NLP, or neurolinguistic programming, is a modern trend in practical psychology. It originated in the USA in the 70s and absorbed all the best and most advanced of the various methods of this discipline.
What is NLP?
Opinions about neuro-linguistic programming are different, sometimes even polar. In the narrow sense of those people who have only a superficial understanding of NLP, it is a way of manipulating people and absolute evil. But there are those who seek to bring this technique to life, looking at this concept much more widely. Indeed, NLP is actually a modeling of a person’s behavior, programming of his thinking, as well as an individual’s control over his mind.
In addition, neurolinguistic programming is a specific area of psychology. Sometimes it is considered one of the ways to study the subconscious. However, this doctrine is not recognized by official circles, because it is based on the subjective, structured experience of individuals. To date, NLP is used only in psychological trainings of various kinds, in promotions, in politics and trade. It is practiced in coaching, as well as for the purpose of seduction.
As a psychotherapeutic direction, NLP aims to discover the most effective methods of changing the limited, weak, painful and incorrect points of view that underlie maladaptive human behavior. It can be argued that when applying this method, a change in the values that limit the ability of people and are the causes of their suffering occurs. NLP does not specify specific values. It offers only effective methods of changing the point of view, perception, etc.
The concept of presupposition
NLP is based on the method of copying non-verbal and verbal behavioral responses created by three well-known psychotherapists. This is the founder of family psychotherapy V. Satir, the founder of gestalt therapy F. Perls, as well as M. Erickson, who initiated Erickson hypnosis.
The founders of NLP put forward the idea that each person perceives the environment in his own way. In this case, all attitudes of thinking can be fixed and described by him. However, the most important is the form of perception, which can be changed based on your goals. This is what the masters of neuro-linguistic programming do. They influence the thinking of their clients to help them, for example, eliminate the consequences of various psychological traumas.
The presuppositions of NLP are the principles of this teaching. They are also called basic. The presuppositions of NLP are axioms. That is, it is impossible to prove their truth. Man only has to believe what has been said.
The presuppositions of NLP are equally suitable for all people, without exception. Moreover, the belief that they are correct can change life for the better. In addition, by examining useful ideas, you can better understand the meaning of NLP. They are used by psychologists when conducting individual work with clients, as well as during group trainings.
The meaning of presuppositions
The ideas that form the basis of neuro-linguistic psychology play a significant role. They provide the following:
- charge people with optimism, as they are positive beliefs (affirmations);
- allow you to see the goals ahead;
- help to look at the world around us in a new way;
- block negative old channels of emotions and open new ones aimed at positive.
In order to fully understand the theory of presupposition of NLP, a person needs to go beyond his own mind and open his mind. It must become receptive to the adoption of new ideas.
Everything that presupposition includes must be perceived as it is. You cannot change existing postulates. Such actions will certainly lead to malfunctions of consciousness.
The presuppositions of NLP allow a person to create a system of personal beliefs that are universal for any life situation. The subconscious helps people solve the problem of implementing beliefs. After all, it is on him that presupposition has its effect.
Forms of influence
Presuppositions of NLP affect:
- On the mind. In this case, such dogmas act as rational thoughts that require compulsory execution.
- On the subconscious. Here the postulates of NLP are an suggestion, somewhat reminiscent of hypnosis.
Data Transfer Forms
How does a person receive the necessary information? There are three forms that serve to transmit data:
- Verbal. Apply it during conversations and lectures.
- Clear. This form of data transfer is a visual demonstration of how presuppositions are applied.
- Full immersion. In this case, the person literally lives a presupposition.
What form of information transfer to choose? It will depend on the person, because people perceive the received data in completely different ways and process them. And it depends on the dominant channel - visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Moreover, the nature of such information may also be different. The dominance of one of the channels leads to filtering of the senses. In other words, what some people hear may not be felt or seen by others. In this regard, an important condition for the effectiveness of NLP practice is orientation to the dominant channel of perception, which indicates the existence of audials, visuals, and kinesthetics. These psychological characteristics must be taken into account for those people who want to use the presuppositions of NLP in order to manage their own lives.
It is possible to determine the dominant system of perception of a person if you carefully study the features of his speech and behavior. So, visuals are guided mainly by visual images. The dominant value for them is the color, size and shape of objects. Such people appreciate the orderliness of things and the harmony of the surrounding space. That is why they are annoyed, for example, by misplaced clothing or a book that has not been put back on the shelf.
Kinesthetics live by the sensations of the body. The most important thing for them is a sense of movement, tactile perception, sofa comfort or car speed. The value in this case is not the color of the thing, but its convenience. That is why kinesthetics will become very annoyed by a tight collar or cookie crumbs left by someone in bed.
Audiences perceive the world around them in the form of a combination of sounds. That is why it is easier for them to remember information by ear.
Basic concepts
Anyone who uses a computer knows that it is controlled by the operating system. A similar thing exists in NLP. A kind of operating system for neurolinguistic programming is its basic presuppositions.
With their help, the functioning of a system of techniques, processes and skills becomes possible.
There are various types of presuppositions. Consider some of their postulates.
Mental processing
The only correct and complete list of NLP presuppositions does not exist. The postulates developed by the founders of this direction are many. The most commonly used list of NLP presuppositions, which we call basic. All of them are divided into types, based on the impact on the subconscious.
We will begin our consideration of some basic presuppositions of NLP with those related to mental processing.
- A map is not a territory. What does this one of the most basic, basic presuppositions tell us? According to her, every person perceives the world around him is not at all what he really is. After all, everything is subjective. And this should be known to those who believe that they know someone or something. All this is nothing more than a personal idea of a person or an object. How can one describe this presupposition in NLP? There are many real-life examples in this case. So, sometimes we speak of a very good acquaintance as a wonderful person. And we are fully convinced of this. However, suddenly we find out that he did a bad deed. Our conviction in this case even leads to the fact that at first we refuse to believe it. However, it is always worth remembering that “a map is not a territory”, and each person is able to make mistakes by making hasty conclusions. To understand this world, it is necessary to be prepared for change, try not to judge something or categorically and constantly observe someone, trying to get as much objective information as possible. Based on it, specific conclusions can be made.
- Human consciousness and his body are parts of one (cybernetic) system. Moreover, they function as a whole. If a person is well aware of any sensation, then he will certainly experience it soon. So the state of the human body is approximately 80% dependent on thoughts. Confirmation of this can serve as a focus on pain. If a person constantly thinks about her, then he will certainly suffer. When distracted from uncomfortable sensations, people seem to forget about their existence. And even with a very serious illness, it will be easier to those who will begin to imagine their recovery and well-being to recover.
Human behavior or reaction
We continue to consider the concept of presupposition and the types of presuppositions used in NLP.
In their list are those that relate to human behavior or his reaction:
- The meaning of any message lies in the behavioral reaction that it causes. If a person talks to someone about something or listens to a speech addressed to him, then all this is not done at all to transmit information. The purpose of any message is to induce one or another action. This is done directly or indirectly. For example, adults want their baby to wash their hands before eating. They can directly tell him about it: "Go down and wash your hands." And you can talk about the dangers of microbes, "crawling" on the fingers. In the latter case, the child will run to the bathroom himself. The ultimate goal of both phrases will be a certain action. These examples of presuppositions in NLP are explained in terms of success. Before starting communication, a person must set a specific goal. That is, he should understand what kind of behavior he wants to achieve from the interlocutor. In the absence of goals, it is necessary to build trust and a good attitude.
- Any kind of behavior is useful and practical in one context or another. This does not mean the correctness of any human actions. However, this presupposition of NLP indicates that all forms of behavior are certainly based on positive intentions. That is, each of them is valuable and useful in a certain context. And even if a person tries to offend someone or take revenge, then, talking to him, you can find some valuable result for him.
Communicative presuppositions
Consider some of the NLP dogmas of this type:
- The need for communication. Even when a person does not express his thoughts, beliefs, ideas and feelings in any way, he sends them in various non-verbal ways.
- The influence of the type of communication on perception. Information is transmitted not only through verbal signals. Of great importance for its transmission are non-verbal aspects in the form of loudness of voice and tone, gestures and posture, breathing, etc. Moreover, how a person speaks is often more important than what he is talking about. For example, the phrase "I love you!". Its meaning is clear to everyone. But its meaning will change depending on how it is pronounced - with sarcasm, with hope or in tears.
Allegations of Learning, Choosing, and Changing
Examples of postulates of the following type of presuppositions are:
- People have internal resources that will allow them to reach their intended goal. The creators of NLP believe that every person has innate abilities to overcome difficulties. In order to discover their own resources, people need some help. For example, to achieve success, a person may need special training or additional education.
- The human body works as a bioelectrochemical device that processes information. This allows us to quickly learn. For example, a child accidentally falls into a pool filled with water. Having matured, he may not forget this case. Then he will have fear. Its intense or inappropriate manifestations can occur when thinking about bathing, and when looking at the water.
NLP Techniques
In the field of practical psychology, neuro-linguistic programming is a whole system of ways that allow people to take advantage of the opportunities that their brain possesses. These are the techniques of NLP. Among them are anchoring and language strategies, as well as reframing, love, swing and inserted messages. And here the concept of presupposition is even more fully revealed. This is all that a person needs to consider true when using the NLP technique. Let us consider in more detail the most common of them.
The most famous presupposition technique is anchoring. Its basis is the programming of the conditioned reflex. It is called the "anchor". Conditioned reflexes can appear on their own. This happens, for example, when the same melody sounds that a person hears with certain experiences.
When working with NLP, you can develop a conditional reflex necessary for a person, that is, create an anchor. A similar phenomenon takes place in the life of an individual, bringing with him a positive or, conversely, being negative. To fix a certain moment in life in memory, an “anchor” must be put on it. Its consolidation in the mind is a certain resource, which becomes various songs, musical works, images and smells.
The most versatile technique is swing. It can be used even by lay people. This technique includes two areas. One of them is associative. It responds to a particular visual image, sound or sensation arising in a particular situation, or to a habit that a person wants to get rid of. For a better understanding of this technique, consider a simple example. A person who wants to get rid of tobacco smoking needs to imagine the sensations or image that he associates with the smoking process. Next, another picture should be presented. It concerns those sensations that a person wants to have instead of a bad habit. Then the technique itself is practiced. During its holding, the first picture mentally appears on the big screen, and the second - on the small one. After that, the images quickly change places. The result is mentally erased. Such manipulations are repeated at least 15 times and check the changes obtained on a person.
Another presupposition technique is love. The one who owns it is able to easily attract the attention of the object he liked. In this case, a person applies manipulative actions. The imposition of presupposition takes place.
The reason for the effectiveness of NLP techniques
According to the creators of NLP, our universe is a human-friendly sphere. The world is generously generous, infinitely kind and infinitely beautiful. The person makes him mean, angry and ugly, using his perceptions and his actions, not controlling the activity of the brain and filling it with negativity. However, all this is quite simple to change. To do this, you only need to use NLP presuppositions. And then we will understand and accept that man himself is able to control his brain and the results of his own activity.
The effectiveness of NLP techniques also lies in their support of the strength of our unconscious. According to experts working in this direction, only 6% of programs and plans for human behavior are conscious. The remaining 94% function and operate at the subconscious level. When explaining this, the NLP masters give a computer analogy that is quite understandable to modern man. So, any PC consists of a display on which the necessary information is displayed, and which in its direction affects the zone of direct consciousness. It is impossible to operate a computer without RAM. It can be considered a complete analogue of the conscious part of the human psyche. All accumulated information is contained on the hard drive of the computer, which is located in the system unit. It corresponds to our unconscious.
By analyzing the roles of the conscious and the unconscious, NLP masters unconditionally single out the last of these two levels.The speed of the latter is several orders of magnitude higher. In addition, only a small part of the information accumulated by a person is stored in consciousness. But on the hard disk of our brain there is a complete record of all the information and events that were gathered and passed by a person on his life path. The importance of the unconscious part of the mind also lies in its ability to connect to the Collective Unconscious. This allows a person to achieve their goals, directing their thoughts in the right direction.