By: Shlomo Vaknin, C.Ht

Perceptual positions can really help you with visualization as a tool for excellence.

Perceptual positions are a bit like the persons in grammar, but, of course, these positions are used in NLP for visualization. Let’s take a look at each one.

The first position can really help you feel down to earth or grounded. It can help you tune into your own power as a person and feel whole. This first position is seeing the scene through your own eyes. It is called the “fully associated” position, because any other position is disconnected from your normal sensory experi-ences and your thoughts. In the first position, your seeing, hearing, and feeling are all where they should be when you are 100% in your body and in touch with your senses.

The second position can help you create a more convincing communication strategy. It can help you develop more empathy, understanding people’s feelings in a richer way, by walking in the other person’s shoes. In the second position, you see and hear yourself through someone else’s eyes, and you imagine experiencing their reaction to you.

The third position is a great way to see things more objectively; without emotions distracting you. In the third position you see yourself as if you are watching a movie of yourself. We have already done a process from the third position. Now you know what to call it. You also see any other people from that more distant position. You can build inner resources from the third position, and you can analyze what’s going on from a cool-headed point of view.

“How would this conversation or event look to someone totally uninvolved?” Imagine yourself being out of your body and off to the side of the conversation between you and the other person. You can see both your-self and the other person. The third position allows you to step back, to gain a sense of distance, to observe, to witness, to feel neutral and to appreciate both positions fully.

The fourth position can give you a view of the systems that are involved; systems like the family or organi-zations that are part of the situation; that are connected with it in some way. The fourth position can help you explore how the situation came to be as it is. This perspective can open up a new channel of creative solutions for any situation; even for situations that appear to involve only one person. That’s because every individual is in a cultural and social reality. Remember the NLP presupposition that every communication derives its meaning from its context. You could say that about every life as well.

In the fourth position, you take on the collective point of view. It’s a little like being the sap flowing through all the branches of a tree, you aren’t just looking at the tree. As you look at the situation, try saying things like, “The kind of outcomes that would work for us are…” or “The way we should discuss this is…” As you can tell, the fourth position is about us; it’s about the collective good and the motives that run through the system, whether it’s two people or a global corporation.

The fifth position can give you a cosmic view that is like being enlightened and beyond the whole situation. This cosmic view comes about because the fifth position is more dissociated that any of other positions. Sometimes it can be healing simply because it gives you a transcendent perspective that can bring a sense of peace that you have not experienced in that situation. It can permanently change your experience and your reactions to it.

Getting into the fifth position may take some practice, because it is so foreign to most cultures. Experienced meditators, though, may have already been there and will appreciate seeing how it can be used in NLP.

One way to get a sense of the fifth position is to come from the God place. This is where you imagine being the source of what is going on, whether it’s an argument, cancer, or a law suit. At the same time, you hold the people involved, including yourself, in pure, loving compassion. Then you beam healing and hope into the situation, where that healing and hope are resources that those involved can absorb as they are ready. If you feel that the universe is a threatening place, or you hate your idea of God, you might appreciate getting a vacation from that state of mind.