I have personal problem with NLP - I have reasons to belive NLP is braiwashing my girlfriend and putting her in danger
posted on February 09, 2013 04:01AM GMT
Dear Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science,
I was born in Poland and remember seeing Pope John Paul II when 3 years old. I am now 26 and one of my goals in life is to be an objective thinker as I think its the only right way forward in today's confused world.
Early in my teens I noticed something was very wrong with the way I think, even though I had the privilege of growing up on a farm and not attending church because my mother is agnostic and she wanted me to make up my own mind about religion. Even today, Agnosticism is rare in Poland. This agnosticism has remained in me until my late teens so I haven't begun to question this confusion in my mind until I was about 17 when I picked up a book about Buddhism and The Four Noble Truths.
When moved to England at the age of 16 I attended English schools which focus their education on the Self as opposed to the Authority and on Evidence Based Reasoning as opposed to Religious Ethics. Gradually, my mind began to go into conflict with itself as I was beginning adapt and perhaps started to shed my previous skin to form a new. A metamorthosis from spiritual to scientific took place inside my mind and that was painful. During this period I have suffered from anxiety because adjusting to a new way of thinking is almost like looking at the environment and myself from a new perspective and that was an overwhelmingly surreal experience.
Shortly before I graduated University with a degree in Architecture, I understood I was programmed by mystical / religious beliefs and even though I am not religious or mystical now, some residue from the contamination with these mystical principles and ethics and ways of processing information still remained. This had a negative impact on my mind when I transitioned to adulthood.
Luckily my anxiety had resided because I taught myself to control my thought process and now I know myself well enough to identify what is the mystical part and what is the enlightened part in me. I can now live an enlightened life and nothing can be better but I understand not all are as lucky as me and I'd like to know how to help those around me who I care about. I dont want to put them thorugh the same pain i suffered transitioning from irrational thought to rational thought but i want to give them a choice.
Metaphorically speaking, this mystical environment had created many knots inside my young mind which I will always struggle to control and undo but I believe that eventually I will get there. Almost every day I try to think about how to help my mind adapt. I use Aristotle's approach by memorizing and finding the 'causes' in my childhood when my 'actions' seem irrational. After I look back on them and analyzed my behavior - I try to question myself every time I do things on the basis of belief rather than reason, in any common human situation. I identify with Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion. This book helped me get on my feet after my anxiety and panic attacks and it helped me see the barriers to objective thinking.
My questions are regarding NLP - neurological linguistic programming. What does Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science think about NLP?
I know that this is a pseudoscience focused around providing people with hypnosis and self-hypnosis used to change the self. I am educating myself about this more but struggle to find a way to put together an antidote for those who I care about and want to make aware the implications of taking such a course and allowing some unscientific methods mess with the minds of my friends.
This new age pseudoscience affects my personal life, I have lost my first girlfriend to Creationism, my second girlfriend to Christianity, and now my third current girlfriend, which I really really would like to keep, I am about to loose to NLP! My girlfriend begun working for an NLP school in Poland and she has also told me that she receives free training from them and already told me of a few techniques they used on her to treat he of some phisical problems she suffered from. I think its all placebo but I'm curious what the foundation would think about this. Ever since she started working there she has been loosing touch with me and I believe NLP is to blame. She also gets aggressive when I speak critically of religion and that NLP is a money making cult. I was recently forced to give her the choice so she makes her own mind up but I don't think my arguments are strong enough or perhaps she is already deeply indocrinated by the group. She told me she recently welcomed John Grinder in Poland - he is one of the leaders. It apeared to me he is the master who is in controm of the leaders who govern the school she works at.
What arguments should I use to make her more aware of the dangers and consequences of following this nonsense? How can I enlighten her so she has a standing chance to make her own mind up about what she really wants from life and what is the right way to live it? I understand that for her its a job but I want her to understand the implications of getting involved in hypnosis and I'm afraid this may hurt her.
I am sure I am not the first or the last to have similar problems with this new age pseudosciences NLP.
any thoughts and help will be much appreciated.
Merlin Dewize
I was born in Poland and remember seeing Pope John Paul II when 3 years old. I am now 26 and one of my goals in life is to be an objective thinker as I think its the only right way forward in today's confused world.
Early in my teens I noticed something was very wrong with the way I think, even though I had the privilege of growing up on a farm and not attending church because my mother is agnostic and she wanted me to make up my own mind about religion. Even today, Agnosticism is rare in Poland. This agnosticism has remained in me until my late teens so I haven't begun to question this confusion in my mind until I was about 17 when I picked up a book about Buddhism and The Four Noble Truths.
When moved to England at the age of 16 I attended English schools which focus their education on the Self as opposed to the Authority and on Evidence Based Reasoning as opposed to Religious Ethics. Gradually, my mind began to go into conflict with itself as I was beginning adapt and perhaps started to shed my previous skin to form a new. A metamorthosis from spiritual to scientific took place inside my mind and that was painful. During this period I have suffered from anxiety because adjusting to a new way of thinking is almost like looking at the environment and myself from a new perspective and that was an overwhelmingly surreal experience.
Shortly before I graduated University with a degree in Architecture, I understood I was programmed by mystical / religious beliefs and even though I am not religious or mystical now, some residue from the contamination with these mystical principles and ethics and ways of processing information still remained. This had a negative impact on my mind when I transitioned to adulthood.
Luckily my anxiety had resided because I taught myself to control my thought process and now I know myself well enough to identify what is the mystical part and what is the enlightened part in me. I can now live an enlightened life and nothing can be better but I understand not all are as lucky as me and I'd like to know how to help those around me who I care about. I dont want to put them thorugh the same pain i suffered transitioning from irrational thought to rational thought but i want to give them a choice.
Metaphorically speaking, this mystical environment had created many knots inside my young mind which I will always struggle to control and undo but I believe that eventually I will get there. Almost every day I try to think about how to help my mind adapt. I use Aristotle's approach by memorizing and finding the 'causes' in my childhood when my 'actions' seem irrational. After I look back on them and analyzed my behavior - I try to question myself every time I do things on the basis of belief rather than reason, in any common human situation. I identify with Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion. This book helped me get on my feet after my anxiety and panic attacks and it helped me see the barriers to objective thinking.
My questions are regarding NLP - neurological linguistic programming. What does Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science think about NLP?
I know that this is a pseudoscience focused around providing people with hypnosis and self-hypnosis used to change the self. I am educating myself about this more but struggle to find a way to put together an antidote for those who I care about and want to make aware the implications of taking such a course and allowing some unscientific methods mess with the minds of my friends.
This new age pseudoscience affects my personal life, I have lost my first girlfriend to Creationism, my second girlfriend to Christianity, and now my third current girlfriend, which I really really would like to keep, I am about to loose to NLP! My girlfriend begun working for an NLP school in Poland and she has also told me that she receives free training from them and already told me of a few techniques they used on her to treat he of some phisical problems she suffered from. I think its all placebo but I'm curious what the foundation would think about this. Ever since she started working there she has been loosing touch with me and I believe NLP is to blame. She also gets aggressive when I speak critically of religion and that NLP is a money making cult. I was recently forced to give her the choice so she makes her own mind up but I don't think my arguments are strong enough or perhaps she is already deeply indocrinated by the group. She told me she recently welcomed John Grinder in Poland - he is one of the leaders. It apeared to me he is the master who is in controm of the leaders who govern the school she works at.
What arguments should I use to make her more aware of the dangers and consequences of following this nonsense? How can I enlighten her so she has a standing chance to make her own mind up about what she really wants from life and what is the right way to live it? I understand that for her its a job but I want her to understand the implications of getting involved in hypnosis and I'm afraid this may hurt her.
I am sure I am not the first or the last to have similar problems with this new age pseudosciences NLP.
any thoughts and help will be much appreciated.
Merlin Dewize
