Using Your Brain--For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming [Paperback]

Richard Bandler (Author), Connirae Andreas (Editor), Steve Andreas (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0911226273 | ISBN-13: 978-0911226270 | Publication Date: May 1985

The book is typically presented for the layperson, but there is much practical insight and value here for experienced practitioners and master practitioners alike. The Afterword tells why the attitude of curiosity is so essential for NLP and our ongoing journeys through life. Some of the things that Using Your Brain -- for a CHANGE covers include:

Fast Phobia Cure: An approach to a workshop participant's fear of "elevators." Of particular interest here is the discussion of the principles and effects of dissociation and the application of submodalities within this context.

Motivation Strategies: Motivational strategies explored from a submodality perspective, and within the context of toward and away from motivation. The most personal change issues that are brought into therapy have a lot to do with motivation, and workshop participants' motivational strategies for "waking up" are used to explore how our own submodalities can be utilized to enhance motivation in other areas of our lives.

Contrastive Analysis and Belief Change Patterns: An in-depth exploration of contrastive analysis of submodalities is presented in order to show how confusion can be made into understanding. The underlying pattern of contrastive analysis is then modified to create the "belief change pattern" for removing limiting beliefs and installing new, more positive beliefs in their place (utilizing the submodalities of doubt at key stages). Significant emphasis is also placed on the importance of information gathering and set-up to understand how use of a specific pattern should be best tailored for each individual.

Swish: The reader is able to gain a clear understanding of the technology behind one of the most well-known NLP techniques. This book is worth reading for the important insights and invaluable information to be gained on the Swish alone.

Product Details

• Paperback: 165 pages
• Publisher: Real People Press (May 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911226273
• ISBN-13: 978-0911226270
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If it works for you ..., March 27, 2001

By 

Karl (England, Great Britain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Using Your Brain--For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Paperback)

Starting with the deliberately ambiguous title, what you get in this book is pure Bandler. Not surprising, really, since the text is an edited version of several seminars Bandler conducted in 1982.

It seems to me that you can treat the book as an educational exercise, or as an interactive experience. Indeed, the editing is so effective that I could imagine myself strolling through town letting Bandler show me the world through his eyes, listen to it with his ears, and so on. And a mightily enjoyable experience it was.

At the surface level the book covers topics such as submodalities, learning, the "swish" pattern, etc. - keeping in mind how much of our experience is objective, and how much is subjective. Better yet, having pointed out that the majority of our experience subjective - it goes on to explain how we can radically change our lives for the better by "reprogramming" the bits we don't like.

Personally I found this to be an excellent book on the subject, with plenty of amusing and relevant cartoons by Gustav Russ Youngreen, and practical exercises and demonstrations throughout.

With regard to the difficulties mentioned by other reviewers, I would say that there are plenty of guys doing what Abby describes who wouldn't know NLP from a hole in the ground.
It is also worth pointing out that NLP is, after all, just another tool. And like any other tool, *some* people are bound to misuse it.

As for whether you can become proficient in NLP just by attending one or two trainings and reading some books, I agree - you can't.
And if you tell yourself that you don't understand, then you won't (that, too, is "reprogramming"!)

Like any other subject, you will only "learn" NLP when you "do" it. So anyone who thinks that reading this book, or any other, will make them into a master communicator overnight would probably be better off saving their money.

For readers who take the book in the spirit in which it was written, on the other hand, I'd guess you may find this a very enjoyable and beneficial addition to your bookshelf.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings Things You Already Know To a Conscious Level, April 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Using Your Brain--For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Paperback)

My title may seem a bit surprising consdering the fact that NLP is all about tapping into your subconscious mind; however, Bandler hits home (and hits a home run) in not only stating various truths about how we think on a day-to-day basis, but in also providing the technology to "train your brain" to provide the results and the life you desire.

At the time of this review, I haven't worked on the recommended practices enough to qualify them (or to qualify myself, yet, for that matter), but I can say that I am extremely optimistic!!!

I have read numerous (again: numerous) self-help books that deal primarily/only with our conscious level of thinking, and having read Bandler, I now firmly believe that most (not all - most) self-help books that address the conscious level are worth next to nothing until one has addressed their subconscious. I was told, only today - by an NLP practitioner I have been seeing - that Bandler was once quoted as saying that "the conscious mind is the office boy; the subconscious is the CEO."

Bottom line? Buy it, highlight it to the max, and keep it handy as a reference guide. Most importantly (as I plan to do) - apply the matierial within! Good luck.......

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Bandlers book is hypnotizing!, June 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Using Your Brain--For a Change (Hardcover)

Richard Bandler, known for his development of Neuro Lingustic Programming with fellow partner John Grinder, has stepped alone to write this wonderfully self theraputic style book, from his uses and experiences in NLP and hypnosis training from master Milton Erickson. There is nothing your brain cannot accomplish, and Bandler provides the steps to take you to levels of brain development that you have not begun to think about...yet. In Using Your Barin for a Change, you are now in control of what you think, and how you think of life, concentrating all of your past miseries into one moment and then having it disappear to refocus your energy into the moment which we call the 'now'. A powerful book for anyone looking to change the way they see reality