It is interesting to note that at times Richard and John demonstrated very unorthodox therapeutic techniques and it is also important to realize that thru the entire training process of the development of NLP that John and Richard had the extraordinary ability to create the connectiveness and the understanding which is necessary in a powerful, congruent therapeutic environment. They had the ability to be completely and absolutely with the client/student in dealing with any situations which would come up.

All experimental exercises and techniques that I am aware of were done with the utmost sensitivity and systematic skill that you would expect in a very high quality experiment. The results achieved were not always predictable and were sometimes counterproductive; however with that magical skill of utilization they could put whatever resulted into a positive and useful framework.

Chapter Six. Food Stamps

Looking back, it was laughable in terms of the financial output for the students at that time. Considering what seminar fees are today, $25 a month in 1972 was considered a big rate although Richard was open to taking the equivalent rate in food coupons for the impoverished student who did not have the cash.

The supervision course in the spring of 1972 developed into several training workshops and programmes which were primarily conducted by Richard and later Richard and John and were attended by students mostly from the University of California.

Now there has been many things said about the original group of NLP. This obviously is purely a matter of where you want to start. When did NLP first begin? At that time who was a part of the original group? For historical purposes, I will put the record straight. The original group of NLP would be around the modelling stage of the Meta Model Groups that were held at Frank Pucelik, Leslie Cameron and Judith DeLozier's house in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Some of the group members were Ken of the Mission Street house, Devra, David, Judith DeLozier, Leslie Cameron, Paul, Steve, Frank Pucelik, Byron Lewis, myself and squeaking in towards the end, Robert Dilts. For all intents and purposes, these are the people who seemed to hang around the longest. Kind of like workshop followers. There were others of course and if any of you are out there, I'll put your name in volume two.

Richard met Virginia Satir or so he said, at a cocktail party. Virginia was a social worker who was very keen on the family systems approach to family and couple therapy. She developed a model of communication and family therapy that she called "Conjoint Family Therapy".

Over a period of approximately two years Richard was introduced to several communication techniques by Virginia. In fact he thought that she was so good at what she was doing that he used to fly around the United States and visit her training programmes, to attend and learn everything that he could about how she worked.

He was primarily an audio specialist at these workshops and he used to tape and assist in the videoing of many of her training programs.

In one of these training programs Richard was introduced to a therapeutic tool called the "Parts' Party". Along about 1972 Virginia developed this model as well as another model called "Family Reconstructions". Richard was very excited about these models. They are very active and very profound in their results. Richard was also very excited about how Virginia worked and we would relish in his story telling about her uncanny perceptions and skills.

Briefly a parts' party is conducted in this manner. There is a guide who supervises the party and a star who is in it for therapeutic value. The star is chosen and comes to the front of the group. He or she then chooses ten characters, famous characters, and gives each character a description. The star then chooses ten people out of the group who will play the role of these characters. The characters can be famous actors, business people, politicians, historians - whatever they choose. The role could be the ability to be aggressive, the ability to be successful, the ability to understand or be sexy.

So, ten people get chosen, then they get programmed for their roles. They are then instructed to go into a separate room with a supervisor, who goes along and instructs them to interact as if they are at a cocktail party.

Consider now there are ten people in a cocktail party, each individual is playing out the role that was designated to them by the star. The instructions which they are next given is that each individual character is to work at taking over the entire party. To use the resources of their part, to get the rest of the group alongside and take over the dynamics of the party.

As you could well understand, at certain times conflict arises, it is at that point the guide freezes the group and they all hold their postures. The guide points out the conflicts to the star, and it is at that time the star begins to come aware of the conflicts which are arising in their own internal world.

This process goes on sometimes for a number of hours, where each one of the individuals of the party are trying to take over the party, until at such time the entire party is together. Sometimes during this process the parts are transformed and they become other parts as they integrate with each other. So the parts, individual parts, and the polarities of the individual are then integrated. So you can consider that there's ten separate or five sets of polarities, with different conflicts going on at the same time.

The results of several hours of interaction are that all of the parts are transformed, integrated or connected in some positive way to another part. It can get pretty mad at times and people do get a bit testy with each other. Whether it has ongoing or permanent therapeutic value, I really don't know. They certainly were fun though.

In attending several of these groups which Richard conducted, I have become quite acquainted with the parts' party. Richard probably gave hundreds of parts' parties during his career.

He then evolved into the next dimension, family reconstructions which is revisiting the source of old learnings and looking with new eyes. Making possible the looking with new eyes is the job of the guide, often played by Richard. The star is seeking illumination through revisiting his or her childhood within the context of the whole family. The objectives of the family reconstruction is to realize your own parents' personhood, to reveal the sources of your old learnings and to pave the way to finding your own personhood.

Richard did a very powerful family reconstruction for John Grinder in one of the training sessions in which John uncovered a very enlightening part of his personal history. It was experiences such as his family reconstruction that helped hook John into the therapeutic process. He attended several of Richard's groups.

Richard taught John personally how the therapeutic process evolved. John was a student at many of the groups before he became a supervisor himself. Richard and John then began to colead groups. The groups that they were leading had a little bit to do with Gestalt Therapy, a little bit to do with what Virginia Satir was doing, and a little bit to do with what John Grinder and Richard Bandler were making up.