In the middle of the last century, a book was published that made a fair amount of noise, which has not ceased to this day. The dark matter of psychology was illuminated by a ray of light. A few rules - and you can manipulate anyone. No one will guess that they used it. Therefore, she will not shout: âYou used me!â. Book Title: âThe Structure of Magicâ.
Maybe quackery?
Well, no. Respectability oozes from each line of the biography.
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics. Writer. University of California, Santa Cruz. CIA secret agent in Yugoslavia and Germany. This is John Grinder, one of the authors of the famous book.
Richard Bandler, Bachelor of Philosophy and Psychology at the same university. Also a writer. They even said that a programmer and a mathematician. He was one and the other when he enrolled in the relevant courses in search of himself. After a couple of months I realized: this is not him. Entered the path of psychology, where he succeeded.
There is also Frank Pucelik. There are no high-profile titles and titles behind him. Business consultant, coach (understand who can), specialist in the field of "Human Perfection". Odessa from 2002. Again, a writer. The co-authors are not always mentioned.
What is it about
The fact that a person can be viewed from different points of view. For example, the crown of creation, the king of nature and surrounding galaxies. Or a product of evolution, anthropoid ape, mammal, etc.
The "Structure of Magic" by Richard Bandler believes that man is a mechanism. Very complicated. Thinking, due to brain neurons. Capable of verbal communication, the subject of linguistics. Acting as part of a program laid down by education and experience. If you add up all three components: neurons, linguistics and programmable action, you get âneuro-linguistic programmingâ.
At the time of the book's appearance, modeling neurons seemed pure fantasy. The impact on linguistic capabilities required tens, if not hundreds of years. Immediate tasks can not be solved. There was programming left. What used to be called witchcraft, magic, hypnosis turned out to be a simple algorithm.
NLP is born
The Structure of Magic was first published in 1975. It became the bible of NLP, as all the basic principles and approaches were formulated in it. Now, tens of years after its publication, it is still the most popular guide for a wide variety of people.
It is funny that in this "bible" the name of the new deity is not mentioned anywhere. Even the word âneuronâ is used only a few times, and then in combination with the word âphysiologyâ. The brand has not yet been born. When he appears, both creators will fight for a long time in the courts for the right to be the sole author of the best-seller.
Psychotherapists and school psychologists, managers and sales agents, charlatans and scammers: it suits everyone. If you exclude the last two categories, you still have a vast audience. Millions of copies find their enthusiastic readers. The weak voices of critics are barely audible in the laudatory responses of adherents.
How can one explain such massive success, whether universal intoxication, or the same insight? The scientific nature of the book was not declared even by the authors themselves, the subject - that same dark matter, psychology, language can not be called easy. What then?
Bendler R. and Grinder D. in The Structure of Magic promise that almost any goal is achievable. Health or self-improvement, superpowers or extra-profit, self-management or people: everything is available.
Donkey carrot?
Not certainly in that way. Initially, the book was intended to solve the problems of the psyche, phobias, family relationships. On the examples of outstanding doctors in this area: Virginia Satyr and Fritz Perls, the first patterns were created. The idea was to break down the talent into its components. Anyone who mastered them could repeat their achievements.
That was probably Bandlerâs idea. He possessed the talent of an imitator, which he used to penetrate into someoneâs inner world. He copied habits, voice, manner of speaking, even appearance to such perfection that they began to take him for the original.
He was once brought to trial on suspicion of murder. Giving testimony, he managed so skillfully to transform into the second suspect in this case, that the jury could not decide who to find guilty. Freed from the charge of both.
But this is an exception. The idea was that, having adopted habits and the smallest traits of character, you can awaken in yourself the abilities expressed in the external manifestations of talent. But imitation language of this level is not accessible to everyone. It was necessary to find another.
Say something and I will say who you are
Grinderâs talent came in handy here. After all, he was a linguist and well understood that a word can hurt, and heal, and penetrate the depths of consciousness. The only flaw of the word is that it is spoken with intent. Therefore, it can be false. But verbal speech is not the only way to communicate.
We communicate not only with words. Lips, eyes, gestures sometimes say more than what a person wants to express in reality. And if you comprehend the ABC of this language, you can learn to understand its speech. The letters are patterns: stable external signs that can be interpreted unambiguously.
The eyes are best suited for this. The mirror of the soul, which is the goal of penetration into the psyche. But the rest of the signs should not be ignored. If you put the puzzle out of all the patterns, you get a complete picture that tells a lot of things that the speaker himself does not know. The "structure of magic" by Bandler and Grinder proves this.
People are different
Anyone who has learned to read secret signs is already ready to control the consciousness of his vis-a-vis. It remains to determine what kind of perception the subject belongs to in order to identify the best type of interaction. NLP claims that each person perceives the world in his own way.
The world outside is one at all. People like mirrors reflect it as they can. Adherents of secret knowledge are of little interest to reality. Only an individual understanding of reality matters to them. According to the features of the formation of this imprint, they distinguish three types of personality:
- audiences;
- visuals
- kinesthetics.
Some add digitalis here, but itâs rather a tribute to fashion for everything digital. Already from the names it is clear that for some, the basis for building a behavioral model is information in a sound, visual or tactile form.
Accordingly, the effect will be most effective if it is based on the prevailing type of perception. It seems that everything is ready, you can begin to achieve your goal. Only the foundation is missing.
NLP Principles
The authors chose the name of their book by chance. They believed that they were able to solve the genius algorithm. Grinderâs âmagic structureâ rests on 12 principles. The main ones are:
- behavior is subjective and is based on an assessment of events;
- experience and attitude to it can be reprogrammed;
- you cannot force a person to commit a specific act;
- lack of choice reduces the impact;
- we give signals to the world by which he accepts us.
- those who want change but donât know which ones are most affected;
- the solution to all problems lies in the media of these problems;
Some of its points seem obvious. Others are easily criticized.
The latter can be rephrased by the famous slogan: âThe salvation of drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselvesâ or âIf you want to be happy, be it.â
NLP walks the planet
Original goal: treatment of people has not been forgotten. I just faded into the background, if not the last plan. When the creators themselves realized what they had created, a boom began. There were too many people willing to rule the world to miss the opportunity to monetize such a success.
From this moment, a team of like-minded people begins to break up into components. Almost every participant went their own way, created a unique brand, achieved financial success, but fame passed them by. Maybe they were not too chasing after her.
In our country, NLP has been registered since the late 90s. Grinder himself has been here twice, first to the USSR, then to Russia. They say that despite the decline in popularity in the West, our boom is yet to come. The "structure of magic" by John Grinder and Richard Bandler will long be on the shelves of the Russian reader.