BANDLERSNATCH
Trance-formations – John Grinder and Richard Bandler
“This book is SO BORING,” I grumbled to Kev whilst reading this latest neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) source book.
“That book is so boring I fell off a hotel room toilet reading it, half-asleep, and damaged the binding,” he replied.
By the time I’d finished it, the book had split in two.
“NLP is literally falling apart,” Kev concluded as I showed him the damage.
Yes, I’m finally getting on with my pledge to cast a curious yet critical eye across the key texts of ‘The Church of NLP’ – something I’d describe as a splinter brand of ‘hypnosis’ that is subjectively unique to its founders, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, but became A Thing. We wouldn’t care much, but this American fad became biggish business in the UK, largely because of two TV hypnotic performers – Paul McKenna, who affiliated with NLP, and Derren Brown, who did not. Consequently, digital spaces where ‘hypnosis’ is discussed are now cluttered with NLP mansplainers creating loops of misinformation that is BORING for us ALL to persist with.
Published in 1981, the book is edited from 10 different NLP seminar transcripts by Connirae Andreas. A familiar figure to many on the self-help circuit, Connirae was one of the first NLP trainers and, together with her (now-deceased) husband, Steve Andreas, published numerous NLP titles via their Real People Press publishing business, based in Utah. It is interesting to track the feminine influence of NLP ‘anointed’ women on hypnotism as a field. And certainly this book – featuring a three-armed female sorcerer on the cover, created by artist Rene Eisenbart! – makes Bandler and Grinder’s provocative, machismo, bullish double-act smoother and ‘more accessible’.
Groan. Because: NLP is a pseudoscience unsupported by scientific evidence! Bandler and Grinder’s combative, anti-science stance seeps through the pages, plus NLP as a brand and business has not sought to back the original claims, then or now. Perhaps building and mobilising a chaos-army of self-help gurus felt like a noble mission back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. But, because NLP blends and obfuscates between computer and connectivity technology as explanation and/or metaphor, serious human struggles are promoted as being easy to solve and ‘delete’. That a lifelong, say, clown phobia or codeine addiction then persists, traps people in the NLP seeker-helper loop. Let’s freestyle some new PTSD to surprise-shock Cathy out of her clown phobia! Your raging blue-collar drug addition is just the same as my minor white-collar eating disorder; let’s invent a new treatment system together! Just one more £12k course and I’ll finally crack The Human Code! The seminars sound unwieldy and intimidating. I assume it’s Bandler citing adventures of rogue psychiatrists, as he reportedly spent time working in psychiatric hospitals as a young man; this book features an anecdote of performing exorcisms. I can’t gauge whether they’re being cynical or ironic or both with their ‘anything goes’ attitude, which is why it mostly comes across as irresponsible charlatanism.
Hypnosis, and related popular pseudo-psychology, was an important string to NLP’s bow, and ‘Mastery’ of NLP includes a complex snobbery for hypnotic convincers and flourishes. “Traditional hypnotists” use basic inductions, says the book, whereas NLP students learn exclusive, advanced “rapport” techniques, and analyse the anecdotal ‘successes’ or ‘failures’ in detail. The requirement for (over-)confident guessing and embellishing of people’s personal insights and struggles often leads ‘Masters’ towards mentalism, cold reading, and ‘pick-up artistry’, etc. If I scientifically assessed every handshake I ever performed, it would be a sad and often predictable jumble of anecdotal, and thus pointless, data. But I could spend a lifetime – and a literal fortune – becoming a Master Handshaker based on chit-chat and hunches..? Wow! Sign me up! I mean, if the goal is simply to boost confidence, perform better at work/life, and forge positive social connections, then NLP is an expensive club to join. And, unless the person I’m shaking hands with is impressed with jargon like “analogue marking” and “referential index switch” as part of the ‘virtuous’ circle of self-help business ventures NLP produced/produces, then the return-on-investment is still questionable.
With a title like Trance-formations, there is, however, plenty of stuff in here about supposed ‘trance states’. Bandler and Grinder leave their NLPers to riff on ‘trance’ observations rather than provide any robust explanations – eg, seminar participants ponder, albeit in edited dialogue, what internal shifts a ‘high somnambule’ is going through based on eye dilation, breathing patterns, hazy recall, etc. It sounds technical and impressive, and the progressive student-teacher vibe – where the pair challenge, tease, learn, invent – must have been gratifying. But, honestly, I find hypnotists’s obsession with, and fetishisation of, ‘trance states’ endlessly disappointing and increasingly suspect. There is no set magic sliding scale of how people experience relaxation, shock, pleasure, a trip down memory lane, etc. NLP insists on trance and people (try to) comply, whether they believe it or not.
My final note on trance is that ‘Grandfather of American Hypnosis’ Milton Erickson’s wife, Betty, gets special praise for her apparent ability to self-induce trance states. Bandler had an intriguing relationship with Erickson (1901-1980), a medical doctor, psychiatrist and psychologist, whose work was significantly subsumed into NLP. Betty “is extremely sophisticated in putting herself into various altered states. She can jump in and out of many different states very quickly.” How varied, or valuable, Betty’s ‘self-hypnotised’ ‘states’ were is a moot point. What’s clear is that trance was, is, a form of currency between The Hypnotist and those seeking to share in their ‘magical powers’. All I really learn of it from this book is that I’m expected to (pretend to) be in one in order to access basic courses and conferences – not to mention win the approval of trainers and franchise-fanatic pupils who just can’t put it aside.
It’s a sordid embarrassment that’s a far cry from the kind of magical journey the book cover implies. Which, incidentally, since departed ways with the rest of the book… I’m sure it’s nothing personal.
