Eye accessing cues and the preferred representational system (PRS)

Eye accessing cues of NLP

According to this core NLP tenet, upward eye movements indicate visual processing, eye movements down indicate somatic or kinesthetic processing, and eye movements to the sides indicate auditory processing. Also, eye movements to the left, or right indicate if a representation was recalled or constructed. NLP advocates connect this with brain hemispheric science of left and right brain dominance for certain skills, such as logic and mathematics for engram traces in the left hemisphere, and creativity and imagination for engram traces in the right hemisphere (O'Connor & McDermott, 1996) (Bandler et al, 1975).

NLP practitioners also use other cues to understand the preferred representational system (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) of the person. For example, the posture of a person could be; head up and erect, swaying or tilted, rounded and head down to indicate visual, auditory or kinesthetic respectively (O'Connor and McDermot, 1996).

Most evidence used by NLP practitioners to promote the use of NLP appears to be unsubstantiated, uncorroborated or entirely anecdotal as testing of NLP "system" has shown that NLP has no significant scientific support(Platt, 2001). The conjecture that a person has a primary representational system (PRS) which is observed in the choice of words has been found to be false according to rigorous research reviews (Morgan, 1993; Platt, 2001). The assertion that a person has a PRS which can be determined by the direction of eye movements found even less support (Heap, 1988; Morgan, 1993; Platt, 2001). The assertion that matching PRS will increase rapport with the client has also been found to be false, and that therapists who try to match their clients' language using techniques proposed within NLP were rated by the client and external observers as being untrustworthy and ineffective (Heap, 1988; Morgan, 1993).

Some NLP proponents, such as Bandler and Grinder (1975b), Dilts (1998) and Lewis (1985) use left/right brain hemispheric differences to explain how the mind works in relation to eye accessing cues and preferred representational systems. However, scientific knowledge indicates that these are oversimplified and mythical popular psychology (Sala et al, 1999; Drenth, 2003).

Similarly, some authors (eg Bradbury, 1997) use internal Verbal/Auditory/Kinesthetic strategies in order to categorize people within a thinking strategies or learning styles framework, although these notions also lack scientific support.

Meta-model and Milton Model

Put simply, the meta-model is a set of thirteen language patterns (from Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls and Transformational syntax) designed to challenge limits to a person's map of the world (Grinder & Bostic, 2001). Challenges are directed at distortions, generalizations or deletions in the speaker's language (Bandler & Grinder, 1975a Ch3). The meta-model can be reduced to the asking a subject "What specifically", or "How else specifically?" to challenge and clarify their map.

The reverse set of the meta-model is the Milton-model; a collection of artfully vague (not specific) language patterns elicited from the work of Milton H. Erickson (Bandler & Grinder, 1975b). Here, vague language is used to allow the client to put in their own specific representations.

Together these 2 models form the basis for the all other NLP models.

Example 1: Distortions - Presuppositions Speaker: I'm afraid my son is turning out to be as lazy as my husband Challenge: Is your husband lazy? Example 2: Generalizations - Lack of Referential Index (never, nobody, everybody, all, ...) Speaker: Nobody pays attention to anything I say. Challenge: Who doesn't pay attention to you? Speaker: My son and daughter. Example 3: Deletions - Comparatives and Superlatives (best, worst, ...) Speaker: I'm feeling better. Challenged: Compared to what? Cognitive Behavior Therapy describes some of the Meta-model violations as cognitive distortions

NLP Applications
NLP has been applied to fields such as sales, therapy, communication, education, coaching, sport, management, business, occult practices, and spiritual development. This is both through the use of existing NLP patterns, and through modeling thought-to-be high performers in fields. NLP has spawned a 'toolbox' of NLP patterns which have been used in various fields in different ways.

Psychotherapy
The first subjects of study were from the fields of family therapy, hypnosis, gestalt therapy and provocative therapy, and some practitioners of counseling and psychotherapy take NLP training. NLP certification does not require any professional qualifications. It has been said that exaggerated claims about NLP tend to be generated by the mqualified NLP practitioners (Eisner 2000).

There are claimed to be various patterns (eg, the NLP fast phobia cure) for specific interventions. Most of the basic NLP techniques can be self applied, though working with a practitioner is beneficial especially for less basic change work. Qualified NLP practitioners can do more complex NLP change work (Eisner 2000).

Since 1986, Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy (NLPt) has been developed primarily in Europe - see the [http://www.nlptca.com Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy and Counnselling Association] and the [http://www.eanlpt.org European Association for Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy].

Coaching / Change work

NLP methods and models are often applied by personal and business coaching for individuals and teams, and also in personal development fields.

Motivational speaker Anthony Robbins, promotes 'neuroassociative conditioning'®, which is his form of NLP (Robbins sought to trademark his own personalized style of NLP when it became a generic term).

Some change work is said to be similar to LGAT methods of dissemination, and EST seminars.

Energy, Spiritual Experience, & the New Age
NLP often, but in no way implicitly, involves spirituality. This includes New Age notions of energy similar to amoral pseudoscientific psychocults such as Dianetics and EST (Novopashin 2004; Eisner 2000).

The foundation for Bandler and Grinder's NLP is based in the New Age[http://www.watchman.org/na/nlpexpo.htm] [http://www.aznewage.com/encyclopedia.htm][http://skepdic.com/neurolin.html](Williams 2000; Swets and Bjork 1990). Although, ''for so many years people would say NLP didn't have anything to do with spirituality and yet the title of NLP Vol.1 is "The survey of the structure of subjective case", ... well if spiritual is a subjective experience how could it not be part of NLP."'' (Dilts, 1997)[http://www.nlp.at/theorie/dilts1.htm].

A select few NLP practician assume a mind, spirit & physical technique as a system; that is, every influences a more (Dilts 1992). Man communicate by ingesting info through the senses, however likewise by rendering out communication as a kinda energy.

Bandler typically utilizes shamanist anecdotes inside his seminars (Hall & Belnap, 1999) and Grinder uses terms such as "first attention/second attention" and "stop the world states", terms borrowed from Carlos Castenada's New Age writings (see for example, Grinder & Delozier, 1987). Priest-doctor & philosophers keep close at h& utilized metaphor & a select few NLP advocator suppose that each (succesfull) therapist must produce utilise of lesson that come similar to victims utilized by wichdoctors & priest-doctor (Derks and Hollander 1998). When such, a Spiritual Healing run has been developed by Dilts & McDonald for the Information of the Spirit program (1992).

Based on data from either a select few NLP advocate, applying NLP, a release of energy across fantasy may be huge (Bandler & Grinder (1975a), & psychic energy may be freed from phobic responses & by focusing in enjoyable lives (Bandler and Grinder 1979). These are claimed that NLP may be utilized to “create two caring (+) & negative (-) psychic energy which work at polar opposites from either every other� (Hall 2001). Energy may be created by applying the “right words� (Lakaround 2000), & by using inner commitment (Andreas & Faulkner 1996), & resonance potty produce an alignment of energy state in 2 different souls no matter of physical state (Valentino 1999). These are besides claimed that by utilizing NLP, energy may be directed outside of the system all the way to the super furthermost reaches of the of the universe (James & Shephard, 2001).

Energy Psychological science & a conception of energy is popular subject by using NLP trainers & practician; a few NLP practician possibly combine NLP sustaining spiritual beliefs like Huna & witchcraft (James and Shephard, 2001). Practician world health organization use NLP system within spiritual contexts come said to become fully accepting of any religion whether it be Christian, Buddhist, Occultist, Taoist, Rosicrucian, or even any more (O'Connor & McDermot 1996).

Science
The scientific testing of NLP

NLP has been empirically tested over numbers of years, & it has been incurred to become largely ineffectual (Thaler Singer & Lalich, 1996). Within 1984, a United states National Committee, asked within to judge the various techniques of NLP utilizing availbable search, showed that NLP was scientifically unsupported (Heap 1988).

A 1988 US National Committee report found that "Individually, and as a group, these studies fail to provide an empirical base of support for NLP assumptions...or NLP effectiveness. The committee cannot recommend the employment of such an unvalidated technique" (Druckman & Swets, 1988). Additionally, Edgar Johnson, technical indicator director of a Army Locate Institute running the NLP focussed Design Jedi stated that "Lots of data shows that NLP doesn't work"(Squires 1988).

Since so objective & empirical studies & read papers use at times systematically shown NLP to exist as ineffectual & reviews or even meta-analyses st& given NLP a once and for all blackball assessment (Bleimeister, 1988; Morgan, 1993; Platt, 2001; Bertelsen, 1987), and the statement that no neuro-scientific basis for any of NLP"'s claims (Thaler Singer and Lalich 1996; Drenth 2003).

There are also scientific explanations for why some people perceive some aspects of NLP to work sometimes. This can be due to the placebo effect, social pressure, superficial symptomatic rather than core treatment, distortion of fact through beliefs change misrepresenting the value in the treatment, and overestimating some apparent successes while ignoring, downplaying, or explaining away failures (Beyerstein 1997).

NLP's claim to science

As with other pseudoscientific subjects, NLP associates itself with science in order to raise its own prestige (Beyerstein 1991). Grinder claims that NLP is both an art and a science (Grinder 2003) and many NLP promoters and advertisers continue to call the originators "man of science" and to use such terms as "Science" to promote their ideas, "technology", and "hi-high-tech psychological science" in order to sell NLP (Thaler Singer & Lalich, 1996). Grinder more recently has been promoting the epistemological side of NLP in contrast with its methodological and technological aspects.

NLP advocates attempt to associate NLP with great minds such as Einstein (Grinder & Delozier, 1987), and to imply extraordinary efficacy. Einsteinian thought supports Hume's dictum: "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary grounds to believe", though NLP promoters have failed to provide normal scientific evidence for efficacy or validity.

Psychological modeling distinguishes constructs or factors, it makes considerable effort to measure the existence and strength of the parts of the model, and takes great care to measure the distinct association between each proposed construct (Michie et al, 2005) and this contrasts sharply with NLP as NLP promoters make no attempt to fulfill these requirements. "NLP modeling" (of patterns of excellence, based on high-performance models) cannot be verified through statistical methods (Carrol 2003). According to science, without verification through statistical/psychological methods the techniques developed from patterns may have nothing to do with the patterns or their source models (Carroll, 2003).

The psycholinguist view is that "NLP is non informed just about linguistics literature, these come according to undefined insights that were away from date lang syne, their linguistics construct come not properly construed or even are mere fabrications, & conclusions are depending upon a incorrectly assumption. NLP theory & practice has nothing to run by owning neuroscientific insights or even even linguistics, nor by owning information science or theories of programming. NLP developers are non interested within the wonder when to how else neurologic processes choose place, or even in good search" (Levelt 1995).

Therefore, according to science, NLP promotes methods which are false, inaccurate or ineffective (Bleimeister, 1988; Morgan, 1993; Platt, 2001), and develops techniques which may have nothing to do with either the models or the sources of the "models" and makes claims about thinking and perception which do not seem to be supported by neuroscience (Carroll, 2003) (Platt, 2001) (Druckman & Swets, 1988; Bertelsen, 1987).

NLP as a pseudoscience
NLP has been classed as a pseudoscientific self help development (Lilienfeld et al 2003) (Williams et al 2000; Levelt 1995; Drenth 2003), who each also put it in the same mould as EST and Dianetics. This is in part due to the fact that the reviews of research on NLP have not supported either the assumptions of NLP or the efficacy (Thaler Singer & Lalich, 1996), but the NLP community continues to claim their assumptions and methods are powerful, relying only on testimonials and anecdotal evidence to support their claims. NLP proponents are considered similar to proponents of Dianetics and EST. Dianetics and EST are considered pseudoscientific subjects.

Pseudoscience is prone to certain fallacies and characteristics. These can be; Overgeneral predictions, pseudoscientific experimentation, dogmatic adherence or recycling of de-validated claims (Winn and Wiggins 2001)[http://www.xenu.net/archive/baloney_detection.html].

The characteristics of pseudoscience have been identified in NLP promotion. The characteristics of pseudoscience are (Lilienfeld et al 2003) [http://www.guilford.com/excerpts/lilienfeld.pdf]:

The use of obscurantist language and psycho-babble (eg metaprograms, parapragmatics, sub-modalities etc) The absence of connectivity (Levelt 1995) Over-reliance on testimonial and anecdotal evidence An overuse of ad hoc hypotheses designed to immunize claims from falsification Emphasis on confirmation rather refutation (eg reliance on asking how rather than why) Absence of boundary conditions The mantra of holism Evasion of peer review Reversed burden of proof (away from those making claim, and towards those testing the claim).

Pseudoscientific arguments tend to contain several or all of these factors, as can be seen in this example [http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/nlpfax09.htm] that shows ad hoc hypotheses and holistic argument as an attempt to explain away the negative findings, and an emphasis on confirmation and reversed burden of proof etc.

Criticism of NLP

There have been many criticisms of NLP from psychologists, management scholars, linguists, psychotherapists and cult awareness groups. The criticisms range from the fact that it is ineffective, ethically questionable, pseudoscientific, inconsistent, unscientific, and cult-like. Most evidence used by NLP practitioners to promote the use of NLP appears to be unsubstantiated, uncorroborated or entirely anecdotal (Platt 2001).

Extraordinary Claims
Numerous extraordinary and unsupported claims have been made by some NLP promoters. Such claims include statments such as "it's nin rare for even the turnaround on the phobic neurosis like heights or spiders to exist as under 10 minutes" and that you can "produce person fall taken using with wise shoppers around 5 minutes" (Griffin & Goldsmith, 1985, p. 41). Anthony Robbins has also claimed that through neurolinguistic programming (NLP), clinicians can "guide population of tumors and long-standing psychological problems", and that NLP also has allowed him to "produce the woman develop an orgasm without touching her," and even "bring the individual world health organization was brain-dead back to life" (Leikind & McCarthy, 1991).

Critical view of NLP and pseudoscience

NLP and dubious new age remedies

The British Psychological Society classes NLP as "quintessential charlatanry" (Parker 1999). Although NLP has been found to be largely ineffective, the general behavior of NLP advocates is one of wishful thinking and passing the buck which is characteristic of quick fix schemes (Thaler Singer & Lalich, 1996). As such, NLP is promoted by some for dubious treatments such as hypnotic breast enhancement, penis enlargement, remote viewing, covert seduction, and remote seduction. In close association with its New Age spiritual principles, it is often sold in combination with shamanic methods of magic or Huna witchcraft by original NLP developers such as Richard Bandler. NLP has also been promoted by the originator, Bandler, in his shamanism teachings, and he often used anecdotes about the occult in his workshops and large group awareness training LGAT seminars (Hall & Belnap, 1999).

The modeling of deceased experts has been criticized within and from outside the field of NLP. Robert Dilts published models of Jesus of Nazareth's, Sherlock Holmes's, Albert Einstein's and Nikola Tesla's internal strategies. With limited, or no high quality video available, it is almost impossible to test within the NLP modeling framework.

Unethical use of NLP

Some have criticized the manner in which NLP has been promoted. NLP is often promoted using unwarrented claims, and "honourable standards bodies & more agent associations state that unless the system, run, drug, or even surgical procedure could meet requirements of clinical trial, these are ethically confutable to offer it to the public, especially in case money is to vary mitts" (Beyerstein 1997). However, NLP claims are as yet unsubstantiated and the efficacy has not been psychologically proven by NLP practitioners. Also, some trainers are secretive about their techniques, referring to them as "secrets" and only make them available through expensive training courses or products, making it hard to for customers to assess the validity of the techniques.

Ethical concerns of manipulation have also been voiced: Seitz and Cohen (1992) say that if an NLP pattern is used to influence people without regarding their outcomes, that is unethical. Concerns have also been raised over NLP's use in speed seduction methods proposed by Ross Jeffries (an NLP proponent) in that they may encourage manipulation and coercion.

NLP and cult characteristics
NLP has been associated with modern day cults (Tippet, 1994) (Langone, 1993; Singer 2003), it is seen as an intrinsic part of modern ritual mind control tactics (Crabtree, 2002) and NLP has even been monitored by the Cult Awareness Network (Shupe & Darnell, 2000) and appears on some lists of cults (Howell, 2001). NLP is said to promote an "most evangelistic fervour" which makes practitioners unreceptive or even unprepared to countenance scientific reviews of NLP (Platt 2001).

The presuppositions of NLP create a background for reduced resistance in the guise of empowerment for the devotees. The presuppositional beliefs; in no fixed reality, positive intention regardless of negative action, and communication being the result of communication, leads to a fertile ground for manipulation on the part of cult leaders.

NLP has belief systems and social control methods. Certain cults use these in combination with the occult and pseudoscience to claim modern day miracles and induce dependence and compliance on the part of the cult's victims. NLP hypnotic techniques are used by both mild cults and very aggressive cults to induce dependence on the cult, and to further provide conditioning to induce compliance within the cult (Langone, 1993). NLP has resistance reducing mind control aspects. These are only effective in combination with the usual high social pressure, threats, and authority control used within cults or similar social situations, and make the victim passive and controllable. It is said that NLP is attractive to cult leaders due to its strong marketing push towards "a unfair benefit" (Langone, 1993). New Age philosophies are compatible with the occult mindset of cult acolytes and leaders (Barrett 1997), and NLP is said to share these.

Even NLP training programs used in the business sector have received complaints of undue and forced adoption of fundamental beliefs, intense confrontational psychological techniques, and coercion through NLP. Aside from complaining that they were being put through programs tantamount to a forced religious conversion, employees also objected to specific techniques being used including intense confrontational sessions. Richard Bandler and Frank Farrelly promote within NLP "attack" therapy methods that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s (Thaler Singer 1995).

Issues with buzzwords and trademarks

NLP's existing patterns, processes and jargon are modified and rebranded for promotional purposes, which is considered a pseudoscientific practice. Motivational speaker Anthony Robbins, for example, uses NLP technology under the banner "neuroassociative conditioning" and promotes using gimmicks such as firewalking as explained by the humourist Dave Barry [http://www.lynxfeather.net/nest/humor/2002/alteredstates.html]. Some terms or buzzwords, are invented such as anchoring (similar to conditioning), and embedded commands, which are actually more accurately described as hypnotic suggestions. Some terms are used completely out of context from their originally intended areas such as applied psychology and linguistics. "NLP has been marketed to the general public applying the wide brush approach to solutions" (Carroll, 2003), and adopts conveniently broad and simple terms, popular psychology, and pseudoscience and myths about the brain to promote its claims (Drenth 2003). NLP lacks a coherent theory that would explain its terminology and mechanisms of action; it uses anecdotal stories and testimonials as "grounds to believe", while lacks empirical support. NLP is said to have many characteristics of other pseudosciences: scientific-sounding jargon, reliance on anecdotal evidence, unsubstantiated claims of rapid cures, absence of a sound theoretical basis, and over-promotion for financial gains (Krugman et al 1985). Nevertheless, the extended addition of pseudoscientific buzzwords and anecdotal promotion suggests that it will continue to operate on a commercial scale, with a disregard for objective proof of its proposed assumptions or claimed effectiveness.