|
Assumptions and
Definitions
Time results
from the perception of the movement of objects in space.
Therefore, without motion time does not exist. This implies
that time is an exclusive property of physical objects in a
physical universe.
Time is
perceived as linear because we perceive the movement of
objects in space linearly.
Although it is
possible to precisely measure the movement of an object from
point A to point B mechanically, the measurement itself is
dependent upon the movement of objects in space (timers, the
atomic motion of cesium atoms etc.) The definition of time
is therefore self-referencing, using itself to define
itself, and so is, even in a material sense, entirely
subjective.
(The General
conference on Weights and Measures defines the second
thusly: “The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods
of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the
two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133
atom.")
The assumption
in these essays is that consciousness is non-corporeal, and
that consciousness exists independent of physical objects
and the physical universe. Therefore, the experience of time
by a conscious being is, ultimately, subjective: “Time is
dragging,” “Time is flying.” The experience of time by
consciousness is a feeling.
Time cannot
have an independent existence, for the movement of objects
is experienced differently by different people. (A man drags
his wife to a football game. For him, the experience is over
all too quickly, but for his wife, the experience was
interminable. Same event, much different perception).
The feeling of
time arises when we do not perceive 'in the moment.'
All of our life
is lived in the now moment. All perception is in the now.
The past and
the future have no meaning other than how we allow these
concepts to affect our perception NOW.
The 'now
moment' I define as that element of no-time where all
events take place. It results from a connection to a
virtual, universal field of consciousness of which
everything in the universe, including you and me, is a
part.
The now moment
is independent of the movement of objects in space.
Therefore, the now moment is also outside of time.
Reaching The
Now Moment
When attention
is focused without resistance, there is no sense of the
passing of time. You are 'in the zone.' When there is
resistance to the flow of events, there is a feeling of
time.
It is first the
focusing and then the unfocusing of attention that leads to
the experience of the now moment.
Complete
perception in the now moment is actually an unfocusing of
consciousness, and results in much greater awareness.
At first
attention is focused, on a task, lets say. You 'get into'
what you are doing (a good expression) and you give more
and more of your attention to it. You are getting lots done,
and you look up and see that 3 hours have passed, but you
didn't even notice.
Somewhere in
the middle of your focusing, however, you have unfocused
without knowing it! This is the release point, the point of
letting go. You have gone completely into the NOW. It seems
like you are working effortlessly, you almost feel like you
are outside yourself, outside time. This feeling of being
'in the zone' is actually an unfocusing of your entire being
from the perceived (illusory) flow of time. You experience
a heightened awareness of your surroundings, but you are
working on a level of knowing that no longer requires
concentration. It is beyond concentration. It is a level
where all data is available to you, from the universal field
of thought and information that is streaming all around you.
In order to get
'in the zone' or 'in the moment', first you have to focus
on something, then continue to focus until the point of
release takes you completely into the now. In meditation,
we often focus on a mantra, or the breath, in order to focus
the attention and keep the mind quiet; eventually, we may
reach a state of serenity or altered consciousness when the
release point is hit.
When you attain
this state, you reach a place of total knowing of the
actions necessary to effortlessly accomplish the task. The
effortlessness comes from a greater connection to the
universal field of consciousness, brought about by your
release of attention (unfocusing). If this process is
taken to its ultimate state, you would merge completely
with universal consciousness and become aware of
everything-at-once. "Death" is an unfocsing of consciousness
from its intensely focused state of physical incarnation.
When you are
focused, there is an element of being aware of your
surroundings and the passing of time; there is a feeling of
effort being expended. But when you reach that place of
complete oneness with the task at hand, you reach the place
of total knowing, the place of effortlessness, that Zen
place where the action attempted seems trivial to do, no
matter how difficult the task.
The Master was
instructing the bowman to hit the distant target. He said:
“When you are ready, release the arrow like the leaf bending
under the dewdrop.” The Master was telling the student
that he can reach a place of complete certainty of success,
before even attempting the shot, by removing himself from
the (illusory) stream of time and gaining the place of
complete knowing that when the arrow is released, it WILL
hit the target. It is at the point of unfocusing and letting
go that total knowingness of success is assured, and it is
as effortless as the eagle gliding on the wind. It is a
point outside of time. It is the eternal moment of now.
I remember
Michael Jordan in the NBA finals some years ago, playing
against Portland. In the first quarter, Michael was in his
zone and hit shot after shot with effortless grace, many of
them 3 pointers. He took over the game all by himself and at
one point after making a shot, he sauntered back and just
shrugged his shoulders as if to say “this is so easy.”
Michael had found the place outside of time, he had gone
through release point and was in the now moment of perfect
creation.
This release
point is very important. It is the point at which everything
is possible, because it is at that point that you connect
with all-that-is. You have gone outside of the linearity of
time. By the way, meditation is not a requirement for the
release point into ‘the zone;’ it is a function of
consciousness itself, and can be attained even during
intense physical activity. Those who are expert in the
martial arts will understand what I’m saying.
Unfortunately,
it is impossible to teach the release point. The release
into the now moment, the place beyond time, is entirely
personal (subjective). That is why there are so few masters
and so many students.
Have you ever
noticed that when you are 'in the zone' and then something
happens to take you out of the moment, you become fully
focused back in time? You have gone from a place of no-time,
back to a perception of time. The wonderful feeling of
peace, power, and total knowing suddenly disappears. This
comes when you focus back to your surroundings. Of course
when you are in the zone you are fully aware of your
surroundings, much more aware in fact, but there is a
quality to this awareness that is beyond description. It
is not mere 'concentration', it is beyond just focusing on
the task.
If you are like
me, when you try to recapture this feeling, you begin to try
to focus to get it back. But this focusing on the moment
will guarantee that you never get there, because in order to
get back in the zone you have to release, to unfocus. It's
counter-intuitive, because the process does start by
focusing on something! The key is to realize that you are
looking for a release, a letting go, an unfocusing. The
great Masters know how to do this deliberately. Perhaps
we, as mere mortals, can achieve this state deliberately
as well, by understanding more about the process.
There is no
time in the now, and all things that have ever happened or
will happen, happen in the now, so ultimately (and
theoretically), if you are completely present in the now,
ALL events which have ever happened will be available to
you! In normal life experience, the 'window' of the now is a
point, but when your consciousness expands, that window
grows and expands to encompass all things.
Time -- Past,
Present and Future
OK, I hope I
have defined what I mean by the 'now moment.'
Now let's talk
about time!
I have a
picture of my father and me, taken almost 50 years ago.
Much has
changed since then, and most people would say that therefore
a lot of time has passed.
But the
perception of time depends on how you have lived. If you
have lived your life joyfully, in the moment, it may seem
like almost no time at all has gone by, but if you have
struggled just to get through every day, you will feel worn
out from life. Under these conditions, you may feel like
time has been a burden to you. If you compare the appearance
of a person who has gone through 50 years of life joyfully,
and one who has struggled mightily, you could see that one
still looks and feels youthful, the other is sick and aged.
But supposedly the same amount of 'time' has passed.
Change and Time
We have to
distinguish between time and change. Time is said to have
'passed' based on the movement of objects in space and
especially the movement of timepieces, and is said to be
measured precisely by those timepieces. There is even an
atomic clock somewhere in France which precisely measures
the 'passing of time.' One year is a precise measurement of
time, it is said, based on the revolution of the planet
around the sun, as measured by the 'official' clock. But
this time is experienced completely differently by
everyone. So time cannot be an accurately defined
measurement if people experience it differently, as in our
previous example. In other words, time cannot be defined
based on change of position, if everyone experiences that
change of position differently!
Time doesn't
exist independently, it is just a feeling of separation from
the moment.
“Sorry”, you
might say, “I don't buy it. You can't just say that
change has no relationship to time! It is that clearly
observed change from then to now, from the past to the
present, which MUST represent the passing of time.”
The resistance
to the flow of events is what creates the perception of
time. It's resistance to what you are experiencing, or
lack of it, that causes you to push against life, or to
find harmony with it. Change has little to do with it.
If you were
placed in a room with no moving objects (no change) it
would drive you nuts eventually. If you were placed in a war
zone with chaos everywhere and bullets flying all around you
(lots of change), that would probably drive you crazy as
well. In both cases the common denominator is resistance to
the flow of events. In both cases you would probably say
“Get me out of here!” The more you resist, the more you
experience time.
A warrior would
feel right at home on a battlefield. For him, all of that
change would be great, and such a person might not even
notice the passing of time. And if you put a TV in an
isolation chamber, there'd probably be some couch potatoes
who would get along just fine. You'd open up the door after
a couple of weeks and they'd say “time to leave already?”
So time has
little to do with change, it represents a feeling of
separation of perception from the event. All events
happen NOW and are perceived NOW. You are always in the
NOW, otherwise you wouldn't be alive! The only reason we
say 'time passes' is because we are not fully present NOW,
are not living our lives fully in the moment.
As you become
more fully involved in an activity, your separation from
everything in and about the activity lessens, you become
more in unity with your surroundings, you begin to approach
the release point. The feeling of the passing of time
gradually disappears the closer you get to the now moment.
The more you become a participant in an event, the less you
are aware of time. The more you become a dispassionate
observer, detached from the event, the more you are aware
of time. The more you are really into something, the better
you feel, have you noticed? That's because you are
experiencing more and more in the now. Experiencing in the
now is really experiencing a complete connection to what
some call your 'Higher Self,' or, as I am calling it, the
universal field of consciousness. That should tell you that
the universe is ultimately a wonderful place!
When you feel
good, you are more alive than when you feel bad, because
your resistance to your immediate environment is lessened.
When resistance is lowered, you connection to self is
strengthened. Because the nature of consciousness is
inherently positive, you feel better. One of the goals of
meditation, for example, is the lowering of resistance and
the subsequent release of tension. Release of tension feels
better because you connect more powerfully with your
essential non-physical nature.
When you feel
good, you are less aware of time. So the feeling of time is
inversely proportional to how alive you feel! When you just
can't stand to be somewhere or doing something, time drags
on, and it’s the reverse when you are having fun. The
feeling of time is in direct proportion to your resistance
to events in your life.
The Creation of
Time
Humans separate
themselves from the flow of life, and so perceive time. Man
(at least Western man) , in his disconnection from the now,
has emphasized his separation from the natural flow of life
by designing society around an artificially created
calendar, and especially around the timepiece. Timepieces
are everywhere, to remind people to jerk their attention off
their natural rhythms and place them on artificially created
ones. Every aspect of life in our society is based on the
timepiece, keeping everyone in a state of constant anxiety.
There is always a subtle worry when looking at the 'time' --
am I late for an appointment? Is my project going to be done
on schedule? Is it time to take the kids to soccer practice?
How early do I have to go to bed tonight to make it to that
early meeting?
The feeling of
time results from dissatisfaction with our experience in
the moment. We say to ourselves, for example, “If I can
just get through this last hour of work, I can go home and
relax.” Glancing up at the clock every 5 minutes, that
last hour seems to go on interminably, doesn't it? Our
resistance to being at work provides the 'push' that takes
us out of the moment. It is a sort of dissatisfied longing
for another, hopefully better, experience that will occur
later.
Our economy is
tailor-made for producing this feeling of separation and
dissatisfaction: the bills come every month, and a lot of
us start the beginning of each month in the hole, hoping
that if we work hard enough, we can get ahead. This
produces a feeling of anxiety and separation from life that
many people are so used to, it's not even noticeable
anymore. A local talk show host bought a new, expensive
house and spent most of the morning bemoaning his increased
mortgage payment. "I hope I can hold onto this job," he
joked, "because I've got 15 more years to pay this off!" He
was attempting to make light of his situation, but the
tension behind his words was evident.
When a person
begins to live life in the now, less time is experienced.
Timepieces become much less necessary. The calendar becomes
less and less important. The artificially imposed rhythms of
life become replaced by more natural ones -- rhythms based
on knowledge of self and connection to source energy. Each
moment of experience is accepted for what it is -- a moment
to enjoy.
Time Travel And
Parallel Universes
**
What about time
travel? Time travel may be possible, but not, I think, in
the way it has been presented in science fiction stories. In
SF, time is perceived as having a concrete, independent
existence. Stories abound of traveling in time with the
physical body, going to past or future events. Then the
inevitable paradoxes come up -- can you go back in time and
see yourself? Can you alter the past so that the present is
changed? Can you see the future? Are there timelines where
events occur differently? Then we get into the concept of
parallel universes where each timeline branches off and has
its own independent existence… the multiplicity of history
theory. It becomes so torturous and complicated because
there is an incorrect assumption underlying all of it.
Paradoxes occur when there is incorrect data or ideas about
something.
The incorrect
assumption is that time exists somehow as an independent
dimension, and that one can somehow travel along it as one
would walk down a corridor, looking into the physical
universe at any time t as one would enter various
rooms connected to it.
There is great
debate amongst philosophers of time as to whether the world
is 3D or 4D. In a 3D world, there is no difference between
yourself at the age of 5 and the age of 25. In this
conception, objects are not temporally 'spread out,' but
maintain their identity throughout time. In other words, we
say that at age 5 you are you, and age 25 you are you. In
this view, yourself at 5 is the same object as yourself at
25 -- you are not somehow 'spread out' or splattered in
time. In the 4D view, objects are made up of many different
temporal parts and are extended in time like the segments of
an earthworm are through space. In this conception,
yourself at 5 and yourself at 25 are just different parts of
a greater whole.
Both arguments have validity. From a purely
physical point of view, it would be absurd to suggest that
at 5, you were somehow a part of a physical being 20 years
in the future. Your mom might have something to say about
that, as she hustles you out the door for school in the
morning! However, from a purely spiritual point of view, it
is also obvious that the non-physical consciousness that is
truly you is not physically discrete. In that sense, you can
be thought of as a dynamic whole that is intimately
connected at every moment of your life.
Einstein's
relativity assumes that nothing can travel faster than
light, and this is certainly true as far as a purely
physical being is concerned, since the human senses cannot
perceive things outside the range of our tiny portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum. We are, as purely physical beings,
imprisoned within the limiting framework of the speed of
light, and relativity applies. The idea of non-locality,
however, assumes that information may travel faster than
light. When we look at a human being as primarily a
non-physical consciousness associated with a physical body,
non-locality makes sense. We postulate a subtle,
universe-wide field of thought energy that allows
instantaneous communication between consciousness from one
end of the universe to the other. This communication lies
beyond the range of the human senses; it can only be
accessed by the virtual, or non-physical spiritual component
of the human being. There is no contradiction, then, between
relativity and simultaneity. When the spirit-mind-body
paradigm is applied to the problem of time, it is clear that
both the 3D and 4D views of the universe are correct.
When I say that
time is the motion of objects in space, I'm just saying that
time and space are inextricably connected, inseparable, and
that time cannot exist as a separate corridor that allows
one to travel along it, independent of space, matter, and
energy.
Let's say you
could go 'back in time' with your body to your town
or city 100 years ago. There you are on the street,
observing and interacting with your forbears. (All of this
interaction would, however, occur in the NOW moment of
everyone present. You may feel that you are in the 'past'
but you are experiencing everything NOW!!!! For you this
'past' is now your present). Say you meet your great-great
grandfather on the street, get into an argument and kill
him. Now, you don't exist. This is absurd, obviously. We
could use the parallel universe idea and say that you
disappear immediately after killing your great-great
grandfather and translate to an alternate timeline, perhaps
in a parallel reality. But all of these explanations are
long-shots, they require fantastic alterations of existence
and tremendous expenditures of energy in order to explain
events.
I'm not saying
that these complex explanations aren't possible. But in my
lifelong search for truth, I have found that the simple,
elegant explanations are the ones which turn out to be
correct. So I conclude that time cannot have an
independent existence coequal to the three spatial
dimensions, because the consequences of such an assumption
are too torturous.
Time and Clock
Displays
I think people
confuse clock displays with time. If the hands of a clock
move from point A to point B, it is said that time has
passed, but what is more relevant, your own perception of
time, or a clock face? When objects move from place to
place, we say that time has moved forward. Then we say,
“the calendar and the clock tell me that a year has passed
since my last birthday, therefore I have aged 1 more
year. Age is commonly associated with decay. Therefore
when I have aged 80 years, I will be decrepit and my body
will die.”
It's not the
clock face moving that makes the body age! The clock display
is not measuring time. The movement of timepieces has been
associated with decline and decay, but 'time' is not the
reason for that. It is your beliefs and feelings about
clock movement and time that cause you to age more rapidly
than normal.
Age is just
change in a manner which you don't prefer, because of the
choices you have made regarding time inevitably involving
deterioration. The calendar and the timepiece tell you that
you should be getting old, so you disallow the life force to
the cells of your body, causing them to decay. Clearly, age
is programmed directly into the cellular structure of the
body; all I'm saying is that there is no reason why a human
body should not remain healthy during each phase of life. As
Esther Hicks likes to say, "Happy, happy, happy...dead!"
Changing The
Past
Let's examine
how time is not really the fixed, solid thing we believe it
to be, with a couple of examples.
We
traditionally think of time as moving only forward, but if
time is just a feeling or idea we have, then there is no
reason to suppose that the present couldn't alter the past
in the same way that the past affects us in the present.
Here's a simple example:
Say a person
comes to a counselor because something traumatic in his
past is really bothering him. In the reduction of traumatic
incidents (TIR), the viewer closely re-examines the old
painful incident from his position in the NOW, going over
and over it until the painful vibrations can be released
and the client feels better. When this happens, the past is
changed, from the 'future' of the past incident.
The harmful
incident happened in the 'past', but truly that incident is
alive in the person's present, in the form of a vibrational
activation. If it wasn't in the present, it couldn't, by
definition, be affecting the person now. The 'past' and
the 'present' must therefore be somehow connected.
This
vibrational activation, often called trauma or more
accurately, charge (the negative emotion in the incident is
actually electrical in nature) is affecting the person's
future as well, as far into the future until the viewer
examines and nullifies it, or takes his attention completely
away from it. How is it that the person can change
something from the past and have it affect his future?
Because it's
all happening now! The passing parade of perception is
recorded by the being, in the form of a vibrational energy
pattern. The stuff that is recorded is thought energy of an
uncomfortable vibration, within the Human Energy Field,
which is also thought energy.
An
uncomfortable event, a car accident for example, is
recorded along with the physical pain, and negative mental
thought patterns the person had at the time. If the person
continues to place attention on those vibrations in the
present, the incident will continually be activated, and the
painful feelings will continue to be felt throughout
'time,' in each moment of now. When the incident is
re-examined, it allows the person to confront what was
unconfronted during the time of the event, and unfocus
attention from it. All of this unraveling of the 'past' is
done from the now moment.
Applying
Knowledge of Time to Life
The past can be
changed by focusing upon it from the present, by
're-running' it, so to speak, from the present. I gave an
example above, using the reduction of trauma. But this idea
can be used in everyday life as well.
Say you had an
argument with your brother-in-law, a real set-to in which
you and he vowed never to speak again. You can change the
past by simply going over it again in your mind, changing
what you said and felt during the course of the event, until
you have completely changed your attitude about the whole
thing. For you, the argument now never happened. You have
changed your recording of the event from one of painful
emotion to one of positive emotion. Your attention is
totally off of it, you have replaced the negative
vibrational content with a positive one, and you no longer
feel upset with your brother-in-law. This process, which
some would call delusional or dishonest, is actually quite
powerful! You have essentially erased the past, and put a
'new' past in its place. You have actually changed your
past, because for you it's like the original event never
happened. The amazing thing is, by releasing your cord of
energy that held the bad feelings in place between you, you
help your brother -in - law to release his emotions as
well. Here we are using the principle of non-locality to
resolve a situation from one pole only! In physics, the
phenomenon of quantum entanglement allows us to extract
information instantaneously from two separated but
correlated particles, even though it's twin is separated by
enormous distances. What is possible for sub-atomic
particles is also possible for consciousness. In our
vibrational universe model, everything in the all-that-is
exists in a universal field of consciousness that connects
everything together. When you release your bad feelings, it
has an effect on your brother-in-law as well.
It's hard to
fight against something that doesn't put up resistance! The
Aikido master neutralizes all the attacker's energy by not
resisting it. The attacker eventually realizes there is
nothing for him to push against, and that his attacking
energy is pointless.
Your
brother-in-law may spontaneously call you and tell you that
he no longer feels upset with you. The reason this can
happen is because an argument is a two-pole energy system.
When one pole is deactivated, the energy between the poles
stops flowing.
Past incidents
stay with us because we are still placing our attention upon
them in the present, keeping their vibrational content
continuously activated.
As we mentioned
above, some people will say that altering the past in this
way is not only delusional, but dishonest, because it really
didn’t happen that way. But the alternative is to stay
stuck in the incident, or bury it. That’s what happens to a
lot of people – they are so focused upon being honest that
they do not think to create a new reality for themselves,
and their past timeline is filled with painful emotion. I
can tell you that it is not delusional or dishonest to want
to feel better about something; the Law of Consciousness
tells us that consciousness is pure, creative potential and
that it is self-reflexive, having the ability to alter
itself. Why not use that ability to change something bad to
something good? That is what happens in all successful
therapy: a person makes a new decision about a past incident
and releases the resistance in present time which is causing
blockages in the natural flow of life force energy within
the Human Energy Field. Honesty about negative emotion just
continues to stick you in it!
The Future
We have seen
how the past can be changed from the present. But what about
the future?
The future is
just a concept, a feeling. Your NOW moment as you read this
is the 'future' of what you read 5 minutes ago, and is now
the past as you complete this sentence in the present. But
that present just now became the past. It's hard to hold on
to, if you are thinking linearly! Your life is always lived
in the NOW, but when your life is not lived in the moment,
you can never seem to get your hands on the NOW. It's like
trying to make a sculpture out of water.
That's because
when you are reaching for something, you are focusing upon
it, and the now moment is ultimately attained by letting
go.
We perceive
past and future only because we are not fully present in the
moment. What takes us out of the moment is resistance to the
flow of life around us.
To remove
resistance, let go. This is the same as saying, allow. And
allowing is the same as loving. That is why so many masters
have said that the key to life is unconditional love, which
then leads to the wonderful experience of perception in the
NOW.
The future is
just the feeling of anticipation, or anxiety, depending upon
your vibrational offering now. The future is a locus of
energy surrounding a being which may or may not take form,
depending upon decisions that are made in every moment. The
universal field of consciousness that surrounds us all is
responding to every one of our thoughts, beliefs, decisions,
and feelings. Those who are sensitive to energy can often
perceive this locus of energy around a person, and make
predictions about future events, if attitudes and choices
are not altered significantly.
The past is a
feeling of remembrance, now.
The past and
the future are only perceived when we are not living in the
moment, which for almost all of us is 99.999% of the time.
'Past' and
'future' are also ideas we use to take us out of the now:
“I always have
problems with money because I grew up poor.”
“I can't get a
good relationship because in a past life I was killed by my
husband.”
“There's
supposed to be a recession coming so I better not ask for a
raise.”
“If we don't
reduce pollution our future looks bleak.”
All of these
are statements about the past or the future, made in the
now, producing a vibrational offering now, and which the
universe responds to now, creating the conditions around
you. When you begin to live your life in the moment, you
begin to have access to your past and future. It all blends
together into a feeling of oneness with yourself and all
life.
_____________________________________________
Sources
Esther Hicks --
various taped lectures. http://www.abraham-hicks.com
Dr. Sarge
Gerbode --- “Beyond Metaphysics”
Richard Feynman
-- “QED” Princeton University Press
Dr. Paul Marmet
-- “Einstein's Theory of Relativity vs Classical
Mechanics”,
Available at
http://www.newtonphysics.on.ca/
Markosian, Ned,
"Time", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter
2002 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2002/entries/time/
** Michael
Walters' Time Travel Explanation to John Frankel (deleted
excerpt from the book "Beyond the Beginning):
“In my mind,"
Walters said, "there are two cases to consider in time
travel. One, time is a static corridor in which one may
observe, but not interact with, our 3 dimensional physical
reality. In this scenario, our physical reality is read-only
from the time dimension. However, if this is true then it
will be possible to travel in time from the beginning of the
universe right through to the end of the universe. In this
case there is no free will. “We think we're acting freely,
but an observer from the time dimension would be able to
predict the actions of every single being from the beginning
of the universe to its end. We are, in effect, living
predetermined lives. I personally do not favor such an
interpretation, because I believe in the necessity of free
will if our lives are to have any meaning. But it is
certainly a possibility. “The other case is more
problematical, and is treated in the traditional time travel
stories. Here one exits the time dimension and is able to
physically interact with all of the objects and life forms
which existed at that time. “One could go back and meet
one's parents, as you say, or even ones self, altering
history and the flow of time. However, if you are able to do
so, there is no reason to suppose that others cannot as
well. In traditional time travel scenarios, there is only
one time traveler, and everyone else is imprisoned within
the flow of events. If someone invents a time machine, you
can bet it will be duplicated! In that case, we are all time
travelers, and where does our historical time continuum
leave off, and our now, or present, begin? If everyone can
travel back and forth through a history which is supposed to
be static, then it is no longer a history at all, but a
dynamically created experience, which is really just the
definition of present time. We must now invoke your
multiplicity of history theory, in which parallel universes
are created with every interaction of a time traveler with
the reality of that history. But then we ask, where does the
matter and energy to create these parallel universes come
from? They cannot already be in existence, for their
existence is unnecessary before the action of our time
travelers. Therefore, the creation of parallel universes,
even if it's possible, is itself a dynamic, on-demand
process, based solely upon thought and action in the
present. It is also a violation of the law of conservation
of energy.”
“Good point,”
John said. “But assuming you could go back to the past and
talk to your great granddad, you're not in the present,
you're in a past time line.”
“Theoretically,
yes," the older man replied. "But to your father, the
conversation he's having is occurring right now. And to you,
the conversation is occurring now. The common denominator of
both experiences is now.”
“Hmmm…I can see
what you're saying, but there's a contradiction.”
“That's right!
Let's say that out of 6 billion people on earth there are 1
million with access to time machines. If all of them go back
into the past, interfering with history, that requires the
creation of at least 1 million parallel universes, or
alternate time lines, assuming that each person only makes
one history-altering interaction. If time travel is allowed
in those alternate universes as well, then the bifurcation
process must continue exponentially. We can postulate an
infinite universe with an infinity of energy, but things are
going to get real messy very quickly; and the fragmentation
of experience will result in more and more disconnected and
isolated pieces of reality, cut off from existence itself.”
He paused to straighten his glasses.
“And even if it
is all possible one has to ask, who is responsible for the
management of all this? Does it just happen by magic?”
“Yes,” John
said, “but if the time dimension is like a 4th spatial
dimension, it wouldn't be too bad. A 3 dimensional cube
contains an infinity of 2 dimensional planes stacked up one
on top of the other. Just in this room we could have an
infinite number of 2 dimensional universes. So in a 4
dimensional universe you could have an infinite number of 3
dimensional universes in a closed, finite, 4 dimensional
space. That should be manageable.”
Michael Walters
smiled. “That's very good John, but here is where
mathematics diverges from physics. In mathematics we define
a 2 dimensional plane as having width and length, but zero
thickness, but of course this is impossible in physical
reality. Anything that exists in 3 dimensions has to have
some thickness or we couldn't see it. A physical universe is
a practical place, and we need to deal with actual, physical
quantities.”
“I guess so…”
John said.
“The problem
stems from Euclid, I think. He defined a point as “that
which has no part,” and a line as “breadthless length.” So a
line is composed of a bunch of nothings called points and a
plane is composed of an infinite number of breadthless
lines, and so on. This has led to a separation between the
reality of the physical universe and the way we conceptually
view our universe. It has led mathematics into the realm of
imagination, divorcing itself from the reality of everyday
life, which is why so many people hate math! So a point, to
exist, must have mass. It must occupy space. And a line has
to have width as well as length. And a plane has to have
some thickness, otherwise we couldn't observe it.”
“I suppose so,”
John said.
“Nevertheless,
your point is valid," Walters said. "You could stack a lot
of 3 dimensional universes in higher dimensional geometry's.
Unfortunately, these higher dimensions are just a creation
of our imagination. There's no physical evidence of higher
spatial dimensions that contain the matter and energy we
need for our parallel universes.”
John
reluctantly agreed.
“Here's
something else to consider in your thinking about time,”
Walters said. “A time line must be continuous. It must be
continuous because if our time traveler to the past makes a
change in history, the future from which he came is no
longer valid; but there must be another time line on which
he can travel back to a future in another parallel universe.
Otherwise you get into paradoxes like a person exists but
was never born. A discontinuous time line will have a gap in
it; a disconnected place. If enough energy flows into the
gap, then, like an abscess, it can suddenly explode. So a
discontinuity in time will lead to a massive increase in
entropy, and a complete unraveling of the well ordered
nature of reality. In order for the multiplicity of history
concept to work, time must be continuous.”
“OK, I can see
that,” John said. “No gaps.”
“Now lets
consider the problem of travel forward in time. In the first
place, travel backward in time also implies travel forward
in time, because to return to the present from 1133 means
travel forward from 1133. So we really can't separate the
two. Nevertheless, it's instructive to look at forward time
travel from the present. Traveling forward in time means, by
definition, a fully mapped out and static time line where
all decisions and actions have already taken place for every
participant in the universe, except the time traveler…”
“Wait a
minute,” John objected. “Just because we move forward in the
time dimension is no reason to suppose the people who we're
observing don't have free will!”
“But we've
already agreed that a time line must be defined and
continuous, John! A future time line therefore implies
observation of the same conditions every time, otherwise it
would be fluctuating and totally fuzzy. Something fuzzy has
discontinuities, like water droplets in steam. Besides, if
one traveled from 2003 to 800,003 and saw different outcomes
every time, what does it mean to say 'I traveled to the
future?' A future must be defined before it can exist. A
fluctuating future is a changing thing, and is precisely
what happens when we try to view the future from the
present.”
“I suppose so,”
John said doubtfully.
“Well, I'm just
giving you my take John. What I'm saying is that there is
really no distinction between a 'past' and a 'future', from
the time traveler's point of view: it is always possible to
access both as historical events. If there is really no
distinction between a past and a future, then how do we
define time in the first place?”
“What if each
person has his own time line, creating his own future?” John
postulated. “Then a person could travel back and forth, like
the guy in the H.G. Wells story.”
“Well, if there
are future time lines for each person, then there have to be
duplicate universes of matter and energy for each person,
and we've seen the difficulties of that. In any case,
traveling to the future then becomes meaningless, time
travel itself is meaningless, for there are as many futures
as there are decisions and actions by each individual in the
present. So the future always resolves to decisions taken
right now. Besides, the creation of duplicate universes
requires that copies of yourself exist in every one of them.
I suppose that's possible, but it doesn't seem like a very
elegant way to run a universe!”
Walters stopped
to take a drink of water. “Not used to talking so much.”
“It seems to me
that time travel only makes sense if there is a common past
and a common future that affects everybody. So let's grant
that it is possible to travel to the future,” Walters
continued. “When our 1 million time travelers move to the
future, they come back and tell everybody. So the future is
known before it happened. Then that knowledge of it in the
present would change the future. But then the time travelers
couldn't have traveled to that future, because it never
materialized. Also, if enough people traveled forward in
time, there'd be no one left in the past to create the
future they were observing. Now we get into all sorts of
paradoxes, and the only way to resolve this is with a
multiplicity of time lines.”
Walters got up
from his desk. “Hold on for a minute. I have to take a
piss.”
John thought
about what he had said so far. It made a sort of sense. It
seemed he was arguing for the impossibility of time travel
at all; that there was really no past or future, only the
present. But something within him rebelled at that.
When Michael
Walters returned he said, “Now, what do I propose to
substitute for my wholesale dismissal of time travel? Well,
when we perceive time, we essentially perceive a change in
the position of objects in space. If a ball is at rest on a
table top, and we give it a push so that it falls off the
end, we say that time has passed during the movement of the
ball. If we are in a sealed room with no windows and only
our table and ball, and the ball never moves, do we perceive
the passing of time? We might say that 'time is dragging',
but we would only say that if we had previously experienced
the motion of objects. If a person had never observed
motion, would he or she even understand the concept of
time?”
“So you're
saying that the experience of time must be related to the
perception of motion, and if there's no motion, there's no
time.” John thought about his athletic endeavors. “But when
I play table tennis there's lots of motion, and I can still
get into a place of no-time. I play much better. I'm either
speeding up my physiology, or I'm entering a separate time
dimension where things are slowing down.”
Walters
shrugged. “You're experiencing what athletes call being in
the zone. But you're not actually traveling in time. Perhaps
you are just anticipating the movement of your opponent.”
“But what if
anticipation is actually traveling a second or two forward
in time?” John said.
“I think it's
just a reading of your opponent's intent, and his physical
demeanor. But there's one way to find out: the next time you
are in one of your altered states of consciousness, try
reading the future. I think you'll find that the future is
amorphous, unformed. Psychics, I think, just pick up on any
strong potential emanating from the present. That doesn't
mean it will happen, unless you are like a lot of these
new-age quacks who get you believing in the future they
predict for you. Then you make it happen and justify their
prediction.”
“I remember
when I was working on deciphering those symbols,” John said.
“I sat down at 6 one evening and worked for what seemed like
15 minutes. When I looked up at the clock, it was 9:15. I
experience no motion of anything. But the passing of time
was measured by the clock anyway. So maybe time is
independent of the motion of objects.”
“But the motion
of the clock itself is what determines the time you see on
the display,” Walters said. “Without motion, there is no
time. Which is exactly what you experienced.”
True, John
thought.
“I think we get
into trouble when we consider time like another spatial
dimension," Walters said. "A time traveler supposedly may
move about in the time dimension just as we move around in
space. But if time is dependent on the motion of matter and
energy, we can never really separate the two. I'm aware of
the theoretical possibility, from general relativity, of
time travel, but I don't believe those theories can ever be
successfully applied in our universe.”
“I don't
understand general relativity, so I'll have to take your
word for that,” John said.
Walters smiled
wryly. “Wasn't it Hawking who quoted Eddington, responding
to a reporter who said there were only three people in the
world who understood relativity: 'I am trying to think who
the third person is.'
Both men
laughed.
“I'm just
playing around with concepts at my level of understanding
John, so don't take what I say too seriously! I don’t think
there’s anyone on planet earth who really understands time."
Click Here for
more information
|
