Gabriel R. Suciu is a sociologist. He is interested in NLP and creativity. He has written two books – “Erving Goffman and the Organizing Theories” (2010) and “Introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming” (2015) – and some articles, like: “Multiple Intelligences” (2011).
E-mail: gabriel_remus_suciu@yahoo.com, gabriel.suciu@ymail.com
The NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) authors talk about “timelines” in the broader framework of “programs” and “meta-programs”. At the foundations of “timelines” are the metaphor that “the brain is a computer”, and the assumption that “the linear time is different from the cyclic time”.
The programs are successive or simultaneous chains of modalities and/ or submodalities: so, the programs are strategies. However, the meta-programs are programs that organize these programs: so, the meta-programs are strategies about strategies, or meta-strategies.
Several authors have written on programs and meta-programs. The table below shows a few of them, with special emphasis on the distinction between “through time” and “in time”.
The mathematical formulas can be used to order the chaos of everyday life. However these are not the only ways of ordering the chaos, the literary insights, like metaphors, present in mythology, religion, philosophy, literature and even physics or mathematics – either algebra or geometry – being other ways. So, for good reason, you might say that all knowledge can’t be synthesize in a formula, but it can be carried away by marching metaphors.
For example, according to some authors, the time is an object. Thus we can imagine a poet room at midnight where he is conversing with his shadow on the wall to the light of a candle and in the rolling of the sand of a sandglass. Well, while the candle represents the soft time that arises from its own substance, from its own “ashes”; in the same way, the sandglass represents the hard time, a time when the earth rolls downhill, despite any titanic efforts.
Or, according to other authors, the time is a person. The ancient philosophers, in whose house the modern and postmodern times grew up, said about time that it is like an old man with stick and hat, whose long, white beard testify to his wisdom. And when the end was near, he stretched his body, and died a little, to become eternity, or eon.
So those familiar with Gaston Bachelard’s treaties (for example:”La terre et les rêverries de repos”, “L’eau et les rêves” or “L’air et les songes”) will recognize, in the first example, that the time is an object that can be on fire (see the candle) or an object that can contain grains of earth (see the sandglass). Or will recognize the absence of the time as a fluid (like the alcohol in various beverages). And these three definitions, where the time is express through objects that have fire, earth and water, are metaphors.
The same can be said about the second definition taken as an example: it relies not on mathematical formulas, but on literary insights - namely, metaphors.
Before proceeding further, I have to mention that these metaphors have a life of their own: some are living and are present to our attention, others have died and are long forgotten, while others will reborn from the oblivion in which most metaphors are steeped.
For example, Robert Sternberg (1985, 1990, 2004) and Robert Sternberg & Anna Cianciolo (2004) reviewed a series of metaphors, currently living, trying to found an answer to the question: “What is the mind?”
Theories of mind that look inward:
The mind is a map;
The mind is a computer;
The mind is a brain;
The mind is a structure;
Theories of mind that look outward:
The mind is a culture;
The mind is a group;
Theories of mind that looks both inward and outward:
The mind is a system.
The NLP field is using multiple metaphors of mind. For example “the mind is a map”, “the mind is a computer” or “the mind is a system”. But the metaphor “the mind is a computer” lays at the foundations of “programs” and “meta-programs”, a fact emphasized by Anthony Robbins (1986: 254), one of the first authors who wrote about these phenomena:
“Our brain processes information much the way a computer does. It takes fantastic amounts of data and organizes them into a configuration that makes sense to that person. A computer can’t do anything without software, which provides the structure to perform specific tasks. Metaprograms operate much the same way in our brain. They provide the structure that governs what we pay attention to, how we make sense of our experiences, and the directions in which they take us. They provide the basis on which we decide that something is interesting or dull, a potential blessing or a potential threat. To communicate with a computer, you have to understand its software. To communicate effectively with a person, you have to understand his metaprograms”
The NLP guruswere influenced by the circles of intellectuals of the Invisible College, a leading figure for this College being Gregory Bateson. Or, Gregory Bateson was influenced, in his turn, by the conception of the self and the universe proposed by Bertrand Russell.
Therefore, the assumptions underlying the timelines are of several kinds. At a superficial level, they are found in the writings of Gregory Bateson (especially Bateson, 1979), and the field of communication. But at a deeper level, they belong to the history of philosophy, as formulated by Bertrand Russell (for example Russell, 1947). As the assumptions are deeper, the more their influence is stronger; but - at the same time - it is harder to be identified.
This is why I’ll present only the superficial level of timelines assumptions, assumptions which are to be found in the work of Gregory Bateson. However, as you will see, they have generated a complex network of other secondary assumptions.
Robert Dilts and Judith DeLozier (Dilts & DeLozier 2000: 1425-1427) presented the deep level of the assumptions, identifying some primary ideas in the works of Aristotle and William James. These ideas belong to the history of philosophy and – a fact not pointed at in their encyclopedia – should be sought in the works of Bertrand Russell.
After reading the material presented in the encyclopedia I can say that alongside with Aristotle, Dilts and DeLozier could have also presented ideas from Plato, Newton and Leibniz – just to mention a few other authors. They could have gone deeper, looking for ideas in the pre-Socratic works; or they could have left aside the William James’s perspective without losing something essential.
Linear time is different from cyclic time
Gregory Bateson distinguishes between linear causality and cyclical causality (for example, 1979: 58-60). Linear causality is timeless, while cyclical causality is temporal. Which is why not cyclical causality (that is temporal), but linear causality (that is timeless) is to be found in logic.
Here is an example of linear causality: “If the temperature falls below 0°C, then the water begins to become ice” (Bateson, 1979: 58). Therefore the formula “if…, then…” is timeless.
Here is an example of cyclical causality: “If contact is made at A, then the magnet is activated. If the magnet is activated, then contact at A is broken. If contact at A is broken, then the magnet is inactivated. If magnet is inactivated, then contact is made” (Bateson, 1979: 59). Here the formula “if…, then…” is temporal.
When the linear causality is looked at as being temporal, or when the cyclical causality is looked at as being timeless, then the paradoxes rise…
Primo, there are some authors who, starting from Bateson’s distinction, developed their own visions. For example, Edward Hall (1959 and 1983) worked with the distinction between monochrome time and polychrome time (this distinction will be resumed later and used in two quantitative instruments [see the instrument developed by Kaufman, Lane & Lindquist (1991) – a 4 item instrument named Polychronic Attitude Index – PAI; and the instrument developed by Bluedorn, Kalliath, Strube & Martin (1998) – a 10 item instrument named Polychromic Inventory of Values – IPV]). Also, there are other authors: for example, Paul Watzlawick, John H. Weakland & Richard Fish (1974) who distinguished between first-order of change/ second-order of change; Chris Argyris & Donald Schon (1978) who showed the difference between single-loop change/ double-loop change; Robert J. Marshak (1994) who presented two visions: Lewin change and Confucius change; and Karl E. Weick & Robert E. Quinn (1999) who talked about episodic change and continuous change.
These intellectuals are not the only ones who started from the distinction of Gregory Bateson, a fact evidenced by the distinction of Fritjof Capra (1982) between the paradigm of Newton, viewing the world as a mechanism (in particular, a watch); and the paradigm of Einstein, viewing the world as an organism (a system, or a web).
Secundo, other authors coming from other areas, and without any connection with Gregory Bateson, wrote on the same subject. For example, Mircea Eliade (1959 and 1987) distinguished between profane time and sacred time; and Stephen Jay Gould (1987) showed that the geological time is either as an arrow, or as a cycle.
Neither this list is complete as evidenced by the work of John Hassard (1999, 2001 and 2008) that presented two metaphors: time as cycle and time as line. And four other qualitative researches: 1) Donald Roy (1960) - the banana time, 2) Peter Clark (1978) - the temporal repertoire, 3) Jason Ditton (1979) - the baking time, and 4) Ruth Cavendish (1982) - doing the time.
Later to Gregory Bateson, but before NLP became an actor on the stage of the dispute between the linear time and the cyclic time, some other authors raised their voices: Edward Twitchell Hall, Mircea Eliade and Stephen Jay Gould (the first being a close friend of Bateson, while the other two being strangers to Bateson)
Edward Hall: the monochrome & the polychrome
The anthropologist Edward Hall has written three books presenting spatial and temporal communication, being convinced that these types of communication are unconscious:
The Silent Language (1959)
The Hidden Dimension (1966)
The Dance of Life. The Other Dimension of Time (1983)
Hall laid the foundations of what today is called the proxemics (see the 1966 book) – i.e. the science that study the spatial communication; and the chronemics (see the 1959 and 1983 books) – i.e. the science that study the temporal communication. And strictly related to the chronemics, the author presented two time perspectives: the monochrome time – which is a sequentially time; and the polychrome time – which is a simultaneous time. How individuals structure their time is visible in the labor market, where a monochrome person starts and ends only one activity at the time, and then (s)he will start another one and so on, being a person oriented to tasks that could be solved only successively. On the other hand, a polychrome person is relationships oriented, developing these relationships simultaneously, the task at hand having little or no importance, and the relationships in which (s)he evolves being of central importance: this person is able to start a task, to let it unfinished and to start another task, etc, as long as (s)he is involved in multiple relationships. So those living in North America, Canada and Western Europe structure their time in a monochrome fashion, while those living in South America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe structure their time in a polychrome fashion: the first being desperate to make money, the latter being attentive to foster relationships: they are the ones who behave on holidays as if they were at work, and the others are those who behave at work as if they were in holidays...
Mircea Eliade: the sacred & the profane
Mircea Eliade was a philosopher and a historian of religions who presented his ideas on time in at least two books:
Cosmos and History. The Myth of the Eternal Return. (1959)
The Sacred and the Profane. The Nature of Religion (1987)
The 1987 book (“The Sacred and the Profane…”) presents, in a condensed form, the same ideas of the 1959 book (“Cosmos and History…”). Thus, Eliade divided the book “Cosmos and History” in four chapters: in the first chapter he described the space, in the second chapter he described the time, while in the other two chapters he talk about the meaning (chapter 3) and the liberty/ creativity (chapter 4). From the beginning, Eliade distinguished between the “archaic” man – belonging to ancient and/ or agricultural societies, and the “modern” man – belonging to modern and/ or industrialized societies. While the modern man lives in a profane time (linear and historic) that has a beginning, a middle and an end; the archaic man lives in a sacred time (cyclic and cosmic) where the beginning, the middle and the end repeat again and again, endlessly. “We must return to these theories, for it is here that two distinct orientations first define themselves: the one traditional, adumbrated (without ever having been clearly formulated) in all primitive cultures, that of cyclical time, periodically regenerating itself ad infinitum; the other modern, that of finite time, a fragment (though itself also cyclical) between two atemporal eternities.” (1959: 112) “(…) the sacred time appears under the paradoxical aspect of a circular time, reversible and recoverable, a sort of eternal mythical present that is periodically reintegrated by means of rites.” (1987: 70) “[For the nonreligious man] time can present neither break nor mystery; for him, time constitutes man’s deepest existential dimension; it is linked to his own life, hence it has a beginning and an end, which is death, the annihilation of his life.” (1987: 71). While the archaic and paleo-oriental religions together with the philosophical concepts of India and Greece deal with a sacred time, that is cyclic and cosmic; the Judaic religion, the Christian religion, and the historicist and existentialist philosophies deal with a profane time, which is linear and historical. In short, the cosmic time (sacred and cyclic) was replaced with the historical time (profane and linear)
Stephen Gould: the arrow & the cycle
Being a paleontologist and a biologist, Stephen Gould wrote about geology from the perspective of Norwood Russell Hanson, Thomas Kuhn and others like them, in one of his books:
Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle. Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time (1987).
Gould, quoting Freud, said that humanity was haunted by three atrocities committed by scientists: the atrocities of Galileo (such as the Earth is not the center of the universe, but an anonymous planet among other planets in the universe), the atrocities of Darwin (such as that man is not created by God as His own image, but is the product of a long chain of evolution on Earth), and the atrocities of Freud himself (which shows that man is not guided by a rational mind, but many of its decisions are taken by the irrationality of his/ her unconscious). At this, Gould added a fourth atrocity: the Earth’s time – determined not as scientists say they are doing (i.e. starting from the facts that indicate a particular theory), but determined by what they do, in fact, scientists (starting, unconsciously, from the myths and the metaphors to reveal the facts). Thus, the Earth’s time, in the myths and the metaphors of the scientists, has two forms: the time as an arrow and the time as a cycle. First, the time’s arrow is a linear time, “an irreversible sequence of unrepeatable events”, a vision embraced by Thomas Burnet who presented his “discovery” in the “Sacred Theory of the Earth" (1691). For this discovery, Gould reserved the entire second chapter of his book. Secondly, the time’s cycle is a circular time, some “fundamental states… immanent in time, always present and never changing”, a vision embraced by James Hutton in his book: “The Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations” (1795) (presented in chapter III of the book written by Gould) and carried away further by Charles Lyell in his book: “Principles of Geology” (1830-1833) (presented in chapter IV of the book written by Gould). Therefore, the fourth atrocity committed by scientists presents the Earth’s time not as an arrow – as argued by one of the villains of science, namely Thomas Burnett; but as a cycle – as demonstrated by the two heroes of geology: James Hutton and Charles Lyell. Both heroes and villains started from biblical texts in their presentations. For: “God creates the earth once, instructs Noah to ride out a unique flood in a singular ark, transmits the commandments to Moses at a distinctive moment, and sends His son to a particular place at a definite time to die for us on the cross and rise again on the third day”: this is a linear time that begins with the Creation and ends with the Revelation. Furthermore, “the Bible also features an undercurrent of time’s cycle, particularly in the book of Ecclesiastes, where solar and hydrological cycles are invoked in metaphor to illustrate both the immanence of nature’s state (/there is no new thing under the sun/), and the emptiness of wealth and power, for riches can only degrade in a world of recurrence – vanity of vanities, said the Preacher”: this is a cyclical time that goes away and will return to where it started.
I can not speak of time without speaking of space; likewise, I can not speak of these two dimensions without speaking of the person that observers them. Therefore, in this article I will make use of the “space-time-person” relationship.
In the NLP field, the space can be public or private, the time can be linear or cyclical, and the person can be associated or disassociated. These distinctions are used by a plethora of authors that I will not quote here to make more fluent the reading.
However, the authors from the NLP field make use of the distinction between the Western type and the Eastern type when dealing with timelines. Among these authors can be mentioned: Tad James, Wyat Woodsmall, Connirae Andreas, Steve Andreas, Robert Dilts and Richard Bandler. And I will stop, at length, at each of these authors in the following pages.
I have to mention that the Western type of timelines and the Eastern type of timelines are only two types among the eight possible types, if we consider the space-time-person relationship. The below representation illustrates this point…
Tad James & Wyatt Woodsmall
From Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality (1988):
“Now, in the United States both of these modes of experiencing time are operative. Edward Hall says that the American businessperson frequently runs on the Anglo-European model of time, and the American housewife often runs on the Arabic model of time” (p. 19)
“The Anglo-European type of time we call /Through Time/, and it is delineated by a Time Line that stretches from left to right (or right to left), or any other organization where all the past, present, and future are in front of you” (p. 20)
“The Arabic type of time, which we call /In Time/, is represented by a Time Line that stretches from front to back or any combination of past, present and future where a portion of the Time Line is inside your body, or behind the plane of your eyes” (p. 20)
According to James & Woodsmall the Arabic time is: a) circular and b) associated. This time may pass through the body of the person who has the past behind and the future in front of him/ her (p. 20). The persons belonging to this type of time are, also, “judging” according to the typology of Carl Gustav Jung (p. 25).
Instead, the Anglo-European time is: a) linear and b) disassociated. According to this type of time a person will have the past to the left, the future to the right, and the present right in front of him/ her (p. 20). The persons belonging to the “perceiving” typology, according to Carl Gustav Jung, are also belonging to the Anglo-European type of time (p. 27).
James & Woodsmall mention, furthermore, that in the American culture the Arabic time is private – it is easily found in leisure types of activities, being used to foster relationships; while the Anglo-European time is public – it is easily found in contract based types of activities, being used to make money and to accomplish tasks (p. 19).
Connirae Andreas & Steve Andreas
From: Change Your Mind – and Keep the Change. Advanced NLP Submodalities Interventions (1987) and Heart of the Mind (1989)
“Gary: Do people ever have time circles or something else besides lines?
We’ve found mostly lines. I did find one woman with a time circle, with her future circling around to her right, and her past circling around to her left. The distant past and distant future were directly behind her. She had the sense that her past and future joined behind her, but she wasn’t sure exactly how.
One man had a very detailed
We haven’t checked, but we suspect that in Eastern cultures you might find more circles or cycles. There are lots of cyclical metaphors in Eastern religion: the wheel of life, the cycle of death and rebirth, etc.” (1987: 20)
“Many people imagine their past in a pathway off to their left, the present in front of them, and their future in a pathway off to their right. (…) Others have the past in a pathway or /tunnel/ straight behind them, and the future going out straight in front. (…) While many people have more or less straight lines, others have something more like a tunnel, or an arc, or even a helix. (…)” (1989: 193)
Andreas & Andreas say that Western cultures are characterized by a linear time, while Eastern cultures are characterized by a cyclical time. However, this fact is presumed, and is not fully verified (1987: 20).
The linear time is specific to the person that has the past to the left, the future to the right, and the present in front of him/ her, according to the eye accessing cues (1989: 193). And the cyclical time is specific to the person that has the past behind, the future before, and the present in his/ her body (1989: 193).
These types of timelines can be discovered studying submodalities: some are digital – involving the distinction between “either…, or…”; having only two values, these submodalities are digital, hence they belong to a linear time. Still other submodalities are analog – involving a continuum established by the formula “from…, to…”; they could have, theoretically, an infinite values; but, practically, the number of values is limited, and more than three. These analog submodalities belong to a cyclic time (1987: 3-4)
However, different types of time can coexist in the same culture as different types of activities: work, play, close relationships, sports, etc. (1989: 204)
Robert Dilts
From: Changing Belief Systems with NLP (1990) and Strategies of Genius, Vol. I (1994)
“In other words, there are two basic kinds of time perception, through time and in time. Through time is when you look at your life disassociated. I can be outside looking at the events of the past, looking at the future, or I can step into time and relive it, relive a particular experience.” (1990: 85)
“When one perceives an event /through time/ one takes a vantage point that is outside of the sequence of events, disassociated from whatever is being observed or modeled. From this perspective, the /time line/ is typically viewed such that the /before/ and /after/ are lines extending off to the left and right, with the /now/ being somewhere in the middle.
Perceiving an event /in time/ involves taking a vantage point associated with the event that is unfolding. From this perceptual position, the /now/ is one’s current physical position with the future represented as a line extending off in the direction one is facing and the past trailing behind – such that one is walking into the future and leaving the past behind” (1994: 31)
Dilts says that the linear time is a disassociated time, while the cyclical time is an associated time (1990: 85).
The disassociated time is specific to a person that has the past to the left, the present in front of him/ her, and the future to the right. The associated time is specific to a person that has the past behind, the present in his/ her body, and the future in front of him/ her (1994: 31).
Speaking in terms of Aristotle, Dilts says that the linear time is characterized by antecedent causes, and the cyclic time is characterized by: a) formal causes, b) efficient causes and c) final causes (1994: 33-34)
Richard Bandler
From: Get the life you want. The secrets of quick and lasting life change with Neuro-Linguistic Programming (2008)
“Generally, there are two main types of time lines. One is where time is spread out, with the future in front of you and the past behind you and the present inside of you. This is referred to as /in time/. The other is when the past is on your left, the present is straight in front of you, and the future is to your right. This is known as /through time/.” (2008: 32)
Bandler makes the distinction between “in time” (where the future is in front of you, and the past is behind of you) and “through time” (where the past is to your left, and the future is to your right… or in reverse).
He is keeping silence what kind of time is a) circular and associated; and what kind of time is b) linear and disassociated. However, from previous literature, the reader can specify which time has what characteristics.
Unfortunately, the distinction between the private space and the public space can’t be specified based on the previous literature. And the person reading the work of Bandler is left in an absolute darkness about it.
More than that, Bandler is not making any reference to previous literature or authors. It is like the whole field of psychology begins with him…
Circular… Linear…
Associated… Disassociated…
Private… Public…
Other connections
James & Woodsmall
Yes
Yes
Yes
Carl Gustav Jung
Andreas & Andreas
Yes
Yes
No
Richard Bandler & John Grinder
Dilts
Yes
Yes
No
Aristotle
Bandler
Yes
Yes
No
***
(Parenthetically, in the field of NLP there is a hot debate concerning the timelines. As I presented them here, if someone lives “in time”, then this person a) lives an associated state, b) orders circularly the events, and c) explores a private space. In the same vein, if another one lives “through time”, then this human being a) lives a disassociated state, b) orders linearly the events, and c) explores a public space. And my presentation is an “aligned” one. For, as shown by Andreas & Andreas [2009] a client could have his/ her timelines like this: associated – linear – private; or like this: associated – linear – public; or: disassociated – linear – private… and so on, and on! And these “readings” of timelines are, for this time, “nonaligned”…)
Time – either linear or cyclic – is present, also, in other fields, not just in the NLP field, as the following examples will show.
Sigmund Freud – the sexual stages
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that a person’s sexual life has three periods: infantile sexuality, latency and genital sexuality. This vision has at its foundations the linear time.
First, the infantile sexuality is composed of three stages: oral, anal and phallic, the last stage being finished when the child is six years old. The difference between these stages is not always clear and they can – sometimes – coexist (Freud, 1955: 12). In the phallic stage the child develops the Oedipus complex because the boy believes to be his father, while wanting to have his mother. The same complex appears also to girls but in a different way. The Oedipus complex culminates with the birth of super-ego when the boy takes his father as a model, and the girl takes her mother as a model (Fine, 1962: 64).
Secondly, the latency presupposes no sexual inclination, the sexual energy being oriented toward other activities like: the school, the hobbies, etc. This stage lasts until the child is fourteen years old (Fine, 1962: 64).
Thirdly, the puberty is characterized by genital sexuality. The person who is chosen by the individual, i.e. the person the individual wants to get married and start a family, has many features similar to the person he wished during the Oedipus complex. Rephrased: the individual is looking for a mate that is similar to his/ her parent of the opposite sex. (Fine, 1962: 64)
Carl Gustav Jung – the life stages
The individuation process, as part of the analytical psychology, presuppose some steps the ego takes to reach the self, these steps being represented by the persona, the shadow, and the anima (or the animus). Thus, the process of individuation has at its foundations a cyclic time (Stevens, 1994: 73)
Carl Gustav Jung wrote about two stages of individuation – the first half of life and the second half of life. The first half of life is characterized by the natural concerns – the begetting of children and the business of protecting the brood; while the second half of life is characterized by the cultural concerns – finding the meaning of life and the integration of oppositions (Stevens, 1994: 73). The passage from one stage to another is marked by crises.
Jung described the steps taken by the person in the process of individuation like the steps taken by the sun during the day: “In the morning it rises from the nocturnal sea of unconsciousness and looks upon the wide, bright world which lays before it in an expanse that steadily widens the higher it climbs in the firmament. In this extension of its field of action caused by its own rising, the sun will discover its own significance; it will see the attainment of the greatest possible height, and the widest possible dissemination of its blessings, as its goal. In this conviction the sun pursues its course to the unforeseen zenith – unforeseen, because its career is unique and individual, and the culminating point could not be calculated in advance. At the stroke of noon the descent begins. And the descent means the reversal of all the ideals and values that were cherished in the morning. The sun falls into contradiction with itself. It is as though it should draw in its rays instead of emitting them. Light and warmth decline and are at last extinguished” (Jung, 1975: 513)
Jacob Levy Moreno – the life journey
The life journey occurs either in the games or in the dreams enacted in psychodrama. In the psychodrama there is no clue about the specific type of time (either linear or cyclic), even though the time is a vital process.
One of the games played in psychodrama is “the train” which is a metaphor for the life journey. The game evokes the main stages in one’s life (the childhood, the adolescence, the maturity, etc.). The performer is asked to imagine his/ her own life as a train with people going up and down, with events taking place or not, and with gains and losses. The journey can have a beginning, a middle, and an end. (Holmes, Karp & Watson, eds, 1994: 36)
Besides plays, dreams are also enacted in psychodrama. In these dreams, the life is a journey with “a minibus that… is going toward the snowy mountain” (Scategni, 2002: 32), or is a journey with “the train… [that the protagonist is riding in along the successive] country stations” (Scategni, 2002: 33). Also, the protagonist finds himself “on a trip… on a horse-drawn wagon that has all the features of a circus wagon and knick-knack of the cart” (Scategni, 2002: 33).
In this article I outlined several directions for research on “timelines”. These timelines are discussed in the broader framework of “programs” and “meta-programs” – two frames based on the metaphor of “the brain is a computer”. The timelines phenomenon has to its foundations the presupposition that “the linear time is different from the cyclic time”.
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Andreas, Connirae & Steve Andreas (1989): “Heart of the Mind”, Real People Press
Andreas, Connirae & Tamara Andreas (200): “Aligning Perceptual Positions. A New Distinction in NLP”, Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 16, no. 10-12, pp. 217-230
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Capra, Fritjof (1982): “The Turning Point. Science, Society, and The Rising Culture”, Bantam Books
Cavendish, Ruth (1982): “Women on the Line”, Routledge & Kegan
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Eliade, Mircea (1987): “The Sacred and The Profane. The Nature of Religion”, A Harvest Book Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Fine, Reuben (1962): “Freud: A Critical Re-evaluation of His Theories”, David McKay Company, INC.
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