The User's Manual for the Brain Volume I
Page 35
Separate intention from behavior. Reframe each part by finding what they deem as valuable and worthy of appreciation about each part. (This alters the frame by allowing the person to become aware of the positive intention or purpose of each part.)
Establish communication. Ask each part what resources does the other part have that would become useful in assisting it to function even more effectively? How could this playful part work in a useful way for you? How could this work part serve you? In most cases the part will respond with a verbal, visual or kinesthetic response. Listen for a verbal response. “Now that you know that these two parts have the same positive intent at a higher level, what resources does each part have that the other could use?” Start with the more positive part. “Now transfer that resource to the other part… notice how this part begins to look and feel differently.”
Imagine what a part would look like, sound like, feel like which has the combined resources of each part. Allow this third image to form in the center of the other two images as it takes on more and more of the valuable qualities of the other two parts.
Now allow a series of visual images to form that represent the transition (metamorphosis) from each part until it forms the representation you have of that center image.
Next, ask the person doing this to begin to bring their hands together while simultaneously having the internal images begin to merge (or collapse) so that the third image remains.
Finally, tell the person to take the integrated image inside. Reach out in front of you to this integrated image that contains the values of both of these parts and bring it into yourself.
Test. Think about the conflict situation. What happens? How do you feel? What’s different? What has shifted?
14.12 Conclusion
Words do not comprise the only symbol system for communicating with ourselves and each other. Non-verbal communication is also a “language” whereby we can (and do) communicate. Whether or not we communicate consciously and intentionally is another issue. Using the understandings in behavioral psychology, learning theory, and classical conditioning, NLP has provided a language, a model, and numerous human “technologies” for understanding this whole dimension of communication.
Now we can begin to examine the “anchors” and “anchoring processes” in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we live and work. We can examine them for the “messages” and neuro-semantic states that they induce. We can also now develop more skill and consciousness in our everyday use of anchors—understanding how we do it one-on-one with loved ones and with an entire audience in public speaking.
14.13 Thought Questions to Assist Your Learning:
What does “anchoring” mean?
How did Pavlov discover the process of anchoring and what did he call it?
List the four keys to anchoring.
How do you “set an anchor?”
What experiences did you have in using anchors in the various exercises?
What does it mean to collapse an anchor?
How does it fit with the subject of integrating parts?
When you thought about anchoring in the context of public speaking or presenting—what did you learn?
14.13.0.100 Notes – Chapter 13
17Matthew 5:39 (NASV).
18See Tad James, The Basic NLP Training Collection Manual (Honolulu: Advance Neuro Dynamics, 1990), p. 61. (Used with permission)
15
Focusing On Submodalities
15.1 What you can expect to learn in this chapter:
An explanation of submodalities
New insights about the secrets of submodalities
Specific therapeutic interventions utilizing submodalities
Submodality exploration exercise
The “cure” for headaches and other uncomfortable feelings
Mapping across with submodalities
Time-line submodalities
Godiva Chocolate pattern
The Swish Pattern
Belief formation change pattern
Grief/Loss pattern
And, as part of this process, the notion of submodalities provide us with one of the basic ways of how our brain-nervous system functions and how it programs us for our emotions, behaviors, skills, etc.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I feel pretty dull today”? Consider the meaning of the phrase, “I hear you loud and clear.” We hear such metaphorical sayings constantly. Until the discoveries of NLP, most of us considered them as just metaphors and therefore as symbols carrying little meaning. However, with the insights of NLP, we now know that such metaphors frequently offer literal descriptions of the speaker’s internal representation. More often than we sometimes realize, our brains take such statements and “make sense” of them at a literal level. And, as part of this process, the notion of submodalities provides us with one of the basic ways of how our brain-nervous system functions and how it programs us for our emotions, behaviors, skills, etc.
We have described three primary ways of “thinking.” Namely, we think through the three primary modes of pictures, sounds, and feelings. “Thinking” also occurs via smell, taste, and the meta-representational system of words. Primarily, however, we formulate our internal representations in pictures, sounds, and/or feelings. Given this, the domain of submodalities enables us to discover further distinctions in our internal representations.
Recall a pleasant experience.
Visually: You have a picture, don’t you? Now, do you see that picture in color or black-and-white? Does that picture appear to you as three dimensional or flat like a photograph? Do you see yourself in the picture (dissociated) or do you look through your own eyes (associated)? Does the picture have a frame around it or do you see it as a panoramic photograph? Do you see it as a movie or still picture? Do you see the picture far off or close? Does the picture look bright or dark or in-between? Is it in focus or do you see it out of focus? Where have you located the picture? Do you see it up to your left, or right, or straight ahead in front of you? Where do you see the picture?
Auditorily: Does the memory have sounds? Does it sound loud or soft? Does the tone come to you as soft or harsh? Does it sound full or thin (timbre)? What direction does the sound come to you from? Does the sound move fast or slowly? Is it clear or dull? Do you hear it in stereo or mono?
Kinesthetically: Does the memory have any sensations within it? How intensely do these feelings present themselves to you? Do you experience the feeling as having a texture? If it had weight, how heavy would it be? If the feeling had shape, what shape does it possess? What would it register on a thermometer? Where in your body do you experience the feeling (s)?
Submodalities comprise the building blocks of the representational system.
In NLP we refer to these quality distinctions in the internal representation as submodalities The rep system includes the VAK modalities. With the term submodalities, it sounds like we will find sub-distinctions. Yet, as we have already studied in Chapter One, this does not accurately describe the situation. These qualities or properties of the representations comprise the building blocks of our internal representational system, but not at a sub-level. Certainly, the internal representation of all experiences involve submodalities. Wyatt Woodsmall has noted,
“If the mind/body is capable of making any distinction, then it must have some way of making that distinction; and the way it in fact does so is by differences in the submodalities by which the alternatives of the distinction are internally represented.”19
The human brain determines the parameters of our experiences by means of these submodality properties (plus the word meanings we give them). Within the brain we represent all of our experiences, emotions, and even beliefs using submodalities. Over two millennia ago a wise man said, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.”20 Thus, our brain processes information using submodalities plus the word meanings we give our representations to create our realities. This in turn gives rise to our emotions, which deter
mines our behavior. At both the primary level of representation and at meta-levels, we have various qualities (submodalities) in our representational codings.
The distinctions given in the example of the pleasant experience present but just a few of the submodalities in each rep system. However, they only provide the key ones. Figure 14:1 provides a more complete list of submodalities.
15.2 Different Kinds Of Submodalities
In looking at the submodalities, you will note a distinction even within the submodalities. Consider the visual submodalities. What difference do you notice between a picture appearing in color or black-and-white and a picture appearing far off or close?
This difference comes from the fact that a picture will appear either in black-and-white or in color. We don’t (and can’t) create pictures with some in-between coding. (Not all NLP trainers agree with this conclusion. They believe that all submodalities fit into the analogue category.) However, as for a picture appearing far off or close, a visual image may occur at any place along a continuum in-between. The picture may appear fifteen feet away or ten feet away or right in front of your nose.
A digital submodality operates like a light switch: either on or off. A submodality that can vary over a continuum we define as an analogue submodality.
Thus, some submodalities function like in a way similar to a light switch: it operates in either an “on” or an “off” position. For instance, a picture may have movement in it or remain still. It cannot do both. This type of submodality we refer to as a digital submodality. A submodality that can vary over a continuum we define as an analogue submodality. “Location” provides an example of an analogue submodality. Typically we learn to develop a fuller appreciation of submodalities after we have learned to change them and notice the alteration it makes in our experience. When an event happens, that event exists as a fact of history. We cannot change the fact that it occurred. However, today we respond, not to the fact of history, but to our memory of that event. So while we may not change history, we can change how we internally represent and perceive a memory.
When we make a perceptual change by giving our internal representations new meanings, we also change the submodality structure of that internal representation. Likewise, when we make a change with submodality shifts, we will always activate a higher level frame that we have given a higher level meaning. So, we can make perceptual shifts both with words (through reframing) and with submodalities (through mapping across). In either case, for a shift to happen, we must “move” the problem state into a higher level frame (desired state) in order for the shift to take place and to remain.
While we may not change history, we can change how we internally represent and perceive a memory.
Consider something that causes you anger. As you recall that experience, you probably have a picture of the stimulus that sets off the anger. Does the picture appear in color or black-and-white? Do you see it in 3D or flat? Do you see yourself in the picture (dissociated) or do you see all the events of that memory through your own eyes (associated)? As a rule, dissociating yourself from a memory removes much, if not all, of the emotion. Do you have a panoramic picture or does it have a frame around it? Does the picture have movement in it or not? How far away do you see the picture? Does it appear bright or dark, in focus or out of focus? Where do you see the picture in reference to yourself now?
When we explore and identify the differences between the submodalities of one image and another we call that a contrastive analysis.
Now think of something about which you feel totally calm and relaxed. Think of any external stimulus to which you typically respond with a calm gentleness so that you breathe deeper and fuller and all your muscles relax their tensions. Allow yourself to see a picture of that stimulus. Now, elicit the same submodalities of this second picture of relaxation as you did with anger. You will discover some differences. We call this a contrastive analysis. Here we have explored and identified the differences between the submodalities of opposite primary states: anger and relaxation.
So for an intervention, take the image of anger and put it in the same submodalities of gentle and calm relaxation. If the picture of anger appeared in black-and-white and relaxation appeared in color, take the picture of anger and put it in color. Changing the submodalities of anger into the submodalities of relaxation will typically cause a change in how you feel about that particular state. Your state of anger will feel more calm, gentle, and positive. You end up with “relaxed anger” (that’s right!)
In this instance, we did not change anything except the internal representation of anger. The content of the memory remained the same. Truly, “as a man thinks within himself, so is he.” And this demonstrates the power of submodalities.
A meta-level phenomenon does not shift with indiscriminate submodality mapping across.
In this illustration, we worked with phenomena at the primary level (the anger). We did not use meta-level phenomena like beliefs, dis-beliefs, understanding, etc. Higher meta-level (abstract) phenomena do not shift with indiscriminate submodality mapping across. The meaning frame for relaxation is at a higher level of abstraction than the primary level of anger. For most people, when you shift “anger” into “relaxation, i.e., bring “relaxation” to bear on “anger,” you will experience a shift.
If you do not experience a calming of your anger, then your anger must exist at a higher level than your relaxed state. You have given your anger a great deal more meaning (meta-levels). If you had this experience, ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my anger?” Keep asking that until you step up to a higher level frame that you can use to modulate your anger. For instance, as I (BB) processed some old anger I asked myself, “Bob what was the purpose of that anger?” The reply came back (from the back of my mind), “To justify its existence.” “Well then, Bob, what was the purpose of justifying the existence of your anger?” This answer flashed from the back of my mind, “I am right!” “And, Bob, what was the purpose of your being right?” “So that I am considered by others as a person of worth.” Whoa! That won’t work. Anger never gives me a sense of personal worth. What does? My higher spiritual beliefs give me a sense of worth. So, I can shift my anger “up” into my spiritual representation of Jesus or I can bring Jesus to bear on my anger and guess what happens to the anger? It just diminishes away.
The process of changing the submodalities of one image into the submodalities of another image we refer to as submodality mapping across.
In changing internal representation through submodality changes, you will discover that some submodalities produce more change than others do. For instance, in moving the picture of confusion into the picture of certainty, you may have discovered that changing the location changed other submodalities as well. The process of changing the submodalities of one image into the submodalities of another image we refer to as submodality mapping across. In mapping across, usually two or three submodalities will change other submodalities (location does that for me as it does for many). When this happens, you have a critical submodality or, as some say, a driver submodality. In changing one experience into another through submodality mapping across, we use the drivers to make that change. This demonstrates one of the uses of doing contrastive analysis on various experiences.
In mapping across, usually two or three submodalities will change other
submodalities. When this happens, you have a critical submodality or as some say, a driver submodality.
Again, while you cannot change historical events in your life that have resulted in much pain happening to you, you can change your internal representation of your memory. And, by changing the internal representation, you can change how you feel about it. And by changing how you feel, you change your responses to similar events. Thus running our internal representation of events and memories empowers us to control our feelings about things. Rep systems, eye accessing cues and submodalities are key elements in how we structure our subjective experiences. We also need
to consider how we sequence our internal representations as we engage in thinking and behaving. The sequencing of our rep systems in the production of thought and behavior we call strategies.
Representational systems, eye accessing cues and submodalities provide key elements in how we structure our subjective experiences. Another building block of subjective experience concerns the sequencing of these key elements into thought and behavior. The sequencing of our representational systems in the production of thought and behavior we call strategies.
Figure 14:1 Submodalities Checklist
For a more thorough treatment of how Meta-levels and Meta-states affect submodalities see The Structure Of Excellence: Unmasking The Meta-levels Of “Submodalities” (Hall and Bodenhamer, 1999, Empowerment Technologies, Grand Jct, CO, USA).
15.3 Therapeutic Interventions Using Submodalities
15.4 Exercises
15.4.0.101 I. Submodality Exploration Exercise
(triads)
Take one submodality at a time from the list on the previous page and at the same time each person uses it to change an experience (a primary level experience) as a joint research project. Briefly share your experiences with each other before going on to try another submodality. I suggest that you choose a visual submodality such as location, size and/or brightness. If you happen to work with a Meta-level experience, the process may not work. If it does happen to work, pay special attention to what submodality quality worked. Then explore it from a Meta-level analysis. What higher level resource thought (a Meta-state) caused it to shift?