The map is not the territory (legs 11)

This rather cryptic expression is one of the principles behind NLP or Neural Linguistic Programming and I wish to explore what it means here in this short essay.

But first I would like to draw your attention to the picture accompanying this piece. Notice the uniformity of the people with their right leg raised into the air. Can you suggest what this might mean? I will give you some time to consider this image before returning to this question.

The map is not the territory. When I first heard this expression I was confused. It seemed to indicate that we were somehow sequestered in a place of military occupation were the locals were seeking to throw the invading armies off the scent and into the wrong direction. My mind even went to World War II and the invading German army defeated by Mother Russia. I am not sure why but it seemed to make sense (at the time).

We were learning this principle (The map is not the territory) in a place as far away from the treacherous cold of a Russian winter as could be imagined. We were part of the inaugural NLP Practioneer Course run by Danielle Serpico in Italy of all places; in Umbria no less, in the middle of a heat wave towards the end of June. While family and friends were jealous of our destination they did not realise we were locked up in a warm and slightly air conditioned room from…