BELIEFS AND THE HOUSE OF MEANING

A long, long time ago in a century before this one, Bob and I worked out the actual structure of beliefs and we discover something stupendous for the field of NLP. Namely, the structure of beliefs is not based in sub-modalities. In spite of what almost every one in NLP believes and teaches, beliefs are not made out of the editorial features of your movies.

This is in spite of Bandlers straw-man argument about “ believing the sun will rise tomorrow.” The reason that represents a false argument is that when there is a belief —there is also the possibility of a belief’s reverse. If you believe, “I can’t learn something complex,’ the opposite belief is “I can learn something complex.” What would be the opposite of believing the sun will rise tomorrow? The sun will not rise? And who believes that? No one! And that’s why it is a pseudo-example.

Further Bandler got it wrong when he said that beliefs can be single images. Beliefs are statements— sentences that assert something. Accordingly we have beliefs that assert all sorts of things: Identity beliefs: “I believe that I am a wealth creator.” [These are also complex-equivalence beliefs: “I believe that rolling your eyes backwards means you think X is ridiculous.”] Quality beliefs: “I believe I am thoughtful and charming.” Capacity beliefs: “I believe I can resiliently bounce back from a set-back.” Causation beliefs: “I believe that rejection causes me to feel upset.” Time beliefs: “I believe there’s never enough time.” Existence beliefs: “I believe that fairies really exist.”

Notice that these sentences are asserting something about some aspect of reality. That’s what a belief is. It is not just a single image like the run rising. In Sub-Modalities Going Meta (1997/ 2005) Bob and I illustrated by using Hitler. “Do you believe that Hitler was a good person?” I hope you emphatically say “No, hell no.” Bandler’s approach would be to upgrade your visual image of Hitler changing the sub-modalities so that they represent how you represent what’s real. Make the picture bigger, brighter, put a smile on Aldoph’s face, erase the moustache, etc. Now is there anything you can do to your pictures and sounds so that you actually start to believe that he is a good man? Of course, the answer is no. That’s because no matter how good you make him look, in the back of your mind you say, “No, he murdered millions of people.”

What Bob and I worked out was that the structure of a belief involves confirming your first thought. We identified that it is the confirming process itself that transforms a thought or idea into a ‘belief.’ And how do we confirm? What evidence is required to confirm? The answer to that question is almost any evidence that a person so chooses to use. He may use authority, repetition, emotion, experience, reading it in a book, hearing it from someone he respects, etc. The confirming process involves essentially saying that the original thought or idea is right,

good, actual, and/or real. Do that and your second thought which confirms transforms the first thought into a belief.

Today that structure lies at the heart of the Meta-State Belief Change pattern using “yes” and “no” as the summary expressions that confirm or dis-confirm a thought. Yet that explanation, by itself, is only a basic description. Today as we make a much deeper dive into the structure of a belief, we recognize that a belief is a two-or-more-layered structure, first a primary level thought then a meta-thought about it. The second thought is a conclusion drawn about the first.

Meta-Thought: Doing my best is how I create self-worth. Thought: I believe I need to be the best to get approval.

You can confirm a thought (or idea) in so many ways. When you think any second thought about the first, it confirms it by treating it as real. For example, you an confirm its value, your memory of it, what you anticipate from the statement, what you understand, your identity, decision, intention, etc. While we can view each of these as additional meta-levels, we can also recognize them as beliefs. A value is what you believe is important. A memory is what you believe that you recall. An anticipation is what you believe you can forecast will happen in the future. A decision is what you believe is the best choice, and so on. It’s beliefs all the way up. Everything in the Meta Place and every possible higher logical level or meta-level is a belief.

In this way, you confirm any multi-layered idea as a belief. For you, it is true, actual, and real. It certainly seems real because your experience seems to validate it. As you think in this way so you believe and your belief then functions as if a program informing your nervous systems how to live it. In this, you live your beliefs because you embody them. You feel this and you act from this, you ‘see’ (perceive’) frm this (which creates your meta-programs). In this way your belief becomes self-reinforcing— a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Each belief becomes a house of meaning which you then live in. Now you can ask a series of questions to test a belief and/or develop a belief. Do that with the thought above, “I believe I need to be the best to get approval.”

So you believe this? For how long have you believed this? What are the results from believing this? Do you want to believe this? If you did not believe this, what would be the reverse that you’d like to believe?

It’s beliefs all the way up. These multi-layered ideas may or may not be true. What matter is that you treat it as if it were true and it determinates your behavior. It generates results in your emotions and actions. Ask, “What difference does the belief make in your actions?” If there is no difference, then there is no meaning, it is merely academic. If there is a difference, then what difference?

Is that what you want to do? What would you rather do instead of that? What do you need to believe so that you can do that?

References

1. See the articles on Beliefs in the Neurons Series 2011, “Beliefs as Sentences,” “Belief Structures,” “Sentences You Feel as Convictions,” and “Sentences Systemic in Nature.”