Are you one of them?

Oh, sorry! I forgot to describe the problem first...

Many new NLP students suffer from a slight case of confusionitis. It's very contagious and it's transmitted by blogs written by confused people trying to make a buck on the back of NLP.

This affliction causes NLP students to confuse therapeutic patterns with generic communication patterns.

Are you one of them?

Among its symptoms, this condition leads them to try to use hypnotic patterns in their day-to-day communication. They speak in Ericksonian patterns. They drill people with Meta Model questions. They try to establish rapport by matching and mirroring.

Then, they get frustrated because they don't seem to get the responses they expect from their efforts.

Fortunately, there's a vaccine. I call it "contextual modeling."

Therapeutic patterns

I first noticed this issue within my first few years after getting my NLP Practitioner certification. I tried to apply my "NLP skills" to everything I did. Every situation presented an opportunity to match and mirror, pace people and ask precision questions.

What I failed to notice at the time, though, was that these were not NLP skills or general communication skills. They were skills modeled from therapists, designed to be applied in a therapeutic or counseling context — not business or everyday life.

This confusion definitely brings benefits to some. People who are working on their own personal issues or want to help others solve personal issues, can just take the existing NLP corpus and run with it.

For those who are not working on personal issues but want to develop in other ways, such as expanding their skill sets or communication range, this confusion can be costly in two main ways:

1. It keeps them from discovering the basin of possibilities beyond the therapeutic context.
2. It frustrates them to fall flat when they apply therapeutic patterns in other contexts and they don't work.

How the problem manifests

It's part of the lore of NLP that participants come out of their training as CIA interrogators wielding the Meta Model. Trainers issue a warning before releasing their newly minted Pracs into the wild: "Don't start cross-examining everybody you meet!"

Participants will also traditionally begin including Ericksonian language patterns in their everyday speech and start matching and mirroring complete strangers. Co-trainees have shared with me stories of getting odd looks after trying on some of these behaviors with people they meet off the street.

How would you react if a therapist approached you in the street and started talking funny to you? You would more than likely feel weirded out — AS YOU SHOULD!

That's essentially how these participants behave. They forget the most crucial detail: THEY are in a therapeutic frame; their counterpart ISN'T. That's ultimately what makes the patterning fail, no matter how well it was taught.

It's not their fault, though. It wasn't made clear to them that applying NLP is not the same as applying a product of NLP.

So how do we get past this?

Embrace contextual modeling

The main reason for this problem dragging on decade after decade is the standard NLP Practitioner curriculum doesn't revolve around training participants to model outstanding performers. Participants get exposed to a bit of modeling, in the following ways: they experiment a bit with modeling each other, and they're exposed to the therapeutic patterns that came out of modeling Perls, Satir and Erickson.

Modeling one another can be a lot of fun. However, it doesn't focus the participant on modeling excellence.

Learning the product of the initial modeling of therapists is also valuable. Still, it's not the same as learning how to model excellence. Participants simply learn to apply the product of the modeling process.

This reminds me a bit of philosophy classes. Students do not learn how to philosophize. Instead, they learn the product of other people's philosophizing. As with most academic disciplines, philosophy is mostly a history class of the philosophizing that came before.

So how can you escape this trap?

First, bracket the context of the therapeutic protocols learned in training. The Meta Model of Language in Therapy is a Gestalt therapy model. The Milton Model is a hypnosis therapy model. They are to be used in therapeutic contexts.

If you have been formally trained in NLP, compartmentalize what you have learned into the therapy bucket. If you haven't been trained yet, use this framework to make the most of your training if one day you choose to invest in it. 

Second, learn to model. Learn to apply the methodology that Bandler and Grinder developed to carry out the modeling of the outstanding therapists. This will enable you to acquire and teach skills like no other method available on Earth today.

Third, model a different type of communicator. Change the context. I always recommend to go with a persuader because it's the kind of communication that is most useful to us in our daily lives (dailyNLP, hint hint...).

Why is this third step so valuable — and necessary, in my opinion? Because it breaks you out of the confines of the language of therapy. If you've studied NLP for some time, you've been bathing in that language and that frame has taken over your comprehension of the field.

Once you build a Meta Model of Language in Persuasion, for instance, you uncover all kinds of language patterns that have NOTHING to do with the hypnotic patterns of Milton Erickson — but are equally as compelling when used in their proper context.

At that point, you'll have integrated two important distinctions:

1. The modeling methodology used to produce models of excellence.

2. Two products of the modeling methodology, both about language, yet applied to two distinct contexts.

At that point, you'll have completely dissociated NLP from its products, and you'll be well on your way to mastering modeling.

"But Martin, what if I haven't done any formal NLP training yet?"

All the better!

If you learn the modeling methodology first, then you'll have all the compartments ready to classify what you learn in training.

I hope this makes sense to you. If anything is unclear, don't wonder! Ask in the comments.

Here are the key takeaways for you to ponder:

:: Run-of-the-mill NLP trainings teach a communication model that works in the context of therapy.

:: Applying NLP is not the same as applying a product of NLP.

:: Learn the modeling methodology.

:: Use the methodology to produce a communication model that works in a different context.

In a previous article, I explained in detail the distinction between surface structures and deep structures.

In this one, I want to bring you into the incredible practice of hunting.

No, I'm not talking about killing moose and putting their heads on crests above your fireplace.

I'm talking about hunting deep structures. Ultimately, the NLP Modeler's success or failure in a modeling project revolves around his or her ability to track the deep structure that gives rise to the surface structure of genius.

Fortunately, we all possess the innate gift that allows us to detect deep structure. It's precisely that talent we want to sharpen, stimulate and hone so that we can go from passively detecting deep structure as a common human being to proactively hunting it as modelers.

I'll share with you in a second what that talent is, but first...

Stop for a second.

Can you imagine yourself on the prowl, relentless, determined, utterly unstoppable, tracking genius? Hours, days, weeks, perhaps months... riveted on a piece of excellence you wish to claim, grab, make your own...

Can you feel yourself completely surrendered to the pursuit of elegance — that state of total mastery in which genius expresses itself in the simplest and most economical way?

Can you experience the passion and drive running through your veins every day, 100% engaged in life, vibrating, thriving as you track genius?

No, it has nothing to do with the careless, adolescent thrills we all have experienced in youth. It goes much deeper than that. It's a vitality born in wisdom, in the astute realization that the whole of existence can be captured in the moment when your awareness pierces the veil that separates you from that secret. It's the anticipation of the intense joy that comes when the treasure chest breaks open into your consciousness, exploding into a shower of insights that bring you an inch closer to the infinite...

Can you feel that?

It's the reward of the hunter.

The hunter is the one who has honed...

Pattern recognition

Let's take a closer look at these two words. We'll start with "recognition".

To recognize means to identify something from having encountered it before.

Recognition is not analysis. There's no conscious process taking place. There's just an intuition, a feeling, a sense of familiarity. "I've seen/heard/felt/smelled this before..."

We all do this. It's not even a matter of KNOWING how to do it, because we've all been recognizing since our most tender age as babies. It's an innate trait of human beings — and animals, might I add.

What about "pattern"?

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a pattern as "a reliable sample of traits, acts, tendencies, or other observable characteristics of a person, group, or institution," or "a frequent or widespread incidence.”

For our purposes, we'll choose the second definition: "a frequent or widespread incidence."

In simple words, something that keeps happening over and over and over.

When you connect the notion of patterns to the concepts of surface structure and deep structure, it becomes clear that the pattern is the deep structure. Out of that pattern, all the surface expressions emerge.

When you put the two together, you get the very clear property that all human beings possess: recognizing the deep structure.

This means that we all have a sense of familiarity when we sense the deep structure. We know it's there. We can feel it. But most people just can't put their finger on it.

The NLP Modeler can't accept that. (S)He has to put his or her finger on it. That's why the NLP Modeler becomes a pattern hunter.

Hunting patterns

In NLP Modeling, pattern hunting has to do with the methods used to tease out the particular processes and distinctions most relevant in the outstanding exemplar's performance.

The most fundamental way to do this is to get a large enough sample of the exemplar's performance, and begin to unconsciously uptake those performances in order to absorb the deep structure. The point of modeling is not to identify the average of all these performances, but to find the pattern that connects all of them from the perspective of the performer, not the observer.

This last part bears repeating — from the perspective of the performer, not the observer.

There is a MASSIVE distinction between the two, and I hope you can appreciate it. 

(If this is not clear, be sure to ask in the comments.)

Pattern hunting is different than just identifying characteristics. Being able to perceive and categorize particular gestures or facial expressions is not the same as figuring out which of those gestures are actually crucial to the performance of the outstanding skill.

Pattern hunting consists in identifying consistent characteristics or behaviors in various performances that are critical in enabling the skill or ability to produce a specific result.

The strainer of the pattern hunter

In his book A System of Logic, John Stuart Mill offered five sorting mechanisms to recognize patterns. We NLP Modelers owe him quite a debt of gratitude. They are:

1. Agreement — Notice which characteristics are always present in a number of performance samples that deliver the desired result.

2. Difference — Notice a specific characteristic that is generally absent but is evidently present in the performances that deliver the desired result.

3. Contrast (combining Agreement and Difference) — Notice which characteristics are always present in the performances that deliver the desired result, and always absent when performances do not yield the desired result. 

4. Concomitant Variation — Notice characteristics that increase or lower in intensity and their impact on the degree to which a performance yields the desired result.

5. Residues (Process of Elimination) — If you notice a specific characteristic of a performance in association with a specific piece of the result, then you can presume that the remaining characteristics of the performance will be responsible for the remaining pieces of the result.

Once again, as I mentioned above, these methods must be applied from the perspective of the performer, not the observer.

These approaches all require having access to several samples of the performance you want to model. At the very least, you should have three instances. Ideally, many more than that.

A characteristic that shows up in one instance of performance may suggest the presence of a pattern. A characteristic that shows up in two instances of performance validates the hypothesis that a pattern is at play. A characteristic that is present in three or more samples offers strong evidence of a pattern.

Ultimately, though, you know you have found a pattern when you apply the characteristic and you're able to produce the result. The only way to test a pattern is to use it.

So keep this in mind as you advance in your exploration of modeling:

:: The deep structure consists of patterns.

:: All human beings possess the ability to recognize patterns.

:: NLP Modelers are pattern hunters.

:: Patterns must be teased out from the perspective of the performer.

When Bandler and Grinder published The Structure of Magic in 1975, the title itself suggested that the incredible has an underlying structure. Those able to tap into that structure would instantly acquire the same super powers as the "magicians" themselves.

Let's take a closer look at the notions of "magic" and "underlying structure," shall we?

Surface structure vs deep structure

As a linguist, Grinder knew Noam Chomsky's transformational grammar very well. He was quick to import many distinctions from the field into NLP quite early on as a tool to model people's language.

A key tenet of transformational grammar is that outward expressions, utterances, and behaviors are "surface structures" that manifest or emerge from "deep structures".

In the case of the therapeutic wizards that Bandler and Grinder modeled, Perls and Satir, the questions they asked — the magic — was the surface structure. These questions emerged from an understanding, a comprehension, a fundamental intuition — the deep structure.

A single deep structure can give rise to multiple surface structures. This is very important to know when you're modeling because it means you have to access multiple examples of surface structures in order to identify the deep structure from which they emerge. Surface structures express and reflect many important clues about the deep structure.

Let me give you three examples of this.

When you were a child, you learned to write using one of your two hands. Surprisingly enough, once your hand had mastered this ability, you could immediately apply it with a different body part. For example, you can probably write your name holding a pencil in your mouth. Or, you can make out the letters of your name using one of your feet. The deep structure of your name isn't confined to your hand. You can express it using almost any body part.

If you want to model Steve Jobs' skill at presenting product launch events, you should procure several examples of his product launches in order to identify the deep structure. A single product launch will probably not allow you to get to it.

When I developed Meta Model Mastery, I illuminated the deep structure behind the key Meta Model questions so that my students could create any number of questions — or surface structures — from that deep structure. Whereas most NLP students struggle to memorize and deploy the 25+ Meta Model questions, my students only have to learn 5 patterns and then they can not only deploy the 25+ questions but even come up with as many new ones as they wish.

That's the power of tapping into the deep structure!

Cities vs maps

Here's an analogy to help you understand the relationship between deep structure and surface structure: cities and maps. A city is a rich, deep structure that contains many layers of information. When creating a map of a city, the mapmaker has to simplify the city by choosing which layer (s)he wants to express. A mapmaker could create a road map, a topographical map, a thermal map, a physical map, and so on. Each of these maps is a partial expression of the deep structure.

The big challenge you face when modeling is that you have to select which piece of the deep structure you will include in the model. It's also likely you'll have to distort those pieces to make it fit the model. For instance, a map of the Earth is presented on a flat surface even though the Earth is spherical — a blatant distortion.

Language as a surface structure

When we speak, we have to select what pieces of the deep structure (the mental images, sounds, physical sensations, smells and tastes we perceive, experience or recall) will make it into the surface structure (the words, gestures, or facial expressions we choose to represent our experience). What we say is only a partial expression of our experience. 

People's deep structure consists of sensory and emotional experiences — or "primary experience." Language is "secondary experience" — that is, a part of our model of the world that is generated and expressed from our primary experience. 

People who seek therapy generally do so because they have selected a layer of reality that has resulted in a disempowering map. Now, they are navigating reality in a way that makes them feel bad.

Bandler and Grinder developed the Meta Model as a systematic approach to help people work with the surface structure of their language and reconnect with their deep structure in order to generate new and more empowering surface structures, or maps of reality.

This fundamental principle is the reason why we can't simply ask outstanding performers to tell us how they do what they do. What they say will only be a partial expression of their experience, and it's unlikely that they'll know to select the most meaningful parts.

The goal of NLP Modeling is to build as useful a description of the deep structure as possible so that anyone can embody it and begin deriving similar surface structures as those of the outstanding performer.

In other words, if you model Steve Jobs's product launch presentation skill effectively, you will build a useful description of its deep structure. With that deep structure in hand, you should be able to derive product launch presentations of a comparable quality to is.

NLP Modeling is the attempt to identify the patterns of deep structure that generate the surface structure expressions of genius.

You get to experience all of this in depth in the Modeling Experience.

For now, simply start noticing everything that you say and everything you hear others say as surface structures, partial expression of a deeper, more complex and complete reality.

:: Surface structures manifest from deep structures.

:: Surface structures are partial expressions of deep structures.

Before I get started on this topic, I just want to point something out. If you ever have a question: don't wait! Ask! I'm friendly, and here to help. Head down to the comments below the article and ask. I usually reply in less than 24 hours.

I remember distinctly a gentleman named Pete at one of my live training sessions almost twenty years ago. He raised his hand. I called on him. He asked:

"Martin, you've been using the word 'model' since the training started. Can you explain what exactly you mean by 'model' and how it's used in NLP?"

I looked at him and, in that moment, formulated the answer I use to this day to answer that question. Let me share a bit of that day's conversation with you...

First, dictionary time!

Dictionary.com defines the term "model" as "a simplified representation of a system or phenomenon, as in the sciences or economics, with any hypotheses required to describe the system or explain the phenomenon, often mathematically."

Boy is that a mouthful! Let's get another bite!

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary also offers this definition: "a description or analogy used to help visualize something (such as an atom) that cannot be directly observed."

Let's turn this abstract gobbledy-gook into a concrete example, shall we?

Think of the solar system. In the context of the solar system, we could create a few different types of models:

1. a miniature plastic "sculpture" of the planet Earth,
2. an illustration of the solar system,
3. a yearly lunar calendar,
4. That's enough!

Each of these is a possible model of the solar system. Each emulates a specific characteristic of the real solar system and offers distinctions so we can best interact with the solar system and "use" it for our purposes. 

Let's take the plastic sculpture of the Earth as an example. It can help us see which parts of the planet stay in the dark when one side is illuminated so we can effectively plan the position of solar power stations.

How about an illustration or map of the solar system? This could help us plan the best orbital position for a space station.

A yearly lunar calendar, on the other hand, could help us identify tidal patterns so we can plan navigation and fishing expeditions more effectively.

All three of these are different models of aspects of the solar system. Each of them, in its own right, can help us make the most of our interactions with these elements of the solar system.

This brings us to an important and fundamental axiom of NLP: The fundamental criterion by which to evaluate any model is whether it's useful or not.

This is super important and I want you to read it over.

The fundamental criterion by which to evaluate any model is whether it's useful or not.

Not whether the model is true.

Not whether the model is accurate.

Not whether the model is perfect.

Not whether the model is realistic.

Usefulness! That's the holy grail!

Understanding this opens the door to understanding NLP Modeling.

Building models of bad-ass behavior

That's what NLP is all about. 

The purpose of the field is to offer a methodology and tools that enable us to map the behavior and processes of people who stand out at what they do, a.k.a. badasses. 

The main goal of an NLP Practitioner (I'll spare you the NLP belt system of "Prac", "Master Prac" and "Trainer") should be to model outstanding skills or abilities and make them available to others.

The key issue in accomplishing this is that badasses are generally INTUITIVE about what they do. That means they can't effectively teach others how it is they do what they do. This is where NLP Modeling connects directly with the power of intuition that we covered in previous articles.

An effective NLP Practitioner teases out the absolutely essential intuitive components of thinking and action necessary to get the outcome, and orchestrate them into a step-by-step description of what's needed to accomplish the same result. 

That orchestration is ultimately where the "Programming" in Neurolinguistic Programming comes from. It refers to the creation of sequential, step-by-step "recipes" or programs that anyone can follow to accomplish the result. Ideally, anyone who wants to reproduce that level of performance can pick up the model and apply it.

(If you want to see examples of this, take a look at the Speed-Reading model and the Quiet Mind model.)

Earlier, I mentioned that the fundamental criterion by which to evaluate any model is whether it's useful or not. The goal of NLP modeling isn't to arrive at a correct, true, perfect or right transcription of someone's thinking or behavioral process. Instead, the goal of modeling is to create a map that someone can act on to get results.

If you read NLP's seminal book, "The Structure of Magic", you can see the product of the modeling approach. This book emerged from Richard Bandler and John Grinder's modeling work of the language patterns used by genius therapists Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir. The book teaches any therapist what questions to ask systematically when they hear a particular language pattern from a patient/client. For example:

• When the client says "I feel depressed" ask "All the time?"
• When the client says "I don't seem to be able to manage my money." ask "How do you know?"

The method systematized the process of asking questions to the point where anyone who learned the system could instantly develop a surprising level of therapeutic proficiency.

NLP Modeling is the method Bandler and Grinder used to tease out the pertinent components of Perls and Satir's behavior, and then orchestrate them into a useful working model.

While a lot of NLP modeling is performed by directly watching and embodying the behavior of the outstanding performer who serves as the exemplar, we can also perform a lot of modeling work based on written, audio or video records as well.

The alphabet

In order to build an explicit model of thinking and action, you need an alphabet. By alphabet, I mean a system of notation or a code that allows you to transcribe what the student of the model needs to do in their mind to get the outcome.

Let's take a look at a few examples...

Our "literal" alphabet (a, b, c, d, e, etc.), for example, is a code that allows us to transcribe sounds, mainly uttered words, into a written format. That code allows those who are versed in it (literate people) to translate it back into uttered words or images. When you read "apple", you can easily say it out loud and even visualize the fruit in your mind.

In music, there's a different kind of alphabet. It looks like this:

Source: iStock Photos

People who are versed in that alphabet or code can sit at a piano and produce a piece of music. The code tells them exactly which note to play and for how long to hold it.

Over the years, NLP Practitioners have developed an alphabet they use to transcribe people's thinking and behavioral patterns. If you've ever read NLP material, you may have come across terms like:

• Representational systems
• Submodalities
• Strategies
• Perceptual positions
• TOTEs
• 4-tuples
• State

Each of these terms is part of the NLP alphabet, or code, used to annotate and transcribe thinking and behavior. While NLP Practitioners didn't create all of them, they've adopted them for their usefulness in the process of creating maps.

A way to hunt intuitive performance

Think of NLP as a sophisticated toolkit for hunting down intuitive performance and making it explicit. 

A method.

An alphabet or code.

That's it.

If you learn how to apply the method and how to read and write the code, you will for all purposes become an NLP Modeler.

Let's say you found someone that demonstrates a great skill and you'd like to adopt that skill for yourself. How should you go about it? I suggest you use NLP modeling to do it.

In this article, we'll focus specifically on the first part of the modeling process, which we call the unconscious uptake. For a full overview of the process, refer to NLP Modeling: The Ultimate Guide.

Unconscious uptake and intuition-building

Once you have selected an exemplar (the person who exemplifies the skill you want to acquire), the first step is to absorb their patterns of excellence. The NLP methodology teaches you to do this by stepping into them or acting "as if" you were them. The purpose of this exercise is precisely to begin building intuitions, or direct knowledge, about the skill this outstanding performer exemplifies.

When you engage in unconscious uptake, you aren't scanning for any specific patterns. Rather, you simply take on the behavior of your exemplar congruently, meaning you behave as if you were them, allowing your neurology to identify and match them as much as you can. If you have access to the person, do not overlook any micro behaviors such as tiny muscle movements, facial expressions or other subtle manifestations. Sometimes, these tiny expressions can give you access to the deep intuitions that give rise to them.

CAUTION: Do not attempt do this without setting up protective unconscious filters. Unconscious uptake is a full contact sport. You can harm yourself if you skip this most important step. That's why it's the very first thing my students learn during onboarding in the Modeling Experience.

During this phase of modeling, don't attempt to understand or figure out what the exemplar is doing. Don't try to make sense of the behavior from your point of view. Remember: the exemplar is probably an outstanding performer because they have a completely different model of the world from yours.

Have you ever done something you regretted and then said: "I don't understand why I did that!" Consider using the exact same perspective when modeling. You don't understand why they do it the way they do it, and you shouldn't try to do so from your model of the world. If you do, you'll remain in what I call the "commentator's box".

Let me illustrate this in a different way...

In televised professional sports, you have two perspectives of the game. The first is the players'. The second is the commentator's. Players who are on the field have a direct experience of the game and they PLAY it. Commentators, on the other hand, have a broad view of the game and they talk ABOUT it.

It's a completely different perspective, aimed at a completely different goal. 

They analyze the players' actions from a spectator's viewpoint. For that reason, they would NEVER be able to make the decisions the players make, because their model of the world does not include the heuristics required to play the game.

The same applies to you when modeling. You are trying to get down on the field and assume the player's position. Stay clear of the commentator's box by abstaining from analyzing or judging from your perspective. You have no idea what's important or what's irrelevant in their model.

That's why it's ideal for you to approach this phase from a state of "not knowing". We also call this state the "Nerk Nerk state" in NLP.

The state of "not knowing"

When you enter a state of "not knowing", your goal is to suspend your pre-conceptions and assumptions so you can get a clean perspective on the experience at hand. You don't want to assume anything about the person and their experience so you can avoid distorting it in your information-gathering.

Robert Dilts shares the following story to illustrate the unique perspective of the modeler on the state of "not knowing".

An NLP Practitioner, Master Practitioner and a Modeler went on a walk for the first time in the redwood forest in Santa Cruz.

On the path in front of them they saw a yellow banana slug. “Oh look,” said the Practitioner ‘The slugs in Santa Cruz are
yellow.”

The Master Practitioner replied, “Not necessarily. Some slugs in Santa Cruz are yellow.” The Modeler retorted, “Well, there is at least one path in Santa Cruz, with at least one slug on it which is yellow — at least on one side.”

That state is incredibly useful because, as you suspend your preconceptions, you can begin asking yourself all kinds of questions that you would otherwise overlook or pass over. What would happen if you didn't take anything for granted? A good example of this was Milton Erickson, who went so far as to wonder whether his clients' eyes were both original (one could be glass), or whether his clients' hair were real or a wig.

As modelers, we use the state of "not knowing" to enhance our awareness, unleash our creativity and stimulate our ability to draw closer to the exemplar without succumbing to the limitations of our model of the world.

Keep in mind that every major breakthrough in almost any field is usually achieved by outsiders. Why? Because insiders are held back by what they take for granted and breakthroughs result from asking "stupid" questions.

The Nerk-Nerk frame

Todd Epstein introduced the term "Nerk Nerk" to NLP in reference to the state of "not knowing". It's the name of a fictional alien creature who shares human beings' nervous system and physical characteristics, but lacks all of their perceptual filters and cultural assumptions. 

Nerk Nerk understands all languages, but he's not able to accomodate ambiguity in the way humans do. In order for Nerk Nerk to understand and respond, you have to offer him purely sensory-based descriptions and instructions.

For example, if you told Nerk Nerk to imagine a dog, he wouldn't be able to do it. Whereas you and I would instantly fill the ambiguity with a presupposition (we'd see a poodle or a German shepherd or a collie), Nerk Nerk would require those races to be explicitly specified, along with races and sizes (among other details) to be able to imagine precisely the animal we want him to have in mind.

The Nerk Nerk frame is useful from two perspectives. First, as a modeler, so you suspend your presuppositions during the unconscious uptake phase. Second, when you are transferring a model to a trainee, in which case you pretend that (s)he is Nerk Nerk, and you have to describe or explain something so he can understand it. This frame challenges you to increase precision in your communication and ground your descriptions in sensory-based language.

The power of not knowing

I hope you appreciate the uniqueness of this approach to knowledge acquisition.

This, at its core, distinguishes NLP from every other learning system out there. Modeling behavior is not a practice exclusive to Neurolinguistic Programming. However, this unique phase of unconscious uptake is.

As you approach the development of any new skill in your life, seek first to build intuitions, or direct knowledge, before you seek to understand.

The dailyNLP Modeling Experience aims at guiding you through this visceral experience in a lab-controlled environment so you can begin applying this method to every skill you want to learn.