Edited by John Grinder and Frank Pucelik, the book's contributors include: Robert Dilts, Stephen Gilligan, Judith Delozier, Byron Lewis, Terry McClendon (author of the first history of NLP, The Wild Days ). The Origins of Neuro Linguistic Programming brings together the recollections and thoughts of some of the main protagonists from the very early days of NLP. In 1971 Richard Bandler and Frank Pucelik were students at Kresege College at the University of California Santa Cruz. They had a strong mutual interest in Gestalt Therapy, Frank because of his traumatic time in Vietnam and because he had been working with some disaffected and drug-addicted kids, and Richard because he had been working with Science and Behavior Books on transcribing and editing Fritz Perls' seminal work, The Gestalt Approach and Eyewitness to Therapy . They started a local gestalt group and ran 2-3 sessions a week collaborating and experimenting with the language of therapy. They started achieving some brilliant results but were having problems transferring their skills to others and so Richard invited one of their college professors, John Grinder, to observe what they were doing in order that he would, hopefully, be able to de-construct what they were doing that was so effective. John was a professor of Linguistics and was instantly impressed with the work that they were doing. He was able to add more structure and in due course the three of them formalised what is now known as the Meta Model. NLP was born. John and Frank and each of the other contributors give their own personal account of this period of collaboration when something magical was happening in northern California. Of particular interest is the role Gregory Bateson played, particularly in bringing John and Richard together with Milton H Erickson. An extremely insightful and riveting read for anyone interested in NLP. ; Edited by John Grinder and Frank Pucelik, the book's contributors include: Robert Dilts, Stephen Gilligan, Judith Delozier, Byron Lewis, Terry McClendon (author of the first history of NLP, The Wild Days). Wonder, excitement, passion, fascination, discovery, creation, revelations - some forty years after the origins of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) two of the three originators and seven of the early contributors write about the beginnings of a method of doings psychotherapy and modelling behavior. I must admit that I read this book in just a few days because the saga of this seminal approach kept me rivetted. Most people (including me) believed that NLP was developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. It turns out that Bandler and Pucelik, who were students at the innovative Kresge College of the University of California at Santa Cruz, got fascinated by Fritz Perls's Gestalt Therapy and started running groups based on Perls's work. Bandler invited John Grinder, a faculty member specializing in linguistics and someone he knew, to sit in on a group session and use his linguistic knowledge to model and make sense out of what was occurring in the group. Grinder was ahookeda in the first group he attended, and this was the beginning of a systematic study of communication and modelling of human behavior in which all three were major contributors.In addition to those cited above, the other chapter contributors are: Terry McClendon, Judith deLozier, David R. Wick, Byron Lewis, Joyce Michaelson, Stephen Gilligan, James Eicher, and Robert Dilts. Since memory is malleable and not perfect, we are treated to differing perspectives on the origins of NLP and the contributions of all of those involved. There is general agreement on the basic story. In the ferment at Kresge College in the late 60s and early 70s creativity and experimentation were in the forefront. The word aexperimentationa needs to be emphasized for they were endlessly experimenting with procedures and models, refining them, and debating what they were doing. Contributions were also made by the dozens of group members.The most significant contributor and mentor and guide was Gregory Bateson whose ideas and encouragement permeated the work of the three founders. Initially, the work of Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir were modelled. The third genius whose work influenced NLP was Milton Erickson. Bateson's introduction of the Santa Cruz group to Erickson moved them onto another and seemingly contradictory avenue. Their original Meta Model was linguistically based and quite structured. However, they found that Erickson was getting remarkable results by aviolatinga most of the Meta Model's precepts! Thus, the two structure of magic books on the Meta Model were followed by two books introducing the apatternsa of Erickson's work. The originators were able to integrate these two apparently opposing approaches.Grinder added several informative commentaries on specific contributors, and also an excellent summarizing commentary. The prologue, and especially the epilogue, by Bostic-St. Clair provides