Does NLP really work or is it just a scam to get you to pay for courses and videos?

Answer 1

There is a very clear answer to your question:

Depends.

It will work for you if you like it, and when you can relate to that way of thinking about perception communication, and change. It doesnt work equally well for everyone - for some, it doesnt work at all. If you like it, you´ll get a lot of useful points of view out of it.

I suggest you take a look at "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" by Joseph O´ Connor for an overview, and at "Using your Brain - For A Change" by Richard Bandler (one of the original co-creators of NLP) to get a feel for it - and continue on with more if you like it.

If you dont like it, it probably will not work for you very well. It works for me:

I`ve been reading books by Bandler and Grinder and also been attending NLP seminars ... here´s my opinion: NLP is a very interesting and useful way of looking at perception, thinking, and communication that can enrich the way you think, perceive and act ... and provide you with new choices. Sort of a pragmatic epistemology.

I have a university ed in psych ... and NLP turned me around cuz for the first time, it showed me how to use formal models towards useful ends, not as theories onto themselves.

I decided to leave the field of psych altogether after that (I´m not an NLP Trainer either).

At the same time ... I got more out of reading the books than out of the seminars, although they were designed quite well. But that might just be my style of learning. IMHO, NLP is definitely worth learning. Well-constructed model of communication from mind to mind ... much more useful than traditional psych.