Is Time Really Real?
Beginning Time
© 2008 VVeasey Publishing
10/13/12
The experience of time, begins with the division of something, originally undivided, into separately moving bodies, in space, in other words, with creation.
Illusion of Time
Our view of time is illusory. We speak of the past, as if it's a place, like a city left behind us. We speak of the future. as a place. like a distant land we can take a trip to. But the neither the past or the future, are places.
Analogy Of Time
All time is occurring now, but we experience it as separate segments. Like being able to only see one square, of a chessboard instead, of the whole board at once. We can't see an overview of the whole situation, so we experience the past, present and future, as existing separately, when they actually, exist simultaneously, right now!
A seed is the present state of the future plant. As it grows, it's becomes the future state of the plant. As it matures, it becomes the present state of the plant. A seed is, potentiality, the past, present, and future states, of the plant, all in one!
Example Time
A is the present. Leaving A, heading towards B, A is the past. Arriving at B, B is the present. Returning towards A, leaving B, A is the future, B is the past, Back at A, A is the present.
If your friend, takes a trip to Jamaica, she's in your future; you're in her past. If she thinks about seeing you again, you're in her future, she's in your past. If you talk to each other by phone, you're both in the present. The past, present, and future, are concepts that organize and coordinate, our experience of continuous existence.
Traveling In Time
We can speak about going back in time, to the Roman Empire. But, could this ever happen? We can return to the location of the Roman Empire, because that location still exists, but the people of that time, no longer do. If they still existed, in a place called the past, we could visit them there.They don't, so we can't.
The past exists only in memory or fantasy. We can remember an event, from our past, or fantasize about it, as if it's happening now, in the present, but neither is true!
Traveling back in time, isn't possible, because there's no place, to travel to. You can’t travel back in time, to when you were a baby, because that baby, has developed into the person, you are today, and doesn't exist anymore.If the past, were a place, where everything stayed the same without change or development, like a picture or snapshot, taken of a scene long past, time travel would be possible and actual, but that’s not the case.
Rotations of Time
Our experience of time, is based on the earth's daily rotation, on its axis, and yearly orbit, around the sun. A certain number of days, equal a certain number of axis rotations. A certain number of years, equal a certain number of orbital rotations. Time is a concept, for tracking, what was occurring, stopped occurring, or didn't occur, during these daily and yearly rotations.
Day and Night Time
We experience time, as a succession of days and nights, but day and night are illusions. When the part of the earth we're on, turns towards the sun, it's day. When it turns away from the sun, it's night, but it's always day and night somewhere, simultaneously!
The sun doesn't come up, nor does it go down. It's always shining! It's the movement of the earth, along it orbit, that creates the illusion, of the sun's rising and setting. If we took a spaceship outside the earth's atmosphere, we'd be able to view this process, directly.
Passing Time
As we age, we say that time is passing, (like it's a thing, like a car passing by us.), but is time a thing? Is it passing? There is, the activity, movement, and development of life. But, the only things passing, or moving, are solar systems, milky ways, star systems and galaxies. Using their various cycles, combinations and configurations, as a reference point, compared to our activity and development, is what we call, the passing of time!
Psychological Time
Psychological time, is your personal experience of time. When you're participating in an engrossing activity, you lose track of time, and time seems to pass by quickly. (You started at one o'clock and you can't believe it's five o'clock, already!)
Attending, a boring lecture, you're acutely aware of time and time seems to pass by slowly. (You keep watching the clock. It seems like it takes forever for five minutes to pass by!) After, receiving an intense emotional shock, time seems to stand still. (the whole scene seems frozen, like freeze frame was pushed on a video player.)
Transcending Time
If all objects and bodies were the same mass, there would be no experience of time. The division of mass into separate objects, and bodies, moving in space, creates the experience of time.
Spiritual philosophies say to transcend time, you must transcend ego identity. To transcend ego identity, you must experience an identity, that's the same for you and for others. (Like mass, before its division, into separateness.) Once ego identity is transcended, time would be transcended, because, there would be no experience of separateness, or of individual entities, only sameness!
Stopping Time
If the earth, suddenly stopped rotating on its axis, and orbiting the sun, time would stop for us. There would no longer be day or night, or seasonal changes. Part of the earth, would always be light, and part would always be dark! Part would always be hot, and part would always be cold!
With no more movement, or variation of the earth's position to the sun, all Earthly life forms would probably, cease to exist.
Conclusion Time
Time is the perception of the reoccurring, cyclic obit of planets moving in space, used as a measure of how long, it takes the activity and development of humans, to occur on earth.
Anything we do, can do, or will do, will always be happening, in this ever present, moment, we call now, today. The past was once today.The future will be today. When tomorrow comes, it's always today
To think that there is a past, present and future, is like thinking that, if you had a piece of property, that it took you a year to walk around it's boundary, back to your starting point, that when you got there, you thought that, you were now, one year into the future! How crazy is that! Isn't that what we all do with our experience of time?
The Earth, is rotating on it's axis and orbiting the sun, when it makes one complete rotation, around the Sun, don't we think we've moved one year into the future? Don't we say, it's a new year, and old year is behind us, in the past? How crazy is that!
Time, is an illusion, meaning, it's not what it appears to be.
History isn't just the past. It's the present, the past, and the future.
