More Magic of Metaphor
Nick Owen
Crown House   ISBN 1-90442-441-4
Although the publishers were kind enough to send me a copy of this book to review, no such review will be appearing on this site.  To be brief, the author has wrapped his stories up in great wodges of stuff relating to Spiral Dynamics (about which I know very little), and Ken Wilber's "4 Quadrant" Model (about which I know roughly the same).  Since I therefore have no way of knowing whether the contents are rubbish, brilliant or just okay I shall not be reviewing the book.

Magic of NLP Demystified
Lewis & Pucelik
Metamorphous Press   ISBN 1-55552-017-0
I cannot think of a less appropriate title for this book, since the front cover alone poses two mysteries:

1. Why does it include NLP in the title when this really isn't a book about NLP?
2. Why \re there two authors' names when the text of the book, from the Preface onwards, seem to indicate that only one person, Byron Lewis, should be held responsible?

The next mystery is why no one at the publishers spotted that the contents of the book are seriously confused, and do little or nothing to "demystify" anything, let alone NLP..
The underlying reason seems to be that the writer didn't think that Bandler and Grinder had done a terribly good job on NLP (as of 1979, when the book was written) and needed him to "put things 'right'."

If true, would this have anything to do with the fact that Pucelik was Bandler's co-researcher until Bandler started working with Grinder, after which time Pucelik seems to have faded out of the picture (i.e. before NLP even got the name "NLP")?
I had thought Pucelik opted to go his own way to pursue his own interests; and I believe both Bandler and Grinder still speak well of him.  So who knows?

(It seems that Lewis was also involved with the activities that led to the creation of NLP, but the details are not so easy to track down.)

Anyway, whatever the case may be, in pursuit of this lofty goal, much of the book is devoted to the authors's erroneous belief that "digital" is a "rep system."  Or a "communication category."  No, a "rep system."  Or maybe it is a communications ... Oh, forget it!
This is itself a piece of literary "sleight of hand" that goes something like this::

• Start off describing Bandler and Grinder's 4-tuple (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Olfactory and Gustatory - which are the five representational systems, which is why the "4-tuple" was, I believe, originally called the "5-tuple," before "olfactory" and "gustatory" were lumped together as one.)
• Call the next chapter The Communications Categories Model - but jump straight into a discussion of the NLP representational systems.  Do NOT give any indication why you're talking about the rep systems as though they are your own handmade "communication categories".  If you don't mention that there is no basis for this switch then, with a bit of luck, no one else will notice it.
• On no account explain what you mean by the words "category" or "system."  In fact keep using the terms as though they were synonymous.  That will make it really hard for the reader to figure which one you're referring to at any given moment and they'll eventually start to think they really are the same thing.

You think I'm joking?  Check this out:

"I have consolidated into a model four basic communication categories.  This model is organized around the four preferred representational systems.  These are the visual system, the kinesthetic system, the auditory tonal system, and the digital system."
(page 49.  Italics as in the original)

Did you spot the join?
Like, who says that the original 4-tuple ever needed "consolidating"?  And where's the separation between the "categories" and the "systems".  What has happened to olfactory and gustatory?  And who said that "digital" is a "representational system" in the first place - apart from the author of this book?
Actually Bandler and Grinder did, for a while - apparently on the basis that digital auditory was a rep system - argue that language should be treated as a rep. system in it's own right.  In practice, however, it is impossible to have language as an discrete rep system because words can only exist in written (visual) or spoken (auditory) format.

Anyway - it gets worse:

• Introduce the Satir Categories - but miss one out and claim there are only four Satir Categories.  Of course there are five categories really, but since you've limited your model to just four pigeon holes something has to go!
• Now start talking about behaviour as though what we do is who we are.  You can always stick in a few warnings about "beware the generalization" - just don't take any notice of your own warnings:

  "Remember, we all have the ability to 'be' any one or a combination of each of these categories [sic] at different times. ...
  "A person who is 'being' visual..."
  (page 57)

The 5 Paths to Persuasion
Miller, Williams ans Hayashi
Warner Business Books   ISBN 0-446-53239-8
Although, on the surface, this book is totally unconnected with NLP, it is likely to be of interest, and use, to anyone interested in the practical application of NLP techniques, especially in relation to decision-making in business.

In NLP terms, what the authors have done is model the behaviour of more than 1,500 managers, checking their positions on a dozen "meta programs" to discover their basic decicision-making strategies.  After all, as the authors point out early on in the book:

If you don't understand how people make decisions - the kinds of information they need and the order in which they need it - how effective can you be in influencing their thinking?
(page 8)

A very reasonable question - from which you might (correctly) guess that this book is mainly concerned with ifluencing as applied to business sales, and major business sales in particular.  Which is why the authors have chosen major figures from the US business community as exemplars of the five styles of decision making:

• Charismatics (like Jack Welch, Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey)
• Controllers (such as Ross Perot and Martha Stewart)
• Followers (Carly Fiorina (ex-HP computers) and Peter Coors (Coors beer))
• Skeptics (for example Ted Turner and Larry Ellison (Oracle)), and
• Thinkers (such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Alan Greenspan).

Unfortunately this concentration on big names and big business obscures the fact that there are plenty of ideas in this book which are just as useful and applicable to the daily lives of us ordinary folk.
Indeed, I got the distinct impression that the authors had painted themselves into something of a corner by taking this approach, because they are careful to say, and repeat, and repeat ... that detecting someone's decision making strategy is far from easy.  In practice, however, I suspect that it is only hard because they've tried to model people who aren't readily available for modelling.  So whilst it is true that the book is rather short on "how" to detect people's strategies, it is my impression that someone reasonably proficient in the relevant NLP techniques would actually find it quite easy to deal with that short-coming, and could quite easily apply the ideas in this book.

As to the book itself (as distinct from the ideas), I found it an enjoyable read, even if ut sometimes shows the weaknesses of having three authors.  For example, at one point in the book we are told:

"... the Yankees' record of success speaks for itself.  The team is a perennial contender in the postseason, and the franchise is one of the most lucrative in any sport."
(page 145)

Which would have been a whole lot more impressive if we hadn't already been told:

"Once, we made the point that professional baseball needs reforms because certain teams like the Yankees have huge budgets and are consequently perennial contenders in the playoffs."
(page 97)

Oops!

Anyway, the occasional blooper notwithstanding, and looking at it specifically in the context of readers with at least a basic knowledge of NLP, I'm happy to give this book a strong recommendation:   *  *  *  *  *

Perfecting the Art of Telesales Spiced with the Magic of Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Brenda Spiller
Charles Books   ISBN 0-9519019-5-8
In a nutshell, in my opinion, this book (though it is in fact only three years old), belongs to a different age; an age in which confrontation and high pressure salesmanship were still pretty universal.
For example, take this advice from the Recommendations on page 107: