The brain’s functioning is mostly digital. Input builds up in a neuron until a threshold is reached and then the response is made. Clinical experience indicates that emotions often change not gradually, but within seconds. A prime example is a phobia. The fear is often present for years. Yet, when a person imagines seeing a movie of the precipitating event, while remaining calm, then the fear is gone. In the bridging over procedure (see section 3.12), once the picture of the symptomatic image is changed to be like the image of the resource state, then the emotion changes quickly.

With modern brain imaging procedures, this change can be recorded in real time. The functional MRI can measure the activity of a certain area of the brain and show changes over a short period of time. I think it would be fascinating and highly useful to show the brain changes that would correlate to clinical changes by making recordings while conducting clinical change.