In the early 20th century, physics was on the verge of becoming the first closed science. That is, some physicists, at least, believed that they knew all there was to know about the laws of the universe. Then came atomic physics and quantum mechanics, and we discovered that we really didn’t know very much about the universe, after all.  

What we now know is that the universe that we perceive is a fantasy. There may be (in fact, there probably is) a reality out there somewhere, but our only contact with it is through the energy which impinges on our sense organs and the way in which our brains structure that experience. The reality that we live in, on a day to day basis, is the reality that we construct in our own minds; it is composed of the pictures and sounds and tastes and smells and feelings that are formed in our brains from the sensory information which we receive through our visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and kinesthetic senses, plus the language that we use to structure those sensory experiences. We exist, for all time, in both an objective reality and a subjective reality.  

Time itself exists for us only as memories of the past and fantasies of the future. The present moment, in which all time is experienced, is infinitely short but constantly shifting, the venture through which the future pours into the past. The past exists for us only as we recall, in the present, the subjective reality the sensory experiences and the language through which we structured them that existed for us at the time our memories of those past events were created. 

Because that experience was entirely subjective, and conditioned by who we were at the time, with whatever strengths and weaknesses we had at that time, it would have been different if we had been different. Fortunately, because the past exists for us only as we experience it in the present, it can become different for us if we can learn to experience it differently. And we can learn to experience it differently by reliving it in memory, with those personal resources that we have now but which we did not have then. This can have a profound effect on the way in which we experience not only our past but our present and future as well. It can, for example, change the way we experience those situations to which we have learned to respond with distress. 

Currently there is an explosion of publications in NLP, one of the most important of which is Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, by Wyatt Woodsmall and Tad James, published in 1988. However, rather than tell you about time line, a notion first proposed by William James almost a hundred years ago, I am going to demonstrate it to you. 

First, start with establishing a resource anchor; and let’s each of you go ahead and do that right now. Think of a time when you felt just the way you would want to feel, and let yourself re-experience those good feelings right here and now; and when you have gotten into those good feelings as fully as possible, I want you to establish an anchor or cue so that they can be recalled whenever you want. [Suggest various possible anchors.] 

Next, choose some negative emotion that you would like to get rid of, so that it no longer has any influence on your life. 

Then, imagine that you can just float way up in the air, and see far beneath you, stretched out in a line running from your past to your future, all the days of your life – a time-line of past and future memories, as it were.

Ask your unconscious mind to float you back in time until you are floating above and looking down on the root cause memory, the very first time you experienced that negative emotion which, if disconnected, will allow that negative emotion (and any limiting decisions that accompanied it, to disappear as a problem in your life.  

Then, float further back in time, say another 30 minutes or so. And where is that negative emotion now? Has it disappeared? If not, imagine that you could just reach down into that memory and unhook any negative emotion that was attached to it, and let it just drift away. And any limiting decisions which you might have made at the same time as well.. Let them drift away, too. 

Then, float down into that memory and experience it with equanimity, with peacefulness and calm. Preserve any positive learning that you may have had and… let go of any negative feelings and limiting decisions which may have been attached to that memory in the past. 

When you are able to do that, with peacefulness and calm, come back along your time line through that and all similar memories, all the way to the present, only as fast as they can also re-evaluate themselves in light of your new ability to find peace and joy in acceptance of the flow of events in your life, free from the limiting decisions and distresses of the past. [If not, run the Fast Phobia Cure] 

When you get back to the present, allow yourself to float way up above your time line again; and then let that whole scene fade away and come back to the here and now, back to this sanctuary, rested and relaxed and feeling wonderful all ove