The Sourcebook of Magic
How to access positive states?
Jan 22nd
Sometimes we (or another) seem unable to access a particular resourceful state, way of thinking, feeling, acting, relating, etc. If we cannot reach a desired resourceful state when we need, then we feel “stuck” i.e., at an impasse, without coping skills. To assist with this, we have three foci for accessing an inducing a resourceful state. We use these processes to move ourselves down “the royal roads” to state (Hall, 1995) of “mind” and “body”.
These include:
- Remembering a state. We can use our memories to “recall a time when” we thought, felt or experienced the particular resource. “Have you ever X?”
- Creating a state. We can use our imagination to wonder about “What would it look, sound, and feel like if…” In this way we can construct the components that make up the state. Using the “as if” frame will enable us to find information coded in various modalities and submodalities and to construct the resource state we desire.
- Modeling a state in someone else, “Who do you know who thinks, feels, acts, relates, etc., in this resourceful way?” taking their place for a day, as you step into their body, looking out of their eyes, and you can be them for a while as you learn their strategy…”
Source: Sourcebook of Magic: A Comprehensive Guide to NLP Change Patterns
Logical levels of states and NLP failure!
Jan 17th
A primary state refers to a state such as those that involve primary emotions (fear, anger, joy, lust, relaxation, pleasure, disgust, etc.). A Meta-state, by contrast, refers to those states that contain thoughts-and-emotions about a primary state: anger at one’s fear, guilt about one’s anger, feeling upset about one’s disgust, fear of one’s fear, depression about one’s fear, etc.
States-about-states (Meta-states) explains the critical importance of the unconscious frames that govern our presuppositional lives. It also explicitly details Bateson’s insights about meta-levels. Bateson argued that we can discern meaning not only via the words or syntax of a structure, but by considering the larger contexts within which the word and syntax occur. This explains how Meta-state technology can have such pervasive and generatice effects in change work.
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The difference between NLP & Psychology
Jan 10th
This summarizes the heart and passion of NLP: modeling, searching for processes and the “how,” and disdaining the “why,” and focusing on experiences of excellence rather than the cases of pathology.
Psychology for a hundred years had operated from a completely different orientation. Based on the medical model and physical “hard” science model, it looked at pathology (at distortions, perversions, pain, distress, etc.), seeking to understand the source (”where did this come from?”, “why is this so?”), and wanting empirical, external proof.
NLP and Magic!
Jan 7th
“Magic” Huh?
In NLP, we typically use the term of “magic”, not to designate external magic whereby we change the laws of physics. It refers rather to the seemingly wild, wonderful and “magical” effects that occur when we know the structure of subjectivity.
When we do now know how human subjectivity (mind, emotions, motivation, health, language, etc.) works, it leaves us clueless about experience (i.e., their whys and wherefores) and about change (i.e, how to transform things, the leverage point of change). When we do not understand human functioning (cognitive-behavioral or neuro-linguistic functioning), it leaves us “in the dark” about how to improve human efficiency, happiness, and effectiveness. We therefore live in a world of darkness and confusion about the role of “language” in human consciousness, neurology, and health.
