Using Your Brain--For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Paperback)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 165 pages
• Publisher: Real People Pr (May 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911226273
• ISBN-13: 978-0911226270
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,991 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 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

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.

28 of 33 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

61 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Richard on doing his thing with submodalities ..., August 2, 2000

By	Joseph Riggio (Ridgewood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let's start off with the disclaimer: I am a fan of Richard Bandler and his professional work. This is not an "objective" review. I do and train others to do NLP professionally. Richard in addition to being one of the creative geniuses behind the development of the technology does what works. This book is the movement forward for Richard (in publication) that steps away from "old" NLP to "new" NLP in terms of the utilization of submodalities. This was a massive jump for Richard in terms of his thinking about and practice of NLP (IMHO). NLP was and remains organized around how people make the distinctions that create their subjective experience ... or reality as they know it to be. The first movement was the realization of the impact and power of representational systems (the five senses - visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory). The first wave of books by Richard and John (Grinder) are about how to access and utilize this information to model subjective experience and instigate change. Internal representations (V-A-K-O/G) were the critical component of "old" NLP for generating behavioral response and change. "New" NLP suggests that the critical components are the submodalities (smaller more precise elements of internal representation within the larger V-A-K-O/G distinctions). As is typical this book is in the form of edited transcripts taken from live training. The best way in is to read it as though it were occurring in real time - straight through letting it unfold and emerge for you as you go. What you'll find will be a series of descriptions and techniques for eliciting, recognizing and utilizing submodalities. In "Using Your Brain for Change" Richard says he's going to give the reader a "manual for running the brain" and in so doing offers a slew of examples of personal change work that are possible using submodalities and the techniques offered. Specifically 'visual' submodalities. In NLP terms this book could be called the "Swish Manual" - a particularly effect NLP change technique. However as with all NLP techniques this too is just a technique, not NLP. That said this is an excellent primer to doing "new" NLP and what's possible when you do. Enjoy this next step into NLP as one more on an ongoing journey ...