An Alternative Perception of Time.

I strongly believe perceptions is everything. We all have an idea of what is acceptable within our society, other societies have their own perception or beliefs that can differ from ours but is just as normal to them as ours are to us. If someone within our society steps outside of what the majority of observers agree upon as acceptable within their specific society then that person is shunned upon and considered wrong or punished, but what is really considered wrong if everything is mere perceptions or beliefs only gained after birth, soaked up from your culture?

To my point though, Time. Most(maybe not the majority reading this post though) think of time by each passing second. We are paced by the clock. When really time is a concept in the mind and this is an example of how you can grasp that.

Consider time as only possible if there are events or moment that come and go to measure time by, we measure those events via our five senses. Our awareness or focus dictates how much information is processed by the brain by how much attention we pay to detail. Pay a lot of attention to detail at any given moment and you process more information resulting in the perception of slowed time.

Of course I'm sure someone can find an argument, but this is only a theory of mine and it needs further pondering. Any comments?

"“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.”"

- Einstein

your theory says we are IAs ...

I always like to think of time as more of a location.. If you see it as the progression of chemical reactions from one state to another and the like, you typically think of time in a line (most people do, i.e. "timelines"), since that is the direction that our perception flows. What if you think of it as a place on a grid, including a different dimension of existence? Add in locations and the like, and apply it to a 3d object (maybe a grided box or sphere), and you wind up with time being a place on your sphere, not just a spot on a line.

The present would be in one spot, while the past in another, etc etc, all according to where any particular bunch of chemicals are located in space, as well as the progression of said chemical reaction.

Not very practical and I haven't found any use for this line of thinking as of yet, also, it's still a developing idea. Not even sure if it is original (stuff like this I try not to look up, so my thoughts don't get tainted with what is and isn't "possible"; slows the creative process for me personally) or feasible. Any thoughts?

edit to add: I know this is about how perception affects time as it relates to our surroundings and situations, but I just thought I would throw that out there to see if anyone has any ideas.

[edit on 20-3-2010 by ganja]

Pretty sure I agree.

Incarceration would be the example I could relate to. All told Ive spent about a year actually locked behind concrete and steel. A year is actually nothing compared to some. But the first time I felt that 300 or so pound door close on me in a little box, is when my concept of time changed forever. Talk about a dimensional shift. And I was guilty. Cant imagine what its like for the ones who truly arent. Not saying I agree with ALL of the laws that put me there, but it was my choice to submit to those laws. Its kind of funny..the things that slow down time in free society speed up time in prison.

Well...I think we need to seperate the two "times".

There is time, As a measurement and time as an existant.

Time as a measurement, Is fairly obvious. A second, A minute, An hour etc, etc. This meaning of time is an illusion and is only really acknowledged as a preception. For the measurement of time doesn't exist without someone or something to measure it.

Time as an existant, is a different story entirely.

To argue that the past exists alongside the future and the present is hard to do. Mainly because we (our conscious minds) can't exist in more than one place. (at least not while being aware we are). All we know is the present, Because that's all we can precieve.

My personal opinion is that WE create time in our minds.The existance of time is not real. There is only the present. The past is only memory, Created by humanity and other life forms. In my opinion there is no future, Only the ability to percieve and think of a scenario that could happen. All we actually know and consciously experience is the now. But that's just my theory.

Time is real. It's fairly well understood in special relativity.

If you speed up, time slows down. This is true for atomic nuclei, clocks, and human life.

The mechanism that makes a clock tick, for example, will slow down when it is placed inside an airplane moving at 300 mph. It will actually slow down imperceptibly if you accelerate it to even 1 mph, or 1/2 mph. But you can actually measure the change in atomic clocks using jet planes.


The first way they confirmed this phenomena (afaik) is with atomic nuclei decay. The decay rate of atoms traveling at 99.9% the speed of light were drastically slower than those not traveling at all. This is because time slows down (for everything) when it moves faster.



Read relativity. Einstein is a cliche for a reason.

You are correct in that each individuals conscious perception at any individual moment dictates the perceived amount of time passing relative to what they are focused on.

People who meditate focus on the nothingness that is always present, this nothingness is beyond time, consciousness is beyond time, thus focusing on the nothingness lifts an individual from the constrictions of time.

Every human being is multi dimensional in nature, the universe is a conscious entity, therefore, you can navigate the universe using consciousness.

When you sleep, you are shutting your focus off the distractions of your 3 dimensional environment and are focusing all your attention to your thoughts, navigating what are called the "internal worlds" - however, most do this in an unconscious fascion. Most take their focus off their bodies and shut them down and follow the distractions of thoughts not unlike a daydream whereby one has to be physically told to wake up when lost in thought. You can learn to navigate these "internal worlds" in a conscious fascion by the focusing on the nothingness, and removing the focus off the 3d world (aka astral projection)

Astral projection is the return of the consciousness to the internal worlds, places of pure thought, difficult to accomplish with an untrained mind, so most see subconscious imagery of their hopes and dreams, rather than what is actually there. This also explains the variability of dream clarity, the consciousness is overwhelmed by the subconscious, the not conscious, and turns into a tiny observer, unable to control the imagery.

I am rambling on now

Originally posted by Kaytagg
Time is real. It's fairly well understood in special relativity.

If you speed up, time slows down. This is true for atomic nuclei, clocks, and human life.

The mechanism that makes a clock tick, for example, will slow down when it is placed inside an airplane moving at 300 mph. It will actually slow down imperceptibly if you accelerate it to even 1 mph, or 1/2 mph. But you can actually measure the change in atomic clocks using jet planes.


The first way they confirmed this phenomena (afaik) is with atomic nuclei decay. The decay rate of atoms traveling at 99.9% the speed of light were drastically slower than those not traveling at all. This is because time slows down (for everything) when it moves faster.



Read relativity. Einstein is a cliche for a reason.

(A foreword, I'm not exactly that educated in relativity, Anything I say is my own conclusion and/or confusion)

I understand the concept you present. But to me that's just existance. You use a key word when you say, "But you can actually measure the change in atomic clocks using jet planes.". That word is measure. If humanity and other forms of life aren't here to measure that with seconds, miliseconds, etc. Then isn't it just existing without measure?

And hence wouldn't that mean that time is of human nature? I have a hard time being convienced that time exists without someone to measure it. Do things still happen? Yes. Do event's still take place that shape the present? Yes. There's no denying that much, But that's just the ever changing present.

See in my opinion if no one records history or no one is here to "discover" remenants of history, Then it's just as good as it never happening, Of course WE know it did, Because we have cognitive brains, And can remember, But a tree or a fly doesn't know what happened two hundred years ago. And I believe there's a good reason for that.

There's no need to have a past, Or to remember it for that matter. And I'm sure along the way someone will bring up evolution. (I.e- If there's no need for a past why do we evolve in effort to "out live" the things that killed our species before( I.e-Survival of the fittest)) And To that I'd have to say that evolution is simply the passing foward of genetic material more suited for the dangers of the present.

Anyway's back to the topic. I have an interesting theory, That will never be able to be put to test. But I feel like it would answer alot of questions being presented in this thread. The theory is that if a child is never subjected to a measure of time, would they still feel the need to have one. You could do multiple experiments, Such as:

1)A new born child is raised in a captivity setting, Where there is no such things as a clock or any measure of time. Raised in a secure room, Where they cannot see the sun, and any food or other object is brought at complete random intervals through out the day. Then upon reaching the age of ten (of which the child wouldn't know their age), Being asked questions about the past and the length of time passed.

-I think the result would be rather obvious, In that the child would not be able to do so. Clearly because they were never TAUGHT anything of the matter.

So what am I getting at? I think time is only relative to a measurement. If we can't measure time with a sundial or a clock or night and day, It has no meaning. And if something has no meaning, It has only existance, Or the present.

(I apologize if that starts to not make sense, I ramble from time to time)