Auditory Submodalities

The auditory representational system is the things that we hear. We may hear things inside our head, such as sounds, or voices.

The submodalities of the auditory representational system include the following:

• Location. Where is the sound? Is it coming from the left or the right? From above or below? In front or behind?
• Distance. How far away is the sound or voice? Is it close or far away?
• Volume. How load is the sound?
• Tone. Is there a particular tone associated with the sound or voice? What is that tone?  
• Identity. If the sound is a voice, whose voice is it? Is it your voice? Is it another person's? If so whose voice is it?
• Duration. How long is the duration of the sound? 
• Repetition. Does the sound or voice repeat or does it play once then stop? If it repeats, what is the cycle of repetition?

As always, identifying the key submodalities, the so called driving submodalities, allows us to make changes in our experience and the emotional content of our experiences. A key example which we hear about all the time deals with our internal voice.

Our internal voice, or critic, is the voice inside our head that tells us when we are doing the wrong thing, or when we have messed up, or when we are going to mess up in the future.

By playing with the driving submodalities of the internal critic we can change the emotional impact of the critical voice. For example we could:

• Move the location of the voice, perhaps down to the ground.
• Change the tone, say to a sexy or funny tone.
• Change the identity of the voice. Was it your mother? Make it into Donald Duck.

By changing driving submodalities we can change the associated emotional content.

Harmoniously

Shawn Carson

NLP Training in New York