Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) books

[Trifid]

On Tuesday I met a hypnotherapist and got talking about his job and NLP. He very easily managed to make me less of sceptic about what he does and gave me a insight into how it works. I wasn't previously that interested in this sort of thing as it isn't a real science but was thinking £10 on a NLP book might be worth a shot. Now I could simply go out and buy his book but that might be what he wants me to do. He also mentioned Anthony Robbins Unlimited Power and Giant Within. Are these any good? I'd ideally be looking at something which doesn't try and throw religion down my throat.

(If anyone's interested, I didn't ask him to hypnotise me but when we were talking he randomly said "touch the left side of your nose" and not obeying it was bloody hard. I had a clenched fist in my pocket and was angry that I wanted to touch my nose but I wasn't letting myself. It wasn't like I had a itch, I just wanted to touch it... I forgot about it once I had walked away.)

Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[Trifid]

Simple question is.
Do you want to learn about NLP (history and approach), or do you want to look to use NLP Patterns in an attempt to bring about change in your own life?

I suppose the latter point looks more intriguing about it.

I'll only be looking at getting one book on it just to see what its about and what it offers (if anything to me), at least to start with if I do see it as worth while.

 

[Trifid]

Freaky! Did you realise you had been partially (?) hypnotised?

Yes. To give some context to the situation he is someone I have met a couple of times before but had yet to speak to and we were standing in a hallway. I hadn't gone to his shop to be hypnotised and wasn't laying down in one of those long chairs. He was saying that you can only be hypnotised if you want to be, I assume because I was very much concious (not in a trance) I still had ultimate control? What ever it is, he does pretty well out of it and hasn't received any complaints on his feedback forms he gets posted back.

Maybe it was just him randomly saying "touch the left side of your nose" made me think about my nose. Me thinking about my nose made me want to touch it. Not consciously wanting to touch my nose made me angry?

Anyway that wasn't really want I was interested in as it is pretty useless being able to make people touch their nose or at least want to. The social engineering side looks to be interesting, especially controlling certain social situations sounds like a skill that will be useful to posses. I.e. persuasion.

 

[Trifid]

I have some recommended reading on the resource section of my Head Hacker site if your interested.

Been doing some reading on this site and it looks good.

Derren Brown is incredibly sceptical when it comes to NLP, and isn't afraid to say so. It's become something of a joke over the course of the past fifteen or so years. I wouldn't recommend reading anything that was written recently. If you really want to read up on NLP, then you have to read something by Richard Bandler and John Grinder (the two that came up with NLP).

I would recommend (as, incidentally, Derren himself does) reading Frogs into Princes: The Introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It's a really interesting book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frogs-into-Princes-Introduction-Neurolinguistic/dp/187084503X

But for the love of God, don't go anywhere near the courses or read any of the nonsense spouted by the modern practitioners of NLP.

I'm not sure that book is what I want? It looks to just be a transcript from a seminar style course. I am definitely more interested in the social engineering side of things. Is this book still the one?

I'm definitely not interested in the courses. I was only going to buy a book because I need to order a different book anyway. It'd be some light bedtime reading.

I am not sure about the hypnotherapist in question, but many hypnotherapists dont actually test their work, so perhaps this guy is actually competent.

He probably only did it because I didn't ask. If it didn't work I'd have thought nothing of it.