Submodalities

Discover the programming language of subjective experience with this NLP technique. This powerful tool allows you to quickly influence emotions and eliminate unwanted habits or fears.

Introduction

This section explains what submodalities are and why they are important to understand.

Information about the world reaches us through our five senses, summarized as VAKOG. These senses are also referred to as modalities.

Submodalities are the finer distinctions within each sense — the smallest building blocks of subjective experience. For example, in the visual system: bright–dark, color–black and white, sharp–blurry; in the auditory system: loud–quiet, high–low, clear–muffled, etc. Every picture, sound, or feeling can be described using many submodalities.

The fascinating discovery in NLP is that changes in submodalities often have a stronger impact than changes in content. In other words, our emotions and body sensations depend more on *how* we represent something internally than on *what* we represent. This realization led Bandler and others to develop extremely effective and rapid intervention techniques.

Modalities = Representational Systems (VAKOG)
Visual	Seeing
Auditory	Hearing
Kinesthetic	Feeling
Olfactory	Smelling
Gustatory	Tasting

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Submodalities = Fine distinctions within the senses Sensory encoding of experience
Visual	bright–dark	near–far
Auditory	loud–quiet	high–low
Kinesthetic	warm–cold	hard–soft
Olfactory	pleasant	unpleasant
Gustatory	sweet–sour	fruity–bitter

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Meta-Feelings
= the emotional evaluation of sensory-coded experience

Verbal Indicators of Submodalities

Submodalities often appear in language patterns. Examples include:

I have a blurry picture of my future.
He has a bright future ahead of him.
His past is shrouded in darkness.
I’m feeling blue.
That leaves me cold.
That really fires me up.
That’s close to my heart.

Checklist of Possible Sensory Submodalities

A collection of submodalities for each sense.

Visual Submodalities

Movie/Still: Is it a moving image or a still picture?
Color/Black & White: Is it in color or black and white?
Position: Where is the image — right, left, or center?
Brightness: Is it bright, dim, or dark?
Size: Life-sized, larger, or smaller?
Distance: How close or far is it?
Speed: Moving fast or slow?
Perspective: Are you in the image or observing from outside?
Frame: Does it have a frame or is it panoramic?
Depth: 3D or 2D?

Auditory Submodalities

Self/Others: Do you hear your own voice or someone else’s?
Volume: How loud or soft is it?
Pitch: High or low?
Tone: What is the tone like?
Speed: Fast or slow?
Location: Where does the sound come from?
Harmony: Is it harmonious or dissonant?
Rhythm: Regular or irregular?

Kinesthetic Submodalities

Temperature: Warm or cold?
Texture: Smooth or rough?
Pressure: Strong or light?
Movement: Direction and intensity?
Weight: Heavy or light?
Tension: Tight or relaxed?

Exercises

The power of submodalities can only be experienced through practice. Try these exercises to explore them further.

Destruction of Images

Disturbing inner pictures can be transformed or destroyed to reduce their emotional intensity. Learn more: Destruction of Images.

Destruction of Auditory Representations

Everyone has inner voices that are not always kind. With these techniques, you can transform them in a playful way. Learn more: Destruction of Auditory Representations.

The Praline Pattern

A pattern for turning something you dislike but must do into something more motivating. Learn more: The Praline Pattern.

Changing a Belief

A strategy to replace limiting beliefs with empowering ones. Learn more: Changing a Belief.

Fear Opponent

With this technique, you can shrink your fear opponent until it loses its intimidating effect.

Swish Technique

The Swish Technique helps you eliminate bad habits and build strong positive motivation.

Learn more about submodalities in the online seminar recording with our trainer Ralf Stumpf:

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