The Matrix model

Once you’ve chosen a model, you will need to gather enough information, of the right kind, to allow you to DTI with them. The question is, how?

I (Jess) have had the experience of deciding to DTI with someone I knew something about, someone I had seen, or read about, doing whatever skill I wanted to model. I would go into trance, see them in front of me, float into them, and feel how it feels to be them. While I might've had some kind of positive experience from this type of DTI, it was never life-changing for me. You have probably had the same sort of experience.

Traditionally, DTI has involved watching the model perform the skills you're interested in, either live or on video. Or, if this is not available, reading books, preferably autobiographical, describing what they did and how they did it is all right. Once you have seen them in action, literally or figuratively as it were, you will have consciously, and more importantly unconsciously, gathered the information that will allow you to DTI with them.

Of course, there is validity in this approach. Because we all possess Mirror Neurons, we all have the ability to construct an internal model of another person’s reality simply by watching their physiology,

their posture, their breathing, their facial expressions and so on. So if you watch a video and see the model making a gesture, striking a certain pose, then on the level of Mirror Neurons, this does provide information about the model’s internal reality.

This was also essentially the approach taken by Raikov, although Raikov also relied heavily on the auditory sense (hearing). But you must remember, Raikov was primarily interested in subjects who were already quite expert, such as cello students from the Moscow Conservatory, modeling very specific skills of specific models, such as Pablo Casals playing the cello. The DTI was based upon the students listening to a recording of Casals playing, and because they were already experts in would need to know what drove Casals to take up the cello, what drove him to practice on a daily basis, how he approached his practice, what drove him so that he felt compelled to perform for millions of people, what internal representations (whether pictures, sounds or feelings) allowed him to play music in his own unique way, and so on. So what sort of information do you actually need to do all this? At what point in your research will the information you have be enough for your (rather than improve or extend a skill you do already have).

The Event Matrix requires that you 'observe' your model across a range of different times, contexts and activities, not just performing the one skill in which you are particularly interested. Again,

‘observation’ can include watching and interacting with the model, watching video of the model performing her skill, or being interviewed about her life, reading books about the model, particularly auto-biographies revealing her thinking style, emotional drivers, beliefs and values, as well as recounting factual episodes from their life.

The reason for this is that it will provide us with not just information about how the model does this particular skill or ability, or even how he learned that skill, but it will also reveal where and how he spent his life; the people he interacted with, his emotional outlook on the world, his beliefs about themselves, the world, and his place in it, as well as his values, meta programs, and identity. For those familiar with NLP, you will realize that we are exploring their Logical Levels. Don't worry if you are unfamiliar with NLP, we will describe Logical Levels in more depth shortly.

Perhaps you want to DTI with Erickson, and say to yourself, "Oh, yes. I love the idea of being like Milton Erickson, and dropping people into trance like he did." But perhaps this vague idea is based on one or two books that you have read about him, or a couple of videos you have seen, so that your internal model of him is quite limited and one dimensional. As a result, your DTI experience is also going to be somewhat limited and one dimensional.

In our view it's really important that we consider several specific episodes from the model's life across a range of contexts, and consider what each of these episodes tell is about the model as a person. This is really how we learn.

For example, consider the Bible, the New Testament, and the life of Jesus. The New Testament is all about specific things he did, and specific things that he said. It's not just this vague story about how wonderful he was. It's filled with specific episodes from his life that demonstrated who he was on a much deeper level. This is the sort of modeling that we are looking for.

So we don't just want a general portrait of the person. Think of anyone who you have heard of who has a reputation as a ‘larger than life’ character. Their reputation is al-ways based upon specific episodes from their life. When I was a boy, listening to stories of daring-do, one of my favorite stories was about Lord Nelson, the British admiral in the Napoleonic war. Probably the most famous story about him occurred before he became first Lord of the Admiralty. At the time he was a junior admiral leading a British fleet under the overall command of an admiral called Sir Hyde Parker. At that time, the British were fighting against the Danish fleet at the battle of Copenhagen and Nelson had gotten himself into a very precarious position face-to-face with the Danish fleet, which was in a strong defensive position. Admiral Parker, fearing Nelson's fleet was about to be destroyed, ordered him to withdraw. The order was given using signal flags hoisted on Admiral Parker’s flagship, and one of Nelson's crew pointed back telling Nelson that Admiral Parker's ships were ordering him to withdraw. Nelson, who had lost one eye fighting the French, raised his telescope to his blind eye, and in front of all his men, famously says, “Ships, I see no ships.” Using this as an excuse not to retreat, Nelson continued fighting and the Danish fleet was defeated.

Somebody could have simply told me that Nelson was an aggressive and determined naval commander. But that would not have had the same impact as listening to this story. So, what do we learn from the story? Well there are several conscious lessons that we can take away:

Nelson led from the front. He could presumably have stayed back with Admiral Parker, but instead was in the thick of the fighting against the Danish.

Nelson was aggressive, almost to the point of recklessness (at least Admiral Parker seemed to think so, as he was sufficiently concerned about Nelson's position to order him to withdraw).

Nelson was self-confident enough to disobey a direct order. After all, if Nelson's fleet had been defeated he could have been court-martialed, assuming he wasn't outright killed by the

Danish.

Nelson was calm enough in battle to use his quick wit and sense of humor, rather than simply disobey the order. Using his own infirmity as a reason to disobey was the sort of thing that made men followed him through the gates of hell.

However, there is much more to be learned from the story when we consider it from a more unconscious basis.

Imagine if you will, as I did listening to the story as a boy, that you are standing next to Nelson on the deck of his ship. The smoke of battle drifts over the deck and you can see the flash of gunpowder. You hear the thunder of the British and Danish cannon as the opposing fleets’ fire broadsides into each other, the shouting of the gun crews, the whistle of cannonballs and musket balls firing overhead, crashing into the masts or the sides of the wooden ships, the cries of the wounded. There is the smell of gunpowder in the air as officers race around yelling orders. Nelson's adjutant is shouting in his ear, and pointing off to Admiral Parker's distant signal. And in the midst of the noise, danger and insanity of battle, Nelson calmly raises his telescope to his blind eye and jokingly says, “I see no ships.

As I imagine that now, I understand the trust and confidence his men placed in him, and how they would follow him into the jaws of battle. I can begin to appreciate who Nelson was as a person, what was important to him and what he believed, and I can better appreciate his calmness in the eye of the storm. That kind of moment in time tells you more about him than a dry description of the battle.

Now experience this from a DTI perspective: seeing Nelson dressed in his formal admiral’s uniform, on the deck of his flagship, float into that experience so you are seeing out of Nelson's eyes (or rather

‘eye’, as you have only one). Your attention is fixed on your enemy, the Danish fleet, and your own ships in relation to that. You are focused on victory, so that nothing else matters; the sounds and the smoke around you, the flying cannonballs, and the whistle of musket balls are nothing but minor distractions compared to your goal. You feel a hand on your shoulder and look around into the face of your adjutant, fearful and confused, pointing in the opposite direction, away from the Danish fleet. For a moment you are not sure what he is trying to tell you above the thunder of the cannons, then finally you understand, he has seen the order to withdraw. Looking into his eyes you realize your response is going to create his reality, his thoughts and his emotions at this time, as well as the reality of the rest of the sailors in your fleet. Will they run or will they fight? Taking a moment, you raise your telescope to your eye, or rather to your eye patch, to your blind eye and say “Ships, I see no ships.” You lower your telescope and look back at your adjutant. You see that he understands. With a slight nod of your head you turn your attention back to the battle…

This need of our unconscious minds to absorb information on a deeply personal level is why we need stories about a person to truly understand them. The stories are what really let you know who a person is, and what they've gone through that has made them who they are. It's that specific point in time that lets you understand them.

When you're speaking to the model, or watching a video of him, or when you’re reading his biography or autobiography, you look out for those moments in time that encapsulates who the person is. What are the events that made him who he is?

When you're doing the DTI, these are moments that you need to go into, to experience; these moments in time that define a person. It's these moments in time, these stories, these episodes that really make DTI appealing. Stories talk to the unconscious. These events, these stories are metaphors for what you want from the DTI. And you're already starting a DTI process because you're already actively involving the unconscious mind, through story.

Let’s go back to the Mirror Neurons. They respond not just to what you're seeing, although that's what their name implies, but also to sounds and narrative. If you read a story of somebody who is doing some physical action, your Mirror Neurons are firing up, mirroring that particular action. If you watch a video, or even if I tell you a story about a runner, say Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter in the Olympics, in the 100 meters:

He’s on the blocks, settling down. He’s spent the last four years training for this moment, endless hours on the track, and hours in the gym. The starter calls them, “On your mark,” he rises up in the blocks, every muscle, every sinew, every nerve, poised, “Get Set…” feeling electrified, a fraction of a second slow off the blocks may lose the race, a fraction of a second too soon and disqualification is possible. The starting pistol fires and you’re off…

As you read that, a part of your brain is going through the experience. But if I just tell you about the person, if I just say Usain Bolt won the 100m at the London Olympics, consciously the information may be the same, but it doesn't get the Mirror Neurons firing off, because they don't have any specific sensory description to attach to.

And this is what a lot of people don’t understand when they try to DTI. They have some information about the person, the model, offering a general sense of who the model is, but not backed by events containing rich sensory data that the unconscious can attach to. And you need these specific moments in time because they are going to inform your unconscious more than any amount of data, or general information.

And as we said, Ericksonian hypnotists like to model Milton Erickson. I could say, “Milton Erickson had the expectation that his clients would go into trance.” Now that doesn't tell you very much, but if I remind you of the video where:

Erickson is sitting over there, in a room full of students, and he’s staring at a girl in the class and he says to the class, "Watch her go into trance."

Or the description of his Teaching Seminar, as:

Erickson turns to one of the people in the class and goes, "Who do you think is the next person in

the room who will go into trance?" It doesn't matter what she says, because it could be her, or she could say it will be somebody; it may even be you, going into trance. It really doesn't make a difference; it's just Erickson’s expectation, complete certainty that somebody in the room is going to go into trance!

And those events inform you about Milton Erickson on a deeper level than just reading a book about technique explaining that people cycle in and out of trance all the time, and that all Erickson had to do was wait. But reading about it is just not the same as experiencing it.

So these events demonstrate what to do and how to do it, they provide you all sorts of information about logical levels, and they put this information in a context.