The Meta Model of NLP was designed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler as a separate but reversed model of the Milton Model.
The meta model is formed upon the basis that we often make many presumptions and statements without verifying their content. The meta model teaches the use of challenging statements made by an individual in order to expand their sense of understanding.
An example of a presumption may be as follows -
"My best friend loves this show".
The presumption in the above sentence is that the speaker has a best friend. As an NLP practitioner, one may challenge the above presumption, by stating the challenge as follows -
"So you have a best friend do you?"
This causes a slight alteration to the state of mind of the person who made the original statement, as they weren't expecting anyone to challenge their presumption (that they have a best friend). In fact people are so used to making presumptions in life and not having them challenged, that when someone does so, it can seem quite awkward.
Another form of statement that we often make is predicting something based upon little or no empirical evidence. A prediction may be as follows -
"You know he's going to get upset if I don't go out with him on Friday night, we've always gone out on Friday nights together".
This is making a prediction that the other party, "he", is going to be upset if the speaker does not go out with them on Friday night. Unless the other party has specifically told the speaker that this is the case, the speaker is making a prediction. A challenge to this prediction may be as follows
"Has he actually told you that he'll be upset if you don't go out with him on Friday?"
As you can see, the meta model is based upon challenging peoples natural presumptions and beliefs. Sometimes these presumptions are incorrect and can lead to a lot of misunderstanding between people. We often presume things from a subconscious level, and when we consciously speak we just naturally expect that other people will agree with any presumptions we've made.
By breaking this typical cycle of communication, we are allowing people to analyse situations more critically.
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