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Some NLP practitioners, in common with many in the human development field, claim that we only use 10% of our brains. They hint, or openly state, that their approach enables their clients to use more of the remaining 90%

What’s odd is that nobody really knows where this myth came from; various suggestions have been made, with no definitive answer. What is the case, however, is that it is only a myth. Barry Beyerstein has identified 7 different sets of evidence to debunk the myth.

Preferred Representational Systems or PRS was once one of the flag-ship elements of NLP; it states that  for practical purposes, information is (or can be treated as if it is) processed through the senses. It goes on to state that each person has a preferred representational system; that some people process information and access memories through pictures (the visuals), others through sound (the auditory people) and yet others through their feelings (the kinaesthetics).

Sharpley carried out a meta survey of PRS research and wrote in 1987 that there is no evidence to support PRS theory.  Ironically, this was a year after one of the NLP co-founders, Richard Bandler, at Santa Cruz, California, on July 9, 1986, when meeting with the [National Research Committee] influence subcommittee… stated that PRS was no longer considered an important component of NLP. Bandler openly stated that NLP had been revised. He then repeated this in an interview with the Enhancing Human Performance subcommittee. Ironically, this was 1 year before Sharpley’s studied was published!

Unfortunately, many NLP trainers and authors still teach and write about PRS.

Many myths have sprung up around NLP with probably the most popular being that it ‘has not been validated.’ Since NLP is a synthesis of the work of Virginia Satir, Gregory Bateson, Fritz Perls, Milton Erickson, Korzybski and others, all of whose work was validated may times over, this statement is far from being the truth. What is true, however, is that whilst the techniques taken from other modalities do work, I am not aware of any NLP-specific technique that is effective.

What is also true is that many people have jumped on the NLP bandwagon, and having themselves a very limited understanding of it, have reduced their teaching of NLP to watered down over-simplifications. The problem is exacerbated by companies offering to make you a master practitioner over the course of a few days. If those running the course are honest about it, they will explain thtat hey can teach you the tools and techniques but that it takes a lifetime of studying people and their behaviour before you really get to understand NLP.

So, what is NLP?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming – NLP

Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP, offers a set of models and techniques to help understand and improve communication and to enhance influencing behaviour. Unfortunately, as I wrote in the introduction, there is a clear divide in the effectiveness opf those techniques. Those that have been borrowed from other areas of behavioural psychology do work. However, I am not aware of any evidence of any technique that is specific to NLP working. And this is the problem when discussing NLP – so much is taught under the umbrella of NLP that in one sense, it has no clear identity.

Its name derives from the disciplines that nurtured its early development:

· neurology – the brain, and how we organise the information we receive

· linguistics – the study of the nature and structure of human speech

· programming – observable patterns (‘programmes’) of behaviour.

Not only that, you can apply it to yourself to change and empower the way you look at the world. Because NLP states that you create your own map of reality, it opens the door to you to be able to re-draw your map and give yourself new choices in life and at work, a view it shares with CBT amongst other modalities.

One limitation of NLP for some people is that the vast majority of the NLP techniques that do work rely on the client being able to  make and manipulate pictures in their head.

If you want to know more about NLP, I am preparing further articles that will appear on this site soon. However, I would caution you that if you are thinking of embarking on NLP training, nearly everything that is of any use may be learned elsewhere.