The Decision Destroyer Pattern

Concept. Sometimes, as we move through life, we make some poor decisions.

Afterwards, those decisions become part of our mental map and begin to operate as a
major psychological force in our life (as a Meta-state). This pattern destroys such
limiting, destructive, and unenhancing decisions.
"Decisions" function as part of our mental maps that provide specific instructions about
what to do. And, while a decision in one context and at one time may function very well
for our benefit, as contexts and times change these decisions can become outdated and
unuseful. This pattern allows us to alter the decisions that we have constructed.

The Pattern
1. Identify a limiting decision that you still live with. What did you decide? Fully
express the decision and its meanings. When did you adopt this decision? How long
have you lived with it? How has it become limiting to you? Fully elicit this information.
2. Identify an enhancing decision you'd like to live life by. By using the criteria of the
well-formedness conditions (the first meta-pattern)—access fully a more enhancing
decision that would serve you better now and in the future. As you access this decision
state, anchor it fully.
3. float above your Time-line back to when you made the limiting decision. Observe it
dissociatedly from above your Time-line. Float down into the experience—and observe
it associatedly. Anchor this experience.
4. Repeal. Float back to other instances of this limiting decision until you get to the
earliest experience of using this limiting belief.
5. Now float back up above your Time-line and fully re-access your enhancing decision.
6. Go back fifteen minutes prior to the decision. Once you have your enhancing decision
fully accessed from above the Timeline, float back to fifteen minutes prior to the earliest
decision, then float down into that younger you, bringing with you that Enhancing
Decision fully and completely.
7. Experience the old situation with new resources. As you do, bring these enhancing
resources with you, letting them (in your mind and internal experience) completely
change your awareness ¿md feelings as you experience the effects of this new decision.
8. Then quickly zoom up through your Time-line to the present.
9. Stop at the present. Fully integrate the experience and future pace.
#27 The Core Transformation Pattern
Concept. Creating a transformational change that operates out of one's core values,
beliefs, and identity moves one to a state of congruence and wholeness.
This first pattern plays upon the term "Core" as a metaphor of "depth", suggesting going
"down" to one's core and identifying or discovering one's core values ¿md states. It
presupposes that ail of one's parts works out of that core. The next pattern does the same
thing, but plays upon the term "Meta" ¿md so takes us up to our highest, most
transcendent values.
The purpose of each pattern involves developing and maintaining an inner sense of well-
being, wholeness, and connection with those traits and qualities with which we most
want to identify. By doing so, we can then integrate them so that we will operate in a
centered and balanced way even when experiencing times of trouble or distress.
This pattern takes us to our "deepest levels of being" and uses these resource states (core
states) to transform our emotions, behaviors, and responses with an ongoing sense of
well-being. Use this pattern to address inner conflict or disharmony with yourself, a lack
of integration between parts, and/or just a desire for a more resourceful center. Source:
Andreas and Andreas (1991) Core Transformation, developed from the six-step
reframing model.

The Pattern
1. Choose a part to work with. "What part (a behavior, feeling, etc.) would you like to
work with today?" Think about any part of yourself that you have which you might not
yet appreciate.
2. Experience and welcome the part. "Where do you feel the part in your body?"
Welcome and receive the part. "What difference do you feel in your body as you do
this?"
3. Discover the purpose and intention of the part Ask the part what it wants for you that
it values as positive.
4. Discovering the outcome chain. "Ask the part, 'If you have the outcome from the
previous step fully and completely, what do you want through having that, that you
value as even more important?'"
5. Repeat. Repeat step 4 until you reach your core state which will involve a state of
consciousness similar to "love, peace, oneness, or being-ness," etc. Once you access
your core state, take some time and enjoy experiencing it fully and completely.
6. Reverse Ihe outcome chain with the core state. Begin by gently inviting your part to
notice, "When you have this core state (name the one elicited from step 4) as a way of
being in the world, how does already having (core state) make things different?"
I hen more specifically, ask, "How does already having this core state (name it) as a way
of being transform, enrich, radiate through X, Y, and Z (name the intended outcomes
from step 4)?"
Finally, transform the original context with the core state: "How does already having this
core state as a way of being in the world transform your experience of (name the context
where you wanted a change)?"
7. Grow up the part. To do this, ask your part the following questions: "How old are
you?" "Do you want to have the benefits that come from evolving forward in time to
your current age, with this core state fully present?" Evolve forward through time, from
whatever age you find this part, all the way forward to your current age, having this X
(core state) there through every moment of time.
8. Bring the part fully into your body. Notice where you have the part now located in
your body and allow it to flow fully in and through your body, through the "outcome
chain," with the grown-up part fully in your body (general, specific, original context).
9. Check for objecting parts. "Is there any part of you that objects to your having X as a
core state now as a way of being in the world?" Bring any objecting parts, and any
additional parts associated with this issue, through steps 1-9 before going on.
10. Time-line generalization. Begin by envisioning your Time-line and floating back
over it to just before your parents conceived you. Now, with your core state radiating
through your being, allow yourself to move forward through "time," letting this core
state color and transform every moment of experience up to the present. Next, envision
yourself moving forward on that same trajectory into the future, noticing how it becomes
colored by the fact that you have this core state. Finally, cycle back through the Time-
line generalization several times, faster each time.
(Note: You will find it helpful to write down each intended outcome and core state so
that, when you begin the process of cycling back through this series of states, you will
remember and name the outcome states in the order in which you elicited them from the
person.)
#28 The Meta-Transformation Pattern
Concept. We can create generative transformation that will permeate all of our
personality if we make a change at a higher logical level—a meta-level. I'he primary
difference between this pattern and Core Transformation lies in the operational
metaphors. In Core, we use the idea of "going down" to our "core," to identify and
access deep "core" states. Here we turn the metaphor around, and go up (meta) to a
higher logical level to access desired transcendental meta-states. By finding the positive
intent of each state, we get to our highest transcendental Meta-states, hence meta-
transformations.
This pattern fully develops our desired outcome and elicits a desired chain of states.
Continue to ask the exploration question, "What do you seek to experience, accomplish,
feel, etc., and, when you get that, what does it gel for you?"
Generally, in NI_P, we do not ask the "why" question or go exploring the past for
explanations or causes. Such why questions tend to focus us on problems, the past, and
on causations. And the answers we get to such questions usually only keep us in the
problem. Instead, we focus primarily on how and what questions. "What do 1 seek to
accomplish by these current actions?" This question orients us toward our objective,
purpose, and our desired state(s). Once we know our chain of desired states, we can then
ask the how and what questions. "How can I best get there? What resources will help
me?"
Because we Iry to accomplish something of value as we discover these desired states,
we can then allow these answers to become the basis of our inner life! In other words,
we can "just step up into these desired outcome states." We can use them as our way of
being in the world. Source: Hall (1996).
The Pattern
Four Going-Up Steps:
1. Identify a behavior. Consider some behavior, state, experience, or habit that you do or
engage in, but which you do not evaluate as effective or pleasant. What behavior or state
do you experience that you don't appreciate about yourself? (You can also use this
pattern with positive behaviors that you do like and appreciate.)
2. Explore your 'what' of intention and design. "What do you seek to gain by doing
this?" "How does this hold value or purpose for you?" "What do you want to achieve by
this?"
3. Keep repeating. "And what do you seek to accomplish, experience or gain when you
do this?" Continue this line of questioning until you begin to loop. "What do you want,
through obtaining this, that you deem even more important?" "If you get this desired
state, in just the way you want it, what would you like that is even more important to
you?"
4. Continue until you loop. Eventually you will generate a string of desired states. You'll
know when you've reached the top when you begin to loop among the highest states.
Four Going-Down Steps:
5. Fully describe your ultimate transcendental Meta-state (TMS). Describe what this
ultimate transcendental Meta-state would look like, sound like, feel like, the language
you use to talk to yourself about it, etc.
6. Step into the TMS. Use all of your descriptive cues to help your brain-body create the
desired state and then just step into it. Use the "as if" frame if vou need to: what would it
look, sound, feel like to fully and completely experience the TMS?
7. Experience the state fully. After you step into the TMS, allow yourself to experience it
fully so that you can absorb it throughout your body.
8. Use the TMS to relate its resources downward. How does already having this state
transform your experience? How does it enrich it? How does it change the way you
think-and-feel? Take the TMS and let it organize, modulate, ¿liter, and drive the lower
states.
NLP Glossary of Terms & Definitions - made simple

Acknowledge / Validate / Celebrate

Acknowledge means to express recognition, thanks or gratitude as in, "Thanks for that."
Or, "I heard what you said." Acknowledgment is just a simple recognition. We can also
acknowledge with body language and gestures - by turning our body towards the other,
by looking at the person and nodding our head, or raising our hand in a gesture of
acknowledgement.
Validation builds upon the foundation of acknowledgement and confirms the truth of
something. We validate the person as a human being first and foremost just for who they
are, acknowledging that they are worthy, and that they have a special gift or even being
perfect in their imperfection. To give approval especially after examining it, for
example. "I'd like to acknowledge the efforts that you have made to improve the health
of your body."
Celebration is to praise, rejoice and publicly proclaim with positive emotion, for
example. "Great stuff! That is fantastic. This is impressive. You have done well." In NLP
terms, celebration may be used to reinforce a positive behaviour or understanding that
the client expressed, but which they may not have acknowledged to themself.
Celebration can be the act of showing appreciation for an event that occurred, such as
the full moon, a birthday, marriage, etc. It can praise the achievement of an individual
for completing something such as a course of study, saving a sum of money, buying a
new car, getting a job. It can measure the achievement of an organisation, for example.
Ten years in business, one million in annual turnover, ten thousand daily visitors to
website.

Abreaction
Is a psychoanalytical term for reliving a past event rather than mere recall.

Abstracting
The process of abstracting up and down over a range of specificity from details to the
big picture. The ability to recognise and compare patterns between different ideas,
concepts and things is a function of abstracting fluidly while simultaneously shifting the
focus to another topic, subject or type of thing.
Anesthesia
Total or partial loss of bodily sensation with or without loss of consciousness.

Analgesia
A lessening or total absence of pain without loss of consciousness.

Anchor
NLP term for stimulus response conditioning where a stimulus is paired with a response.
Thereafter when the stimulus - the anchor - is presented it reaccesses the response. For
example, if you are in an intense emotional state when you hear a piece of music then at
a later date the music will trigger the emotional state.

Aphasia
The term is used by hypnotists to refer to a state of lethargy in which the subject
becomes unresponsive to suggestion. For the subject it can feel like going unconscious.
Dave Elman refers to this state as artificial somnambulism.

Awareness continuum
A meditation procedure in which you scan the body for any pain, discomfort or tension.
One just notices the sensation without making any attempt to change it.

Bliss technique
A simple yet powerful technique, similar to what meditators call ‘witnessing’, that can
be used to clear negative emotions from past events.

Blow out a strategy

Refers to the process of altering a strategy in such a way that it is unable to produce its
original outcome.

Calibration
Is the process of reading another person’s unconscious responses (body language) by
pairing observable behavioural cues with a specific stimulus. The best time to observe
calibrations is when they change. The art of calibrating requires a refined sensory acuity.
Some examples of behavioural cues in the kinesthetic modality are changes in lower lip
size, skin colour, skin and muscle tension, eye movement, pupil size, breathing, gestures
and posture. Examples of behavioural cues in the auditory channel are changes in voice
volume, tonality, tempo and pauses. Examples of verbal cues are specific words and
phrases.

Catalepsy
A condition characterised by muscular rigidity and a lack of response to an external
stimuli. The limbs remain in whatever position they are placed. It occurs in epilepsy,
schizophrenia and is a hypnotic phenomena. Arm catalepsy, where the arm of the subject
floats in mid air, can be induced through hypnosis or it can occur spontaneously as a
result of it. (www.thefreedictionary.com/catalepsy)

Catatonia
A condition characterized by either rigidity or extreme flexibility of the limbs. The terms
‘catalepsy’ and ‘catatonia’ seem to be used as synonyms in the context of hypnosis.

Change History
An NLP technique which uses anchoring to add resources to past events as a means to
heal them.

Complex
A complex is an emotionally charged group of related ideas, feelings, memories and
impulses working together, mainly in the unconscious. (Leslie LeCron.)

Core outcome chain

The process of following a chain of meta states towards higher states of abstraction.

Critical faculty
A term used by Dave Elman. Under hypnosis the subject is in control of all his faculties
except the critical faculty which recognises the difference between reality and fantasy.
The critical faculty is related in some way to the concept of the conscious mind. The
unconscious mind has the ability to dream.

Decision destroyer
An NLP technique in which you install a resource on the timeline that precedes a
negative event, which has the effect of changing the event.
Ecology
Is the relationship between things and their environment. With regards to bringing about
a personal change using NLP, ecology refers to the acknowledgment of all aspects of
one’s mind (both conscious and unconscious), and seeking agreement between all parts
such that there is a feeling of congruency in body and mind.

Eye closure
means that the eye lids have closed. Eye catalepsy means that the eye lids are clamped
shut. Sometimes the term ‘eye closure’ denotes ‘eye catalepsy’. You need to get the
meaning from the context in which it is used to make the distinction.

Eye catalepsy
See ‘eye closure’.

Conversational postulate
A command that is disguised as a simple yes/no question. For example, "Can you close
the door? Have you got the time? Can you relax?" Invariably the listener will close the
door; give us the time, or relax.

Esdaile state
Named after Dr James Esdaile, a 19th century physician who performed surgery in India
using hypnosis to produce anesthesia. Also known as hypnotic coma.

Fast Phobia Cure

See visual kinesthetic dissociation.

Future Pace
NLP term for post hypnotic suggestion to trigger a response to a specific stimulus.
Whenever you mentally rehearse something you give yourself a post hypnotic
suggestion to behave in a certain way.

Gestalt
If you sort a series of events by a common element then you have a gestalt. There is one
element that stands out amongst all of the events and separates the element from the
background. For example, if you sort a series of events where the common element is
the emotion of anger then you have a gestalt. The pattern gives meaning to an otherwise
unrelated set of events.

Graves Value System

Values hierarchies interact at varying levels of specificity, within a structure that has
order and relationships, to form a system. Professor Clare Graves developed a model to
show how people, organisations and nations evolve through levels of values. The most
basic level dealing with survival while the higher levels dealing with self actualisation
and spirituality.

Hypnotic coma
The hypnotic coma state or Esdaile state is the deepest stage of hypnosis, characterised
by immobility, euphoria and anesthesia which is suitable for surgery. Dave Elman gives
four stages to hypnosis: light trance, medium trance, somnambulism and Esdaile or
coma state.

Ideomotor response
Ideo refers to mind. Motor refers to body. Ideomotor action is the tendency of thoughts
to be translated into specific patterns of muscular activity. It is a communication from
the unconscious mind expressed through body movement that is out of conscious
control. Reflexes are examples of ideomotor action. Other examples are head nods and
shakes, arm, finger and facial movements. In hypnosis the signals are known as
ideomotor responses’. By calibrating the signals for ‘yes and no’, a meaningful
communication is established with the unconscious mind.

Ideosensory response
An ideosensory response is an automatic response like the ideomotor response but it
involves actions such as blushing or salivating at the thought of food.

Internal representation
The content and submodalities of a specific thought. It may involve one or more of the
visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory representational systems.

Meditation
Linguistically, meditation is classified as a noun but in fact meditation is a process of
inquiry into the self. Meditation can have very different meanings depending upon the
context. In the West, meditation is defined as an exercise in devotion or contemplation,
sometimes on a religious or philosophical subject. Contemplation is an activity that uses
the mind. In the East the purpose of meditation is to take you beyond the mind. Thinking
is not something to be encouraged as the mind is seen as the root cause of all tensions,
hence thinking is to be transcended.

Logical levels
The NLP Logical Levels Model was inspired by Gregory Bateson and developed by
Robert Dilts et al. It gives us a model of the world at meaningful levels of abstraction:
spirituality, identity, attitude, values, beliefs, capability, behaviour and environment.

Meta Model
The Meta Model is an NLP linguistic tool used to gather high quality specific
information from a client. The Meta Model challenges the three human modelling
processes of distortion, generalisation and deletion.
- Distortions: mind reading, lost performative, cause-effect, complex equivalence and
presuppositions.
- Generalisations: universal quantifiers and modal operators.
- Deletions: nominalisations, unspecified verbs and simple deletions.

Meta programs
Meta programs are perceptual filters through which we view and act upon the world.
They are a means of sorting information, for example: self or other; people, systems or
things; sameness or difference; towards or away from; necessity or possibility, big
picture or details, etc.

Milton Model
Whereas the Meta Model is used to bring the subject out of trance by having them
specify what they mean by their statements, the Milton Model uses intentionally vague
language to induce a trance state. The Milton Model refers to the language patterns used
by Milton H. Erickson.

Milton Erickson (1901-1980):

A medical doctor who developed a style of hypnosis that became known as Ericksonian
Hypnosis. Milton Erickson was modelled by Bandler, Grinder, et al. Erickson’s work has
been published in dozens of volumes by Ernest Rossi.
Myers Briggs
A personality profiling tool developed in 1958 by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine
Cook Briggs based upon the book, Psychological Types written in 1921 by Carl Jung,
which was based upon the Chinese I-Ching The Book of Changes.
The Myers Briggs personality profile attempts to describe how four dimensions of
personality combine to form an individuals personality type. Introversion - extroversion.
Intuition - sensing. Thinking - feeling. Judging - perceiving. Taking the first letter of
each dominant dimension we get an abbreviation such as INFJ.
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (1987) combines the four types of Hippocrates into the
Myers Briggs analysis system to identify four major types: Guardians - fact oriented.
Artisans - action oriented. Idealists - ideals oriented. Rationalists - theory oriented.

NLP
A model of psychology founded by Richard Bandler, John Grinder and Frank Pucelik in
the early 1970’s and developed with a host of codevelopers over the next two decades.
NLP is a modelling methodology that was initially applied to studying the excellence of
Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erickson. Most people think of NLP as the
techniques when in fact they are the result of the modelling process.

NLP’er
An abbreviation for Neuro Linguistic Programmer.

NLP anxiety model

A technique which shifts a person’s perspective away from looking towards a future
event to looking back on the successful completion of the event. It works on the premise
that once the event is finished then anxiety can no longer exist.

Osho
Contemporary Zen Master, 11 December 1931 - 19 January 1990. Osho was born in
Kuchwada, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, central India. Becomes
enlightened at the age of twenty-one, while majoring in philosophy at D.N. Jain college
in Jabalpur. 1957-1966 University Professor and Public Speaker. 1966 onwards devotes
himself to raising human consciousness. Addresses gatherings of 20,000 - 50,000. Read
a complete biography.
Perceptual positions
First position is where you are looking out of your own eyes, listening with your own
ears, and feeling your own feelings, and hence grounded in your own body. Second
position is where you stand in the shoes of another person (or object) and look out of
their eyes, listen with their ears, and feel their emotions. Second position is also known
as empathy. Third position is actually second position with a space outside of your body
from where you are able to observe both yourself and another person/s or object/s.

Peripheral sensing
Utilising the peripheral aspects of the sense organs rather than focussing in. For
example, in the visual modality you can concentrate on what is in the direct field of
vision or relax into an awareness of what is in the periphery. In the auditory modality
you can concentrate on one sound or just be aware of the sounds around you that move
into and out of your awareness. When you bring peripheral sensing to one modality it
tends to relax you into peripheral sensing in the others too.

Post hypnotic suggestion

A suggestion given to a subject in trance that is carried out sometime after when they
come out of the trance. An individual can also give themselves a post hypnotic
suggestion, for example. To have a cigarette when they get home.

Rapport
Refers to the process of creating a state of liking between two or more people. Rapport
is the establishment of trust and harmony in a relationship. It is the key element in the art
of obtaining the support and cooperation of other people. 93% of communication is
transmitted by your body language and the way that you speak (analogue
communication). Only 7% of the message is carried by the words (digital
communication). Most of the time your analogue communication is unconscious. By
developing an ability to work at both the conscious and unconscious levels of
communication, you can learn how to establish deeper rapport and build trust and
harmony - with virtually anyone, in a much shorter time frame.
Representational systems
We have five senses - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory which gets
abreviated to VAKOG. Since visual, auditory and kinaesthetic are the three primary
representational systems this gets shortened to VAK. Read more.

Resource state
An emotional state that helps a person to perform at a higher level and achieve a desired
outcome.

Second position shift

Refers to perceptual positions. Getting a sense of what it is like to experience something
from the perspective of another person or object.

Secondary gain
If a person gains something positive from having a symptom or problem then we say
they have a motivation for the symptom/problem. They have secondary gain.

Selective thinking
Is a term used by Dave Elman to refer to the selected thought processes that a subject
maintains or entertains while in trance. Elman talked about implanting selective
thinking. Other hypnotists use the term ‘suggestions’ to mean much the same thing. In
trance the subject entertains a narrowed model of the world.

Sliding anchor
A sliding anchor is used to amplify a state.

Somnambulism
A deep state of hypnosis useful for personal change work. It can be used to create
anesthesia suitable for surgery. When it was first named it was thought that the state
resembled sleep walking but in fact somnambulism is nothing like sleep - it is more a
heightened state of consciousness. Dave Elman gives four stages to hypnosis: light
trance, medium trance, somnambulism and Esdaile or coma state.
Strategy
A strategy is a sequence of internal and external processes that involve one or more of
the five senses, and that work to consistently produce an outcome. All behaviours and
emotional states are produced by strategies.

Submodalities
Sub distinctions within the visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory senses.
Examples of visual submodalities: colour / black and white, movie / still, size,
brightness. Examples of auditory submodalities: volume, tonality and tempo. Examples
of kinaesthetic submodalities: location, sensation, temperature, pressure / tension,
movement, size, etc.

Subtle bodies
There are a number of models of the subtle bodies. In one model there are seven subtle
bodies. 1. Physical body. 2. Emotional body. 3. Intellect. 4. Mental body. 5. Spiritual
body. 6. Cosmic body. 7. Nirvanic body. Each subtle body has a corresponding centre or
chakra. The names of the subtle bodies vary depending upon the spiritual tradition. For
more information see The Seven Subtle Bodies.

Synesthesia
In terms of the sense organs it refers to connections in the brain between the different
centres for vision, audition, kinesthesion, olfaction and gustation. For example, such that
when the visual cortex receives sensory information this information is also delivered to
the other sensory centres. In this way one can experience warm colours, and sounds can
take on a colour.

Time Line
A conceptual tool for working with memories in respect of time. Timeline allows one to
work with large chunks of information without having to go into details. It provides a
structure that enables one to associate or dissociate, and change perspective in relation to
a singular event or a group of events, from the position of past, present or future.

Trance state
A trance is an altered state of consciousness. In common usage it refers to losing
conscious awareness of one’s surrounding and entering a daydream or waking sleep
state. At the extremes one may enter a trance through ecstatic dance or by sitting with
closed eyes in meditation.

Two part reframe

A technique that is used to resolve conflict between two or more conflicting internal
parts.

VAKOG
An abbreviation used by NLP’ers to refer to the five senses: visual, auditor, kinesthetic,
olfactory, gustatory.

Visual Kinesthetic Dissociation

A technique developed by Bandler and Grinder. In this technique the subject views the
memory as if watching it as an old black and white film from the projection booth of a
cinema. The technique creates a state of double dissociation. The subject then associates
into the memory and runs it backwards. This effectively neutralises the emotions.

Waking suggestion
A suggestion given to someone who is not in a trance and the suggestion does not cause
a hypnotic trance state.

Waking hypnosis
When hypnotic effects are achieved without formally inducing a trance state it is known
as waking hypnosis. It involves a bypass of the critical faculty and the implanting of
selective thinking. (Dave Elman Hypnotherapy page 69).

Witnessing
A term used by meditators to denote the act of noticing the thoughts as a dispassionate
observer.