When you learn NLP, authors and readers often speak of a primary representational system. Many NLP novices mistakenly label people with a representational system. “Oh, he’s auditory.” “Oh, she’s kinesthetic.” Don’t make this mistake. Keep your sensory channels open and notice people’s shifts in representational system from moment to moment and state to state.

Today, we’ll talk about sub-modalities of the kinesthetic representational system.

In NLP, we consider sub-modalities to be the particular characteristics or qualities of a specific representational system. For instance, kinesthetic sub-modalities include temperature, texture, weight, pressure and balance.

I find it harder to identify a useful analogy for manipulating kinesthetic sub-modalities. For visual sub-modalities, you can compare it to manipulating the image on your television or DVD player. For auditory sub-modalities, you can compare it to playing with the sound on your stereo. For kinesthetic, it’s not that simple or obvious, because kinesthetics tend to be very associated.

To find a useful analogy, you might have to imagine several experiences. For instance, being under the shower and turning water temperature up or down. Or, to understand kinesthetic rhythm, imagine being in a loud disco and feeling the techno beat in your chest.

So, what are some of the kinesthetic sub-modalities that you can adjust to change your reaction to the feelings you hallucinate?

1. Temperature (Hot vs. cold)
2. Texture (rough vs. smooth)
3. Vibration
4. Pressure
5. Weight (Heavy vs. light)
6. Location
7. Rhythm
8. Steady or intermittent
9. Facial expression
10. Body position
11. Eye positions
12. Gestures
13. Mass – how big is it?
14. Intensity
15. Density
16. Movement (motion, spinning in which direction)
17. Balance
18. Strong or Weak
19. Constant or Intermittent
20. Shape of sensation

Learning NLP inevitably demands that you learn sub-modalities. Many practitioners question whether you need the sub-modalities model to effect change in yourself or clients. One way or another, our nervous system uses sub-modalities to encode meaning. More on this in later articles.

Today, we’ll talk about sub-modalities of the auditory representational system.

In NLP, we consider sub-modalities to be the particular characteristics or qualities of a specific representational system. For instance, auditory sub-modalities include sound volume, sound distance, sound location, sound tonality and so forth and so on.

In the case of manipulating auditory sub-modalities in NLP, a great analogy to use is your stereo. Using your remote control, you can manipulate sound until you hear it just the way you intend it to. You can pan sound from the left to the right speaker, increase the volume, alter the equalization and so forth. Likewise, you can do this in your hallucinatory apparatus.

So, what are some of the auditory sub-modalities that you can adjust to change you reaction to the sounds you hallucinate?

1. Mono vs. stereo
2. Loud or quiet
3. Inflections (words marked out)
4. Pauses
5. Duration
6. Rhythm (regular, irregular)
7. Volume
8. Variations: looping, fading in and out, moving location
9. Tonality
10. Qualities of sound (raucous, soft, windy)
11. Static vs. moving
12. Location
13. Tempo
14. Soft vs. rasping
15. Frequency (high vs. low pitch)
16. Source of sound
17. Cadence
18. Timbre (characteristic sound, such as a voice like Bugs Bunny)
19. Movement of the source
20. Tempo
21. Voice: whose voice, one or many
22. Background sound vs. only sound

NLP broke into a brand new playground when Richard Bandler modeled submodalities. In the next few articles, we’ll be examining extensive lists of submodalities available in the three most used representational systems: visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

Today, we’ll look at submodalities of the visual representational system.

In NLP, we consider submodalities to be the particular characteristics or qualities of a specific modality. For instance, visual submodalities include picture size, picture distance, picture location, picture color, picture brightness and so forth and so on.

In the case of visual submodalities, a great analogy to use is your DVD player. Using your remote control, you can manipulate your image until it looks exactly the way you intend it to. You can shrink the image, zoom in, increase the brightness, sharpen the contrast and so forth. Likewise, you can do this in your imagination apparatus.

So, what are some of the visual submodalities that you can adjust to change your reaction to the pictures you make?

1. Style: picture, painting, poster, drawing, “real life”
2. Panoramic vs. framed picture
3. Shape: concave, convex, square, oval, etc.
4. Level of brightness
5. 2-D vs. 3-D
6. Black and white vs. color
7. Focus (on certain objects) vs. Blurred
8. Clear vs. fuzzy
9. Movie vs. still frame
10. Size of the picture (tiny, small, life size, big, huge)
11. Size of the main object
12. Associated (seeing through your own eyes) vs. dissociated (seeing yourself in the picture)
13. Number of pictures viewed simultaneously
14. Distance of the picture from you
15. Sharpness of colors
16. Contrast
17. Angle
18. Movement (stopped, slow, regular, fast, super speed)
19. Location of picture (up, down, left, right)