The Process of Deletion Using NLP

August 20, 2010 by
Filed under: NLP

Deletion is a process of the Reticular Activating System (RAS) by which we are able to filter out certain information.

An example of this is when several people witness an event and they all present different descriptions of the event. They may all be correct in their description but they have all viewed the event from different perspectives and filtered out parts of the event that did not fit with their perspective.

If something catches your attention, you will notice everything involved with it. If something fails to engage your attention, you may not remember the event at all.

It is said that our minds can only handle at most 114 bits of information at one time so that if we loose focus on something ,it may escape our attention for quite some time. If we become focused on other events or bits of information the original focus will be gone from our attention.

It is very common to meet someone you know quite well in a situation which is out of context with your usual relationship and not recognize the person. That is because your RAS has filtered and focused that relationship within the confines of the usual contact.

We often forget words or names that we think we should know. This is not usually senility, dementia, or just aging causing this. It, most likely, that your RAS has filtered that from your current focus. I think as we get older, we tend to notice that we forget things but usually if you think about it, you might remember that that has happened all of your life. It just wasn’t your focus at that time. Blame the RAS.

So if you want to remember something or you want to have others remember something, be sure to emphasize the focusing. Things will stay in your memory much longer and will be easier to recall.