Perceptual Filters
This page continues from the previous page on the NLP communication model - the diagram is repeated here for ease of reference.
So now we understand that an external event passes through perceptual filters which delete, distort and generalise the incoming data, leaving a package of data that we can usefully attend to consciously. We also understand that our conscious mind stores that data in an internal representation (or memory) of that external event which is intimately linked with our emotional state and physiology which in turn influences our behaviours.
The perceptual filters that perform the deletion, distortion and generalisation processes are organised in layers thus:-
Meta Programs - are the most unconscious of the perception filters and are content free i.e. they are not based on any past experience or beliefs. Whether you see the glass as half empty or half full is an example of one of your meta programs.
Values - are the next most unconscious filter and are the first level at which the filters have content as they are based upon our experiences to date. Values are those things we are prepared to fight for and also those things we try to live up to. Values are those things we are prepared to invest resources in to either achieve or avoid. Values are how we know right from wrong, good from bad, what's important and what isn't, and they are also how we decide about how we feel about our actions and the actions of others.
Values are arranged in a hierarchy, usually with most important one at the top and the lesser ones below. Values are also context dependant - your values about what's important to you in a relationship are probably very different from you values about what's important to you in your career. Values can also be linked to and vary with changes in emotional state.
Beliefs - on one level beliefs are convictions that certain things are true or real and are also generalisations about the state of the world around us. Beliefs are presuppositions that we have about certain things and can create or deny personal power for us i.e. we have a better chance of achieving an objective if we first truly believe we are capable of doing so. If we believe that we will fail then the likelihood of that being our outcome increases. In modelling an ability we admire in another individual and desire for ourselves, finding out what the enabling beliefs are that allow that person to have that ability is vital.
Attitudes - are collections of values and beliefs around a particular subject. Often we are quite conscious of our attitudes and often we share them with others i.e. 'Well that's the way I feel about.....'. Change made at the level of attitude is far more difficult to achieve than change made at the level of values.
Memories - the collection of memories we build up during the course of our lives deeply affect both our perceptions and our personality. Our memories are who we are. Some psychologists believe that as we get older our reactions to present external events actually have very little to do with the present, and are in fact reactions to gestalts - collections of past memories organised in a certain way around certain subjects. Gestalts are formed when a number of individual experiences of the same type get squashed together to form one single generalised memory.
Decisions - the sixth filter, also related to memories are decisions which we made in our past. Decisions about who we are and what we are capable of, especially negative or limiting decisions, can affect our entire lives. The decisions we make may generate beliefs, values and attitudes or they may just affect our perceptions though time.
Sometimes we make decisions unconsciously or at a very early age and then forget them. These decisions may not get re-evaluated in the context of new experience and as a result can affect our lives in ways which were not originally intended.