38 Part I: Introducing NLP
Your unconscious mind behaves like a highly moral being
The unconscious mind keeps you on the straight and narrow path of what-
ever morality it learns, by enforcing its morality on you, even if society
judges that morality to be wrong.
A terrorist can kill and destroy without qualms because his moral code teaches
him that he’s a freedom fighter. He therefore believes that he’s in fact being a
moral person in fighting against a criminal society. A gang member may kill to
protect the honour of his gang, without feeling any guilt because he’s learned
that gang honour is more important than the Christian commandment ‘thou
shall not kill’ or the law of the land that makes murder illegal.
If, however, your unconscious mind decides that you deserve to be punished,
you can be wracked with guilt and exhibit behaviours designed to punish
yourself, even though no law says that what your unconscious mind sees as
bad is actually so.
In a different vein, your unconscious mind can support behaviours that can
create positive results in your life, which then ripple out into other people’s
lives. Men like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela changed history as a result of
their strongly held morals about freedom and fairness. Sadly, even grand
ideals, stemming from a desire for unity and prosperity, can become grossly
distorted, as happened in the case of Hitler.
Jane, had had several unsatisfactory relationships and was in one at the time
she came to see Romilla. During a series of breakthrough sessions, Jane admit-
ted to feeling that she manipulated men and discarded them when she felt
they were looking for commitment. Investigations revealed a memory of when
she was five years old and had ‘manipulated’ her father, who was verbally vio-
lent, into apologising to her. When Romilla suggested that Jane’s father really
loved her even though he was unable to show it, and that he had found the
resources within himself to express his love by apologising to her, Jane was
really shocked.
One of the consequences of identifying the negative feelings of guilt that Jane
had felt all her life was to allow her to move on and leave a relationship that
wasn’t fulfilling her needs, and modify the behaviours that drew her into
unrewarding relationships.
Tracking Information: Your Reticular Activating System
With billions of pieces of data coming in through your five senses every
second, you need a way to maintain your sanity. Therefore, you filter this
deluge of information through a network of cells in your brain so that only a
