Words Don't Change People - Experience Does!

For instance, if I say, "I want you to salivate." What do you experience? "Now, think of a nice, juicy fresh lemon, mmmm - sqeeze some of the juice into your mouth and taste it." What happened this time? Which one elicited the most experience of a real lemon? The digital information or words give the instruction or information to the left hemisphere. Imagine if we were talking in person and you could see my facial expression, gestures and hear my tonality. This is the analog marking or non-verbal part of the message. The speaker's personal state of being will strongly influence the listener in the experience through eliciting a response from their right hemisphere.

A study done by the British Journal of Social Psychology in 1978 describes the ratio of influence in communication between the verbal and non-verbal aspects of delivery. Their research shows that when we are in communication, 55% of the meaning comes from the non-verbal aspects of the environment and delivery, 38% is received through the actual tone, tempo and analog marking of the words, and 7% of the understanding comes from the actual words used.

All language is influential. Whatever is said, we have no choice but to create internal images in an attempt to understand the meaning. We form an internal response automatically. For instance, think of a pink elephant riding a blue bicycle. Notice your internal VAKs. Now, don't think of a pink elephant riding a blue bicycle. Notice that it is the same experience initially in the VAKs - we have to think of it first in order to then attempt to not think of it. When we understand that the unconscious mind can only process words that create the internal experience, we can learn to be much more precise in our delivery. We encourage you to be careful to create word pictures of what you do want, rather than attempting to get results by asking for what you don't want. This would be like going to the store with a shopping list of items that you don't want - this could lead to some very frustrating shopping trips!