Vestibular System and NLP

The vestibular system is one of the sensory organs of the nervous system. In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), it has not yet been described as a representational system. The vestibular system allows living beings to move through space without losing balance or connection to their previous body position. Its main function is to maintain equilibrium, that is, the position of the entire body in space.

Other senses—taste, smell, vision, hearing, and touch—are well covered in NLP. Touch (through sensory nerve endings in internal organs) is currently classified in NLP as part of the kinesthetic perception system. While this categorization is not entirely accurate from a neurological perspective, it has helped organize research and observations within NLP. Kinesthesia (also called proprioception) consists of nerve endings that do not directly receive external physical stimuli but rather transform how we perceive changes in the position of body parts, stimulating nerve endings in muscles, tendons, and joints. Thus, “kinesthetic” means related to the position of body parts in space.

The kinesthetic and vestibular systems complement each other: the kinesthetic system coordinates the position of muscles (the body hologram) with the vertical-horizontal position in space and movement in any spatial plane (the vestibular hologram). The vestibular system differs from the kinesthetic system in terms of phylogeny and has a different structure, function, and set of predicates, so it is actively used in communication and change work.

Phylogeny

“All living beings are connected to the Earth by the forces of gravity and inertia. Gravity and resistance (inertia) are constant and unyielding, yet we somehow manage to stand up and move. The main event in the evolution from fish to humans was that gravity gained absolute power.”

The vestibular system is simpler than the organs of smell, taste, hearing, and vision and has a more unconscious nature. Its “ancestor” was the statocyst, an organ of balance found in primitive jellyfish that lived over 600 million years ago. The structure of the statocyst gradually became more complex, and over time, this primitive organ evolved into the human vestibular system.

From an embryological perspective, the human vestibular system develops from the embryonic ectoderm, while the proprioceptive system develops from the embryonic mesoderm. In other words, they have completely different origins and therefore perform complementary functions.

The vestibular system consists of the vestibular apparatus, located deep within the inner ear and surrounded by cranial bones. The vestibular apparatus has right and left parts. Together with the eyes and proprioceptive nerve endings throughout the body, it provides sensory information that the nervous system uses to maintain balance. Hearing also helps with spatial orientation and location, but it is not as important as vision and proprioception.

The vestibular apparatus consists of two main parts:

• a) The static labyrinth, formed by two large sacs: the utricle and saccule, which detect the position of the head relative to gravity and respond to linear accelerations.
• b) The kinetic labyrinth, formed by three semicircular canals (all positioned at right angles to each other), sensitive to angular accelerations and angular velocity (e.g., rotation). The kinetic labyrinth also coordinates eye movements with head movements.

Each structure of the static and kinetic labyrinth contains highly sensitive hair cells connected to the vestibular nerve. The stimulus for these cells is a gelatinous substance that flows into the semicircular canals or vestibular sacs. This substance enters the vestibular apparatus when the position of the head changes relative to gravity or during changes in acceleration. When a group of hair cells is stimulated, the vestibular nerve transmits this information to other parts of the brainstem and cerebellum to coordinate reflexive corrective movements of the eyes, head, torso, and limbs, thus maintaining balance.

Therefore, among all possible sensory functions—especially visual and proprioceptive—the vestibular system also performs an integrating function. “Unlike those sense organs that respond to external sources of energy, the labyrinths respond to self-generated forces that arise in the head. When we make natural head movements, these forces are not under voluntary control, so vestibular reactions are more automatic than those of other sense organs. For example, to stop seeing, you just close your eyes, but you cannot block vestibular stimuli during head movement.” Excessive stimulation of the vestibular system can cause motion sickness: a person starts sweating, feels nauseous, vomits, salivates excessively, yawns, and feels generally unwell. Persistent visual stimulation can also cause this syndrome.

Here are some examples confirming this connection:

• a) Have you ever felt dizzy or nauseous while watching a movie or a chase scene filmed from a camera mounted on the bumper of a speeding, swerving car? Even though you are sitting comfortably and your head and body are completely still, you might reach out to steady yourself—the visual impact is that strong.
• b) Conversely, in a “funhouse” attraction, proprioceptive input from pressure on your leg muscles and joints tells you that you are leaning forward, but the room is painted to trick your eyes into believing you are in a horizontal position in a “normal” room.

The key word in describing the vestibular system is “balance.” Any movement of the whole body triggers instant and powerful compensatory reflex actions that help maintain balance and thus protect the organism from harm. Since these reflexes are vital for our well-being, they occur instantly and usually involuntarily.

Representational Systems in NLP

• V – Visual
• A – Auditory
• K – Kinesthetic
• VS – Vestibular

The arrows in the diagram are bidirectional because primary stimulation of the vestibular apparatus can trigger corrective actions of the eyes, muscles, and joints, and stimulation of the muscles, joints, or eyes (as in the previous examples) can cause the vestibular apparatus to detect instability and “launch” corrective reflexes.

Accessing Cues

There is no single eye or body movement that indicates a person is using the vestibular representational system at a given moment, and this is not surprising. The direction of gaze and body orientation depend on: a) the direction of rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise); b) the direction of falling (vertical axis); and c) deceleration. Usually, the gaze moves in the direction opposite to the rotation or fall, while the body moves in the same direction as the gaze.

When we rotate our head in the horizontal (“spinning”) or vertical (“somersaulting”) plane, a physiological reaction called nystagmus occurs. If a person is stopped after spinning their head several times, they will look straight ahead, but their eyes will involuntarily twitch. When the person stops, they may feel dizzy or as if the room is spinning. This happens because the gelatinous substance in the vestibular apparatus moves with a delay from the start of movement until complete rest.

Interestingly, these eye and body movements also occur when a person imagines or recalls moving their body through space in the ways described above.

Submodalities

The vestibular representational system (VS) has the following properties:

• Directionality – position relative to gravity or a reference axis
• Acceleration – (deceleration or absence of acceleration) change in speed over time (speed increases in one direction)
• Rotational moment – angular (rotational) force
• Inertia – resistance to changes in movement (or stillness) of the body

Predicates

The vestibular representational system (VS) has a fairly clear set of predicates, although some were previously classified as kinesthetic. The predicates listed below relate to movements of the whole body in space and to spatial relationships. Prepositions convey spatial relationships, as they form the linguistic spatial-temporal framework. Essentially, spatial predicates tell us what it means to be an entity distinct from others, yet connected to them. “Our perceptions of location, distance, connection, entities, etc., gain meaning and coherence thanks to their spatial representation.”

Exploring the Vestibular System

To see the vestibular system from a new perspective and discover its direct function, observe children, those wonderful beings. Unfortunately, as children grow, they become less adventurous with their bodies in space. As adults, we often stand (or walk) and sit (at the wheel) in the same ways—usually in a vertical plane—or lie down (sleep), that is, in a horizontal plane. Hence, the fear of choosing new paths, slowing down the frantic pace of life, or diving into the unknown to find what we seek.

We have created a few simple exercises to help you start exploring your vestibular system, which over the years has become less and less under your conscious control. Try these in a playful way to use it creatively and for therapeutic work.

Brief Review of Phylogeny

1. A jellyfish is like a floating umbrella, so it only “operates” in the vertical plane—the rest doesn’t concern it. To start, stand up straight, close your eyes, and walk on a flat, open surface. Now make it harder: choose a less even surface and try to keep your balance (still with your eyes closed), using only the vertical aspects of your vestibular system’s static part. Notice how the muscles on the back of your legs stretch and become taut: to avoid losing balance, you use simpler extensor muscles.
2. Continue working in the vertical plane: plug your ears, put an odd number of sandals and shoes (boots) on each foot, and observe how you maintain balance.
3. To feel vestibular orientation in space as separate as possible from proprioception, submerge yourself underwater, holding your breath slightly. Close your eyes, move your body around, and see if you can determine which plane your body is in.
4. When riding in a car, turn your head in different directions to stimulate the semicircular canal and experience speed in a new way (if you sit upright as usual, you won’t feel it).
5. Remind your body of the movements it loved in childhood with more exercises. For example, slide down a hill (with eyes open and closed), stand on your head, do a cartwheel, roller skate, swing on a swing or board. The boldest might want to jump on a trampoline or breakdance!
6. Eastern martial arts and movement exercises like Feldenkrais can help you study the vestibular system more deeply.
7. If you do these regularly, your posture will improve, you’ll learn to hold your body better, and this will literally change your perspective on your life’s path.
8. To feel how visual stimuli affect the vestibular system, use books by artists like M.C. Escher. In his works, for example, the one below, he rejects a calming fixed point, so when you look at his drawings, you may feel dizzy because the perspective is constantly shifting.

Practical Applications

The vestibular system has its own access keys and set of predicates, so it can be used almost like the standard representational systems already described in NLP (V – visual, A – auditory, K – kinesthetic). It has several functions, including an important integrating role, is simpler than other sense organs, and is less subject to conscious control. Therefore, it can help people change quickly and dramatically by addressing their deep need to balance their lives. (Some strategies can also be used in reverse—to unbalance a person if certain behavioral patterns have become too rigid or overly protective, and to change, one needs to go in a new direction.)

1. Rapport (agreement) – rocking the body: If you are overwhelmed by thoughts, this is almost a surefire method (think of the snake in a basket in the Middle East). Rocking or swaying the whole body or upper torso brings back memories of being rocked as a child, enveloping you in a sense of safety and calm. Rocking on railings or sliding down them also establishes effective rapport between “riders.” You can also move smoothly and evenly in dance, merging with music/rhythm/others and gradually starting to change.
2. Spatial dissociation – a type of visual dissociation: This technique physically places a person in different spots to dull their visual and vestibular memory of an event. It can be used to transform dark, unpleasant memories into bright, pleasant ones; to work with strategies or the emotional aftermath of trauma, phobias, etc.
3. Spatial fusion – similar to “visual fusion”: A person is alternately placed in two opposite points. In each spot, they talk about a problem or act out a situation, viewing it from that perspective. With each alternation, the opposite poles get closer until they merge in the middle. This fusion is studied both physiologically and linguistically (what the person says).
4. Spatial replies: A distinctive feature of John Grinder’s group work: he “spatially” highlights certain information or resources by walking back and forth. He returns to the highlighted spot when ready to “retrieve” the material he placed there earlier.
5. Somatic self-work (whole body): These techniques are based on the idea that the body is a comprehensive metaphor for our movement through life, and the vestibular, not another, representational system plays a key role. Our life “dance” or “game” is almost literally expressed in how we interact and coordinate our movements in the space around us.
   • a) Using bodily language metaphors: Expressions like “These thoughts won’t let me go” can be used in somatic change work as follows:
     1. Find a suitable branch or bar,
     2. Tell the person to grab it and mentally place whatever “won’t let them go” into the bar or branch,
     3. When ready, “release” the bar.

     Another example: “I can’t get over this.”

   • b) “Trust” exercises: You trust another person to lift you, spin you, catch you, etc.; to do these exercises, you must “entrust” your balance to another (or others). For many, this is a real challenge because people fear falling most of all. “Trust” exercises are a powerful vestibular stimulus and quickly immerse a person in a completely different state. If the person also thinks about what they want to trust in their life, their anchors will collapse, and this will “reprogram” their neurological computer with new patterns.
   • c) Challenging physical exercises (balancing or obstacle courses): These are physical exercises performed on the floor, high or low above the ground, and help reveal which patterns a person uses in life, as well as strengthen or reprogram them. The observer should note how the person sets a goal, starts the exercise, overcomes space and obstacles, and achieves the goal.

     To reprogram patterns, bring the person to a state of physical rest or “perfect” state (the whole body is balanced, the upper torso is aligned over the hips, eyes are relaxed, gaze is fixed on the goal, breathing is diaphragmatic). This begins to physically free them from limited movement patterns. If they simultaneously think about a goal they couldn’t achieve because they felt “stuck” or “unstable,” their mind and body will connect in a new loop, and old anchors will collapse.

     Balancing exercises performed high or low above the ground are used in middle schools across the country. They are part of a set of exercises called “Adventures.” They can be used to make the clear and well-developed NLP methodology, based on an individual approach, influence an environment that already has motivational power and promotes learning—if, of course, the “bottom line” is physically safe. For example, a “gym beam” can be a specially built structure or a wide, low wooden fence made of large logs marking the boundaries of the exercise area. At the very least, you can walk along a curb, maintaining balance.

6. Unwinding (de-rotating): This exercise is for those who feel wound up or restless. First, determine the direction in which they feel they are spinning. Then ask them to slowly start spinning in the opposite direction—suggest they “unwind” or “discover a new direction.” Then ask them to keep spinning in the opposite direction until they find their “balance point.”
7. Temporal distortion: We measure time by the movement of whole (celestial) bodies in space via gravity. Any change work using temporal distortion involves speeding up or slowing down time and is consistent with the essence of vestibular submodalities. Temporal distortion can be clinically applied, especially to people with first-type behavioral patterns. The main feature of such people is that they constantly feel time pressure—in other words, they never have enough time. Usually, they are taught to relieve tension with relaxation exercises, which they quickly learn to do, perform several times a day, and then rush off to their hectic lives, feeling they can’t spare 20–40 minutes needed for relaxation. But they would benefit more from temporal distortion exercises, where time slows down and they can feel what it’s like to have “plenty of time!”
8. Spatial mapping (representation): This technique allows you to mark the boundaries of a process so that a person can then place themselves in the desired section. A person can not only see the parts of the process that are behind and those that lie ahead—these sections also affect them through the vestibular channel.
9. Ritual actions: A ritual can be understood as a conscious, meaningful action designed to help us transition from one state to another. Ritual action brings us closer to our desired goal, moving us through both physical and deeply symbolic space.
10. Inducing trance: If trance is induced mainly using vestibular predicates, many people experience it as a rapid return to the “distant past” (back to the womb?). Here is an example of trance induction using only vestibular predicates, but I recommend first helping your clients clearly identify their position in the room, etc., using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic representational systems—then move on to trance induction.
    

    “Let the present hang in the air, and let the current carry you back to the times when you were on a wonderful playground. As you begin to orient yourself on this wonderful playground, spinning, you run up to the swings as they move back and forth, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, swinging, swinging, swinging, now slower and slower, and they hang in mid-swing. Now you turn and reorient yourself, spinning again, running up to the curb along the playground, where the swings are, moving up and down, up and down, and slowly stopping at the midpoint of balance, suspended. Now they are even more stable, so you can move and change, to believe that, no matter what movements occur, you will always know where the balance point is, and this will help you find yourself on the curb of new thoughts and fall into new meanings, dive deeper and deeper into your own growth and development, but in such a way as not to lose your balance point—not too fast. And now let the current begin to carry you into the present, into its coordinates of time and space, and you easily slide into your current environment and fully orient yourself in it and in your altered state of consciousness.”

11. Other: Once we have a sense of balance and have learned to feel ourselves (this is a fundamental sense), we make a conceptual leap and find ourselves beyond relationships with others, to “jump into the abyss” (in the words of Carlos Castaneda) or merge with the reference point, become one with it, an indivisible whole (as Einstein did when developing the theory of relativity).

There may be hundreds or thousands of other ways to use the vestibular system in change work. We invite readers to dive into this fascinating world themselves.

Case Studies

Case 1: A writer needed to finish a book by the next day, but her work had “stalled.” She turned on music and danced for 5–10 minutes, thinking about her goal the whole time. Ideas flooded her mind, and she immediately wrote them down. She danced until she had written the main parts of the next section of her work.

Case 2: After getting engaged, a young woman began having panic attacks. She explained, “It’s all because I’ve never been married!” The therapist told her to bring her fiancé next time so he could playfully “marry” them. Hearing this, the woman laughed and simultaneously broke out in a cold sweat—a sign that fear coexisted with humor. The doctor carefully planned a wedding ritual to be performed a week later, generously spiced with humor. The couple wore the tackiest clothes they had, “exchanged rings” (tying a tiny bell to a small leather strap, and the strap to each other’s fingers), then the “newlyweds” threw Canadian rice and toasted with Coca-Cola “for good measure.” When the woman walked down the hallway, then into the room, and took the final step before making her vows after being invited to “let go of unnecessary fears,” the signs of integration were clear. The panic attacks stopped, and five months later, the woman got married.

Case 3: A forty-one-year-old woman with late-stage metastatic breast cancer wanted to psychologically cope with her progressing illness and give it as strong an emotional rebuff as possible. Physically, she was quite weak, so she was offered to walk along the curb (a kind of gym beam) by the driveway to the office. Using her body as a metaphor, she realized it was hard for her to set a goal to move toward. When she finally managed to do so and focus her attention, she was asked to share what was knocking her off balance on the way to her cherished goal. She named three reasons: her husband, bad medical reports, and her mother. Then, as she walked toward her goal, she was verbally challenged with each of these. Based on her body’s response to these challenges (loss of balance), these factors were ranked in order of increasing emotional weight for her, and the next two attempts confirmed the sequence. Then she was taught to maintain balance during each challenge while continuing toward her goal. And she succeeded. Over the next four months, she dealt with each difficulty in her emotional life: first her husband, then the discouraging medical reports (which became gloomier as her illness progressed), and finally her mother. She reconciled with her mother, fell into a coma two days later, and died a few hours after that. Both the medical staff and her friends were amazed at how she lived her last months, the strength and joy she radiated, and how focused she was in facing each new development. In the late stages of illness, many people withdraw deeper into themselves, but in her last weeks, she had as many visitors as usual—both hospital staff and family and friends—and she communicated with each warmly and sincerely.