Step 3. Ask the individual to describe something that they enjoy. Anchor only those representations that are indicative of the individual's internal response by placing your hand on their right knee. Ask questions concerning internal dialogues, images, feelings, tones and smells and anchor each respectively. We can show this visually as:

i,e₂ , V^i,e₂ , K^i,e₂ , O^i,e₂> → ∮₂ i₂ , Vⁱ₂ , Kⁱ₂ , Oⁱ₂>

Step 4. Simultaneously touch off the anchor for the external representations of the context which is typically unenjoyable and the anchor for the internal response to the situation that is enjoyable. This serves to pair the representations such that the external representations can trigger the enjoyable internal representations. If the individual has recreated the external circumstances closely enough, then when he or she returns to that environment it should also serve to trigger the enjoyable response. This can be shown as:

∮₁+∮₂ → e₁, Aⁱ₂ , V^e₁ , Vⁱ₂ , K^e₁ , Kⁱ₂ , O^e_1, Oⁱ₂>

As an added measure, you may ask the individual to imagine what the experience would be like if he were able to enjoy himself in that situation as you "fire off" the anchors in unison. You may also ask the individual to think of some time in the future when he will encounter this situation and, as you hold both of the anchors, ask him to describe how his experience will change in this instance. This kind of process is called a "future pace", and helps to insure that the response becomes wired to the appropriate stimuli.

NOTE: It is obvious that some of those representations that we have superscripted "e" in our representations of the 4–tuples will actually be internally generated memories at the point in time that you are eliciting them, rather than external events in the individual's ongoing environment. We have used the superscript "e" to establish the difference between what was generated internally and externally in the context or state in question, as that is very important information. Any possible mix–ups may be avoided, of course, by having the individual reproduce the effect of the experience in the ongoing context before you anchor it. For instance, you can ask, "Can you see me as clearly as you saw that other person in the situation you are talking about?"

4.32 Anchoring and Utilization.

Anchoring and accessing cues (you can think of accessing cues, incidentally, as self–established anchors), as we have said, are a means to elicit the appropriate representation or representational system at the appropriate position in the strategy. They offer an often surprisingly powerful means to influence the outcomes of strategies. If, for example, you would like someone to decide in favor of something you can ask him if he has ever made a decision that he was very sure of and that generated positive results for him. As he accesses the experience, ask him how he knew to decide in favor of the proposition (what you are asking for here is what value in the representational system is required for a positive response at the decision point in the strategy). As the person accesses the representation (it may be "Well, I said to myself…", or "I got this flash …", or "It felt right…") anchor it in whatever means is most appropriate for the situation. Later, as you are pacing the person through his decision strategy, fire off the anchor when you get to the decision point in his strategy. This will exert a great deal of influence toward a positive outcome from the strategy. Sometimes, if you get a good anchor, you can simply elicit the appropriate decision value in the person and get the outcome without the having to go through the rest of the strategy.

You can accomplish the same thing through instructions, like, " … as you continue to see that image, take a deep breath and think of a time you felt really good …" Or you can do it indirectly by presenting the content in question and then switching the subject to something that the person enjoys, so that the content you are discussing becomes associated with positive experiences.

Most classical conditioning involves the establishment or overriding of the choice value at the decision point in an animal's or a person's strategy, through external sources. This is an example of using anchoring to influence a strategy. Let's consider a Pavlov's dog example. Let's say our dog has been conditioned to push a lever for food pellets at the sound of a bell. We will hypothesize a strategy that goes:

A^e→Kⁱ→V^e→Vⁱ→K^e→Exit

In this strategy the animal hears the bell (A^e) which anchors the internal kinesthetic sensations of hunger (Kⁱ). This in turn anchors up the next step in the strategy which involves looking at the lever (V^e). The dog then sees internally a replay of itself pushing the lever and receiving food (Vⁱ), and this initiates the action of doing it (K^e). If an experimenter wanted to decondition this program or recondition it to avoidance, he would typically use some negative kinesthetic stimulus like an electric shock. The shock would be administered as the animal is carrying out the strategy so that it overrides the ongoing step in the strategy — let's say as

it is approaching the lever. It continues getting shocked until it assumes some other behavior. Putting in the negative anchor (the shock) will eventually reprogram the strategy so that looking at the lever may access an internal kinesthetic representation of the shock (Kⁱ) instead of the image of pushing the lever. The representation of the shock initiates the new behavior that has been anchored to it. Eventually the strategy may become streamlined to the point that the bell itself anchors the new behavior, without the other steps in the strategy. We will go into the programming and reprogramming of new strategies in the installation section of this book. In this section we are primarily concerned with the utilization of already existing strategies and experiences.

Anchoring during utilization will generally involve establishing triggers for previously occurring motivation, creativity and learning states. At the end of this section we will present a number of content examples of how strategies may be utilized in a variety of different fields, including education, business, therapy and law.