Rapport: Re-Modelling NLP Part Four:
Basic Structures and Processes
‘The symbol A is not the counterpart of anything in familiar life. To the child the letter A would seem horribly abstract; so we give him a familiar conception along with it. “A was an Archer who shot at a frog”. This tides over his immediate difficulty; but he cannot make serious progress with word-building so long as Archers, Butchers, Captains, dance round the letters. The letters are abstract, and sooner or later he has to realise it. In physics we have outgrown archer and apple-pie definitions of the fundamental symbols. To a request to explain what an electron really is supposed to be we can only answer, “It is part of the A B C of physics”.
(A S Eddington)
In this part of my series on re-modelling NLP I will explore what we could call “ABC’s of NLP”
I will outline some of my Re-Modelling of the basic components and structures at the core of NLP. I have already covered the NLP language in part two so I will be concentrating on some of the core components of NLP. These ABC’s of NLP all begin with S including Senses, Subjective Modelling Processes (how we build our subjective models), States, Sub-modalities and Strategies.
As these are the building blocks of any model, skill or technique, they are the key enablers or disablers in all areas of application of NLP. It is first and foremost good practise that interests me in my re-modelling, not merely an academic interest. Most of my developments have arisen through my need to be ever more effective with my clients and students. A constant challenge to our development is the static dogma that creeps into any system, body of knowledge or field of study. Once again please do the exercises. They will add greatly to your understanding of the descriptions.
The world is constantly changing and yet we can have a sense of stability, solidity and permanence. We need to make sense of the world in order to have a basis for meeting our needs. This ‘sense’ is our model of the world. The sense, or model, that we make can be inaccurate in a number of ways. We can also be clumsy or inaccurate in the application of our models. The cost of these inaccuracies is additional difficulties and problems for us.
An accurate understanding of how we build our models and use them will be the basis for more effective life skills including effective therapy, education, change work, personal and professional development. In any science three components are required, a technology, a methodology and an epistemology. Traditionally NLP was a technology. My model of DBM added a methodology and an epistemology and re-modelled the technology. That is what these articles are about, improving the technology of NLP.
Accuracy is the traditional goal of science. Science in our western culture has done much to shape and define our agreed reality and what is permissible or ‘sensible ‘ to think and say. Even this does not stop people having a variety of conflicting beliefs many of which seem to be contradictory to the evidence. Many people continued to think the world was flat long after it was scientifically verified that it was round.
Simplicity And Precision
When we measure things we interact with them. Our sensing of the world is through electro-chemical input, not directly on what is out there but how electro-chemical processes change in relationship with it. We only have our sensory processing.
The Hiesenberg Uncertainty principle in quantum physics states that if we want information on the position of a particle we increase the uncertainty of its movement. If we want more certainty of its movement we increase uncertainty on its position.
The physicist Bohr noted another trade off in scientific modelling that is directly relevant to subjective modelling as well.
The more we make our models SIMPLE we lose PRECISION. If a model becomes too simple it usually becomes useless.
The more PRECISION we require the more we lose SIMPLICITY. The more we want the model to cover the territory effectively the more we have to add and therefore the more we may have to increase the complexity. The ongoing processing of a model will most efficiently be a dialectic interaction between these two.
Simplicity
Precision
Verifiability is a central component in the “objective’ scientific pursuit. It is also one of the corner stones of NLP and DBM. The pursuit being easier than the attainment, harder than the easy acceptance of dogma. Through the pursuit we are practising the skills in modelling and being open minded.
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain; either you will reach a point higher today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
Nietzsche
The Five Senses:
The basic building blocks of traditional NLP are comprised of five senses plus auditory digital (language). In my creation of Developmental Behavioural Modelling I extended this to include the digital component of each sense. I also added concepts. This greatly extends the distinctions available for modelling, change work, education, etc. These distinctions were then used as part of my re-modelling of NLP. After working with these it is surprising how we ever got by with the impoverished traditional distinctions!
Analogue:
The analogue distinctions are pretty straight forward. They are the direct sensory experience, what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell
Digital:
The digital distinctions are a structuring of this analogue continuum into discrete distinctions that give us tools for organising the complexity of our analogue experience.
In our visual system we have a variety of tools. We create symbols and icons and even more sophisticated, written language. In simple form these are the pictures or pictograms in many stone age caves. These become the gateway to storage of information and the basis of concepts and science.
In our auditory system the digital components are well established in NLP – the spoken word.
In our kinesthetic system obvious examples are the fingering for musical instruments, chords; the dance steps or steps in martial arts that are coded as complete ‘bits’. Also for the blind and deaf, Braille and sign language. For all of us certain hand signals literally use digits for communication!
In our olfactory system the ‘noses’ that work for perfume houses make distinctions such as musk, floral, citrus, spice, etc. These can then be expressed in analogue as to how much floral etc.
In our gustatory system the obvious examples are wine tasters who seem to find every other type of fruit, flower and spice (seldom grape!) in the wine. All of us make distinctions such as good / bad, salt, sweet / bitter, etc. As with the other senses we use these to make further analogue distinctions.
Sensory System Summary table
Sensory
System
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Olfactory
Gustatory
Analogue
See
Hear
Feel
Smell
Taste
Digital
Written Word,
Icons, symbols,
signs
Spoken
word
Fingering for Musical Notes, Chords etc
Musk,
Floral,
Citrus,
Spice, etc.
Good – Bad.
Salt,
Sweet, etc.
In addition we, as humans, also have a major tool in our use of concepts. Concepts are a fascinating structure. Concepts make use of difference. When we bring together different experiences, make comparisons or contrasts the product is a result of difference. Difference does not reduce to sensory experience. As I highlighted in part two of these articles the meta model is not designed to deal with difference.
Difference is the result of processing NOT in terms of quantity but in RATIO’s. This was discovered by Weber in the 1830’s and its significance for subjective processing realised by Fechner, the formulation is known as the Weber-Fechner Law. Gregory Bateson made great use of his insights in this area and in a Korzybski memorial lecture in 1973 explained that what gets from the world to our maps is difference.
States and Sequences
States are another of the main components in NLP. What is a state? I suspect that there are a number of answers to this. One answer is that a state is how something is in the moment or while an identified thing’s continues over a specific time scale. For example “I feel tired” – I am in a state of tiredness. “Look at the state of this room”. In NLP a state is checked through calibration. We do this at the cost of ‘freezing’ the ongoing sequence of behaviour and processing together with a selection of part of the world and the ignoring of the rest. So in the I am tired example I need to ignore what else is happening and what else I am feeling.
If we were to photograph a room or a person we might find it impossible to tell from the photograph whether the room was in the PROCESS of getting tidied or getting messy, whether the person was waking up or falling asleep.
The application of state work is to replicate and optimise our states so that we can enjoy being in them or to use them. Being able to replicate getting into them and staying in them and leaving them when ready are key skills. I have found it much more useful to work with sequences rather than states as the state is contained within the sequences, just as it is easier to understand what is happening with a video film than with a photograph (although why it is happening may still be unclear, see article 2)
Exercises: Static and Dynamic States
Contrast the following exercises
1. Circle of Excellence
2. Sequence of Excelling
Circle of Excellence
1. Stand and imagine a circle on the floor in front of you.
2. Identify a state of personal excellence, an example of excelling, giving it a name for ease of access.
3. Relive this state. Fully connect with the feeling and as the feeling is nearing its peak, step into the circle and connect the feelings with the circle.
4. Step back out before the feelings fully peak to avoid the risk of associating a reduction of feelings (over the peak) with the circle.
5. Test this state by repeating the name and stepping into the circle.
Sequence of Excelling
1. Use the example from the circle of excellence.
2. Place the state on a time line and step onto the line fully connecting with it.
3. Start from the feeling of excelling and walk backwards back through the sequence of events, feeling, behaviours that led to the state of excellence until you reach a point where the sequence began.
4. Now walk forward fully reliving the sequence all the way through to the peak and beyond. You now have a sequence of excelling.
5. Test by imagining walking along the line to relive the sequence of excelling.
Comparison.
A comparison of these two will demonstrate the difference between static states and dynamic sequences, the difference between process and product. Participants in training almost unanimously report that the sequence is more empowering. They experience the difference between product and process.
How our senses are sequenced and processed to create our models and different states is a process of subjective modelling. I will now outline the basic model.
Based on the work of Korzybski, Bateson realised that all that got from the territory onto the map of subjective experience was DIFFERENCE.
Multiple Description.
Our Senses operate in an organised way. Even before each sense is processed centrally it will have been influenced by what takes place in the other senses.
NOTE: This is not just five integrated senses but an integration of sensing.
Our models are constructed from sensory experience through the three universal modelling processes, processing Detail, Scope and Connections. Keep in mind what we have said about the co-ordination of the senses as you read the simplified diagram below
MODEL or MAP
OF
THE WORLD
V
A
K
O
G
VISUAL
AUDITORY
KINESTHETIC
OLFACTORY
GUSTATORY
These patterns are connected systematically into an overall model or ‘models’:
M
D
E
L
PATTERN THROUGH:
DETAIL
SCOPE
CONNECTION
The importance of the ‘model ‘is to predict what is likely to happen in the world, to guide us to meet our needs. The more accurate the prediction the more effective the resulting behaviour can be. The prediction is not usually a conscious, explicit phenomena, but rather an implicit hypothesis setting - a FEEDFORWARD from the model in relation to the world:
PREDICT WHAT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN IN THE WORLD:
WHAT IS MEANINGFUL
HOW WORLD WORKS
FEEDFORWARD
The contrast of the FEEDFORWARD with the actual events results in new information becoming available through the five senses - a process of FEEDBACK
Our subjective processing then builds models from our senses and we then ‘think’ and behave based on our models.
Putting these together:
IRCO MODEL
This model summarises the flow of subjective processing of information. We receive our input from the world, make sense of it, do things with it to plan how best to proceed and then output, do things, which in turn brings new input.
For each of the four stages in IRCO there are corresponding mistakes that can be made. Our input could be fictions or illusionary. Our relating could result in false facts. Our computation, thinking in the widest sense, could be fallacial or inaccurate. Our output could be clumsy or faulty. Although these are limiting the four F’s can also be enhancing. Fictions include illusions and distortions of art; false facts are the basis of drama and older models of science (I believe that for the Apollo space missions the calculations used were based on the physics of Newton and not Einstein’s more accurate model as it was simpler to calculate and the false facts were not too false!); many fallacies are the basis of poetry and metaphor, such as Bateson’s favourite fallacy type that was the pattern for much of his creative thinking , “grass dies, men die therefore men are grass”; faults as in the laboratory of Alexander Fleming where poor hygiene allowed the growth of penicillin in a petri dish.
I
R
C
mapenar