by Thomas G. Shafer, M.D.

Dr. Cunningham has given us an excellent clinical example illustrating the problems with rescripting and some excellent arguments.

I have ethical concerns here. There is a vast power differential between the therapist and the client as an innate part of the process. Allowing therapists to rewrite history and change the fabric of time itself raises their power to the point of being God-like. I think God has enough trouble being God without humans, even those with a Masters, a Ph.D., or a M.D. taking over some of the job.

Another objection is the complete removal of causality. If I can go back and change time because everything is truly simultaneous, the cause and effect relationship is simply another illusion of my mind. This is all well and good but it quickly dumps us into circular logic because how can changing an event in the past truly change my life in the present if the concepts of past and present plus the concepts of cause and effect are simply figments of my imagination in the first place? It’s sort of like all the logical discussions of the science-fiction stories about time machines. The whole concept just doesn’t work.

The rescripter’s concept of simultaneous time, in my opinion, reveals a very serious misunderstanding of the underlying doctrine regarding time in major world religions. There is a common concept in mystical religious systems such as Hinduism, Buddhism or Hassidic Judaism in which the end goal of our successive incarnations and personal spiritual growth is an eternal, timeless reunion of our soul with Oneness. But this is only accomplished when one becomes a Buddha or a Master of the Name, perhaps entering Nirvana at the same time.

Now I don’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings but I don’t think any of our rescripting therapists have achieved Buddhahood yet. When they do, maybe.