Basics of Anchoring.

by Roy Kim. rkim@changework.com

Copyright 1999 by Roy Kim.

 

Do you remember the last time you heard a familiar song and you started to remember

an event in the past and the feeling you haven't felt in weeks, months or years?

or Perhaps you smelled that scent, that perfume and spontaneously, you remembered who

wore the perfume and the feelings you had for that person.

or you saw a picture of your last vacation you took, and you start to remember and

re-experience the last time you were at that place.

 

These are all examples of Anchors.

 

An anchor, simply put is a way to access states (emotions, states of being, awareness, etc)

at later times. Also known as stimulus response conditioning.

 

This was a phenonoma Ivan Pavlov discovered when ringing a bell around dogs when they

were being fed. After a while, the dogs "associated" the ringing sound with being fed.

They started to salivate when they heard the bell ringing.

 

There are three elements needed to set an anchor:

1. A strong state.(emotional, states of being, awareness, etc)

2. A unique stimulus. (one or more of the five senses - sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste)

3. Timing. (as the state starts to rise)

 

To "fire off" the anchor, the unique stimulus must be duplicated exactly.

 

1 - In the case of Pavlov's dogs, the "strong state" was hunger.

2 - The unique stimulus involved the dogs hearing (the unique pitch of the bell).

3 - With timing, the bell sound was made right before the dogs were being fed, not after and not before.

 

In order to cause the dogs to salivate without feeding them, the same pitch bell,

had to be used. This was the unique stimulus.

 

Now you know this, here is an exercise you can do ( it requires two people).

1. Person A - Talk about a very pleasant experience and get Person B to remember it.

2. Person B - Remember the emotional experience in as much detail. When, the feeling

is strongest, let person A know.

3. Person A - Set a touch (kinistetic) anchor. For the sake of the exercise, use the index

finger to set the anchor and make the touch anchor one of the knuckles of the hands.

4. Do steps 1 thru 3 two or three times.

5. Have Person B name three different things in the room, out loud. Have them "break the state".

6. Fire the anchor. Make sure that Person A presses the same exact knuckle with the

same finger.

7. Ask Person B if they start to have the same feeling they had before.

 

If you set the anchor correctly, then Person B should recall the same feeling.

 

If you don't get the same emotional response by firing the anchor, then you probably did

not set the anchor correctly.

 

When you start to understand the basics of anchoring, you can start to understand

how powerful these tools can be.

 

For more information, send e-mail to info@changework.com

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