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  Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Objectivism aims to help an individual to employ his own human capacity to reason to achieve productive purposes for the ultimate benefit of that individual. Doing so requires a commitment to discipline and focus and a thorough understanding of the nature of one's own consciousness, both content and process. Such an understanding will empower the individual to introspect, identify and validate one's own core values and then to actualize those values. The impact of language, our human method of symbolic information processing, on our focus and therefore our behavior demands a discipline that integrates language and biology. The field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) offers such integration. Anthony Robbins studied under NLP developers Richard Bandler and John Grinder, who in turn modeled the most effective techniques of world class therapists like Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. The science of NLP seeks to understand the full content and context of a person's experience of reality and to use that knowledge to help that person to achieve his desired outcomes. Merits of This Book Objectivists will enjoy the expanded concept of mental syntax that shows how one can break down his own internal data processing into detailed steps. In effect, mental syntax expresses integration of reason and emotion when properly conducted -- or of unreason and emotion when not so conducted. Mental syntax together with physiology form the human state of consciousness a person experiences over time. These notions work with the belief system of that person to drive his overall behavior and thus his end results. Mastery of one's own states can improve ability to set and to achieve worthwhile goals in alignment with one's core values to enable one to reach "total passion for the total height." Both Objectivism and NLP recognize the profound impact that beliefs have on a person's emotional states. However, NLP provides one critical concept that has no solid counterpart in Objectivist epistemology other than a brief mention of "association." This validated principle, the "anchor," explains emotional reactions not explained by beliefs or genetics alone. An anchor is a sensory stimulus linked to a specific set of states. Anchoring is basic Pavlovian conditioning of the nervous system. Like Pavlov's dogs, human beings can form neural associations between a specific state (such as salivation) and a unique external sensory trigger (such as a ringing bell). Anchoring explains emotional phenomena ranging from phobias to fetishes that occur for no conscious reason. Proper conditioning can collapse negative anchors and make best use of positive anchors. Practitioners of NLP have eliminated lifelong phobias in as little as 45 minutes through counter-anchoring techniques. In summary, the following table compares the terms in Rand's epistemology with their broader counterparts in NLP psychology:
My primary interest in both of these fields has been to develop and implement my own personal "anti-virus software" to shield my brain from external attackers. These outside malefactors include religious fanatics, business hucksters, and verbal abusers, to name just a few. My lifetime experiences have led me to assemble the common components of both systems into my mind for thorough and ongoing self-analysis and buffering from outside shocks. Faults of This Book In addition to its merits, this book definitely has its shortcomings. The chapter on nutrition flies in the face of proven health principles and likely arose from the author's implied notions of animal "rights." He occasionally appeals to questionable ideas such as the "collective unconscious" and he seldom if ever addresses the role of reason in human life. His concept of personal morality remains largely subjective and his philosophical inquiry lacks rigor. Perhaps most critically, Robbins and other NLP advocates often have the bad habit of dumping a load of information into the laps of their readers and listeners without consideration for the "crow epistemology" principle. How To Use This Book Effectively With the help of Objectivism and its principles of induction and concept formation, I have shaken the system down to a few streamlined categories which I outlined on the initial "Ultimate Success Formula" flow chart in the summary appended to this review. That makes my employment of the NLP concepts much easier. This book would have benefitted readers greatly through the use of such condensing tools. I use NLP to enhance my application of Objectivism, particularly in role modeling and personal emotional management. Dry logic alone will not help me to tap into my inner strengths and passions and thus will not motivate me to identify and to achieve worthy goals. Likewise, incidents that might infuriate me demand a temporary act of disassociation until a later time when I can cool my destructive passions and develop a master plan for effective change -- or acceptance -- of the situation. Take a look at the SOLO Florida page, particularly the links to the articles about the "Reality Model" and the "Enhanced Tri-Quation." Now consider some of the Roles you currently fill or want to fill. Who would serve as excellent role models? How will you duplicate their results? To model them effectively using NLP requires "putting the cook in the kitchen," i.e. clearly identifying their key beliefs, mental syntax and physiology. If they credit their success to mystical notions, you will have to do the extra work to extract the objective nuggets of wisdom from the nonsensical fluff in which they may be buried. Despite these faults, Objectivists will benefit from reading this book. Rather than belabor a further review, I offer here a detailed summary of the book's contents.  SECTION I: The Modeling of Human Excellence I. The Commodity of Kings This entire book is about producing results through personal power. Power is simply "the ability to act." Since ancient times, power has been the commodity of kings. Power originally came to those who were strongest physically. Later, it came to those who had a special heritage through royalty. More recently, it came to those who had the greatest wealth or capital. Today, those who possess specialized and valuable knowledge have the greatest capacity for power. People who have attained excellence follow the Ultimate Success Formula (USF):  These powerful people of modern times share seven common traits: II. The Difference that Makes the Difference Success can be defined as simply "getting what you want." The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is their ability to manage their physical, mental, and emotional states regardless of outside circumstances. A new science called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) studies the structure of an individual's subjective experience of objective reality and provides instruction on how to alter that subjective experience to allow the individual more power to direct his or her own life. This science is key to replicating the results of successful people through a process called modeling. Three fundamental ingredients of a successful person's life must be modeled in order to produce identical results: III. The Power of State A state is the sum total of a person's experience at any moment in time. A state has two components: internal representation and physiology. A person's state ultimately drives that person's behavior from moment to moment. The science of NLP empowers the individual to master his or her own states and consequently his or her own behavior patterns, thus assisting that person with producing desired results. IV. The Birth of Excellence: Belief A belief is any guiding principle that provides a sense of certainty about meaning and direction in life. There are five general reference sources upon which beliefs rest: The Success Cycle is represented below:  V. The Seven Lies of Success The word "lie" in this context does not mean "to be deceitful or dishonest." Rather, it is a useful way to remind readers that no matter how much they believe in a concept, they should be open to other possibilities and continuous learning. The following seven beliefs can be found again and again in successful people: VI. Mastering Your Mind: How to Run Your Brain This chapter covers a broad range of topics on subjective experience. Traditional Psychology versus Neuro-Linguistic Programming The traditional school of psychology treats the brain like a tank that fills with emotional liquids and assumes that if the tank is not drained regularly, it will eventually overflow. The NLP model of the brain treats the brain like a computer that runs different programs at different times, and assumes that the individual has within his or her conscious power the ability to choose which programs will run and even to erase or rewrite programs. The Structure of Human Experience The structure of human experience is based upon a human being's five senses, or modalities of perceiving the world: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory. Each of these modalities are in turn composed of ingredients called submodalities, such as color and brightness for visual, volume and tempo for auditory, etc. The power of negative past events over one's state can be diminished or even eliminated by the scramble of one's own internal representational submodalities of those events, e.g. diminishing brightness and volume, etc. Association versus Disassociation Another important distinction is association versus disassociation: Association: An individual experiences the internal representation of a past event as if he or she were in his or her own body again. Disassociation: An individual experiences the internal representation of a past event as if he or she were watching from outside his or her body. The Swish Pattern One mental tool for making a behavioral change more automatic and consistent is the swish pattern, which consists of three steps: VII. The Syntax of Success Syntax, or strategy, is the order in which actions are taken. Duplication of another person's strategy allows duplication of that person's results. A system for representing another person's sensory strategy is available through NLP shorthand: V Visual A Auditory K Kinesthetic O Olfactory G Gustatory e external i internal d digital (words) t tonal (tone of sound) R Remembered C Constructed Different people have different strategies for achieving states of love, anger, happiness, persuasion, etc. Knowing one's own strategies and those of others is vital to achieving lasting success. VIII. How to Elicit Someone's Strategy By applying the following principles, a person's strategy for achieving any state can be learned and accessed. The Three Primary Modalities The three primary modalities with which people align their subjective experiences are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. When communicating with another person, it is extremely helpful to appeal to his or her primary modality. Eye Movement and Accessing the Brain's Resources A person's internal representation can be known by watching their eye movements. Different locations of the eyes' focus reflect access to different internal sensory systems. The chart below shows a fairly reliable mind-map for 90% of all people when facing those people, with the remaining 10% being organized in a reverse manner:  Other Physiological Clues to Modal Accessing
Strategy Elicitation In this discussion, X represents a particular state, the strategy for which is being elicited. That state could be love, anger, motivation, etc. Get the person into that state by asking, "Can you remember a time when you were totally X'd?" Once the person is in state, ask, "As you remember that time..."
IX. Physiology: The Avenue of Excellence The cybernetic loop between mind and body allows a person to change his or her physiology in order to change the way he or she feels. Posture, breathing rate, and a host of other factors can be changed to improve one's state of mind and even health at will. Norman Cousins, for example, laughed his way back to health from a normally fatal illness. Congruency between mind and body is important to growing personal power. Mirroring and matching another person in a particular state will allow you to share the experience of his or her state. X. Energy: The Fuel of Excellence The Living Health program follows six basic principles: SECTION II: The Ultimate Success Formula XI. Limitation Disengage: What Do You Want? In order to apply the Ultimate Success Formula, one must first know the desired outcome. The following five rules provide specific instructions on formulating desired outcomes: The 12-step goal-setting workshop follows: As part of your "gratitude diary," make a list of all the things that you now have that were once goals. XII. The Power of Precision Precise language has the power to move people in useful directions, while sloppy language can misdirect them. How to Get Whatever You Want: Ask! The following chart can help one memorize key expressions that cut through verbal fluff:
The following are the NLP outcome questions:
XIII. The Magic of Rapport An essential tenet of NLP is that the meaning of a person's communication to other people is the response elicited from those people. Mirroring and Matching The way to go from discord to harmony is to go from concentrating on differences to concentrating on similarities. The more people are like each other, the more they will like each other. Mirroring and matching another person's physiology, tonality, and preferred representational system during interaction builds rapport in minutes. This happens because communication between people is generally transmitted in the following ratios:
Pacing and Leading Pacing is just graceful mirroring. Once one has established pacing with another person in a conversation, he or she can begin leading that person by initiating change rather than just mirroring the other person. XIV. Distinctions of Excellence: Metaprograms A metaprogram is a powerful internal pattern that helps determine how a person forms his or her internal representations and directs his or her behavior. They help to dictate the sorting of important data from unimportant data based on context and stress. The following are the most common metaprograms. Supplemental: The Myers-Briggs Metaprograms The two ways to change a metaprogram are by either a Significant Emotional Event (SEE) or by a conscious decision to change. Metaprograms can be used as a tool for the following two actions. XV. How to Handle Resistance and Solve Problems The Agreement Frame Flexibility is important to effective communication. Avoiding resistance from others keeps others involved in what one is saying and leaves them open to new ideas. Avoiding negators like "but" and "however" in communication goes a long way toward eliminating resistance from others. The agreement frame allows one to converse with others of differing viewpoints while neither creating resistance in others nor compromising one's own values and beliefs. The agreement frame uses the following three key phrases. This process is a form of verbal aikido, redirecting force rather than attempting to overcome it. The Pattern Interrupt People often fall into self-perpetuating patterns of negative or destructive behavior. Interrupting that pattern with a totally unexpected action can have lasting effects on erasing that pattern from that person's behavior while replacing it with a new, empowering pattern. XVI. Reframing: The Power of Perspective Reframing in its simplest form is changing a negative experience into a positive one by changing the frame of reference used to perceive the experience. Reframing can be done based on context or content. The following six-step reframing process changes undesirable behavior into desirable behavior while maintaining the important benefits of the old behavior. XVII. Anchoring Yourself to Success An anchor is a sensory stimulus linked to a specific set of states. Anchoring is basic Pavlovian conditioning of the nervous system. The following are the four keys to effective anchoring. An anchor can be linked to either positive or negative states. Anchoring happens all the time, usually at an unconscious level. It is useful to make a chart of major positive and negative anchors in one's life. One can then go about collapsing negative anchors and making best use of positive anchors. SECTION III: Leadership: The Challenge of Excellence XVIII. Value Hierarchies: The Ultimate Judgment of Success Values are a person's global belief systems about right and wrong, good and bad, important and unimportant. To know fully what a particular value means to a person, it is necessary to know that person's evidence procedure for achieving that value. When a list of a person's values is made and ranked in order of importance, a hierarchy of values results. To promote a harmonious relationship, not only must common values be found, but the other person's most important values must be supported and fulfilled as much as possible. A person's values usually change over time. It is important to maintain the flexibility necessary to keep one's most important values congruent and in harmony so that no values conflict arises. XIX. The Five Keys to Wealth and Happiness XX. Trend Creation: The Power of Persuasion Modern technology has created media that can transmit worldwide influence and persuasion. In today's world, persuasion skills are a necessity. One is either the persuader or the persuaded. Using skills learned earlier in this book, coupled with modern media technology, one can create global trends for either constructive or destructive purposes. It is important to pay attention to the information one is broadcasting to the rest of the world, as well as what one is permitting to go unfiltered into one's own mind. XXI. Living Excellence: The Human Challenge When one understands and applies the technology presented in this book, that person has access to his or her own Unlimited Power. The consistent application of these principles can allow the reader to produce outstanding results in any chosen endeavor. Producing values for oneself and others by becoming a team player can be one of life's greatest joys. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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