NLP is essentially discredited for the SPAM of behavioral problems, and has never been shown to have any consistent results in scientific tests beyond placebo effects. You can find heaps of evidence in reliable journals and websites to support the disaccreditation of the science.

I realise that in clinical tests, they were hardly likely to consider short term shifts of personality (or state) scientific proof that it works.

My question is, does NLP really work, or do we, because we think we have this amazing ability to influence others, simply become more charismatic and more engaging?

People often make the mistake that you made. NLP is a collection of other material. It is a process that synthesizes information. The things that have been disproven that are considered NLP, are Eye Accessing Cues and Predicate Matching. These are the things that have been disproven. And these ideas have only been disproven as direct sciences. The eyes do move in ways when people are accessing memories and inconsistent eye movement can show the difference between truth and lie. Though Predicate matching hasn't proven to be a strong source or rapport building, Metaphor Matching has scientifically been proven, and it's part of the new NLP models for therapy.

Milton Language Patterns have created a branch of therapy known as Strategic Therapy. Strategic or Direct or Short-Term Therapy is fixing a problem a person has in 1 to 3 sessions unlike the years of therapy that other people go through.

The Meta-Model is a synthetic approach based on George Bateson, Virginia Satir, and other top psychologist known for their powerful approach to therapy. Again, several of the contributions have worked to help people have stellar breakthroughs.

Finally, persuasion and influence has been studied more than almost any other topic in the world. 90% of the information on persuasion and influence is based on those years of research and studies. NLP has taken and synthesized that science with observation of the greatest sales people around.

90 to 93% of all communication is non-verbal. Tonality and Body Language say almost everything, what you say, says little. Using tonal control and proper body language and designing messages in the best way can increase one's rate by 10 to 20%, which is huge.

Finally, there's the mindset. Visualization and Meditation are scientifically proven to create results. All of the techniques to better yourself can be fitted in Guided Meditation, Visualization, Conscious Conditioning, Unconscious Conditioning, Subconscious Programming. All of these things have been proven to work and the techniques have advanced quite a lot since then.

With all that, yes, it does work, yes there is science that proves it, yes, it's great, you just have to broaden your understanding of all the material.

Heh, sounds like you already came to your conclusion
Maybe it's BOTH.

I will say that, after studying NLP, I went on to study things like Behavioral Modification, Interpersonal Communication and the like. It's interesting how many cues the "scientifically credited" college textbooks have taken from the "scientifically discredited" NLP.

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