Introduction to NLP: An Evening With Richard Bandler, 7th October 2009 - by Matthew Wingett

The Evening with Richard Bandler at the Ibis Hotel, Lillie Road, Earl's Court, is a great chance for people who are not aware of Richard Bandler's work to receive an Introduction to NLP, and a wonderful opportunity to see Richard Bandler in action before committing to a full NLP training course.

Whatever the individual reasons for those who attend, Richard Bandler knows he will make an impact on every last member of his audience. A few minutes into his Introduction to NLP, he announces:

"You've got to remember - I'm one of the world's greatest hypnotists. If you came here thinking that this evening wasn't going to make a change in your life - it's already too late!"

He grins a grin and moves on, relating with the easy style of a highly experienced performer stories of how he developed NLP. It is fascinating to see Richard Bandler go out in front of an audience that isn't fully aware of his work, and win them over in a few brief moments.

Since tonight is an Introduction to NLP, Richard Bandler relates how NLP started: with an intention to model and replicate the ways in which successful people did what they did, both at the conscious and unconscious levels. 

He tells us how he started with the few successful therapists that he knew and went on from there. His research was extensive, he recalls. As well as closely observing successful therapists, he also interviewed hundreds of people in order to work out how they had managed to overcome their phobias. Once he had worked out how to do it, Richard Bandler then set about teaching other people to do the same. Phobia cure was only the starting point. Over time, Richard Bandler worked out how NLP techniques could be used to model all sorts of behaviours, he explains.

At times searingly funny, at others challenging, and at others again dismissive and rebellious in his attitude to the conventional psychiatric community, Richard Bandler is always a delight to listen to. This evening, his introduction to NLP goes on for hours, yet seems to glide by in minutes. He is, no doubt about it, mesmerising.

Richard Bandler takes the Introduction to NLP to a new level by questioning one audience member about how he has been obsessing about a particular event for years. The young man estimates that the negative thinking takes up about three hours of his time every day. Richard invites him on stage and starts to ask him really precise questions about how he does what he does. To those who have not seen Richard's method of working with client's before, the approach can come as either a revelation or a shock. Richard Bandler cajoles, challenges and mocks his client's current attitudes, in an effort to get him to see things differently. Then, when he is ready, he gives the client an NLP technique to try out.

To the audience's astonishment, this man who had previously been obsessing on a daily basis, can now no longer bring back the strong emotion he had previously attached to it. Later, during the interval, I see him standing outside the seminar room, looking amazed and a little disoriented at the sudden change that has come over him. This introduction to NLP, it seems, was more than he expected.  

After the break, Richard Bandler continues the introduction to NLP by demonstrating a very fast remedy to help a young woman get over her fear of public speaking. Working to bring her out of her shell, Richard succeeds in getting this previously timid woman to shout "F*** off" at the audience. Once again, it is a very big change, brought about apparently effortlessly through the application of NLP techniques, and the audience appreciates the humour of it by bursting into applause at the young woman's new-found confidence.

Richard Bandler winds the evening up by exhorting those present to spread a little love in the world. "After all, freedom is everything, and love is all the rest," he intones. It is a magical evening, which draws a standing ovation for the man who started it all. It has been a very powerful introduction to NLP - straight from the source - and many people go away considering where to go next for further NLP training. The best answer, of course, is from Richard Bandler himself!

I notice in the crowd leaving the Introduction to NLP, the face of a celebrity in the audience. Russell Boulter, previously the actor who played DS John Boulton in ITV's The Bill, has been bowled over by Richard Bandler. In a brief interview, Boulter reveals that he now incorporates NLP techniques in his work as a coach training City bankers to give more powerful and effective presentations. He works in places across the world, in Hong Kong, Germany and the US, to name a few of them. "It is," he says, "Quite humbling to see Richard Bandler - the man himself - doing his thing. His NLP techniques are so effective. I have seen major bankers transformed by them, from gibbering wrecks terrified of giving presentations, to super-confident individuals with the world at their feet. This is the work that I do. NLP training is a highly effective tool. - Hats off to Richard Bandler - the man who started it all!"

For the date of the next Introduction to NLP, to be taught by Richard Bandler at NLP LIFE's Training seminars, and to find out more about our Corporate Training Programme, please click here, now.