NLP
NLP - Going Mainstream?
Topher Morrison discusses NLP today
By Caitlin Collins
I
have a lot of fun interviewing the great, What is less exciting is how the NLP
the good, and some other

s for Rapport community continues to fail to take up such
magazine, and I was looking forward opportunities for expansion.
to a chat with one of NLP’s major players
in the person of Topher Morrison. I love NLP doesn’t hit the mainstream
American energy and enthusiasm; unlike As our conversation ranges into the
some of the more reticent Brits, extracting murky waters of why, with the wealth of
usable material from whom can be akin benefits NLP has to offer, it has undeniably
to a dental procedure, American NLPers continued to remain in the background,
are generally outgoing and voluble, which Topher begins to warm up. I tentatively
makes for happy interviewing. Topher not raise the glowing cluster of hot topics that
only exceeded my enthusiasm expectations, includes credibility, regularisation, standards,
he was cheerfully and generously outspoken accountability, ethics... It’s an important
in his views. issue for Topher, so much so that he returns
He’s well-placed to air those views. to it repeatedly during our discussion.
Based in Florida, author, motivational ‘The NLP Training Institutions are private
speaker and NLP Master Trainer Topher schools, run for profit; there is too much self-
travels extensively delivering NLP trainings interest,’ he says, emphatically. ‘The irony is
throughout America and abroad, including that all the trainers talk about teaching the
the UK, Australia and Singapore; he’s in skills for communication and rapport, but
touch with what’s going on within the NLP as an industry we have failed miserably to
communities in several countries. walk our talk and use those skills to agree
on standards. It’s shocking. This is an issue
NLP hits the mainstream everywhere: America, Australia, the UK.
Our discussion starts on a high note. Topher Wherever there is NLP, the same political
is enthusiastic about his two recent forays stories are occurring. It’s like the current
into the world of film-making. crisis in the economy - everyone talks about
The Compass appeared in February, wanting to change things, but very few are
with a cast familiar from earlier films willing to take steps, personally, to make
‘The Secret’ and ‘What the Bleep Do We those changes.
Know?’ (two of Topher’s favourite movies). ‘The problems with ethics and standards
‘This new one’s about a guy travelling Personal development are causing separation, as people distance
through an unknown land, and what he
encounters on his journey,’ he explains.
is one of the most
themselves from NLP. They change the
name of what they’re doing; Tony Robbins
‘It’s about learning to follow your inner
inauthentic fields,
was the first major one to do it, and others
compass and taking action to bring about have followed. It’s dissolving the identity
what you want. The producer had attended
next to politics and
of NLP.’
one of my courses and wanted a strong Not going out much in the wider NLP
NLP input in the film, so he brought in
Hollywood!
world myself, and having met only one
Al and Marilyn Sargent, from California, major Trainer who gave me the willies,
and me. Then the second movie is due out I’m slightly startled by what he says next.
in the Fall. It’s a docu-drama called ‘Riches’, the story of a woman who ‘I could count on one hand the number of high-level Trainers who
goes from nothing to everything. It’s about wealth-creation, and I talk are pleasant and trustworthy and nice to be around. I’ve lost friends
about the influence of the mind over matter.’ because I speak out, but I say it anyway: personal development is one
What is so exciting about these initiatives is that they’re taking NLP out of the most inauthentic fields, next to politics and Hollywood! We’re
to enormous audiences, with all the implications for benefit that go along trying to clean up the neighbourhood without putting our own house
with that exposure. in order.’
10 | Summer 2009 - rapport
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