meta-nlp master practitioners' manual

META-NLP®

ACCELERATEDNLP PRACTITIONER

TRAINING

Trainers

Mike Davis, Th.D.Bobby G. Bodenhamer, D.Min.

Authors

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.Bobby G. Bodenhamer, D.Min.

2001 – 2006

©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®2

Meta-NLP® Accelerated NLP TrainingCopyright: 2001- 2006 L. Michael Hall and Bobby G. BodenhamerAll Rights Reserved.

No part of this may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, etc.) Without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Developed by L. Michael Hall and Bobby G. Bodenhamer. Materials dependent upon User’s Manual for the Brain (1999) and The Sourcebook of Magic (1997).

Authors:

L. Michael Hall, Ph.DNeuro-SemanticsP.O. Box 8Clifton, CO 81520(970) [email protected]

Bobby G Bodenhamer, D.Min.1516 Cecelia DrGastonia, NC [email protected]

Web Sites:

www.neurosemantics.comwww.runyourownbrain.com www.renewingyourmind.comwww.masteringstuttering.com


http://www.neurosemantics.com/

META-NLP® —ACCELERATED NLP LEARNING

Modeling the Magic of NLPIntroduction to NLP TrainingOpening Agreements

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1) THE NLP MODEL: The Components of Experience

NLP as a Model of Information ProcessingRep. Systems Sensory BasedEncoding of States via Modalities & SubmodalitiesThe VAK ModelRep System: The Linguistic Model

Using PredicatesEye PatternsWell-formed Outcomes

Introduction to StatesSensory Acuity: UptimePacing: Matching and MirroringCircle of Excellence

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1313172122

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2) THE NEURO-LINGUISTIC STATES

The Meaning of Neuro-Linguistic StatesComponents of States

Royal Roads to State: InternalRepresentations & PhysiologyState Management SkillsAccessing States

Elicitation Skills

Anchoring States:

Anchoring Mind-Body StatesAnchoring: Pavlovian ConditioningAnchoring: Controlled Re-Experiencing

State Accessing & AnchoringCollapse Anchors Association/DissociationFlexibility of Perception: Perceptual PositionsAligning Perceptual PositionsV/K Dissociation Pattern (The Fast Phobia Cure)

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3) USING STATES AND STRATEGIES

NLP Communication Model/ SubmodalitiesSwish PatternThe Visual Squash Pattern

Introduction to the Logical Levels of Meta-StatesExercise: Basic Meta-Stating Pattern

SCORE Model

Strategies: Representational TrackingThe TOTE model

Using the Strategies Model

Spelling StrategyMotivation StrategyLove Strategy

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103104

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Framing as Constructing higher meaningsReframing Criticism6 Step Reframing

How Reframing WorksContent/ Context ReframingThe Conscious Reframing Patterns

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4) HIGHER FRAMES OF MIND

The NLP Presuppositions

Patterns:Belief Change Pattern (Classic NLP)Meta-Yes/ Meta-No PatternCreating a New Part PatternNegotiating Between Parts Pattern

The Higher Frames of MindMeta-State Frames as “Submodalities”Meta-States as “Beliefs,” “Values,” “Identity”Meta-States as Meta-Programs

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5) THE LINGUISTICS OF NLP

The Meta-Model of LanguageMeta-Model Exercises: Playing with the Meta-Model

The Milton Model

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6) TIME-LINES

The Neuro-Semantics of “Time”Patterns:

Eliciting Time-LinesKinesthetic Time-LinesChanging Time-LinesTime-Lines for TherapyChange Personal HistoryChange History Using Meta-StatesDecision DestroyerMeta-Stating a New Decision in “Time”Releasing Negative EmotionsResolving Phobias on the Time-LineRe-ImprintingFinishing Unfinished BusinessFinishing a Past GestaltSomantic SwishThe Drop Down Through Pattern

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169173177179180183185188189192193198200201202

Additional Patterns

The Meta-Resource WalkFuture WalkUsing NLP for Effective SellingUsing NLP for Negotiating and InfluencingUsing NLP for Meetings

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Article: “Blasting Away an Old NLP Myth” 210Standards 216Authors 218Historical Development of the Meta-States Model 220Available Trainings 222


Modeling The Magic of NLP Once upon a time there arose a Wizard in the land... a wizard who could just say words and

the burdens of hearts would be lifted and lives renewed. Virginia was her name and she would simply invite

people to sculpture their families using other people and she would utter statements of wisdom and people would

be free from struggles of year’s duration, free to enter into a transformation of life...

And when two Modelers in a distant land heard about this Wizard, and the magic she was creating with her words they traveled to that land to see if they could capture the formula of the magic.

And these two Wizard Modelers took with them all of the tools for Pattern Detection that they knew of, Pattern Detectors of language, mathematics, and information processing and sought audience with the Wizard to ask permission to detail out the precise formulations of her magic.

And when they came into the very presence of the Wizard Virginia, they stood in awe before her magic... wondering if it was what she said, how she said it, the ideas within her words of wisdom, her touch as she moved people about, her sheer physical size and presence, the love and compassion that abounded so much in her. And they wondered... really wondered about it all.

Then they heard about another Wizard, a gruff old man who didn’t have the presence or size of Virginia, and who didn’t seem to care for people all that much... and yet Fritz could also just say words and people would perform thought experiments in their heads...and yell at chairs, sit in hot suffer pools and then emerge liberated from old emotional prisons and freed to become who they truly were. Richard kind of thought that his magic was in his gruffness. But since they didn’t know, they continued to wonder.

Finally, they were directed to go to yet another Wizard, and so they traveled to Phoenix and met the Wizard Milton who then became their guide into the strange Land of Trance, where he would use just words to perform medical and psychiatric magic... yet this Wizard seemed to use words that were wonderfully vague in the most precise way. And again, they wondered, really wondered about the structure of magic.

Eventually the Wizard Modelers sorted out the Structure of Magic and of the Secrets of that Magic... and began their School, The University of the Structure of Magic... today this school is known as NLP...


INTRODUCTIONWelcome to NLP Training

Welcome to this NLP adventure. This adventure involves discovering how to truly run your own brain, and when you can do that, then you can do something that’s truly magical among humans, you can manage your own states. Imagine that. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

With this training and this manual, you are about to take the first step in the exploration of how you have mapped out your sense of reality... and as you do, we will put into your hands all of the necessary tools to refine and transform your experience of reality so that it enhances your life in ways that will revolutionize your life. A big promise? You bet. And yet that is part of the magic and wonder of this new technology that we call NLP. This exploration will also provide something else. It will richly inform you about others, i.e., how to read them, how to figure them out, how to influence them, and how to have rich relationships.

It is my privilege to share in your discoveries of NLP during this intensive and accelerated format. By now you will have thoroughly familiarized yourself with the language of NLP. That is critical for this accelerated format. As you undoubtedly know, NLP (like any other field) has developed a specialized vocabulary (or jargon). Why is that necessary? It’s necessary in order to more precisely and accurately talk about the stuff inside the “black box.” Even today, psychological language for human subjectivity is still pretty vague and indefinite. In NLP, we have a much more precise way to talk about the mental-and-emotional phenomena that we experience.

Your readings should not only have fully acquainted you with the language, but also introduced you to a whole range of revolutionary and exciting ideas, models, patterns, and techniques. Yet merely reading about NLP will not prepare you or equip you to truly be masterful at this field. At its heart, NLP is highly experiential. And for that reason, the focus of this training will be on running the patterns, on getting actual hands-on practice with the processes, the models, the techniques, etc. So, in order for you to get the most from this, I would ask that you adopt as playful, explorative, and curious a state as possible. This too will accelerate your learning and mastery.

I have designed this training with my partner, Dr. Bob Bodenhamer, using a great many of the Accelerated Learning principles so that every single learning will lead to the next and every skill or model will be built upon the former experiences. I have also put this training manual together in such a way that there are many presupposed and preframed installation processes... which you may or may not catch consciously, at least not at first.


In this training, you will also learn about Meta-States — the newest and most revolutionary model to appear in NLP in the past 20 years. This will further accelerate your learning and enable you to access the higher levels of your mind so as to facilitate your understanding and mastery.

NLP As a Model for Success. At the heart of the NLP pattern for “success” is the following simple formula. Though simple, don’t let it fool you. There’s wisdom incorporated into it.

1) Know what you want — your desired outcome.2) Take informed action toward that outcome.3) Use your sensory acuity to notice the responses you get.4) Use your behavioral flexibility to keep adjusting your actions using the feedback that you get.5) Keep accessing and operating from states of excellence.

The foundational texts for this training are the books, The User’s Manual for the Brain and The Sourcebook of Magic. Bob put the first text together from his years of teaching the basic NLP model, skills, and patterns together. The second text will give you a handy sourcebook of 77 of the most basic NLP patterns.


NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMINGNLP is essentially a model of human functioning. As such NLP provides a way to think about and use the “languages” of the mind (sensory languages, linguistic, symbolic, conceptual, etc.) so that we can “run our own brain,” manage our own states, and consistently achieve our desired outcomes.

NLP is also a description of human functioning rather than a theory about such. Via the tools, models, techniques, and patterns, NLP gives us a way to talk about our subjective experiences. By focusing on description rather than prescription, we focus on how the processes and mechanisms work, how to replicate such (modeling), and how to intervene, transform, and improve human functioning.

NEURO- refers to the voluntary and autonomic nervous system through which our experiences are processed by means of our five senses: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory and Gustatory. Neurology, the nervous system, the physical foundations for the “abstracting” of the nervous system that begins our “mapping” of the world out there. In our neurological mapping, we map the world using the non-linguistic maps of the sensory systems:

Visual — SightsAuditory — SoundsKinesthetic — FeelingsOlfactory — SmellGustatory — Taste

LINGUISTIC refers to the symbolic mapping that we create of the territory. It involves the higher cortical functions in the brain which enable us to use symbols to create language, and to map things out linguistically. This enables us to encode, order and give meaning to our sensory representations using much more abstract categories.

Language — words, sentences, syntax, grammar, etc.Mathematics MusicNon-propositional language: poetry, stories, narrative, etc.

PROGRAMMING refers to the actual processes or patterns that we use to order and sequence our mapping. Such “programming” generates our strategies for functioning, and results in our skills, abilities, habits, etc. We develop “programs” for communicating, parenting, working, relating, etc.


NLP TRAINING OPERATES ACCORDING TO A NUMBER OF ASSUMPTIONS

We call them the “NLP Presuppositions.” They arose originally from some of the core ideas that Perls, Satir, and Erickson expressed. Over the years, they have become streamlined into such succinct lines as the following — Mind-Lines that captivate the very spirit of NLP.

Memorize these in order to integrate them in the exercises of this training. When these become your everyday Frames of mind, you can truly play the NLP Game.

1) There is no “failure,” only feedback. And feedback is simply information.2) We all respond according to our map of reality, not reality.3) Our map is not the territory; it is but a map, a symbolic representation of

the territory.4) The meaning of communication is the response you get.5) The element in any system with the most flexibility will exercise the

greatest influence. (Law of Requisite Variety)6) People are not broken; they work perfectly well.7) People have all the resources they need; they just need to access,

strengthen, and sequence them.8) We can model excellence, and even genius, if we break the tasks and

skills into small enough chunks. If someone can do something, then it’s a human possibility.

9) Mind-body are part of the same system (the neuro-linguistic system) and influence each other in a circular way.

10) It’s always better to have choice, than the lack of choice.11) We add to choices in NLP, we don’t take choices away; people tend to

make the best choices available.12) When calibrating to a person’s reality, the highest quality information will

be behavioral.13) Since memory and imagination use the same neurological circuits as

external sensory awareness, they can powerfully influence our development.

14) People are more than their actions, words, emotions, roles, etc.15) Behind every behavior is a positive intention.16) Resistance indicates the lack of rapport.17) There’s an abundance of personal resources, plenty for all.18) It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.19) Energy flows where attention goes as directed by Intention.20) If you get serious, you get stupid.


OPENING AGREEMENT FRAMESAs a “magician in training” studying NLP and about the art of running your own brain, will you agree to first do that and to take ownership of your brain and state and use the days of this training to put that knowledge to the test? Will you agree to accept ownership for managing your own states?

Will you also assume complete ownership for finding and getting value from the training and for contributing value to the group?

Because this is a Certification Training, will you fully agree to focus on the NLP Patterns and Processes, to learning them, gaining competence with them, and for using only NLP in the practice groups?

Will you agree to make whatever adjustments you need to make in terms of your sense of time in order to get here on time and move through the practice groups with appropriate speed?

Will you give yourself in this training to being open to feed-back and shaping so that you can tune up your personal knowledge and skills so that you can become much more resourceful, more resourceful than you have ever been before?

As you well know, sometimes things will come up as you process and reprocess through things... if that happens, just let it... knowing that it’s just representations of things, just a map, and not real. If you need to talk with one of us, please do, that’s what we are here for.

As you also well know, part of building up new learnings is entering into states of confusion and disorientation... this is the gateway to new learnings, so if you get confused or overwhelmed, just welcome that in and go with it... trusting the process that you will come out on the other end just fine.

While we are here, our focus is on learning NLP and in the process we will be networking and developing friendships with each other... as well as becoming the leadership of the NLP Community here and around the world... Therefore will you take ownership to be appropriately professional while you are here? This is not the time to sell your products and services, to get business, if you develop relationships and rapport... that will naturally happen afterwards, but not during this training. Will you agree to help all of us to develop a laser beam focus on learning NLP and leave it at that?

While we desire for our participants to obtain personal outcomes in the training, our focus in each individual exercise is on teaching the pattern. Will you agree to focus primarily on learning the process of each exercise? This will, of course, lead to obtaining your outcome.


Section INLP AS A MODEL

The Components of Experience

1) A Theory:A theoretical background, foundation, hypothesis, etc. that offers an explanatory model for how the model or system works, the governing ideas and how to test and refine the ideas in order to create new applications. Ideas that can be tested and falsifiedAnswers Why QuestionsEpistemology

The NLP PresuppositionsMap/ Territory DistinctionGestalt Psychology & Gestalt TherapyConstructionismBatesons’ CyberneticsKorzybskiFamily Systems

2) Variables and Elements: The pieces and parts that make up the components of the model.Answers the What Questions.What elements are absolutely necessary and sufficient to make the model work?What processes?

VAK Representational SystemsSubmodalities Meta-LevelsLanguageMeta-Programs

3) The Guiding and Operational Principles: The “laws” or principles (presuppositions) that define and articulate the mechanisms that make it work and how to use them in a methodological, systematic, and systemic way. This gives one the ability to keep refining the model.Answers the How questions:How does the model work?What processes, mechanisms govern it?

Adaptation of NLP PresuppositionsTOTE Model for Strategies

4) The Technologies or Patterns: The specific tools that provide immediate application for using the Model or System to achieve something.Answers how to questions:How do you reframe meaning? Etc.

More than 150 NLP Patterns


NLP AND THE STRUCTUREOF INFORMATION PROCESSING

"NLP is an attitude, backed up by a methodology that leaves behind it a trail of techniques."

(Richard Bandler)

Figure 1:1

The Territory...

World energy manifestations ... ... Senses (sense receptors) Person

REPRESENTATION SYSTEMSThe Sensory Based Neurological Systems

(Users, pp. 1-41)

THE MAP/TERRITORY DISTINCTION:We Deal with the World via Representation.

We experience ourselves, our world, and others through our primary modalities of the five senses. We see, hear, feel, smell and taste. We also talk to ourselves. These sensory modes or modalities enable us to encode, organize, store, and attach meaning to the perceptual input that we experience. We call these sensory systems or modalities “Representational Systems.”

With these systems, we present to ourselves (in our minds) the information again. That is, we create a mental internal representation by which we then navigate the territory of the world. As this sensory input is internally processed (re-presented), it is translated into corresponding sensory representations (or maps/ models) that constitute a likeness or synthesis of the original perceptual input.


Mapping processes — Mental Maps

Though obvious, most of us are not aware of our “thinking” as the re-presenting of sensory information to ourselves. Recognizing this structure of “thinking” makes it obvious that Reality and our Perceptions of "reality" are not the same. One is external; one is internal. One is the Territory, the other is the map. And, “The map is not the territory.” Yet a map can give us directions if it even fairly accurately accords with the territory. Bandler and Grinder (1975) wrote:

"For example, take the sentence: The book is blue. Blue is the name that we, as native speakers of English, have learned to used to describe our experience of that certain portion of the continuum of visible light. Misled by the structure of our language, we come to assume that blue is a property of the object that we refer to as book rather than being the name which we have given our sensation."

Representation Systems as 4-Tuples

We use the Representation Systems (RS) to describe internal “experience.” Early NLP literature also designated the RS, the 4-tuple. The 4-tuple notation and concept (or the VAK model) makes it easier to compare and change the experiential components of our experiences. Conceptually, at any given moment, on-going experience consists of the sum of the inputs of the five senses plus our internal talk about what we remember (memory) and anticipate (imagine).

We summarize the two senses of smell (Olfactory) and taste (Gustatory) together as just “O.” Smell and taste can be very powerful modes for accessing certain information although less used in dealing with conceptual or abstract information. Smell is particularly effective for accessing childhood or distant past memories. Recalling now the smell of freshly baked cookies can sometimes put you back in a kitchen when you were a youngster. Can it not?

Internal/External Components: There are both external and internal components for each of the senses. Seeing a table (visual external) differs from remembering what a table looks like (visual internal). We also can both remember and imagine (or create) our sensed “experience.” We can imagine what a table might look like, though we may never have seen it.

The VAK model enables us to more easily talk about and deal with our internal experiences. It describes a person's experience at a given moment and indicates the representational processes that are engaged in, not the content of the experience.


Notations: Subscripts are used for things that are created(c), things that are remembered(r), for tones(t), for digital information (d), and for internal (i), and external (e). Additional modifiers for strategy notation will be used later to indicate the kind of response made by a person at various stages. He may be congruent (), go meta (— m), or make a polarity response (p). Decision points can be notated by a +/- and then an Exit (-Exit). With this notational system, we can decode and isolate behaviors. This allows us to change and/or install new skills and behaviors.

Figure 1:2


Figure 1:3THE NLP NOTATIONAL SYSTEM

Representational Systems

V Visual: pictures, imagesA Auditory: soundsK Kinesthetic: feelings, sensationsO Olfactory: smellsG Gustatory: tastes

Superscripts

r rememberedc constructedi internale external+ positive- negative

Subscripts

t tonald digital

Syntactic Symbols:

/Xm—p—

Leads toComparisonSynesthesiaMetaPolarity (make a polarity response)Simultaneous but not interfering

“Submodalities”Representational Distinctions

Visual Auditory Kinesthetic__ Brightness __ Focus __ Color __ Size __ Distance __ Contrast __ Movement __ Direction __ Foreground/ Background __ Location

__Pitch__Continuous or Interrupted (Digital/Tonal)__Associated/Dissociated__Tempo__Volume__Rhythm__Duration__Distance__Clarity

__Pressure__Location__Extent__Shape__Texture__Temperature__Movement__Duration__Intensity__Frequency


“SUBMODALITIES”Richard Bandler introduced the term “sub-modalities” to NLP. Prior to that, Todd Epstein called the distinctions within the sensory modalities, Pragmagraphics. Originally, they viewed these qualities, features, and distinctions of the modalities as existing as a lower logical level and that’s why they added the prefix “sub-.” Metaphors were used by numerous people (myself included) about the “submodalities” as operating like the molecular structure of “thought.” More recently, we have discovered that this metaphor and way of talking about the features, distinctions, and qualities of the modalities as erroneous. See The Structure of Excellence: Unmasking the Meta-Levels of Submodalities (1999).

The features of the modalities do not actually operate at a “sub-” level, but at a meta-level. That’s why some so-called “sub-modalities” are also Meta-Programs (i.e., associated, dissociated; specific zooming in and global zooming out, etc.). Yet, after 20 or more years of usage in NLP, “sub-modalities” is a term that permeates the field and one that we are stuck with.

As we continue to use the term “submodalities” to refer to the perceptual organization of thoughts and the qualities of thought in each representation system (some conscious and some unconscious), we do so with an awareness that they actually operate as meta-level structures. As submodalities refer to the qualities and characteristics of the modalities, we now recognize that these encode frame information at a meta-level. The qualities (close/ far, associated, dissociated, color/ black-and-white, etc.) tell us the frame to put around our pictures, sounds, and sensations. These qualities (as frames) then inform our brain and nervous system how to feel and respond inasmuch as they set various frames for how to process sensory information.

We all have a tremendous wealth and richness of sensory information available, in all of the systems, at every given moment in time. In fact, we have too much. Our sensory input can easily become overloaded. To handle this, our nervous system and brain (perceptual filters) constantly filters things

©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®

The features of the modalities do not actually operate at a “sub-” level, but at a meta-level.

The qualities (close/far, associated, dissociated, color/black-and-white, etc.) tell us the frame to put around our pictures, sounds,

and sensations.

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out. This allows us to deal with a more limited amount of sensory information. We do this in order to cope and manage the information around us. These filtering mechanisms screen perceptual input via a set of systematic operations. These are known as the modeling processes: Deletion, Generalization and Distortion. It's by these mechanisms that we map out our sense of reality. Without these neurological filters, we would be overwhelmed by the constant deluge of information. These modeling processes make it possible for us to create and maintain coherent Models (maps) of reality which makes our subjective experience.

Our perceptions (which constitute conscious experience) are necessarily restricted to the number of perceptual distinctions (submodality discernments) at any given moment. Even though these modeling processes make available a vast range of possibilities and opportunities in human responses, they also create and maintain responses that we label “limitations” and “problems.”

All perceptions are based on a facsimile representation. Facsimile refers to any representation, which is a person's unique and systematic way of coding information about reality. It is not reality. All perceptions can be said to be accurate inasmuch as they are based on the internal representations from which they are derived. They are also all incomplete and may or may not accord with the represented Territory.

Submodalities as the qualities that distinguish the modalities, give our brain specific distinctions for how to feel and respond. At the meta-level of formatting, where submodalities work, we will find "the difference that makes the difference." By submodalities we sort our experiences.

How do you know the difference between past, present or future? Between what's real and what's imagined? Between what's important and what's unimportant? Between what's emotional and non-emotional to us?

We can distinguish submodalities using Analog and Digital.

Analog refers to qualities that can be changed slowly or quickly along a continuum like a light dimmer. Small to large, soft to hard, quiet to loud are examples of analog distinctions.

Digital refers to distinctions that are mutually exclusive. If you are experiencing one, you are not experiencing the other. Internal or external; associated or dissociated are examples of digital distinctions. A light switch is either on or off.


All perceptions are based on a facsimile representation.

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We use submodalities for encoding distinctions. “Close,” “far,” “bright,” “dim,” etc. give us a symbolic way of encoding higher level concepts like “real,” “unreal,” “past,” “future,” etc. Recognizing this enables us to then use submodalities as leverage points in numerous change techniques. Given that we mentally structure our experiences in submodalities, these qualities provide our brains a coding system for making distinctions. We often use such symbols for the difference between various emotions (happy or depressed) and between differing experiences (procrastinating or going for it).

Submodalities work symbolically. How a submodality works depends entirely on what meanings a given person or culture gives to a particular sensory distinction. When we find a difference that makes the difference in an experience, then we can use it to change the experience. Because every culture will use submodalities in a particular way symbolically, the members of that culture will tend to share that symbolic reality in the meanings that they attribute to a distinction. For most Western people, for example, making something brighter intensifies feelings. Yet this isn't always true. Each and every person has his or her own unique coding system governing experiences and states.


Given that we mentally structure our experiences in submodalities, these qualities provide our brains a coding system for making

distinctions.

Submodalities work symbolically. How a submodality works depends entirely on what meanings a given person or culture gives to a particular sensory distinction. When we find a difference that

makes the difference in an experience, then we can use it to change the experience.

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“SUBMODALITIES”The Distinctions & Qualities of the Sense Modalities

Visual Auditory Kinesthetic__ Brightness (from dull to bright)__ Focus __ Color (degree) __ Color/Black-&-white __ Size__ Distance__ Contrast __ Movement __ Direction __ Foreground/Background__ Location __ Snapshot - movie (Still — Moving)__ Number of images__ Bordered/ Panoramic__ Shape, form__ Horizontal & Vertical

perspective__ Associated/ Dissociated__ 3D or Flat (2D)

__Pitch (low/ high)__Location of sounds__Continuous/ Interrupted__Tone__Number of sources__Associated/Dissociated__Tempo__Volume (low/ high)__Rhythm__Duration__Distance__Clarity__Whose voice__Music, noise, voice__Clarity, intelligibility__Melody

__Pressure__What sensations__Location__Extent__Moisture__Shape__Texture__Temperature__Movement (Still/ Moving)__Duration__Intensity__Frequency__Rhythm

Language (or the Auditory Digital) System Other Systems__ Location of Words__ Sensory based/ Evaluative__ Simple/ complex__ Self/ others__ Current/ dated

__Smells__Tastes__Balance (Vestibular:

dizzy, disoriented, etc.)


THE V.A.K. MODELTHE REPRESENTATIONAL "STUFF"

OF SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCEIn “thinking,” we create representations in our mind as our way of “thinking” about something. We re-present to ourselves the components of sights, sounds, words, sensations, smells and tastes of that which we experienced and so use the sensory systems as representational systems.

Each Representational System can best represent the aspect of the world that it responds to directly.

The Visual System represents an enormous amount of data simultaneously and instantaneously. In comparative awareness visual images, pictures and scenarios are helpful because two

pictures can be held simultaneously so that comparisons can be made between them. We represent Visual information by images, pictures, scenes, etc.

Auditory Processing is much more sequential. This means that it takes longer than visual processing. Auditory tonal can add emphasis and make impactful the words being heard.

Auditory digital descriptions (language/ words) are secondary experiences and inevitably contain less information than the primary experiences they describe. We can appreciate the value of the language system by how we can use words as a filing system to keep track of experience, to categorize it, to set directions, to plan, to summarize, to make a running commentary on data and to draw conclusions. Language then is our non-natural sense; it's one whereby we "make" (or create, invent) "sense" (or meaning).

The Kinesthetic System has more inertia and duration than Visual and Auditory. Note the difference between kinesthetic tactile and the proprioceptive senses (which includes the visceral feelings).

These are directly perceptual or sensory experiences without evaluations. We represent sounds, tones, pitch, and tempo. We often get into trouble by representing an experience with an ill-fitted representational system. Kinesthetic Meta (Kmeta) results from a combination of language and kinesthetic — what we call "emotions." These meta-feelings are evaluative feelings about events in response to criteria.


REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMSThe Linguistic Systems

NLP began, not with the sensory systems or submodalities, but with the language patterns that two therapeutic wizards used to perform their magic. Bandler and Grinder happened upon the marvelous languaging patterning of Fritz Perls (Gestalt Therapy) and Virginia Satir (Family Systems) and began studying how the words and language patterns performed their “magic.” They put the results of their study in the books, The Structure of Magic, Vol. I and II (1975, 1976).

From this came the first NLP Model: “The Meta-Model of Language in Therapy,” now called, The Meta-Model. This model consists of 12 linguistic distinctions that indicate mental maps that are ill-formed. As each of us make a model of the world in our heads (and bodies), we use the modeling processes of deleting lots of information, generalizing information, and distorting information. Hence, the Meta-Model (MM) became a way of sorting out language patterns that indicate these kinds of mental processes and for challenging or questioning the language. This is where the “magic” happened. By simply asking questions about a person’s mental maps (Model of the World), a therapist could thereby evoke the person to both question his or her mapping, recover missing data, and to construct a fuller and more enhancing map. We call this process, meta-modeling. This allows us to practice the magic of language and to replicate the therapeutic excellence of the experts as well as use the language for precision and accuracy.

The second NLP language Model arose very shortly after the first one. Bandler and Grinder used the MM to model out the language distinctions of world renowned medical hypnotist, Milton H. Erickson. They put the results in the books, The Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton Erickson (1976, 1977). This created the Hypnotic Model, also known as the Milton Model. This describes the processes for precisely using vague language to create altered realities that generate new levels of resourcefulness.

VISUAL: Those who prefer the Visual system — Memorize by seeing pictures and are less distracted by noise. Often have trouble remembering, and become bored by, long verbal

instructions. More interested in how something looks, value appearances. Will often stand or sit with their hands/ bodies erect and with their eyes

upward. Breathe high, from the top of the lungs. Sit forward in a chair, be organized, neat, well-groomed, orderly. Often are thin, slender, and even wiry.


Move eyes up to access visual images; look around noticing lots of things.

Use a higher pitch, talk quickly and in spurts. Use gestures that are high, wide, expansive, sometimes will point.

AUDITORY:Those who prefer the Auditory system — Pay attention to sounds, tones, volumes, & find noises more distracting. Easily repeat back what they hear, and learn best by listening. Like music and enjoy talking on the phone. Highly value tone of voice and the use of specific words. Often move their eyes laterally (sideways). Breathe from the middle of the chest, talk to themselves, sub-vocalize,

memorize sequences, and hold their body to aim their ear. Think in more linear, word-by-word ordering, logical. Use gestures around the mid-section, adopt a “telephone position,” tilt

head.

KINESTHETIC:Those who prefer the kinesthetic system — Use their body to think, remember, and communicate. May talk slowly and in a breathy way. May respond to physical touch and rewards. Gesture closer to the body and usually with their hand(s) over their heart. Memorize by doing something or walking around. Most interested that something feels right or evokes the right feelings. Typically breathe deeply from the bottom of their lungs. Move eyes downward to access feelings. Tonality will tend to be slower, lower pitch, with hesitations.

LANGUAGE (Auditory Digital):Those who prefer the language systems (or modalities)— Want to “make sense” of things by using words. Talk in more abstract terms, generalize, theorize, etc. May even have little awareness of the sensory-based systems. Much less use of body, gestures, more in a “computer” mode.


USING AND PLAYING WITH NLPAll of these models about the structure of information processing makes NLP an adventure every time we use its understandings, presuppositions and techniques with someone. It allows us to go on an adventure into another person’s subjectivity, into that person’s special and unique world that defines and describes their Model of the World and how that mapping organizes them: their exceptions, skills, behaviors, choices, etc.

As the study of human subjectivity, NLP preserves what is special and unique about each and every person inasmuch as it acknowledges each person’s individual modeling. We all operate from mental mapping. And because we never know what kind of an inner world we will find inside another, we have to engage others with respect, openness, curiosity, etc. We have to operate from a state of sensory awareness (Uptime) and learn to utilize the responses we get.

We become elegant with NLP when we simply learn to observe what is, elicit clean information about another’s subjectivity, and keep testing that information until we consistently get the same result. Doing this allows us to develop patterns of effectiveness. If what we end up with isn't what we want we can notice that, use it as feedback, adjust our actions, and continue the adventure of discovery.


As the study of human subjectivity, NLP preserves what is special and unique about each and every person inasmuch as it acknowledges each person’s individual modeling.

We become elegant with NLP when we simply learn to observe what is, elicit clean information about another’s subjectivity, and keep testing that information until we consistently get the same result. Doing this allows us to develop patterns of effectiveness.

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SENSORY MAPS OF THE WORLDRead the following three descriptions of houses and notice the internal representations they evoke in you.

The first house is quite picturesque. It has a very quaint look to it. You can see that a lot of focus has been put on the colorful patio and garden area. It has a lot of window space so that you can sit in the kitchen and look and enjoy a really nice view of the surrounding area. It's clearly a beautiful home.

The second house is soundly constructed. When you walk in the front door, the door closes with such a solid sound that you can hear its quality construction. It's in such a quiet area, in fact, that all you hear when you walk outside are the sounds of the birds singing. Its storybook interior tells of so much character that you'll probably find yourself saying to yourself that you would enjoy living here.

The third house is also solidly constructed and has a feel of warmth and comfort. It's not often that you come in contact with a place that touches on so many important features. It's spacious enough that you really feel like you can move around freely and yet cozy enough that you won't wear yourself out taking care of it.

Which house most appeals to you? Which one evokes a fuller and more complete representation? How do you now feel if I tell you that they are all descriptions of the same house? The only difference is that each describes it to appeal to a different sense.


Which house most appeals to you? Which one evokes a fuller and more complete representation? How do you now feel if I tell you that they are all descriptions of the same house? The only difference is

that each describes it to appeal to a different sense.

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Test for Representational System PreferenceRead each of the following statements and place a number next to every phrase using the following system to indicate your preferences:

4 = Closest to describing you3 = Next best description2 = Next best1 = Least descriptive of you

1. I make important decisions based on:

___ gut level feelings.___ which way sounds best.___ what looks best to me.___ precise review and study of the issues.

2. During an argument, I am most likely to be influenced by:

___ a person's tone of voice.___ whether or not I can see the person's argument.___ the logic of the person's argument.___ whether or not I feel in touch with the person's true feelings.

3. I most easily communicate what is going on with me by:

___ the way I dress and look.___ the feelings I share.___ the words I choose.___ the tone of my voice.

4. It is easiest for me to:

___ find the ideal volume and tuning on a stereo system.___ select the most intellectually relevant point concerning an interesting subject.___ select the most comfortable furniture.___ select rich, attractive color combinations.

5. I best operate or function as:

___ very attuned to the sounds of my surroundings.___ highly adept at making sense of new facts and data.___ sensitive to the way articles of clothing fit on my body.___ having a strong response to colors and to the way a room looks.


For Scoring —

1) Copy your answers to the sequences listed here:

1. __ K 2. __ A 3. __ V__ A __ V __ K__ V __ Ad __ Ad

__ Ad __ K __ A

4. __ A 5. __ A__ Ad __ Ad

__ K __ K__ V __ V

2) Add the numbers associated with each letter. There are 5 entries for each letter.

Visual — Auditory — Kinesthetic — Language (Ad)

1

2

3

4

5

Totals:

3) The comparison of the total scores in each column will give a relative preference for each of these four major RS.


More Representational System PracticeGenie Laborde (Influencing With Integrity) provides us with a handy instrument for determining one’s preferred representational system. Use it to determine which system you most prefer, prefer secondarily, and which one you do not consciously use very much. The system that gives you the most difficulty to translate and match probably reflects your least used system. I have added a 4th category for Aid.

Example 1. My future looks hazy.Match:

Visual: When I look to the future, it doesn't seem clear.Translate:

Auditory: I can't tune in to my future.Kinesthetic: I can't get a feel for what seems to be going to happen.

Example 2. Sarah doesn't listen to me.Match:

Auditory: Sarah goes deaf when I talk.Translate:

Visual: Sarah never sees me, even when I'm present.Kinesthetic: I get the feeling Sarah doesn't know I'm alive.

Example 3. Mary gets churned up on Mondays when the boss expects the report.Match:

Kinesthetic: Mary gets agitated and nervous on Mondays.Translate:

Visual: Mary can't focus on Mondays when the report comes due.Auditory: Mary hears lots of static on Mondays when the report comes due.

Complete the following to increase your awareness of the representational systems. This will offer you good practice for future use. This exercise will wire your mind to match predicates when you next hear one of these.

1. My boss walks over me like I'm a doormat.Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

2. I get the feeling I'm unappreciated.Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:


3. I have trouble looking back to that problem.Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

4. I guide this project by the seat of my pants.Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

5. She seems like such a sweet girl.Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

6. I ask myself, "How did I ever get into this?" Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

7. I can imagine what she's like. Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

8. Something tells me I'm making a mistake. Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

9. I've tried to get a handle on what my boss means. Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:


10. I keep stubbing my toe on unexpected obstacles. Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

11. Joe paints a clear picture of disaster ahead. Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:

12. Smells like a dead fish to me. Match:Translate:Translate:Translate:


PredicatesVISUALadmire appear attractive blurred bright clear cloudy colorful conceal dark dawn disappear display envision exhibit expose eyed faced flash focusfoggyforeseeformgazeglanceglaregleamglowgraphichazy illuminate imagine obscure observelookpeer perspective picture preview reflect watchreveal scan see shiny show sightsightsee sparkle spystaring strobe surface twinkle vanish veil

view visualize view vivid

AUDITORYannounce answer argue asked attunecallchatter cheer complain crescendo crydeaf discuss echo explain expression growl grumble gurglingharmonize harshhearhum inquire insult lecture listenloud melodious mention mumble noisy outspoken overtones question quiet recite replyrequest resonance sang shout shriek shrill sighs silences silent sound(s) stammer talktell

translate unhearing utter vocal yell

KINESTHETICanglebeatbends bounce breakbrush burdened carry clumsy comfortable concrete crouching crumble excitingfeelfirmfitsflopforcegrabgrapple grasps grindshardholdhughurt impression irritate mushy movement pinch plush pressure pullrubrunscramblescrapeshakyskip slip smooth softsolid spike stuffed suffer sweep thick

touch trample tremble twist unbudgingunfeelingwarmwashweighwork

OLFACTORY and GUSTATORYbitterfragrantfreshodorpungentsaltysavorsmellsmokysourspicystale sweettaste

UNSPECIFIED PREDICATES

be consciousbe cognizantbecome awarebelievechangeclear (v or a)conceiveconsiderdecideexperiencefeel thatinsensitiveknowlearnlight (v, a or k)motivatenotice (v or a)perceiveprocessquestionsensethinkunderstand


Using Predicates for Persuasion:Visually: If I could show you an attractive and very clear way so that you could X (some value), I wonder if you would like to look at that and see if it does fit with what you’re wanting.

Auditorially: If I could effectively describe to you some of the benefits that you really want to obtain, would you like to hear about them now or discuss them more fully?

Kinesthetically: If I could help you get a hold of this value that you want in a concrete way, and in a way that really embraces the value fully, would you like to try it on, just to get a feel for it?

Representational System Questions for Elicitation:

Vr:Visual Remembered. Recalling an image or picture.See the color you most favored as a child.See the color that graced your bedroom walls at that time.See yourself yesterday. What did you wear?

Vc: Visual Constructed. Making up pictures you have never seen.Imagine your car as green with yellow dots on it.Imagine yourself with red hair.Picture a traffic light with the green light at the top and the red light at the bottom.

Ar: Auditory Remembered. Remembering sounds or voices previously heard.Listen to your favorite song. What does it sound like?Listen again to the very last statement I made.Listen to the sound of ocean waves lapping on the shore.

Ac: Auditory Constructed. Creating and inventing new sounds.Name the seventh word in "T'was the Night Before Christmas."Hear me sounding like I had Donald Duck's voice.Hear the sound of a large rock hitting water.

Use these questions and map from them. Observe the person closely as you do to detect if he or she goes to auditory recall to remember what the sounds sound like before they construct what they will sound like as Donald Duck.

K: Kinesthetic. Feelings, sensations, emotions.Feel yourself rubbing your hand over a very fine fur coat.Feel your love for the one person you love the most.Imagine diving into a very cold stream or pool.


Ad: Auditory Digital. Internal talk, dialogue, self-conversation.Go inside and repeat to yourself the choices you had concerning the last major decision you made.Recite the words of your favorite verse to yourself. Talk to yourself about what you really want out of life.

Figure 1:4Eye Accessing Chart I

Constructed Side Remembered Side

Viewing a person’s eyes as you face him or her:

Group Eye Accessing Exercise Eye Accessing Patterns (Exercise I)

1) Use the elicitation question list and ask them of each other. 2) Observe the person’s eyes as the person responds to each question. 3) Continue until you feel satisfied that you can track the eye accessing patterns.

Eye Accessing Patterns (Exercise II)1) Take turns role playing as a spouse, child, client, customer, etc. As you do, talk for five minutes about something that you would like to do or purchase. 2) As you talk, consciously include all three rep. systems (i.e., include what you see, hear, and feel). 3) Ask any questions necessary to clarify what the person is doing on the "inside" while talking. 4) Observe the eye accessing patterns.


Peter Young

Figure 1:5

Eye Accessing Chart II

Constructed Side Remembered Side


Comp1.2 Eye Accessing Cues

V

Vc Vr

rAcA

idAK

Language/ ValuesPeter Young

THE WELL-FORMED OUTCOME PATTERNThe NLP model provides the following features as a way to more clearly think about moving from a present state to a desired state. The following key components enable you to effectively identify your desired state and it begins by eliciting that state even now. Sometimes we call this the Outcome Frame. (Users, pp. 87-99)

Figure 1:6Desired State

Resources * Positive * Sensory BasedPresent State * Compelling * Contextualized

* Owned: self-initiated & Maintained* Resources * Evidence

1) State the outcome in positive terms. Describe the Present Situation and compare it with the desired future Outcome.Where are you now?Where do you want to be?What do you want?State it in the positive (what you want to achieve). What are you going toward?

2) Specify the outcome in Sensory Based Terms.What will you see, hear, feel, etc., when you have it?What steps or stages are involved in reaching this outcome?Engage all of your senses in this description process to employ more of your brain and nervous system.Have you broken down your goal into small enough chunks so that each is do-able?What are the sizes of the behavioral chunks? Could the size possibly overwhelm you?

3) Specify the outcome in a way that you find compelling.Is the outcome compelling? Does it pull on you?Make it a compelling future representation that's dissociated.

4) Run a Quality Control check on the Outcome for Balance and Ecology.Is the desired outcome ecological? What will you gain through it? What will you lose? Is it achievable? Does it respect your health, relationships, etc.?Run an ecological check to make sure that your goal fits every part.


"Are there any parts of me that object to actualizing this desired outcome?" Pay attention to how your whole self responds to the question in terms of images, sounds, words, and sensations within you.

Questions from Cartesian Logic:

What will happen if I get it? – Theorem What will happen if I don’t get it? – Inverse What will not happen if I get it? – Converse What won’t happen if I do not get it? – Non-Mirror Image Reverse

5) Self-initiated and maintained.Is the outcome something that you can initiate yourself and maintain?Test your goal by asking if it is something that you have within your power or ability to do. Is it within your control?Your outcome must be something that you can initiate and maintain. It must not be something dependent on other people.Make sure that your outcome reflects things that you can directly affect.Is it self-initiated and maintained?

6) State the Context of the outcome.Where, when, how, with whom, etc. will you get this outcome?Is the outcome appropriately contextualized?Test your goal by applying to a context: when, where, with who, etc. to make sure that it is going to be fitting and appropriate. Readjust your goal to make sure that it fits.

7) State the Resources needed to achieve the outcome.What resources will you need in order to get this outcome?Who will you have to become?Who else has achieved this outcome?Have you ever had or done this before? Do you know anyone who has? What prevents you from moving toward it and attaining it now?

8) Evidence Procedure. How will you know that your outcome has been realized?What will let you know that you have attained that desired state?

NLP Play: 1) Pair up with someone and identify some of the goals you have and would like to achieve from this training. 2) The coach will invite you to formulate your goal so that it meets all of the requirements of a well-formed outcome.


Introduction to StatesReview:To successfully reach realistic and well-formed goals, we begin by developing our state management skills so that we can get ourselves to do what we want to do. If we fail at that, we will find ourselves bouncing off the walls of events, circumstances, fate, words, etc. This will leave us feeling out-of-control and without a clue as to why we can’t get ourselves to come through with and manifest our goals and objectives.

As states are comprised of internal representations and physiology, these are the keys to controlling our states. We take charge of our internal representations by detecting what and how we represent things and by consistently cuing our brains with enhancing representations, ideas, and understandings. We take charge of our physiology by using our breathing, posture, movement, gestures, etc. to put ourselves into the right kind of resourceful states.

With all of that intact, we are ready to use our State Management Skills to connect with others, create instant rapport, work with our subjective experiences, and work effectively in communicating and relating to the subjectivity of others.

SENSORY AWARENESS (Users, ch. 2, pp 43ff.)“Lose your mind and come to your senses.” (Fritz Perls)

To work effectively with subjectivity we have to be able to truly look, listen, and feel the things in the immediate present. We need to be able to see-and-see, hear-and-hear, feel-and-feel. To do this, stop your internal mental “world” — the matrix of your mind.

1) Access a rich resourceful “Uptime” state (Users, p. 264)Do this by accessing an simple state of pure observation (uptime) wherein you just observe such that you see and see, hear and hear, sense and sense (“feel”) and do so with no evaluation, and no VK, AK synesthesias. This does not refer to merely an “empty” observing state. Don’t bring emptiness to bear on this, but rather simple, pure, direct observation.

“Just observe...” “Observe with no judgment at all...” “Just see and see; hear and hear; feel and feel...”

2) Do so with safety knowing you have distance and calmnessAs you just see-and-see, hear-and-hear, feel-and-feel — breathe fully and completely and “be present to the moment of sights, sounds, sensations, etc.” As you do, expand the landscape of your state — its boundaries, expansiveness, broadness, etc.


3) Anchor and solidify by moving around practicing uptime. One meta-partner keep firing the anchor, the other meta-partner continue to linguistically cue you for see-seeing, hear-hearing, etc. “This sight, sound, sensation, smell, taste means nothing inherently and you can experience it as it ‘is’ — for itself, apart from meaning.”

Figure 1:7Meta-Level

Just listen/ don’t judge It is just... the VAK

Acceptance/ Calmness“I don’t have to give it meaning...”

SENSORY ACUITY SKILLSCalibrating to a person while he or she accesses a state or experiences something means paying attention to a number of things simultaneously:

Eyes:Focus: Focused ————— DefocusedPupil Dilation: Dilated ————— Undilated

Breathing: Rate: Fast ————— SlowLocation: High ————— Low

Skin Color: Light ————— Dark

Skin Tonus or Muscle Tone: Shiny ————— Not shiny

Face: Lower Lip Size: Lines ————— No lines

Voice: tone, volume, quality, pitch, etc.


Person Uptime Observing

CALIBRATING TO LIKE / DISLIKE

1) Calibrate for differences by pairing up and asking your partner to think of someone he likes. As the person does, watch for small changes in breathing, posture, muscle tonus, skin color, etc.

2) Next, ask the person to think of someone he or she dislikes. Again watch for changes.

3) Invite the person to go back and forth between thinking of the liked and disliked persons. Do so until you can clearly see the differences between expressions.

4) Now ask a series of comparative questions for the purpose of testing your sensory awareness. "Which one is taller?" The partner is not to tell you the answer, but to access it within. Your job is to watch his response and tell him which one it is. Any comparative question will work. "Which one have you seen most recently?" Which one has darker hair?" "Which one is heavier?" "Which one lives nearer to you?" "Which one makes more money?"

5) When your partner goes inside to process the question and get an answer he may first consider the person he likes then the one he does and finally think of the person who is the answer. So you may initially see some back and forth responses. The person’s answer will typically be the response you see just before he or she comes back and looks at you, or nods head to indicate that he or she has determined the answer. When you've guessed correctly four times in a row, switch roles.

Remember, some people are more expressive. If it's too easy to discriminate differences on basis of facial changes; watch changes in chest, hands. Or ask about more neutral subjects: chair in home/ chair in office. If person isn't expressive enough: exaggerate differences. "Think about most obnoxious, disgusting person you've ever met. Think about person you love most dearly in the world."

Calibrating to Yes/No

1) Pair up and ask mundane questions conversationally. Ask uncontroversial Yes/ No questions and pay attention to the nonverbal responses as he gives you a verbal yes/no. "Your name is Bob?" "Were you born in California?" "Are you married?" "Do you have a car?"

2) Calibrate to what constitutes a yes/no response nonverbally. Notice differences between the nonverbal responses for yes from those that accompany no. Some will spontaneously and unconsciously tense jaw muscles for no, relax them for yes. Turn whiter for no/ redder for yes. Tilt head forward for yes/ back for no.

3) When you can distinguish yes/ no; ask partner to not answer the question out loud. Ask questions, observe responses and tell partner whether answer was a yes or no. When you get 4 right in a row, switch roles.


Calibration Play

Calibrating “Learning” States/ Experiences

1) In groups of four, each person takes five minutes each and tells four learning experiences. Three of the experiences will relate a true and positive story. Share a fourth story that is not true, but one you wish was true for you. The false story can come in any sequence with your presenting your four stories.

2) After each person tells the learning experiences, the other three pick which one they believe false.

3) Use your sensory acuity skills in determining which one you believe false. Give sensory based descriptions as to why you believe the story contains false information.

Calibrating dropping a Dollar Bill:

1) In groups of three, person 1 begins by holding a dollar bill at waist level. 2) Person 2 encircles the dollar bill with the hand about mid way up and

ready to catch the dollar bill when Person 1 drops it. 3) Calibrate each time 1 drops the dollar bill until #2 figures out Person 1

unconscious movements, etc, prior to dropping the dollar bill. Look for the unconscious signals of that person before dropping the dollar bill.

4) When person #2 catches the dollar bill three times in a row, you know you have determined Person’s 1's pattern. #2 notices what he or she has calibrated to regarding the dropping of the dollar bill. Feed back to 1 sensory based descriptions of the unconscious movements detected.


Pacing to Skillfully Match Another’s Person’s Experience(Users, pp. 48-54)

We talk a lot about “rapport,” yet what is it really? How do you do it? In NLP, we talk about rapport in terms of pacing or matching since this describes the essential structure of rapport. So we match someone's words and non-verbal expressions (i.e., breathing, standing, gestures, etc.), beliefs, Model of the world, etc. When we do, we get on the person’s wavelength and enter into that person’s world. The person will typically experience this as feeling understood.

This powerful pacing skill is the basic rapport-building pattern. It is all based on matching various aspects of another person's world. Matching is the process of adjusting aspects of our external behavior to approximate those same in the other person's behavior. For example, when a person tilts his or her head to the left, you do the same to match that movement.

In the on-going process of matching or pacing, we literally take on the movements, neurology, words, understandings, etc. of the other person. Since such facets of our ongoing experience lie primarily outside our conscious awareness, pacing tends to communicate unconsciously with people. It says, "I know your world, I can sense and feel and think in terms of your world of experience."

The following areas identifies a variety of behavioral outputs we can use to match which can lead to creating very powerful states of rapport, both consciously and unconsciously. Mastering this art of pacing will develop our ability to establish rapport with anyone we choose.

Whole body matching: adjusting our body to appropriate the other person's posture shifts.

Part body matching: pacing any consistent or stylistic use of body movements, e.g. eye blinks.

Half body matching: matching the upper or lower portion of the other person's body.

Matching heads and shoulder angle: matching the characteristic poses that another offers with his or her head.

Matching facial expressions: seeing the ways that another uses his face (wrinkles nose, puckers lips, raises eyebrows) and match it without mimicking.

Matching gestures: Do this in a way that is graceful and respectful so as to not call attention to It.

Matching breathing: adjusting your breathing patterns to match the other's.

Matching vocal or qualities of speech: matching another's shifts in tonality, tempo, volume, timbre, intonation patterns, etc.


Matching verbal predicates and patterns: hearing the sensory system predicates that predominate in a person's unconscious processing of information, and utilizing it as you match it in your verbal responses.

Matching repetitive phrases: utilizing the person's characteristic phrases and metaphors.

Indirect Matching or crossover mirroring: using one aspect of your behavior to match a different aspect in the other person's behavior. If you adjust the tempo of your voice to match the other person's rate of breathing, or pace the other's eye blinks with your finger or head nods.

VERBAL PACING: Matching Another's Internal World

It takes lots of sensory awareness to pace. First we have to attentively listen, then we can pace. Pacing is difficult to the extent that it takes lots of Uptime experience with another person. It's difficult to the extent that we are not skilled in listening with a third ear to another's depths and entering into his or her world.

When we verbally pace, we make verbal descriptions that accords with that person's world. This conveys a deep sense of having heard that person. This describes what we call “Empathy;” which refers to the ability to put ourselves into the other's frame of reference in order to see and feel the world as he or she does. We can't this directly; so we have to do it indirectly; which takes attending and listening. Effective communicators develop this ability of entering into another's reality. This makes for true understanding. It means taking the other at his word and trying to imagine how his words reflect his perception of the world. Entering his reality doesn't mean we have to make it ours. We can maintain our own reality while flexibly imagining and appreciating the other’s world.

In verbally pacing someone we momentarily join the other’s concept of reality. By going to his model of the world, we can then find bridges to cross over and connect with him. To adopt this strategy, first, recognize the person's reality model.

"What does this word, phrase, metaphor, style of expression imply about this person's model of the world?" "What is this person's orientation to reality?" "What must it be like on this person's insides?" "What could be the source/s of this understanding or emotion?" "What meanings are at work within this person?"

Pacing is "map listening" which then enables us to get to the other person's reality language so that we can communicate. Match our words to the other's internal state, and make statements that are in agreement with, and congruent with, the person's internal, ongoing experience. This gives the other a sense of being deeply and truly heard.


We can even break pace on purpose in order to engage the other person. Over-state or over-guess about the other's reality and ask for feedback and correction. Most of us want to be understood enough that we'll help the other understand us. By over-stating or under-stating our guesses, we create an opportunity to receive more information and to listening more attentively.

When we verbally pace, our words and non-verbals serve as a feedback mechanism to the other person. This skill is so powerful that when done with appreciation and respect will amplify his experience, engage it, elicit it and validate it. This describes a hypnotic process.

Pacing is simple to understand; but can be difficult to pull off. It demands getting out of ourselves and entering the others world. It necessitates controlling our own brain so we don't immediately rush into problem-solving, advice-giving, that-reminds-me, and judgment.

Verbally pace using the same words, metaphors, vocabulary, and thought patterns as the other. Listen for their representation system and feed it back to them. Matching this sensory mode reduces conflict and gives the feeling that we are "on the same wavelength." Physiologically pace by feeding-back what the other is doing. Match the other's breathing, voice tempo, tone, etc. and we will amplify those responses.

Pacing beliefs and values (meanings) gains rapport, enlists support and provides a basis for communicating. Conceptually pace by temporarily assuming his or her words are correct; then imagine how they can be correct. Pacing also reduces repetition in conversation. When one feels heard he doesn't have to keep repeating himself. Pacing can sometimes take some time. After all, it is connecting with the other person and so make call up us to exercise patience, calmness, and respect to make contact with the other's reality.

Mirroring Exercise: Body Molding1) Pair up with someone so that you face another person and a third person

is sitting (or standing) behind the second person’s line of peripheral vision.

2) The third person should place him/herself in an unusual posture with unusual facial expressions. Don't overdo it; you will need to hold this position for a few minutes.

3) The first person will direct the second one to take on the same posture and facial expressions as the third person. This will force you to give good sensory directions.


Difference Between Matching & Mirroring

To build rapport, we match and mirror physiology, tonality, and with words. What differs then between matching and mirroring? The difference lies in degrees.

Mirroring: In mirroring, we take on and "become" the person’s mirror image. If they have crossed their right leg over their left leg, we cross our left leg over our right leg. Since we stand opposite them (as we face the person), we mirror them by crossing opposite legs. In mirroring their words, we give back the exact words. Matching: If we match someone's words, we do not give back the precise words. We match the person’s general representation system. The person says, "I don't see what you are saying." We match by responding, "Sure, let me show you what I mean." A mirroring response to that would be, "I know you don't see what I am saying."

In matching physiology with someone who has crossed right leg over left leg, you would match them if you crossed your right leg over your left leg. This works similar to cross-over mirroring. In mirroring we do precisely as the person does, in matching, we match more generally.

Matching & Mirroring An Angry PersonTo match and mirror someone in an angry state, match and mirror the physiology and tonality of that state. As you do, avoid matching the angry content. Do not use threatening language. Suppose someone angrily said, "Why aren't you doing a better job?" In your reply, match their voice tonality and perhaps volume. While you so respond, give them back the gestures they used while questioning you and do all of this in a non-threatening way. You could respond, "How do you evaluate my work as not good?"

Homework1) Establish rapport with as many people as you can this coming week. Practice,

practice, practice.2) Match and mirror someone near you in a restaurant. Notice your skills in doing

so that establishes rapport.3) When you go up to a counter to purchase something, practice establishing

instant rapport with the person at the counter.4) Train yourself to closely observe different facets of non-verbal communication.

On Monday watch for color changes in faces. Tuesday, watch for lower lip size. Wednesday, observe people's breathing patterns. Thursday, notice the variety of body builds and their relationship to the rep systems. Friday, listen for voice tonality and quality. Saturday and Sunday, look for eye accessing patterns.

5) Use your television time to develop your sensory acuity. Tune into a talk show with your eye-accessing chart before you.


Circle of Excellence How to Play1) Identify an excellent state.

What state would you would like to have available for your use, a state which would allow you to act from your full capabilities?

2) Imagine a circle on the floor. Visually imagine that there’s a circle in front of you on the floor and make sure that it is big enough for you to step into.

3) Fill up the circle with symbolic colors of the resourcefulness. What color would you like to use to symbolize the resource?Notice how the qualities of the circle grow and develop and become richer for you in terms of their color, texture, material, size, etc.

4) Take a meta-position. Have you ever had a time when you experienced that resource? As you recall that instance, stand outside the circle, and let the circle fill up with those qualities ... qualities that you want to have available now and in the future.If you need to, pretend that you have these qualities or model them from someone else who does have themWhat do you see? Hear? Feel? What do you say to yourself?How are you holding your body when you are experiencing these resources fully? Anchor this state in all sensory systems.

5) Step into the circle Seeing yourself possessing all of these qualities and resources, now step into the circle and breathe them in fully. Hear what you say to yourself, see what you look like and notice what you now feel.Fire all anchors as you amplify the state or states in your circle of excellence. Experience your thoughts and feelings fully.As you do, let the circle become a sphere... a bubble... a space ... from which you live and move...

6) Future pace. As you continue to experience the circle, see, hear and feel yourself performing in the days and weeks to come... using this state as you move through the world. Notice when and where you will want to use this.

7) Break state and Test. What did you eat for lunch two days ago? (State interrupt)Now step back into this circle and fire your anchors for your state of excellence.


Figure 1:8CHART OF THE HISTORY OF NLP...

Pre-NLP History

William James (1890)Pavlov (1920s)_________________________________________________________________________1933 ‘50 ‘56 ‘60 ‘72 ‘74 ’75 ’76 ’78 ‘79

Korzybski Watzlawick Miller Bateson Bandler Meta- Structure SubmodalitiesGeneral Semantics Linguistics Pribram Frames & Grinder Model Of Magic

Gallanter Reframing 1) Perls’ Gestalt Society of NLP“Neuro-Linguistic” Cognitive Meta 2) Satir’s Family Systems“Neuro-Semantic” Psychol. Logical Levels 3) Erickson’s HypnosisDesign Engineering Movement Patterns I & II

Chomsky Representation SystemsTransformational Eye Access. Grammar Strategy Model

NLP enriched TOTE_________________________________________________________________________

1980 ‘82 ‘85 ’88 ’90 ‘94

NLP, Vol. I Sleight of Mouth Time-Lines Meta-States Dilts, et. al.

Meta-ProgramsLeslie Bandler

History of the NLP Models— 19751) “The meta-model of language in therapy” — the Meta-Model. 12

distinctions indicating ill-formed structure and 12 questions to elicit a more well-formed and fuller linguistic representation.

2) Representational Systems Model. They took the “model” of “the five senses” and asked the curious question — could it be that we represent information using these and that predicates indicate and sort out these five systems?

3) Eye Accessing Cue model. Listening to people use the Rep. Systems and watching people move their eyes, they asked, “Is there a pattern here?” What if there were correspondences between lateral eye accessing movements and use of the Rep. Systems?

19764) The Milton Model. Using these facets, Bandler and Grinder modeled the

hypnotic patterns of Erickson and affectionately labeled the model, “The Milton Model.”


19775) Strategy Model: using the TOTE model and enriching it with Rep.

Systems, a richer model emerged from the Miller, Gallanter, Pribram TOTE model. They didn’t create this model, they enhanced an already existing model.

19786) Meta-Programs model. Are there patterns in information processing,

sorting, and attending? 7) Submodalities or Pragmagraphics (the original term) model. In this work

we present submodalities as the distinctions and features of the Rep. Systems. Can we systematically order and structure these features and then use them for something? In revisiting this model, Bob Bodenhamer and I ended up re-modeling the so-called “submodalities” and created a new model about the features of the VAK (The Structure of Excellence, 1999). This then led to 6 new sub-models. We now know that these distinctions occur at a meta-level rather than at a supposed “sub” level, and that the model works “symbolically and semantically” rather than merely representationally. That is, a given distinction of a Rep. System works according to the meanings that a person attributes to it.

19788) Time-Lines. Is there a pattern in how people sort out and make

distinctions within the concept of “time?” Inheriting the Temporal Model (Past, Present, Future), and based on the work by Edward Hall (no relation), NLP did not invent or create this model, but adapted and extended it (as with the strategy model). We now know that this model works at a meta-level and as a meta-state about ideas of “time.” (Time Lining or Adventures with Time-Lines, 1998)

1980 to the Present9) Specific models for specific outcomes. After NLP came up with this basic

model — models that now define specific domains of the field, various people applied them and came up with smaller models, that is, specific models for specific outcomes. Some transpire and occur in a moment of time, others occur over a much longer period of time, from an hour to a day, to years.

Taking Criticism Positively Allergy CureNaturally Thin Eating Strategy Core Transformation PatternSpelling StrategyThe Phobia Resolution Model Motivation StrategyDecision Strategy Positive Parenting


199410) The Meta-States model. Using the idea of logical levels found in

Korzybski and Bateson, Meta-States emerged from finding the strict linear nature of the NLP enriched TOTE model ineffective and inadequate for following the strategy of complex states like resilience, proactivity, self-esteem, etc. Upon extending and enriching the Strategy model with meta-levels, Meta-States emerged as a model by bringing in system ideas from cybernetics, meta-cognition, reflexivity, etc.

199811) The Frame Games Model. Originally an attempt to “simplify” Meta-States

and to put the meta-stating processes into a more user-friendly language. In that process we happened upon the template of thinking about our states and embedded states-upon-states as Games driven by Frames. This has lead to seeing thinking not only as “representation” but as “referencing,” and the levels of referencing as higher level frames.


Section 2NEURO-LINGUISTIC OR MIND-BODY STATES

The Meaning of “Neuro-Linguistic” States

NLP As A Model of Mind-Body (or Neuro-Linguistic) States (Reference: Users, ch. 7, pp. 125-132; Anchors, ch. 13, pp. 247-282).When we process information we create mind-body “states.” We call these neuro-linguistic states. In common, everyday language these states are our experiences, feelings, moods, attitudes, dispositions, etc.

When we “process” information using the sensory representational systems and the linguistic systems, we do not do so as disembodied persons. All of our “information processing” occurs as part of our embodiment. This is how our neurology, nervous system, brain stem, thalamus, cortex, etc. works. It arises, in part, as how we experience ourselves in the kind of world that we live in, the physics of our world (gravity, time-space, etc.)

Figure 2:1


Figure 2:2Components of States: The Two Royal Roads to State

Our moment by moment "state of consciousness" consists of Internal representations (the stuff in the mind) and Physiology (the stuff of our nervous system and body).

A Neuro-Linguistic State is a

State of Mind and Body and therefore of Emotion

We create our states from our mental-emotional-somatic mapping. This gives us two royal roads to states - two avenues that we can use to evoke or induce a state (See Figure 2).

1) Internal Representations specify our state of mind the things that we internally map out visually, auditorially, and kinesthetically (VAK) as well as the things that we say to ourselves (language), our understandings, learnings, beliefs, values, etc. that make up the representations on the theater of the mind. And because we always have a choice about what to represent and how to code that representation, we have Representational Power.


2) Physiology and/or Neurology describe the physical state or state of body the things that we experience in our body involving health, posture, breathing, bio-chemistry, etc.

Together, we have Neuro-Linguistic States the interface between neurology and the languages of mind by which we encode the information of the process world out there and in the process world inside. This serves as the basis for Meta-States and the higher levels of the mind - the domain of Neuro-Semantics. Alfred Korzybski originated both terms - Neuro-Linguistics and Neuro-Semantics. In General Semantics, he used both terms interchangeably. Here we use Neuro-Linguistics for primary states and Neuro-Semantics for meta-states.

Neuro-Linguistic states are our mental-physical Response to some Stimulus in the world. To that Stimulus, we Respond.


STATE MANAGEMENT #101From Accessing Personal Genius Training Manual

State Object: In primary states (i.e., fear, anger, joy, calmness, sadness, etc.) the object usually refers to something ‘outside’ you and ‘beyond’ your nervous system.

What do your thoughts-and-feelings refer to? What’s on your mind?

State Awareness: Awareness of the states and the factors that drive them. Because all states habituate, they drop out of conscious awareness. Notice the quality of the state: How pure is your state? How much congruity? Complexity or simplicity? Meaning or semantics? Pain-pleasure quality?

How is the state encoded and structured? Identify the qualities, properties, features, distinctions in the representations governing its intensity (i.e. vivid, sharp, quick, degree of movement, etc.).

We have several tools for greater state awareness: Examples: Bubble Journaling; State Registering.

States are never static but always Dynamic. Our states comprise our neuro-linguistic responses to something in the world, to something out there. This creates our Primary States (See Figure 2:3).

Figure 2:3State Awareness


State Accessing/ Inducing:

Memory: Remembering a state (Recall a time when...) Imagination: Creating a state (What would it look, sound, and feel like if...)

We can use the Two Royal Roads to state control by using our mind-and-body neuro-linguistic system to access previous states (memory) or states that we can imagine (imagination) to access a desired state (See Figure 2:4).

Figure 2:4State Accessing/Inducing

State Altering: States do not stay the same, but forever change. Count on your states altering, shifting, and transforming. What methods do you have for altering your states?


State Intensity and Amplification: Gauge each state in terms of intensity. How much do you experience the state? What level of strength or weakness does the state convey? How much does it dominate your consciousness?

Need more? Crank it up by increasing or intensifying the Internal Representation (IR) in the sense and language modalities. You will experience more of the state. All states do not have the same level of intensity, so gauge for intensity level. Do you need more “juice”? What processes do you rely on for amplifying your states? How do you crank them up?

Managing States necessitates developing high level awareness of our states. This means identifying what state, how much we have that state, its direction, focus and object.

Figure 2:5State Intensity and Amplification

State Intensity:

How much do you feel or experience Y in response to X?

State Interrupts: Stop any and every mind-body-emotion state by jarring, interfering, sabotaging, preventing, etc. State Interrupts refer to ways for stopping or preventing a state from functioning.


State Dependency: States govern our learning, memory, perception, behavior, communication (LMPBC) – state-dependent LMPBC. State dependency is called emotional expectational sets or conceptual expectational sets determining what we see and hear.

Once in a state, in a strong and intense state, we experience a dependency on that state for how we think, learn, remember, perceive, communicate and behave. We call this experience State Dependency. It means that the State has us, and feels as if it has a life of its own (See Figure 2:6).

Figure 2:6State Dependency

We see and experience the world in terms of that State. In this way, our neuro-linguistic states color our internal world.


From State Dependency to Meta-StatesSelf-Reflexive Consciousness

When we experience a powerful State Dependency, it becomes very easy to reflect that state back onto another state. For example, if you applied a dependent state of “fear” to a state of “motivation,” what would happen? If the state of “fear” is stronger than the state of “motivation,” the “fear” state will modulate and control the “motivated” state. When you do this you create a state-about-state structure and this gives birth to Meta-States. You can take this same phenomenon and let it work for you. Instead of applying “fear” to “motivation,” step outside (dissociate) from the state of “fear” and access a state of “courage” or a state of “faith” step into that resourceful state and apply it to the state of “fear” (see Figure 2:7). What happens?

Figure 2:7From State Dependency to Meta-States

Now we are thinking-and-feeling (not about the world of some stimulus out there), we are thinking-and-feeling about our States (other thoughts, feelings, ideas, memories, etc.) We are now in Self-Reference to our own experience. This raises our awareness to a new level. It creates Self-Reflexive Consciousness.


When States Go Meta

Primary states are about something “out there.” Meta-States are about something “inside” our own experience.

Figure 2:8When States go Meta


The “Stuff” of States

States are made out of the “Stuff” of mind…. of thoughts of the VAK Cinema Representations (the VAK) and body physiology and neurology. Both express state and we use both to frame states. This can be confusing but practice provides a refining awareness of our states.

Figure 2:9The “Stuff of States”


The “Meta” Function refers to our ability to think-and-feel about our states or experiences. We “go meta” in our mind as we transcend an experience, rise above it and get beyond it so that we can think about it in a different way. We transcend and then include the first experience inside of a higher frame.

Figure 2:10The Meta-Function


Awareness of Awareness: When we become aware of our experiences or of our awareness, we move to (transcend) to include our awareness within a new frame of reference, a new Meta-State. This leads to several gestalt states.

Figure 2:11Awareness of Awareness

State Anchoring: Set up a trigger (sight, sound, sensation, movement, gesture, word, etc.) and link it to the state. Anchors operate as Pavlovian conditioning tools for state management and depend on uniqueness, intensity, timing, purity. Wait until you or another person has reached the peak of the experience, and then link some unique trigger to it. Test to see if the trigger then fires off the state. If so, you have an Anchor.

State Utilization: Detect and then use resourceful ways of thinking-feeling, perceiving, communicating, etc. Where would I like to use this state? What would it look, sound, feel like to have this state in this or that situation?

State Strategy: The pieces of information (VAK), neurology, responses, etc. that comprise the sequential composition of a state. Track down this sequence and model the pieces of the strategy that creates the state.


State as Emotion (Kmeta):

An emotion is a combination of sensations and language evaluations in the form of words about the kinesthetics; a meta-level phenomena; emotions consist of evaluative judgments, beliefs, meanings, values. As states (neuro-linguistic states) they code our programs to help us evaluate our functioning in the world. Emotions the evaluative difference between Model of the World (wants, expectations, shoulds, understandings, etc.) and our experience of the world.

The primary emotions already operate as a meta-level phenomena - Kmeta. Technically we could tease out yet another lost level (or coalesced level) inside the Primary State (PS): a set of kinesthetic sensations plus a cognitive evaluative judgment of meaning. Since this distinction does not seem to really add anything significant, we will stay with the PS - MS distinction for our purposes in modeling and designing new enhancing meta-states. Inasmuch as the primary emotions already involve cognitive evaluations from a previous meta-level having coalesced into a primary state, we have this as an illustration of how meta-levels do merge with PS.

The Neuro-Semantics of an “Emotion”

An “Emotion” in NLP is kinestheticmeta. It is an evaluation at a meta-level about a Kinesthetic. An “Emotion” in Neuro-Semantics is the relationship between our Model of the World (Our Mapping) and our Experience of the World (our registering of the Territory). This makes “Emotions” always meaningful, significant, valuable and relative (See Figure 2:12).

Figure 2:12The Neuro-Semantics of an “Emotion”


State Extending / State Containment

We can both extend and contain states these properties of neuro-linguistic states enable us to take the thoughts-feelings and all of the mind-body correlations and contaminate other experiences with a state. We can also build boundaries and barriers around a state so as to disconnect to other things. In various contexts, both phenomena provide new resources, if used appropriately.

State Expressions versus State Frames

We have four central expressions of State: Thinking, Feeling, Speaking, and Behaving.

T What do you think about this or that?F What do you feel?S What do you say?B What do you do?

We can have an infinite number of frames to govern a State as Reference Structures: time, history, beliefs, values, self, concepts, and so on.

Figure 2:13The Transcending & Including Meta-States


STATE MANAGEMENT ACCORDING TO NLPSuccess at reaching desired goals comes to those who know how to do “state control” or state management. State management describes the difference between those who achieve their goals and those who fail to achieve their goals. It's the difference between those who can put themselves into supportive states and those who cannot.

The key to our personal “power” or control over ourselves lies in the ability to direct and manage our states. This “power” (or ability) arises from our power to think, emote, speak, and respond. Thus, the art of effectively running our own brain and neurology involves learning how our states work, their components, how to elicit them, alter them, etc.

In NLP we view the problem of “effectiveness” as not a case of lacking the resources to succeed, but rather with not knowing how to access the resources, how to amplify resourceful states, and how to do so at will when we most need them. We may simply be in such an unresourceful state that our resources do not seem available. All of this summarizes the State Management Pattern.

1) DEVELOP STATE AWARENESS

We first have to develop the ability to pay attention to and identify our states. It’s only when we detect our states that we can truly manage them. Our internal representations include what (content) and how (form/process) we picture in our mind; what and how we say and hear in our mind.

What internal representation factors are driving this state? What physiological factors are contributing?

As we learn to take control of our self-communications, we learn how to produce the most empowering signals to feed our brain regarding what we want (our desired outcome). Doing this runs new programs in our head/neurology so that we can produce new and more positive results, particularly the result of accessing much more resourceful states.

Physiology includes a multitude of things: muscle tension, what we eat, how we breathe, posture, overall level of biochemical function, etc. These hugely impact our state. Physiology includes our posture, biochemistry, nervous energy, breathing, muscle tension and/or relaxation.


2) QUALITY CONTROL YOUR STATES

Once we can detect our states, then we can do something magical: we can “run an ecology check” on them to quality control them. The problem with most states is that they tend so easily to become habitual and unconscious. They operate in them like we operate in the atmosphere. We breathe air without much awareness of the air itself. Take a moment and gauge yourself. Make an overall evaluation regarding the quality of your states:

Is your neuro-physiological state enabling (full of confidence, love, inner strength, joy, ecstasy, belief and tapping your wellsprings of personal power? Is your state dis-abling or even paralyzing?Is it characterized by lots of confusion, depression, fear, anxiety, sadness, frustration, etc. and so leaving you feeling powerless?Does it empower you as a person?

3) STATE UNDERSTANDING

There are numerous things that we need to know and understand about our states in order to attain high level state management skills. The following offers many of the understandings that come from the NLP model.

1) States are States. A state is but a state; it is not “we.” We are much more than our states. We experience states. So, when we’re in an unresourceful state, this does not mean we are a bad person or that something is wrong with us. It only means that we are experiencing a negative state. And, as goes the state, so go our behavior, our emotions, our perspective, etc… And yet, we are more — far more than our behaviors. Our behaviors simply express what we are experiencing at the moment.

2) States are functions of our neuro-linguistics. Understanding the dynamics of our states and the factors the comprise them. So again, what creates any given state that we find ourselves in? The two main components of states: internal representations and physiology. It’s that simple.

3) Our habitual states feel “real.” Our internal representations usually describe our habitual patterns of representing things. We learned this from our earliest models (parents, teachers, etc.). This is where we get most of our beliefs, attitudes, values and understandings, which pattern our typical representations.


4) States are products of information processing. Ultimately, we don't know how things really are; we can only know how we represent them to ourselves. As we learn to represent things in ways that empower us rather than creating limitations, we learn the value of enhancing representations. This gives us the ability to represent things in a way that puts us in a positive state. We always have a choice about how to represent things to ourselves.

5) State Dependence sets up a Catch-22 in Experience. We perceive the world from out of our states. We always operate out of some state of consciousness and that state always filters the way we process and explain things. When we are feeling physically vibrant and alive, we perceive the world in a very different way than when we are feeling tired or sick. We call this State Dependency. The condition of our physiology changes the way we represent and experience the world. In this way, our internal world always affects our external world. Our internal representation governs how we “experience” an event and yet does not describe precisely what actually happens, only our personalized re-presentation. The kind of behavior that we produce when in a given state depends also on our Model of World. What do we understand, believe, conceptualize, etc. about our situation? What do we believe about how to cope? What references do we use?

4) STATE TRANSFORMATION

Once we detect our state, quality control it, understand the mechanisms by which they operate, we can begin to alter, change, and transform our states. State management therefore involves taking charge of the states as we access, elicit, induce, and amplify the components of our states so that they serve us well. It involves the states that we learn to trigger (or anchor) in ourselves and others.

Anchoring gives us the ability to quickly fly into the most dynamic, resourceful states at will. Imagine the value of that. Suppose you could access and amplify any given desired state? Suppose you could “fly into a state” of excitement, confidence, energy, alertness, etc. This is what we do when we utilize a state.

We do this by first accessing a powerful state. Think of a time when you have been in a powerful state. Represent things in a way that puts you in such a resourceful state where you are empowered. Represent how things will work (not how they can't or won't). When we so form internal representations like this, it begins to access the internal resources that produce that state. It works like magic!


Understanding the dynamics that govern how internal representations and physiology work to create our states enables us to work backwards to state management. It allows us to determine the specific things to do to elicit the states we want.

We can change our states in a matter of moments. We can "fly into a rage" and we can "fly into a calm." The ability to affect our own state in moments describes one of the mechanisms that govern the nature of our neuro-linguistics. Once we access and elicit a state, we only need to anchor it so that we can recall it and use it at our choice. To do that we only need to associate or link that state with certain triggers. These can be behaviors, words, gestures, symbols, etc. Once we “set” an anchor, it can quickly and easily put us back into that state. And doing this repeatedly with lots of states, will cumulatively build up our self-confidence, self-efficacy, and cultivate in us the sense of knowing how to operate in a resourceful way.

5) STATE UTILIZATION

Using the mechanisms that we use for transforming a state (elicitation, amplification, altering, anchoring, etc.), we can also put our states (and those of others) to good use. And doing so will set us apart from most people because most people take little conscious action to direct their states. Most people do very little to direct their own thinking, emoting, speaking, and behaving. They just let things happen.

People who excel take a different course. They seek to become masters at tapping into their own most resourceful states. They do not wait for the state to "naturally" appear. Instead, they access, elicit, amplify, and anchor their resourceful states. This makes them less and less dependent on and determined by the winds of fate that blow their way. They aren't so much at the mercy of whatever comes their way.


RESOURCEFUL STATE ACCESSING

1) Identify an enhancing state of excellence that you don't have yet, but want. Menu List: confidence, poise, self-valuation, enthused, loving, energetic, etc.

2) Elicit, access and amplify this enhancing state by inquiring about the person’s internal representations and physiology.

3) As the person fully accesses the state that expresses this belief, even more fully adopt the physiology of the state. After accessing the state, then stand or sit, and hold yourself in a way that it expresses a physiology of excellence with this state that seems congruent, believable and attractive.

WHAT WE MEAN BY “UNCONSCIOUS” OR, MORE FITTING, OUTSIDE-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

In the history of psychology, numerous usages and referents have arisen for the word “unconscious” and the vague phrase, “the unconscious mind.” (See article on web site, Which ‘Unconscious’ Mind Do you Train?)

Actually, we only have one mind, a mind that has many facets, dimensions, levels, etc. Our entire nervous system, neurology, mind-body system, etc. operates as an information processing “mind.”

There are many facets of our mind-body system that operate outside of conscious awareness. Cognitive psychologist, George Miller (1956) wrote a classic paper, “The Magic Number 7 Plus or Minus 2" and documented research on the amount of information that we can consciously hold at a time. Everything else is outside of awareness. Also outside of awareness are the processes and mechanisms for language processing, the autonomic nervous system, the immune system, habitual learnings, memories, etc. Most of what we have in our mind does not occur in awareness, but beyond immediate awareness. So we say that it is “unconscious.”

Outside of conscious awareness, or unconsciously, we — Store and organize our memories: establishing “dated emotions,”

imprints, etc. Set and respond to frames: establishing all of the higher “programs” of

the mind, beliefs, values, understandings, mappings, paradigms, identifications, etc.

Encode our representations: revealed in submodalities, Meta-Programs, meta-states, frames, etc.

Send signals to our nervous systems: thereby creating health, illness, disease, etc.


ELICITATION SKILLS

The ability to effectively elicit responses, states, experiences is crucial. The skill of elicitation enables us to discover the structure of subjective experiences wherever you find them whether in ourselves or in others. The skill of eliciting enables us to learn how to effectively transform experiences. It’s crucial for effective communicating, persuading, motivating, etc.

1st First when eliciting, move to an Uptime State.

Open your sense receptors to inputting sights, sounds, sensations, etc. Then, to elicit good clean information about a person's experience you need to get the person into the state.

2nd Invite a Past Memory or a Future Imagination.

"Think about a time when you were honestly and completely..." Eliciting the structure of almost any experience without that person being in state reduces your exploration to talk about the experience. This removes it one level from the thing itself and will give you more of the person's theory about it rather than the experience itself.

3rd Aim for referents that are small and simple.

To elicit as "pure" a state or experience as possible, ask the person to think about a referent that is clear, small, and simple. When asking for a "Strong Belief," pick something that isn't so emotionally laden as "I'm a Worthwhile person." Pick, "I believe the sun will rise tomorrow." "I believe breathing is important." The mental processes are the same, but the less emotionally laden content will give you "cleaner" information.

4th Speak and act congruently.

In eliciting a state in someone, remember that the tools of the trade are your communication tools: your words, your tones and your tempo. So be evocative. Aim to sound like what you are trying to elicit. When you do so, it sounds congruent to your subject.

5th Take your time and allow people time to process things.

If they aren't accessing, then have them pretend (use the Pretend or "As if" frame): "What would it be like if you could?"


6th Begin with unspecified terms and then shift to more predicate specific terms.

Begin with unspecific words that allow the person to search for the experience in his or her own way. As you notice the accessing of certain representation systems, help the person by then using sensory-specific words. "And what do you see...?" Good downtime questions will assist the person in locating and identifying the experience. To do that you will need enough content so as to ask good questions.

7th Focus on the form and structure of the Eliciting.

Throughout the person’s accessing and experiencing, focus on the form and structure of the experienced by paying attention to the modalities, and submodalities.

8th Be ready to troubleshoot in helping the person access.

If a person gets stuck in trying to think of something, inquire about anybody who may serve as a model: "Do you know anyone who can?" "What would it be like if you were them for a few minutes and did it?"Eliciting helps the person you're talking with to become conscious of factors that are normally outside their range of conscious awareness. This means your own patience, positive expectation, and acceptance will make it easier (and safer) for the other person to access the information.

9th When working with someone when they are getting pictures, move to their side. Do not get in the way of their pictures.


ANCHORING MIND-BODY STATESTHE STIMULUS-RESPONSE PATTERN

Anchoring operates as a form of classical conditioning. Pavlov got the unnatural response from his dogs as he connected it to another stimulus. First he conditioned the dogs to salivate by bringing in a nice juicy steak, which they could see, feel, smell and taste. To that original stimulus, the dogs responded by going into an eating mode. Simultaneously, Pavlov rang a bell (a second stimuli). Did they notice? Probably not. They had other things on their dog minds.

He repeated this until the stimulus of the bell alone was enough to trigger (anchor) the same response. How do we explain this dynamic? In dog-thinking, the bell became so connected to the steak that the dog thought of it as the same thing as the steak. The bell set off in his neurology (anchored) the smells, tastes, images and feelings of a steak. This re-inducing the dog to go into the "salivate state."

Anchoring refers to the tendency of any one element of an experience (like the bell) to bring back the entire experience (internally experiencing the steak). We smell an old familiar perfume and suddenly we are back in another time and place. The smell reminds us. And yet it is more than just a reminder. It actually induces us into another a state.

ANCHORING — CONTROLLED RE-EXPERIENCINGTechnically, anchoring means using one representation to trigger another representation. In the human subjectivity of our inner experience our experiences are internally coded as gestalts of sensory information. That is, we experience sights, sounds, sensations, smells and tastes on the inside. By means of these internal senses we "present to ourselves again" (re-present) what we saw, heard, felt, smelled and tasted originally. Within the same sensory channels that we originally accessed, received and processed these external stimuli we re-experience the same information.

In anchoring, when one portion of an experience is reintroduced, other portions of that experience are reproduced to some degree and extent. This describes how language works. When I referred to Pavlov's "dogs" earlier — what came to your mind?

Did you see a dog? What kind? How big? What color? Did you hear a dog? Did you smell a dog? Did you feel a dog?

To know what the three letters “d-o-g” means when spoke as a word in English; we have to access some representation of it. What did you re-access from your reference history? You probably presented to yourself again some ©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®71

pictures, sounds, feelings, and smells that you had previously


seen, heard, felt and smelled. Brains “make sense” of symbols in this way. We access our inner world that is not immediately present to our senses.

All communication messages (verbal and non-verbal) “anchor” or trigger us to represent something to ourselves. When we use words (sound and/or visual symbols) to represent something, if the words are sensory-based, they will quickly elicit a clear referent. Verbal anchoring uses words to induce or evoke images, sounds, smells and feelings.

All effective communicators use anchoring although usually without knowing it. Good storytellers more consciously pair certain messages or experiences with certain tones of voices. They're anchoring. Actually, then, we're anchoring things all the time with our tonal shifts, facial expressions and gestures. The NLP technique of anchoring brings these things into consciousness so we can use them intentionally.

THE ART OF SETTING ANCHORSOverview of anchoring: First determine and identify the state the person is in, then calibrate to that state. Come into full sensory awareness. Anchor that state by associating (linking) some visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory or gustatory stimulus to it. Break state. Now test it. Fire it off and see if it re-induces that state.

If the person isn't in the desired state, then first elicit that state. Calibrate the person's changes as he goes from the present state to the desired state. Amplify it and anchor it. Later, take a break to distract the person. Then fire the anchor.

Critical factors for successful anchoring involve both the state and the anchor. The state should be intense, pure and discreet. The anchor should be set at the time of the state's peak and held (kinesthetic anchors) for 5 to 15 seconds. The more unique the anchor the better. A good anchor is "strong" in calling back the state and is easily replicable. 1st Elicit a strong mental/ emotional state

As you elicit a response, be expressive in your presentation, tone, etc. in order to help the person access the state. Elicitation choices:

1) Do something to get the person to elicit the response you want (tell a joke, invite problem-solving, etc.).

2) Remember a time when you did something (make a decision, enjoy something, etc.)

3) Imagine a time in the future when you will be feeling confident, etc. 4) Act as if you were someone who could confidently make a speech.


2nd Detect the Responses of the elicited state

Detect the response visually and auditorially in the other person. Notice when it reaches peak intensity. Notice when it begins to declines in intensity. Notice what juices it up. We call this “calibrating” to the person’s experiences. Ask the person to gauge the states’ intensity. 3rd Anchor ... Add a Stimulus to the elicited state

Use any external stimulus: a touch, voice tone, gesture, snap of fingers, smell and even words to anchor. Use special words and phrases. The keys to how long the anchor will last are:

1) How unique the stimulus you use for an anchor is and2) How well you make the association between the anchor and the

experience.

Use redundancy. The best anchors are established in all representational systems. Make sure the association between your anchor and the response is "clean." Timing is important: do it at the peak of the response.

4th Re-Trigger the Response

Recapitulate the anchor by touching the exact location with exact pressure as when set.


ANCHORING FACTORS1. Intensity: People vary in the time it takes them to change their internal state as well as how intense they experience those states. Some people change states almost instantly. Others take a long time. Calibrate to the speed of someone going into the desired state. What you connect your new stimulus to depends on what state the person is in. If you anchor too soon or too late, the person will not be in the desired state with the needed intensity and so you will probably get a diluted version or a mixed state.

Aim to capture the pure state at the peak of its intensity. Anchor when the person is starting to change into the desired state. If you are touching, increase the firmness of your touch as their state increases and then release just after the peak of the experience. People vary in capacities. Look to set anchors when people are naturally in a good state.

2. Purity:The purity of the experience a person is in, or re-experiences as it's elicited refers to how distinct and discreet it is. Some people think in terms of gestalts (whole bunches of times) and remember in the same way. Their mind will keep jumping between instances. Others think in terms of isolated events. Help the person call forth a pure and discreet experience by asking for specifics of it. Have them choose the one experience that was the happiest of all. When you have identified that instant, let me know. Aim for getting one pure experience to work with and anchor.

3. Uniqueness:The more unique the new stimulus you're using to anchor the better. If you are using a kinesthetic anchor, determine where on the other person you want to touch, the area, the amount of pressure and the length of time you'll hold it. Choose a location you can get to easily and return to precisely. If you are doing this covertly, do it in a way that's natural and appropriate. If your touching is stiff or inappropriate it will anchor an interruption or something worse.

In setting a touch anchor choose an area that's not touched on a regular basis. As you would avoid cuts, scars or bruises since they are already negative anchors watch for other areas that may contain negative anchors. If you touch a part that's often touched, many experiences may already be associated with it and you'll collapse anchors. Aim for skin rather than clothing it may shift position on the body making it difficult to return to it. A unique place would be the back of the hand or between the fingers. Shoulders and elbows are available for covert anchoring. Practice returning precisely to the exact same spot.


In replicating an anchor, you "fire it off" by returning to the precise location with the same stimulus and apply the same pressure for the same amount of time. Apply a firm steady pressure, but never in a painful way, or too faintly. Then hold it. Gradually increase the pressure as the person goes more fully into the experience. It takes time for people to completely re-experience a state. When learning to anchor, have the person signal you when they're in the desired state; it'll help you calibrate.


ANCHORING STATESHow to Trigger and Manage States (Experiences)

An anchor is a sensory stimulus (image, sound, touch, smell or taste) that has become attached to an internal state of consciousness so that when the stimulus is repeated it recreates that state in the person. It is a trigger.

Use: Anchors give us "handles" whereby we can move experiences (our own or others) around in time-space. They allow us to capture these states of consciousness (current and past) so that we can make them available in the same or altered form in new contexts. We can use anchors to restructure internal processes and to alter our future responses to situations. In this way anchoring operates as an important and powerful "tool" in the NLP arsenal.

Setting Anchors: We set or establish anchors in someone when we connect a new stimulus to an old stimulus. When we have established a good anchor, we can “fire it off” (that is, re-set or trigger it again) and it will bring the state back.

Purpose: The purpose of eliciting positive states is that the person will be more favorable and receptive for hearing out your ideas. This creates a better atmosphere for communication. It certainly does take away the element of choice from the other person or "make" them do things against their will.

"Anchoring" is the NLP user-friendly version of the Stimulus → Response pattern. S→R speaks of Behaviorism and the recognition that triggers seem to set off responses. In the 19th century, Russian psychologist Pavlov conditioned his dogs to respond by salivating to the ringing of a bell (a very unnatural response), so we too can condition ourselves and others in ways that "ring their bells."

This S→R happens all the time. In hundreds of ways we are already doing this and receiving it from others. The problem is that most of it lies outside conscious awareness. This very fact makes it such a powerful influence mechanism as well as a form of unconscious communication.

Think about it. Are there not lots of subtle things that people can do that "get" you, that push your buttons that irritate the daylights out of you? How about someone raising his index finger and shaking it in your face? What does that trigger in you? How about a sarcastic tonality, an anger tonality, a raised eyebrow, a flared nostril? What about the word "jackass" or "S.O.B."? What do these trigger (anchor) in you?

Anchoring in everyday life: People have already been anchoring us. For years we also have been anchoring them. This explains one of the very subtle and misunderstood aspects of inter-personal relations and communications. We are forever setting things off in others, intentionally and innocently.


State Accessing & Anchoring

1) Identify the desired state and its mind-body components.What state do you want? Describe it a little bit.As you’re talking about that state, are you beginning to enter into that state?

2) Evoke it fully.A) “Think of a time when you fully experienced this state...” Think of a time when you clearly had it in a powerful way.What thoughts really evoke this state?What do you need to do to really crank up this state? How much do you now have the feeling of this state? Be with that feeling... let it grow... now let it double... What would increase the experience of this state even more?

If you’re having any difficulty eliciting the state, ask:B) “What would it be like if you did fully experience this state?”

3) Anchor the state when it is highly amplified.Set a physical touch on arm, forearm, or shoulder as the person reaches the peak of the state (a 8 or above on a 0 to 10 scale). Or anchor it visually through a gesture, auditorially by a particular tone.

4) Practice stepping in and out. Break state and repeatedly re-access. In just a moment I want you to step out of that powerful state, but before you do, take a snapshot of it in all sensory systems (what you see, hear, feel, etc.). Now let’s practice stepping in and out of that state so that you can quickly “fly into that state” at any time you choose.

5) Apply the resourceful state to a time or place in everyday life. Where could you really use this state in your everyday life as you engage in various wealth building activities?Think of that time and feel this (fire the anchor).Suppose you had this feeling or way of thinking as your attitude, fully and completely, in just the way that you would want it — would you like that? YesWould that attitude transform things as you think about that activity? YesHow would it transform things... just notice inside... and enjoy. Yes


Collapsing AnchorsThis pattern is based upon anchoring two opposing states anchored in different locations and firing both simultaneously. What would happen when you fire both anchors? If we think of each state as a different psychological part, then this can collapse (so to speak) the energies of these two states. Anchoring and firing both off at the same time lets the negative state collapse into the stronger positive state and the positive will also collapse to some extent. We are dispersing energy in this process. We are using the same nervous system and asking it to process two mutually incompatible states at the same time. This invites the nervous system to release the old pattern and so create “space” for doing something new.

The Pattern of Collapsing Anchors1) Establish rapport with the person.

Match the person’s external output of thinking, speaking, and acting, and match the person’s conceptual understandings and valuings.

2) Identify the conflicting parts.What are the negative state or states that you want to eliminate?What would be the positive state that’s opposite to this state?Are there any other positive states that you might want to use to overcome the negative state? [It might be useful to stack several positive states to get a powerful enough positive state to overcome the negative state. Ask the person to gauge the states using a 1-to-10 scale.]

3) Anchor the two states. First anchor the positive state by asking the person to recall and associate fully into the positive state. When the person experiences the experience at a peak of intensity, attach a specific stimulus to anchor it. Break state and test by firing the anchor to see if you have it set. Calibrate to check. Do the same with the negative state.

4) Use the anchors alternatively to re-establish the two conflicting states.

So at times you feel negative (fire the negative anchor) and you don’t like that but you feel this, don’t you? At when you feel this (negative anchor), you would rather feel this positive state (fire the positive anchor). Repeat a number of times to establish the two reference experiences.


5) Fire both anchors at the same time. Now I want you to just notice what happens when you feel this and this... [fire both anchors simultaneously... and pause ... giving the person time to process... ] Notice that you want to feel the negative and the positive, but they are being confused, are they not?

Continue to hold both anchors as you watch the person's physiology carefully. You will see signs of change and confusion. Frequently the person’s eyes will go around and around and from side to side as the brain completes the dispersion of the energies of both.

After the experience settles, release the negative anchor first while holding the positive anchor a little longer, maybe for another five seconds.

6) Test. I want you to access the problem state that you began with and just notice what happens... When the person doesn’t get the negative feelings back, fire the negative anchor. There should be a very weakened response to this. The person may seem to be going into the negative state but cannot, he or she may go somewhere in-between the two states.

7) Future pace.Now think of some situation in the near future where you would have felt negative and notice that the emotion has been dispersed or collapsed. Run through it in your imagination... Keep calibrating the person’s state.

8) Meta-State the Problematic StateAn alternative to collapsing anchors is to bring a positive state and put it in a meta-relationship to the problem state. Bring it to bear on the problem state, and thereby effect a meta-stating of the problem state. This will lead, not to a collapsing, but to a coalescing of the higher positive state into the lower negative state, it will then create integration.

Bringing a higher level of thought and emotion on a lower level state (what we call meta-stating) frames the lower with the higher. This establishes a resource state and puts it at a higher level of abstraction to thereby reframe the problem state.

Saying, "Bring that resource state to bear on the problem state" merges those two thoughts together in a special away, the higher outframes the lower. This reframes the problem state with the higher resources. When we anchor a problem state and first an anchor for a Resource State saying, feel this about that, we invite the brain and nervous system to put one over the other.


Associating/Dissociating

By stepping aside from, or out of, memories, imaginations, representations of trauma, etc. we adopt different perspectives, different frames of mind, and actually a higher state of mind — a meta-level of awareness. When we do so, we can then, from that second-level or third-level awareness “dissociate” from all of the emotions that the original frame created. Sometimes this can be magical.

Of course, we are speaking metaphorically and conceptually about this as “dissociation.” We are not doing this literally or physically. We are not literally stepping out of our bodies; there is no actual dis-embodiment!

In using the term “dissociation” we refer to our felt sense, which is a product of our thinking. We remain very much inside of our bodies when we experience this feeling of dissociation. I mention this due to some of the over-literalization that some theorists and psychologists have fallen victim into assuming that the label is the territory or that the label must describe a real thing. It’s just a way of talking about a shift in feeling. When we refer to moving to a meta-level, this does not necessarily equate to being dissociated. Actually, many of our higher meta-states, far from being bereft of feeling, involves even more feelings — joy of learning, excitement about falling in love, anticipation of feeling confident, etc. We can, and do, have highly emotional states at meta-levels. Consider the negative meta-states of self-contempting, self-despising, unforgiveness, and personalizing. These involve lots of emotions. Associating and dissociating are relative terms. They speak about stepping into an experience or state and stepping out of another. Every time we associate into one state, we thereby dissociate from another. And every dissociation implies an association. Once we take a meta-level position so that we process and re-process the old trauma, phobia, or negative event from a meta-position, we gain "psychological distance." This enables us to experience the wisdom and resourcefulness of a broader and more objective perspective as well as the ability to apply new and better thinking. We can then transform the trauma, phobia, or hurt using these higher-level resources. We can bring humor, love, compassion, understanding, firmness, forgiveness, confrontation, etc. to bear on our memories. We meta-state our “memories” with these resources. Doing this typically brings closure and finishes the gestalt of our need to end the old business.


PERCEPTUAL POSITIONS

For Developing Flexibility of Consciousness(Users, ch. 3, pp. 55-60)

Definitions:1st. Self Normal and healthy position of seeing, hearing, and feeling from

out of self. Position needed in order to speak with authenticity, to present yourself, your thoughts, feelings, and responses congruently, to disclose, listen, inquire, and be present with another.

When stuck here: Selfish, sociopath perspective.

2nd. Other To understand, feel with, experience empathy for and see things from another’s point of view. Here you’ll feel in accord with the other and have a strong sense of his or her perceptive.

When stuck here: co-dependent

3rd. Meta To step back, gain a sense of distance, observe, witness, feel neutral, and appreciate both positions fully.

When stuck here: cold, over-rational, “computer” mode.

4th. System To understand the contexts (cultural, linguistic, business, family, etc.) that influence all of the larger systems and contexts of our world.

When stuck here: “Company man.”

5th. Position In a position of universality. For the religious minded, it is to be present with God viewing the situation from His position.

When stuck here: “So heavenly minded you are no earthly good.”


Exercise: Think about a time when you expressed something in a strong, powerful, and persuasive way and which worked out in a way that really delighted you and the other person. Then think of a time when you were not very resourceful in responding to a criticism or something.

The Pattern:

1) Recall a time when you were most resourceful in handling a challenge.

Step back into that memory so that you recall it as if inside it again, seeing, hearing and feeling what you saw, heard, and felt then. Answer the following questions from first position; use “I” statements. “What did you experience that was a valuable resource to you?” “How were you able to access that resource?”

2) Step Out of that memory and into the position of the other person (the one you were interacting with at the time). From that person’s point of view, look at the You in that memory. Literally and physically step aside. From this expanded perspective, express what you see, hear and feel. Use the language of the second perceptual position: “you, he, she.”

“How would you describe the person demonstrating that resource?” “He... “She...” “What did that person do or say that seemed resourceful?”

3) Literally step aside from this memory & the first two positions as if you are now an Invisible Observer to the whole experience.

“From the position of an uninvolved Witness, what do you see, hear, or feel about that interaction?”“What do you think about that resourceful interaction from this position?”

4) Step out yet another time to a position out beyond the whole Systems of interactions.

“What additional awareness do you have, understand, feel, etc. as you look at all of that from a larger systems point of view?”


ALIGNING PERCEPTUAL POSITIONS Sometimes our ability to perceive things from out of our own eyes (first-person perception) and from out of the eyes of another person (second person perception, the "empathy" perspective), and from an observer position (third-person perception) gets out-of-alignment. Structurally, each of these perceptual resources can operate as separate ways of functioning or "parts."

The three perceptual positions refer to three ways we can "look" at the world. And, we can become stuck in any position.

Those stuck in first-person position can become totally self-referencing in their view of things so that they think-and-feel in highly "narcissistic" ways. They will process things only in terms of themselves.

Those stuck in second-person position tend to become totally other-referencing in their perspective and can get stuck in the role of rescuers and caretakers to the exclusion of taking care of themselves.

People stuck in third position may take a historical view, a cultural view, etc, so that they become so dissociated from their body and emotions that they seem more like robots than people (Satir's "Computer" stance).

Not only can we get stuck in a single position, we can also experience an out-of-alignment between these positions. Problems may also arise from having parts of ourselves react from different perceptual positions. When that happens we end up working against ourselves. Aligning perceptual positions in all representation systems, results in inner congruence and personal power. This pattern also enables us to resolve inner conflict and attain internal alignment.

Use this triple description pattern whenever you or another lacks a full awareness or perspective on a given problem. Take all three positions to broaden your thinking-feeling. This can truly enrich perspectives in such situations as conflict resolution, mediation, influencing others, personal flexibility, etc. The technology enables us to gain an expanded perspective and information on problem situations.


The Pattern

1) Identify target information.

Specify a limitation, a problem. or a situation in which you (or another) feel stuck. "Please describe the situation in which you would like to have a more congruent response." Identify the visual, auditory and kinesthetic factors within each perceptual position.

a) Visual: What and how do you see the situation? From what perceptual position? If you have two or more "conceptual parts" or entities that reference this same subject, check what perceptual position each part uses. Do some parts see the situation as an observer or from the eyes of another person? Locate the position of each part. Point out (internally or externally) where you find them. Do some of the parts seem closer to the situation than others? How does each part see the situation? What does each part actually see? What differences occur between them?

b) Auditory: What sounds and words do you hear about the situation? From what perceptual position do you hear these things? If you have two or more parts in reference to it, what does each part say? Listen for the pronouns that each part uses. A part in the observer mode will have a neutral voice and will refer to "he" or "she." An "other" voice will typically refer to "you" with a more judgmental tone. The "self" voice will use "I" and "me." Where exactly in your body do you hear each part? (Side positions often indicates other or observer, self usually comes from vocal chord area.)

c) Kinesthetic: What do you sense about the situation? From what perceptual position? For multiple parts, where do you sense each part in your body? What emotions do you experience with each part? Do you have any neutral parts as if you only observe and don't experience life?

2) Realign perceptual positions in all rep systems.

For the Observer alignment (3rd position), go through the VAK checks.

a) Visual: Ask the observer part, "Would you communicate any information you have gathered to the self part?" Continue the dialogue until self and other similarly view the situation.

b) Auditory alignment: Ask the observer part, "Would you shift pronouns to support the self using 'I', 'he,' or 'she?'" Also, please use "self" tone of voice.


c) Kinesthetically: Ask the observer part, "Would you be willing to shift feelings to those compatible with self feelings." Also move feelings to the place where "self" holds feelings.

3) Align your self in terms of the VAK perceptual positions.

"Make sure you see from your own point of view and out of your own eyes. Make sure your voice location arises from your own vocal chords and that you use 'I' pronouns. Make sure that all feelings come from inside the 'self' and reflect resourceful states."

4) Do an “other” alignment (2nd position) in the same way.

"Please adjust your perceptions to make them compatible with the view held by self." Move the location of "other" to the place occupied by self. Please move the voice you hear to the vocal chord area and have it represent 'self' bringing any enriching information to the 'self' position. Align feelings from 'other' to those of 'self.' Integrate feelings in such a way as to make the 'self' more flexible and resourceful.

5) Run an ecology check.

Do all the parts feel aligned and in harmony?

6) Future pace.

Allow yourself now to become aware of new behavioral possibilities. "Describe any new abilities and behaviors that now becomes available to you. And you can notice yourself performing in the future as the 'self' part increases in richness and flexibility." If the "other" part objects to integration, you can request that this part return to the person to whom the thoughts and feelings belong.


THE VISUAL/ KINESTHETIC DISSOCIATION PATTERN

(Users, pp. 117-123)

This NLP pattern can dramatically assist us in running our own brain so that we will move to a more resourceful and productive state. Running our own brain in order to be more resourceful remains one of the basic outcomes of NLP. The Association/Dissociation patterns in particular will provide more ways to actively and deliberately to bring about the changes we want.

The V/K Dissociation Pattern specifically offers a way to deal with painful memory scenes from the past that need to be dealt with and to do so in a way that doesn't re-traumatize. It also offers a way to switch off those that we don't need to see and relive.

The brain as our human hardware is designed to always be doing something. So if we don't give it something to do or feed it with new and interesting data, it will just invent its own and/or run old distressful tapes for stimulation. Deprivation tank experiences have repeatedly demonstrated that people deprived of external stimulation will begin very shortly generating internal experience. In a matter of hours they will be hallucinating! The brain must be doing something.

DEALING WITH OLD UNPLEASANT MEMORIESWhen many people think about unpleasant things that happened long ago, their brain says, "Play it again!" And so they do. They play a full-color, three-dimensional movie of the old movie and then feel really bad. If that doesn't seem particularly useful for you, the following offers you a change method.

You can change that and gain control over what happens in your brain and put an end to being a prisoner of your own brain. As you learn to direct your own mental processes you can use your brain in directed ways like a director of your own internal movies. If you can bring back old horrible memories into your mind, you can also bring back good, resourceful, confidence generating movies.

The key to change begins by discovering what you do inside your head. As you then begin altering the elements of that internal behavior you begin changing how you experience things.


1) Step Back From Your Painful Memories

Begin with a “negative” thought that sets off painful emotional reactions. Pick a “thought” of a memory that “rattles your cage” so much so that you can’t even “think” of it in a calm and rational way. You have a memory that you now semantically react to. Just the idea of the trauma upsets your entire body and neurology. This is the thought or representation that we will deal with.

Imagine yourself sitting in a movie theater. Upon the movie screen in the theater, put a black-and-white picture of the Younger You just prior to that fearful, hurtful, or traumatic situation.

Good. This represents the scene immediately prior to the fearful memory. Now sit back to watch it. Do so with the awareness that you have taken a spectator's position to that Younger You.

As this enables you to gain “psychological distance” from the old pain, take the spectator position so that you can begin to learn from that old memory.

2) Step Back from the You Watching the Movie

Imagine floating out of your body as you watch that Snapshot on the screen. Imagine floating all the way to the back of the theater and up into the projection booth. Place an imaginary piece of Plexiglas in the viewing window in front of you. From this new point-of-view, notice the back of your head in the theater seat sitting there watching the snapshot of the Younger You on the screen.

If at any time you begin to feel uncomfortable, then just put your hands on the Plexiglas in front of you and remind yourself to feel safe and secure in the control booth.

Feel the calmness of this sense of distance.

3) Let the Old Memory play out as you watch it from the projection booth

Observe as you let the initial snapshot turn into a black-and-white movie which you then watch until it plays out to the end.

Watch it to the end. Then watch some more. Let it play out beyond the end to a time when that Younger You felt safe and okay again.

As the trauma scene disappears, see that Younger You in a state of safety and pleasure a scene of comfort.


If you have to fast forward several years to a scene of comfort, do that. Fast forward to any event... When you get to that place, freeze frame the picture.

4) Step into the Movie and rewind

Now, step into the end of the movie at the Scene of Comfort. Step into it and experience it fully. See everything around you in color as it was then.

In just a moment, we are going to do something very weird. So let me tell you about it first. Don’t do it until I say, Go. Okay?

When I tell you, I want you to rewind the movie from this Scene of Comfort backwards to the initial Snapshot before the beginning of the trauma, and to do so really fast, super fast, so fast that occurs in a second, maybe two. Now you have seen movies or videos run backwards haven’t you? Good. Well this one is going to rewind at high speeds but with this difference, you are going to be inside it. So from that vantage point, you will see a fusion of sights and a jumbling of sounds as everything zooms back to the beginning.

Ready? Okay, associate into the Comfort Scene at the end of the movie, feel all of those feelings of comfort, okay ness, joy, relaxation, whatever is there. Do so fully and completely.

Now push the rewind button. Zooooooommmmm! Go all the way back to the beginning. It only takes a second or two to do that fast rewind.

Good. Clear the screen of your mind. How did that feel... rewinding from inside the movie? Weird huh? When you experience the fast rewinding, all the people and their actions go backwards. They walk and talk backwards. You walk and talk in reverse. Everything happens in reverse, like rewinding a movie.

5) Repeat the process five times

Having arrived back to the Snapshot at the beginning, clear the screen in your mind. Open your eyes and look around. Breathe!

Let’s do this again. Begin at the Scene of Comfort at the end again, and as soon as you step it, feel, see, and hear it fully... rewind the movie... do it even faster this time.


Good. Repeat four more times. Of course, as you do this over and over your brain will become more and more proficient and the rewind will go faster and faster until the rewind takes only a second each time. Zoommmm!

6) Test results

Okay, let’s break state.

Now, I want you to recall that original memory of the trauma and try really hard to see if you can get the feelings back. Try as hard as you can to step into the scene and feel the full weight of the emotions.

Figure 2:14


Other Editing ToolsFrom the double dissociation position of the projection booth you cannot only rewind, you can do all kinds of things to change and enhance your mental mapping of the old trauma. You can program your brain to process the memory in ways that give you a wide range of perspectives and reframes that increases your sense of personal power and choice.

1) Associate a resourceful memory. Recall a time when you felt creative, confident, powerful, etc. See what you saw at that time, hear what you heard, and feel what you felt. Turn up the brightness and step into it in a fully associated way. Experience this resourceful state and bring it to the negative stimulus that used to create fear or a sense of trauma. Let this resource merge into the memory.

2) Alter your sound track. Re-code the way you hear yourself and others talk in the old memory. How would you want to make your voice different so that it conveys power, choice, congruency, etc.? What voice would you like to give to the others in the memory? What tonal qualities would make the memory less intense?

3) Add tonal qualities to the sound track to make it better. Put into the unpleasant memory some nice loud circus music and then watch the movie again. How do you feel when you see it up against that sound track? Put circus music to other memories of anger and annoyance.

4) Apply your spiritual faith. Apply your spiritual belief system and bring in a Guardian Angel, a loving heavenly Father, etc., then split your screen and see through the eye of your faith, your Guardian Angel hovering over the earthly scene of your memory. See and hear your Angel caring and loving you. Perhaps you hear, "I am with you." "I will help you." See Jesus touch you with his healing hand.

5) Symbolically code the memory. For example, you could make all of the people in the memory transparent and then color-code them according to how you think/feel about them. Draw a line around the three-dimensional persons in your memory and make them two-dimensional.

6) Add Humor. Since laughter gives us a great distancing skill, use humor in order to laugh at it. How far in the future do you need to transport yourself before you can look back on a memory and laugh at your own fallibilities? What difference lies between memories you can laugh at and ones that you can't? Do you see yourself in one, but not in the other? Do you have one coded as a snapshot and the other as a movie? What difference lies in color, size, and brightness? Imagine the hurtful person talking like Donald Duck?


HOW THIS PATTERN WORKSFor the most part, language and meaning is processed unconsciously. Why do you understand this sentence when I write it like this and this like it write I when sentence this understand you do why? The first part of the previous sentence is written in the usual English order (syntax) while the last half is order backwards. Note how that completely changes its meaning. The meaning that we discover in our sentences arises to a great extent from the syntax of the sentence.

The order or sequence of experiences (like order of words in a sentence) affects meaning. Similarly, running a movie backwards, like rewinding a film changes its meaning. This process enables us to learn to respond differently because we are reframing our perspective and memory. We are giving it new frameworks and as we take new perspectives of the old situation — those new meanings are going to generate new emotions and understandings.

The process works quickly because brains learn quickly. Can you imagine how impossible it would be to make meaning of a movie to see one frame of the movie per day? How could you keep the plot in mind and experience the story? Brains work quickly. Going fast allows the mind to see new connections, sequences, gestalts and to create new generalizations and meanings.

Because this "Phobia Cure" is so powerful, it is therefore dangerous. It actually takes away feelings. It's effective in neutralizing strong feeling responses so be careful in your use of it. You can erase old memories and understandings. You are rearranging your own human software (your mental programs) for understanding and meaning. You are, as it were, scrabbling your brain.

NLP PLAY

1) In pairs, identify something that makes you feel negative, that pushes your buttons and that gives you an emotional punch in the stomach.

2) Elicit the internal representations of your thoughts and the VAK movie, the submodality qualities, and the words involved.

3) Step back one level, turn down the submodalities; and then invite the person to step back yet another level.

4) Run the phobia resolution pattern.


Section 3USING STATES & STRATEGIES

NLP COMMUNICATION MODEL

Summary

Given the details of how the sensory and the linguistic representational systems come together to describe the cinema of the mind that we experience as we “think,” the NLP model describes communication as the transfer of the movies in my mind to yours and yours to mind. We do that through using words and gestures to give each other an idea of how to create and edit a movie in our mind that accords with and fits the movie in the minds of others.

This now explains the basic Guidelines for understanding the process and strategy of communication─

The response I get is the meaning of my communication. We communicate what’s on our mind to the minds of others. We communicate from State through State and to State. Communication is always state influenced and sometimes state

dependent. We never know what we have communicated until we get a response. We can do so many things with words: ask questions, make

statements, solve problems, download, bond, hurt or dis-bond, explore, bring closure, set frames, access states, etc.

By meta-communicating, we step aside from one level of communicating to talk about it and to thereby manage the communication process itself.

Consider how this Communication Model works in various communication contexts─

In Business – one on one, with employees, staff, teams, handling meetings, dealing with conflicts, etc.

In Contracting for business, selling, marketing, influencing, negotiating, etc.

In Personal life with loved ones─ lovers, friends, children, etc.


Using the NLP / Neuro-Semantic Communication Model enables us to look for and identify the many variables that play a critical role in effective communication─

Content: What we are representing and attempting to communicate. Editorial structure: How we have encoded it in terms of the cinematic

features (sub-modalities) of our movies. Perceptual Structure: What meta-programs we use to filter and sort for

the information. Meta-Frame Structure: What meta-states and meta-level frames that

we use to think about the content of our message. What level or channel a person is on. Congruency: Is there a match or mismatch between message sent and

message received? Intentional Frame Structure: What are the people in communicating

attempting to do, their purposes, agendas, and intentions?


THE SWISH PATTERN

The Swish Pattern directionalizes the brain. It uses the natural tendency that we all have, namely to avoid unpleasantness and to move toward pleasantness. We do this by setting up a positive picture and link it to a situation or thought that troubles us. When we have a better choice, we will move in that direction. This pattern presents a way to teach our brain where to go. (After all, brains need to be told where to go too!) Linking the old picture to the new one and allowing that Desired One to get brighter and more compelling literally sets up a direction for your brain to go. And when you directionalize your brain, your behavior has a very strong tendency to go in the same direction.

The Swish Pattern affects a rewiring (as it were) of our old responses and wiring in new responses to the same old triggers. This makes it very powerful since it puts you in charge of your responses. This makes this pattern very generative. It not merely substitutes a new behavior it creates a new direction. By using a self-image you are making that your direction, you will be moving toward the kind of person you want to become which will therefore propel you in that direction. If you see yourself being a person with different qualities, that new person can generate many new specific possibilities.

As you use the Swish Pattern, be fully associated in the old pattern so that you are pulled toward the new Outcome Picture of the Resourceful You. It’s preferable to close your eyes during the process and open them between steps.

Consciously design swishes for yourself so that you set up a direction for your brain and emotions and speech and behavior to go. Allow yourself by this Swishing to be drawn toward that image of yourself that's more valued, esteemed, loved, competent, happy, competent, energetic, kind, etc. I think you'll find that with this NLP technique nearly any habit can be changed and changed quickly and permanently.

NLP concentrates on how the brain works neuro-linguistically. To that end, we focus on tracking down where a brain goes since where a brain goes and what it represents will evoke various states and experiences. From this understanding a number of procedures and techniques for “running brains” have been developed. These patterns enable us to switch on desired scenes and switch off undesired scenes. The Swish Patterns enables us to put an end to a lot of the internal mental torture and to tell our brains where to go.

The Swish Pattern is an especially generative pattern since it enables us to program our brains to go in a certain direction. It's effective for conquering a habit, gaining habit control, improving self-image, developing new confidences, creating new motivations, and getting over old automatic responses and reactions. (Users, pp. 298-302)


THE SWISH PATTERN1) Identify Experience to be Changed.

What do you want to transform? Identify the context where the feelings or behavior occurs. For example, if you are biting your nails; what do you see just before you bite your nails? If you want to stop smoking; what do you see, hear, feel that initiates your compulsion to smoke? Get detail pictures, sounds, feelings (representations) of the triggers. Obtain a detailed description of the problem state and encode it as being in it.

2) Identify the Internal Representation of this experience.

Get as full a representation of your undesired state as possible. We'll call this the Cue Picture (sound/ sensation). To the extent that we don't know what sets it off, to that extent we have been on automatic pilot and that the pattern operates as an ingrained habit. We first need to make conscious this old process that has dropped out of consciousness. When do you typically do this? Imagine you are doing that; you bring one of your hands up, and start to bite nail, smoke, etc. Go through the motions. Become conscious.

As you identify and/or create this Cue Picture, get in touch with what you see (hear/ sense) that initiates the habit. Discover what sounds, feelings are within that picture. Test the submodalities of the picture: brightness, distance, color, etc. Take a snapshot of this picture. Find the Submodalities that are subjectively powerful to you (your Drivers) so you can use them in designing an impactful Swish for yourself.

This Cue Picture is what sets you off. It already functions like a button which triggers your response. It's already swishing your brain to a very unresourceful state. What we're going to do is utilize this same dynamic mental mechanism to send your brain to a new resource picture.

Kinesthetically, you'll find that your feelings of compulsion trigger feelings of urgency within you. The question you'll need to answer is: how do I create that feeling within me? What are my critical submodalities? How do I already swish myself from one state of consciousness to another?

3) Develop a Desired Outcome Picture.

If you no longer bit your nails, how would you see yourself as being different? What would be the value of changing this habit? What difference would it make to you as a person? What would it mean about you?


What would your desired self-image look, sound and feel like? Your verbal answers to these questions do not really matter. What matters? Creating your answers in terms of sensory based images, sounds, and sensations. Create a picture of the New You, the You that would be if you no longer had this habit, behavior or feeling. See this You as out there.

Do you like this new picture? Do you find it compelling? Attractive? Does it draw you toward it? Have you edited the Image of this Desired Self completely?

Keep adjusting this image until you have one that is really attractive to you and one that strongly draws you. Add in qualities of confidence, assertiveness, power, kindness, etc. Making this picture something you really like and that really attracts you is giving you a new compulsion.

4) Link the Two Representations.

Beginning with the Cue Picture of the thing, person, event, etc. that triggers you, make it big and bright. Into the lower left corner of that picture put a small, dark image of the second picture — the Desired You for whom that problem situation is “no problem.”Do you have it? Have you embedded that Desired Picture into the Cue Picture? Good.

[At this point, you will be entertaining two pictures in your mind. You are mainly seeing the world from out of your own eyes in the cue picture and seeing that most Resourceful You in the tiny dot of a picture in the lower left corner. You are fully associated in the first picture and dissociated in the second.]

5) Preparing to Swish the Pictures.

In just a moment I want you to quickly allow the Cue Picture to fade out, to dim out, to move far back into the distance and at the same time I want you to let the dot that contains the Desired Image to very quickly get bigger and brighter and closer. As the Cue Picture gets smaller and darker and at more distance (use the submodalities that drive your responses), let the New Desired Picture of you swish in and completely cover the screen of your mind. Juice it up so that it is there in 3-D and coded in the ways that your brain knows is "Real, Compelling, and Attractive." You will do all of this very quickly, in less than a second.


6) Swish!

Okay, do it. Quickly fade out the images... let them move back into the distance and quickly watch the dot explode into the center of the screen... watch it get very big and bright and close.

7) Swish five times.

Have you finished? Good. Now close your eyes and blank out the screen. Or, open your eyes and look around. Now, let’s do it again. Go back to the Linked Pictures and repeat this process five more times. Clear your mental screen after each Swish.

8) Test.

Good. Now let’s test this to see if it works. After all, that's the important thing. I want you to just allow yourself to think about the triggering Cue Picture that used to set you off and put you into the reactive state. Got it?Notice what happens.As you think about that old trigger, does your brain now immediately go to the new picture?Good. That means you’re done. You have successfully swished your brain so that it now has made a link. It now knows where to go.

PLAYING THE SWISH GAME

1) Create a picture of a habit or situation that you want to change.

2) Create a picture of the person you want to be — the person who would have no problem handling the old habit or situation.

3) Shrink the visual intensity of the picture that triggers the Desired State (#2) so that its brightness, size, distance, etc. are now all encoded in a little black dot.

4) Begin with the Old Picture (#1). See it in a fully associated way.

5) Insert the Desired Picture that you have shrunk (#3) into the lower left hand corner.

6) Simultaneously, let the Old Picture of the Current State rapidly shrink and recede while the Dot (#3) explodes into full view and fills up the screen of your mind. As the old one vanishes, let the new one SWIIISSSHHHH IN.

7) Repeat this process five times until the Cue Picture automatically triggers the Resourceful You Picture to explode onto the screen.


The Visual Squash Pattern(Users, pp. 264-271)

The Visual Squash Pattern offers a way to create an integration of warring parts. When we have two conflicting internal representations of something, the differing representations may set up differing programs for believing, perceiving, emoting and behaving. They may run conflicting neurological patterns so that we try to use two conflicting responses at the same time. Use this pattern to integrate two simultaneous Models of the World.

1) Identify the inner conflict.

What parts or facets of yourself seem to be in conflict?Give each of them a name or label. Notice how you have internally represented each part.How do you know they conflict? What do they conflict about?

2) Allow visual images to arise.

First, get a visual image of each part by asking, “If this part were a picture, what would it look like?” Get a visual image of each part. Second, let’s separate each part, one into your right hand and one into your left. Ask, “If this part were to come out on a hand, which hand would it come out on, the right or the left?” Then direct the person to place each part one at a time in the referent hand.

[For example, put your playful part in the right hand and your work/business part in your left hand.]

3) Separate intention from behavior.

What does this part want? What is its positive intention for you? What is its purpose for you? What does it value and care about? What can you appreciate about this part?

[Repeat for each part.]

4) Establish communication and Transfer Resources.

What resource (or resources) does this part need which would be useful in assisting it to be even more effective? Example: How could this playful part be useful to the work part? Example: How could the work part be useful to the playful part?Transfer visually the resources from one hand to the other.Transfer these resources from both parts. (Use pictures, feelings and/or words.)


5) Allow a new image to emerge, then a series of images.

“I want you to now allow a third image to form... somewhere in between the other two images that you have of those parts preserving the higher positive intention.” Let it take on the valuable qualities of each of the parts.Let an image form out of the two that combines the better of the two and place it right in the middle of both hands as they face each other.And as you do, you may need to imagine a series of visual images that represent the transition from each part and to do so until you have a representation in the center that combines both fully.Now look at this new part and see what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like now that it has the combined resources of the two parts.

6) Collapse or Merge the Images.

Now, bring your hands together, each containing the individual images of the two parts but only bring them together as fast as they integrate one into the other.Let them simultaneously merge (or collapse) so that only the third image remains. Do that now.

7) Take the integrated image inside.

Reach out in front of you to this new integrated image, which contains the values of both of the parts, and bring it into yourself. And where do you want to store it inside? Let it permeate your understandings and notice how it transforms things....

8) Test.

Okay, let’s break state for a moment. Good. Now, think about the conflict situation that you began with. What happens? How do you feel? What's different? What has shifted?

NLP PLAY

1) Elicit a resourceful state of confidence, motivation and/or pleasure. "Think of a skill that you really enjoy, that you know you're good at, that you're motivated toward, and that you find pleasure in."

2) Elicit the submodalities of these experiences, amplify it and then anchor it.

3) Break state. Test by firing off the anchor. Does the person go back into state?


INTRODUCTION TO THE LOGICAL LEVELS OF META-STATES

“Logical Levels” do not exist in the world; they only exist in the mind. As a nominalization, we are “logically” creating thoughts-feelings at different levels of awareness and layering one thought-feeling on another. The internal logic that arises from the way we layer one state upon another creates logical levels.

Formally from mathematics, a logical level is an expression of a Logical Type which Bateson (1987) defined as:

1) The name is not the thing named but is of different logical type, higher than the thing named. 2) The class is of different logical type, higher than that of its members.

Dilts has written that ... “In our brain structure, language, and perceptual systems there are natural hierarchies or levels of experiences. The effect of each level is to organize and control the information on the level below it. Changing something on an upper level would necessarily change things on the lower levels; changing something on a lower level could but would not necessarily affect the upper levels.” (Dilts, Epstein, Dilts, 1991, p. 26, italics added).

“Logical Levels: an internal hierarchy in which each level is progressively more psychologically encompassing and impactful.” (1990: 217, italics added).

Transcending and including in the meta-stating of logical levels:

When we transcend from one state (say, anger or joy) to another state (say, calmness or respect) we set the second state as a frame over the first and include it inside it. This gives us “calm anger,” respectful joy, joyful learning, etc. It makes the first state a member of the class of the second.

“But that’s not logical.” Yes, of course not.

Yet it is psycho-logical. And that’s the difference. On the inside, when we put a state like anger or fear inside another state (calmness, respect, gentleness, courage, etc.), we change the internal logic of our nervous system and person. This is what we mean when we talk about “logical levels.”


When we put one state in a “logical” relationship to another state so that one is at a higher level then the higher one is about the other. This about (or meta) relationship establishes the “logic.” The higher classifies the lower. The lower is embedded within the categorization of the first. That’s why there is no such thing as logical levels. They do not exist out there as things. They exist only in the mind as how we represent categories, classes, and levels.

Fluid Logical Levels:

About logical levels and meta-states, we have to shift from thinking and portraying them using a rigid hierarchical metaphor to imagining them as fluid and ever in flux, ever moving, changing, and in process. They are not things, they are not rigid, as mental and emotional energy expressions of representing and framing they arise and vanish according to our thinking. That’s why they are so fluid and plastic and do not hold still.

Figure 3:1Korzybski’s Level of Abstractionsor “Structural Differential”


The levels or layers are made out of the stuff of state: thoughts-and-feelings. They are not “real” or solid or static even though we use nominalizations (named verbs) to describe them: beliefs, values, identity, mission, understanding, intentions, etc.There are more logical levels than in Dilts’ original list. Other levels include: Decisions, Understandings, Expectations, Domains of Knowledge, Pleasure, Intention, Non-Propositional Symbols, Metaphors, etc.

Each of these meta-terms for the higher levels of the mind are included within each level. Each level is simultaneously multi-layered with all of these levels. Each “level” is a multi-dimensional energy pack that offers many facets to the same thing.

If you bring a state of confidence to your self, this operates as a belief, and because you treat this as important, you value it; you understand facets of some knowledge that area, this leads to expectations, decisions, identifications, intentions, etc.

Gregory Bateson:

Taking the “thread” of “learning,” Bateson weaved the following Logical Levels of Learning model. These orders of learning give us a true logical level system because the higher levels drive the lower levels and each higher level operates as a Category or Classification of the class members in the lower level.

Figure 3:2Logical Levels of Meaning

Learning IV: Learning to Alter the ProcessesInvolved in Learning III

@↓

Learning III: Learning to Learn@↓

Learning II: Learning Deutro-Learning @↓

Learning I: Reception of a SignalOr Proto-Learning: Learning New Response

Zero Learning: No Response to a Signal


Figure 3:3 Dilts’ Neuro-Logical Levels

The Neurological Levels or Levels of Beliefs

6. Why? (big)5. Who?4. Why? (Small)

3. How?2. What?1. Where? When?

Spiritual MissionMotivation/ MeaningProcess/StrategyActions/ReactionsOpportunities/ Constraints

God/UniverseIdentityBeliefs/Values

CapabilitiesBehavioursEnvironment

TransmissionMissionPermission/ MotivationDirectionActionsExternal context

There are several features about this model that are problematic and that do not allow it to be a logical level system. 1) Environment describes a much larger phenomenon than does

Behaviors.

Even though behaviors may effect environment, behaviors do not drive or modulate Environment as suggested by the term "logical levels." If we eliminated Environment, we would come closer to having a logical and orderly list wherein each higher level would govern, drive, and modulate the level immediately below it.

2) There’s no single thread through the model that holds it together.

What is this system about? What is the attractor that links it together? Many of the pieces are beliefs, but not all of them.

3) Vagueness of “capabilities.”

This could refer to the actual ability to do a behavior (primary state) or it could be the potential to be able to do something. The term is not clear.


Basic Meta-Stating Pattern

THE BASIC META-STATING PATTERN

1) Access a resource state:What resource state do you want to bring to bear on or apply to the Problem State (PS)A resource can be a thought, feeling, idea, belief, value, memory, or imagination.

2) Amplify and anchor:Juice up the resource state and establish an anchor for it by touch, sight, sound, word, etc.

3) Apply to the Problem State (PS).Bring the resource to bear on the PS (this creates meta-level anchoring), or embed the PS inside a Resource state.

4) Appropriate to your life by putting into your future (Future Pacing).Imagine having this layered consciousness in your mind as your frame, as you move out into your future.

5) Analyze the quality, health, balance (ecology) of the system.Would it enhance your life to set this resource as your frame-of-reference for the PS experience? Would every facet of your mind-and-body align with this? Does any part of you disagree with this change?

Figure 3:4Basic Meta-Stating Pattern


THE S.C.O.R.E. MODELThe SCORE model provides a way to consider many of the basic components that go into effective problem solving and enables us to sort out and organize data. The letters of “SCORE" stand for Symptoms, Causes, Outcomes, Resources, and Effects. Robert Dilts developed the SCORE model as an NLP tool for working effectively in moving from present state to some desired state. As such, it offers the most basic NLP pattern for working with subjectivity. SCORE describes an overall meta-pattern for thinking about present state, desired state, and bridging from one to the other with resources.

1) Gather information using the SCORE model.

Symptoms:

The problems that are typically most on our mind, the most noticeable and conscious aspects of a situation or problem. What surface and presenting symptoms do I notice? What other symptoms may I not have attended to? What about long-term symptoms? How do I represent these symptoms? What meanings do I attribute to them?

Causes:

Those effects and factors that bring a situation or problem into existence. What causes this situation? We usually experience these as less obvious and more hidden. What underlying causes could possibly explain this? Sometimes factors that only contribute to a situation, but do not actually cause it play an important role. What contributing factors also play into this? What about other contributing factors that I may not have paid much attention to?

Outcomes:

The end or goal we have in mind, which also plays a contributing role inasmuch as in the system of human consciousness outcomes feed-forward information. What direction have I put myself in? What orientational focus effects the current situation? If I continue on this path, where will it take me? What other outcomes may arise from those outcomes? What final outcome state do I want to move toward?

Resources:

Those factors and components of thought, emotion, memory, imagination, etc. by which we create our representations, meanings, beliefs, behaviors, etc. Personal resources arise from our RS (VAK) and languaging. What resources do I need to move from this present state to my desired state?


Effects:

The results or consequences of applying our resources to the situation. What happens when I think this way? Feel this way? Speak or act in this or that fashion? Does the response I get fit with the outcome I want? If not, then we might stop doing what doesn’t work and try something else (the resource of flexibility). Frequently we can mistake the desired effect of achieving an outcome for the outcome itself. Thus we get a positive effect from wanting our goal without don’t actually doing anything!

2) Use your learnings from the SCORE format to guide your decisions and actions.

Do you have clarity about your outcome? Do you have access to sufficient resources? What other information do you need to gather? Where do you stand in the overall picture of current situation— resources— moving you to desired outcome?

Present State Desired State

Causes

Symptoms of PresentState

Resources Needed tomove to

Outcomes Desired Goals &Objectives

EffectsOr Consequences

SCORE as a Questioning Model:

What do you think about this? (PS) What do you want to get from this? How will you use it? (DS) How will you obtain it? What do you need to do to take the next step in

obtaining it? (Resources) What has stopped you? (Symptoms) How will you need to work with a decision-making body? (System) What cultural issues and problems will you need to address? (Environment) What criteria will you use to choose an external solution or supplier? (Criteria/

Values) What will happen if you decide to bring in an unfamiliar element? (Evidence) How will you know that this product might be the answer? (Evidence

Procedure) What will you obtain from getting that? (DO) What’s going on in this company that must be addressed or hasn’t been

looked at? Would you consider that a solution or a problem?


THE SCORE DANCE

1) Elicit and spatially anchor the Five States of the SCORE.

What is the Symptom?If this is the symptom state, step back to the Causes and Contributing influences.And what would you want? What’s your outcome?

And when you get this, what will that give you?And as you turn around, what are the resources that will get you here from that present state?

2) Fully access and anchor each of the SCORE states.

3) Elicit a mentor for each of the states.

When you are in the present state of symptom ... who do you know that could be a mentor to you?From Symptoms, who could be a mentor?From Resources, Outcome, and Effect?

4) Step into each Mentor and bring that new information back to the SCORE states.

5) Rehearse through SCORE and mentor states several times.

Walk through the states and move quicker and quicker each time.Repeat five times and notice what happens to the initial problem.


NLP STRATEGIESTHE REPRESENTATIONAL TRACKING OF EXPERIENCE

Definition: A strategy in NLP refers to a series of representational steps that moves from some original stimulus to some final response. As such, it gives more detail and richness to the old Stimulus—Response Model. Based upon the TOTE model, the strategies model enriches the TOTE with the representational steps. (See Users, p. 72-75 summary, and Ch. 15, pp. 313-351)

Overview of the Strategies ModelDiscovering through Elicitation. We discover a person’s strategy for a given piece of behavior by eliciting the strategy using elicitation questions. We can then represent the strategy, which then enables us to replicate it, change or redesign it, or utilize it in a new situation.

Strategies refer to the specific sequences of representations (both internal and external) that lead to a specific outcome. We speak of strategies in terms of outcomes: motivation, decision, convincer, learning, selling, etc.

Strategy Elicitation Using an uptime state, access an appropriate state and seek to establish

rapport. Set the frame for the outcome. Identify a specific referent event: index when, where, with whom, etc. Invite the person to step back into the experience. Have the person

describe the event until they re-experience it in a congruent way that’s intense.

Amplify and anchor this state using what you know about accessing cues, breathing, tonal shifts, gestures, etc.

Ask basic questions about the state about how they know they are in the state. Explore the question of how the person does this strategy.

Once you have a tentative strategy identified, check it to make sure that it makes logical sense, notice loops or recurrent sequence of steps. Use the NLP notational language to specify the strategy.


The T.O.T.E. ModelBased upon the work of Miller, Galanter, and Pribram in Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960). TOTE stands for Test, Operate, Test and Exit

Figure 3:5

Test/ compare Operate Test Exit Set or access criteria

for desired state.Access or

gather data.Compare/ Evaluate data in light of the Criteria of first test.

If data matches criteria set up in first test then the

strategy exits

The first Test: the cue or trigger that initiates the strategy. We use the criteria as we feed forward what we want.

What let you know it was time to decide?When did you begin deciding?How did you know it was time to decide?

The Operation: access the data as we remember, create, gather information required by the strategy.

How did you know there were alternatives?How did you generate alternatives?

The second Test: Comparison of some aspect of the accessed data with the criteria.

How do you evaluate alternatives?What has to be satisfied in order for you to decide?

The Exit: the decision point where we realize there’s a match and exit or there’s a mismatch and we recycle back to the Operation stage.

How do you select which alternative to take?How do you know that you have decided?


Figure 3:6Diagram of the TOTE Model:


The TOTE model presupposes that we can achieve behavioral excellence through having:1) a future goal in mind, 2) sensory and behavioral evidence that indicates the

achieving of the goal, and 3) a range of operations, procedures or choices with which to

accomplish the goal.

111

Figure 3:7Spelling TOTE

Using "The Strategies Model" Tracking a neuro-linguistic mind-body system through its sequences enables us to replicate an experience. Obviously, to do this presupposes numerous skills. Given that a strategy identifies where the brain goes and how it responds along the way, then in order to produce similar results we have to minimally do the following.

Identify & Detect Strategies Elicit & Unpack Strategies Interrupt and Alter strategies Design new strategies and/or Redesign old ones Install strategies and Design Installation plans Utilize a strategy in a different context

We consider these strategy skills. And they presuppose that we have developed awareness and sensitivity to the signs and cues, which indicate the operating of a strategy. This means we need to develop high-level skills to manage a strategy as we elicit it. This further presupposes other skills: anchoring, reframing, pacing, etc. It implies the ability to do comparative analysis between strategies as well. In that way, we can learn to design better strategies. The category of strategy unpacking refers to unpacking unconscious strategies in order to make them conscious. Of course, when a behavior has attained the status of a TOTE, its signal level lies below consciousness. This means that we no longer know explicitly the details of each step. This requires much skill and practice in making these unconscious strategies explicit.


Typically, even the person displaying the strategy will not consciously know the steps. For this, NLP has developed and focused on the art of calibrating to accessing cues, sensory specific predicates, generic body types, breathing patterns, etc. The Pattern For Strategy Elicitation Suppose you wanted the recipe for a delicious dish. What do you need in order to create that delicious dish? You would need specific information about the elements to use, the amounts, the order for mixing them together, temperature, etc. The same kind of thing holds with regard to detecting and using the structure of subjective experiences to create an Experience of Excellence. The following offers the basic pattern for eliciting a strategy.

1) Begin by establishing a positive frame for rapport."You do that very well! Would you mind teaching me how to do that?" "Suppose I lived your life for a day, how would I do this?"

2) Access the state. The person needs to fully and congruently associate with the skill or state. To fully elicit their strategy, you may want to take the person back to the place where the behavior naturally occurs. This lets the context, with its natural anchors (i.e. sitting at typewriter) elicit the response. Or we can elicit the state by reproducing a portion of the context (i.e. tonality, gestures, playacting, etc.).

3) Intensify the state. In elicitation, you will want to amplify and intensify the state. Doing this helps because the more of the state you evoke, the more of the experience you will have to work with. This will also enable you to more fully access the state.

4) Explore the "how." "How do you do this?" If the person has conscious awareness of their strategy, they will tell you. If not, look for them to demonstrate it — and to do so “un-thinkingly.” Eliciting primarily involves good questioning techniques by which you evoke a person to carry out a task (actually or just in thought) which requires the strategy. Have you ever experienced a time when you really felt really motivated to do

something? When did you last feel naturally and powerfully motivated? How do you experience the state of feeling exceptionally creative? Have you ever gotten into a situation where you felt very creative? Typically, accessing questions involve a person recalling an experience. What did it feel like? How did you do it? When do you feel best able to do it? What do you need in order to do it? What happens as you do it? When did that last occur?


Such questions generally encourage a person to "go inside" where they then access their memory banks. NLP picked up the phrase Transderivational Search (TDS) to describe this process. One searches for referents. We all engage in TDS processes in order to make sense of things, deal with stimuli, and to re-create states and experiences. In elicitation, we use the TDS process to assist someone to go back through their constructs of past times in order to recover the structure of the experience.

The Meta-States Model provides us a way to think about the structuring of mind in terms of levels or layers and, therefore, refers to the referencing process in a different way. Here we similarly “go in” and access our frame-of-reference. That is, the meta-level frame as higher level “thoughts” that has become more solidified and stable. (We’ll address this fully in Chapter 9.)

5) Calibrate from an uptime state. Working in this domain of modeling necessitates that we become fully alert and open to the person's external cues. This enables us to effectively calibrate to the state as we watch the person demonstrate the very strategy that creates the state. People typically demonstrate as they talk about problems, outcomes, or experiences (ah, the mind-body connection!). So as you become attentive to such "instant replays," you can note how a person cycles through the sequence of representations that leads to the experience.

6) Ask the person to exaggerate. If you do not get the strategy upon first questioning, invite the person to exaggerate some small portion of the strategy. Exaggerating one step in a strategy may also access other representations linked to it synesthetically.

7) Stay meta to the content. Since strategies operate as a purely formal structure, this necessitates that you “go meta” to the structuring process itself. This enables you to not get caught up in the content and to notice the formatting itself.


MOTIVATION STRATEGY

1) Access a referent for motivation and de-motivation.

Have you ever felt unmotivated? When, where, what was it about?As you recall that de-motivated state, how do you know to call that the lack of motivation?What was that like? What did you see, hear and feel?As you step back in to that state for just a moment, describe it. Have you ever felt intensely and highly motivated? What were you motivated about? When was that? Where?As you go into that state and see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt, what was that like for you?

2) Run a contrastive analysis between the two.

What are the differences in how you represent de-motivated and motivated?How do the images and pictures differ? What are the differences in the sounds and words in your sound track?Other differences?

3) Identify the sequence of representational steps.

What was the first thing you were aware of in each strategy? The second, third, etc.?What stands out to you as you track out the two strategies?What are some of the differences that make a difference?

4) Identify something you would like to be motivated toward and track over the motivation strategy.

Use the motivation strategy as a template.

What would you like to feel motivated to do?When and where would that occur?What happens when you use the motivation strategy to re-sequence and recode this experience?

5) Test and future pace.

Where would you like to have this new motivation strategy triggered?How much would that enhance your life or empower you as a person?What context marker would you like to use?Is this ecological?


LOVE STRATEGY

How do you know when you feel loved?

What lets you know that you are valued, respected, adored?

Is it what you see in the other? The countenance, smile, appearance, etc.?

Is it what you hear? What is said, how it is said? Is it what you feel? How you are touched, where and when?

What has to be there in order for you to experience the state of “love?” As you think about a time or place when you were loved, what was there? What had to be there?

While many things add to the experience and make it richer, what could you not do without?

Our strategies for love seem to have the special condition that most of us have a preferred system and we experience it as a synesthesia: See→ Feel, Hear→ Feel, Feel→ Feel. So as you explore, you will discover that you probably like stimuli in all systems, but what absolutely and without question has to be there? Eliciting the Love Strategy:

1) Access a referent experience and elicit the state.

When did you feel loved? By whom? Where?

2) Inquire about the stimuli that elicits the feelings.

What best elicits this feeling?What lets you know?

3) Find the absolute necessary components.

What has to be there?


Framing As Constructing Higher MeaningsWhen we put a piece of behavior or perspective in a different frame, meaning is transformed. Reframing changes the frame of reference from which we perceive things and so changes our sense of reality. As our meanings change, so do our responses and behaviors. All of the Reframing Models in NLP aim at primarily changing our internal response by changing the frame. You'll find these patterns useful for behaviors, habits, emotions and even physical symptoms that you don't like.

FRAMING: THE CONSTRUCTION OF HIGHER LEVELS OF MEANING

We “frame” things at the primary level of representation in order to recognize and know a thing (description). We “frame” things by establishing classes, categories, and definitions which enables us to know what a thing “is how it works, what it means, etc. (See Figure 3:8)

The Framing Model: (From Frame Games, 2000)1) It all begins with a Reference (i.e., event, experience, relationship, word,

etc. “out there”). 2) We then bring it in and create a Represented Reference, what we know

as the VAK representations of the Referent. 3) Next we turn the Internal Movie into a Frame of Reference as we think

about it. This creates the first meta-level frame.4) As we repeat this, we develop a Frame of Mind from it. This occurs when

the meta-level structures coalesce into Meta-Programs, beliefs, etc.5) Eventually all of this becomes the Frameworks of our mind: the Matrix of

our frames, our “personality.”

The NLP Model provides a theoretical foundation, or a meta-level set of frames. We call these the NLP Presuppositions. These create the necessary Frame of Mind that empowers one to use the NLP Model.

“The Map is not the Territory; the Map is a Symbolic Representation of the Territory.”“All meanings are constructed and context dependent.”“Behind every behavior is some positive intention.”


Figure 3:8The Framing Model

The NLP Model provides a theoretical foundation, or a meta-level set of frames. We call these the NLP Presuppositions. These create the necessary Frame of Mind that empowers one to use the NLP Model.

“The Map is not the Territory; the Map is a Symbolic Representation of the Territory.”“All meanings are constructed and context dependent.”“Behind every behavior is some positive intention.”


NLP’s Central Frames:

We have already explored the framing (formatting, punctuating) that we do via the Senses, the Submodalities, through Stepping in and out of Movies. Other key NLP Frames include:

1) “As if” Frame: Pretending, imagining possibilities. (Users, pp. 111-113)

2) Agreement Frame: Seeking a higher frame of reference that provides something wherein everybody can agree. (Users, pp. 113-114)

3) Relevancy Frame: Challenging how something is relevant.

4) Ecology Frame: Checking on the balance, health, and resourcefulness of something.

5) Perceptual Frames: Different points of view on something.

IDENTIFYING FRAMES-OF-REFERENCEWe all process information through various frames-of-reference. These frames are mostly outside of our conscious awareness. We're so used to them as our models of reality that they filter our perspectives. These frames are comprised of our “beliefs,” “understandings,” “learnings,” and “decisions.” As such they establish our perspective.

To identify a frame-of-reference, go meta to yourself, to your processing and ask good meta-questions:

"What perspective am I using in processing?" (From whose eyes) "What assumptions and presuppositions am I working from?" “What frame of reference am I using to perceive this?”

While the frames that we adopt and utilize are as infinite as human understanding, valuing, and believing, there are a number of common frames.

Competitive frame: "She does this so much better and quicker than I do!" The self-esteem frame, the self-identify frame, the historical frame, the relational frame, success/failure frame, masculinity/ femininity frame, right/wrong frame, emotional versus intellectual frame, pleasure/ pain frame, etc.

Once a statement has been made, practice stepping back from it and asking yourself questions about its form and structure and presuppositions. These meta-level awarenesses will enable you then to altering the frames-of-references that you or another has put around an awareness.


REFRAMING CRITICISMIdentify a map that you have about criticism... Or, you can identify a map about anything else that gives you a problem, i.e., failure, abandonment, rejection, manipulation, etc.

1) Identify the X.

When you think about X... what comes to mind?How do you represent it? (VAK, words, submodalities)

2) Identify the Y.

What does that mean to you?X means or equals or is... what? (the “Y”) How do you know to call it that?

3) Identify the Positive Intention.

There’s a part of you that has called it Y for some positive intention or purpose. What is the positive intention in doing that? (Keep repeating until you get some Positive Intentions)Does the X = Y formula really enhance your life and accomplish the positive intention in the long run and in all of your important relationships? Do you really want it to mean that? To use that as your program for understanding things?

4) Expand the X = Formula.

What else could X mean? Find several new: X is Z structures. Build up a new Map about criticism.Is there a part of you that would like to give this meaning? What is the Positive Intention in doing this?Step into this new way of thinking... future pace it, check the ecology.What could be a great Symbol for this that you can take with you into your future?


THE SIX-STEP REFRAMING PATTERN This pattern works for those behaviors that you don't like and would like to stop and which don't seem to respond to conscious reframing. The Six-Step Reframing pattern provides a way to deal with secondary-gain behaviors in a way that's ecological for yourself as a whole person. It does that by reframing old unconscious programs. It brings about an integration of conscious and unconscious parts. You can use it for behaviors, habits, emotions and symptoms that you don't appreciate.

1) Identify the Behavior to be dealt with.

Find a behavior that fits one of these models: "I want to stop X-ing." "I want to Y, but something stops me." There’s a part of you that creates this response... be with that... What is the Positive Intention? Are there any other Positive Intentions? What is the positive intention of that PI?

2) Establish communication with the part responsible for the pattern.

As you go inside, ask, "Will the part of me that generates this behavior communicate with me in consciousness?" As you ask this question, just pay attention to feelings, images, and sounds that occur within you in response to the question. Do you have a sense of Yes or a sense of No? Where do you feel it?”"If this means Yes, have it increase in brightness, volume or intensity." If it means No have it decrease." (We do this to give us access to communicate with that facet of ourselves.)

3) Determine its positive intention.

"Would you be willing to let me know in consciousness what you are trying to do for me by generating this behavior?" (This separate behavior from the positive intention of the part responsible for it.)

If Yes, then get its intention. "Is that intention acceptable to consciousness?" "Do you want to have a part of you that fulfills that function?" "If there were ways to accomplish your positive intention that would work as well or better than this behavior, would you be interested in trying them out?"

If No, do unconscious reframing. "Are you willing to trust that your unconscious is well-intentioned, even though it won't tell you what it's trying to do for you by this behavior?" Apologize to the part if you have been rough and hard with it.


4) Access your creative part.

Have your creative part then generate new behaviors that will accomplish the positive intention. As you access experiences of creativity, anchor them. Then have the part that runs this unwanted behavior communicate its positive intention to your creative part. Allow creative part to generate more choices. Have this part that generates the behavior select three choices that are as good as or better than it. Have it give a "yes" signal each time it selects such an alternative.

5) Future-pace.

"Are you willing to take responsibility for using the three new alternatives in the appropriate context?" Ask your unconscious to identify the sensory cues that will trigger the new choices and to experience fully what it's like to have sensory cues effortlessly and automatically bring on one of the new choices.

6) Do an Ecology Check.

Is there any part of me that objects to any of the three new alternatives?If so, how is that a problem for you?What does that mean to you?Once you receive and answer, reframe the objection.You can use the six-step reframe model on the objection.


HOW REFRAMING WORKSMeanings work in powerful ways. Whenever we change the meaning of an experience, we change our responses. It's inevitable. If in framing, we create a mental context by which to think about something, then in reframing, we attach a new meaning. This leads to a new response, a new experience, and a new behavior. The content remains the same but another piece of meaning is put around it (a higher frame or state, hence meta-state).

Any behavior that we find puzzling demonstrates that we don’t know the person’s frames. It demonstrates that the majority of the person’s mental context lies internal to that person. It may indicate that we have become too locked in our own frames. It probably indicates that we have not stepped into the other’s position to discover, imagine, or wonder about the positive intentions and meanings that drive it. Context reframing involves finding a new context where the experience could be useful. Content reframing involves giving the experience (or behavior) new meanings so that while everything remains externally, the behavior now means, suggests, or implies something new and different.

Frames critically determine our meanings and responses. The frame that we put around any behavior strongly impacts how we think about it, consider it, and respond to it. To be professional in communicating, we will want to develop the ability to shift the frames that are put around things.

Figure 3:8Content Reframing:

This is X — No, it is Y

External InternalBehavior... State orEvent Significance

Context ReframingWhere would this beReally useful andValuable?


CONTENT REFRAMING AND CONTEXT REFRAMING Since changed meanings lead to a new responses, when you change the meaning (or significance) of something you alter the way you respond to it.

CONTENT REFRAMING: To get a new frame-of-reference about a specific content, ask yourself, "How can this be viewed as valuable?" “What could this mean that would be enhancing?”

CONTEXT REFRAMING: "In what context would this behavior or response be useful?"

REFRAMING: The Transformation of Meaning

CONSCIOUS REFRAMINGThe Art of Giving Experiences New Meanings

(1) Identify a behavior.

Is there any part of yourself that you don't yet appreciate? Menu list: any behavior or response that you make (an emotional response, a habit response, etc.Identify specifically this part of you and give it a name – What is this part? What would you call it? Is it a lazy part? A stubborn part? An over-eating part? An angry part?

(2) Engage.

To enter into communication with this part of yourself, quiet yourself and notice the "thoughts" that flitter through your mind – the visual, auditory and kinesthetic representations that come to you when you make the following statements or pose the following questions:

"I have this part of me that does this specific behavior, what are you trying to do for me? What is your purpose for me? What do you want?”

Keep asking this question and chunking higher and higher until you find a meaning you find acceptable. Keep apply the above questions to the answer you receive until you chunk up to a high positive resource state –

"And by doing that, what is that, what is the purpose of that? What are you trying to do for me?"


(3) Identify frame.

Notice the representation frame (the VAK) the meaning is within, as well as any Belief frame.

How is it represented? What images, sounds and sensations? What submodalities?

What Beliefs run this behavior? What do they mean to you? And if that's true, what do you believe about that? Keep recycling until you obtain enough of the frame-of-reference for this behavior/ emotion that you can describe it accurately to someone.

(4) Deframe.

How could you alter this frame-of-reference so that it will better serve you? What submodality change would effectively alter your frame representation?

(5) Context Reframe.

In what context would this behavior/ emotion be highly valuable and useful to you as a person?Where would you like to keep this achievement? What would you see, hear or feel that would you know to use it?

(6) Content Reframe.

How is this behavior, emotion, habit valuable to you? What can you appreciate about yourself for being able to generate this response? What does this response say about you as a person?

(7) Integrate.

Is there any objection in using this new context or content reframe, or altering the representation in your conscious thinking about this behavior? Give yourself permission to consciously use these new frames.

(8) Test.

Now think about the part of you that generates the behavior. What happens? What do you feel?


NLP PLAY WITH FRAMING AND REFRAMING

1) Pair up and take turns eliciting a part or behavior you don't yet appreciate.

2) Run the conscious Reframing Pattern.

NLP PLAY #1

1) Identify two states that you want to contrast: a desired one and an undesired one. (Motivated/ unmotivated).

2) Elicit the Modalities and Submodalities of each.

3) Discover the Critical or Driving Submodalities of each. What submodality makes a critical difference? Begin with location, distance, association, brightness, focus, etc.

4) Switch the Codings. Turn down the submodalities of the undesired one and re-code with the submodalities of the desired experience.

5) Test and future pace.

NLP PLAY #2

1) Pair up and identify a limiting belief.

2) Elicit the belief’s representations in VAK terms. Specify the modalities and submodalities, and the Frame-of-Reference used.

3) After identifying the frame, play around with the submodalities to see if you can deframe and/or reframe in a way that's more useful for the person.


Section 4HIGHER FRAMES OF MIND

THE POWER OF FRAMING IN NLP

NLP HIDDEN THEORY / PRESUPPOSITIONSThe basic NLP presuppositions express some of the central ideas that govern the field of NLP. Not only is NLP built upon these presuppositions, but out of them come the impactful techniques that allow people more choice and flexibility in their responses. Whether these presuppositions are "true" in any ultimate sense is not the issue. We utilize them simply because we've found them useful and enhancing as beliefs which enable us to do things. (See Users, Ch. 4, pp. 61-84)

1) There is no failure; there is only feedback.

Whatever response you get from someone is simply feedback from them, from their Meta-Programs for attending to data, from their perceptual grids for processing information and from their internal world of meaning (their Model of the World). In other words, it's their stuff; not yours. You haven't "Failed," you've just found out what does not work.

2) We all respond according to our map of reality, not reality itself.

In using our maps for navigating the world, we have no other choice but to refer to them and use them to move through life. Others respond to us, not for what we are, but for what and how they think about us (from their maps).

3) The Map is not the Territory.

This classic statement from Alfred Korzybski in "Science & Sanity" (1933) establishes the foundational structure of NLP and the epistemology upon which NLP is founded, Constructionism.

4) The response you get is the meaning of your communication.

We never know what we communicate to another person since we never know what they hear or sense or perceive so that it is in the exploring of their response that you can get an idea of what must have gotten communicated. Communication involves a lot more than talking; it also involves sensory acuity and awareness (attentive listening). Successful communicators accept and then utilize all responses offered them.


5) In any connected system, the element with the widest range of variability will always be the dominant influence.

This "Law of Requisite Variety" from the field of Cybernetics identifies the value and power of flexibility as a success mechanism.

6) People are not broken; they work perfectly well.

Or, every experience or behavior represents an achievement. The personality mechanisms in people consistently and systematically operate to do things. Often the problem is the content of what we're putting through these processes; not the process itself. All behavior is therefore geared toward adaptation and is purposeful.

7) People have the resources they need to respond to the world. They only need to access, strengthen, and sequence those resources into effective strategies.

Since people aren't broken, the difficulty must be that they have difficulty accessing their resources to more effectively deal with the things they must deal with. What people may not have are the methods for finding, eliciting, accessing, anchoring, and firing off their resources.

8) We can model excellence by breaking tasks and skills into small chunks to express and replicate the Strategy of the performance.

We can replicate genius only after we have specified the strategy.

9) Mind-body is part of the same system and influences each other.

We hyphenate “neuro-linguistics” to map the mind-body connection and that they work circularly, each influencing the other.

10) It’s better to have choice, than the lack of choice.

In changing things, having a sense of choice is one of the most power things we can add to our lives and the lives of others. Adding choices reflects a meta-choice.

11) Neuro-Linguistic States are created by, and composed of, Internal Representations and Physiology.

Any and every person's state of consciousness, at any given moment in time, is a result of the thousands and millions of stimuli that the brain (and thus nervous system) receives from the representations we entertain in our minds in terms of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory stimuli. It also results from the millions of stimuli received from our physiology — the way we hold our body, move, breathe, etc.


12) When calibrating someone’s reality, the highest information will be behavior.

This includes a person’s eye accessing cues, breathing, etc.

13) The fact that we use the same neurological circuits when we remember or imagine, we can use these to create new programs, skills, ways of thinking, and behaviors.

The use of the “As if...” frame (imagination) and the “Remember when...” frame gives us the ability to learn from the past and build anticipations for the future.

14) Separate Person from Behavior. People are more than their actions, words, emotions, roles, etc.

“Behavior” includes the larger macro-activities and the micro-behaviors of thinking and emoting.

15) Every behavior/ experience has a positive intent.

Similarly, people get organized (structured) inside to accomplish things. Sometimes these purposes cease to be useful, outlive their usefulness, or can be accomplished in more elegant and effective ways. Yet behind every behavior is some positive intent. Finding it allows you to gracefully help a person reorganize himself or herself.

16) Resistance first and foremost indicates the lack of rapport.

People have a positive intention when they resist what we offer — it saves them by resisting what we seem to be imposing upon them.

17) Every subjective experience has two parts; content and process or structure.

These two parts of experience indicate two different logic levels. It also means that we can effect change at either level. Of the two, process or structure is more pervasive since it indicates a mechanism of the personality.

18) When you don't get the response you want; try something different.

Being "stuck" means that what you are doing is not working so you trying to do it more, harder, louder and with more pressure! The program of "Try something Else!" when what you're doing is not working makes for personal flexibility.


REFRAMING FOR AN NLP ATTITUDE1) Identify a desired NLP Presupposition that you’d like to Commission as

your Attitude.2) Linguistically state it repeatedly... refining it until you find a way to

express it that feels succinct, memorable, compelling. Exquisitely stated so that the thought puts you into state. Use the Ps. as a spell.

3) Find the neurology.Gesture, move, and translate the idea into a belief ... and a state. Concept – symbolic representation.

NLP Presuppositions Summary

1. There is no failure; there is only feedback. 2. We all respond according to our map of reality, not reality itself.3. The map is not the territory.4. The response you get is the meaning of your communication.5. In any connected system, the element with the widest range of variability

will always be the dominant influence.6. People are not broken; they work perfectly well.7. People have the resources they need to respond to the world. They only

need to access, strengthen, and sequence those resources into effective strategies.

8. We can model excellence by breaking tasks and skills into small chunks to express and replicate the Strategy of the performance.

9. Mind-body is part of the same system and influences each other.10. It’s better to have choice than lack of choice.11. Neuro-Linguistic States are created by, and composed of, Internal

Representations and Physiology.12. When calibrating someone’s reality, the highest information will be

behavior.13. The fact that we use the same neurological circuits when we remember or

imagine, we can use these to create new programs, skills, ways of thinking and behavior.

14. Separate Person from Behavior. People are more than their actions, words, emotions, roles, etc.

15. Every behavior/experience has a positive intent.16. Resistance first and foremost indicates lack of rapport.17. Every subjective experience has two parts: content and structure.18. When you don’t get the response you want; try something else.


THE BELIEF CHANGE PATTERN"Behaviors are organized around some very durable things called beliefs. A belief tends to be much more universal and categorical than an understanding. Existing beliefs can even prevent a person from considering new evidence or a new belief."(Richard Bandler)

THE POWER OF BELIEFSWe are psychologically organized around our beliefs. "According to your faith, be it unto you" is true with a vengeance when it comes to human nature and behavior. As we believe so we experience, emote, and perceive. This principle summarizes a basic and crucial principle for understanding and dealing with human nature. It means that our believing determines and governs our subsequent experiences. Perhaps it is the most determining factor in all of human nature. Such believing reveals how we process data, look at (perceive) the world and ourselves, talk to ourselves, read life's events, interpret their meaning, and appraise what it means to us.

Transforming beliefs will mean several things. It will mean learning to re-code our brain about our beliefs so that they become more compelling and real. It will mean updating our maps so that we have fewer misbeliefs to interfere with effective perceiving and functioning. It will mean giving our heart to beliefs that we find meaningful. Beliefs create what seems like a double-bind. They fate us to fulfill them; they organize our mind and body do actualize them. Yet beliefs can change. We were not born with the beliefs we now have. Wherever we got them, they came to us as mental understandings of the world. If we bought into them as a child then we adopted them by osmosis. That means they are really someone else's map for interpreting and appraising life. If we now find those beliefs limiting and unsatisfactory for our life, then we can alter them.

How long does it take to change a belief? It all depends. Do you really want to change it? That’s a prerequisite. If you do, and you know how to do it, you can change beliefs in a fairly short time and permanently. Of course, first we have to know what beliefs are made of and then use a reliable process to change them.

"The process of changing a belief is relatively easy, as long as you have the person's consent." (Bandler and Grinder)


Classic NLP ... the Old Way of Doing Belief ChangeClassic NLP assumed that “beliefs” are simply the consistent signals that we cue our brain with. These durable understandings (“beliefs”) of yourself, others, life, etc. then become your meanings. Accordingly the old NLP patterns for transforming limiting and/or dysfunctional beliefs into life-enhancing and productive beliefs involved sending crystal clear VAK signals to our brains and to do so in the “form” of “strong beliefs” and to de-commission old beliefs by recoding them in the form of “doubts.”

The following process is the Classic NLP approach to Belief Change. It comes from Using Your Brain — for a CHANGE,” Chapter 7. I have included it here to let you see how NLP approach belief change in the first 23 years. For a critique of this, see The Structure of Excellence (1999) where we expose the weakness of this model. Later, we will use the Meta-Yes-ing pattern as a more up-to-date method for belief change.

TRANSFORMING LIMITING BELIEFS INTO ENHANCING BELIEFS

1) First, Identify Limiting Belief.

If you think about a belief as an understanding that has undesirable consequences to you, then write down some key beliefs. Be sure to include some that you would like to change. What limiting beliefs are you still entertaining in your head that you wish you didn't? On a blank sheet of paper finish these sentence stems:"What I believe about myself is..." "What I believe about people is..." "What I believe about the world or life is..." "What I believe about God is...."

What belief/s do you have about yourself that you'd like to change? What belief limits you in some way?

2) Target Your Limiting Beliefs.

Note the beliefs that you now evaluate as junky beliefs which interrupt your best functioning and which sabotage your development.

Menu list: “I can’t learn quickly.”“I can’t control myself.”“I can’t relax.”“People are out to control you.”

“I can’t learn efficiently.”“I can’t lose weight.”“I can’t be assertive.”“People can’t be trusted.”Etc.


3) Note Internal Representation.

How do you represent one of your limiting beliefs in your mind? Notice that.As you think about that belief, what pictures, words, sounds, and sensations strike you? Identify the most powerful and driving submodalities of that belief. Once you have an awareness of the internal representation of the limiting belief, set it aside for a moment.

4) Identify a Solid Belief.

What do you believe without a doubt? What is one of your solid beliefs?Menu list: Do you believe the sun will rise tomorrow?

5) Get a Representation on Doubt.

What are you doubtful about? Think of something you doubt. Think of something that may be true or may not be. What are you not really sure about?How do you represent this doubt in your mind? Doubt is when you waver from thinking something might be true to thinking it might not be true; you just don't know. How do you know you doubt something?

6) Do a Contrastive difference.

How are these men phenomena, Belief and Doubt, different? Run a contrastive analysis between them. Find the submodality differences. For example: maybe the Belief is a big picture, bright, and vivid while Doubt is small, dim, and fuzzy. Or the Belief may be a detailed picture, straight ahead and fills up the frame while the Doubt is general, off to the right and small. What submodalities tell your brain that one is a Solid Belief and the other is a Questionable Doubt?

7) Test the submodalities. Test the differences, one at a time, to find out which is most powerful in changing Beliefs to Doubt for you. Make it smaller. Remove the frame from belief picture, make it fuzzy, dimmer. Move from center of screen to right.


8) Elicit a New Enhancing Belief you want to replace the Limiting Belief.What would you rather believe?

Menu List:"I can learn to effectively handle criticism." "I believe I can learn to change my eating habits and maintain a desired body weight."

9) Check for Ecology.

Suppose you had this new belief, how you would act differently? As you anticipate it, are there any ways in which this change could be a problem for you? How will this new belief affect your work? Relationships? Skills?

10) Switch Content.

Switch the old Belief into Doubt. If in doubt you flip your picture off and on, then let the Limiting Belief flip in and out. As you recode the Belief as Doubt, turn down the old content completely when the belief flips out. At that point, switch to the content of the new Belief, and turn it up. Or, you can have the picture become so bright (or so dim) that the old content disappears. At that point put the new content in and tune the picture back in.

11) Turn the Doubt into Belief.

Take the new Belief and reverse the submodality changes so that you encoded what you want to believe as a Strong Belief. Once you do that, amplify the new Belief. Then take a moment to absorb and enjoy this new belief.

12) Test.

Break state for a moment. Think about this new belief. Do you now believe it? Think about the old belief? What happens? Where does your brain go?


META-NO-ING & META-YES-INGMeta-States Belief Change Pattern

Why Play This Game?

With this Game you can now STOP sick and toxic Games. You can draw a line in the sand and refuse to play. This allows you to recover the Personal Power of Saying “No!” to things that do not serve you well. If “No” was beat out of you as a kid (some parents didn’t take Parenting 101), use this Game to recover your Power of Refusal, and the power of Stubborn Resistance.

Meta-stating a mere “thought” with a confirmation (a confirmation state) creates a new gestalt, a “Belief.” which then operates as a command to the nervous system. We then feel sure about the thought.

Figure 4:1Meta-Stating a Thought Into a Belief


Frames by Implication

The Reflexivity of Mind never stops but continues forever… the “infinite regress.” Even when we seem to just be working with a level or two, we implicate additional frames. This is where many of our outside of conscious frames reside.

Figure 4:2Frames by Implication

Once you have discovered some limiting beliefs that you want to get out of your head and neurology so that they no longer operate as your programming, you can use this Meta-State Pattern for changing limiting beliefs. It will give you a clear, quick, and effective way to deframe the old unenhancing beliefs and to install the empowering beliefs that support your commitment to success.


Preparation: Ecology for this pattern has to occur before we begin the pattern. Make sure you have a top-notch idea that you want to confirm.

What enhancing and empowering beliefs would you really like to have running in your mind and emotions? Which belief stands in your way?How does this belief sabotage you or undermine your effectiveness?Have you had enough of it? Or do you need more pain? What empowering belief would you like to have in its place?

Meta-stating a limiting “Belief” enables us to de-commission old programs

Figure 4:3Meta-Stating and De-commissioning Limiting Beliefs


Part A – “You can lead me to the Game, But you can’t make me Dance!”

NAME IT AND DISCLAIM IT!How to say, “Hell, No!” & Mean It.

How to Play:

1) Access, Amplify, and Anchor a Strong Disconfirmation State:

Think of something that every fiber of your being can say “Hell NO!” to fully and completely. Identify 5 different items to which you feel a strong, powerful, and definitive “No!” Access each separately and as discreetly as possible. Anchor each with a gesturing of your hands and arms that

shoves away from you, and your “space,” that idea or thought.

Upon accessing this “No!” each time, amplify it so that it feels stronger and stronger in your neurology C and continue to do so until every fiber of your being wants to shout out with all of the energy that you can muster, “Hell, no!”

2) Enjoy and Relish Your Power to Stubbornly Refuse:

When you get all of that definitive energy pumped up so that it energizes you thoroughly in mind-and-body, take a moment to enjoy this power of refusal, disconfirmation, rejection, and stubbornness. Relish this power of self-determination to have the final word about what you will and what you will not admit entrance into your mental and emotional space.

3) Meta-State and Apply This Disconfirmation on a Toxic Frame

Holding all of these feelings of “No!” constant, begin to direct them to every idea, thought, activity, etc. that you want to utter a final and definitive “No!” to. Bring this neurological “No!” to bear upon various toxic ideas, beliefs, behaviors, and habits and as this “No!” becomes a meta-no to the state that you will no longer tolerate, repeat the “No!” until you feel it pushing away the un-enhancing state... do so until this neurological “No!” becomes a matter-of-fact “No.” “No, of course, not. Are you crazy? Why would I want that?”

There are some really sick Games. There are some really sick ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and frames. Is there any idea, experience or game that you=d like to refuse right now? Feel that “No!” about that.


Part B – The Confirmation Game

THE CONFIRMATION OF META-YES!-ING

Why Play This Game?“Yes!” allows us to welcome in, appreciate, and affirm the Good things in life so that they become more and more a part of our inner world of mind, emotion, state, etc. People who had this Game beat out of them as kids tend to have a hard time feeling positive, cheerful, affirmative, excited, and passionate.

How to Play:

1) Access a state of “Yes!”What can you say Yes to totally and completely? Think of something you can absolutely say “Yes!” to in the most powerful way. Now access 4 more references for an empowering “Yes.”

2) Amplify and Anchor.Continue to juice up your YES until you begin to drool.Feel that Yes. Experience it in all of the sensory systems: visually, auditorially, and kinesthetically. How do you gesture Yes? What does Yes! smell like, taste like, sound like? Experiment with seven different tonalities of Yes! Utter a series of three yeses, each with a rising crescendo of intensity and emphasis, “Yes, Yes!, YES!”

3) Apply this powerful neurological “YES!” to the new idea.

There are some great ideas, beliefs, and concepts (frames) as well as Games (experiences, relationships, activities) available. Which one would you like to say “YES!” to right now? Bring it to bear upon the idea that you want to confirm.

4) Confirm the confirmation by using confirmation questions: Do you really want that idea in your head? Would you want it in your body? Would you like it in every muscle of your body? Would you like it as your way of being in the world? Would it enhance your life? Would it make you a better person?

5) Threaten the layers of “Yes” with a “No.” I think I’ll take this away from you, okay? You have too many doubts and questions to really want this,

right?


CREATING A NEW PART The purpose of this pattern is to create a new part if you don't do something simply because there isn't any part within that's organized to do that behavior organized with thoughts, beliefs, desire, insight. Any learning process organizes and sequences skills to build a part to do something.

“Parts” need to be described in terms of what they do, their function; not in terms of how they do it, their behavior. We build parts to achieve outcomes. Creating a new part to achieve a specific outcome. The tricky part is building part that won't interfere with other parts and outcomes.

1) Identify a Desired Behavior, Response, or Emotion.

Determine the specific outcome you want. Menu list: assertiveness, respond to conflict positively, handle rejection resourcefully, etc.

2) Access Referent Experiences that Contribute to it.

Access some historical experiences that involved some bits and pieces of the resource. When did you experience some part of it? Step inside each experience and access the desired aspects in all representational systems. Anchor each component piece of the new behavior. Fantasy creation: Create a detailed set of images of yourself engaging in this new behavior. Create a visual and auditory movie of it so you can observe the whole sequence.

3) What Frames Support This?

What beliefs, values, identities, decisions, understandings, etc.?

4) Use the Ecological Frame.

Does any part of me object to this new behavior? Are all facets of my mind-body aligned with this?Satisfy Objections: If there are objections, identify them, use that information to re-edit the movie. Continue until there's no objections.

5) Use the Association Frame.

Now, step inside the Movie and go through sequence from the inside in an associated state. Experience yourself successfully engaging in the behaviors. Amplify and anchor it.

6) Solidify and Commission. Do you want this? Would this enhance your life? Will You own this as yours? Imagine taking this into your future.


AGREEMENT FRAMENEGOTIATING BETWEEN PARTS

This pattern is useful for stopping internal conflict when two or more “parts” or facets of our thinking and feeling conflict interrupt each other. The pattern is based upon the assumption that there is a lack of congruence of these conflicting parts. Use this pattern in cases where each part has a valid function and useful way of operating, but each part steps on the other.

1) Identify the parts in Conflict.

Do you have a part of your mind that wants to achieve something that’s important to you and then another part that interferes with that? What are these parts or functions? (Name the parts.) What are you seeking to accomplish? What behaviors seeking to produce?What is your positive function or intention for me?Are there any other parts that are interrupting you?

2) Engage the parts to find the Purpose and Positive Intentions.

Is this important for you?How is this function important?What is the Positive Intention above this? What is its purpose?

3) Invite a New Arrangement.

Are your purpose, function and positive intention important enough to you that you would be willing to work with this other part so that you can obtain your objectives and outcomes? When you consider the Positive Intention of this other part, are you in agreement with it as an important and valuable contribution to you?How would you like to sequence things so that have a better arrangement between these two important facets?Are you willing, for the purposes of exploring and developing a new arrangement for the next week to see how it will work out?Will you take responsibility to do your thing in a way that honors the other part and to receive the same in return?

4) Run an Ecology Check.

Are you aligned with this? Would this enhance your overall functioning?Are there any other parts involved in this?Are there any other parts that interrupt this part, or that utilize these interruptions? If so, renegotiate.

5) Future Pace.


THE HIGHER FRAMES OF MIND OR META-STATESMeta-States as Frames of Mind(Users, pp. 28-40)

As we began modeling the structure of subjective experience, we started with neuro-linguistic states, that is, states of mind, body, and emotion. These mind-body or neuro-linguistic states summarize what we mean by “experience.” What mechanisms drive these states? "Thoughts" (mental representations, ideas, meanings, etc.) as processed and embodied in our nervous system. When our consciousness goes out to some reference outside of us (a person, event, or thing), we experience a Primary state. But when our thoughts-and-feelings come back to reference our thoughts-and feelings, we have a Meta-state. In a meta-state, our awareness reflects back onto itself. We call this self-reflexive consciousness. Thinking-about-thinking generates thoughts-feelings at higher logical levels so that we experience states-about-states. Rather than referring to something "out there" in the world, Meta-States refer to something about (@) some previous thought, emotion, concept, understanding, etc. Korzybski talked about meta-states as "abstractions about abstractions" or a second-order abstraction.

Figure 4:4


Thinking-Feeling

@

First level thinking-feeling @ Some Event in the World

As a meta-class of life, we live our lives at meta-levels. There we experience beliefs, values, domains of understandings, conceptual and semantic states, "core" or transcendental states, etc. To model human excellence (or pathology) we have to "go meta" (Bateson) and recognize the meta-levels as they play in the systemic nature of consciousness (i.e. it operates reflexively and recursively).

By meta-stating we bring a mind-body state to bear upon another state. In this way we set a frame-of-reference that, in turn, governs all of the lower levels. It operates as an attractor in a self-organizing system. Bateson noted that the higher levels organize, drive, and modulate lower levels. In this way we create our Model of the World or map which we then use as we navigate through life.

Our layered Meta-States becomes our reference system for "making sense" of things. It frames our meanings (semantics). When we change our internal Universe we reframe our understandings, beliefs, values, and meanings. Since we give meaning according to context our Meta-states describe the structure of our mental contexts.

In Outframing we make the ultimate meta-move of going above all frames to set an entirely new frame-of-reference. We can engage in meta-magic by this maneuver to re-set our whole reality strategy.

A "primary level" of experience refers to our thinking about, responding to, and giving meaning to the world outside our nervous system. A "Primary State" describes those states that reference the outside world. The “primary” emotions make up such primary states (i.e., fear/ anger, sadness/ joy, relaxation/ tension; aversion/ attraction, etc.).

Meta-States refer to our internal states, which we experience about previous states, either the processes or the products of those experiences. We create such meta-states by reflecting back onto ourselves. This recursive, reflexive, self-referential loop back means that as we jump up a "logical level" so that the thoughts-and-feelings (state) that we experience about our thoughts-and-feelings, we have created a higher logical level about a lower level experience.


META-STATES AS THE META-FRAMES CALLED “SUBMODALITIES”

Submodalities refer to the Qualities of our sensory modalities. Every representation system has various elements or qualities. If we listen with a profound literalness to our language, we can begin to tune our ears to hear these “submodality” distinctions:

"I feel pretty dull today?" "I hear you loud and clear." "Something smells fishy about his proposal." "I have a bright future."

We can use these seemingly metaphorical sayings to track back to a person’s mental map as we seek to understand the person’s world. Until NLP, most people treated such language as "just metaphors." But no longer. We now take such metaphors as cues about internal representing.

“Submodalities” represent one of the most basic components of the way we mentally process information.

To note or detect the qualities in our representations, we have to rise above (or go meta) to the internal representation. [The word "meta" comes from a Greek word meaning "above" or "beyond."] Think about a pleasant experience until you step into it so much that you fully experience it again.

Now think about that experience. How did you code your pictures in terms of distance, clarity, color, etc? And your sounds – how did you code the volume, tonality, tempo, distance, etc?

As you think about the qualities of your internal representations (the submodalities) do you not have to step back or go meta? Do you not have to get out of content by moving to a higher level and then notice their structure? Of course.

This suggests that when we alter the quality or properties of our internal representations, we do not do so “at the submodality level.” But we rather do so at a meta-level of awareness. The problem with the old view about submodalities lies in part with the term itself. By labeling the quality and properties of the representations “sub,” the language created — by presupposition — the idea that we have moved to a lower logical level. But we have not.

The qualities of our pictures do not exist at a level lower than the picture. Try to picture any visual image that does not have color or black-and-white, closeness or farness, clarity or fuzziness. These do not represent “members” of the class – but qualities of the picture. They occur inside and exist as part of the representation.


META-STATES AS HIGHER FRAMES THAT WE CALL BELIEFS, VALUES, IDENTITIES, ETC.

This calls into question the classic NLP method of trying to change beliefs merely using “submodality” differences. Try it for yourself.

Think about something that you do not believe. Can you represent what you do not believe? Can you even turn up all of the submodality properties of the representation making it closer, brighter, more life-like, etc? When you do, do you suddenly “believe” it? I don’t.

For example, get an image that represents the awfulness of Adolf Hitler. Note the submodalities.

Now get an image that represents a great person like Mother Theresa. Note the submodalities of Mother Theresa. Now put the submodalities of the image of Adolf Hitler into the submodalities of Mother Theresa. This may prove difficult but go ahead and do it. Do you believe that Adolf Hitler represents a person like Mother Theresa? Of course not, when you see Adolf Hitler your words which operate meta to the image will modulate the meaning of the image.

To turn a “thought” into a “belief” or a “belief” back into a mere “thought,” we have to move to a meta-level and confirm or disconfirm the thoughts. Usually, the process of merely shifting submodalities will not work to transform these beliefs. Submodality shifting that effects the saying "Yes" or "No" to a thought will alter the belief.


META-STATES AS META-PROGRAMS

Where do Meta-Programs come from?How do we create them?

As thinking, sorting, paying attention filters — Meta-Programs are solidified ways of using our awareness and so are solidified meta-states.

We learn to bring global thinking to bear upon our thoughts.We learn to bring detail thinking to bear upon our thoughts.We learn to think in terms of matching or mismatching and then use that as our template for all our thinking.

How do we install Meta-Programs?Via habitual use and repetition.Via coming to believe in and value them.

Via coming to identify with them and assume them.

Consider the role of frames upon frames in the Phobia Resolution Pattern. It works because we layer level upon level of resources upon the original primary state.

Level 1: Primary Trauma Thought.

Begin with a “negative” thought that sets off all kinds of painful emotional reactions. Pick a “thought” of a memory that “rattles your cage” so much so that you can’t even “think” it in a calm and rational. This presents the primary state or experience. In it you find that you have become wired (so to speak) to react semantically to an “idea.” Just the idea of the trauma upsets you and your entire body and neurology becomes reactive. It is this thought, this representation, that we will be dealing with.

Level 2: Calm Distance.

Imagine putting the “thought” that upsets you on a mental screen and stepping back from it as if in a movie theater. When you have located the memory, turn it into a black-and-white snapshot of a scene at the beginning of the traumatic event. Freeze-frame this scene and hold it there as you take your seat in the 10th row. Here we are meta-stating the trauma thought with distance, stillness, and black-and-white coding. All of these higher ideas about (meta) to the first level thought induce messages of comfort about it.

In NLP we call this a “dissociation” step, yet it involves so much more. It certainly does have the effect of stepping back and out of a felt memory. And as a result most people feel some relief. Yet we have not so much moved to “not feeling” as we have to “feeling calm” and “feeling distance” about the memory. We have begun to layer thoughts and feelings upon the trauma memory that gives it a new texture – a new feel. But it doesn’t end there.©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®146

Level 3: Increased Distance and Protect and Control.

Now imagine yourself and feel yourself float out of your observing self and up to the projection booth. From there you will be able to see the back of your current self-watching the old memory representation as a black-and-white snapshot on the screen. Touch the Plexiglas that separates you from the auditorium knowing that you’re safe here in the projection booth.

This so-called “double dissociation” actually brings all kinds of resources to bear upon the original thought that we have not actually “thought” about yet. All this is preparation (pre-framing) for thinking. Here we have continued meta-stating our old memory with more distance and protection behind a Plexiglas. And because in the projection booth we can edit the film – we bring editing skill and power to bear upon the old memory, which gives us the

Figure 4:5

Level 4: Controlled viewing & Fast Rewinding.

Now you can turn on the movie (intentional control) and let it play out. Just watch it in this black-and-white movie of your past. After the traumatic scene is over, let it play until you find a scene of comfort where you’re okay, freeze frame that scene. Then, step into that scene of comfort and run it backward while you are inside seeing, hearing, and feeling everything run backwards. Let this happen so quickly that it only takes two seconds.

Here we layer onto all of the other layers of awareness cues like the images being black-and-white that we are observing “the past,” and that we’re in control of editing our memory. Then, after we meta-state the memory with comfort, we add a very strange layer of consciousness as we rewind the movie. Bringing backwardness or fast reverse to our memory really layers on some weird thinking and feeling. For some this will interrupt, for others it will spread comfort backwards through the past, and for yet others it will confuse and mess up the old strategy for trauma. Talk about more layers and frames that texture the old trauma. And yet we have not finished.


Meta-LevelsLayers of

Thoughts/FeelingsAbout the

More DistanceProtectionControl over your own ImagesDistance/ComfortBlack-and-white snapshot.

Primary State

Traumatic Memory

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Level 5: Clean Slate and Directiveness.

After the first backward super-rewinding process, do this 5 more times. Clear the screen of your mind, start with the Scene of Comfort, step in, rewind.

In this step, we layer onto everything ideas of a clean slate and we bring that to bear upon the memory. This interrupts things and it directionalizes our minds.

Figure 4:6

Meta-LevelsLayers of

Thoughts/FeelingsAbout the

Coherent Movie Theater Metaphor

Directionalilzing the BrainClean Slate

Rewinding in Super-Fast Speed

Controlled ViewingMore Distance

ProtectionControl over your own Images

Distance/ ComfortBlack-and-white Snap-Shot

Primary State

Traumatic Memory

Level 6: Meta-Stating with a Coherent Metaphor.

The whole set of the meta-level states that you have added one upon another in this process has all actually occurred inside of a metaphor – the metaphor of a movie. In other words, you also brought a movie show situation to bear upon the thought – which enabled the other moves (stepping back and back, altering the visual and auditory components, running it backwards, etc.) to occur without really noticing.

True enough, a negative memory doesn’t stand a chance. We can’t track that many levels and so the first meta-levels begins to “collapse” or coalesce into the primary state thereby texturing and qualifying the memory in new and more resourceful ways.


REFRAMING MOTIVATION1) Identify an area of life wherein you would like to have more Motivation

or to refine your Motivation.

Are you perfectly satisfied with the kind and quality of your motivation?In what area of life would you like to enhance your motivation?

2) Explore the Motivation Quality of the State

Step into the area and experience your motivation state regarding that area of life. Name the state or states that make up your current motivation. Step into 2nd position and do the same.Step into 3rd position and do the same.What are your motives, reasons, frames, beliefs, emotions, etc. that drive this motivation state?How much motivation do you have? Gauge 0 to 10.

3) Tune up your Representation Richness.

Enrich the VAK representations.Fine-tune the Qualities of it – the submodalities.

4) Add or Change Belief Frames that will support your Motivation in this Area.

What belief change or belief frame would enrich your motivation and would give you the kind and quality of Motivation that you truly want?What would you like to believe about this that would improve the motivation?

5) Future Pace

See yourself moving out into your future with the new motivation Commission this: Do you want this?

Figure 4:7

Frames

3rd Position 2nd Position

Person Toward X


Section 5: LINGUISTICSTHE LANGUAGE OF PRECISION & VAGUENESS

The same Linguistic Distinctions will allow us to either speak with precision or to induce trance. It all depends on how you Use these Distinctions.

----------- Structure ---------------- Metaphor (Met) Presuppositions (Ps) Multiordinality (M) Identification (Id)

-------- Distortion ----------- Mind-Reading (MR) Complex Equivalences (CEq) Nominalizations (Nom) Cause-Effect (C-E) Lost Performatives (LP) Delusional Verbal Splits (DVS) Pseudo-Words (PW) Personalizing (Per) Static Words (SW)

---- Generalization ------ Universal Quantifiers (UQ) Model Operators (MO) Either-Or Phrases (E-O) Over/Under Defined Terms (O/U)

Evaluative Based Language

------Deletion------ Deletions -- Simple (Del) Deletions—Comparative/ Superlative (Unspecified Relations) (UR) Unspecified Referential Indices

(Unspecified Nouns & Verbs) (URI) Unspecified Processes — Adverbs Modifying Verbs (UP -Adv) Unspecified Processes — Adjectives Modifying Nouns (UP- Adj.)

Questioning the Assumptive Structure

The Assumptive Formats or Frames

Map-Territory Confusions

Questioning Distortions

Specifying the knowledge source

Specifying logical level confusions

Specifying equations Specifying causations, syntax,

order Specifying referents Hyphenating

Questioning Generalizations

Challenging the Allness Challenging the Rules Challenging the One-Valued

Structure Challenging the Two-Valued

Structure Challenging the specificity

Indexing Deleted References

Specifying the what, when, who, where, how, etc.

Representationally Tracking referents


Sensory-Based Language Sensory-Based LanguageDescriptive


Person A In communication with Person B

151

The Meta-Model The Meta-Model provides a model about language, which enables us to think about the form and structure of the language we use, and how clear of a picture the words enable us


to make. We use the Meta-Model to question (or challenge) ill-formed linguistic and semantic structures so that we can elicit from someone more well-formed expressions. (See Users, pp. 135-172)This enables us to use the Meta-Model for a number of things: 1) Information gathering: to gather more precise and accurate information.2) Honing in on the limits of the person’s model of the world and identifying

precisely where and how a person has boxed him or herself in and how to expand that person’s mapping.

3) Becoming clear about the techniques we can use for positively influencing a person’s mapping of reality.

Deletions:

1. Simple Deletions – characteristics left out of a linguistic statement.

“They don’t listen to me.”Who specifically doesn’t listen to you?

"People push me around."Who specifically pushes you?

"I was told to not do that." – Told by whom?

"I'm confused." About what? "She's so happy." Who specifically feels happy?

Example phrases of Simple Deletions:

"The people," "the government," the "Geography class," "capitalists," "liberals," etc.

2. Comparative & Superlative Deletions – unspecified relations.

"She's a better person." Better than whom? Better at what? Compared to whom, what? Given what criteria?

"He really frustrates me." How specifically?

"She hurt me deeply." How did she hurt you specifically? In what way?


3. Unspecified Referential Indices: Unspecified Nouns & Verbs

"I am uncomfortable." Uncomfortable in what way? Uncomfortable when?

"He said that she was mean." Whom did he say that you call mean? What did he mean by 'mean'?

"She rejected me."How specifically did she reject you?

"I felt really manipulated."Manipulated in what way and how?

"I've never been more depressed." On a scale from 1 to 10, how depressed have you ever felt? What degree of these down-feelings have you experienced before? What facets of your thinking-feeling, behaving, etc. have you depressed?

4. Unspecified Processes — Adjectives Modifying Nouns

“I don’t like unclear people.”Unclear about what and in what way?With the adjective unclear: the speaker has deleted the context, "unclear to whom, about what, when, etc.?

“The unhappy letter surprised me.”How, and in what way, did you feel unhappy about the letter?

Challenge these Unspecified Processes:

“I laughed at the irritating man.”

“You always present stupid examples.”

“The unhappy letter surprised me.”

5. Unspecified Processes — Adverbs Modifying Verbs

“Surprisingly, my father lied about his drinking.”How did you feel surprised about that? What surprised you about that?

“She slowly started to cry.”What indicated to you that her starting to cry occurred in a slow manner?


Challenge These Unspecified Processes:

“Unfortunately, you forgot to call me on my birthday.”

“I quickly left the argument.”

“Surprisingly, my father lied about his drinking.”

Generalizations:

6. Universal Quantifiers (Allness, Generalizations that exclude exceptions).

"She never listens to me."Never? She has never so much as listen to you even a little bit?

"Nobody pays any attention to what I say."Nobody has ever paid even the least bit of attention to you?

"I always avoid situations where I feel uncomfortable."Always?Has there ever been a time that you didn’t?

7. Modal Operators (Operational Modes of Being -- One’s Modus Operandi)

"I have to take care of her." What would happen if you didn’t? What wouldn't happen if you didn't? You have to or else what?

Modal Operators are words that describe an operational mode:

have to, must, need to (necessity),can, may, want to, get to, can (possibility), can't, not possible, may not, etc. (impossibility).

"I can't trust people." Do you know anyone who can trust people?Can you imagine someone trusting people safely and with confidence? What allows them to do that?

8. Lost Performatives (Evaluative statement/s with the speaker deleted or unowned)

"It's bad to be inconsistent."

Who evaluates it as bad? According to what standard? How do you determine this label of "badness?"


Lost Performative

The performers who created a mental/ linguistic map have been eliminated so that the statement is not owned by any map-maker.

"It's bad to be inconsistent."

Says who? Upon what did the speaker base the criteria of 'badness?' How do you know that we should evaluate it as bad?

Distortions:

9. Nominalizations (Actions and processes (typically coded as verbs) are frozen in time and space as they are turned into Nouns, and named as if a thing.)

"Let's improve our communication." Whose communicating do you mean? How would you like to communicate?

"What state did you wake up in this morning?"How did you think and feel specifically when you woke up?

“Thingified,” “Reified.”

"My divorce is painful."What is there about divorcing that gave you a lot of pain?

"Our terror blocks us." Thinking-and-feeling in exaggerated fear terms blocks us, doesn’t it?

"Your perception is seriously wrong."What am I perceiving that you believe is wrong and how is it wrong?

"My confusion has a tendency to give me no relief."What is so confusing about your confusion that gives you no relief?

10. Mind-Reading (Making a statement that claims or assumes knowledge of the internal state of another person (their thoughts, emotions, values, intentions, etc.).

"You don't like me..." How do you know I don't like you? What evidence leads you to think that?

"Susan never considers my feelings!" How do you know that Susan does not consider your feelings?


"You have lost respect for our president!" What behaviors or words give you the impression that I have shifted my feelings of respect regarding the president?

11. Cause-Effect (Making statements that assert one thing causes another, using causal verbs (e.g. “make,” “cause,” “force,” etc.) or almost any active verb.)

"You make me sad."How does my behavior cause you to respond with sad feelings? Do you always feel sad when I do this? How specifically does this work?

"She makes me angry.”

How specifically does she 'make' you angry? Does her action always operate to create this effect in you? Has she ever performed that action and you have not responded with anger?

12. Complex Equivalences (Making a complex generalization that something means or equates to something else. The complexity of these equivalences does not lie in their structure; structurally they are simple: "This = That" (X = Y). The complexity arises from the thinking that produces the equation.)

"She's always yelling at me; she doesn't like me."

How do you equate her yelling as meaning she doesn't like you? Can you recall a time when you yelled at someone that you liked?

"He's a loser when it comes to business, he just lacks business sense.”

How do you know to equate his lack of success in business with his lack business sense? Could other factors play a role in this?

“When she doesn’t smile at me, I know she doesn’t appreciate me.”

When you don’t smile at her, does that mean that you don’t appreciate her?

Does her not smiling at you always mean the lack of appreciation?

What experiences in your learning history has lead you to draw this conclusion?


13. Presuppositions (Things that must exist as true for a statement to make sense; ones assumptions about reality, truth, knowledge, being, personality, etc. that we hold to without questioning.)

"If my husband knew how much I suffered, he wouldn't do that."

How do you suffer?

In what way?

About what?

How do you know that your husband knows or doesn’t know this?

Why do you assume that his intentions would shift if he knew?

“I’m afraid that my son is turning out to be as lazy as my husband.”

What is presupposed?

How would you challenge them?


The Meta-Levels of the Meta-ModelTHE NEW & EXPANDED META-MODEL

PATTERNS / RESPONSES / PREDICTIONS / DISTINCTIONS CHALLENGES RESULTS

1. Simple Deletions “They don’t listen to me.” Who specifically doesn’t listen to you? Recover the Deletion "People push me around." Who specifically pushes you Recover the Ref. Index

2. Comparative & Superlative Deletions (Unspecified Relations) "She's a better person." Better than whom? Better at what? Recover the deleted

Compared to whom, what? standard, criteria, orGiven what criteria? belief

3. Unspecified Referential Indices (Unspecified Nouns & Verbs) "I am uncomfortable." Uncomfortable in what way? Recover specific

Uncomfortable when? qualities of the verb "They don't listen to me." Who specifically doesn't listen to you? Recover the nouns of "He said that she was mean." Who specifically said that? the person’s involved.

Whom did he say that you call mean? Recover the individualWhat did he mean by 'mean'? meaning of the term

"People push me around." Who specifically pushes you Add details to the map "I felt really manipulated." Manipulated in what way and how?

4. Unspecified Processes — Adverbs Modifying Verbs “Surprisingly, my father lied How did you feel surprised about that? Recovers the about his drinking.” What surprised you about that? process of the person’s emotional state “She slowly started to cry.” What indicated to you that her starting Enriches with details

to cry occurred in a slow manner? the person’s referent

5. Unspecified Processes — Adjectives Modifying Nouns “I don’t like unclear people.” Unclear about what and in what way? Recovers the “The unhappy letter How, and in what way, did you feel projection of the speaker’s surprised me.” unhappy? sense of feeling “unclear”

6. Universal Quantifiers "She never listens to me." Never? She has never so much as listen Recovers details about

to you even a little bit? the extent of a process and counter-examples.

7. Modal Operators (Operational Modes of Being) "I have to take care of her." What would happen if you did? Recovers details of the "I can't tell him the truth." What wouldn't happen if you didn't? process, also causes,"You have to or else what?" effects, and outcomes.

8. Lost Performatives (Evaluative statement/s with the speaker deleted or unowned) "It's bad to be inconsistent." Who evaluates it as bad? Recovers the source of

According to what standard? idea or belief — the How do you determine this label map-maker, standardsused, of "badness? "etc.


9. Nominalizations (Pseudo-Nouns that hide processes and actions) "Let's improve our Whose communicating do you mean? Recovers the process communication.” How would you like to communicate? and the characteristics left out "What state did you wake How specifically did you feel, think, etc.? Specifies the verb up in this morning?" What behaviors, physiology, and internal and actions

representations make up this “state?”

10. Mind-Reading (Attributing knowledge of another’s internal thoughts, feelings, motives) "You don't like me..." How do you know I don't like you? Recovers the source of

What evidence leads you to that the information — how a person knows specifies conclusion?

11. Cause-Effect (Causational statements of relations between events, stimulus-response beliefs) "You make me sad." How does my behavior cause you Recovers understanding

to respond with sad feelings? of how a person viewsCounter Example: Do you always causation, sources, andfeel sad when I do this? origins—specifiesHow specifically does this work? beliefs about how

world works

12. Complex Equivalences (Phenomena that differ which someone equates as the same) "She's always yelling at How do you equate her yelling as Recovers how the person me, she doesn't like me." meaning she doesn't like you? equates or associates one

Can you recall a time when you thing with another. Ask yelled at someone that you liked? for counter-examples to "He's a loser when it comes How do you know to equate the meaning equation. to business; he just lacks his lack of success in business business sense." with his lack of sense about it? Could other factors

play a role in this?

13. Presuppositions (Silent Assumptions, Unspoken Paradigms). "If my husband knew how How do you suffer? In what way? Recovers the person’s much I suffered, he would About what? assumptions, beliefs, and not do that." How do you know that you husband values the he or she just

doesn’t know this? doesn’t question.Why do you assume that his intentions Specifies processes, would shift if he knew. nouns, verbs, etc. leftDoes your husband always use your out.emotional state to determine his responses?

14. Over/Under Defined Terms (O/U) “I married him because What behaviors and responses would Recover the extensional I thought he would make a “good” husband for you? What references facts make a good husband.” do you use for the word “husband?” about the terms used.

15. Delusional Verbal Splits (DVS) “My mind has nothing to How can you have “mind” apart Recovers the split that do with this depression.” from “body” or “body” apart someone has created

from “mind?” verbally in language


16. Either-or Phrases (E-O) “If I don’t make this So you have no other alternative Recovers the continuum relationship work, it proves except total success or failure? deleted by the my incompetence.” You can’t imagine any Either-Or structure

intermediate steps or stages?

17. Multiordinality (M) “What do you think of On what level of abstraction do Recovers the level of your self?” you refer to “self?” “Self” can have

many different abstraction thatthe meanings, depending oncontext and usage— speaker operates from.

How do you mean it? Specifies the contextand order.

18. Static Words (SW) “Science says that...” What science specifically? Recovers the deleted

Science according to whose model detailsor theory?

Science at what time?

19. Pseudo-words (PW) “And that makes him a What do you mean by “failure” Challenges a map that failure.” as a word that modifies a person? uses words that have

no real referent.

20. Identification (Id.) “He is a democrat.” How specifically does he identify with Recovers the process the term “democrat?” In what way? of Identification or “She is a jerk.” Upon what basis do you evaluate prediction.

her using the term “jerk?” Invites one to create new generalizations.

21. Personalizing (Per.) “He does that just to How do you know his intentions? Challenges the process irritate me.” How do you know to take these of personalizing.

actions in a personal way?

22. Metaphors (Met) “That reminds me of the How does this story relate to the Recovers the isomorphic time when Uncle John...” point you want to make? relationship between the

story and the person’sconcepts.


Meta-Model ExercisesUse the following exercises to train your intuitions about the Meta-Model distinctions and questions.

Meta-Model Practice 1) Ask one person to think about an area of life wherein you experience a

limitation of some sort and describe it.2) Designate one person as recorder to keep track.3) After the first person shares for 3 minutes, the others meta-model the

statements only using Meta-Model questions. Especially inquire about nominalizations, cause-effect statements, and complex equivalences.

4) Afterwards use the record to check the distinctions identified, the questions used, the resulting response, and the effect.

Beginning Meta-modeling1) Make a list of 6 to 12 examples of each of the following: deletions,

comparative deletions, unspecified nouns, unspecified verbs, and nominalizations.

2) When ready, take turns delivering the ill-formed statements to the others letting the group practice meta-modeling.

3) Debrief after each speaker about what questions seemed most effective in gathering the highest quality information and effecting positive change.

More Advanced Meta-modeling1) Make a list of 6 to 12 examples of mind-reading, complex equivalences,

modal operators, cause-effect statements, and nominalizations.2) When ready, take turns delivering the ill-formed statements to the others

letting the group practice meta-modeling these statements.3) Debrief after each speaker to determine what questions seemed most

effective.


Summary of Meta-Model Questions How do you know? Says who? How specifically? How does what I am doing cause you to...? What would happen if you did or didn’t? What stops you from...? Compared to who or what? Does it always happen? What about Y event?

162

Finding & Exposing Psychological “Can’ts.”1) Complete the following sentence stems with a list of 6 to 12 responses:

“I can’t stand...”“What really gets me and rattles my cage is...”“I feel most unresourceful when...”

2) Take turns reading the responses. For example, “I can’t stand it when someone talks to me with a harsh tonality.”

3) Invite group members to respond with appropriate meta-modeling challenges. For example, “What stops you from standing the other person’s harsh tonality?” “What would happen if you did ‘stand’ that person’s unpleasant tonality?”

Playing With Modals1) Take turns thinking about some area in life in which you tell yourself that

you ‘have to’ or ‘must’ do something. What do you specifically say?” Or what do you use these words when communicating to someone else?

2) After presenting the information, let the group members take turns meta-modeling the person by shifting to other modal operators. For example, “And what would it feel like (seem like, be like) for you if you said, ‘and I get to?’”

3) After you have playfully shifted the modal operators, reflect on how playing with them shifted your sense of your modus operandi in the world if you used them.

Playing with Causation1) Construct a list of causation words and fit them into a hierarchy that

moves from “0" causation (chance, chaos, random) up the scale to more and more direct causation so that at “100" you have such conceptual terminology as “determines, makes, causes,” etc. Use a sheet of paper with a Vertical Line so that the bottom represents “0" and the top represents “100.”

2) Take turns, inviting each other make a cause-effect statement that creates a limitation. For example, “When my wife asks me to do some chore around the house, I feel manipulated.”

3) First reformulate the statement so that it has a cause-effect format. For example, “So her asking makes you feel manipulated?”

4) Respond with meta-modeling questions to challenge the speaker to try on more or less intense causation word. For example, “How would it feel to you if her asking invited you to feel that way — knowing that you can always accept or reject the invitation?” “How would it feel if her asking suggested manipulation?”

5) Continue experiencing different levels of causation terms as each person takes a turn. Then reflect on what worked best and what had the least impact.


Meta-modeling Complex Equivalence1) Present some complex equivalence that doesn’t serve you well in life.

For example, “When I think about someone talking to me and pointing at me with their index finger, I feel putdown or scolded.”

2) First confirm the complex equivalence. For example, “So, for you, a pointing index finger equals the internal state of feeling putdown or scolded?”

3) Present the statement to each member to let each meta-model it and present an alternative meaning (a reframe). For example, “How would you like it (how would you feel) if you thought about the pointing finger meaning that the other has an unconscious ‘schoolmarm anchor’?”

4) Play around with alternative meanings until the person finds one that her or she finds resourceful and useful.

Meta-modeling Complex Equivalence (Part II)1) Present some complex equivalence that doesn’t serve you well in life.

For example, “When I think about someone talking to me and pointing at me with their index finger, I feel putdown or scolded.”

2) First confirm the complex equivalence. For example, “So, for you, a pointing index finger equals the internal state of feeling putdown or scolded?”

3) Invite the speaker to teach the group how to do this constructive skill. “If I took your place for a day so that you get a day off from this—how would I do this? What pictures, sounds, words, etc. would I use—their quality, nature, order, etc. so that I could ‘run my brain’ in this way?”

4) De-construct the strategy of the complex equivalence until all feel satisfied that they have all the necessary ingredients for it. Then, taking turns, offer shifts and alterations in the strategy that will disrupt it.

Meta-modeling Empowering States1) Describe a resource and/or resourceful state that you would like to have

or to have more of (e.g. confidence, pose, self-affirmation, enthusiasm, love, energy, etc.). Then describe this resource fully.

2) As the person offers their map of the resource, meta-model him or her to invite a richer and fuller map of the experience. Continue until the person confirms that richer map.

3) As one of the members kinesthetically anchors this resourceful state, ask for an auditory digital term that summarizes it — “Confidence, joy, calmness, etc.” Anchor repeatedly saying the term at the peak of the experience until just the word anchors it.


Running the Operational Levels on the Meta-model1) Read the following list of statements to your group and brainstorm to

explore the Meta-Model violations that you find in it. List them.2) Identify the highest level Meta-Model distinction that provides the most

useful information or that provides the most leverage for change.You always talk as though you’re mad.It’s impossible for me to trust people.My brother thinks our parents were abusive.Everybody knows that you can’t change a bureaucracy.Communication is really hard for me.Running away doesn’t help.I laughed at the irritating man.Why do you always bring up such stupid examples? Self-righteous people just burn me up.The over-whelming price of food disturbs me.

Distinguishing Cause-Effect and Complex EquivalencesWork through the following list together as a group, determining which of the following statements you would classify as a C-E or as a Ceq.

I know he loves me when he touches me.It makes me angry when my husband looks at me like that.If you really loved me, you’d call when you’re going to be late.I know you understand me when you talk to me.You don’t appreciate me anymore. You don’t kiss me when you leave for work.Turning in your reports on time will let me know that you’re truly a responsible person.My partner’s pessimistic attitude has caused our recent financial slump.I want to stay here longer, but I know you’ll get angry at me if I do.My depression came upon me because my husband constantly criticized my body.Your nagging has given me another headache.

Visiting the Land of NominalizationsIdentify the nominalizations that you find in the following statements.

People always push me around.Nobody pays any attention to anything I say.I heard my mother in law yesterday gossiping about the neighbors.One should always respect the feelings of others.It’s painful for us to see her like this, you know.Let’s not get bogged down in details.There’s a certain feeling in the room.Everybody feels that way sometimes.


Finding Behavioral Complex Equivalences1) Decide on two or three Complex Equivalences that you want to play with,

that you find the behavioral equivalents. This will enable you to practice eliciting and feeding back distinctions around the Meta-Model distinction of Complex Equivalences. For example: love, trust, respect, confidence, ferociousness, etc.

2) Work with each person asking, “How do you know when you trust someone? What does trusting mean for you in terms of see-hear-feel terms? How do you recognize trust?”

3) As each person presents his or her behavioral equivalents of trust, let another member adopt and run this behavior and feed it back until the person feels satisfied with the behavioral equivalents. “Yes, that looks like, sounds, like and feels like trust.”

Fuzzification and Meta-Modeling Battling1) In groups of 3 or 4, create the most convoluted set of sentences that

contains all of the Meta-model violations. Robert McCrory prepared the following one, published in Anchor Point many years ago: “People1 are always2 surprised3 by learning4 their efforts9 equal the best5 that others6

believe must7 be achieved8 by experimentation9, 10.”1 Lack of Referential Index: What, what, which people? 2 Universal Quantifier: Always?3 Deletion: How specifically are they surprised?4 Cause-Effect: How specifically does learning surprise people?5 Comparative Deletion (best as compared to what?6 Mind-reading: How do you know what others believe?7 Modal Operator of Necessity: What if achieved by another method?8 Unspecified verb: How specifically achieved?9 Nominalization: experimentation achieves?10 Lost Performative: Entire sentence; according to whom?

2) Once you have a list of 5 to 10 really good convoluted super-fluffy statements. Each group enter into the Battle of the Meta-Modelers: presenting a line and recording the amount of time it takes for the second team to identify all of the violations. After so many rounds (e.g. 5 each), the team with the lowest “time” wins.


MILTON MODELHYPNOTIC LANGUAGE PATTERNS

Using the Meta-Model Hypnotically: Using and playing with the ill-formedness of the language to speak with artful vagueness. (See Users, Ch. 10, pp. 203-216)

1) Comparative Deletions or Unspecified Comparisons:A statement that makes a comparison but fails to specify the standard, the basis, the criteria, etc. of the comparison. “And it’s more or less the right thing to do...”

2) Lack of Referential Index.A statement that lacks a specific referent.“One can, you know, relax... “

3) Unspecified Verbs / Nouns:Verbs and Nouns that are vague, general, and having no specified referent.“And you can learn in new ways, so that your skills at hypnosis can greatly increase...”

4) Universal Quantifier:Words that indicate universality, or allness. “And as you appreciate all of the things that you have learned, and all of the things you will be learning...”

5) Lost Performatives:A value judgment is presented but the “performer” of the judgment, the person who made the map, has been left out.“And it’s a good thing to wonder, to really wonder...”

6) Nominalizations:When verbs or process terms are turned into nouns, frozen in time and treated as Things, we have nominalized (or named, nounified) the actions.“As you experience a deeper relaxation than you have before, your appreciation for the new insights can further deepen your growing resourcefulness...”


7) Cause—Effect:A map is made about events, experiences, activities in terms of one causing another and one being the effect of some cause. The “causation” can be overtly stated or just implied. “If you are feeling confused, then it means that you are at the gateway of a new learning...” (If... then)“As you wonder, curiously, then you will really learn...” (As you... then...)“Because you are wondering, you are really learning, perhaps in ways that you don’t even yet realize...

8) Mind-Reading: Claiming to know the thoughts or feelings of another person without specifying how you know that information.“I know that you are wondering just how much more resourceful you are going to become...”

9) Complex equivalence:Two things that occur on different logical levels (levels of abstraction or levels of mind) are equated as if “the same,” or equal. “When you begin to hear these patterns, it means that you are really learning...”

10) Presuppositions:Something is assumed to exist, be real, be meaningful, etc. Something we just assume or presuppose without presenting.“You are learning many things...”

Additional Language Patterns that serve Hypnotic Communicating:1) Tag Questions:

A question added after a statement that can displace resistance, invite acceptance, sneak the statement in, etc.“You can relax even more fully, can you not?”

2) Conversational Postulates:A seeming question that actually calls for a “Yes” or “No” response, but which actually presents a statement or command and that activates the hearer to act.“Can you pass the ketchup?”“And because this is something that you really are drawn toward, can your hand move up toward your face as a sign of your growing interest as an expression of your commitment to become more resourceful?”


3) Extended Quote:Using quotes from others inside of quotes or stories, or narratives. The design is to communicate messages without them seeming to be commands, suggestions, or questions.Last week Bob was telling him about the training in NC where he was using the Meta-Yes pattern and how that Jim had used it with his wife and when she said ‘Yes’ she found herself able to feel really much more in control of her life than she had ever before...”

4) Selectional Restriction Violations:Describing something in such a way that a literal reading or interpretation would recognize it as ridiculous, but which makes sense when caught up in the story.“And if the grass growing in your front yard could speak, maybe it would say, ‘Hey, I’ve got feelings too!’ and might feel put off by the lack of considerate treatment, because when feelings are ignored, relationships can be damaged, and...”

5) Ambiguities: Statements are made that lack clarity of reference and so are ambiguous in meaning. We can generate ambiguities in sound (phonological ambiguity), structure and order (syntactic ambiguity), in extent of meaning (scope ambiguity) and in punctuation (punctuation ambiguity). “Hear... here...” “Light... lite...” (Phonological ambiguity)“Hypnotizing semanticists can be tricky.” (Syntactic ambiguity)“Speaking to you as a child...” “The old men and women...” “The growing relaxation of your hands and feet...” (Scope ambiguity)“I want you to notice your hand me the glass...” (Punctuation ambiguity)

Syntactic: in this kind of ambiguity, we cannot immediately determine from the context the function of the word.Scope: in this one, we cannot determine by the context how much one portion of a sentence applies to another portion.Punctuation: In run on sentences, a word both ends and begins a sentence. “Let me see your hand me your watch.” In improper pause, you begin a sentence and insert pauses which forces a mind... read. In an incomplete sentence we begin a sentence and never complete... We then simply go on to another statement.

6) Embedded commands, questions, suggestions.A command, question, or suggestion embedded into a conversation or statement that is marked out by tones and volume.


Hypnotic Processes for Communicating for Trance:

1) Pacing Current experience to lead to new experiences.Making statements that allow the hearer to be able to externally verify the statement and so it matches or fits with the person’s experience.“And as you notice yourself just sitting there, listening to my voice and really wondering where this is going to lead, you can begin to notice the tension in your legs and move them ever so gently to relax even further...”

2) Double Binding Statements:Making a statement that describes things so that however a person responds, the response is inevitable. The person is “bound” by the description.“And that means your unconscious mind is also here and can hear what I say. And since that’s the case, you are probably learning about this and actually already know more about this at an unconscious level than you think you do, and it’s not right for me to tell you, learn this or learn that, because you can learn in any way that is most effective for you, can you not?”

3) Utilization or Incorporation:Using or incorporating whatever happens in a context and making it part of the communications and experience.“I am just not convinced about this... “”That’s right, you are not convinced yet and I wouldn’t be either because there is yet one key question that has to be asked before you can feel totally convinced about this...”

4) Intonation Patterns (in English):Statements are conveyed when we keep our tone of voice even or straight.Questions are suggested by raising our tone at the end of a sentence.Commands are suggested by lowering the tone at the end.

Exercise:

1) Identify 3 to 5 resourceful states.Calm Curious Learning Practicality Achievement

2) Write an Induction that ties the states together. “As I think about a gentle breeze blowing through my hair as I stroll along in the beautiful garden… it makes me want to breathe the beauty and relaxation in and enjoy it... and to stop... and just notice the wonder around me... and it’s like the gentle calmness of the garden itself that enters into me... comfortably with its life-giving vitality so that the thought that race around in my head slow down and enjoy this moment...”


Section 6NLP TIME-LINES

“It’s Never Too Late to Have A Happy Childhood.”(Richard Bandler)

Until we’re free of past hurts, we will not be truly free for living in the Moment and creating a Bright Future.

TIME-LINE PATTERNS: Dealing with “Time”(Users, ch. 16, pp. 353-381)We humans uniquely have the transcendent ability to sort for “time.” If we couldn't sort for awareness of time we couldn't tell how to get anywhere for a meeting. How we particularly sort for “time” uniquely distinguishes us. Most of us have some sort of "line" as we code and distinguish the difference between past, present, and future. This leads to the NLP idea of a time-line, or time-lines. There are some however who use other configurations. The following Pattern offers a way to elicit and understand how we code time. Because most of us store time in a linear way, we end up creating time-lines. Yet the location of these lines, their size, color, organization, etc. can make a lot of difference in our everyday experiences.

The Meaning and significance of our Time-Lines. Time-Lines as one of the NLP models gives us a description about how we encode time. At best, our time-lines provide us but a blueprint or map of things a representation, not reality. “Time” is basic to our organizing of our experiences and our definitions of reality. Without your ability to process time in some way you'd have no awareness (consciousness) of causality.

Our Time-Lines crucially effect and determine a good deal about our “personalities.” They do because we use our past memories and our future hopes to determine how we relate to the world, to ourselves, to others, etc. As you code time in your heart so you are. Character and personality arises from our time codings.

As you elicit Time-Lines in people especially listen for temporal words as well as temporal metaphors. Do you know people who “always live in the past?" Or someone who "only thinks about the future and never takes time to stop and smell the roses today?" Or someone who lives only for today?"


THE NEURO-SEMANTICS OF “TIME”“TIME” AS A HUMAN CONCEPT

“Time” – The Great NominalizationYou have never walked out of your front door and stumbled over a hunk of “time.” You couldn’t if you wanted to. “Time” doesn’t exist “out there” in the world. To have “time” you have to have a human mind that can reflect onto itself.

“I disagree! I could trip over a grandfather clock, or a sundial.”

Yes you could. But still you would not have tripped over “time,” just some devices that allow us to mark and measure the movement of activities. And, of course, that’s what occurs “out there” in the world — activity. We live in a world of happenings. We live in a process universe where things constantly change. At different rates of speed, everything is in a process of change. At the sub-atomic level, the quantum level (a level that our nervous system cannot detect), the world is but a “dance of electrons.”

When we notice this and begin to compare and measure one set of activities up against another set of activities, we invent the concept of “time.” Traditionally, we have used the rotation of the earth (“day” and “night”) and the orbit of the earth around the sun (a “year”) to establish the standard that we typically use to measure “time.” Over the centuries we have refined our “time” measuring devices as we have invented 24 “hours” in a “day” and 60 “minutes” in an hour and 60 “seconds” in a minute, etc. None of this is exactly precise, which is why we had to invent “leap” years, but it has given us a fairly common standard for computing the relationship between events.

“How fast can he run a mile?”“He can run right at a 4 minute mile.”“How long will it take you to finish that report?”“I need some of your time, could you spare 15 minutes for me?”“When can I schedule you in for our next appointment?”

“Time,” ah “time!” It seems so real and it is at best only a human concept and so a social reality that we have constructed. Now, as a shared reality that we all participate in and assume, it seems to dominate our lives. We can even develop a bad relationship to this concept. Imagine that one! A person can develop negative attitudes, thoughts, and feelings to the idea of “time,” scheduling, being on time, having time for this or that, etc. Ah, the higher dimensions of the mind, the dimensions of Neuro-Semantics.


Advanced “Time” AwarenessIn the 1998 book, Time Lining: Adventures in Time, we have identified many different kinds and levels of “time.” We have extended the classic NLP use of Time-Lines that Richard Bandler invented, that Steve and Connirae Andreas developed and extended and that showed up for the first time in NLP literature in the book by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall (1988), Time Line Therapy.

Revisiting the work of Edward Hall, Alfred Korzybski, and current theorists on time, Bob Bodenhamer and I have extended the NLP idea of “time” to first of all recognize “time” as involving not primary state processes, but meta or higher levels of awareness. That makes all NLP Time Line processes and patterns Meta-States.

In this training, you will be initiated first into the NLP model about “time” and time-lines and then into the next step of development, the Neuro-Semantics of “Time” as meta-frames. This will lead us to many new patterns, new ways of thinking about “time,” new distinctions about the many kinds of time, and more mastery over this central concept in human consciousness. After all, as a meta-class of life, a symbolic class of life, we are the kind of creatures who engage in mental time travel as we move back and forth between our memories of the Past, our sense of the Present, and our imaginations of the Future.

ELICITING THE ENCODING OF “TIME” Sometimes the problem we struggle with does not concern anything in today's reality, but something that occurred in "the past." Thus the problem exists about how we keep our thoughts and feelings from the past in our current awareness.

The Pattern: 1) Identify a referent: some simple activity you regularly do.

What do you do on a regular basis that’s small, simple and not attached with a lot of emotion?Menu List: driving to work, brushing your teeth, dressing, etc. Remember doing this five years ago. Recall it two years ago, then last week. Think about doing it this morningConsider doing it next week, then two years from now, five years from now.


2) Notice how you have encoded your awareness of “time.”How are you aware of this activity? What do you see, hear, or sense in your body that allows you to distinguish past, present, and future? (VAK)With what submodality qualities of it? Where in space do you locate them? How big or small? What is the size of "today," "a week," "month," "year?" Notice your pictures or images.

In color or black-and-whiteA movie or still picture3D or flatSee your younger/older self or looking out from your eyesFramed or panoramicBright or dimClose or farIn focus or blurredLocation of picture in field of vision

3) Step back and identify the overall configuration. Does your time structure look like a line, a boomerang, a spiral, etc.? Do you have some metaphor for it: a filing cabinet, a Rolodex, etc.? Do you have more than one time-line or time-configuration? How many? For what arenas of life (business, personal, recreational, spiritual, etc.)?

4) Spatial sorting of the “Time” zones.How do you distinguish the "time" zones?How do you tell the difference events of the past, present, and future?Where in space do you sort out your memories of the past, your sense of the present, and your imaginations of the future?

Debriefing about Time Lines:In time-lines, the location of our images and pictures serves as one of the most crucial factors. We typically store our concept of "time" sequentially and linearly.

Color versus black-and-white, frame versus panoramic, etc. are distinctions that do not allow us to make variations along a continuum. Yet we need variation to encode a sequence of events so that we can note relationships between events. That’s why our brains typically use analogue submodalities for encoding these variations. Location is an analogue distinction that permits us to distinguish sequential events — events that occur one after another.


We typically use size, distance, and location of pictures and images to represent our concepts of “time.” This enables us to store "time" in various places around, behind, before, above, and below us (various locations at varying distances). If we step back to get an image of the overall configuration of this "time" representation, we usually have a line, shape of some sort, picture, etc. Thus, the origin of the term, "time-line."

The coding/structure of "time" enables us to tell the difference between events past, present, or future. It affects our personality in major ways since it affects our sense of cause-effect, order, structure, etc.

People in different cultures operate from different concepts of “time.” In the field of NLP, we speak about this using the following distinctions as concepts. From these we have developed numerous patterns.

In Time people or orientation — being able to get lost in “time” by forgetting to notice “time.” A primary state experience that “loses one’s mind” about time and comes to one’s senses and exists so much “in the moment” that “time” vanishes. A great orientation for love making, “flow” experiences, exercising, watching a movie, going on vacation. This is a terrible orientation for attending classes at university, keeping appointments, catching trains, etc.

Through Time people or orientation — being able to intuitively know what “time” it is, to sequence and order oneself over the space of “time,” to order and sequence activities effectively. This state of mind effectively structures one’s sense of “what time it is” in relationship to activities, and cares about “time,” and loves (values) being “on time.” This is a great orientation for business, school, military, etc.

Eastern time sequencing — Random in “time.” Caring more about what happens during “time,” than the comparison and awareness of “time” itself.

Western time sequencing — Sequential in “time.” Caring more about noting and ordering events rather than perhaps the quality of the happenings in that time.


Orientation to "time" — Past Present FutureMemoriesSolid/RealFixed, Rigid, StuckLimitedPredestinationConsequential TimeAlreadySense of Reality

Sensory AwarenessFlexibleSome fixednessChoiceResponsibilityImpulsive ThinkingNowSense of TodayThe Now

Possibilities/PlansAnticipationPrimarily MovementOpportunities/ExpansiveVisions/DreamsAnticipatory ThinkingThe, One of these daysSense of Hope/Desire

Time Styles —Through Time (Out of Time) In Time AtemporalDissociatedOut of the BodySequentialValues and Likes TimeOn time; punctualAware of Time

AssociatedIn/Through the BodyRandom, SimultaneousSyntheticDis-values and Dislikes

TimeFrequently lateNon-PromptLost in the Now, the

Moment, the Memory

TimelessnessAbove the BodyMeta positionNeutral to Time

Time-Line Awareness Pattern 1) Identify your "time"-line/s.

Having elicited your representations for "time" past, present and future via the metaphor of a "line," now imagine floating above it and looking down upon it.

2) Float back in "time" along the time-line. As you do, notice “the You” of your "past."

3) Now go forward in "time." Observing both the events you represent and how you represent those events remembered or imagined.

4) What "time" problems did you notice that you'd like to address? What events exercise too much importance? What events carry too little impact? How encoded? Black areas, pits, turns, twists, etc.

5) How might you like to alter your "time" line? Identify some of the things you might like to change about the events on your "time" line: shape, configuration, tilt, color, etc.

6) Using the submodalities, change the properties of the situation, i.e. Distance, size, brightness, etc.


EXTERNALIZING THE TIME-LINE KINESTHETICALLYWe can not only internally visualize a time-line, but also externalize our time-line. This is especially valuable to those who do not prefer the visual system for encoding “time.” It helps those who do not easily make internal pictures as well as those who lack awareness of their internal pictures.

Experiences that we store “out” of time can sometimes become represented as if they continue always to happen in an ongoing manner . Even though those events have already occurred and we consider them “over” for us, we code and represent them in such a way as to cue our brains that those events continue with us as our ever-present reality. And, if we experienced those events as traumatic in the first place, this way of coding can create continual and/or even cumulative hurt in an ongoing fashion. To deal with representations of previous experiences we must recode them in more neutral and less compelling ways, and then reinsert them into our time-line. This can create a positive resource.

1) Lay your time-line on the floor.

“Stand up and you stand in this spot, allow yourself to turn appropriately and to point in the direction of your past... In which direction does it feel or seem to you that the past lies in? Point to it. Now point to your future... Now let’s mark this out by walking back to last month, last year, five years ago.” Then walk the person through his past.

2) Identify the configuration of the time-line.

“I want you to walk through your present, past, and future. Then, step aside from your time-line on the floor and to simply notice its configuration, size, etc. As you step aside from the line there and take this meta-position, just notice how your sense of time feels to you.”

3) Identify a behavior that you want to change.

“Notice the kinesthetics associated with that undesired behavior. And begin to just feel that problematic behavior. When you feel ready, amplify it. I want you to recognize this feeling and allow yourself to go back in time to when you first had this feeling.”Get a good anchor for the old problematic behavior that the person finds limiting and un-useful.


4) Now step back in small steps to where you had that same kinesthetic sensation previously.

Use the anchor for the undesired behavior to move him or her backward in time, noticing and anchoring it again each time it arises. With more small steps, go back even further, asking, “How old do you now feel or sense yourself?” “Do the kinesthetic sensations diminish or intensify as you take this step backward?” Invite the person to go all the way back to the point where the kinesthetics first began. At each of the kinesthetic spots have the person identify his/her age. Take another step backward.

5) When the person has moved all the way back to the earliest experience of those kinesthetics, invite him or her to take meta-position to the time-line.

“I want you to step off the time-line now, to this meta-position.” “Where did you first experience those sensations?” “When did that occur?” “What do you need to go through life and time and to feel different about yourself?” “What do you need so that you do not need to re-experience life as you did?”

Specifically index the old trauma feelings: where, when, and how to bring into consciousness facets the person may not be aware of. “Do you have these resources now?” If not, help the person find references for those resources from others by imagination (construction) or by putting together bits and pieces of history. Access as many resources as the person needs until you get a yes to, “Does this supply all that you need to effectively handle those events?”

6) Anchor resources as they arise and stack them.

From the meta-position anchor the resources and bring the person up to the present. Reframe limiting meanings that emerge. If the person says that some event made them a “failure,” validate and reframe it as an experience of learning. Freely assist in using NLP patterns for updating the meanings.

7) Use conversational reframes to give new meaning.

Assist in redefining the meanings the person has attributed to painful experiences. “While you have found this very painful and upsetting (pacing), you can begin to realize that this has also taught you something very important in life to avoid.”


8) Invite the person to walk around his or her younger self. This step assists the person in gaining new and different information from different perspectives. It typically shakes a person out of a limiting tunnel-vision while simultaneously building up a broader perspective.

9) Step back onto the time-line.

Once the person gathers up all the needed resources and has some new reframes, invite him or her to step back onto the time-line at the place of the first instance of the undesired behavior. I now want you to quickly walk up through “time” on your time-line — taking all your resources with you. Do this quickly!” As you say this, and they begin to move, fire the resource anchors on their elbow and walk with them as you take them up the line to the present.

10) Stop when you arrive at the present.

Depending upon the emotional experience of the experiencer, give the person a moment to process things.“Now let all of these learnings and experiences integrate fully into a new sense of yourself, into feeling so much more resourceful.”

11) Have the person turn around.

When the person feels ready, have him or her turn around to face their past. “Now as you look back on your past, you can allow yourself to notice how this has become different and continues to become different, now and into the future, providing you new ways of thinking and feeling about it.” Wait a minute to let that perspective integrate.

12) Have the person face their future.

When you have finished with facing the past, invite the person to turn around again to face the future. “And now as you look at your future, you can notice how the future has become different also, how it has become brighter and more hopeful and you can wonder just how much brighter it will become... What changes do you now notice in your time-line itself? How will this assist you as you move into your future?”


13) Take another meta-position.

Have the person step aside from the time-line, or from the end of it and have them look at their present and future from an “out of time” perspective. Repeat this from one or two other perspectives. “What effect does this have on you?”“What else does this allow you to learn that you can use in a positive way?”

“From the end of the future time-line, offer the perspective. As you look back over your lifetime and as you notice the things you could do after that date that was the present, when you did that exercise, what would have enabled you to have developed even more fully so that you would have become even more resourceful in your future, now?”

14) Reorient the person back to the present.

End the process by bring the person back to the present. End with more general process instructions. “And now you can take one step forward.”


CHANGING YOUR TIME-LINEWould you like to change your time-line or lines? Since our time-lines simply exist in our mind-body as a coding of the concept, the process of changing these internal representations of "time" can occur relatively simple. But... a warning, when you change your time-line, you may initially experience disorientation, even feel dizzy, "strange," "weird," etc.

There are no "right or wrong" Time-Lines; there are only useful and unuseful Time-Lines. Our ability to know if we have already paid our taxes or not also arises from how we mentally organize time.

How do you encode memories of the past or future? How do you store this kind of information in your brain? Do you like how you experience your time-lines? Are they useful? Do they help you to sort things out, enable you to enjoy experiences, to move with confidence and resources into your future? If not, then you might want to make some alterations in it. It's a human construction, so it can be transformed.

Changing a Through Time Orientation:

1) Float up above your time-line.

From there straighten your line so it runs left to right. Then, rotate your time-line ninety degrees (or rotate yourself ninety degrees)

2) Then drop down into your time-line.

Do so with the realization and feeling that you now have your "past" behind you. And as you let your represent your "past" as behind your head, you can open your eyes to see the "present" directly in front of your face while the future seems at arms length or further in front of your face. Take a moment with this... How does it feel?


Changing an In Time Orientation:

1) Float up above "time."

Straighten your time-line and then rotate your line ninety degrees (or rotate your body ninety degrees).

2) Drop behind your time-line.

Do this so that everything lies directly in front of you. Make the images about six inches to one foot square and place "past" images an arms length to your left (if right handed). Notice that your "future" has moved to the other side. The present goes directly in front of your face about a foot out. Imagine the tops of all three images to stand at eye level. You have now taken on the codings of an ideal Through Time person. Take a moment with this... How does this feel?

Some people experience profound changes as they do this exercise. Others experience few changes. A few people will lack the ability to do this on their own and will need assistance from someone trained in working with time-line processes. You may wish to leave your time-line in its opposite position for a while just to experiment with it. But avoid driving when you first try on a different time-line. When you feel ready to put your time-line codings back, float up again and reverse the adjustments you made.


USING TIME-LINES FOR THERAPYHow Time-Line As Therapy WorksHow and why does time-line processes work?

Obtaining Distance (Dissociation)

Partly, Time-Line processes work due to the effective power of dissociating from a painful state. As we learn to "go meta" to our negative emotions, concept of "time,” poor decisions, inadequate generalizations, etc., we obtain distance from them so that we can recognize them as maps. This enables us to gain perspective to our immediate thoughts-and-feelings. It empowers us to think clearer and with more objectivity. It enables us to bring other resourceful understandings to bear on our states. This dissociating also enables us to know ourselves as more than our experiences in "time." The Submodality of “Location”

Time-line processes work by means of the submodality of location. As we have encoded “time” symbolically by using the symbol of “location” so that “the past” is “behind” us and the “future” is in “front” of us, when we change this structure, other things change. Psychologically, our emotions require "time" for us to express and to create meanings. When we go before (a temporal predicate) an event’s “cause" (the context in which we make some un-enhancing map), it becomes impossible to "reckon," "account," or represent any map that would generate any emotion. The Power of “Imagination”

Our brain-body system does not distinguish between information imagined vividly and actual experience. When we send messages to our brain using Time-Line processes, our brain only knows to represent such and the body only knows to experience it. This actualizes the thoughts as internally and subjectively real. That’s why you can just vividly imagine eating a lemon... and find your mouth watering or why just imagining someone scraping a fingernail down a blackboard and scratching it causes our skin to cringe.

Similarly, when we imagine floating above and before an event, we cue our neurology to cease experiencing the old emotion derived from the event. We've changed the context the frame. By so outframing the old experience, our emotions transform. From that frame of reference the event in "time" has not yet occurred and so does not exist. This eliminates the “emotion.”


CHANGE PERSONAL HISTORY Because the “past” only exists “in our mind,” and does not exist externally in the world “out there,” it has no real existence other than in mental and linguistic reality. The actual events and happenings have passed on. Yet we can keep our memory of those events inside us — in our mind and body. When we do, what we call the “past” is our "memory" of past occurrences.

Nor do such memories stay put. As they are subject to the effect of ongoing experiences and changes, they continually change. With every new learning, feeling, experience, etc., how we “look back on,” and remember things changes. That’s because the very process of thinking, remembering, recalling, etc. is a dynamic process — and hence, a new event.

Remembering inside of the human neuro-linguistic system is not the same as looking at old photo albums, handling old pictures and memorabilia. Those “things” stay the same (well, okay, they also are decaying, fading, changing, but at a very slow rate). How different is the act of remembering, of using our brain, higher cortex, meanings, beliefs, etc. to recall and recount prior events. We are forever interfering with our memories and so even the “past” we remember never stays the same. With each revisit to it, we change it. Every new understanding, development, learning, and experience we revise and update our memories. Since our memory only exists as a construction, this has led NLP co-founder, Richard Bandler to say, "It is never too late to have a happy childhood."

All of this makes the dynamic processes of remembering very personal. What we remember, why we remember, and how we use our memories entails our personal response-ability. Some people believe that they must keep "accurate" accounts of their past. They believe that accuracy of what happened is more important than the effect of such hurtful and traumatizing memories on current day states.

Others believe that just because something really did happen, that that in itself is no reason to keep defaulting to it and using it as a reference. To use the most hurtful, ugly, and traumatizing memories as our frames of reference will only dis-empower us. Doing so will only mean that we will keep cuing our mind-body system to “live in the past;” and to re-live the hurt, and to keep re-accessing negative emotional states. When we do this, we create ongoing hurt and disempowerment. Not a wise way to run our own brain.

Instead of mis-using our ability to detect, recognize, and encode “time” in that way, we can set other frames with more empowering beliefs. We can learn to use our “past” for learning and feedback, rather than for state induction of fear and dread. We can indeed change our personal histories.

This NLP pattern offers a way to recode the “past” in such a way that it no longer serves as a reference for destructive feelings or for defining self in negative ways. It recodes memories as resources and learnings, and becomes an enhancing orientation for moving into the future with a positive attitude. The process finds a problem memory, traces it to its source, reframes it with resources and then brings that resource state up to the present and into the future.


THE CHANGE PERSONAL HISTORY PATTERNUse this pattern to recode your “past” so that it no longer serves as a reference for feeling bad or for defining yourself in a negative way. It allows us to use our memories as resources for moving into the future with a positive attitude and faith. (Users, p. 271)

1) Access problematic memory.

Do you have any memory of the past that you find problematic or unwanted? Do you have any memories that still have strong unpleasant feelings associated with it?Get the memory, nod when it begins to feel bad. I will establish an anchor for this state.

2) Searching Back Through Time for original events.

Now as you feel this [fire the anchor], I want you to go back... in your past from today... and allow the next time you felt something like this to come to mind.

[This is using the anchor to do a trans-derivational search.]Let me know by nodding when you have found another instance of this feeling [fire anchor.]

[Continually calibrate to the person’s experiencing and re-experiencing of a similar negative state.]

What is your age as you’re experiencing this?

3) Continue the Search Backwards through Time.

Now float back again to the next time you feel something like this feeling... letting me know by nodding and letting me know your age again.

[Continue to use the anchor as you invite the person to go back to find 3 to 6 isomorphic experiences of this same negative state.]

4) Break state.

Good. Now I want you to return to the present, to this moment with me.What resources would you have needed in those past situations that would have allowed you to have been more effective and empowered?Menu list: assertive, confident, loved, self-esteem, proactive, set boundaries, etc.Elicit and anchor each resource state. Do you know how to access confidence? When were you most confident?


5) Collapse anchor.

I want you to now return to the oldest experience you recalled... good... and as you do, I want you to feel this [fire resource anchor and then the anchor for the negative state].What is that memory like now when you know you have this resource with you?

How would this resource make your past different?[Repeat this process as you invite the person to move up through his/her personal history, stopping at each instance with the resource anchor.]

And notice how your history changes when you feel this. [Trouble-shooting: If the person has difficulty changing a past experience, return to the present and more fully elicit and anchor additional resources. The strength of the resources leverages the transformations.]

6) Break state, then Test.

After changing the past experiences, break state. Now I want you to just think about that problematic feeling and notice what happens. How have your memories changed? In what way?

7) Future pace.

Now imagine moving into your future feeling these resources... Do you like that? Would that enhance your life?


CHANGE PERSONAL HISTORY USING META-STATES

The following adaptation of this pattern restates it using the Meta-States Model. Hall and Bodenhamer developed this pattern.

1) Identify the problem event.

This will serve as the primary state. “Think about a time and place in your history that still troubles you.” “How does it trouble you?” “What problem does it create for you?” “When you step into that memory, what emotion arises? What meanings?” Now step out of that problem state.

2) Take an observer’s viewpoint of that experience.

This represents a meta-state about the primary state. Float above your time-line (dissociate) and go back to the problem event and observe it as a witness to it. From this meta-position, see that younger you going through that event. (If you have difficulty staying dissociated, put your representations up on an imaginary screen.)

3) Gather learnings about the event from the observer position.

This allows you to move into another meta-state about the primary — learning about the event. “What resources did that younger you need?” “What resources did the others in the situation need?” Identify the resources needed that would have changed it.

4) Return to the present and fully access the resources.

From the position of the here-and-now, access and anchor each and every needed resource. Amplify these and then test your anchors for the resources.

5) From the observer meta-position, transfer the resources.

When you have returned to the past event, give that younger you each resource as a gift from your present self. Then let the event play out with the resources. Imagine the younger you now acting, thinking, feeling, etc. in a transformed way. From this position, you can also give the others in the movie the resources that they needed.


6) Come forward through your history with the added resources.

Step into the movie and become that younger you for the moment, and then imagine yourself moving up through your time-line experiencing the resources so that as you move through each subsequent year of life, the resources transforms your history and enriches your life. Let the resources transform yourself and the others.

7) Return to the present and run an ecology check.

Does this new edition of your memory provide you a sense of closure? Does it encode better learnings and responses? Does it enhance your life? Would you like to live with this new edition? Does it provide you a more useable map for navigating life?

8) Future pace.

“Look out into your future from the perspective of having made these changes in your sense of your personal history and imagine them continuing into your future... “


DECISION DESTROYER

Sometimes, as we move through, life we make some poor decisions. Afterwards, those decisions become part of our mental map and begin to operate as a major psychological force in our life (as a meta-state). This pattern destroys such limiting, destructive, and unenhancing decisions.

"Decisions" function as part of our mental maps that provide specific instructions about what to do. And while a decision in one context and at one time may function very well for our benefit, as contexts and times change, these decisions can become out-dated and unuseful. This pattern allows us to alter the decisions that we have constructed (See Figure 6:1)

The Pattern

1) Identify a limiting decision that you still live with.

What did you decide? Fully express the decision and its meanings. When did you adopt this decision? How long have you lived with it? How has it become limiting to you? Fully elicit this information.

2) Identify an enhancing decision you'd like to live life by.

What would be a more enhancing decision that you would serve you better now and in the future? Access this decision state and anchor it fully.What decision would have been empowering and would have transformed your life?Describe it fully so that you can fully associate into it and the feelings it induces. "I will speak up in an assertive way. I have the right to my voice and I will use it.” “I will develop the self-controlled and confidence to become highly competent in my work.” etc.

3) Preserve the learnings.

Take a moment to notice the learnings available in this experience for you. Preserve the learnings that you want to keep within you.Float above your time-line and back to when you made the limiting decision (Position 2 in Figure 6:1. Page 185).

4) Move to a time before the Limiting Decision

Remaining above your Time-Line, float back further. Go past the limiting decision event to 15 minutes prior to that event (Position #3).


3) Stop there and see yourself below.

You will be both “before” and “above” the installation of the “Limiting Decision.”

Float down into that prior time and associate into it (Position 5). From this perceptive you can look into your future from that vantage point just prior to the limiting decision. And yet, since it hasn't been made yet, the future is wide open. You might also notice that the emotions along with that decision has disappeared as well... see them vanish...

5) Re-access your enhancing decision.

Access your resource state of a more enhancing decision (Step #2 above).Once you have your enhancing decision fully accessed from above the time-line, float down into that younger you (Position 5), bringing with you that Enhancing Decision fully and completely.

6) Let the Empowering Decision Transform things.

Now with this Empowering Decision in mind, move up into that Younger You ... and let them change your memories and feelings as you move through time with that new resourceful decision. Quickly zoom up through your time-line to the present, stopping the present. Fully integrate the experience.

7) Future pace and check Ecology.


Figure 6:1Time-Lining Diagram for the Decision Destroyer

Position 1: Position above the time-line, in the presentPosition 2: Position directly above the installation of the “Limiting Decision”Position 3: Fifteen minutes before and above the installation of the “Limiting Decision”Position 4: Association into the formation of the “Limiting Decision”Position 5: Associated on the Time Line “Before” the “Limiting Decision”


META-STATING A NEW DECISION IN “TIME”A Time-Lining Pattern - The Decision Destroyer

This pattern allows us to use the Concept (hence a meta-level) of “Time” (past, present, future) in a way that serves our empowerment and effectiveness. It permits us to undo false, unuseful, and toxic mappings from past events that we no longer need to drag with us and use to torture ourselves (or others!). A decision map created at some previous time does not have to be treated as unchangeable. We can re-code an old decision and update it.

The Pattern:1) Identify your Time-Line.

Think of some simple activity that you did this morning, then think about it last week, last year, 2 years ago, 5 years ago ... next week, next month, next year, 2 years from now, 5 years from now.— Where do you locate these memories and imagination?— What kind of a configuration do you have these in: a line, circle, drawer, rolodex, etc.?— Differences in Pictures, Sounds, Feelings?

2) Float above your sense of “time” and draw a Time-Line.Now float back to a specific memory, and then float forward through now to a time in the future.

3) Identify a decision, belief, experience, etc. in your history (“past”) in which you experience some hurtful, ugly things and made some very unuseful maps from. — A limiting decision— A limiting Belief— A limiting hurt that you can still feel bad about

4) Access, Anchor, and Amplify some Resources.What resourceful states, ideas, understandings, beliefs, decisions, etc. would have totally have transformed that old experience?

5) Float up and then back on your Time-Line to 15 minutes before the Event.Anticipate that in a minute, when you float back down into your Time-Line, 15 minutes prior to the old experience and look into your future, you will not see the old stuff — because it has not happened yet. And now you can fully and completely re-access the Resources that you want to experience as you live through the experience... and as you do, the resources will totally transform everything.Float down... with the resource... and bring it through the experience and up to the present.

6) Future pace and Check ecology.


RELEASING NEGATIVE EMOTIONSOverview: 1) In NLP, the general approach to “negative” emotions using Time-Lines

has been to begin with the pattern for eliciting Time-Lines and to use it to “take a person back to the event” from which they created the original negative emotions.

2) After going back, in one’s mind, to a past event from which you felt negative (i.e., guilty, resentful, angry, scared, terrified, depressed, etc.). Then, “floating above your time-line,” look down upon the event and inquire of your unconscious mind what you need to learn from that event that you might want to keep with you.

3) Step three then involved going back a bit further, to 15 minutes prior to that event and to then drop down into that moment in time and to look toward your future. The coach would then ask, “Where are the emotions?” Or, the coach might ask, “And what do you see of the future that has not yet happened from this vantage point?” Of course, the answer is rhetorical and obvious... “an open future.” This is then strengthened, confirmed, and validated by making sure that from fully associating into that position prior to the negative event a person sees an open future of possibilities.

4) When that’s accomplished, then the person is told to zoom quickly up, all the way back up to the present (the now)... Sometimes the coach might say, “Come back to the now only as quickly as you can let go of that negative emotion...”

5) This is then tested. “Can you remember any event in the past where you used to be able to feel that old emotion?” If so, the person would repeat the process.

EvaluationWhile this describes a very effective pattern for old emotions that are no longer relevant, it tends to quickly dismiss “emotions” as such without taking into account the validity, usefulness, and appropriateness of the emotion or the informational value of such emotions. “Emotions” provide an informational value to us inasmuch as they arise, in part, from our thoughts. Yet our thinking can be inappropriate as well as appropriate, inaccurate as well as accurate, mistaken, erroneous, exaggerated, etc. Some emotions come to us as warnings to be heeded. To “release” them before evaluating them is to consider a “negative” emotion as somehow inherently “bad.” They are not. They are just “Stop, Look, Listen!” signals about the difference between our Maps of the World and our Experience of the World.


The Pattern:

1) Determine the kind of guilt/guilting (anger, fear, resentment, self-pity, grief, etc.)

What kind of “guilt” is this?What law have I violated?Is this valid or invalid information?Is this feeling accurate or inaccurate?

2) Elicit and use the person's time-line.

Where do you put past events? Future events? Today’s happens?

3) Flush out the cause or contributing factors for the negative emotion (in this case, guilt).

Then ask, “If you knew the root cause of this problem if when you disconnect from it will cause that problem to disappear, when would that have been, before, during or after your birth?”

What were any other contributing influences that affected it? What have I learned or could I learn that will serve me in the future?Am I ready to release it and disconnect from it?

4) Float back to the original event.

As you identify the original source or time when the negative feeling began, float above your time-line, and go back into that past. From this higher-level perspective, what have you learned from that experience? Preserve all the things you can now learn from that experience so that it can inform you in a most resourceful way.

5) Float back even a little further in time.

You can now allow yourself to float back on your meta-line of “time” even further and to do so in a comfortable way, as you float past the original source or time of the feeling... and go back even further as you float back to 15 minutes prior to the event.Now direct your attention forward... to the present... Pause to experience this fully.As you now see the event below and in front, and knowing that you have acknowledged the wrong, changed your mind about the actions, are willing to apologize or make amends, give yourself permission to fully let the guilt go.


As you open your eyes to the future that has not yet occurred, from that point in time, what do you see? Is the negative emotion there? Do you need to create that this time?Have the old emotions flatten out and become de-energized?

6) Quickly zoom forward in time.

Seeing the future open with possibilities, just imagine zooming quickly to the present; allow the past to change, in your mind, as it serves to enhance your life and maintaining all your learnings and values. Do so comfortably until you come to a place Zoom this feeling of release up through time as you take this feeling and move into your future with it.

7) Future pace.

Associate into a future experience in which you would formerly have re-triggered the old guilt. Are the old dated emotions completely gone?


RESOLVING PHOBIAS & SEMANTIC REACTIONS ON THE TIME-LINE

We can put the NLP “Phobia Cure” on the time-line to add yet another meta-level to our work and to direction the mind while reducing the negative emotional charge that someone has built up without resolution. This gives us yet another way to address the memories of unresolved hurts, difficulties, traumatic events, etc. Here we combine the Visual-Kinesthetic Dissociation pattern with Time-Lines.

Figure 6:2Time-Lining Diagram for the “Fast Phobia Cure”1. Float above your time line.2. Go all the way back to “before” your conception or your beginning as a biological entity.3. From the position before conception, place an imaginary screen above the time on your time line of the traumatic event.4. Run the “Fast Phobia Cure” pattern from this position seeing yourself in the traumatic event watching yourself on the imaginary movie screen.

Note: I (BB) utilize the conceptual place of “before conception” quite often in therapy. I have found that this place known as the “Void,” the “Place of Pure Potentiality,” etc. as a very powerful conceptual place for reframing. If you are “before” any trauma, limiting beliefs, etc. were installed, then where are the problem frames? By “presupposition” they do not exist which gives the client permission to meta-state the problem with present resources.


RE-IMPRINTINGTraumatic episodes and reactions can arise from traumatic experiences, negative input through stories, movies, and imaginations. Once we map out a "trauma," the trauma can come to function as belief and identity imprints that lead to limiting beliefs.

"Imprints" themselves can involve positive experiences as well as negative. Frequently, people abused as children will grow up and make unconscious choices that put them back into situations that seem to repeat the prototype trauma situation. By definition, an "imprint" codes people with a map that seems to function in a very ingrained way—one not so easily affected by conscious methods of cognitive restructuring.

Imprints may involve single experiences or a series of experiences. From them we may come to believe the imprint as reality, "This is the way things are." Imprints can even arise from the beliefs of significant persons. They may arise from beliefs of another person, which becomes imprinted in the child. Sometimes the belief operates in a “delayed action” format. Thus, at the time, the person may reject the other's view, but later the other's beliefs (as internal representations) seem to "come alive."

Imprints, as beliefs, also work in a self-fulfilling way. When we try to argue with a belief, the person may have too much data, gathered over time, supporting the belief. By going back to the original imprint, we come to a time before the person's maps become cluttered by later confirmations. In imprint situations, often a person switches positions with a hurtful person and experiences the other's reality. A child in an intense ongoing relationship with parents often imprints or interjects some of the parent’s beliefs and behaviors and makes them part of his or her own beliefs.

Children do not have a clear sense of their self-identity. They often pretend to think and act as someone else. Sometimes they take on the role model—lock, stock, and barrel—with very little discrimination as to what they accept entails. Our adult selves, in many ways, involve an incorporation of the models we grew up with. Our model of adulthood has the features of past significant others. In them we can find family beliefs, precedents, rules, scripts, etc. that arose from our childhood.

Introjection of a significant other frequently, although not always, occurs in the imprinting process. When this doesn't occur, we probably just have a problem with a person or certain behaviors. The key lies in what belief/s a person developed via the imprint experience. Imprints generally operate outside of conscious awareness.


The mechanism for discovery of the imprint comes from anchoring an imprint feeling (a negative emotion) and using the emotion as a guide to find past memories. (See Change History for the TDS). Travel back with it to the point where you feel confused, to the point of “I don't know." At the impasse, we have probably come to "the right address." The emotion will lead to the experience out of which we made the limiting belief. If one encounters a "blank," anchor that blank as a dissociated state, and take it back in time to a significant past imprint.

When a person reaches an impasse or imprint, immediately interrupt them and anchor a powerful resource state (courage, power, etc.). Take that resource state back into the impasse to help the person get through it.

By finding the imprint experience and re-coding it with the resources that all the persons involved needed back then, people change their perspectives and the subsequent beliefs that derived from that experience. Re-imprinting creates a multiple perspective viewpoint, which serves as the basis for wisdom in making decisions, dealing with conflicts, negotiating, relating, etc.

Re-imprinting helps with the updating of internal maps by highlighting resources one can use to resolve and/or avoid trauma situations. In re-imprinting, we even give (mentally in our minds) the people who perpetrated hurt the resources they needed in order not to have created such hurt. Doing this doesn't excuse or condone the hurtful behavior, but maps out appropriate resources and behaviors. Often, victims of crimes build limiting beliefs that anger and fear then maintain. Such shows up as revenge beliefs and then creates even more stuckness by creating a victim's identity. Giving the perpetrator the resources they needed prior to the incident where the imprint occurred helps to resolve one's memory of the episode.

Re-imprinting helps a person to update the internal maps. It allows them to hold different beliefs and resources. It allows the imprint experience to mean something resourceful.


The Reimprinting Pattern

1) Identify the problem.

What belief, behavior, emotion, etc. do you want to change? What associated feelings go along with it? Inquire about what the person has done to change that belief or behavior. Ask, "What stands in the way?" "What stops you?"

2) Locate the experience. With the anchored feeling, initiate a TD search using your time-line, etc. to locate the imprint experience.

3) Using a time-line travel back with the emotion.

Establish a time-line and go back to the imprint experience. Have the person stay with the feeling (while you hold the anchor) and begin to remember the earliest experience of this feeling. When the person has gotten to an earlier experience, while associated in this regressed state, have him or her verbalize the beliefs (generalizations) formed from that experience.

"Take a moment and think about how frustrating (or whatever the negative emotion) everything has been. Take that feeling back in time... what do you experience? Does it involve anyone else? ... Do you see the person looking at you? ... Go ahead and put yourself inside 'the you back then' for just a moment. What beliefs do you make about this experience? ... What beliefs about others, about the world, about God?" Sometimes when the person verbalizes the belief, this will consist of the first time he or she has become aware of it. The articulation of the belief itself will cause the misbelief to simply evaporate.

4) Break state and review the experience.

Ask the person to step off the time-line and review the imprint experience, identifying the situation and the other participants.

"I want you to come back here to this room now, and to leave that past memory."

Then have the person experience the episode as if watching a movie of himself.

"Look back at that experience you had, put it way out there so that it completely leaves, so that you no longer find yourself in it at all... and watch that younger you..." "How has that experience affected you since that time?"


Ask the person to verbalize any other beliefs formed as a result of this imprint (those beliefs that arose "after the fact"). Sometimes people don't form beliefs at the time of the imprint, but later. We can build imprint beliefs both during and after the episode

5) Find the positive intentions in the feeling or belief.

Determine the positive intentions of the people involved in the situation. The person may have to ask the characters. "What positive intention did you have in doing this?" Did they seek to install this belief that you exist as a worthless person? Trying to screw you up? What intention did this part have in doing this? Would he like it if he knew what is now going on with you?

6) Identify and anchor the needed resources.

Ask the person to identify and anchor the resources and choices that he/she needed back then and didn’t have. Do the same for all the characters in the situation.

"What would you need to give those persons in order for them to respond differently?" "More acceptance." "So they need a realization that different people have different models of the world."

Get those resources. "I want you to vivid recall a time when you fully had that accepting feeling. Find a specific example." Anchor it.

7) Apply the resource.

Ask the person to review the imprint experience, off the time-line, from the perspective of each of the characters involved. Holding the anchor, give each character in the situation all the resources they would have needed to achieve a desired outcome - back then.

"Take these resources and give it to this other person. This other person is in your brain right now — that image or memory comes from your brain. So take this and give it to him. What does he or she do differently? ... What beliefs do you now build out of this experience?... Just go inside, and allow your unconscious mind to review each experience with this experience knowing that they now have the resources they needed. We know that this person didn't have that resource at that time, although as your resource, you can update that model now...""There is a younger self back in that experience that needs resources that he or she didn't have then. What resources do you have now that would have allowed you to build a different set of beliefs then?... What insights, skills, abilities...? What is the closest you have come to having that resource? Now take that light and shine it back through your history.


“Shine it on that younger you... so that as that younger you begins to feel this resource, you can allow yourself to imagine how that would have changed things. And you can now allow yourself to be relaxed and secure, calm and comfortable with yourself in that memory... see that younger self in front of you building resourceful beliefs and abilities.”

8) Associate and relive the imprint experience.

Becoming each character, have the person step onto the time-line (holding the anchor) with all the resources previously given to that character. Then have the person update and/or modify the beliefs associated with the experience.

9) Receive resources.

Ask the person step onto the time-line as their younger self and receive the qualities, attributes they needed from each significant character.

10) Review and future pace.

Ask the person to step off the time-line and review the changed experience. When he/she feels satisfied with the outcome, have the person step back onto the time-line, and then move up quickly into his or her future. Then stop and use the resources to see how they will think-feel and live in a new and different way.


FINISHING UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The following pattern offers a process for assisting a person to catch up in their psychic development after he or she has cleaned up old traumatic memories, limiting beliefs, and/or dis-empowering beliefs.

Eric Erickson's Developmental Model of the Psycho-Social Stages:1) Trust / Mistrust of others who respond to and care for our needs2) Autonomy / Shame and Doubt: Functioning as self-sufficient & exploring3) Initiative / Guilt: Exploring and negotiating boundaries4) Industry / Inferiority: Learning to become competent, productive in

mastering skills5) Identity / Role confusion: Establishing a sense of self6) Intimacy / Isolation: Dealing with companionship, love, friendships7) Generativity / Stagnation: a meaningful contribution 8) Integrity/Despair: Making sense of life.

1) Adopt a commitment to reality.

Having cleared up the hurts of the past, and having used your new understandings and "ego strength" to face those past hurts from your strengths, you have begun to "make yourself a friend to reality" rather than an enemy. Those days of feeling and thinking in an antagonistic way to reality have ended. The skill of "going meta" to the experiences that that younger you had "in" time by floating above on your time-line has given you the skill to look at and accept the disliked, obnoxious, dysfunction, etc. without taking it personal. What a skill! And you can congratulate yourself for learning to accept without confusing it with approving, validating, or endorsing what existed. You can accept what exists--what existed--and dislike it and realize fully it only existed as an event, an experience, and a set of behaviors--and that you exist as so much more than those experiences.

This skill signifies the adult recognition of reality as a dispassionate fact. How different from the way we thought-and-felt as children! Then we took events personal, we thought in ego-centric ways, we introjected the hurtful behaviors of others, and we built disempowering beliefs about ourselves and we have now learned to do that no more.

2) Access a state of adult acceptance.

Think about a time or situation where you accepted something that you did not like. Pick something simple to practice identifying these representations: cleaning the bathroom and toilet, doing dishes, preparing your tax return, etc. How do you, representationally, construct this acceptance of disliked activity? What beliefs and values support this state. When you have it fully and resourcefully, anchor it.


3) Access a friendship to reality state.

Maturing, developing, and becoming fully human necessitates a commitment to what actually exists, in the place of wishful thinking, magical thinking, and regretful thinking ("oh, if only...!"). Access a time when you positively felt that kind of orientation getting your IR, submodalities and supporting beliefs and anchor it.

4) Access the state of "finishing business" state.

Identify the state of "finishing something." What project, task, relationship, etc. have you engaged in, invested yourself in, and then brought to a completion and released so that you let it come completely and thoroughly in a positive way so that you simply took the resources of that experienced and moved on to the next step? Think about a grade in school that you finished, or a particular subject or skill that you learned. How did you complete that business with your instructor, coach, friends?

In accessing this resource state of "having positively brought something to closure" notice all of the IR and supporting beliefs that made this an enhancing life experience for you. You "came to terms" with the time-limited nature of the subject. You began something, and then you completed it. Anchor this.

5) Finish the "unfinished business" in your mind-emotions.

As you now float above your current time-line, where you live and act and feel and think today... looking down upon it and noticing how it moves back into the past, allow yourself to notice what developmental tasks (of the Erickson list, p. 78) that you did not complete -- trust, autonomy, identity, etc.

From above your time-line move forward into the future to a time when you can imagine seeing yourself as having finished that task. Now go there. What does finishing that task look like, sound like, feel like? What supporting beliefs, values, and actions go along with it? Fire the "finishing business" and "a friend to reality" anchors as you float down into that time and fully experience it with completeness. And you can enjoy the full development...

6) Use as a swish.

When you have fully captured the feeling and meaning of finishing that old business return to now and look into your future at that future you... noticing the steps and stages that you will take day by day as you move more and more into your future... because you can.


FINISHING A PAST GESTALT

In NLP we say that regardless of whether we like it or not, the "past" has ended. It has finished. When it feels like "unfinished business" only our current thinking exists as unfinished. No wonder we keep thinking and re-thinking going over and over our representations and meanings of those past events!

Many of the time-line processes in the early chapters offered processes for finishing an old gestalt of past emotions, thoughts, decisions, etc. Here we offer a more streamlined linguistic way.

When we analyze what keeps our thinking-and-emoting about those past events alive and dynamic--we almost always finds words. We find that in our self-dialogue, we keep telling ourselves things that energize and activate the old events.

"Why did that have to happen to me...?""Why can't I get over it...?""I know that I'll never get over it..."

Here we change the content of our meta-level thoughts about the past events so that we can program ourselves for closure.

The Pattern

1) Move to a meta-position.

Access a state meta to your Historical Time, Psychological Time, Developmental Time, etc

2) Re-Language the meaning of those old events.

From this position, out of the problem space, now say words of completion to it. Language it as finished.

"I see those events as unfortunate events that I once experienced...""From this day forward I will no longer empower those events or my own thinking about them as having any influence over the kind of person I will become and the kind of experiences that I will have.""Those exist as just old experiences that I survived and learned from."


SOMANTIC SWISH

1) Put your Time-Line on the floor

Stand up and orient to a time-line before, behind, and around you.Where is your future?Where is 1 week away, 2 weeks, 3, 4? Where is 1 month, 2 months, etc.?In 1 month (or 2 or 6) will you be more skilled than you are right now? [Yes]In your mind, zoom out to that time when you can see or imagine or feel yourself more skillful with these NLP patterns and processes.

2) Imagine a Desired Skill or Behavior or State.

Imagine a skill that is possible to experience in the near future of that Future You.Code this fully using all of your Cinematic features (VAK and Submodalities).Let’s go out and visit that Future You: Step into it... experience it. Now let’s back up to the Now.

3) Imagine that Desired Image in Lesser Form

Since everything develops, since nothing starts off full-grown, you can imagine yourself growing, developing, and becoming more skilled in the weeks and months to come, can you not?A week before that image would have been a lesser developed image, less robust... see the you weeks away, the you 2 weeks away, the you of next week.Make a series of lesser images in front of the you of 1 month from now. Go visit those images if you want to.

4) Back to the Moment

Walk into your future and through these ever-developing images, and along your future pathway until you get to that you of a Month from Now who will be more skilled... and gather up your resources as you move along... gathering up feelings, states, etc. As you move along.

Now that you have done that once, let’s back up to the Now and move very quickly through these images, breaking through each one until you get to that future self.


The Drop-Down Through PatternMeta-Stating by Dropping-Down Through Painful Experiences

1) Identify the experience and emotion you want to transform.

What emotion, feeling, memory, or experience would you like to transform so that it enhances your life? Are there any emotions or experiences that undermine your success that you would like to eliminate?

2) Step Into that Experience.

For the purposes of transformation, recall that experience and step into it so that you see what you saw, hear what you heard, and fully feel what you felt. Be there again. .... Good.

Where do you feel this in your body? What does it feel like? How intense are you experiencing this emotion?Good, just be there with it for a moment, noticing ... just noticing it fully... knowing that it is just an emotion and that you are so much more than any emotion...

3) Drop Down Through the experience.

This may feel strange, but you do know what it feels like when you drop ... so feeling that feeling of dropping, just drop down through that experience until you drop down underneath that feeling... What feeling or emotion lies underneath that emotion?And now just imagine dropping down through that feeling

[Use the language and terms that the person gives you.]And what feeling comes to you as you imagine yourself dropping down through that one?

[Keep repeating this dropping-down through process until the person comes to “nothing…” That is, to no feelings ... to a void or emptiness.]

4) Confirm the Emptiness

Just experience that “nothingness” or “void” for a moment. Good.Now let that nothingness open up and imagine yourself dropping through and out the other side of the nothingness.What are you experiencing when you come out the other side of the nothingness? What or whom do you see?

[Repeat this several times ... to a second, third, or fourth resource state.]


5) Meta-State each problem state

Use each resource state to meta-state each problem state.And when you feel X about Y, how does that transform things?And when you even more fully feel X C what other transformations occur? Valid and solidify: just stay right here in this X resource and as you experience it fully, what happens to the first problem state (#1)?When you feel this (fire anchor for each resource) ... what else happens to those old problem states?

6) Test

Let=s see what now happens when you try, and I want you to really try to see if you can get back the problem state that we started with. When you try to do that, what happens?Do you like this?Would you like to take this into your future?Into all of your tomorrows and into all your relationships?

Caveats about the Pattern In terms of trouble-shooting the use of this pattern, there are a few concerns as you work with people and coach them through this process.

1) About “getting to the bottom.”

Sometimes people will reach a point near or at the “void” where they say things such as, “That is it. There is nothing else.” Or, “I am at the bottom. There is nothing else below. I can’t go any further.” If this happens, then ask them if they have a visual. I invite the person to say something like, “I am on the ground. There is nothing below me.” When this happens then we can say, “Good, just imagine opening the earth up and dropping down through that.” In any Neuro-Semantic or NLP pattern, our basic approach is that we do what we have to do to coach a person to continue dropping down through. Use their metaphors and feed it back to them in a way that will lead them to open up whatever is blocking them.

2) For intense trauma, use another pattern first.

If the person is experiencing a great deal of emotional pain from a memory, use some other meta-stating patterns to loosen up the frames before using this pattern. We don=t want to lead a person to associate into some extremely painful experience when there are easier ways of


doing it. I (BB) have found with this pattern that it provides a great Acleaning up@ pattern for finalizing your work.

3) Track the person=s states all the way down.

If you have an excellent memory, make a visual image of a ladder and state in your mindC and to them, each state. If not, then jot down on a notepad each state the person drops-down into. Sometimes there will be as few as 5 and sometimes as many as 20 or 30.

4) When to end.

If the person still has some Anegative@ emotions after you have taken him or her through the process, then simply repeat the process. That is, recycle through those feelings as you did with the first negative feeling. You may have to do this two or three times. Do it until the person does not experience a negative feeling.


The Meta-Resource Walk


FUTURE WALKSome NLP trainings end with a Fire Walk, we will end with a Future Walk. It will begin when you take a thought or belief or decision or map that you have found very limiting, even toxic or disempowering and walk with it into the Hall of Disconfirmation... there you will hear a chorus of “Nos!!” and get to use those as a meta-frame to bring against the old limiting belief or decision... hear the “Nos!” until you also say “No!” and feel that the old map has no place in your world.With the space and freedom from that old map, you will be ready to take an Empowering Thought, Belief, Decision, or Map... and walk into the Hall of Confirmation. There you will hear a chorus of “Yeses!” ... the language, voices, and faces of validating, confirming, filling up your world with Values... and you can enjoy being there fully and receiving the validation of the Inspiring New Idea ...

JOY ...The next step is into the circle of Joy... fun, playfulness, excitement, delight, pleasure... and you can dance your way along the path of your future as you receive and delight yourself in your ability to say No to what doesn’t work and Yes to what does, and to moving toward the future that the Inspiring Map creates...

VISION... With the YES to your Inspiring Belief... you can step into a clearer Vision of your pathway and future. So look up... look forward... let the future get brighter, clearer ... using your empowering Beliefs... and see, really see...

WONDER ...Wondering ... curiously what the future will bring and what your newer resources will enable you to do, experience, feel, and be.... and joyfully wonder and let the curiosity empower your vision...

CONFIDENCE ...Feeling more and more confident about moving forward with your empowering beliefs, with joy and curiosity, and let the strength of your convictions grow ... into a sense of empowerment.... the strength of saying No and Yes, of deciding, of being clear, of having fun ...

FOCUS ... and COMMITMENT...Stepping now into the circle of focus and commitment ... with a laser beam focus on your Values and Visions as they grow...and you know you can do one thing at a time... and trust the process...

APPRECIATION ...Now step finally into the space of Appreciation and look at your future with the eyes of appreciation, highly esteeming the value and preciousness of life and of mind and of heart... And standing in awe of the wonder and joy of it all.


USING NLP FOR EFFECTIVE SELLING The following offers a simple and brief model for using the NLP model in sales.

1) Establish rapport with the person or persons.People like people who are like them, and who like them, and who seek to understand them out of respect.Using matching and mirroring processes to pace the person’s physiology, tone, rep. systems, breathing, values, etc.

2) Engage the Person and enter into his or her world model.Take time to seek first to understand the person. Respectfully ask open ended questions that seek to discover if the person has a need or desire that you could fulfill or assist with. Don’t assume that you do, but engage to discover. Inquire about situation, state, needs, wants, hopes, dreams, values, outcomes, etc.Gently meta-model the person’s responses and statements for clarity and precision.Inquire to determine the person’s meta-programs, meta-states, higher frames of beliefs and values.

3) Continue until you find a need or want.When you find a need or want, pace, validate, support, and anchor that state.We “sell to the gap” between present state and desired state. Develop the person’s sense of that gap so that it creates a sense of desire, motivation, etc.

4) Continue to build trust as you link need/want to your product or service.If you can supply that want or need, then lead to what you have to offer.Use the language of persuasion to powerfully influence the person making sure that your product and service indeed provides solid solutions.

Preframe possible objections thereby making them unnecessary.Elicit and anchor states of motivation, confidence, assurance, decision.Agreement FrameUse of the person’s buying, decision, motivation, implementation strategies.Handle objections by restating, validating, clarifying, reframing (mind-lines), outframing.

Hypnotic selling uses hypnotic language patterns: tag questions, etc.

5) CloseAsk for the order.Future paceAsk for referrals.


USING NLP FOR NEGOTIATING AND INFLUENCING

Prepare yourself for negotiating by accessing your best negotiating states and the beliefs (frames) that support such. “I can and will always walk away from any negotiation deal.” “I don’t have to have this deal.” “It’s only about money.”

1) Operate from a clear vision of outcomes.

Begin by pacing to establish rapport. Set frames for willingness to develop consensus. Preframe future possibilities.

Identify outcomes: What do you want? What is your outcome?What are the other person’s wants and outcomes?Use Assertive Format: I think, I feel, I want.Reflect back the other person’s assertions.

Creatively develop numerous options and alternatives for satisfying outcomes. Access and elicit (in self and other) states of creativity, playfulness, options, in order to brainstorm and generate lots of alternatives.

2) Use Dialogue to develop potential Agreement Frames.

Searching for Agreement Frames: Move beyond “positions” to higher-level outcomes.Initiate dialogue that openly explores possibilities.

States of persistence, belief, commitment, etc.Skills of dialogue: attentive listening, exploring, etc. Rather than propose and counter-propose, explore, restate, validate, probe, clarify.Commitment to a Win/Win arrangement: Win/Win or no Deal.Explore objections, problems, issues. Probe the meaning, importance, understandings, etc. that drive them.

Prioritize preferences, using scaling processes to gauge importance.

Refuse any Attack/ Counter-Attack moves. Defensiveness never helps. Defuse when attacked. Separate person from behavior. Assume positive intention and explore.

3) Develop tentative plans

Using agreement frames, commitment to larger outcomes, make offers and establish tentative solutions.State reasons before making a proposal (to sell it by setting frames).


USING NLP FOR MEETINGSTo transform meetings into useful, productive, and a valuable tool; one that truly supports our productivity.

1) Prior to the Meeting: Clarify purpose, reason, importance, etc. about the MeetingWhat is the meeting for? Outcomes?Is the meeting essential? Can I (we) handle this via phone, email, faxes, memos, etc.?What do I want from the meeting?What do others want?How will we know? (Evidence)Readiness to go in: pace, create rapport, work as a team, etc.

2) Establish Purpose & Agenda prior to meeting or first agenda of meeting

Meta-communications about the meeting:What are our objectives/ outcomes for this meeting?How will we know that we have achieved these?Sensory based, specific, short or long term, etc.?How much time do we want to devote to this?Who is needed here? Who is not?How will we procedure?Who will play a referee role to keep us on task?Permission for everyone to present a Relevancy Challenge.

3) Conduct MeetingGet to it with the focus, direction, and clarity.State check: Are we alert? Are we in the best states? Do we need a break?Clarity of discussion, decisions: how record meeting.

Willingness to flush out hidden agendas via:Relevancy challenge: “How does this relate to our purpose here?”“Is this truly relevant? How? In what way?”Backtracking frame: “If I understand where we are, we have ... and decided on... and so that now brings us to ... Have I missed anything?”

Assign anybody running a polarity response the job to troubleshoot problems just as soon as a legitimate and well-formulated plan has been devised. Invite them to play devil’s advocate at that time.

4) Closing a MeetingSuccinctly summarize. “What we have achieve today is...”Check for confirmation. Aim to operate with efficiency.


What carries the Most Impact in Communication?Verbal or Non-Verbal Channels?

BLASTING AWAY AN OLD NLP MYTH ABOUT NON-VERBAL DOMINANCE

I first read the following article by “Buzz” Johnson in 1994 when it was published in Anchor Point. Having worked in communications as a trainer and therapist I knew that the old statement that 93% of communication is non-verbal was wrong. I would have known that from having tried to watch and understand movies on planes when I didn’t buy the headphones. Watching their faces wasn’t enough. When the movie was in a foreign language, I’d get more of a sense of when the actors were angry, upset, in love, etc. But that was about it. This article confirms the fact that most information which we receive from each other in our communications is not non-verbal information and not conveyed by the non-verbal channels of tone, facial expressions, or body “language.” No. It is rather our meta-representational system of language that allows us to convey most of the information in our lives. Try to “say” (send the informational content) that “Supper will be ready at 5:45 p.m.” with just some tones and facial expressions! This highlights the crucial role that the higher linguistic systems play in our lives. We need words to convey higher level as beliefs, concepts, understandings, ideas, plans, meanings, etc. So while primary states are valuable and important, meta-states are much more so. They truly govern our experiences inasmuch as they set the conceptual and semantic frames that we live in. Enjoy.

L. Michael Hall

THE 7%, 38%, 55% MYTHDr. C. E. “Buzz” Johnson

In the remote sense that anyone in the NLP field needs their memories refreshed concerning the numbers in the above title, let me briefly give my recollection from numerous sessions. The total message one receives in any face to face communication is divided into three components. The words themselves, the tonality used in delivering those words, and the body language accompanying the other two. The numbers indicate the relative weight or importance assigned to each of these three areas with body language receiving the 55% figure, tonality the 38%, and the actual words themselves being tagged with a paltry 7%. This strangely skewed distribution has bothered me ever since my introduction into this marvelous arena called NLP.


Out of the MistThe first reason for my puzzlement was that none of my NLP instructors could tell me where those figures came from. Please do not interpret this to mean that I had been cursed with unknown and unknowing fly-by-night mentors. They are all very well known and active in the NLP community. They are also, in my opinion, excellent teachers. However, when asked where I might find further information about the research that produced those numbers, I was vaguely referred to a variety of well known universities. I later drew a blank at each of these institutions.Secondly, if these percentages are really valid it would mean that the learning of foreign languages could be greatly abbreviated. After all, if the words only account for 7% of the meaning of communication, we should all be able to go to any country in the world, and simply by listening to the tone and carefully observing the body language, be able to accurately interpret 93% of their communications! And I’ll bet you always thought that learning Chinese or Russian would be a real stretch. In fact, from these percentages, it appears that you needn’t even bother. You may be better off without being encumbered by all the intricacies of any language. People like Leo Buscaglia are looking forward to the time when words will no longer be necessary as he states in his book Living, Loving & Learning. Since a word such as “love” has as many definitions as it has definers, he feels it will be a happy day when the world of word hang-ups is replaced by “vibrations.”

Counting on What?I wonder how many of you have a 93% rate of accuracy when it comes to interpreting and understanding even your most intimate friends and family members? And that’s with people speaking the same official language with its 7% impact!It is not only the NLP community that is espousing and apparently believing the 7-38-55 myth. I’ve heard therapists and counselors who were unfamiliar with NLP allude to those same numbers. There also seems to be a widespread belief among the general population that words are relatively unimportant. I’m sure most of us have heard people mid-read with statements such as, “She didn’t really mean what she said, she probably meant XXX instead.” Or, “He may have said that but he didn’t really mean it.” Or, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.”In NLP change work, note how carefully we re-word statements in order to reframe a client’s personal perceptions. And by very skillfully using just the right hypnotic language patterns, we are able to rapidly enhance desired shifts in our clients’ understandings and attitudes and beliefs. Would we need to be this meticulous and conscientious if we were really dealing with only 7% of a person’s awareness and comprehension?I was finally able to track down the source of this myth thanks to a professional speaker who makes his living giving sales seminars and workshops. And yes, the 7-38-55 was an important part of his presentations. He didn’t know how to spell the name of the individual responsible for the research that originated those numbers or which university was involved, but he gave me a valuable starting point by offering me a couple of different ©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®216

possible pronunciations. I think you’ll be interested in what I found.

The StudyAlbert Mehrabrian, Ph.. Of UCLA was the originator of the 7-38-55 theory. He speaks of it in two books, Silent Messages published in 1971, and Nonverbal Communications published in 1972. In these two books, he refers to research projects which were published in various professional journals. I will get to the journals in more detail later, but first let’s look at some of his statements from one of the books.From Chapter 3 of Silent Messages we find that the numbers 7-38-55 expressed as percentages have to do only with what he calls the resolution of inconsistent messages, or to put it in NLP terms, incongruencies. He also states that there are very few things that can be communicated non-verbally. He initially was investigating liking/ disliking which he later generalized into feelings. In speaking with him by phone in March, 1994, he stated that his findings and inferences were not meant to be applied to normal communications. They were of very limited application.Let me paraphrase some of his thoughts from page 134 toward the end of that book. Clearly, it is not always possible to substitute actions for words and therefore, what are the limitations of actions as instruments of communication? If you’ve ever played charades, you know that words and language are by far the most effective way of expressing complex and abstract ideas. The ideas contained in Silent Messages, and most other books for that matter, couldn’t be done with actions. A very important thing to remember about the differences between words and actions is that actions only permit the expression of a limited set of things; namely, primary feelings and attitudes.

The DetailsNow let’s examine in more detail the specifics of a couple of his experiments from which some people have made some rather sweeping and inaccurate generalizations. From the Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, Vol. 31. No. 3, pg. 248-252 is a report entitled Inference Of Attitudes From Nonverbal Communication In Two Channels. This study was designed to investigate the decoding of inconsistent and consistent communications of attitude in facial and vocal channels. The experimental team found that the facial component received approximately 3/2 the weight received by the vocal component. You can readily see that this roughly corresponds to the 38% and 55% figures mentioned earlier.You may be wondering how this study was conducted. There was only one word used. That word was “maybe,” selected for it’s apparent neutrality. Three female speakers were tape recorded saying that word wile varying their tone of voice so as to communicate three different attitudes (i.e., like, neutral, and dislike) towards an imagined addressee. Then the tapes were listened to by 17 female subjects with instructions to imagine that the speaker is saying this word to another person and judged by the tones what the speaker’s attitude is towards that imaginary addressee. So there was no direct feedback by anyone who was being addressed. ©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®217

It was a number of third-party listeners who were asked to mind-read, guess, interpret, imagine, etc., how the speaker felt towards someone who wasn’t even there and, in fact, didn’t even exist. There was no way to see or hear the reactions of this phantom individual, about whom someone was going to make several long-lasting and powerful speculations.Next, black and white photographs were taken of three female models as they attempted to use facial expressions t communicate like, neutrality, and dislike towards another person. Then photos were shown to the same 17 subjects with the instructions that they would be shown the pictures and at the same time hear a recording of the word “maybe” spoken in different tones of voice. “You are to imagine that the person you see and hear (A) is looking at and talking to another person (B).” For each presentation they were to indicate on a rating scale what they thought A’s attitude was toward B. Again, third-party mind-reading with no direct contact with the person addressed, B, because that person was non-existent. The conclusions from this experiment were that the facial components were stronger than the vocal by the ratio of 3/2 as referred to earlier.An interesting comment that came out of the discussion section indicated that the effect of redundancy (i.e., consistent attitude communication in two or more channels) is to intensify the attitude communicated in any one of the component channels. Perhaps this is something that could be more profitably pursued instead of the denigration of words. Or as you can see from this particular study, word, not words. And that word was “maybe.” It seems to play words under quite a handicap not much different from playing charades.

Two Studied CombinedThey integrated this study with another one to come up with the .07, .38, and .55 coefficients. This second study was reported in the Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 1967, Vol. 6, No. 1, pg. 109-114 entitled, Decoding Of Inconsistent Communications. Here they dealt with inconsistent communication of attitude in two components; tone of voice and nine different words. Three words were selected that seemed to indicate a positive attitude, “honey,” “thanks,” and “dear.” Three were neutral, “maybe,” “really,” and “oh,” and three were negative, “don’t,” “brute,” and “terrible.”Two female speakers were employed to read each of the nine words with each of the three tones, positive, neutral, or disliking of an imaginary addressee. These were recorded on tape which was then listened to by 30 University of California undergraduates. They were instructed to imagine that each word was being said by one person to another and to judge what the speaker’s attitude was towards the imaginary recipient. One-third was told to ignore the information conveyed by the meaning of the words and to pay attention only to the tone. Another third were told to ignore the tone and pay attitude only to the meaning of the words. The last third were told to utilize both the tone and the content.


The findings were that the independent effects of tone, overall, were stronger than the independent effects of content. I should think so! After all, the words allowed were very limited while the tones allowed were unlimited as long as certain feelings were being demonstrated. But, after all, Mehrabian’s main interest is in non-verbal types of communication. However, in fairness, it was mentioned in the discussion that the methodology used failed to solve the problem for which it was intended. An alternative methodology could have employed written communication for assessing the independent effects of content and electronically filtered speech (with the content rendered incomprehensible) for assessing the independent effects of tone. I don’t know if an alternative experiment like that was ever carried out. After commenting on some of the methodological problems, they do go on to say that the results indicate that judgments of attitude from inconsistent messages involving single words spoken with intonation are primarily based on the attitude carried in the tonal component. The use of single words is a long way away from normal communications, don’t you think? In fact, they admit that their findings can only be safely extended to situations in which no additional information about the communicator-addressee relationship is available. This seems to relegate it to the realm of tightly controlled laboratory-pure experimentation only.I would invite all of you readers to examine not only Mehrabian’s books, but also his articles in the professional journals which go into more detail concerning his experiments. If enough of us carefully analyze the available data, perhaps we can reinterpret the results in a more useful, meaningful, and workable way than we have in the past.

Time For AccuracyIf we continue to disseminate erroneous information such as the 7-38-55 myth, I feel we are doing a grave disservice not only to the NLP community, but to the public in general. We could do a great service by helping the public realize that the words they use on themselves as well a on others are extremely important in determining the effectiveness and longevity of relationships, the strength of personal self-esteem, and a whole host of other psychological physiological phenomena. Words and language are probably the primary motivation factors for human beings and they can be enhanced by proper congruent tonality and body language. They can also be somewhat diminished by incongruencies which then often show up as confusion and bewilderment in relationship situations. For example, think how often some battered women have desperately believed the words of their batterers despite overwhelming incongruent behavior. “He said he was really going to change this time.”


Think of your own personal experiences in close relationships that have gone sour. Haven’t you also hoped and waited for change that would transform incongruent communication signals into congruent ones? Especially before NLP training? Haven’t most of us, at some time, hopelessly clung to our own inaccurate interpretation of another’s actions hoping for a miracle that would once again make everything whole and comfortable just like we thought it used to be? And what was the total affect of the spoken word at those times? Did the words really have only a 7% influence on our hopes and desires? Not likely. Given the emotional impact of prior experience and beliefs, our memories are not about to logically reduce the words of a loved one, or former loved one, to such an insignificant role instantaneously. Such impersonal and coldly analytical reactions are probably destined to remain in the safety aloof confines of the experimental laboratory with its pretend situations and imaginary interactions. Perhaps we could benefit from a re-assessment of old acquired beliefs in the glaring light of real life relationship reactions and perceptions.

ReferencesBuscaglia, Leo. (1982). Living, loving, & learning. Charles B. Slack, Inc.Mehrabian, Albert. (1972). Nonverbal communication. AldimeAtherton, Inc.Mehrabian, Albert. (1971). Silent Messages. Wadsworth Publishing Co.Mehrabian, Albert; Ferris, Susan. (1967). Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol. 31. No. 3. Pg. 248-252.Mehrabian, Albert; Wiener, Morton. (1967). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 6, No. 1. Pg. 109-114.

AuthorDr. C. E. “Buzz” Johnson, retired Optometrist, has been through Master Practitioner and Trainer’s Training. He has been researching the power of words in a variety of different disciplines, medicine, education, addictions, relationships, psycho-neuro-immunology, hypnosis, psychotherapy, etc.

Quoted by Permission from Dr. Johnson, Published originally in Anchor Point, July 1994.


PRACTITIONER LEVEL STANDARDS What does it take to become certified as an NLP Practitioner? The following concepts and presuppositions, skills, techniques, and patterns are required.

1) Know and behaviorally integrate the NLP presuppositions. That is, believing that there's a difference between the Territory of Reality and each and every person's Map of that reality recognize with respect their Models of the World and respect the ecology of their system of belief and meaning. Then taking all responses from them as the meaning of your communications with them, judging nothing as failure and everything as feedback, look for the positive intent in their behavioral responses and pacing it. Believing that people aren't broken, but that they work well and have the necessary resources to be effective, to help them access, elicit, amplify and anchor those resources so that the person can get to them when needed.

2) Able to quickly get rapport with a person and to maintain that rapport by pacing them verbally and non-verbally, and to then lead.

3) Able to calibrate another person's inner states by using exquisite sensory experience. Such calibration such include the ability to note a person's use of predicates in their language and eye accessing cues as they speak.

4) Able to elicit well-formed outcomes from a person.

5) Able to help a person overlap to other representational systems and to translate out of their system into other systems.

6) Able to identify and use the Meta-Model in communicating and information gathering. Able to give a Meta-Model challenge for any presenting surface statement.

7) Able to identify and use the Milton-Model so as to take a person into an altered state and allow them to experience the resources that are a part of that state.

8) Able to identify the frame of a person, to expand the frame, de-frame, reframe and to use alternative frames for doing change work: the "As If" frame, the First, Second and Third Position frames, the Relevancy frame, a contrast frame, etc.

9) Able to anchor in V.A.K. systems and then to be able to fire off an anchor and have the person to re-experience the state anchored.


10) Able to shift one's own state of consciousness from external (uptime) to internal (downtime) according to the task's need.

11) Able to move from an Associated state to a Dissociated state.

12) Able to chunk up and to chunk down in handling various sizes of information.

13) Able to elicit and shift submodalities when working with a person.

14) Able to elicit responses both verbally and non-verbally, and to amplify the state or response that's elicited.

15) Able to access, build and amplify resources within a person.

16) Able to show a wide range of verbal and non-verbal flexibility.


AUTHOR #1L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. Institute of Neuro-Semantics®P.O. Box 8Clifton, CO 81520(970) 523-7877 (970) 523-5790 (fax)[email protected]:\\www.neurosemantics.com

Dr. L. Michael Hall is an entrepreneur who lives in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. As a psychologist he had a private psychotherapeutic practice for many years, and then began teaching and training — first in Communication Training (Assertiveness, Negotiations, Relationships), then in NLP. He studied NLP with co-founder, Richard Bandler in the late 1980s and became a Master Practitioner and Trainer. He wrote notes for the trainings at Bandler’s request, edited Time For a Change. As a prolific author, he has written and published more than two dozen books including The Spirit of NLP (1996), Dragon Slaying, Meta-States, Mind-Lines, Figuring Out People, The Structure of Excellence, Frame Games, etc.Michael earned his doctorate in Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology with an emphasis in psycho-linguistics. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the languaging of four psychotherapies (NLP, RET, Reality Therapy, Logotherapy) using the formulations of General Semantics. He addressed the Interdisciplinary International Conference (1995) presenting an integration of NLP and General Semantics.In 1994, Michael developed the Meta-States Model while modeling resilience and presenting the findings at the International NLP Conference in Denver. He has hundreds of articles published in NLP World, Anchor Point, Rapport, Connection, and Meta-States Journal. Michael is the co-developer, along with Dr. Bob Bodenhamer, of Neuro-Semantics having co-authored a unified field model using the 3 Meta-Domains of NLP. They initiated The Society of Neuro-Semantics, and have begun to establish Institutes of Neuro-Semantics in the USA and around the world. Elvis Keith Lester joined the team in 1998, and then established the LEARN Institute of Neuro-Semantics in Tampa, Fl.Today Michael spends his time researching and modeling, training internationally, and writing. Recent modeling projects have included modeling excellence in sales, persuasion, accelerated learning, state management, wealth building, women in leadership, fitness and health, etc. These are now Meta-State Gateway Trainings.


AUTHOR #2

Bobby G. Bodenhamer, D.Min.1516 Cecelia Dr. [email protected], NC 28054(704) 864-3585Fax: (704) 864-1545

Dr. Bodenhamer first trained for the ministry, earned a doctorate in Ministry, and served several churches as pastor. He presently serves as pastor of a small mission church in Gastonia, North Carolina. His ministry spans 36 years. He began NLP training in 1989, studying with Dr. Gene Rooney of L.E.A.D’s. Consultants for his Practitioner training and Dr. Tad James for His Master Practitioner Certification and with Tad and Dr. Wyatt Woodsmall for his Trainer’s Certification. Since then, he has taught and certified NLP trainings at Gaston College, Dallas, NC.

Beginning in 1996, Dr. Bodenhamer began studying the Meta-States model and then teamed up with Michael to begin co-authoring several books. Since that he, he has turned out many works as he and Michael have applied the NLP and Meta-States Models to various facets of human experience. In 1996 also, Dr. Bodenhamer with Michael co-founded the Society of Neuro-Semantics. This has taken his work to a new level, taken him into International Trainings, and set in motion many Institutes of Neuro-Semantics around the world.

Books:Patterns For "Renewing the Mind" (w. Hall, 1997)Time-Lining: Advance Time-Line Processes (w. Hall, 1997)Figuring Out People: Design Engineering With Meta-Programs (w. Hall, 1997)Mind Lines: Lines For Changing Minds (w. Hall, 1997, 2000 3rd edition)The Structure of Excellence: Unmasking the Meta-Levels of Submodalities (w. Hall, 1999)The User’s Manual for the Brain, Vol. 1 (1999, w. Hall)The User’s Manual for the Brain, Vol. 2 (2003) w. Hall)Hypnotic Language (2000, w. Burton)The Structure of Personality: Modeling “Personality” Using NLP and Neuro-Semantics. (Hall , Bodenhamer, Bolstad, Harmblett, 2001)Games for Mastering Fears (2001, with Hall)Mastering Blocking & Stuttering: A Guide to Attaining Fluency (2004)


Historical Development of the Meta-States Model(Compiled by Denis Bridoux, NLP Trainer with Post-Graduate Professional Education, Harragate, England)

1933: Alfred Korzybski coined the phrase neuro-linguistic training, postulated his theory of the levels of abstraction, constructed his theory of second-order abstractions, third-order, etc. in his classic word Science and Sanity.1972: Gregory Bateson’s classic work Steps to an Ecology of Mind that brought together all his revolutionary studies on double-bind theory, applications of Logical Theory of Types, going meta to meta-levels, the levels of Learning Model, etc.1975-1983: John Grinder & Richard Bandler utilizing the idea of going meta in their NLP model beginning with the Meta-model—an explicit model about how language and VAK representations work in human experience. They distinguish sensory-based level from the evaluative level, the importance of meta-parts, and the strategy model for modeling “the structure of subjective experience.”1994: Michael Hall specifies how meta-levels of mind-body neuro-linguistic states factor into the structure of subjective experience and bring over Korzybski and Bateson ideas into the strategy model. This arose from modeling resilience and discovering that within it people have embedded numerous layers and levels of consciousness and states. Awarded by the International Trainers Association of NLP (1995) for the most significant contribution to NLP during 1994-1995.

Books:Meta-States: Mastering the higher states of your mind (Self-Reflexiveness, 2000 2nd edition)Dragon Slaying: Dragons to Princes (2000 2nd edition)The Spirit of NLP: The Process, Meaning & Criteria for Mastering NLP (1996, 2000 2nd edition)Languaging: The Linguistics of Psychotherapy (1996)Patterns For "Renewing the Mind" (w. Dr. Bodenhamer) (1997)Time-Lining: Advance Time-Line Processes (w. Dr. Bodenhamer) (1997)NLP: Going Meta — Advance Modeling Using Meta-Levels (1997)Figuring Out People: Design Engineering With Meta-Programs (w. Dr. Bodenhamer) (1997)A Sourcebook of Magic (formerly, How to Do What When (w. B. Belnap) (1997)Mind-Lines: Lines For Changing Minds (w. Dr. Bodenhamer) (1997, 2000 3rd edition)The Secrets of Magic: Communication Excellence for the 21st. Century (1998)The Structure of Excellence: Unmasking the Meta-Levels of Submodalities (Hall and Bodenhamer, 1999)


Instant Relaxation: Stress Reduction for Office & Home (Lederer & Hall)Meta-State Patterns for Developing Excellence (Meta-States Journal, Volume I, II (1997, 1998)Genius At Work (Meta-States Journal, Vol. III (1999) Secrets of Personal Mastery (2000)Frame Games: Persuasion Elegance (2000)The Structure of Personality(Hall, Bodenhamer, Bolstad, Harmblett, 2001)Games Business Experts Play (2002) Games Thin People Play (2002)

Books can be ordered throughNeuro-Semantics PublicationsP.O. Box 8Clifton CO. 81520


TRAININGS AVAILABLE

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Possibilities) Trainings

Meta-NLP. An intensive seven-day program for covering the Essential Skills of NLP using the Meta-States model as the larger level Framework for understanding NLP and accelerating NLP learning. Prerequisites for this training include reading and audio-tape requirements.

Master Practitioner Meta-NLP. An intensive 13-day program that covers the Master Practitioner Level of NLP with an introduction from day one of the Meta-States model. This Master Practitioner course includes Accessing Personal Genius, Mind-Lines, Meta-Programs, Meta-Trance, Strategies and Modeling, and much more. Again, there are learning prerequisites for this training.

Basic Meta-State Trainings

Accessing Personal Genius (The 3 day Basic). Introduction to Meta-States as an advanced NLP model (3 days). This training introduces and teaches the Meta-States Model and is ideal for NLP Practitioners. It presupposes knowledge of the NLP Model and builds the training around accessing the kinds of states that will access and support “personal genius.”

Basic Meta-States in two other Simplified forms:

1) Secrets of Personal Mastery: Awakening Your Inner Executive. This training presents the power of Meta-States without directly teaching the model as such. The focus instead shifts to Personal Mastery and the Executive Powers of the participants. Formatted so that it can take the form of 1, 2 or 3 days, this training presents a simpler form of Meta-States, especially good for those without NLP background or those who are more focused on Meta-States Applications than the model.

2) Frame Games: Persuasion Elegance. The first truly User Friendly version of Meta-States. Frame Games provides practice and use of Meta-States in terms of frame detecting, setting, and changing. As a model of frames, Frame Games focuses on the power of persuasion via frames and so presents how to influence or persuade yourself and others using the Levels of Thought or Mind that lies at the heart of Meta-States. Designed as a 3 day program, the first two days presents the model of Frame Games and lots of exercises. Day three is for becoming a true Frame Game Master and working with frames conversationally and covertly.


Meta-States Gateway Trainings

1) Wealth Building Excellence (Meta-Wealth). The focus of this training is on learning how to think like a millionaire, to develop the mind and meta-mind of someone who is structured and programmed to create wealth economically, personally, mentally, emotionally, relationally, etc. As a Meta-States Application Training, Wealth Building Excellence began as a modeling project and seeks to facilitate the replication of that excellence in participants.

2) Selling & Persuasion Excellence (Meta-Selling). Another Meta-States Application Training, modeled after experts in the fields of selling and persuasion and designed to replicate in participants. An excellent follow-up training to Wealth Building since most people who build wealth have to sell their ideas and dreams to others. This trainings goes way beyond mere Persuasion Engineering as it uses the Strategic Selling model of Heiman also known as Relational Selling, Facilitation Selling, etc.

3) Mind-Lines: Lines for Changing Minds. Based upon the book by Drs. Hall and Bodenhamer (1997), now in its third edition, Mind-Line Training is a training about Conversational Reframing and Persuasion. The Mind-Lines model began as a rigorous update of the old NLP “Sleight of Mouth” Patterns and has grown to become the persuasion language of the Meta-State moves. This advanced training is highly and mainly a linguistic model, excellent as a follow-up training for Wealth Building and Selling Excellence. Generally a two day format, although sometimes 3 and 4 days.

4) Accelerated Learning Using NLP & Meta-States (Meta-Learning). A Meta-State Application training based upon the NLP model for “running your own brain” and the Neuro-Semantic (Meta-States) model of managing your higher executive states of consciousness. Modeled after leading experts in the fields of education, cognitive psychologies, this training provides extensive insight into the Learning States and how to access your personal learning genius. It provides specific strategies for various learning tasks as well as processes for research and writing.

5) Defusing Hotheads: A Meta-States and NLP Application training for handling hot, stressed-out, and irrational people in Fight/Flight states. Designed to “talk someone down from a hot angry state,” this training provides training in state management, first for the skilled negotiator or manager, and then for eliciting another into a more resourceful state. Based upon the book by Dr. Hall, Defusing Strategies (1987), this training has been presented to managers and supervisors for greater skill in conflict management, and to police departments for coping with domestic violence.


6) Instant Relaxation. Another practical NLP and Meta-States Application Training designed to facilitate the advanced ability to quickly “fly into a calm.” Based in part upon the book by Lederer and Hall (Instant Relaxation, 1999), this training does not teach NLP or Meta-States, but coaches the relaxation skills for greater “presence of mind,” control over mind and neurology, and empowerment in handling stressful situations. An excellent training in conjunction with Defusing Hotheads.

7) Games for Mastering Fear. To play the Game of Fear, a person has to run his or her brain in a certain way using special frames. The same is true for mastering fear C the power of transformation lies in knowing how to identify the right frames and set them at the higher levels of our mind. This training uses the very best of NLP and Neuro-Semantic patterns to provide true mastery over any kind of fear that might sabotage or limit living up to our Visions and Values. Based upon the book by this title by Hall and Bodenhamer.

8) Games for Mastering Stuttering (Blocking). There’s a structure to the meta-state experience called “stuttering” C it is blocking our non-fluency and layering it with a painful kind of self-consciousness. There’s also a structure to mastering that experience and moving toward a less semantically over-loading. This training is based on NLP and Neuro-Semantic patterns and structured according to the 7 Mind Matrix model.

9) Games Business Experts Play. Succeeding in business necessitates develop a certain expertise and business wisdom about oneself, others, skills, markets, finances, managing, etc. Those who do it best, the experts, have a strategy and a certain set of frames of mind that allow them to play those Games. Based upon the book by this title, this training invites you to set the kind of frames of mind and meaning that will bring out your business expertise.

10) Games Slim & Fit People Play. How do they do it? How do some people relate to eating and exercising in such a way that it is “no problem” to them? What are the frames and games that slim and fit people play so that food does not dominate their lives and so that they have plenty of energy and vitality? That’s the focus of this training, based on the book by the same title. The training offers specific guidance about how to stop psycho-eating and to develop a much better relationship to both food and movement.


Advanced Neuro-Semantic Trainings

Advanced Modeling Using Meta-Levels: Advanced use of Meta-States by focusing on the domain of modeling excellence. This training typically occurs as the last 4 days of the 7 day Meta-States Certification. Based upon the modeling experiences of Dr. Hall and his book, NLP: Going Meta― Advanced Modeling Using Meta-Levels, this training looks at the formatting and structuring of the meta-levels in Resilience, Un-Insultability, and Seeing Opportunities. The training touches on modeling of Wealth Building, Fitness, Women in Leadership, Persuasion, etc.

Advanced Flexibility Training Using NLP & General Semantics. An advanced Neuro-Semantics training that explores the riches and treasures in Alfred Korzybski=s work, Science and Sanity. Originally presented in London (1998, 1999) as “The Merging of the Models: NLP and General Semantics,” this training now focuses almost exclusively on developing Advanced Flexibility using tools, patterns, and models in General Semantics. Recommend for the advanced student of NLP and Meta-States.

Neuro-Semantics Trainers Training. An advanced training for those who have been certified in Meta-States and Neuro-Semantics (the seven day program). This application training focuses the power and magic of Meta-States on the training experience itself― both public and individual training. It focuses first on the trainer, to access one”s own Top Training States and then on how to meta-states or set the frames when working with others in coaching or facilitating greater resourcefulness.


Book Prices from Neuro-Semantics

Neuro-Semantics PublicationsMeta-States (2000, 2nd ed.) $25 Crown

House BooksDragon Slaying (2000 2nd edit)

$25

Figuring Out People

$25Mind-Lines: $23 Secrets of

Magic $15 ** while they lastStructure of Excellence:

$30

Communication Magic

$25 NLP: Going MetaCAdvanced Modeling $25

The Source Book of Magic

$25 The Structure of Personality $50

The Spirit of NLP $25 Frame Games: Persuasion Elegance $25

Instant Relaxation


$17 $20 Secrets of Personal Mastery $25

Games for Mastering Fear

$25

User=s Manual for the Brain

$45 Games Business Experts Play (new) $25

Hypnotic Language: Burton

$37

Time-Line: Adventures

$25Mastering Blocking & Stuttering $45

Spiral Books:Becoming More Ferocious $25Languaging $25Patterns for Renewing the Mind

$25

Meta-States Magic $30

Training Manuals (Spiral books) Members of Society of NS ($25) ©2001-2006 Meta-NLP® The Society of Neuro-Semantics®232

Game Series:Selling Excellence: Games for Selling $35

Prolific Writing Manual: Games for Prolific Writing $35Accelerated Learning: Games Great Learners Play $35

Wealth Building: Games Wealthy People Play $35

Advanced Modeling $35

Cultural Modeling $35Advanced Flexibility (General Semantics) $35

Frame Games: Workshop T.M. $35

Mind-Lines Training$20

N.S. Trainers Training$35

Genius at Work (MS applied) $35Defusing Hotheads $30

Instant Relaxation T.M. $30


meta-nlp master practitioners' manual

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