This page provides the links to the backnumber issues of the newsletter written in Japanese by Taiten Kitaoka, a Japanese NLP trainer/facilitator. Note: This "provocative" title of the newsletter is meant to suggest that Taiten Kitaoka's NLP work is the first attempt for the integrated NLP in the Japanese market. It is not meant to claim that his NLP work is genuine in a more general sense. ************************************************************************ Issue #6: 2003.12.8. 'This is the Genuine NLP!' ************************************************************************ The author, who has been formally trained by the four most important co-developers of NLP (Grinder, Bandler, Dilts, and DeLozier) will send newsletters containing a variety of information concerning the advanced communication psychology/ pragmatic psychology known as NLP. ************************************************************************ "NLP Personal Editing Techniques" Hello everybody! I am Taiten Kitaoka, a Japanese NLP trainer/facilitator. While some discussion on "NLP Personal Editing" techniques were made in the fourth issue of this newsletter, I would like to expound them further in the current issue: First of all, this topic is related to one of the FAQ (frequently asked questions) of NLP: "In order to have an overall view of NLP, how and/or to what extent should I study NLP?" That is, I think that one experiences two major problems whenever one wants to start to read NLP related books, either the original books in English or the translated books. The first major problem is that NLP has a wide range of theories (or rather "models" in epistemological terminology). Among these NLP models, I can enumerate from the top of my head "Representational Systems", "NLP Presuppositions", "Anchoring", Eye Scanning Patterns", Perceptual Positions", "Calibration", Meta-Models", "4 Tuple", Chinks", "TOTE", "Meta Programs", "Time Line", "Reframing", "Submodalities", "Neuro-logical Levels", etc. In the case of NLP models, almost all of them have their corresponding NLP techniques (or exercises), which are devised so that these theoretical models may be pragmatically applied to the real lives of the practitioners of these exercises, and these models and their respective techniques constitute independent pairs. It is therefore, of course, impossible for one to existentially understand NLP models in their skin, without having already experienced the exercises corresponding with the models in question, however many books one reads. Also, the second major problem is that, for instance the content of the book "Princes into Frogs" written by John Grinder and Richard Bandler in 1979, which was based on the edited script of one of the workshops held by the two NLP co-founders, could not be existentially understood by the reader instead of intellectually, unless he or she has already participated in some kinds of NLP or, at least, Gestalt like workshops. These two problems enumerated above seem to turn out to be creating the general opinion against NLP that NLP is difficult to understand. Yet, the solution which can solve these two problems, and may even provide an answer to the above FAQ question: "In order to have an overall view of NLP, how and/or to what extent should I study NLP?" is for one to learn a series of NLP Personal Editing techniques from competent NLP trainers, and existentially experience them. That is to say, by means of directly experiencing a series of NLP Personal technique exercises, one will come to experientially recognise that NLP is not just an aggregate of left-brain oriented theories like mental exercises, but rather that such models as enumerated above are related with each other in organic, dynamic and holistic ways. Then for the first time one will be able to see the overall image of the NLP system, and understand why these models had be incorporated into NLP in the first place. Metaphorically speaking, each of the NLP models is like a tube station in a metropolitan city and its adjoining local area; the more you walk around in the peripheral areas on ground level, connecting one station with another, and study these areas with your own eyes as field works, the more you will existentially know how organically the respective tube stations are related with each other on ground level, and finally come to see the overall picture of the network of the stations on ground level. The same can be said about NLP's models. Here, studying the details of each tube station individually as the left-brain oriented information would never enable us to see the overall network of the tube system. Thus, if someone wants to obtain an overall picture of what NLP is, however vague the picture may be, I strongly recommend him or her to participate in live and right-brain oriented workshops held by competent (if possible) NLP trainers, instead of trying to excessively gather left-brain oriented information about NLP on paper. Of course, it is impossible for the readers to experientially go through NLP Personal Editing technique exercises through this very newsletter, it is intrinsically contradictory for me to strongly recommend the readers of this newsletter, on paper (or rather in "cyber-space"), to experience NLP Personal Editing technique exercises. What I am doing here is to point to the moon by using my finger for the readers, so the readers need to experientially implement the task of turning their face from my finger to actually see the moon in the sky. Unless they do this task by themselves, they will never be able to see what my finger is pointing to. (Incidentally, it is a sad fact that some people may continue to look at my finger, and eventually be deluded that my finger is the actual moon. This problem is related to Batesonian "logical typing errors" mentioned in the third issue of this newsletter.) Incidentally, at least in the case of the Western NLP communities, in the NLP Practitioner certification courses the participants study and master the details of individual tube stations, i.e., individual NLP models, and their corresponding exercises, and in the NLP Master Practitioner certification courses they study the organic relations between the individual stations (individual NLP models) already studied in the Practitioner courses, in order to become versed in the structure of the overall network (the overall picture). In Trainers' Training certification courses they obtain high degrees of knowledge and know-how on the levels of both the overall network and individual stations (models). Presupposing the above, I would like to discuss what NLP Personal techniques are, and their mechanism and effects (part of the following discussion may be a repetition of what I already discussed elsewhere): "Personal Editing" was the term which Grinder and DeLozier used in their series of workshops "Prerequisites for Personal Genius" held at the latter part of the eighties, and represents a series of NLP techniques which "edit the individuals' personal existing behavioural and thinking patterns, to create different patterns they want". Personal Editing techniques include a wide range of exercises, among them, "Meta Mirror", "Resonance Pattern", "Disney Creative Strategy", "Belief System Integration", "Time Line", "Alignment of Neuro-logical Levels", "Anchor Collapse", "Postural Editing", "Chart Editing", etc. The first five techniques mentioned here were devised by Robert Dilts, whom I consider to be the best NLP technique inventor. All of these techniques enumerated here are "Personal Editing" techniques in the explicit meaning of the term, but there are NLP techniques whose names are enumerated also as NLP models at the beginning of this issue of the newsletter, but which were not enumerated as NLP Personal Editing techniques in this paragraph; they are "Anchoring", Eye Scanning Patterns", Perceptual Positions", "Calibration", Meta-Models", "4 Tuple", Chinks", "TOTE", "Meta Programs", "Reframing" and "Submodalities". In fact, these techniques can be defined also as Personal Editing techniques in the broad meaning of the term, in the sense that they also more or less change the personal existing behavioural and thinking patterns of their practitioners. However, among these Personal Editing techniques in the broad meaning of the term, "TOTE" has a special meaning. That is, it is a very important model which is the theoretical background for all of the other Personal Editing techniques in both the broad and the narrow meanings of the term. TOTE is an abbreviation for "Test-Operate-Test-Exit", namely, a process or principle which all self-adjusting systems (including human brains) undergo to function satisfactorily. It is represented schematically by Table 1 of the diagrams shown at the following Web page: http://www.creativity.co.uk/creativity/magazine/library/tote1.htm One of the simplest examples of this process in human experience is what happens when someone wants to adjust the volume of the radio he is listening to (see Table 2 of the above diagrams); when the present volume of the radio is too low (or too high) for him, namely, when it is "incongruous" with his own auditory criterion about the required volume (i.e., Test Stage), he would reach for the knob of the radio that controls the volume and adjust it (i.e., Operate Stage), until he is satisfied with the volume and is able to listen comfortably to the radio, that is, until the volume becomes "congruous" with his criterion (Exit Stage). Notice here that his adjustment of the volume of the radio may be done just once, or he may need to adjust it several times until the feedback (the volume) he gets meets his criterion. (Cf. Table 2.) Hence the process of Test-Operate-Test-Exit. This model of TOTE becomes the underlying basis of NLP techniques called Personal Editings. The mechanism of Personal Editings can be schematised by Tables 3 & 4 of the diagrams shown at the following Web page: http://www.creativity.co.uk/creativity/magazine/library/tote2.htm That is to say, Table 3 shows that, when certain input data (data perceived by human sensory channels) enters the human brain, the process occurs in which that data is "tested" by the "present state" (Test Stage) and subsequently induces as an "anchor" (the most important NLP model, similar to Pavlov's "conditional reflex") the resources automatically chosen from the past to be "applied" to the present stage (Operate Stage) generally out of the conscious awareness of the owner of that brain. For instance, when someone is walking on the street in a very happy state ("Test/Present Sate"), he or she may by chance see a certain way of regard of a man ("Anchoring"), which makes him or her instantaneously remember unconsciously the moment when he or she as a small child was strongly chastised by his or her father who had the same sort of regard ("Operate/Resources Automatically Chosen"), and starts to feel uncomfortable without understanding why ("Exit/Behaviour"). This kind of anchoring processes usually occur out of our conscious awareness for almost all cases, and happen extremely frequently in our daily lives, taking various forms. We usually have no way/tool to consciously change our own behavioural and thinking patterns we want to get rid of, but, fortunately, NLP provides us with Personal Editing techniques, which enable us to reedit and transform the unwanted behavioural and thinking patterns into the patterns we really desire, using the very same mechanism of TOTE. The mechanism of Personal Editing is shown in Table 4. That is, when Personal Editing technique exercises are done by the practitioner, even when the same input data enters his or her human brain, he or she can apply the appropriate resources, or the resources consciously chosen for the Personal Editing ("Operate"), required for the present state compared against the desired state ("Test"); the consequent behaviour ("Exit") also can turn out to be behaviour he or she has been really desiring to have, instead of unconscious, habitual and unwanted existing behaviour. This mechanism of Personal Editing can be explained using the above example; even if the same regard of the man ("Anchoring") enters the brain of the person walking on the street, as far as he or she is aware of the desired state he or she wants ("Test"), he or she can consciously remember certain moments of time in the past when the same regard didn't affect him or her much, and can convince himself or herself that he or she doesn't necessarily need to remember his or her father's anger which used to be associated with that regard ("Operate"), and can maintain the state of happiness without being affected by the regard at all ("Exit"). The above is the clarification of the mechanism of the NLP Personal Editing techniques from the point of view of TOTE, but models and/or theories about the Personal Editing techniques have no existential values at all, unless they are demonstrated and tested by doing actual Personal Editing technique exercises, as I have been suggesting a number of times in different issues of this newsletter. Incidentally, TOTE is a pre-NLP model, and was a concept suggested in "Plan and the Structure of Behaviour" co-authored by George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram in 1960. Also, I once explained the TOTE model to a Cambridge graduate mathematician, who was my acquaintance. This extremely sceptic mathematician/philosopher said to me that he wanted to ponder over as to whether TOTE is really an efficient model. About six months later, he came back to me and reported his conclusion that "the efficacy of this model cannot be denied, viewed from all points of view". In my own experience, the beauty of such psychological techniques as Personal Editing of NLP is that, the practitioners of these techniques can "reframe" those past experiences which they want to overcome or transform, i.e., can change the psycho-physical patterns which have been forcing them to repeat similar experiences again and again even in different situations, and create a new inner experience even in the same situation. This new experience of theirs then becomes a new "frame of reference", which they can access in the future and reframe further. This cycle of accessing a frame of reference, editing it and making it a new frame of reference can continue a "virtuous circle" or "positive feedback loop" indefinitely, instead of our repeating the same unfinished business again and again for ever. The above mechanism can be explained with the metaphor of a computer word processor. When you have written a text, you can save it as a file on the hard disk. What happens usually with ordinary people is that, after "saving" their own experience which happened during their childhood, they will continue to "access" the same unedited file again and again, and to repeat the process of reading (i.e., experiencing) the same boring text and saving the file back onto the hard disk. We usually don't have the know-how/tools as to how we can display continually and perpetually new text on the computer monitor, instead of the same boring text repeated indefinitely. For this reason we are usually destined to continue to display the same banal text on the monitor until the moment of our death. Yet, NLP techniques enable us to "edit" such a file after accessing it, in a way that reflects what is going on here and now rather than what happened during our childhood, and to save that newly edited file onto the hard disk. Of course, we can access this newly saved file later on to edit it again, and this process can continue indefinitely, until we can be totally satisfied with ourselves. (There is another beauty here that, if the accessed file is working well [i.e., is reflecting reality satisfactorily], then we may not necessarily edit the file, and can [consciously] choose to save the unedited file as it is.) How did you find this current issue of the newsletter? If you have questions and feedback, please contact me at magazine@creativity.co.uk. Go to the site in English: Taiten Kitaoka's Newsletter: "This is the Genuine NLP!". Go to the site in Japanese: Taiten Kitaoka's Newsletter:"". (c) Copyright 2003, Taiten Kitaoka. All rights reserved.