Throughout history, NLPers have been hunted down by the Evil League of Anti-NLPers, who have waved the Torches of deBunk (+2 agility) at us and angrily shouted big, big words like ‘pesudo-science’, ‘quackery’ and ‘you’re too hot for NLP’ (I get this one all the time).

For every claim for NLP, you can find one against. What’s going on?

Is NLP all just a big bunch of hooey?

There’s a famous story in the school of martial arts that I do. Once, an unsuspecting student asked the grandmaster of my school about politics in the martial arts. The grandmaster looked at him; and bestowed these golden words of wisdom: ‘Shut up and train!’

Can the NLP techniques be empirically proven? Maybe not. Are some of its claims a tad dodgy? Yup (NLP for penis enlargement? Please. I’m not kidding on this). Is NLP just pesudo-science. Could be.

But so what?

There are lots of claims and anti-claims out there in the world of NLP. But what do all those politics have to do with your own training/personal development?

Was It As Good For You As It Was For Me?

The question isn’t really: ‘is NLP all a bunch of quackery?’, it’s ‘does it work for you?’ (or, like Kathy would put it: ‘does it help you kick major ass?’). NLP is the study of subjective experience after all, and what’s really important is how you’ve found the tools to be useful in your own life.

When I adopted the NLP presuppositions, which are like the NLP master beliefs, I had no idea whether or not they were really true. How would I know if it was really true that the map is not the territory? But when I adopted the belief, it expanded my perspectives and it brought much more benefits to my life.

And miraculously, testing the beliefs out didn’t kill me! Gasp! I had nothing to lose but goodies to gain! Which leads me to this final point:

When in doubt, test it out (intelligently, don’t do stuff like jump off a building or buy a Backstreet Boys album please).

Even though not all the NLP techniques have worked for me, enough of them have enriched my life in ways I couldn’t expect. I’ll share with you my personal story on how NLP has changed my life, dramatically in some ways, in my next post.

P.S. If you’re eager to get your hands on some NLP goodness, I’ll be sharing more of the NLP core beliefs in the next few posts. Stay tuned!

P.P.S. If you really really need to get your NLP fix, Robert Dilts (one of the original co-developers) has a excellent resource site.

P.P.P.S. Finally, the longly anticipated answer to the most penetrating question of all: is NLP better than sex: if it is, you need to get out more.

Update: I’ve changed the title of this post. Sounds funnier, don’t you think? 😀

NLP 101 Series:

NLP 101: What is NLP? Part 1
NLP 101: What is NLP Special for The Super NLP Hardcore
NLP 101: What is NLP? Part 2
NLP 101: So Dark The Con Of NLP
NLP 101: How NLP Changed My Life
NLP 101: The Map Is Not The Territory
NLP 101: There Is No Failure Only Learning Experience
NLP 101: Every Behaviour Has A Positive Intention
NLP 101: The Meaning of Your Communication is The Response You Get
NLP 101: You Cannot Not Communicate
NLP 101 Thoughts: You Cannot Not Change The World
NLP 101: People Are Always Making The Best Choices They Have
NLP 101: People Are Not Broken
NLP 101: You Cannot Not Communicate: The Pygmalion Effect
NLP 101: Everyone Already Has All The Resources They Need
NLP 101: There Are No Resistant Listeners, Only Inflexible Speakers