Customer Reviews
Still going? - By: G. P. Akerman, 11 Jul 2008 
Does anyone outside of the world of dodgy management training scenarios take NLP seriously anymore?
read the title... it is quite clear who this book is aimed at - By: N. T. Southorn, 07 Jun 2008 
This book has been harshly reviewed by people who have knowledge of NLP: "don't read this book if you know anything about NLP" is apparently the take home message. Fine. But that is kind of like telling a rocket scientist not to bother reading a pre-school chemistry book!
For those who no nothing about NLP, i.e. the intended demographic, this is a great book with plenty of examples relating the theory to real life. Sure, it isn't advanced NLP but you can't run before you can walk.
I am a complete beginner & this book captured my imagination & made me think more analytically about my actions, thoughts & communication skills. My advice is go to a book store & read a chapter or two before making your mind up.
The Pits - By: Karl, 17 May 2008 Have you ever run into the sort of person who talks about things they know nothing about, but talks on & on & on, apparentlyin the hope that if they keep talking for long enough then the law of averages means they must get at least one thing right?
That's what I felt I was up against when I was reading this book.
Firstly, it is badly laid out, by which I mean that it has no obvious flow other than (I guess) the orderin which things popped into the authors' heads.
Secondly, a significant amount of the material has little or nothing to do with NLP - like the "Wheel of Life" & the stuff on PTSD - & quite a lot the material, whether about NLP or not, is at best ambiguous & at worst plain inaccurate.
Thirdly, the frequent, pointless repetition of very basic material, & the inclusion of the irrelevant material, means that a whole lot of genuine NLP material gets left out.
In the case of the meta programs, for example, only six meta programs are included, & even those aren't explained particularly well. Indeed, at one pointin the book the authors claim that all meta programs ("metaprograms", as they call them) work along a sliding scale. Which clearly is NOT true of meta programs such as the "Work Preference Filter", the "Primary Interest Filter", & especially notin the case of the "In Time/Through Time" or "Time Storage Filter" meta program, which the authors confuse with "Time Lines" asin Time Line Therapy.
Worst of all, there doesn't seem to have been any attempt to edit the book once it was complete. Thus, for example, there are several places where a topic flagged up as being covered "laterin this chapter" actually turns up on the very next page.
Likewise the text itself is inconsistent, as in:
"We get very good at one style of thinking & processing information & let the rest of our senses lie dormantin a rusty heap."
Not only is this not true, psychologically speaking, but the authors flatly contradict themselves less than three pages later:
"As human beings we naturally blend a rich & heady mix of these three main dimensions, yet we tend to have a preference for one mode over the others."
So, "rusty heap" or "rich & heady mix"?
If you know enough to recognise which description is more accurate then you already know far more about NLP than this book will tell you. And if you don't know enough to weed out the nonsense, I'm afraid you're likely to end up with a pretty confused view of the subject if you read this book.
Having been around NLP for well over ten years, & having read quite a few books on the subject, I have to say this is definitely one of the worst books on NLP I've ever read read.
There are plenty of good introductions to NLP on the market, & for usefulness & accuracy just about all of them get a higher rating than this.
(Suggestions: Genie Laborde, Joseph O'Connor (NOT the Irish novelist), Andrew Bradbury, O'Connor & John Seymour, Andreas & Faulkner, Larry McLauchlin.)
Good outweighs bad - By: Archimedes of Amazon, 21 Mar 2008 
Positives: This is a very good introduction to NLP & i doubt you'll get a better one for this price seeing as "From Frogs to Princes" by Bandler (Founder of NLP) is £50. It gives you a good overview to allow you to read other NLP books such as "Structure of Magic" (which is what i recommend you do after finishing this). The book's layout is very accessible with very good use of diagrams & tables (which you wont really get with Bandler's stuff).
Negatives: This books is very much crowded with (to be frank) total rubbish. I'm sure other reviewers have mentioned the whole "pyramids"in your mind palava. This is also written more as a "self-help" book than an actual book about NLP. I think that's the most annoying thing about it, if you have an interestin NLP you may get annoyed at the amount of exercises it has to help you overcome different things. Also, this may just be me but the amount of time I had to read "the mind collects 2 billion pieces of data a second" get annoying, very very bad repetition.
To sum-up,a above-mediocre read & the best introduction you can get to NLP (unless you want to fork out £50).. And just a footnote: Do not take everything this book takes seriously. Aside from all the frivolity, it does give you a basic knowledge of NLP (which you need to read advance NLP books)
Diluted Distorted and too generalized - By: fadesingently, 23 Dec 2007 
In my opinion this book is a bit reductionist- It tries to boil NLP down to lots of techniques & buzzwords but sometimes misses the big picture.
I was confusedin some places & occasionally could not understand what point the authors were trying to make.
My biggest problem is the lack of credit for the creators of NLP Dr Richard Bandler & John Grinder. By this I mean they have not mentioned either of these peoplein the acknowledgments, nor have they mentioned the Society of NLPin the resource list, which should (in my opinion) be the first point of contact for people to ensure they are getting as close as possible to the original product.
At a minimum I think this is a bit rude or perhaps naive, which is fine if its "just another NLP book" but this book is supposed to be THE first base, definitive book for the budding NLP enthusiast.
NLP has become like chinese whispers over the years as it keeps getting diluted by self appointed expurts (some of which) have ripped people off & misused the NLP principles. (please note I am not referring to the authorsin any way)
I suggest anybody interestedin NLP reads Frogs to Princes for a start or any book by Richard Bandler the latest one "conversations" is Brilliant, extremly easy to read & will really help you to look at your lifein a more user friendly fashion.
If this was a standalone book about NLP, I think its not too bad but if its supposed to be the "Bible" I'm sorry it doesn't do what it says on the tin.
