The User's Manual for the Brain Volume I

by Bob G Bodenhamer

  Figure 16:4 Time-Lining Diagram

  If after looking toward the present you still experience negative feelings, remain in Position 3 and “give yourself permission” to let those negative emotions flow out of you. Remain there until all the emotions flow out. If you cannot let the emotions go completely, a part probably needs reframing. The section “When the Emotions Won’t Let Go” will provide you with specific part’s reframes for letting go of emotions from Position 4.

  (1) Follow steps 1 through 5 in Steps Into Time-Lining on page 372.

  (2) Discover the Root Cause: Ask the client, “If you knew the root cause of the negative emotion which when you disconnect from it will cause the negative emotion to disappear, when would that have been, before, during or after your birth?”

  (3) Once you get the root cause, have the client float up above their Time-Line. Once above their Time-Line, lead them back into the past towards the root cause of the negative emotion. Say to the client, “Allow your unconscious mind to take you back to the root cause of the negative emotion. I want you to stop when you get close to it but not quite to it.” Lead them to float back remaining above their Time-Line to Position 1 (see Figure 16:4). From this position they can see the event which presents the root cause of the negative emotion.

  (4) Have the client float back until they position themselves directly over the event at Position 2. Once they have positioned themselves directly over the event, lead them to float down into the event and associate into their body. Associate them into the event. Say to the client, “Look through your own eyes, hear what you heard during that experience. And feel what you felt during that time.” Ask them what emotions they feel and calibrate. Make a list of all emotions experienced by the client. In testing, use this list to make sure all the emotions go flat.

  Why float people down into Position 4? Why have them associate into the experience? You will get better results if you have them experience these emotions just before they disconnect from them. One moment the client experiences all the pain and hurt from the root cause of the negative experience. The next moment those emotions disappear. This experience ratifies the change to the conscious mind. And, you want to ratify all changes to the conscious mind. Remember, do not associate someone into a traumatic experience, such as a phobia or a severe abusive episode. With Time-Lining, you don’t have to. Just take them straight back to Position 3. For phobias use the Fast Phobia Model.

  (5) Float the client out of Position 4 and above their Time-Line. Ask the client to preserve what they have learned from the experience. Say to the client, “You have learned something from this experience, haven’t you?” When the client responds that they have learned something, say, “In that special place in your mind where you preserve such learnings, preserve what you have learned from this experience.” Now I am presupposing that there is a special place in the mind to preserve such learnings. The mind will accept this description and create such a “special place.”

  This procedure works well as a reframe. Why preserve learnings? Even in the most severe trauma or abuse case, the client has learned something helpful. Suppose your client experienced a rape. Preserving the learnings would keep them on guard for future threatening situations. You would not want them to have to go through rape again to learn the signs of another possible rape. The important thing is to always check with the client. Ask them if they have gained some knowledge they need to preserve. If they say, “Yes,” then you say, “OK, in that special place in your mind where you preserve such learnings, I want you to preserve what you have learned from this experience.” And, they will do it. Once they have preserved the learnings, you may now delete the memory with the Fast Phobia Cure if the client desires for you to do so.

  (6) Direct them to float back fifteen minutes before the event to Position 3 and look forward to the present. Say to the client, “Remaining above your Time-Line, I want you to float back to about fifteen minutes before the event.” Give them time to make the mental shift.

  By observing their eyes and facial expressions, you can usually tell when they have reached Position 3. When you think they have arrived in Position 3, ask them, “Do you see the event below and in front of you?” When they say, “Yes,” you reply, “Now where are all those emotions? Have all of those emotions that were there disappeared too?” On occasion give the client time to let the emotions go. With particularly heavy emotions, say to the client once they assume Position 3, “Now let those emotions flow right out of you.” Pace them by repeating the phrase, “Let the emotions go.” Repeat these words each time the client breathes out. As the client releases the emotions, you will literally watch a life change in front of you.

  Recently I (BB) have added another language pattern that works well. As I observe the physiological changes in the client as the emotions leave, I will say, “And as you let those emotions go you will notice that the image below you and in front of you is changing, isn’t it?” They will nod their head or say, “Yes.” When they respond positively, say, “Great! That means it is working.” And it does mean that it is working for these techniques work directly on the way the brain has coded that event. The submodalities will change as they reframe the problem and let the emotions go. Making this statement to the client, and their subsequent ratification, allows for further confirmation to the conscious mind that rapid change has now happened.

  (7) Test by floating the client back to Position 2. Lead them to associate into Position 4. Ask the client, “Are you experiencing any of the negative emotions?” Make sure the emotions have flattened out. By that I mean that they no longer experience any of the previously felt negative emotions when associated into Position 4. If the client cannot experience any negative emotions, you have almost completed the therapy. If any of the emotions remain, use the information in the section: “When the Emotions Won’t Let Go.”

  (8) Float the client out of Position 4 and above their Time-Line. Direct the client to come forward above their Time-Line. Give the client the following directions: “I want you to come forward above your Time-Line but only as fast as you can allow all the other events between then and now with similar emotions to LET GO. Pay particular attention to these events. And, just before you get to them, should you experience any negative emotions from that experience, let me know and I will assist you in letting them go just as we have on the previous memories.” As the client uncovers other painful memories, walk them through the procedure on each subsequent memory. With this section I depart from the way Tad James teaches it. He allows them to let them go on their own as they come forward. I have better results if I assist the client on each subsequent memory.

  (9) Future pace the client by associating the client into an imaginary time in the future. Ask them to choose a time that would have previously triggered the negative emotions. Float the client above the time and out into the future. Ask them to choose an event that would have previously triggered the negative emotion. Float them down into that event fully associated. Say, “Now, try in vain to experience those negative emotions.” If they cannot experience the negative emotions, you have completed the therapy. Should they respond negatively, continue to work with the emotion (s) they are now experiencing.

  17.10.0.141 When The Emotions Won’t Let Go

  Suppose the client cannot reframe all the negative emotions away when in Position 3, what then? Sometimes the client cannot let them all go. Or, when you test, you will discover that all the emotions haven’t left. When a client cannot release the emotions, usually an objecting part needs reframing. The following reframes have proven most helpful. Memorize the language of each. Use them in order. If one doesn’t work, go to the next one.

  Say to the client, “I know there is a part of you that thinks you should have learned something from this event. And, I agree that it’s important for you to preserve all the positive learnings in that special place you reserve for all such learnings. Then it would be OK to let the emotions GO NOW, wouldn’t it?” We h
ave found that this language pattern is useful in nearly all cases, and therefore we now include it as standard.

  If reframe number one doesn’t work, say to the client, “The highest intent of the unconscious mind is to preserve the body. Now, I am sure that the part knows that your holding on to these negative emotions is harmful to the body. With that in mind, will that part give you permission to let the emotion GO NOW?”

  Should neither of these reframes work, discover the highest intent of the part. Continue stepping up or chunking up on the part. Keep asking, “What is the purpose/intent of the part?” Follow this line of questioning until you get its highest purpose/intent, which will give the client permission to let the emotion go. You may need to find some other part to perform the same function in a less harmful way. If you uncover conflicting parts, use the Visual Squash to integrate them.

  17.10.0.142 When The Emotion Hasn’t Disappeared During Testing

  You will encounter times when the emotion hasn’t totally flattened in Position 4 during testing. If these techniques have not worked, it is likely that the problem has resulted from one or more of these three areas:

  The client has not positioned themselves totally in Position 3. Make sure the client dissociates from the memory above the Time-Line from Position 4. Then the client must not only position themselves above the memory, the client must also position themselves before the memory. Through trial and error we have learned that fifteen minutes before the memory works best. You will discover exceptions. When clients have lived for a long time associated into a negative memory, they will naturally re-associate into the memory. Watch your use of language and guide the client carefully to Position 3.

  The client has not yet found the first event or root cause. You will still get the release of a lot of negative emotions from SEEPs that do not go all the way back to the first event. At times a client will report that 90% or more of the emotion has disappeared. However, in NLP we don’t accept 90%. We go for 100%. If just a small amount of emotion remains, the total Gestalt could regenerate. Continue working until all the negative emotions disappear. Many times your work will seem like peeling an onion. You will clean up one event only to discover another. Keep on keeping on until you get the first event and the emotion flattens out.

  The client has a part that objects to letting the memory go. See the section on “When the Emotions Won’t Let Go.”

  17.11 The Basic Principles Of Time-Line TherapyTM (Young, 1999):

  All problems exist in the “present”— although they refer to the “past.” Usually the problem exists in a way that is confused, jumbled, unclear, and so on, at least to the conscious mind.

  What we need to do is to switch them to a different reality, a different model, in order to effect a change. By switching realities we get a different perspective on the “problem.”

  We do that by introducing the metaphor of time as a line. This is a common metaphor in Western culture, the basis of our calendar system.

  As the brain has coded our experience, it is able to know which is going to be the most significant part of the story. It seems to be easier to do this separation process if we mark it out spatially.

  By asking the brain to find the key experience it will do this analogously—and move back along the line until it “locates” it. This is not about “truth”—there is no evidence that the event it chooses is something that happened for real. It does not matter. Quite often the brain will “make up” some experience to work on.

  Time-Line TherapyTM presupposes there is a root cause, and that the person will be able to identify it. In fact the brain will oblige the conscious questioning and come up with an answer which “makes sense.”

  17.11.0.143 Alternative Procedure For Time-Lining (Young, 1999):

  Have the person create an (imaginary) physical Time-Line on the floor.

  Have them walk back (backwards) along that line until they reach the critical place “in the past” for taking action.

  When the person is at that spot, have them dissociate from it, so that they can be aware of the event. They dissociate by stepping off the line.

  Then ask them to find a resource, either for themselves, or for the other person or people involved. In other words, they are going to a higher level of description—a Meta-position, in order to expand that particular model of the universe.

  They must be able to find a resource—either because they are moving to a Meta-reality or a universal reality—or in mundane terms, they have had a lot more life experience since then, and they know now what they did not know then.

  Have them apply the resource—put that “past” experience into a larger context. The situation has now changed anyway because of the Meta-awareness.

  Have them associate into that experience and come back up the Time-Line noticing how things have changed.

  And then you can future pace—extend the Time-Line into the future and have them explore it to see that things will be different in the future. “That’s it.”

  For a more thorough study of Time-Lining consult the recently released Time-Lining: Patterns For Adventuring In “Time” (Bodenhamer and Hall, 1997, Crown House Publishing, Wales, UK).

  17.12 Thought Questions To Assist Your Learning:

  How do you internally represent “Time?”

  Describe the difference between Middle Eastern and Western “Time.”

  How does one use NLP to elicit a Time-Line? Describe the process.

  How does an “In Time” person differ from a “Through Time” person?

  Relate these kinds of “Time” processing (In Time, Through Time) to the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory.

  What does “SEEP” mean and how does it relate to Time-Line processes?

  What results did you get, or see others get, from some of the Time-Line processes?

  17.12.0.144 Notes – Chapter 16

  28Proverbs 29:18 KJV.

  29See Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall, Time-Lining and the Basis of Personality (Cupertino: Meta Publications, 1988), pp. 17ff.

  30Robert Dilts in his book Changing Belief Systems with NLP (Cupertino: Meta Publications, 1990) uses the concept of walking the Time-Line extensively. We direct the reader to this book for an excellent treatment of this concept in changing beliefs and re-imprinting.

  31Proverbs 29:18 KJV

  32Special thanks go to Tad James, Ph.D. for his inaugural work in Time-Line TherapyTM. Advanced Neuro Dynamics, Honolulu, Hawaii.

  33See Richard Bandler, Magic In Action (Cupertino: Meta Publications, 1984).

  34For more information on the compulsion blowout see Steve and Connirae Andreas, Chapter V, “Eliminating Compulsions,” in Change Your Mind and Keep the Change (Moab: Real People Press, 1987), pp.89-113.

  35See Thomas Verny, M.D. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (New York: Summit Books, 1981)

  Endnotes

  1Tad James, The Basic NLP Training Collection (Honolulu: Advanced Neuro Dynamics, 1990), pp. 16-17.

  2Genie Z. Laborde, Influencing With Integrity (Palo Alto: Syntony Publishing, 1987), pp. 71-72.

  3Tad James, The Basic NLP Training Collection (Honolulu: Advance Neuro Dynamics, 1990), p. 19. (Used with permission)

  4Michael Hall, Ph.D. Meta-states Journal. Meta-States Patterns in Business, Vol. III, Number 6. (Grand Junction, CO: E. T. Publications, 1999), p. 2.

  5Special thanks to Tommy Belk who assisted in the formulation and outlining of the presuppositions in the pattern given.

  6Edited from Bernard F. Cleveland, Ph.D., Master Teaching Techniques (The Connecting Link Press, P. O. Box 716, Stone Mountain, Ga. 30086, (404) 979-8013), pp. 171-172.

  7Ray L. Birdwhistell, Kinetics and Context: Essays on Body-Motion Communication. Allen Lane, 1971. (Originally published, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970).

  8Steve and Connirae Andreas, Heart of the Mind (Moab: Real People Press, 1989), pp. 46-54.

  9Ibid., p. 51.

  10Richard Bandler, Using Your Brain For
a Change (Moab: Real People Press, 1985), pp. 43

  11Harris, Randy Allen, The Linguistics Wars (NY: Oxford University Press, 1993).

  12Read Richard Bandler and John Grinder’s book Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning (Moab: Real People Press, 1982) for a more detailed study of reframing. Chapter IV deals with the “Advanced Six-Step Reframing Outline.”

  13Gratitude goes to Tad James for providing me with many of these examples. Members of one of his Accelerated Practitioner’s Training generated them.

  14Gordon, Therapeutic Metaphors (Cupertino: Meta Publications, 1978), p. 42.

  15Robert Dilts, Roots of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Cupertino: Meta Publications), p. 77.

  16See David Gordon, Ibid., p. 53.

  17Matthew 5:39 (NASV).

  18See Tad James, The Basic NLP Training Collection Manual (Honolulu: Advance Neuro Dynamics, 1990), p. 61. (Used with permission)

  19Wyatt Woodsmall, LifeLine Therapy (Arlington: Advance Behavioral Modeling, 1989), p. 4.

  20Proverbs 23:7.

  21Edited from Burt Wasserman “‘The Cure” for Headaches and Other Uncomfortable Feelings’ in Anchor Point (Franktown: Cahill Mountain Press, Inc., April, 1993), pp. 4-7.

  22Richard Bandler, Using Your Brain For a Change, pp.131-152.

  23Robert Dilts, Changing Belief Systems with NLP (Cupertino: Meta Publications, 1990), pp. 11-13.

  24Adopted from Connirae & Steve Andreas’ video tape “Resolving Grief” (Boulder: NLP Comprehensive, 1987).

  25This material edited and adapted from E. Gene Rooney, “Level IV” in Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Skills for Communication and Change (Reynoldsburg: L.E.A.D. Consultants, Inc., 1986), pp. 6-19.