Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Dipping into Modelling
In This Chapter
▶ Finding out how to replicate excellence
▶ Bringing your new NLP skills together
▶ Uncovering the deeper structure of experience
▶ Discovering the unexpected bonuses of modelling others
H
ere’s a popular NLP story. A group of NLP master practitioners head
off to a remote location to study a shaman at work, a healer renowned
for the results he achieves in extraordinary circumstances. Their mission is
to look for ‘the difference that makes the difference’, the essence of the
shaman’s skill, as they study his behaviour while working with a sick patient.A lot of apparent mumbo-jumbo surrounds the shaman’s work: incantations,
dramatic posturing, and potions that characterise the external aspects of his
work with a patient. After their period of observation, the NLP practitioners
take the opportunity to question the shaman. One asks, ‘So at what point did
the healing actually begin?’ Anticipating an answer such as ‘When I placed
my hands on the wound,’ the practitioner is surprised to hear the answer,
‘When I went up to the mountain top several days ago and set my intent.’You can take various messages from this story. One is in the power of
setting your intent in any situation and noticing the effect that intent has on
the results you get. Another is to recognise that what you see on the surface
isn’t always the whole story. As you read through this chapter, we invite
you to set your own intent to find someone who excels at something you’re
interested in doing well and have yet to master, and to begin modelling that
person by paying attention beyond the obvious external behaviours. We
show you how to get started.We don’t expect you to become an expert NLP modeller just from reading
this chapter – that takes many years of patient observation. Instead, we want
you to have fun as you increase your powers of sensory acuity using NLP as
we take you further on the journey. You never know about the great places