Presuppositions of NLP Explained

The ability to change the process by which we experience reality is often more valuable than
changing the content of our experience of reality.

In layman's terms, for example, to the driver of a formula one racing car the ability focus on
safely and skillfully controlling the car at high speed against the clock and his competitors in
order to win the race is likely to be more valuable than the increase in safety he would get from
driving around the track slowly on his own.

Another good example of a situation where there is limited scope to change the content of the
experience is a job interview - especially if you really want the job. A fairly common technique
for calming the nerves by changing our experience of reality is to imagine the person
interviewing you sitting in the nude - underneath the sharp suit they are just the same as you and
I. Try that one next time you go for a job - but try not to giggle out loud!

The meaning of the communication is the response you get.

Ever heard the expression 'it's not what you said, it's the way you said it? When we communicate
we assume that the words we use mean something - and they do - but the meaning of a particular
collection of words might be completely different for the person we are communicating with. Yet
we are surprised when the person we are communicating with responds to our communication in
an unexpected way.

Accepting responses to our communications as a measure of their success and being prepared to
alter our communications to solicit the response we are looking for instantly empowers us to
become more successful communicators.

All distinctions human beings are able to make concerning our environment and our behavior
can be usefully represented through the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory
senses.

Everything we do inside our mind and body can be described in terms of things we see, hear,
feel, smell and taste.

The resources an individual needs in order to effect a change are already within them.

If something is humanly possible then it's possible for you to do it too afterall, you're a human
being - aren't you?

This presupposition also includes the concept that we all possess resources such as courage or
sensitivity but that sometimes we are unable to access those resources under certain sets of
circumstances i.e. we may find it difficult to remain calm and logical in the face of loud, angry
and unwarranted verbal abuse, or to be logical and methodical whilst experiencing
overwhelming excitement.
The map is not the territory

This is one of my favourite presuppositions and, in my humble opinion, one of the most
significant underlying principles of the whole ethos of NLP.

Originally coined by the Polish-American philosopher and scientist Alfred Korzybski it relates to
the principle that we, as human beings, do no operate directly on the world but rather on a model
of it.

In layman's terms we use the information we take in through our five senses to build in our mind
an internal representation or internal map of the world. As good as that map might be, as it exists
only in our own mind it is exactly and only that - a map and not the territory itself, in just the
same way that even the best map of the United Kingdom, even if it was made to scale, could
never be the United Kingdom itself. This particular topic area will be covered in more depth in
the Learning Strategy section.

The positive worth of the individual is held constant, while the value and appropriateness of
internal and/or external behavior is questioned.

In short, people are not their behaviours. All learning and hence behaviour is geared towards
adaptation and so behaviour is context dependant. As an example you may have experienced
being less patient and chatty when you're feeling tired and run down, but would it be fair to be
judged as mean and grumpy on the basis of that single incident?

NLP teaches us that we should accept the person (including ourselves) and be willing to change
the behaviour.

There is a positive intention motivating every behavior, and a context in which every behavior
has value.

A person who has money but spends very little of it may be considered by some to be mean and
behaving in a negative way but, if by doing so that person is able to pay for their children to have
the best possible education, the positive intention of the behaviour becomes apparent. (That's a
good example of reframing by the way, more on that later too.)

Feedback vs. Failure - All results and behaviors are achievements, whether they are desired
outcomes for a given task/context, or not.

We learn from our mistakes.

There is no such thing as failure - only feedback. Achieving a less-than-desired outcome is still
an achievement. The only way we can fail is to admit defeat and do nothing.

If we can suspend our natural urge to feel bad whenever we are less than 100% successful we
can make valuable learnings and take them forward to improve our performance on future tasks.
That basically covers the original presuppositions of NLP as described by Richard Bandler.
Here's a couple of recent additions which I've found useful:-

Respect the other person's model of the world.

The world according to the other person's model is probably somewhat different than the world
in your model, as you will discover in the section on Representational Preferences. Being
prepared to respect that model and even join that person in their model is very empowering.

You are in charge of your mind and therefore your results.

Or as Richard Bandler would say, who's driving the bus? You are!

All procedures should increase choice.

NLP is all about increasing choice which in turn gives us more flexibility in our behaviour.

Resistance is merely a sign of a lack of rapport.

Rapport in the context of NLP is a state of trust and responsiveness between you and another
person. Be prepared to work on establishing a good rapport as once you've gained it whatever
comes next will be a whole lot easier to achieve.

So let's look at the Five Principles for Success in a little more detail to be sure we fully
understand them and what they are going to do for us.

1. Know your outcome

Before embarking on a particular course of action it's a good idea to know what you want the
final outcome to be. Ask yourself - what's my outcome for this, what do I want?

If the outcome is something that will happen some time in the future rather than in the present it
can also be good to keep a written record of what outcome you wanted - and why.

2. Take positive action

The best way to get the outcome you want is to take positive action and go through the steps
required to get it. Rarely do we get something we want without putting in some effort up-front.

You may be using this website with a specific outcome in mind - enhancing your communication
and inter-personal skills, beating a fear of flying, easily changing your diet to include more
healthy foods and ditch the bad foods for example.

If you don't have an outcome for using this website, take some positive action and choose an
outcome and then take some more positive action and write it down (we generally make stronger
commitments, even if only to ourselves, to things we put down in writing).
3. Have sensory awareness to know if you are being effective

Ever found yourself enthusiastically sharing everything you know about something that you're
really interested in only to find that when you look around to find out why the other person has
stopped responding either their eyes have glazed over, they've fallen asleep or, worse still,
they've left the room and you've been talking to yourself for the past 15 minutes?

Your five senses, (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory and Gustatory), are there for a very
good reason - they provide exquisite feedback to allow you to gauge if your actions are
producing useful results - or not. Learn to use them well.

4. Have behavioural flexibility

Richard Bandler might say 'if something that you are doing isn't producing results, do
ANYTHING else. If what you're doing isn't working, ANYTHING else has more chance of
success'.

If you know your outcome, you've taken positive action to achieve it and you have enough
sensory awareness to know that you are not getting the results you want, you have a choice to
make.

You can either carry on doing the same things and continue to produce unwanted results, or you
can adapt your behaviour as necessary until you get your outcome. Which one works best for
you?

The Law of Requisite Variety

From the field of cybernetics comes the Law of Requisite Variety which states:-

'...the greater the variety within a system, the greater its ability to reduce variety in its
environment through regulation.'

In layman's terms in a system of interaction (i.e. between individual human beings) the part of
the system with the greatest flexibility in it's behaviours will control the system.

As a useful example consider the relationship between parent and child. The parent is expected
to behave in a certain manner, conform to certain patterns of belief laid down by his peers as to
how a 'good parent' should behave. On the other hand, in our society we are more tolerant of
behaviour demonstrated by children - they're only children afterall. Hence children often have
greater behavioural flexibility than adults which they often use to their advantage i.e. when they
hear the magical chimes of the ice cream van and, very often, they end up controlling the system
by adapting their behaviour until they get their outcome - an ice cream. (My tongue is very
firmly in my cheek as a write this but I think it illustrates the point very well.)

Another, perhaps more succinct consideration is this - if you always do what you've always done,
then you'll always get what you've always got. Flexibility increases choice.
5. Operate from a physiology and a psychology of excellence

Human beings have certain physiologies intimately linked to certain emotional states and we can
utilise this phenomenon to maximise the results that we can produce.

Let's illustrate what we mean by this with a little exercise:-

Firstly I want you to slump in your chair, allow your shoulders to flop, allow your head to flop so
that your eyes look down toward the floor. Put a frown on your face and imagine that somebody
has just given you a task to do and that the task is the one thing you most hate doing. Then
imagine that you'll have to do that same task, over and over, every day for the rest of eternity.....

How does that feel, pretty bad huh?

Okay, shake off that physiology and let's do something else instead. By the way - can you
remember which shoe you put on first this morning?

NOW! Stand up nice and tall. Push your chest out, push your shoulders back and take three deep
breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth breathing from the top of your lungs and lift
your eyes so that you're looking slightly upwards. Now imagine that helium balloons have been
attached to the corners of your mouth and the outer corner of each eyebrow and that they are
pulling your face up into a big silly grin. Allow the balloons to pull that grin up and out until it
covers your whole face.

NOW - maintain this physiology and the big, silly grin and TRY to feel sad. Go ahead - really try
to feel sad - it's impossible.

As we will learn from the NLP communication model, physiology is intimately linked to state
and behaviour and a change in any one is reflected in the other two.

When we adopt negative physiology we enter negative emotional states and produce negative
behaviours. Conversely, adopting a positive physiology has positive impacts on both our
emotional state and resulting behviours. When we act positive we produce positive results.

Our choice to operate from a physiology and psychology of excellence changes our world for the
better and helps us to maximise the results that we produce.

The diagram below is a representation of the NLP communication model as presented in the
book Time Line Therapy by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall. Click on the diagram if you would
like a larger view (which will open in a new window).
The NLP communication model is another of the building blocks that forms the foundation of all
NLP techniques. Learn this one thoroughly and you're well on your way to a solid appreciation
of NLP.

This model is a way of explaining how we take information from the outside world into our
neurology and how that in turn affects our behaviours.

The process begins with an external event which enters our nervous system through the five
senses that make up our sensory input channels:-

 Visual - what we see

 Auditory - sound, the words we hear and how those words are said to us etc.
 Kinesthetic - internal and external feelings, pressure, texture etc.
 Olfactory - the sense of smell
 Gustatory - the sense of taste

These sensory input channels are often referred to in NLP by their initial letters - V, A, K, O and
G respectively.

The NLP communication model includes the notion that our five senses take in up to 2,000,000
(two million) bits of information per second. The notion further states that our conscious mind
can only process 7+/-2* chunks of information per second which equates to approximately 134
bits per second. It doesn't take a math degree to see that our fantastic senses make available far
more information than the conscious mind can usefully cope with - so what happens to the rest?

The incoming information passes automatically through a number of filters to reduce the
information down to the 7+/2* chunks or (roughly) 134 bits that our conscious mind can cope
with. The filters do this by:-

Deletion - to attempt to actively pay attention to everything entering though our sensory input
channels would not be useful. Thus we omit certain parts of our current experience by selectively
paying attention to certain other parts of it i.e. we focus on what seems most important at any one
particular moment in time and allow the rest to pass us by.
A common example of why deletion is necessary is that of the use of mobile telephones whilst
driving - statistics prove that so much information is deleted when we try to do these two tasks
simultaneously that we end up doing both badly and sometimes with very serious consequences.

Distortion - occurs when we make shifts in our experience of sensory data by making
misrepresentations of reality. Distortion is a key component of imagination and a useful tool in
motivating ourselves toward our goals. When we plan we use distortion to construct appealing
imaginary futures.

As another example ask yourself a simple question - would you recognise your best friend if they
changed their clothes or styled their hair in a different way? Without the ability to distort reality
the answer would be no. Every time your friend changed a single aspect of their appearance, hair
length, hair colour, clothing type, clothing colour etc., you would have to learn that entire
configuration and add it to the 'map' which you label 'my best friend'.

Each time you saw your friend the only way you could be sure it was them would be to mentally
examine every 'version' of them in the map until you found one that matched the person standing
in front of you. Add in the fact that they look different depending on their facial expression,
physical posture, state of health etc., etc. and the number of combinations you would have to
learn just to recognise your friend would be huge! If you have more than one friend then you
really have your work cut out for you!

Thus we rely on distortion to allow us to identify a particular thing or person over a wide range
of variance.

The example in the Presuppositions section for feeling less stressed during a job interview by
picturing the interviewer in the nude is also a good example of distortion.

Generalisation - is the process by which we draw global conclusions based on one, two or more
experiences.

A useful example of a generalisation is that of a door. We learn that a door is usually a conduit
between two locations - an exit from one location and simultanously an entry into another
location. We also learn that most doors are fixed along one side about an axis of rotation and that
if we pull or push on the opposite side of the door it will open in one direction and close in the
other. This is a superbly efficient form of learning as once we've learned how one door works we
have the neccessary information to deal with doors of any colour, size, shape or composition in
any location so long as they conform to that basic type and we can commit this information to
memory for future use.

At it's best generalistion is an efficient means of learning information which can be applied
globally. At it's worst it is the way we take a single event and turn it into a lifetime of experience
i.e. most phobias arise as a result of a one-time learning.

*7+/-2 (seven plus or minus two) represents the number of chunks of information that the
conscious mind can usefully attend to at any point in time. To clarify, in optimum conditions i.e.
calm, relaxed, quiet, focussed, an average person could attend to up to 9 chunks of information at
any one time. Under less than ideal conditions i.e. noisy, stressed and distracted by other things,
an average person may only be able to attend to 5 chunks of information at any one time. Most of
the time the average person can attend to 7 chunks of information at any one time.

Chunk size is variable and usually relates to the complexity of each chunk. Further explanations
relating to chunking can be found elsewhere on this website.

This page continues from the previous page on the NLP communication model - the diagram is
repeated here for ease of reference.

Learning about the the individual sensory filters and how they delete, distort and generalise the
information coming in through our five senses will be covered on the next page. For now it's
more useful to close the loop on the NLP communication model by explaining what happens to
the information once it has passed through the filters, providing the resultant 7+/-2 chunks or 134
bits of data that the conscious mind can usefully attend to.

So far the data from the external event - the sights, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells, has been
filtered down to a manageable size. This data then gets stored in our mind as an internal
representation of that external event. How that internal representation (IR) compares with the
external event will depend on what the filters deleted, how the filters distorted the data and
whether any existing or freshly made generalisations were applied.

It's also worth noting at this stage that generalisations can get revised as we make new learnings
and these revisions can cause us to re-evaluate internal representations we've made about past
external events i.e. we see things in a new light and have a different appreciation / change our
opinions of something that happened in the past. Remember - all learning and behaviour is
geared towards adaptation.

So we have an internal representation (or thought if you prefer a 'user friendly' term) of an
external event. That internal representation and our evaluation of it is intimately linked to our
emotional state (how we feel), our physiology (body position, skin colour and temperature,
muscle tone etc.) and to our behaviour (our actions) for example:-

 Queueing for the latest big-thrill super-looping gut wrenching roller-coaster ride at our
favourite theme park we see the train flash past, hear riders screaming, feel the vibrations
resonate through the structure under the G-force. We may feel excited, feel the effects of
adrenaline on our body and whoop with excitement as we push to the front of the queue.
 On the other hand we may feel sick with dread, attempt to make ourselves as small as
possible and then run in the opposite direction as fast as our now wobbly legs can carry
us.

 Hearing a pitiful 'miow' we look up to see a tiny kitten, successful in it's first adventure
into tree climbing. Problem is that it hasn't worked out how to get down yet and it's cries
suggest that it's none too pleased about it. We may feel sympathy for the tiny creature,
adopt the persona of our favourite super hero and rescue this brave fur ball from it's
predicament. On the other hand we may feel disdain for it's 'obvious stupidity', snarl in
it's general direction decide that it should have thought about how it was going to get
down from the tree before embarking on it's ascent and that it 'has to learn some time'.

Now that we've considered two possible external events and seen how subjectively we could
experience very different emotional states, experience very different changes in our physiology
and exhibit very different behaviours we understand the beginning and end points of the NLP
communication model.

The 'bits-in-the-middle' that influence which set or combination of state and physiology we will
experience and which behaviours that might produce are the filters - so now it's useful to
understand more about how they work and we'll begin to look at that on the next page.

Perceptual Filters
This page continues from the previous page on the NLP communication model - the diagram is
repeated here for ease of reference.

So now we understand that an external event passes through perceptual filters which delete,
distort and generalise the incoming data, leaving a package of data that we can usefully attend to
consciously. We also understand that our conscious mind stores that data in an internal
representation (or memory) of that external event which is intimately linked with our emotional
state and physiology which in turn influences our behaviours.

The perceptual filters that perform the deletion, distortion and generalisation processes are
organised in layers thus:-

Meta Programs - are the most unconscious of the perception filters and are content free i.e. they
are not based on any past experience or beliefs. Whether you see the glass as half empty or half
full is an example of one of your meta programs.
Values - are the next most unconscious filter and are the first level at which the filters have
content as they are based upon our experiences to date. Values are those things we are prepared
to fight for and also those things we try to live up to. Values are those things we are prepared to
invest resources in to either achieve or avoid. Values are how we know right from wrong, good
from bad, what's important and what isn't, and they are also how we decide about how we feel
about our actions and the actions of others.

Values are arranged in a hierarchy, usually with most important one at the top and the lesser ones
below. Values are also context dependent - your values about what's important to you in a
relationship are probably very different from you values about what's important to you in your
career. Values can also be linked to and vary with changes in emotional state.

Beliefs - on one level beliefs are convictions that certain things are true or real and are also
generalisations about the state of the world around us. Beliefs are presuppositions that we have
about certain things and can create or deny personal power for us i.e. we have a better chance of
achieving an objective if we first truly believe we are capable of doing so. If we believe that we
will fail then the likelihood of that being our outcome increases. In modelling an ability we
admire in another individual and desire for ourselves, finding out what the enabling beliefs are
that allow that person to have that ability is vital.

Attitudes - are collections of values and beliefs around a particular subject. Often we are quite
conscious of our attitudes and often we share them with others i.e. 'Well that's the way I feel
about.....'. Change made at the level of attitude is far more difficult to achieve than change made
at the level of values.

Memories - the collection of memories we build up during the course of our lives deeply affect
both our perceptions and our personality. Our memories are who we are. Some psychologists
believe that as we get older our reactions to present external events actually have very little to do
with the present, and are in fact reactions to gestalts - collections of past memories organised in a
certain way around certain subjects. Gestalts are formed when a number of individual
experiences of the same type get squashed together to form one single generalised memory.

Decisions - the sixth filter, also related to memories are decisions which we made in our past.
Decisions about who we are and what we are capable of, especially negative or limiting
decisions, can affect our entire lives. The decisions we make may generate beliefs, values and
attitudes or they may just affect our perceptions though time.

Sometimes we make decisions unconsciously or at a very early age and then forget them. These
decisions may not get re-evaluated in the context of new experience and as a result can affect our
lives in ways which were not originally intended.

The map is not the territory

In the previous section we looked at the NLP Communication Model and learned how a
significant amount of the information about the outside world is filtered down to a size that our
conscious mind can usefully attend to at any single point in time.
It is useful now, having learned that knowledge, to return to one of the presuppositions of NLP -
The map is not the territory, and understand more about what that means.

To recap briefly, approximately 2 million bits of information per second pour in through our five
senses. This information passes through a number of perception filters which delete, distort and
generalise, leaving approximately 134 bits per second which we use to construct an Internal
Representation (IR) of the external event.

Our IR's combine to form our internal map of the world. As human beings we operate on our
maps of the world rather than directly on the world itself (recap complete).

Very significant point coming up - pay close attention!

Now - given the obvious difference between 2 million bits per second and 134 bits per second,
we clearly see that a significant amount of the incoming information is lost in the selection
process. Thus we can also clearly see why our map of the world could NEVER BE the world
itself, just as a map of the UK, even if it was built to scale by a team of experts, could NEVER
BE the UK itself.

We can also conclude that as we are all individuals and individually pay attention to different
things that our internal maps will vary very significantly. Even if a group of individuals are all
paying attention to the same external event, the very different perceptual filters that they each
have will mean that they are likely to selectively pay attention to different aspects of that same
external event and hence their individual Internal Representations will also differ from one
another.

The map is not the territory (2)

There's an NLP joke which goes something like - If you have ten witnesses to a bank robbery
and you interview them all, how many different stories will you get? 10? No - the correct answer
is 11 because there's always one multiple personality.

Okay, it's not the best joke in the world but it does illustrate another important point on the theme
of The map is not the territory - the differences between one person's internal map of reality
when compared to another person's map can be quite striking. This is the guiding principle
behind another of the Presuppositions of NLP - Respect the other person's model.

Respecting the other person's model empowers us to communicate with that person more
effectively. We may need to suspend some of our own beliefs, the ones based on our model, to
truly hear what the other person is saying (we're not giving up our beliefs here, just suspending
them temporarily). By doing so we might, just might, find out something useful that we can use
to enrich our own model. If the other individual can do the same they too stand to gain more
from the communication - a true win-win outcome.

Try this simple exercise to illustrate the point. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and
imagine taking a walk along a familiar street - perhaps your local high street. As you go, write
down each landmark (shop, house etc.) that you pass. Try also to include any small details about
each one that stick out such as the colour of the door or of any signage, any particular sounds or
even smells that are associated with that part of the journey.

Ask a friend or perhaps a family member to undertake the same exercise by themselves - do not
compare notes at this stage.

Once you've both completed the exercise then it's time to compare notes. There are likely to be a
lot of similarities between the two but what we are interested in are the differences - and you
may find a lot of them. The differences illustrate how our internal maps of the same external
locations and events can vary significantly

The final part of the exercise is to walk that journey for real to see whose internal map best
matched the real world and maybe even find areas where the real world is completely different
from either of your internal maps.

FRIENDLY TIP - reading about subjective exerience and NLP is a good place to start but
always remember that actions speak louder than words. You will learn far more from getting out
there and actually DOING than you ever will from reading alone.

The four stages of competence

It can be useful when beginning to learn a new subject area, particularly a multi-faceted subject
area like NLP, to recognise that our competence will grow in stages. Usually this growth is in
direct proportion to the amount of focused effort we are willing to invest in this learning. Here
we cover four stages of competence as a useful addition to our learning strategy.

Stage 1 we call Unconscious Incompetence because this is where we don't know what we
don't know.

At stage 1 we may not even be aware that an opportunity for learning exists. If we are aware of
the existence of some knowledge or a skill that we don't posess, we may be unaware of a
particularly good reason for acquiring that knowledge or skill, or of it's relevance to us.

Once we have recognized the existence of that knowledge or skill and of the benefits of
acquiring it for ourselves we are empowered to move forward to the next stage.

A typical example of this would be learning to drive a car. This learning opportunity only
becomes available to most of us once we reach an appropriate age. Before then we are aware that
one can learn to drive a motor vehicle, but there are no significant benefits in trying to do so until
we can usefully (and legally) use that skill.

Stage 2 is where we move into Conscious Incompetence where we do know what we don't
know.
We've already recognized that there is a worthwhile learning opportunity available to us and
therefore that there is an area of knowledge or skill in which we are deficient. We can now begin
to think about how we are going to constructively address that deficiency and move toward
competence.

In the example of learning to drive a car, this is where we would book some lessons with a
qualified instructor and start learning the Highway Code.

The four stages of competence (2)

The fact that you've reached this point of the website means that you've already achieved the first
two stages of competence. Notice how good it feels to have made so much progress so quickly
and notice what you say to yourself in your own mind as you realise how much you've already
learned.

Stage 3 we call Conscious Competence because this is where we know what we know.

In stage 3 we focus on actually learning the knowledge or skills that we identified as being of
value to us in Stage 1. To learn effectively we have to actively concentrate and consciously think
about exactly what we are doing at every stage as we store the learnings that will enable us to
make use of our new knowledge reliably, at will and without assistance in the future.

In the later parts of Stage 3 we should be able to demonstrate the skill or knowledge to other
people, but we may not be able to teach it well to others yet. Repeated practice is the single most
effective way to move from Stage 3 to Stage 4.

In our example of learning to drive a car, passing our driving test would be a good example of
the end phase of Stage 3.

Stage 4 is known as Unconscious Competence which is where we don't know what we know
(that is to say we become less consciously aware of what we know) and through continued
practice the use of what we know becomes second nature and moves from being a conscious to
an unconscious functioning.

People who have been driving for a number of years usually demonstrate unconscious
competence. All of the skills required to drive the car have become so entrenched in their
unconscious that they may be able to do other things at the same time. People may describe
operating at this level of competence is operating intuitively.

At this level of competence we may find that we can effectively teach what we have learned to
others. After an extended period we may also find that as we do what we do in an unconsciously
competent way it has become so instinctual that we actually find difficulty in explaining it to
others. This is why we must avoid complacency and periodically check our unconscious
competence against new standards.
Set your outcome
Earlier in the Learning Strategy section we covered the Five Principles for Succes, the first of
which was Know your outcome. Knowing your outcome is important but it's even more
important to ensure that your outcome is well thought out and will be useful.

I've had a few different jobs in my relatively short but eventful life but I remember one manager
in particular who often made what at the time seemed like casual throw-away comments but
looking back were pearls of wisdom.

One of those pearls, I feel, is particularly relevant here - '...before beginning the climb up the
ladder of success, just step back for a moment and check that it isn't leaning against the wrong
wall.'

So we're going to take a step back here and consider useful methods which will help us to ensure
that we set for ourselves what are known in NLP as well formed outcomes.

In NLP a well formed outcome must comply with certain criteria, i.e. it must be:-

1. Stated in the positive

2. Sensory specific
3. Contextualized
4. Self achievable
5. Ecological
6. Worthwhile

Employing these simple criteria in order to set well formed outcomes helps to ensure that those
outcomes will be successful in many ways including:-

1. Avoidance of unintended costs or consequences

2. Resistance to achieving the goal resulting from internal conflicting feelings or thoughts
about the outcome.

On the next page we'll examine the criteria and the process of setting well formed outcomes in
more detail.

Well formed outcomes in NLP

Well formed outcomes require a little planning and preparation. We can easily verify that our
outcomes will comply with the pre-requisite criteria and thus will be well formed by asking
ourselves just a few simple questions:-
Q1. What specifically do you want?

By establishing exactly what we DO want rather than what we DON'T want, we ensure that our
outcome is stated purely in positive terms i.e. 'I want to feel confident about my skills' rather than
'I don't want to feel worried and inadequate every time I attempt something new'.

Q2. How specifically will you know when you have this?

We need some precise measure which is observable through our five senses so that we can know
when we have our outcome. In the above example this could be 'I'll see the evidence of my
ability and will know I've done a good job ' or 'My design will produce sales for the business'.

Q3. Where/when/with whom do you want this resource?

It's important that we contextualise our outcomes to ensure that we have them under appropriate
conditions. Let's say we set an outcome of 'I want to be incredibly energetic all of the time',
which sounds great on the surface, but what would happen when we needed to rest and sleep?

It may be more appropriate to set an outcome of 'I desire abundant energy whenever I engage in
sporting activities'.

Q4. What resources do you need to be able to achieve this?

Successfully achieving our outcomes depends on our having access to appropriate resources as
and when we need them.

List all of the resources that you will need to get your outcome and verify that they are available
to you as appropriate and required.

Pay particular attention to resources which are dependent on others, which may not be easily
attainable. For resources that are not available try to find alternatives that will serve your
purposes equally well in achieving your outcome.

Well formed outcomes in NLP (2)

So far we've made sure that our outcome is stated in the positive, sensory specific,
appropriately contextualised and self achievable i.e something that we as a human being are
capable of.

This means that we've already established the what and the how of setting and achieving our
well formed outcome. The final two questions cover the why and what if aspects of that
outcome i.e. is this outcome worthwhile and is it safe for us to have it?

Q5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of achieving this outcome / making this
change?
Taking a balanced and ecological view of our desired outcome is vital to ensure that the positive
aspects of having it outweigh any negative aspects i.e. our outcome of increased confidence may
be less desirable to us if our friends interpret it as arrogance and begin to spend less time with us.

An ecological outcome is one which answers 'YES' to the following three questions - is it safe to
me? Is it safe to others? Is it safe to the planet?

Always ensure that your outcomes are balanced and ecological.

Q6. What is the benefit of this outcome or which of your values will be fulfilled by
achieving it?

Make sure your outcome is worthwhile i.e. something that truly has a useful, positive impact on
your life whether directly, or by proxy by enhancing the lives of others around you.

An excellent resource which covers Well Formed Outcomes in NLP in more detail is Time Line
Therapy and the Basis of Personality by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall

Sensory acuity
Sensory - relating to sensation, to the perception of a stimulus and the voyage made by incoming
nerve impulses from the sense organs to the nerve centres.

Acuity - the level of sharpness of a sense and it's usefulness in resolving fine levels of detail.

Sight, sound, touch, smell and taste are the tools we use to perceive what is going on in the world
- both within our own body and outside of it. It stands to reason therefore that the most effective
use of our senses will yield the highest quality information. Higher quality information in turn
improves our chances of enhancing our performance.

Our major aim in the practice of sensory acuity is not necessarily to improve the senses
themselves (we can only use the tools we have), rather it is to improve our use of those tools by
increasing and enhancing our awareness of the information provided to us by our senses and to
improve our abilities to make ever finer distinctions in that information.

One of the Five Principles for Success covered earlier was have enough sensory awareness to
know if you are being effective.

From the Presuppositions of NLP we learned that the meaning of our communication is the
response that we get.

Sharply focussing our sensory awareness to accurately and fully measure the responses that we
are getting to our communication and thus verify if we're communicating effectively is one very
important use of sensory acuity.
Sensory acuity also demands that our representations about the information provided to us by our
five senses must be described using purely sensory based descriptions. We'll find out more about
what this means on the next page

Sensory based descriptions

Sensory based descriptions - what exactly do we mean by that?

Always remember that confusion precedes understanding.

Probably the best way to explain what is meant by the phrase sensory based descriptions is with
a small illustrative exercise.

Take a good look at the guy on the left. In fact, if you want to get a really good look at him click
on the image for a larger view.

Now, before you scroll down and read the rest of this page, take a pen and paper and write down
a description of the guy in the image above. You don't need to write a huge essay, three or four
clear descriptive points should do the trick.

Once you've written your description you can go ahead and scroll down to read the rest of the
exercise.

Here are some things you could have written to describe the picture above:-

The man looks angry, as if he's pointing at somebody or something and shouting at them.

He looks scary, as if he's really annoyed.

Now, whilst the picture could lead us to believe that some of these things are true, can we be
certain? The answer is no and in fact what we are doing is what's described in NLP as a mind
read i.e. we've looked at the picture and made certain judgements without knowing the truth.

Other mind reads about this picture could be that the guy is passionately singing opera, or that
he's cheering his favourite football team as they score a goal!

A sensory based description of this image would include only those things which we can verify
with our own senses such as:-

His mouth is wide open. His teeth and tongue are visible. There is tension in the skin beneath his
eyes and on the bridge of his nose. The skin at the outer edges of his eyes is wrinkled. His left
arm is raised. His left hand forms a fist with the index finger pointing towards us.

Sensory acuity - what to look for

In inter-personal communication sensory acuity enables us to notice subtle physiological shifts in
those we are communicating with which in turn give us an idea about how our communication is
being received, to know if our communication is going in.

During inter-personal communication people constantly make very subtle shifts in their
physiology from moment to moment which we often do not consciously notice since the verbal
part of the communication takes the focus of our attention.

The non-verbal elements of inter-personal communication can often give us insights about the
communication that are not provided by the words being spoken, which in turn guide us in how
to modify our communication in order to get our desired outcome.

Many physiological changes occur and here we'll look at five major changes which are useful to
notice:-

Skin colour - from moment to moment there are changes in a person's skin colour. The shift is
usually from a whiter colour to a redder colour or what is commonly described as a blushing of
the skin.

The easiest way to look for this is to imagine the person in black-and-white and look for changes
from light to dark. This may sound odd but it's a useful way to monitor the shift from paler
shades to redder shades by measuring it in terms of a shift from light to dark.

What we must avoid here is applying our own meaning to that colour shift based on that shift
alone - we must stick to sensory based descriptions.

We may look at a person with a red face and assume that they are embarrassed and of course we
could be completely wrong - they could equally be angry or be hot from exercising or the shift
could be due to a shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic functioning.

The moment we ascribe meaning to a physiological shift we are guilty of mind reading. We must
stick to sensory based descriptions in order to use our sensory inputs cleanly.

Sensory acuity - what to look for

Skin tonus - the tone of the muscles underlying the skin, particularly of the face, is another
useful indicator of physiology and non-verbal communication.

We are looking to detect here if the skin of the face is tight or loose. Tight skin will tend to look
more shiny than loose skin.

Breathing - an individual will change their breathing from moment to moment and what we are
most interested in is the rate and the location of the breathing.

By watching the torso rising and falling we look to detect if the breathing is fast or slow and
whether it is high in the chest or low in the stomach.
Lower lip size - a person's lower lip size changes from fatter and fuller (look for lines) to thinner
and more drawn out (no lines).

The eyes - are they focused or defocused? Are the pupils dilated or undilated?

The more time you spend practising sensory acuity the more skilfull you will become. Set aside
some time each day to practice. Often it is useful to focus on one element each day and observe a
number of people i.e on day one observe skin colour, on day two skin tonus or breathing and so
on.

Remember at all times that the map is not the territory. Keep your sensory input channels clean
by describing your observations purely in sensory based terms.

As you practice sensory acuity you will become increasingly aware of things that you just never
noticed before. You will become increasingly and automatically aware of all of the subtle
changes that people make in their physiology from moment to moment. This in turn will assist
you in becoming a master of inter-personal communications as you learn to read just where the
other person is and how your communication is getting through.

Perception is projection
In the section on The map is not the territory we examined the notion that human beings operate
on the world through internal mental maps, rather than directly on the world itself.

Through this notion we learned that what we believe to be 'real' or 'true' is based upon the
information we retain after our perceptions of the outside world have passed through a number of
filters.

Another notion used in NLP which complements the notion of the map not being the territory is
that perception is projection and that we see things not as they are, but as we are.

Confused? That's right, you are but read on - enlightenment awaits you.

To understand perception is projection consider the filtering process of generalisation. In an

earlier example we considered the usefulness of generalisation when looking at a door, and how
we might use the generalisations we made about one door as an efficient method of
understanding how all doors work.

When we come to another door rather than re-learning the concept and it's function afresh we
refer to the map we made earlier and apply that map or project it onto this new door. Thus we
believe this new door is just like the door in our map, that it has the same properties and will
behave in exactly the same ways.

With something as simple as doors these processes generally work pretty well for us. People
however are entirely more complex than doors (at least most of them are).
Perception is projection (2)
In order to understand our world we attempt to apply meaning to it.

Or, if we accept that each of us is a unique human being and that each person's map of the world
is also unique, in order to understand our worlds we attempt to apply meaning to them - each of
us attempts to apply our own meanings to our world in order to understand it.

In order to understand other people we attempt to apply meaning to their actions, their
behaviours and their communications.

However, as incredible as we are as human beings we are limited in our ability to truly
understand other human beings, why they do the things they do, why they say the things they say
and what they truly mean when they do and say them.

The only way we could truly understand another human being would be to actually become them
- to be born as them, to grow up as them, to have exactly the same experiences, thoughts,
environment and influences as them.

Tools which we use to get around these limitations include our imagination and our ability to use
our map of reality to project meaning onto external objects and events.

These are useful tools but they too are limited in that the projections we make, the meanings we
ascribe to the world around us and our understandings of it, are generated from within - we
project ourselves onto our world, we see things not as they are but as we are.

Perception is projection (3)

Useful examples of concepts such as perception is projection can be found in the writings of
Stephen R. Covey, such as this example from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -

'I remember a mini paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York.
People were sitting quietly - some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with
their eyes closed. It was a calm and peaceful scene.

Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and
rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The
children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very
disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.

It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his
children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to
see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally with what I felt was unusual
patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of
people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"

The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and
said softly, "Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the
hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they
don't know how to handle it either."

Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things
differently, and because I saw differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved
differently............. Everything changed in an instant.

Perception is projection (4)

Acceptance of the concepts of the map is not the territory and perception is projection
significantly increase our abilities to use our sensory input channels maximally and cleanly, to
communicate more effectively and to bring to bear a new and beneficial attitude of wanton
curiosity which will lead us in the direction of all manner of new and fascinating discoveries.

By respecting the other person's model of the world or even willingly stepping outside of our
own model and engaging momentarily with them in their model of the world, our potential for
inter-personal communication increases exponentially.

Countless opportunities for learning and growth will present themselves to us if we can only
suspend our own beliefs and attitudes for even a short while.

By resisting our natural in-built inclination to see the world as we are and instead to see it as it is
or even to see the world as others see it we not only focus our sensory and mental apparatus
more usefully and productively, we actually stand to benefit from innumerable opportunities to
continually enrich our own impoverished mode

What is rapport?
Rapport is one of the most important features or characteristics of unconscious human
interaction.

It can be described as a state of mutual trust and responsiveness between individuals or groups of
people.

Other descriptions of rapport include being in synch, being on the same wavelength and
commonality of perspective.

In inter-personal communication the prior establishment of a good rapport can mean the
difference between a successful, productive communication and an unsuccessful, non-productive
interaction.
We can use rapport in inter-personal communication to encourage the person we are
communicating with to relax, to feel a sense of familiarity and comfort in their interaction with
us and to lower the barriers of resistance and become more receptive to our communication.

Establishing a good rapport is also instrumental to the successful use of the majority of the
techniques within Neuro Linguistic Programming.

In order for many of the the techniques to be used with maximum effectiveness the person on the
receiving end may need to suspend or change their beliefs, see things from different perspectives
or even experience a complete paradigm shift in their perceptions of the world.

For some people, processes which force them to step outside of their comfort zone by vigorously
shaking their model of the world will be immediately perceived as positive, interesting and even
exciting. Others may find the experience confusing or even a little scary. Still others will
experience a whole gamut of mental, physical and emotional responses. All of these responses
are normal.

By establishing good rapport at the outset we can gain commitment from the other party,
conscious or unconscious, to trust the process even when they do not fully understand how the
process works and what the ultimate outcome will be.

The basis of rapport

Have you ever had an experience where you were chatting with a person you had just met and
you felt as if you had met them before or that you had known them your whole life?

Have you ever formed an instantaneous connection with another person for no particular reason
other than you felt that they were your kind of person?

Have you ever had an experience where you were working with another person on a particular
task and your combined input led to the task flowing effortlessly to completion and produced
results far in excess of what you had both originally thought possible individually?

Have you ever had an experience where your communication with another person was so
effortless and synergistic that you found yourselves completing each other's sentences?

The chances are that you can answer Yes to at least one of these questions and if you can then
you have experienced rapport.

Rapport is something that we as human beings do naturally every day and often without being
consciously aware of it.

As a rule of thumb people like people who are like themselves. It's very easy to get into rapport
with a person you identify with strongly, where there are common experiences and frames of
reference that give you a common ground for communication and interaction.
Over the next few pages we will identify ways in which we can actively build rapport with
another individual even when we don't immediately have access to the common ground that
would cause rapport to occur naturally.

Physiology and tonality

In 1970 the American anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell published a book entitled Kinesics And
Context based on his studies of human body motion in the context of inter-personal
communication.

In this book Birdwhistell advanced the theory that human inter-personal communication requires
the use of all the senses and that the words that we use to communicate with each other account
for a mere 7% of our communication.

The next obvious question is, if our words make up only 7% of our communication, what makes
up the other 93%?

According to Birdwhistell the tonality of our voice when we speak is responsible for 38% of our
communication and a massive 55% of our communication is conveyed through our physiology -
how we position and move our body during our communication.

Ever had a really difficult day, the kind where you feel like you should really have just thrown
the alarm clock at the wall and stayed in bed?

During that really bad day when someone asks you how you're day is going you say - Oh yeah,
I'm having a REALLY GREAT day, never better.

Taking the words (7%) at face value the person asking the question could easily believe that you
were indeed having a really great day (demonstrating this in text works brilliantly because the
words are all you have to go on, you have to imagine the rest).

However, when we consider the sarcastic tone of voice emphasising the words REALLY GREAT
(tonality - 38%), the look of dismay on your face, drooping shoulders, drooping head and the
huge sigh as you force the words out (physiology - 55%) it becomes evident once we have the
full communication that the meaning of your communication is actually the complete opposite of
the words that you used!

A key point to remember is that in this example physiology and tonality are heavily exaggerated
for emphasis - in regular every day communication, shifts in physiology and tonality are far more
subtle and often so subtle that they are outside of our conscious awareness.

Matching and mirroring

 Remember that people tend to like people who are like themselves. You
will tend to like people who are like you, I will tend to like people who are like me.

The most important key to gaining instant rapport with another individual therefore is to make
ourselves like them. One way that we can do this is to match and mirror their words (7%),
tonality(38%) and physiology (55%).

Another important point to remember is that rapport is not some new technique that we are
learning here for the first time. The state of rapport is something that occurs quite naturally on a
regular basis during our communication, without any conscious effort on our part. What we are
seeking to learn here is how to actively and rapidly create a state of rapport with another
individual whenever we choose.

If the other person becomes aware that we are actively using specific techniques to create the
rapport state then it is highly likely that the state of trust and responsiveness will be lost. Thus we
will have a higher success rate if we match and mirror the most unconscious elements of the
other person's behaviour during the communication.

Somewhat conveniently the elements of communication that are most outside of our conscious
awareness are our physiology and tonality which, also conveniently, together amount to 93% of
our communication.

Thus by matching and mirroring the physiology and tonality of the person we are communicating
with we can make ourselves most like them, and thus generate rapport, without their becoming
consciously aware of the process. Remember that subtlety is the key. Make your matching and
mirroring a feint reflection of the other person's behaviour so that it does not become obvious to
them consciously.

We can also match and mirror the words that are used by the person we are communicating with.
This will obviously be more inside their conscious awareness but will add to the rapport as using
some of the same words is a natural part of conversation.

Let's first of all consider some of the parts of a person's physiology that we can mirror. An
exhaustive list is far beyond the scope of this article - there are infinite subtle elements and
nuances that we can match and mirror if only we have the sensory acuity to notice them. Here
are a few suggestions:-

Posture

 Are they sitting, standing, kneeling, slouching?

 Are they relaxed or tense?
  Are they leaning in any particular direction?
 Are their legs or arms crossed?
 Are their hands in their pockets or holding an object?
 Is their head tilted in a certain direction?
 Are their feet together or apart?

Gestures

 Do they gesture with their hands in a particular way?

 Do they gesture with nods of the head or another body part?
 Are the gestures large/small/exaggerated/restricted?
 Are their gestures toward a particular person or thing?
 Do they use gestures to assist in describing objects or locations?

Facial Expressions

I spent some time considering useful ways to describe or define facial expressions for the
purposes of this article and came to the conclusion that as my model of the world differs from
yours, my subjective description of a facial expression would differ from yours.

Humans have 53 facial muscles which contribute in varying degrees to a myriad nuances of
facial expression that we are capable of. If you have enough sensory acuity you will be able to
distinguish facial expressions far more exquisitely than I can describe here in mere words alone
and, as a rule of thumb, if you can observe it you should be able to match/mirror it.

Obvious areas of the face to consider are the brow (is it wrinkled or smooth, raised or lowered?),
the mouth (including lips, teeth and tongue), the bridge of the nose (wrinkled or smooth?), the
eyes, the cheeks and cheek bones, the jaw and also look for facial symmetry or asymmetry.

If you want to find out more about facial expressions you can learn all about lip corner pullers,
nasolabial deepeners and lip puckerers by studying the Facial Action Coding System or FACS.

Blink rate

Not an obvious part of physiology to match, some may say, but it can be more powerful than one
might think in establishing rapport and it is very far outside of a person's consciousness.

Breathing

 Rate - is it fast and shallow or slow and deep?

 Location - high in the chest, low in the stomach or a the mid-line of the torso?
  Pattern - is it regular or irregular?

* Avoid matching the breathing of a person with a respiratory condition such as asthma -
distressing for them and unhealthy for you.

Matching and mirroring (cont.)

So far we've covered matching and mirroring the physiology of another individual, but what
exactly is the difference between matching and mirroring? It's really very simple.

When you mirror another person you are the mirror image for them. If they were facing you and
they raised up their left hand with the palm facing toward you, you would need to face them and
lift up your right hand with the palm facing toward them so that you become their mirror image.

In matching the position decribed above, you would raise your left hand when the other person
raised their left hand.

When should you match and when should you mirror? The only way to learn this is to practice it
for real.

Matching tends to be less obvious and more outside of our conscious awareness than mirroring.
Mirroring however tends to lead to deeper levels of unconscious rapport than does matching.

If you're using matching and mirroring in sales it's often a good idea to switch from mirroring to
matching just before you close the sale to avoid buyer remorse. If you don't do this the other
person may be in such deep unconscious rapport with you that they think your words are their
own internal dialogue, their thoughts, and sign the sales agreement without being fully aware of
how they really feel about making the purchase.

If you are using rapport for selling purposes it's important to remember that NLP techniques
should only be used for win-win outcomes i.e. we only sell people things that they need or want
and thus we maintain our credibility and integrity.

Matching tonality

Tonality is something that we match rather than mirror but it is very important that we avoid a
copy-cat approach to vocal matching as this will probably ruin your chances of gaining
unconscious rapport. For example a man trying to match the pitch of a woman's voice could
seem ridiculous, but he could contribute toward the goal of rapport by raising his pitch within his
own octave. Here's a few examples of elements of vocal tone that we can match:-

 Pitch - is it high like Mickey Mouse or is it lower?

 Rate - is it fast or slow, steady or choppy?
 Timbre - is the voice clear, soft, croaky, raspy?
  Volume - is it loud and booming or quiet and withdrawn?

For example, if a person is speaking quickly and loudly then you would speak quickly and loudly
to match them and establish rapport. On the other hand if the other person is speaking v-e-r-y s-l-
o-w-l-y and you are talking at high speed you are going to break the rapport and blow them out.

Matching key words

Another useful technique is to match the last three or four words they say, the last three or four
words they say, using the same pitch, rate, timbre and volume as them.

Matching another person's key words is also useful in establishing rapport. For example,
watching the football with your father-in-law you notice that he shouts Go on! every time his
team gets near the goal mouth. You on the other hand aren't really that interested in football so
don't have the common frames of reference that would lead to a naturally occuring rapport state.
You could however increase the chances of a good rapport by matching Go on! at appropriate
times. Add in matching pitch, volume and tempo and you're well on your way to improving your
likeability score with the old chap.

Rapport indicators
So now we understand what rapport is, why we would use it and how we would use it.

The next question is, how do you know when you have established rapport with another person?

If you cast your mind all they way back to Five Principles for Success you will remember that
one of those principles was have sensory awareness to know if you are being effective. This is
where your sensory acuity really comes into play. Remember - these are building blocks.

In a nutshell, if you pay close attention to your senses, in particular to what you see, hear and feel
you will recognise the rapport state when you get it.

There are four main indicators of rapport:-

1. You get a feeling inside (kinesthetic internal) of warmth towards or familiarity with the
other person. Some people describe this feeling as butterflies around the mid section of
the body.

2. A blushing or a flushing of the skin in the other person - a shift from light to dark, from a
lighter shade to a redder shade. This is indicative of their autonomic nervous system
switching from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) to parasympathetic (rest-and-digest)
functioning. In other words, the skin colour change is an unconscious indicator of
relaxation.

3. The other person will commonly say something to indicate that they are in rapport i.e. Do
I know you? Haven't we met somewhere before? Are you an Aries?
 4. You switch from pacing to leading and they follow. Until now you have been pacing the
other person - matching and mirroring their physiology, tonality, key words etcetera.
When you have rapport you should be able to lead - when you move, they move. Try
crossing or uncrossing your legs and within a matter of moments they should match or
mirror you, Lean back in your chair and they should do the same. As long as you
maintain rapport you should be able to continue leading.

Representational systems
Representational systems are the systems that we use to internally code and store the data that we
take in through our five senses. The coded data is stored in the form of internal representations
which combine to build our internal maps or models of the world.

We touched on representational systems in the NLP Communication Model.

There are four major representational systems that we use to represent our experience:-

1. Visual (things that we see)

2. Auditory (things that we hear)

3. Kinesthetic (things that we feel)

4. Auditory Digital (things we say to ourselves in our own mind)

The olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) systems tend to be less used as representational
systems although strong scents and odours in particular can be powerful triggers in accessing
past memories. Has the scent of pine ever led you to think about Christmas?

V, A, and K are all analogue systems. Analogue systems are constantly variable (and, in theory,
infinitely variable) and are measured in terms of amplitude i.e. brightness, volume, temperature,
weight.

Auditory Digital (AD) is, as the name implies, a digital system in that the units of measurement
are discrete values.

Binary is a good example of a digital system - it has two discrete values - 1 and 0 or On and Off.

Denary or base 10 (or decimal if you prefer), the number system that most of us are familiar with
is another example of a digital system and has ten discrete values - 0 to 9.

The AD system has thousands of discrete variables in the form of the individual words that make
up our language. As AD is a measurement of the words we say to ourselves in our own minds
(our thoughts) it is also referred to in NLP as self-talk.
Representational preferences
All human beings are unique and each of us will tend to have a preferred representational system
that we use to organise our experience and to construct our internal maps of reality.

Some of us will be mainly Visual and will find when we think about the world that our thoughts
consist largely or even entirely of images - both real and imaginary. The images may be still or
moving - something which we will explore more when we look at submodalities.

Some of us will have a preferred representational system of Auditory and will organise our
thoughts around the sounds that we have heard, including words that have been spoken to us (as
opposed to words that we say to ourselves in our own mind which would be classed as AD).

Others still will find that their preferred representational system is Kinesthetic and they will
organise their experience by how things make them feel.

If we consider the impact of representational preferences in conjunction with the filtering

processes from the NLP Communication Model we can appreciate even more fully how one
person's internal map of the world will differ significantly from that of another person, how the
map is not the territory.

Three people, each with a different preferred representational system, engaging in the same
experience will have very different internal representations of that single experience.

Over the next few pages we will consider how we can establish not only our own preferred
representational system, but also how we can discover the preferred representational systems of
other people and how we can make use of that knowledge once we have it.

Sensory predicates
One method we can use to identify the preferred representational systems of other people is to
listen carefully to the words that they use when describing their experience of the world.

In particular we are listening for a certain class of words known as predicates and certain
groupings of words known as predicate phrases.

This is another area of NLP in which your sensory acuity is particularly useful.

In traditional English grammar a sentence is divided into two main parts:-

1. The subject

2. The predicate - that which is written or said about the subject

Here's a few examples for clarity - the predicate is underlined in each example:-
John kicked the football

Sarah listened to the rhythm of the rain beating against the window pane

He saw for the first time what had been right in front of his eyes all along

Notice that the predicates in the above sentences can be associated with certain particular
representational systems - kicked (kinesthetic), listened...rhythm...beating (auditory),
saw......right in front of his eyes (visual).

During normal conversation people will use a mixture of predicate phrases, but they will tend to
favour predicate phrases from one of their representational systems - V, K, A or Ad. The one that
they favour is an indicator of their preferred representational system.

To illustrate, here are some examples of predicate phrases that you might hear and be able to use
to identify another person's preferred representational system:-

Visual

 That looks good to me!

 Let's get a bird's eye view, look at the big picture first and then we can focus in on the
detail
 He was a sight for sore eyes
 The clarity of his presentation style revealed brilliant insight and really cleared the fog

Auditory

 That sounds great, it's music to my ears!

 Lend me your ear for a moment and I'm sure what I have to say will really resonate with
you
 Take a moment to really tune in to the words I'm using and you'll get the idea loud and
clear

Kinesthetic

 It's been a pretty bumpy ride but now I finally feel that I've made it
 Just the thought of it makes the hairs stand up on the back of my kneck
 This should go smooth and steady, like a walk in the park
 I really want to get a handle on this and ensure I've grasped the concepts

Auditory digital

 If you could just describe it in a little more detail I'm sure I could make sense of it
  I need to process what we've just experienced in order to fully make sense of it
 If you're sensitive to the changes in another person you'll gain a distinct appreciation of
their individual thought processes

Eye patterns introduction

When people think about their thoughts and experiences they tend to move their eyes in certain
ways. In NLP these eye movements are described as eye patterns or eye accessing cues.

Practicing our sensory acuity by closely monitoring the eye patterns of the person we are
communicating with can provide useful clues as to how that person is thinking from moment to
moment.

We learned in the section on communication styles about the representational systems that we
use to code and store our thoughts about the world.

We also learned that when we describe our experience of the world the words that we use
(predicates) are influenced by those representational systems and thus can reveal our preferred
representational system. When we listen to the words a person uses we are using our Auditory
input channel or taking the input auditorily.

Our eye patterns are also linked to our representational systems and thus provide a second
mechanism, through our visual input channel (our eyes), a way to gather useful data about a
person's representations of experience and how they go about retrieving those representations
(memories) when required.

Eye pattern diagram

The eye pattern diagram above represents the eye patterns of a normally organised or normally
wired right handed person. By normally organised or normally wired we mean that the person is
not reverse wired or reverse organised which will be covered in more detail later. For simplicity
we'll give the normally organised right handed person a name by which we will refer to him
subsequently - Jim.

When we think about things visually (or make pictures if you prefer) our eyes tend to move
upward.

When Jim looks upward and to his left (or to the right as you look at him) he is most likely to be
remembering pictures of things he has seen before. In NLP this is described as accessing Visual
remembered or Visual recall (Vr).

Conversely, when Jim looks up and to his right (or to the left as you look at him) he is most
likely to be accessing Visual construct (Vc) and constructing pictures of things he has never seen
before, imagining how something could look.

When people think about things auditorily i.e. sounds including spoken words, their eyes will
tend to look left and right as they look towards one ear or the other or their eyes may move
rapidly from ear to ear.

When Jim looks toward his left ear (to the right as you look at him) he is most likely to be
accessing Auditory recall (Ar) and remembering sounds he has heard before.

Conversely, when Jim looks toward his right ear (to the left as you look at him) he is most likely
to be accessing Auditory construct (Ac) and thus imagining, or constructing, sounds he has never
heard before.

In the lower quadrant Jim has Kinesthetic (K) on his right, and Auditory digital (Ad) on his left.

When Jim looks down and to his left he is most likely accessing the Auditory digital channel -
the channel in which he hears the words he says to himself inside his own mind or, if you prefer,
hears his own thoughts. This may look/sound/feel unusual in written form but it's perfectly
natural and something most people do all the time.

And last, but not least, when Jim looks down and to his right, or to the left as you look at him,
he is most likely accessing Kinesthetic, his feelings.

Discovering eye patterns

In a normally organised, right-handed person the eye patterns can be typically represented by the
diagram on the right.
Statistically most people are normally organised in that their eye accessing patterns match the
diagram above.

A smaller percentage of people, including many people who are left-handed, will be reverse
organised. For reverse organised people a mirror opposite of the above diagram applies - Vc, Ac
and K on the right and Vr, Ar and Ad on the left.

To become highly effective in using eye patterns you should practice them until you become
unconsciously competent in their use (remember the four stages of competence?).

If the concept of eye patterns is new to you then you may be wondering just how you can learn
easily how a person is thinking by observing their eye patterns and also distinguish if they are
normally organised or reverse organised.

The answer is really quite simple and elegant - simply provide an appropriate context such that
the natural response of that person is exactly the response we are looking for.

As if that wasn't simple enough, providing the right context to observe and measure a person's
eye accessing cues can be as simple as asking them a few simple, well designed questions and
watching where their eyes go.

Discovering eye patterns (2)

We can cause a person to access particular representational systems and display the eye patterns
we are looking for by asking simple questions. Here are a few example questions you could use:-

Visual recall (Vr)

 What colour was your childhood bedroom?

 What colour was your first car?
 Who were the first five people you saw today?

Visual construct (Vc)

 What would your childhood bedroom have looked like with striped carpet and polka-dot
curtains?
 What would a zebra look like with yellow and green stripes?
 How would your car look with 8 wheels instead of 4?

Auditory remembered (Ar)

 Can you recall the sound of your mother's voice?

  What sound did your alarm clock make this morning?
 What does your favourite music sound like?

Auditory construct (Ac)

 Can you imagine the sound of clapping changing slowly to the sound of bells?
 What would my speech sound like if I had marbles in my mouth?
 Can you hear the sound of a harmonica and the sound of your mother's voice at the same
time?

Kinesthetic (K)

 How does it feel to stand barefoot on a wet rug?

 How do your hands feel when holding a snowball?
 How does it feel to be in a nice warm bath?

Auditory digital (Ad - self talk)

 Think of the kind of things you say to yourself most often

 When you talk to yourself in your own mind, how do you know it's your own voice?

Using eye patterns

So now that we know about eye patterns and how to look for them, how is that information
useful to us? How can we take the knowledge that people tend to move their eyes in certain ways
depending on how they are thinking and do something useful with it?

Examples of uses for eye patterns include:-

 Eliciting primary representational system

 Enhancing communication
 Improving rapport
 Eliciting strategies
 Modifying strategies (eye pattern scramble)

Elicit Primary Representational System

The sections on representational preferences and sensory predicates demonstrated ways that we
can listen to the types of words people tend to use so that we can establish which representational
system they favour.
One question is, should we trust just one of our sensory input channels when making these
distinctions? The short answer is no, we should use every scrap of information available to us
through sensory acuity to enhance the quality of the distinctions we make.

If a person uses primarily visual predicates in their communication and their eye patterns are also
primarily visual we have two pieces of evidence to support our assertion that their preferred
representational system is visual.

Where a person's predicates and eye accessing cues mistmatch i.e. are incongruent we have a
unique opportunity to learn and hone our skills in order to assess their preferred representational
system.

Using eye patterns (2)

One particularly powerful use for eye patterns is to significantly enhance inter-personal
communication which can in turn significantly enhance our abilities to gain and maintain rapport
with the people we communicate with.

By noticing people's eye patterns as you are communicating with them you can join them in their
model of the world, pace their current experience by using predicates that fit with their eye
accessing cues and thus increase and deepen rapport.

Here's a few basic example scenario's to illustrate the point. We'll use a sales person (Jim) and a
prospective client (Sue):-

Jim: So Sue, from our range of products our poopelwinkleblatter would be the best option for
your company

Sue: (looking upwards and to her left - Vr) hmmm, I'm not sure Jim.

Jim: (speaking quickly) Well, if you remember looking at the feature list you'll see that the
poopelwinkleblatter ticks all your boxes in terms of requirements. Can you see how this would
benefit your company?

Sue: (looking upwards to her right - Vc) well, the poopelwinkelblatter would certainly enhance
our window displays.

OR

Sue: (looking toward her left ear - Ar) You say that this will cut our manufacturing costs by
15%, that doesn't sound possible.

Jim: (speaking more slowly) I hear what you're saying, it does sound incredible so let me
explain exactly how you will make those savings effortlessly. Would that be music to your ears?

OR
Sue: (speaking slowly and looking down and to her right - K ) I'm not sure Jim, I still feel
uncertain, as if something is missing from your proposal or not quite clicking into position.

Jim: (speaking slowly) That's OK Sue, if I were you I'd feel exactly the same - you need to feel
comfortable with your purchase so let's run through the features and benefits one more time so
you can really get a good grasp of what you're getting your hands on.

Using eye patterns (3)

In the scenarios on the previous page Jim detected how Sue was thinking from moment-to-
moment from her eye accessing cues and matched his predicates to pace her current experience,
join her in her model of the world and hence enhance his communication and the level of
rapport.

There was also reference to the speed at which Jim and Sue were speaking to each other but no
explanation as to the significance of the rate of their speech. So what was that all about?

Jim was utilising further knowledge that he had learned about representational preferences to
further enhance his communication with Sue.

Visual people often speak very quickly. They are thinking in pictures and sometimes they think
faster than they can effectively speak. The pictures move so fast that it's difficult if not
impossible to vocalise every thought adequately.

Auditory people often speak a little more slowly. Often how they say something is more
important to them than what they say and so they will be very precise in their vocal
communication. Auditory people will take the time to ensure that you have fully heard what they
want to communicate and they will think carefully about the words you use too.

Sometimes their eyes will flick left and right for several seconds as they say the words to
themselves in their own mind, finally speaking only when they are happy with what they have
heard. It's also fair to say that some auditory people love to hear the sound of their own voice.

Kinesthetic people often speak more slowly still. Their communication is often interspersed with
pauses as they check how they feel about what you've communicated to them, and then check to
feel about the response they have come up with.

Jim detected this information during his communication with Sue and modified his own
behaviour to match Sue's and thus significantly enhance his communication with her.

Submodalities
Submodalities are the very building blocks of experience and the basis of many of the highly
elegant techniques for rapid change within NLP.
So far we've looked at how NLP can be used to enhance inter-personal communication - external
communication between ourselves and other people. In submodalities we begin to focus our
attention internally, to examine the concept of internal communication - how we communicate
with ourselves inside our own mind. Submodality techniques can also allow us to change our
internal communication to better achieve the results that we want in life, and even coach others
to achieve similar results.

When we take our experiences of the outside world and transform them into our internal
representations or internal maps, we code and store those experiences in our mind in certain
particular patterns, but remember - the map is not the territory.

If we can take an experience and code it in one particular way, we can just as easily code it in
any number of ways. If the way we've coded a particular experience proves to be less useful than
we would like, why not recode the experience in a more useful way? Afterall, each of us is the
cartographer of our own map of reailty and we can change the map in any way we choose that
more usefully serves our purposes.

Can you think of something that you really don't like to do but have to do on a regular basis
whether you like it or not? Would you like a way to transform the way you think about that thing
you don't like to do so that it becomes something you really enjoy and even look forward to?

Can you think of a food or drink that you really like or even crave but, for the sake of your
health/vitality/waistline should consume less of? How would you like a way to transform the
way you think about that food/drink so that you like it less and your cravings become a thing of
the past?

Maybe there's something that you WANT to like but you just can't bring yourself to try it, or just
one negative aspect of it outweighs all the positives?

You can use submodality techniques to recode your experiences in such a way that you can make
those useful changes easily, quickly and gracefully.

Submodalities defined
The presuppositions of NLP tell us that all distinctions human beings are able to make
concerning our environment and our behaviour can be usefully represented through the visual,
auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory senses.

- or if you prefer -

Everything we do inside our mind and body can be described in terms of things we see, hear,
feel, smell and taste.

In NLP the five senses that comprise our sensory input channels are also known as modalities.
The richness and diversity of experience available to us as human beings demands that our
sensory input channels support a fine level of distinction or granularity, and thus the modalities
are made up of smaller sub-components known as submodalities.

Any experience that we have in life is going to have a certain set of submodalities and the order,
sequence and properties of those submodalities are the way in which we encode that particular
experience as we add it to our internal map of reality.

Changing an experience in our internal map can be easily achieved by simply changing the
submodalities of the experience to recode it.

For example, we can take something we dislike and change it into something we like by:-

1. Eliciting the submodalities of the thing we dislike (substance A)

2. Eliciting the submodalities of something that we like (substance B)

3. Recoding our experience of substance A by mapping onto it the submodalities of

substance B

Simple, elegant and very useful.

Submodality examples
Now that we've established the basis of what submodalities are and how we can use them to
make useful changes to our model of the world quickly and easily it's time to focus in on the
detail by looking at some examples of submodality distinctions. As most submodality work
utilises the Visual, Kinesthetic and Auditory channels we'll stick to those for now:-

Visual

 Is the picture black and white or colour?

 Is the picture near or far?
 Is the picture 2D or 3D?
 Is it a still picture or a movie?
 Is it associated (you see it through your own eyes) or dissociated (you see yourself in the
picture?
 Is it focussed or defocussed?
 Is it bright or dim?
 Is it in the centre of your field of vision or off to one side?
 Is it clear or grainy?
  Is it solid or transparent?
 Is it framed or panoramic?

Kinesthetic

 Where is the feeling in your body?

 Does the feeling stay in one place or does it move?
 If it moves, how specifically does it move?
 Is there a temperature to the feeling?
 Is there a weight or a pressure to the feeling?
 Is there a vibration to the feeling?
 What is the intensity of the feeling?
 Is the intensity constant or does it change?
 If the feeling changes, at what speed does it change?
 Does the feeling have a shape or a texture?
 Is there a rhythm to the feeling?

Auditory

 Is the sound loud, quiet or does the volume vary?

 Is it fast or slow?
 Is the sound near or far?
 If the sound moves, how specifically does it move?
 Is the sound in mono or stereo?
 Does the sound come from a particular location or direction?
 Does the sound loop? Fade in and out?
 Is there a single sound or layers of sound?
 Is the sound pronounced and in the foreground or muted and in the background?
 Is the sound a tone, a voice, musical etc?
 Does the sound have a particular speed or duration?
 Are there any pauses in the sound?
This list is very far from exhaustive - human beings can make many, many distinctions in the
qualities of their subjective experience, which is one of the reasons why comparing your own
experience with that of other people is so fascinating.

Swish patterns
The swish pattern is a very simple yet very powerful submodality technique for taking minor
problem behaviours or states and replacing them with more useful behaviours or states.

As I've had significant success using this technique myself I'll share my own personal experience
with you as an illustrative example, particularly as it highlights one of the personal experiences
that have proven to me that great results can be achieved quickly and easily using even the most
basic NLP techniques.

Over the years I'd put on a few pounds, gradually without really noticing. In fact the alarm bells
only really started ringing when I found myself struggling to bend far enough to put my socks on
in the morning. My belly had become an obstacle to my daily dressing routine. Time to do
something about it.

One of my big downfalls was my liking for pizza - I loved the stuff and it was often a way of
rewarding myself and unwinding after a hard day at the office. I decided that a good way to slash
my calorie intake was to reduce my pizza intake and that a good way to achieve this was to train
my brain, by using the swish pattern, to go in a more useful direction.

Swish patterns can be performed in any representational system and as I'm a primarily visual
person I chose to do a visual swish. For this I needed two pictures:-

1. The first picture represents the present state and must be associated i.e. the picture must
be as it would appear seen through your own eyes - this is VERY important.

My associated picture was my hand, holding a large slice of pizza moving towards my mouth. As
I look down at my hand and the greasy, calorie laden pizza slice I'm about to eat I can see my
stomach protruding over my waist band.

Already the image is very unappealing and I haven't even done the swish yet!

2. The second picture represents the desired state and must be dissociated i.e. I see myself
in the picture, as if I'm another person seeing me from a different angle.

In my dissociated picture I see myself weighing my ideal weight. The large belly has gone, I look
healthier and even have improved muscle tone (a bit like Nicolas Cage in Con Air). When I look
at the expression on my face in this picture I look confident, relaxed, pleased that I've made this
change.
As the swish pattern is a fast technique I found it useful to take a few moments to make the two
pictures as real as possible by tweaking the submodalities of each until they were just right. This
way I could access the pictures quickly and easily when I came to do the swish.

Once I had my two pictures it was time to swish using the following steps:-

1. Access the first picture - the associated picture of the present state.

2. Imagine that the picture is on a rubber sheet. Suddenly the rubber sheet is grabbed from
behind and the picture is crumpled down to a tiny dot. Then the rubber sheet is pulled
rapidly backwards so that the picture is drawn off into the distance with it.

3. Imagine the tension in the rubber as it is pulled rapidly backwards, further and further,
until ->>S-W-I-S-H->> the rubber snaps back into place and is now showing the second
picture - the dissociated, desired state.

4. Clear the screen

5. Run the process again from step one, repeating the process seven times. It's important
that you do this process as quickly as you can - you should need only a very few seconds
to do each repetition.

Once you've done the swish seven times you should find that if you can think of the old picture it
is immediately and automatically replaced by the new picture - the swish has become an
automated process inbuilt in your neurology.

If the swish doesn't become automatic after the first seven repetitions, do another seven
repetitions and test again.

Swish patterns usually become fully automated after 3, 7 or 21 repetitions.

Swish pattern study

So how does the swish pattern actually work? How does switching one picture rapidly for
another picture lead our brain in a new direction and allow us to replace problem states or
behaviours with more useful states or behaviours?

Let's review the technique in a little more detail so as to gain a greater understanding of some of
it's more subtle aspects.

Pattern interrupt

The swish is a form of pattern interrupt designed to assist us in changing direction - to interrupt
the pattern we have been running (problem state or behaviour) and replace it with a more useful
pattern (desired state or behaviour).
When we engage in the problem state or behaviour we are running a pattern that is coded and
stored in our neurology.

Let's use for a moment a metaphor of our brain being a record player (or an MP3 player for those
of you too old to remember what a record player looks like). When we engage the problem state
or behaviour it's a lot like playing a record over and over (or listening to the same track on your
MP3 player repeatedly).

What the pattern interrupt helps us to do is scratch the record (or scramble the MP3 data) so it
can never be played in the same way again.

We then replace the record (or MP3) with a new tune - the desired state or behaviour.

Picture 1 - associated - present state - undesired

The first picture represents the behaviour or state that we wish to change. Hence it is something
we have already experienced which is why we make the picture associated - as seen through our
own eyes.

As we've already experienced this state or behaviour we'll probably have an internal
representation of it which includes kinesthetics or feelings. As this state / behaviour is something
we wish to change we will probably have negative feelings about it. Associating fully into the
picture and seeing it through our own eyes also triggers the kinesthetics - putting us in touch with
the negative feelings that we wish to move away from and creating a push effect - pushing us in
the direction of.....

Picture 2 - dissociated - desired state

We create the second picture as dissociated to help to create momentum toward a compelling
future. We are essentially showing ourselves how things could look and how we could look
having made this change now.

People who move toward what they do want are usually more successful than people who move
away from what they don't want.

By dissociating the second picture we help to project it internally not only as a worthwhile goal
but also as something achievable in reality, and this creates momentum that pulls us toward this
desired state.

The swish

The studies which led to the development of NLP techniques found that when we visualise
images, the strength of the feelings we associate with the images can be directly affected by
submodality distinctions such as the size of the image and the brightness.
Big, bright images up close in our field of vision usually trigger stronger feelings than small,
dark images which are off in the distance. (This couldn't be why action movies are so much
better on the cinema screen or why TV screens are growing in size almost daily, could it?)

Try it out - think of something that excites or scares you. Make the picture big and bright and
pull it towards you until it's really, really close - you'll probably find the feelings you associate
with the picture get stronger as it gets nearer, bigger and brighter.

Now gradually push the picture off into the distance. As it recedes into the distance it gets
smaller and darker until it's hard to make out the detail of the image at all. As it slides away
you'll probably find the effect it has on your feelings getting less and less.

Swish leverages these findings - we push the undesired image further away, which in turn makes
it smaller and darker and less emotionally significant to us. In so doing we provide a clear
instruction to our neurology that we wish to move away from this state / behaviour.

Then the desired image comes rushing back in at high speed to replace the undesired state /
behaviour with the desired state / behaviour.

This too is an element of the swish that is vital to it's success. Whatever we take away - in this
case the problem state / behaviour - must be replaced with something else - the desired state /
behaviour. Our unconscious mind doesn't like gaps and, in the absence of something better, it
will tend to fill the gap by replacing the problem state / behaviour right back where it came from.

The speed

The swish works best when it's done rapidly. Why? Because brains don't learn slowly - brains
learn quickly.

Imagine being shown a picture on the first page of a small pad of paper and then, a week later,
being shown the second page containing the same image again with some small changes.
Imagine this process spanning several months, each week being shown subsequent pages with
the image changing slighty each week from the week before.

If you were shown the pad in this way you would probably find it unremarkable, relatively
meaningless and quite disinteresting.

It would only be when you were shown all of the pages in rapid succession that the greater
meaning would become apparent as, through persistence of vision, your brain would connect all
the disjointed images, see the pictures moving and realise that the pad was in fact a small motion
picture in the form of a flick book (or flip book if you're from the USA).

Just as we can only fully understand the flick book when the pages are accessed quickly, our
brains learn better when they are able to make connections between pieces of information
quickly - which is why the swish works best when it's done at high speed.
Clear the screen (break state)

The direction of the swish pattern is old picture -> new picture -> clear the screen. Why do we
clear the screen each time? Why not just switch back and forth between the two pictures?

We use the swish pattern to program our neurology to take us in a new direction - toward the
desired state or behaviour and hence the process is sequential - step 1, step 2, step 3.

Simply accessing the two pictures repeatedly, one after the other, would suggest bouncing back
and forth between the two or looping around constantly between the problem state / behaviour
and the desired state / behaviour - which is absolutely not the outcome we are looking for. The
process needs an exit point so that the unconscious knows that the end of the process has been
reached. In NLP this exit point is known as a break state.

The clear screen step in the swish is a simple break state. By introducing the clear the screen
step the pattern becomes move from the old state -> to the new state -> then exit, which is
exactly the outcome we wish to produce.

Anchoring

The swish pattern also includes anchoring. The picture of the undesired state / behaviour
becomes the stimulus which automatically triggers the response - the picture of the desired state /
behaviour. This reinforces the instruction to our unconscious mind to leave the problem state /
behaviour behind and move toward the desired state / behaviour.

Future pacing
Testing and future pacing are the means in NLP by which we verify that the changes we make
today will project forward with us into our future and thus ensure that useful and context
appropriate resources are available to us when we need them.

When we've used NLP to do some change work either on ourselves or with other people it's good
practice to verify the effectiveness and longevity of our work. We do this in the following two
ways:-

1. Testing

Put simply, we test the work we've done to ensure that we get the results that we expected.

In the swish pattern example we would test by thinking about the problem state/behaviour or, if
we are working with someone else, by asking them to think about the problem state / behaviour.

If the person who had done the swish found that thinking about the problem state / behaviour
caused them to rapidly and automatically switch to thinking about the desired state / behaviour
then we could usefully accept that the result of our test was positive and that the swish had
yielded the desired outcome.
If we test and find that we don't get the expected results we could repeat the process (in this case
by repeating the swish pattern) and test again.

If after repeating the process a number of times we still don't get the desired results what should
we do? The answer is simple - if what you are doing isn't working, do something else.

If you are certain that you've set a well formed outcome and you have enough sensory acuity to
know from the feedback you receive that you are not getting the desired results, then
ANYTHING ELSE has a better chance of succeeding than what you've been doing so far. Apply
the five principles for success and utilise your behavioural flexibility to find some other way of
getting your desired result.

Your choices here may include doing the same NLP technique differently, switching to a
different NLP technique or something else. Remember the law of requisite variety?

2. Future pacing

Successful testing enables us to immediately test and verify that the NLP technique we've used
has produced the desired result(s).

A successful test does not necessarily mean that the desired result(s) will carry forward and
continue to appear in our behaviour automatically in appropriate contexts in our future. This is
where future pacing enters the equation.

Future pacing could be usefully compared to rehearsal for the unconscious mind.

Future pacing the earlier swish pattern is as simple as asking the person to imagine a particular
time and context at some time in their future where their natural response would have been the
old state / behaviour.

Get them to fully associate into that future scenario, visually, kinesthetically, auditorily - 'As you
step forward to that future time now, step into your body, see what you would see, hear the
sounds around you and feel the feelings of really being there'.

Once they are associated into the future experience test that their response to it is the desired
state / behaviour from the swish pattern.

Have them repeat this process two or three times, each time stepping into some different future
time where their desired outcome is to have the desired state / behaviour replace the old problem
state / behaviour.

If you get the desired results the future pace is complete - simple as that!

The future pacing process should help to ensure that the seeds of achievement you plant today
continue to bear fruit into the future.
Like to dislike
In another useful submodality technique, known as like-to-dislike we take a substance we like
and turn it into something we don't like. By reversing the technique you can also get yourself to
like something which previously you had disliked.

Like to dislike works best when the dislike is really intense and two substances are quite similar.
Red wine, for example, is similar in many ways to cough syrup. If you love red wine and hate
cough syrup, mapping the submodalities of the cough syrup onto the red wine will tend to make
you hate red wine.

The technique is simple, quick and effective:-

1. Elicit the submodalities of the substance you like (making a note of any unconscious
changes in physiology such as skin colour, breathing or muscle tone if you are able -
these will come in useful for testing purposes)

2. Break state

3. Elicit the submodalities of a similar substance that you dislike (the more intense the
dislike the better, and again noting changes in physiology if you are able)

4. Carry out a contrastive analysis between the two sets of submodalities - find the
difference that makes a difference

5. Map the contrasting submodalities from the disliked substance onto the liked substance
(converting the thing we like into a thing we dislike in the process).

You can do this technique with yourself. For the purposes of the exercise we'll assume that you
are doing it with another person.

1. Submodality elicitation

Elicit the submodalities quickly in order to ensure that you get unconscious responses as
unconscious responses tend to be cleaner and as a result the technique tends to be more effective.

It's also important to consider submodalities from the major representational systems - Visual,
Kinesthetic and Auditory. Let's start with some sample questions for the visual modality
(remember to record the answers for use in the next stage):-

1. Do you have a picture?

2. Is it black-and-white or colour?
3. Is it bright or dim?
4. Near or far?
 5. Associated or dissociated?
6. Still picture or a movie?
7. 3D or flat?
8. Focussed or defocussed?
9. Framed or panoramic?
10. Is the picture centred of off to one side?

Once you've elicited the visual submodalities of the substance that the person likes, ask them if
there are any sounds that are important. If the answer is yes then elicit the auditory
submodalities, if no then skip auditory submodalities. (See the earlier submodalities page for
examples of submodality distinctions).

Ask the person if there are any feelings that are important. Again, elicit the kinesthetic
submodalities if the answer is yes, skip them if no.

Olfactory and gustatory modalities tend to play little or no part in this particular process so skip
those also.

Once you have a list of all the important submodality distinctions for the liked substance, get
them to break state (i.e. clear the screen or ask them a complete non-sequitur such as Do you
smell popcorn?) then repeat the process above, this time eliciting the submodalities of the
substance the person dislikes.

When you have two lists of submodality distinctions (one for the liked substance, one for the
disliked) it's time to move to the next stage - contrastive analysis.

Contrastive analysis
The next stage in the like to dislike technique, once we've elicited the important submodalities of
the liked substance and the disliked substance, is to compare the two sets of submodalities to find
the drivers, the difference that makes a difference.

Start off simply, by comparing the two sets of submodalities side-by-side and noting any
differences between the two sets.

Each of the differences will play a part in differentiating between a substance that the person
likes and a substance that they don't like. Certain of the differences will have a more powerful
influence than the rest, and these we call the drivers. As a rule of thumb, changing a driver will
cause all the other submodalities to pull in alignment with the driver automatically.

Typically three distinctions will stand out as drivers - the location of the picture, the size of the
picture or the difference between associated and dissociated.
Map across the contrasting submodalities

To complete the process we map the constrasting submodalities from the substance the person
doesn't like on to the substance they do like - in this case we map the submodalities of cough
syrup onto red wine.

For the exercise let's assume that our subject likes red wine and dislikes cough syrup. Their
picture for red wine is a large, colour picture in the centre of their field of vision and is
dissociated (they see themselves drinking it and enjoying it).

Their picture for cough syrup is smaller, in the bottom-right corner of their field of vision, is
black and white and associated (they see a spoon of cough syrup being thrust toward their
mouth).

To change like to dislike and have them dislike red wine, we ask them to imagine a dissociated,
black and white picture of a glass of wine being thrust toward their mouth and have them move
that picture into the bottom-right corner of their field of vision and make it the same size as the
cough-syrup picture.

If we've correctly elicited the submodalities and correctly mapped across the contrasting ones,
the drivers in particular, the person we are working with should find that they dislike red wine
with the same intensity that they dislike cough syrup.

If, when they think about red wine, they also display the exact same unconscious physiology
changes that we earlier noted were associated only with cough syrup and not with red wine, we
have a very strong indication that the process has indeed achieved our desired outcome - like to
dislike.

Simple, quick and effective.

(If you or the person you're working with decide that you really would prefer to like the
substance again, take the opportunity to develop your skills further by reversing the process by
returning substance back to it's original submodalities).

Persuasive communication
Persuasive communication mastery is an invaluable skill not only for use in NLP but for life in
general, especially if you're a person who likes to make an impact on the world rather than a
person who just goes with the flow.

Many of the most powerful, influential and successful people throughout history were made so
by the very fact that they were such artfully persuasive communicators.

From a personal development standpoint learning to utilise your communication skills with
volition is fundamental to producing your desired outcomes with ease and finesse.
If you're a leader your ability to communicate persuasively and effectively will play a major role
in convincing others to follow you.

If you're a coach or a therapist your communication skills will help to determine whether your
client makes effective changes and achieves break-through results.

If you're a sales person, your ability to communicate effectively may be the major determining
factor in convincing you prospect that your product or service is right for them.

In this section of the site we're going to focus primarily on the use of language - the Linguistic
element of Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Linguistic frames
When we look at the world through a window we see a particular view.

Look through another window, even a small distance from the first and although the world
outside the window remains the same, your unique view of it through that second frame may be
subtly, or radically different from the view through the first frame.

More importantly for our purposes here, your thoughts and feelings about the two views and the
internal representations resulting from the two experiences are likely to be equally different.

Similar results can be achieved linguistically using linguistic frames, and if you're familiar with
the common expression 'it's not what you said, it's how you said it' then you are likely to
appreciate just how useful linguistic frames can be in inter-personal communication.

Using linguistic frames we can adjust the meaning of one language structure by framing it inside
a second language structure, and this is something you probably do every day without realising
it.

In the following examples we'll examine ways to utilise linguistic frames to:-

 Disagree with another person's point of view and get them to agree with our point of view
without them even being aware of it (agreement frame).

 Satisfy another person's request by giving them something other than what they asked for
(purpose frame).

 Move a person from a stuck state by getting them to think in new ways and imagine
doing the very thing don't want to do or think that they can't do (what if frame).

Agreement frame
The fourth indicator of rapport is our ability to pace and lead the person we are communicating
with.

The agreement frame is a linguistic tool that we can use to verbally pace the person we are
communicating with and then lead them to where we want the communication to go.

The agreement frame takes one of the following forms:-

 I agree........and........
 I appreciate........and........
 I respect........and........

For the purposes of our illustrative example let's consider an imaginary communication between
two characters - A and B.

A says: We've got so much work to do to complete this project. We're going to have to work late
to get everything finished on time.

B says: I understand how you feel, but I've had enough for one day and I'd much rather go home
now and finish things up tomorrow.

For the purposes of our example we're going to assume that A's response to B's disagreement is
to feel displeased (remember - the meaning of your communication is the response that you get).

B could have elegantly achieved his desired outcome - going home for the day - in such a way
that A was more likely to feel agreeable, simply by wrapping an agreement frame around his
disagreement as in the following example:-

A says: We've got so much work to do to complete this project. We're going to have to work late
to get everything finished on time.

B says: I agree that we have a lot to do, and I think that if we go home now and recharge our
batteries we'll finish the job in half the time tomorrow.

Let's look at some of the fundamental differences between the two examples.

In the first example B may as well have said 'I understand how you feel , but my wants and needs
are more important than anything else and I'm going home'.

In the second example B uses one of the agreement frame forms mentioned above - I
agree........and........

Firstly B avoids claiming to understand A. The fact is that as B's model of the world differs from
A's model, B could never truly understand A.
Claiming to understand another person whilst at the same time holding a belief or opinion which
differs from theirs is like to result in a polarity response in that person i.e. in this case the
polarity response is likely to be no - you don't understand!

Thus by avoiding claiming to understand A, B presents less opportunity for resistance and avoids
the polarity response.

By agreeing with part of A's communication B begins to pace A by acknowledging A's model of
the world.

In the second example B the continues to pace A by replacing but with the and part of the
agreement frame.

Linguistically the word but is known as a negation operator. Used in a sentence the word but
negates everything that comes before it.

In this regard but is a very powerful word. Ever been on the receving end of a stream of positive
communication and thought to yourself 'wait for the but...wait for the but...'? When the but
comes along it negates all the positive aspects of the communication and we're left with the
negative.

The agreement frame wraps neatly around any negative in such a way that overall the
communication is received in a positive light.

So far B's second communication has two pacing elements - I agree + and.

The final element of the agreement frame switches to leading the person we are communicating
with in the direction of our desired outcome i.e.

 I agree........and........(X)
 I appreciate........and........(X)
 I respect........and........(X)

Where X is our desired outcome.

On the following pages we'll examine some of the other tools we can add to our linguistic
toolbox to boost our inter-personal communication skills further still.

Purpose frame
The purpose frame is a linguistic tool which we can use to satisfy the purpose of a person's
request without necessarily giving them what they actually ask for.

Whilst that may sound manipulative or akin to some form of trickery, it really isn't. The purpose
frame is elegantly designed to produce win-win outcomes.
The form of the purpose frame is very simple and to illustrate it we'll use two imaginary
individuals - Billy and Johnny. For our purposes Johnny will be using the purpose frame to
address a request made by Billy.

 Billy makes a request (X) of Johnny

 Johnny responds - (X), for what purpose?

 Billy responds - (X) for the purpose of (Y).

 Johnny offers an alternative to (X) that satisfies Johnny's purpose of (Y).

Illustrative examples don't have to be dull and boring - let's inject a little tongue-in-cheek
humour:-

 The eskimo asks his boss for underfloor heating in his 'igloo-office'

 Boss replies - underfloor heating, for what purpose?

 Eskimo responds - so I can have nice warm feet!

 Boss replies - okay, I'll supply you with some extra-thick socks.

Thus the boss was able to satisfy the purpose/intention of his eskimo employee's request without
actually providing exactly what was asked for.

The added bonus is that the result is a win-win - our eskimo friend has nice warm feet and the
boss keeps his employee happy and avoids the cost and inconvenience of installing underfloor
heating.

What if frame
The what if frame, also know as the as if frame is used to negotiate resistance and limiting beliefs
by assisting a person in considering more fully those possibilities, options and ideas which they
may previously have considered beyond the scope of their abilities or the realms of possibility.

The what if frame allows a person to suspend those limiting beliefs which have negative impacts
on their lives and try on more useful beliefs, safe in the knowledge that they are only 'pretending'
to believe something different and that they can easily return to their original belief if they wish.

The intention is that by facilitating that person in trying on those different beliefs their rigid
model of the world is given a good hard shake (or a gentle shake if that's more appropriate) and
they push past their limiting beliefs in the direction of more useful beliefs.

For the purposes of illustration let's imagine that you are coaching a friend or work colleague:-
  Friend says - I could never get that promotion, I just don't have what it takes

 You respond - Well, what would happen if you did get that promotion? If you had that
promotion now what would you look like? What skills and abilities would you have?

or

 Friend says - I could never tell her how I feel

 You respond - What would happen if you did tell her how you feel? What specifically
would you say to her? What would her reaction most likely be?

or

 Friend says - Nothing good ever happens to me - if it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck
at all

 You respond -What if something good did happen to you - how would you recognise it?
Would you even notice if something good happened to you, or would you be too busy
searching for bad luck?

or

 Friend says - I can't think of one person who truly likes me for who I am

 You respond - What if there are lots of people who do truly like you for who you are and
you're too wrapped up in your thoughts to see those people in the first place - how are
they ever going to show you that they like you?

The what if frame is not a complete intervention in and of itself. Rather it is a catalyst intended to
trigger a chain reaction of processes in the subject to go around, over or through a limiting belief
and begin to generate more useful beliefs and generalisations.

If we think of the limiting beliefs and generalisations as a dam across the river of creativity and
infinite possibility, the what if frame is the key process that triggers the collapse of that dam and
releases the flow of generative change which acts to enrich a person's model of the world.

Say it the way you want it

Master communicators tailor their communication to suit the person they are communicating
with in a number of different and subtle ways.

One way in which they do this is by being aware of the other person's model of the world and of
the internal representations their communication is likely to elicit in that person.
One key aspect of this process is the recognition that the unconscious mind cannot process a
negative or, in other words, we can't think about what we don't want to think about without
thinking about it. Just take a moment to think about that.

Confused? That's OK as confusion always precedes understanding.

If someone said to you Don't think of a blue tree what's the first thing you think about? A blue
tree - right?

When you're told Don't think of a blue tree you have to think about the blue tree just to be able to
make sense of the sentence and thus you cannot avoid thinking about what you are told not to
think about. (You're thinking about it again, aren't you.)

When you give another person an instruction or even a suggestion that involves negation such
as:-

 Don't think about (X)

 Don't do (X)
 Try not to mention (X)

they have to think about the negative part of what you've said just to make sense of it. When we
start to think about the negation we begin to imagine doing it and thus become more likely to do
the very thing we are trying not to do!

For example, when you tell a child Don't spill your drink, in order to process the sentence the
child has to think about spilling the drink.

Whilst they are internally imagining spilling the drink they focus on their internal map of reality
instead of paying attention to what's going on in current external experience. Having experienced
spilling the drink internally and the associated consequences, they are likely to experience the
negative kinesthetics that go along with that, resulting in increased muscle tension.

They've now switched from calmly carrying the drink in a relaxed manner, concentrating on
where they are going to clumsily carrying the drink in a nervous manner whilst paying attention
to internal experience. Ironically, telling them not to spill the drink is more likely to produce that
undesired result than if we'd said nothing at all - they probably hadn't even thought of it until we
mentioned it!

A better instruction would have been That's right, carry the drink just like that, nice and
carefully or, with a simpler form commonly used with small children or when time is of the
essence - the drink stays in the cup.

When we say it the way we want it - state our outcome in the positive, tell the person what we
want rather than what we don't want, we actually create internal representations in the person we
are communicating with that significantly increase the chances of getting our desired outcome.
Remember the rule and say it the way you want it!

"Speaking in quotes"
Speaking in quotes is a very powerful way to verbally convey a direct message or instruction in
an indirect way.

Quotes allow you to get your message across and neatly bypass any resistance that may arise
from the person you are communicating with.

The first time I read about about this pattern (quotes) I remember saying to myself "This pattern
is so easy you've just got to learn how to do it" and that's exactly what I did.

When we wish to communicate clearly and effectively with other people we tend to be very
direct in our communication. By being very direct and explicit in our communication we leave
the other person in no doubt about what we want, what we want them to do, how we want them
to do it etc.

One drawback in this method of communication is that it can trigger resistance from the other
person - they may not want to do what we ask or they may not want to do it exactly how we want
them to.

Now you may say "Nobody likes to be told what to do" and you'd be right.

"How can we communicate precisely in a way that doesn't give rise to resistance?", I hear you
ask. The answer is to put your communication inside quotes.

Speaking in quotes is really easy to do - think of something you want to say, put it in quotes and
attribute it to someone else:-

I remember watching a movie about a guy who could never make his mind up and his best friend
said to him "....just stop wasting time and make your mind up already, if you don't like your
choice you can change it later".

Quotes can be used in many ways including:-

 Giving commands - A book I once read said "...if you only learn one NLP pattern, learn
to use quotes" and I did.

 Imparting wisdom - a fitness instructor friend of mine told me "...one of the best things
you can do for health is learn to relax and unwind fully each day" and he was right.

 Speaking the unspeakable - "...some people are just so rude and inconsiderate that they
deserve to be slapped - arrogant @!~@##*!, wouldn't you agree? "
When I decided to write about speaking in quotes on this website I said to myself "quotes is such
a powerful and flexible technique and so easy to learn that those who read it will already be
thinking about how they can use it even before they reach the end of the article"

And I bet you are, aren't you?

Utilising negatives
The section on positivity showed us that framing our communication positively was more likely
to create positive internal representations in the people we communicate with and thus to lead
them toward our desired outcome for the communication.

What we must also remember is that negatives, when used with volition, can be equally useful
and often more elegant and subtly influential in achieving the same results, with little or no
resistance from the person we are communicating with.

Now I'm not saying that negatives are a magical tool for influencing others towards your way of
thinking, because you must find out how useful they are for yourself. Afterall, you wouldn't want
to just take my word for it, would you?

As an illustrative example let's consider a teacher and student scenario - which of the following
statements spoken by the teacher to the student is most likely to assist the student in doing well
in the test?

 This test is going to be difficult but just try to focus and do your best.

 Whilst I wouldn't suggest this test will be easy for you I know you've studied hard and
you have all the knowledge to do well.

I wouldn't say that we can choose with certainty which one would work best but I'd put my
money on the second one.

In the first example the teacher tries to motivate the student by telling him that the test will be
difficult. This student may respond well to this type of 'away-from' motivation and sharpen his
focus. On the other hand the internal representation he may generate from this statement is 'this
test will be difficult for you because you're not up to it'. (Remember - the meaning of your
communication is the response that you get).

In the first example the teacher also tells the student to try to focus and do his best, which again
implies that he will fail or at least not be entirely successful.

In the second example just in the phrase '...I wouldn't suggest this test will be easy for you' alone
there are multiple messages expressed and implied - let's consider just a few of them:-
 1. The teacher is actually indicating that the test has been set at a level which will provide a
worthwhile measure of the hard work that they've both put in and the learning that has
taken place.

2. The teacher is indicating that he is aware of the match between the level of the test and
the level of the student's knowledge.

3. Whilst the teacher isn't suggesting that the test will be easy for this particular student, the
student will have to imagine the test being easy just to make sense of the statement '...this
test will be easy for you'.

4. The teacher reinforces belief in the student's abilities with the phrase '...you have all the
knowledge to do well'. This phrasing reinforces to the student that he has the tools to do
the job.

If the teacher also marks out the key phrases verbally i.e. with a lowered voice tone, those
are the phrases that the student's unconscious mind will place most emphasis on - this test
will be easy for you....you have all the knowledge to do well.

And whilst I don't know if it's important, I have noticed another interesting aspect to
utilising negatives that could be very useful.

If I begin my communication with a negative, i.e. by telling you what I'm not saying or
what I'm not thinking or what I'm not going to do, you may find that you actually pay
more attention consciously to what I am saying or thinking or to what I am going to do.

But it probably isn't important or even that useful, is it?

Presuppositions

When we communicate with another human being using natural

language, either verbally or in written form, the words that we use convey explicitly only a
portion of the meaning behind our communication.

In other words only part of our communication is direct (which presupposes that there are parts
of our communication which are something other than direct).

Our linguistic communications also convey meaning which is not expressly stated in the words
that we use.
In other words parts of our communication are not included in the words we use, but are implied
in the way those words are put together.

The portions of our communication which are implied rather than expressly stated are known
linguistically as presuppositions.

Presupposition is the name given to an implied fact that must be assumed before a given sentence
can be accepted as true.

All sentences contain or imply presuppositions as we could not communicate effectively if we

had to prove everything we say all of the time.

Presuppositions are powerful elements of communication in three main ways:-

 When we are on the receiving end of the communication the implied meaning available
to us in the presuppositions (assuming we are practising sensory acuity and are thus able
to detect them) often provides us with far more information and insight than the meaning
expressed by the words themselves. In other words, what people don't say often reveals
more about their model of the world than what they do say.

 When we are on the transmitting end of the communication we can actively utilise
presuppositions with volition to convey information and meaning which, simply in order
to process our communication, the receiver is likely to accept with less resistance than
might be the case had we communicated them overtly.

 We can use presuppositions in our language to lead the person we are communicating
with to create particular internal representations that will usefully suit our purposes.

Consider the following phrase:-

I can't decide which shoes to wear

At face value this simple utterance is entirely unremarkable and if someone said it to us we
would be unlikely to even raise an eyebrow. It's about as interesting as watching paint dry (unless
watching paint dry is your idea of an incredibly interesting pastime in which case you go girl!)

If we probe a little deeper we realise that this simple phrase contains a number of presuppositions
including:-

 I exist
 Shoes exist
 More than one shoe(s) exist(s)
 Shoes can be worn
 I have the potential to wear shoes
  I have the potential to make a decision
 I have access to a range of shoes
 I have the option to make a choice from the range

Suddenly this simple phrase becomes far more interesting (well, maybe not, but you need to
learn to think this way if you want to be able to detect and utilise presuppositions effectively).

Just think about this for a second - you read the above natural language phrase and probably
found it entirely unremarkable. What you were probably unaware of was the fact that
unconsciously you accepted all of the presuppositions listed above, and possibly some of your
own, simply in order to make sense of the sentence.

Now, when you learn to utilise presuppositions with volition in your own communication, you
have a very powerful tool for influencing the way others think without their being consciously
aware of it.

Presuppositions (2)

So presuppositions are those parts of a linguistic communication which

are implied in the communication as opposed to being overtly expressed.

Now that we know that a person's linguistic communication can contain far more information
than is expressly spoken or written, we want to be certain that we detect only information that is
actually present, rather than information that we think is present. Ergo it is useful at this point to
take a little time to differentiate between a presupposition and a mind-read.

Presuppositions are those things that whilst not overtly mentioned, can still be verified from the
linguistic structures present.

A mind-read on the other hand is pure speculation on the part of the person receiving the
communication which cannot be verified from the presented linguistic structures.

So that you can become proficient in detecting presuppositions and the difference between
presuppositions and mind-reads, consider the following statement:-

'I'm not sure whether or not I should stop eating cream cakes'

...and now decide which of the following is a presupposition or a mind-read:-

 1. She currently eats cream cakes
2. She loves cream cakes
3. She eats exclusively cream cakes

Only the first one is a presupposition. The other two are mind-reads.

The key is the fact that the presuppositions are mentioned or implied somewhere within the
communication. In this instance she mentions stopping eating cream cakes, which presupposes
that she previously started eating cream cakes.

Points 2 and 3 are not mentioned or implied in any way in the original statement and are
therefore mind-reads (as is our choice to assign the female gender to the writer, as that isn't
mentioned in the original statement either).

Let's try another example:-

'I don't see why I can't do it, all of my friends are doing it'

1. He feels that he is treated unfairly

2. He wants to be liked by his friends
3. This person's friends do something he currently does not do

Points 1 and 2 are mind-reads - they are not mentioned or implied in any way in the original
statement.

Point 3 could be a presupposition and it could also be a mind-read. Insofar as he states in the
sentence that all of his friends are doing it (whatever it is) it's a presupposition.

On the other hand we cannot ascertain whether his belief that all his friends are doing it is based
on fact. Therefore they may not be doing it at all and it may actually be a mind-read on his part.

Let's try one more for good luck:-

'If I don't learn how to communicate with my boss I won't get a pay rise'

1. He feels that he is treated unfairly

2. He doesn't know how to communicate with his boss
3. He wants to learn new behaviours
4. His salary is linked to his communication skills

Points 1 and 3 are mind reads, 2 and 4 are implied in the original phrase and thus are
presuppositions.
Detecting presuppositions

So far we've loosly defined what linguistic presuppositions are and

considered how presuppositions differ from mind reads.

Having the ability to recognise mind-reads assists us in avoiding the common mistake of paying
attention to what we think we know and instead to focus on the true meaning of another person's
communication.

Detecting the presuppositions inherent in a person's communication can be as simple as asking

the question -

What would have to be true (in this person's model of the world) for this person to say this?

Or, in short -

What would have to be true?

Notice the caveat contained in the brackets - in this person's model of the world.

We must always remember that every aspect of a person's communication, including the
presuppositions, arises from their unique model of the world and thus 'true' in the world may
differ from 'true' in their model.

And whilst it's important to respect the other person's model of the world, the ability to challenge
and thus assist them in usefully enriching their world model is just one of the ways NLP
techniques can be used to assist people to gain more flexibility in their behaviours and thus
operate in more effective and appropriate ways on that world.

For example - when a person says that there is something they would like to be able do but just
cannot do or a particular skill they are unable to acquire we can examine the presuppositions
inherent in their statement by asking the question what would have to be true?

One of the things that would have to be true, would have to be presupposed, is that something is
stopping them from doing the thing they want to do or having the skill they want to have.

It may also be true that this person is unaware of specifically what is stopping them and thus has
not recognised the opportunity to focus their energy on getting over, under, around or through
this obstacle that's getting in the way of them having that thing that they want.
It's just possible therefore that if we ask them a Meta Model question - What specifically stops
you from having (X)? we can cause them to focus upon the obstacle which previously lay outside
their conscious attention and begin to work towards a solution which will assist them in gaining
their desired outcome.

Types of presupposition

To assist you in detecting the different types of presupposition common

in natural language some useful and illustrative examples follow.

Read the bullet-point statements and try to detect the presuppositions in each:-

 John knew that there was a mountain behind the house

All nouns are presuppositions - when we name an object it is presupposed that the object exists.
Thus in the above statement there is a presupposition of existence of John, of the house and of
the mountain.

 The mountain behind the house caused John to decide that he would climb it

In addition to the presuppositions of existence this statement includes presuppositions of

possibility - that it's possible for John to climb the mountain and that it's possible for him to
know that there's a mountain behind the house. Presuppositions of possibility often include
words such as could, would, may, might and will and their associated opposites - couldn't,
wouldn't, may not, might not and won't.

 John thought that as the mountain behind the house was there he should climb it

Presuppositions of necessity often include words and phrases such as should/shouldn't,

must/mustn't, need to, have to and ought to.

 The mountain behind the house caused John to climb it

Adds a presupposition of cause and effect - that it's possible for the mountain to cause John to
do something. Often include phrases such as caused, forced, led, made and triggered.

 John's previous mountain climbing experience meant that he could climb the mountain
behind the house
Adds a presupposition of complex equivalence - one thing means another. In this case the very
fact that John has previous mountain climbing experience means that he can climb this one.

 John realised that there was a mountain behind the house

Includes a presupposition of awareness - that John was able to be aware of the existence of the
mountain. Common phrases of this type include - as you can see, as you heard, you can feel and
you may already have noticed (but you already knew that, right?).

 John knew that at six o'clock he would climb the mountain behind the house

Includes a presupposition of time. Sentence constructions of this type may include phrases such
as - past, present, future, previously, earlier that day, tomorrow, later, some time in the past,
before breakfast and during the last ice age.

 John knew there was a beautiful mountain behind the house

Includes a presupposition of the adverb/adjective type. In order to process the sentence the
reader accepts the presupposition the the mountain actually has the property described by the
word beautiful.

You may already have noticed as we progress through these phrases that we are stacking layer
upon layer of presupposition. For example, in each of the phrases that follows the first there is
still the presupposition of the existence of John, of the mountain and of the house.

The NLP Communication Model tells us that the conscious mind can only attend to 7+/-2 chunks
of information at one time.

When you put those two things together it can be quite easy to understand how, when presented
with a linguistic communication containing stacked layer upon stacked layer of presupposition,
especially when that communication is spoken, we find ourselves accepting the presuppositions
simply in order to process the communication and keep up with the flow of the conversation (if
you didn't get all that in one go you can go back and read it again).

More presuppositional types

Let's continue learning now some of the types of presupposition

commonly found in natural language so that we can both recognise them and construct them as
we wish.
Consider each of the following statements and identify the presuppositional types contained in
each:-

 John knew that there was a mountain behind the house so he either had to climb it or stay
in bed

Includes a type of presupposition known as an exclusive OR . An exclusive OR allows only two

possibilities - you have to choose one thing or the other. This type of language construction can
be used where there is a need to provide choice which is limited.

 John knew that there was a mountain behind the house so he either had to climb it or do
something else

Includes an inclusive OR. Where an exlusive OR allows only two options (1+1), the inclusive
OR allows more options (1+n). This type of language construction offers choices or suggestions
and can also stimulate the person we are communicating with to generate choices of their own -
useful if the person had not considered what choices might be available to them.

Both the exclusive OR and the inclusive OR, whilst offering choices / suggestions, also
presuppose a need for action on the part of the person we are communicating with i.e. they send
the message DO SOMETHING.

 John first realised there was a mountain behind the house and then realised he would
have to climb it

Includes a type of presupposition known as an ordinal. An ordinal presupposes an order or

sequence to events that may or may not exist i.e. first you'll notice certain sensations in your
body and then you'll begin to relax deeply.

In order to make sense of the world around us and to differentiate between those things in the
world that require our full and immediate attention and those things which are of less importance
and thus require less of our attention, our brains have evolved to seek out and be more
comfortable with patterns and sequences.

We tend to pay more attention to events which do not conform to recognised and familiar
patterns - the physical threat of a dangerous wild animal entering our previously familiar
environment for example. We tend to pay less attention to those things which are familiar to us
and which we expect.

When we use an ordinal we offer the person we are communicating with a pattern and a
prediction of future events which they will quickly familiarise themselves with in order to
understand our communication.

So long as the order or sequence presupposed by the ordinal is plausible, the occurence of the
first event often causes the person we are communicating with to more naturally expect and to
accept the subsequent steps without resistance.
To build up your skills in utilising presuppositions first spend some time practicing detection of
presuppositions in other people's communications by asking the question what would have to be
true?

Then spend some time utilising particular presuppositions in your daily communication with
other people and measure the responses that you get.

If you do those two things you are sure to feel the benefit when we reach the stuff on the Milton
Model in the section on Hypnotic Language.

Hierarchy of ideas

In inter-personal communication the person who controls the level of

abstraction within the communication controls the communication itself.

The hierarchy of ideas is a model which assists us in our ability to move through and between
different levels of abstraction from vague and ambiguous to concrete and specific.

The NLP Communication Model introduces the concept of information being divided into
chunks of variable size and the idea that the conscious mind can usefully attend to 7+/-2 (seven
plus or minus two) chunks of information at any one point in time.

The hierarchy of ideas also utilises this concept of chunks of information and our ability to take
such a chunk and 'chunk up' to a higher level of abstraction, 'chunk down' to a lower level of
abstraction and even 'chunk sideways' or laterally between two chunks at the same level of
abstraction.

If we take the word car as an example, the word car is at a particular level of abstraction.

If we then chunk down on car we move to a lower level of abstraction - something more concrete
and specific.

We can chunk down and gain specificity by asking 'What are examples of this?', or 'What
specifically?'

So if the subject of the communication was car we might ask 'What type of car specifically?' and
chunk down to Ford.

If we required further detail we could chunk down one more level by asking something like
'What model of Ford specifically?' and we might get a response of 'Mondeo' or 'Focus'.
In this particular example we've chunked down on the class or category of the subject in
question. An alternative available to us to gain specificity is to chunk down on parts i.e. instead
of chunking down from Car to manufacturer to model, we could also have chunked down from
Car to engine to spark plug.

With each increasing level of specificity we are moving down through the hierarchy of ideas,
down through levels of abstraction.

Chunking up and down

We can gain specificity in inter-personal communication by chunking

down to uncover increasingly fine levels of detail by asking the questions 'What are examples of
this?' or 'What specifically?'.

Detail and specificity are useful under certain particular circumstances and for certain
applications. At the other end of the spectrum there are circumstances and applications that are
better served by taking an overall or 'Big Picture' view.

When we've been 'down in the detail' and we want to move up to take look at the 'Big Picture' or,
if you like, take a 'bird's eye view' of things we chunk up.

Questions that we can ask to assist us in chunking up include:-

 What is this an example of?

 For what purpose?
 What is your intention?

If we return to our previous example of car and chunk up one level by asking the question 'What
is this an example of?' we may chunk up to motor vehicle.

If we chunk up one more level by asking the question again we may chunk up to vehicle. Chunk
up again and we may arrive at transportation and eventually to movement or even existence.

Each time we chunk up one level we move to a higher level of abstraction and I'm pretty sure
you would agree that existence is a far more abstract concept than car.

Chunking laterally
 You can significantly enhance your cognitive abilities and
communication skills by developing your abilities to utilise chunking more effectively.

If you prefer plain speaking, another way to say it is that being able to chunk better will help you
to think better and communicate better.

So far we've looked at chunking down to fine detail and chunking up to the big picture. You will
benefit from being able to chunk up and down skilfully and you will benefit even more from
being able to chunk laterally or sideways.

How do we chunk sideways? Simple - first chunk up one level, then chunk down some place
else.

For example if we take the word Painting and chunk up one level we could chunk up to Art. If
we then ask ourselves 'What are other examples of art?' we could chunk down to sculpture,
music, dance or any number of art forms.

By using this process of chunking up then back down we've effectively chunked sideways - in
this particular context we chunked from up from painting to art, and then sideways and down
again to sculpture, music, dance etc.

When we chunk sideways we begin by chunking up by one hierarchical level and end by
chunking back down to the same hierarchical level we started from. Thus the chunk(s) we end
with are on the same level as the chunk we started with.

Communication tends to flow better and be more useful when all of the people involved are
using similar sized chunks from the same hierarchical level. This is also one of the reasons why
the person controlling the level of abstraction also controls the communication.

A particularly good use of lateral chunking is in negotiation and although it wasn't stated overtly
at the time we've already looked at an example of this in the purpose frame.

When you become skilled at chunking up, down and sideways one of the things you will notice
is an exponential increase in your communication skills. Another thing that you'll notice is your
increasing ability to think circles around the people you communicate with.

For the time being I'm going to leave the concept of chunking here as a single building block
without further explaining it's nature or it's uses.
As we move forward through the topic areas of Hypnotic Language, Precise Communication and
beyond I invite you, gentle reader, to engage in the inductive learning process of discovering the
uses of chunking inherent therein for yourself.

I make this choice because sometimes we learn more and learn better when we discover the
AHA! moments for ourselves.

Read on!

Utilising ambiguity
If you're looking to instruct, guide or otherwise influence another person's thinking linquistically
you might adopt a particular strategy with the intent of making your communication effective in
yielding your desired outcome (begin with the end in mind).

Your strategy may include the use of very clear, specific instructions with little or no ambiguity.
You may give these instructions in a very direct even authoritarian manner so that the person
you're communicating with understands exactly what your expectations are.

This type of strategy can be perfectly useful in certain sets of circumstances. In other
circumstances this type of strategy can actually lead to the protraction and frustration of the
entire process and ultimately stop you from getting your desired outcome.

An example of a situation in which a direct, authoritarian strategy would be applicable and useful
is in programming a computer. Humans program computers using certain specific computer
languages developed expressly for the task in hand. These languages are unambiguous in nature
and the computer follows to the letter the instructions given to it without question as it has no
critical faculty.

Humans, however, are far more sophisticated than computers in their powers of discernment and
analysis. Humans can think for themselves and can analyse almost microscopically any
communication offered to them. Humans do possess a highly developed critical faculty.

In order to process a linguistic communication from another person we have to use our own
model of the world to apply meaning to the words and phrases that they use.

We also use our own model of the world to answer questions such as '...how does this
communication relate to ME?' and '...how do I feel about this communication?'.

Our critical faculty facilitates us in analysing the communication further still to think about, for
example, the potential effects of acting on the instructions given to us.

Ultimately, unlike a computer, we can choose to respond to the communication or any part of it
in a myriad different ways. And some people think computers are tricky!
If the communication or any part of it is not congruent with our model of the world we are likely
to disagree with or reject or otherwise resist that communication / suggestion / plea / instruction /
order / demand.*

*I've purposely offered some interchangeable words in the above paragraph to describe some
common types of linguistic communication - words which often carry varying degrees of
emotional charge.

Imagine finding yourself on the receiving end of a plea. Then imagine being on the receiving end
of an order or a demand.

Compare and contrast those thoughts and your reactions to them - are they different? Would you
react differently to a sincere, heartfelt plea than you would to a forcefully delivered demand?

Are the words '...it would be ever so useful if you wouldn't mind...' more or less appealing than
the words '...Do it now and do it like I told you...'?

It is fairly common to find that people are more resistant to being told what to do than they are to
being asked to do something, or to being offered a suggestion which they can freely choose to
accept or reject.

Linguistic transformation
In linguistic communication the use of vague and ambiguous language often yields more useful
results than the use of a direct, authoritarian approach, and there are a number of reasons why
this is so.

Our communication with other people is based on our own unique model of the world and,
because it's unique, our model of the world differs from that of every person we communicate
with.

When we communicate in a very specific manner we make it easy for the person we are
communicating with to identify any parts of our communication which conflict with their model
of the world and thus we make it easy for them to disagree with or otherwise resist our
communication.

In other words, we create a context in which the natural response is resistance.

We can use vague and ambiguous language to create instead a context in which the natural
response is acceptance of our communication.

A useful starting point which will assist you in understanding how/why this works and how we
process natural language in order to apply meaning to the words is that of transformational
grammar.
The transformational grammar (TG) model has evolved over the years but we can express the
basic concepts here with a couple of illustrative examples.

According to the TG model every linguistic communication includes two distinct

representations:-

1. The representation of the way it sounds, if spoken, or the way it appears if written -
known as the Surface Structure

2. The representation of it's meaning - known as the Deep Structure

Consider the following sentence:-

The window was broken

Here the Surface Structure representation is simply the four words used in the sentence.

The underlying, unspoken Deep Structure could be represented in formal notation as:-

PAST(BREAK [someone, window, with something])

Any native speaker of the English language understands from the Surface Structure that:-

a. Some event occured in the past

b. The event was a complex event
c. It consisted of the following parts:-

1. An action, break, which occurred between:

a. The agent - some person or thing doing the breaking, here represented by
someone, and
b. The object - some person or thing being broken, here represented by the window, and
c. The instrument - the thing used to do the breaking, here represented by with something

Notice that even though not all parts of the Deep Structure represented appear in the Surface
Structure (in this case the agent and the instrument are not represented in the Surface Structure),
the native speaker of English has that information available in their understanding of the
sentence.

The statement The window was broken implies to native speakers that not only was the window
broken, but someone or something had to break the window with something.

The ways in which Surface Structures differ from their associated Deep Structure meanings is
the domain of transformational linguists. They have postulated that our linguistic
communications undergo a number transformations in order to transform the Deep Structure
meaning into the Surface Structures that we actually speak or write.

The entire process which links a Deep Structure to it's Surface Structure is called a derivation.

The process of derivation for very specific language is relatively simple. The very fact that there
is no ambiguity makes it highly probable that the Surface Structure has a single, specific Deep
Structure meaning. Thus the unconscious processes used to 'translate' the Surface Structure into
the underlying Deep Structure meaning operate with relative speed and accuracy.

A Surface Structure constructed using vague and ambiguous language on the other hand, usually
has not one but multiple possible Deep Structure meanings. Such a Surface Structure reduces the
likelihood of resistance in the person we are communicating with by:-

 Creating a context in which they have to work harder to establish the possible meaning(s)
of our communication

 Inducing a mild state of confusion

 Offering them a communication in which they can choose a meaning which best fits their
model of the world

 Offering them a communication in which they have to actually supply content from their
model of the world to 'fill the gaps' in order to make sense of the communication

These are some of the things which contribute towards providing a context in which the natural
response of the person we are communicating with is to willingly accept our communication.

Vague and ambiguous language

Congratulations if you've read and gained a reasonable understanding of the sections on Utilising
ambiguity and Linguistic transformation - your investment will be rewarded on subsequent
pages.

Let's dive right in now and experience some examples of language that might be considered
artfully vague and ambiguous, or hypnotic and enticing. Read the following passage to yourself
at a relaxed pace and focus your attention internally so that you can notice your reactions to it:-

As you just sit back.... and as you're thinking.... I know that you're wondering

You're wondering about certain things.... and that's a good thing.... because it is a good thing to
wonder

And the very fact that you're wondering means that you can come to new insights and new
understandings about the materials that you're learning
And those insights and understandings will allow you to begin to.... change things in your life....
at the unconscious level.... and at the conscious level.... in such a way that your behaviours may
begin to.... shift.... and change.... and support the direction that you're moving in your life now

Now I don't know if your unconscious.... knows more or less than you think it does

And when you think about it.... for a second.... your unconscious.... right.... now....

Is making new connections.... new neurological connections which will allow you to see things in
new ways and understand things at deeper levels.... haven't you

Already begun to make those connections now

And I don't know if those connections are going to come in the form of pictures or.... places or
sounds or ideas....

Or feelings.... feelings that will lead you in the direction of making the kinds of changes.... that
you're destined to make

Now, all of the italic text above was hypnotic language purposely constructed to be vague and
ambiguous.

And whilst, in my experience, hypnotic language tends to be more influential when spoken than
it is when written, you may have experienced certain responses to it as you were reading it.

One of the important things to notice is that the permissive style and the vague and ambiguous
nature of the language reduces the likelihood of a clash with the world model of the reader, and
thus provides a context where the most natural response is acceptance of the communication.

The milton model

The Milton Model is named after Milton H. Erickson (1901 - 1980), an

American psychiatrist specialising in medical hypnosis and family therapy.
During his lifetime Milton was widely considered to be the world's greatest medical hypnotist
and he was widely known for his successful and often 'miraculous' work with 'impossible'
clients, as well as for his extensive writings on hypnosis.

An attack of anterior poliomyelitis at the age of 17 rendered Erickson almost totally paralysed
for several months, but with his vision, hearing and thinking unimpaired.

Quarantined at home on the farm Erickson whiled away the hours by turning his attention to the
observation and study of human behaviour, particularly that of his parents, eight siblings, and the
practical nurse responsible for his care.

Having already a little knowledge of body language and other forms of non-verbal
communication, Erickson was amazed to discover the frequent and often startling contradictions
between the verbal and non-verbal communications within a single interchange.

This aroused so much of his interest that he intensified his observations at every opportunity and
began to develop the patterns he would later use in his hypnotic techniques.

Erickson's continued study of human behaviour and his need to make his way in the world and
make a living for himself led him into the medical profession where he was an avid student. Such
was his fascination with psychiatry that he got a psychology degree while he was still studying
medicine.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder met with Erickson on a regular basis and engaged in careful
and systematic observation of Erickson's work in order to ascertain how he performed his
theraputic 'miracles'.

They discovered that whilst the behaviours demonstrated by Erickson in the induction and
utilisation of hypnotic states of consciousness were extremely complex, he was very systematic
i.e. his behaviour had distinctive patterns.

Bandler and Grinder then used their skills to build explicit models or maps of Erickson's
complex behaviours, maps which could in turn be used to teach Erickson's skills to others in a
clear and systematic way.

The model that Bandler and Grinder constructed from their studies of Erickson became
affectionately known as the Milton Model.

Hypnotic patterns
And even as you are sitting there, reading this, and thinking those thoughts that you are thinking,
you are doing the same things that you did when first you went to school.

You are learning new things and that's a good thing. Things which will be useful in many ways in
the days and weeks ahead. And you don't even know how you learned those things, the numbers
and counting, and the letters of the alphabet. And those learnings, so long ago now, stayed with
you, deep in your unconscious, so that you can master many more complex things without even
thinking about it.

Let's examine now in some detail and name some of the hypnotic language patterns found in the
Milton Model.

Mind Read

A mind read is simply claiming to know the thoughts or feelings of another person without
specifying the process by which you came by the information.

As you just sit back.... and as you're thinking.... I know that you're wondering

In the above example, I know that you're wondering is a mind read, because that claim is
insubstantiated in that we don't specify how we know that the other person is wondering.

Lost Performative

A lost performative is a value judgement where the performer of the value judgement is left out.

You're wondering about certain things.... and that's a good thing.... because it is a good thing to
wonder

This statement makes the claim that the act of wondering is a good thing. The question
according to who? cannot be answered because the person or thing making the statement (the
performer) is not mentioned anywhere in the statement. Hence we are left to wonder who thinks
it's a good thing (and maybe even why it's a good thing and so on....).

Cause and Effect

A cause and effect statement claims that one thing necessarily causes another:-

...sitting there, listening to the sound of my voice, will make you relax more and more...

This statement could also be written:-

...if you sit there and listen to the sound of my voice you will relax more and more...

Cause and effect statements often take the form of an If... Then... as in if you study these
materials, then you'll produce the results that you want.

And even though the cause and effect statement isn't necessarily true, it is likely to be accepted
by the person we are communicating with as long as it is plausible.

Implied Causative
The linkage between the elements in a cause and effect statement is strong, sharply defined and
as plain as the nose of your face - if condition X is true then outcome Y will be true.

Cause and effect statements are best suited to deep trance where the likelihood of resistance is
less.

In light trance the implied causative may be more useful:-

And those insights and understandings will allow you to begin to.... change things in your life

In this form the link between the cause (insights and understandings) and the effect (life
changes) is less pronounced and so less open to resistance.

Hypnotic patterns 2
And the very fact that you're studying the hypnotic language patterns found in the Milton Model
means that you're exactly the type of person who appreciates the benefits and can learn with ease
to enhance your skills and fluency in the effective use of language

Complex equivalence

A complex equivalence is a statement where two meanings are equated as being equal or, if you
prefer, where one thing means another:-

And the very fact that you're wondering means that you can come to new insights and new
understandings about the materials that you're learning

Fact is that in isolation a person engaging in the act of wondering isn't necessarily going to come
to new insights and new understandings. It's entirely possible to wonder about something for
even a long period of time without experiencing even one new insight or understanding.

The complex equivalence therefore isn't necessarily true, one thing doesn't necessarily mean the
other.

Lucky for us that the complex equivalence doesn't have to be true to be useful in hypnosis.

So long as it sounds meaningful and plausible to the person we are communicating with it's most
likely that they will apply appropriate meaning to our words from their own world model to
make the complex equivalence 'true' for them.

As confusion always precedes understanding, most people who have had the experience of
coming to new insights and new understandings will previously have wondered about the
particular topic that they come to understand more about.

Thus, suggesting to a person that their wondering will lead to new insights and new
understandings is a meaningful, plausible suggestion that they are likely to accept easily.
Presuppositions

The presuppositions inherent in almost everything we say can be utilised to great effect in
hypnotic techniques. (We looked at presuppositions in some detail earlier so you can see these
pages if you wish a fuller explanation).

Now I don't know if your unconscious.... knows more or less than you think it does

The statement above includes many presuppositions which are vague, ambiguous and hypnotic
in nature such as:-

 You possess an unconscious

 It's possible for your unconscious to know stuff
 It's possible for you to think about what stuff your unconscious knows
 It's possible for your unconscious to know stuff that you may or may not be aware of

And so on (see if you can identify other presuppositions contained in the statement that aren't
mentioned here).

As stated earlier, presuppositions are present in almost everything we say and are mostly outside
of our conscious awareness.

The very fact that presuppositions are usually outside of awareness means that once we become
aware of them we can use them actively and with volition to convey meaning to another person,
meaning which is outside of their conscious awareness and thus bypasses conscious resistance.

To clarify, let's consider an experience that you yourself may have had. Many human beings have
experienced something like this and you are a human being, so it's fair to suppose that you too
will have had an experience like this, isn't it?

Have you ever, in the flow of conversation, agreed to do something for someone and later
thought to yourself 'hold on a minute, I can't believe I agreed to that' ?

Chances are that there were presuppositions inherent in what the other person said and how they
said them that, at the time, you were not consciously aware of i.e. your attention was elsewhere.

Then later, when you review the situation and focus consciously on what occurred the
presuppositions become obvious.

So learning all about presuppositions means that you'll be less likely to end up doing things for
other people that you would really rather not do, or at least you'll be fully aware of exactly what's
involved before you agree.

Doesn't it?
Universal quantifier
You may discover that the best way to integrate these hypnotic linguistic patterns into your
neuro-physiology is to say them aloud each time you study them, so that you can be delighted
when you find yourself using them in your daily interactions without even thinking about it.

Universal Quantifier

A universal quantifier is universal generalisation used to displace resistance.

Universal quantifiers always have an element of exaggeration.

...A person can achieve anything if they put their mind to it...

...Every time you study these materials you will find that you understand them at deeper levels...

...Trust your instincts and you'll always make the right choices...

...You will never know, until you try...

All of the words above in bold text are universal quantifiers.

An example of how universal quantifiers might be used? Consider the following statement:-

Every intelligent person knows that key to success and the rich rewards that it brings is attention
to detail.

Would you like to be considered an intelligent person? Would you like to be successful? Is the
idea of rich rewards appealing to you?

It's highly probable that you answered Yes to the three questions above. And because every
intelligent person 'knows' that attention to detail is the key to success and you yourself are
desirous of being 'successful' and in receipt of the 'rich rewards' you probably accepted as true
the idea that attention to detail is the key to success, without a scrap of proof or even evidence to
back up that claim.

I bet you even imagined exactly what those rich rewards would be, didn't you?

Successful how exactly? What kind of rich rewards specifically? Intelligent compared to who or
what? Who says that every intelligent person knows these things?

The answers to these questions and many more are not found anywhere in the original statement
and that's fine because in order to simply understand the sentence you kindly supplied the
answers yourself from your own model of the world which further adds to the credibility of what
I'm saying.
A person should never underestimate the power of universal quantifiers.

Hypnotic patterns 4
You may find that you need to practice daily these hypnotic patterns if you want them to become
a part of your every-day vocabulary, and then you'll begin to notice the benefits that come from
integrating those learnings.

Modal Operators

Modal operators are words which imply possibility or necessity, and they are also used to form
our rules in life:-

You can achieve great things each and every day...

You must focus your attention on the right things at the right times....

A person will always make new and exciting learnings if they want to...

Nominalisation

A nominalisation is a process word that has been frozen in time by turning into a noun, such as
the word RELATIONSHIP.

A RELATIONSHIP is a word that we use to encapsulate the meaning of an ongoing process of

one person or thing RELATING to another person or thing over time. We freeze that complex,
ongoing process of RELATING into a single instance of time and call it a RELATIONSHIP.

A useful technique for checking if a particular noun is a nominalisation is to ask the question
'...could I put it in a wheelbarrow?'.

If the noun describes something that could be put into a wheelbarrow, such as a football or a
pencil case then the noun isn't a nominalisation.

If the noun describes something that couldn't be put into a wheelbarrow, such as love or memory
or aspirations, then the noun is a nominalisation.

Nominalisations are particularly useful in hypnotic language in that they allow us to use simple
words to reference and include complex aspects of the other person's experiences, past, present
or future in our communication and thus pace their verifiable experience.

For example, if I said to you '...and in time you will make many useful learnings...' I've used at
least two nominalisations - time and learnings (neither of which can be put into a wheelbarrow).
In order to ascribe meaning to the word learnings you have to consult your model of the world to
ascertain what meanings that word has for you and then map those meanings onto the word that I
use.

And the same for the nominalisation of time - do I mean seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,
months, years, centuries or millenia? Again you apply from your own model of the world the
meaning that is most appropriate in allowing you to understand and process the communication.

And because you provide the meaning of each nominalisation that I use, the fit with your model
of the world is a perfect one and hence you are more likely to accept the communcation.

Hypnotic patterns 5
You may find that you need to practice daily these hypnotic patterns if you want them to become
a part of your every-day vocabulary, and then you'll begin to notice to benefits that come from
integrating those learnings.

Unspecified verbs

In most languages the verb is the part of language that expresses action, ocurrence or existence,
as in the English words eat, collide and think.

In the phrase 'he touched her' the verb, touched, is relatively unspecified - touched her how?
where? with what?

If instead we said 'he touched her gently' the verb, touched, is more specified than in the previous
statement and only two of the earlier questions remain unanswered - where and with what?

If we said 'he touched her gently on the hand with his wet nose' the verb is still further specified
and we can represent more fully what the verb means.

Unspecified verbs are used in hypnotic language as they present fewer opportunities for
resistance.

The person receiving the communication makes sense of the communication by providing
meaning to the verbs from their own model of the world and thus is presented with a context in
which the natural response is to accept the communication.

Unspecified verbs commonly used in hypnotic language include:-

Think, wonder, sense, feel, know, experience, understand, remember, enjoy, learn, travel, recall,
discover, do, be, put, go, move, touch, have, use, forget, change and renew.

Tag questions
A tag question is a question placed directly after a statement and is designed to displace
resistance and can also be used to check the level of rapport.

So the format for using a tag question is usually statement, question as in:-

And you can understand that, right?

That's a tag question, isn't it?

Tag questions are great, aren't they?

The intended outcome of using the tag question is that the person responds in the way that we
want them to.The aim of the above tag questions is a positive response i.e the person agreeing
that they can understand either verbally or non-verbally such as with a nod of the head.

The person responding readily in the desired way can be an indicator that a good level of rapport
is being maintained.

All of the above tag questions were in the positive, and it's just as easy to utilise tag questions
which include negatives as in:-

And you don't even know how you learned those things, do you?

Tag questions are probably the easiest hypnotic language pattern to learn, are they not?

And they are a really useful way of getting people to agree with you, aren't they?

So you can have fun using tag questions in your day-to-day communication, can you not?

Hypnotic patterns 6
As our use of language relies heavily on subconscious processes you may be surprised and
delighted to discover that increasingly the hypnotic language patterns you are learning emerge
automatically at appropriate and useful times in your day-to-day communication with others.

Lack of referential index

Lack of referential index is a type of generalisation and refers to a phrase which fails to identify
directly a portion of the listener's experience.

Phrases which are generalised in this way are more likely to fit with the world model of the
listener and thus be accepted by the listener.

In simple terms, we can utilise a lack of referential index to leave 'blanks' in our communication,
blanks which the listener fills with content from their own model of the world.
Consider the following two paragraphs and think about which one you would be able to accept
more easily:-

1. On Monday you will learn Matching and Mirroring. On Tuesday you will learn all about
Representational Systems. Next Wednesday you will use tag questions all day.

2. In the days and weeks ahead you will learn a number of new things, perhaps without even
realising you are doing it, and those learnings can lead you in the direction of making useful
changes that will support the direction that you're moving in your life now.

The likelihood is that you found paragraph 2 more acceptable and if you did, what was it about
paragraph 2 that enabled you to accept it more easily?

Paragraph 1 includes specific referential indices - Monday, Tuesday, Next Wednesday, Matching
and Mirroring, Representational Systems, tag questions.

These indices reference the specific times and the specific topics you will learn which creates a
context in which two occurences are more likely:-

a) The referential indices clash with your world model i.e. you decide that you are unwilling or
unable or that's it's just not possible to learn those specific things in accordance with the specific
timetable given.

-or-

b) You accept the inherent presuppositions and believe both that you can and will learn the
specific subjects within the timetable given and then fail to do so.

One of the particularly useful aspects of the permissive style of the Milton Model for hypnosis
and hypnotic language is that language is used in a way that reduces considerably any possibility
of failure, or at least of it's detection.

To explain, let's dissect paragraph 2:-

In the days and weeks ahead you will learn a number of new things

The referential indices of specific times and specific learning outcomes present in paragraph 1
are not present in paragraph 2. The phrase days and weeks ahead sounds specific but it's actually
completely open-ended and imposes no deadline by which learning must be achieved.

...you will learn a number of new things...

Another statement which is difficult to disagree with as unless you lose the cognitive power of
thought, the sheer volume of data flowing into your sensory systems every moment that you're
alive forces you to learn new things from moment to moment. How many new things will you
learn? A number of them, so any number will make this statement true. What new things will you
learn? Anything that you learn will make this statement true. Thus the absence of the referential
indices on the type and number of learnings to be made again creates a context where acceptance
is easy and failure is almost impossible.

...without even realising you're doing it...

Wondering how you're going to make those new learnings? Good! The lack of referential index
on doing it creates a context in which doing anything that leads to a learning will fit with the
statement given. And if you don't even realise how/what/why/when you're learning that's fine too
- many useful learnings are made below the level of consciousness anyway. It's also probable that
by beginning to think about what you might learn you will focus the flashlight of your attention
on finding opportunities for learning those very things i.e. we get what we look for.

...and those learnings can lead you the direction of making useful changes...

The lack of referential index on those learnings and useful changes allows the listener to identify
which learnings and which changes are most appropriate and applicable.

...support the direction that you're moving in your life now...

Which direction are you moving in your life now? It doesn't matter - the lack of referential index
on the direction means that whatever direction you happen to be moving in will fit the statement.

Hypnotic patterns 7
One of the best ways to practice using these hypnotic patterns in your daily communication is
first to think about specific contexts and scenario's in which they will be useful. Then you can
imagine the dialogue which would arise, 'script' useful responses using the hypnotic language
patterns and then - most importantly - practice speaking them out loud.

Language and language patterns are best learned by speaking them.

Comparative deletion

A comparative deletion is a phrase in which a comparison is made but the thing, person or
standard to which the comparison is made is not mentioned:-

It's more or less the right thing to do

It's better to do it that way

You will enjoy things more and more

She's a better person

The information that's been deleted means that we can neither prove nor disprove the claim made
in the comparison.

Pacing current experience

One way to elegantly pace the current experience of another person is to describe in a way which
is undeniable those aspects of their experience that we are able to observe through our input
channels, our senses.

...and you are here today, reading these words and thinking those thought's that you're thinking

The above words should be an undeniably accurate pace of your current experience because:

 You ARE here today

 You ARE reading these words
 And you ARE thinking those thoughts that you're thinking

Thus the context created is one in which your natural response is agreement.

In sales this is known as a YES SET and is used to lead the prospective customer into a pattern of
agreement i.e. into a pattern of saying or at least thinking YES and to encourage momentum in
that direction.

Thinking metaphorically, if we consider the person we are communicating with (or at least their
thought processes) to be a steam train then each pacing statement that they agree with is
equivalent to an increase in the steam pressure propelling them along the track in the direction of
our intended destination.

Once sufficient momentum is built up using undeniable, externally verifiable pacing statements
and the person is engaged in a pattern of agreement, a plausible leading statement can be offered
and again a context is provided in which the natural response is agreement.

...and you are here today, reading these words and thinking those thought's that you're thinking

...and you're learning many new things that will be useful to you in the days and weeks ahead.

Even though the leading statement isn't necessarily true i.e. you could be learning stuff which
isn't useful or you could be learning nothing at all, the pacing statements set you moving along
the 'train track' of agreement and increase the likelihood that you'll agree with the leading
statement too.

Hypnotic patterns 8
Double bind
A double bind is a statement which creates the illusion of choice where in fact there is no choice.

Would you like to finish reading this text now or later?

(It doesn't matter because you're going to finish reading it at some point).

Would you like to go to bed at quarter to nine or eight forty five?

(Good fun to use if you have kids)

Would you like to pay by cash or credit card?

(It doesn't matter to me so long as you BUY ONE)

Would you like to go quickly into trance today? Or perhaps you'd like to go into trance slowly, or
perhaps you'll simply enjoy noticing the increasing sense of pleasant relaxation as you become
settled in that chair.

(Technically this is a triple bind as the listener is presented with three choices, all of which lead
the listener in the direction of the desired state).

Double binds can be used to enrich a person's world model by providing them with an
experience which contradicts impoverishing limitations inherent in their current model. This
experience then becomes a reference structure which enriches the model and increases choice.

The Structure of Magic I, A Book About Language & Therapy by Richard Bandler & John
Grinder, includes a tale of one such theraputic use of the double bind.

The tale concerns a young woman who, through Meta model question techniques, had arrived at
a generalisation that was true in her model of the world, namely "I can't say NO to anyone
because I can't hurt anyone's feelings."

Further investigation revealed that the young woman believed that anyone she said "NO" to
would be badly hurt and might even die.

This generalisation had arisen from an event in her past when she had refused her father's request
to stay at home with him and subsequently returned home later that evening to find him dead. As
a result of this the young woman had blamed herself for her father's death and more specifically
attributed that blame to the act of saying "NO" to him.

The therapist utilised a theraputic double bind by asking the young woman to speak to each of
the other members of the group and say "NO" to them about something.

The young woman reacted strongly, refusing to perform the task and made statements such as
"NO! It's impossible for me to say NO to people, you can't expect me to do it just because you
ask me to".
The young woman continued in this way for several minutes, refusing repeatedly to carry out the
task until the therapist pointed out that the young woman had in fact been saying NO during this
time.

The therapist also pointed out that despite the young woman saying NO a number of times,
nobody had been hurt and certainly nobody had died.

This revelation and the resultant expansion of the young woman's world model were so powerful
that she immediately found herself able to move around the room and say NO to other members
of the group.

The double bind was constructed in such a way that the young woman had only two options:-

1. Comply with the therapist's request and say NO to the group members

2. Refuse the therapist's request to say NO to the group members, effectively saying NO to
the therapist

Even if the young woman had done nothing, she would still effectively have been refusing to
comply with the therapist's request - effectively saying NO.

Now that is probably one of the best illustrations of the elegant and effective use of the double
bind as you are likely to find.

Hypnotic patterns 9
You are probably already aware that using a direct, authoritarian approach to get people to
willingly do the things you want them to do can be difficult, right?

Can you imagine how good you will feel when those around you are happy to do the things that
you ask? Is that worth a small modification in your behaviour to achieve your desired outcome?

Conversational postulate

A conversational postulate is a question which would normally elicit a ' Yes'or 'No' response but
instead causes the listener to perform some action.

Consider the question - 'Can you tell me the time?'.

Taken literally this question should generate a 'Yes' or 'No' response, as it enquires as to whether
it's possible for the person to tell us the time and whether they have the means and ability to do
so (i.e. they are wearing a watch and know how to use it to tell the time).

Most native speakers of the English language however will respond by telling you what the time
is, or even by apologising for the fact that they don't currently know the correct time.
The theory behind this phenomena stems from the Surface Structure / Deep Structure
relationship described in the section on linguistic transformation. The literal Deep Structure
recovered by the listener from the surface structure 'Can you tell me the time?' requires only that
the listener responds with a 'Yes' or 'No' answer. However, there seems to be an additional
element of mental / linguistic processing which leads the listener to respond as if given a
command, even though no command is actually given.

Other common questions of this type include:-

 Can you close the door?

 Do you know where the T.V. remote is?
 Is that the telephone ringing?
 Was that the doorbell?
 Did you know that you needed this?

Native speakers of English will usually respond to these types of questions by performing the
embedded command i.e. closing the door or finding the T.V. remote or answering the telephone
or the doorbell.

This phenomena is leveraged through the conversational postulate to deliver commands to

another person whilst at the same time displacing any potential resistance.

In other words a person is more likely to respond by willingly carrying out commands / requests
if they are framed as questions.

 Can you close your eyes now?

 Will you allow yourself to relax deeply?
 Will you really enjoy those pleasant sensations?
 Isn't it better to use those learnings fully?

Authoritarian forms of hypnosis where the listener is given direct commands present a context in
which resistance is more likely. The very fact that the listener resists the command is also likely
to lead them to belive that the hypnosis isn't 'working'.

Conversational postulates on the other hand form part of a more naturally flowing process as no
direct commands are given to the listener - they are merely asked questions to which they can
choose to respond or not.

Can you imagine yourself using this pattern to gently influence others to willingly do the things
that you ask?

Precise communication
One of the major ways in which human beings communicate with each other is by the use of
natural languages, with estimates indicating that the five most used of these natural languages are
Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, English and Arabic.

In as much as most natural languages are based on some grammar i.e. rules on their structure and
use, it is highly likely that you will find that the concepts covered in this section are relevant
regardless of your native language.

For our purposes here we'll discount the barriers to communication where the people
communicating speak differing natural languages. Instead we'll look at some of the barriers to
precise communication that exist even when the people communicating share a common native
language, such as English. We'll then examine ways in which we can improve the precision of
our communication with others.

First let's consider some of the factors which can make precise linguistic communication difficult
to achieve:-

How many words in the English language?

Despite my best efforts I've failed to find a definitive answer to this question but the general
concensus seems to be that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct words in the
English language. The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition (OED2) is cited in this Wikipedia
article as including 600,000 word definitions. If distinct word senses are counted i.e. fast
meaning speedy and fast meaning abstinence from food, the number would be closer to three-
quarters of a million.

The map is not the territory

If you've studied the section entitled The map is not the territory you'll already appreciate the
premise that we humans necessarily do not act directly on the world. Rather we build internal
mental maps of reality which we use to guide our behaviour.

The information we store in our individual maps of reality is unique to each of us, having been
subjected to the modelling processes of deletion, distortion and generalisation. Equally, the
language which we use to describe to ourselves and communicate to others the information held
in our unique model is subject to deletion, distortion and generalisation.

It is also important to note that the words we use have no meaning in and of themselves. Words
are simply arrangements of symbols (26 of them in the English alphabet) arranged in
recognisable groups to provide symbolic labels (words) which we humans apply to the infinite
unique experiences which our world has to offer each of us.

Even though we share a common language therefore, because we each apply meaning to the
words we use from our own unique, internal models of the world, the meaning of a particular
word for one person can vary quite significantly from the meaning of that same word for another
person.
Linguistic shorthand

Without even being aware of it when most people communicate linguistically with each other (or
speak to each other if you prefer) they do so in what I've decided to label 'linguistic shorthand'.

Bandler and Grinder's first book on the subject - The Structure of Magic I, explains this in a far
more elegant and detailed way than I can here, but I'll give you my description as a starting point.

To make this description easier to write, and hopefully in turn easier to follow, I'm going to ask
you to forget that rather than describing something real, I'm describing a model which, if it were
a true reflection of the actual mental processes involved, would produce the same observable
results.

Linguistic transformation
We considered linguistic transformation based on the Transformational Grammar (TG) model in
an earlier section with regard to it's application to the use of hypnotic language patterns.

Here we're going to take an opposite view and look at how it's principles can be utilised not to
increase the ambiguity of linguistic communication, but rather to reduce ambiguity by increasing
specificity and clarity.

Remember I'll be describing as if real something which is actually a theoretical model which, if it
were true, would produce the results we observe.

Here goes.

If I were going to communicate something to you linguistically (verbally or, as I'm attempting to
do now, in written form) the basis of my communication or Reference Structure would
necessarily be my model of the world.

In order that this linguistic communication be efficient and effective the wonderful richness of
experience within my model (sights, sounds, smells, thoughts, body sensations etc. etc.) has to be
condensed down into a linguistic representation i.e. something which can be expressed using the
words of the English language alone.

The output from this first step is a full linguistic representation of what is to be communicated, or
what is known in the TG model as a Deep Structure.

Even though the Deep Structure (full linguistic representation) of my communication is but a
pale shadow of the richness contained in my world model, it would still be rather cumbersome
and inefficient to actually communicate using Deep Structures.

This Deep Structure therefore will be subjected to one or more transformations involving the
modelling processes of deletion, distortion and generalisation to produce the more efficient
Surface Structure. The Surface Structure is the sequence of words that I'll write or speak,
depending on whether we're communicating in written form or verbally and thus will be the only
part of my communication which will enter your awareness.

Remember that to me, my compressed, deleted, distorted and generalised communication is still
perfectly clear and precise because, of course, I'm in possession of the the entire underlying
Reference Structure of my communication in the form of the original world map on which it is
based.

You, as the receiver of my communication and without the benefit of my world map, now have
the task of understanding that communication using your own unique map of the world. This
requires the reversal of the process so far i.e. that you, at the unconscious level:-

1. Take my Surface Structure and apply some meaning to the individual words from your
model of the world

2. Identify the most likely Deep Structure on which my Surface Structure is based so that
you have the framework of a possible full linguistic representation of my communication

3. Apply meaning to the overall Deep Structure from your model of the world

At this stage you, as a native speaker of English, will be intuitively aware as to whether or not
the Surface Structure I've chosen* to use is complete enough to allow you to fully understand my
communication. If my Surface Structure is not complete enough you will also have in your
intuition which parts of the Deep Structure have been deleted, distorted or generalised.

(* I use the word chosen here loosely as with spoken communication the process of word
selection is itself largely an unconscious process. If you've ever had to bring this process into
conscious awareness i.e. actively / carefully think about the particular words you're going to use
you will probably have noticed how much more slowly you had to speak / write.)

Should you then wish to understand my communication more fully your intuitions will facilitate
you in forming responses, usually in the form of a questions in order to recover the deleted
information.

In summary then, after a brief pause for breath...

When we communicate with each other using natural language we usually do so in a 'short-hand'
form for efficiency. This in turn often requires that we ask pertinent questions in order to fully
understand what the other person is communicating to us.

The question is, what types of questions are the best types of questions to ask to gain clarity,
specificity and understanding of another person's communication? The answer is, of course, meta
model questions which you'll find on the next few pages.
(If you would like to know more about the process of derivation from Deep Structure to Surface
Structure there's further explanation on this page in the hypnotic language section. I would also
recommend that you get your hands on a copy of The Structure of Magic I)

The meta model

The Meta Model is a linguistic model generated by Bandler and Grinder and based upon the
observable behaviours of the renowned practitioner of Conjoint Family Therapy, Virginia Satir.

Whilst it's roots spring from theraputic technique, the Meta Model represents something far more
than simply a tool for therapy. It is important to recognise that the Meta Model provides a
powerful linguistic tool-kit which can be used to rapidly gain specificity and clarity wherever
human beings communicate using a common natural language, be that spoken or written.

The potency of Satir's particular brand of theraputic magic lay in the way that she could speak
very conversationally with her clients and have their problems seemingly disappear in a way that
appeared almost magical to the untrained eye.

By careful observation Bandler and Grinder recognised the underlying patterns and unspoken
rules inherent in the way Satir structured her use of language to achieve her apparently magical
results, and later went on to make these patterns explicit and therefore something that could be
taught to others in the form of the Meta Model.

The Meta Model is concisely and elegantly described in Bandler and Grinder's first book on the
subject, The Structure of Magic I, as:-

Simply put, the overall strategy of the Meta-model is to identify, challenge and expand the
impoverished and limiting portions of an individual's model of the world.

In many ways the Meta Model is one of the easiest to learn, because it's the exact opposite of the
Milton Model. The Meta Model questions mirror the hypnotic patterns found in the Milton
Model and, for consistency, you can learn them in the same sequence.

Meta model questions

The first Meta Model pattern that we're going to use is an example of distortion and is known as
the Mind Read.

In this context a Mind Read is simply a claim by another person that they know your thoughts
and/or feelings, without specifying the process by which they came by that information as in:-

 'I know what you're thinking.'

 'You don't like me.'
 'You always feel the same way about that.'
If you've studied the section on linguistic transformations and Transformational Grammar you'll
recognise that the above examples can all be classed as Surface Structures.

Consider the second example Surface Structure for a moment - You don't like me.

This Surface Structure makes an assertion - You don't like me and claims it to be true, without
specifying how the person making the claim has come to know this to be true. Native speakers of
English will intuitively recognise that this second part of the communication is missing i.e. has
been deleted from the underlying Deep Structure.

Native speakers of English will also have in their intuition possible Deep Structures which could
form the basis of the Surface Structure used, for example:-

'I know that you don't like me because of the way you always look at me.'

It is these very intuitions, available to each and every native speaker of English, that provide the
basis of the corresponding Metal Model questions that can be used gain specificity and clarity.

In this particular example an appropriate response to 'You don't like me' by a person wishing to
recover the deleted information could be 'How do you know?'.

As the Meta Model questions are intended to gain clarity and specificity the questions
themselves tend to use very specific language, and so the appropriate Meta Model response to
the mind-read of 'You don't like me' is 'How specifically do you know that I don't like you?'

This specificity inherent in the Metal Model questions tends in turn to solicit more specific and
useful responses.

In summary, the Metal Model response to a mind read is:-

'How specifically do you know X?', where X is the deleted information that we wish to recover.

Lost performative
In addition to gathering information and gaining specificity and clarity in linguistic
communication, the Meta Model questions are useful in other ways which include:-

 Challenging the content and boundaries of a person's model of the world

 Encouraging a person to reconnect their model of the world with the world of sensory
experience i.e. sights, sounds, body sensations

 Encouraging a person to reconnect their model of the world with the original Reference
Structure - the world itself
In the absence of regular review and maintenance a person's model of the world can, over time,
become outdated and impoverished through the processes of deletion, distortion and
generalisation.

Meta Model questions can encourage a person to update and even expand and enrich their world
model by reconnecting it with and reviewing it against the original Reference Structure of shared
experience.

In this way a person can often come to new insights and new understandings which were not
available to them previously based on their impoverished world model.

A Lost Performative is an example of a distortion which makes reference to an act of speech

where the performer of the act is left out, as in:-

 'It's wrong to cheat'

 'Everyone deserves a second chance'
 'People like me never make it big'

What these examples share in common is that they are all value judgements and no mention is
made as to who or what is making those judgments.

In order to make a useful evaluation as to the validity of these value judgments we need to
recover their source. We can do this using the Meta Model question:-

'According to who?' or 'Who says X?', where X represents the original statement i.e. the
appropriate Meta Model response to the second example above would be:-

'Everyone deserves a second chance according to who?', or 'Who says everyone deserves a
second chance?'.

In order to answer these questions and identify 'who says', the person we're communicating with
has to find examples in their world model. If no examples exist in the person's world model they
have the option of enriching their model by reconnecting with the world of experience and their
original Reference Structure i.e. the world itself.

If the person can identify from the world of experience examples of 'who says', that person's
world model can be enriched by the inclusion of these examples.

On the other hand, if examples cannot be found the world model can still be enriched by the
removal of inaccurate or unfounded data.

A third way in which the world model can be enriched is by the inclusion of differing examples,
some of which prove the value judgment to be true and some of which prove it to be false. This
particlar type of enrichment is especially useful for a person who's choices are being limited by
very strongly held beliefs which are not necessarily completely 'true' or completely 'false'.
Cause and effect
A relatively common human experience is one in which we each believe that our internal
emotional states (how we feel) are a direct effect of the actions of others or the effect of other
external conditions such as the weather or the news on television.

In other words people's experience is often distorted, leading them to treat their internal
emotional states i.e. happiness, sadness, anger, frustration etc. as a necessary effect of some
external cause and something over which they have no choice, no control and even no
responsibility. They put the cause of their state outside of themselves. People often express this
phenomenon vocally with words like - 'See what you did! You made me so angry!'.

The next Meta Model pattern, the Cause and Effect pattern, challenges these beliefs directly by
causing the speaker to examine in more detail the relationship between the internal
representation they observe i.e. their emotional state and the external stimulus which they believe
to be the direct cause of that state.

If you’ve ever said something like:-

 You make me angry

 My job is stressing me out
 This awful weather is making me feel miserable
 Seeing you on the stage filled me with pride

then your world model has been to some degree impoverished by the belief that your emotional
state is directly caused by external forces.

A great question from Richard Bandler's book Using Your Brain For A Change that fits this
subject matter neatly is 'Who's driving the bus?'.

Bandler goes on to say, 'Most people are prisoners of their own brains. It's as if they are chained
to the last seat of the bus and someone else is driving. I want you to learn to drive your own bus'.

One need only refer to the NLP Communication Model to remember that while it may be a
response to stimuli both internal and external, our state is internally generated and therefore
internally controlled.

There is no mechanism by which external triggers can directly cause us to feel one way or
another. As the Presuppositions of NLP state – we control our own mind and therefore our
results.

When we hear a Cause and Effect statement from another person, or even in our own internal
dialogue we can challenge it directly. Appropriate responses to the examples above include:-
  How does what I’m doing cause you to choose to feel angry?
 How do you decide when to feel stressed at work?
 It must be awful to need the weather to change before you can change your mood.
 When did you know it was the right time to feel as if you were filled with pride?

Each of these responses acknowledges the speaker’s internal state and at the same time points out
that they are in control of all the input channels and output channels that give rise to that state.

A person who has learned to recognise that they are in control of their own emotional state has
greater flexibility and more options available to them from which to choose how to respond more
usefully.

Or as Bandler might say - once you remember that it's you driving your bus, the choice of
destination is yours and yours alone.

(This recognition, increased flexibility and control is also the subject of the concept of
Emotional Intelligence or EI.)

Complex equivalence
A Complex Equivalence is an example of distortion and is a statement where two meanings are
equated as being synonymous or, if you prefer, where one thing means another.

Complex Equivalence often appears in speech as a series of two sequential statements such as:-

She doesn't like me. She never smiles at me.

He was late for our appointment. He has no respect for my time.

They can't be interested. They didn't respond to my letter.

Remember that in Complex Equivalence the two statements are considered to be equal or to have
the same meaning i.e.

[The fact that] she never smiles at me means that she doesn't like me.

or:-

She never smiles at me = She doesn't like me.

The Meta model response for a Complex Equivalence is to challenge it or to provide a counter-
example i.e.
Do you always smile at everyone you like every time you see them?

Have you ever smiled at someone you secretly hated?

What has being late got to do with respect?

Have you ever been late for a meeting with a person you respected?

Have you ever been on time and not respected the person?

When you're interested in someone do you always write to them immediately?

Would a hastily scribbled note convince you that they were really interested in you?

In other words, when presented with a Complex Equivalence form such as x = y or x means y we
can respond in the following forms:-

 How does x mean y?

 Does X always mean y?

 Can you think of examples where x does not mean y?

You've reached the end of this page now. You should understand complex equivalence.

Presuppositions
When we humans communicate with each other through the use of a shared natural language our
exchanges are, almost without exception, littered with presuppositions.

The actual words that we use when communicating convey explicitly only a portion of the
meaning behind our communication. Much of the meaning present in our Deep Structures is not
overtly mentioned in our Surface Structures, and is instead conveyed by presupposition alone,
often leading to distortion of our experience.

For a fuller explanation of what presuppositions are, how to detect them and some of the ways in
which they are so useful please visit the Presuppositions pages in the Persuasive Communication
section of this website.

Our topic here is the types of Meta Model responses which are appropriate and useful for
challenging the presuppositions in linguistic communication, and for that we'll begin with the
following example:-

'If my friend John realised how much they hurt my feelings, he would never have said those
things.'
Let's begin by exposing just a few of the possible presuppositions inherent in the above
example:-

 There is a person named John who is a friend of the speaker

 John said some things to the speaker

 The things that John said hurt the speaker's feelings

 John didn't realise:-

a. How much the speaker's feelings were hurt
b. The hurt feelings were the result of the things which John said

 Had John realised that a. and/or b. were true he wouldn't have said those particular things

All of the above presuppositions could be true, but which of them are true?

The Meta Model response to this question might be 'true for whom?', or ' true in who's model of
the world?', the speaker's model? John's model?

Answering such questions is precisely what the Meta Model was designed for.

Meta Model questions appropriate for challenging the presuppositions in the above example
could include:-

 How do you know he doesn't know how much your feelings were hurt?

 How do you know he wouldn't have said those things?

 How does friendship govern how people communicate with each other?

If we take the time to notice them the presuppositions inherent in a person's communication can
provide insight into aspects of their world model which seemingly limit their choices with
respect to behavioural flexibility.

Directly challenging the presuppositions inherent in a person's communication also challenges

generalisations in their world model, causing them in turn to review, revise and ultimately enrich
the model so that they have more options from which to choose how to behave.

Universal quantifiers
If you want to read about the use of universal quantifiers in hypnotic language you need to go to
this page.
If you're here to read about the use of universal quantifiers in the Meta Model then read on -
you've come to the right place.

A formal description of a universal quantifier is that it is an absolute generalisation with no

referential index.

Universal quantifiers include words such as all, every, none, everyone, nobody, always, never,
everything and nothing.

To explain more fully, consider the following two phrases which are responses to the question
'Who broke the windows?':-

1. They broke the windows

2. John and Phil broke the windows

Phrase 1 lacks a referential index in that it is impossible to identify from this phrase alone who
specifically broke the windows.

Phrase 2 allows us to know who specifically broke the windows because it includes two
referential indices - John and Phil.

With an understanding of what a referential index is let's move forward now and consider the
following phrases:-

1. Nobody likes me
2. Everybody hates me

Although these phrases, like all universal quantifiers, sound very specific they are in fact not
specific and one of the reasons they are not specific is that their referential indices are not
specified. When the speaker says 'Everybody hates me' do they mean:-

 Everybody in their family?

 Everybody they work with?
 Everybody they ever met?
 Everybody in the world, including people they have never met?

This complete lack of specificity is exactly what tells us that this person is operating from an
impoverished world model, which leads this person to make these universal and usually
inaccurate generalisations about the world.

This complete lack of specificity is also precisely what the Meta Model responses will challenge
in order to cause this person to re-examine their world model more closely.

Two ways in which the universal quantifier / lack of referential index can be challenged are
directly and indirectly.
One indirect form of challenge is simply to turn the universal quantifier that the person has used
back around on them in the form of a question, using your voice to emphasise the universal
quantifier:-

1. NOBODY likes you? Absolutely NOBODY?

2. EVERBODY hates you? You can't think of ONE PERSON who likes you?

A direct form of Meta Model challenge for a universal quantifier is to ask directly for the missing
referential index as in:-

1. Who specifically doesn't like you? Can you think of one person who likes you?
2. Who specifically hates you? Hate is such a strong word, maybe there are people out there
who only dislike you?

Every universal quantifier includes an element of exaggeration and every universal quantifier can
be usefully challenged with appropriate Meta Model responses.

Modal operators of necessity

In the English language there exists a certain class of words known as Modal Operators which,
when used in our linguistic communication, often reveal useful information about our rules for
life, the boundaries of our models of the world and the ways in which we motivate ourselves to
action.

One set of these Modal Operators is the set known as Modal Operators of Necessity, examples of
which include words such as:-

 Should / Shouldn't
 Must / Must not
 Need to / Needn't
 Have to / Don't have to.
 Ought to / Ought not

Modal Operators of Necessity are generalisations which tend to imply strict rules and a lack of
choice for the speaker / writer. They also tend to be digital in nature i.e. either one thing or the
other, on or off, black or white.

We can directly challenge Modal Operators of Necessity using Meta Model responses and so
assist the speaker in gaining access to choices which previously they were unaware of or thought
were unavailable to them.

Surface Structures which include Modal Operators of Necessity frequently take the form:-

1. I need to do my homework
 2. I must join the family business
3. I have to go to work
4. I really shouldn't be doing this

The Deep Structures for each of the above Surface Structures has been subjected to a significant
deletion. Each Surface Structure makes the claim that something MUST happen (or not happen
in the case of number 4).

As native speakers of English the question that arises in response to these surface structures,
aimed at recovering the deleted material is 'Or what?'.

Expanding upon this simple question a little leads us to a general form of Meta Model response
question which can be used to challenge Modal Operators of Necessity:-

What would happen if you didn't (or did) X?

Where X is the subject of the original surface structure i.e.:-

1. What would happen if you didn't do your homework?

2. What would happen if you didn't join the family business?

3. What would happen if you didn't go to work?

4. What would happen if you did do this?

In order to respond to our question the person we're communicating with has to at least consider
the possibility of that which they until now had either considered impossible or even had not
considered at all.

Forced to actually consider 'what would happen if...' a person may make a number of discoveries
including:-

1. Their generalisation doesn't hold true and that there is nothing stopping them from
making this choice

2. Their generalisation does hold true but they can make necessary changes which will
allow them to have this choice anyway

3. They are able to identify alternative choices which would facilitate them in achieving
their outcome or an alternative satisfactory outcome

Modal operators of possibility

The presence of Modal Operators of Necessity when people communicate with each other
linguistically implies a world where choice is not an option.

The world of 'got to', 'have to' and 'must' is a world of force, pressure and obligation.

Modal Operators of Possibility on the other hand imply a world of options, opportunities and
choice.

Modal Operators of Possibility include words such as:-

 Possible / Impossible
 Can / Cannot
 Will / Will not
 May / May not
 Choose to / Choose not to

Words like cannot and impossible often indicate that the person using them has beliefs about the
world which limit their behaviour or prevent them from accessing certain choices in their lives.

Phrases which include Modal Operators of Possibility often take the form:-

 I can't learn how to do that

 That's simply impossible for me
 I'll never be able to beat my record
 I have no choice

We can use Meta Model responses to challenge the limiting generalisations implied by the Modal
Operators of Possibility to change cannot into can, change impossible into possible and so on.

Two Meta Model questions of appropriate form for this type of challenge are:-

1. What specifically stops you from X?

2. What would happen if you did X?

Where X is the subject of the original surface structure i.e.:-

 What specifically stops you from learning how to do that?

 What specifically stops that from being possible for you?
 What would happen if you did beat your record?
 What would happen if you did have choice?
Forced to actually consider 'what would happen if...' or to identify specific obstacles which they
believe prevent them from having choice, a person can make a number of discoveries including:-

1. Their generalisation doesn't hold true and that there is nothing stopping them from
making this choice

2. Their generalisation does hold true but they can make necessary changes which will
allow them to have this choice anyway

3. They are able to identify alternative choices which would facilitate them in achieving
their outcome or an alternative satisfactory outcome

Nominalisations
Nominalisations are process words which have been frozen in time and have thus become nouns.
In other words we take words which describe actions or processes and, through the process of
nominalisation, we turn those actions or processes into things or objects which are frozen in an
instant of time.

In some ways, efficiency being one example, nominalisations can be useful tools for
communication between human beings, as complex aspects of our experience of the world can
seemingly be expressed in a single word such as:-

 Relationship – the process of two or more people relating to each other over time

 Discussion – the process of two or more people discussing a particular subject

 Negotiation - the process of extended communication between two or more parties with
the intent of achieving agreement

 Management – the process of managing something

 Freedom – the process of being free

 Confidence – the process of experiencing confident feelings in the mind and body

In other ways our use of nominalisation severely limits our ability to communicate the richness
of our experience to other human beings by deleting useful information.

To explain more fully let’s examine the word relationship for a moment and consider more fully
what the underlying Deep Structure meaning of that word might be. Firstly we’ll de-nominalise
relationship and turn it back into the process of two people relating to each other. Think of a
person in your life who you’ve known and been ‘relating’ to for a number of years i.e. a family
member or a close friend.
Now, take a few moments to fully consider the sheer volume and diversity of experiences that
you and this other person have shared with each other in the course of that process of relating to
each other over those years and all the elements of those shared experiences such as:-

 The many different things you have done/heard/seen/spoken

about/imagined/planned/dreamed about together

 The sheer volume, diversity and complexity of every interaction you have shared with
each other

 The ways in which your individual backgrounds and models of the world have impacted
upon and shaped the ways in which you have related to each other over the full course of
your ‘relationship’.

...etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

Now, take all of that vast expanse of shared human experience and cram it forcibly into a tiny,
rigid box. Once you’ve done that, force the lid onto the box with a hastily attached label which
reads simply Relationship. Finally, hand that box to a stranger.

Now – using only the single word label – Relationship – could the person you’ve handed that
box to ever truly understand/appreciate the full meaning of that word? Not likely! The linguistic
representation – the word Relationship – contains nothing of the underlying experience that is
required to convey the true meaning. All of that experience is hidden from view inside the box
behind the nominalisation/label of the word Relationship.

People communicate with each other using nominalisations all the time and in doing so their
conscious thought processes are often not fully in contact with the underlying, ongoing processes
which give meaning to those words. In other words, it’s easy to communicate using
nominalisations without really thinking about what we’re saying and to completely miss the fact
that we are talking about processes which are ongoing and which we can change if we wish to.

The presence of nominalisations in a person’s communication often indicates that, in their

perception, they have no choice or control because the events concerned are already in the past
i.e.:-

 Our relationship just doesn’t work any more

 There’s no communication here

 His refusal to cooperate brought an end to our negotiation

Another interesting effect of nominalisation is that people are removed from the processes and
instead are replaced with things to which responsibility can be assigned. We can rid ourselves of
any responsibility by blaming the process. If we re-assign responsibility to the people involved in
the processes the above examples could be written:-
  The way we are relating to each other just doesn’t work any more

 People are not communicating here

 We had to stop negotiating because he is refusing to cooperate

Meta Model responses can be used to assist people in reconnecting the nominalisations present in
their Surface Structures with the ongoing processes both in the present and over the course of
their experience to date.

Examples of Meta Model responses appropriate for challenging a nominalisation and turning it
back into a process (denominalisation) include:-

 What specifically about the way you’re relating causes you to think this way?

 What aspects of the way you’re relating do work?

 How would you like to communicate?

 Who’s not communicating what to whom?

 In what way specifically is he refusing to cooperate?

 Could the way you’re negotiating be changed to enable him to cooperate with the
process?

In summary it is people, not processes, that are responsible for outcomes and people can change
their behaviours and modify the processes until they get the outcomes they desire.

Unspecified verbs
According to my English Teacher at Primary School a verb is a doing word or an action word.

In other words, verbs describe actions or things being done.

Just like all the other words that we humans use when we communicate with each other, verbs
are simple labels used to describe complex aspects of human experience.

When a person uses verbs in their linguistic communication they are in posession of all the
underlying complex experience that gives meaning to the words (their Reference Structure), so
they know exactly the meaning of the words that they use. We, as the recipient of that
communication do not have access to that Reference Structure - for us all of that data has
effectively been deleted.

Consider the following phrase:-

'They punished me'.

This Surface Structure is derived from a fuller linguistic representation known as the Deep
Structure. The Deep Structure, in turn, is derived from the Reference Structure of the speaker i.e.
the speaker's World Model.

In order to appreciate more fully what the speaker means by 'They punished me' we could apply
meaning to the words from our own world model. We could think about experiences we've had to
which the label 'punished' could be applied and imagine that this is what the speaker means. We
could think about experiences that other people have had that we've heard or read about which
could fit the description of 'punished'. Both of these methods are flawed insomuch as they
amount to mind reading - claiming to know the thoughts of another person.

The underlying Deep Structure of the above Surface Structure could be written as:-

PAST(PUNISH [someone, me, in some way])

Any native speaker of the English language understands from the Surface Structure that:-

a. Some event occured in the past

b. The event was a complex event
c. It consisted of the following parts:-

1. An action, punished, which occurred between:

a. The agent - some person or thing doing the punishing, here represented by they, and
b. The object - some person or thing being punished, here represented by me, and
c. The instrument - the method used to do the punishing, here represented by in some way

Notice that even though not all parts of the Deep Structure represented appear in the Surface
Structure (in this case the instrument is not represented in the Surface Structure), the native
speaker of English has that information available in their understanding of the sentence.

Meta Model questions/responses can be used effectively to recover the information deleted from
the Deep Structure.

In this particular case an appropriate question would be:-

'How specifically did they punish you?'.

And if we wanted to recover the missing Referential Index on 'They' we could ask:-

'Who specifically punished you?'

By recovering deleted information we can gain greater specificity and thus access to the fullest
linguistic representation of the Deep Structure.

Deletions
The final three Meta Model patterns that we're going to examine here all relate to the modelling
process of Deletion.

More specifically these particular Meta Model questions are those which we can use when we're
communicating with a person and we realise that in the process of this person turning their
internal experience into the words that they use to communicate with us externally, information
which could be useful for the purposes of understanding their communication has been deleted.

Simple Deletions

The clue is in the name and examples of simple deletion include nouns, objects and real names:-

1. He hurt me

2. The cup was broken

3. I'm scared

Meta Model responses to recover the deleted information:-

1. Who specifically hurt you?

2. Which cup specifically was broken?

3. You're scared about what / by what/whom?

Comparative Deletions

A Comparative Deletion is a phrase in which a comparison is made but the thing, person or
standard to which the comparison is made is not mentioned:-

1. It's more or less the right thing to do

2. It's better to do it that way

3. You will enjoy things more and more

4. She's the best!

Meta Model responses to recover the deleted information:-

 1. More or less the right thing compared to what?

2. Better than what?

3. Enjoy things more and more than what?

4. Best compared to whom?

Lack of Referential Index

Put simply, a Lack of Referential Index fails to specify a person or thing:-

1. They don't listen to me

2. People don't understand

3. Feelings get in the way

4. Some time

Meta Model responses to recover the deleted information:-

1. Who specifically doesn't listen to you?

2. Which people specifically don't understand?

3. Which feelings specifically get in the way?

or

4. Who's feelings specifically get in the way?

When specifically?

Once you've recovered the deleted information you have access to more of the information
contained in the speaker's reference model - their model of the world.

If the responses you receive to your Meta Model questions require further clarification simply
identify the specific clarification that you require and use the Meta Model to go after it.

Simple, logical and powerful!

Anchoring
In NLP Anchoring is a process and a technique by which a person can use a unique stimulus to
quickly and easily take conscious control of or trigger a change in their emotional state any time
they choose to.

And while the Anchoring process has it's roots in Behavioural Psychology, the fact that anchors
and our responses to them are things which occur naturally and regularly in our every-day lives
means that the process itself is very simple, very easy to learn and very easy to practice.

The difference that makes a difference is the fact that once you become consciously aware of the
Anchoring process you can begin to use it actively and with volition.

Imagine going for that important job interview and instead of being nervous and anxious you feel
totally calm and collected.

Imagine speaking to that cute guy/girl you've had your eye on for a while and instead of being a
complete nervous wreck with sweating palms and knocking knees you feel confident and
relaxed.

Imagine being able to deliver a technically complex and critically important speech or
presentation to room full of strangers or high-powered business executives whilst feeling relaxed
and in complete control throughout.

Imagine finding yourself in situations where you would normally boil with rage and instead
feeling receptive and helpful.

Imagine feeling energised and ready for action when faced with tasks in which your natural
response is procrastination.

With a little practice Anchoring can provide a simple, effective way to switch yourself and others
quickly into useful and resourceful states like the ones described above whenever you choose to.

Over the next few pages we'll look in a little more detail at where the concept of Anchoring
comes from, why it produces the results it does and finally we'll break down the process into
individual steps so that you can learn to use it for yourself.

Foundations of anchoring
 Anchoring is based upon the concepts of the Conditioned Response and
Stimulus/Response Theory as made famous by the gentleman on the right - the eminent Russian
physiologist, psychologist and physician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.

Whilst feeding dogs that he was studying Pavlov noted that they tended to salivate more just
before the food was delivered to their mouths and arrived at the conclusion that the food was a
stimulus which triggered a physiological response in the dogs in the form of the increased rate of
salivation.

Fascinated by the concept Pavlov shifted the focus of his research and began to experiment by
preceding the act of feeding with the introduction of various different stimuli including bells,
whistles, metronomes and tuning forks.

As a result of these experiments Pavlov noted that for the dogs the conditioned stimulus (bells
etc.) became neurologically linked with the unconditioned stimulus (the food) and began to
produce the same response (increased salivation). Pavlov further noted that after a number of
repetitions the Stimulus/Response link between the conditioned stimulus and the response
became so strong that the dogs would salivate at the sound of a bell even when the food was not
present.

How does this relate to Anchoring in NLP? Simple - Anchoring uses the same principles of
stimulus/response.

By associating a desired response or state with a unique stimulus a number of times the two
become linked in such a way that when the same stimulus is applied later the associated response
or state will occur naturally and automatically.

Read on to learn the process and how you can begin to practice and use it for yourself.

Positive and negative anchors

 Anchors, especially naturally occurring ones, carry an emotional charge
i.e. our emotional state changes in response anchors.

We class our responses to anchors as either positive or negative and thus we class some anchors
as positive anchors and some anchors as negative anchors.

Examples of common negative anchors include:-

 A person speaks to you with that patronising tone of voice that they've used several times
before when they wished to show you how superior they are. You're aware that you've
entered that negative emotional state before their first word has left their lips

 Sometimes they don't even have to speak - their face says it all and you're left with that
negative emotional state again

 The sound of a dentist's drill - ARGH!

 The smell of a particular food which, last time you ate it made you quite poorly

Examples of common positive anchors include:-

 A person you're close to places their hand on your shoulder and speaks to you with a
loving tone of voice and you feel a positive emotion

 The smell of pine evokes fond memories of Christmas with friends and family

 A certain tune plays on the radio and you're instantly transported back to fun times you
had with friends or the intense emotions you first had when you met that certain special
person

 On a sunny day you apply sun lotion. The scent of the lotion instantly transports you back
to your favourite holiday destination

Negative anchors tend to induce less useful emotional states like anger, frustration, fear,
procrastination and apathy.

Positive anchors tend to induce positive and useful emotional states such as happiness,
excitement, enthusiasm, focus, the feeling of power and energy and resourcefulness.

Even writing this page had an effect on my emotional state which is why, in this second draft, the
negative is followed and thus eclipsed by the positive.
Over the next few pages we're going to learn exactly how we can drain the power from those
negative anchors and also how to set powerful positive anchors which will assist us in
connecting with useful and resourceful states any time we choose.

Steps of anchoring

So that you can learn to make good, powerful positive resource anchors
which will serve you usefully whenever you need them the process is broken down into four
simple steps.

Let's look at each step individually and then walk through them together to see exactly how the
anchoring process works.

You can remember the four steps of anchoring easily using a mnemonic device - R.A.C.E. -
Recall, Anchor, Change, Evoke.

R - Recall

The first step is to identify a past vivid experience which included the positive resource state that
we'd like to have available to us whenever we use the anchor we're going to set. Examples might
include a time when you were very happy, a time when you were incredibly relaxed and focussed
or a time when you felt like you couldn't lose.

It's important to associate fully into the experience i.e. recall it as vividly as possible and there's a
simple script for guiding a person in doing so:-

'As you recall that specific time when you were completely X, and as you go back to that time
now, step into your body in that experience, see what you saw at the time, hear the sounds
around you and feel the feelings of being right there feeling those feelings of being completely X',
where X is the desired powerful, positive resource state.

A - Anchor

Once you've identified the specific past vivid experience containing the desired positive
resources and associated fully into that experience the next step is to anchor it with a specific,
unique stimulus.

The stimulus for the anchor can be in any of the modalities - Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory etc.
and particularly strong anchors can be set by anchoring in all modalities simultaneously.
A simple example of a stimulus which can be used easily for anchoring is to pinch the thumb and
ring finger of the hand together, or to hold a fist with the thumb tucked inside.

C - Change

As soon as the anchor is set the next step is to release the anchor and change state. If you're
doing anchoring with another person a simple way to get them to break state is to ask them a
total non-sequitur such as 'Do you smell popcorn?' or 'Are those your shoes?'.

If you're setting an anchor for yourself you could ask yourself a question like 'When I got out of
bed this morning, which foot did I put on the floor first?' or 'What will I have for breakfast
tomorrow?'.

It's important, once the anchor is set, to release the anchor and change state so that the link
between the stimulus and the resource state is as clean as possible.

E - Evoke

The final step is to test the anchor by evoking it i.e. trigger the chosen unique stimulus (squeeze
thumb and finger together or whatever stimulus you've chosen for yourself) and check that your
response is to experience the desired resource state.

If it doesn't work first time simply repeat the process - Recall, Anchor, Change, Evoke, until it
does work. The more times you repeat the process (known as stacking the anchor) the better the
results.

Keys to anchoring

The Steps of Anchoring provide us with a clear, step-by-step process

that we can follow in order to set the anchors that will enable us to access resourceful states
whenever we choose.

In addition to the steps there are certain key behaviours which should be included in the
anchoring process to ensure that the resulting anchors are maximally powerful, automatic and
effective.
In NLP these key behaviours are known as the Keys to Anchoring and we can remember them
easily using the following mnemonic device I.T.U.R.N. - Intensity, Timing, Uniqueness,
Replication and Number of times.

Let's open this up by examining each key in turn:-

I - Intensity

Anchors set better and work better when they are linked to intense emotional states i.e. delirious
happiness, wanton motivation, intense relaxation or razor-sharp focus.

The best types of states to anchor are naturally occurring states, as you're able to anchor the state
right when it's happening.

The next best types of states to anchor are recalled or remembered states where a vivid memory
acts as the reference structure.

If a person's experience does not include either a naturally occurring or recalled state i.e. they
cannot remember a time where they had the experience of being deliriously happy or of intense
relaxation then a constructed state can serve as a reference structure. A person can be assisted in
constructing such a state by asking them to:-

 Think of a person they know who has had this experience

 If they can't think of a person they know who has had this experience ask them to think of
anybody who has had this experience - a TV personality, a famous person from history or
even a character in a book or film

 If they simply can't come up with anybody who has had this experience then have them
invent a character of the type who they imagine could have this kind of experience.
Provided they do this vividly and with volition a powerful and detailed reference
structure can be built up from scratch

 Describe in detail and from an observer's perspective what the experience was like for
that person - how did they act? What did they look like? What did they say during the
experience? What was going on around them? etc., etc.,

 Imagine stepping into the body of that person and living through that experience as them
- what feelings do you experience? What do you say to yourself in your own mind? What
can you see through their eyes, hear through their ears?

Once the state is being experienced fully then it can be anchored.

T - Timing
Ancors set best and work best when they are precisely timed. Ideally the stimulus is applied just
before the intensity of the reference state reaches it's peak. The stimulus is then maintained for
the duration of that peak emotional experience and then released just before the experience of the
state begins to diminish.

Keys to anchoring (2)

The keys to anchoring are a Quality Control mechanism that assists us

in ensuring that the anchors we set are as effective and powerful as possible.

The first two keys to anchoring are Intensity and Timing. Let's get a hold now of the remaining
three keys.

U - Uniqueness

The stimulus for an anchor must for unique for the anchor to work effectively. Non-unique
stimuli i.e. shaking hands with a person or nodding the head, or other behaviours that we engage
in as a matter of course and often without specific intention, are not good stimuli for anchoring
as they result in the anchor being fired randomly. Anchors which are fired randomly become
diluted over time and thus less effective.

A unique stimulus can be used with precision i.e. to trigger the associated emotional state when,
and only when, we intentionally choose to fire that anchor. This controlled, intentional use serves
in turn to reinforce the anchor.

R - Replication

The meaning of replication here actually relates to our ability to replicate the chosen stimulus
with precision. When you choose the stimulus you're going to use to fire your anchor, make sure
it's something that you can do in exactly the same way every time you use it. For example, if
your chosen stimuls is to be touch (kinesthetic), you must be able to touch in precisely the same
location, at the same speed, frequency, duration and pressure every time.

N - Number of times
In simple terms, the more times you set an anchor the more powerful and automatic it will
become. Setting an anchor multiple times is known in NLP as stacking the anchor.

Always stack your anchor when you first set it to make it as powerful and effective as possible,
adding multiple positive resource states if you wish.

Once you have your anchor set up just how you want it you can keep it that way by repeating the
anchoring process every once in a while to refresh and re-stack those positive resource states, in
much the same way that regular servicing keeps your car running at it's optimum performance.

Strategies

In NLP a strategy is a series and sequence of internal and external

representations which consistently produces the same specific result.

In simple terms a strategy is a sequence of steps, much like a recipe, that we run through
automatically in order to achieve a specific outcome.

I'd like to invite you to imagine for a moment that you’re going to bake a cake – you’d need to
follow a recipe, right? The recipe would be broken down into a number of steps such as:-

 Gather ingredients

 Pre-heat the oven to required temperature

 Combine the ingredients in a specific manner

 Bake in the oven for a specific length of time

 Remove from oven and allow to cool

 Apply decoration

If you missed any of the steps or changed the order of the steps you wouldn’t get the desired
outcome of the cake, right?

And even though you might not realise it people have recipes or strategies for every type of
behaviour including:-
  Delight
 Depression
 Shyness
 Evaluation
 Motivation
 Procrastination
 Decision making
 Wealth
 Poverty
 Love

Strategies can be simple or can be quite detailed and complex and yet, amazingly, people carry
out these sequences repeatedly and perfectly without any significant awareness that the process
is even taking place.

In NLP the label given to these unconscious, automatic and consistent sequences of behaviours is
Strategies. More commonly people describe this phenomenon using a different word – habits,
and divide their habits into two main categories – good habits and bad habits.

When people talk about good habits they are usually referring to habits which result in a positive
or useful outcome for them. Conversely, bad habits are generally considered those which yield
negative or undesirable outcomes.

People often feel good about their good habits, actively perpetuate them and take credit for them
and the outcomes that arise from them and thus place themselves at the empowering cause side
of the cause / effect equation.

People are often less willing to take responsibility for their bad habits and instead they objectify
the habit so that they can identify it as the cause of the negative or undesirable results that they
themselves are producing. This behaviour is disempowering as the person is left at the effect side
of the equation, where their outcomes are the effect of outside causes over which they believe
they have no control.

Richard Bandler might ask ‘Who’s driving the bus?’ and the answer is ‘You are!’

The presuppositions of NLP tell us that we are in charge of our own mind and hence our own
results, so we each need to recognise that we are driving our own bus.

Once we accept responsibility for our own results we move ourselves from the effect side of the
equation to the cause side of the equation and we are empowered to make useful changes to our
behaviours. The ways in which we can modify our strategies to enhance the results that we
produce is limited only by the imagination.

Early strategies

When working with strategies in NLP it's important to break the

strategy down into appropriately sized and organised chunks.

Most strategies operate below the level of awareness and people perform what can sometimes be
quite complex sequences of behaviour without any conscious recognition that they are doing so.

To begin to understand why this is so let's consider some of the strategies which you yourself
employ just to understand the words on this page.

When you were a baby you didn't even know what words were, let alone how to speak or read
them. Your main method of communication was your in-built ability to cry in order to let the
world know when you were unhappy with something.

Air from your lungs passed over vocal chords resulting in a noise designed by nature to elicit the
immediate attention of your care givers.

In many ways that first strategy - cry until attention is received / needs are met was the seed of
subsequent strategies for communication.

Gradually you became more aware of your surroundings and of other people. You began to listen
to the sounds other people made and to pay close attention to the shapes and movements of their
mouths as they made these sounds. You began to practise making other sounds with your own
mouth, developing strategies for using particular configurations of lips, teeth and tongue to make
particular sounds. You learned how you could vary your breathing and change other aspects of
the sounds you were making such as the loudness, speed and pitch.

You began to understand that particular groups of sounds put together in particular combinations
were associated with things around you, and developed strategies for putting the sounds together
in the correct sequences (words) and associating them with the correct objects, and for retrieving
from memory and vocalising those words when presented with the connected object at some later
time.

You came to recognise that other people (usually bigger than you) would present an object to you
and repeat the word associated with the object and you could then use all the strategies you'd
developed so far to speak that word, remember it and to remember the object that was linked to
that word. Gradually over time you learned to do these things with greater speed and precision,
building up your vocabulary all the time. By age 18-24 months you probably had around two
hundred words in your vocabulary.

You spent two years of your life developing some of the strategies required to communicate
verbally and linguistically with another human being. Now, take a few quiet moments to consider
the following question.

Cast your mind back to the last conversation you had with another human being. As you go back
to that time now step into your body, see what you saw at the time, hear the sounds around you
and feel the feelings of being right there having that conversation. Notice the expressions on the
face of the person you're having that conversation with. Here's the question - while you are
having that conversation now, how much conscious awareness do you have of using the
strategies you spent two years learning?

The likelihood is that in the normal flow of conversation, even though you're still running the
strategies described above, you have no conscious awareness of them whatsoever.

Those strategies have become so integrated into your neurology that they've dropped below the
level of awareness and you execute them with the unconscious competence referred to in the four
stages of competence.

If you're not convinced, next time you have a conversation with another person try to think
consciously about how you're going to use your lips, teeth, tongue, breathing etc. to make each
of the individual sounds required to speak the words you're going to use to respond to that
person.

Can you do that, and maintain the conversation at a regular speed and keep abreast of what the
conversation is about? Probably not as it's been shown that the maximum number of chunks of
information that a human being can pay attention to consciously at any one time is seven, plus or
minus 2. Which is why it's a good thing that the human brain is capable of processing a whole
bunch of stuff, like running our behavioural strategies at the unconscious level.

Early strategies (2)

By the time they reach two years of age the average human being has
mastered the strategies required to communicate using spoken language.
At around the same stage of our development we are introduced to a collection of twenty six
symbols built up from collections of lines both straight and curved.

When a person draws our attention to one of these symbols they usually also make a particular
sound with their mouth. We make use of the listening and speaking strategies we've already
learned to associate the sounds with the corresponding symbols and to speak the sounds
ourselves, until the symbols and sounds become anchors for each other - thinking about the
symbol makes us think of the associated sound, and vice-versa.

We go on to learn that these symbols and their associated sounds form the building blocks of the
strings of sounds (words) we've already learned to speak - A is for Apple, B is for Ball, C is for
Cat...

With strategies in place for recognising letter shapes and their associated sounds (phonemes) and
that some phonemes consist of multiple characters (i.e. ch, sh, ph) we go on to develop strategies
for decoding strings of characters (words) into their corresponding auditory representations
(sounds). At first we read out loud so that those who are teaching us can assist us as fully as they
are able. As our reading strategies and skills mature we find that we need not vocalise the words
as we read unless we are reading to other people.

And I'm very glad that you learned all of those strategies because now you are able, to read all
the words on this page, and every other page on this website and to learn, really learn and
integrate now all of this knowledge in ways that will assist you usefully in the days and weeks
ahead.

Strategy techniques

So now we are aware that people have particular unconscious strategies

which organise their behaviours, we've arrived at the second stage of competence - conscious
incompetence - and now we know that there's something we don't know and that's a good thing
because confusion always precedes understanding.

A useful question to ask ourselves at this point is What can we do with strategies?

Conveniently there's an acronym that assists us in remembering the four main things that we can
do with strategies - Detect, Utilise, Change and Install - D.U.C.I. This is pronounced duckie as
in rubber duckie.
D - Detect

We can detect or elicit our own strategies or those of other human beings. When we become
aware of another person who is able to consistently achieve a particularly useful outcome easily
and with high degrees of skill, precision and elegance we may choose to detect the strategies that
they use in doing so.

U - Utilise

Once we've detected another strategy for achieving a desired outcome we can learn to utilise that
strategy ourselves in order to achieve that same outcome in the same way. By utilising the
strategies of others we can learn to replicate their behaviours and achieve those outcomes in a
fraction of the time it took the 'expert' to learn how to do it.

C - Change

We can change our own strategies or assist others in changing their strategies in order to achieve
more useful outcomes or to achieve the same outcomes in more effective and elegant ways.

I - Install

We can install new strategies in ourselves so that we can replicate excellence that we see in other
people. We can also assist other people in installing new strategies in themselves which will
assist them in achieving their goals in new and more effective ways.

Imagine you could replicate the creative strategies of Walt Disney, or the wealth building
strategies of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or the genius strategies of Albert Einstein.

These things are humanly possible using the methods described briefly above and in more detail
on the following pages. To learn, all you have to do is read on!

Strategy chunking

When working with strategies in NLP it's important to break the

strategy down into appropriately sized and organised chunks.

If you chunk too small when detecting / eliciting strategies you'll get bogged down in detail and
complexity.

If you chunk too big the level of detail will be insufficient to successfully elicit and replicate the
strategy.
How then do you know when you've chunked at the right level? That's a very good question!

As a rule of thumb most strategies can be described elegantly in about four or five steps. So if
you have more than five steps/chunks the chances are that you chunked too small.

Say, for example, that you had been in the company of a person whom you considered
particularly skillful in the art of public speaking and that you wished to elicit their strategy for
doing this. Would the starting point of your strategy elicitation be to find out how this person
uses their breath, lips, teeth and tongue to form the individual sounds which combine to form the
words they speak, as discussed earlier in the Early Strategies section?

If it were you'd be chunking too small because:-

 You already have an adequate strategy for that behaviour which you run at the level of
unconscious competence

 The key aspects of the strategy that this person uses in order to communicate so
eloquently are probably at a much higher level of abstraction i.e. a much larger chunk
size

As we come at this from the opposite perspective things will become clearer.

If a strategy that you've elicited fails to produce the expected outcome when you run it, and that
strategy has fewer than four steps, it's entirely possible that you chunked too big and thus missed
details or steps vital to the effective operation of that strategy.

Using the example above let's say that you'd asked this person the very important question -
'How do you do that?' and that their response was something like:-

 I think of some stuff to say

 I say it
 I bow when people applaud

Given these three pieces of information could you successfully utilise this person's strategy to
replicate the same results that they produce? You could try. You could be very lucky and produce
the same results which would suggest that the chunk size (3 chunks) in this instance was just
right.

On the other hand the results that you get could differ greatly from what you expected which
would suggest that the chunk size is too large and more detail (in smaller chunks) is needed. In
cases such as these Meta Model questions are a great tool for recovering the required level of
detailed information.

Strategy chunking (2)

 For reasons of clarity in describing further how strategies work in NLP
it's useful to consider a common example and break that down into it's component parts so that
we can understand it more fully.

The example that we'll consider here is a person's Buying Strategy purely because the buying
process is likely to be one that most people are familiar with.

At the top level the Buying Strategy is broken down into four chunks:-

1. Motivation
2. Decision making
3. Convincer
4. Reassurance

At step 1. a person becomes motivated to make a purchase.

Step 2. involves investigation of and selection from the available options.

The Convincer (step 3) let's the person know that this purchase meets their criteria at the point of
sale.

Finally, step 4 is the means by which the person is subsequently reassured that they made a good
purchase (or from another viewpoint, avoids 'buyer's remorse').

At this level of abstraction these four chunks provide labels for the steps typically included in the
buying process, but reveal very little detail about the underlying processes involved.

More detailed information is available by 'chunking down' one level to reveal that the four
chunks which constitute the 'Buying Strategy' are themselves composed of a number of chunks
in the form of distinct, sequential steps. At this lower level the original four chunks, Motivation,
Decision Making, Convincer and Reassurance, can be treated as individual strategies in their
own right. These four lower level strategies are nested inside the higher level Buying Strategy.

The results obtained from the elicitation of a person's Buying Strategy are therefore likely to be
more useful if chunked at the lower level of their strategies for motivation, decision making,
convincer and reassurance.

Modalities and sequencing in strategies

 So far in this section on Strategies in NLP we've covered a number of
things - the meaning of strategies in NLP, how strategies might be used, what we can do with
them (Detect, Utilise, Change and Install)and, on the previous page, how to chunk for strategy
elicitation in the Detection phase.

Here we're going to chunk down one level to assist your understanding further by examining
strategies in a finer level of detail.

To make this part easier for me to explain I'm going to use a metaphor and ask you to imagine
that strategies are like a telephone, with each of the telephone's keys being linked to one of your
various sensory modalities / representational systems - Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory, Olfactory
and Gustatory.

Just as different sequences of numbers punched on a telephone keypad will get us different
people in different places, the order and sequence in which we use our representational systems
will get us different outcomes.

A telephone number, like a strategy, is a means to access resources. One must dial the
appropriate number to access the appropriate resource.

If we wish to call an ambulance, find out about getting our car fixed, book tickets at the cinema
or buy garden furniture we must know the right numbers to use.

Changing or omitting even one digit will lead us to an entirely different outcome. Some places
have more than one telephone number and so it will be possible to dial several different
sequences to reach them. Others will have one number and one number only.

Reaching certain parties sometimes requires that the number dialled be prefixed with another
sequence of digits in the form of an area code. Strategies are the same - every step in the strategy
and the eventual outcome is dependent on the steps that have come before.

People sometimes get stuck in strategies similar to that of a person who keeps punching the last
four digits of a seven digit number and then wonders why they end up with only a dial tone.

Others waste time and effort by needlessly over preparing, like the person who uses the area code
when calling people in his own locality.

People may also forget about important or appropriate strategies, or about the correct
representational sequences which make them up, in much the same way as one may forget a
telephone number or mix it up with numbers that they use more frequently.
People are more likely to achieve their desired outcomes when the strategies they use are
appropriate for the context they are operating in at the time.

Applying a habitual or highly valued strategy in an inappropriate context would be like moving
from the UK to Australia and then ordering pizza from your favourite UK pizza parlour because
that's the only telephone number you know.

Strategy notation

In NLP strategies are documented using a simple notation which looks

similar in form to that used in algebraic equations.

The notation illustrates the sequencing of the internal and external representations which make
up the strategy in a simple linear format.

Let's look at an example:-

This is a representation of a visual spelling strategy for a person called Pete. To explain what's
going on let me break this down into individual steps and walk you through the entire process.

At each step I'll explain what's going on and then show the form of written notation for that step.
Here goes:-

1. The trigger for and very first step of a strategy is usually external to the person running
the strategy. In this case somebody asks Pete to spell a particular word. This step is an
Auditory external, which is written in notation form as:-

2. Pete repeats the word to be spelled to himself silently, in his mind. At the same time he
has a sense in his jaw of the mouth movements he would have to make to say the word in
question. This combination of two sensory modalities firing simultaneously is known as a
synesthesia. Add these first two steps together and we get:-
The steps of the strategy are linked together by arrows showing the direction of the process flow.
Braces are used to group representations which occur simultanously.

3. Pete recalls a picture of the word (Visual remembered or recalled) and can therefore see
how it is spelled, which gives us:-

4. As Pete looks at the internally recalled image of the word to be spelled he notices his
internal feelings (Kinesthetic internal) - he has feelings about the picture of the word and
about whether that word is spelled correctly or not, which takes us to:-

If Pete were to vocalise the Kinesthetic internal feelings that he has at this stage about the
Visually recalled image he might say 'It looks right to me' or 'It just doesn't look right'. If he
thinks that it doesn't look right this happens:-

As long as Pete's Visually recalled image looks wrong to him his associated feeling(s) are
negative (signified by the minus sign adjacent to the arrow) and he loops back to step two of his
strategy and continues the process from there until:-

5. Pete get's a positive feeling (signified by the + sign under the arrow) about the Visually
recalled image - he feels that it looks right and exits the strategy with an Auditory
external - he spells out the word verbally using the internally remembered image.
6. Strategy elicitation
7. Whether you're eliciting your own strategies or strategies that
another person uses, the best time for strategy elicitation is usually right at the time it's
being run.
8. One of the reasons why this is so is the fact that the person running the strategy will have
full and vivid access to the Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory and Gustatory
representations which make up the strategy and of the way they are sequenced.
9. If you're unable to elicit the strategy right at the time it's being run then the next best
source for strategy elicitation is a past vivid experience, ideally of the last time you (or
the person you're eliciting from) ran that strategy.
10. Start by identifying the last time that strategy was run and then use the following simple
script to assist the person to vividly imagine returning to that specific time in such a way
as to access the fullest possible sensory recovery of that experience:-
11. 'As you go back to that time now I want you to step into your body, see what you saw at
the time, hear the sounds around you and really feel the all the feelings of being right
there 'x'ing*'
12. * Replace 'x'ing with a brief description of what the person was doing i.e. making that
purchase or getting really mad or whatever the subject of the strategy happens to be.
13. Once they have fully associated into that past vivid experience the next step is to begin to
elicit the strategy with the following question:-
14. 'What's the very first thing that has to happen so that you know it's time to x?'
15. To ensure that the answer to the question includes the required sensory specific
information, questions of the following type are useful:-
16. Was it something that you saw?
17. Was it a sound that you heard or something that somebody said to you or something you
said to yourself?
18. Was it a feeling that you had somewhere in your body?
19. Or a particular scent or the taste of something?
20. Be sure to ask all four questions to avoid overtly prompting the person to favour a
particular sensory input to the exclusion of the others and hence contaminating the
response. For example, asking only if it was something that the person saw could well
result in them only paying attention to that particular sensory input in order to answer the
 question, to the exclusion of their other sensory inputs. If the most important sensory
input for that step of the strategy was a sound or a feeling then your focused question
could yield an inappropriate or incorrect answer.
21. Once you get the first step note it down using the notation described on the previous page
and then move on to the second step with further questions i.e. What was the second
thing that happened? or What happened next?
22. Continue the process to elicit each step of the strategy and, ideally, the exit point of the
strategy* i.e. the completion of the purchase for a buying strategy or successfully putting
off doing something until later for a procrastination strategy.
23. *Some strategies fail because they don't have an exit point - they simply loop round and
round until they eventually break down somewhere in the middle.
24. Once you've completed the strategy elicitation process you should feel free to repeat the
process as many times as you need to ensure that your elicitation is accurate.

Strategy submodalities

The strategy elicitation on the previous page was based on the major
sensory modalities - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory and Gustatory.

For many strategies a surface level strategy elicitation such as this will be perfectly adequate, but
circumstances also often arise which necessitate chunking down to a finer level of detail in the
elicitation process. Typical examples might include:-

 Where replication of the strategy does not produce the expected results it may be
necessary to 'drill down' to find the specific sensory difference that makes a difference

 Comparing and contrasting two strategies which, despite being identical at the surface
level, produce completely different results

 To facilitate fine detail level changes to the strategy, or tweaks if you prefer, which will
result in equally finely detailed modifications to the outcomes which arise from it.

These sub qualities of the sensory modalities are known as submodalities.

Submodalities are the very building blocks of experience and are covered in some detail on these
pages.
To recap briefly, each of the sights, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells that make up our
experience of the world will have certain, very specific qualities which serve to allow us to make
very fine distinctions in our measurements of that experience.

For example, pictures will have a size, a shape, a location, a brightness, a contrast ratio, a colour
saturation and so on, sounds will have pitch, loudness, phase, direction, distance and timbre. etc.
etc.

Extending the strategy elicitation process down to the level of submodalities can signficantly
enhance the quality and accuracy of the results obtained from the process and any subsequent
uses those elicited strategies are put to.

Strategy utilisation

Once you've elicited a person's strategies you can utilise those same
strategies to enhance your communication with that person.

Utilising the other person's strategy as a framework provides a means for you to construct your
communications in ways which are most congruent with that person's natural thought processes,
which in turn leads to communication which is more effective and efficient for both parties.

The things that you say and the way that you say them literally fits the way the other person
thinks.

To clarify lets look how we might utilise a typical decision making strategy in a sales context.
For our purposes here we'll assign this strategy to a person called John.

Let's break John's decision making strategy down and examine it step-by-step.

1. John sees something thay he may wish to buy. This is the external trigger for and very
first step of his strategy This step is a Visual external, which is written in notation form
as:-
 2. In the second step, while John is looking at the item in question he compares the features
of the item in question to his selection criteria i.e. does the thing he's looking at have all
the features he wants? He does this verbally and internally i.e. he talks to himself without
vocalising the words, which is Auditory digital internal. Add these first two steps
together and we get:-

3. In the next step John reaches a point in the strategy known as a decision point. As a result
of comparing the features of the item he's looking at with his internal list of selection
criteria, John get's a feeling about this particular item (Kinesthetic internal). If the feeling
is positive John exits the strategy by making the decision to purchase the item. If his
feeling is negative then he exits the strategy by deciding not to buy this item. This can be
represented as:-

What happens though if John decides not to buy this item, and there are more items available that
he can choose from?

This question brings us back to the complete strategy:-

If John's feelings are neither positive nor negative but rest somewhere in the middle his strategy
loops back to the start - he starts looking at the next available item - and the strategy repeats until
he either decides to buy an item or runs out of items to choose from.

As a keen sales person with knowledge of John's decision making strategy, we could increase the
effectiveness and appeal of our communication with him by saying something like:-

I see that you're looking for a new X. Let me show you some X's and, once we've run through the
features of each one I'm sure we'll find the one that you're going to absolutely love.
Tailoring our communication to be maximally congruent with a person's strategies can enhance
the effectiveness of that communication and increase the appeal that it has for the person we
communicate with.

Logical levels

In NLP the Logical Levels of Therapy is a conversational method for

assisting people to change strategies which are less than supportive of their goals.

The very fact that a person runs a particular strategy in a matter of seconds often means that they
are not consciously aware that the outcomes they are producing are direct results of their own
actions. They tend to attribute their outcomes to forces outside of themselves and thus place
themselves at the effect side of the cause/effect equation.

This can also result in those people mistakenly believing that behavioural choices and alternative
outcomes are actually unavailable to them. One purpose of the Logical Levels of Therapy
method is to interrupt this limiting pattern and to assist people to access and expand the range of
choices available to them.

The Logical Levels method is used to:-

 Assist a person firstly to realise that they are actually at the cause side of the cause/effect
equation (pacing).

 Assist them secondly to realise that they have choices - they can choose to do things
differently and adopt strategies more congruent with their goals (pacing/leading).

 Lastly to assist them in moving from the effect to the cause side of the equation and in
gaining increased choice and behavioural flexibility (leading).

If we dial the same number every time we use the telephone we will always get the same
outcome - we'll always be connected to the one place associated with that number.

Taking responsibility for dialling, realising now that we can choose to dial new numbers,
numbers which are more useful in making new connections, in reaching our desired goals will
lead us there more quickly.
The first step then in the Logical Levels of Therapy is to assist a person to realise that they are '
dialling the numbers ' on the ' strategic telephone ' that leads them to their outcomes.

A person who has a problem with a strategy and feels that they are at the effect side of the
cause/effect equation might say something like:-

' X always happens to me - I just don't know why '

Whatever X happens to be for this person, we can verify that it is a strategy by asking:-

 That's amazing - do you ever forget to X?

 How do you always remember to X?
 Is there ever a time when you don't X?

Questions like these presuppose that X is something this person does rather than something
which happens to them . It's one of the reframes used to assist the person in realising that their
own actions dictate their outcomes.

Having identified X as a strategy the next step is to begin to elicit that strategy completely by
asking the person to explain each step in the process in some detail.

As individual strategies are run in a matter of seconds this elicitation step can take some time and
a number of repetitions to complete fully, particularly as this will probably be the very first time
this person has analysed this experience in any detail or even been aware of the sequence of
internal and external representations that they go through in order to produce the outcomes that
they have been producing.

In order to fully recover all the steps in detail the person needs to fully associate into the
experience, see what they saw at the time, hear what they heard, feel what they felt etc., and a
detailed analysis with a little repetition will help to facilitate this.

Refer to the section on strategy elicitation for a detailed explanation of the process and remember
to record each step of the strategy using the strategy notation documented earlier.

Recovering and documenting the strategy paces this person’s current experience.

Once all the steps of the strategy, including the exit point, have been elicited it's time to move on
to the second stage - changing the strategy.

Logical levels (2)

 The second stage of the Logical Levels of Therapy involves taking a
strategy that has yielded less than positive results for a person and making changes to that
strategy, so that it yields results which are more supportive of that person's goals. In this stage the
process begins the shift from pacing current experience to leading in the direction of new
experiences and new behavioural choices.

The first stage, the strategy elicitation , required the person to be fully associated in the
experience i.e. seeing through their own eyes what they saw at the time they were running the
strategy, feeling what they felt, hearing what they heard etc.

The second stage requires the person to disassociate from the experience and, basically, to run
through the experience as an outside observer. A useful question to ask to achieve this is:-

' Can you teach me how to X? '

' Imagine I was going to take your place for a day - can you teach me how to X so that I can do it
in exactly the same way? Because I wouldn't want to forget about this problem. '

In order to answer this question the person has to disassociate from the experience and, at the
same time, they are also recognised and validated as the expert on this subject.

Identifying this strategy as something which can be taught further reinforces the idea that it is a
sequence this person has learned to run, rather than something which happens to them, and if it
can be learned it can also be un -learned.

Hypnotic language patterns can also be integrated by emphasising key phrases, using a slightly
lowered voice tone, while subtly nodding the head to subconsciously affirm that statement and
elicit agreement.

Run through the strategy step by step just as it was elicited earlier but this time you adopt the
role of the 'pupil' learning how to run the strategy i.e.:-

' What's the first thing that has to happen that lets me know it's time to X? Do I hear something,
see something, feel something, say something to myself? etc.. etc. '

' What should I do next? etc. etc. '

For each step in the strategy purposely mis-match the key sensory modality using an example
which is the polar opposite of the experience that the person running the strategy would usually
have.

For example, let's say that at the second step of the strategy the person says to themselves ' Oh
no, this is going to be really scary '. Even if they say this silently to themselves in their own mind
there will be certain submodalities associated with the voice that they 'hear'. Let's assume that the
voice is a low pitched rumble, the kind that might invoke fear - your response could be:-

' So I have to say to myself 'Oh no, this is going to be really scary'. And what voice should I say
that in? Is it a really high pitched voice like Mickey Mouse? '

It's important to actually demonstrate each action in the way you describe it i.e. you would
actually say the above words using a high pitched voice like Mickey Mouse (or as near as you
can get to it).

If that sounds like a silly idea then that's great - anything which shakes the person's model of the
world and gets them thinking about behaving in different ways fits exactly with the purpose of
this method.

It is vitally important to maintain rapport with the other person throughout this process. In the
absence of a strong rapport the person you're working with may lose trust in the process or may
feel that you are treating their behaviours as a subject of fun.

Make sure the behavioural examples that you offer for each step of the strategy are (within safe,
sensible and ecological boundaries) extreme polar opposites of those described by the person
whose strategy you wish to change. This is fundamental to assisting this person to stretch their
world model sufficiently by forcing them to consider behaviours radically different to those they
are used to.

Logical levels (3)

The third and final stage of the Logical Levels method switches, from
pacing and leading, to pure leading in the direction of new behavioural choices.
By working through a person’s strategy step-by-step, purposely mismatching the key sensory
modalities at each step, we provide a context which allows the person to fully consider the
possibility of alternative behaviours which in turn increases choice and behavioural flexibility.

In the presence of a good rapport the person you are working with will have to compare and
contrast their original behaviours with the alternative behaviours you describe to them simply in
order to respond to your questions.

They may only consider each one for a moment or two before correcting you but, if you describe
each behaviour vividly enough, they will develop a full Visual, Kinesthetic and Auditory
representation of each alternative behaviour.

After considering a behaviour which is the polar opposite of what they’ve been used to this
person’s natural response is likely to be in the negative i.e. 'No, it's not a really high pitched
voice like Mickey Mouse'

You respond with:-

‘Well could it be? And if it was, would it still work?'

In order to answer this question the person now has to imagine actually performing this
alternative behaviour which, remember, is the polar opposite of what they would normally do at
this step of the strategy. To do this effectively they now have to fully associate into this
alternative behaviour – see what they would see, hear what they would hear etc. etc.

In order to process your words and respond to your questions the person will have to mentally
'rehearse' each alternative behaviour in the context of their strategy.

Each and every mental 'rehearsal' that they perform:-

 Interrupts the pattern of the strategy they have been running.

 Demonstrates the fact that behavioural choices are actually available to them.

 Blows out the boundary conditions of the ‘problem’ behavioural strategy by allowing the
person to fully consider alternative behaviours radically different from those they are
used to.

It is highly likely that having fully considered the alternative behaviour for this strategic step this
person will confirm that no, the strategy would not work if they performed your alternative
behaviour in place of the behaviour they would normally perform at that step in their strategy –
which is exactly what we are looking for.

Each time the person repeats this process, considers alternative behaviours, those behaviours
become associated with the relevant strategic step to the degree where they can’t be separated. If
we imagine the original strategy as a record (or CD for those of you who don’t remember vinyl)
our outcome here is to scratch that record over and over until it can’t be played in the same way
again.

Repeat this process for each step in the person’s strategy, mismatching and scratching the
strategic record as you go.

Once the strategic record is well and truly scratched check your progress by asking the person to
think about the sensory input which previously acted as the trigger for the ‘problem behaviour’,
the strategy which led to the undesired outcomes.

If the person responds differently then progress has been made. In the unlikely event that the
person still responds to the stimulus by running the original strategy then further work is needed
– repeat the entire process until the desired results are achieved.

Reframing

Reframing in NLP is a linguistic tool which we can use to quickly and

elegantly change the meaning of things, but what exactly does that mean, and for what purpose?

How might changing the meaning of things usefully serve us?

The meanings that we apply to our experience of the world influence our behaviours, sometimes
in useful ways and sometimes in less than useful ways.

When we experience this phenomenon passively, from the effect side of the cause-and-effect
equation, it can be limiting to our behaviours and to the choices that we perceive as being
available to us. On the other hand, once we learn to take active control of this phenomenon and
place ourselves at the cause side of the equation it becomes a very effective way to empower
ourselves and others.

Reframing provides the means to take any given situation or experience and, by placing a
different frame around it, change its meaning, either directly or by placing it in an alternative
context in which it means something else.

What is reframing?
 The optimist sees the glass as half full. The pessimist sees the glass as
half empty. The realist simply sees an opportunity to quench their thirst.

The partially filled glass, it would seem, means different things to different people and those
meanings affect their states and behaviours.

In and of itself though, the partially filled glass doesn’t mean anything in particular – the
meaning is supplied by the observers, each from their own viewpoint, from their own unique
world models. The meaning of the glass depends on who is experiencing it and in which context
that experience takes place.

All meaning is subjective and context dependent. Sometimes the meanings that people apply to
their world, to events both within and beyond their influence, to the words and actions of others,
to the results they get, to their ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ can affect them in ways which are less
than congruent with their objectives/goals/desires/dreams.

The meanings which we apply to our model of the world directly influence our behaviours, the
ways in which we respond to the world around us.

For example, if a person is resting in bed and hears his bedroom door open, that exact same noise
will have two totally different meanings to him and evoke drastically different reactions
depending on whether (1) he is alone in a locked house, or (2) he had previously invited his
friend over and left the back door to his house unlocked.

In the above examples (1) and (2) are different context frames which, when applied to the
sensory stimulus of hearing the bedroom door open, change the meaning of that experience for
that person. The meaning that the person applies to the stimulus will cause them to modify their
behaviour, to respond in different ways.

Trying to change behaviour directly can be difficult, but we can change our perceptions, our
Internal Representations of anything in an instant, and this change will in turn lead to changes in
our states or behaviours.

Reframing makes this process explicit so that we can do it with skill and volition.

Reframing basics
 If a person has a sensory experience which they don’t like, what they
don’t like is their response to it.

One way of changing the response is to understand that the response itself is not based on what is
going on in sensory experience – it is based on the meaning that the person applies to the
experience.

If you change what an experience means to a person you’ll change their response to it.

Just as we can change our response to a work of art by placing it in a different frame, we can
change our response to an experience by placing that experience in a different frame – effectively
reframing that experience.

The two forms of reframing we are going to learn here are a context reframe and a meaning
reframe and, for reasons of efficiency, let’s first take a look at the basic steps of the process
which are common to both forms.

 Practise sensory acuity – as the person accesses the experience you wish to reframe pay
attention to their language structures, their physical state and non-verbal analogues (body
language) and eye accessing cues.

 If you’re doing a formal reframing (as opposed to informal / conversational) consider

assisting the person to develop a rich Visual / Auditory / Kinesthetic Internal
Representation of the ‘problem’ experience by fully associating into it.

 Think before you speak – carefully consider the other person’s experience and try to
construct a reframe which, when you deliver it, will have maximum impact on that
person. For a stronger reframe try to make your frame the polar opposite of the person’s
current experience.

 If you’re doing a formal reframing (as opposed to informal / conversational) consider

asking the person to restate the ‘problem’ experience so that they again fully associate
into it and thus help to ensure that your reframe has maximum impact when you deliver
it. This can also be a useful way to allow yourself some time to construct your reframe
without rushing.

 Deliver your reframe congruently

  Practise sensory acuity – this time to check if the person responds differently when
considering the ‘problem’ behaviour

 Test and future pace your reframe to ensure that its effects will persist, i.e. if the
‘problem’ experience relates to a particular location try asking a question about that
location later on and see if the person still responds in the way they did immediately
following your reframe, indicating that your reframe has stuck, or if they revert back to
the behavioural sequence they displayed before the reframe, indicating that the reframe
hasn’t stuck.

Your context reframes and meaning reframes will be much more effective when you remember
to include these basics.

Context reframe

Now that we understand the basic structure that’s common to both

reframing processes, we can more easily understand and appreciate the differences between them
i.e. what differentiates a context reframe from a meaning reframe.

Remember of course that both of these types of reframing ultimately change the meaning, they
just do so in slightly different ways.

Context reframing acknowledges the fact that any sensory representation is valid - given the
appropriate context.

A context reframe takes the ‘problem’ experience and places it in a context in which it is no
longer a ‘problem’ or where that experience actually has a useful or positive benefit or even
becomes an asset or a skill.

For maximum effectiveness in the delivery of a successful reframe we also need some means of
knowing which type of reframe will be most appropriate at which time. Paying attention to the
language structures a person uses when stating the ‘problem’ experience can provide the means
by which to choose between a context reframe and a meaning reframe.

A context reframe can be usefully delivered in response to a comparative deletion – where a

comparison is being made with some unknown quantity or a characterisation is made such as:
 1. He’s too mean with his money

2. She’s slow

3. It’s expensive

If we were using the Meta Model we would tend to challenge these comparative deletions /
characterisations directly i.e.:

1. Too mean according to who?

2. To slow for what purpose?

3. Expensive compared to what?

To respond to these comparative deletions / characterisations with a context reframe rather than a
Meta Model response, ask yourself what other context(s) exist in which this characteristic or
behaviour would be considered more appropriate or useful or an asset or a skill?

Appropriate context reframes for the above examples could include:

1. He’s too mean with his money – And it’s that very skill which has allowed him to pay for
a very fine education for each of his children.

2. She’s slow – And when you find yourself absorbed in one of her books not only will you
appreciate every single second she poured into it, you’ll also understand exactly why they
fly off the shelves.

3. It’s expensive – What would be really expensive would be buying the other one which
costs 10% less but lasts half as long. This one – by comparison, is an absolute bargain!

Meaning reframe

Context reframing is indirect in that the change in meaning is achieved

as a consequence of placing the ‘problem’ experience in an alternative context.
In the commonly experienced context of every day road use the speeding driver may be
considered by other drivers to be a reckless maniac. In the context of that driver being behind the
wheel of a fire engine or other emergency vehicle and striving to deliver emergency aid as
quickly as possible the meaning of his speed changes.

In a meaning reframe the context remains static and the meaning is changed directly, and
consequently our responses change.

Some simple examples:-

Problems become challenges, opportunities for action or opportunities for learning and
developing new skills.

Laziness becomes our ability to relax, to enjoy comfort and to calmly focus our energy
exclusively and precisely on only things which most deserve our attention.

Intrusive prying becomes curiosity, eager fascination or a healthy thirst for knowledge.

Fear, by alerting us to and keeping us away from danger becomes a means of protection.

Solitude becomes precious ‘me’ time.

Meaning reframes are such a common and frequently occurring part of our everyday experience
that often we need only change a single word in our description of an experience in order to
change the meaning of that experience significantly. If you find that difficult to believe, a short
while spent studying a thesaurus should be sufficient to convince you of this fact.

A meaning reframe can be usefully delivered in response to a cause-and-effect statement

(whenever x happens I respond y) or a complex equivalence - where one thing means another,
for example:-

1. He doesn’t like me – he’s always criticising my work.

2. It’s too late now – all the best stuff will have been taken.

3. Job interviews always make me nervous.

To assist you in developing a meaning reframe which will have maximum impact on this person
you could ask yourself questions such as:-

 What is it that this person hasn’t noticed in the same context which will bring out a
different meaning and change this person’s response?

 What aspect of this collection of facts is presently outside this person’s conscious
awareness which, when they become aware of it, will cause them to see things
differently?
Or simply:-

 What else could this behaviour mean?

Following this pattern, useful reframes to the examples above could include:-

1. He obviously cares enough about you enough to assist you in ensuring that you perform
to the best of your ability.

2. Sure, the early bird catches the worm, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese
(from the mouse trap)! How many of those people who made rush purchases really got
the best deal? How many of them will be truly happy with their purchase when they get
home? Every smart consumer knows that the best bargains are always to be had at the
end of the day.

3. Imagine how unimpressed the interviewer would be if you went into the interview
looking half asleep, or with an air of arrogant confidence. A little bit of nervousness lets
the interviewer know that you really care about this job.

The ‘I wish I’d said...’ moment is an experience that many of us have had when we’ve had a
discussion which didn’t go quite the way we would have wished. After the event, with the benefit
of hindsight, a killer response invariably springs to mind which, had we uttered it, would have
convinced the other person that our point of view was better, more accurate, more relevant the
whole time.

With practice those ‘killer responses’ or reframes as they are known in NLP can become more
easily and more rapidly available to you so that you’ll be able to deliver them effectively and
naturally whenever you choose.

Six step reframing is gentle and respectful technique which can be used for any behaviour
change. It is gentle and respectful in that any answer or solution doesn't come from the
practitioner or the client's conscious mind - it comes from the clients unconscious mind.

Done correctly it can begin a series of beneficial integrations within the client outside of the
issue being discussed.

There are many elements within this technique than can be used in many interventions.

Six step reframing - What's important?

This is one of the most 'hypnotic' of all NLP techniques and as such the congruence, beliefs and
state of the practitioner is key. You need to have the mindset that your client absolutely does have
the answer!

Remember to genuinely thank the 'parts' involved' and remember to integrate fully ay the end -
We want our client to leave 'fully integrated.'
Six Step Reframing - The technique
1. Identify the pattern of behaviour to be changed (X)

2. Establish communication with the part that generates the behaviour

Go inside and ask the following question of yourself and remain alert and detect any changes in
body sensations, visual images or sounds which occur as a response to your question. The
question is, Will the part of me that generates behaviour X be willing to communicate with me in
consciousness?

Be attentive to any internal VAK

Now ask that part, well call it part X, to vary that signal for yes and to do the opposite for no.

Calibrate to external indicators to yes or no.

3. Separate the intention from behaviour.

Thank the part for responding. Now ask if it would be willing to let you know what its been
trying to do for you by generating behaviour X. As you ask that question, once again be alert to
detect yes or no response.

If yes-ask that part to reveal the positive intention. Then go to step #4.

If no - go to #3.

4. Create alternative behaviour to satisfy the positive intension

Now go inside and contact your creative part and ask it to generate alternative behaviours that
are just as good or better than behaviour X to satisfy the intention of the part we've been
communicating with. Have the part responsible for X signal you with a yes signal when it has at
least three new behaviours.

5. Ask if part X would accept the new choices and the responsibility for generating them when
needed.

Now ask part X if its willing to accept responsibility for generating new behaviours in
appropriate contexts when its intention needs to be fulfilled, for the next 4 weeks.

6. Ecological check. Ask that part that has been responding to be unresponsive (still, silent, etc.)
then:

Now go inside and ask if there are any parts that object to the negotiations that have just taken
place and be alert to any internal response (VAK) that occurs.
7. Now Go And Do It! - Test! Then Future Pace! Ensure full integration.

Thanks to Richard Bandler and John Grinder.

NLP Techniques: Parts Integration

The Idea:

The Parts Integration [1] or Parts Negotiation pattern is useful for times when we hold
conflicting values, each having a great importance within ourselves. Strong values or desired
outcomes are backed by mental and emotional resources, such that when these conflicts happen a
real internal struggle can ensue, and one part of ourselves can find itself at war with another. We
feel like there is no way out of these dilemmas or conundrums except to let the parts go on
fighting.

Occasional dilemmas are a part of life, but when these battles rage on for too long, it can become
debilitating. Fortunately whether the conflict is occasional or constant, we can use this NLP
pattern to arrive at a win-win or no-deal solution.
The Pattern:

1. Identify the parts, and check for "yes" and "no" for each

 Get in touch with the part of you that does or believes in X... Does it have a name?
 What signal would X like to give us to mean "yes", congruently?
  Now get in touch with the part of you that does or believes in Y... Does it have a name?
 What signal would Y like to give us to mean "yes", congruently?

2. Determine the desired outcomes and positive intentions of each part in turn

 Let's start by giving X an audience... What positive outcome does X want for you... and
when X gets that outcome, what does that do for you... and what does that outcome do for
you?
 Now, let's give Y a turn... What positive outcome does Y want for you... and when Y gets
that outcome, what does that do for you... and what does that outcome do for you?

3. Engage the parts in understanding the interests of the other

 Does X understand and agree with any of the positive intentions of Y? Which, and how
much?
 Does Y understand and agree with any of the positive intentions of X? Which, and how
much?

4. Negotiate an agreement

 Can X can agree not to interrupt or sabotage Y when it is expressing itself through you?
 Go inside and check for a congruent "yes".
 Can Y can agree to wait its turn to express itself when X holds sway in you?
 Go inside and check for a congruent "yes".

5. Make a deal

 Can both sides agree to cooperate respectfully of each other for the foreseeable future?
 If either side becomes dissatisfied with the other, would it please give a clear sign so that
we know it is time to renegotiate? Can that sign be given amicably?

6. Check for ecology [2]

 Are there any other parts of you that disagree with this deal?
 Are there any other reasons not to implement this plan now?
 If there are are any incongruencies, return to step 4.

When to Use This Pattern:

This pattern can be used whenever you pick up on emotionalized speech like "on the one hand...,
and on the other hand... I can't decide, and I wind up hating myself!", or "I feel torn by this
constant dilemma...!", or "that's the conundrum!" Use this pattern whenever you hear yourself or
another using these speech patterns.
Remember that parts are not separate, but just different aspects of our one-self. The goal is
always to bring more congruency into more contexts, even when some urges must wait their turn
for expression.

Credits:

Richard Bandler, John Grinder, and others.

Visual squash - a powerful way to collapse an anchor

The visual squash is a powerful NLP Anchoring pattern that can "re-wire" your brain. Yes, I
know it sounds like something that happens after a late night. It is a way of integrating "parts" or
aspects of a person that are in conflict. For example, one part of you might want to play, while
another part wants to finish an important task.

This Neuro Linguistic Programming pattern takes two separate parts and creates an
additional part with more choices. For example, a part that wants to complete the task in a
playful manner.

The visual squash is an early NLP Technique. Many overlook and underestimate it in light of
other more sophisticated patterns. It is also an easy beginner pattern

To collapse negative anchors

If you have anchored unresourceful feelings, this can be a powerful process. For instance, I
might feel irritated when I see roses because it reminds me of an unpleasant event.

Collapsing negative anchors with this NLP technique works best with primary states. It will not
work as a Phobia Treatment. This is because the anchor is far too overwhelming. You would
need to disconnect the associated response first, although you could use the pattern with
unpleasant residue.

For Learning

One interesting use of the visual squash is to use the framework of one skill to help learn another.
As a learning tool, it can produce new insights into both areas.

We often hold skills as separate and distinct fields. We don't transfer what we have learned in one
area to another. For instance, a skill in organizing craft projects transferred to organizing a job
application.

The process

1. Imagine the problem state in one hand.

 2. Make a representation that involves seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting. Feel the
weight, temperature and texture as though it was real.

For instance, "I feel anxious about the job interview. It looks like a black hole, sound
squeaky, feels slimy, cool and heavy, smells and tastes like burnt toast".

3. Decide what you would like to have as the desired state.

"I would like to feel alert and enthusiastic"

4. Make a full representation of the desired state in the other hand, using all your senses.

"It looks like a white shiny box, full of interesting things, plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star", smells and tastes like orange".

5. Go back and forth between each hand, focusing on the problem state then the desired
state a couple of times.
6. Slowly bring the two hands together when it seems appropriate.
7. The representation will fuse and change into something else.
8. You can then bring it into some part of your body. This can be the chest, head or stomach
etc.
9. Test the process by Future Pacing.

Future Pacing
Future pacing is a type of Mental Imagery, a powerful way to anchor or connect changes and
resources to future situations or a particular event (such as a sporting performance).

Usually practitioners do future pacing at the end of an NLP process to ensure the changes are
available outside in the everyday world. It is easy to respond resourcefully when there is no
immediate threat or pressure.

This technique uses the submodalities of association dissociation and NLP Anchoring. By
imagining and virtually experiencing situations where you would appropriately use the resource
or change, you can find out if it is triggered automatically.

For instance, imagine walking in the front door and seeing chaos - does your calm and patient
resource kick in? What are you saying to yourself? How are you breathing and feeling?

When doing this for someone else, you need to consider - do they look calm and patient? What is
their body language and breathing like? What is their voice tone and volume like? Do they sound
or look tense like they did when described their previous response?
Future Pacing to Test

1. Think of four possible situations in the future, which would have previously triggered the
old behavior. For example seeing a mess in the living room, getting a phone call from the
teacher, a colleague letting you down etc
2. Imagine stepping into the first situation. See, hear, feel (as in touch not emotion), smell
and/or taste what you would experience in the first situation, out of your own eyes. That
is associated to the context.
3. Does the change hold? Do you respond in the way you would like?
4. Consider if you need to make further changes to fine tune the desired response.
5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the other three situations.
6. Come back to now, and imagine and see yourself (dissociated) in the future with the
changes you have made.

Anchoring Resources to Contexts

Similar to the above process, the purpose here is not to test, but to anchor or connect resources to
the naturally occurring cues in the context.

1. Establish a resource anchor, using the NLP anchoring technique or state elicitation.
2. Think of four possible situations in the future, where you want the resource available. For
example a job interview, next Friday's presentation, asking someone on a date.
3. While triggering or eliciting your resource anchor, imagine stepping into the first
situation. See, hear, feel (as in touch not emotion), smell and/or taste what you would
experience in the first situation, out of your own eyes. That is associated to the context
with the resource.
4. Imagine responding in the way you want to. You are practicing perfect performance here.
 5. Consider if you need to make further changes to fine tune the desired response. For
instance, you may need to strengthen the anchor or use a different one. The Circle of
Excellence pattern might be useful here.
6. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the other three situations.

The more realistically you can experience the situation and the more strongly you access the
resource state, the better these processes work.

One of the methods you can use to summon up your confidence in a crisis is a mental technique
from NLP (neurolinguistic programming) called the "Circle of Excellence." It
doesn't actually create competence in a skill you desire. Rather, it assumes ability in its place so
it gives you the ability to summon up the confidence for performing a skill.

For instance, you can use this to get rid of the fear of speaking when you have to give a talk, or
boost your confidence for sports or other high performance needs.

Here are the steps for using the Circle of Excellence, which you need to practice ahead of time in
order to be able to draw upon it at will:

Step 1. Imagine an invisible circle on the floor. In your imagination, make it about 3 feet in
diameter and 2 feet in front of you, something large enough to walk into. You can draw chalk on
the floor if you like when you are first training to master this mental technique.

Step 2. Go inside the circle and imagine a time you were wonderful at what you want to be
doing. Imagine that everything went smoothly, you were bright, funny, happy, confident, full of
energy and a great success at your task. You were balanced, creative, powerful or any other
positive state of your choice where you were balanced and centered. You want all your chi to
come up and flood your body with the good feelings of confident performance.

Now if you don't have this particular personal history, just pretend you have this personal history.
In your mind, you can use visualization to even step-into-the-shoes-of role playing of a movie
hero, a living legend, or anyone you admire to get into that state you want.

Your brain cannot tell the difference between a REAL history and an IMAGINED history or the
history of others, so all you have to do is emotionally capture that feeling of excellence using
whatever role models or scenario playing that works for you. An outside observer should actually
see physical, noticeable changes in your breathing and posture when you've got it, otherwise the
resource state you're trying to access is either being poorly accessed or is of too low quality. That
means keep practicing until "you've got it" and it "clicks."

Step 3. Develop a full visual, auditory, kinesthetic representation of the state. Use all your sense
to actually FEEL what it's like to be in that state. See yourself in the circle being wonderful.
Visualize it fully. Feel the greatness and calm. Feel the fullness of chi.

When you have added enough resources, step automatically into the powerful state you've
created within the circle. As soon as you step into the circle, imagine it's as if you step into that
person, that set of states, that set of superpower being.

Step 4. Move into the circle of excellence. Step into the picture of yourself. Anchor this as a
resource state so that you can bring it up at any time you require it. In other words, figure out
how to draw upon this state at will by practicing it, and then associating some mental cue with its
bringing forth. That might be tapping your fingers, holding your arms in a certain way or
whatever.

You don't have to use meditation all the time to handle some of the mental scenarios that come
your way. As Buddha said, use what's virtuous that works. Hence, if you come under high
performance pressure frequently, you can use this little trick to practice summoning the mental
state you need at will.

The NLP Goal-Setting Model

The Well-Formed Outcome
Many years ago I memorized the acrostic for S.M.A.R.T. goals:

S – Specific

M -Measurable

A – Attainable/Assignable

R – Realistic/Rewarding

T – Timeable/Tangible

Goal setting functions as a prerequisite to success in most areas of life. Yet sadly, still ninety-five
percent of people do not set goals. Who do these ninety-five percent work for? The five percent
who do!

The acrostic “S.M.A.R.T.” worked well for me for many years. But NLP provided me with a
more effective tool for setting goals. How? The NLP model enables us to go beyond mere “goal
setting” into the actual “programming” of our minds to drive us towards our desired goal. How
does it do this? The “S.M.A.R.T” model worked quite well but it and others like it lack
specificity.

The brain works primarily from our sensory system (pictures, sounds, feelings). The NLP goal
setting model addresses this by getting our goal sensory specific. But it doesn’t stop there. For,
the brain not only uses the sensory system, it also uses our word meanings that drive the sensory
system. For this reason, the NLP Goal Setting Model makes absolutely sure that we language
ourselves in such a way as to drive our very neurology and physiology towards obtaining our
desired goal.
The specificity of the NLP Goal Setting Model facilitates concentration on what you internally
see, hear, and feel. Your attention will direct itself toward external and internal resources
necessary in achieving the goal. The 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 Well-Formed Outcome Model.

1) State the goal in positive terms.

Describe the Present Situation and compare it with the desired future goal.

 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 goal in Sensory Based Terms.

 What will you see, hear, feel, etc., when you have it?
 What steps or stages are involved in reaching this goal?
 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 goal in a way that you find compelling.

Is the goal compelling? Does it pull on you? Make it a compelling future representation that’s
dissociated (When you see your goal make sure you see yourself having obtained your goal.).

4) Run a Quality Control check on your Goal to make sure it is for you in all areas of your
life.

 Is the desired goal right for you in all circumstances of your life?
 Is your goal appropriate in all your personal relationships?
 What will having your goal give you that you do not now have?
 What will having your goal cause you to lose?
 Is your goal achievable?
  Does it respect your health, relationships, etc?

Run a quality check to make sure that your goal fits every part. Ask, “Are there any parts of me
that objects to actualizing this desired goal?” If so, address those unconscious frames of mind.

Pay attention to how your whole self responds to the question in terms of images, sounds, words,
and sensations within you.

5) Self-initiated and maintained.

Is the goal 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 goal must be something that you can initiate and maintain. It must not be something
dependent on other people. Make sure that your goal reflects things that you can directly affect.

 Is it self initiated and maintained?

6) State the Context of the goal.

 Where, when, how, with whom, etc. will you get this goal?
 Is the goal appropriately contextualized?

Test your goal by applying it 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 goal.

 What resources will you need in order to get this goal?

 Who will you have to become?
 Who else has achieved this goal?
 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?

Evidence Procedure.

 How will you know that your goal has been realized?
 What will let you know that you have attained that desired state?
NLP Technique - Timeline

Simple Timeline - What's important

Taking a client into their past can cause the release of a tremendous amount of emotion. This is
normally good - however its important that the practitioner has the experience to support the
client through the experience.

Taking a client to explore and rehearse his or her future is almost always beneficial. It is
important that the practitioner always moves the client forward in any challenges or issue, so that
the client is left in a positive state.

Kinaesthetic timeline - The technique

Ask your partner if he/she has something they would like to investigate in future.

Ask your partner where their future and past is, imagined as a line which maybe forward and
behind or side to side.

Ask your partner to walk to a position in time when the issue is completely solved, and then to a
position a little further in the future when the client can feel really good about it.

Ask your partner how that feels.

Ask your partner to walk slowly back to the present day, collecting up all the useful experience
and learning, bringing it all back and integrating it into the present day.

Visual timeline - The technique

As for the kinaesthetic timeline, but instead of walking, just ask your partner to imagine seeing
their timeline and to see a goal somewhere in future. Ask them to identify two or three
milestones between now and achieving their goal.

Ask your partner to imagine floating up above their timeline to the first milestone in achieving
the goal. Your partner floats down into milestone and takes a moment to fully experience it. You
can use submodalities to help your partner fully associate with the milestone.

Continue to guide your partner through all milestones until the goal is reached.

Ask your partner to float slowly back to the present day, collecting up all the useful experience
and learning, bringing it all back and integrating it into the present day.