Neurolinguistic Programming is a powerful tool. It is the ability to change someone´s mind for them. Neurolinguistic Programming is a way of talking to a person on the deepest level possible. Like any tool, it has the ability to do great damage if used improperly.

The first principle is, as Qui-Gon Jinn said to Anakin Skywalker, YOUR FOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY. This is not the same as saying “believing makes it so.” Nor is it saying “Ignore it and it will go away.” Rather, it is a new paradigm for both communication and behavior. Neurolinguistic Programming has one purpose and one purpose only. That purpose is to capture and lead the imagination. In therapy, in self-hypnosis, in covert persuasion… NLP is a tool designed to destroy limiting beliefs, and to create new beliefs, new habits, and new directions of behavior that benefit the Neurolinguistic Programmer much more efficiently than the unconscious self-defeating habits that plagued civilized man for eons.

The second principle is Everything is Process. Every human emotion, every internal experience in the mind, is a process. By describing that process in vague, process-oriented language, it is possible to lead another person through the process. Furthermore, it is not resisted, because the person´s imagination is your ally in this art. “The more you may sense any doubt in your ability to commit the easier certainty of your single-mindedness to create this outcome grows.” This would be a perfect example of using the mind´s own way of talking to itself when talking to another person.

The third principle of Neurolinguistic Programming is that People´s Mental Images Have a Structure. People classify their experiences with submodalities. Change the location of existing materials, or change the contents, and you change the way the person feels. One advanced technique is to change the actual location of the person´s submodalities themselves. Usually, this involves moving a submodality into another submodality.

The fourth principle, often referred to as “the balance factor,” is to Create a Context Where the Natural Response is the One I Want. This means that all the suggestive, process language… all the embedded commands… all the ambiguities… have to be fit into a structure and context in which it is natural to describe this process. Very few people are going to allow you to put them into a trance to persuade them to do something, unless you make it seem natural for them to experience the behavior or emotion.

The fifth principle is to always communicate with an outcome in mind. There is no difference between a vivid description, and an detailed direction. Weasel phrases and verbal trickery alone are not enough to truly induce a state of trance. To influence a person to act, you must describe the action. Beyond mere shifts of language, the Neurolinguistic Programmer needs to be able to paint pictures in the mind with his words.

“People Exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced.”