In NLP, the idea of overloading consciousness has received a lot of press. Some have taken this idea of overloading and used it in their trainings. They even advertise their approach as such. “We overload consciousness so that once you get to overload, everything else just slides right into the unconscious mind—immediately giving you unconscious competence.”
For us, this idea has some problematic features. If overloading works that well and in that way—why don’t we set up elementary, middle, and high schools so that the kids go for 12-hour days? Why don’t we have the teacher lecture at them for 4 hours without a break, get them to overload—then everything afterwards will “just slide right in” and they’ll “have it”? Why don’t we do that? Does it work for you to get overloaded—do you suddenly become a “mean, green, learning machine?”
It just doesn’t work like that, does it? The assumption driving that idea just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Typically, the majority of learning goes through the conscious mind that does the work of incorporating, implementing, applying, relating, etc. What we have here involves some empty hype that does not serve NLP well.
Apparently “the spill-over effect” does not send lots of data into the human system nor even the best data. How much of these bits and pieces get in? And how do we then process it in ways that serve us well?
10.8.0.43 4. The Forgotten “Mind”
We call unconscious the “mind” within us where we store all of our memories and prior experiences. In the 1950s, Penfield and other researchers discovered that electrical stimulation of various parts of the brain triggered automatic recall of long forgotten experiences. These “recalls” did not merely involve the “data” in a pure or cold form, but a seeming re-experiencing of the information. At that time, they concluded that everything we ever experience gets recorded and stored somewhere.
Later research studies, however, questioned this universal quantifier. Theorists eventually concluded that while much of what we experience does get recorded, not everything does. We do not record in “memory” what we do not attend or pay attention to. Our “not-knowing” of that information does not mean that “it is unconscious.” It may mean that we didn’t encode it in the first place. Thus just because someone has a “dark area” on their Time-Line does not necessarily mean that they have experienced some trauma. They may have just not encoded anything of significance during that period. Or they may have lost interest in it so that it slipped away.
Further, we can and do forget things. We can lose memory of previous learnings, experiences, conversations, etc. Just go through old boxes of reports and notes that you wrote when you attended school twenty or thirty years ago. Or read journal writings of everyday conversations, experiences, and happenings from five years ago—and experience the surprise of not even recognizing much of it. Not only has it become unconscious, it has become unconscious and inaccessible.
I (MH) did this recently with old notes I came across that I made from some calculus, trigonometry, and advanced mathematics classes. Not only had I forgotten that I had taken such notes—I couldn’t even recall the learnings in a way that could make sense of the information. “What in the world do these formulas mean? I can’t believe that I once knew this stuff!”
10.8.0.44 5. The Repressed “Mind”
While Sigmund Freud did not invent or initiate the idea of the unconscious mind, he certainly popularized it. And as he did, he made it a part of Twentieth Century knowledge and parlance. Accordingly, he spoke about the pre-conscious, the conscious, and the sub-conscious. By the latter, he referred to the part of “mind” that we push-down and repress. He theorized that as we use various defense mechanisms, we build barriers against consciousness. We do not want to know what is in our unconscious. We fear knowing (this structure operates as a meta-state). So as our “ego” (the “reality principle” as he called it) can’t handle certain information, it suppresses, represses, denies, projects, etc. It develops an attitude (has an agenda) against knowing.
Freud looked upon this less-than-healthy facet of the unconscious as the place of repressed negative emotions, rampant and tabooed sexual fantasies, and deep genetically-oriented urges or “instincts” like his postulated “death instinct.”
To Freud’s genius, he developed numerous methods for recovering the repressed unconscious material:
1) Free-floating associative thinking: lie quietly and just notice whatever intrudes into consciousness, let it come, don’t push it away or down, let it come and say so.
2) Dream welcoming, recording, and analyzing: notice the images and presentations that your unconscious mind offers you in dreams. Commit yourself to recording the dreams, then later pull apart the dream’s manifest content and latent content.
3) Catch and notice “Freudian slips.” Catch the unconscious misstatements that arise which frequently indicate thoughts and awareness in the other-than-conscious mind. Then inquire whether it indicates any “agenda” against some knowledge.
With regard to this facet of unconsciousness, Milton Erickson (1976) said, “Your patients will be your patients because they are out of rapport with their unconscious mind.” (p. 276). This suggests that true mental health involves a good balance and rapport between the conscious and the unconscious “parts” of Mind. We develop what we call “unconscious parts,” “bitter roots,” and other internal incongruencies because in some way, one part of the mind has gotten out of harmony with another part. The Mind no longer operates as whole and integrated.
10.8.0.45 6. Meta-levels Of Awareness
Another facet of Mind that becomes unconscious and that then exhibits the power and nature of unconsciousness occurs in the Meta-levels of consciousness. This refers to those frames of reference that we construct as we move through life—those frames that we then use as our Meta-level referencing system. This includes such subjective mental-emotional phenomena as beliefs, values, criteria, “rules,” domains of knowledge, conceptual understandings, etc.
As we learn things, they not only become unconscious but many begin to operate at a level meta to regular everyday primary level consciousness. These become our Meta-programs, our Meta-states, our Meta-level domains of knowledge. We can certainly bring these meaning (semantic) structures into consciousness—but typically they operate as simply the frames of reference within which we live and function—as our presuppositional reality.
A conscious thought thus involves not only an awareness of something—but also a higher level awareness: awareness of the awareness of something. I can drive with awareness of streets, people, traffic signals, etc., but unless I have awareness of that awareness, it seems (and so we say), that we’re driving unconsciously. Rosenthal (“Why Are Verbally Expressed Thoughts Conscious?”, 1990, as quoted in Dennett, 1991) says that what distinguishes a conscious state from a non-conscious state involves the straightforward property of having “a higher-order accompanying thought that is about the state in question.”
10.9 An NLP Pattern For Working With The Unconscious Mind
10.9.0.46 The Six-Step Reframe12 Extended
1) Get Rapport. The first step involves establishing rapport with that part. When a person explains the problem, match, mirror and pace them during their description. This enables us to establish rapport with the part. We can start by using unspecified verbs in establishing this communication with the part—words like “communicate” and “check out.” Such words will encourage the part to speak in its own rep system. As that part then begins to speak, we can match its predicates. It then becomes important for us to remember that parts will frequently use a rep system different from what the conscious mind uses. So, note if, when a client accesses the unconscious part, their language reflects a different rep system. If so, then match the rep system of the part.
2) Establish Communication Signals. Next, we need to assist the client in establishing conscious communication with their unconscious part if the problem lies outside of conscious control. If a client could
or can consciously control the behavior, let them. Yet the majority of times, people come for help precisely because they have an internal conflict between conscious desires and unconscious behaviors which they cannot control. Frequently, the unconscious mind will know far more about a person’s need than does their conscious mind. So their unconscious mind will also frequently know far more about the client’s needs than we do. So the wise therapist will concern themself with the unconscious mind.
When a person says, “I want to stop gaining weight,” they announce therein that they have tried consciously to stop over-eating, but have failed. Consciously, they have run out of options. Our job? To go straight to the location of the problem—how they have mapped out their reality and stored it in their unconscious mind. To discover the positive intent of the part that causes the problem, we need to talk to it. So communicating with that part enables us to discover its positive intent for the person. Once we discover this, we can assist in empowering the client to find alternative behaviors that work much better.
3) Engage The Unconscious With Questions/Statements. Now we can formally establish communication with the part. Working from the assumption that all behavior has value and use in some context, we accept the part as attempting to do something important. This helps in establishing communication with it.
“I respect that you have this part of you that does this behavior that you dislike and no longer find useful” (thus we interpersonally Meta-state the person). “This behavior has some value or significance to you; you have done it for a long time. And you also can begin to believe that it does something of value for you—even if you don’t know the specifics of its value… And you also have consciously come to a place where you dislike these results and wish it would stop creating problems for you. And right now, I do not know its positive intent for you… And from your response, you probably don’t either. And yet, wouldn’t you like to know? So let’s engage this powerful part of you and see if it will tell us what it seeks to do for you that you can value. So as we establish communication with it, we must just find that this part has wanted, perhaps for many years, to communicate with you. And I wonder how you would feel about that, now? So now we can provide it that chance.”
4) Sensitize The Client To Their Own Unconscious Signals.
“And as you go inside and ask it a question, you can then allow yourself to pay close attention to any internal feelings, images or sounds that occur in response. And you don’t have to influence these responses in any way. This part of you that generates the behavior will communicate, as it does, and you can just comfortably notice… how it responds. Just ask that part, ‘Will this part of me responsible for generating this behavior communicate with me in consciousness and effectively tell me its positive intention?’”
We can keep the part separated from the behavior if we speak of “the part that generates this behavior” rather than “the (name of the behavior) part.” In reframing, we must exercise care to get the positive intent of the part. This intent will differ from the behavior as “criticism” (behavior) differs from “trying to straighten things out,” “trying to correct something I view as a problem” (intention). Therefore, as we word our statements and questions, we take care to speak of the two as separate.
As the person hears our words and then echoes them within, we need to pay careful attention for shifts or changes in their physiology/ neurology. Here we calibrate to see if we can detect the person’s unconscious autonomic nervous system responding. Often we will observe changes in the person as we describe the question! We will get responses non-verbal signals from the person before the person even has such awareness. Here we watch for changes in breathing, twitches of muscles in fingers, a shrugging of the shoulders, color changes in the face, etc. These all offer us possible unconscious signals—external signals of the unconscious.
Sometimes a client will notice an internal feeling, voice, or picture— treat this as an unconscious signal. It differs only in that it exists as an internal signal.
5) Establish Yes/No Signals. Once we get signals from the unconscious, we can use them to ask specific questions that can generate yes/no responses. If you have an internal signal, say, “Just so that I clearly understand you and so that I can appreciate your purpose better, if this truly represents ‘yes’ please increase this signal… and if this truly represents a ‘no,’ please let it decrease.” Recycle through this until you feel confident about these signals. “Will this part or internal state that generates this behavior increase this ‘yes’ signal so that I know that you truly mean ‘yes’.” “And for this ‘no’ signal that involves the decreasing of the brightness, decrease it even more if I truly understand this as your ‘no’ signal.”
We ask a yes/no question on that order and we will usually get a “sense of yes” or a “sense of no.” Our internal picture might grow brighter for “yes,” or closer, more colorful, etc. Our internal voice may sound louder, quick, or a different tone for “no.” Our internal kinesthetic sensation may get warmer or cooler for “yes,” tighter and more tense for “no.”
On the outside, we might notice a “yes” head nod or a stopping of the head nod for “no.” Sometimes the unconscious responses will show up in that obvious a way. Or we may see more tension in the facial muscles for “no,” and more relaxation for “yes.”
6) Apologize To This Part. If neither you nor the person can seem to detect an unconscious response—assume that the part won’t talk to you. It is refusing. What does that mean? It probably feels offended and unappreciated.
“As you go inside, you may begin to realize that the way you have talked to this part of you over the years(!) has probably hurt its feelings so that it doesn’t feel validated or appreciated, and that has arisen because you just didn’t know that it sought, in some way or other, to do something of value for you… but as you now begin to understand that… you can apologize to it in just the right way so that it knows that you now want to make up with it and make it a friend because as long as you stay at odds with this facet of yourself and it with you, it only keeps you stuck …”
Having done this, recycle back to setting up Yes/No Signals.
7) Discover Its Positive Intent. With the yes/no signals, have the person go inside and pose a question. “Would you allow me to know in consciousness what you seek to accomplish for me that I can deem as a positive value as you produce this behavior?” If we get a “yes,” have it inform the person of its positive intention. If you get a “no,” ask the person, “Will you allow yourself, just now, to go ahead and trust that your unconscious has some well-intentioned and positive purpose for you, even though it won’t tell you that purpose right now?”
8) Access The Creative Part. Access the part that creates, innovates, comes up with new and wild ideas—and anchor it. Now ask the part that runs the unwanted behavior to communicate its positive intention to this creative part and for each time the creative part generates a new behavior that would work as good as or better than the old behavior, let it give you a “yes” signal.
9) Future Pace The Change. As the person goes in, have them ask that part, “Will you now allow yourself to take responsibility to use one of these three new behaviors in the appropriate contexts?” Again, let your unconscious mind identify the cues that will trigger the new choices and to experience fully what it feels like to effortlessly and automatically have one of those new choices available in that context.
10) Check For Ecology. And as you go in again, ask, “Does any part of me object to having one of these three new alternatives rather than the old behavior?”
10.10 So How Does “Hypnosis” Work?
“Hypnosis” works by using words that engage someone’s mind to “go inward” to make meaning out of your languaging. Underlying “hypnosis” we have hypnotic language patterns. This refers to those words and word structures that “hypnotize” and “entrance” people. In doing this, nominalizations take the cake as “trancy” language (rel
ationship, self-esteem, satisfaction, motivation, relaxation)! These “verbs turned into nouns” have lost their immediate referent, vaguely describe the process and so, as a result, a listener has to “go inside” and do a TDS to their referent index to identify what that word stands for.
These trance inducing words facilitate the hypnotizing process—unless the person goes into “uptime” and Meta-models the words. Indexing such words with the Meta-model challenges essentially de-hypnotizes. How? By getting you to “come up” (uptime) rather than going down (downtime). When I (MH) engage in hypnotic processes with clients, I know that my main stock of linguistic tools lies in these trance words.
“And you can now allow yourself to rest comfortably in the growing knowledge that you are going to experience a deepening relaxation that can, and will, enable you to release some of your untapped potentials so that you can begin to function in a much more useful way in your everyday life so that your effectiveness will increase in a way that both your conscious and your unconscious mind will find pleasing and acceptable.”
Don’t you like that? Did you experience those words as you read them? Or, did you read them analytically? Check it out. Give yourself the chance to notice how your mind processes such words and “makes sense” of such. All “hypnosis” refers to, after all, involves how we can turn inward and access conceptual awarenesses within our spirit. It shifts us from the outside to the inside. O’Connor and Seymour (1990) described this “downtime” nature of hypnosis:
The User's Manual for the Brain Volume I Page 25