A repository of communication, perception, Meta Model work, and clinical applications.
My free recording collection includes The Neuraliser on language and neurology, Trance Eyes from my Hypnosis Weekend, and other workshop recordings and extracts. Join my mailing list for access to the free recordings.
The Rainbow Machine: Tales from a Neurolinguist’s Journal
A collection of 38 standalone articles exploring the stories and ideas in my book, The Rainbow Machine: Tales from a Neurolinguist’s Journal. The collection follows the original series order and covers communication, identity, learning, therapeutic encounters and the assumptions behind helping. It also includes my later reflections and corrections to the original case accounts. Each article includes its accompanying full video.
Find The Rainbow Machine on Amazon
Articles 1–10
- The Rainbow Machine: Reassurance, Trust and a Child’s Experience
- Self-Esteem: Self-Criticism, Identity and the Position of the Critic
- Poor Planning: Food Cues, Marketing and the Environment of Eating
- A Case of Dying: Honesty, Hope and the Limits of Therapy
- Satan: Theatre, Ritual and the Expectations of Therapy
- Word Salad Dave: Personhood, Control and the Meaning of Improvement
- The Child: Parenting, Distance and Different Ways of Communicating
- Patching Holes: Recovery, Coincidence and Claims of a Miracle Cure
- Bedwetting: Paradoxical Intention, Avoidance and the Limits of Positive Thinking
- The Long Stand: Hypnosis, Compliance and Permission to Change
Articles 11–20
- Sarah the Dominatrix: Dignity, Intimacy and the Assumptions We Bring to Care
- Critical Self-Talk: Changing the Way You Speak to Yourself
- Problem Parts: Metaphor, Inner Conflict and the Risk of Imposing a Model
- Heaviness: Hypnosis, Food Marketing and the Environment of Choice
- The Television Set: Identity, Diagnosis and the Right to Disagree
- A Therapeutic Relationship: Whose Needs Are Being Met?
- Towards and Away-From Values: Yo-Yo Dieting and What Happens After a Goal
- Obsessions, Compulsions and Endless Loops: How Do You Know When to Stop?
- Complex Equivalencies: When an Event Becomes an Identity
- Hoarding, Unfinished Business and the Things We Keep
Articles 21–30
- Learning: What the Setting Teaches Alongside the Lesson
- Core Transformation, Trust and the Limits of a Success Story
- Brain Hemispheres, Neuroplasticity and the Problem of Easy Explanations
- Hearing Voices: Listening Carefully to What a Person Means
- Changing Position: Living Differently with the People in Your Head
- NLP and Schizophrenia: Competence, Access and the Clients We Choose
- Right Man Syndrome: Certainty, Control and the Need to Be Right
- Eluding Resistance: When Coping Is Mistaken for Secondary Gain
- Seeing Red: Anger, Expectations and the Stories Therapists Tell
- Hysterical Paralysis: Symptoms, Fabrication and Professional Identity
Articles 31–38
- Brain Cancer: Medical Language, Anxiety and Miracle Cure Stories
- The Tinfoil Helmet: Inner Speech, Agency and the Boundary of Self
- A Mouthful: Choosing What We Consume in Food and Information
- Reframing: When a New Meaning Silences the Person
- Voodoo Science: Belief, Fear and Taking Someone Seriously
- The Messiah Complex: Authority, Loyalty and the Business of Therapy
- Phobia: Assumptions, Needle Fear and the Importance of Choice
- Painting the Dog: Feedback, Simplicity and Learning to Help
Communication, Perception & Meaning
Exploring how communication works and how perception is constructed.
- The Meaning of Your CommunicationUnpacking the classic NLP presupposition.
- Perception is ProjectionHow subjective filters shape what we think we "see".
- Relational DynamicsExploring how interactive patterns shape our experiences and connections with others.
- Archetypes, Persona and the Stories We Live By Symbolic stories, persona, translation and the limits of personal development slogans.
Meta Model, Sleight of Mouth & Language Patterns
How to question, reframe, and track meaning with linguistic precision.
- NLP Meta ModelPurpose and usage overview.
- The Meta Model Misapplied – Pt. 1 Reflexive questioning, identity and listening for structure. Standalone article with the full Part 1 video.
- The Meta Model Misapplied – Pt. 2 Questions, perspective and timing in structured interventions. Standalone article with the full Part 2 video.
- Sleight of Mouth PatternsBelief-change language patterns.
- The Four-Fold NegationNegation of sender, message, receiver and context in communication.
- Complex EquivalenceOn the "X means Y" pattern.
- Cause and Effect RelationshipsLinguistic cause-effect chains.
- Submodalities in LanguageHow wording tracks internal experience.
- Recursive Frame AnalysisHow nested frames shape interactions.
- Listening for Submodalities: Distance, Focus and Weight in Language Practical listening for distance, focus, weight and other distinctions in everyday speech.
Anchoring, Submodalities & Emotional Processing
Techniques for state management and spatial organization of experience.
- NLP AnchoringIntroduction to setting and collapsing anchors.
- AnchoringRefinements for real-world contexts.
- Angles, Direction, Distance and Emotional ProcessingSpatial coding of experience.
- The Amygdala and When to SwishNeurological threat responses and the Swish pattern.
- Rethinking the Swish PatternQuestioning standard teachings for better application.
- Visual Imagery, Colour and Depression: A Gentle Recall Exercise A gentle coloured-paper exercise for visual recall, with adaptations and limits.
Time, Regression & Working with the Past
Dealing with regression work, time perspectives, and memory myths.
- Regression to CauseA critique of the "root cause" idea in therapy.
- The Best Thing About the PastReflections on memory and change work.
- Past Life RegressionSuggestion and psychological function.
- Timelines, Perceptual Positions and Creating a Future for Yourself Self and other timelines, future agency and the detail of perspective taking.
Training, Ethics & The NLP Industry
A look at culture, exploitation, and what marketing hides.
- Why is My Trainer So Fat?Congruence and modeling in trainers.
- Sex, Stalking and NLP TrainingBoundary violations and power abuse.
- 7 Day NLP Practitioner TrainingAccelerated trainings vs. competence.
- Scamming the PublicCritique of deceptive marketing.
- BB NLP (British Board of NLP)Commentary on accreditation bodies.
- Building a Bigger IdiotWhen training makes people more rigid.
- Choosing an Intervention: Listen to the Structure of the Problem Assessment, supervision and matching an approach to the structure of a client’s difficulty.
- When Therapy Imposes Meaning Instead of Expanding Choice Projection, client-defined meaning and the difference between changing an interpretation and expanding choice.
- Motivation, Decisions and the Work of Change Remedial and generative change, practical decisions, gradual transitions and working habits.
Hypnosis, History & Clinical Applications
Clinical applications for pain, epilepsy, and behavioral issues.
- A Brief History of HypnosisTracing trance across time.
- Post-Hypnotic SuggestionHow suggestions influence later behaviour.
- Pain Control: Hypnosis and NLPApproaches to pain management.
- Epilepsy and Hypnosis / HypnotherapyWhen hypnosis is appropriate or contraindicated.
- Adult Bed Wetting: NLP and HypnotherapyAddressing nocturnal enuresis.
Meta Model Quick Reference
| Violation | Pattern | Example | Recovery Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deletion | Simple Deletion | "I'm scared." | "Scared of what specifically?" |
| Deletion | Comparative | "This is better." | "Better than what?" |
| Distortion | Nominalization | "The relationship is failing." | "How are you relating specifically?" |
| Distortion | Mind Reading | "She thinks I'm boring." | "How specifically do you know that?" |
| Generalization | Universal | "They never listen." | "Never? Has there been an exception?" |
Explore technical pieces to refine skills, clinical applications, or critical commentaries.