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David is a successful businessman and consulting geologist. He was referred to me by his wife, as he had been depressed for a couple of years following his heart surgery. At the age of 40 he required a triple by-pass. This was his source of depression because he felt he was going to die early, just like his father. The most distressing aspect for David to think about was that he would not be around for his young children. David and Vanessa had two little girls aged 2 and 4. |
We tapped on his surgery, his heart, his
arteries, the plaque, the cholesterol, the emotional components of his present
state, the physical state of his body, and the implications of all these things
on his future.
By far, his biggest concern was not living to see his children grow, become
teenagers, watch them flirt with boys, and one day marry. He wanted to be there
for them and enjoy all the wonderful events to come in their lives. Therefore we
spent a fair bit of time tapping on David’s fear of dying, and used the
following statements for setup:
“I’m afraid I’m going to die and not see my girls grow up…
I’m afraid I won’t reach an age where I’ll see my girls get married and be
happily settled in life….
I’m afraid I wont spend old age with my loving wife…
I’m afraid I will be abandoning my family if I die soon…
I’m afraid I will miss out on life if I die soon….
I’m really angry that my body has let me down …
Why do I have to have a faulty heart...”
After addressing all these aspects, David was ready to look at new beliefs about
his future. New beliefs needed to be installed and one way to do this is to
address David’s time line.
Time Line is a concept of internal memory storage of how we unconsciously store
our memories, or how we unconsciously know the difference between a memory from
the past and a projection of the future. Behavioral change in an individual
takes place at an unconscious level. The Time Line process (an NLP technique)
allows us to work at the unconscious level and release the effects of past
negative experiences and change "inappropriate" programming in minutes rather
than days, months, or years.
What was on David’s time line? His death was directly in front of him! He could
not see beyond his death.
With his permission we constructed a time
line. I asked him to imagine his future in front of him like a road, and
widening out at the horizon instead of narrowing. I asked him to imagine the
horizon high up towards the ceiling instead of the same level as his eyes.
Next I asked him to imagine he had future goals and work in an ‘as if’ frame
(another NLP technique). So, even if he didn’t know what his goals were, he was
to just imagine that there were some. I asked him how the unknown goals were
represented, and he said ‘little red flags’. So we had these little red flags
scattered all along his future time line.
I asked him to close his eyes and relax while keeping the image of the time line
in front of him. During this entire process I tapped on his gamut and karate
chop points alternately.
I asked David to imagine floating up from his chair and slowly moving above his
time line till he reached the end. Then to turn around and look back from the
future at himself seated a long way away, in the present. I asked him to imagine
the flags (goals) moving and re-positioning themselves on top of his time line.
There was one flag I wanted him to notice in particular towards the horizon of
his time line. It had the number 80 on it!
David cracked up. With his eyes closed, his face glowing like his red flag
markers he kept chuckling away.
I asked him to notice all the other flags and what they might represent to
him…like 21st birthdays, marriages, birth of grand children, etc., and whatever
else he wanted to notice.
Finally I asked him to drop back in his
seated position and open his eyes when he was ready.
His comments to me were: “You are so sneaky! You wanted me to see that flag with
the number 80 on it… live till 80, see my family grow up, marry and have
children! Yes, I can see myself doing that! I can see that 80 marker on my time
line and I find it compelling… something to live towards and all those wonderful
experiences to have between now and 80!”
David and his wife reported that the
depression had lifted, and disappeared. David has found a renewed reason to
enjoy his life. He feels very good about the number 80!
This session took place in 1999. It was the last one of four sessions. David is
alive and well.
