We were taught one meta model violation a week. We went in and practiced the questioning technique, came back and then were meta modelled by either Richard or John to determine if we were able to fill in all the pieces of the person's world model. The outcome of this particular technique was to be able to get a full linguistic representation of an individual's model of the world.

The meta model group was probably the most dynamic of the groups that were held throughout the Santa Cruz mountains or should we say productive in that, the end result of this group was the meta model. A year later it was put into a book titled The Structure of Magic I. Probably the most significant part of this group for some was the ending. Richard and John liked to end their groups with a bit of pizzaz. They generally liked to hold a party to give presents to the students. The ending of this group coincided with Christmas. So there was a group Christmas party held around the end of 1974.

First I'll have to set the stage for you. It was evening about 8 o'clock and everybody was sitting around in a circle waiting for the festivities to begin. Both Richard and John were in attendance for this particular gala occasion, as were Judith, Leslie, Paul, Frank, David, Devra, myself and others.

Richard was in the middle of the room and he would say, "Who would like to have their gift first?" Devra would always like to get hers first. She suggested she get her present to begin with and was very happy and excited. The events began to unfold. First, Devra was sent out of the room and ten people were chosen out of the group to serve as actors and actresses of which I was one. We were all given white sheets to wear and candles to hold and we walked out to the side deck of the house, and were we surprised! Because on that deck was an eight foot tall cross like the one that Jesus was crucified on.

We were instructed to stand around in front of the cross and hold our candles in front of us. Devra was led out blindfolded and was then tied onto the cross. John then put some lighting fluid at the bottom of the cross and proceeded to set it ablaze. Devra at this time began to smell smoke and was wondering what was going on. She started sounding anxious about the situation asking, "What is going on?". Richard asked her if she would like to have her gift now. She said she would and so Richard took her blindfold off and gave her a knife which she could then use to cut herself off the cross.

To this day I don't think that Devra has ever forgiven Richard. I have heard that she is still plotting on how to get back at him. Richard did have a serious discussion with her after about how she could learn from the experience, however I don't think she was listening.

A certain aura then prevailed over the group. We began to wonder about the nature of these "gifts". The next gift was given to me.

I was taken by Richard into the bathroom and asked to take off my contact lenses if I had them in. Since I had a nice shirt on I was instructed to take that off also. Then a smock was placed over me. Lastly a blindfold was placed over my eyes.

Richard took me on a blindwalk. This seemed to be pretty basic stuff to me, something out of psychology class 1a at junior college, until I fell into a hole. Richard then said, "You have to be very careful and to see where you are going because you can only have a glimpse of where you are going." He then pulled the blindfold down for a half of a second.

I was then taken up and placed on the deck where the cross was still standing. I was instructed to sit cross legged, then I was told that there were ten people in front of me who were my devotees. I was then to chant "OM" to these people. You see I got pretty good at using the meta model, in fact I thought that I was hot shit. Perhaps a bit arrogant.

I continued to chant once and then twice and then was instructed to be louder. In a third attempt, when my mouth was open wide, Richard and John threw cream pies right into my face. The cream went up my nose, in my ears and all over my hair.

Richard then took my blindfold off and asked, with his best Virginia Satir voice, "Are you O.K.?" I looked at him and laughed and laughed. It was probably one of the first times that I had a really deep belly laugh.

We then went back into the house and further gifts were given out. The party that evening was quite a wild and memorable occasion.

The Christmas party was the end of an era, and the beginning of NLP. During that Christmas some of the group members were introduced to eye accessing cues. Covertly of course. Richard had a habit of teaching indirectly thru demonstration. The Christmas party marked the completion of the meta modelling group. Little did we know that Richard Bandler and John Grinder were staying one step ahead by experimenting with eye accessing patterns and predicates.

Rumour has it that eye accessing patterns were discovered in this way. One of the Gestalt Therapy sessions that John and Richard were conducting developed into the "open chair technique". One of them noticed that the person on the one hand was looking up and using very visual predicates, like, "You can't see what you are doing" and, "Why don't you look at me when you talk to me." Then she would change chairs, look down right and respond with feeling words like, "I feel that we are losing contact and drifting apart." One therapist looked at the other and said, "I wonder if they actually see pictures when they use visual predicates, and get feelings when they looked down and to the right." The other said, "You'll never get me to believe that."

Shortly after the meta model group started, I had the opportunity to visit Richard about a relationship problem. It was at that time that Richard showed me the name on his new office which was "Neuro-Linguistic Programming." The model had a name. Cards were also printed up with MM for Meta Model which was later to become the logo for Richard and John's publishing company, Meta Publications.

Very intensive experimentation and modelling was the order of the day at this time. The crux of the model was that what ever works, works! The old rules about the warm, empathic and genuine therapist went out the window, and in its place a model developed called, "if what your doing isn't working, do anything else."

The NLP seeds which grew and later flourished are beginning to germinate. During this time the idea of the parts, based on Fritz Perls topdog-underdog and Virginia Satir's model; the concepts of reframing which developed through the integration of the Gestalt Model, the elaborate reframes of Virginia Satir's parts' party and the use of symptom substitutions in hypnosis all contributed to the model of NLP. Some NLP techniques developed as an evolution of these basic models. However the techniques should not be confused with the model itself. NLP is about modelling, not therapy.

The genius of Richard Bandler and John Grinder has been their ability to take any act or behavior and to be able to model it in a way that it can be taught and incorporated in other people. This is in fact what they did with the brilliance and genius of Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton H. Erickson. They often had us doing deep trance identification with these people at some of the workshops.