On first sight my gut feeling said, “Oh no, he’s far to smooth, he’s just another eager salesman. What does he sell – overall false hope to the also-rans and success and more wealth to the already rich. How does he do it, by employing the use of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) which, according to the shrinks, lies at the periphery of psychotherapy, as there’s a lack of credible evidence to support its effectiveness. So how does it work?
Overall, it prays on the gullible (N.B. gullible doesn’t appear in the dictionary) who get sucked into the back draft of a speech from a smarmy git. Once a patsy has given unlimited access to their credit card, and the first purchase has been secured, then and only then does the trance of the life coach wear off.
I first became aware of Mr. Robbins during a TV ad, and he was banging on about how I could have ‘it all’, just by buying his tapes, and this would only take seven weeks! I thought shit; I better buy a bigger house! A week later he was on again, in the early hours, chuntering on about the same thing, only this time I could buy the CD’s, and now achieve the same results in just seven days – isn’t technology marvelous! Not even six sheets to wind was I tempted to buy!
How do you become an obnoxious, fire-walking millionaire – by having an overbearing mother it seems! According to Anthony Robbins’ sickly online bio, mummy had a ‘special’ bond with him, but not his siblings, and papa wasn’t allowed to have a say-so in his upbringing. As time went by Robbins Jr. became a sports writer, for which he had a natural talent. But, when mama realised he was becoming a success, and felt she was losing control of him, she put a halt to his early career, claiming she needed him to be at home to look after her.
He left the family home with nothing, on Christmas Eve 1977, after a massive row with the old bat. Do I believe that? On the whole, no! As a writer of non fiction, I can write an emotive line or paragraph, in fiction, if I choose to ‘flower it’ up. Why so cynical? I know what’s coming up next, I’ve seen Robbins ‘act’ and I’ve read the complaints that he won’t allow on his websites.
Now, he may have taken a hike from the house and the ‘control freak’, but, how could you make that sentence more heart rending for a bio? Ooh, I know, add the words ‘Christmas Eve’, ‘with nothing’, and, ‘walked out’! Get’s ya right there doesn’t it! And it gets better. His uncle gave him a job, but mummy put the kibosh on that too, saying, “If he wants to make it on his own, he’ll do it by himself, not by using family,” and convinced the uncle to sack him. Nice lady!
At 22 he was fat, broke and alone and he slipped into a depression. (Wait for it, wait for it… he comes an epiphany!) One year later he forced himself out of his retreat and took a run on the beach. And it was in that instance that he willed himself to start taking back control of his life. [Author reaches for a bucket, and notes that there was no mention of medication, recovery or any intervention by a mental health professional at all in the bio.]
Having been infused with the Godly power of self-recovery it seems, Robbins was going to package it and flog it to anyone he could talk into a corner. He had some success too, then the seminars began or the second coming of the Nurnberg rallies, as one writer described them, after bearing witness to one such meeting. Another said, from what I gleamed from his seminars, he’s almost an evangelist in terms of his stage work and I personally believe he’s pushing a Christianity message.” Now that’s why I find him so annoying!
So, if you’re expecting a nice quiet talk in a cosy room about the benefits of his wares, think again, this is how it works live. Before ‘lanky’ finally hits the boards you have sit/stand through the dimming of lights and a warm up guy. He runs on stage, welcomes the potential suckers, then twenty or more girls with tight fitting tops with “FUN” emblazoned across their chests join the party. The warm up then challenges the crowd to scream louder, while the fun-babes hand out twenty-dollar bills to the audience members who showed the most enthusiasm!!!
By all accounts it’s one long grueling and hypnotic induction, which is over-stimulating, and which is heightened by an ear-splitting PA, jumbo TV screens and live cameras everywhere. And right there is the start of the super hype. Just as you think, “Girl I can’t get no higher,” on ‘it’ walks.
Now you’re encased in Robbins’ world, where you’re profusely encourage to jump up and down a lot and scream “YES YES YES YES,” at the top of your vocal range. While you’re caught up in this skit, smoke machines belch for all their worth and then you’re bombarded with strobe lighting [Presumably checks were made so none of the suckers were affected by this.] and a rubbish musical backing track. At the zenith of the hysteria ‘The man’ asks you to call up your deepest feelings of lurvvve! Apparently he requires copious amounts of lurvvve, because he can’t survive without it, well that and your hard earned life savings.
Look up a guy called Milton Erickson and check out his ‘Confusion technique’, it’s part of the NLP method of getting what you want. As is body language, non-verbal communication and the tone of your voice. What’s interesting is the way the non-verbal expressions often directly contradicted the verbal ones, and it’s at that point when your bullshit alarm should go off.
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