For me, NLP has more to do with a “state of mind” than with technology. When you want ants to move from your kitchen to the garden or the cellar, then your state of consciousness is very important. Otherwise it would be very difficult to have respect for the respectable world of the ants.

A story

Two years ago, in the spring, we had hundreds of ants in our snow–white bathroom. Every morning we saw those black dots run all over the room with remarkable stir and speed. I admire them very much, and recently I learned that ants are able to lift up to fifty times their own body weight. Unfortunately, they sometimes had a meeting in the pants of one of the children, or they had a “sit in” in one of the cups of my wife’s bra, and sometimes it happened that they created a hideout in the toe of my sandals. Then one day they made a mistake in their choice of pants, and they gathered in the panties of my wife, and for her that was the limit. So she decided to buy some poison and to kill the ants, without any mercy, the next day.

In spite of the fact that I have respect for all living creatures, I could not fault her decision.

The evening came and the night, and I could not get to sleep. My thoughts were with all those hundreds of corpses that would be in the bathroom the next day. Then I decided to give them at least one more chance.

I sat up straight in bed, and with full respect I addressed the queen of the ants. I imagined that she really existed, and I made a picture of her, surrounded by her royal household. I told her that I had very much respect for their way of working hard, the structure, the organization; all things that I myself do not have that much. And I also told her that they, indeed unconsciously (presupposition and mind reading), didn’t have any respect for us, because they were at the wrong place, namely ours. I told her that my wife would eradicate them all tomorrow, and that I did not intend to stop her. I also told her that it’s not really having respect to stay in my wife’s pants. Then I told her that I sincerely regretted the wholesale murder that was about to happen, and I told her: “The only way to escape this is to immediately get packed and to move this night. I know that you can do this (everyone has the resources to solve their problems).

In telling her so, I made an image of a regiment of ants that marched towards the stairs, and went downstairs.

I thanked her for paying attention. Then I could get to sleep.

Next morning I woke up, I went to the bathroom and sat down at the toilet. I was still a little bit sleepy, and although it’s my habit to be an extreme matcher, I missed something. At first I didn’t notice what it was, but suddenly it dawned to me that the lines of dark dots were no longer there. At that moment Maïté, my daughter who was at that time five years old, came in, still sleepy, from her bedroom.

The truth and the child’s tongue

I said to her: “Maïté, I must tell you something, I talked to the ants last night and the ants have all moved from here.”
Maïté: “But no, daddy, they’re not gone, they’re all there, underneath the mat in front of the bath.”

I was not deceived. Together we went to the mat, and we had a look under the mat. There was not one ant.

Very proudly, I said to Maïté: “Well, you see, I always told you that your dad is a great wizard and a friend of Merlin. I asked the ants to move and so they did.”

Maïté was absolutely not impressed and with a compassionate look in her eyes she told me: “But no daddy, you’re not a great magician at all, you’re only an old fool (mismatch).”

But she didn’t have an explanation for the fact that the ants had disappeared.

We went down for breakfast; and, what a joy, and at the same time, what a disaster. The ants now were all in the kitchen, at the table for breakfast.

Being tolerant, I could let them alone for some time. But when we wanted to go to Spain for three weeks, I didn’t think that it was a good idea to have all those ants living in our kitchen.

Again I spoke to them briefly: “Thank you for leaving our bathroom, but in here you’re also at our place. Outside the house there’s a garden, bark, soft sand, everything you could dream of. And if you will not be gone by tomorrow, I will eradicate all of you myself. But, if you go to the garden, I will take care that, as long as I’m there, not one of you will be killed or tread under foot.”

Sometimes there’s no harm in having some authority. The next day they all had moved into the garden, except two deaf ones (presupposition) that didn’t hear me and who were still there. I took them with respect and placed them outside with the other ants.

Explanation

The explanation is in the chunking of consciousness. We, as human beings, have a higher chunk of consciousness; and, in fact, we can communicate with everything that has a lower consciousness.

Fifteen years ago, in the Hague, I made some mice move in the same way. They moved from the kitchen on the first floor of a friend’s house to her cellar; to be sure, with a respectful promise that they would have food there too.

The Hawaiian kahunas (priest magicians), who I was with for a time, taught the children how to make a deal with the sharks, with the wind, and with the rain.

The technique

Connect with the one conscious mind where we all come from, create a visual field of communication between yourself and the ants. Pay attention to what is connecting you together, because we are all from the same source; and at the same time, have respect for what’s different.

• Sort by ants
  
• Have respect for their model of the world, making images of what you say.
  
• Prove that you have respect by considering alternative possibilities, and visualize them. However it is useful to be more precise than I was. In my imagination I just saw them go to the stairs (away from the bathroom), assuming they would go to the garden. But they didn’t understand. I should have visualized them going towards the garden.
  

I’m curious about your results.
It would be nice if you e–mail your results to:
pliekens@xs4all.be

Good luck and say hello to the ants from me.
Paul

Paul Liekens is the Director–trainer of Heart Systems NV: international training institute for communication and NLP. He is the author of 14 books (four on NLP), not available in English. Master, Ericksonian Hypnosis

© 2001 Paul Liekens

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