Robert Dilts - Tricks of the tongue. Changing beliefs with NLP. Tricks of the tongue (Robert Dilts) Tricks of the tongue robert dilts read
This is a book that I have been preparing to write for many years. She talks about the magic of language, based on the principles and definitions of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I first encountered NLP about twenty-five years ago in a linguistics class at the University of California, Santa Cruz. These classes were taught by one of the founders of NLP, John Grinder. By then, he and Richard Bandler had just completed the first volume of their seminal work, The Structure of Magic. In this book, they were able to model the language patterns and intuitive abilities of three of the world's most successful psychotherapists (Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erickson). This set of patterns (known as the “meta model”) allowed me, a third-year political scientist with no practical experience in psychotherapy, to ask questions that an experienced psychotherapist would ask.
The scale of the possibilities of the metamodel and the process of modeling itself made a huge impression on me. I felt that modeling can be widely applied in all areas of human activity, be it politics, art, management, science or pedagogy ( Modeling With NLP, Dilts, 1998 1
Dilts R. Modeling with NLP. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2000.
). The use of these techniques, in my opinion, could lead to significant changes not only in psychotherapy, but also in many other areas in which the communication process is involved. Since I was a political philosopher at the time, my first practical modeling experience was trying to apply the linguistic filters used by Grinder and Bandler to analyze the work of psychotherapists in order to highlight certain patterns in Plato's Dialogues.
The study was both fascinating and informative. Despite this, I felt that Socrates' gift of persuasion could not be explained in terms of the meta model alone. The same was true of other phenomena described by NLP, such as representational system predicates (descriptive words indicating a particular sensory modality: "see", "look", "listen", "sound", "feel", "touch", etc.). . P.). These linguistic features made it possible to penetrate into the essence of the Socratic gift, but could not fully cover all its dimensions.
I continued to study the writings and sayings of those who managed to influence the course of history - Jesus of Nazareth, Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, etc. Over time, I came to the conclusion that they all used one a basic set of patterns by which they influenced the judgments of others.
Moreover, the patterns encoded in their words continued to influence and define history even years after the death of these people. Tricks of Language patterns are an attempt to decipher some of the most important linguistic mechanisms that helped these people convince others and influence public opinion and belief systems.
In 1980, in the course of talking with one of the founders of NLP, Richard Bandler, I learned to recognize these patterns and isolate their formal structure. During the workshop, Bandler, a master of the language, presented us with a ridiculous but paranoid belief system and suggested that we try to get him to change those beliefs (see Chapter 9). Despite their best efforts, the members of the group were unable to achieve any result: Bandler's system was impregnable because it was built on what I later termed "thought viruses."
I listened to all sorts of verbal "frames" spontaneously created by Bandler, and suddenly found that some of these structures were familiar to me. While Bandler used these patterns in a "negative" way to be more persuasive, I realized that such structures were used by Lincoln, Gandhi, Jesus, and others to promote positive and radical social change.
Essentially, these patterns are made up of verbal categories and features, with the help of which our language allows us to form, change or transform a person's basic beliefs. Tricks of Language patterns can be described as new "verbal frames" that influence beliefs and the mental maps on which those beliefs are based. In the two decades since their discovery, these patterns have earned the title of one of NLP's most productive effective persuasion techniques and are probably the best way to change beliefs in communication.
However, these patterns are quite difficult to study because they involve words, and words are inherently abstract. In NLP, it is generally accepted that words are surface structures, representing or expressing deep structures. In order to correctly understand and creatively apply any language pattern, it is necessary to comprehend its “deep structure”. Otherwise, we can only imitate examples known to us. Thus, learning the "Tricks of the Language" and using them in practice, it is necessary to distinguish between the true magic and banal tricks. The magic of change comes from what lies behind the words.
To this day, teaching these patterns is reduced to familiarizing students with definitions and verbal examples of various linguistic structures. Students are forced to intuitively comprehend the deep structures necessary for self-creation of patterns. Despite the fact that children learn their native language in the same way, this method imposes a number of limitations.
For some people (especially if English is not their first language), the Tricks of the Language patterns, while effective, may seem too complicated or incomprehensible. Even NLP practitioners with years of experience are not always clear on how these patterns fit in with other NLP concepts.
These patterns are often used in polemics as a method of conducting a discussion or building evidence. This earned them a reputation as a potentially powerful tool.
Some of these difficulties simply reflect the historical development of the patterns themselves. I identified and formalized these patterns before I had the opportunity to fully explore the deep structures of belief and belief change, and their relationship to other levels of learning and change. Since then, I have been able to develop a number of techniques for changing beliefs, such as reimprinting, the pattern of turning error into feedback, the belief installation technique, the metamirror, and the integration of conflicting beliefs ( Changing Belief Systems with NLP, Dilts, 1990 2
Dilts P. Changing beliefs with NLP. - M .: Independent firm "Class", 1997.
And Beliefs: Pathways to Health and Well-Being, Dilts, Hallbom & Smith, 1990). It is only in recent years that I have begun to understand how beliefs are formed and reinforced at the cognitive and neural levels clearly enough to describe exhaustively and at the same time succinctly the deep structures that underlie Tricks of Language.
The purpose of the first volume of the book is to present to the reader some of my findings and discoveries so that the patterns of "Tricks of the tongue" can be used on their basis. My task was to reveal the principles and deep structures on which these patterns are based. In addition to definitions and examples, I want to provide you with simple structures that will put each of these patterns into practice and illustrate how they fit in with other NLP assumptions, principles, techniques, and concepts.
I also plan to write a second volume called The Language of Leadership and Social Change. It will look at the practical applications of these patterns by individuals such as Socrates, Jesus, Marx, Lincoln, Gandhi, and others who sought to create, change, and transform key beliefs that underpin the modern world.
“Tricks of language” is a fascinating subject. Their strength and value lies in the fact that with their help one can learn to say the right words at the right time - without the help of formal techniques or special contexts (traditionally associated with therapy or discussions). I hope you enjoy your journey through the magic of language and the verbal ways of changing beliefs.
This book is dedicated with gratitude and respect to Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Milton Erickson, and Gregory Bateson, who taught me the magic of language and language.« of magic».
Robert Dilts,
Santa Cruz, California
1
LANGUAGE AND EXPERIENCE
Language Magic
At the heart of "Tricks of Language" is the magical power of the word. Language is one of the key components from which we build our internal models of the world. It can have a huge impact on how we perceive reality and react to it. The gift of speech is a unique human asset. It is generally accepted that this is one of the main factors that contributed to the selection of people from other living beings. The eminent psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, for example, believed that words are the basic instrument of human consciousness and, as such, are endowed with special power. He wrote:
Words and magic were originally one, and even today most of the magical power of words has not been lost. With the help of words, a person can give another the greatest happiness or plunge him into despair; with the help of words, the teacher conveys his knowledge to the student; with the help of words, the speaker carries the audience with him and predetermines its judgments and decisions. Words evoke emotion and are generally the means by which we influence our fellowmen.
The Tricks of the Language patterns were created as a result of research into how the skillful use of language allows us to influence other people. Let's give some examples.
A female police officer receives an emergency call to one of the houses in her area about a violent family quarrel. She is alarmed because she knows that it is in such situations that her health is most at risk - no one, especially people prone to violence and outbursts of anger, does not like it when the police interfere in their family affairs. Approaching the house, a police officer hears a loud cry of a man, the characteristic sounds of breaking objects, and the frightened screams of a woman. Suddenly, a TV flies out of the window and shatters right at the feet of the policeman. She ran to the door and pounded on it with all her might. From inside, the voice of an angry man is heard: “Who else did the devil bring there?” The woman's gaze falls on the remains of the broken TV, and she blurts out: "The master from the TV studio." There is dead silence in the house for a moment, and then the man starts laughing. He opens the door, and now the policeman can safely enter the house without fear of any violence. Afterwards, she says that those few words helped her no less than months of training in hand-to-hand combat.
A young man enters a psychiatric clinic, convinced that he is Jesus Christ. All day long he wanders around the ward idle and reads sermons to other patients who do not pay any attention to him. Doctors and attendants are not able to convince the young man to give up his illusion. One day a new psychiatrist comes to the clinic. After observing the patient, he decides to speak to him. "I take it you have experience in carpentry?" says the doctor. “Well… well, yes…” the patient replies. The psychiatrist explains to him that a new rest room is being built in the clinic and for this a person with carpentry skills is needed. “We would be very grateful for your help,” says the doctor, “of course, if you belong to the type of people who like to help others.” Unable to refuse, the patient accepts the offer. Participation in the project helps him make friends with other patients and workers and learn how to build normal relationships with people. Over time, the young man leaves the clinic and gets a permanent job.
The woman regains consciousness in the recovery room of the hospital. The surgeon visits her. Still weak from anesthesia, the woman anxiously asks how the operation went. The surgeon replies, “I'm afraid I have bad news for you. The tumor we removed was malignant.” The woman, whose worst fears have been confirmed, asks, "So what now?" to which the doctor replies, "Well, there's good news: we've removed the tumor as thoroughly as possible... The rest is up to you." Inspired by the words “the rest is up to you”, a woman seriously thinks about her lifestyle and possible alternatives, changes her diet, starts exercising regularly. Realizing how dysfunctional and stressful her life was in the years before the operation, she embarks on a path of personal development, defining for herself the beliefs, values and meaning of life. Things are getting better, and after a few years, the woman feels happy, cancer-free and healthier than ever.
A young man drives a car on a slippery winter road. He returns from a party where he drank several glasses of wine. Behind one of the turns in front of him suddenly there is a man crossing the road. The driver presses on the brakes, but the car skids and the pedestrian gets under the wheels. For a long time after the incident, the young man cannot recover, paralyzed by his own experiences. He knows that he took the life of a man and caused irreparable damage to his family. He understands that the accident was his fault: if he had not drunk so much, he would have seen the pedestrian earlier and could have reacted faster and more adequately. Sinking deeper and deeper into depression, the young man decides to commit suicide. At this time, his uncle comes to visit him. Seeing his nephew's despair, the uncle sits silently next to him for a while, and then, putting his hands on his shoulders, says simple and truthful words: "Wherever we are, we all walk along the edge of the abyss." And the young man feels that some kind of light has appeared in his life. He completely changes his lifestyle, begins to study psychology and becomes a consultant therapist to work with the unfortunate victims of drunk drivers, alcoholics and people arrested for drunk driving. He gives many clients the opportunity to heal and improve their lives.
The girl is going to college. Of all the options, she would prefer to apply to the business school of one of the most prestigious universities in the area. However, the competition seems so big to her that she has no chance of being accepted. In an effort to "look at things realistically" and avoid disappointment, she is going to apply to one of the "simpler" schools. Filling out an application for admission, the girl explains her choice to her mother: "I'm sure that the university will simply be inundated with applications." To this, the mother replies: "There is always a place for a good person." The simple truth of these words inspires the girl to apply to a prestigious university. To her amazement and delight, she is accepted and eventually becomes an extremely successful business consultant.
The boy is trying to learn how to play baseball. He dreams of being on the same team with his friends, but he can neither throw nor catch and is generally afraid of the ball. The more he trains, the more he loses heart. He informs the coach that he intends to quit the sport because he turned out to be a "bad player." The coach replies: "There are no bad players, there are just those who are not confident in their abilities." He stands in front of the boy and hands him the ball so that he passes it back. The coach then steps back and lightly throws the ball into the player's glove, forcing the pass back. Step by step, the coach moves further away until the boy finds himself throwing and receiving the ball at a great distance with ease. With a sense of self-confidence, the boy returns to training and eventually becomes a player of value to his team.
All these examples have one thing in common: just a few words change a person's life for the better due to the fact that in his limited beliefs there is a shift towards a perspective with more alternatives. In these examples, we see how the right words, spoken at the right time, can have significant positive results.
Unfortunately, words not only empower us, but they also mislead and limit our ability. Wrong words, spoken at the wrong time, can bring considerable harm and pain.
This book talks about the benefits and harms of words, how to determine the effect that your words will have, and language patterns that allow you to turn harmful statements into useful ones. The term "language tricks" ( sleight of mouth) reflects the similarity of these patterns to card tricks. The very word sleight derived from an Old Norse word meaning "skillful", "cunning", "skillful", or "agile". Expression sleight of hand in English, it denotes a kind of card trick, which can be characterized by the phrase: "Here is your card, but it is no longer there." For example, you cover the deck with the ace of spades, but when the magician draws this card, the ace of spades "transforms" into the queen of hearts. The verbal patterns of "Tricks of Language" have similar "magic" properties, since they often entail significant changes in perception and the assumptions on which this perception is based.
Language and Neuro-Linguistic Programming
This study is based on patterns and concepts considered in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP deals with the influence that language has on the programming of mental processes and other functions of the nervous system, and also studies how mental processes and the nervous system shape and reflect our language and language patterns.
The essence of neuro-linguistic programming is that the functioning of the nervous system (“neuro-”) is closely related to language abilities (“linguistic”). The strategies (“programs”) by which we organize and direct our behavior are made up of neural and linguistic patterns. In their first book, The Structure of Magic (1975), NLP founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder attempted to define some of the principles on which Freud's "magic" of language is based:
All human virtues, both positive and negative, involve the use of language. As humans, we use language in two ways. Firstly, with its help we reflect our experience - we call this type of activity reasoning, thinking, fantasizing, retelling. When we use language as a representational system, we create a model of our experience. This model of the world, created using the representational function of language, is based on our perception of the world. Our impressions are also partly determined by our model of representation... Secondly, we use language to communicate our model, or representation, of the world to each other. We call it talking, discussing, writing something, lecturing, singing.
According to Bandler and Grinder, language serves as a means of representing, or creating models of, our experiences, as well as a means of communicating them. As you know, the ancient Greeks used different words to denote these two functions of the language. The term "rhema" denoted words used as a means of communication, and the term "logos" denoted words associated with thinking and understanding. The concept of "rheme" (????) referred to the statement, or "words as objects", and the concept of "logos" (?????) - to words associated with the "manifestation of the mind." The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle described the relationship between words and mental experience as follows:
Spoken words denote mental experience, while written words denote spoken words. As the handwriting of different people differs, so do the sounds of their speech. However, the mental experience that words signify is the same for all, as well as those objects of which it consists of images.
Aristotle's assertion that words "mean" our "mental experience" is consonant with NLP's position that written and spoken words are "surface structures", which in turn are transformed mental and linguistic "deep structures". As a consequence, words can both reflect and shape psychic experience. This property makes them a powerful tool for thought and other conscious or unconscious mental processes. Penetrating to the level of deep structures with the help of specific words used by an individual, we can determine and influence those hidden mental processes that are reflected in the language patterns of this person.
From this point of view, language is not just an "epiphenomenon" or a set of arbitrary signs through which we communicate our mental experience to others; it is an essential part of our psychic experience. As Bandler and Grinder point out:
The nervous system responsible for creating the representational system of language is the same nervous system through which people create all other models of the world - visual, kinesthetic, etc. The same structural principles operate in these systems.
Thus, language can duplicate and even replace our experience and our activities in other internal representational systems. It is important to understand that "conversation" does not just reflect our ideas about something, but is really capable of creating new beliefs or changing old ones. This means that language plays a potentially profound and specific role in life-changing and healing processes.
Robert Dilts
Foci of language. Changing beliefs with NLP
Foreword
This is a book that I have been preparing to write for many years. She talks about the magic of language, based on the principles and definitions of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I first encountered NLP about twenty-five years ago in a linguistics class at the University of California, Santa Cruz. These classes were taught by one of the founders of NLP, John Grinder. By then, he and Richard Bandler had just completed the first volume of their seminal work, The Structure of Magic. In this book, they were able to model the language patterns and intuitive abilities of three of the world's most successful psychotherapists (Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erickson). This set of patterns (known as the “meta model”) allowed me, a third-year political scientist with no practical experience in psychotherapy, to ask questions that an experienced psychotherapist would ask.
The scale of the possibilities of the metamodel and the process of modeling itself made a huge impression on me. I felt that modeling can be widely applied in all areas of human activity, be it politics, art, management, science or pedagogy ( Modeling With NLP, Dilts, 1998). The use of these techniques, in my opinion, could lead to significant changes not only in psychotherapy, but also in many other areas in which the communication process is involved. Since I was a political philosopher at the time, my first practical modeling experience was trying to apply the linguistic filters used by Grinder and Bandler to analyze the work of psychotherapists in order to highlight certain patterns in Plato's Dialogues.
The study was both fascinating and informative. Despite this, I felt that Socrates' gift of persuasion could not be explained in terms of the meta model alone. The same was true of other phenomena described by NLP, such as representational system predicates (descriptive words indicating a particular sensory modality: "see", "look", "listen", "sound", "feel", "touch", etc.). . P.). These linguistic features made it possible to penetrate into the essence of the Socratic gift, but could not fully cover all its dimensions.
I continued to study the writings and sayings of those who managed to influence the course of history - Jesus of Nazareth, Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, etc. Over time, I came to the conclusion that they all used one a basic set of patterns by which they influenced the judgments of others. Moreover, the patterns encoded in their words continued to influence and define history even years after the death of these people. Tricks of Language patterns are an attempt to decipher some of the most important linguistic mechanisms that helped these people convince others and influence public opinion and belief systems.
In 1980, in the course of talking with one of the founders of NLP, Richard Bandler, I learned to recognize these patterns and isolate their formal structure. During the workshop, Bandler, a master of the language, presented us with a ridiculous but paranoid belief system and suggested that we try to get him to change those beliefs (see Chapter 9). Despite their best efforts, the members of the group were unable to achieve any result: Bandler's system was impregnable because it was built on what I later termed "thought viruses."
I listened to all sorts of verbal "frames" spontaneously created by Bandler, and suddenly found that some of these structures were familiar to me. While Bandler used these patterns in a "negative" way to be more persuasive, I realized that such structures were used by Lincoln, Gandhi, Jesus, and others to promote positive and radical social change.
Essentially, these patterns are made up of verbal categories and features, with the help of which our language allows us to form, change or transform a person's basic beliefs. Tricks of Language patterns can be described as new "verbal frames" that influence beliefs and the mental maps on which those beliefs are based. In the two decades since their discovery, these patterns have earned the title of one of NLP's most productive effective persuasion techniques and are probably the best way to change beliefs in communication.
However, these patterns are quite difficult to study because they involve words, and words are inherently abstract. In NLP, it is generally accepted that words are surface structures, representing or expressing deep structures. In order to correctly understand and creatively apply any language pattern, it is necessary to comprehend its “deep structure”. Otherwise, we can only imitate examples known to us. Thus, learning the "Tricks of the Language" and using them in practice, it is necessary to distinguish between the true magic and banal tricks. The magic of change comes from what lies behind the words.
To this day, teaching these patterns is reduced to familiarizing students with definitions and verbal examples of various linguistic structures. Students are forced to intuitively comprehend the deep structures necessary for self-creation of patterns. Despite the fact that children learn their native language in the same way, this method imposes a number of limitations.
For some people (especially if English is not their first language), the Tricks of the Language patterns, while effective, may seem too complicated or incomprehensible. Even NLP practitioners with years of experience are not always clear on how these patterns fit in with other NLP concepts.
These patterns are often used in polemics as a method of conducting a discussion or building evidence. This earned them a reputation as a potentially powerful tool.
Some of these difficulties simply reflect the historical development of the patterns themselves. I identified and formalized these patterns before I had the opportunity to fully explore the deep structures of belief and belief change, and their relationship to other levels of learning and change. Since then, I have been able to develop a number of techniques for changing beliefs, such as reimprinting, the pattern of turning error into feedback, the belief installation technique, the metamirror, and the integration of conflicting beliefs ( Changing Belief Systems with NLP, Dilts, 1990 and Beliefs: Pathways to Health and Well-Being, Dilts, Hallbom & Smith, 1990). It is only in recent years that I have begun to understand how beliefs are formed and reinforced at the cognitive and neural levels clearly enough to describe exhaustively and at the same time succinctly the deep structures that underlie Tricks of Language.
The purpose of the first volume of the book is to present to the reader some of my findings and discoveries so that the patterns of "Tricks of the tongue" can be used on their basis. My task was to reveal the principles and deep structures on which these patterns are based. In addition to definitions and examples, I want to provide you with simple structures that will put each of these patterns into practice and illustrate how they fit in with other NLP assumptions, principles, techniques, and concepts.
I also plan to write a second volume called The Language of Leadership and Social Change. It will look at the practical applications of these patterns by individuals such as Socrates, Jesus, Marx, Lincoln, Gandhi, and others who sought to create, change, and transform key beliefs that underpin the modern world.
“Tricks of language” is a fascinating subject. Their strength and value lies in the fact that with their help one can learn to say the right words at the right time - without the help of formal techniques or special contexts (traditionally associated with therapy or discussions). I hope you enjoy your journey through the magic of language and the verbal ways of changing beliefs.
This book is dedicated with gratitude and respect to Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Milton Erickson, and Gregory Bateson, who taught me the magic of language and language. « of magic».
Robert Dilts, Santa Cruz, CaliforniaCurrent page: 2 (total book has 19 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 13 pages]
Map and territory
The cornerstone of "Tricks of Language" and the NLP approach to language is the proposition that "the map is not the same as the territory." This principle was first formulated by the founder of general semantics, Alfred Kozybski (1879–1950). It reflects fundamental differences between our "maps of the world" and the world itself. The language philosophy of Kozybski has had a profound influence on the development of NLP. Kozybski's work in the field of semantics, together with Nahum Chomsky's syntactic theory of transformational grammar, form the core of the "linguistic" aspect of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
In his main work science and sanity(1933) Kozybski argues that the progress of our society is determined in no small measure by the fact that humans have a flexible nervous system capable of creating and using symbolic representations or maps. Language, for example, is also a kind of map or model of the world that allows us to summarize or generalize our experience and pass it on to others, thereby saving them from having to make the same mistakes or reinvent what has already been invented. According to Kozybski, it is this ability to generalize in language that explains the progress of man in comparison with animals, but errors in understanding and using such mechanisms are the cause of many problems. The scientist suggested that a person needs to be taught to use the language correctly, and due to this, unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings generated by confusion between the map and the territory can be prevented.
In particular, Kozybski's "law of individuality" states that "there are no two completely identical people, or situations, or stages of any process." Kozybski noted that the sum of our unique experiences far exceeds the vocabulary and concepts, and this leads to attempts to identify or "confused" two or more situations (what in NLP is called "generalizations" or "ambiguities"). The word "cat", for example, is used in relation to millions of different individuals of this species, to the same animal at different periods of its life, to our mental images, illustrations and photographs, metaphorically - in relation to a person ("still that cat ”) and even to the combination of letters k-o-t. Thus, when someone says the word "cat", it is far from always clear whether the speaker means a four-legged animal, a three-letter word, or a two-legged humanoid.
According to Korzybski, it is extremely important to teach people how to recognize and expand their language abilities in order to achieve greater communication success and appreciate the uniqueness of everyday experiences. He sought to create tools that would help people evaluate their experience, focusing not on the traditional meanings of words, but rather on the unique facts inherent in each specific situation. Kozybski advocated that people take their time with immediate reactions and pay attention to the unique properties of each situation and its alternative interpretations.
Kozybski's ideas and methods are one of the "pillars" on which NLP is based. In 1941, Kozybski first named "neurolinguistics" as an important field of scientific research related to general semantics.
In NLP, it is commonly believed that each of us has our own picture of the world, based on internal "maps of the world" that are formed through language and sensory representational systems as a result of our everyday experience. It is these "neurolinguistic" maps, more than reality itself, that determine how we interpret and respond to the world around us, what meaning we give to our behavior and experience. As Shakespeare's Hamlet said, “There is nothing either good or bad; this thinking makes everything so" 3
Translation by M. L. Lozinsky. - M .: "Children's literature", 1965.
In The Structure of Magic (Volume I), Bandler and Grinder point out that the differences between people who respond effectively and inefficiently to the world around them are largely a function of their internal model of the world:
People who respond creatively and deal effectively with their difficulties ... are those who have a complete representation, or model of their own situation, within which, at the moment of making a decision, they see a wide range of possibilities. Others perceive themselves as having only a few possibilities, none of which are attractive to them ... We found that the world around them is not limited or devoid of alternatives. But these people close their eyes to existing possibilities that seem inaccessible in their models of the world.
Kozybski's distinction between map and territory implies that our actions are determined by internal models of reality rather than by reality itself. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly expand our "maps of the world". In the words of the great scientist Albert Einstein, “Our thinking creates problems that cannot be solved with the same type of thinking.”
NLP claims that if you are able to enrich or expand your map, you will see more alternatives in the same reality. Ultimately, you will become wiser and more successful in everything you do. The primary goal of NLP is to create tools (such as the Tricks of the Language patterns) to help people expand, enrich, and complete their internal maps of reality. In NLP, it is believed that the richer your "map of the world", the more opportunities will open up for you when solving any problem that arises in reality.
From the point of view of NLP, there is no single "correct" or "correct" "map of the world". Each of us has our own unique map, or model, of the world, and no map reflects reality "more correctly" or "more correctly" than another. Rather, it is that those of us who are more successful in coping with our problems have a "map of the world" that allows them to see the greatest variety of perspectives and choices. Such people perceive the world richer and wider, organize it and react to it.
Experience
Our "maps of the world" can be contrasted with sensory experience, i.e. the process of feeling, experiencing and perceiving the world around us, as well as our internal reactions to this world. Our "experience" of watching a sunset, arguing with someone, or taking a vacation refers to our personal perception of and participation in that event. In NLP, it is generally accepted that experience is made up of information coming from the external environment and perceived through the senses, as well as associative memories, fantasies, sensations and emotions that arise within us.
The term "experience" is also used in relation to the accumulated knowledge in our lives. Information that has passed through the senses is constantly encoded, or “packed”, with the help of already existing knowledge. Thus, our experience is the raw material from which we create our own maps, or models, of the world.
Sensory experience - it is information perceived through the senses (eyes, ears, skin, nose and tongue), as well as knowledge about the outside world that is generated by this information. The sense organs are the devices by which people and animals perceive the world around them. Each sensory channel functions as a kind of filter that responds to a wide range of stimuli (light and sound waves, physical contact, etc.) and has its own characteristics depending on the type of these stimuli.
Providing primary contact with the outside world, the sense organs are a kind of window into the world. Through them passes all the information about our physical existence. Therefore, in NLP, great importance is attached to sensory experience and it is considered that for a person it is the primary source of knowledge about the external environment and the main building material for creating models of the world. Successful learning, communication and simulation are based on sensory experience.
Sensory experience can be contrasted with other forms of experience, such as fantasies and hallucinations, which are produced by the human brain rather than perceived by the senses. In addition to the experience obtained through the senses, a person has an information system consisting of experiences generated by the inner world, such as “thoughts”, “beliefs”, “values”, “self-perception”. This internal knowledge system creates a set of "internal" filters that focus and direct our senses (and also omit, distort and generalize the information coming through the senses).
Sensory experience is the primary way to obtain new information about the surrounding reality to expand our "maps of the world." Often the filters of already formed knowledge sweep aside new and potentially meaningful sensory information. One of the goals of NLP is to help people learn to perceive more sensory experience by expanding what Aldous Huxley called the "down valve" of consciousness. The founders of NLP, John Grinder and Richard Bandler, constantly reminded their students of the need to "use sensory experience" instead of mental planning, or "hallucinations."
Most NLP techniques are actually based on observational skills to maximize the amount of direct sensory experience in a given situation. In NLP, it is believed that successful change requires the ability to "come to your senses." To do this, we must learn to remove internal filters and gain direct sensory experience from the world around us. In fact, one of the most important skills in NLP is the ability to enter an uptime state ( uptime). This is the name of the state in which all our sensory perception is focused on the external environment “here and now”. The state of "uptime" and the resulting increased sensory experience allows us to more fully perceive and enjoy life, as well as from the many possibilities of knowledge around us.
Thus, our "experience" can be contrasted with "maps", "theories" or "descriptions" created by about this experience. NLP emphasizes the distinction between primary and secondary experience. Primary experience refers to the information that we actually perceive through our senses. Secondary experiences are related to the verbal and symbolic maps we create to reflect and organize our primary experiences. Primary experience is a function of our direct perception of the surrounding area. Secondary experiences are derived from our internal maps, descriptions, and interpretations of perception, and are substantially curtailed, distorted, and generalized (Figure 1). With direct perception, we do not experience awkwardness or conflicting thoughts about what we feel and feel.
Rice. one. Sensory experience is the raw material from which we create our models of the world.
It is the primary experience that makes our existence colorful, meaningful and unique. The primary experience is inevitably richer and more perfect than any map or description we can make from it. People who are successful in business and enjoy life have the ability to perceive most of the information directly, without filtering it through the filters of what they "should" experience or expect to experience.
From the point of view of NLP, our subjective experience is "reality" for us and has the right of priority over any theories or interpretations with which we relate it. NLP does not question the subjective validity of any experience, even if it goes beyond ordinary notions (for example, "spiritual" or "past life experience"). Theories and interpretations related to causation or social context can be challenged, but experience itself is essential information about our lives.
In the techniques and exercises of NLP, experience is given great importance. Activities based on NLP (scientific research in particular) tend to be "experientially guided". If we perceive something directly, without clogging the experience with assessments or conclusions, our impressions will be much richer and brighter.
Like other models and concepts of NLP, Tricks of Language helps us to become aware of those filters and maps that block and distort the perception of the world and its potentialities. By realizing the existence of these filters, we can free ourselves from them. The purpose of the Tricks of the Language patterns is to help people enrich their perspectives, expand their "maps of the world" and reconnect with their experiences.
In general terms, the patterns of "Language Tricks" can be described as a change in language frames (from the English. frame- box) that affects the beliefs and the mental maps upon which those beliefs are built. These patterns allow people to “frame” their perception of certain situations or experiences, “punctuate them” in a new way and evaluate them from other points of view.
How Language Frames Experience
Words serve not only to reproduce our experience. Often they put it in a kind of frame in which some aspects are brought to the fore, while others serve as a background. Consider, for example, the connecting words "but", "and/a", and "even if". When we connect our ideas or experiences with them, words force us to focus attention on different aspects of the same experiences. The phrase “Today the sun shines, but tomorrow it will rain” makes us preoccupied with tomorrow’s rain, while we do little to consider the fact that it is sunny today. If we connect the same statements with the word “a”: “Today the sun is shining, and tomorrow it will rain,” then the semantic stress falls equally on both events. If we say, “The sun is shining today, even if it rains tomorrow,” then our attention will be focused on the first statement, and the second will remain in the background (Fig. 2).
Rice. 2. Certain words frame our experiences by bringing different aspects to the fore.
Linguistic framing and reframing of this kind is independent of the content of the expressions themselves. For example, in the statements “I am happy today, but I know that this is not for long”, “I am happy today and I know that this is not for long”, “I am happy today, even I know it won't be long," the emphasis shifts in the same way as in remarks about the weather. This is also true in the case of statements: “I want to achieve a result, but and I have problems"; "I want to achieve even I have problems".
The structure that occurs in human speech, regardless of context, we call pattern. For example, there are people who have become accustomed to a pattern of constant neglect of the positive side of their experience. The word “but” helps them with this.
This type of language frame can have a profound effect on how we interpret and respond to particular statements and situations. Consider the following statement: “You can do anything you want if you are willing to work hard for it.” 4
We thank Teresa Epstein for this example.
This phrase is able to inspire a person with confidence in himself and his abilities. It connects in a causal chain two significant elements of our experience: “do whatever you want” and “work hard”. “Do whatever you want” is certainly an attractive thing. The second part, “work hard,” seems not so desirable. However, linking them so that "do whatever you want" is in the foreground, we create the prerequisites for the strongest motivation, because the dream or desire is connected with the resources necessary for its implementation.
Notice what happens if you change the word order: "If you're willing to work hard, you can do whatever you want." Despite the fact that the statement consists of the same words, its impact has become weaker, as the willingness to "work hard" has naturally moved to the fore. Now the phrase sounds more like an attempt to persuade someone not to be lazy than a positive statement "you can do whatever you want." In the second option, the ability to do whatever you want seems to be a reward for hard work. In the first statement, the willingness to work is framed by the internal resource needed to "do whatever you want." This minor difference can have a significant impact on how the message is received and understood.
Reframing with the "even if" frame
The ability to recognize verbal patterns allows us to create language tools that can help us influence the meaning of our experiences. An example of such a tool is reshaping with the "even if" frame. This pattern consists of simply replacing the word "but" with the phrase "even if" in any sentence, where the word "but" diminishes or "devalues" the positive experience.
Exercise
Try using it like this:
1. Find a statement in which a positive experience is “devalued” by the word “but”.
Example: I found a way out of a problematic situation, but it may happen again.
2. Replace "but" with "even if" and see where your attention is focused.
Example: I found a way out of a problematic situation, even if it may happen again.
This structure allows us to keep our attention on the positive while maintaining a balanced point of view. This technique has proved to be very effective in working with those who tend to use the “yes, but…” pattern.
2
FRAMES AND REFRAME
Frames
The frame, or psychological "frame", is associated with the general direction that determines our thoughts and actions. In this sense, frames refer to cognitive context any event or experience. As the name implies, the frame sets limits and restrictions on human interaction with the outside world. Frames have a huge impact on how we interpret individual experiences and events, how we react to them, because they serve as "emphasis" in these experiences and direct our attention. An unpleasant experience, for example, can overwhelm us as a whole if we perceive it in a frame of five minutes immediately after the event. However, against the background of the entire life lived, this same experience may seem quite banal. Frames make interactions more productive because they determine what information and what topics fit or don't fit the purpose of the interaction.
A common use case for frames is the "temporal frame". By placing a meeting or exercise in a ten-minute frame, we largely predetermine the amount of what we can do in that time frame. Time limits determine the objects of attention, topics and subjects that are relevant for discussion, as well as the type and extent of the effort involved. For the same meeting or exercise, a time frame of, say, an hour or three hours will set a completely different dynamic. Short-term frames force us to focus on immediate tasks, while longer-term frames open up the opportunity to develop relationships in parallel. If you set a business meeting limit of 15 minutes, the conversation will almost certainly be task-oriented and unlikely to turn into an exploratory brainstorm without a definite outcome.
The most commonly used frames in NLP are the "result" frame, the "as if" frame, and the "feedback versus error" frame. The primary purpose of an outcome frame, for example, is to focus and hold attention on a goal or desired state. By establishing a result frame, we inevitably determine the value of any activity or information in order to achieve a specific goal or state (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. Frames direct attention and influence the interpretation of events.
It is advisable to oppose the result frame to the problem frame (Table 1). The problem frame emphasizes what is "wrong" or "undesirable" rather than what is "desirable" or "necessary." In this case, the person's attention is focused on unwanted symptoms and the search for their causes. The outcome frame, in contrast, forces one to focus on the desired outcomes and consequences, as well as the resources needed to achieve them. Thus, the outcome frame implies that the person is oriented towards problem solving and a positive future.
Table 1
Result Frame Versus Problem Frame
The use of the outcome frame involves actions such as replacing the problem statement with a goal statement, and descriptions using "negative" words with "positive" descriptions. From the point of view of NLP, any problem can be perceived as a challenge or an opportunity to change, "grow up" or learn something. With this approach, all "problems" suggest a favorable outcome. If a person says, "My problem is that I'm afraid of failure," it can be assumed that the speaker's hidden goal is to gain confidence that he will succeed. Similarly, if the problem is that "profits are falling", the likely desired outcome is an increase in profits.
Often people inadvertently formulate the result in a negative way: “I want to stop being shy,” “I want to quit smoking,” etc. In this way, we focus on the problem and, paradoxically, speak out in a hidden form “in its favor” . An integral part of the thought "I want to stop being a coward" is the statement "to be a coward." When setting up a result frame, we ask ourselves, “What do you want?” or "How would you feel if you weren't such a coward?"
Of course, in the course of finding a solution to a problem, it is important to investigate the symptoms and their causes. However, it is equally important to do this in the context of achieving the desired state. Otherwise, the investigation of symptoms and causes will not lead to any solution. If the information is collected in relation to an outcome or a desired state, solutions may be found even if the problem itself remains unexplored.
Other NLP frames use the same principle. The “as if” frame forces us to act as if the desired state or outcome has already been achieved. The “feedback versus error” frame allows you to interpret visible problems, symptoms, or errors as feedback that helps you make adjustments that lead to a desired state, rather than as failure.
Perhaps the main function of Tricks of the tongue verbal patterns is to help people learn to shift their attention: 1) from the problem frame to the result frame, 2) from the error frame to the feedback frame, and 3) from the impossibility frame to the as if frame. The situations described above with a policewoman, a psychiatrist, a doctor, a coach, etc., are illustrations of a change in the frame in which certain circumstances or events are perceived. A psychiatrist, a doctor, a caring uncle, a mother, and a coach have each helped their partner change the perception of a “problem” or “wrong” situation so that it is in the outcome or feedback frame. Switching attention from the problem to the result allowed the heroes to discover new possibilities. (Even the fact that the female police officer posed as a TV shop handyman is a metaphorical way of switching to result and feedback frames: in this case, the emphasis was on “repairing” rather than “getting rid of” unnecessary things.)
Foreword
This is a book that I have been preparing to write for many years. She talks about the magic of language, based on the principles and definitions of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I first encountered NLP about twenty-five years ago in a linguistics class at the University of California, Santa Cruz. These classes were taught by one of the founders of NLP, John Grinder. By that time, he and Richard Bandler had just completed the first volume of their seminal work, The Structure of Magic (1975). In this book, they were able to model the language patterns and intuitive abilities of three of the world's most successful psychotherapists (Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erickson). This set of patterns (known as the “meta model”) allowed me, a third-year political scientist with no practical experience in psychotherapy, to ask questions that an experienced psychotherapist would ask.
The scale of the possibilities of the metamodel and the process of modeling itself made a huge impression on me. I felt that modeling can be widely applied in all areas of human activity, whether it be politics, art, management, science or pedagogy (Modeing With NLP, Dits, 1998 ") The use of these techniques, in my opinion, could lead to significant changes not only in psychotherapy, but also in many other areas in which the process of communication is involved.Because I was a political philosopher at the time, my first practical modeling experience was to try to apply the linguistic filters used by Grinder and Bandler in analyzing the work of psychotherapists in order to highlight certain patterns in Plato's Dialogues (Pato's Use of the Diaectic in The Repubic: A Linguistic Anaysis, 1975; in Appications of NLP, Dits, 1983).
The study was both fascinating and informative. Despite this, I felt that Socrates' gift of persuasion could not be explained in terms of the meta model alone. The same was true of other phenomena described by NLP, such as representational system predicates (descriptive words indicating a particular sensory modality: "see", "look", "listen", "sound", "feel", "touch", etc.). . P.). These linguistic features made it possible to penetrate into the essence of the Socratic gift, but could not fully cover all its dimensions.
I continued to study the writings and sayings of those who managed to influence the course of history - Jesus of Nazareth, Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, etc. Over time, I came to the conclusion that they all used one a basic set of patterns by which they influenced the judgments of others. Moreover, the patterns encoded in their words continued to influence and define history even years after the death of these people. Tricks of Language patterns are an attempt to decipher some of the most important linguistic mechanisms that helped these people convince others and influence public opinion and belief systems.
In 1980, in the course of talking with one of the founders of NLP, Richard Bandler, I learned to recognize these patterns and isolate their formal structure. During the seminar, Bandler, who was a master of the language, presented us with a ridiculous but paranoid belief system and suggested that we try to get him to change those beliefs (see: chapter 9). Despite their best efforts, the members of the group were unable to achieve any result: Bandler's system was impregnable because it was built on what I later termed "thought viruses."
I listened to all sorts of verbal "frames" spontaneously created by Bandler, and suddenly found that some of these structures were familiar to me. While Bandler used these patterns in a "negative" way to be more persuasive, I realized that such structures were used by Lincoln, Gandhi, Jesus, and others to promote positive and radical social change.
Essentially, these patterns are made up of verbal categories and features, with the help of which our language allows us to form, change or transform a person's basic beliefs. Tricks of Language patterns can be described as new "verbal frames" that influence beliefs and the mental maps on which those beliefs are based. In the two decades since their discovery, these patterns have earned the title of one of NLP's most productive effective persuasion techniques and are probably the best way to change beliefs in communication.
However, these patterns are quite difficult to study because they involve words, and words are inherently abstract. It is common in NLP to think of words as surface structures representing or expressing deep structures. In order to correctly understand and creatively apply any language pattern, it is necessary to comprehend its “deep structure”. Otherwise, we can only imitate examples known to us. Thus, in learning the "Tricks of the Language" and using them in practice, it is necessary to distinguish between genuine magic and banal tricks. The magic of change comes from what lies behind the words.
To this day, teaching these patterns is reduced to familiarizing students with definitions and verbal examples of various linguistic structures. Students are forced to intuitively comprehend the deep structures necessary for self-creation of patterns. Despite the fact that children learn their native language in the same way, this method imposes a number of limitations.
For some people (especially if English is not their first language), the Tricks of the Language patterns, while effective, may seem too complicated or incomprehensible. Even NLP practitioners with years of experience are not always clear on how these patterns fit in with other NLP concepts.
These patterns are often used in polemics as a method of conducting a discussion or building evidence. This earned them a reputation as a potentially powerful tool.
Some of these difficulties simply reflect the historical development of the patterns themselves. I identified and formalized these patterns before I had the opportunity to fully explore the deep structures of belief and belief change, and their relationship to other levels of learning and change. Since then, I have been able to develop a number of techniques for changing beliefs, such as reimprinting, the pattern of turning error into feedback, the belief installation technique, the metamirror, and the integration of conflicting beliefs (Changing Beief Systems with NLP7 Dits, 1990 and Beiefs: Pathways to Heath and We-being, Dits, Ha-bom & Smith, 1990). It is only in recent years that I have begun to understand how beliefs are formed and reinforced at the cognitive and neural levels clearly enough to describe exhaustively and at the same time succinctly the deep structures that underlie Tricks of Language.
The purpose of the first volume of the book is to present to the reader some of my findings and discoveries so that the patterns of "Tricks of the tongue" can be used on their basis. My task was to reveal the principles and deep structures on which these patterns are based. In addition to definitions and examples, I want to provide you with simple structures that will put each of these patterns into practice and illustrate how they fit in with other NLP assumptions, principles, techniques, and concepts.
I also plan to write a second volume called The Language of Leadership and Social Change. It will look at the practical applications of these patterns by individuals such as Socrates, Jesus, Marx, Lincoln, Gandhi, and others who sought to create, change, and transform key beliefs that underpin the modern world.
“Tricks of language” is a fascinating subject. Their strength and value lies in the fact that with their help one can learn to say the right words at the right time - without the help of formal techniques or special contexts (traditionally associated with therapy or discussions). I hope you enjoy your journey through the magic of language and the verbal ways of changing beliefs.
Robert Dilts,
Santa Cruz, California
May, 1999
LANGUAGE AND EXPERIENCE
Language Magic
At the heart of "Tricks of Language" is the magical power of the word. Language is one of the key components from which we build our internal models of the world. It can have a huge impact on how we perceive reality and react to it. The gift of speech is a unique human asset. It is generally accepted that this is one of the main factors that contributed to the selection of people from other living beings. The eminent psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, for example, believed that words are the basic instrument of human consciousness and, as such, are endowed with special power. He wrote:
Words and magic were originally one, and even today most of the magical power of words has not been lost. With the help of words, a person can give another the greatest happiness or plunge him into despair; with the help of words, the teacher conveys his knowledge to the student; with the help of words, the speaker carries the audience with him and predetermines its judgments and decisions. Words evoke emotion and are generally the means by which we influence our fellowmen.
The Tricks of the Language patterns were created as a result of research into how the skillful use of language allows us to influence other people. Here are some examples:
A female police officer receives an emergency call to one of the houses in her area about a violent family quarrel. She is alarmed, because she knows that it is in such situations that her health is most at risk - no one, especially people prone to violence and outbursts of anger, does not like it when the police interfere in their family affairs. Approaching the house, a police officer hears a loud cry of a man, the characteristic sounds of breaking objects, and the frightened screams of a woman. Suddenly, a TV flies out of the window and shatters right at the feet of the policeman. She ran to the door and pounded on it with all her might. From inside, the voice of an angry man is heard: “Who else did the devil bring there?” The woman's gaze falls on the remains of the broken TV, and she blurts out: "The master from the TV studio." There is dead silence in the house for a moment, and then the man starts laughing. He opens the door, and now the policeman can safely enter the house without fear of any violence. Afterwards, she says that those few words helped her no less than months of training in hand-to-hand combat.
A young man enters a psychiatric clinic, convinced that he is Jesus Christ. All day long he wanders around the ward idle and reads sermons to other patients who do not pay any attention to him. Doctors and attendants are not able to convince the young man to give up his illusion. One day a new psychiatrist comes to the clinic. After observing the patient, he decides to speak to him. "I take it you have experience in carpentry?" - says the doctor. "Well ... in general, yes ..." - the patient replies. The psychiatrist explains to him that a new rest room is being built in the clinic, and for this, a person with the skills of a carpenter is needed. “We would be very grateful for your help,” says the doctor, “of course, if you belong to the type of people who like to help others.” Unable to refuse, the patient accepts the offer. Participation in the project helps him make friends with other patients and workers and learn how to build normal relationships with people. Over time, the young man leaves the clinic and gets a permanent job.
The woman regains consciousness in the recovery room of the hospital. The surgeon visits her. Still weak from anesthesia, the woman anxiously asks how the operation went. The surgeon replies, “I'm afraid I have bad news for you. The tumor we removed was malignant.” The woman, whose worst fears have been confirmed, asks, "So what now?" to which the doctor replies, "Well, the good news is that we've removed the tumor as thoroughly as possible... The rest is up to you." Inspired by the words “the rest is up to you”, a woman seriously thinks about her lifestyle and possible alternatives, changes her diet, starts exercising regularly. Realizing how dysfunctional and stressful her life was in the years before the operation, she embarks on a path of personal development, defining for herself the beliefs, values and meaning of life. Things are getting better, and after a few years, the woman feels happy, cancer-free and healthier than ever.
A young man drives a car on a slippery winter road. He returns from a party where he drank several glasses of wine. Behind one of the turns in front of him suddenly there is a man crossing the road. The driver presses on the brakes, but the car skids and the pedestrian gets under the wheels. For a long time after the incident, the young man cannot recover, paralyzed by his own experiences. He knows that he took the life of a man and caused irreparable damage to his family. He understands that the accident was his fault: if he had not drunk so much, he would have seen the pedestrian earlier and could have reacted faster and more adequately. Sinking deeper and deeper into depression, the young man decides to commit suicide. At this time, his uncle comes to visit him. Seeing his nephew's despair, the uncle sits silently next to him for a while, and then, putting his hands on his shoulders, says simple and truthful words: "Wherever we are, we all walk along the edge of the abyss." And the young man feels that some kind of light has appeared in his life. He completely changes his lifestyle, begins to study psychology and becomes a consultant therapist to work with the unfortunate victims of drunk drivers, alcoholics and people arrested for drunk driving. He gives many clients the opportunity to heal and improve their lives.
The girl is going to college. Of all the options, she would prefer to apply to the business school of one of the most prestigious universities in the area. However, the competition seems so big to her that she has no chance of being accepted. In an effort to "look at things realistically" and avoid disappointment, she is going to apply to one of the "simpler" schools. Filling out an application for admission, the girl explains her choice to her mother: "I'm sure that the university will simply be inundated with applications." To this, the mother replies: "There is always a place for a good person." The simple truth of these words inspires the girl to apply to a prestigious university. To her amazement and delight, she is accepted and eventually becomes an extremely successful business consultant.
The boy is trying to learn how to play baseball. He dreams of being on the same team with his friends, but he can neither throw nor catch, and is generally afraid of the ball. The more he trains, the more he loses heart. He informs the coach that he intends to quit the sport because he turned out to be a "bad player." The coach replies: "There are no bad players, there are just those who are not confident in their abilities." He stands in front of the boy and hands him the ball so that he passes the ball back. The coach then steps back and lightly throws the ball into the player's glove, forcing the pass back. Step by step, the coach moves further away until the boy finds himself throwing and receiving the ball at a great distance with ease. With a sense of self-confidence, the boy returns to training and eventually becomes a player of value to his team.
All these examples have one thing in common: just a few words change a person's life for the better due to the fact that in his limited beliefs there is a shift towards a perspective with more alternatives. In these examples, we see how the right words, spoken at the right time, can have significant positive results.
Unfortunately, words not only empower us, but they also mislead and limit our ability. Wrong words, spoken at the wrong time, can bring considerable harm and pain.
This book talks about the benefits and harms of words, how to determine the effect that your words will have, and language patterns that allow you to turn harmful statements into useful ones. The term “seight of mouth” reflects the resemblance of these patterns to card tricks. The word seat itself comes from an Old Norse word meaning "skillful", "cunning", "skillful" or "agile". The expression seight of hand in English denotes a kind of card trick, which can be characterized by the phrase: "here is your card, but it is no longer there." For example, you cover the deck with the ace of spades, but when the magician draws this card, the ace of spades "turns" into the queen of hearts. The verbal patterns of "Tricks of Language" have similar "magic" properties, since they often entail significant changes in perception and the assumptions on which this perception is based.
Language and Neuro-Linguistic Programming
This study is based on patterns and concepts considered in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP deals with the influence that language has on the programming of mental processes and other functions of the nervous system, and also studies how mental processes and the nervous system shape and reflect our language and language patterns.
The essence of neuro-linguistic programming is that the functioning of the nervous system (“neuro-”) is closely related to language abilities (“linguistic”). The strategies ("programs") by which we organize and direct our behavior are made up of neural and linguistic patterns. In their first book, The Structure of Magic (1975), NLP founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder attempted to define some of the principles on which Freud's "magic" of language is based:
All human virtues, both positive and negative, involve the use of language. As humans, we use language in two ways. Firstly, with its help we reflect our experience - we call this type of activity reasoning, thinking, fantasizing, retelling. When we use language as a representational system, we create a model of our experience. This model of the world, created using the representational function of language, is based on our perception of the world. Our impressions are also partly determined by our model of representation... Secondly, we use language to communicate our model, or representation, of the world to each other. We call it talking, discussing, writing something, lecturing, singing.
According to Bandler and Grinder, language serves as a means of representing, or creating models of, our experiences, as well as a means of communicating them. As you know, the ancient Greeks used different words to denote these two functions of the language. The term "rhema" denoted words used as a means of communication, and the term "logos" denoted words associated with thinking and understanding. The concept of "rheme" referred to the statement, or "words as objects", and the concept of "logos" - to words associated with the "manifestation of the mind." The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle described the relationship between words and mental experience as follows:
Spoken words denote mental experience, while written words denote spoken words. As the handwriting of different people differs, so do the sounds of their speech. However, the mental experience that words signify is the same for all, as well as those objects of which it consists of images.
Aristotle's assertion that words "mean" our "mental experience" is consonant with NLP's position that written and spoken words are "surface structures", which in turn are transformed mental and linguistic "deep structures". As a consequence, words can simultaneously reflect and shape mental experience. This property makes them a powerful tool for thought and other conscious or unconscious mental processes. Penetrating to the level of deep structures with the help of specific words used by an individual, we can determine and influence those hidden mental processes that are reflected in the language patterns of this person.
From this point of view, language is not just an "epiphenomenon" or a set of arbitrary signs through which we communicate our mental experience to others; it is an essential part of our psychic experience. As Bandler and Grinder point out:
The nervous system responsible for creating the representational system of language is the same nervous system through which people create all other models of the world - visual, kinesthetic, etc. The same structural principles operate in these systems.
Thus, language can duplicate and even replace our experience and our activities in other internal representational systems. It is important to understand that "conversation" does not just reflect our ideas about something, but really has the ability to create new beliefs or change old ones, which means that language plays a potentially deep and specific role in the processes of life change and healing.
For example, in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, the concept of "logos" contained the governing and unifying principle of the universe. Heraclitus (540-480 BC) defined "logos" as "the universal principle by which all things are related to each other and all events in nature occur." The Stoics called "logos" the governing or creative cosmic principle inherent in any reality and penetrating it. According to the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo (a contemporary of Jesus Christ), "logos" is an intermediary between absolute reality and the sensible world.
Map and territory
The cornerstone of "Tricks of Language" and the NLP approach to language is the proposition that "the map is not the same as the territory." This principle was first formulated by the founder of general semantics, Alfred Kozybski (1879-1950). It reflects fundamental differences between our "maps of the world" and the world itself. The language philosophy of Kozybski has had a profound influence on the development of NLP. Kozybski's work in the field of semantics, together with Nahum Chomsky's syntactic theory of transformational grammar, form the core of the "linguistic" aspect of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
In his major work, Science and Sanity (1933), Kozybski argues that the progress of our society is determined in no small part by the fact that humans have a flexible nervous system capable of creating and using symbolic representations, or maps. Language, for example, is also a kind of map or model of the world that allows us to summarize or generalize our experience and pass it on to others, thereby saving them from having to make the same mistakes or reinvent what has already been invented. According to Kozybski, it is this ability to generalize in language that explains the progress of man in comparison with animals, but errors in understanding and using such mechanisms are the cause of many problems. The scientist suggested that a person needs to be taught to use the language correctly, and due to this, unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings generated by confusion between the map and the territory can be prevented.
In particular, Kozybski's "law of individuality" states that "there are no two completely identical people, or situations, or stages of any process." Kozybski noted that the sum of our unique experiences far exceeds our vocabulary and concepts, and this leads to attempts to identify or "confound" two or more situations (what in NLP is called "generalizations" or "ambiguities"). The word "cat", for example, is used in relation to millions of different individuals of this species, to the same animal at different periods of its life, to our mental images, illustrations and photographs, metaphorically - in relation to a person ("still that cat ”), and even to the combination of letters k-o-t. Thus, when someone says the word "cat", it is far from always clear whether the speaker means a four-legged animal, a three-letter word, or a two-legged humanoid.
According to Korzybski, it is extremely important to teach people how to recognize and expand their language abilities in order to achieve greater communication success and appreciate the uniqueness of everyday experiences. He sought to create tools that would help people evaluate their experience, focusing not on the traditional meanings of words, but rather on the unique facts inherent in each specific situation. Kozybski advocated that people take their time with immediate reactions and pay attention to the unique properties of each situation and its alternative interpretations.
Kozybski's ideas and methods are one of the "pillars" on which NLP is based. In 1941, Kozybski first named "neurolinguistics" as an important field of scientific research related to general semantics.
In NLP, it is commonly believed that each of us has our own picture of the world, based on internal "maps of the world" that are formed through language and sensory representational systems as a result of our everyday experience. It is these "neurolinguistic" maps, more than reality itself, that determine how we interpret and respond to the world around us, what meaning we give to our behavior and experience. As Shakespeare's Hamlet said, “There is nothing either good or bad; it is thinking that makes everything so.”
In The Structure of Magic (Volume I), Bandler and Grinder point out that the differences between people who respond effectively and inefficiently to the world around them are largely a function of their internal model of the world:
People who respond creatively and deal effectively with their difficulties... are those who have a complete representation or model of their own situation within which they see a wide range of possibilities at the moment of making a decision. Others perceive themselves as having only a few possibilities, none of which are attractive to them ... We have found that the world around them is not limited or devoid of alternatives. But these people close their eyes to existing possibilities that seem inaccessible in their models of the world.
Kozybski's distinction between map and territory implies that our actions are determined by internal models of reality rather than by reality itself. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly expand our "maps of the world". In the words of the great scientist Albert Einstein, “Our thinking creates problems that cannot be solved with the same type of thinking.”
NLP states that if you are able to enrich or expand your map, you will see more alternatives in the same reality. Ultimately, you will become wiser and more successful in everything you do. The primary goal of NLP is to create tools (such as the Tricks of the Language patterns) to help people expand, enrich, and complete their internal maps of reality. In NLP, it is believed that the richer your "map of the world", the more opportunities will open up for you when solving any problem that arises in reality.
From the point of view of NLP, there is no single "correct" or "correct" "map of the world". Each of us has our own unique map, or model, of the world, and no map reflects reality "more correctly" or "more correctly" than another. Rather, it is that those of us who are more successful in coping with our problems have a "map of the world" that allows them to see the greatest variety of perspectives and choices. Such people perceive the world richer and wider, organize it and react to it.
Experience
Our "maps of the world" can be contrasted with sensory experience, i.e. the process of feeling, experiencing and perceiving the world around us, as well as our internal reactions to this world. Our "experience" of watching a sunset, arguing with someone, or taking a vacation refers to our personal perception of and participation in that event. In NLP, it is generally accepted that experience is made up of information coming from the external environment and perceived through the senses, as well as associative memories, fantasies, sensations and emotions that arise within us.
The term "experience" is also used in relation to the accumulated knowledge in our lives. Information that has passed through the senses is constantly encoded, or “packed”, with the help of already existing knowledge. Thus, our experience is the raw material from which we create our own maps, or models, of the world.
Sensory experience is information received through the senses (eyes, ears, skin, nose, and tongue), as well as knowledge about the outside world that is generated by this information. The sense organs are the devices by which humans and other animals perceive the world around them. Each sensory channel functions as a kind of filter that responds to a wide range of stimuli (light and sound waves, physical contact, etc.) and has its own characteristics depending on the type of these stimuli.
Providing primary contact with the outside world, the sense organs are a kind of “windows to the world”. Through them passes all the information about our physical existence. Therefore, in NLP, great importance is attached to sensory experience and it is considered that for a person it is the primary source of knowledge about the external environment and the main building material for creating models of the world. Successful learning, communication and simulation are based on sensory experience.
Sensory experience can be contrasted with other forms of experience, such as fantasies and hallucinations, which are produced by the human brain rather than perceived by the senses. In addition to the experience gained through the senses, a person has an information system consisting of experiences generated by the inner world - such as "thoughts", "beliefs", "values", "feelings". This internal knowledge system creates a set of "internal" filters that focus and direct our senses (and also omit, distort and generalize the information coming through the senses).
Sensory experience is the primary way to obtain new information about the surrounding reality to expand our "maps of the world." Often the filters of already formed knowledge sweep aside new and potentially meaningful sensory information. One of the goals of NLP is to help people learn to perceive more sensory experience by expanding what Aldous Huxley called the "down valve" of consciousness. The founders of NLP, John Grinder and Richard Bandler, constantly reminded their students of the need to "use sensory experience" instead of mental planning, or "hallucinations."
Most NLP techniques are in fact based on observational skills to maximize the amount of direct sensory experience in a given situation. In NLP, it is believed that successful change requires the ability to "come to your senses." To do this, we must learn to remove internal filters and gain direct sensory experience from the world around us. In fact, one of the most important skills in NLP is considered to be the ability to enter a state of "uptime" (uptime). This is the name of the state in which all our sensory perception is focused on the external environment “here and now”. The state of "uptime" and, as a result, the increased volume of sensory experience allows us to more fully perceive and enjoy life, as well as from the many possibilities of knowledge around us.
Thus, our "experience" can be contrasted with "maps", "theories" or "descriptions" created about this experience. NLP emphasizes the distinction between primary and secondary experiences. "Primary" experience refers to the information we actually perceive through our senses.
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Rice. 1. Sensory experience is the raw material from which we create our models of the world.
"Secondary" experience is associated with verbal and symbolic maps that we create to reflect and streamline the primary experience. Primary experience is a function of our direct perception of the surrounding area. Secondary experiences are derived from our internal maps, descriptions, and interpretations of perception, and are substantially curtailed, distorted, and generalized (Figure 1). With direct perception, we do not experience awkwardness or conflicting thoughts about what we feel and feel.
It is the primary experience that makes our existence colorful, meaningful and unique. The primary experience is inevitably richer and more perfect than any map or description we can make from it. People who are successful in business and enjoy life have the ability to perceive most of the information directly, without filtering it through the filters of what they "should" experience or expect to experience.
From the point of view of NLP, our subjective experience is "reality" for us and has the right of priority over any theories or interpretations with which we relate it. NLP does not question the subjective validity of any experience, even if it goes beyond ordinary notions (for example, "spiritual" or "past life experience"). Theories and interpretations related to causation or social context can be challenged, but experience itself is essential information about our lives.
In the techniques and exercises of NLP, experience is given great importance. Activities based on NLP (scientific research in particular) tend to be "experientially guided". If we perceive something directly, without clogging the experience with assessments or conclusions, our impressions will be much richer and brighter.
Like other models and concepts of NLP, Tricks of Language helps us to become aware of those filters and maps that block and distort the perception of the world and its potentialities. By realizing the existence of these filters, we can free ourselves from them. The purpose of the Tricks of the Language patterns is to help people enrich their perspectives, expand their "maps of the world" and reconnect with their experiences.
In general terms, the patterns of "Language Tricks" can be described as a change in language frames (from the English frame - frame), influencing beliefs and mental maps, on the basis of which these beliefs are built. These patterns allow people to “frame” their perception of certain situations or experiences, “punctuate them” in a new way and evaluate them from other points of view.
How Language Frames Experience
Words serve not only to reproduce our experience. Often they place it in a kind of "frame", in which some aspects are brought to the fore, while others serve as a background. Consider, for example, the connecting words "but", "and/a", and "even if". When we connect our ideas or experiences with them, words force us to focus attention on different aspects of the same experiences. The phrase “Today the sun shines, but tomorrow it will rain” makes us preoccupied with tomorrow’s rain, while we do little to consider the fact that it is sunny today. If we connect the same statements with the word “a”: “Today the sun is shining, and tomorrow it will rain,” then the semantic stress falls equally on both events. If we say, “The sun is shining today, even if it rains tomorrow,” then our attention will be focused on the first statement, and the second will remain in the background (Fig. 2).
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Rice. 2. Certain words frame our experiences by bringing different aspects of them to the fore.
Linguistic framing and reframing of this kind is independent of the content of the expressions themselves. For example, in the statements “I am happy today, but I know that this is not for long”, “I am happy today, and I know that this is not for long”, “I am happy today, even if I know that this is not for long”, the semantic stress shifts in the same way , as in the remarks about the weather. This is also true in the case of statements: “I want to achieve a result, but I have problems”; “I want to achieve a result, and I have problems”; "I want to achieve results even if I have problems."
The structure that occurs in a person's speech, regardless of the context, we call a pattern. For example, there are people who have become accustomed to a pattern of constant neglect of the positive side of their experience. The word “but” helps them with this.
This type of language frame can have a profound effect on how we interpret and respond to particular statements and situations. Consider this statement: "You can do anything you want if you're willing to work hard for it." This phrase is able to inspire a person with confidence in himself and his abilities. It connects in a causal chain two significant elements of our experience: “do whatever you want” and “work hard”. “Do whatever you want” is certainly an attractive thing. The second part, “work hard,” seems not so desirable. However, linking them so that "do whatever you want" is in the foreground, we create the prerequisites for the strongest motivation, because the dream or desire is connected with the resources necessary for its implementation.
Notice what happens if you change the word order: "If you're willing to work hard, you can do whatever you want." Despite the fact that the statement consists of the same words, its impact has become weaker, as the willingness to "work hard" has naturally moved to the fore. Now the phrase sounds more like an attempt to persuade someone not to be lazy than a positive statement "you can do whatever you want." In the second option, the ability to do whatever you want seems to be a reward for hard work. In the first statement, the willingness to work is framed by the internal resource needed to "do whatever you want." This minor difference can have a significant impact on how the message is received and understood.
The ability to recognize verbal patterns allows us to create language tools that can help us influence the meaning of our experiences. An example of such a tool is reshaping with the "even if" frame. This pattern consists of simply replacing the word "but" with the phrase "even if" in any sentence, where the word "but" diminishes or "devalues" the positive experience.
Exercise
Try using it like this:
1. Find a statement in which a positive experience is “devalued” by the word “but”.
Example: I found a way out of a problematic situation, but it may happen again.
2. Replace "but" with "even if" and see where your attention is focused.
Example: I found a way out of a problematic situation, even if it may happen again.
This structure allows us to keep our attention on the positive while maintaining a balanced point of view. This technique has proven to be very effective in working with those who tend to use the "Yes, but..." pattern.
FRAMES AND REFRAME
Frames
The frame, or psychological "frame", is associated with the general direction that determines our thoughts and actions. In this sense, frames refer to the cognitive context of an event or experience. As the name implies, the frame sets limits and restrictions on human interaction with the outside world. Frames have a huge impact on how we interpret individual experiences and events, how we react to them, because they serve as "emphasis" in these experiences and direct our attention. An unpleasant experience, for example, can overwhelm us as a whole if we perceive it in a frame of five minutes immediately after the event. However, against the background of the entire life lived, this same experience may seem quite banal. Frames make interactions more productive because they determine what information and what topics fit or don't fit the purpose of the interaction.
A common use case for frames is the "temporal frame". By placing a meeting or exercise in a ten-minute frame, we largely predetermine the amount of what we can do in that time frame. Time limits determine the objects of attention, topics and subjects that are relevant for discussion, as well as the type and extent of the effort involved. For the same meeting or exercise, a time frame of, say, an hour or three hours will set a completely different dynamic. Short-term frames force us to focus on immediate tasks, while longer-term frames open up the opportunity to develop relationships in parallel. If you set a business meeting limit of 15 minutes, the conversation will almost certainly be task-oriented and unlikely to turn into an exploratory brainstorm without a definite outcome.
The most commonly used frames in NLP are the "result*" frame, the "as if" frame, and the "feedback versus error" frame. The primary purpose of an outcome frame, for example, is to focus and hold attention on a goal or desired state. By establishing a result frame, we inevitably determine the value of any activity or information in order to achieve a specific goal or state (Fig. 3).
It is advisable to oppose the result frame to the problem frame (Table 1). The problem frame emphasizes what is "wrong" or "undesirable" rather than what is "desirable" or "necessary." In this case, the person's attention is focused on unwanted symptoms and the search for their causes. The outcome frame, in contrast, forces one to focus on the desired outcomes and consequences, as well as the resources needed to achieve them. Thus, the outcome frame implies that the person is oriented towards problem solving and a positive future.
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Rice. 3. Frames direct attention and influence the interpretation of events.
The use of the outcome frame involves actions such as replacing the problem statement with a goal statement, and descriptions using "negative" words with "positive" descriptions. From an NLP point of view, any problem can be seen as a challenge or an opportunity to change, "grow" or learn something. With this approach, all "problems" suggest a favorable outcome. If a person says: "My problem is that I am afraid of failure," it can be assumed that the speaker's hidden goal is to gain confidence that he will succeed. Similarly, if the problem is that "profits are falling", the likely desired outcome is an increase in profits.
Often people inadvertently formulate the result in a negative way: “I want to stop being shy,” “I want to quit smoking,” etc. In this way, we focus on the problem and, paradoxically, speak out in a hidden form “in its favor” . An integral part of the thought "I want to stop being a coward" is the statement "to be a coward." When setting up a result frame, we ask ourselves, “What do you want?” or "How would you feel if you weren't such a coward?"
Of course, in the course of finding a solution to a problem, it is important to investigate the symptoms and their causes. However, it is equally important to do this in the context of achieving the desired state. Otherwise, investigation of the symptoms and causes will not lead to any solution. If the information is collected in relation to an outcome or a desired state, solutions may be found even if the problem itself remains unexplored.
Other NLP frames use the same principle. The “as if” frame forces us to act as if the desired state or outcome has already been achieved. The “feedback versus error” frame allows you to interpret visible problems, symptoms, or errors as feedback that helps you make adjustments that lead to a desired state, rather than as failure.
Perhaps the main function of the verbal patterns of "Tricks of the tongue" is to help people learn to shift attention: 1) from the problem frame to the outcome frame, 2) from the error frame to the feedback frame, and 3) from the impossibility frame to the as if frame. The situations described above with a policewoman, a psychiatrist, a doctor, a coach, etc., are illustrations of a change in the frame in which certain circumstances or events are perceived. A psychiatrist, a doctor, a caring uncle, a mother, and a coach have each helped their partner change the perception of a "problem" or "wrong" situation so that it is in the outcome or feedback frame. Switching attention from the problem to the result allowed the heroes to discover new possibilities. (Even the fact that the female police officer posed as a TV shop handyman is a metaphorical way of switching to result and feedback frames: in this case, the emphasis was on “repairing” rather than “getting rid of” unnecessary things.)
Changing results
We have already said that the goal directs the activity. This means that the result itself creates a frame that determines what will be perceived as suitable, successful and falling "inside the frame", and what will be rejected.
Result Frame Versus Problem Frame
Result frameProblem frameWhat do you want?
How to achieve this?
What is needed for this? What is the problem?
Why is this a problem?
What caused her?
Whose fault is it? As irrelevant, useless, and out of frame. For brainstorming participants, for example, the desired outcome is "new, original ideas." In relation to this result, unexpected analogies, rude jokes, “stupid” questions, and other oddities in behavior may be relevant and valuable. On the contrary, attempts to use existing solutions and strategies, the desire to "look at things realistically" will be inappropriate and useless.
At the same time, if the business meeting were not a brainstorming meeting but the last stage of negotiations with an important client, the desired result would be "reaching agreement on the main issues of production and delivery of a certain product." In this case, unexpected analogies, rude jokes, "stupid" questions, and "abnormal" behavior are unlikely to be relevant and useful to the cause (of course, except in situations where negotiations reach an impasse that requires a little brainstorming to get out of).
In the same way, actions that we consider consistent with the goal of "getting to know each other better" will be different from actions that lead to the result of "meeting tight deadlines." Thus, changing the outcome that is the focus of attention in a given situation can change our judgments and our perception of what is relevant and meaningful in a given situation.
The “other result” pattern is a statement that switches a person’s attention to a task that is different from that implied in a particular judgment or generalization. The purpose of this pattern is to question (or confirm) the validity of a given judgment or generalization.
For example, imagine a workshop participant who has completed an exercise and is frustrated by not achieving “expected results”. This is often because the desired outcome is to "complete the task to perfection". This formulation corresponds to the conclusion:
“If you did not achieve the expected result, then you made a mistake or are not competent enough.” The shift of the result of the exercise to the goal of "research", "knowledge", "discovery of something new" can significantly affect how we evaluate and interpret the experience gained during the exercise. What is a mistake in the case of "doing the task perfectly" may turn out to be a success if the result is phrased as "discovering something new."
Therefore, using the “different outcome” pattern, the workshop facilitator should say to this participant, “Your goal in this exercise was to learn something new, not to demonstrate the successes already achieved. What do you think you have learned in the course of interaction with your partner?
A similar principle applies to all of our life experiences. If we evaluate our responses to problem situations in relation to the outcome of "living comfortably and safely," it may seem that we are suffering continuous failures. And if we perceive the same situation from the point of view of the result “harden in battle”, then the desired goal will be achieved.
Renowned psychiatrist and hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, M.D. (he was the psychotherapist in the story of the young man who thought he was Jesus Christ) once said to his client:
It is important to maintain a sense of security and a sense of readiness, as well as a firm belief that you can handle whatever happens and enjoy it. However, a situation that you cannot cope with can also be useful - later you will remember about it and realize that this experience has been useful to you more than once. Such situations provide an opportunity to assess your strength, and in addition - to identify those areas in which you need to protect yourself "from the inside" ... Adequately respond to success and failure - this is the true joy of life,
This statement by Erickson is an example of the "other outcome" pattern being used. Here, what can be considered a “defeat” (in relation to the outcome “to cope with the situation”), with a change in the outcome (“adequately respond to success and failure”) takes the form of feedback (Fig. 4).
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Rice. 4. Change the result n