NLP

[lukpet]

Is NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) allowed or prohibited?
(e.g. “Rapport” or “Pacing and Leading”)

Thank you for your answers,
God bless you!

 

[zjman]

Hi friend,
my take, looks and sounds like new age religion, we have no control of the graces we receive, they only come from God alone. All good things come from God.
Peace to you

 

[petra22]

Interesting topic…

 

[lukpet]

Hi friend,
my take, looks and sounds like new age religion, we have no control of the graces we receive, they only come from God alone. All good things come from God.
Peace to you

I don’t think that it is a religion rather psychological tricks to e.g. presuade someone or be empathic. But is it a sin to use secret psychological tricks?

 

[Aydan]

I did a lot of research on NLP. The church does not have an official position on NLP as far as I can tell but like hypnosis it warns us to be careful when using it. I’ve read several books. I also took a beginner course in NLP. The more I got into NLP the more uncomfortable I was because it emphasizes the higher self and it acts like you have all the power to change everything just by using your mind. I found it to be downright atheist. Not only that I found the techniques I did try didn’t work. Therefore I would not recommend it because it promotes higher self ideology over God.

 

[lukpet]

I did a lot of research on NLP. The church does not have an official position on NLP as far as I can tell but like hypnosis it warns us to be careful when using it. I’ve read several books. I also took a beginner course in NLP. The more I got into NLP the more uncomfortable I was because it emphasizes the higher self and it acts like you have all the power to change everything just by using your mind. I found it to be downright atheist. Not only that I found the techniques I did try didn’t work. Therefore I would not recommend it because it promotes higher self ideology over God.

Thank you for your answer!

I have one more question. Is it sinful to use persuasive tricks to convice someone or to be more attractive or be more empathic like mirroring. There are many more tricks beside NLP. Is it prohibited?

 

[Aydan]

Thank you for your answer!

I have one more question. Is it sinful to use persuasive tricks to convice someone or to be more attractive or be more empathic like mirroring. There are many more tricks beside NLP. Is it prohibited?

Well I don’t think it’s trickery I do think they are actual techniques. That being said yes in my personal opinion they can lead to very grave sin even mortal sins. Here’s why. You’re right NLP uses mirroring and a whole host of other techniques that can influence a person in a very negative way it’s almost like a form of mind control. Because it teaches you that you are in control you have all the power to change your behavior. It completely takes God out of the equation. It’s very dangerous for Catholics in my opinion. That’s why after I took the course I got out of it as fast as I could. I wish the church would issue an official statement roundly condemning NLP. By the way just to clarify NLP is not a religion but it is a new age self-help program that I advise all Catholics to stay away from. I learned my lesson the hard way.

 

[zjman]

True love is giving yourself honestly and fully to the person, not falsely. As John Pal the Great teaches us in his Theology of the Body we never take from our partners we give of ourselves. Maybe you could give that text a try since your exploring

 

[lukpet]

@Aydan: Oh, I think I misunderstood NLP. I thought these are only mind tricks. So to be concrete my question is: Is it allowed to use mind tricks (not NLP) like the Benjamin-Franklin-Effect or the Chameleon-Effect?

Thank you for the answers, God bless you!

 

[mikekle]

I did a lot of research on NLP. The church does not have an official position on NLP as far as I can tell but like hypnosis it warns us to be careful when using it. I’ve read several books. I also took a beginner course in NLP. The more I got into NLP the more uncomfortable I was because it emphasizes the higher self and it acts like you have all the power to change everything just by using your mind. I found it to be downright atheist. Not only that I found the techniques I did try didn’t work. Therefore I would not recommend it because it promotes higher self ideology over God.

That does not necessarily make it wrong though. Im sure there are plenty of things our minds can do, but we just do not know how to access or ‘turn them on’, if a way is found eventually, in the end, God will still have been the one who created our minds to be this way.

Personally I believe our minds are capable of MUCH more than we are currently using them for, but we just do not understand how they work or how to use them, this will probably change as we understand the human mind more and figure out how it all works.

 

[Aydan]

I agree with you I think our minds can do a lot more also. I’m not sure if. NLP is a gift from God or not I think it could quite easily be a trick from Satan just like fortunetellers or psychics. If it is indeed a gift from God that it must be used responsibly. NLP is a tool like anything else. When used properly it could possibly do good for some people. That being said the problem I have with NLP is there is an easy chance for its techniques to be harmful to a person. It could very easily lead a poorly catechized Catholic to think that going to Mass is not necessary anymore because he can fix his own problems. That’s one of the major problems I have with NLP is that it teaches that all beliefs including religious beliefs can be changed. That’s what worries me the most is that it deemphasizes God. I would advise anyone who is thinking about using NLP to use extreme caution and make sure they have good catechesis before they start using it. I will not use it again because I personally feel it is too dangerous for my well-being as a Catholic. I still think the church should issue a statement cautioning Catholics about using it

That does not necessarily make it wrong though. Im sure there are plenty of things our minds can do, but we just do not know how to access or ‘turn them on’, if a way is found eventually, in the end, God will still have been the one who created our minds to be this way.

Personally I believe our minds are capable of MUCH more than we are currently using them for, but we just do not understand how they work or how to use them, this will probably change as we understand the human mind more and figure out how it all works.

 

[JDSokol]

How many of these commenters have actually studied NLP? Its a hack to help you overcome limitations that are only,mental and usually learned or self imposed. The persuasion aspect is nothing like hypnosis, at all. There is nothing secretive about it, and NLP is simply a system. Higher self ideology is a bit relative, but it isn’t higher self, just proven different aspects of your mind that function apart from,one another. It can seem different, but I don’t believe it to be sinister. It can really help people overcome pain and trauma very wuickly, along with Christ of course.

 

[Aydan]

How many of these commenters have actually studied NLP? Its a hack to help you overcome limitations that are only,mental and usually learned or self imposed. The persuasion aspect is nothing like hypnosis, at all. There is nothing secretive about it, and NLP is simply a system. Higher self ideology is a bit relative, but it isn’t higher self, just proven different aspects of your mind that function apart from,one another. It can seem different, but I don’t believe it to be sinister. It can really help people overcome pain and trauma very wuickly, along with Christ of course.

I have studied NLP including reading several books and taking an introductory course. After the introductory course I decided to stop because I felt that what they were teaching is completely contrary to the church and to Christ. My problem with NLP and hypnosis is that it teaches you to rely on yourself and your own power for healing and not God or the church that to me is sinister in my opinion. As far as hypnosis goes I studied that as well and the church actually cautions people about using hypnosis. Once I found out that the church didn’t recommend using it I also stopped studying that. As I said before NLP and hypnosis are tools but you need to be extremely cautious when using them. For me there is too much of a chance of sinister consequences so I will not use them anymore.

 

[frobert]

NLP was co-founded by Bandler, a gestalt psychologist, and Ginder a linguist who studied the work of some of the great psychotherapist, and linguists of their time. In a nutshell it is a fusion of communication skills/techniques from transformational grammar (see Noam Chomsky) and hypnotic phenomena (see Milton Erickson, MD). NLP offers a powerhouse of psychotherapeutic tools. There is nothing sinister or sinful about NLP, and trance is not used to elicit hypnotic phenomena, but like all powerful tools they can be misused and abused when taken out of context. I think the first book Bandler and Grinder published was “Magic, Vol. 1: A Book About Language and Therapy.” I believe that this book should be a staple of any psychotherapist from novice to expert.

 

[frobert]

@Aydan: Oh, I think I misunderstood NLP. I thought these are only mind tricks. So to be concrete my question is: Is it allowed to use mind tricks (not NLP) like the Benjamin-Franklin-Effect or the Chameleon-Effect?

In his autobiography, Franklin explains how he dealt with the animosity of a rival legislator when he served in the Pennsylvania legislature in the 18th century:

Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return'd it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death.

In the above example the purpose was to change animosity to friendship and the method used was borrowing a book. Was it a mind trick or an understanding of human nature?

 

[Aydan]

I agree with everything you said except the part about it not being sinister. I think it is indeed sinister because it contains many of the same elements as transcendental meditation and the church very clearly tells us to stay away from that. There’s too much potential for abuse because this is a form of mind control. I still get emails from the course that I took and influencing people without them knowing and things of that nature. Please for anyone that is considering trying NLP please be extremely careful. I would not recommend it at all. By the way I just saw on the news that an attorney was using hypnosis to abuse his clients it is my sincere belief that NLP can also be used for evil. I know a lot of people don’t think it sinister but I certainly do.

NLP was co-founded by Bandler, a gestalt psychologist, and Ginder a linguist who studied the work of some of the great psychotherapist, and linguists of their time. In a nutshell it is a fusion of communication skills/techniques from transformational grammar (see Noam Chomsky) and hypnotic phenomena (see Milton Erickson, MD). NLP offers a powerhouse of psychotherapeutic tools. There is nothing sinister or sinful about NLP, and trance is not used to elicit hypnotic phenomena, but like all powerful tools they can be misused and abused when taken out of context. I think the first book Bandler and Grinder published was “Magic, Vol. 1: A Book About Language and Therapy.” I believe that this book should be a staple of any psychotherapist from novice to expert.

 

[frobert]

I agree with everything you said except the part about it not being sinister. I think it is indeed sinister because it contains many of the same elements as transcendental meditation and the church very clearly tells us to stay away from that. There’s too much potential for abuse because this is a form of mind control. I still get emails from the course that I took and influencing people without them knowing and things of that nature. Please for anyone that is considering trying NLP please be extremely careful. I would not recommend it at all. By the way I just saw on the news that an attorney was using hypnosis to abuse his clients it is my sincere belief that NLP can also be used for evil. I know a lot of people don’t think it sinister but I certainly do.

What was the purpose for your NLP training?

NLP was originally developed as a psychotherapeutic toolkit but was later adopted in other fields, such as advertising. I studied NLP as part of my post graduate work and attended several workshops at The NLP Center of New York, and an especially memorable workshop with Robert Dilts dealing with creativity. I don’t recall any similarities to transcendental meditation except perhaps for the elicitation and anchoring of the “relaxation response*”.

There are numerous incidents of attorneys as well as other professionals abusing clients, that this particular attorney used hypnosis as a aide does not make hypnosis in of itself evil.

If someone misuses their communication skills or knowledge of hypnotic phenomena to abuse others it is the person doing that should be considered evil not the NLP or hypnosis skills or relaxation response.

• Herbert Benson, MD created his own relaxation technique, that is described in his book The relaxation response (HarperCollins, 1975, 2000). Benson claims that his technique achieves the same results as Maharishi’s TM.

 

[Aydan]

I studied NLP when I was searching for relaxation techniques and I wanted to deal with some fears I had as well. I decided to take a course in it. I just found that the techniques were ineffective for me and then I found out there was so much potential for abuse and some of the techniques were those of transcendental meditation. The thing that disturbs me the most was the guy that I took the course from kept emphasizing a higher power rather than God. He actually said that God wasn’t necessary. For me it just wasn’t worth the risk to my soul. The risk for abuse is so great and I didn’t really benefit from the class it all or the books. The church cautions when using hypnosis and I think the same should apply for NLP as well.PS my course did have elements of transcendental meditation and the book I received has several of those techniques as well. I don’t want to mention them here because I don’t know if that’s allowed under CAF rules or not. But the main thing that I noticed from my course that was very similar to transcendental meditation was the focus on higher self and the focus on higher power. My trainer actually said that religion is a crutch. He is a very well-known NLP and hypnosis trainer.

What was the purpose for your NLP training?

NLP was originally developed as a psychotherapeutic toolkit but was later adopted in other fields, such as advertising. I studied NLP as part of my post graduate work and attended several workshops at The NLP Center of New York, and an especially memorable workshop with Robert Dilts dealing with creativity. I don’t recall any similarities to transcendental meditation except perhaps for the elicitation and anchoring of the “relaxation response*”.

There are numerous incidents of attorneys as well as other professionals abusing clients, that this particular attorney used hypnosis as a aide does not make hypnosis in of itself evil.

If someone misuses their communication skills or knowledge of hypnotic phenomena to abuse others it is the person doing that should be considered evil not the NLP or hypnosis skills or relaxation response.

• Herbert Benson, MD created his own relaxation technique, that is described in his book The relaxation response (HarperCollins, 1975, 2000). Benson claims that his technique achieves the same results as Maharishi’s TM.