Early Evolution of NLP

By the early 1980s Bandler and Grinder had each developed their own ideas about NLP and had parted company, each to continue on his own.

Some feel that around this time NLP lost some of its initial creativity and went into a temporary slump, turning into more of a conventional quick-fix New Age therapy, marketed to people with lots of money who wanted instant results.

There was some squabbling among different factions over who “owned” NLP and who promoted the “true” version. As time passed, NLP grew in popularity and developed many different strands, until its present status as a sort of “open source” system, with no central authority or single owner. This anarchic flavor contributes to its creative vitality today.