Our brain stubbornly refuses to operate according to our current notions of reality. Not only does it have difficulty working out the difference between a thought and an action, it also appears to be an organ without an understanding of time as a forward progression.

Extraordinary new evidence shows that the brain cannot distinguish between the recall of our own past (called ‘episodic memory’) and imagination of our future events.

The same areas of the brain are activated for both activities. Researchers have teased out this structural aspect of the brain by studying people with a variety of cognitive problems. The first clue came when psychologists and neuroscientists at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital discovered that people with memory problems also have difficulties in conjuring up a detailed spec of their future.

In this particular study, patients suffering from amnesia who could not recall specific information from their own life history were able to conjure up only a fragmentary design of their future

Other studies of people suffering from depression who routinely have lapses in memory have also found that these individuals have difficulty imagining their future.

One reason that depression may persist is that the sufferer has a problem with imagining that life will ever get better for them. These assumptions, based on scientific findings, were actually put to the test when researchers at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), asked a group of patients to both recall and imagine common events, such as a birthday party or the experience of getting lost.

To the surprise of the researchers, identical areas of the brain were activated whether the participants were recalling or imagining.

As an article in a 2007 issue of New Scientist noted: “Not only is our personal past and future tightly ‘linked’ in the brain, but both are handled by a ‘universal module’ for mental time travel.’

Even more fascinating, when the brain is not focused on anything in particular, researchers have discovered that the very same mental time-travel ‘network’ is still operating.

Although scientists don’t truly understand the ramifications of these findings, they pose many interesting questions regarding time and our relationship with it.

If the brain is simply an antenna and transducer of quantum information, it doesn’t distinguish between past and future. This may also mean that imagination and recall can be interchanged and used, in a sense, to ‘fix’ those past events that are still unsettling you.

I’ve been experimenting with intentional ‘time travel’ for many years and I’ve found that it can heal many past and current issues.  For instance, couples in relationships may also use their joint memories and imaginations to settle an old argument.

As I’ve discovered, your brain is able to to ‘hardwire’ your memory to change your response to what actually occurred in the past and also use this new version to heal past events that hold you back and design your future. The most important element is a sense of taking back (or displaying) your own power.

Now research is finally catching up with more evidence that our present is constantly being affected by our future.

To the brain, there’s absolutely no difference between them – and there shouldn’t be any difference to us as well.

I’m teaching special ‘time-travel’ intention techniques to heal your past and design your future at a special New Year’s retreat in Costa Rica Dec 29, 2021 -January 4, 2022 with my husband Bryan Hubbard. Learn how to use intention to end self-sabotage and heal negative patterns.

Find out more or book your place here.