[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #6 THINKING ABOUT THINKING

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall   

2021 Neurons #6

February 8, 2021

 

 

THINKING ABOUT THINKING

 

While NLP is a Communication Model below or behind or above communicating a
message or the meaning of something is thinking.   First you think, then you
speak (or at least that's the best sequence even though we know people who
reverse it).  Given that, we can say that NLP is essentially about thinking-
it's a model of how we think which creates our sense of reality.

 

When you study NLP, you study the representational systems as the components
of thinking.  We think visually, auditorially, kinesthetically, as well as
with the other sensory systems.  And with that, we can ask the modeling
question, "How are you representing X?  What are you seeing, what sounds are
you hearing, what sensations in your body are you experiencing, and what are
you saying to yourself?"  Of course, the last one is linguistic thinking- we
also think in words.  Above the representational systems (the VAK for short)
there are the cinematic features of the pictures and sounds that you create.
Sub-modalities, although they are not "sub" at all, they are actually
meta-modalities.  But that's another story. (Sub-Modalities Going Meta,
2005).

 

When you study NLP, you study the Meta-Model about how words work as a
meta-representational system.  You learn that words work by evoking internal
VAK movies.  These movies may be in conscious awareness or unconscious.
Either way, when a word works, it evokes an internal trip to whatever you
are referring to (called a transderivational search).  You also study the
Milton Model and how you can use words to invite those internal searches
which cause people to transition from the sensory awareness world to the
world inside - to go into a trance for resourcing and healing.

 

When you study NLP, you study how you think sequentially about something-
how you have a thinking strategy for each and every experience you
experience.  That's the Strategy Model of NLP and how we do more formalized
modeling.  Next is the perceptual thinking model that we call the
Meta-Programs Model.  This provides 60-plus distinctions in how you think
through various filters or lens.

 

Finally, there is the thinking about thinking model, the Meta-States Model
that explores how your self-reflexive consciousness thinks a second time, a
third time, a fourth time, etc. to create the patterns of your systemic
thinking that sets frames (usually unconscious frames) that make up the
hidden assumptions and presuppositions that influence your thinking.  You
think in layers and as you add layers of thoughts, you create your own
unique logical levels.

 

That's a lot of thinking about thinking!  To summarize, NLP presents
thinking in multiple dimensions:

              Representation thinking - the VAK of the sensory systems.

              Linguistic thinking              - language, descriptive
words, evaluative words.

              Editorial thinking               - cinematic features that
code the VAK.

              Strategic thinking              - the steps in a thinking
strategy that creates an experience.

              Perceptual thinking           - the formats of our thinking
lens.

              Reflexive thinking              - the self-reflexivity of
systemic thinking.

 

Thinking is the black-box that Behaviorism would not touch.  Yet we know we
do it, that is think.  So Cognitive Psychology delved into thinking with
Miller's 1960 work that culminated in the TOTE model which, in NLP, became
the Strategy model.  We know we think, but you can't see it or hear it.
Thinking itself is completely intangible.  Yet it feels so close to us- so
immediate that it seems most real.  Now the thinking that I'm speaking about
is not apart from emoting, speaking, or acting.  As a system, all of these
are linked together and interact.  Yet thinking is the driver.  "As a person
thinks, so he (and she) is."

 

Because of all of the above, in 2016 after completing the Meta-Coaching
System series of books and trainings, I began thinking about thinking.  That
has led to a series of books on various aspects of thinking itself.

              Executive Thinking          - the neurology of our pre-frontal
lobes that enable us to engage in a much higher level of thinking- which
allows us to plan, anticipate, remember, establish patterns, frame, decide.

              Thinking as a Modeler    - the kind of thinking that enables a
person to model expertise in identifying the conscious and unconscious
patterns that comprise a high quality competence. 

              Hypnotic Thinking           - the kind of inner thinking,
trance thinking that allows us to construct internal worlds of wonder and
amazement.

              Humorous Thinking        - the kind of thinking based on
noticing incongruency, exaggeration, and playfulness, foundational to
framing and reframing.

Decision-Making             - the kind of thinking that makes decisions,
makes up one's mind, and that anticipating the future, makes smart plans,
that can think wisely if so used.

              Metaphoric Thinking      - the kind of thinking that enables
us to use references from some source domain and map it across to a target
domain of our choosing.

 

Thinking is our glory as human beings and it is also our agony- our nemesis.
Do it well and the world is yours.  Do it poorly and inadequately, and you
will be a victim.  In Neuro-Semantics, one of our essential focuses is on
enhancing and enabling a person's thinking capacity and competency.  We
started "Brain Camp" for that purpose; it is about critical thinking and yet
it is about so much more.

 

What is thinking?  Thinking is a skill.  It is a capacity that is yours by
birth- but it has to be developed, enriched, enabled, and cultivated.  If
you don't, your thinking can go disastrously wrong so that you suffer
cognitive distortions, fallacies, and biases.

 




 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to Neurons, send request to meta at acsol.net 

Making smart decisions is not easy--- many, many cognitive biases 

work against us and it is far too easy to default to pseudo-decisions:

emotions, gut feelings, intuitions, circumstances, others.  

Executive Decisions (2021) offers a way to decide intelligently and wisely.

 

130969 Neuro Semantics Executive Decisions Book Cover

 

 

 

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