How We Encode Experience
As we take experience in from the outside world, our neurology encodes that experience into memories, but very much unlike a tape recorder. Rather than store the information sequentially, we store it semantically. We remember the gist or the meaning of an experience.
Our unconscious mind takes in information at the estimate rate of 40 million bits per second (things like temperature, place in space, balance, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, pressure, etc. However, our conscous mind can only process about 40 bits of this information per second. We are wired to only pay attention to things that are remarkable in our environment, such as danger or threats, or opportunities for food, sex, pleasure, etc. Most of us can only hold 3 to 7 facts in our conscious mind at any one time.
Because of the way our neurology is organized, we are extremely good at pattern recognition and reactions, but we are not as good as we might think at being logical. Most of the time, we use heuristics (a fancy word for rules of thumb) to get through each moment of every day.
NLP recognizes that in our subjective experiences, we tend to filter most of reality to reinforce what we already believe about the world.
Deletion
Deletion is the process of leaving bits of information out. We omit and conveniently forget information, especially when in is unremarkable, or when it conflicts with an existing frame of reference. All this deleting is born of a survival mechanism that budgets precious attention to those things that will help us live longer, live safer, live better, or have more.
Deleting is the inverse of sorting. We sort through a haystack to find a needle. We sort through the internet every time we google a term. We delete things that are not of interest to us, again because attention is limited, and precious.
Our physiological states directly influence what we sort for. For example, when we are hungry or thirsty, we sort through our map of the world for refreshment. When our thirst is slaked, we sort through our maps of the world for resources to support the task at hand. When in the mood for love, we go stupid filtering out anything that does not lead to satisfaction. When we smell smoke, we sort through our maps for the nearest exit.
Deletions also show up in our speech and writing as:
- Simple Deletions
- Comparisons
- Unspecified Verbs
- Unspecified Referential Indices
- Lost Perfomatives
Distortion
Distortion is transforming or interpreting information in someway before making it part of our map.
Have you ever seen a dark spot moving across the floor and felt a feeling of panic while you thought it was a spider? Later when you discovered the spot was a piece of lint blowing across the floor you felt very differently about it.
Distortion also reveals itself as in our communication as:
- Presuppositions
- Cause-Effect
- Mind Reads
- Nominalizations
- Complex Equivalences
- The Verb "To Be"
Generalization
Generalization is a brilliant process that allows us to categorize the world in terms of how things are like or different from other things. We group, lump, classify, categorize all the time. Generalizing is an important aspect of learning and sharing information that helps us operated very efficiently in the world. When we learn a new skill and can apply that skill to new contexts, then we have generalization to thank.
But there is also a dark side to generalization. When we generalize everything as positive, it is possible to accept poison with the potion. When we generalize everything as negative, we miss out on great opportunities. We lack the ability to distinguish. When you see the world through the eyes of a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.
We learn best when we remain flexible in our generalizations, and updating our categories as more experience is gained and finer distinctions are made, rather than holding tightly to the first impression.
Generalizations can also be heard in our communications as:
- Universals
- Modal Operators
