Hello Jackie,

There are two different schools of NLP. Oh, there are variations within the different people who train others in NLP, but these differences are still based around making NLP what NLP was designed to eliminate - mediocrity. This first school of thought is one that thinks - I know NLP. Talk about a real case of premature - er, em, closure. They have built the tightest box of all. A box that utilizes the skills of NLP in a way that makes sure that no one can lead them out of their box. While they chant -- this is what you can't do, I know I have attempted to do it -- for about thirty seconds -- and it didn't work!

Now, the second school, so to speak, is one that says - look, listen - we have learned how to do many different things with this technology -- but we still don't know -- No, we still don't even begin to suspect, to have a clue as to what we can do next. This school is based on the principle - if it works - don't use it. People can become superstitious very quickly, this is where success can become dangerous. If I did X, and X worked -- X must be the thing to do. Forget the rest of the world, forget what we have yet to look at, to think about, to dream, to discover, to enjoy, to learn... Shit -- how the fuck can anybody even begin to think that they know anything! Whenever I do something that really knocks my socks off, I put it on the side - I don't want to do it again. I figure, if what I put on the side is some kind of major breakthrough it simply will come back on its own.

There is no shortage of new ideas. At one time the sky was the limit, then the moon - now the universe. Scientists know very little about not very much. They don't know how gravity works, how electricity works. Sure, they know how to use things, but that is about the size of it. This is where they use the fudge factor. They make something up like gravitons... Yeah! That is how it works, gravitons. But where they go wrong is the same place 99% of NLPer's go wrong. They start to believe that the model is real. And they say -- since I can't do it, then we can't do it (talk about ego). The map does not even offer a hint about what the territory might be - no, not in the slightest!

When I decided to get my pilot's license some years back, I also decided to get it all done in a week's time. I knew very little about aerodynamics, weather systems, FAA rules and regulations - that is being kind to myself - as I knew next to nothing about these things.

Yet, to get my pilot's license, I had to not only learn this information, but I also had to learn how to perform the function called flight. I figured no big deal, I can drive a car, this has got to be easier - a lot less traffic to deal with, no stop lights, no pedestrians to watch out for.

So anyway, I went to the airport to complete my journey, which was to have in my hands my pilot's license in only seven days. There were seven flight schools at North Perry airport, and the first five told me that what I wanted to do simply could not be done. Of course I had realized that they were only telling me what they could not do while making the mistake of thinking that who they were was an accurate representation of the entire human race. I figured that they had every right to be confused. After all, look at the box they were living in.

So, when I went to the sixth flight school, realizing that I had to find a way to communicate what I wanted to do in a way that would be accepted, I lied. I said that I wanted to learn how to fly, and that I had wanted to get in as many hours as was humanly possible in the next seven days. And that after that I was going out of the country for a long time, could they fit me in???

To make what should have been a short story a bit longer, I did what I set out to do. I had my pilot's license in my hands on the seventh day. It was one the easiest things I had ever learned how to do. Of course I acted totally surprised by what I had accomplished. Because had I admitted that I had planed the whole thing, even though I already had the ticket in my hands, they still would have said that it couldn't be done. Their box, not mine!!!!!! I had learned to make the distinction, hear what I'm saying?

Be well Jackie, and keep doing new things. As for those who have already figured out what the limits of NLP are, well -- it is their loss, not mine!! And it certainly does not have to be yours!

Carmine