Changing Belief Systems With NLP

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Summary: Detail Explanation of Beliefs and How to Change Them
Review: "Changing Belief Systems" is a thorough review of beliefs and how to change them, from a perspective afforded by Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Robert Dilts has, as always, taken a difficult subject and translated it into a readily understandable model. The book was a logical progression from logical levels, to how we represent a belief internally, and from simple beliefs about capability to core beliefs and beliefs about our own identity. All the while, the author explains the unique relationships of beliefs and belief systems, and how we can go about changing conflicting, or other, beliefs so that they support us. I recommend the book for those interested in an efficacious model of beliefs. It is educational and practical, although somewhat dry reading.

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Summary: Illogical levels
Review:

Firstly, I have to agree entirely with the previous reviewer who claimed that there isn't much NLP in this book. Since both Bandler and Grinder insist that NLP is the modelling of excellence - and everything else is just technique, this book is all about technique and very little to do with NLP. it is, moreover, mainly to do with a technique which, though high in the popularity ratings, actually makes little sense in the form in which it is presented here.

The so-called Logical Levels model was developed in the late 1980s, and this *appears* to be its first public appearance in book form. And a very underwhelming appearance it is.

Unlike most of this author's other books, the main text is simply an edited transcript of a training session run by the author somewhere in Europe (Holland?). And the difference is remarkable.
Instead of the usual pseudo-scientific, dry-as-dust style found in many of his other books, this time Dilts comes to life as a warm, enthusiastic character. Unfortunately, the actual contents of the presentation do not measure up to the style, and with the best will in the world this book is a far cry from the classic NLP seminar transcripts such as 'Frogs into Princes'.

As more and more NLPers are beginning to realise, despite the hype, the Logical Levels model is neither logical, nor anything to do with true "levels" in the sense that Bateson used the term (the Logical Levels model is *supposedly* based on Bateson's "Logical Levels of Learning" model).

The basic purpose of the book is apparently to illustrate how the Logical Levels model can be used in therapy to change beliefs. To do this, the author carries out two interventions which form the core of the text. Unfortunately what we actually get is a demonstration of how very directive, even dictatorial, some NLP techniques can be (wholly at odds with the 'permissive' style of Milton Erickson - whose work is often cited as one of the original sources NLP was based upon).

The final outcome is quite frankly a bit of a pig's ear. Dilts' explanations for what he's doing, and why he's doing it, vary in clarity from adequate to virtually non-existent.
We get the subject's initial reactions to their experience (a notoriously unreliable measure of the efficacy of this kind of event) and absolutely no follow-up details.
My own impression was that the two subjects were somewhat overawed by the opportunity to work so closely with one of the 'big names' in NLP, and were doing their best to match whatever it was they thought he expected of them. What I did NOT get was any sense that the sessions had brought about genuine, long term, beneficial changes.

Dilts fans may well enjoy this book. Others may find it a high price to pay for very little useful content.

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Summary: Demonstrates how NLP should be used in therapy.
Review: In this book, Robert gives the reader a firm idea of how and when beliefs are formed and the true power that beliefs can have upon every aspect of a persons being. Throughout this book, I noticed myself thinking that I was receiving good information about beliefs but very little in the applications of NLP. This book is structured from basically a transcript of a seminar where the subjects were seemingly psychologists and serve hardly any true practical value for means of demonstration in how to allow someone to change their beliefs. What I mean by this is, his subjects immediately dropped into trance at will and used statments like, "I have an identity complex with..."...These are statements you're not going to hear from a typical patient. Many of the examples he used in changing peoples beliefs were very vague and you're still left wondering what to do with all the knowledge you've been given. Overall, this book focuses on beliefs and what they are and attempts to talk about changing them but does so poorly and NLP is only slightly used. I would recommend this book after you've read some of the much more useful books by John Grinder and Richard Bandler such as Trance Formations.

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