Time Perception - It's All In Your Mind
Ever have one of those moments when you are so involved in something that time seems to fly? Tempus fugit.
Different from when time seems to stop, like when some bad sh*t is about to happen. This phenomenon is known as ‘stopped clock illusion’, which, I experienced many years ago as I was driving by the capitol building in Denver. Heading home after a movie I was driving in the far left lane on a ONE-WAY road when I noticed headlights coming towards my mini-me truck in the same lane I was in. Guess what was behind the car. A police car in pursuit.
My mind attempted to make sense of the scene. No way. Couldn’t do it. Instead I slowed down and pulled the truck up onto the grassy roadside and as I turned my head to watch both cars pass on the right everything slowed to a snail’s pace. Every movement was infinite and I saw everything in fine detail and in slowwwwww motionnnnnnn until both cars passed and everything blinked back to ‘real time’. Weirded me out. I thought it was a flash back. Perhaps it was.
Yesterday morning my routine of rolling over in the early morning to snuggle with Ashara, yes we do that, followed by a meditation practice, yes we do that too, before getting up to start the day was modified when Ashara got up to get in the shower because she was leaving for a morning appointment. So, I stayed in bed waiting for the right time to get up. Usually that would mean drifting in a slightly meditative state. What I did instead was open email, BIG MISTAKE, and got wrapped up reading an article about aspen trees since it is that time of the year when their leaves go from green to shades of red, orange and gold. FABULOUS!
Anyway, I suddenly had the feeling that I was late and just had to get my narrow ass out of bed. Turns out that the clock time was close to the actual time we would have gotten up had we followed our routine.
But, damn! For that split second I really thought I was in bed reading for an hour.
“Time is a tide that disobeys
It disobeys me”. David Gilmour
While writing this post I’m listening to David Gilmour’s latest release, Luck and Strange, and while listening to the song Scattered I heard the above lyrics. Great set of music from the master of soulful guitar.
Speaking of scattered.
Back to the post.
So, time perception.
If you look up ‘time perception’ on YouTube you would find so many videos you could literally spend a day looking at them. Of course you have to consider the source and determine if any of those are relevant or true.
Meanwhile, time slows down and time speeds up.
But, time isn’t real.
It’s all perceived in our minds.
Go ask your favorite guru.
I’ll wrap this with a few quotes:
“Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing.” Miles Davis
“Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.” Chinese proverb
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Albert Einstein
Time for us to go to an event this evening.
Conceived and written by a real human bean.
