This model examines how the mind takes in, processes and gives out information. As discussed in an earlier post on the NLP presupposition “Map is not the territory”, we are a part of a world in which many things happen simultaneously. All that is happening around us is observed and understood by us with the help of our senses.

Our reality is defined by what we see, hear, feel, smell and taste.

Once our senses absorb this information, it is processed through some filters (refer to generalisation, deletion, distortion) and stored in the mind as a map of the reality that we are a part of. Generally, before or while we talk about a past experience, we first need to access the experience in our minds. Since this experience is stored in terms of sensory information (what we were able to see, hear, feel, taste or smell originally), we access the experience also in terms of these senses.

In NLP training programs, the senses through which we experience the world are referred to as modalities or representational systems.