[Neurons] 2016 Neurons #58 Experience is Structured

Mon Dec 19 12:27:51 EST 2016

From: L. Michael Hall

2016 “Neurons” Meta Reflections – #58

December 19, 2016

Basic NLP Concepts #5

EXPERIENCE IS STRUCTURED

Basic to NLP are the ideas that we construct our understanding of reality and create mental maps to navigate the world (#2), and that we create meaning within our mind-body systems to define what things are, how they work, their significance, and what we are to do (#3), and that all of this occurs as a system within systems (#4).  Given all of that, there is structure to our experiences.  And that’s another fundamental NLP idea— all of our experiences have structure.

Above and beyond the content of what we are doing and why, there is the form or structure of how we put it together.  And given that, this is the reason that we can actually model the structure of subjective experiences.  Now NLP did not start here, it started with the “linguistic magic” of Perls and then of Satir and then they began imposing the structures of Transformational Grammar upon the distinctions they found.  Slowly, out of that came the awareness that what enabled the “therapeutic wizards” to do their “magic” was the form and structure of the language.  Later the realization arose that any experience could be modeled by identifying its structure.

How do we do this?  This introduces another basic NLP idea.  Subjective experience and skills operate by the sequence of representational systems.  Every experience and every skill arise from how we use our representation systems in thinking-emoting and behaving.  First we take in information via our senses, then we process that information to create strategies which sequence sights, sounds, sensations, etc.   These make up the structure of the experience.

This means that a strategy is a sequence of steps that make up the component pieces of an experience.  Like a recipe, a strategy tells you the ingredients that you need and the order for putting them together.  This structural view enables you to think of a skill as a function of “developing and sequencing of representation systems."  The term developing speaks to the fact that there is capacity within our sensory systems for development and the term syntax refers to how we order, organize, or sequence the representational systems.

Consider the experience of getting out of bed in the morning.  While we all do it, we have different strategies for achieving that outcome.  How do you accomplish that task? What is your strategy?  How easy or difficult do you find it?  What do you do inside your head that enables you to move your body from under the covers to getting yourself out of bed in the morning and going?  Here is a strategy:

           You hear the alarm clock: Ae - (auditory external).

Then you say to yourself, "Oh no, it is time to get up" (Aid -)  (auditory digital, internal).

Next you feel that you do not want to get up (Kmeta- - ) (kinesthetic meta or "emotion").  This sensation consists of feeling stiff in your back (Ki- ) (kinesthetic negative).

Next you think: If I don't get up, I will be late to work, I could lose my job (Ad - ) (more words about the job, your future, cause-effect events).

Internal dialogue with self continues about the necessity of getting up to go to work, “I have to get up!”  (Ad-mo -) (auditory, words using the modal operators of necessity).

When this conversation reaches a certain threshold (kinesthetically), it cues your motor cortex to move you out of bed (Ke -) (kinesthetic external).

All of these sequential pieces work as a step-by-step formula for a motivation strategy for getting up in the morning.  With it we now have the following:

              Ae ➝ Ad,i  ➝  Ki-  ➝  Kmeta-   ➝ Ad,i   Ad-mo  ➝  Ke 

In NLP, a strategy describes the sequencing of representation systems as a design for producing a certain outcome.  Robert Dilts (1980) describes it in these words: "All of our overt behavior is controlled by internal processing strategies." (p.26).  Your brain has a strategy for generating all such experiences such as learning, teaching, motivation, preaching, spelling, loving, hating, paying attention, as well as any other observable behavior.  Formally, a strategy refers to any internal and external set (order, syntax) of experiences which consistently produce a specific outcome.

Obviously, a great many strategies that you use for relating, thinking, interacting, etc. were developed at a young age.  Unconsciously you learned that a specific sequence of the representation systems would produce a certain result.  You then generalized that strategy to all occasions calling for that result.

Consider the power of a good strategy versus a poor strategy regarding the task/behavior of spelling in English.  A useful and productive spelling strategy goes along the following lines. 

First, you hear a word (Ae) (auditory external).

Then you make a picture of the word (Vc) (visual construct).

Looking at it feels right about its correct spelling (Ki+).  

Then, to rehearse the spelling, you retrieve your picture of that word (Vr) (visual recall). 

How do good spellers succeed in the experience of being skillful spellers?

They usually look up, or straight ahead, and internally see the word they heard.

They then have a feeling (K+) that gives the person a sense of it being right.  

Seeing the word inside, they spell the word verbally (Ad,i) (auditory digital, internal).  

With the feeling of familiarity for spelling it correctly (Ki+) (kinesthetic internal), they spell it externally (Ad,e) (auditory digital external).  

The spelling strategy goes: Ae    Vc   Ki+   Ad,e. 

O'Connor and Seymour (1990) identify that dyslexics have demonstrated the usefulness of the spelling strategy.  Teaching this strategy to dyslexic children often cures many of their dyslexia.  Most dyslexics do not visually see or visually recall the words they wish to spell.  They attempt to spell the word auditorially or kinesthetically.  But spelling an English word auditorially (phonetically) means sounding out the word to oneself—a strategy that does not work very well with English.

Korzybski made the point that experience is structured and, in fact, took the idea further arguing that it is the “only source of knowledge.”  It is this idea that then led to the art of modeling— the subject for the next Neurons’ post.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

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