NLP: Levels of Information Processing

The brain, like any biological or social system, has a multi-level organization and several levels of information processing. Thanks to this, we are able to reach different levels of thinking and being. When we try to create a model to understand brain activity or to change behavior, we refer to these levels—just as we would analyze the structure of a business system in a bank, company, or enterprise, where there are various levels of organization.

From a psychological perspective, we can talk about five main levels:

• The basic level is our external environment—our outside limiting factors.
• We interact with the external environment through our behavior.
• Our behavior is guided by our model of the world and our strategies, which determine our abilities.
• These abilities are organized through belief systems, which are the main subject of this study.
• Beliefs themselves are organized through identity.

So, when a person experiences a difficulty, we should determine whether this difficulty comes from the external context, or if the reason is that the person lacks a specific type of behavior to cope with the context. Or is it because they haven’t developed an appropriate strategy or worldview that would allow them to develop this behavior? Could it be due to the absence of a belief, or the presence of a conflicting belief that affects their life as a whole or the achievement of a specific result? And finally, is the cause of the difficulty related to the level of identity, which influences the entire system?

All of these are important distinctions, useful for anyone working in the fields of education, communication, or personal development.