NLP participants are taught that the human mind can be programmed, and that mis-programming by negative input is the norm.

Like Scientology, rebirthing and other alternative therapies (Raso 1994)(Lilienfeld 2003) NLP embraces this Null Hypothesis and the classic New Age concept of "clearing" these blocks (Singer 1996). While the more traditional therapies concentrate on solving problems by focusing on the reasons 'why' (Singer 1996), Neurolinguistic programming looks at the 'hows' to provide a quick fix to a solution.

NLP is widely promoted through the popular psychology, self development, and New Age sections of bookshops, and advertised in various media including the Internet and infomercials.

Foundational Assumptions

Distinct from its formal presuppositions, NLP incorporates a variety of foundational assumptions that precede the presuppositions. These are:

There is a mind-body (and some also include spirituality) connection.

The mind is broadly composed of a conscious and a subconscious (or unconscious) component.

A person's experience of the world is processed and organized exclusively in terms of the five senses.
 
Physiology, sensory representation ("submodality") and emotion comprise internal state.

Behavior is the result of systematically ordered sequences of sensory representations ("strategies").
 
All behavior occurs in the context of internal state.

Internal state mediates experience and influences or determines behavior.
 
Internal state and strategy -- hence behavior -- have a discernible and communicable structure.
 
People exhibit their internal state in their language (verbal and non-verbal).
 
Since behavior and its substrates -- internal state and strategy -- can be codified, a person's skill can be reproduced in another person.
 
Behavior is learned.
 
Direct and objective knowledge of the (external) world is not possible.

NLP was proposed in 1973 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder as a set of models and principles to describe the relationship between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic, both verbal and non-verbal) and how their interaction might be organized (programming) to affect an individual's mind, body and behavior. It is described by the original developers as "therapeutic magic" and "the study of the structure of subjective experience". It is predicated upon the assumption that all behaviors have a practically determinable structure.

NLP is based on New Age principles such as the belief in unlimited potential through access to subconscious engrams, and body language cues derived from the observation of “therapeutic wizards”.

Some techniques include behavior change, transforming beliefs, and treatment of traumas through techniques such as reframing and the "meta-modeling" proposed for exploring the personal limits of belief as expressed in language.

The practice initially attracted mostly therapists, although it eventually attracted business and sales people, and New Age believers. NLP has been applied to a number of fields such as sales, psychotherapy, communication, education, coaching, sport, business management, interpersonal relationships, seduction, occult and spirituality.

NLP has been criticized in scientific research reviews which conclude that it is scientifically unsupported and largely ineffective. Several reviews have concluded that NLP is merely pseudoscientific mass-marketed psychobabble. NLP is identified as a dubious therapy and described by experts such as Winkin, and the US-based NGO National Council Against Health Fraud as charlatanry and fraudulent and is promoted in the same mold as Dianetics and Scientology.
 

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