History of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Read here about the exciting history of the emergence of NLP. We report on the early days and the key people involved. NLP was founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Many years later, Frank Pucelik re-emerged as the third co-founder. We report on this in the blog article "The Third Man in NLP".

In the early years and the first NLP books, the focus was on modeling the work of some outstanding therapists. John Grinder's doctoral advisor, the famous anthropologist Gregory Bateson, established some important contacts and initially supported the work of the two pioneers. Bandler and Grinder initially modeled the Gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, family therapist Virginia Satir, and hypnotherapist Dr. Milton H. Erickson. This led to the first NLP formats and methods, which then gained further dissemination.

Subsequently, more people came into contact with NLP and drove its dissemination and further development. Robert Dilts was particularly engaged in the further development, bringing many new approaches and impulses into NLP and continues to do so. The mass dissemination is primarily due to the American success coach Anthony Robbins.

History of NLP - Introduction

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is a communication and motivation model developed in the early 1970s that highlights the patterns outstanding individuals use in all conceivable social areas to achieve excellent results.
NLP is based on the fundamental idea of modeling. The patterns and skills discovered and revealed through this can lead to more personal growth, accelerated learning, and a significant improvement in communication skills.
The founders of NLP are John Grinder and Richard Bandler. They developed NLP through a combination of observation and analysis of the most successful psychotherapists of their time.
Through NLP, it becomes possible to discover the differences between people who achieve outstanding success in dealing with themselves and others and those who are not able to influence themselves or others effectively. Now read how the adventure "NLP" began.

On this topic, there is a 75-minute recording of an online seminar in our online academy that you can watch in full length immediately. Just click the button "to the video" to learn more.

History of NLP - Overview

The original form of today's NLP emerged in the early 1970s. Richard Bandler, who was a student at the University of California in Santa Cruz at the time, met the assistant professor of linguistics John Grinder there.

Grinder, who was particularly interested in advanced teaching methods, quickly became aware of Bandler's work and conducted a series of seminars in consultation with him.

Initially, these seminars had more the status of group experiments. However, with the increasing experience and knowledge of Bandler and Grinder, the participants experienced more and more exciting processes of change. Thus, a collaboration developed between Bandler and Grinder, which became closer and deeper over the years.

They jointly pursued the question of why some well-known psychotherapists had so much success in their work with their patients and what this success was based on. Meanwhile, many others who treated the same patients with the same disorders failed to bring about such dramatic changes. Bandler and Grinder's initial hypothesis was that they assumed a common or similar behavioral pattern in the successful psychotherapists in their work with people, based on which they could achieve such outstanding results.

These common or similar behavioral patterns have now become known as NLP or the structure of magic.

Thus, they began to investigate and analyze the therapeutic forms of the top therapists of that time:

• Virginia Satir, an extraordinary family therapist
• Fritz Perls, an innovative Gestalt therapist and founder of this therapeutic direction, as well as
• Milton Erickson, a world-renowned hypnotherapist.

They were always guided by the hope of discovering patterns and structures that could explain the success of these top therapists in dealing with their clients.

After long and careful observation, Grinder and Bandler discovered that despite the diversity of the three successful psychotherapists, they used surprisingly similar basic patterns in their work with other people.

Grinder and Bandler documented these basic patterns in writing, refined them, tested them in their seminars with other students who volunteered, and ultimately developed an elegant model that was applicable for achieving more effective communication, accelerated learning, personal change, and to experience more enjoyment and joy in life.

They called it NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming. "Neuro" because it involves strategies that strongly include the functions of our nervous system (brain + spinal cord + senses). It is about perceiving more accurately and more purposefully, changing unwanted feelings and behavior patterns in harmony with oneself.

"Linguistics" because it is also very much about the linguistic aspect. We maintain both communication outward to other people and communication inward to our wonderful "biocomputer" - our brain. Unfortunately, it seems that not all inputs reach this biocomputer. Therefore, advanced communication methods are also needed here.

"Programming" means that we want to rely on systematic methods in all of this and not learn through trial and error. It is about discovering procedures and processes that can also be transferred to other areas and people. Many NLP techniques are content-free, meaning the same method can be applied to headaches, a phobia, or to build an irresistible motivation. NLP describes approaches and processes that can be followed and work independently of the content.

From this approach, NLP developed in two complementary directions:

• In the first direction as a method for discovering the patterns of excellence in any conceivable social area.
• In the second direction as a compilation of the effective possibilities of thinking and communicating that outstanding personalities use in this field.

The Life of Richard Bandler

Richard Bandler was born in 1950 in the state of New Jersey. In the mid-60s, he joined the hippie movement and was one of the long-haired flower children. In 1967, he organized rock concerts in his spare time and gave Dan Spitzer, the son of Robert Spitzer, a renowned psychiatrist and president of the publishing house "Science & Behavior Books", drum lessons. Through this music instruction, he often conversed with Mrs. Spitzer, who discovered that Richard Bandler was very open to all philosophical questions and had a special way of teaching her son how to play the piano. Over time, the Spitzer family tried to further promote Richard Bandler's talents, as they saw in him a versatile and extraordinarily skilled young man. Robert Spitzer later employed him in his publishing house and taught him various publishing activities.

After college, Richard Bandler began studying philosophy, mathematics, and computer science at the University of California in Santa Cruz. However, over time, behavioral sciences and their study became increasingly important to Bandler alongside these subjects. He paid particular attention to the therapeutic methods of Friedrich Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy.

One day, he met the successful family therapist Virginia Satir at one of her workshops in Reno and was very impressed by her work.

By reporting his experiences with Virginia Satir, he received a commission from Robert Spitzer on behalf of his publishing house to travel to Canada and record a four-week seminar with Virginia Satir on tape and transcribe it. While Bandler accepted this assignment and spent the following months intensively studying Satir's work, he began to adopt more and more of Virginia Satir's manner of expression and word choice, much to the amazement of his friends.

Shortly after Bandler edited and transcribed the material from Virginia Satir, Robert Spitzer asked him to edit the material from Friedrich Perls, the well-known Gestalt therapist, and draft a manuscript. As with Virginia Satir, Bandler intensively engaged with the extensive material from Perls and began to imitate his speaking style and even his behavior again. It is reported that Spitzer even once accidentally addressed Bandler as "Fritz" because he behaved so similarly.

Fritz Perls inspired Bandler so much that he published three books with the material he gained. The titles of the books were:

• "The Gestalt Approach"
• "Eye Witness to Therapy" and
• "Legacy from Fritz".

The Life of John Grinder

John Thomas Grinder was born on January 10, 1939, in Michigan, USA. He studied at the University of San Francisco and completed his philosophy studies in the early 60s. He then joined the military and served as a Green Beret in Europe. After working for several years as an undercover agent for the CIA, he began his linguistics studies at the University of California in San Diego in the late 60s.

In 1972, he became an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Santa Cruz. Since John Grinder was interested in advanced learning methods, he became a supervisor for Richard Bandler's Gestalt therapy seminars.

To further expand the newly discovered field of NLP, he developed new patterns in the mid-70s. The result was the current model of NLP in the mid-80s.

Grinder has since written 14 books on NLP and numerous others on linguistics. His work has been significantly influenced by his mentor Gregory Bateson. Bateson was also the one who introduced John Grinder and Richard Bandler to the hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson.

Beginnings of NLP

In the spring of 1972, driven by the lack of practical relevance in his studies, Bandler offered a seminar on Gestalt therapy himself. This was possible for students in an advanced semester at the time. His interest was primarily in exploring the therapeutic effects of Gestalt work within a group and developing his theoretical competence in practice.

During these seminars, John Grinder became aware of Bandler's work and joined him in his research. From then on, both worked together on Bandler's seminars, with John Grinder still being a novice in the field of counseling and psychotherapy.

Between 1972 and 1974, there was an intensive and fruitful collaboration, with Grinder benefiting from Bandler's knowledge of psychotherapy and Bandler benefiting from Grinder's knowledge of linguistics.

This combination was particularly valuable for modeling the therapeutic achievements of Virginia Satir, Friedrich Perls, and the hypnotherapist Milton Erickson. In modeling, specific skills of a person are made learnable and usable for others through systematic and precise observation and questioning. Patterns and rules were derived so that the skills of interest could also be imitated by third parties.

Bandler and Grinder were not primarily concerned with describing something true, but rather with making something useful learnable for others. As confirmation of the success of their analyses and observations with Satir and Perls, they saw the confirmation that they could produce the same results with other people as the person they had modeled.

In early 1974, both began developing the first meta-model structures with a group of students that settled in a house on Mission Street in Santa Cruz. The meta-model is, put simply, a model of very specific questions that can uncover thought structures and yield profound information. The starting point of the research in the meta-model groups was the consideration that the verbal exchange between therapist and client represents a central characteristic of any therapeutic change work. Consequently, it was assumed that specific language patterns would crystallize and could be cemented in the verbal communication of Friedrich Perls and Virginia Satir, which would make problematic processes conscious and induce changes.

Through John Grinder's linguistic background knowledge, both researchers were able to create a model that allowed for the targeted collection of information about a person's world of imagination. They modeled the essential linguistic skills of Perls and Satir and succeeded in explicitly describing these structures and thus being able to pass them on.

From late 1974, Bandler and Grinder regularly attended teaching seminars of the hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson. Again, with the primary goal of studying Erickson's work with people and addressing his language patterns and behaviors. The results obtained were refined as with Satir and Perls, documented in writing, tested for their applicability in student groups, and integrated into the existing body of knowledge.

In the years 1974 and 1975, the goal of the group work was to develop further formal models for communication. Since, in addition to verbal behavior, the nonverbal behavior of Perls, Satir, and Erickson seemed to contribute significantly to the achieved therapeutic effect, the effective nonverbal elements were primarily analyzed and attempts were made to represent them. The resulting models were later used not only for psychotherapy but also for everyday communication.

Various methods were applied and newly conceived, which, alongside the methods of Perls and Satir, led to the present form of NLP. Their first discoveries were documented by Bandler and Grinder in the four books published between 1975 and 1977.

These were:

• The Structure of Magic I and II
• Patterns of the hypnotic techniques of Milton H. Erickson I and II.

In 1977, Grinder and Bandler held their first public seminars in the USA. The seminars quickly gained great popularity. The recognition of NLP grew steadily in the following years and it is now used worldwide, especially in therapy, education, and management.

In 1982, Bandler and Grinder developed the concept of reframing. It shows how one can make contact with unconscious parts that are the cause of unwanted behavior or symptoms of illness. In this way, changes became possible that were previously only conceivable under classical hypnosis conditions.

In 1984, the concept of submodalities was invented, along with one of the most effective and impressive techniques of NLP. The submodalities represent a kind of programming language of the brain that every person can consciously use if they know the commands. People take in information with their five senses, process it, and store it internally as events and thoughts that are represented within their senses - the so-called modalities. These modalities can be specified more precisely, making it possible to inquire more accurately about the inner image of a past experience. The special thing about this method is that it exploits the fact that the human brain reacts not only to WHAT we think but also to HOW a person thinks, e.g., rather in colored images or in black-and-white images.

In 1988, Tad James developed Time Line Therapy. This is a method particularly suitable for gently healing traumatic experiences from the past. With the help of the timeline, unconscious or repressed traumas that are the cause of physical or emotional problems can be found and mentally processed.

In 1990, Robert Dilts developed Reimprinting, a process for changing limiting beliefs and convictions that arose from the relationship structures of our childhood. An imprint is a significant experience from the past from which the affected person has formed a belief or a bundle of beliefs that are effective in their world. Such an imprint usually also involves an unconscious role assumption from other important people involved. The purpose of Re-Imprinting is to find the missing resources, change the belief, and adapt the role model developed there to the real and acute circumstances of the affected person.

Contrary to public opinion, Grinder and Bandler did not create NLP alone. There is a third collaborator who, after thirty years of silence, is now coming forward: Frank Pucelik

The life of Frank Pucelik

Robert Frank Pucelik was born in 1945 in the US state of Nebraska. Conflict, violence, and an alcoholic father gave him a difficult childhood. Even as a young person, he felt he was on the losing side of life. After graduating from high school, he studied psychology and political science but had to leave college after three years due to poor performance. To avoid conscription, Pucelik volunteered for service in the U.S. Navy. There he received medical training and worked as a field medic. In 1966, he found himself poorly prepared as a shooter in the Vietnam War and referred to this time as '13 months in hell.'

After the war, he returned to the United States severely traumatized and resumed his studies. To process his trauma, he began to engage in personal development, especially with Fritz Perls' Gestalt therapy. He now excelled in his studies and became socially active. During this time, Pucelik also met Judith Ann DeLozier. The two fell in love and got married. In June 1970, their son Eric was born.

A year later, the family moved to Santa Cruz, and the two students continued their studies at the highly sought-after Kresge College of the University of California. There, Pucelik also became socially active in the student crisis intervention center and began to lead Gestalt therapeutic groups, as he found this approach extremely helpful for crisis work.

Richard Bandler, who knew nothing of Pucelik's groups, decided to lead Gestalt therapeutic groups at Kresge College himself and quickly gained attention. Pucelik recognized that Bandler was a highly talented Gestalt trainer, and thus a successful collaboration quickly developed. They offered joint groups and later developed the 'Meta' project together with John Grinder. The joint project began to explode formally under the hands of Grinder, Bandler, and Pucelik, and they realized that they had discovered something groundbreaking. Initially, Pucelik was Bandler's partner, but he began to spend more and more time with Grinder. 'It was still the three of us,' Pucelik said, 'I just had a different role. I became the organizer, the intermediary, the guinea pig, the confidant. For a while, I was the observer from the third position that they could use to check their own thoughts and patterns. I was able to give them feedback and tell them what I thought worked and what didn't.'

In 1973, Pucelik's marriage to his wife Judith also ended. Shortly thereafter, she became the partner of John Grinder. As if that weren't enough, Pucelik met Leslie Cameron, and the two became a couple. But just three years later, in 1976, after Bandler invited Pucelik's partner Leslie to accompany him, Grinder, Judith DeLozier, and their son Eric on one of their study trips with Milton H. Erickson, the big break came. When the group returned, Leslie unexpectedly informed Pucelik that she would be separating from him. She wanted to be with Bandler now. A few days later, Pucelik met with Bandler. He bluntly urged him to leave. Pucelik, who found himself once again on the losing side of life, suddenly lost his partner, his research team, his profession, his friends, and his source of income.
Nevertheless, he completed his bachelor's degree in psychology that same year and founded the 'Meta Institute' in San Diego a year later. He also completed his master's degree in psychology and organizational consulting, held a professorship at Oklahoma University in Norman, and expanded the institute founded in San Diego to 'Meta International, Inc.' In 1987, he established Russian contacts, moved to Moscow, and began an international career as a management consultant. Today, he serves as president of the 'Pucelik Consulting Group' in Odessa, Ukraine.

With the expulsion by Bandler, Pucelik's contribution to the emergence of NLP was also erased. Bandler and Grinder also increasingly became independent of the Meta group, and it began to dissolve. Legally, however, the term belonged to the group. So Bandler and Grinder decided to call it 'Neuro-Linguistic Programming' (NLP) in the future. In the early 1990s, Bandler began to claim sole authorship for NLP. He tried to enforce this legally in two court cases. However, his efforts failed. John Grinder and Frank Pucelik still share a personal friendship. In a later interview, Grinder emphasized: 'None of us could have created NLP alone. It was a real collaborative effort of three people.'

Biography of Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir was born in 1916 on a farm in the state of Wisconsin/USA. After graduating from high school and college, she worked as a teacher for six years to gain insights into the specific situation of children from different backgrounds. In addition to her teaching work, she studied social work and simultaneously underwent psychoanalytic training. By opening her own practice and involving the family in her therapeutic work, she became very well-known within a few years, as her family-based method of treatment was considered revolutionary. The success of her method proved her right, and she was offered a training course for psychiatric doctors, which she attended from 1955 to 1958 while working in her now two practices.

In 1977, Virginia Satir founded the 'Avanta Network' to bring together people who had received comprehensive training from her and shared her values.

On September 10, Virginia Satir died at the age of 72 from jaundice.

Biography of Fritz Perls

Friedrich Salomon Perls was born on June 8, 1893, in Berlin as the third child. His strict Jewish upbringing and the authoritarian behavior of his father shaped his rebellious attitude, and he soon became known as difficult to educate. Friedrich Perls was a gifted student with excellent performance.

He began his medical studies in 1914, served in World War I in 1916, completed his studies with a doctorate in 1921, and opened his own practice as a psychiatrist and neurologist.

In 1933, Perls had to leave Germany after the Nazis came to power. Initially, he went with his wife and daughter Renate to Amsterdam. In 1934, they emigrated to South Africa, where he accepted an offer as a training analyst. After the resignation of Prime Minister Jan Smuts, the family emigrated to America. There, Perls opened a practice after initial difficulties.

From 1948 to 1950, Perls worked with Paul Goodman on the development of Gestalt therapy, and the resulting book was published in 1951. In 1969, Perls founded a Gestalt kibbutz at Lake Cowichan in Canada, which was intended to enable continuous growth. During a trip to Europe in the winter of 1969, Perls unexpectedly fell ill and the died on his way to Chicago in March 1970.

History of NLP - Biography of Milton H. Erickson

Milton H. Erickson was born in 1901 in Nevada/USA. He suffered from severe physical impairments since birth. He was colorblind, suffered from tonal deafness, and was dyslexic.

In 1919, Erickson graduated from high school and contracted polio. He fell into a coma, and when he awoke, he was completely paralyzed and had lost all body perception. After therapy and constant training for minimal movement, Erickson's condition improved, and he was able to walk again and attend college after a few years.

In his second year of study, he came into contact with the technique of hypnosis and began to hypnotize people himself from then on.

After his studies, he became the chief psychiatrist of the research department of the Worcester State Hospital.

In 1947, Erickson developed a severe allergy to pollen and was again plagued by severe muscle pain and numerous collapses. The pollen allergy eventually required a move to Phoenix/Arizona, where he opened his own practice.

In 1953, he fell ill again with polio and suffered from recurring illness attacks.

In 1957, he founded the American Society for Clinical Psychology and initiated the journal 'The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis'.

In addition to co-authoring five books, Erickson was the author of 130 articles. After many years of suffering, he passed away in March 1980.

He is now considered the most significant hypnotherapist of the last century.

Biography of Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson gave many interdisciplinary impulses throughout his life and was thus one of the significant personalities of the 20th century. His insights integrated the systems-theoretical approach of cybernetics into the human sciences and provided a foundation for systemic work in psychotherapeutic practice. However, his works often do not receive enough attention, as they are both linguistically and content-wise unconventional, complex, and transdisciplinary.

He was born in 1904 into a bourgeois family in Grantchester, England. His family background (his father William Bateson was a famous zoologist) and the proximity to the university city of Cambridge led the young Gregory to study zoology at Cambridge University. After his journey to the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin once researched, he returned to England in 1925 to begin studying anthropology.

Two years after the beginning of his engagement with anthropology, he traveled to New Guinea to conduct field research among the Baining and subsequently the Sulka, which would become the basis of his anthropological thesis in 1930. Since Bateson was bored with the formal requirements of ethnographic research at the time, this research stay was frustrating. In 1932, during his second research trip to the Iatmul in New Guinea, he met the anthropologist Margaret Mead, who made him aware of the differences between the sexes. However, instead of focusing on a typology of gender differences, Bateson preferred to address the question of the origins of gender stereotypes, which he could observe among the Iatmul. This led to his concept of "schismogenesis," which was meant to explain how these cultural ideals arise and reproduce. According to this concept, it is not the innate character traits that affect individual behavior, but mainly the mutually influencing, cumulative human interactions and relationship dynamics. This concept also influenced his ideas about the origins of diseases. If character traits are not innate, then psychological problems cannot be attributed to internal causes. Therefore, the causes of diseases must be sought in human interactions. After his return to England in 1933, Bateson began to systematically analyze his ethnographic research findings and look for patterns of human interaction. He attempted to create a transcultural, universal theory of personality-forming interaction patterns, culminating in the publication of "Naven" in 1936.

In 1936, he went to Bali with Margaret Mead, whom he had married a year earlier, where they conducted a detailed ethnographic study, particularly examining the socialization processes of the Balinese. Surprisingly, they found that, unlike the Iatmul, the Balinese do not exhibit cumulative interaction patterns that, according to the concept of schismogenesis, should be decisive for the processual formation of personality structures. The everyday life of the Balinese knew no cumulative emotional, rhetorical, or musical patterns. The harmoniously living Balinese avoided any form of peaks that could jeopardize the stability of daily life. Mead and Bateson attributed this to socialization measures. Thus, cumulative tendencies, which they still considered universal, were discouraged from the beginning and generally devalued in children.

In the early 1940s, after the publication of "Balinese Character," Bateson, now in New York, focused mainly on social learning processes and communication. His interest was particularly in the question of how ideologies arise at the individual and societal levels and how they are learned and reproduced. His attention increasingly shifted away from ethnographic research and towards learning theories in the behavioral sciences. He engaged with Pavlov's theory of conditioning and Skinner's theory of positive and negative reinforcers in the process of conditioning. However, Bateson criticized the approach of these researchers, who often focused on individual learned behavior patterns. He emphasized that learning processes are also cumulative. Over time, one learns not only the new behavior pattern – one also learns to learn. These considerations resulted in Bateson's distinction between "proto-learning" and "deutero-learning." Proto-learning refers to the learning of simple behavior patterns, while deutero-learning leads to the formation of perception, feeling, and thinking patterns, which in turn affects proto-learning and thus has a self-reinforcing character.

Bateson's engagement with circular learning processes subsequently led him to cybernetics. Cybernetics emerged in the mid-20th century when mathematician Norbert Wiener compared the mechanical feedback loop of anti-aircraft guns with the human nervous system. This feedback process leads to the evaluation of the effects of automatic actions, after which future behavior is corrected – thus, a learning process occurs within the system (where there is also an information exchange between the systems).

As a result, a series of transdisciplinary congresses were held, to which Gregory Bateson was also invited. He is mainly credited with bringing the system-oriented concepts of cybernetics into the human sciences, particularly into psychiatry. Psychopathological phenomena are viewed from a systemic perspective as processes rather than as standalone objects. Consequently, it becomes irrelevant what triggered these processes; it is more meaningful to ask how they are restructured – an aspect that was now applied in psychotherapeutic practice. However, Bateson could not make statements about how exactly this perception of reality is altered and introduced into the system so that subsequent information processing can be re-regulated. This project was taken up in the 1970s by Bandler and Grinder.

After separating from Margaret Mead, Bateson moved to San Francisco, where he became a member of the Palo Alto Group. During this time, his collaboration with psychiatrist Jürgen Ruesch began. Bateson and Ruesch attempted to establish a general theory of human communication and to explain psychiatric phenomena from a cybernetic perspective systemically. Particularly influential in this context was the concept of "double-bind", which Bateson regarded as the cause of schizophrenic phenomena. According to this, schizophrenics are unable to operate on the communicative " meta-level ", i.e., to decipher the meanings of verbal and nonverbal messages depending on the context. Bateson attributed this to the fact that contradictory statements were repeatedly made in their family environment, the interpretation of which had negative consequences in any case – hence the "double-bind" designation. In this way, psychopathological phenomena are traced back to communicative disturbances within the family.

In psychotherapeutic work, these double-bind relationships could now be restructured, but at that time, there were no concrete strategies to systematically capture the change work. When the Mental Research Institute (MSI) was founded in Palo Alto in 1958 by Jackson, Jules Riskin, and Virginia Satir for this purpose, Bateson initially remained involved in his advisory role. However, in 1963, he withdrew and turned to dolphin research. He spent a year observing the communication between dolphins on St. Thomas Island near Puerto Rico and later in Hawaii until 1967.

Influenced by the ecological and political crisis of the 1960s, Bateson was involved in planning a congress in 1967 that aimed to address the impact of human thought habits on the environment. He wanted to draw attention to how dangerous the interaction within and between systems is when no self-correction occurs, which can result in planetary disasters. Although he had little influence on ecological awareness at that time, this changed a few years later when he became an unwitting icon of the ecology and New Age movement in California.

From 1972, he taught at the University of California in Santa Cruz, where he met John Grinder and later Richard Bandler. Through Bateson, the two became aware of Milton H. Erickson, whose therapeutic work inspired the observations of Grinder and Bandler, which would soon become the foundation of NLP.

In the last years of his life, he engaged in an attempt to synthesize cybernetics and evolution, which brought him back to his beginnings in zoology. Bateson died in 1980 of lung cancer. Thus ended the life of one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.

Biography of Robert Dilts

Robert Brian Dilts was born on March 21, 1955, in the United States. He received his degree in behavioral technology from the University of California and also received the 1977 President's Underground Scholarship for research on eye movement in connection with brain functions. He is active in the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as an English-speaking author, trainer, and NLP consultant. Robert Dilts further developed the NLP founded by John Grinder and Richard Bandler and has played a significant role in the continued spread of NLP.

Dilts is primarily known for his development of the Neurological Levels. This model is now trained in nearly all NLP Practitioner trainings worldwide. Although the name has led to discussions repeatedly, the usefulness and effectiveness of this model have been confirmed thousands of times. In addition, he has made an excellent name for himself through various modeling projects. He examines, among other things, the creativity strategies of Walt Disney and Albert Einstein and developed the strategies named after them.

Robert Dilts has been a trainer since 1975. His (co-)developed models are:

SCORE: Stands as an abbreviation for: Symptom, Cause, Outcome, Resource, Effect. A model for the systematic treatment of problems. It can also be used to gather the necessary information at the beginning of coaching.

The neurological levels of NLP: Serves the change work. Through the model, one can identify the levels that are meaningful for a change.

Meta-Mirror Format: Format for use in interpersonal conflicts. Enables better communication.

Sleight of Mouth: A collection of patterns for powerful reframing. Also useful for enhancing quick-wittedness.

Robert Dilts is recognized as an international developer, trainer, and practitioner. Worldwide, he has coached and advised people in a variety of professions.

From 1979 to 1981, Robert Dilts was appointed Vice President and Director of Research for the training department and research in NLP, where he worked with Leslie Cameron-Bandler-Lebeau, David Gordon, and Maribeth Meyers-Anderson to create the curricula and testing procedures for the first NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner certification programs.

In 1981, Robert Dilts developed NLP concepts that were important for training, further education, and personal development. He invented several programs that particularly focused on spelling and other strategies.

In 1982, the co-founder of NLP was involved in the establishment of the Dynamic Learning Center.

In 1991, the NLP University was founded by him, Judith DeLozier, and Theresa Epstein. Furthermore, the three founded Dynamic Learning Publications and the Academy for Behavioral Technology.

In 1994, Robert Dilts, along with Tim Hallbom and Suzi Smith, founded the Institute for Advanced Studies of Health (IASH). Here, research and dissemination for the use of NLP methods in the field of health takes place. Additionally, further health certification trainings are held here, resulting in certified NLP doctors.

Moreover, Robert Dilts is also the co-founder of the biofeedback device, which could also be referred to as NeuroLink. This can be used for recording and monitoring heart rate, body temperature, and the difference between the left and right halves of the body. He attempted to measure the activities of the nervous system with artificial intelligence and to apply NLP methods. Through this, he helped people achieve optimal health and enhance learning as well as personal performance.

Robert Dilts has written many books, some of his most important works are:

Identity, Belief Systems, and Health: Higher Levels of NLP Change Work

200 pages, Junfermann Verlag; Edition: 6
ISBN 3873870304

Robert Dilts

The Change of Belief Systems: NLP Belief Work

232 pages, Junfermann Verlag; Edition: 6
ISBN 3873870681

Robert Dilts, Robert McDonald

The Magic of Language: Applied NLP

260 pages, Junfermann, Edition: 4
ISBN 3873874458

Richard Bandler, John Grinder

The Hero's Journey: On the Path to Self-Discovery

256 pages, Junfermann, Edition: 1
ISBN 3873877783

Richard Bandler, John Grinder

Important Figures in NLP:

Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, Tony Robbins, Bert Hellinger, Gunther Schmidt

Conclusion

Over the years, the first NLP methods have been refined further – to the form in which they are trained and applied today.

Especially in recent years, NLP has been increasingly discovered for current business processes and is increasingly learned and applied in practice by business people from the fields of marketing, sales, personnel and employee training, leadership, and organization.

Due to the increasing demand for NLP training, more and more people are being trained in this sector and passing on what they have learned to others. In this way, NLP is likely to continue to refine and improve in the coming years.

Bibliography

Bander, R. & Grinder, J. (1981): Paths of Brief Therapy. Neurolinguistic Programming. Paderborn. Junfermann.

Hain, P. (2001): The Secret of Therapeutic Effect. Heidelberg. Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag.

Hoischen, T. (2003): Is NLP a Key Qualification in Personnel Management? Master's Thesis. Bad Lippspringe. Catholic University of Applied Sciences North Rhine-Westphalia, Department of Social Work. Available at: www.Hoischen.de/coach/Publications/kfh2003.pdf.

Jürgens, G. & Stahl, T. (1982): Conversation with Virginia Satir. Integrative Therapy.

Short Biography of Fritz Perls. Available at: www.craniosacrale-koerpertherapie.de/perls.htm. (12.02.2004).

O'Conner, J. & Seymour, J. (1992): Neurolinguistic Programming. Successful Communication and Personal Development. Freiburg. Verlag für angewandte Kinesiologie.

Staemmler, F.M & Bock, W. (1987): Redesign of Gestalt Therapy. Holistic Change in the Therapeutic Process. Munich. Verlag J. Pfeiffer.

Zeig, J.K. (2002): Individual Instruction with Erickson. Heidelberg. Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag.

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