The process of writing this book was, for the three of us, an opportunity to change and grow and integrate parts of our experience of doing family therapy and individual therapy. We came to understand explicitly how the communications skills we use in those contexts applied to writing this book together. Taking three very different models of the world, three different types of background, we found a way to use those same communication skills to communicate with each other and then finally to translate the communication we found effective among the three of us onto paper. So, we wanted to tell those of you who are reading this book that this book contains some of the ways which we found delightful and useful to use to communicate not only with families in the context of therapy, but also with each other in the process of writing. The very same patterns that we identify in this book as patterns of effective communication with members of a family in the context of'a therapy session are precisely the patterns of communication that we used to write this book. And it gives us great pleasure, and is a continuing delight, to find ways of being effective in communicating with ourselves, and with our other colleagues in writing this book. Hopefully, we'll communicate to you some of the excitement and joy we have in the process of communication. For us, communication means experience—the ability to be in touch with what we are feeling—to be able to see clearly what is available at a point in time—to be able to hear with precision the sounds of life. These skills, which we are constantly developing in ourselves, were the essential ingredients in writing this book. Bandler Grinder Satir

What People are saying about this book: "A readable, practical, and entertaining book about a challenging, original, and promising new discipline. I recommend it."—Dan Goleman, Associate Editor of Psychology Today. "NLP represents a huge quantum jump in our understanding of human behavior and communication. It makes most current therapy and education totally obsolete."—John O. Stevens, author of Awareness and editor of Gestalt Therapy Verbatim and Gestalt is. "This book shows you how to do a little magic and change the way you see, hear, feel, and imagine the world you live in. It presents new therapeutic techniques which can teach you some surprising things about yourself."—Sam Keen, Consulting Editor of Psychology Today and author of Beginnings Without End, To a Dancing God, and Apology for Wonder. "How tiresome it is going from one limiting belief to another. How joyful to read Bandler and Grinder, who don't believe anything, yet use everything! NLP wears seven-league-boots, and takes 'therapy' or 'personal growth' far, far beyond any previous notions."—Barry Stevens, author of Don't Push the River, and co-author of Person to Person. "Fritz Perls regarded John Stevens' Gestalt Therapy Verbatim as the best representation of his work in print. Grinder and Bandler have good reason to have the same regard for Frogs into Princes. Once again, it's the closest thing to actually being in the workshop."— Richard Price, Co-founder and director of Esalen Institute

There comes a time when it is both useful, and appropriate, for the purpose of continuing to expand our understanding of the universe we live in, for entirely new fields of study to be created. Separating new from old, exceptions from rules, and useful from previously unquestionable. So learning and experiences from entirely divergent fields have the opportunity to combine knowledge and experience into configurations that allow further growth, understanding, and impact upon ourselves as a species. It is in this way that neuro-linguistic programming came into being. We wish at this point to separate our NLP from the many fields from which it draws information, from the many fields for which it has application. And in this way have greater clarity and freedom to delineate NLP's own methodologies and basic purpose

The meaning that any event has depends upon the «frame» in which we perceive it. When we change the frame, we change the meaning. Having two wild horses is a good thing until it is seen in the context of the son's broken leg. The broken leg seems to be bad in the context of peaceful village life; but in the context of conscription and war, it suddenly becomes good. This is called reframing: changing the frame in which a person perceives events in order to change the meaning. When the meaning changes, the person's responses and behaviors also change

What is a trance state? How do you access a previous trance state? What is pattern interruption? Stacked realities? Generative change? Reframing? And how in the world do you use all this stuff to do anything productive? Better yet, how do you keep from using all this stuff to be unproductive? Well, this will give a you a taste of what lies in store for you in this book. It's the best book to learn about real hypnosis, the structure of hypnosis. There are many books that can teach you to hypnotize people, but few that can teach you to break through the consensual trance that you are already in. This book can get you on the road to doing that. "Hypnosis is a word that usually gets strong responses from people" - positive or negative. Often, people associate trance states with mysticism or magic, which has not helped the reputation of hypnosis. We encourage skeptics to suspend their beliefs or assumptions about hypnosis long enough to read this book. NLP cofounders Bandler and Grinder studied the famous therapist Milton Erickson to determine the structure of hypnosis. This book turns the "magic" into specific understandable procedures, some of which are useful in everyday conversation. In addition to the hows of hypnosis (basic and advanced), the authors describe numerous important uses for this science. A great introduction to the subject - and an important reference book for hypnosis practitioners