# Basic Sub Modalities Elicitation — Full 4-MAT Presentation Script **Presenter:** Dustin **Total Time:** ~20 minutes (plus ~30 min exercise) **Has Demo:** Yes (Like to Dislike) --- *Last updated: March 21, 2026 at 12:00 PM MT* ## 1. WHY — Motivation (~3-4 min) *Goal: Short motivational opener. Why should the audience care about sub modalities? Pull them in emotionally before teaching anything.* --- How many of you have ever felt completely stuck? Like something had a grip on you -- a craving, a habit, a belief -- and no matter how much willpower you threw at it, you just couldn't shake it? I know that feeling. Everyone in this room has experienced it at some point, haven't they? [STORY PLACEHOLDER: Tell a personal story about a time something had control over you -- a food craving, a compulsive habit, a belief you couldn't break free from -- and then something shifted. Maybe someone walked you through a process that changed it in minutes instead of months. The story should be vivid and sensory: what you saw, what you felt, the moment it clicked. The key emotional arc is: "This thing controlled me, and then suddenly it didn't." Do NOT name sub modalities or NLP techniques -- just tell the story of the shift.] Think about what that means. Not willpower. Not discipline. Not grinding through years of therapy. Something changed *inside* -- in the way the experience was stored -- and the meaning just... dissolved. And that's the most important thing to understand -- because when you realize that meaning has a structure, you can **begin to see** how anything can shift. You're sitting here right now, and I know part of you is already wondering -- can it really be that straightforward? Whether you believe that fully right now or discover it during the exercise later, the answer is the same. Because people often find that once they experience this for themselves, everything changes. Now imagine being able to do that for your clients. Someone walks in saying "I can't stop thinking about this" or "I know this belief isn't true, but I still feel it" -- and in a matter of minutes, you help them rearrange the internal structure of that experience so it no longer controls them. The craving fades. The limiting belief stops feeling true. The compulsion loses its charge. Can you imagine what that would be like? That is the power of what we're about to learn. It's called **sub modalities**. And it's one of the fastest, most elegant ways to change meaning inside someone's mind. > "Sub modalities allow us to be in charge of most of our internal representations." So let me teach you exactly what they are and how they work. --- ## 2. WHAT — Information (~15 min) *Goal: The main teaching block. What sub modalities ARE -- definition, theory, the checklist, elicitation, contrastive analysis, mapping across, drivers, universals, and speed. Pull heavily from Gina's transcripts.* --- ### Definition: The Fine Details of Experience So what are sub modalities? > "Sub modalities are how we encode and give meaning to the modalities. Now the modalities are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory, and auditory digital. The submodalities are the subsets of those." So if I make a picture in my mind, that picture has certain qualities -- a brightness, a color, a distance from me, a location. Those qualities are sub modalities. They are the fine details of how internal representations are constructed. > "So instead of just visual, it's like the details of visual, like whether something's black and white or color." And here is the key theory: > "The theory is that submodalities are how we encode and give meaning to the internal representations, so then the theory would follow is that changing the submodalities would change the meaning." That is enormously powerful. If I can change the meaning of a belief just by changing something about the picture, the sound, or the feeling associated with it -- imagine what that opens up. I can take a limiting belief and make it feel not true. I can take a craving and make it feel repulsive. I can take a desired belief and make it feel absolutely certain. --- ### Experiencing Sub Modalities: Motivation Exercise Let me demonstrate how this works with a quick experience. I think back to a time when I was totally motivated. I go all the way back to that moment. I step into my body, see what I saw, hear what I heard, and really feel the feeling of being totally motivated. Now here is where it gets interesting. I take that picture and zoom it out -- push it away from me, make it smaller and darker. I push it all the way across the room, shrink it down to the size of a postage stamp, small and dark in the far corner of the room. Notice what happens to the feeling. The motivation is gone -- or at least fuzzy, distant, barely present. > "Notice that the difference in the picture, the meaning of the motivation when it's across the room in the size of a postage stamp versus when you're in it. Notice how it has a much different meaning to you." Now I bring that picture back -- flying toward me at a hundred miles an hour -- and I step right back into it. Looking through my own eyes again. And the motivation is back. Just like that. > "Noticing that the difference between the submodalities is what made the difference as to the meaning of the picture." I didn't change the content. I didn't change the memory. I changed the structure -- the brightness, the distance, the size, whether I was inside it or outside it. And that changed everything about how it felt. > "So submodalities allow us to be in charge of most of our internal representations." --- ### The Sub Modalities Checklist So how do I systematically work with these? I use the sub modalities checklist. It is a map of all the fine details I am looking for when I elicit the sub modalities of an internal representation. **Visual Sub Modalities:** I ask: Is it black and white or color? Near or far? Bright or dim? Where is the picture located? What is the size? Is it associated or dissociated? Focused or defocused? Is that focus changing or steady? Framed or panoramic? Movie or still? Now, an important definition here: > "The word associated in the context of submodalities, the word associated means you're looking through your own eyes. So you're in the picture, looking through your own eyes. And then the word dissociated means that you see your body in the picture." That distinction -- associated versus dissociated -- is one of the most important sub modalities there is. It is critical to memorize and be able to explain quickly to a client. Gina draws a line after "movie or still" on the checklist: > "I would draw a line here in your submodalities checklist under movie or still because anything after this is really not that important." The advanced visual sub modalities -- speed, contrast, 3D versus flat, angle, number of pictures -- those come into play at master practitioner level. At this level, I stop at movie or still. **Auditory Sub Modalities:** After the visual, I ask: are there any sounds that are important? If the answer is no, I skip the whole section. If yes, I elicit: the location of the sound, the direction, whether it is internal or external, and whether it is loud or soft. > "And you might draw a line there after those four because honestly, they're really not that important." So the advanced auditory sub modalities -- fast/slow, pitch, tonality, timbre, pauses, cadence -- those are for later. **Kinesthetic Sub Modalities:** Same approach. Are there any feelings that are important? If yes: the location of the feeling, the size, the shape, and the intensity. > "And maybe just draw a line there and call it a day." So the working checklist at this level is ten visual, four auditory, and four kinesthetic sub modalities. That is the toolkit. --- ### Triggers: The Most Important Thing in Sub Modalities Before I elicit anything, I need to understand triggers. This is where precision in language becomes absolutely essential. > "One of the major issues in submodalities is finding the trigger that kicks off the set of submodalities' distinctions." Here is the difference. If I say to a client, "When you think of ice cream, do you have a picture?" -- they might just make a generic picture of a cone. But if I say, "When you think of how much you *like* ice cream, do you have a picture?" -- that brings the meaning. That brings the emotional charge. That is the trigger. > "The trigger is extremely important in submodalities because you have to make the change at the point of the trigger." And this is where Gina gets very direct: > "I'm a bit of a script maniac when it comes to things like this. And precision and accuracy become very important in NLP because it's neural linguistic programming, people, which means you have to be very precise in your language." So the question is not "think of your limiting belief." The question is "when you think of how much you *believe* that limiting belief, do you have a picture?" The trigger lives in the meaning -- "how much you like it," "how much you believe it," "how much you dislike it." That is what accesses the right internal representation. > "You don't want your client to make up a picture or create a picture. You want to elicit the submodalities of the picture they actually have." --- ### Speed: Working Faster Than the Conscious Mind The second essential element is speed. I have to elicit sub modalities fast -- faster than the conscious mind can process. > "You want to be just faster than the conscious mind can process. So, you want to say things like, when you think of how much you like ice cream, do you have a picture? Good. Is it black and white or color, near or far, brighter dim?" If I slow down, the client changes the picture. And then I am eliciting the sub modalities of the wrong internal representation. > "If you do this, and the person loses track of the picture, then you're going to start getting meanings that have nothing to do with the internal representation you were working with." I need shorthand. First letter of each answer. I do not write out the full word "color" -- I write C. I do not pause between questions. The whole elicitation should feel like a rapid-fire checklist, not a leisurely interview. > "I've seen practitioners say, you know, when you think of how much you believe that limiting belief, do you have a picture? And they go, yeah, and then they go, so is it black and white or color? And the client says black and white and they go, black and white. Okay, how about is it near or far? Near. So, okay, listen, if you go that slowly, the clients change the picture about 30 times." --- ### Contrastive Analysis: Finding the Drivers Once I can elicit sub modalities, the next technique is contrastive analysis. This is how I find the *drivers* -- the sub modalities that actually drive the meaning. > "Contrastive analysis involves finding the drivers or the critical sub modalities by comparing, contrasting, two internal representations for the differences in their submodalities." I take two experiences -- say, something I like (ice cream) and something similar I dislike (yogurt) -- and I elicit the sub modalities of each. Then I compare them side by side. Anything that is different between the two is a potential driver. > "In contrastive analysis, we want to look for the actual differences and those are potential drivers." And the two most common drivers are: > "The two most common drivers are location and association dissociated." So if the picture of ice cream is right in front of my face and bright, but the picture of yogurt is off to the side and dim -- location and brightness are potential drivers of why one means "love" and the other means "disgust." --- ### Mapping Across: Changing the Meaning Once I have done the contrastive analysis and identified the drivers, I do a mapping across. This is where the actual change happens. > "Mapping across involves changing one set of drivers into another set of drivers, which essentially changes the meaning by changing the internal representation that you're working with." So I bring back the picture of how much I like ice cream. And then I map on the qualities of the disliked thing -- I change the location, the brightness, the size, the association. I change every driver from column one into column two. And this has to be done with authority: > "With mapping across, you have to be a command tonality. You have to be very authoritarian and you have to make sure that they do exactly what you say." I say: "Take the picture. Move it from here to there. Make it dim. Shrink it down. Defocus it. Remove the sound. Change the feeling to disgust. Lock it in." That is mapping across. Then I test: "Do you want some ice cream right now?" And if it worked, the answer is no -- or even a visceral reaction of disgust. --- ### Universals: Supercharging the Change There is a third element that makes sub modalities interventions powerful -- universals. > "Universals are generalized experiences that have tons of meaning. So they evoke a universal experience." The belief that the sun will come up tomorrow -- that is a universal. Everyone believes it. It carries an enormous charge of certainty. The sub modalities of that internal representation reflect absolute conviction. A green light means go. Everywhere. That is a universal. > "I very rarely met somebody who didn't know what a green light meant." And the belief "I am 20" when someone is 40 -- that is a universal for "no longer true." It used to be 100% true and now it is completely false. > "The statement I am 20 used to be so true for me and it is so not true anymore. So it's a very powerful meaning, a very clear and direct meaning." When I map the sub modalities of a universal onto a client's experience, the change is profound. I am not just nudging the meaning -- I am anchoring it to something their unconscious already knows as absolutely true or absolutely false. Gina tells a story about a guy stuck on a project. She elicits the sub modalities of "stuck," then elicits the sub modalities of what he does when he is sitting at a green light. Then she maps the green light sub modalities onto the stuck project -- and suddenly the guy is ready to go. > "So that's a really powerful submodalities intervention. So you change one into the other." --- ### The Three Keys So to recap, three things make sub modalities work: > "Speed, drivers, and universals." Speed -- I work faster than the conscious mind can process. Drivers -- I find the differences through contrastive analysis that actually control the meaning. Universals -- I use powerful, generalized experiences to supercharge the mapping across. --- ### The Five Techniques Sub modalities encompass five major techniques: 1. **Contrastive Analysis** -- comparing two internal representations and finding the differences in their sub modalities to identify drivers. 2. **Mapping Across** -- changing the sub modalities of one internal representation into another, effectively changing the meaning. 3. **Swish Pattern** -- replacing one internal representation with another so the desired state becomes dominant and the problem state shrinks away. 4. **Dissociative Techniques** -- shifting viewpoint to view an internal representation from a dissociated position, which takes the charge off negative emotions. This is used in the phobia model and in timeline therapy. 5. **Perceptual Positions** -- viewing an internal representation from first position (through my own eyes), second position (through another person's eyes), or third position (bird's eye view, fully dissociated). Useful for incorporating learning and resolving interpersonal conflicts. > "These five techniques sort of encompass all that submodalities has to offer." --- ## 3. HOW — Exercise (placeholder) *Goal: Brief setup for the demo and exercise. Sub modalities HAS a demo (Like to Dislike).* --- Alright, so now you know what sub modalities are, how the checklist works, and why speed, drivers, and universals matter. Let me show you how this looks in practice. I am going to demonstrate the Like to Dislike script with a volunteer. You will see the full elicitation, the contrastive analysis, and the mapping across -- all done at speed with command tonality. **Demo goes here.** Now it is your turn. You are going to get into groups of 2. One of you will be the practitioner and the other will be the client. Here is what you are doing: 1. Ask your client: "Can you think of something you like but wish you did not?" Wait until they have it. 2. Ask: "Can you think of something similar but which you absolutely dislike?" Make sure the two items are at the same logical level -- like ice cream and yogurt, not ice cream and broccoli. 3. Elicit the sub modalities of the liked thing using the checklist. Go fast. Use shorthand. 4. Break state. Clear the screen. 5. Elicit the sub modalities of the disliked thing. Go fast again. 6. Do a contrastive analysis -- circle the differences between the two columns. 7. Bring back the original picture of the liked thing. 8. Map across -- change every driver from column one into column two. Use command tonality. Lock it in. 9. Test: "Do you want that thing right now?" 10. Future pace: "Next time you encounter that thing, what happens?" Then switch roles. You will have about 30 minutes to practice. A few reminders: be fast, be directive, and make sure your trigger question includes the meaning -- "when you think of how much you *like* that" -- not just "when you think of that." **Exercise goes here.** --- ## 4. WHAT IF — Future Pace (placeholder) *Goal: Self-discovery. Three questions.* --- **1. What questions do you have?** **2. What did you learn?** **3. What do I need to know?** --- **Word Count:** 3,020 words | **Estimated Talk Time:** ~21 minutes (at ~140 words/min medium pace)