Michael White presents: KnowMoreTrances!

Bandler was right

When I was taking my NLP training, one of the concepts taught over and over was that a person was, "literally" experiencing what they were imaging. Here's the proof:

Scientists in new hypnosis brain link discovery

The effect of hypnosis on the brain has been uncovered in a groundbreaking experiment.

Hypnotised students were shown black and white photos and told to "see" them in colour.

Scans showed they used the part of the brain actually used in colour vision - so they really were seeing it in their minds.

Professor Irving Kirsch, of Hull University, said: "It shows there are people with an ability to change the way they experience the world."

Link to the article  here.

Designing a successful life is about learning how to disassociate from some ideas and associate into others.

Can you think of ways that making an experience of the mind either color or black and white can help this along?

Thanks to David Wahl at www.creativecreativity.com for the link to the article.

Taking the Second Position

I was walking yesterday, thinking about, "second position" and the importance of being able to take differenet perceptual positions.

I discovered that while it might be useful to imagine what another person might be thinking about you, It's also useful to ask!

Okay, I'm going to back up a bit because some people might be wondering, "What the hell is the second position?"

First position is your perspective.

Second position is another person's perspective.

Third position is a neutral position in which you watch the first and second position interact. 

Fourth position is a position that observes the other three in relationship to other global systems.

If you are learning how to be a master at communicating, being able to go into all of these positions at useful times is necessary (IMO). 

So what am I talking about with regards to second position?  Well, let's say you are in a relationship and you feel nervous about it, if you slide into second position, you can hear/feel/see the other person's feelings, thoughts and ideas about you.  See you through their eyes. Remember though that this person is just a construction in your head so you could be wrong.

But you also are smart, so trust your instincts.  This can be a very wonderful process because great healing can happen.  For some reason, just being able to hear that someone you are in conflict with thinks you are a jerk takes away the fear of wondering doesn't it?  And when the fear drains away, you can begin communicating more effectively.  Remember fear constricts movement on all levels.

And this leads to my next point, use second position to help get an idea and then, if the person you are struggling with is still alive, ask more questions!  Get curious as to how you both can ultimately get what you want.  Is it possible? 

I think at a very early age we are taught to jump to conclusions instead of stepping back and waiting and saying, "Before I decide anything, I'm going to ask!"

Oh and by the way, if you're going to mind read (decide what others are thinking without asking) you might as well imagine that they see you as an amazing person, full of opportunity, hope and able to make mistakes and learn from them just like anyone else. In other words, let them see you as a human being!

Seeing eye to eye!

Try this!

Assume that every bad feeling you have comes from a memory and assume that someone you know is in that memory.  Someone "caused" you to feel this way way back when.  Now go through your mind and readjust the size of everyone so that you see "eye to eye".

Here is a list of possible candidates:  political candidates, parents, scout leaders, Dr. Laura, siblings, kids, spouses, domestic partners, priests, ex-spouses, ex-political candidates, ex-domestic partners (foreign partners), ex-priests, Galileo (this one's personal, trust me), The Illuminati, All Free Masons, your blog audience, the NSA, strangers, friends, Peter Gabriel, and you.

Imagine shrinking down those that need shrunking and growing them up them's that you're keeping small.  Experience the new feelings associated with this.  I hope you get that you are changing your projected idea of "them" right?  You will feel better if this is done well and proper-like*.

I noticed that I did this automatically with people I liked.  I have a couple of close friends who seem like they're fivefoottenandthreequarters (like me) when they're really 6 four/five abouts.  And a woman I know who is under five feet seems so much taller.   I forgot their real heights and am surprised when I step back and look at them.

So beyond just feeling better, who can this technique be useful for you?  I'll let you figure that out.  I have a bunch of ideas already!

*I will not write, "Get 'er done!"

What the hell is Anchoring?

I was talking to an acquaintance the other day whose understanding of NLP was, "it's that Tony Robbins sh*t right?"

I said, "kinda."

I started talking about anchoring and he said, "What the hell is anchoring?"  I laughed because the term "anchoring" is silly lingo in my trade and I forget that not everyone (most people) is familiar with these words I throw around.

It's like when an improviser talks about, "waffling' and non-improvisers start getting hungry I guess.

Most people have no idea what I'm talking about when I say anchoring or at most will make a polite guess so I can continue yapping.

So this is what is written in the NLP Encyclopedia (http://www.nlpuniversitypress.com, seriously check it out!) about anchoring:

In NLP, "anchoring" refers to the process of associating an internal response with some environmental or mental trigger, so that the response may be quickly, and sometimes covertly, reaccessed.

Here's a real world example:  Say I walk up to you and I say, "Hi mother effer!"  The words I speak and tone I use will "fire off" some internal response inside of you.  It's that simple.  And it can be conditioned.  Pavlov figured that out with the dogs and the bells and the salivating when the bell was rung even though there was no food.  We do this too.  We condition ourselves continually (the process part of anchoring) and we (humans) have been described as "anchoring machines"

Think about a time when you had an automatic response to an external stimuli (me smiling) or an mental trigger (me smiling in your memory), notice what you feel, see, and hear inside of your mind.  Those are all different anchors. 

Why is this important?  Well, if you can notice an anchor, you can change your response.  And what is the point of all of this?  To create a you with choices, a you for whom previous unwanted behaviors or responses are no longer a problem.  Yes, yes?

When you were young, candy might have had a different "effect" on you then it does now.  Understand that we are creating the response to the sound of the wrapper slipping off, the little round piece of flavored sugar and all of the wonderful associations we made back them (if I have candy it must mean I'm good!).  As you've grown and matured and evolved, you have changed candy's meaning for you, you have set new anchors for candy (probably more neutral anchors) and the response is appropriate for you at this moment in your life.

Did you know you can anchor wonderful feelings to different parts of your body?  I want you to lift your non-dominant hand (ambidextrous folks can pick) and look at your pointer finger.  This is where we're going to anchor a rad feeling!

Good, you've got your finger.  I want you to go ahead and feel neutral right now. And as soon as you feel neutral, I want you to remember a time when felt wonderful about accomplishing a important task in your life!  Really turn up that memory, making the images, sights, and colors brighter, and closer and bigger all at the same time.  You'll probably take a deep cleansing breath as you're doing this.  Keep making the experience really intense and when it feels like it's almost at its peak, drag your pointer fingertip of your dominant hand along the top of the other pointer finger.  Drag...it...slowly feeling it build in intensity until the very end.

Okay cool.  Go neutral and clear your mind.  Let's see if the anchor is set.  This is easy, just from a place of neutrality, drag your finger tip along the top of your pointer finger and you will reexperience the feelings, visuals and sounds associated with this memory.

Great job, later on will talk about stacking and collapsing anchors and other cool stuff.  This is just a taste!

The Swish Pattern

My friend, Vince Black, runs a new yahoo group titled, "persuasivecommunication".  He describes how to do the swish pattern in a thorough and elegant fashion.  If you take an NLP course and don't learn the swish, it's questionable that you are in a course that is effective.  Just saying. 

Well, let's not worry about that at all because you can read about it here!

Oh and if you have questions about, "states", "low arc/high arc", "pacing" or other strange terms, you can ask me, or better yet, go to the source and join the group here! 

How to do Kick Ass Swish Patterns!

1. Elicit the picture of the state that is no longer desired

2. Set it aside into the past. It should be obvious why we set it into the past.
We are setting a pattern from the beginning so that every thing we do when setting the swish
up, is to be congruent with the way it will actually work when we drop it into your
unconscious. So move from the low arc to the high arc. Set less then useful states into the
past.

3. Elicit new powerful very useful state. Elicit it in the future. That is where
we will use this behavior. Build in everything that you need. This is going to be your behavior
so make it the best that it can possibly be. Notice the sub-modalities. Future pace
(imagine this in your future) this new behavior. How does it work across all context. Does it
need adjusting? Your unconscious will let you know if it does. If so, adjust the
behavior until it fits. When building this behavior, more often than not you will want to make it
an example of a direction. This is usually more useful than just designing in one very
specific behavior.

Example: swishing out of anger in traffic. Instead of just swishing into a calm
state, swish yourself into an example of someone who has choice in their behaviors, someone
who engages in elegant behaviors. You will see yourself in this new behavior vs.
being associated. It is more compelling that way. When building the new state we can
"wire" several useful states together using an anchor collapse. (see building
foundation states.)

4. Tailor the swish pattern for you. We will look at the visual of the new
state. With size, brightness and color, or distance. Test each separately. Make the visual bigger,
put it back,etc. Which effects your kinesthetics most powerfully? (will go into depth later
about how to do this most accurately and powerfully)

5. Now that you have discovered which sub-modality effects you the most
dramatically we will customize the swish for that particular one. Size: take less than useful
state bring it up, disassociated, in front of you. Put new state in corner. Just as you start
to associate you will shrink old pic down while rapidly expanding new state. For distance
just as you start to associate into old state, new state will fly off from distance shatter
old pic and get right up in your face. For color and brightness, just as you start to associate
into old pic it will white out and the new state will color up. If you are working by yourself
you will probably want to do this at least three times with a break state in between each
time.
Quickness is the key. The brain learns better quickly.

Notes:  This is designed behavior, you are installing it. Make it great. We must
see ourselves in the new behavior. This is how we lead ourselves. Same as modeling. When we
model we must see the person behaving. When the new behavior snaps into place really let
it hit you.

A simple timeline game!

This game is a lot of fun!  Wherever you're at, be sure to get comfortable and observant because we are going to elicit your timeline.

The "traditional" structured timeline in NLP is for people to have their pasts organized off to their left and their futures organized off to their right and their presents straight in front of them. 

The more I do this though the more I find people will break this rule of organization.  Remember NLP is about learning, it's an attitude that requires curiosity. I used to just jump in and say, "You know how you put your past off to your left?"  And some people would go, "oh wow how did you know?" But a good number would look at me like I'm crazy!

So now I ask questions.  "What color was your first car?"  "What did you eat for dinner two nights ago?"  "Is it possible that you could eat chicken tomorrow night?" and I explain that I am getting an idea as to how they structure their timeline.  Where they "place" things.  It's a game!

Once they understand this, I have them pretend to put their entire timeline out in front of them so that they can be an observer and learn.

And then I have them place their past out at a 45 degree angle away from them on their left and their future out at 45 degree angle away from them off to the right.  This is so they can see everything.  It' like a  wide "V" lying down with the person standing at the bottom most point. 

They can see all the way back to their childhoods and way off into their futures.

And since they are separated from the timeline, it can shift easily. This is important because I want the person to stay in their body with all of their resources as they shift his past forward.  It comes forward to a point where something happened that they'd like to change and the timeline stops at the moments before the event occured.  This is so they can experience the past before presented with whatever it was that screwing up their lives and this is where we're going to start!  It's like during the Civil War when the surgeon would cut above the gangreous infection on the healthy part of the leg.  Hooray! 

And I say something like this:  I don't want you to come back to NOW any sooner than it takes for your unconscious mind to reevaluate, and change every similar experience that has limited you in the past so that you can come back to present  and move forward into the future free of these limitations now and forever!  Commit to taking the time to do this! Now!

That's some nice and healthy hypnotic language folks!  And it works.  The client usually takes a deep breath and relaxs, the skin tone changes as well as the tone of the muscles of the face.  And then we test.  Always test to be sure the problem has changed completely and that the changes will be ecological for the person.  You'll know your answer within seconds.  If more work is required, start again!  Have fun, use this game as way to change your life is powerful and exciting ways!

An NLP presupposition for Saturday!

People are not broken.

Yet another great NLP presupposition

People always make the best choice in any given context.

To some that might mean, "Yes I WILL have another hit off that crack pipe!"

If you can understand this fully, you can make better choices like, "Nah, one's enough for today!"

Values

Here is a great link explaining values from an NLP perspective:

http://www.nlpuniversitypress.com/html3/V.html

Read it!  Invaluable information.

Another NLP presupposition

People already have all of the resources they need.  It's about accessing those resources in appropriate times and places.