The art of detecting and designing patterns of talent and excellence
The Fascinating Origins of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, has become a cornerstone of modern communication, personal development, and therapy. But its beginnings were far from ordinary.
In the early 1970s at the University of California, Santa Cruz, three minds came together — associate professor of linguistics John Grinder, psychology student Richard Bandler, and undergraduate Frank Pucelik. Their mission: to decode how exceptional therapists achieved transformative results.
It all began with Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy. While working for a publishing company, Bandler spent countless hours listening to Perls’ recorded sessions. Without realising it, he absorbed Perls’ patterns and began replicating his results with clients — but couldn’t explain how he did it.
Pucelik and Bandler first tried to map out Bandler’s process, but it was Grinder’s linguistic expertise that unlocked the code. He identified the language patterns Bandler used unconsciously and linked them to a branch of linguistics known as transformational grammar, developed by Noam Chomsky. Together, Grinder and Bandler refined and tested these patterns, creating NLP’s first formal framework — the Meta Model of Language.
From there, NLP was born — an exploration of how language, behavior, and thought intertwine to shape human experience.
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The Evolution of NLP: From the Meta Model to the New Code
The Meta Model was the first major breakthrough in NLP — a linguistic framework for uncovering precise, high-quality information by responding to the structure of a person’s language. Beyond therapy, it quickly proved invaluable in business, management, and any field where effective communication drives results.
Building on this, Bandler and Grinder developed several new models. The Representational System Model revealed that we experience and interpret the world through our senses — seeing (visual), hearing (auditory), and feeling (kinaesthetic). Our language reflects these internal maps: “I can’t see a way forward” signals a visual process; “That doesn’t sound right” an auditory one; “It just feels off” a kinaesthetic one. Recognising these patterns helps guide people toward clarity, alignment, and change.
Next came the Milton Model, inspired by psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson. It’s the mirror image of the Meta Model — instead of clarifying meaning, it artfully blurs it to communicate with the unconscious mind, the deeper source of insight and transformation.
In the 1980s, Bandler and NLP developers Connirae and Steve Andreas expanded this work through the Submodality Model, exploring how subtle sensory distinctions shape emotion and behavior. Around the same time, John Grinder, with Judith DeLozier and later Carmen Bostic St. Clair, developed the New Code of NLP. This evolution shifted focus to a balanced relationship between the conscious and unconscious minds — the conscious gathers information, the unconscious implements change.
The New Code also emphasizes state — a person’s mental and emotional condition — as the key to behavioral flexibility and peak performance. By working with the state itself, rather than the content of problems, change becomes natural and lasting.
From its beginnings in modeling therapy genius, NLP has grown into a sophisticated approach to human performance, communication, and transformation — bridging language, mind, and behavior in ways that continue to evolve today.
Reframing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: From Classic to New Code and the Power of Self-Application
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has long shaped the field of personal development by modeling the language and behaviors of excellence. Yet, one enduring challenge within the Classic Code of NLP is self-application—using the same tools on oneself with consistent success.
Many practitioners, especially those trained in short, technique-driven programs, find it easier to apply NLP patterns to others than to their own thoughts, emotions, or behaviors. Without deep integration, scripted methods can limit true mastery.
The New Code of NLP emerged to solve this problem. Developed by co-creator John Grinder, with Judith DeLozier and later Carmen Bostic St. Clair, it restructured NLP around principles that restore balance between the conscious and unconscious minds. Central to this evolution is the practice of self-application—learning to shift one’s own emotional and physiological states to achieve flexibility, clarity, and high performance.
Unlike the Classic Code, the New Code introduces explicit criteria for what constitutes effective NLP. It emphasises minimal but sufficient components for change, ensuring methods remain ecological (aligned with a person’s wider system) and transferable beyond therapy or coaching. This design strengthens the integrity of NLP while making it more practical and accessible.
In our postgraduate framework, the New Code does not replace the Classic—it refines it. Classic patterns are revisited, re-coded, and taught through experiential learning grounded in first principles. Students develop not only the skill to facilitate change in others but the self-awareness and flexibility to apply NLP to themselves.
In essence, the New Code represents a maturation of NLP—a disciplined evolution that deepens its reach, enhances its precision, and reclaims its original purpose: empowering individuals to model excellence, transform their inner world, and create lasting change.
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