by Abhishek Thakore

It was about five decades ago, in a college in the US. There was an opportunity for the students of the class to do some voluntary work in India. Of the class of 32, 28 students volunteered. Only two were chosen. One of them, a Jesuit priest. Little did anyone know that he would stay on to make India his home, and in the process be one of the first to bring the science of NLP to this country. Meet Dr. Richard McHugh (fondly called Dick McHugh), the man who has created a beautiful and unique blend of spirituality and NLP.

It is another one of Dick's popular basic NLP workshops, a ten-day program that takes participants to the depth of NLP. A participant starts to share, "Dick, I felt extremely uncomfortable with yesterday's confrontation. I felt completely misunderstood and the disturbance is still with me..."

"How many others think so?" Dick, dressed in typical white pajamas and T-shirt, asks the rest of the class. His charming smile and encouraging look lets other participants also come out in the open.

"Yes, Dick, I think you were a little harsh on her."

"I was wondering what was happening."

A few such responses later, Dick speaks, "In fact, this was one of the things that I planned to bring up today morning. It was only yesterday evening, while taking my walk that I suddenly became aware of what had happened. I was doing the exact opposite of what I was teaching… It is one of those things I have from my father... I am happy it's out in the open and I apologize." Coming from a 75-year-old maestro of NLP, that would take a fair bit of awareness and humility - both of which Dick has in ample measure. In fact, for Dick, NLP is all about awareness - a wonderful tool for people on the path.

"My mother wanted me to be a priest. It was only later that I made this wish my own," he says.

During his early days in India, Dick studied at Sadhana center in Pune. This was perhaps one of the turning points in his life. At the end of the year of the course, Tony De Mello (author of the wonderful book, One Minute Wisdom and many others), the head of the center, asked Dick to stay on. For the next two decades, Dick learnt and gave courses on psycho-spiritual subjects, group work, gestalt, bio-energetics, intensive journals, rational emotive therapy and NLP. "By then, Indians had taken over the center and began to run it quite well. So in 1993, I decided to return to the States." But the attempt to return to the US did not prove to be too successful. "India was home for me. So I returned for good," says Dick with his trademark smile. Today, he spends eight months in India, two in Ireland and two in the US in a typical year, delivering his courses in gestalt, communication and NLP. He also does group work and individual counseling.

Dick teaches NLP in a very in depth manner. The journey starts with a 10-day basic NLP course which is an introduction and grounding in the basics of NLP. This is followed by a 10-day advanced level. Beyond that there are five-day sessions on NLP - health, meta programs and communication. Dick also does 'Tools of the Spirit' which is, essentially, using NLP for increasing awareness and specifically, working on the spiritual level.

"NLP is the science of what happens naturally inside a person. Each one of us has a spiritual connection with people. Our daily experience also consists of how we relate to the world. Spirituality is a part of ourselves that we can't avoid. Questions like my position in the world, how I relate to people, the purpose of life, how do I fit into the world, are there for us all," says Dick insightfully. As one of the first and perhaps a select few to have done a PhD entirely on NLP, Dick has been with the science ever since its inception. "In NLP too, the ultimate goal is awareness. It is the study of everything that goes on inside of us. Our relationship with others and God is also a part of our everyday experience. NLP works on all of this. And with quantum physics we already are beginning to discover that we are all one - there is nothing like dualism," he adds.

"My daily method of prayer is Vipassana. For me it revolutionized my whole approach towards prayer and religion. It made me understand deeply what awareness means. When I first started praying, the Catholic style of speaking to Christ never appealed to me - there was always a struggle. When I realized and experienced Vipassana, it was the opening of a whole new world for me. It made me realize that you don't have to do anything or change anything - just let awareness take over. It was something I had been looking for - a very basic and easy way. I teach this, and strongly recommend Vipassana to my participants as well," he says. His tryst with Vipassana was in 1973. But what does this have to do with neuro-linguistic programming - with all its sub-modalities and patterns?

"Vipassana is a prayer of mindfulness. In a very NLP sense, it is taking prayer from an auditory level to an entirely kinesthetic level - the level of sensations." But then modeling is another essential part of NLP. So theoretically one should be able to 'model' someone who has attained enlightenment?

"Of course," says Dick. "Goenka, in fact, is an example of someone who had an experience and then chunked it down so that it could be modeled easily by many others." While Dick experienced Vipassana for the first time in 1973, it wasn't until 20 years later that he started practicing it. "I was recommending it to all my participants but not doing it myself. At one point of time I was embarrassed. I always knew its benefits and power - it was only now that I experienced it. It is ok that I missed those years... the awareness now is just beautiful," he says.

Explains Dick, "Awareness says that emotions are energy. As you become aware of an emotion, in NLP terms, you are literally dissociating from it. As soon as you do that, the unconscious takes over and chooses the best response to it." It is a beautiful, and perhaps completely new understanding of the principles of NLP that Dick brings in his workshops. "I look at anger as a want - the positive intention in any behavior is an NLP paradigm. Instead of getting rid of an emotion, it needs to be used. When awareness is absent, troubles begin. We get hooked instead of being in control. I strongly believe in grieving - when you experience a loss fully, you get pushed back into the present. A lot of NLP processes help you free up the energy locked in these emotions." An important part of Dick's workshops is the idea of being in the present - the Now.

"When we repress our emotional energy, we are not in the present. Experience is in the now while the stuck-up energy dissociates us from the now. In that way, sensory acuity in NLP is all about being in touch with more of whatever is happening - being more in the present," he says. One of his most cherished relationships was with Tony de Mello. Starting with dislike, it grew into one of mutual trust and sharing that helped him grow much more.

Dick got his PhD at the age of 65. He recalls, "At one point of time, the woman who was the head of my PhD committee withdrew. She said that NLP was too powerful - it could be used unethically. But, I said, so can everything else - religion, education, family. I believe it's the individual's responsibility to use it right - I always want my participants to use NLP in a healthy way with the good of people at heart." Having worked with Robert Dilts, Steve Andreas and Micheal Hall, apart from the founders of NLP - Bandler and Grinder, Dick is considered one of the leaders of the movement. His 300-page book, Mind with a heart, is a detailed and practical tool-book of NLP practices that Dick has distilled over the years.

How does he look at his journey? "The biggest changes have happened for me in the last ten years. I'm much more relaxed with life and with myself," he says. On being asked whether he would consider himself enlightened, the big man laughs, "Oh no! I'm far from it. I am on the path. I have my insights on mindfulness."

"The purpose of NLP, as with any other spiritual path, is to know yourself as you are. To accept yourself. To be more of what you are." As he gets up to go for his evening walk, I remember what one of his participants calls him - a beautiful soul who walks, talks and lives NLP.

Contact: Jeevan Vikas Sadan, Tel: 022-26422095 /
26455296 / 26416653, Email: jvsadan@vsnl.net