thing prevents you to do a lot of things. Once you are caught up in such frames it doesn’t even matter what is right or wrong. As a communicator you want to have the ability to change the frames that people place around anything. If someone believes that one thing is bad, you have to use the meta-pattern and ask him when, where and for who. If one says stupidity is something bad then you will reply: some people use foolishness to make others do a certain thing for them. This is something quite clever!” (10)

As we can see for Bandler and Grinder, the NLP’s founders there is no good and bad, these are only some mere frames, labels invented by people. The Truth, the Good disappear as values and reference points. Their place is taken by non-values. It’s true the original meaning of the word “to manipulate” is “to arrange with the hands, to manoeuvre, to handle”. Knowing this Bandler should have even more taken into consideration the negative meanings of this word when it comes to use it related to manoeuvring people like simple objects. A linguistic nuance that failed to the attention of the great language expert. Not at random, as soon as NLP sees people like some computers which can be programmed, emptied of the spiritual aspects and of the elevated emotional elements.
 
Throughout these absurd reasons, he comes to prove that as long as you get what you want, the manipulation can be used. Machiavelli too sustained with same perverse conviction that the purpose excuses the means. With such a mentality  of its creators, it’s no wonder NLP attracts the persons interested in controlling the others, whether from the obsessive fear  of not becoming themselves manipulated, or from a greedy desire of power and material success. The second category is especially lured by the idea of “technology of reaching performance in any activity domain” or how another clearer definition of NLP says: “system that allows us to learn the steps which lead us to a goal, no matter what its nature may be.”
 
And here we deal with a big trap. “In any activity domain” means if someone wants to have performance in killing people, for example, NLP can help him. And it really did so. Ionut Ciurea NLP trainer declares in an informative note: “Anthony Robbins, one of the top experts and promoters at international level speaks in his books how he managed to work for the USA army in a training program of the American soldiers. What Anthony Robbins has been asked was to significantly increase the performance of fire shooting, an objective that seems at the first sight very far from NLP. However, this aim supposes “the doubling of the performance”, the modeling of the excellence. Identifying those few people who had very good performances, Robbins brought to the excellence their strategies, meaning he extracted the specific manner (the strategy) through which these soldiers got outstanding results. T he performances of the platoon increased spectacularly. Robbins was rewarded according to his efforts. What he applied is the essence of NLP: the excellence modeling.(11)

What for do you think those soldiers trained for? Did they want to win the shooting competition at the Sunday fair for the biggest monkey toy? Not at all. It was about real soldiers who were training to kill efficiently even more people.

The NLP followers often sustain that this is a neutral instrument and that everything depends on the intention with which it is used. Up to now we have shown that from the very beginning it was elaborated as a psychological weapon for the people’s control and manipulation. In the following lines we will continue to give more evident examples regarding the true manner in which NLP is used. As NLP opened Pandora’s Box, and the released monsters are now in the service of the most interested people to control the human behaviour: the politicians, the great business men, advertising designers, the salesmen and the ones from the media, etc.

NLP – A good intrument to silence those who don’t agree with you!

 

The following episode is told by Thom Hartmman, psychologist, NLP trainer, ex therapist, manager of a advertising agency and the leading man of a talk-show at a national radio station from USA. Here is what he says about how the NLP techniques are used “in the interest of the manipulated one” even by one of the parents who elaborated this system, Richard Bandler:
 

“I was in England, about 10 years ago, at a training with Richard Bandler along with other 150 persons. In the first line stood a man that from the very beginning of the training wasn’t doing anything else but to finish the sentences in Bandler’s place, in the moment when the later was doing a short pause to structure his speech. At the first 2 interventions of this kind, Bandler gave him the bad eye. At the third one he stood up and started walking towards him. It was something strange in the way he walked and I suddenly realized it. Bandler was scanning this man’s physiology: the breath, the blinking, the body movements and then he was tuning his words to these ones creating a strong connection with him. He was actually entering his world. (This is a major technique in NLP called “establishing the connection”)While he was doing that, Bandler was walking towards him, saying: “It’s not very polite to rash like this. Such a behaviour seems to me a foolish one. Don’t you think?” And while he was saying this he scratched gently his arm with the tip of the fingers. All the NLP users know that when they are in a strong connection, people tend to imitate the other’s person body language. Bandler turned around and got on the scene again saying: “This rash behaviour is really a foolish one.” He didn’t even get to the other end of the scene that in a few minutes the guy was tumbling on the floor, scratching violently, as if he had just had a rash.”(12)

A similar episode has as its main character one of the NLP inspiring personality-the hypnotherapist Milton Erickson:

“In the 50’s, continues Thom Hartmman, Milton Erickosn was invited to the annual meeting of the American Psychiatrists Association. As he had been suffering from poliomyelitis since his childhood he was sitting in his well-known wheelchair. The Association’s president was staying at the entrance and welcoming the guests, shaking hands with them. When his turn came, they shook hands, but in that moment Erickson took rapidly his pulse, pressing gently his index on the wrist, noticed the breathing rhythm and that of the blinking and while they were shaking hands he tuned his words in order to match the president’s physiology. He induced him this way the hypnotic trance and asked him: “Have you noticed that you are feeling very relaxed?” And he said yes. This man had been written an editorial in which he said hypnosis is a stupid thing and he has criticizing Erickson. “Do you know you are in a slight hypnotic trance right now?” continued Erickson. “How interesting!” the president replied. “And you will see now that it works.”  “Yes you are right it is very relaxing.”  “I wonder if you could share with everyone in here how well you are feeling in the state of hypnosis.” Erickson has then suggested him. And the president went in front of the room and started: “I’d like to share with you all my friends, you know, apologize to Milton Erickson….”After which he suddenly woke up and had a moment of the kind “Oh my God, what have I done?” This is called the induction through the stopped shaking hand.” (12)

 
NLP and the succes in elections!
 

In the election campaign from the USA in the summer of 1998, George Bush senior was way behind the governor Michael Dukakis in the race for the White House. Against all these only a few months, Bush won the elections. What happened meanwhile? Bush image stuff has used a lot of NLP. Most of the politic analysts believed that Willie Horton played the main part in this spectacular situation change. Time magazine even called him “the most valuable player in George Bush’s team.” Far from being a member of the election team this Willie Horton was a criminal who have been released from a Massachusettes prison, before the ending term, in a rehabilitation program. Immediately after the release, he ran in another state where he rapped a woman and tried to kill another person. Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts and signed his release. Bush accused Dukakis he was acting “too soft” when it came to dealing with the fight against crime and prepared a series of videoclips in which Horton’s face was presented in the most horrible ways. Things didn’t stop at the mass scale presentation of a wrong decision taken by Bush’s rival. Here is what Thom Hartmman says:
 

“I remember that around 1998, during the presidential campaign, I noticed a series of commercials presenting Hortoin in black and white. For those who know NLP this was an evident anchor to associate Horton with the black and white images. These were ….by a certain music and a certain voice. After a while when you saw the …images or heard that music and the voice sound, you would automatically think it was about Willie Horton. After some time I noticed another set of commercials in which this time Michael Dukakis was presented in black and white. The images were accompanied by a similar music and voice to the first commercials. I suddenly thought then: “these people anchor Dukakis with Willie Horton!” (The anchor is a NLP technique through which there are associated in the target’s mind 2 elements that had no connection up to then). Is not such a big secret, these are things done in any agency. I personally taught such techniques at the classes for the advertising agencies. So in the 1998 campaign, George H.W. Bush has “willie hortonised” Michael Dukakis and won the elections. While I was in New York at a conference, I told everything I noticed to Hoe Riggio, a brilliant NLP trainer. And he said: “Yes I know. One of our mutual friends did this for the republicans.” And I know it for sure that Frank Lunz is the number 1 in these political matters. And what he uses is NLP!

eople make decisions based on feelings. They organize their logic to be in …with feelings, rather than matching the feelings with the logic. In a political debate the first and the most important thing you have to do is to identify the primal emotions. When you want to communicate with a group of persons with which obviously you can’t establish a direct connection you must elaborate a message that should touch all the 3 sensory modalities (visual, auditory, kinetic). Nowadays (in 2004) Bush (the son) came up with a campaign full of kinetic expressions that target emotional aspects: “strong”, “straight”, “move forward”, “don’t give up and run”. A listener asked: “many people I know and even myself voted for Bush because we trust him, not for logical reasons. Has this trust anything to do with what you call kinetic?” I talked yesterday about the people who are visual, auditory, kinetic and for creating a political campaign the main message must be anchored in the kinetic language because this addresses the feelings. And this is exactly what Bush did in the last election campaign. If you are addressing to that part of the brain that deals with emotions you can determine the persons to vote completely against their own logic.”

Newt Gringrich, the representative of Atlanta in the American congress, came to his seat around 1992 through a glorious plan elaborated in the NLP terms. So is his famous word list. This was a secret memorandum at the beginning that was circulating to the republican leaders. I don’t know if he wrote it, it was very well done. I assume it was my old friend in NLP this time too or someone like him. The list has as title: “The language, a key mechanism of control” by Newt Gringrich. Newt was writing: “We often find difficultly the words to help us define our enemies. Apply these words to your opponents, to your memories about them, to their proposals and to the parties they are from.” And here is the list of words which the republicans had to use any time they talked about the democrats or the liberals: decay, failure, crisis, urgent, destructive, sick, pathetic, lie, liberal, them, their, compassion is not enough, traitor, consequences, limits, superficial, to endanger, hypocrisy, radical, to devour, loss, corruption, incompetent, permissive, destruction, greed, uncertain, ideological, anti-flag, anti-family, anti-children, pessimist, excuses, intolerant, corrupt, selfish, status quo, taxes, expenses, shame, disgrace, penalty, bizarre, robbery, power abuse, criminal rights, outrageous recordings, patrons.

On the other side, to refer to themselves, the republicans had to use the following words: to share, change, opportunity, inheritance, challenge, control, truth, morality, courage, reform, prosperity, movement, children, family, debate, competition, us, ours, innocent, human, pure, to offer, liberty, unique, precious ,full of care, to listen, to teach, to lead, vision, citizens, light, dream, freedom, peace, pride, rights, to build, to keep, pro-flag, pro-children, pro-environment, power, choice, to rule, to protect, self-confident, exciting, common sense, passionate. This is the official Newt Gringrich’s list. All these are very, very powerful things. What I can tell you is that there have passed two decades of psychological war that have been led by only one of the sides” concludes the NLP trainer Thom Hartmman.
It wasn’t the first time when NLP was used in politics at the highest level to influence the masses. In an article published in New York Times we can read: “Doug Wead, a close friend of Bush, who also writes a book on his discussions with the president, tells: “Bush said to me: as you can see there are many code words. There are proper ways to say some things and some wrongs ones. I will them I accepted Christ in my life.” In Boston Globe there is written on the same subject under the title “Words matter. How does Bush talk in the religious code”: “it was an allusion to the NLP occult science through which the president wants to manipulate his Christian electors through some words meant to induce in their subconsciousness the idea that he is one of them.” (15)

The same Thom Hartmman explains how Dick Cheney uses the NLP techniques: “It is again about Willie Horton. The Bushes take control again over America using psychological methods, only that the level of sophistication and manipulation is higher than the one in 1998. Here is how it works and how Dick Cheney makes use of this weapon with great skill. People have three “brains”. And as this is well known by Bush’ psychological manipulation specialists, the politicians who win the elections are those who address all those three brains. The most primitive is called “the reptilian brain” because it also appears at reptiles and its only goal is surviving. It doesn’t think in abstract terms and it doesn’t feel complex emotions. It is though responsible for the type of reactions “fight or run”, hunger or fear, attack or run. The second brain is the one who appears at mammals, called “the limbic brain”. It deals with more complex emotions as hate, hope, love (funny, to reduce love to the brain). The third brain, the neocortex is more sophisticated, it is there where the  abstract thoughts, the words, the logic and the symbols are processed.

When Dick Cheney recently extracted from the context a commentary of John Kerrey related to the sensibility in the war against terror, what he did was the manipulation of the three brains. Only ridiculizating having fear as real reason is still so powerful. “Usa has been involved in too many wars, for all kinds of desires, but none of it was won being sensible”, said Dick Cheney. He first aimed the neocortex (too many wars), then to the limbic brain (desires) and then to the reptilian one. His words instantly produced a burst of laughter in the audience, behaviour which is an involuntary response, a discharge generated by the fact that the neocortex was moved in a direction by the first words and then confused by the second part of the statement. This sudden deviation is known by the comedians as “punch line” like in the anecdote: “I just flew back home from Chicago… Oh my arms are so tired”. This makes the neocortex momentarily confused and determines an involuntary response from the limbic brain, like laughter. And on this background, Cheney can talk to the reptilian brain who receives the answers without the rational censure: “those who threat us and kill innocents in the whole world-continues Cheney raising a problem that is connected to the reptilian brain, of threat and survival-mustn’t be treated with sensibility, they must be destroyed”. In order to have even a greater impact on the most primitive instincts of the audience, Cheney uses then several times the word “sensible”, always related to the idea of survival. This is not only one of the most sophisticated psychological weapons, but also an immoral one. Kerry then tried to fix everything, bringing evidences that addressed only to the neocortex. His words were powerless because they didn’t reach either the limbic system, or the reptilian brain in which Cheney inoculated the message.”(16)


NLP and the sales

 

We reproduce a dialogue between a salesman initiated in NLP and a potential client, as it is described in Bogdan Ficeac’s book-Manipulation techniques:

“The salesman(SM): Good morning, Mr. Petrescu. I am George Alexandru, salesman at Delta Electronics.
The potential customer (PC): Yes I remember talking to you  on the phone.(After shaking his hand, he returns to his armchair, leans back and puts his left leg on top of the right one)
SM: (he sits on the chair in front of the desk, he imitates unnoticeably the voice tone and the other’s way of standing) I understood that the ZKM computers sales go very well…
PC: (smiles satisfied) Yes the demand is still big. We are pleased with them.
SM: (tests the establishing of the subtle connection, modifying gradually his position; the other one imitates him without realizing it, so the contact was done) What made you buy the products of our competitors?
PC: (his look is oriented towards right down, indicating kinetic perception manner) Well, I felt (kinetic expression) it was the best deal at that time and this is why I signed the contract with them. (The salesman “anchors” subtly the phrase related to the signing of the contract, said by the other one, with a brow raise and a certain hand gesture) I imagined how nice will look (visual expressions) the ZMG in our new advertising booklet and I thought that after this joining we will be better heard on the market (auditory expression). I was so caught by this idea (kinetic expression), that I was burning (kinetic expression) to get back and put my men to work (again the SM “anchors” the other’s phrase, regarding the decision taken in the past, with a raise of the brow and the same hand gesture).This is what happened then and I feel (kinetic expression) I wasn’t wrong.
SM: (he opens his briefcase and starts presenting his offer): The keyboard of  our new models is much more comfortable. A simple touch (kinetic expression) of the keys is enough to activate them, this is why the warranty period offered by us is three times longer than the one of the competition. In the computer, the modules are simple and easy to replace. I am sure you feel (kinetic expression) the difference between the features of our computers and those you sell. I am sure as well that the buyers will also feel (kinetic expression) immediately the advantages offered by our company….(while he is speaking, the salesman is imitating the voice  tone and the gestures with which the en gross dealer described his strategy a few moments earlier; he throws the “anchor” too in order to determine the other to sign the contract, lifting the eyebrows and waving his hand).(5)

Such a scene can seem even ridiculous and obviously that in this case too the NLP followers will say that everything is in the manipulated one’s interest. The commercials with which we are daily bombed act in the same manner. They fully use kinetic expressions and all kind of anchors that connect the presented products with our most pleasant and intimate memories. Most of the people end to buy the product not because they want it but because they are being created the illusion of reliving that certain experience.

In a video material that travels on the internet we can see how the NLP techniques are used to determine the decision of a person regarding the present she wants for her birthday. The one who applies the NLP techniques of anchorage and stopped shaking hand for inducing the conversational hypnosis is the illusionist Derren Brown.

The victim is a man whom he was asked a few days ago to write on a piece of paper what he would like for his birthday. He is invited on the stage where he has a short chat, apparently innocent, with Derren Brown. He is asked in the end what he wants and he replies very firm: a BMX bike. He gives this answer several times, motivating that he has wanted this kind a bike since he was a child. Red, by all means. The wanted present is pulled out of a box. It is quite a BMX red bike. He is asked to show the note he wrote few days ago on what he would like and he is convinced that there will be written “a BMX bike”. It is written on the paper though with his own hand: “a leather jacket”. What happened? While he was shaking hands with Derren Brown the later applied a NLP technique of inducing hypnosis and then he slipped some suggestions in which he introduced the key word bike and the letters BMX. “Let me explain you how do I bike gifts,” The use of the word bike – as a verb instead of “to buy” – confuses the interlocutor’s logic and shocks, making easier to place the suggestion. ”Rather than recycling the same 2 old wine bottles…I determine the person to fall in love with the gift,” continues Derren Brown.” To those I buy the present BeaM eXcitement for it.” “This feeling can be so strong, so extreme that it replaces the memory of what they really wanted. (Obvious suggestion). A few days ago you would have said I want X…like a BM car or a X box.” All these are suggestions that determine the person to choose what the hypnotist wants. In the same manner the commercials designers and the salesmen play with the consumers’ minds. And they do it manipulating through NLP techniques.

NLP and the lawyers

 
The same Bogdan Ficeac describes how NLP is used in the judicial field: “In one of their books, this time addressed to the lawyers or to those who are in contact with the justice, Grinder and Bandler describe some manipulation techniques of the judges in court. For example, the hidden “anchors” and the non-verbal communication can be extremely efficient in such cases. Here is an example of manipulation: a practitioner of the neurolinguistic influence systems accompanies his friend to the court where that is to be judged. At a certain moment, during the trial, the judge is amused by a witness’s reply and bursts into laughter. The practitioner immediately throws the “anchor”: he coughs in a certain way, clears his throat or sneezes discretely, so that he doesn’t draw any attention, but to be heard though by the judge. Then he pays attention to every time the judge is relaxing and repeats the sound, to strengthen the established connection through the certain “anchor”. He also takes part to other trials, throwing the “anchor” each time the judge smiles, but in such a way that it doesn’t stand out. Then, during his friend’s trial, he throws the “anchor” as often as possible, but without drawing the attention. The subtle connection created in this manner between the “anchor” and the judge’s behaviour, will determine the later to relax when he will address the defendant and even have an attitude in favour towards this one. Grinder and Bandler sustain that, applied by experienced practitioners, the method has successful chances in most of the cases. (5)

“NLP is like you would install a software in the brain in order to obtain certain behaviour. This can convince the jury to be in the favour of the lawyer who knows these techniques or to influence the witnesses to drop testifying even after they took the oath. It is exactly how the poet Robert Frost said once: a jury is made up of 12 persons chosen to decide who has the best lawyer”.(19)

“NLP is conceived in such a manipulative way that I believe telling the truth in an eloquent manner or to talk from the heart, with a lot of passion – in the most important field in which you should think at evidences and at the truth – will disappear forever,” says Joyce Tsongas, ex president of the American Society of Judicial Consultants from the USA.(19)

“The most known NLP technique is the anchorage. This is exactly what Nations does too, a lawyer from Houston when he sits in the same place in the room anytime he wants to mark or to underline a certain aspect. For example, Nations anchors the unpleasant idea related to damages with a single place in the room, moving there every time this is brought into subject, or even indicating towards that place so that he connects in the jurors’ minds certain aspects from the discussion to the state of mental fear.”(19)

The use of such dirty NLP techniques led to the fact that in USA the lawyers were forbidden to no longer move in the courtyard or in some states, such as Texas, even to be asked to sit all time. Even so, the NLP lawyers don’t give up their manipulations: “you still have the graphics and other visual materials” says Nations.(19)

 

The abject vision of “seduction” and the “sportive” sex

 

And how about love?

Another favourite application of the NLP techniques is what it’s called “speed seduction”. The  seduction is one of the manipulation’s key elements. Etymologically, the word comes from the Latin “seduco” = to pull somebody away from his path to the one of the seducer. More plainly said it is synonym to embezzlement form the path.

The NLP field is full of books such as “NLP, the secret of quick seduction”, ”How to make a woman get in your bed”, ”Fox hunting-the art of dating and seduction”, ”The evil wizard-NLP and the science of seduction”, etc. All of these books have plenty of NLP elements-anchorage, mirroring, conversational hypnosis, verbal expressions meant to manipulate. What lacks completely from them is love as the basis of the couple relationship. Women are seen like sexual objects, categorized on how good they look, called “foxes” or ”chicks”.

“Ross Jeffries is trained in the mind art field, more precisely in hypnosis and NLP. He has chosen to apply his knowledge on these techniques in the art of seduction, and the results are explosive. Poor be the fox that meets a high speed seducer and doesn’t know it. Ross can even get to bed with the fox within an hour and what is worse is that he can make her believe it was her idea. The foxes seduced by the high speed seducers are not aware of what happens to them.” (17)

In one of Ross Jeffries’ basic books, NLP trainer: ”How to make a woman get in your bed” we can read from the first page: “the reader is warned that the use of some or of all the techniques from this book may be subject to legal, civil and penal consequences’’. “Dishonest seductions in an unfair world”, is the title of the first chapter, like an attempt to justify the immoral content of the book: “Many of those who read the title of the first chapter get angry with me, writes Ross Jeffries. Invariably, I get all kinds of complains: these seduction techniques are unjust and unfair, I’ve been told. They don’t allow women the power to choose. Why don’t you remove them from the book?” I’ll deal a little with these accusations. Yes it’s true some of the seduction techniques from this book can be slightly classified as being unjust. I too have had some limitations of moral status when I exposed them in the book. But, fair or unfair are relative terms. If you are in box match (forced comparison) and they play on the rules it is unfair from me to hit you in some sensitive areas, but if I respect the rules this too can be right.” (18)

We get to the same perverse, immoral vision according to which if you reach your goals, everything is allowed. The big NLP problem is that has no moral rules and it replaces the values with the non-values, considering the Good, the Truth and the Correctness as simple labels applied by people to things.
 

Unpleasant, but true conclusions on NLP

 

We often come across statements of some NLP trainers that refer to Yoga: “In NLP there a series of techniques and methods especially created to develop the control capacity over the states-such as the use of body position and breath.” or “the NLP was influenced by prior theories and concepts like body therapies (Yoga)”. Such referrings are also some rude manipulations. First, Yoga is not a body therapy, but a millenary spiritual path. Secondly, the positions and the breath mentioned by NLP are some parodies and radicalizations of the asanas and pranayama techniques.
It’s true that the self-control mind methods (and we underline SELF-control) that aim the transformation and the evolution were always the privilege of the spiritual paths. They are each time accompanied by moral values gradually passed from the master to the disciple only in the measure in which the later proves he has reached the necessary level of maturity and spiritual evolution to use them only in a good way and with discernment. Pulled out of this context, such knowledge can become extremely dangerous and lead to opposite effects, as it happened in the case of NLP: the exacerbation of the ego, pride, will for power, decay and suffering. The spiritual treasure is this way protected from the thieves. If at the beginning NLP seemed only a box of matches in a child’s hand, we can say nowadays that it has got in the hand of some true pyromaniacs. The way in which it is highly propanganded – as a wonder method to obtain influence, money and material success attracts only those who want all kind of “powers”. While the ones who really aspire to learn how to control their own minds and to become better they use Yoga and know they don’t need NLP.     
     
In the end we can conclude some ideas on the NLP that can help us protect from the negative influence of this manipulative, degrading and anti-spiritual system:

1. From the very beginning the NLP parents were interested in finding a method to change the human behaviour.
2. NLP is manipulation, no matter how hard its defenders would try to convince us of the contrary invoking the “positive manipulation”. Such a thing doesn’t exist. “To manipulate someone in his interest” how they claim, involves to be able to set this interest. And this one only God knows it.
3. The idea that you must learn NLP just to manipulate the ones who try to manipulate is nonsense. You can protect yourself from manipulation only through developing certain spiritual qualities such as discernment and lucidity.
4. NLP destroys and reverses the values. The Good, the Truth, the Love, God are in the NLP vision some relative frames created by people. This concept is totally contrary to the spiritual one.
5. Through the removal of value references, NLP spreads the confusion in order to create a bigger receptivity to hypnosis. The confusion is produced through an inner conflict and it opposes unity and harmony.
6. NLP is based on the idea that people can be programmed or reprogrammed like computers.
7. The NLP mentality is a machiavellic one, based on the principle “the purpose excuses the means”.
8. NLP brags on the fact that it makes possible the achievement of the goals “no matter what is their nature”. The lack of discernment in this direction makes NLP to be used for the most abject purposes: the training of the soldiers to kill people and the electors’ manipulation.
9. Practically, NLP limits to objectives that are related to getting money, seduction and sexuality without love, power and influence over the others. All these come from the inferior power centers.
10. Due to this reason NLP leads only to the ego and pride’s exacerbation. At the international congress from 2006 it came out very clearly what NLP aims to: “creating a world in which the personal development and self-satisfaction are the basic rule.” These purposes have nothing to do with the spiritual evolution; on the contrary, they even oppose it.
11. NLP promises to obtain quick, immediate results with little effort. Its results don’t though last in time and don’t lead to the transformation and elevation of the being. As to its use in the fields of psychology and medicine, NLP can only bring a temporary removal of some symptoms as it doesn’t work on the causes.
12. NLP especially attracts the “recipes” collectors, interested only on HOW, and not on WHY too. The most part of those who apply it don’t really know what they do.
13. NLP is only concerned with the image and not with the content. If an aspect is discredited, it is immediately renamed, only at the surface, with a new and more credible term.
14. If in a collectivity all its members were NLP users this would soon dissolve because NLP doesn’t create anything, but it lives on stealing, embezzling, faking and perverting the work and the efforts from other fields. Even its practitioners affirm that there is no real NLP community, and the endless number of trials for the copyright between the 2 founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder, stands for this idea.
15. NLP was elaborated on stealing ideas, techniques, theories and practices from other fields. Removing them from the initial context with which they formed a unitary whole, these were deprived, distorted and widowed exactly of their essence.
This thing can create much confusion. There are some persons that believe that between Yoga and NLP are compatibilities, because Yoga too talks about states, mind self control, about five sensory modalities, about the fact that the world is how we see it, etc. In reality, it is not Yoga – a 4000 years spiritual path-that took these elements from NLP, but it is NLP which stole them from Yoga. It deprived the elements borrowed from Yoga of its moral and spiritual values which are absolutely necessary when it comes to knowing and using the mind power in order to transform the human being.

 

Biography:

1. Richard Bandler & John Grinder: Structure of magic, vol 1,  Science and Behavior Books, 1975
2. Christian Balicco – La programmation neurolinguistique ou l’art de manipuler ses semblables, par Christian Balicco – SPS n° 243, août 2000
3. Christopher Tomasulo (Dr. Sulo) – The secret technology behind the world’s greatest communicators. Dr Sulo’s Crash Course din Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP)
4. R. Bruyer & S.Kalisz – Pour en finir avec la pata-psychologie, Editions Luc Pire
5. Bogdan Ficeac – Fascinanta putere a manipulărilor NeuroLingvistice în Tehnici de manipulare, Editura Nemira, 2004
6. Primul Congres Mondial de NLP 26-28 mai, Potsdam, Germania
7. L. Michael Hall, Nelson Penaylillo, Bobby G. Bodenhamer and Peter F. Kean  – Dealing with the downside of NLP, Anchor Point, may 1997
8. Ştefan Buzărnescu – Sociologia opiniei publice, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 1996
9. Marian Rujoiu – Ce este şi ce nu este manipularea?
10. Richard Bandler & John Grinder – Reframing, NLP and the transformation of meaning, Real People Press, 1982
11. Ionuţ Ciurea, NLP Practitioner – Viziune prin PNL: principii, presupoziţii, paradigme
12. Thom Hartmann – transcrierea emisiunii din 16 noiembrie 2004, www.thomhartmann.com
13. Thom Hartmann, transcrierea emisiunii din 17 noiembrie 2004 , www.thomhartmann.com
14. By David D. Kirkpatrick – In secretly taped conversations, glimpses of the future president, New York Times, 20 februarie 2005
15. Bruce Lincoln – Words matter. How Bush speaks in religious code, Boston Globe, 12 septembrie 2004
16. Thom Hartmann – Chenney speaks to reptile brain, www.thomhartmann.com
17. Fox Hunting – The art of dating and seduction.
18. Jeffries Ross – How to get girls into bed without trying.  Straightforward,  Manassas,  1991
19. Terry Carter – More lawyers are using neurolinguistics to present their cases to jurors, with winning results, ABA Journal, September 2001
20. Anna Moore – NLP: Where Anything is Possible, Marie Claire, ediţia online.
21. Introducere în NLP, www.geniu.org
22. Robert B. Dilts, John Grinder, Richard Bandler, Judith DeLozier – Neuro-Linguistic Programming Vol. I, 1980
23. Dosarul #132495/23.01.997, Curtea de justiţie Santa Cruz California, privind conflictul comercial dintre Richard Bandler şi John Grinder. (http://www.nlpschedule.com/random/lawsuit-text.html)
24. Jon Ronson – Don’t worry, get therapy,  The Guardian, 20 mai 2006
25. Frank Clancy and Heidi Yorkshire, The Bandler Method, Mother Jones Magazine
26. Heap, M. – Neuro-linguistic programming: What is the evidence? In D Waxman D. Pederson. I., 1989
27. Krugman, Kirsch, Wickless, Milling, Golicz, & Toth – Neuro-linguistic programming treatment for anxiety: Magic or myth? Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology. Vol 53(4), 526-530, 1985
28. Corballis, M. in Sala (ed) – Mind Myths. Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain Author: Sergio Della Sala Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, 1999
29. Beyerstein.B.L – Brainscams: Neuromythologies of the New Age, International Journal of Mental Health 19(3), 1993
 

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