This is Part 11 of the series of articles entitled “NLP Values and the Evolution of Consciousness.” If you are not familiar with the series you can find all the ten parts here – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 and Part 10.
If you’re not the reading type you can get the whole training on values from our NLP Master Practitioner trainings. You can find the DVD’s here.
In order to conclude this mini series of articles which again, does not do justice to a comprehensive presentation on values but barely scratch the surface, we need to remember the most important points when evaluating individual human values.
- Values are not what we like but what is important to us
- Every person has values
- Every individual set of values is different from another individual’s and
- No values levels (IE types of thinking) are “better” than others” but they are all geared to support existence inside a certain type of environment.
- Development through the values levels and different types of thinking is possible but not guaranteed.
- Values are not related to intelligence or IQ, nor are they related to how people think (in NLP we call these strategies). They are not even related to the concepts of “toward” and “away from” (carrots or sticks).
- At least in the western world (this is the one I am most familiar with) nobody “is” a certain values level. You can’t say to somebody “Oh, you’re a values level X!”
- Under stress people revert to the last completed previous values level. This can be one or two or even more values levels backwards – depending on which one was completed fully.
- You cannot progress through values levels unless all the concerns related to one values level are fulfilled, and the energy spent on these concerns is freed. In other words you need to walk the walk not only talk the talk of a certain values level to be done with it and progress further.
- People can exhibit different values levels in different contexts of life.
- A lower values level cannot understand or comprehend a higher values level. Remember this because it is the basis for the remainder of our analysis.
- The words a person is using to describe his/her own values may be of a higher values level than the neurology of the body.
- Each different way of thinking has positive aspects and negative aspects like a coin with two facets.
It is very easy for the powers that be on this planet to fall into the trap of adopting similar values levels thinking throughout ages. For example the restrictive and punitive medieval time of the inquisition is a very clear example of values level (VL 4) but as counter intuitive as it sounds the communist regimes, the Nazi regime, the Tibetan Monks religious and spiritual ‘system’ (it is still a system folks and you will remember that all systems belong to VL 4), all monotheistic religions, the socialist and also the most modern ‘corporatist’ systems, the collectivist propaganda you see and read daily – they all belong to VL 4. VL 4 is the best system of control of large populations. The system (any system) has only one goal in mind – to maintain itself at all costs. I hope you caught the last part of that sentence – “at all costs”.
You can see the “group think” from VL 2, and VL 4 as well as VL 4-6 wherever you see, read or hear talks about the “‘we’ as the disenfranchised group, or ‘we’ as women against ‘we’ as men, or ‘we’ as AA, ‘we’ as victims of this or that, or ‘we’ as ______ (insert here the country, or the group of choice), etc. Consider this: if everybody thinks the same thoughts and has the same beliefs, then everybody behaves in the same manner and obeys without questioning the system (whatever that system is) then control over large masses of people becomes much easier. You cannot blame the powers that be on the planet for pushing as hard as they can to achieve that “perfect” system. Unfortunately for the reasons I hope you already understand it is utopic because human beings are not the same. And this seems to be a problem!
Now let’s introduce one last important point to remember although we will not add it to our list which is already rather long.
All even values levels types of thinking share one important thread, an important connection between them and of course all odd values levels of systems do the same – I.E. share a major commonality. In even numbers (VL 2, 4, 6 and 8) the locus of control is outside of the individual and therefore submissive behavior with complete surrender to an outside is a common trait. Of course these four thinking ways are extremely different (submission in VL 2 is to the family, clan) in VL 4 is to the system (religious or otherwise) and in VL 6 is to “my group of trusted friends” but they all share this attribute – submission to an outside control. The individual cannot proceed with anything without approval from the outside power – therefore the individual does not have control over his or her own life.
The odd numbers depicting the VL 3, 5 and 7, or better said these ways of thinking also share a common attribute, like a thread moving through all three – the locus of control and decision over the life of the individual is inside the individual. As different as they are, VL 3, VL 5 and VL 7 share this in common.
This is extremely important since the odd values levels are literally 180 degrees opposite to even numbers. Literally! Like night and day opposites! This is why transition from one mode of thinking into the next involves growth pains and very uncomfortable moments; all the strategies involved in looking “outside” for help have to change into looking “inside” for self-help or vice-versa. Submitting yourself to a family decision, or state/government/religious decision or like-minded group of trusted friends is diametrically opposed to doing everything on your own, deciding on your own, and submitting only to your own mind and power of decision. It is a major enlightening consciousness transformation, however you will do well to remember that values levels transition is possible but not guaranteed.
Finally in the next article and Part 12 we will complete our journey through Values, NLP and the Evolution of Consciousness.
Until then, be well