Let's do the time warp again

2008-01-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

Ali asked:

Recently I have been experimenting with bending time and space. Speeding it up, then slowing it down again. If I am able to bend it at will, does it really exist? Does NLP have a view James?

Hi Ali - congratulations on being the one to get the ball rolling!

How about I start by getting the pedantic, taking-language-far-too-literally crap out of the way first (you know, that stuff that really annoys non-NLPers), just to satisfy those people who get their kicks out of being persnickety about such things?

So just for those people: NLP doesn't have a view on this, in the same way that NLP doesn't have fingers, teeth and a summer wardrobe. NLP isn't a sentient being with opinions about things. It's a field of study whose aim is the explicit replication of tacit expertise.

And now that we've got the stating-the-bleeding-obvious-while-misrepresenting-someone-else's-intentions out of the way (yes kids, you too can learn to be a great communicator - just as long as you never lose your grip on good old fashioned common sense), let's get down to brass tacks.

Of course you know that, and of course that's not what you meant. It's funny, really - at different levels of development, NLPers pay attention to different things. There are multiple presuppositions in every sentence, so which ones do we choose to zone in on as being the most important things to address? So much depends on experience, and on the intentions of all involved parties ...

Anyway, I have both a short and a long answer to your question. The short answer is that NLP involves the study of the structure of subjective experience - not of objective reality. That's assuming there is such a creature as objective reality in the first place - and given the vast differences that can occur in people's experience of the same event, imagine how strange and alien it would be to only experience such an objective reality ... ? Trippy.

Are you bending time, or are you bending your experience of time?

So the long answer is that your question reminds me of Terence McKenna.

Terence McKenna was one of the more famous and influential advocates for the use of natural psychedelics. In particular, he was really into DMT. DMT is the key chemical ingredient in ayahuasca (a sacred brew used in South American shamanic rituals). It's found in many plants ... and it's also produced by your brain.

Now here are a couple of fun facts about the effects of DMT:

a) the perception of being in a completely different reality is experienced in an extremely real way, and ...

b) one of the common experiences people have is of being poked, prodded and examined by strange, alien humanoids

Let me remind you - DMT is produced by your brain. So there are lots of interesting DMT theories. One of my favourites is that when people report that they were abducted by aliens, it could be that they just had a spike in DMT production in their brain while they were dreaming.

Dr Rick Strassman (a leading DMT researcher) has suggested that people may experience alien encounters while under the effects of DMT because it affects those parts of the brain responsible for recognising human forms.

Now here's where this gets interesting. Imagine that you took some DMT, went somewhere else and saw aliens. And imagine that your subjective memory of that event is as real for you as the experience you're currently having, reading this.

So Terence McKenna (among others) took a different view of the DMT experience. Given that the alien encounter thing is quite a common DMT experience, McKenna remained well and truly open to the possibility that DMT actually allows us to perceive (or travel to) other dimensions - populated with other beings - that actually exist.

In other words, when you experience alien encounters as real events while under the influence of DMT, a question may subsequently arise: Is my mind tricking me, or is my mind freeing me?

When you experience yourself bending time, are you tricking your mind, or are you freeing your mind?

And if all you really have to go on is your own experience, and you're getting desirable results doing what you're doing ... what benefit do you imagine you will gain from answering that question?

More importantly, if you were to have an answer to that question, which answer would be the most useful one for you to have?

That's a question to answer with a congruency check, by the way - rather than conscious chatter. After all, conscious minds don't know everything, right? If they did, then inexperienced NLPers wouldn't zone in on trivial presuppositions and annoy the bejesus out of people.

They'd know that you probably didn't mean to imply that NLP is a sentient being with opinions and things. That kind of picky over-examination of language rarely serves anyone. There are other ways to make sense of things that don't involve putting someone's words under a microscope - poking, prodding and examining ...

Thanks again for getting the ball rolling, Ali - and somewhere in among these strange ramblings, I hope you find something of value, whether true or just subjectively real ...

How can I help?

2008-01-10T02:43:00.000-08:00

In the interests of providing ongoing support for my students, I've decided to publish this blog as a perpetual 'open frame'.

What this means is that if you have completed NLP Practitioner training or NLP Master Practitioner training with me, and you have anything you'd like to know - any questions you'd like to ask - then I will always be available to respond to those questions as best I can.

And of course, you'll know by now that responding as best I can doesn't necessarily mean offering a simple, direct answer ... although sometimes it will.

So here's how it works: just write your question in the comments field of any post (including this one), and I'll post a response. Simple as that.

If you're new to blogs, just scroll down to the bottom of this post - you'll see a clickable link that reads "(number) comments". Just click that link and post your question!

Now ...

For NLP Practitioners (or anyone interested in NLP) who haven't trained with me, I hope you'll find lots of valuable stuff here ... and ... my intention for the moment is for this blog to be a resource for my own students. What this means is that:

a) comments will be moderated, and

b) for the time being I will only post responses to questions from my own students

This may change in future - after all, change happens pretty easily - and for the time being, that's the deal. In the meantime, why not find out how much value you can squeeze out of any posts you find here? Sometimes we can surprise ourselves with how much there is to be learned from even the simplest things ...

So. The ball's in your court now. I'm sure questions have been forming and bubbling up to the surface of your mind even as you've been reading this, so ...

How can I help?

James on tap

Let's do the time warp again

How can I help?