Six Blind Elephants: Understanding Ourselves and Each Other (Volume I)

A Book Review by Tim Brunson DCH

Rarely do I see a book that contributes so dramatically to a field of study that truly moves thought in a significantly new direction. When I received a copy of Six Blind Elephants: Understanding Ourselves and Each Other my initial interest was sparked by the credibility of the author. Steve Andreas is one of the two true giants (the other being Robert Dilts, Ph.D.) in the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). This is probably the most important contribution to the world of NLP since Bandler and Grinder coined the term.

This book is not one meant just to be read. It must be studied by each and every practitioner in the Integrative Arts. Obviously, having some background in NLP would help. However, any psychotherapist would gain great insight into how human thought is organized. In fact, the Cognitive Behavior Therapy crowd would most likely spend sleepless nights attempting to digest Andreas' thoughts. Drawing heavily from the works of Bandler, Grinder, Dilts, O'Hanlon, Erickson, Rossi, and others, Andreas as distilled their concepts, combined them with over four decades of teaching to develop this phenomenal contribution.

This was the first of a two volume series. (I'm happy to say, that unlike one other significant NLP book, there is actually a volume two in print.) Volume I focuses on the "Fundamental Principles of Scope and Category". The only way to relate these concepts to the NLP practitioner is to ask them to consider the "chunking" concepts taught by Dilts and others. You can think of scopes as large or small. This could apply both to size and time dimensions. To understand categories one could think of a book as being a novel or non-fiction, hardback or soft cover, etc.

We have known for years that changing how a patient/client chunks information can change internal processing and behavior. Andreas looks at this in a different way. In conventional NLP he would consider chunking up as a matter of scope and chunking down as a matter of category. But what if someone could learn to chunk up and down with scopes and do likewise with categories -- either sequentially or simultaneously. Once you grasp the geometric possibilities here, you start appreciating both the simplicity and complexity of Andreas' contribution.

As a hypnotherapist I see a subject's trance state (believing that everyone lives in some level of trance) as being defined by scope and category. So, as a therapist most of our work implicitly manipulates scope and category. This is true regardless if we use lengthy guided imagery, concise Elman techniques, or the elegance of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. Considering the latter, I would point out the all of Dr. Erickson's linguistic patterns are merely a sophisticated manipulation of a patient's framework of scope and category.

For all my praise for this work, I must admit that despite my deep respect for the author, had I first seen this book on a store shelf, I probably would not have even picked it up. This is definitely not due to the value of his ideas or the strength of his reputation. My biggest (and only concern) about this book is that the title is just way too obtuse. It took me awhile to understand the significance of Six Blind Elephants as a title. Clearly it is a twist on the Buddhist story about the elephant and the six blind men. In that story the blind men, who are metaphors for the sectarian religious authorities in the Buddha's day, enthusiastically define an elephant in terms of their limited exposure to one part of the creature's anatomy. In a twisted version six blind elephants examine a human and all come to the agreement that a "man" is flat. Now, if you can see the linkage between this wonderful book and this story, you most likely see the stretch in logic. I would have preferred a better title such as Scope and Category: Understanding Ourselves and Each Other. Therefore, my fear is that Andreas' revolutionary contribution to NLP will most likely be lost in the bookstore dust and cobwebs. Nevertheless, if my opinion matters to the readers of the Institute's newsletter, I would suggest that you immediately purchase this volume and consider the second, which I will be reviewing within the next few weeks.