Mental time travel: A practical business and personal research tool for looking ahead

Mental time travel is a futures research method using focused imagination in the “theater of the mind” to visualize and explore contingent future patterns. It is a practical approach for wise choosing, and represents a clear way to improve conventional scenario forecasting, strategic planning and marketing research methods—especially when dealing with just in time (JiT) business environments. The questions to be proactively explored in mental time travel can take many forms, depending on the purpose of the researcher and/or client. For example: • “What may happen if “X” (a decision or policy option) is chosen, versus is not chosen and implemented? In particular, how would it feel to live in each such contingent future? • “Which of two policy options or possible decisions looks and feels better, “X” or “Y”? • “In a future involving a specific scenario [specified in advance], what significant impacts are likely, but perhaps are as yet unrecognized?” How would such impacts feel? Furthermore, how might these impacts manifest at various levels of aggregation, such as individual, family, work group, subculture/ecology, global culture/ecology?. The purpose of this paper is to present a working set of ideas and methodological guidelines to enable professional futurists, market researchers and other professionals to try the method of Mental Time Travel for themselves and their clients. For the convenience of users new to this type of methodology, a “turn-key” script is appended to the main text. Assuming an appropriate set and setting, this script should be feasible to implement by any professional familiar with group facilitation methods.