The Walking Belief Change Pattern
 Robert McDonald, M.S.

This video includes a complete demonstration as well as introduction and follow-up discussion.

Robert guides Linda through examination and replacement of her limiting belief ("it's bad to have been born female"). She moves from certainty to uncertainty about the belief, which enables her to place it in the "museum of old beliefs." Then, she chooses and adopts a new belief she wants instead.

Sample Process Outline:

The Walking Belief Change Pattern
Created by Robert Dilts and Demonstrated by Robert McDonald
1. Create a label for six locations of change: “Current Belief,” “Open to Doubt,” “Museum of Old Beliefs,” “Preferred Belief,” “Open to Believing,” and “The Sacred Place.”

2. Place the labels on the floor in a clockwise direction around an imaginary dinner table, as though they were place settings.
3. Identify a Current Belief about yourself that limits you in some way.
4. Identify your Preferred Belief, what you would rather believe.
5. Now, establish a location anchor for each of the six labels. Physically step into each location of change, as you think of an experience which fits its description, and associate into that experience fully. It’s often most effective to use personal experiences and beliefs rather than philosophy or beliefs about the world. Notice where in your body each experience resides, what posture you naturally take, and notice what movements your body naturally makes in each location of change. (It’s also interesting to notice the visual, auditory and kinesthetic submodalities of each experience.) Break state between each location of change by stepping to the intermediate space, and shake off the feelings of the previous location before stepping into the next one.
Examples:
a. Current Belief: The belief that limits you in some way. “I’m dumb.”
b. Open to Doubt: “Maybe I’m not repulsive.” “Maybe the moon
doesn’t follow our car.”
c. Museum of Old Beliefs: “The tooth fairy.” “Steaks grow in the meat
section of the store.”
d. Preferred Belief: The belief you’d rather have. “I can learn.”
e. Open to Believing: “Maybe I am attractive.” “Maybe the cold war
really is over.”
f. The Sacred Place: “Children must be protected from brutalization.”
6. Now, start at the beginning again. Step into the Current Belief location. This time, very slowly and gently, move the Limiting Belief directly into Open to Doubt (allowing the Belief to be transformed into Doubt) and then walk the Doubted Belief into the Museum of Old Beliefs (and allow it to be transformed). And now, physically place that former Limiting
Belief near other former beliefs in the Museum of Old Beliefs.
7. Now, step into the Preferred Belief location. Slowly and gently walk your Preferred Belief directly into Open to Belief (allowing it to be transformed), and then walk it into the Sacred Place (and allow it to be transformed).
8. Finish by feeling the now-sacred Preferred Belief in your body and stepping directly into the Current Belief location (letting it be transformed). Feel your Preferred Belief as something you currently believe. Repeatedly step between The Sacred Place and Current Belief several times.
9. Test: step to a side and think about what you believed at the beginning, in contrast to what you believe now. How is it different than before?

About Robert McDonald, M.S.
Robert is an internationally known NLP Trainer. He is a co-author of NLP: The New Technology of Achievement and Success Mastery with NLP. His groundbreaking work with relationships and addictions is featured in Homecoming by John Bradshaw and in Heart of the Mind by the Andreases. Robert has created several NLP patterns as well as a variety
of well-known NLP seminars, including Tools of the Spirit with Robert Dilts. He holds an M.S. in Counseling and Mental Health, and is a part-time professor of counseling psychology at the University of San Francisco. He lives in the Santa
Cruz mountains of California.