1.8 Synesthesia
The existence of the ordered sequences of representation that we call strategies presupposes interconnected networks of activity at the neurological level. Crossover connections between representational system complexes, such that the activity in one representational system initiates activity in another system called synesthesia in NLP.
Hearing a harsh tone of voice and feeling uncomfortable is an example of auditory–kinesthetic synesthesia. Seeing blood and feeling nauseous would be a visual–kinesthetic synesthesia. Feeling angry and blaming someone verbally inside your head would be a kinesthetic–auditory synesthesia. Hearing music and imagining a beautiful scene would constitute an auditory–visual synesthesia.
Synesthesia patterns constitute a large portion of the human meaning making process. Correlations between representational system activities are at the root of such complex processes as knowledge, choice and communication. The skills and abilities that humans develop in all areas, fields and disciplines are the direct result of the establishment of crossover connections between neural representational complexes. The major differences among individuals possessing different skills, talents and abilities are derived from the synesthesia correlations within their particular domains of experience.
By making these correlative patterns explicit, neurolinguistic programming provides a working model, an applied technology for the strategic utilization of correlative patterns to secure any behavioral outcome. By identifying synesthetic sequences that lead to specific outcomes and by making them available to those who desire to achieve those outcomes we can, in essence, replicate any behavior — whether that of a businessman, scientist, healer, athlete, musician or anyone that does something well. With the tools provided by NLP, we believe anyone can be transformed into a modern "renaissance" person.
II: STRATEGIES
All of our overt behavior is controlled by internal processing strategies. Each of you has a particular set of strategies for motivating yourself out of bed in the morning, for delegating job responsibilities to employees, for learning and teaching, for conducting business negotiations, and so on. Yet our cultural models do not explicitly teach us the specifics of the strategies that are required to achieve the behavioral goals expressed or implied by each model. Until the advent of neurolinguistic programming this has been left almost exclusively to personal trial and error.
We may succeed magnificently with particular strategies (making money, for example), yet fail completely with others (personal relationships, for example). What, precisely, is it about strategies that generates successful outcomes in some instances and disastrous outcomes in other instances? By applying the techniques and procedures developed and described in NLP, individuals in many walks of life and professionals in many fields have learned to modify existing strategies or to create new ones for themselves and their associates to achieve exactly the outcomes they desire. The magic of success is a matter of employing the most effective strategies. Most strategies can be easily learned or modified to accomplish goals of our own choosing.
2. TOTEs and Strategies
The basic format we will use to describe a specific sequence of behavior is the TOTE (Test–Operate–Test–Exit), a model proposed by George Miller, Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram in their book Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960). A TOTE is essentially a sequence of activities in our sensory representational systems that has become consolidated into a functional unit of behavior such that it is typically executed below the threshold of consciousness (see Patterns II). As an example, a handshake for adults in western cultures is a single unit of behavior that often has the status of a TOTE.
The behavioral sequence that makes up a TOTE can range from the simple to the complex. For the beginning musician, the playing of a single note may be the largest chunk of behavior that he or she can handle. As the musician's skill increases, however, the performance of an entire scale or melody may be comfortably undertaken as a single unit of behavior — a complex sequence of activities that has become incorporated as a TOTE.
In our experience, the advantages of TOTE over other models for analyzing behavioral units are its elegance (it requires the fewest distinctions) and its incorporation of the important properties of feedback and outcome. Developed by Miller, Galanter and Pribram as an extension of the "reflex arc" (the stimulus–response concept) in behaviorist theory, the TOTE model retains the basic simplicity of its predecessor but far surpasses it in usefulness as a neurological model of the formal internal processing sequence triggered by a stimulus. That is, it extends the "reflex arc" model to include a feedback operation as an intermediate activity between the stimulus and the response. As Miller, Galanter and Pribram explain:
"The test represents the conditions that have to be met before the response will occur." (p. 24)
If the conditions of the test phase (a comparison of present state and desired state) are met, the action initiated by the stimulus exits to the next step in the chain of behavior. If not, there is a feedback phase in which the system operates to change some aspect of the stimulus or of the organism's internal state in an attempt to satisfy the test once again. The test–operate feedback loop may recycle many times before the test is passed and the action exists.* Miller, Galanter and Pribram write:
*The TOTE will also exit if, after many trials, its operation phase fails to have any significant effect on the outcome of the test, although not to the same behavior as it would have if it had passed the test.
"… the response of the effector (the output neuron) depends on the outcome of the test and is most conveniently conceived of as an effort to modify the outcome of the test. The action is initiated by an "incongruity" between the state of the organism and the state that is being tested for, and the action persists until the incongruity is removed. The general pattern of the reflex action, therefore, is to test the input energies against some criteria established in the organism, to respond if the result of the test is to show an incongruity, and to continue to respond until the incongruity vanishes, at which time the reflex is terminated. Thus there is "feedback" from the result of the action to the testing phase, and we are confronted by a recursive loop." (pp. 2526)
A simple example of a TOTE's test phase would be that of a threshold test. In this example the stimulus must be above or below a certain quantitative threshold value to satisfy the test for congruity before the TOTE will exit to the next step in the chain of behavior. If it is not, the organism will operate to increase or decrease either the stimulus or its own threshold level in order to pass the test. When you adjust the volume dial on your radio or stereo, you are performing a TOTE of this type. As you turn the knob, you continually test the sound volume by listening to it. If the volume is too low, you operate by turning the knob clockwise. If you overshoot and the volume becomes too loud, you operate by turning the knob counterclockwise to reduce the intensity of the sound. When you have adjusted the amplifier to the appropriate volume, you exit from the "volume–adjusting" TOTE and settle into your comfortable armchair to continue reading.