What the change process does: Doing the process below will improve and eventually resolve everything listed on the What Childhood Experience Does page. In addition, the longer a person has done the process, the lower the probability that his or her children whom he or she subsequently raises will develop those problems/issues.

WARNING!!! DO NOT CHANGE OR STOP ANY MEDICATION OR OTHER MEDICAL TREATMENT WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF YOUR DOCTOR AND/OR THERAPIST. THIS PROCESS IS NOT CURRENTLY A REPLACEMENT FOR ANY MEDICAL TREATMENT OF ANY KIND.

What you'll need:

You will need a picture of each of your imprinted faces (See Imprinted Faces for more information on this). They need to be frontal views of the face. Color and black-and-white are both fine. The size isn't important as long as the face is clearly visible. The pictures I used (shown above) include 5x7 head and upper body color portraits of my mother and father, a smaller snapshot of my mother, a smaller black and white photo of my grandfather, and several old 3x3 black and white photos of my older siblings.

If a person whose face is imprinted was an adult when the face was imprinted, then a picture of that person at any age will work. I suspect that any picture of a person who was not an adult when their face was imprinted will work. However, it may be preferable to use a picture of that person from around the time that person's face was imprinted. Look at pictures of that person at different ages and use the picture that evokes the strongest emotional response.

What to do:

The goal is to engage with the person in the picture. I'll use a picture of your mother's face as an example. To do the process, look at the picture of your mother's face continuously. Don't look away when you are thinking about what to say or are talking to her picture. Talk to her picture about whatever you are feeling or thinking, especially as it pertains to her. While anything you say to her picture is fine, the process works best when you tell her picture things that evoke emotion in you. That is, talk to her about things that you either like or dislike about her. No emotion should be consciously suppressed in any way. If you feel like crying, then cry. If you feel like yelling, then yell.

How long should I spend with the pictures each day?

I recommend looking at a picture of each imprinted face for 5-10 minutes per day. I don't currently know if looking for longer than 5-10 minutes per face increases the benefit.

How fast will I change?

I currently believe that the rate that people change will be proportional to the number of days each week that they look at the pictures. For instance, I believe that doubling the number of days per week that you look at the pictures will double your rate of change.

If this is done 3-4 times each week, I expect some significant change to be noticeable within 3-9 months. Once change is noticed, I believe that additional significant change will be noticed periodically, typically every few weeks or months.

The longer that the process is done, the faster change will occur. In other words, people will change more in any 6 month period after they have done the process for 5 years than they did during any 6 month period in the first year or two of doing the process (assuming that the time spent looking at the pictures is the same).

Will anything inhibit the change process?

I suspect that any drug or medication that alters a person's emotional responses (e.g. psychiatric medications, alcohol, marijuana) will make the change process less effective.

Are there any age limits?

This process should benefit anyone who has completed adolescence. I don't know the effectiveness of this process in someone who has not completed adolescence. No age is too old to fully benefit from this process unless the brain is damaged (e.g. stroke, Alzheimer's disorder).

Does talking to the actual person whose face is imprinted also work?

No. This process does not work when talking to a living person. It only works when talking to a picture of an imprinted face. I recommend never doing this process with any living person.

Anything else?

This process will work even if a person has no conscious memory of the person whose face is imprinted face. For instance, if a parent cares for a baby from birth to age 2 and then that parent dies, that parent's face will very likely imprint. When that baby reaches adulthood, he or she may not have any conscious memory of that parent. However, if that parent's face imprinted, looking at a picture of that parent's face will benefit that person as much as looking at any other imprinted face. It should also evoke an emotional that indicates that the face is imprinted (see Imprinted Faces for details).

I have no information about what happens if a person doesn't imprint any faces. I also have no information on the effect of imprinting face(s) of only one sex.

If more than one face is imprinted, but a picture of only one of those faces is available, looking at that one face can still produce significant positive changes.

How does this help?

Looking at a picture of an imprinted faces decreases the emotional reaction that face, which then decreases the underlying effects (e.g. physical or psychiatric effects) of that emotion. Since emotional reactions to people in general are determined by our emotional reaction to the people whose faces are imprinted, as our emotional reaction to the imprinted face decreases, so will our emotional reactions to people in general.

Here's an example: Suppose someone reacts with a lot of anger toward an imprinted face. Most likely that person will also react with a lot of anger toward people in general. As the anger toward the imprinted face decreases, the person will react with less anger toward people in general.