In 1972 (during Grinder's stint at
UCSC)
Richard Bandler, an undergraduate student of psychology, approached him for assistance in specific aspects of
modelingGestalt therapy. Bandler, along with good friend Frank Pucelik, had spent much time recording and editing recordings of
Fritz Perls (founder of
Gestalt therapy) and had learned Gestalt therapy implicitly during intense group sessions. After some time, Grinder was invited to participate in group discussions. Although at first Grinder sat quietly, he eventually approached Bandler and Pucelik with some observations and questions. Grinder left a lasting impression on Pucelik and was later dubbed 'the real genius'.
[12] Bandler and Pucelik invited Grinder to team-up eventually creating a very close group. Although Bandler, Grinder and Pucelik were the main driving force, there were several other students at the university who contributed ‘a hell of a lot’ according to Pucelik.
[12] In the end, hours of unpaid research significantly aided the formation of Meta - modern day NLP.
From there Grinder and Bandler modeled the various cognitive behavioral patterns of therapists such as Perls, a leading figure in family therapy
Virginia Satir and later the leading figure in
hypnosis in
psychiatry Milton Erickson. As a result,
The Structure of Magic Volumes I & II (1975, 1976),
Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, Volumes I & II (1975, 1977) and
Changing With Families (1976) were published. This work formed the basis of the
methodology that became the foundation of
neuro-linguistic programming.