I am reading The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd. They present an interesting model of time and our relationship with it. The state that there are six time orientations; past-negative, past-positive, present-fatalistic, present-hedonistic, future, and future-transcendental. In their book, they mention the using hypnosis to liberate behavior from time-bound control. Although, being future oriented is generally beneficial because those who are future oriented set goals and forego immediate gratification to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, however, future oriented people can be over controlling, do not stop to enjoy the present, and sometime are prone to worry and anxiety. On pages 117 and 118, they describe an interesting experiment using hypnosis to liberate the participants from their preferred future orientation. They trained the experimental group in rapid, deep hypnotic induction and then gave them a tape-recorded message: “Allow the present to expand and the past and future to become distant and insignificant.” Afterwards, they had all of the participants, including the control group; perform several activities to determine their time orientation. They found hypnosis liberated the future oriented participants from their usual time bound attitude; “they become expansively focused on the present”. Zimbardo and Boyd stress that it is important to have a balanced between past-positive, present-hedonistic, and future. However, those who have an unbalance perspective can use hypnosis to help them appreciate and enjoy the past, present, and future. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in understanding how their relationship to time affects their behavior.
Hypnosis can help you to expand your presence in the present. To learn how send me an email or give me a call at (805) 637-4263.
