4 Tuple

4 Tuple (4T)

A 4 Tuple (4T) is an NLP term, and represents (models) the inner experience which an individual has at a given moment of time, and the equation 4T=VAKO is used. This latter means that human beings have at any given moment a set of sensory experiences consisting of the visual sense (V), the auditory sense (A), the kinesthetic (i.e., feeling) sense (K), and the olfactory sense (O) - which includes the gustatory sense (G) for simplification's sake. (In NLP terminology, these senses are called representational systems.) It is worth noting that human beings are not necessarily conscious of all the elements of VAKO at given moments.

It can be pointed out that a 4T can have either 1)externally generated elements or 2)internally generated elements. (Although it could have a combination of 1) and 2), this case is not discussed here.) In the former case, the 4T consists of only incoming (input) data given from the external world, and therefore, is denoted as 4Te with the superscript "e"; while in the latter case, it consists of only data coming from the internal memory, and is denoted as 4Ti with the superscript "i".

It is worth noticing that the notion of 4T enables us to define the too intangible term, "thinking", or "thought", as "internal behaviour" - and thus to substitute the "external behaviour/ internal behaviour" distinction for the "behaviour/thinking" distinction.

Here, it becomes obvious that what "to be here & now" (which was mentioned above) means is - in the final analysis - nothing but to have the internal experience of 4Te's; on the other hand, to be in Maya (mind, etc.) means nothing but to have the internal experience of 4Ti's.

Mystics or psychotherapists, especially those belonging to the schools such as Gestalt Therapy, Humanistic Psychology, etc., often advocate "Respond to what is happening here & now, instead of reacting to past projections (Unfinished Businesses of Gestalt)!". What this means is, in brief, to behave spontaneously, responding to the experience of 4Te's, instead of reacting to the experience of 4Ti's, if the NLP terminology is to be used. (A typical example of reacting to a past projection, instead of responding to what is happening now, can be found when someone behaves towards a certain woman in such a way that he or she is reminded of his or her own mother, and reacts to that image of the mother instead of to the woman herself in question.)

(NB: The text of this page is a quotation from Guhen Kitaoka's paper "NLP and Spirituality" with relevant amendments.)