Richard Bandler

Richard Wayne Bandler (born February 24, 1950) is an American author on personal development. He is best known as the co-inventor (with John Grinder) of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). He also developed follow-up systems known as Design Human Engineering (DHE) and Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning (NHR).

Education and Background
Bandler holds a BA (1973) in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and an MA (1975) in Psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

 * ''Main articles: Neuro-linguistic programming, History of NLP

Co-founding of NLP
Richard Bandler was invited by Bob Spitzer, owner of Science and Behavior Books to attend trainings by Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir, and was later hired by Spitzer to help edit one of Perls' books--The Gestalt Approach. Richard Bandler invented the term 'Neuro Linguistic Programming'.

While Bandler was a student at University of California, Santa Cruz he also led a Gestalt therapy group. John Grinder, who came to observe, said to Bandler that he could explain almost all of the questions and comments Bandler made using transformational grammar, the topic in linguistics that Grinder specialized in. They developed a model for therapy and called it the meta-model. It became their first book, The Structure of Magic, Volume I (1975). Bandler was Gregory Bateson's landlord, who taught at UCSC, Kresge College as did Grinder, and had moved to a community on Alba Road near the Santa Cruz mountains community of Ben Lomond. Bateson would have a profound influence on Bandler's future, he introduced Bandler and Grinder to Milton Erickson, which formed some of the foundational models for Neuro-linguistic programming. In 1975 Bandler then formed his own publishing company, Meta Publications, and published Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson Volume I (1975).

Bandler and Grinder went on to author The Structure of Magic Volume II (1976), Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson Volume II (1977) and Changing With Families (1976), which was co-authored with Virginia Satir herself.

Bandler also modeled Israeli physicist and founder of the Feldenkrais school of body work, Moshe Feldenkrais, and later published his book "The Elusive Obvious". In many of his classes, he has taught elements of this form of bodywork which he modeled.

Contributions
Richard Bandler has also contributed to many of the models and techniques that are now taught in NLP. For example, meta model, Milton model, anchoring, swish pattern, reframing, belief change, nesting loops, chaining states, submodalities applications and timelines.

Corine Christensen Case
On January 29, 1988, Bandler was acquitted by a jury, after only 5 1/2 hours of deliberation, of the murder of prostitute Corine Christensen, an NLP student and fellow cocaine abuser. Someone shot her in the face on November 3, 1986, using one of Bandler's guns. The incident occurred during a visit at her home from Bandler and his friend, James Marino. Authorities found Christensen slumped over her dining table and her blood sprayed on Bandler's shirt. Marino was not charged in the murder.

After he and Grinder split, Bandler had trouble attracting clients and he began to use cocaine. Christensen, the daughter of a San Francisco policeman, and her boyfriend, James Marino, a convicted felon who was his best friend, were his suppliers. Marino claimed that he told Bandler that Christensen was having a lesbian affair with the writer’s live-in girlfriend.

When the two men visited Christensen at her townhouse near Santa Cruz, Bandler drank tequila and argued with her, according to the story. Marino claimed Bandler shot her after cutting off the top of a Mr. Clean bottle to silence his .357 Magnum. Marino also claimed that Bandler spilled liquid soap on himself and the gun, then told him to toss the weapon off the Capitola pier.

Divers found both the gun and Bandler's clothing, which were covered with blood and lemon-smelling soap. Authorities also found a bloody straw and cocaine residue. When Bandler was tried, lawyers presented conflicting interpretations of physical evidence. Marino vanished, missed a court appearance and showed up only after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

Bandler testified that Marino thought Christensen was plotting to have him beaten and killed. He said that Marino actually shot her to death with Bandler's gun, while both were at her home. Before the trial, friends said shooting a prostitute was out of character, even though Bandler had reputation for moodiness and unpredictability. Bandler has stated since that the District Attorney chose to prosecute him for political reasons as he was a high profile defendant. "With me, the DA gets to make a big reputation," he says. "But if it's some thug drug dealer, you're not going to make any mileage." 

Litigation
In 1980 Bandler's company Not Ltd had reported earnings of more than US$800,000 and he and his then wife -- Leslie Cameron-Bandler -- were living an opulent lifestyle. By the end of 1980 Bandler's collaboration with Grinder -- where they lectured, trained and co-authored -- abruptly ended and his wife filed for divorce (after two years of marriage).

In July of 1996 Bandler filed suit against John Grinder and again in January 1997 against Grinder and numerous members of the NLP community including, Carmen Bostic-St. Clair, Steve and Connirae Andreas. Bandler claimed trademark infringement, intellectual property ownership of NLP, conspiratorial tortious interference and breach of settlement agreement and permanent injunction by Grinder.

By the end of 2000 some sort of rapprochement between Bandler and Grinder was achieved when the parties entered a release wherein they inter alia agreed that "they are the co-creators and co-founders of the technology of Neuro-linguistic Programming. Drs. Grinder and Bandler recognize the efforts and contributions of each other in the creation and initial development of NLP." In the same document, "Dr. John Grinder and Dr. Richard Bandler mutually agree to refrain from disparaging each other's efforts, in any fashion, concerning their respective involvement in the field of NeuroLinguistic Programming." ("Release" reproduced as Appendix A of Whispering in the Wind by Grinder and Bostic St Clair (2001)).

Other works
Since the early 1980s when Grinder and Bandler stopped working together, Bandler developed several trademarked techniques he calls the fields of Design Human Engineering(tm) and Neuro-Hypnotic Repatterning(tm). Bandler says that these technologies differ significantly from NLP in that they are claimed to be more direct and effective as interventions. Other works since that time include Using Your Brain for a Change (1985), Magic in Action (1992) Time for a Change (1995), Persuasion Engineering (1996)' (co-author John LaValle) The Adventures of Anybody (1993), and Conversations (2005) (co-author Owen Fitzpatrick).

Books

 * Using Your Brain for a Change, 1985 (ISBN 0-911226-27-3)
 * Magic In Action, 1992 (ISBN 0-916990-14-1)
 * Time for a Change, 1993 (ISBN 0-916990-28-1)
 * Persuasion Engineering - 1996 (ISBN 0-916990-36-2)
 * Using Your Brain for a Change, 1985 (ISBN 0-911226-27-3)
 * Magic In Action, 1992 (ISBN 0-916990-14-1)
 * Time for a Change, 1993 (ISBN 0-916990-28-1)
 * Persuasion Engineering - 1996 (ISBN 0-916990-36-2)
 * Magic In Action, 1992 (ISBN 0-916990-14-1)
 * Time for a Change, 1993 (ISBN 0-916990-28-1)
 * Persuasion Engineering - 1996 (ISBN 0-916990-36-2)
 * Persuasion Engineering - 1996 (ISBN 0-916990-36-2)