Just as we see, hear, taste, touch and smell the outside world, so we recreate those same sensations in our mind, representing the world to ourselves using our senses inwardly.  We may either remember past experiences or imagine possible (or impossible) future experiences.  We can picture ourselves running for a bus (remembered visual image) or running across the surface of Mars wearing a Father Christmas outfit (constructed visual image).  The first will have happened, the second not – you can represent both.

There is a Representation System for each of our senses.  This is the way we experience our world.  What we perceive are representations of what each sensory organ transmits to us i.e. vision (eyes), auditory (ears), kinaesthetic (touch).  There are two important principles about these representational systems.

• During the process of building our models of the world, language is attached to our experiences. The collection of word symbols and the rules that govern their use make up a unique and distinct, sixth representational system.  This is called our Auditory Digital (AD) system or how we talk to ourselves.  It is not an analog system like the other representational systems and not related to any specific sensory organ.
• We all continually make use of all the representational systems, switching from one to another for different reasons throughout our day. Most people tend to favor one over another and process most communication in this manner.  This is called our Primary Representational System and can be recognized by physiology and predicates (preferred words of that system).