NLP AND META-STATES “Meta-States is NLP on Steroids”

When speaking to NLP groups, I often ask, “How many of you know about the Meta-States Model?” Now with some NLP groups, I will sometimes find that nearly 90% have studied, learned, or read about Meta-States and then there are times when I’m with an NLP group where almost no one has studied Meta-States. Typically that’s because even the NLP Trainers who have taught them do not know about the Meta-States Model! So even though the model has been acknowledged, validated, and generally accepted in NLP since 1996 (for 17 years!), some trainers do not seem to stay current about what’s going on in the field of NLP.

I recently encountered a group that somehow had been sheltered from the new developments in NLP during the 1990s and beyond. As I introduced Meta-States to them, they had some questions, “Why is the Meta-States so important? What does it enable you to do?” As I explained, one of the things that I said was the following: “The Meta-States Model models NLP and it does so to such an extent that it is the model that enables you to consciously understand NLP—how it works. Anyone who is able to do NLP effectively does so by using the Meta-States structure. Without the guidance of the Meta- States Model, much of what you do in NLP is guesswork. But with the Meta-States Model, you can operate in a systematic and explicit way.”

Then this past weekend at the NLP Conference in London I presented a workshop on Systemic Coaching (based on the 2012 book by that title). Afterwards several experienced NLP Trainers commented that the Meta-States Model and the Matrix Model restored to NLP a systematic precision like the precision that they originally learned. When I asked them what they meant by that, they said that Meta-States enables them to move vertically as the Strategy Model enabled them to move horizontally. They then commented that the Meta-States Model was like an amplifier of NLP and one said, Yes, Meta-States is like “NLP on steroids.”

Now there’s an image for you! It jarred me a bit and I think that’s because I’m so used to the Meta- States Model, I tend to take it for granted. I forget how radical and empowering and revolutionary it can be for people when first learned. The Meta-States Model is radical and revolutionary because it addresses a different aspect of “mind” or “consciousness” than what the NLP model addresses. Whereas NLP studies the structure of the representational mind and models by following the direction and orientation of where that mind goes (using the Strategy Model), the Meta-States Model focuses on the distinctive kind of mind that most uniquely describes human consciousness— self- reflexive consciousness.

That’s why the NLP model offers a more linear understanding of consciousness beginning by noticing the “languages” of the mind (the representational systems of visual, auditory, kinesthetic,

etc.) and following where mind goes as it processes information. It simplifies the first level complexity of consciousness using the TOTE model (test-operate-test-exit) from the cognitive psychologists (George Miller, Karl Pribram, Eugene Gallanter) which in NLP has become the Strategy Model that we use for modeling subjective experiences.

Yet human consciousness is more complex and more systemic. Not only do we think step by step, we also reflect back onto our processing and layer thought-upon-thought, feeling-upon-feeling, belief-upon-belief, etc. This is how we create what’s called “logical levels.” Actually, there is no such thing as Logical Levels. That’s not a thing or object. It’s a process. The two nominalizations (“logical” and “levels”) actually refers to a singular process, using our reasoning powers to layer thought-and-emotion upon itself. So using verbs, it is layering and reasoning and so as we reason our inner logic creates our psycho-logics (Korzybski’s emphasis).

These are our meta-states— our states about our states. Our joy about our learning, our worry about our fear, our fear about scarcity, etc. This is what your self-reflexive consciousness creates as you think-feel-decide-identify, etc. What the Meta-States Model provides is the ability to track, detect, and work with these psycho-logical levels as you layer them (meta-state them, set them as the frames in your mind). And when you can do that, you are seeing the meta-level structures and structuring and your mind and/or the mind of another person with whom you are working and conversing.

What is the Meta-States Model?

It is a model about how you simultaneously reflect on your thoughts and feelings as you are thinking-and-feeling (experiencing states). It is a model about how you set the “logical level” frames in your mind that determines your inner world (your Matrix of Meanings). It is a model about these unconscious frames that drives your mind-body system. It is a model that details out the meta-move (the m in a strategy sequence) that’s within the structure of any and every subjective experience.

How does the Meta-States Model empower NLP, amplify NLP, extend NLP, and makes NLP explicit in a systematic way?

The Meta-States Model compliments the representational mind with the self-reflexive mind. The Meta-States Model identifies how self-reflexivity occurs. The Meta-States Model shows the process for how “beliefs” (a meta-state) arises from mere thoughts and emotions. The Meta-States Model identifies the layers of beliefs-upon-beliefs that creates a belief system. The Meta-States Model shows the structure (structuring) of “logical levels.” The Meta-States Model shows how different logical levels are facets of the same holoarchy and that they are not a hierarchy. And much, much more. Interested? See Meta-States (2007), Wining the Inner Game (2007), Secrets of Personal Mastery (1997), and Neuro-Semantics (2011).