There are very few NLPers who were there just after 1980 when NLP became big time. What was happening just before that is that NLP training was based on sensory acuity, rapport and anchoring. It was about dealing with issues at the deepest level of the unconscious. 

Skills at this level were such that issues could be dealt with using very little language; and the changes lasted. This is due to the fact that the brain doesn’t work with the rules of the unconscious mind. The rules of learning and change for the brain are not yet understood. The complexity of neurons, synapses and neuro transmitters is still beyond the understanding of today’s most dedicated scientists.

The use of the idea of humans having unconsciouses has been developed because it helps us to create a model that explains how our minds work. To most people it seems very real, but it is only a model.

The model of the unconscious allows us to document what we can do as processes to initiate change. The processes are the NLP methods that use language to take clients through a defined process. Timeline, collapsing anchors, Met Model and Milton Model are some.

When a newby reads about NLP for the first time the ideas of representational systems, eye accessing cues, modalities and submodalitlies create a wonderful world astonishing in that each part can be tested in the real world. NLP is a science worthy of a Nobel Prize, so what happened.

The answer is that above listed NLP ideas are complete enough in themselves to allow individuals to learn them and set themselves up as NLP experts who will sell you a course. Over the past thirty years, helped by the explosion of the internet, a whole NLP business has spread across the world, and it has provided huge benefits to millions of individuals. But there is a problem, the fundamental discoveries made by Richard Bandler and John Grinder have not entered into the core awareness of society. The place predicted by the founders in the preface to ‘NLP Vol 1, The study of the structure of subjective experience published in 1980. 

There are some observable reasons why this integration into social knowledge didn’t happen. Firstly there were very few people who understood what the discoveries meant for homo sapiens, and these people were not actually amongst the founding members. Secondly the explosion of NLP in its modern form kept everybody busy writing books and courses on the parts they were familiar with. That was an auditory Digital Activity, it strengthened the success of Auditory Digital thinkers and fame followed.  

Now, at the core of anybodies mental flexibility is to be able to operate in all representational systems. Nature did not create the brain to choose to favour just one system for success. In Homo Sapiens the ability to self reflect with success needs all rep’ systems to be working well. In early NLP courses attendees went through exercise after exercise learning to have greater sensory acuity and flexibility in all rep’ systems. This learning cannot be rushed. It has to taken seriously because education systems do not teach it, your parents did not have it and therefore couldn’t pass it on, and there is one fundamental aspect of the animal brain that will defend itself from learnings that could threaten its desire for survival.

Within NLP4thLevel we have collated examples where our above findings can be checked against reality. We also have the exercises anybody can do to gain the mental flexibility talked about. And, if you are so inclined, you can use a couple of methods we have to tell how well trained in these core mental processes the leaders of the major NLP institues and training companies are. 

We have a chllenge! We want NLP leaders to understand our ideas and use them to create a better world.