Programming And The New Age Movement From A Judeo-Christian
Hall, Ph.D. with Carl Lloyd, Ph.D.
In this brief
treatise, we have presented a vital distinction between NLP
(Neuro-linguistic programming) and the New Age Movement from
a Judeo-Christian perspective (as represented in the Bible).
We do so as believers with psychological and theological backgrounds
and who also utilize modern tools like those found in the
domain of Neuro-linguistics.
We have utilized
the NLP model for several years because NLP operates within
the larger domain of cognitive psychology and information
processing. If you would like to see specific integrations
with that model and the Judeo-Christian perspective, we have
Metamorphosis: Trauma Recovery (1993)
Metamorphosis: Linguistic-Semantic Empowerment (1994)
Metamorphosis: Managing Consciousness (1995)
Metamorphosis: Adventures in Time (1996)
Patterns For Renewing the Mind: Christian Communicating
and Counseling Using NLP (1996) by Dr. Bob Bodenhamer &
Dr. Michael Hall.
publishes things that contributes to empowering (strengthening)
people so that they can become all that God has designed them
to become. We take as our theme a central Judeo-Christian
truth, namely, "God has not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power, love, and sound mind" (II Tim. 1:7).
Programming) And The New Age Movement From A Judeo-Christian
I conduct NLP trainings in communication and modeling, I often
hear questions on this order: "What in the world is NLP?"
Or, "What does neuro-linguistic programming stand for?"
From church people, however, the first question asked focuses
on a different direction. "Isn't NLP New Age stuff?"
"Isn't it about weird stuff like channeling?"
Dr. Lloyd or I moved into the field of psychology, we each
received ministerial training and spent several years in the
pastorate. After we became increasingly influenced by cognitive
psychology, information processing theory, cybernetics, studies
in perception, etc., we became acquainted with NLP.
After I (MH)
discovered that this field developed from the combination
of a linguistic and computer programmer and that it addressed
many of the cognitive questions I had about how the human
brain processed information, stored its "programs"
(beliefs, values, ideas, etc.), I went for practitioner, master
practitioner and trainers' training in NLP.
When I began
studying NLP, the problem of people confusing it with "the
New Age" did not exist. That linkage had not been made
at that time. After all, at that time the field of NLP had
just became a new discipline. Further, those from the New
Age movement, who later used NLP to promote their religion,
had not yet gotten involved with it. In recent years this
has changed, and that change has created this question.
these concerns and this highly erroneous connection between
the two, as well as to encourage believers to study, use,
and integrate the NLP communication model, the following has
been written along with the consultation and contribution
of Dr. Carl Lloyd.
GETTING CLEAR ABOUT OUR DISCUSSION
to the psychological model of personality and communication,
more fully known as "Neuro-Linguistic Programming"
(NLP, 1975). A basic presentation of NLP follows to provide
the reader with an understanding of this model, its origin,
presuppositions and nature as a communicational model.
The term "New
Age" and "New Age Movement" refers
to the cultural phenomenon which arose during the 1970's in
the United States. It attempts to offer a syncretization of
Buddha, Krishna, Hinduism, pantheism, and Christ. It offers
something predominantly religious.
The New Age
movement has appealed primarily to two groups of people: those
basically unfamiliar with the Judeo-Christian perspective,
worldview, and ethics, and toward those traumatized or disenfranchised
by various churches or persons representing Christianity.
In both of these groups, people who move into the various
brands of the New Age Movement tend to look for something
(sometimes anything) to fill their perceived and felt void.
The very presence of this void should get those of us who
take a Judeo-Christian perspective asking questions about
how to most effectively address the needs presented by this
These two disciplines
represent two entirely different phenomenon, as we will quickly
make evident. In spite of this, many continue to associate
NLP with the New Age movement. Our purpose here lies in identifying
how these two cultural forces and movements to become linked,
to what extent they have been linked, and how they represent
completely separate and distinct disciplines. We also want
to address the worries and concerns of those who might have
apprehensions that something inherently "bad" or
"evil" exists about NLP, or that it functions to
compromise the Judeo-Christian perspective.
of NLP probably dates back to 1972 (The Wild Days:
NLP 1972-1981, Terrence L. McClendon). Yet the co-founders
did not bring their first work to publication until 1975,
The Structure of Magic: A Book About Language and Therapy,
Volume I. This work arose as the creation of a linguistic,
Dr. John Grinder, and a computer scientist and Gestalt psychology
student, Richard Bandler. Together they produced a linguistic
model that identified the language patterns as used by such
gifted clinicians in psychotherapy as Fritz Perls of Gestalt
therapy, Virginia Satir of family-systems therapy, and Milton
Erickson, M.D. Their linguistic model identified the language
patterns and how they used language behaviorally to generate
Grinder, combining the latest state-of-the-art models and
technologies from Transformational Grammar, Information Processing
theories, Computer programming, and Family Systems created
a twelve-distinction model about language. It also identified
methods for how a person could learn to listen for certain
linguistic distinctions in everyday language. From there they
offered an explicit set of questions that one could learn
in order to respond (or challenge), in useful and productive
ways, to those ill-formedness patterns. To do so then "enriches
the client's model of the world."
If you take
to reading The Structure of Magic, you will find it
both a simple and complex book (and that it has nothing to
do with "magic"). The theoretical part of the book
arises from the understandings Dr. Noam Chomsky developed
in the field known as Transformational Grammar (1960s). Transformational
Grammar refers to the technical process for exploring how
meaning (semantics) becomes conveyed by language forms (linguistics)
from the deep surface structure of meaning to the surface
sentence structures that people use in thinking, talking,
and communicating. I used to read Transformational Grammar
texts in the late 70's to deal with insomnia!
brilliant use of this formal and academic field manifested
itself in their translate this complexity into twelve simple
language distinctions. They wrote with clarity about the nature
of these distinctions and then suggested some simple "responses"
or "challenges" to them that would "recover
the fuller linguistic map" that they implied.
In the utilization
part of Structure of Magic, the authors demonstrated
how a person could just use this meta-model with a client
to effect significant transformation in thinking and feeling.
Many have commented to me that the dialogues within the book
make the theory and model seem very simple. "Yes, and
that represents the beauty of this model. Yet behind this
simplicity lies a very solid communication theory."
In 1981, Robert
Dilts provided the definition of NLP which continues to serve
Programming is a model of communication that focuses on
identifying and using patterns in the thought processes
that influence people's verbal and non-verbal behavior as
a means of improving the quality and effectiveness of their
communication." (Applications of NLP, p. 1).
BACKING UP TO THE BEGINNING
How did Bandler
and Grinder get together to produce this marvel? At the time,
John Grinder had become a significant contributor to the field
of Transformational Grammar itself, and a University professor.
Though twenty years older, he noticed the special genius of
his student, Richard Bandler, in handling language and in
quickly adopting (or modeling) language patterns. By mere
coincidence, Bandler happened to have opportunity to demonstrate
his modeling skills of the language patterns of Gestalt therapy
(Fritz Perls) and Family Systems therapy (Virginia Satir).
This amazed both Bandler and Grinder. Thereafter, they set
about to figure out how Richard, only 21 years of age at the
time, could duplicate the skills of the masters so quickly
that brought this awareness about occurred when Richard had
been house-sitting a certain professor's cabin. While there,
he picked up a book from the library on Gestalt Therapy
Verbatim by Fritz Perls. When Richard read about people
imagining their parents setting in a "hot chair"
and talking to them about their emotional hurts and disappointments,
Richard thought the description served as a joke.
Later, he commented
to the professor that he "could do that!" In response
to the brash Bandler, the professor took him up on it. The
next day he had Bandler show up at one of his graduate level
psychology classes to demonstrate Gestalt therapy. Bandler
did. And the professor became impressed.
As it turned
out, Bandler, who was studying mathematics and computer sciences,
had a genius for hearing "patterns" (linguistic,
non-linguistic, musical, mathematical). In information processing
talk, we say that he could transcend the content of the information
and process the meta-level patterns.
He later met
Virginia Satir while running the sound equipment for a weekend
seminar. As he half listened to her presentation while recording
it, and listening to Rock 'n Roll with his other ear, he detected
that she used "seven patterns." Later, he mentioned
this to her. She immediately inquired about those seven patterns.
When Bandler enumerated them explicitly, it left her absolutely
amazed. Similarly, he later demonstrated his skill in replicating
her patterns with proficiency.
the Bandler and Grinder search for the "magic" behind
such unexpected and fabulous experiences. The result? Their
technical book about language. The Structure of Magic
dealt with how words work in human consciousness, how meaning
become transformed from one level to another in linguistics,
how people "process" information in their heads
using their sensory systems, how pattern and syntax govern
the structure of language, etc.
The piece about
sensory systems, in fact, offered an incredibly profound and
obviously simple distinction. No one had made this "discovery"
in previous formatting of language use. Sensory systems
refers to the fact that when we "think," we think
using the same sensory modalities in our heads that we use
to input information in the first place. This means that as
we use the visual (sights), auditory (sounds), kinesthetic
(sensations), olfactory (smells), and gustatory (taste) modalities
to become "aware" of things, so we represent thoughts
when you think about a strawberry, notice how you do that
"thinking." How do you process the information of
that word? Do you not "see" a strawberry on the
screen of your mind that you pull up from some memory bank?
Do you not "smell" and "taste" that strawberry?
Perhaps you "listen to the sounds" of pulling it
off a bush or biting into it. Perhaps you "feel"
the texture of the strawberry in your hand, or on your tongue.
sensory "modes of awareness" gave Bandler and Grinder
a neurological "language" of more simple components
(sights, sounds, sensations, smells, tastes and words) than
the abstract words "thinking" or "thoughts."
And since this corresponded so well to the neurological fact
that human brains actually have a visual cortex, an auditory
cortex, a motor cortex, an associative cortex, this became
the "neurological" part of NLP.
later, Bandler realized that behind, and within, these modalities
we find sub-qualities. You can represent a picture in black-and-white
or in color; close or far, fuzzy or clear, big or small, etc.
You can represent sounds as loud or quiet, close or far, from
one location or panoramic, etc. These became known as "submodalities."
In the NLP
model, people not only process information according to their
senses, but they "make sense" of things by another
uniquely human sense modality, i.e. via words and languages.
By this sixth sense of language, we "make sense"
so that by saying the word "strawberry" it can access
and symbolize all those sights, sounds, sensations, smells,
and tastes. This became the linguistic part of NLP.
the original founders and thinkers in NLP began modeling other
famous people in therapy, business, education, sports, etc.
Using the NLP language for subjectivity experience, they began
noticing the distinctions in language and physiology that
enabled highly skilled people to do what they could do. Thus,
they began identifying the "strategies" these geniuses
used to produce excellence in their respected fields. NLP
calls this "modeling," and out of such modeling,
many have published scores of books. They have identified
the "strategy" for excellence in a wide range of
THE NLP PRESUPPOSITIONS
From the communication
theory of Transformational Grammar and the information processing
models of the computer sciences, Neuro-Linguistic Programming
arose as a way total about and describe human experiences.
It offers a model about how brains work (neuro); about how
language interacts with the brain (linguistic) and about how
to use what we know about these components to systematically
get the results we want for ourselves and others (programming).
Rather than re-inventing the wheel, the NLP co-founders modeled
what they found already working efficiently in the fields
of Gestalt, family systems, hypnosis, brief psychotherapy,
Then they created
their paradigm of human subjectivity (regarding how human
thinking, emoting, behaving, etc. works) as a "model"
rather than a theory. This means that NLP focused on offering
step-by-step modeling procedures for what actually works in
practice to bring about change, skill or excellence. They
offered no theories conceptual models to explain why things
work as they do. Bandler and Grinder called such explanations
"psychotheology," and would have nothing to do with
Yet they were
not so foolish as to suppose that they could somehow operate
in a totally neutral or value-free way. They knew better than
that. So they began to specify several of the key working
presuppositions which their model "assumed without proof."
Today, these presuppositions identify some of the general
content of the NLP paradigm for human "personality"
and functioning. And out of them have arisen the developed
techniques which enable people to develop more choice and
flexibility in their responses. What presuppositions does
NLP start with?
PEOPLE WORK PERFECTLY WELL!
not broken, but simply are operating out of impoverished maps.
People work perfectly well! Every experience or behavior that
someone can produce actually represents an achievement. Richard
Bandler says that whatever a person produces, he or she produces
regularly, methodically, and consistently. "The one who
procrastinates does it regularly and systematically. They
never forget to do it." And whatever manifests itself
so systematically must have an internal structure to it.
NLP therefore promote a concept that human beings are 'inherently
good' or 'inherently bad'?" Answer: Neither. NLP takes
a non-theoretical position on all such theories and philosophies.
In contrast, the New Age movement postulates that people "are"
gods or can become gods. NLP, like all descriptive sciences,
takes a neutral stance on this moral question. It simply deals
with the person without a theory as to inherent goodness or
emoting, and behaving as "accomplishments" enables
an NLP practitioner to view the "problems" of individuals
in a positive light. This then evokes the questions, "Useful
for what?" "Useful under what circumstances?"
--the skill of putting things off. NLP reframes this as an
accomplishment that you can powerfully use to "put off"
doing things that should be put off. Like what? you ask. Like
putting off going into a rage, acting stupid, acting impatiently,
things like that. This shift enables one to see the procrastination
process as a highly value achievement if contextualized better.
BEHAVIOR AS PURPOSEFUL AND POSITIVE
is geared toward adaptation and is therefore purposeful. Every
behavior/experience therefore has a positive intent. Individuals
become internally organized (or structured) to accomplish
some positive value. This, in turn, generates the questions,
"What positive intention does this behavior hold or seek?"
"Positive under what conditions?" "Positive
in the Judeo-Christian perspective, to the model that Jesus
used about "evil." The two boys in the story of
the Loving Father (Luke 15) each produced behavior which we
would characterize as hurtful, wasteful, ugly, and "sinful"
(it "missed the mark"). One boy did so outwardly.
He went to the far country and blew his fortune. The other
did so by staying at home. There he developed a bitter and
arrogate spirit. Yet both did the best they could with what
they had. When the younger one "came to his senses"
("came to his right mind"), he accessed reality
and adjusted himself to it. In spite of how we might evaluate
their particular behaviors, they adopted them because they
thought of them as adaptive to their situation. At the moment
of action, they had positive intents in spite of how things
portrays God as being in the business of directing people
toward the contextually useful. When Cain got caught up in
a bitter win/lose spirit, God's word came to him. "Do
well and you will be accepted" (Gen. 4:6). This was also
the power within Jesus' encounter with people. He masterfully
framed questions and problems in such a way that redirected
people away from wallowing in self-pity to rising and taking
effective action (John 5:1-19).
Often a "problem"
functions as a problem one of context. Sometimes the behaviors
and responses that once had a positive value cease to be useful
under other circumstances. Sometimes they simply outlive their
usefulness. At other times, we can accomplish the objectives
in more elegant and effective ways. "Keeping quiet and
not speaking up" may once accomplished something useful
in a home with an angry, abusive parent. Yet the lack of basic
assertiveness does not serve adults well in the world.
the positive intent behind every behavior reframes that behavior
and frees one to search for more productive methods. Search
for the positive intent becomes a graceful intervention assisting
clients to reorganize themselves. This fulfills the verse
about "thinking" about things that are true, honorable,
just, lovely, gracious, etc. (Phil. 4:8-9).
DISTINGUISHING CONTENT & PROCESS
behaviors and/or experiences are composed of both content
and process. These reflect different logical levels of information.
Content refers to "what" a person understands, perceives
--the meanings attributed. Process refers to the psychological
structure of that content --how one puts it together or organizes
it. Of the two, process provides a means for transforming
things in a more pervasive and less conscious way.
To relate this
to the Bible, think about the difference in content between
the propositional statement, "Believe in God," and
the story of how Abraham and/or David lived their lives trusting
in him. Note that here the content refers to the same thing.
Here form (in terms of the structure of the literature) radically
differs. Or take the same message but coded in the form of
poetry as in Job. In the Psalms, theology takes on an entirely
new and different form (wineskin) from that of Deuteronomy.
But which has more impact on you? Perhaps structure utilizes
many diverse forms (genre) of literature precisely because
of this transformational principle.
THE STRUCTURE OF EXPERIENCE
behavior and experience has a structure which you can identify,
model, modify, alter, and improve. We refer to the structure
of subjective experience in NLP as a "strategy."
The strategy language, that enables a practitioner to specify
the component pieces of a experience, used to describe and
code this involve a person's sense-modalities (visual, auditory,
kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory), language (auditory digital),
plus the kind of responses between these pieces (congruent/
incongruent/ meta/polarity, etc.).
did Jesus use and opt for in dealing with his disciples? Did
he utilize the same or a different strategy with the Pharisees?
What strategy did he have for staying resourceful when facing
the cross? Luke hints at it, "he set his face to go to
Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). Paul utilized the strategy/ modelling
process, "What you have learned and received and heard
and see in me, do" (Phil. 4:9). Paul here presupposes
that if they identify and model his behavior and experiential
patterns, they can learn his strategy for following Christ.
IDENTIFY AND DEVELOPING RESOURCES
all the component pieces (or resources) in order to live productively.
Since people do not manifest inherent brokenness, how would
you describe what goes wrong with people? What goes wrong
in human nature? The difficulty lies in the ability (or lack
of it) that people have in building and accessing their resources
to effectively deal with things. What people may lack rests
in the very methods for finding, eliciting, accessing and
stabilizing their resources.
fits the Judeo-Christian perspective, does it not? Paul wrote,
"I have learned to find resources in myself whatever
my circumstances" (Phil. 4:11 NEB). (See our booklet,
Christian Resourcefulness on the book of Philippians).
The very process of developing and growing toward spiritual
maturity (Hebrew 5:11-14) presupposes that people have the
inherent component parts, resources, and abilities to so develop.
That is, if God has provided "all things that pertain
to life and godliness." Then we can "make every
effort to supplement your faith with virtue..." (II Peter
DISTINGUISHING MAP AND TERRITORY
map of a person's reality does not accord with the territory
of that reality. This classic statement originated from Alfred
Korzybski in his work, Science & Sanity (1933).
That work established the phenomenological foundational structure
of NLP. The driving and determining factor about any given
person springs from the mental maps and perceptual understandings
from which they come. All of their thinking, perceiving, reasoning,
emoting, behaving, responding, etc. arises from their "model
of the world."
what all successful therapies ultimately do simply involves
effecting change in that "model of world." This,
in fact, describes precisely the transformation that Christianity
offers. "Be transformed by the renewing of the mind"
(Romans 12:2). Apparently, the ability to shift perspective,
to open up one's mind to new and different information and
to think in a new way (a paradigm shift) portrays the God-given
way that transformation and renewal occurs (Eph. 4:20-24).
experience "pain" and stuckness because their model
of the world creates limitations and pain for them. Rather
than describing them as broken, the NLP model says they just
have an impoverished map that they need to enrich and expand.
The "meta-model" of language in NLP provides the
linguistic tool that enables a therapist to work with the
client's linguistics (which reflect their model of the world)
and challenge it appropriately so as to expand and enrich
it. By doing so, the client creates more empowering meanings
RECOGNIZING STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
state of consciousness arises systemically from an interaction
of internal representations and physiology. The state experienced
results from all the information stimulating the brain and
nervous system. This information includes sensory based stimuli
which leaves representations in visual, auditory, kinesthetic,
olfactory and gustatory terms. It results from a multitude
of other stimuli received from physiology--the way one holds
his or her body, moves, breathes, etc. It results from the
evaluative or semantic stimuli of one's more abstract conceptualizations.
indicates part of the way God, so marvelously and wonderfully,
made us (Psalm 139:13-14). Moses' entire state or mood changed
(altered!) when he encountered God in the bushed that burned
without being consumed. On that "holy ground" he
removed his sandals. Suddenly, his internal representations
shifted. New thoughts, awarenesses, and understandings arose.
In this encounter, Moses' physiology changed, his actions,
his way of listening, etc.
To shift or
change state and move from an unresourceful state to a more
resourceful one involves changing and shifting one's internal
representations (mental and linguistic maps) and/or physiology
COMMUNICATION'S REDUNDANCY AND MEANING
communication manifests redundancy. Quoting Gregory Bateson,
Bandler/Grinder recognized that the redundancy between the
observable macroscopic patterns of human behavior and patterns
of the underlying neural activity governing this behavior.
Viewing the human nervous system as a cybernetic system, they
said that many behaviors function as transforms of internal
neural processes and therefore carry information about those
processes (Roots of NLP, p. 191). Lateral eye movement,
breathing patterns, muscle tension patterns, etc. therefore
carry information about how a person currently processes information.
you get from another person is the meaning of your communication
to them, regardless of your intent. Moving to the social realm
of interactions between persons, NLP asserts that "you
never know what you communicate to another." This arises
from the fact that we never know what that other person heard,
sensed, or perceived. We do not know their phenomenological
world that well. Yet the response we get from that person
tells us something about the meanings from which they operate
and their attribution of meaning to our verbal and non-verbal
stimuli. In exploring their responses, one can begin to gain
an understanding of what we must have communicated.
involves a systemic process involving inputting, processing,
and outputting by two or more individuals using different
models of the world. Therefore if we want understanding and
clarity, we must meta-model the other's words and analogue
(non-verbal) communications. This necessitates sensory acuity
("uptime"), awareness (attentive listening) to language
as a reflection of the other's reality, utilization of the
responses received, feedback, pacing, etc.
utilizing social feedback loops to gauge the effectiveness
of one's communication describes a well-known and widely recognized
methodology. In doing this, others can serve as "mirrors"
of our reality. "As in water face answers to face, so
the mind of man reflects the man" (Proverbs 27:19). NLP
trains people to embrace this feedback process rather than
deny it, reject it, or interpret it as "failure"
many other professional therapies or models actually train
people to ignore client feedback. Rather than starting with
the client's reality, such models condition the client to
come to the therapist's reality, to learn his model, his language,
etc. A client has to first be trained to think like the counselor
before treatment can begin. Upon whom does this put the focus
if not the therapist? Why the ignoring of feedback? NLP does
not encourage such a practice.
In any inter-connected
system, the element with the widest range of variability will
always function as the dominating influence. This "Law
of Requisite Variety," from the field of cybernetics,
identifies the value and power of flexibility as a success
mechanism. Accordingly, NLP facilitates a person becoming
highly creative and innovative as it frees them to keep trying
new things, shifting stimuli, exploring what works and what
does not work.
What a contrast
this offers to the ruts that we can get in when we let the
habits of our "old nature" prevail! No wonder the
early Christian writers talked so much about "putting
off the old man" (what doesn't work at all) and putting
on the new (Col. 3, Eph. 4).
Mind and body
operate as part of the same holistic system which inescapably
affect each other. Actually, the word "and" misstates
the case. In reality, no "and" separates these as
distinct parts. What we have in actuality involves a systemic
process of mind-body. "The spirit apart from the body
is dead" (James 2:26). As a consequence, we reflect much
of our internal sensory processing by sensory-based words
(predicates) and by certain behavioral cues (eye accessing
cues, breathing patterns).
THE LEARNING OF SKILLS
in our mind-behavior as a function of the development and
sequencing of representational systems. We can break down
any skill or ability into these basic components of human
experience and then installed in ourselves or others. In NLP
this represents the domain of "strategies."
develop a conditioned learning with even a one-trial learning.
Accordingly, we do not live in the mechanical stimulus-response
(S-R) world of animals or machines. Rather, we exist as rampant
learning machines! In NLP, we apply the term "anchoring"
to label the process whereby a response becomes strongly linked
to a stimulus.
There is no
failure; there is only feedback. Whatever response you get
from someone simply represents feedback from them. It speaks
primarily about their "model of the world" and the
phenomenological perspective that their meta-programs for
attending data have created. It speaks about their perceptual
grids for processing information since it arises from their
internal world of meaning. When you get an undesirable response,
you have not "failed," you have only received an
undesired response. You have discovered what does not work.
In the Judeo-Christian
perspective, the word "sin" literally means to "miss
the mark," namely, the "glory of God." Many
today cannot hear this word ("sin") without attaching
to it all kinds of negative and aversive emotions. They cannot
hear it simply as "a miss." They over-moralize it.
Yet a sign of spiritual maturity involves learning from our
misses, using our misses for information about what not to
do anymore so that we can continue to develop (Heb. 5:14).
In NLP terminology,
we could describe such as "having learned what doesn't
work!" We could then experience it as an "insight."
As a "change of mind" (literally, "repentance").
Without this positive attitude, people tend to strive to hide
their "sins" (misses) which then condemns them to
negate the learning and evade the growth. By so shaming themselves
because they "missed," they get stuck at that very
point. An NLP practitioner takes an entirely different approach
to a difficulty or miss. Rather than shaming ourselves or
someone else for a miss, we look upon it as an opportunity
to learn what to not do. The client simply confront the problem,
learns from it, and develops better ways of responding.
the importance of accessing flexibility as a resource. When
you do not get the response you want, try something different.
If we do not find that our actions attain the results we want,
we no longer have to keep on trying to do the same thing (that
does not work) more, harder, louder and with more pressure.
We can try something else, anything else, and notice if doing
that gets us any closer to our outcome. This demonstrates
true flexibility. The theological correlation to this exists
in the meaning of "repentance" which means changing,
heading in a new direction, making specific improvements,
etc. (See our booklet, The Art of Repentance or Mind-Change.")
THE HISTORY OF NLP'S "BAD PRESS"
NLP's introduction, criticism and controversy began to surround
it. Most of this focused on the person of co-founder, Richard
Bandler. You only have to meet Richard once to realize the
reason for this! Richard's style of expressing himself come
across as very aggressive, and sometimes obnoxious. As a product
of the 60's who loved Rock'N Roll, drugs, and partying, for
years Richard kept up that image and style. Even today, though
Richard has settled down, has become drug-free and less radical,
he can still come across as brash, outrageous, insulting,
aggressive, unpredictable, and "scary."
In his personal
demeanor, I personally believe that he modeled Fritz Perls
of Gestalt therapy too well! One counseling textbook wrote
this of Perls.
Perls was both vital and perplexing. People typically either
responded to him in awe or found him harshly confrontive
and saw him as meeting his own needs through showmanship.
He was viewed variously as insightful, witty, bright, provocative,
manipulative, hostile, demanding, and inspirational."
(Theory & Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy,
Gerald Corey, 1991, p. 231).
In the 1980s,
Bandler and Grinder parted ways on less than cordial terms
(e.g. bankruptcy, lawsuits, etc). The congruency and believability
of NLP suffered. Apparently, the founders themselves could
not stay in resourceful enough states to pace each other,
bring out the best in each other, etc. Later, the police brought
charges of murder for the death of a young woman against Bandler.
And though the court completely acquitted him, the rumors
continued. None of this helped NLP's reputation at all! In
addition to the infighting that went on among the original
founders, many less than reputable persons who received NLP
training and began combining it with all sorts of left-wing
and "weirdo" causes.
HOW NLP OPENED THE DOOR TO "NEW
AGE" IDEOLOGY AND PRACTICE
today many "new agers" use and promote NLP. This
becomes obvious when you read the advertisements and articles
in the NLP publications. (We could also say the same thing
of self-improvement seminars, educational conferences, health
workshops, etc.! The New Age Movement has attempted to enter
and synthesize with a great number from other movements.)
What has brought
this about? As mentioned earlier, NLP proffers no theories,
let alone any metaphysical beliefs or systems. How then has
it come about that many today associate the two?
to the very fallible qualities of the founders (i.e. Bandler's
reputation for "partying"), NLP training seminars
and trainers have made it their policy to require no prerequisites
for those wanting to study to become practitioners. I believe
that this policy itself has opened the door to all those "whackos"
from the left and "new agers." For them, this provided
a quick and easy way to become "certified" in a
form of therapy which they could then use to promote their
And they did.
As centers for NLP training began springing up throughout
the United States and internationally, the policy of no prerequisites
like a college education (B.S., B.A) or graduate studies (M.A.,
M.S.) continued. Accordingly, today in the various journals
and publications within the NLP community, you can find all
kinds of individuals running trainings and integrating NLP
with their "New Age" beliefs and practices.
under whom I received some of my master practitioner training,
runs such a center in Hawaii. There he integrates his NLP
with Huna healing and meditation as he seeks to put followers
in touch with the Higher Conscious Mind or Higher Self "responsible
for the most part of intuitions, for our universal connectedness,
expanding our consciousness..." (Anchor Point,
March 1994, p. 44). An educated and intelligent man, Dr. James
holds to many New Age metaphysical beliefs and mysticism and
openly seeks to integrate it with such.
Milton Erickson, M.D. stood as one of the first persons NLP
modeled. They modeled Erickson for his amazing skill at hypnosis.
They presented it strictly as a communication model, exploding
the myths about it being mind-control, mysticism, etc. (Trance-Formations:
The Structure of Hypnosis, 1981). Yet because of the fears,
misbeliefs, and confusions about the underlying structure
of hypnosis as a form of how language works in human consciousness,
many in the New Age Movement who had already made use of hypnosis
found this a way to legitimize their practices.
RADICAL CONFLICTS BETWEEN NLP AND THE
"NEW AGE" MOVEMENT
What does NLP
have in common with the "New Age" Movement? Both
hold a post-Newtonian and Einsteinian orientation in their
approach to "reality." This means that both begin
from the understanding that the material universe does not
necessarily consist of all that we perceive to exist. We simply
do not have access to many facets of reality. With our natural
eyes, we cannot see many of the dimensions of the electromagnetic
light spectrum; we cannot hear many of the dimensions of the
sound spectrum. The universe, as it really it exists in itself,
does not offer all of itself to us through our sensory experiences.
From that philosophical
understanding, the two disciplines depart. Those within the
"New Age" movement draw a very different conclusion
than those who accept the scientific model of NLP. Those of
the New Age Movement conclude that there no physical reality
exists outside beyond the nervous system. They think that
everything operates as a function of the human brain and of
the human powers of imagination. Then they jump to the unfounded
conclusion that the universe itself operates as a function
of one's thinking(!). Accordingly, a person can imagine anything
into being. From there, they then take the small step that
accepts the Buddhist thought that objective reality itself
exists as an illusion (maya), or that we represent the ultimate
reality (When The New Age Gets Old, Vishal Mangalwadi,
InterVarsity Press, 1992, p. 8-10).
NLP draws no such conclusions! Rather, the founders drew the
conclusion that we live in (two "realities"). We
deal with and face objective reality which lies outside our
skin and we deal with internal subjective reality inside our
skin --our mental and neurological "representations"
of the territory outside. These represent two radically different
dimensions indicating different logical levels. We experience
the first as a given, the other we create in our minds-emotions.
The Proverbist wrote the same, "As a man thinks (evaluates,
interprets, attributes meaning) in his heart (literally, soul),
so he is." (Proverbs 23:7). His thoughts become his subjective
writings best illustrate some of the fuzzy thinking, muddled
cause-effect reasonings, and erroneous conclusions of New
Agers. She declares there that she "is God" ("Out
On A Limb"). New Agers, in fact, tend to confuse the
Judeo-Christian concept that the Bible describes Christian
believers as the "sons of God" by inheritance through
Jesus and Jesus existing as "the son of God."
The new age
movement differs also from NLP about the reality of truth.
Regarding the New Age Movement, Vishal Mangalwadi wrote.
essential feature of the New Age is its conscious rejection
of reason as the means of discovery of truth" (Ibid.
Not so with
NLP. NLP offers but one model within the category of the
Cognitive Psychologies (Theories & Strategies in Counseling
and Psychotherapy, Gilliland, James, Bowmen, 1989, p. 249).
They founders based the model, in fact, upon correct reasoning
and, in fact, challenging ill-formed cause-effect relationships
in language and logic. This shows up in the meta-model itself
and in such distinctions as the "Cause-Effect" distinction
that challenges ill-formed and non-logical cause-effect statements.
New Age ideology
quotes the Hindu mystics that "I and the universe are
one," and that therefore
is only a temporary phenomenon of the ocean. It is not real.
Just as a wave merges back into the ocean, during the mystical
experience the individual consciousness also seems to merge
into a larger, 'expanded' consciousness" (Ibid. p.
Not so with
NLP. NLP, like the Judeo-Christian perspective, holds (a high
view of the individual person). Its goals and purpose being
to make an individual more resourceful and more conscious
of themselves and their world. It moves one toward more individuation
and autonomy, not less. And since NLP began by modeling Gestalt
and Family Systems, it has become associated with the humanistic
psychologies that affirm the value and importance of persons.
New Age ideology
thinks of each person as part of God, therefore as divine.
Not so NLP. The NLP model carries no such presuppositions
about theology. Rather, it recognizes that people manifest
themselves in quite fallible ways as thinkers and suffer to
the extent that their mental maps do not accord with external
reality. If they feel limited, stuck, or experience pain,
these feelings do not necessarily indicate an illusion. They
indicate what the person experiences as subjectively real
and may be a function of their impoverished way of thinking
or of the reality outside their skin with which they must
deal! They need to adjust their maps so that they more accurately
fit the territory.
the Age of Aquarius, zodiac causation, spiritism, channelling,
etc. NLP says nothing directly. Applying the NLP model to
such things, the model itself would ask a lot of hard questions
to deal with the vagueness and unrationality of such ideas.
"How would the stars influence human personality and
destiny?" "Do people therefore have no choice?"
"If they exercise their choice and go against what the
stars indicate, what does that say about the star's influence
over human destiny?" "How do stars take away choice
from people?" With regard to someone claiming such, NLP
would engage in a reality testing response, "Specifically
show me how you do this. Demonstrate it and I will model the
steps you take to produce this behavior."
clairvoyance, traveling in astral/spiritual bodies, mind-reading,
telepathy, crystals vibrating at our God-frequency, again,
NLP speculates nothing. After all, it presents itself not
a theory, but only as a model. Using the meta-model of language
to de-fluff such fluffy ideas and language, it would again
ask the "how" question to discover what processes
are suppose to be functioning.
in fact, is so powerful for defluffing such non-sense, it
continues to amaze me that those of the new age movement would
want to have anything to do with it. So how is this scientific
model that demands precision in communication and behavioral
specifics for criteria tolerated by many who believe in the
New Age? One answer lies in the fact that many of them do
not know the meta-model.
When I went
for my master practitioner training, a good half of the participants
there did not know anything about the meta-model. After day
two, during which we experienced many drills on those distinctions,
a large number of the participants made a beeline for the
books table to buy materials on that linguistic model. Recently,
at an NLP conference, I meet several individuals who had their
master practitioner certification and who also had experienced
almost no training in the meta-model of language.
the "magic" that many new agers seek and long for
may sound similar to the "magic" that NLP talks
about. But the book, "The Structure of Magic," presents
information about transformational grammar, syntax, etc. and
how that "words" can have a "magical"
effect upon people. Yet NLP uses this word ("magic")
metaphorically, as a figure of speech, and not literally.
"NO! YOU CAN'T USE IT! IT'S MY
WORD! I WAS PLAYING WITH IT FIRST!"
over the first rough draft of this presentation, Dr. Lloyd
said that we would have to address the subject of words, linguistics,
and terms. So here goes. In this area of linguistics, many
people and some Christians in particular seem to lack a mature
and scientific understanding of how language works, what "words"
consist of, their nature, their use, etc.
a very broad, complex, and intricate subject, language essentially
functions as symbols for and referents to a reality beyond
themselves. They always point to something else. As symbolic
reality, words "are" never real. You can't eat the
words on a menu and receive the same satisfaction as eating
the salad or hamburger to which they refer. (Words function
at a different logical level) than the sensory-based reality
to which they have reference. No identity (sameness in all
respects) exists between words and the territory to which
Words, in fact,
only become meaningful when they have a referent within the
understanding grasp of the receiver. If someone speaks Greek
to you, do the words "work" effectively to evoke
within you the same referents as in the mind of the speaker?
No. They cannot. This introduces the semantic (meaning) dimension.
Meaning significance does not, never has, and never will occur
in the word. Words function only as symbols and referents
of meaning. The meaning only, and always, occurs in the mind
of the speaker or recipient. Words work only used as vehicles
transporting those meanings. (Write the 1994 series, Linguistic-Semantic
Yet some people,
not knowing that words "are" not real (do not represent
the same logical level as the territory) treat and behave
toward words as if they contained the reality. In so doing,
they not only engage in sloppy linguistic, but they condition
their nervous systems and neurology so that they become word-phobic.
This then leads to a semantic sickness called "semantic
reactions" (Korzybski, Science & Sanity, 1933).
They react to words with their nervous systems forgetting
their symbolic nature.
dogs, they salivate when the bell of a certain word rings.
Off they go reactively thinking and feeling. They do not seem
able to step back and think about their thinking, to take
into consideration that the other only offered them symbols
and not reality. This explains why "verbal abuse"
does not exist merely with the saying of unpleasant and obnoxious
words (Mastering So-called "Verbal Abuse, 1994
relevant with some words that people in the New Age Movement
use which then become semantic triggering terms for some believers.
All too often, this has become the case with the following:
centering, empowerment, visualization, meditation, trance,
states of consciousness, unconsciousness, hypnotism, etc.
Now most of
these words also occur in scripture. Joshua meditated in the
word day and night (Joshua 1:8), Peter was in a trance at
the tenth hour (Acts 10:10 RSV), Paul prayed that God would
empower the Colossians (Col. 1:10-11), the Proverbists talked
about the issues of life coming out of their center of a man
(Proverbs 4:20-24), etc.
The key here
does not lie in the use of the words, but the meanings attributed
to them by any given speaker or writer. They do not necessarily
exist as New Age words; nor is baptism, holy spirit, Christ,
etc. necessarily Christians words. These written marks function
as words. And just become someone else utilizes a word or
term and attribute different meanings to it doesn't mean that
we can't use that term any longer.
have word-phobia so bad they cannot even read literature that
uses such words without the words radically rattling their
nervous system. They could not read a treatise like this very
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU ALREADY USE NLP?
If NLP refers
to how your linguistics and neurology function to produce
your behaviors and responses, then the patterns and technologies
that NLP (as a discipline) have created and identified, do
not represent new techniques that no one has ever used before.
They only seem new in the sense that this model provides a
way of sorting out the pattern into component pieces that
we now recognize and can use repeatedly in a more effective
For a full
account of NLP patterns in the Bible, see our issue, "NLP
and the Judeo-Christian Perspective." In that issue,
we identified many passages in the Bible where a knowledge
of the NLP communication model helps to understand the passage
and replicate its patterns. It already existed. This model
only provides some new and different ways of thinking about
and utilizing NLP as a model enables any speaker to enhance
his or her skills. The same holds true for any, and every,
other model of human nature. Every theory enables its practitioners
to develop and use techniques which enhance their functioning.
Models serve this function.
If you know
how to attribute a new meaning to something, you know how
to reframe. Check out Matthew 5 for reframing at its best;
there Jesus created an entirely new and powerful frame (of
reference) for the Torah in his "you have heard, I say
unto you..." statements. His "Blessings" ("Blessed
are...") represent reframes (Matthew 5:1-12).
go places" then swishing a brain to a new and enduring
referent, as an NLP technique, offers a way to directionalize
consciousness. Check out Jesus way of doing that with his
parables. If I ask you, "How often must you forgive?"
has not Jesus already "swished" your brain to a
particular story about that (Matthew 18)? If I ask you, "Who's
the greatest in the kingdom?" has not Jesus swished all
of our minds about that one also (Matthew 20:20ff)?
On the surface,
a few features of the Neuro-Linguistic model seem similar
to those of the New Age movement. Yet hardly any more than
the Christian model of human nature and reality --Christianity
also affirms that the materialistic world does not represent
all of reality. A more thorough investigation reveals that
there exists a world of difference between the two movements.
The New Age
movement functions primarily as a religious and metaphysical
domain; NLP presents itself as a scientific model about human
subjectivity. It adopts as its viewpoint the process of information
transformation (input, processing, output) which you can analyze
scientifically and then replicate.
The New Age
Movement adopts and uses lots of religious, theological, and
philosophical beliefs which find their primary source in Hinduism
and Buddhism. Many Westerns who end up buying into that system
of belief do so more as a reaction to the loss of credibility
and relevance which they attribute to the Judeo-Christian
If we begin
by acknowledging that there has occurred an incredible lose
of credibility among Christians, we can then ask some truly
useful questions. "How can the Judeo-Christian perspective
address this void?" "What factors create this credibility
gap?" What tools within NLP can assist us in perceiving
and thinking about this need in new and different ways?"
The New Age
movement begins with several assumptions that totally contradict
the Judeo-Christian perspective and the NLP perspective. Which
assumptions do I refer to? The assumptions that "all
is God," that all perception of reality beyond one's
skin stands as pure illusion, that reincarnation indicates
the process whereby souls transmigrate from life to life to
deal with their karma, etc. You will (not) find any of that
in the NLP model or in the biblical model.
that "evil is an illusion." NLP's meta-model would
response by saying, "The word 'evil' refers to an adjective,
not a thing or entity, therefore it implies a standard by
which we judge something as good or evil." Scripture
would concur. The Bible pictures the human project as facilitating
the moral and spiritual development to "discern good
and evil" (Heb. 5:14).
The NLP model
strictly represents a scientific model about the process of
how communication, language (linguistics), and meaning (semantics)
work in terms of "programming," or ordering, people
to behave the way they do. It posits nothing metaphysically
as it does not even claim itself as a theory, but merely a
model of what works in human experiences.
In other words,
NLP functions almost exclusively as a tool, a technology.
And as with any tool, it only operates as "good"
or useful as the craftsman who welds it. A hammer functions
quite differently in the hands of a carpenter and in the hands
of a maniac. One builds, the other destroys. As a tool, the
problem does not with the NLP model, but with those who use
it as unfortunate and deceptive that New Agers have received
NLP training and currently use it as a context from which
to preach their particular brand of religion. The positive
intent (to use an NLP presupposition of NLP!) of this policy
probably involved avoiding the over-rating of degrees and
emphasize learning and education. But my personal observations
of many of those with whom I took my training would indicate
that they had not done the basic NLP readings before coming
to the trainings.
believers, we strongly disagree with the focus, the teachings,
and the presuppositions of the New Age Movement. We have not
found the movement to intellectually, philosophically, or
personally credible. On the other hand, we have found the
NLP model to function as a powerful and useful tool for communication,
relationship, influence, and therapy.
If you would
like to dialogue about this subject, please feel free to call
or write. NLP stands as a new and developing field.
(c)1997 L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
with Carl Lloyd, Ph.D. All rights reserved.