NLP PRESUPPOSITION #6: The map is not the territory.

Semiotics is the study of sign processes, Ferdinand de Saussure was one of the founders and the 1st to create a division between words and the object they represent. Saussure’s theory has taught us that the word which holds significance, is not the same as the entity that it represents. Saussure taught that when the word and the entity come together, they create a sign that we are able to process intellectually.

And the same is for people, which respond to signs rather then things. Our responses are based on our experience rather than the reality itself. As tow people can pass through the same event, both will have two different reactions and responses to what is going on, this, because we are experiencing a reality based on our limited senses and not as reality really is, and our senses are different from person to person, our past experiences affect our current ones, making every person pass through completely different experiences. We do not know the truth, thought we are not able to experience exactly the same as someone else.

Our reality and experiences are based on our senses, our filters and our beliefs – this is our ‘map’ of reality, which has it’s own written agenda. NLP is here to help us to modify our ‘maps’ that are not working properly for a client, into a map that can be way more useful to reach certain results.

Check other posts on this serie:

17 Presuppositions of NLP – By Kain Ramsay

NLP PRESUPPOSITION #1: Everyone’s paradigm of the world is RIGHT in their eyes.

NLP PRESUPPOSITION #2: The response determines the meaning of a communication.

NLP PRESUPPOSITION #3: The mind and body operate in tandem with each other.

NLP PRESUPPOSITION #4: People respond more to perception than reality itself.

NLP PRESUPPOSITION #5: People respond more to their experience than reality.