from the temporal predicates, that last sentence is stacked with ambiguities—words and phrases that could have more than one meaning, leaving the unconscious room to explore alternatives that have not been explicitly stated.
Another reason I regard temporal predicates as particularly important is to make clear the very important distinction between the past and the future. The best thing about the past is that it’s over. When people don’t deal with the past as if it’s over, then they’re not free to go into the future. That’s why I particularly love the ambiguity that “the past is just a future moving by now…” (I suggest that you reread that sentence very carefully to find out for yourself how many meanings it contains.)
SEMANTIC DENSITY
I often talk about people being angry or sad or depressed “for the last time.” I like what are known as “semantically dense” predicates, something linguistics spends a lot of time discussing. For instance, one doesn’t lurk up to somebody openly. The verb “lurk” has all kinds of connotations that don’t need to be stated, so when you say that somebody is walking around the edge of a crowd, as opposed to lurking around the edge of a crowd, the semantically denser phrase has greater impact.
Temporal predicates—words like “last,” “first,” “after,” “again”—all have semantic density. Phrases including the word “when” (“when you start to do X, you’ll find something important”) and “next” (“the next time you see him, you’ll feel Y”) really allow you to aim posthypnotic suggestions to maximum effect.
I think of temporal predicates as targeting devices that allow you to place feelings, amplify them or diminish them, with great power and precision.
Temporal predicates, of course, are directly connected to presuppositions. Presuppositions literally “presuppose” or assume that something is present, even though they are not explicitly stated. A question such as, “When you get up, could you close the door?” contains a number of presuppositions: that the listener will get up, that there is a door, that he is capable of closing the door, and so on.
Many syntactic environments for presuppositions are based on temporal predicates. The “when” in the previous example is a temporal predicate that supports the presupposition. I find these to be extremely powerful, especially when you talk about doing something “for the last time,” or about feeling something “never again and again and again.”
There are also wonderful, simple, and effective words like “stop.” Most people don’t think of “stop” as a temporal predicate, but when I see people beginning to go into a behavioral loop that’s going to run ad infinitum, where they start to get a bad feeling or a panic attack, I say to them, “Stop”—and, amazingly, they usually do.
Add to that a phrase such as “back up,” and you have even more effective tools. When someone is sitting down, there’s no way to physically back up, so when you say, “Stop. Back up and feel something else this time,” they know at a deep level what to do.
Another word that is temporal in nature is “new.” “New” implies that you’re going to do something in the future so “this old feeling that’s going past isn’t going to be as satisfying as when you find new feelings coming…now.”
“Now” is one of the most powerful temporal predicates in the hypnotist’s repertoire. People, especially in altered states, can be very passive, so you have to tell them what to do, when to do it, when to start…and now, of course, is a good time. If I tell people to “go deeper,” it doesn’t mean they will. I tell them exactly when to do anything I want them to do: “Your arm will drop…now”; “In exactly two minutes you’ll find these thoughts coming into your head, now, and then you’ll find…”
Ambiguity is a useful pattern when working with somebody who has a suspicious conscious mind and doesn’t trust himself. Then I’ll talk “through” them to their other parts, trying to come in from the back door to the front door, instead of the front door to the back. Of course, if I have the subject’s cooperation, I’ll use it. I’ll get the conscious mind and the unconscious mind doing the same thing. The more you can line up a person’s resources, the better off you are.
PUNCTUATION AND SCOPE AMBIGUITIES
The categories known as punctuation and scope ambiguities need special attention. Not only are they effective in themselves, but they are also modified by temporal predicates. “Time and again and again you’ll start to have old feelings disappear”; “Those same old feelings will come up for the last time just before you feel them now disappearing…”
These patterns are very hard for the conscious mind to follow, but very easy for the language-processing centers of the brain to compute. I don’t know how many times I’ve given people suggestions, and they looked at me and said, “What?”…and then carried them out to the letter, at precisely the right time, because they were given specific temporal markers.
Now, take a minute or two to find a new idea…
Milton used the phrase “Your unconscious now” (“you’re unconscious now”) many, many times. It’s a great ambiguity, but as soon as you slam that temporal predicate after the word “unconscious,” it also becomes a command. “Your unconscious now…wants new ideas,” “Your unconscious now wants to know even more unconscious now…You’ll see that you’re not doing what you can see the future coming now…”
All of those kinds of temporal phrases give you great room to put content on either side. It’s about deciding a direction and aiming where you want things to go. What you’re doing in hypnosis is leading someone’s consciousness down a certain path, and you have to decide whether that path leads into their past or their future. Some things you want behind them and some you want in front. Some you want gone forever.
LANGUAGE IN ACTION
Forewarned is forewarned…and the more warned you are about where you’re not going…you need to have signs in your mind that say, Stop, go back, you’re going the wrong way. In the United States, they put those on freeway on-ramps so you don’t go on the wrong one and end up going against traffic. I install them in people’s minds. I say: You need a sign in your head that says, Go back, you’re going the wrong way!
Now, stop, go back, and remember that idea you just thought about, only just get to the sign at the entrance. Bad idea. Go back. You’re going the wrong way…now. And then see the signs of where you should go. Pleasure ahead. Happiness coming. Choices ahead. Past behind. Leave it behind, now, so when you go ahead of time—because it’s not enough to be in the now—you need to be ahead of the now, because the future is coming, the past is behind, so never, yeah, never do never again. Never forget what you shouldn’t remember. And always remember what you shouldn’t forget…now. And then you’ll do it correctly. Because, once again (I love that “once again”), you’ll find tomorrow is much better.
Yes to day (I love that one, too. That’s full of logical ambiguity, “yes to day”). And when it comes to hope, yes to day has no bearing. Now…
Notice how densely the language patterns are stacked. When you have temporal predicates and presuppositions, and when you stack presuppositions—at least three at a time—it becomes extremely difficult for the listener to track consciously, so it produces a very strong effect on the listener’s unconscious.
Another pattern I’m particularly
