The User's Manual For The Brain Vol 1: Complete Manual for Neuro-linguistic Programming Practitioner Certification [Hardcover]

This book contains, in those parts where it deals with practical application, some useful detail; and one comes away from the book with the feeling that Bodenhamer and Hall are probably really nice people. This is not enough, however, to justify its price tag, because this book has also many flaws.

The first of these is common to many books on NLP. It adopts a facetious, patronizing style that seems to imply that the authors believe their readers to be extremely simple, very young or mentally retarded. For a book that markets itself as an NLP practitioner's handbook this is somewhat surprising. The text is littered with those cheeky, head-ruffling comments: `Oops, we did it to you again!' `If you fear your fear, guess what? You become paranoid!' (Please!) Or, when you apply the meta-level of appreciation to fear, `What do you get? You sure don't get paranoia, do you?'

This kind of silly writing inhibits the intelligent appreciation of the content, but this is further aggravated by the constant use of italics and bold type. Presumably the authors believe themselves to be using embedded commands of some sort to facilitate learning. The net result, however, is to make the reader feel he is reading a Marvel comic. I even came across one word where half the letters were bold and the other half italics. This really is too silly or words. The combination of bold type, italics and facetious, patronizing quips makes this book a very difficult read.

But there are two further flaws that, had I not spent almost £30 on the book, would have made me put it down and stop reading for good. On the one hand there is the appalling tendency to repeat and repeat the most simple of facts in order to drive home the most simple of lessons. At one point two sizeable paragraphs are taken up explaining that children go to school and on day one learn Aa. When they have assimilated this they go back and learn Bb - and in this way the reader is taken through the entire alphabet. I found myself, roundabout Gg, shouting, `I get it!' at the book. Later, there is a detailed explanation of the fact that these days we know that the sun does not literally rise over the horizon; and a couple of paragraphs are employed in explaining the phenomenon of the optical illusion of the sun's rising. I think most people have mastered that by the age of eight. These are but two examples of many such cases of overstating the obvious. Taken with the verbal head-ruffling, the italics and the bold type this comes close to making this book unreadable.

What caps all this, though, is the truly dreadful use of English. The book is absolutely littered with linguistic transgressions and basic misuses of vocabulary which, at times, border on the illiterate and incomprehensible. We are all familiar with the fact that breaking the rules can at times add power and clarity to a statement, but sentences like, `To Freud's genius, he developed numerous methods for recovering the repressed unconscious material:' are simply indefensible. Do they mean, `to Freud's credit'? Or that it is indicative of Freud's genius? How can you develop something to your own genius? The statement is meaningless. Time and again in this book I found myself having to stop and re-read a sentence several times in order to understand it. This is not a set of Japanese DVD instructions. This is a user's manual on Neuro-linguistic Programming. The language really should be clear, tight and precise. Well guess what? It isn't!

Neuro-linguistic Programming is a highly sophisticated, intellectually demanding discipline which specializes in language and communication. Why, then, do so many practitioners and writers insist on communicating at the level of insurance salesmen addressing four year-olds?

There really is a need for an intelligent, informative, comprehensive handbook on NLP, written in clear, plain English and pitched at intelligent, educated adults.

Bodenhammer and Hall's book has a clear and concise manner, is easy to read and it helped me through some of the more complex concepts which other books hadn't managed to clear up for me. They do depart from the 'conventional' NLP wisdom in places, and, given their explanations, I can see why. I would have liked a bit more on Time-Lining (one chapter is given), as this doesn't add much to Tad James' Time Line Therapy stuff. However, I know it's a book I will refer to much- overall, one of my best NLP-related purchases.

Before you can effectively use anything, you need to know how it works, and the brain is no exception!.
This book should be on your shelf, whether you want to be a NLP Practioner, cure yourself of phobias/fears!, or just find out when your Uncle Ted is telling fibs!.
The book covers all the main techniques of NLP- establishing rapport, Dissociating fear, analysing language etc, and you'll find yourself refering to it time after time.