Part 2

NLP – Today
Space, Movement and Flow

Consider, for a moment, the power of emptiness. The notion of Space, boundless and limitless in its potential to allow for things to unfold; and its ability to make room not only for what’s already there to expand but for what else may come. Consider, for a moment, that when Space is available, it becomes the invitation for ‘things’ to move into it… to flow through it… to be engaged. As we create Space – in our physical world as in our emotional/spiritual/psychological worlds – new things come into our lives. As we create Space in the way we think, our minds and our lives open to new ideas and their accompanying potential. Without Space, there is no movement.

In the realm of Space/Matter/Time/Energy, our notions of ‘reality’ have been challenged by the New Science and shaken to their very foundations. What we once held as ‘real’ and ‘true’ now exist as possibilities only and some things that we had held as absolutes have disappeared entirely. With the shifting of these sands come new ways of being in the world and new ways of ‘seeing’ what we once saw through the eyes of limitation and ignorance.

Owners Manual for a Quantum Biological Processor – Awakening to the Self

In a quantum biological age, we are discovering that human beings are far more than we had ever considered possible. The body, which we once believed to be who we are, we now know to be a quantum biological processor (QBP). Organic, brilliant, immeasurable in its potential, with the ability to detect and calibrate for ‘energy’ at levels that defy our understanding or appreciation….but processors, nonetheless. This is not my personal opinion – it’s science.

We already know that the human body is far more than we had ever dreamed it to be. Today’s science demonstrates that our bodies are bio-processors. They are not analogous to a bio-processor, or metaphorically bio-processors, but ARE bio-processors. With a sensing and processing capability that defies our ability to comprehend, our bodies move through the world on our behalf, tracking at 4 billion bits of information per second, and yet only drawing our attention to the things that we have determined to be meaningful.

We know that our bodies, these QBP’s, are the instrument through which we move in space/time, in a physical world. Without them, we may be detectable to a limited few but would miss the opportunity to be the life of the party! Without them, we would never know the taste of chocolate; or the smell of the ocean; or the feel of a warm, evening breeze brush across our skin. Our bodies allow us to be perpetually sensing in a boundless and limitless world of sensory input – both external and internal. They allow us to make distinctions in experience that we would miss were we not able to calibrate with such precision and expand our expression as a result of it.

NLP is a body of knowledge that was originally developed through a process of observation and enquiry. What made it so unique in its time was that it did not seek to understand any particular story (content) but sought to document the structure of how the story was being expressed through the mechanism of the body. This included functions that could be calibrated externally (i.e. eye patterns and language ) as well as those that could be tracked internally (i.e. strategy). These distinctions allowed us to begin to see the correlation of the external and the internal.

NLP helps us to understand how the mechanism of the body functions. In the truest sense of the word, the body of knowledge of NLP operates at the Environment Level of Logical Levels, providing an ‘owner’s manual’ for the way the mechanism of the body functions. We can then move away from the content of behavior and use the functions of the mechanism to recognize and acknowledge how the behavior is expressed through the mechanism.

For example, eye patterns are an indicator to us of how ‘the mouse’ is seeking to locate information in various files. We can generalize and say that if the ‘mouse’ is moving up and to the left, it is seeking information considered ‘remembered’ and stored in images. If the ‘mouse’ is seeking information that we are creating and doing so in sound, the eyes will move to the right, mid level. Predictable in terms of both function and intent.

NLP will also help us to understand that the body (bio-processor) has an ability to either reduce (Auditory digital) or accelerate (Psychic Intuitive) the speed at which information moves through the mechanism (processing speed). Again, by way of example, if we slow the processing speed, we can take a ‘memory’ (keeping in mind that ‘memory’ is a nominalization) and can calibrate for details on how that particular memory is stored. We can also increase the processing speed (in therapy model terms, an insight/gestalt) so that the information moves so quickly we are unable to detect and calibrate for content. In the language that we’ve created, we consider the slow processing speed to be at the Ad (Auditory digital) end along a continuum, and the fastest processing speed on that continuum to be at what we’ve called the Psychic Intuitive (or PsI) end. But processing speed of the mechanism is what we’re witnessing.

Over the last 30 years, the body of knowledge of NLP has evolved at more and more levels of detail at lower levels of thinking. Consider the variety that we’ve created at both the Environment and Behavior levels (logical levels) by changing the content on various patterns. How many varieties of the same intervention do we now have? For example, when doing a parts integration, although the process is basically the same, we have infinite variety in the language we use and the layers of linguistic cues, visual images and sounds we use in what is intrinsically the same process. Not a bad thing… just variations along the same theme.

Given what we now know from the quantum revelations of the last 50 years, and were we to assume that NLP does indeed, track and label the functioning of the mechanism (somewhat like an owners manual for your car…), where can we now go if we are to continue to engage in our own evolution, building on what we already have and already know?

In a world that has taught us to defer to external references (i.e. parents, teachers, rules, laws, dogma, authorities, etc.), one of the first things we must learn is to ignore/distrust the internal cues that come from the body. NLP has made it possible for us to begin, once again, to trust the mechanism of the body. NLP has made the functions of the mechanism itself predictable; has made it possible for us to begin to trust that the body knows what it’s doing with energy/information, just like we trust that the body knows how to digest our lunch. Consider that we might want to begin to recognize that if our bodies are bio-processors (and science, the god of the culture, tells us that they are), and if NLP does track and name the way the mechanism functions, if we were to step on to that platform and consider the view from there, we may begin to clear space for ourselves to get curious about : “What is the bio-processor, processing?”

A ‘therapy’ model would tell us that what we’re processing is ‘feelings’ or ‘emotions’ – both of which are nominalizations. Today’s science would tell us that what we’re processing is ‘information’ – another nominalization and one that does not have attached to it the powder keg of consequences that go with ‘emotions’. Were we to denominalize the experience, we would recognize that the mechanism of the physical body is a) engaging in b) moving information at phenomenal speeds. Dr. Candace Pert, in her book “Molecules of Emotion” would tell us that there are biochemical and electrochemical impulses that are engaging signals and transferring the information from that signal from one cell to the next, at speeds that defy our ability to comprehend (processing speed).

In today’s world, as we begin to engage the world from a quantum biological perspective rather than just talk about it, NLP Practitioners hold the potential not just to learn the technique of NLP (i.e. read the owners manual) but to use the technique of NLP to bridge to trusting the natural intelligence of the mechanism of the body; be willing to allow the body to do what it’s designed to do; get out of our own way, and allow for more information to move faster. ENGAGE life – to not only discover who we are but who we are capable of becoming!

In today’s world, Practitioners hold the potential to have NLP be the invitation to their own discovery; slip into the background and open a gateway to the magic that unfolds when we can trust – 100% and without exception – the quantum biological mechanism that we are. Without NLP, our ability to trust is limited and prevents us from letting go and allowing our bodies to do what they know how to do… brilliantly, at incredible speeds, without error and generatively.

We already know from science that every time we think a new thought, the topography of the brain is altered, allowing us to become a new perceptual filter for our own experience (or the creation of it?!). Imagine what life could become were we to allow these new thoughts to be engaged, from moment to moment, without fear.

In today’s world, after years of experiencing and expressing NLP at the level of the mechanism, is it enough to continue to stay at that level of expression? Until now, the alternative has been to move to the content of the behavior and its results, with painstaking detail, (therapy model – slow processing speed). We have moved from that which is apparent – observable behaviors and language; to that which has been more subtle – the underlying mechanism that has allowed for these to manifest in space and time; to the next layer – the signals that the mechanism is engaging and which are resulting in these expressions.

Steps to Engaging the Self

Step 1 – Breathe! As we breathe, the mechanism of the body opens and relaxes. In this state, the organic processor that we are expands and information/energy moves easily and freely through the ‘system’, in massive amounts. Details (pictures, sounds, etc.) are not always available and, given what we now know about the body, are completely unnecessary. However, trust is essential .

Step 2 – Follow the impulse! As the information/energy moves in the body, follow these sensations or impulses, to where they lead. Using the sense of safety that comes with the understanding that NLP allows for, we trust the mechanism of the body to do what it is designed to do and allow the impulses to be processed, without the need for content (i.e. pictures, sounds, etc). After all, we already know that there is no content in content worth knowing.

Step 3 – Allow yourself to know the truth. As the impulses move, and as the bio-processor that you are ‘metabolizes’ the information that it carries, your body comes to a place, to a moment, of stillness. In that moment, the undeniable truth of your experience reveals itself to you. With this revelation, the topography of the brain is altered and your world is never the same again. (We instinctively know this, which is one of the reasons why we hold our breath and distract ourselves in ways that allow the movement of information to be slowed or stopped completely. These distractions are often creative, colorful and tend to fall easily into the category of ‘addictions’.)

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Louise LeBrun - Founder of Partners in Renewal Inc. and the WEL-Systems Institute – is the creator of the WEL-Systems approach to change, Quantum TLC™ and The CODE Model™ . A WEL-Systems:NLP Master Trainer, Reiki Master and Huna teacher, she is the author of two books and several audio tape programs as well as a regular contributor to the field of NLP.