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." Also in the book Sub-Modalities Going Meta.

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.