"Time does not exist, but only change" (Ernst Mach).
"Time is a human creation that does not exist outside of our minds" (Frank Kinslow).
"The totality of time exists only in the now" (Ken Wilber).
"Time has no parts, it is all one" (Bergson).
The Principle of Descending Causality and Space-Time
According to the principle of downward causality, every phenomenon is nothing but a manifestation of the deep. In this sense, space and time (as we perceive them) must be superficial manifestations of something deeper. "Even space and time are not only not real, but are projections coming from something deeper and more mysterious" (Fred Alan Wolf).
This conception of physics based on the principle of downward causality can be called "deep physics".
The duality of space
According to the above principle, space has two aspects:
Superficial. It is the external space that we normally perceive.
Deep. It is a space that transcends the physical and connects all things in the physical world. It is called "ether", a concept formerly used to identify absolute space, and which quantum physics has rediscovered and reinterpreted as the deep space in which everything is interrelated. A concept that allows explaining quantum phenomena such as entanglement, superposition of states and the tunnel effect. In Hindu philosophy, the deep space that interconnects everything is called "akasha", which is also identified with the essence or subtle substance of the material world, the fifth element.
Surface space would be a manifestation of deep space.
The duality of time
Time, like space, also has two aspects:
Superficial. It is the external time, of linear type, the one we experience in our daily life. It is the time that always advances in the same direction: towards the future. It is the famous "arrow of time", a metaphor used by Arthur Eddington in 1927.
Deep. It is the internal time, where everything is simultaneous, where time disappears (is null) or time appears as totality. It is the time associated with the eternal or no-time.
We can also conceive it holographically: each instant contains or refers to the totality of time. Just as zero can be interpreted as empty or full (because in both cases it is identified with the undifferentiated), the present (as an instant without duration) can be interpreted as null time or the totality of time.
The deep aspect of time refers to deep consciousness. In deep time there is no past or future. It can also be considered as the union of the opposites (past and future) or as the union of the present (of no-time) and the totality of time. In no-time lives consciousness, power, freedom, creativity, intuition, the metaphysical.
Superficial time would be a manifestation of deep time.
The duality of time is often symbolized by the metaphor of the frog and the bird. The frog feels the passage of time. But for the bird there is no time, everything is permanent, unchanging, eternal.
We consider that time is something objective and inevitable, that it advances linearly from the present to the future. And that neither the past nor the future exist, that only the present exists in each moment. We have been educated to process the world sequentially, based on the principle of cause and effect.
But everything exists in the present. Past events are not lost forever, but are present at all times. And future events are also in the present. Our past and future lives exist in the present.
Space, time and physics
According to classical Newtonian physics, space and time are absolute and independent physical quantities.
According to quantum physics, at the deepest physical level time disappears. Past, present and future are the same moment. Einstein, in a letter addressed to the family of Michele Basso, a good friend of his, who died on March 15, 1955, said: "Now he has left this strange world a little before me. That does not mean anything. People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is nothing but a stubbornly persistent illusion". Einstein died one month and three days after his friend (April 18, 1955).
At the deep physical level, space also disappears. This explains the phenomenon of quantum entanglement and that a quantum entity is apparently in several places at once.
In quantum physics, space and time appear to be relational, not local. "Everything is nonlocal. Particles are intimately connected at a level that transcends time and space" (Fred Alan Wolf).
According to relativistic physics, space and time are two aspects of the same physical quantity: space-time. Relativistic physics considers relative time, and where space and time are united in the magnitude space-time.
Space, time and the two modes of consciousness
Our mind categorizes, but the main categorization is the dual type, which manifests itself in pairs of opposites, which are associated with our two cerebral hemispheres. For example, concrete-abstract, specific-generic, real-imaginary, and so on. This union of pairs of opposites is realized by the consciousness.
The two aspects of space and time are particular cases of the two modes of consciousness. The left hemisphere (HI) corresponds to the superficial; the right hemisphere (HD) corresponds to the deep.
Space is associated with the HI. Space is masculine. It is associated with the external sense.
Time is associated with HD. Time is feminine. It is associated with the internal sense.
According to Kant, space and time are the two main modes of human consciousness.
The profound is always superior to the superficial. Therefore, the consciousness of the HD is superior to that of the HI. Since time is associated with HD, and space with HI, time is "superior" to space. The consciousness of time is superior to that of space.
At the temporal level, dualism manifests as the opposing concepts of past and future:
The past is associated with HI. And therefore, to the memory, to the closed and to the real.
The future is associated with the HD. And therefore, to the open, to the possible and to the imaginary.
The present cannot exist because it has no temporal extension. The present is an abstraction, it does not really exist, just as the geometric point does not exist. What we call present is a sensation produced by the persistence of events in our memory.
The future, although conditioned by the past, presents itself, apparently, as an infinite set of possibilities that collapse in favor of only a few. We move toward the future by continually selecting the alternative that most closely identifies with our beliefs and expectations. Normally this selection is unconscious. It is a matter of making choices increasingly conscious.
Time apparently passes because we perceive changes; changes that make, in turn, our mind change. We perceive the passage of time because our mind changes. If our mind did not react to external changes, we would not perceive external changes or the passage of time.
Superficial time is associated with the left hemisphere (HI), with thought, with the rational, the discrete, the analytical. And deep time is associated with the right hemisphere (HD), the contemplative, the intuitive, the continuous, the synthetic.
The more active the HI is, the faster time passes, time is compressed. And the more active the HD is, the slower time passes, time dilates, expands.
Therefore, the more consciousness, the slower time passes, time dilates. With full consciousness (pure consciousness), time would stop. With less consciousness, time passes faster, time is compressed. With zero consciousness, time would literally fly. The perception of time is an indicator of our level of consciousness.
As we move from the superficial to the deep, time dilates. At the deepest level of all, in the soul, time disappears. From that place, we contemplate wholeness, where everything is the same thing, where everything is connected. And then there is synchronization between the inner world and the outer world, so there is no need for memory. "The soul does not think, it perceives" (Harold Klemp).
The following table summarizes the above:
Hem.
Function
Psychological time and consciousness.
Left
Thought
It compresses
Right
Perception
It expands
But in the imaginal realm everything that is possible to happen already exists in an absolute temporal dimension, where there is no distinction between past, present and future. The temporal relations (simultaneity, precedence, etc.) between objects are relations like any other relations. When something happens or we live an experience, the only thing we are doing is accessing something that already exists previously. The imaginal realm is the realm of all possibilities.
We can relate the two types of space and time to the syntax and semantics of language. Syntax is the surface, representable aspect of language. Semantics is the deep aspect of language, which is manifested by nothing more than particular expressions.
Just as semantics cannot be expressed (or formalized), so deep space and time cannot be expressed. It can only be manifested by particular expressions. Therefore, there can be no formal theory of deep space and deep time. This is the generalized interpretation of Gödel's incompleteness theorem: the deep cannot be formalized. From the superficial one cannot access the deep.
Superficial time as change or as novelty
Surface time is experienced as changes in the contents of space. The time we perceive externally is change. If there is no change, there is no time or no perception of time.
We must differentiate between the concepts of "change" and "novelty":
A change is the substitution of one thing for another that already existed previously. That is, it is a connection with the past, with the HI, with the lower consciousness.
A novelty is the appearance of a new thing or the substitution of one thing for another totally new thing, which did not exist before. Therefore, it is a connection with the future, with the HD, with the higher consciousness.
Circular time
In Western culture time is considered linear. In Eastern culture it is accepted without question that time is circular (or cyclical). Circular time symbolizes the indivisible unity of time, eternity, where there is no beginning and no end.
The concept of circular time is very old. Its renewed formulation is due to Nietzsche, with the "myth of the eternal return", an idea raised in "The Gay Science" and developed in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". For Nietzsche, what repeats itself are not only events, but also thoughts and emotions.
Circular time admits two interpretations:
The literal one. All phenomena repeat themselves cyclically, always in the same order. The repetition is exact in each cycle. In any case, the eternal return in the literal sense runs counter to evolution, which is a principle of nature.
The metaphorical. In each cycle the same pattern or scheme is repeated, but not the facts in detail.
Shallow time can be symbolized by the edge of a circle. Deep time can be symbolized by the center of the circle, where everything is connected.
Some opinions:
For the Stoics and Pythagoreans, time is cyclical.
"The universe and time imitate the circular form of the creator" (Plato).
"Time is in reality cyclical and that character is found even in its smallest subdivisions" (René Guénon).
Borges believed in circular time in a metaphorical sense: the cycles that repeat themselves are not identical but similar. "Time is like a circle that turns infinitely." Later he would opt for eternity: an infinite network of parallel times, encompassing all possibilities.
Gödel made a novel interpretation of Einstein's theory of relativity. According to Gödel, time does not exist, it is not real. Time (understood intuitively, with our common sense) is incompatible with the theory of relativity. Intuitive ideas cannot be formally grasped. This is precisely the idea underlying his famous incompleteness theorem. Einstein turned time into a dimension of space-time. Gödel made time cyclic.
Fractal time
Deep time is holographic (each instant equals eternity), but surface time can be fractal, that is, repeating a certain pattern over time.
According to Laurent Nottale, proponent of the "theory of scale relativity" [see Addendum], all physical quantities, including space-time, are fractal.
In the I Ching (The Book of Changes) a fractal model of the structure of time is considered.
Time as a unifying principle
Given the connection of deep time with HD, various authors believe that deep time is the unifying principle of reality. Deep time is also identified with the present (or no-time), pure or transcendental consciousness, the metaphysical, and truth.
The "everything is connected" principle of deep time manifests itself in a variety of ways:
Through connections from the present and past into the future.
In every present moment we are influenced by the past (it is the oriental law of karma) and also by the future.
Imagining the future influences and connects the present and the future.
The "deja vu" phenomenon, the feeling of having already lived a certain moment, may be a connection of the future with the present. For the proponents of the eternal return, that moment has already been lived before.
We are beings who superficially live in linear time, we are linear beings. But at the same time we live in deep time, we are eternal or timeless beings.
Our linear life is only an appearance. We are connected at all times with the past and with the future. Everything is the same thing. Time is an illusion created by our mind. At a deep level our life is a point. Past and future are only perspectives, partialities, isolated visions, not connected. At the deep level, time disappears, in the deep connection of everything.
For the ancient Maya, every moment contains the totality of time.
For Henri Bergson, time has two complementary aspects: 1) the flow of time, the objective and linear time of our daily life; 2) the "moments" of time, the "non-time", the metaphysical time. According to Bergson, scientific knowledge must be complemented by this other type of knowledge, metaphysical knowledge. "Time has no parts, it is all one."
For Ilya Prigogine, time is a unifying principle. "I believe that what we do today depends on our image of the future, rather than the future depending on what we do today."
José Argüelles: "Time is the unified field." "All time is now." "God is always present in the now."
"The totality of time exists only in the now." "The only thing that is really true is the eternal present" (Ken Wilber).
"He lives eternally who lives in the present" (Wittgenstein).
"Eternity is a dimension of here and now" (Joseph Campbell).
Borges: "Any life consists of a single moment." "What eternity is to time, the Aleph is to space." Borges' Aleph is a point in space that contains all points, a unified or deep space.
"Past, present and future form a whole, and what happens in the future can influence the past, just as the past impacts the future" (Brian Weiss).
"The present tense and the past tense are both present in the future tense, and the future tense contained in the past tense" (T.S. Eliot).
Einstein: "The distinction between past, present and future is nothing but a stubborn and persistent illusion." "Time is not what it seems. It does not flow in only one direction, and the future exists simultaneously with the past."
Harold Klemp: "The soul always lives in the present moment, collapsing the illusion of time and space." "The soul always operates in the present moment, and the past and future are contained in the present."
For Terence McKenna, beyond the Newtonian (linear and absolute time) and Einsteinian (relative time and curved space-time in the presence of matter) conceptions, time possesses a fundamental property, which is connectivity. This property arose at the beginning of the universe (Big Bang) and is conserved and condensed throughout space-time.
MENTAL and Space-Time
The principle of downward causality
At the deepest level of reality, we find only abstractions. Deep reality is abstract. And MENTAL is the deep, abstract language that models that reality, a language of primal archetypes that transcend the physical and the mental and connect the deep with the superficial. The superficial is a manifestation of the profound.
The abstract space
In MENTAL there is no physical space, there is an abstract space. It is a space in which relationships are established between expressions. It is the relationships that create the space. There is no a priori, absolute space. The abstract space is created as relationships (structural, functional, causal, etc.) are woven.
Abstract space is an image of the inner world, of the mental world, a flexible and dynamic space, where all kinds of interrelated expressions are stored: sets, sequences, functions, rules, objects, etc.
This abstract structure of space coincides with the modern conception of quantum physics. According to Vlatko Vedral [2011], space and time, the concepts considered as fundamental in classical physics, are secondary in quantum physics. The main thing is the entanglements that interconnect quantum systems, without any reference to space or time.
Space-time duality
In MENTAL, space and time are linked through two types of expressions: sequences (or sequential expressions) and sets (or parallel expressions), such that:
A sequence has a linear and discrete spatial structure. And time proceeds linearly in the evaluation process.
A set is a structure in which its components share the same position in abstract space. And its components are evaluated at the same time, simultaneously.
Since the sequence is associated with the linear, it is more superficial than the set, which is associated with the parallel, which is the deep aspect.
Space and time "live" in language as complementary or dual aspects. They are like two sides of the same coin. It is not possible to conceive of space without time and time without space, although in this case they are abstract.
Time as change in abstract space
Time as such is not directly expressible in MENTAL. Surface time manifests itself indirectly as changes in expressions of abstract space in the evaluation process.
The simplest - and therefore most consciously aware - expression of change is the expression linking the opposites (x = -x), where the expression x is evaluated as an infinite time sequence oscillating between x and -x. The evaluation process falls into a "pit" or trap from which it cannot get out (as long as this expression exists).
An analogous expression is (x = x'), where x is evaluated as the oscillating time sequence between x and x', provided that it is verified that (x'' = x).
From here we can infer that the simplest and most fundamental time arises from the union (via substitution) of opposites by means of an imaginary and paradoxical expression.
Another way to specify that an expression x oscillates between two values (a and b) is:
⟨( (x° = a) (x° = b) )⟩
Since this is a generic expression, it is evaluated permanently, so that x evaluates as the time sequence a, b, a, b, ...
All these expressions are superficial ways of specifying an "abstract clock", cyclic, pendulum-like, dual, a superficial clock, of mere qualitative change. A quantitative clock would be, for example,
( i=0 ⟨( (i° = i+1) (x° = a(i))) )⟩ )
In this case, the clock is not cyclic, it is linear, and takes the values a(1), a(2), a(3) ..., values linked to the natural numbers.
Generic expressions allow us to synchronize events. For example, we can associate a process when x takes the value a and another process when it takes the value b:
⟨( x=a → process1 )⟩
⟨( x=b → process2 )⟩
Higher-order space and time
If we consider the atoms of language (the characters) as zero-dimensional spaces (the equivalents of geometric points), a group (sequence or set) is a space of dimension 1. Each component of the group can, in turn, be replaced by another group, and so on, with no depth limit. Since space and time are united, then we can say that there is space and time of higher order (space of space and time of time). So it must be, for every concept must be reflective.
The MENTAL connection - time
MENTAL expressions are dynamic, that is, every expression is evaluated and the result of that evaluation may be another expression or the same expression. When an expression does not change when evaluated, the expression is static. The dynamic character is general; the static is a particular case of the dynamic. In the static case there is no time, since time is associated with change.
Since every expression is evaluated, every expression is potentially dynamic. For there to be time, for something to change, it must be linked to substitution. For if something does not change, there is no time and no perception of time. Therefore:
The point of union between language and time is substitution. And substitution in its simplest aspect and that produces at the same time the greatest change is to substitute an expression for its opposite (at a quantitative or qualitative level).
Time is linked to the operative. In a descriptive expression there is no time because it is static.
The basic consciousness of time is based on the union of opposites, symbolized and represented by the abstract clock.
Types of time in MENTAL
Time in MENTAL can take many configurations, as many as there are types of expressions. It can be linear, circular, oscillating, fractal, interlaced, and so on.
A pure temporal expression is
(x =: -x).
An example of fractal expression is
(x =: (a b x)) // rep. (a b ( b (a b (...))))
In MENTAL, expressions can be intertwined, not only structurally, but also functionally and causally. In these expressions, space and time go together, so the interlacing affects both aspects at the same time.
A particular case of structural entanglement occurs when the same expression is shared among several expressions. This feature occurs at the microphysical level where the same particle appears in several places at once. For example:
(x1 =: (a1 ⟨p⟩ a2))
(x2 =: (b1 ⟨p⟩ b2))
// x1 and x2 share p
Relational time, not local
From the point of view of MENTAL, since space and time are linked, as expressions are interrelated in space, they are also interrelated in time. Therefore, time is relational.
The space-time of MENTAL is the model of deep reality, which allows us to model quantum phenomena in a simple way because it is a deep and abstract language, a language where space and time are united, and where the physical and the mental are also united.
All expressions of MENTAL can be considered as potentially already existing.
The deep structure of MENTAL blurs the distinction between past and future. Indeed, given the interrelation between all kinds of expressions, a result of the past affects the future, but also a process of the future can alter the past, because everything is integrated in the abstract space, where past, present and future coexist and interrelate.
Addenda
The Vittoz method of conscious sensations
The Vittoz method is a therapeutic method of re-education of brain control. It is based on the idea that our brain works by alternating the emission of thoughts and the reception of sensations. By becoming aware of sensations, thoughts stop and we contact our being, we live in the present moment and a state of calm, freedom and security is produced. It is the ancient wisdom of "here and now". By opening to sensations, the flow of thoughts and emotions is automatically (effortlessly) stopped, the nervous energy is recovered, regenerating the central and sympathetic nervous system. "Receptivity balances emissivity, sensation balances thought" (Roger Vittoz).
Conscious sensations can be both internal and external. For example, feeling the body in movement, the sensation of stepping on the ground beneath our feet, our breathing, observing shapes and colors, etc. All this without any analysis, because if it were done, it would become thinking and would consume nervous energy.
According to Vittoz, the lack of cerebral control produces an imbalance between emissivity and receptivity. Brain re-education is based on re-establishing this balance by acting on conscious sensations.
Actually, when we perceive consciously, we are activating the HD and we stop time. When we think, we are activating the HI and making time pass in a linear way.
The power of now
Time and mind are connected, they are inseparable. Time is really an illusion, a construct of the mind, a concept created to interpret reality. Past and future have no reality of their own. The only thing that remains is the present continuum. The mind perceives time because it is synchronized with the outside, with phenomena, so the contents of the mind also change.
But it is possible to "free" oneself from time. The key is to live permanently in the present, because in the present there is no time. This is what Eckhart Tolle calls "The Power of Now". When we live in the present, we are not conscious of time, we do not perceive it, we live in no-time, there is full identification between the internal world and the external world. No-time can be identified with consciousness, which connects everything.
Indeed, when the mind is connected with the past (memory) or with the future (imagination), the mind is in activity. When the mind is connected with the present, time stops and the mind (being synchronized with time) also stops, it stops. It is what Castaneda calls "stopping the world". It is then that one has access to the inner Self, the deep self, a timeless state of consciousness, pure awareness, the source of thoughts, the absolute, the undifferentiated, the unmanifested, the place where everything is connected, the source of creativity, freedom and happiness, and where one truly experiences the flow of life. "The Self is the one, eternal, ever-present life." "Enlightenment is a state of wholeness where you are "unified", and therefore you are at peace" (Eckhart Tolle).
The inner Self cannot be grasped with the mind because it is beyond the mind and thoughts, so it can only be accessed when the mind is stilled. The Self is hidden behind the active mind. If we stop the mind, then we have access to the Self. "To be identified with the mind is to be trapped in time" (Eckhart Tolle).
The general strategy or technique, to access the inner Self and stop time and mind, is to direct attention, at all times, to perceptions, both internal and external. In effect, the mind basically emits (thoughts) or perceives (sensations). The awareness of sensations stops the mind. Conscious perception is the tool to bring the mind to the present. The key is to perceive, to observe without analyzing (past) and without imagining (future), focusing only on the process of perception, on contemplation. By opening ourselves to perception, the mind, body and emotions relax.
Examples of external perceptions that help to stop the mind are: contemplating a sunset, listening to a good musical composition, feeling the water of the sea, listening to the singing of the birds, etc. But the best strategy is to direct the consciousness inwards, towards self-perception, that is, to close the circle using the conceptual reflection of "perceiving the perceiver" or "observing the thinker". "When consciousness is directed outward, the mind and the world emerge. When it turns inward, it reaches its own Source and returns home, the Unmanifested" (Eckhart Tolle).
Some special techniques for directing consciousness inward have been taught by spiritual masters of all ages. Many are meditation or contemplation techniques. Some of them are:
Focusing attention on the "third eye," a point located between the two eyebrows, the point of soul-body connection.
Directing attention to the body and connecting permanently with the inner body, a transcendent perception of the physical body.
Directing attention to the external (physical) breath until transcending it and perceiving the internal breath.
Repeat a "mantra" (sacred word or sound) until reaching a state where thoughts are transcended and pure consciousness is attained.
Imagining and visualizing an inner light.
Direct attention permanently to the solar plexus.
To perceive our body in movement.
Directing attention to emotions, especially negative ones. By making contact with them, they dissolve.
The permanent awareness of the "I am", of the Self, which is beyond thoughts.
The union of space and time in the theory of relativity
Einstein's theory of relativity represents the bird's-eye view: all time already exists, all events exist in 4-dimensional space (space-time). In this space nothing happens or nothing changes, because it contains all time. From the frog's perspective, it seems that time flows, but it is only an illusion.
"It is not possible to define an absolute space or time, but only a space-time, which is combination of both" (Einstein).
An event in 4-dimensional space (the 3 dimensions of imaginary space and time) has the form (x, y, z, ict). And the distance between the events (x1, y1, z1, ict 1) and (x2, y2, z2, ict2) is:
√((x2 − x1)2 +
(y2 − y1)2 +
(z2 − z1)2)
Physical space and time are dual and linked. If, between two events, the spatial separation is the same as their temporal separation, the total separation is zero. For an observer, everything he observes is at zero distance in 4 dimensions.
When we observe a star, we are seeing it as it was several light years ago, but its separation from us is zero in 4-dimensional space. We cannot see the present if the event is spatially separated from us. We always see the past.
According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, if we could travel at the speed of light, we would observe that all space would be reduced to a point and that time would collapse to a single instant. That is, from the point of view of light itself, from its own frame of reference, there is neither space nor time. Each photon (light corpuscle) sees itself as if it were born and absorbed (for example, by our eyes) at the same instant, even if it has traveled millions of light-years from a distant galaxy. For the photon, time does not exist. And for it there are no distances either, there is no space; all distances are reduced to zero. Moreover, photons have no mass. Therefore, we can conclude that light unifies in two senses:
Light arises, emerges, manifests from the deep, where everything is unified.
If we "tune in" to the light at the physical level, then we return to the deep, to unity.
These properties or analogies of light justify that light symbolizes deep, unified consciousness, pure awareness:
Both make boundaries disappear. Everything is unified.
In both there is neither space nor time nor matter.
Both are unknowable. They are beyond the physical world.
Both are the foundation of all that exists, of the whole universe.
Both cannot be seen. We can only see their manifestations.
Both connect the internal and the external.
Both are universal and absolute.
Therefore, perhaps the equality "light = pure consciousness" is fulfilled, not only metaphorically, but literally.
Psychological time
There is objective (or external) time and subjective (or internal or psychological) time, time as we perceive it internally. Psychological time is related to the amount of novelties we perceive during a certain period of time. If we experience many novelties, psychological time dilates, expands and consciousness also expands. If we experience hardly any novelties, psychological time contracts, and with it consciousness.
Examples;
When we emit thoughts, such as when we have a worry, the HI is in full operation and time passes very quickly, it is compressed.
By focusing attention on the passage of time, on how long the processes last, your consciousness becomes more superficial and you become more aware of the passage of time, of the linearity of time. Time is compressed, because we are at the superficial level, at the HI level.
When you are immersed in the deep, in something that totally absorbs your attention, you are in the present, in the no-time, you are not conscious of the passage of time.
When we are in a receptive attitude, when we are at ease, when we have conscious perceptions (like a sunset, etc.), time passes slowly, it dilates, it expands.
Psychological time speeds up as we get older, as psychologist Douwe Draaisma [2006] has studied. This is what we can call "psychological time gravity".
On a trip to an unknown country, the first days pass very slowly because for us everything is novelty. As the days progress, the number of novelties decreases and time passes faster.
When we travel a road for the first time, time lengthens, dilates. When we make the return trip, the time is compressed because the number of novelties is smaller, since we already know the main aspects of the path and we only perceive small novelties that correspond to the details.
Subjected to the daily routine of our work, time speeds up and the years fly by.
At the Source, in the Unus Mundus, there are no novelties, so there is no time.
Other properties of psychological, internal or subjective time are:
Logarithmic perception.
The perception of time is logarithmic. The early years of our life pass slowly. As we get older, time runs faster. And as we approach old age, time speeds up. We perceive the passage of time because we perceive novelties. During childhood everything is novelty, but when we are old, novelties are minimal.
As we grow older, time passes more quickly, not only because the number of novelties decreases, but also because of the "weight" of memories, to which we turn again and again. As we grow older, not only does time pass faster, but also the elapsed time (the time we have lived) seems shorter and shorter. On the brink of death, time becomes so compressed that all of life seems like an instant.
So our age should not be measured linearly but logarithmically, which would be an internal or psychological age. In fact, it can be considered that, as the time intervals get smaller and smaller, perhaps there is a point where internal time collapses (i.e., there are no more possible novelties).
Genre.
Men's psychological time (and also real time) is shorter than women's.
Imagination.
When we imagine something we want to do, we are activating the HD and connecting with the future and with the world of all possibilities, favoring its realization.
The closer we are to a goal, the faster we move because the imagination is at a higher level of detail. It is the gravity or acceleration of time.
A Chinese proverb states that "Time is not had, it is created" and expresses a great truth. If we use the power of visualization, of imagination, we go inward from where we can shape external time. Time is not to be had, it is created from the deep. The one we have is the superficial one, the one we cannot control. The internal one, on the other hand, we can control.
Time is not absolute, but relative, depending on the consciousness of the subject. When we internalize time, it becomes more flexible and we can model it through imagination. Everything we imagine tends to come true. Time adapts to what we imagine. Time is not something predetermined. Time is created from within us.
Entanglement.
At any given moment, while experiencing an event, we may have a "memory" of the future, an event connected to the present event. It is a manifestation of the interconnectedness of time.
Freedom.
Time expands when we act with freedom, without conditioning, with spontaneity and creativity. Time contracts when we are limited and conditioned and act mechanically.
Movement.
When we travel by motorcycle, for example, two things happen: 1) Our consciousness receives sensations from the environment at a much higher rate than when we are walking; 2) As we have to be very attentive (to our own driving and to the environment, the mind almost stops, there are no thoughts because everything (or almost everything) is perception.
Therefore, paradoxically, the perception of time changes: time dilates, everything seems to slow down. And the dilation of internal time is equivalent to an internalization, a going deep within ourselves. This is why motorcycle enthusiasts speak of a "mystique", of elevated experiences. Riding a motorcycle is a ritual, a ceremony that immerses us in another dimension of space-time. Traveling by car, train or plane is also a pleasurable experience, which also implies a certain interiorization.
Past and future.
Past time is psychologically shorter than future time. The past is the limited and closed. The future is open to all possibilities.
It is paradoxical, but for an older person, something he did yesterday seems more distant than something that happened to him a long time ago.
Time contracts when we think about things we already know or remember in general.
We are constantly restructuring and imagining our past (and possible pasts that were not), interpreting it according to our level of consciousness. But at a deep level there is nothing to reinterpret.
And we are also continually imagining possible futures. As we become more conscious more possible futures open up to us.
Danger.
In a dangerous or stressful situation, psychological time dilates or stops, everything is perception and consciousness expands. It is the so-called "bullet-time", disclosed by Malcolm Gladwell [2005].
When we are going to die or have an accident, life passes before us very quickly, like a movie. The explanation lies in the fact that, in those moments, we are at a deep level and time is dilated.
Pleasure and pain.
When we are having fun or having a good time, time dilates, we do not perceive the passage of time, time disappears, we are not aware of the passage of time. If we are having a bad time, time contracts, time seems to slow down, it slows down, it compresses, we are more aware of the passage of time. "A man sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench seems like a minute, but a minute sitting over a stove seems like an hour. That's relativity" (Einstein).
Simplicity and complexity.
Complexity is associated with little or no awareness: feeling lost, confused, scattered, disorganized, uncomfortable, tense (of great mental energy consumption), superficial. When we perceive the complex, time is compressed because consciousness stumbles over many elements, which are obstacles, and tries to seek order.
Simplicity is associated with consciousness. It implies being clear, concentrated, orderly, comfortable, relaxed, economical (with little or no energy consumption), deep. Simple, intuitive, profound experiences are understood immediately and there is no time involved. When we perceive the simple, time is not perceived. The faster a process is, the simpler it seems. A long process is perceived as complex.
As MENTAL is a simple and profound language, its use connects us with simplicity and consciousness, so psychological time expands.
Some thoughts on time
The search for the true nature of time (and its relation to space) has exercised the imagination of philosophers of all times.
Plato: "Time is the moving image of eternity."
Giordano Bruno: "Time is the father of truth, its mother is our mind." He believed that the universe was infinite in space and time, limitless and eternal.
Husserl distinguishes between physical time and "inner time-consciousness". "The perception of duration itself presupposes a duration of perception" (Husserl).
Heidegger: "Time is an environment open to possibilities."
For J.M.E. McTaggart [1908], time is not real because its concept is contradictory. To this we can say that the contradictory is a concept of the external world, where truth is a superficial conception. At the deep level there is no such contradiction.
For Lars Löfgren [2000], time is self-referential, for every description of time makes use of words in which time is implicit.
Einstein: "When the doors of space are opened, the doors of time will also be opened".
"The crucial dimension of mental processes is time and not so much space" (Francisco Mora).
Heraclitus: "It is impossible to bathe in the same river twice". "Everything flows, nothing remains."
Gödel: "Time is that mysterious and apparently contradictory being which, on the other hand, seems to form the basis of the world and of our own existence." "Time remains, even after Einstein, the philosophical question."
"To awaken to life means to pay attention to each instant, and that is enough" (Buddha).
"God is outside of time" (St. Augustine).
"We live inside time and yet outside of it" (Brian Weiss).
"Time is one of the great mysteries of the universe" (Michio Kaku).
"Whenever there is duality in our mind there is time. The only continuous thing is the notion of the present" (Paul Valéry).
"Time is an illusion" (Julian Barbour).
"Time does not exist, but only change" (Ernst Mach).
"Time is the continuous flow of the present" (Spinoza).
Borges: "The future has no other reality than the present memory". "The past is indestructible." "If space is infinite, we are at any point in space. If time is infinite, we are anywhere in time."
"Only perceptions have consciousness" (Richard Gregory).
"What is time? I know what it is, but when I am asked I do not know" (St. Augustine).
"For those who love, time does not exist" (Henry Van Dyke, poet).
The Mayans and time
According to the ancient Mayans, on December 21, 2012, a temporal polarity shift occurred. Time as we have conceived and perceived it until now is over. A change of consciousness in the perception of reality in general, and time in particular. The era of the left hemisphere, rational, logical, linear time, will be replaced by the era of the right hemisphere, an era of intuitive, internal, deep time perception, or timeless and eternal no-time, where everything is connected.
The Mayans turned time into a religion. They had two calendars: a virtual one called "Tzolkin", with 260 days (20 months of 13 days) and a solar one called "Haab", with 365 days (18 months of 20 days plus 5 additional days).
Scale relavity theory
Proposed by Laurent Nottale [1993, 1997], the theory of scale relativity is a unifying theory of the microscopic and the macroscopic, of quantum mechanics and relativity theory, of classical physics and modern physics.
In the theory of relativity the laws of nature are the same for all reference coordinate systems. The theory of relativity of scale adds to this by stating that these laws are also the same whatever the scale of the coordinate system, thus generalizing the principle of relativity. According to this theory:
All physical quantities are of fractal type, including space-time. Physical quantities are functions that depend explicitly on the resolution, i.e. on the precision of the observation. Moreover, they are never exact, they are always approximate. For example, a steel bar, when observed closely will present pores, so that it can not really be considered as a three-dimensional object, but an object of fractional dimension (between 2 and 3), like a fractal.
Quantum and classical behaviors are a matter of scale. At the microscopic scale quantum properties appear. At the macroscopic scale the properties are classical. The different observations in the micro and macro worlds do not come from the laws being different, but are the same laws manifesting themselves at different scales.
Space-time manifests itself as fractal when observed at the subatomic scale. We can visualize space-time as a "foam".
The fractal property of space-time manifests itself in the irregular trajectories of particles (a property discovered by Richard Feynman), which are not differentiable. According to Lebesgue's theorem, every continuous non-differentiable curve has infinite length. Therefore, the length of each trajectory is infinite (like every fractal curve). That is why it is not observable and has been misinterpreted probabilistically.
A trajectory of a free particle is a space-time geodesic. At small scales there are an infinite number of geodesics. A particular geodesic is associated with the corpuscular nature of a particle.
The fractal/non-fractal transition corresponds to the quantum physics - classical physics transition. The De Broglie wavelength, associated with a particle (h/mv), is the threshold between fractal (quantum mechanics) and non-fractal (classical mechanics) behavior.
In the same way that the curvature of space-time defines gravitation, fractal space-time defines quantum properties. The structure of space-time is both curved and fractal.
In the same way that on a large scale there exists an invariant of a maximum type (the speed of light), there exists on a small scale an invariant of a minimum type, not surmountable, which is the so-called "Planck length" (1.6×10-35 m).
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