A Pragmatic Guide To Communication & Change.pdf - NLP Info Centre

The goal of this book is to increase your ability to detect and utilize patterns of behavior
that occur both within an individual and between people as they interact. Language, the
digital representational system, is able to re-present all of the systems used by people to
create and communicate their experiences of the world. Because of this, it provides an
especially effective tool for alerting an attentive listener to important information about a
speaker's model of the world. Differing patterns of word usage are demonstrated in the
following five sentences. Take a moment to read each one carefully. Pay particular
attention to how each one elicits a somewhat different subjective experience.
Sentence I
eekad ,I pungent, sulferous earth which kept threatening to spoil an otherwise
savory a1Iofnoun.
Sentence 5
It is quite possible that the current situation could be improved, if not by
moderating, then perhaps by rearticulating the response argument in order to
preclude less desirable results.
Each of the above sentences utilizes one of the representational systems. Through the
consistent use of certain words and phrases in each sentence, the reader is led into an
experience - an "understanding" - which taps portions of his model of the world
associated with his sensory systems. This is true except, of course, for the last sentence.
The first sentence, for example, illustrates the visual representational system. Many
readers find that they can actually "see" the table, the faces, and the thoughts. By going
through their own personal history - the collection of all past experiences stored in the
mind - they create for themselves internal experiences similar to the one described. In
the same way, most people are able to create "feelings" from the second sentence, which
exemplifies the kinesthetic system. This ereative construction of internal experiences in
responsi• to words plays a crucial role in the process of conunuoL-(ion.
That rings a bell with me, too; it would be good if we could tune ourselves into your
program without altering our tempo and thus create more harmonious relationships within
the group.
Sentence 4
The salty sea breezes mixed with the sweet scent of delicate flowers, but the nearby
marsh
Emotions
The kinesthetic representational system includes several important distinctions. Sensory
inputs from the body are classed as somatic sensations. These include the exteroceptiue
sensations of temperature, touch, and pain; proprioceptiue sensations from deeper in our
muscles, tendons, and joints which keep us
I looked down from where I sat at the head of the long, dark, oak table, and it seemed to
me that they should all know better than to think the thoughts I saw clearly reflected on
their bright, smiling faces.
Sentence 2
I was suddenly aware of that helpless feeling again, that gnawing sensation in my belly,
and, lowering my eyes, I knelt down gripping at the smooth, comforting folds of my robe.
Sentence 3
and taste. Each one of these sensory inputs has physical places in our brains to which the