Customer Reviews

The User's Manual for the Brain (Vol 1)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been involved in NLP for some time and teach NLP in Canada. This is the manual I use when I'm teaching my NLP Practitioner courses and the one I recommend when people ask for a book to help them understand NLP. It is well written, clear and succinct. All of the major exercises are here and the instructions are excellent. It is obvious that Bob Bodenhamer and Michael Hall have used this material extensively and their book reflects this. They have a deep understanding of their subject matter and how to present it. If you want to know about NLP, understand how it works and what a practitioner program entails, get this book.

This is a book that starts very well, describing every aspect of NLP - Eye Cues, Words, phrases, commands, types of personality (Kinesthetic, Visual, Auditory and Digital... this lattest one being totally diferent than other books on the subject).

The think is... after 1/3 of the book is read, you start getting the long, abstract and theoretical stuff about NLP.

So I recommend this if you are a student, a practicioner and want to become "certified" - like in a psychology/hipnotist course.

Do NOT buy this book if you want practical advice, easy to follow tips for your personal life or business career.

Think of this book as a theoretical guide that your college teacher you'd recommend... You will know a lot of theory but not much about applying it to everyday life.

Anyway, a very solid, thourough, detailed and complete book on theoretical NLP.

(As you might have guessed, I was looking for a more practical guide).

Unfortunately, I cannot concur with the other reviewers. What I had hoped for was one book that accomplished two things: (1) organize the many concepts and techniques described by Bandler et al through their books, many of which were edited seminar transcripts and (2) update for me the current usage and experience from the field since the earlier days of NLP. This book succeeds in some respects and fails in others.

For example, the section of the chapter on the representational systems--those through which we sense our external context or world--is very good. It provides exercises that are useful in acquiring the language of that concept. It provides lists of visual predicates, words that help us particularize the sensations, such as verbs, adjectives and adverbs. It also provides common predicate phrases to illustrate how we use language dynamically, such as "appears to me" and "pretty as a picture."

In contrast, in the section of the chapter on the submodalities, the authors alter the original NLP paradigm by applying less sophistication. For those readers unfamiliar with the original, this may prove difficult to comprehend, but it proves extremely important. One of the signal changes in the original model was the notion that behavior resulted from our individual model or map of some memory, which in turn derived from some inexact perception of a modal, or sensory, experience. For example, we know that two people do not experience the same context the same way; e.g., some people believe that Ben Laden is a monster, others a savior. The same may be said about things as well as people; e.g., automobiles, public transportation, pit bulls, skyscrapers, SUVs, etc.

What Bandler et al posited was two notions, viz., (1) that we could CHANGE behavior WITHOUT knowing what the constituent elements of the embedded experience were, and (2) the experience was something akin to an equation, with formal aspects-and here it gets a bit complex for those unfamiliar or uncomfortable with higher mathematics. The old psychology paradigm (think of Freud) was hierarchical: unconscious, subconscious, conscious. Similarly, Maslow's paradigm was hierarchical, from basic needs through self-actualization. The NLP paradigm was different. It argued that our experience was more like a mathematical equation: Experience = X(Visual) + X(Auditory) + X(Kinesthetic) + X(Gustatory / Olfactory) + C, where X is a function. The reason this was different (and important) was that changing a single sub-modality-perhaps the one represented by the primary representational system-could have a significant influence on behavior due to the absolute power of the 'X' function (which we could never discover).

What these authors have substituted is the prior hierarchical-and in my estimation, inferior-paradigm. The problem with the hierarchical model is it assumes an additive influence of sensory experience on memory, and thus behavior. I do not concur that our experiences are that simplistic. The difficulty with the original NLP model-that is, the feature that I thought troubling-was that changing a single behavior has the hazard of influencing other (unknowable) behaviors in some ways. In other words, our personality is "meta" (to use the authors' meaning) to our specific behaviors-i.e., our personality derives from our behaviors. A more positive change from these authors would have been to figure out if the Calculus paradigm applied (Can we accelerate change?), or most important, if we could modulate one unknown constant such as C.

Finally, Bandler would argue that we could leave the inter-behavior incongruities to our unconscious, since we are creative and flexible. This makes more intuitive sense to me. What causes the OLD psychological models to be ineffective is their search for the ultimate answer as to why we behave as we do, e.g., What is the absolute source of one's antipathy to authority figures? Frankly, I do not give a damn. If I want to change a behavior, I want to change it. Period. I do not want to spend years searching through my childhood memories. (Sound familiar?) We operate on the basis of maps, not territory, Perceptions, not Truth (with apologies to Plato). If that new behavior does not work, I will change it again. My mind is creative enough, if I do not inhibit it. In sum, you can choose between Bandler's sophistication and religion's Ultimate Answer.

Manuals for training programs are usually considered trade-secrets. If you want to buy them, often you have to pay exorbitant prices. This comprehensive, up-to-date, very well-organized manual is a very good buy indeed. Those who want to seriously study NLP will find this book a great resource. Others who are familiar with NLP can still find in one book a vast amount of interesting discussions, clear presentations, exercises, and new concepts. You get clarifications on Michael Hall's "Meta-states" and submodalities, 5 perceptual positions, 21 presuppositions.... The relationship of Chomsky's Transformational Grammar (TG) with the Meta-Model is briefly summarised thus: "...the Meta-model does not have a marriage with TG--only an affair. In the fling, it only appropriated the language of linguistics and the idea of levels of information processing." You can easily detect the depth of immersion in linguistics to come to this conclusion. The whole manual reflects a similar depth of mastery of NLP in all the key areas covered for a Practitioner Course. The detailed Table of Contents gives good leads. If forced to find fault with the manual, I hope that in another revised edition, there will be the provision of an index also.

New to NLP? This is a clear, concise, detailed and at times weighty and advanced digest of NLP. NLP isn't a walk in the park or a 21 day magical mystery tour; save the certification and the seminar seat until later-delve into this. Old hand? Its mostly here in one book.

The authors have done a real service for those familiar with NLP concepts and those NLP neophytes searching for "one stop shopping." The manual could be used:
1-most effectively as a text/teaching tool for a lengthy NLP course at a University,
2-as a resource for NLP practitioners-as a dictionary, encyclopedia,or for finding the "bridge" between various aspects of NLP,
3-as a means for the thirsty, confused, and curious to find a reasoned, intelligent, discussion of the history, principles, and tenets of NLP.

Beware: There are aspects of this discipline that are common sense, questionable,laughable even, that are foisted on an unquestioning population. There is an "emperor with no clothes" floating around all of this NLP ephemera.

There are those legitimate proponents of NLP-the effort it must have taken to author this book would lead to the presumption that these are people who take this discipline seriously. The Manual, while throwing in its own bit of obfuscation (takes one to know one), is a remarkable compilation of principles, suggested individual and group exercises, historical reportage, examples, and explanation of segments of NLP.

The down side is the absence of an index. The omission of the index is a curious addition to the imperfect and seemingly unfinished NLP books, tapes and other media. In a discipline that parses communication, linguistics, meaning, processing of information, feedback and the kitchen sink it is incredible that an important and powerful tool isn't there. This is especially noteworthy where a "manual" functions in part as an encyclopedia, glossary and study guide.

On balance, this is an important, excellent compilation of the many facets of NLP. I highly recommend it.

Finally, I found a real comprehensive manual for the wide field of NLP. I have been involved in the field since 1985 and felt that a thorough manual was missing. The reader can find scientific bases and conceptual explanations as well as exercise and practical tips about the main NLP developments. I was delighted with the chapter on presuppositions, which in most nlp books is a mere listing, whereas in this book you find enough material as to do something parctical with them. They wrote exercises to incorporate the nlp presuppositions on yourself. An excelent structuring of this Manual makes the understanding and practicing of NLP more available to the readers. In other words, it makes the picture complete enough to draw a more realiable "map" of the rich NLP world. The chapters presenting the Meta Model and its relationship with Milton Erickson hypnosis model are clear, with lots of explanations and linkages of the components. Again, you find plenty ideas on how to apply things. Part Three is dedicated to the Neurology Model of NLp and the different techniques on how to manage your own mind-body system.Part three offers the reader quite a group of advanced techniques including time-lining, that is the ways to restructure your minds ways of representing time in your life. Don't miss this book if you already are or are planning to be an NLP Practitioner in any field.

As a student of NLP (and certified NLP Master Practitioner) - this book (manual) breaks down all the information for the NLP Practitioner to learn and become proficient. I wish I'd had this book when I went through my NLP Practitioner training - It would have been a heck of a lot easier for me. It is a part of my NLP library that gets used a lot. And I continue to find new things and others that I have forgotten about.

The "Users Manual for the Brain" claims to be a comprehensive review of NLP techniques. It lives up to this claim, but, it appears poorly edited and the illustrations/diagrams often appear separate from the text they are intended to amplify.

If the authors review and update the "Manual", it would be wise to run a spelling and grammar check. A few hours spent judiciously editing a new edition would probably earn it another star.

The User's Manual For The Brain was one of the first books I bought. Although it was quite costly at the time, it is well worth the expense. It is organized for the NLP Practitioner level training program, but can certainly be used for self learning. The chapter on Hypnosis is very impressive, introducing some advanced concepts without overwhelming the novice reader.

Honestly, I only got to page 35 in this 400 page book. To this point, at least 3 times I had to scratch my head, reading about something with terminology that had not been defined. At all. And, if this book is about the different styles of communication, it was poorly written for Visual Types who make up 60% of people. The pictures and diagrams are few and not very good, in my opinion. Finally, the book was unable to hold my attention or interest which doesn't speak well for a book about excellence.