written 9 June, 2024
published 16 June 2024
Classical physics describes material reality with three spatial dimensions and a temporal one. We are free to travel back and forth in the spatial dimensions, but seem condemned to inexorably travel in only one direction in time, which has been described as "poorly perceived".
There seems to be an objective reality to time. For ages, the cycle of the sun and moon were the only marking of time "passing". The ringing of Church bells began creating divisions in the day, as do periodic calls to prayer in Muslim countries. With the industrial revolution, clocks began dividing time into even smaller intervals. The rise of computers accelerated that trend. I am writing on a decade old Mac, with a CPU rate of 2.5 billion cycles per second, and new multi-core computers operate even faster. The present shortest measured time interval is a zeptosecond, a billion trillionth of a second, the time for a photon to travel the width of a hydrogen molecule.
However, time is flexible. I enjoy movies and books that play with the linearity of time, describing multiple time lines, or loops in time, expanding consideration of what is possible. Einstein once said, "time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once".
As we approach the speed of light, modern physics shows that time slows down to zero. Photons only travel at the speed of light, and therefore experience no time or distance, "arriving" simultaneously with "leaving", yet we experience it takes a little over 8 minutes for a photon to travel from the Sun to Earth. Quantum non-locality postulates all matter is simultaneously connected in an eternal "now".
As I age, subjective time seems to be speeding up. Each new year is a smaller part of my lifetime, and therefore appears to be passing more quickly. In addition, our experience of time is affected by the number of socially significant events happening each year. Several centuries ago, most people died within walking distance of where they were born, which is no longer true. Cell phones were invented 50 years ago, and the iPhone only 17 years ago. Today almost 2/3 of humanity uses smartphones. The social and economic dislocations from this explosive growth touches everyone, contributing to the sense that time is passing faster, adding to the stress level of our culture.
Our experience of time breaks down to past, present, and future. But past and future are only concepts in our mind, the foundation of our psychological ego. The past is an incomplete memory story of events that are no longer here. When we assume these stories are "true", and project them into the future, they become a guide for what is to come. In this way, our past preconditions a similar future. However, experience happens only in the present. Honest inquiry shows it is always "now", every time we check. Even if I am disturbed by the past or fretting about the future, I am doing that "now".
Dr. Gabor Mate, who specializes in treating trauma, says the events that traumatized us are no longer happening. However, the stories we told ourself to explain why those things happened, are still being internally retold in the "now", perpetuating the trauma. His work shows that by becoming aware of that process, and changing the story in the present, we can be healed.
Meditation is one of the methods of breaking out of the prison of our chronic past stories. While sitting, we can notice the egoic story telling going on. Eckhart Tolle suggests noticing the small gap when one story ends and next begins. With intention, over time, those gaps will expand, until there is a time with no story, just the experience of being present.
There is power in the present. We can't change the past, as it no longer exists, and the future has not yet arrived. It is only the eternally present moment when we have agency to make changes. One of my mantras is "I am here now". These four words reflect reality, pulling me out of my mind chatter into the "now", locating me in space and time.
We live in turbulent times, experiencing the collapse of obsolete cultural stories. Creating methods of getting out of our personal stories is essential for peace of mind, which allows awareness of inspiration and creativity, and opens the possibility of change. This is work we all can do.
