NLP Universal Modeling Process Overview
There are six major components to the NLP Universal Modeling Process (external experience, filters, internal representation, physiology, state, and behavior), which is an outline of the way that information perceived through the 5 senses results in a change in behavior.
As an external stimulus is perceived through a person?s five senses, potentially as much as all of this information is deleted, distorted, and generalized as the perceiver assigns meaning to the experience or completely fails to perceive the event. From both a quantitative, scientific perspective and a qualitative, subjective perspective, the first potential filters [ref]James, T. Woodsmall, W. 1988. Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality. Meta Publications, pp. 6-10.[/ref] through which an experience is being filtered are time, space, matter, and energy. If you want to learn more about the NLP Universal Modeling Process and NLP meta programs, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality. In this book you can learn a lot about NLP anchoring techniques and general NLP techniques. In my opinion it is one of the better NLP books out there.
Time, Space, Matter, Energy in the NLP Universal Modeling Process
As many of us have likely experienced, communication can become garbled or misinterpreted due complications arising from technology. Messages and meanings can become distorted through faulty signals, static or technical difficulties. Text messages and email lack the subconscious ability to subcommunicate intentions and emotions through tonality, tempo, pauses, and other non-verbal elements that spoken word offers. Most people who have been in a serious relationship or played an important role in a business will realize that timing is extremely important. Conveying certain information too early or too late can be detrimental to the way that the message is interpreted.
Language in the NLP Universal Modeling Process
Words mean different things in different cultures. It is nearly impossible to directly translate between languages, expecting that each word has a directly-equivalent reciprocal. Colloquialisms, or figurative speech, found in the form of expressions vary both geographically and culturally. What makes sense as an expression in one language rarely carries the same sentiment or meaning to someone of a different culture. Here?s a brief, personal example: A somewhat funny personal experience I had of this was meeting a girl on vacation in Mexico when I was about twelve years old. For a week?s time, we attempted to communicate through gestures as she spoke no English and I spoke no Spanish. Nonetheless, I was totally enamored. And, upon returning home, I painstakingly crafted her a letter telling her about the rest of my trip and hoping that we could continue to communicate to via mail. Years later, and at about the time that I considered myself to be semi-fluent in Spanish, I remembered that letter I wrote and the response I never received. Laughing to myself, I wondered if any of my attempts at communication had been understood as I had intended. After all, I knew nothing about verb conjugations or verb tenses in that foreign language, nor how to structure sentences or questions, and I did not realize that most of my expressed ideas utilized figurative speech. If that girl ever received the letter and attempted to read it, the intended meaning would have likely been lost as it was a jumbled assortment of words without the syntax to create order and meaning. It was literally a menudo (a delicious traditional Mexican dish, made with hominy and tripe, and flavored with lime, onion, and cilantro) of words.
The NLP Universal Modeling Process Opens Possibilities for Personal Change
Learning a foreign language is a great way to appreciate how much communication is implied and taken for granted in one?s native tongue. Etymology, the study of the history of words is an empowering way to improve one?s vocabulary, easily learn additional languages, and also understand the original essence of a word. It is my opinion that words are very powerful. I was reminded not too long ago of an old expression that I grew up hearing, sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt me...
If I could say anything, it is that most people have been more severely limited and injured by words than sticks or stones. However, you can change this. Understanding the NLP Universal Modeling Process will give you insights into the way that information affects behavior and how it affects you.
Learn more about the Universal Modeling Process in Michael J. Emery's personal development programs.