Glossary

accessing cues. Subtle behaviors that indicate which representational system a subject is using to think with. Accessing cues include eye movements, voice tone, tempo, body posture, gestures, and breathing patterns.

anchoring. The process of associating an internal response with some external trigger so that the response may be quickly reaccessed. Cues may be visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and/or gustatory.

auditory. Relating to hearing, or the sense of hearing.

behavior. Physical actions and responses by which we interact with the people and environment around us.

behavioral flexibility. The ability to vary one’s own behavior to elicit a response from another person.

calibration. The process of learning to “read” the unconscious, nonverbal responses of others.

congruence. Full alignment of a person’s internal beliefs, strategies, and behaviors, oriented toward securing a specific outcome.

context. The framework surrounding a particular event. This framework will often determine how a particular experience or event is interpreted.

criteria. The values or standards a person uses to make decisions and judgments.

deep structure. The internal, sensory maps (both conscious and unconscious) that people use to organize and guide behavior.

eye accessing cues. Eye movements that reveal which representational systems the subject is using to process information.

future pacing. The process of mentally rehearsing a future situation to help ensure that the desired behavior will occur naturally and automatically.

gustatory. Relating to the sense of taste.

installation. The process of facilitating the acquisition of a new strategy or behavior. A new strategy may be systematically installed through NLP techniques.

kinesthetic. Relating to body sensations. In NLP the term “kinesthetic” is used to encompass all kinds of feelings, including tactile, visceral, and emotional.

Meta Model. A model developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder that identifies categories of language patterns that can be problematic or ambiguous.

metaphor. Stories, parables, and analogies. Used in NLP and hypnosis to facilitate change.

Milton Model. A model developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder through the study of the hypnotic language patterns of Dr. Milton H. Erickson.

modeling. The act of creating a calculus that describes a given system.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). The study of the structure of subjective experience and what can be calculated from that.

olfactory. Relating to smell or the sense of smell.

outcomes. Directions, goals, or desired states that a person or organization aspires to achieve.

overlapping. Extending processing ability and expanding experience by moving from one representational system to another.

pacing. A method used by communicators to quickly establish rapport by matching certain aspects of their behavior to those of the person with whom they are communicating; matching or mirroring of behavior.

parts. Anthropomorphic or metaphoric description of programs and strategies of behavior that may appear to function independently from the subject.

predicates. Process words (like verbs, adverbs, and adjectives) describing a subject. Predicates are used in NLP to identify which representational system a person is using to process information.

rapport. The presence of trust, harmony, and cooperation in a relationship.

representational system preference. The systematic use of one sense over the others to process and organize experience in a given context.

representational systems. The five senses: seeing, hearing, touching (feeling), smelling, and tasting. Also known as: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory, and Gustatory (VAKOG).

revivification. Reliving a past experience in trance as if it is an event in the present, rather than a memory from the past.

sensory acuity. Using all senses as fully as possible to gain maximum data from an encounter with another person.

state. The total ongoing mental and physical conditions from which a person is acting.

strategy. A set of explicit mental and behavioral steps used to achieve a specific outcome.

submodalities. The special sensory qualities perceived by each of the five senses. For example, visual submodalities include color, shape, movement, brightness, depth, and so on; auditory submodalities include volume, pitch, tempo, and so on; and kinesthetic submodalities include pressure, temperature, texture, location, and so on.

surface structure. An utterance.

synesthesia. The process of overlapping between representational systems, characterized by phenomena like see-feel circuits, in which a person derives feelings from what they see; and hear-feel circuits, in which a person gets feelings from what they hear. Any two sensory modalities may be linked together.

transderivational search. The act of exploring subjective experience to understand the statement of another person.

visual. Relating to sight or the sense of sight.

well-formedness conditions. In NLP a particular outcome is well-formed when it is (1) stated in positives, (2) initiated and maintained by the individual, (3) ecological, and (4) testable in experience—that is, sensory based.