All NLP people are familiar (or they should be if they really understand NLP) with the terms Internal representation (IR). But actually
What on Earth Is This?
For the untrained person not familiar with the NLP jargon it may sound bizarre -internal representations sounds almost like “internal hallucinations”.Well folks, this may not be as far from the truth as you think.
Technically, there are only six things you can do inside your head: see pictures, hear sounds, feel feelings, smell smells, taste tastes and talk to yourself. Five senses plus our internal self-talk. That’s all.
Check it out now!
What are you doing right now inside your head? Stop and check! That’s your internal representation.
But, your personal IRs are a form of internal hallucination and ,
Here Is Why
It has been estimated that we receive millions of bits of information from the environment every second through our five senses.
In fact in Encyclopedia Britannica,from the page on Information Theory we find that
“,our five senses gather as much as 11 million bits of information every second from the environment,.”
Did you get that?
11 million bits of information every second!!!!
“,out of which we’re left with a maximum capability of less than 50 bits per second. We have an approximate number because it depends on various assumptions and could vary depending on the individual and the task being performed.”
I reproduce below a table of information form the same source which shows how much information is processed by each of the five senses.
| Sensory System | bits per second |
| Eyes | 10,000,000 |
| Skin | 1,000,000 |
| Ears | 100,000 |
| Smell | 100,000 |
| Taste | 1,000 |
It appears that we’re missing out a tremendous amount of information. We’re left with just about 50 bits in our peak performance time out of 11 million,..
That’s right!
That leaves out just about 10 million nine hundred and nighty nine bits of information,..(10,999,950 to be precise).
Do you realize how much we’re not aware of consciously? How much we’re missing out?
Now, there is something we do even with those about 50 bits that we do process consciously.
From the same information theory we find out that
“The brain also seems to have separate mechanisms for short-term and long-term memory. Based on psychologist George Miller’s paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” (1956), it appears that short-term memory can only store between five and nine pieces of information to which it has been exposed only briefly. Note that this does not mean between five and nine bits, but rather five to nine chunks of information.”
MihalyCsikszentmihalyiin the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, Copyright © 1990 byMihalyCsikszentmihalyi, on page 29we find that we filter the millions of bits of information per second down to seven plus or minus two chunks of information (or about 126 bits of information per second).
Note: The information about seven plus or minus two chunks of from “Miller, G.A. 1956, The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity to process information. Psychological Review 63:81-97“as quoted in the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, by MihalyCsikszentmihalyi
Hmmm.,Csikszentmihalyi is more generous than Britannica!
However, even with the dissimilarity between 50 and 126, the amount left out is so enormous that the difference has little significance for our purposes here.
But let’s say that he is right. We process consciously 126 bits which we group in 7 plus or minus 2 chunks of information.
So What?
Excellent!
Now we know. We leave out a good deal of information of which we are not consciously aware. So what?
Well,
1.) What happens to the rest of information (from 11 million to 126)? Our bodies receive it – we just don’t process it!
2.) How do we even manage to find our way around with so little processed information compared to the enormous number of 11 million?
To have a visual idea of how this works here is a diagram from our NLP Coaching Practitioner training.
Notice that on the right hand side of the person’s head, thre is an arrow on which is written External Event. This is something that 
happens ouside of the body.
As the information comes in via the five senses, in order to stay sane and not get in massive overload, first we filter it by deleting information, then distorting and generalizing other information. The we filter it again through other filters which are our personal experience of time, space, matter, energy, language, our memories, our personal decisions, values, beliefs, attitudes and meta-programs. For an explanation of what metaprograms are see our NLP Glossary.
After all that filtering, what we’re left withis a – greatly reduced in size of the information – internal representation (IR) of the outside event.
And you wonder why two stories of the same event never match?
If you have a brother or a sister, ask them to tell you their version of a childhood event where both of you were present,. See if it matches yours. But don’t tell them what to say! Let them talk first. You will be surprised!
So when you assume that everyone thinks like you about the same event,.
You’re Wrong!
We’re going to see in Part Two of this article why this is the case.
Until then, be well.
113 Comments
Internal Representations Part 02
[…] For Part One of this NLP article go here […]
Andrew Tindal
My biggest takeaway is that to avoid being overwhelmed by an 11 million bit Tsunami the brain protects itself by deleting, distorting or generalizing. Result: My internal representation of an event is different to yours. It’s not personal – just scientific reality.
Rebecca Pepperall
Takeaway- I remember back in 2012 having a conversation with my Brother about a family secret that I had internalised with my Mother’s experience and my own that had come out and my Brother said “So what! For all you know that could of happened to me, we all knew how much he loved me as a baby. Get over it Rebecca! I was so disturbed by my Brother’s words, cause he had no known memories of what I had experienced. Perception is projection….,
Faye Vaughan
It just confirms that your version of reality will never be the same for someone else. This knowledge would have saved so many arguments with family, friends and partners over the years!! Looking forward to having a better communication on all fronts 🙂
Wendy Barron
My biggest take away is that we are only consciously able to process a certain amount of information at any one time. We delete it, distort it and generalize it based on our Metamodels in order to process it. We each have an internal representational system that shapes our lives. In order to change our lives we first need to change our internal representations.
Sophia Bouboulos
What I now understand is that everyone’s interpretation of an event will be different.
Nobody can ever be right or wrong…. It is how each person filters information coming in from their five senses and by deleting, distorting and generalising information, is what makes up their story.
Same event…… different version.
Brett Ellis
That’s very interesting isn’t it when we’re thinking in terms of our memories NOT being the events themselves but simply an Internal Representation OF the events.
So, with this thinking it tells me that – I cannot change an event unless I am in it’s time of occurrence because anything after the events themselves is going to be stored in memory as Internal Representations of the events. Therefore my memories are stored perceptions of some kind of a flow of life events to which I may change those perceptions but not the events themselves.
So, if I wanted to change my past, well that just won’t happen because the events themselves have gone but, I can change my perception of my past, my Internal Representation and therefore how I feel about my past and it can then serve me best in future life events.
It is very exciting when we find we’ve been able to change all this time, isn’t it?
Tara Stokes
My takeaway is despite not being aware of it we all make our own personalised representation of the external environment and events. This representation is shaped by our past including memories, values, thought processing patterns we have created. This is why two people can go through the same event and have a completely different perspective on what happened, this is because they have distorted, deleted or generalised based on their own internal filters.
Mel Pursell
The biggest thing I take from this article is that one shouldn’t believe everything they think!
Brett
The biggest thing I take away from this article is that it’s okay to change our thinking and that our thoughts can serve us well or not 🙂
liza lillicrap
As I have been preparing for the course, this wasn’t really anything new other than once again realizing the enormity of all the stuff that I am missing! I wonder whether we miss it because we just couldn’t manage to take more information in than we currently do. It made me also think of my experience yesterday which was that, after I had finished singing in a church service I became aware that I was glad that I hadn’t been operating machinery, ie I felt as though I had actually been asleep during the service, even though I thought I had been paying attention. I wonder how much our level of consciousness is related to our conscious or unconscious inner commands to pay attention or not. I wonder how much we can learn to control how much we absorb. This could open doors to many new options.
Brett
May be if people paid attention to how they pay attention, then that may be just enough for some people to see and think differently. I wonder Liza if you were paying attention inside of you or outside of you and more over I wonder if you were paying attention to a Meme?
Christian Lillicrap
What I took from this article is that because we mostly think of ourselves in terms of our past, if our past is really made up through our distortions etc then we don’t really have a ‘true’ picture of who we are which means possibilities can open up. This is good news!
Brett
Totally agree Christian – people may not be who they think they are and moreover people can choose who or what they’d like to be.
Damian
I think it is important to filter out the negatives and bring the positive outcomes to the surface. This can be difficult for some, particularly those suffering PTSD issues.
Scott
What I take from this article is that it has confirmed, in more specific and understandable terms, what I have known all along. It is one of the main causes of our individuality due to numerous filters we have built up over our lifetime, filters which can be swayed by so many internal and external factors its no wonder we are all unique. Unfortunately I also believe this is one of the main causes of conflict in the world due to the inability to understand each other and I don’t just mean what makes sense but there is a deeper level of understanding that comes from experience. I’ve never really been able to grasp why it’s different but in a sense it is total clarity and if we can learn about the information above to achieve that level of understanding of people then I think this could be one of the paths that needs to be taken to make this world a better place.
Brett
Interesting Scott – I believe the uniqueness of all individuals is the awareness behind the filters.
What do you reckon? If we changed ourselves in light of the world we all might be in a better place but, here’s the thing – how unique can an individual be if the person is unconsciously influenced to be one of the sheep?
That which causes a person pain and pleasure discloses the persons true nature! Notice what causes a person pain and what causes a person pleasure and there we may get a brief glimpse of the person themselves and not our own unresolved or limited projections 🙂
Scott
I do believe that the other main cause of the uniqueness of all individuals is in the awareness behind the filters. My belief is these filters are part of what shape your awareness as I believe that what causes a person pain and pleasure can change.
This leads me to believe that our true nature is forever evolving thus if we had the tools to help us communicate with each other in a more honest manner it would lead us to see a suitable outcome much sooner or at least know where we stand with each other. Peoples values also cause conflict which is another issue entirely.
In terms of changing ourselves in light of the world possibly turning us into sheep, in a lot of ways I believe we already are sheep, so I think if people were given the tools to understand what everyone’s true motive is we would as individuals be much better equipped to take on the problems we each feel we need to deal with.
Brett
Yup! Certainly people change – so it’s current version of self that’s really in constant change isn’t it?
The later about true motive – well I think here we’re speaking in terms of separating a person behavior from their intention in order to see the person aren’t we?
Scott
I believe that is accurate though the rate of that change is an important factor also.
When I said true motive that in my internal representation it was to encompass separating a persons behavior from their intention along with a few other concepts that I am having trouble defining.
It’s a good thing that we are also here to learn the linguistic tools to better portray our internal representation.
Brett
I agree Scott learning the linguistic tools!!! A big Key! Spot on!
Adriana
RE Brett’s post – “Notice what causes a person pain and what causes a person pleasure and there we may get a brief glimpse of the person themselves and not our own unresolved or limited projections”
Stay tuned for a new article about pain VS pleasure coming up in the blog. It is called B.F.Skinner meets C.G.Jung.
Brett
Thanks Adriana – I will be looking out for the article 🙂
Adriana
RE Scott’s comment. I love the way you think. You said something so vitally important in your comment it is worth reposting here: ” It is one of the main causes of our individuality due to numerous filters we have built up over our lifetime, filters which can be swayed by so many internal and external factors its no wonder we are all unique.” This is the beauty of all of us – our unique individuality. The challenges we all experience in getting along with each other in relationships, business, and if you go more big picture between institutions, factions, countries etc., is what produces growth. If we were all the same there wouldn’t be any conflict is true, but then we would be biological androids – sort of artificial intelligences programmed to do a certain job for the duration of our life expectancy and …that’s it! Many of the differences you mention are not real and when I say real in this context I mean they are not part of our nature. They are installed in our minds from early life. Each generation has been mind-manipulated into the “trends” fashionable at that time. Compare the mind of the young people today with what they learn in school and the memes present when you were in school. And then it is more than just school, it is family, it is society in general, you name it. So what each of us can do is to begin to deconstruct all that system of beliefs we acquired and begin to figure out who we really are – not what we’re supposed to do; what we really believe not what we’re supposed to believe, etc. I hope this makes sense.
Maree Tranter
I love that my Internal Representation of my neighbourhood is quiet. So I am unaware of my neighbour yelling on her phone in the back yard until a friend comes around and brings it to my awareness.
Brett
Very cool Maree!! I love it!
Nikki Simos
Currently, undertaking the NLP Practitioner in Melbourne with Brad and the experience that I have had to date and in particular to today clearly outlined for me on a personal level that where we think that we have dealt with trauma, violations and the like in the past, I realised only by going in trance state that my thinking behind my thinking, my unconscious mind had stored memories deep, deep down. well below the under belling that came up in the forefront today. The physiology out burst, the mind sense after wards and to continue with the lesson certainly was the hardest thing my brain had to do today. Thank you for this wonderful journey that I am part of and thank you for the wonderful team in Melbourne that also supported me with the thinking behind my thinking.
Brett
I love the way you describe the experience Nikki – Lol I know the feeling 🙂
As I look back on my journey through your post I realize that back then I was experiencing the beginning of a very special rapport with my unconscious mind. Don’t you feel closer to yourself Nikki?
🙂
YR
My takeaway is, in order to understand and to learn the tools to communicate in the true sense of NLP; to make a significant difference not only in our own lives, but those around us, we need to allow ourselves permission to know ourselves. Not to fear what we “think” our short comings are, or how we perceive that we have “failed” in the past nor how we feel that others measure us by. Taking the first steps to create a better life for the inside and outside of me can be a little daunting….. But incredibly fascinating and so rewarding already!….I’m looking forward to learning “The art of communication”. My journey starts on Tuesday…..bring it on!(smiling here).
Craig
I would like to know, or understand and evaluate more.
Heather Morgan
So, really, what we think we saw heard felt is just what we THINK we felt saw heard… This means that all can be re shuzed in our mind to represent something better, a better way of living, a better way of being, a better state to be in. Life is what you make it… Literally
Dirk Vermooten
My key take away from the article is that we have absolute, unadulterated control of what our IR’s end up being. With great power comes great responsibility….
Dirk Vermooten
My key take away is that we have ultimate, unadulterated control over the IR’s we create. With great power comes great responsibility and limitless possibility.
Emily Jaksch
After reading this article, I feel it has helped me to really start to integrate the learnings of NLP in my mind. I have looked at that diagram so many times during my pre-study but only now does it all start to make sense. The more I learn, the more I realise that our brains are so complex and intelligent. The way we filter information and create experiences is a process that happens so unconsciously and now I realise that if we can tap into this process and access and delete certain information we can truly create the experiences that we want. It is funny I have always believed that every single thing that happens to us in our lives can be used to teach us something. We can either hold onto the event and believe it is a negative experience and say “why me” or we can use that experience to expand and grow. This philosophy has served me well to help me deal with and process experiences and learn and grow from them rather than holding onto negative emotions that limit me personally. To think that I can use NLP to help me create amazing outcomes and help others in the same way is pretty exciting! I cannot wait to learn more and become more experienced in using all the techniques!
Ehud Tal
I guess we are each a world onto ourselves and we are creators as much as we are created.
To me, this article shows how we are our reality, and the way that we perceive our world is but the image of who we have become in response to our experiences. Our experiences shaped our individual mechanisms and selective processes, pathways, mechanisms and therefore our internal representations (IR).
I guess we came here very clear and very ‘spherical’ , possibly ‘pure’, and ‘clear’, ’empty vessels’ – call it what you will….
That which knocked us around while we were ‘clear’ and unsuspecting in a sense shaped those mechanisms and IR very early on. That base formed our individual house of cards in which we find shelter at this time.
Both that which we absorb and that which we utter represent the shape that we have become.
Just a thought, a reflexion. Nothing more than my extrapolation to what I think you said
Jennifer Fogarty
The biggest think I take from this article is that perception is reality and no one same perception can be achieved. Therefore, we have a number of different realities. There is no one blanket or definitive reality.
It is also important not to assume or expect another person to have the same thinking as you. We all see things in a different light.
Through understanding this, relationships and experiences will become more positive. You will arrive at a higher level of consciousness and be able to accept people and situatuions for what they are rather than wanting them to be as you see or as you want. This then eliminates expectations and our stories that we attach to thoughts to become reality.
It is best we understand differences and that our view is not necessarily the same view of another.
I think this is an empowering knowledge to know in that we can cease expectation and demand and just be at peace with what is.
Tim
The biggest take away for me is the realisation that there is so much that I miss in every moment & every interaction. Does that mean I’m not always ‘right’? : )
Ronan O' Sullivan
For me this reinforces the idea that the map is not the territory. Basically each and everyone of us is going around with our idea of the world and depending on how we deleted, distort and generalize, we may actually be close or far for actually reality. I read recently that we are all the product of our experiences but if these experiences are not serving us now, then our inner reality could well be like a cage with our method of delete, distort and generalize the bars.
Ainsley Travers
I Had Just Completed The Hypnosis/Time Line Therapy And NLP Course.
I Found All Very Important In My Life .I Used To Carry In Me A Lot Of Anger And Guilt From The Past,Using The Hypnosis/Time Line Therapy And
NLP Techniques I Have Removed Completely All Of My Anger And Guilt From My Past.I Feel Lighter In Myself And I Can Now Concentration More.
I Wish To Thank All Those People Who Have Been Involved In The Hypnosis/Time Line Therapy And NLP Course At MANTRA ON RUSSEL In Melbourne From The 17 Nov To 23 Nov 2015.
Brad Greentree Has Done An Excellent Job In Transfering My Life For The Better.
Thank You,
Transform The Planet.
Colleen Kelly
I like this because it explains why my sister and I have such different takes on childhood memories!
Rhett Haverly
My understanding is that our attention resources are drawn to the most familiar, novel and salient information that we perceive around us. I guess there exist opportunity then to reframe what is familiar, novel and salient.
Tessa Henville
…and yet: the scientific boffins are finding more and more evidence that a large degree of how we emote/feel subjectively in response to a stimulus can be predicted by objective parameters. Eg the “golden mean ratio” in facial attractiveness, human ears respond preferentially to the pentatonic scale, the pleasantness of an odour is highly related to the compactness of its molecular structure….Makes me wonder if it’s all this clever consciousness that’s getting us into trouble in the first place.
sean
That’s a very interesting read, One thing I’ve taken from this is we can do a great deal of re-working with the information we have and also if one, changes their filters the information being allowed or processed will be different and will bring about a whole new reality.
Adam Cunningham
What I take from this is, how we remember something happening is completely different to how it precisely happened, which is also true for anyone else who was also a part of that experience.
I noticed that objectives or goals are not part of the model, but I’m speculating that we subconsciously take from the experience what we believe is relevant to help us achieve our objectives.
Dilley Kulatunge
My biggest take away from this is that, every ones take on a experience may be different even when the inputs are the same.
Ann Wessing
It seems to me that after we have processed, distorted, filtered, interpreted, and stored a memory of a event, whenever we re-visit that memory, we actually re-visit that interpretation. In doing so, we reinforce the emotion surrounding it, then we react to the emotion. If we could instead, recall the clear factual detail of the event itself (since Tad says we do have perfect recall), we’d have much greater flexibility and resourcefulness to process the event in hindsight. Wouldn’t that be great?!
Jordan Moncrieff
It’s really good to understand what influences our consciousness to take in 7 +/- 2 chunks of information per second. Our filters are our personal experience of time, space, matter, energy, language, our memories, our personal decisions, values, beliefs, attitudes and meta-programs. It makes sense.
stephanie miller
Everybody picks up different stimulus from the same environment. This is why people react in different ways to the situation which they are presented
Caron Margarete
I smiled at the memory (IR) of seeing on a fellow co-workers desk earlier today the Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”. I was so attracted to pick up the book that I saw it on his desk, passed him to my own desk, and then returned to read the blurb. And that was before I received Brad’s email with the instruction to read this article. I’m not surprised by the coincidence, however, because if the NLP preparation studies have taught me anything thus far, my subconscious ‘remembered’ I had seen the book before and had made a mental note to read it one day because it would be relevant for my research and work. My main takeaway though had nothing to do with Csikszentmihalyi.
I wanted to know how the researchers came up with number of 50 bits of information versus Csikszentmihalyi’s 126. One example the Encyclopaedia of Brittanica gives is based on reading rate. “A typical reading rate of 300 words per minute works out to about 5 words per second. Assuming an average of 5 characters per word and roughly 2 bits per character yields the aforementioned rate of 50 bits per second.” This was really interesting to me because it’s doesn’t seem to be 100% known. I can see how it’s possible to get 126 as well. This begs me to question, what does the latest research indicate? Does anyone know?
Bek Sumner
My biggest take away from this article is how we all perceive the same situations differently. I’ve always wondered since I was a little girl, is “Red” really “Red”? Is the “Red” that I see the same as the “Red” you see? Now knowing that we each delete, distort and generalise all of the information that comes in, put our own spin on it and end up with our very own IR- My question is now answered!
Neville Bentley
Very interesting Brad! I can’t believe how much we are bombarded with every single second.
Carolyn Hamlyn
I feel as though those 11 million bits are overwhelming me preparing for this training :). You know I think I’ll only take 50 so I don’t feel so bombarded!
On a more serious note a recent situation came up within my family when we were moving house with a major downsize taking place. I decided to give each of my four children their childhood gifts for their own keeping. One daughter said, ‘that’s mine’ and another corrected and said ‘no it belongs to me’. That sure generated a lot of conversation and self reflection around how each of us recalls something a bit different.
Rachel Dhanjal
Wow 11 million bits of information per second, no wonder my brain deletes, distorts and generalises mostly all of it! This article really helps me to appreciate the power of our conscious and subconscious mind. Now I know why my husband and often can’t see eye to eye on the same things ;o). Perception truly creates the reality you experience! Thanks brad.
Murray Parr
Thanks Brad for the heads up for the next time my wife Angela tells me about her day.I will simply remind her that It’s impossible for me to process everything she tells me at once.
After reading that article…It’s no wonder miscommunication is the key area where relationship breakdowns can occur.
Christine Atkinson
Filters, filters and more filters. It takes me back to a conversation with my sister a few years ago about a traumatic family situation. Admittedly we were both very young at the time and the differences in our stories were very profound!
Anna King
Very interesting article. What I take from this article is that there is probably a great deal that we don’t understand floating around our subconscious that makes us behave in a certain way. Also, how we behave and react to others and how many misunderstandings occur, possibly in the work place. Why there must be an understanding and compassion towards others as you yourself may be misinterpreting actions, behaviours etc. I sometimes think this is how workplace bullying occurs…
Candida
Everything we experiences in our reality is only our perception of the actual event. And this perception has been filter unconsciously. It proves to me that our mind is really and truly our most powerful tool and if used correctly we will be able to achieve the impossible. If we can truly trust our subconscious and pay attention to it, we really can make the improvement we want.
Wayne Harney
One of the things I have taken from this is that as stated, we “consciously”process 126 bits/7 + or – 2 chunks of information per second. The rest is “received by the body but not processed consciously processed”, so is the rest absorbed subconsciously?
Pip
I love how detailed the description is, in regards to how we process information. I really describes clearly how each person can end up with different views of the same event. With all the information coming to us, it’s important to ensure we are as closely aligned with our goals and purpose as possible. That way we can utilise as much as possible. And even though ewe cannot see it, the information in the environment will still influence the whole of us.
Helen K
My takeaway from the article is that we are the creators of our own IR – it’s our perception of reality rather than reality itself. Reminds me of the ‘who’s driving the bus?’ question. Two people have an experience however how they filter the information (delete, distort, generalise) can be vastly different based on their meta-programs, beliefs, values, attitudes, etc so their reactions to the same situation and their subsequent behaviours are based on their internal representations. This is a powerful concept for working to change behaviours.
Alessandra
My creative take, is of a huge archive that needs to be decluttered. Not because my perception will ever be (or need to be)like someone else’s but because it will free up space for a better map of my inner world and ultimately of those interacting with it externally. As a whole we can achieve a better world one person at a time. Understanding how I have deleted, distorted & generalised without this knowledge has impacted my life, and created stagnation, but the willingness to declutter and heal has shown a better map and eagerness to stay in the “good” cause and effect side of the equation. The unconscious mind is a friend not a boss and only asks for clear directives to serve, the first step to attain this is to create rapport with it, not to be forgotten that it has an important manual of the body and how to keep it in perfect health and our perceptions of health impact this important manual, it’s like making unsound corrections on something utterly perfect. It’s Ok to have an archive for all the memories its the interaction that we have with the archive that is important. Each experience is a film and the actors have their own view of the scenes, however it can be improved, we either create a film of war or one of peace. Each in their own way with NLP can learn a new “language” to communicate even if their recollection of an event is not like ours. Looking or feeling the parts that make us hurt/worry etc… to understand where to look or how to feel for a better perception of the other and ourselves and ultimately respect the perception of the other and not try to fix it. Its all about perception. As to the remainder of the 11milion bits of info that are left out after we chunk it, are we really sure it is lost or isn’t that it’s all there but we just don’t consciously know it? Love what NLP is showing me but mostly of the “how” it can be changed.
Natasha
Interesting; I think I know who I am and what has made me the person I am today (including all the things I am proud of all the way to limitations I feel or things I think need to change) but reading the article just highlights that I wasn’t focussing and in the meantime my subconscious mind has happily been making IR’s on my behalf (some I might agree with and others I might not). I haven’t been paying attention (or learnt how to pay attention).
I guess the knowledge that NLP techniques can help clarify and deal with limiting emotions and assist with unrealistic distortions (filters applied etc) provides some light in the tunnel ;).
Brinly McCredden
I find it amazing that our minds are able to a) select and filter millions of pieces of information; b) ‘instantly’ determine what the most relevant pieces of information should be and c) essentially manipulate information in a way that we can make sense of it within our world. All while we aren’t even consciously aware of it! Looking forward to delving deeper at the NLP Prac and Master Prac!
Part 4 - Controlling everything in life using Perception and Projection
[…] anything around you that is not you. This topic makes us go back to the basics of NLP – the NLP Model of Communication which describes precisely why that’s the case. It is one of the first things you learn during an […]
Ghassan
Very interesting article.
Is there any definition of ”bit of information”?
Persis Balsara
What I take from this article Is that every individual has his unique way of accepting information and then processing it according to his understanding. That what he understands, is stored in his brain and the rest in his subconscious. How he processes it is his internal representation.
Rose-maree Cooke
I find this so facinating and have asked both my children to recall and event and as you say both recall the event differently and my version of the event was different as well I work in customer service and knowing this helps me realise that when explaining a product to a customer and realising their interpretation of what i have said may not be what i want them to take away from this interaction
This is where the rapport with the customer may help understand their way of thinking so the interaction with them could have the desired effect
Jen Ince
It is always interesting about how the mind works. I always knew of the 7 plus or minus 2 which really is a thing. I, like most others, fall into the trap of forgetting that other peoples perceptions are different to our own and this is due to exactly what was described above. By trying to remember this, it keeps me in check about not passing judgements and being more aware in the diversity of thought among everyone.
Cooper
What I personally take from the article is that we will develop a conscious awareness about an event that is entirely based on the way we unconciously process information based on our Internal Representation.
Bart Teunissen
The biggest thing that I takeaway from the article is that everyone interprets and sees things differently mainly at an unconscious level
Corrine
My biggest take away is that no-one can be right or wrong – it is purely perception and no-one holds the ‘whole picture’. The ability to stand back and understand everyone’s internal representation allows a deeper understanding of the event and yourself.
Mark Barnett
What a wonderful machine our nervous system and brain is!!
Christine O'Hehir
Very interesting I am looking forward to understanding myself and my filtering. Thanks regards Chris
Mia Butler
This has really opened my eyes to the idea that there is no one reality and every single persons interpretation of the world can be so completely different from another persons. This knowledge has allowed me to let go of so much anger and resentment towards other people when it comes to disagreeing on certain topics and allowing everyone to have their own opinion. I am less defensive and much more accepting with this knowledge. I was brought up to believe in one reality and there is right or wrong for everybody (which was my parents version of what was right and wrong). BUT actually there is only what is right or wrong for you, based on YOUR past experiences and how that filters your perception and the information YOU personally process as being true.
Alisha Fernandez
“We’re left with just about 50 bits in our peak performance time out of 11 million”. 11 million bits of information per second is a crazy statistic! Wow! Understanding that these bits of information are filtered by us based on our beliefs, values, past experiences makes so much more sense as to why I think differently to a certain situation than someone else. Fascinating article Brad! Thank you for sharing it with me.
Stuart
What I take away from this is understanding how it is that we take different versions of our he same ev it.
Margoth Alvarado
Looking for to the seven day training to understand more and to have questions answers
Margoth Alvarado
Filtering information about trauma and experiences which continue to find answers through the training looking for to the week of training.
Judtih asal
It’s amazing to learn here that filtering is normal and natural thing we do, and seems necesessary to stay sane.
And also that how a person sees the world, their representation, has has to do with their internal filters.
Amazing stuff
Angela-Rose
Holy moly … have never really thought about
11 million bits of information being received at one
time & love the idea of hullicinations experienced
in different ways by different people for the same situation
JudyK
Fascinating stuff. The article made me realise that I also am ‘aware’ of some of the information that I consciously filter eg like anything to do with numbers, or has numbers in it. I have a childhood belief that I will struggle with numbers – so I don’t even bother noting them.
Sonia Singh
Thanks for sharing the article Brad. This was one of the first things I read when i began the course material and I must admit was fascinated with the stats. This information definitely increased my awareness in all my conversations especially ones at work. I walked away with a better appreciation of others views, opinions and suggestions and reduced being judgemental. Especially since coming from a place where everything was black or white this was a massive personal shift and immediately altered my interactions with peers. Look forward to discovering more over the next week.
Ding Makuei
The biggest take away for me from this is having two people described or remember the same event differently. It reminds me of my own family of seven children who have made different important life decisions based on the same experience that we went through while growing up. Dad was always busy working while we went to boarding school. Sometimes we might see him for half a day in an entire year. We are all grown up now and some of my siblings have followed his example while some of us have decided that we are not putting our families through that experience. I look forward to the training tomorrow.
Jill
This article has made me think about why I react to certain situations or conversations without being in control. I then later quiz myself as I end up feeling embarrassed or inadequate when there is no need to. Makes me curious as to what my internal filters are doing! I also resonate with stories my siblings and I recall and we do have varying recollections… really interesting and I can’t wait to unpack more!
Jade Martin
My biggest takeaway (and something that has become more apparent as I have worked through the course material) is just how greatly we both control and shape our reality through our conscious and subconscious/unconscious minds – without even realising it. Even when I thought I was ‘paying attention’ or being very analytical and observational, there is still so many layers of information that fell short of my awareness.
When I think back to some of the most pivotal moments of my life, now in hindsight, it is really overwhelming to think how they could have played out very differently, had I been more conscious of my Internal Representation system and the level of experiences I was not noticing through the process of filtering. This is especially relevant for situations where I feel I came off second best, or fell short of expectations.
Irene Serravalle
My understanding of this was that alot more information moves through our subconscious mind and our conscious mind only retains a portion of the information. We are a very sofisticated machines as we are wired to process and access information efficiently for quicker responses. Therefore our ecology,history and territories of our life experience makeup our generalized responses, which we also have at times distorted and delete to suit our outcomes.
Irene Serravalle
My understanding of this was that alot more information moves through our subconscious mind and our conscious mind only retains a portion of the information. We are a very sofisticated machines as we are wired to process and access information efficiently for quicker responses. Therefore our ecology,history and territories of our life experience makeup our generalized responses, which we also have at times distorted
and delete to suit our outcomes.
When I look back at and knowing how to identify on how I generalize, delete and distort. I have realised that I do it to embellish my storytelling to amuse or inspire others. One example of this is when I’m serving difficult customers. I will generalise that that’s what they’re usually like based on the similarity to an other experience which we all recall. Then destort their (customers) mannerisms and delete what I did or didn’t do to get the desired outcome. Rest assured I use my power’s for good
Suzanne McTier-Browne
In the case of a negative memory, it is comforting to remember that the memory is not the actual event but merely an Internal Representation of the event. And so while the past cannot be changed, the perception or interpretation of it can be. It also reminds me “the map is not the territory.”
And now I just keep thinking about those almost 11 million bits of information that we’re filtering out every second. Surely there must be some important things in there that we all are missing? Every second!
Robyn Monteleone
A reminder the world is what we are paying attention to and we are missing many pieces of the puzzle. What other information can we gain if we shift our attention?
A reminder also that when dealing with people; that surface behaviour is often masking what people are experiencing internally and may be a distraction for what is happening below the surface. Asking questions, rather than making assumptions allows us to obtain more information.
SHERIN
My biggest takeaway is, that I am beginning to understand what Internal Representation is more and more as i learn and pay attention. How differently each person interprets memories of the same incident, maybe have deleted, distorted and generalized the memory of the event. It could be positive for one and the same can be adversely damaging to the other. The memory of the incident could make one happy and the other depressed / angry. It made me think of my own experience and the mental state of mind I was in at that time vs the other person involved. I can clearly remember being asked to do something on behalf of the other person, and I actually did it, although reluctantly, due to the urgency of the matter. But the other person has totally a twisted interpretation of the whole episode i.e., as if I did it on my own accord thereby jeopardizing the other person’s chances. Prior to preparing for this course I would not have even imagined internal representation could be so varied and poles apart from person to person.
Susan Tindal
What clicked for me in reading this article is not just that I create my own IR of a situation by deleting, distorting and generalising information but that others do too! And in understanding we ALL do this I feel I can not just understand those around me better, but have more compassion for them too.
Ross Dennison
The biggest takeaway for me was the information about how we use chunks to help us absorb and digest as much information as possible or as we need. It rings true for me when coaching golf-I generally keep movements whole rather than broken down in to smaller parts
Chris
The biggest takeaway for me was we generalized a lot of different information. So if we had one bad experience, something similar comes along. we would also assume it is bad. cause have negative reaction towards it.
Justin
for myself personally it really drives in how phenomenal the human body is what we are capable of achieving/doing if we are conciously aware of the power of ones being.
Michel
Interesting read! With the delete, distort and generalize filters, one has to seriously question the validity of witnesses in courts, especially when outcomes / verdicts are dependent on minute details that could be interpreted differently when ‘seen’ from a different person / angle.
Brigitta Plosz
Very interesting information!
My biggest intakes:
1. 2 or more people will see the same event differently
2. We only process a very small amount of information compare to how much we receive all the time
I can’t wait to learn more at the course!!!
Sapi
Biggest take away:
Thank goodness for those filters!
11 MILLION bits of info.. I can barely focus on 2 things at once let alone 5+ or -2!
The brain is so amazing and the reason why I’m here to learn more!!!!
Stephanie Ao
The brain has separate mechanisms for both internal and external memory. Our 5 senses process about 11 million bits of information combined. There’s so much more information out there that we don’t process.
Joanne Kearns
How have I deleted, distorted, generalised…well it was a recognition when another was…
There was a time my mother misheard what her granddaughter said and in attempting to rationalise a fired up emotional interaction it was clear that she could only see two possibilities…You are calling me a liar or she is a lying….
So many other possibilities on the platter to choose from in my perspective though for her it could only be these 2!!!!!
Ohm
Same event happens to me and my sister when we were young we both giving different meaning to it. I took it as I’m not good enough and carry on till my adult hood but it didn’t have any effect to her. That is interesting
Wayne Power
My wife my kids and I constantly have this conversation about our experience as an individual are different from one another.
This is a really helpful bit of knowledge and has been a great topic of conversation when we recount our different memories about past events and holidays etc.
It’s also helps in understanding the way deletion distortion and generalisation effect people and how they decided to do the things they do, their limiting beliefs and choices.
Alex
I have learned form this that my version of reality will never be the same for someone else. I’m looking forward to transform myself and to improve my communication with myself and others.
Celestin
Our internal represention of events “colours our perceptions”, because we only perceive that which we are. What we are not s filtered out of our experience of it.
Saskia Ausma
Biggest takeaway is the discrepancy between the amount of information we receive-11million bits and the amount that we can consciously process – 50-126 bits, that is a massive difference and completely logical as to why two people can have totally different experiences in the same environment, it was also interesting to note the difference between how much information is received visually compared to auditorily.
Akika Ganyu
Biggest takeaway is that our reality is completely created by the filters we hold and we are constantly constructing reality based on these !
Tad James Company
Thank you Akika
Tanya Ellsworth
What I realised is that my mind is already so full of information. I was deleting, distorting and generalising the article as I read it!!! I was thinking, Ah yes, I’ve read this before in the manual or one of books or I heard it on the audio so I’m familiar with this information. Also I realised that I need to clear my mind of some of the clutter before I start the course on Thursday!!
Tad James Company
Thanks for sharing Tanya 🙂
Jessyca J
Such an interesting read! I have always been quite fascinated how 2 people can perceive and process the same event in 2 completely different ways.
The biggest takeaway for me was that we are subjected to 11 million bits of information every second!!! That is a phenomenal amount of information and its no wonder we sometimes feel overwhelmed and overloaded!
Tad James Company
Thanks for sharing Jessyca 🙂
Naveed Kiani
Very interesting read indeed.
So much of information received but almost negligible processed. Its a wonder we still get through things.
Tad James Company
Thank you, Naveed
Sarah Mellor
For me this concept lands so powerfully in terms of inspiring and offering the way forward to clients. Hope is often needed when we’re looking to make change and for me personally the simplicity of this model to grasp I found very empowering in my own journey. Change your filters/IR, change your behaviour and ultimately change your outcomes in life!