Product reviews for The User's Manual for the Brain Volume I

As a small boy I believed that all the cars on the road were unique, the Ford Cortina, for example surely had a Cortina engine, suspension, gearbox etc. just for that car. To my surprise, I found that various engines would fit in the same car, and that various cars would use the same engine, so the Cortina components, were also Capri, Granada, Scimitar, TVR and Escort components. It appears that the manufacturers were just using the same components across different models ” even through different brands. This is called the modular build, at first I thought this lazy, but when I got my own cars, I began to recognise the beauty of the method, allowing flexibility of different models, yet easy availability of parts and ease of manufacture.

“What's all this? I'm supposed to reading a book review?”

Yes, I'm coming to that.

I've read a lot of L.Michael Hall & Bob Bodenhamer books and at first I thought them amazingly prolific. How did they have time to write all those books?

Then I read the Users Manual for the Brain - volume 1. I found I had read parts of it before, in the source book, hypnotic language, figuring people out, and a few more.

When I had heard of the Users Manual for the Brain - volume 1 before, I had no idea what it was, it sounded like some sort of collection of the same old mnemonic techniques, mind mapping techniques, maybe some speed reading.

When you read this book you are giving yourself a grounding in all the other books by these authors. Knowledge and techniques from over thirty years of disparate NLP writing are distilled and systemised within this 400 page modern classic. It is the text of choice, bar none for NLP trainers and students alike.

Whether an NLP initiate or complete beginner there is no other book that will compare. It's on my desert island list (at least it would be if I'd bothered to draw one up). The beginner may find the book a little dry but if you need sugar with your medicine, you'll be reading a ton of books to even touch on the depth and breadth of the Users Manual for the Brain - volume 1. With modular section, it makes it possible to pick up all the various aspects of NLP one by one, it doesn't need to be read front to back. This said, as a hypnotherapist doing work on slimming, phobias, smoking, confidence, and all other aspects of the human condition, in my practices in Stockport, Greater Manchester, I had already been using a lot of NLP in my professional practice, yet I found the book to just as rewarding as if I'd been a complete beginner. One of the fortes of the Users Manual for the Brain - volume 1, is that it's structure allows you build a complete picture of the relationships of all of the otherwise unconnected areas of NLP. As I remember from my studies into memory and mnemonics, our ability to recall and use information is based upon the meaning that information holds to us by way of an indexing system, not any limits in our physical memory capacity per se. I believe Hall and Bodenhamer had this in mind whilst creating this book because in it's very layout, it encourages recall and understanding of the material. Ultimately, this means that you can find it easy to use the material in real life, personally, professionally, for your self, for others.



There is a very small nod to the history of NLP, around two pages, and then you are straight into the good stuff. There are plenty of books out there about the biography, history and development of both NLP and the Ford Cortina, but ultimately if you want to put in that new clutch (or dissolve that phobic response) you are going to need the manual.