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MINDSCAPING
Exploring and Ecologically Landscaping the Inner Architecture
Version 1.4
(November 2015 Edition)
Mike Mandel
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
● Increasing creativity
● Creating a better future
● Adding new skills
● Facilitating selfawareness
● Amplifying the effectiveness of other therapies
Quick Start
MINDSCAPING
The Procedure
Step 1 - Heart healing posture
For consideration of the client’s ecology, deep relaxation is essential. (We recommend Silvia
Hartmann's Heart Healing posture, in which the subject takes three deep breaths with her hands
held flat, over her heart.) The subject may use a phrase to focus attention with each deep
breath, as determined by the issue at hand, such as “Sadness” or “Job interview tomorrow”.
This will focus the mind on the task at hand, permitting the unconscious to intervene and create
the map.
Step 2 – Preframe and elicit the internal map and mark the current location
Preframe the existence of internal maps with the client, showing their life experiences,
relationships, strengths and difficulties. Explain that much is revealed through symbols that may
or may not make sense to the conscious mind, but that it is okay not to understand it. Preframe
that there are many ways to map one’s life. Frame the experience as interesting, helpful and
enjoyable. Maintain rapport with the client and keep your voice warm and positive. Have the
subject imagine the map of their life that begins where they are now and spreads out in all
directions to the distant horizon. Whichever way the client creates the map is correct. Optionally,
you may mark the current location with a kinesthetic anchor such as a squeeze of the wrist that
can be easily replicated. Typically, you will have the subject create a You Are Here arrow, a
flashing beacon, or gold star or flag on the map, to return the starting point at the end of the
session, once the requisite shifts have been made.
Note: It is only necessary to preframe the map in the first session. After that, the unconscious
will have gotten the message. You can then just elicit the map you need for that session.
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
examine negative emotions from a safe distance. Generally, it is better to go from the large
chunk to the small details. Ask for adequate descriptions of the general features of the map in
submodality terms before having the client describe the details. Then ask about brightness,
colours, etc., and elicit the natural features, which will typically be hills, mountains, rivers,
forests, etc. Proceed to the artificial structures, which are indicative of what they’ve done and
are doing now to create their life. Note the description and location of any roads, buildings, etc.
Do the same for the entire panorama, while maintaining rapport. Be careful that you elicit
without leading the client. It’s their map, not your idea of their map.
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
MINDSCAPING
Considerations:
elicitation,
It is vitally important that the internal map is an not an imposition of the therapist’s
own understanding or expectations. To this end, use of the Meta Model is recommended. This
will ensure that the client is presenting an accurate representation of his or her unconscious
metaphorical projection . The imposition of the therapist’s model of the world will yield
unsatisfactory results. Rather, you the therapist, are connecting their conscious mind with
unconscious imagery and symbolism; permitting understandings and change to occur naturally.
Remember to ask digital questions and avoid leading with representational systems while
initially eliciting the map. For example: It is better to ask “What else do you notice? ” rather than
“What else do you see ?” Once the subject is clearly eliciting the visual sense, it’s perfectly
alright to ask visual questions.
MINDSCAPING can easily be applied to a specific problem or a general life shift, by preframing
that there are a variety of possible maps. Some maps indicate roads and urban areas; others
show geographic features, resources, or rainfall averages. Preframe that a trip to New York
would not necessitate the electrical grid map. This permits the unconscious mind to select the
relevant map for the situation at hand. Remember : The unconscious is constantly monitoring
everything that happens, even what the conscious mind is currently thinking.
Once the map is elicited, have the client describe what is directly in front of them. This will
typically be whatever the unconscious mind wants the subject to notice. Get a detailed
description and ask one or more of the key MINDSCAPING questions:
● What does that mean to you? (digital question)
● What does that remind you of? (amygdala pattern match)
● How does that make you feel? (triggering kinesthetic search)
● What else
do you notice? (enriching the client’s map)
Calibrate the subject throughout the exercise while maintaining strong rapport and offering back
language. Strongly resist the typical temptation to interpret for the client ! You will be
presented with a wide variety of descriptions, so use your intuition as you proceed. Trust your
unconscious mind to direct you. Take your time as you elicit and help the client enrich their map;
it will ensure cleaner and more effective shifts. Sometimes the symbols and metaphors the
client’s unconscious offers will be obvious to you, but not to the client. Keep the insights to
yourself . The client’s unconscious mind is sharing things with you, but not with the client’s
conscious mind. This is an indication of rapport and trust.
Focus on the big picture and the natural features first. These will probably be rivers, fields,
lakes, hills, valleys, mountains, forests, etc. Notice what manmade structures, such as roads,
buildings, parks, monuments, etc., are present. When you encounter objects that have an
unpleasant kinesthetic (feeling) to them, ask: What does that remind you of? The unconscious
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
will provide all the information it’s willing for the client to consciously know. If you get
unconscious resistance, there are two possibilities:
● Repressed material that is best left alone
● You have insufficient rapport with the client’s unconscious
Generally speaking, if the session is preframed adequately and the unconscious knows that
your intention is to improve the quality of life of the subject, and if you have adequate rapport,
no resistance will be encountered. If you continuously calibrate the subject and rely on your
intuition, you’ll be able to guide them around any potential roadblocks to integration.
If you encounter a structure with a negative emotion attached to it, it is important to pause and
elicit information. When you sense that the client has learned all they need to learn about the
structure, you can proceed with the actual landscaping of their inner world. This is where
MINDSCAPING becomes truly amazing!
Their internal map is in a continuous feedback loop with the client’s beliefs, feelings,
presuppositions, judgements, fears, hopes, aspirations, etc. By carefully sculpting the features
of the map, we believe you are actually changing the client’s mind ; automatically shifting
submodalities and placing the shifts in the correct temporal context. By maintaining rapport and
accurately calibrating, the shifts will automatically be in accord with the prime directives of the
unconscious mind, and therefore permanent.
A subtle and gentle approach is recommended as you edit the internal map. A little goes a long
way.
One of my clients had a wasteland of a mindscape behind her that looked like Hiroshima, after
the first atomic bomb. The fact that it was behind her, told me much. She had a history of
horrendous abuse as a child, but was attempting to move away from it. The damage from the
blast and the lingering radiation made it unlikely that the scar could be dealt with quickly, as it
was too widespread. I did not take her back into that devastation, which would only have
associated her into that horrific state. Instead, I had her view it from a distance through
binoculars imaginary binoculars, which is far safer. Then I had a breeze blow wildflower seeds
onto the ground and let a gentle, cleansing rain fall as she watched through the binoculars. She
reported that the seeds had sprouted and tiny flowers were beginning to grow, thus activating a
healthy and organic healing that could continue unconsciously, as rapidly as the flowers
sprouted from the seeds. It’s important to note that the healing was activated, but not forced into
my timeframe. Always let the client's unconscious work at its own pace. It knows best.
Another client reported a playground in front of him that had a pleasant kinesthetic to it. When
prompted to describe what else he noticed, he saw sharp shards of metal and glass near the
playground. I got him to carefully approach it and he reported that he was afraid he would cut
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
his feet. I asked him to gently turn the shards to dust, leaving just an outline on the ground
where they had been, so he could remember them, thus preserving the requisite learnings. He
went back to the playground and reported it felt “very peaceful”. He looked back at where the
shards had been and reported to his surprise that a number of red flowers had grown there
when he “wasn’t looking”
As a general rule, do as little as possible to get the desired shift. It’s tempting to redesign a
client’s entire internal world, but the more you shift, the greater the possibilities of making shifts
that are not useful, or that the client’s unconscious mind will resist. MINDSCAPING can be done
over a period of several sessions, gradually shifting the internal map to one that is much more
functional.
Use the natural world to your advantage. Features, such as waterfalls and forests, generally do
not require much intervention. Sometimes you will have to cut down some trees to put a road
through a forest. If the client says there are owls nesting in a valley and he feels good about
them, leave them alone. If a landscape is sparse with few structures, don’t crowd it. A good rule
of thumb is to transform or replace, rather than adding indiscriminately. Always think beauty,
simplicity and ecology .
Artificial structures should be dealt with according to the thoughts, memories, and feelings they
elicit. If they are ugly and repulsive, they need to be changed. If a woman describes a hideous
jagged tower that reminds her of her former husband, you’ll know right away what her feelings
are toward him. Demolish the tower and build something lovely in its place. Stop adjusting it
only when the client can congruently tell you it’s better. Always replace a structure with
something more useful or beautiful, and find a way to preserve the lessons learned; in this case,
I put a small picture of the ugly jagged tower inside a beautiful new castle, so the learnings
would be available, enabling her to make better choices in the future. A small memento is all
that’s required to preserve the lessons learned. A huge tapestry of the ugly tower would have
been overkill and would have probably elicited more bad states.
Sometimes the unconscious will not permit the MINDSCAPER to remove something completely.
In the case of the nuclear wasteland, if the client had not permitted the flowers to grow (yet), I
could have simply surrounded the wasteland with a barbed wire fence and a Keep Out sign to
protect her from revisiting those bad states. In the case of objects in front of the client, it is
sometimes useful to build a second road or path that bypasses the problem structure, thus
giving the client choice . Keep the subject associated as they examine the map. Dissociation
from trauma and unpleasantness is facilitated by the binocular technique. It’s generally best to
have the client view the map from the safety and vantage point of their chair, although
exploration is possible, (although never suggested) provided adequate calibration is maintained.
Always think ecology first and continuously calibrate your subject!
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
Some possible shifts are typical of NLP submodalities, such as brightness, size, colour, sound,
etc. Shifts specific to MINDSCAPING are:
● Repairing or replacing structures
● Pulling out weeds, planting trees, and other landscaping
● Fixing holes in the map
● Altering the sky or weather
● Building roads and paths
● Adding resources, such as gold mines, libraries, and farms
When working on a single issue, the map will be much simpler and less detailed, making the
shift easier to achieve than a general life shift. If you preframe a simple map for ease of
resculpting, that’s what the subject’s unconscious is likely to provide you with. Think in terms of
an actual map. If you are on vacation, and attempting to find your way through New York City,
then a map of Manhattan’s streets will be sufficient. Cluttering your field of vision by adding too
many map details, such as the electrical grid, water system, airports, and financial sector,
makes things more difficult. Keep it simple. If you adequately preframe what the map is to
represent, the subject’s unconscious will present you with the correctly detailed map.
A useful technique is to set up a You Are Here anchor on the left wrist to bring the subject back
Undo
to the starting point of the map. Add an anchor on the right wrist, and squeeze it to take
them back one edit, or hold it to undo all the edits. Give the client a different perspective by
having them float straight up above their map, and look toward the horizon. This method will
also enable the client to look beyond troubling structures which may be blocking their view.
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
These are recurrent themes in many fairy tales. Hansel and Gretel become lost in the woods, an
unconscious symbol. In Lewis Carroll’s stories, we see Alice entering the unseen world of the
unconscious via a looking glass (mirror) and also down a rabbit hole.
Many people have hidden entrances in their internal terrain, including caves, wells, trap doors,
etc., leading to undiscovered levels of the unconscious. Waterfalls sometimes have hidden
tunnels behind them, and in city streets there may be manhole covers or subway entrances.
These often result in deeper trances, and the therapist needs to proceed with caution. Get
congruent signals from the client before you instruct the subject to open any of these symbolic
doors. Make sure you have a You Are Here anchor in place to bring the person back, and
detraumatize if you have to.
MINDSCAPING
General Principles
● Make ecology your first priority
● Maintain rapport and calibrate the subject at all times
● Ensure there is a bailout anchor or way of getting back to
You Are Here
● Start with the general environment – What is the overall feel?
● What is in front will be highly significant
● Check what is directly behind the subject (what the person is leaving behind, or
attempting to move away from).
● Where do any roads or paths lead? Is there adequate access to the horizon?
● Elicit rather than suggest
● Don’t correct the client (It’s their map, not yours!)
● Buildings may be purely decorative with no other purpose, especially to either side.
● Unusual structures like monuments or bizarre shapes are often highly significant and
should be cautiously investigated. (Scary structures should be approached slowly and
carefully).
● Ask revealing questions, such as “What’s inside it?” or “What’s behind it?”
● On the map, people often appear in a symbolic form.
● Knowledge of totem animals, universal symbols, etc., will prove useful and enlightening.
● Reading the classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson
will teach you much about the rich symbols and unconscious worlds underlying
MINDSCAPING…
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
FAQ
MINDSCAPING
Can pain be treated with ?
Yes. All sorts of discomfort respond to
MINDSCAPING provided you have the permission of
the unconscious mind, as determined by calibration and ecology checks, i.e.,
How do you feel
about that
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition
Concluding Remarks
MINDSCAPING is a simple, but incredibly effective protocol to rapidly induce major or minor
internal shifts. It is a standalone therapeutic and lifecoaching tool that may also be readily
integrated into other psychological systems. MINDSCAPING is easy to learn, and therapists can
begin using it immediately. Practice and familiarity with the methodology will yield consistent,
powerful and longlasting results.
MINDSCAPING is the intellectual property of Mike Mandel © 2015
MINDSCAPING V1.4 November 2015 edition