The Brain Users Manual

In our December article, we talked about how we use our senses on the inside to think, by mentally visualising, hearing sounds internally and remembering or creating feelings. Our senses of seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting and smelling are the building blocks of our internal experience. Just as we make distinctions with our senses in the outside world, so too we do in our inner world. For example, we see colours and sense distance in our minds. In NLP(Neuro Linguistic Programming) these distinctions are called submodalities. Submodalities are the smaller building blocks of the senses: the way the complete pictures, sounds and feelings are composed. They are the qualities of the sounds and pictures we make mentally. To find out what effects they have, try the following:

Make yourself comfortable and remember a pleasant memory. Look at your picture. If you find it hard to visualise, see whatever you can. Is the picture black and white or is it in colour? Is it moving or still? How bright is it? Are you looking at the scene through your own eyes, or are you seeing yourself in the picture? These are all examples of visual submodalities.

Now listen to any sounds and voices that go with this memory. Are they loud or soft, near or far? Are they continuous? Are they clear or muffled? From which direction do they come? These are auditory submodalities.

Now the feelings. Whereabouts in your body are they located? Is the feeling large or small? Warm or cool? How intense is it? How large is the area it covers? These are kinesthetic submodalities.

We use submodalities to code our memories, hopes and beliefs. For example, how do we distinguish a recent memory from a distant one? We must have some way of knowing otherwise we would become confused. Our language gives a clue; we often talk of the 'distant' past. Many people set their memories on a line, the recent ones close, the past ones further away.

All our thoughts have a submodality structure, and this is how we give them meaning. When we change the structure of the experience by changing the submodalities then the meaning will also change. When the meaning changes, our internal response will also change.

Think of a mildly unpleasant memory. Notice if you are inside it seeing it through your own eyes (associated), or outside it, seeing yourself in the picture (dissociated). If you are associated, then dissociate and see yourself in the picture. You will lose the unpleasant feelings. You can use this submodality change to be able to look more objectively at your experiences and learn from them. Some people store their unpleasant memories as associated pictures and then do not learn from them because it is uncomfortable to go back and review them. Being associated brings the feelings that go with an experience. Dissociation leaves the feelings in the picture. When reviewing pleasant memories make sure you are associated. Some people feel 'cut off' from their feelings because they associate into very few of their memories.

Submodalities offer tremendous opportunities for gaining control of our subjective experience because we can change them at any time.