Neuro-linguistic programming \u2013 known as NLP \u2013 is often touted by any people as being the new way of thinking and developing as a person, as well as a professional. In some ways, it is a way of changing how people think and their perceptions of an event, which is how magicians have long performed their craft.<\/p>\n
What is NLP?<\/strong> When you understand your own pattern, according to NLP practitioners, you change your thought processes which should produce different results.<\/p>\n It is also a means by which people can model themselves on others. For example, Richard Branson has had phenomenal business success. My understanding how he thinks, using language, understanding his emotions and so on, people can \u2018copy\u2019 these trains of thought \u2013 and possibly emulate his success too.<\/p>\n NLP acknowledges that we create our own unique mental maps of the world around us, utilising our five senses. The three key elements of NLP are defined as:<\/p>\n NLP and magic \u2013 is there a link?<\/strong> In essence, illusionists and magicians take advantage of a fundamental fact \u2013 attention is limited.<\/p>\n For example, some people say that no one reads online. What their intended meaning is, is that people do not give the written word on the screen the full attention that it needs. They take a quick look, maybe skim read over a paragraph or two in order to get an idea of what the intended meaning is.<\/p>\n Science tells us that our attention span is limited. We focus on a small amount of content and then everything outside of this content although still in sight, is essential \u2018blurry\u2019. These blurrier parts are known as the \u2018fringe\u2019 and the \u2018margin.’<\/p>\n By focusing on one small spot, you miss all kinds of information that goes on in the fringes and the margins. With so much information bombarding us, we miss a lot of this information.<\/p>\n Magicians and illusionists manage our attention.<\/em><\/p>\n It is as simple and as complex as that. There are other people who manage our attention:<\/p>\n Love it or hate it, magic is a means by which perception and awareness are altered by the person performing the magic. Most of the time, people see this as fascinating, cool and at times, simply incredible. It is also fun and light-hearted, with magicians or illusionists rarely using it as a means to instil fear into someone.<\/p>\n This is how NLP and magic are similar but this is true of many other things in life too:<\/p>\n NLP is used in all kind of facets<\/strong>
\nNLP is the practice of understanding how people organise their thoughts, emotions, language and behaviour to produce that results that they do<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n
\nThe likes of Dynamo and Derren Brown offer an intriguing insight into how we perceive certain visual information and clues. There are those of which we are aware, but there are also cues that we process without being conscious of them, or overtly aware.<\/p>\n\n
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\nFrom marketing and promotional work, to magicians and psychologists \u2013 changing how people think and their perceptions of an object or a process is something that happens to us every day.<\/p>\n