The form of the equation remains the same, no matter what quantitative values are substituted for m and a, just as the form of a neurological pattern or sequence of operations remains the same, no matter what content is processed through it. It isn't important whether F = ma describes a real physical law; what's important about this formula is its demonstration of the human capacity to develop neural patterns that allow us to organize our representations of physical phenomena to obtain desired outcomes. Just as we have invented complex neural patterns that allow us to tie our shoelaces, play golf or read a book, we can develop neural patterns that fulfill other objectives.

All behavioral models — from complex governmental and business operations involving thousands of people to individual activities like eating an apple and jogging — exist and function through laws, rules and assumptions incorporated into individuals in the form of neural patterns. If the neural pattern is absent, the behavior is absent; if the behavior is ineffective or inappropriate, the neural pattern is not adequately organized to elicit an effective or appropriate behavior. The overt and implied laws, rules and assumptions of any model function as codes or metaphors for different patterns of neurological organization aimed at producing a particular set of behavioral outcomes.

Since NLP is concerned with form, not content, strategies for effective and appropriate behaviors may be drawn from any model and applied to any other model of our choice. For example, the creative strategy of an artist may be appropriately transferred to an uninspired aerodynamic engineer faced with a challenging design problem. Or, the operational motivation strategy of a highly efficient business organization may be adapted to a sluggish government department. Because NLP is ultimately concerned with representations of experience at the neurological level, it is unnecessary to refer to the names or contents of the models from which particular forms, structural interrelationships and outcomes have been derived, except for illustration purposes.