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NEURO SEMANTICS: NLP IN AN EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITION STATE

by Dr. Yehia A. Ibrahim

Summary: The Modeling of three outstanding American psychologists (Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson) by two young geniuses, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, has resuled in the famous NLP breakthrough. The second and third NLP generations have been successful in their training and researching efforts, and some of them went the extra mile and brought meta breakthrough to the NLP breakthrough. Dr. L. Micahel Hall and Dr. Bobby Bodenhamer were among those developers who have kicked NLP into a meta position. They then use Alfred Korzybsk's metaphor of "Neuro Semantics" to rename their Meta States Model, the model that critically and necessarily complements the original Meta and Milton NLP models.

The founders of the field of Neuro Semantics (NS) are two excellent NLPers who are also academically well-qualified psychologists. Their NS field was originally based on the Meta States Model or Theory that was invented and recognized two decades following the NLP breakthrough in the seventies. In my own reality, NS is another breakthrough but this time in NLP itself. While the original model of Meta-States (Meta States Theory) was the brain-child of Dr. L. Michael Hall, very early he looked to others to help him explore the practical use and future direction of his theoretical model. It was in this way that Dr. Bob Bodenhamer and Dr. Hall began their insightful and illuminating conversations. Both Dr. Hall and Dr. Bodehamer are highly qualified scientists, idea developers and NLP practitioners. At first they worked on some books together, but it soon became evident that Dr. Bodehamer's multi-faceted skills at the clinical level of working with clients would become a source of credibility for the new patterns and ideas. In an ethical, safe training and therapeutic way, Dr. Bodehamer's has successfully tested the validity of the Meta States Model on his students and clients. This moved Neuro-Semantics from its conceptual level to a practical level that may concern everyday life. What they worked through conceptually on paper was tested in Dr. Bodehamer's laboratory of psycho and spiritual therapy and healing. It was in this way that the Meta-Yes Belief Change pattern emerged as well as many others. In the development of various patterns they would give it a go, adjust the steps of a pattern to create a more streamlined sequence, add or subtract steps, put in new preframes, etc.

The new discovery-along with its associated patterns-was given different names; the one I like most is Meta NLP. It is a one evolutionary step on a continuum of accelerated learning. It is an acceleration of NLP-accelerated learning and communicating. As it investigates how people create the fractal (matrix) of their neuro-conceptual and neuro-linguistic meanings, the model, was later given the name Neuro Semantics. It is worth mentioning that this same terminology was mentioned in Alfred Korzybski's writing in the early thirties.

In his own words Dr. Hall defines "Neuro-Semantics as a model that describes how we humans get meaning (semantics) so incorporated into our body (neurology) that we feel meanings and do so in terms of our emotions and states." Neuro-Semantics is an inter-disciplinary field that explores the structure of meaning and how those meanings become embodied within our 'mind-muscle-life' cybernetic system. In Neuro-Semantics we approach the mind-body-emotion system in several ways. From the mental dimension, we explore how language works inside of us, how we attribute meaning, create meaning by words, associations, framing, metaphors, etc. From the neurological dimension, we explore how our body works with ideas to "realize" or "actualize" them and how what we do influences what we believe. The Meta-Stating Model of Neuro Semantics is basically a spiral process with three major characteristics: (1) mental flexibility, (2) reflexivity, (3) self-referential. Those three procedural characteristics allow the human brain to generate meaning above meaning and frame above frame without losing connection to any of the lower conceptual levels. This process will end up in a matrix of frames, from which we can choose the way we draw our map and the way we respond to this map. Meta Stating proceeds from specific to generals, thus allowing us to enter what I call, a resonance state of trance.

The definition given by the founder is a practical reflection of one of NLP presuppositions: 'The mind and body are indivisible part of one cybernetic system.' I myself consider this obvious connection to be the most important ecosystem in the universe. The ecology of this connection makes Meta-Stating a must for self-reorganization and development. With the huge numbers of impulses that enter our body through our neuro input channels, life would be a chaotic mess without having three major functions: (1) the mega storing capacity of the unconscious; (2) the filtering capacity of our mentally built-in programs; (3) the Meta-Stating ability to search, discover, and recover different meanings from ongoing, stored or imagined experiences. In this respect Meta Stating and Neuro Semantic skills allow people to exercise more choice, greater freedom and enriched wisdom, both in learning and communicating.

If there is a great advancement in the study of human learning and communication, this would be Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). No one can ever undermine the efforts of Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the two young geniuses who invented this field of self-cognition. In their early model, they show people how to communicate within themselves and with others. In both cases, knowing what we know we do is a Meta State of mind. It was then obvious that Dr. Michael Hall invented the Meta States Model, and introduced it to NLP as a third, yet an extremely powerful, domain of accelerated learning. In my opinion, this domain accelerates the NLP acceleration power of learning and communicating. The Meta States Model fits perfectly with the Meta Model and Milton Model, with only few disputes that are not as critical as they are presented by some egoistic theorists. Every belief is created through Meta Stating and the belief in God requires very active and highly achieved meta-state thinking, feeling and doing. Just think of how people reach their spiritual neurological state of mind, where they feel connectedness at other than the conscious level. It is the Meta-Spiritual states that emit energy for people's connectedness. I wonder if we humans have a form of spiritual energy that can be transformed into mass!!! It is this rich spiritual state, in my belief, that attracts Dr. Bobby Bodenhamer into the third NLP domain of Dr. Michael Hall. Bob seems highly spiritual and knows the importance of Super Meta Stating in human life. I have had the honor to e-communicate with Bob to realize how enlightening his spirit is. He certainly enlightens my road to NLP and NS groping.

It is understood that founders are sometimes trapped in their 'Theory State' and do not accept the ideas of others who have gone Meta to their theory. What is not understood and acceptable is the resistance of NS coming from those who are trained to be NLP practitioners and prefer to be in the state of NLP status quo. Fortunately, I have been one of the NLPer exceptions, for I think Meta Stating and NS are powerful engine to an innovated NLP approach. This is the very fabric of creativity and development in human life. When I was first exposed to the NS ideas of Michael and Bob, I thought this was the beginning of a revolution. But now after seasoning myself into the meta-thinking of the whole subject, I change my belief and now think that NS is an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary approach into the NLP field. I like very much the term Meta NLP. I think it is time for NLP practitioners, developers and scientists to consider revising their thoughts and techniques and introduce the Meta States Model as one of the most effective mechanisms of acquiring a super-resourceful state of the mind. Meta states is what we do in searching for upgraded meanings inside ourselves. It is obvious that our unconscious is the place to go for the neuro-synthesis of those meanings. It is no wonder why we go trance when we search for those meaning from within the richness of our unconscious sensory inventory. When we change meanings we change frames, and when we change frame we change maps, and when we change maps we change behavior. This is how the Meta States Model puts mind into muscles and muscles into life. In my opinion, the presupposition of 'the energy flows where attention goes' is only half the truth, and with Meta States and Neuro Semantics, the other complementary half would be that 'the attention goes where energy flows'.

I have now some Meta States presuppositions for the reader to think about and for the founders to consider in their hopeful development process of a multi and super NLP Meta states:
(1) The human brain is a Meta Mind whose reflexivity and Meta Stating ability make us higher than low animals.
(2) Without Meta States, humans wouldn't have been humans.
(3) Without Meta States, the human race would have been a bunch of neurotic mass.
(4) Life is built on intra and inter-meta states. The geniuses of our world use those states both consciously and unconsciously.
(5) Without Meta States, life wouldn't have been the way it is now.
(6) Without the Meta States, human being would have been stuck in their first state that Adam and Eve had experienced in their very early life.
(7) Without Meta States, creativity, innovation, improvement, development and change wouldn't be dictionary words in our daily life.
(8) Without Meta States, we would never pay attention to the evolution of life, and Darwin would have been just six characters in one word.
(9) Without Meta States, the human body would not have been in need of neurohormones. Those neurohormones are controlled partially by our multi and Meta states and biofeedback.
(10) Without Meta States, people would have lacked intuition, as well as emotional and spiritual intelligence.
(11) Without Meta States and Neuro Semantics, both the conscious and unconscious mind would have been unfairly treated as divisible parts, when in fact they belong indivisibly to the same psycho-energetic system.
(12) Without Meta States, 'no failure only feedback' would have never been one of NLP primary presuppositions.
(13) Without Meta States, we wouldn't have been able to comprehend and debate the existence of God or the super universal power, for they are metaphors built in our subjective neurology.
(14) Without the Meta States, there wouldn't have been a scientific approach or science; that is why Meta States Skills are features of great scientists.
(15) Without Meta States, I wouldn't have been writing this issue.

I like to add my own definition to the Meta States Model. "It is the model we can consciously and wisely use to gain or regain the genius inside ourselves." I have always been thinking that the human brain is like a parliament with many mind faceted seats grouped into a parties-like structure. Without Meta Stating, no rational and democratic decision would have been allowed or reached. I also wonder if we have different frame matrices for the different parties of our mind.

Finally, I would then like to urge my readers to look at the Meta States Model, as a model invented by two Meta NLP geniuses, still only a model for a mechanism that we all are inherently born with and legitimately own. The founders own the model and we all own the process. This is not an advertising article for Bob and Michael's new neuro-technology; it is a provocative article for the readers to be aware of something they continuously do and live by. Meta Stating is the process through which our mental energy is transformed into an internal fractal that may be as complicated as the universal fractal we live in. It is the process that we use to conceptualize the very idea of God's existence beyond His tangible existence and within the sensory-based NLP language.

Bibliography
Alfred Korzybski (1933). Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company.
Richard Bandler, Judith Delozier & John Grinder (1977). Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D., Volume 1. Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications.
Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott (1997). The Art of Systems Thinking. Thorsons.
L. Michael Hall & Bob G. Bodenhamer (1997). Figuring Out People: Design Engineering with Meta-Programs. Wales, UK: Crown House Publications.
Bobby Bodenhamer & L. Michael Hall (1998). The User's Manual for the Brain. Crown House Publications.
L. Michael Hall (1999). The Secrets of Personal Mastery. Wales, UK: Crown House Publications.
Romilla Ready & Kate Burton (2004). Neuro-linguistic Programming for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, England.
Steve Bavister & Amanda Vickers (2004). Teach Yourself NLP. Contemporary Books, Chicago.