I was standing in a queue the other day and overheard a snippet of conversation between two gentlemen. One was describing Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to the other and was very enthusiastically mentioning the ways in which it can be used to train your brain to achieve different outcomes. He was clearly very keen on NLP and had fully grasped its potential to help achieve success in almost everything you might wish to do.

I heartily agree with this gentleman. NLP offers the human race an amazing set of mental tools or mental skills which can be applied easily, quickly and most importantly, they are powerfully effective. What piqued my curiosity was his answer to a question posed by his friend, namely "isn't NLP hypnosis?" He replied that NLP was completely different, a separate thing entirely. I have heard this response more than once, which made me wonder why so many people seem to want to deny the central part which hypnosis played in the foundation of NLP and the part which hypnosis continues to play in its application.

It was after all the work of Milton Erickson (world renowned psychotherapist and hypnotherapist) which formed the foundation of a lot of NLP. NLP in fact has a very close association with hypnosis. So why deny it? I have come to the conclusion that some people are afraid of the "mystical image" of hypnosis whereas NLP is "sold" as just something incredibly logical and thus has more appeal to the professional person's mentality. I can only conjecture as to the reason, and in reality I don't suppose it matters, other than the fact that it would be beneficial to everyone to realize that it is hypnosis which effectively "powers" NLP.

NLP has been described as the new science of personal achievement. It is a highly effective methodology based on the belief that all behavior has a structure and that this structure can be modeled, learned and changed. Neuro stands for the nervous system and how we use our five senses (see, hear, feel, taste and smell) to translate experience into both conscious and unconscious thought processes. Linguistic stands for the use of language in interpreting experiences and how we communicate those experiences. Programming refers to the fact that our thoughts, feelings and actions are simply learnt programs of habit which we can change should we wish to do so.

NLP recognizes the fact that our thoughts create our emotions and direct our actions, and therefore by changing how you think you can change how you feel and act. NLP is a model of how we understand and utilize human communication, behavior and experiences to achieve a specific outcome. It has evolved into an incredibly powerful set of techniques for achieving human excellence in both business and personal development. It is a very useful tool used in rapidly dissolving a phobia, or overcoming compulsions. It has extremely far reaching applications.

But you will usually find that NLP is applied in conjunction with hypnosis, because hypnosis is a state which allows access to your subconscious mind, the part of your mind where instinctive and automatic thoughts, beliefs, habits and behaviors are stored. Thus the principles of NLP are applied whilst in hypnosis so that these inner beliefs and habits can be changed. This is why I said before that it is hypnosis which gives NLP its power. You may see it from a different angle and say that NLP is what gives hypnosis its power, but few should deny that there is a very close link between the two.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads which utilize the mind training methodology of NLP.