[Neurons] 2011 Meeta Reflections #51

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2011  #52

Nov. 7, 2011

The Meta-State Structure of a Belief

Part III





BELIEFS ARE SENTENCES

WHICH YOU FEEL AS CONVICTIONS





If beliefs are sentences, then they are linguistic creatures and are not
mere made out of sights, sounds, and sensations.  And if their structure is
not merely comprised of sensory-data, then they are not changed merely by
changing sensory-data which includes the code of the sensory data that is
typically called sub-modalities.  All of this (in parts I and II) have
evoked several people to send questions during the past two weeks.  Here are
two really great questions:



Question: So are you saying that a person cannot use sub-modalities to
change beliefs?  Can a sub-modality shift or alteration never change a
belief?



Answer:  Yes and no.  “Yes,” sometimes shifting a sub-modality will change
a belief, but “No” the sub-modality shift is not what actually causes the
change in the belief.   If a change happens and all you do is make a picture
darker, further away, smaller, etc. (as an example), a picture which you use
to stand for some conceptual belief, then what causes the change is the
semantics of that cinematic feature shift.  Somehow moving a picture away
symbolizes dis-confirmation to you of the picture and that picture somehow
symbolically represents some limiting concept that you believed.



This means that the belief change requires that you have a picture that
stands for and symbolizes some conceptual understanding and second that you
find the precise cinematic feature that represents dis-confirming.  And
years of experience with this suggests that doing so is very rare.  Moving a
picture further away may mean it does not seem as real or as compelling to
you, but seldom will it mean a dis-confirmation of the original idea.  So,
yes, while it may work, it is indirect and guesswork.  It is much easier and
quicker, to work directly with the dis-confirmation process itself.



Question: How does your establishment or structure of beliefs that you
carefully laid out in the first article apply to emotions and feelings?  I’
m sure you will agree that there is an interconnection and interaction of
the cognitive (mind or thought) and emotion (or feeling).  Is there an
interplay?  I suspect  that the strength of  feelings or emotions may be
associated with strength of beliefs.  You relate and associate feelings (or
emotions) with cognition, so would you clarify this distinction?

Great questions!  If a belief is a confirmed thought, then the confirmation
of that thought not only sends “messages” to the human nervous system, but
“commands.”  This is what Richard Bandler said in Using Your Brain for a
Change (1985).  It sends commands indicating, “This is what is real,
actual, and what is.”  Due to this, your body’s nervous systems then sets
out to actualize this (i.e., make it real).  That’s why you and I feel our
beliefs as convictions and manifest them in our emotional states.  That’s
why we feel sure about our beliefs and as we live with them, and they become
increasingly more familiar, they seem unquestionable and “just the way it
is.”  That also explains why a challenge to our familiar beliefs seems and
feels incredible, ridiculous, and even stupid.



At this stage, the belief loses much or all of its cognitive or mental
features and it just feels right or normal.  So when someone attacks the
belief, we sense or feel that they are attacking “reality,” what we “just
know is so.”  So for most of us, it often creates a strong emotional sense
of making us wrong and so we stand up and fight for the belief.



Also what you most importantly believe formulates your values and your value
system, so when someone questions those beliefs, or worse, attacks them, you
will have a strong emotional reaction against those questions or attack.
Similarly, beliefs about yourself, your identity, your reputation, your
loved ones, etc. will active a strong emotional state of defense and
protection.  For most people, before you have a moment to remember that the
belief is just a set of ideas, you will feel existentially threatened!



Beliefs generate emotions- and oftentimes, very strong emotions.  The
emotions you and I feel are expressions of our beliefs.  And the more we
access a state of being sure, confident, knowing, etc., the quicker we could
create a new belief on very little evidence.  And that can undermine the
quality and even usefulness of the beliefs that we end up creating for
ourselves.  After all, as Robert Dilts (1990) has noted, “a belief does not
have to be true to be believed.”



So check out your beliefs.  Quality control them for accuracy,
effectiveness, efficiency, usefulness, empowerment, enhancement, legacy,
etc.  You can strongly feel that a belief is true and right while all along
it is not true or right or useful or helpful at all.  Confirm any thought
and eventually you will create a belief in or about something.  The secret
is confirmation and there’s dozens and dozens of ways and bases upon which
people confirm things which leads to beliefs.







Neuro-Semantic News

・         NSTT 2011 is now complete and history; the next NSTT (Trainers’
Training) will be July-August, 2012 in Colorado, USA.

・         The next big event in the field of NLP and Neuro-Semantics ---
The NLP Conference in London - Nov. 19-20.  At the Conference, Shelle Rose
Charvet and myself will do the Book launch for Innovations in NLP, Volume I.
We wrote and served as the editors of that book and along with the 24
contributors will celebrate its launch on Saturday Night Nov. 19.  Meet us
in London at the Conference!

Teresa Jupp

The NLP Conference Team

Crown Buildings

Bancyfelin

Carmarthen

SA33 5ND

Tel:   +44 (0) 01267 211880

・         Email:  <mailto:nlpconference at crownhouse.co.uk>
nlpconference at crownhouse.co.uk




・         After that, I will do the Post Conference for the ICF Conference
in Taiwan Dec. 5th. On Matrix Coaching.    http://icftaiwan.attractionsuite.
com/coach-annual-meeting.html   Contact Person:  Ho Murphy <murphy777 at gmail.
com>; 陳茂雄 Kent Chen <maoshiung at yahoo.com>







L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                             ----
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

1 970-523-7877                                               ----
<http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org





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