I've come across a handful of techniques and books that cover the topic of what could be called "spiritual" in NLP, in that they induce states of oneness, beingness, wholeness, or universal love, or in that they lead to common emotional or behavior goals of religion and spirituality (e.g. forgiveness, gratitude, etc.).

I'm wondering if there are more good things out there I haven't found yet. Please respond if you know of anything, especially if you practice it or have used it with clients.

In particular, I'm familiar with the following:

• Core Transformation (Connirae and Tamara Andreas)
• Aligning Perceptual Positions (Connirae and Tamara Andreas)
• Parental Timeline Reimprinting (Connirae and Tamara Andreas)
• Healing Meditations CD (Connirae Andreas, from NLP Comprehensive)
• Tools of the Spirit (Robert Dilts)--I haven't read it yet, but I'm excited to do so soon.
• Forgiveness pattern (Steve and Connirae Andreas)--typically, Christianity tells people to forgive, but doesn't say how...
• Resolving Shame pattern (Steve and Connirae Andreas)--I put this here for getting over one's religiously-installed guilt!
• Resolving Grief pattern (Steve and Connirae Andreas)--perhaps shouldn't be classified as spiritual, except that many religions provide solace for the grieving.

Anything else you would add?

Hi Duff,

Richard has a recording out.. I think on CD.. called Spiritual House clearing.

I absolutely in line with the concept of NLP and Practical spirituality and in a way that allows people to develop and enhance their own spiritual practices.

Also you can use the swish pattern to change negative perceptions into opportunities for changing your response to less spiritual states... such as melancholoy about the world into joy and appreciation of its beauty.

This is also useful for what the Law of Attraction call.. pivoting... using an negative anchor.. to trigger a more positive resource state.

Thanks for this thread..as on Sunday I will be attending a workshop to become an accredited Spiritual Holistic Companion. This is something I am very passionate about applying NLP to.

The methods you list, I have heard of them.. as I have heart of the Mind - book - will re read them again.

Thanks for sharing.

Best wishes
Nina

Thanks, Nina! I wasn't aware of Richard's CD--I'll have to check it out.

I also love the idea of "pivoting" using the Swish. I haven't used the Swish nearly enough, nor creatively enough in my life.

Yours,
~Duff

Hi Duff,

You are welcome... I have a new video by the Hick's that shows the 'thinking' around pivoting..basically she nails it in this one. She gives a great argument for why using the swish and 'better feeling thoughts'.. (reframing etc) will start to change your life in ways that you REALLY DID imagine. I will post it here for you.

[ame="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D8rkvEaVrG0"]YouTube - Abraham: Rampage of Invincibility - Esther & Jerry Hicks[/ame]

So what does being Spiritual in a Practical way mean? It means that we have a belief, like Abraham says, that we are more than this physical body. So that when you can follow your true life's purpose for which you were put on this earth to do, you feel like you are in flow.

Now trusting to follow that flow and refusing to listen to anything other than that - call it intuition, call it flow state, call it being in the Zone... what ever - but you know the feeling I am talking about. It's the one where you just know you are in the groove.. everything literally feels 'right'

What I want to do is give you a way to know and to practice what I have found to be successful in combining both NLP and the principles of LoA. One of the best £100 I spent was going to see them in London this year... because I really GOT the one idea that I was going to see them for.. and that was to PIVOT the bad thoughts and use it as a way to spring my mind into positive feeling thoughts..... and I have to tell you its' been very powerful. Yes at first it took practice, but with the seminar being so fresh in my mind I put it to use straight away. I realised that in just a 'moment'.. I could have my body feeling good, by not focusing on what IS.. for eg. the disapproving look of someone ... and instead IMAGINING or (stating).. how you would like them to be looking at you and treating you... and superimpose that hallucination over the one you thought you were seeing in your reality - remember your unconscious doesn't know which one is which.... so what does it matter if the end result is that you feel better in your body, with good feeling chemicals spinning and swimming around in your neurology?

So here's a scenario I often do on my way to work.

I am constantly doing this now by the way.. as it has become a good habit of mine.. but here is the break down version of learning the steps.

So I get off the train.. and walk over the bridge, as I watch everybody walking to work all dressed in black, following the crowd - usually I could get really depressed at this situation - but instead now I lift my head up and imagine all the possiblities that are within each and every person I am looking at and I see so much potential, joy and beauty - so that cheers me up no end... THEN.. I might see a homeless person sleeping in a doorway - I do the same for him/her .. imagine them having better living conditions, and wanting to get help in cleaning themselves up... I don't wallow in pity for them (this is the essence of pivoting- are you seeing this? ).

Now see the bit in the vid where Ester points to her belly about 4.33 mins into it? This is another thing I do.

I spend time imagining the things that I want and what experiences I will have, be and do etc. Then I get on with my every day life, trusting that the rockets of desire I have sent out are already on their way to me... (now the art of allowing bit). All I have to do all day is be grateful for where I am 'right now' in this moment (the putting the boat in the water where you are bit .. in the vid). So for me, I am in this moment because it is bringing me what I have asked for... (scenario 2 now) I am in the office, a girl I feel a little bit of karma with keeps sending me really boring work to do... so I think.. hmmm this is teaching me something for a purpose..I am happy to help this lady/woman etc because I know that, and I am hearing somethings that she says.. that gives me clues that she is really an 'angel' .. with a good heart. So instead of closing down.. I can open up to the signs that she is probably someone who I could really help to find her trueself. These better feeling thoughts about this lady, are taking me down stream and reducing the pain I am feeling emotionally when I choose to literally see her as being a 'pain'. Is this making sense?

So this is how to practically pivot your thoughts at every moment and train yourself to become more creative in looking for the best things that you do want.... like a muscle it will be become well honed. It is our own duty and responsiblity to live in joy.. thats my belief .. and its only one better feeling thought away from where you are now.


Best wishes
Nina

Hi Duff,

Check out Trainer Richard Bolstad of New Zealand. On his website Transformations, he has articles describing his processes such as Being of Light and The Unanswerable Question. He does a "Spirituality and NLP" training every year in Thailand.

Charles

Thanks, Charles. I know of Richard Bolstad and the RESOLVE method, but I hadn't read of his processes. I'll definitely check them out.

Another one to add: Richard Gray's "Brooklyn Program" which it looks like he's also marketing as "Yoga To Go."

Brooklyn Program

He's taken submodalities to the extreme to max out in a state of bliss and create anchors for this state. He taught substance abusers from prison how to do this without any preaching about quitting, and a large percentage of them stay out of prison and stop using. Amazing!

His book is available for free as a PDF on Lulu:

Richard Gray's free books

Hi Nina,

Thank you for sharing that video and your experiences.

I used to do a similar moment-to-moment practice like pivoting that I learned from Tony Robbins called "state management," a sophisticated form of positive thinking.

Basically the idea is that you can change one's state/moods/thinking in any moment if you don't like the current one. Kinda like changing the channel. The technique is easy enough: change your physiology (body), your internal images, or what you are saying to yourself.

I got really, really good at this. It was useful at the time, and in difficult circumstances, I still use it today.

I found two problems though, in working with this as a way of life.

1. In my quest to live a life of ecstasy (not unlike Ms. Hicks in the above video, I was capable of such charismatic displays, mostly through dance), I developed intense mood swings, from the highest of high peaks, to moderately low burnout (not full-on depression, because I had used cognitive-behavioral methods--basically meta-modeling--to transform my inner dialogue pretty fully).

I learned to run my neurology so well that I came up against the limits of my body's ability to keep up. Eventually this cultivation of hypomania lead to adrenal fatigue where I was too tired to get out of bed 2 or more days a week, which I hoped would be on the weekend so I wouldn't miss work.

It's taken about 4 years to recover from living this way, with lots of help from my herbalist, eating well, and generally living less intensely. I'm still exploring the extent to which I can experience intense moods without depleting my adrenals.

2. Because I was so good at changing my state, I developed intense psychological shadow elements. I became very, very good at repressing or denying aspects of myself or my life that I didn't want to look at.

There's a well-known technique in hypnosis where you create anaesthesia--especially useful for getting dental work without drugs--called hypnotic pain control. This is a useful technique, but if you use it to ignore the message the pain is giving you, the problem can get a whole lot worse.

I similarly was able to create a kind of emotional anaesthesia, ignoring the messages that some of the discomfort or difficult emotions were telling me. After a while, this incongruence or lack of inner ecology made the techniques I was using less and less effective, leading to total breakdown--the techniques I had been using to get happy no longer worked, and simultaneously I had a lot more problems in my life as a result of not listening to the alarms that had been going off in the form of negative emotions.

Core Transformation, with it's focus on listening to every part for it's deeper positive purposes, has been deeply healing for me because of that. Surprisingly, I've found Core Transformation to also help quickly change my state--not by swishing out a different feeling or image, but by going into the core of the existing feeling to it's source, the Self in Jungian psychology.

In particular, I'd like to comment on what you said here:

virtualAngel wrote:

I could have my body feeling good, by not focusing on what IS.. for eg. the disapproving look of someone ... and instead IMAGINING or (stating).. how you would like them to be looking at you and treating you... and superimpose that hallucination over the one you thought you were seeing in your reality - remember your unconscious doesn't know which one is which.... so what does it matter if the end result is that you feel better in your body, with good feeling chemicals spinning and swimming around in your neurology?

What you said is that basically you change your focus from what you see to what you imagine. This kind of taking control of your experience is exactly what Tony Robbins advocated in "state management."

On the other hand, Buddhism and other eastern philosophies would consider this practice as the cultivation of delusion or ignorance, and indeed, that's exactly what it is. There is a kind of freedom in being able to create one's own delusion ("I create my own reality")--but it's a freedom that comes at the expense of truth. I found that when I cultivated a similar thing with state management that the price was ultimately too high to bear, and I became addicted to the chemicals spinning in my neurology that I endogenously generated, eventually hitting "rock bottom" as they talk of in 12-step groups.

Perhaps these methods will work out better for you. If on the other hand, you see signs that perhaps they have side-effects that are more significant that the cure, I'd recommend checking out Core Transformation, mindfulness meditation, or some other approach that cultivates wisdom through accepting reality as it appears, yet also leading to happiness and fulfillment in daily life.

Sincerely yours,
~Duff McDuffee

Hi Duffy,

Thank you for sharing your perspective on just one of the things I do that I find effective for certain situations.

I feel it is very important for me to point out, that I do work and have worked very deeply with my emotions to transform them, pay attention to them and validate them, before transmuting them into light. This is my main speciality, in helping people to become healthy and whole - not by ignoring their emotions but leading them through the processes I have developed that effectly help them learn the lesson of what that emotion was there to teach them... my clients make very powerful shifts in this way.

I am a spiritual tutor who uses NLP application to teach people how to find inner peace with all the tools and techniques over the years which I find very rewarding and a role that that I take very seriously.

Spirituality is many things to many people, and all are at different stages in their journey, life lessons and readiness to let go, change and or transform their deepest innermost emotions.

In terms of emotional fitness.... I am an olympic athlete So I totally get what you are saying and agree %100 - Emotions are definately not to be ignored. They are to be honoured, acknowledge and expressed and allowed to be able to show us the way. So thank you for that.

The comment I made about pivoting, must done in the context of having the balance of having worked or be in the process of working with painful and or negative emotions - not in isolation.

At the end of day, spirituality means to me any behaviour, action or process that aligns me with my higher purpose. So that I may attract to me the things I want to give service to. One of these things, I know will be to help children with Leukemia... either through earning sooo much money that I can give to the charities that do the research.. or work directly with them... so even though I said that imaging on the way to work was a good way to keep yourself up in that situation...I do not believe this is the way in all situations.... I know you have to take action and do something to help when and if you can.

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding you may have had of me as a serial pollyanna - no! I am a practical spirituality person who is only too willing to look at her own shadow, admit it and move on. This is also how I live my life, among others.

Best wishes
Nina

virtualAngel wrote:

In terms of emotional fitness.... I am an olympic athlete So I totally get what you are saying and agree %100 - Emotions are definately not to be ignored. They are to be honoured, acknowledge and expressed and allowed to be able to show us the way. So thank you for that.

The comment I made about pivoting, must done in the context of having the balance of having worked or be in the process of working with painful and or negative emotions - not in isolation.

...

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding you may have had of me as a serial pollyanna - no! I am a practical spirituality person who is only too willing to look at her own shadow, admit it and move on. This is also how I live my life, among others.

Best wishes
Nina

Thanks, Nina. You sounds very balanced and sane...unlike my former self!

Given the context of wholeness and acceptance, pivoting or state management or positive thinking or goal-setting are all very wonderful things.

Keep on rockin',
~Duff

Sure, I also often come around to the spiritual in NLP. I think its what attracted me in the first place.

I was going to a lot of parties at the time, and I wanted to redress a disconnect that I found with people. Its full of good solutions.

Developing a more meaningful sense of purpose, connecting with people and the environment in more profound ways (comming to your senses), and learning how deal with things more flexibly (philosophically actually) in order to make the best of things.

These are all fundamentally spiritual and seem to encourage a better journey through life.

Rich

I'll make a plug here for the idea of Magick and NLP, which we might arguably consider the deeper end of the spirituality pool. This is a rapidly growing area and I'll recommend the following books: The New Hermetics, by Jason August Newcomb Chaotopia, by David Lee Visual Magick, by Jan Fries Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem, by Yours Truly

Thanks, Philip. I was just browsing your book an hour ago in a bookstore.

I've dabbled a bit in Magick, but have mostly found Buddhist practices and yoga more accessible, living here in Boulder, CO where there are many meditators and teachers. I'd love to learn more about Magick, but alas, there are so many things to practice, so little time!

virtualAngel wrote:

Emotions are definately not to be ignored. They are to be honoured, acknowledge and expressed and allowed to be able to show us the way.

I think you guys are spot on here, I have been playing around with this for a while now and use my emotions as an indicator that something is amiss. As soon as an uncomfortable emotion appears, I stop and take the time to work through the emotion to discover the hidden belief I am holding that is causing it to manifest as an issue (uncomfortable feeling) in my life.

virtualAngel wrote:

The comment I made about pivoting, must done in the context of having the balance of having worked or be in the process of working with painful and or negative emotions - not in isolation.

What is pivoting?

virtualAngel wrote:

At the end of day, spirituality means to me any behaviour, action or process that aligns me with my higher purpose.

I had a discussion on the weekend about life purpose/higher purpose and I am now curious to discover more about life purpose. So if i may I would like to ask, do we as humans have a common higher purpose or is that we each have an individual higher purpose?

Have a great day

Frederic

Hi Frederic,

Thank you for sharing your strategy in working with Emotions.. this is perfect and I suspsect you also have boundless energy and look younger than your chronological years too! That is usually a by- product of what you are doing.

Pivoting, as an adjunct to dealing with the uncomfortable emotions is the ability to focus on the positives of a situation that may trigger mild irritations, or negative thinking patterns - as we know, these only create physiological reactions that take us in the direction of being unhealthy and seperated from Source energy. So pivoting is a way to reconnect with Source (and there are many many ways or Gateways to higher vibrational thoughts, higher self , God, ) through the kinds of thoughts you are holding. Essentially it is a way to raise your vibration from where you are in that moment - if you choose to.

Pivoting eg..... notice something, either externally or internally that makes you feel less pleasurable than you want to feel at the moment - recognise feeling/emotion/thought/attitude/belief etc and then make a change to it in a higher vibration direction - and this can be ANY thought/action that makes you feel better than you do in that moment - exactly as you have been doing but with a focus on creating something in its place that is better.

For example when you deal with your emotions successfully in the way that you state in your post - what do you fill it with? Do you just leave it where it is or do you make a decision to fill it with something better? It's ok to do either, but it is an opportunity to make futher improvements using NLP to surprise and delight yourself each time you check in with yourself - so it becomes something that you just naturally do.

So Pivoting to me is about being aware of your responses and using all the tools you have to turn stuff around and find a better way to be - according to your own criteria.

Best wishes
Nina

Frederick Wrote: I had a discussion on the weekend about life purpose/higher purpose and I am now curious to discover more about life purpose. So if i may I would like to ask, do we as humans have a common higher purpose or is that we each have an individual higher purpose?

Hi Frederick, I think the answer to this is both that we each have a life purpose and also a common higher purpose. In either case, I believe we are all being led in the direction of light, for some it takes a lifetime, for others it takes a second. I believe that our common purpose is to experience all we can be and then return to the light having gained all the experiences that we agreed to experience before we incarnated into a physical body.

A way to know when you are being led towards your higher purpose are those time when you just know that you have to do something. A way to know when you are not on purpose is when you body feels heavy, you have to drag your legs to go to work or FORCE yourself to make that phonecall. Living on purpose feels like you have unlimited energy, you walk with a spring in your step and your aura feels expansive and joyful. It's very easy as an NLPer to know the difference between these two states and to be able to make a quick decision and keep yourself in alignment with your purpose.

So you may not know consciously what your ultimate purpose may be... but your body will give you the signals as to the direction in which you will eventually discover it... thats is why the journey is exiting... you never really know what your purpose is, its about learning to be guided and delighted by your emotions - our personal guidance system - and being awed by the beauty and elegance of how it works like dream - you will notice subtle things that trigger in your memory.. and you say things like.. WOW! I could never have orchestrated that so beautifully. You find that things just seem to come together like a beautiful dance.. I could go on and on.. but I think you get picture

Best wishes
Nina

PhilFarber wrote:

I'll make a plug here for the idea of Magick and NLP, which we might arguably consider the deeper end of the spirituality pool. This is a rapidly growing area and I'll recommend the following books: The New Hermetics, by Jason August Newcomb Chaotopia, by David Lee Visual Magick, by Jan Fries Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem, by Yours Truly

Hi Phil,

Could you give us a taster of what are some of the main messages in your book?

Ta
Nina

virtualAngel wrote:

Hi Phil,

Could you give us a taster of what are some of the main messages in your book?

Ta
Nina

Sure... here's an excerpt on the Reality Sandwich site:
Reality Sandwich | Achieving New States of Consciousness Through NLP, Neuroscience and Ritual

And a few videos on the subject:
YouTube - metamagick's Channel

Enjoy!

Thanks Nina

virtualAngel wrote:

when you deal with your emotions successfully in the way that you state in your post - what do you fill it with? Do you just leave it where it is or do you make a decision to fill it with something better? It's ok to do either, but it is an opportunity to make futher improvements using NLP to surprise and delight yourself each time you check in with yourself - so it becomes something that you just naturally do.

I guess, I just take the learning from it and leave it there. Sometimes I might look at ways to behave differently (visualise different strategies and then run myself through a future pace using the most appropriate)

I have read the law of attraction , the magicians way, path of least resistance and several other books. I had a house mate that used a process where she released all negative emotions into the universe and drew down a golden light into herself once she had gotten the learnings from them. I have grown a fair bit since then so who knows, that was then and this is now but at that time I felt no different when she took me through the process. So I guess that is pivoting.

Very interesting about the source, I am not 100% in the source, I am just happy knowing stuff happens. Though, I do not discount it, especially after reading my unconscious reply (in was meant to be into) .

I just am not too sure I buy into the giant gallactic warehouse full of the things I desire in life waiting for me, to believe beyond a doubt that these things can just manifest themselves in my life for no reason other than believing in them.

On the other hand when I have being determined that I wanted something to happen or I was going to run into a specific person, then I would.

My friends all told me I was mad for believing a certain thing would happen, yet it did, but I had to take action once that door opened/opportunity presented itself to make it happen.

That’s why I say stuff just happens. I think I was put off by the Hick's type manifestation logic in some way the thought of a child putting out an energy that attract and corresponds with the paedophiles energy Or that little babies are asking to molosted. Some times shit just happens be it good, bad or indifent.


A little hard to swallow, I have being meaning to revisit a lot of those books with my new NLP believe nothing test everything glasses.


Perhaps the new 4X4 Ford Ranger XLT ute I have had on order from the gallactic warehouse will arrive and prove to me that the law of attraction does work.

Have a great day

Frederic

Yeah, Fredrick,

I would be interested to see how they would answer such a sensitive question you posed about the children.

I know when I was in the audience this year when they came to London, someone would ask a question that you though.. hmm lets see how they answer this one... and they always came up with something amazing that had the whole audience nodding and accepting with respect.

I guess you would have to ask them to get the answer - it's always a sensitive topic.

I hope you get your 4x4 - you just gotta allow it in.. it's waiting for you with your name on it

Best wishes
Nina