Recall your personal Time-Line. I want you to now just dissociate from your body. Imagine yourself floating out of your body. Leave your body sitting or standing and float up above your body and the images on your Time-Line. Float way up high, see the whole continuum of the past, present and future. You can see the images on your Time-Line. Doesn’t it feel good to get above all that? Yes, that describes simply the process of how people “get above it all.” When you do this you go “Meta” to your Time-Line. You are dissociating when you “go above” your Time-Line.
Compare the relative brightness of the past and the future. If you have had a lot of pain in your past, your past may appear much darker than your future. If you see dark areas in your past, these may indicate some sort of abuse. Importantly, notice I said “may.” If differences in the brightness between the past and the future appear, try brightening up your past close to the brightness of the future. Now, your future may be darker than your past. If true, try brightening up the future to even brighter than your past. Could you brighten either your past or your future Time-Line? If you could, did it change your perceptions? For some people it does, for others it doesn’t. As we have discussed in the submodality section, the difference that makes the difference resides primarily in the Meta-level structures. However, for some people, especially the visually oriented, changing the brightness of their Time-Line can make some positive shifts. For this type of processor, “brightness” carries positive Meta-level meanings.
You still remained above your Time-Line? Good. Now, I want you to choose a memory from the past that has little importance to you. Please choose a minor memory. Save the heavy stuff for later. Float back over that memory and look down on it. You see yourself in the memory, correct? Good, OK, now take that memory out of your Time-Line and push it far away. Just keep pushing it farther and farther until it disappears. Make it darker as it goes away. Notice the blank area in your Time-Line where that memory was. Now, choose a new memory. Choose a pleasant memory. Take that memory and insert it into the blank space of the old memory.
OK, good. Remaining above your Time-Line, float out over your future. You do have a future Time-Line, don’t you? The wisdom writer says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”31 This wise man knew that we all have the potential to dream big for the future. And, by dreaming big for the future, we become the future. What do you want for your future? What event do you wish to happen? In keeping with your ecology for your life, choose an image of yourself living and doing what you want to live and do. Make the image really compelling. You may need to increase the brightness or focus the colors. Experiment with the size of the image to make it powerfully compelling. For most people, making an image larger will increase the emotional component of the image.
Once you have the image, step inside of it. Wrap all the feelings of living and doing the person you desire for yourself around you. Once you experience the emotions of living as the person you desire to live, step out of the image. Seeing your self in the image, place the image in your future Time-Line. Choose a time in your future that you believe realistic for yourself to become that person. Good. Just stick it right in your future Time-Line. Good, remaining above your Time-Line over that future event, look back toward now. Notice how all the events between the present and that future event begin to align themselves in such a way for you to become that person. Now, float back over the present and drop into and associate with your body. As you look forward up your Time-Line, notice how all the events between then and now realign themselves in such a way that you cannot help but to become that person. Good. How does it feel to control your memories and your future dreams?
17.8.0.132 Reframing Memories With The Fast Phobia Cure
Using Time-Lining in conjunction with the Fast Phobia Cure provides a most effective tool in eliminating the visual component of SEEPs.
Using Time-Lining in conjunction with the Fast Phobia Cure provides a most effective tool in eliminating the visual component of SEEPs. Usually when you remove the visual component the accompanying kinesthetic disappears as well. When working with a client with a phobia, take them back on their Time-Line until they have arrived over the time of the installation of the phobia. Do not have them associate into the moment of the phobia’s installation. Just leave them above their Time-Line and have them place an imaginary movie screen above their Time-Line. Run them through the Fast Phobia Cure. Do this after you have eliminated the negative emotions. That will make the procedure both more effective and much easier on the client.
I use this model often with victims of sexual abuse. Ask the client if they would like to have that picture (s) removed from their brain. If they say, “Yes,” proceed with the Fast Phobia Cure on that particular memory. On rare occasions the Fast Phobia model will not effectively remove the visual image. In that case I use the Swish Pattern to completely remove the picture. Also, use the Swish Pattern to replace the deleted memory with a pleasant memory. The following section will explain this further.
17.8.0.133 Replacing Memories With The Swish Pattern
In replacing memories on the Time-Line, do a Swish Pattern using the associated picture of the blank area on the Time-Line. Remember, following the Fast Phobia Cure, the client will have erased the visual component of the image of the memory. Ask them to form an associated picture of the blanked out area. Should some of the picture still remain, lead the client in forming an associated picture of whatever remains after the Fast Phobia Cure. Swish this associated picture with a dissociated picture of a pleasant memory that the client chooses to replace the old memory. The swish provides us with another powerful tool for replacing these old deleted memories. Remember, try swishing first with a large and small picture. If that doesn’t work, swish using distance.
17.9 Steps Into Time-Lining32
Use the following steps to assist you to begin the actual process of using Time-Lining. Following the steps listed will assist you in leading the client into the actual therapeutic process. From a study of Richard Bandler’s therapies33, Tad James developed the following procedure in leading the client into a therapeutic intervention.
17.9.0.134 1. Establishing Rapport
Before any therapeutic intervention, always establish rapport with the client. Before moving into the actual interventions, test for rapport.
17.9.0.135 2. Gathering Information
When a client comes in to you, they come at the effect of some cause. Your job involves moving them to cause. Using the Meta-model and other counseling skills you may know, gather as much information about the client as you think necessary. Remember, the Meta-model gets to the deep structure beneath the surface structure material. You make permanent changes at the deep structure. Spend at least thirty minutes to one hour gathering information before beginning therapy. Your goal concerns getting to the greater problem.
17.9.0.136 3. Going From Effect To Cause
NLP and Time-Lining work primarily at the process level. When a client comes in and says, “I am depressed,” you move them from effect to cause by asking, “How do you do that?” They will probably say, “What do you mean, ‘How do I do that?’” You respond, “I want to know what you do inside your head for you to do the process of depressing yourself.”
Depression illustrates a nominalization. Most of the problems that people bring to you are expressed as nominalizations. Can you put depression in a wheelbarrow? Will guilt, anxiety, fear and shame fit in a wheelbarrow? No, you move the client towards cause/choice when you turn their nominalized problem into a process.
The question, “How do you do that?” handles nominalizations. It will also handle any mind reads and cause and effect. When you ask the question, “How do you do that?” you tend to dissociate the client from their problem. Some clients may associate into their problem state, then they will dissociate (go Meta) in order to notice how they do the problem so they can describe to you how they do it. They must run the strategy of the problem if they actually do the prob
lem. Do not have the client run the strategy of doing the problem if they have a phobia or heavy trauma. Otherwise, you want them to run the strategy of doing the problem. You can then calibrate (note their non-verbal behaviors, i.e. facial expressions, breathing, etc.) as they run their problem state. This will enable you to know when you complete the therapy. If they cannot run the strategy again, you are done.
17.9.0.137 4. Teach Me How To Do That
After dissociating them from their problem with the question, “How do you do that?” you may wish to further dissociate them. Say to the client, “How do I do that?” They will probably respond again with, “What do you mean, ‘How do I do that?’” Your response, “Just suppose that I work for a temporary agency and I need to fill in for you today. How would I do the process of depressing myself?” You want to learn their strategy of doing their problem. This question will force them to explain the processes going on inside their head to do the process of their problem. In explaining the problem, they will have to dissociate from the problem.
Recently a neighbor of mine called for help. Diane had serious health problems. If that wasn’t enough, her mother attempted suicide a few weeks after coming to see me. Her mother almost succeeded. Diane spent most of the day in bed crying. In response to my question, “How do you do the process of crying?” Diane said, “I see myself over mother’s casket.” Diane made a picture (as do most people) of her problem. This example illustrates what you want. So I said to Diane, “So, I make a picture in my head of me standing over my mother’s casket? Yes, that could make me cry.”
Bob: Diane, is the picture close or far off?
Diane: Close.
Bob: Could you send it far off and it still work?
Diane: Yes.
Bob: Where is it located? Is it up high or low? Is it to your right or left?
Diane: It is low and down to my right.
Bob: Could you move it up to your left and it still works?
After struggling, Diane moved the image and said, “It still hurts but not nearly as bad.”
17.9.0.138 5. Scramble The Strategy
Now what happened? Diane’s strategy for crying was to first see a picture of herself over the casket of her mother. Note: in order to see herself over the casket, Diane had to be dissociated. My first guess at the submodality driver for that picture was unsuccessful. Distance did not serve as a driver for Diane. However, when she moved the image from down right (kinesthetic) to up left (visual recall), her emotions changed.
This process scrambles the client’s problem by interrupting the strategy. Such procedures interrupt the strategy. First, you need the client to give you the image and submodalities of the problem. Next, you test for drivers. You just experiment. And, if you wish, take the submodalities out to their limits. When you tell a client, “Send it far off and see if it still works,” They will actually be trying this out as they are hearing the statement. Taking submodalities out to the limit comes from Bandler’s model of the Compulsion Blow Out.34
If you should accidentally choose a submodality driver, you may lead them to destroy the strategy. In the above example, if distance served as a driver, they may send the picture off to the point where it disappears. The internal representation will disintegrate in their mind. In NLP we call this going over the threshold. If this should happen, they cannot run the strategy anymore. At times you may find that this series of questions may eliminate the problem. At best, it will scramble their strategy.
17.9.0.139 6. Discover The Root Cause
The above process will often get to the root cause of the problem. Sometimes the process is only the first step, and you will need to ask some other questions in order to get to the root cause. When you complete step five, ask the client, “What is the root cause of this problem which, when you disconnect from it, will cause the problem to disappear? If you were to know, would it be before, during or after your birth?” Memorize this question. Should the client respond, “I don’t know,” say, “I appreciate that you think you don’t know, you know, but just suppose you did… it would be…?” If the client answers, “After my birth.” You say, “Good, what year?” If the client says, “Before.” You say, “Good, was it in the womb or before?” If they say, “In the womb.” You say, “Good, what month?”
I have had numerous clients go back into the womb for the root cause of their problem. Remember, the question of Time-Lining goes to the unconscious mind. When I first started doing Time-Lining, the wife of one of my minister friends came to see me. I (BB) asked her, “If you knew the root cause of your problem, which when you disconnect from it, will cause the problem to disappear, when would it have been, before, during or after your birth?” Sandra replied immediately, “Before birth.” “Good, was it in the womb or before?” “In the womb.” “Good, what month?” “It was the fourth month.” Astonishment appeared all over her face, and mine. “I heard mother say, ‘My God, the last thing I need is another child.’” My friend’s wife was the fifth child. She grew up feeling unwanted. The root cause lay during her time in the womb.
Modern medical science gives ample evidence beyond doubt that the fetus responds to outside stimuli. Fathers speak to their children in the womb. They do this by talking to the fetus through the mother’s abdomen. When fathers do this, the newborn child will respond to dad’s voice and not to any other man. Studies indicate conclusively that the baby in the womb hears, feels and learns. These early experiences in the womb begin to shape attitudes and expectations about ourselves.35
In response to the question, “In the womb or before?” what options do we have if the client says, “Before?” Occasionally, you will receive this response. Time-Lining says that you respond, “Was it a past life or passed down to you genealogically?” Now, the Judeo/Christian community will obviously not believe in past lives. Also, some other religions have the same belief. And, in my area of North Carolina, I have received only two past life responses. During one of my NLP trainings I utilized Time-Line on a lady from Canada. She replied, “In a past life.” What did I do? I matched her model of the world and proceeded. On many occasions clients mention the root cause of their problem as existing in the Time-Line of a parent or grandparent. Often they even go further back in the genealogies. What do you do in this case? You have them float up above their Time-Line and go all the way back to the root cause. Take them back no matter how many generations they must travel. This answer comes from their unconscious mind. Therefore, you must get all the way back to the root cause for for the change work to be permanent.
17.10 Letting Go Of A Negative Emotion: Using Time-Lining
Negative emotions weigh like millstones around our necks. They rob us of energy that we could more productively use in any other pursuits. Using Time-Lining will help us solve the problems of negative emotions rapidly and effectively. The following procedures will work with any negative emotion including depression, guilt, shame, fear from the past, grief and sadness.
17.10.0.140 Experiencing Your Time-Line: Letting Go Of Negative Emotions
The best way to learn Time-Lining as with any NLP technique involves experiencing it. You have experienced your Time-Line. And, you have experimented with memory replacement. Now, you will experience the letting go of a negative emotion. Before you begin the exercise, look carefully at the diagram in Figure 16:4. This diagram represents your Time-Line. The line going above your Time-Line illustrates your dissociating above your Time-Line. The numbers indicate four key positions involved in Time-Lining. Position 1 lies above the Time-Line and represents your arrival just before you or the client get to the root cause or the SEEP. Position 2 lies directly above the root cause. Position 3 refers to the position above your Time-Line, fifteen minutes before the root cause. Note carefully the conceptual location of Position 3, for there is where you do the change work. As a conceptual place, in Position 3 we enter a place Meta (dissociated) to the problem. Also, we have positioned ourselves temporally before the problem ever occurred.
And, we conceptually take all our present knowledge and resources (Meta-level structures) to that position enabling us to do some powerful change-work through reframing the problem by bringing those resources to bear on the problem. Position 4 indicates your or the client’s association into the event.
Make a mental picture in your mind of these four positions above your Time-Line. Now, select some experience that created a minor negative emotion in you. Someone could have hurt your feelings, or maybe you did something that caused you some minor guilt. Choose a minor negative emotion that you would like to let go. Get into your favorite place and position of relaxation. You may wish to have some relaxing music in the background. Take that memory and float up above your Time-Line. As you travel back on your Time-Line, you approach Position 1. From this position see the root cause of the event in front and below you.
From Position 1 go on to Position 2. At Position 2 you locate yourself directly above the root cause. Now, float down into the event (Important: Never associate yourself or anyone else into a trauma or phobia.). Associate into the event of the root cause totally. See what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt at the creation of that emotion. Now disconnect from those emotions and float back up to Position 2. From Position 2, float back to Position 3, which lies fifteen minutes (further if you need to) before the root cause. From Position 3, turn and look towards the present. You will see the root cause of your negative emotion below and in front of you. Now, where is the negative emotion? And, any other negative emotion from that experience, have they disappeared, too?
The User's Manual for the Brain Volume I Page 45