I think looking at what is explicated in Whispering, the issue with the questions I raised in the previous post are about how we deal with beliefs (whether they are conscious or not). On page 235 we have: 'The chain of excellence proposes that our ability to perform with excellence has certain associated states and each such state has associated with it a specific physiology... the chain of excellence is a strategy that recognizes and systematically exploits the power and wisdom of unconscious processing....Since the modeling of Dr Erickson in the mid '70s, the systematic use of his powerful hypnotic patterning had deeply influenced and informed the practices of both of the co-creators of NLP.  These patterns placed great emphasis on avoiding conscious barriers to change such as beliefs, not by the paradoxical activity fo focusing on such limiting beliefs but by circumventing such obstacles and inducing change at the unconscious level.  Further, these patterns had in common a deep trust that unconscious processes when properly organized and constrained would produce deep, long term ecological changes in spite of, for example, a client's declared conscious beliefs that such changes were impossible.  The limitations of consciousness, the 7 + 2 chunks of attention available in working memory, makes understandable th inability of the consciousness to successfully select desired states, appropriate resources or specific new behaviors with any degree of competency.  This limitation applies, however, only to conscious processing and not to unconscious processing.  Thus, as you would expect, given this difference, the ability of the unconscious to assess the longer-term consequences and then, based on this assessment, to make such selections (desired state, resource of replacement behavior) greatly exceeds that of the conscious mind.' The point about beliefs is in reference to footnote 262 number 6: 'In the case of AA and its epistemology, attention is focused on the issue (either drinking or not drinking).  This simply strengthens the demon and maintains these phenomena (the focus on drinking/not drinking and the associated beliefs) as the focal point of the person's experience.  AA's strategy thereby commits the individual to organizing his behavior around these inappropriate reference points rather than allowing them to get on with their lives.  See Bateson's brilliant exposition of the contradiction between the intention of AA and its actual consequences in The Epistemology of AA in STeps to an Ecology of Mind.' So the idea is to use the unconscious throughout, and changes to occur at the level of state and intention rather than with behavior.  In a sense this approach is one of *ignore* the beliefs.. they are irrelevant..focusing on them can get you locked into organising your behaviors around the problem rather than the intentions and results focused solution. In order to change in the direction of achieving the desired results, the idea is to surrender to the power of resourceful states and unconscious processing. This approach seems to be about abstaining from bringing beliefs into one's consciousness (internalised conscious thinking) by eliciting a higher performance state, and then in this state pursuing a specific result in a specifc context. This is akin to submitting oneself to a know nothing state and the power of unconscious processing. That would also be the difference between 'acting as if' and believing in something. Believing in this context, as I understand it, is one of consciously believing something.  'Acting as if' does not entail that sort of conscious thinking, rather a KN state. This is a difference between making conscious decisions via belief systems that influence our behavior, and eshewing the conscious decision making process when we enter a high performance state with its all attendant unconscious resources. The solution will in itself do away with old patterns of behavior - that's the apparent elegance in this approach.