Amazing how many books people (or is it just Americans?) can produce on the same subject… and get away with it!

If you want to get the pop view then watch a few episodes of “Lie to Me” on Sky – it’s loosely based on his work.

The work of Paul Ekman and his team certainly would support the mind-body systemic relationship which we subscribe to in NLP. Checked on Google; he’s written a few books – which is best for ‘lay readers’ with not a lot of time to spare?

One of the things that fascinates me about Ekman’s work is that he and a colleague modelled micro-expressions right down to exactly which muscles were used in each part of the face. One of their findings, which surprised them, was that in moving all the muscles that were used to display an emotion such as anger or sadness they actually generated those feelings in themselves. This strikes me as a great piece of NLP modelling (that wasn’t their intent) but also seems to support some commonplace NLP observations about your feelings being reflected by you physiology. Not only that but the reverse seems to be true – if you can adopt the postures and expressions of happiness, positivity etc then you can start to generate those feelings.

People love to label and categorise, that is part of what the brain is good at. In my opinion it is a measure of how well someone really “gets it” if they can see beyond this labelling being a fixed (or even long term) thing.

Thanks, again, for your original question. It was so typical that it finally spurrred me into commenting – hence the original blog post last Saturday. As for not being qualified to join in the debate… Quite the contrary. Who better than someone qho is right in situ exploring Pegasus-style NLP for the first time .

Have fun putting it into practise over the next few weeks/months!

I was the culprit who asked the question, on this occasion anyway, of how one may access thought processes et al lie detector. At the time I was unaware of just how trivial and undermining this concept was. A mere four days later I realise that I have been on a spiritual journey that has huge potential to fundamentally change my view of the World and that NLP is for me, a potent tool to enable me to become a more effective human being. Perhaps a little self indulgent but wonderfully exciting.

I am, at this moment anyway, wholely unqualified to join the debate. However, it’s my intention to continue the process and will in future be diligent in communicating NLP myth free.

As a footnote, it’s a testament to your teaching skills Reg, that when I first read your above blogg, I took full responsibility for your reaction and that after a few reframing exercises I now take none

Personally. this has manifested its self in three ways, trying to live by the presuppositions of NLP, referring to it when I have used NLP and being willing to engage in the conversation when asked about the “other uses” of NLP.

I have on a couple of occasions considered not mentioning NLP. For instance, whist on my practitioner training, I didn’t include it on my CV, thinking that the interviewers might be concerned about “manipulation”. I also wondered about letting my team know about my NLP training and journey.

In the end, I updated the CV, the conversations with the team have resulted in several of them asking for more information and more recently asking for some sessions, even though several other conversation are still ongoing. ( a consultant colleague who was trained to use NLP to close a deal, a doctor who is convinced I have been programmed )

It is hard to escape the misrepresentation of NLP, I ran a search on the Apple apps store last night and was again presented with the usual mix of genuine content alongside the usual selection of manipulation and seduction products.

I agree with Carons comments. I am trying to be an NLP evangelist, whist respecting everyones right to their view and avoiding becoming an NLP bore.

Keeping quiet, can be a safe and easier route in the short term, it could also result in NLP losing its credibility and all the empowering, life changing knowledge not being shared with as many people as possible

We all need to act, by doing what we do and being who we are.

Sorry for the rant…it touched a hot button, not one I want to change.