You say to your time line father, let's buy a boat, Joe saw one that's going to be auctioned this afternoon, it looks great. An inquisition will follow,

Whose boat was it? Has it ever been in a wreck? Is it fiberglass or wood? How do you know it is seaworthy? Where would you use it? How do you know it won't be bid up to a huge price? Does it have a trailer? Have you shopped enough for boats to know if it is a good one? Where would you store it in the winter?

When the questions are through, you probably wish you had never mentioned the boat in the first place, but you know from past experience that a time line person will always ask lots of questions.

On the other hand, if you do buy the boat, a time line person is a comfort at the helm. He will have checked all of the safety factors, will know the weather forecast, will have a good liferaft stowed, will have purchased charts of the area, will have seen that extra supplies are available and will know where the best fishing is reported. He will be a competent captain and will know not only his own duties, but the job of the crew.

The third type of the person is the present type. He is totally concerned with the immediate and the present, reports the Mann research team. He has the greatest ability to understand the present moment with all of its shadings and ramifications.

This total reliance on the present creates most of his strongest traits. For him, life is a happening. Where it is going, where it comes from, is of little interest. He does not integrate past experiences into present activities.