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by David Axelrod, PhD Time is an analytical tool by which a lower dimensional being can input a higher dimensional world. By reducing this world into smaller pieces, called moments, the experiences of learning and control become possible. For example, only after you have heard a song in its entirety can you say you have heard the song. However, our everyday experience typically has us listening to a song as if by little overlapping snippets. In fact, it is this psychological phenomena that allows the digital representation of music to be so effective (to digitize sound is to take very short samples of its vibrational energy and translate it into binary code, this can replayed so quickly that we are unaware of the sound's transformation). Thus, what we perceive is highly dependent on how large we define a moment. One way of imagining a transcendent experience is to imagine what life would be like if we perceived what we call an hour as a single, and whole, moment. This idea has significant impact on our judgments, as it changes the meaning of causality. Imagine your life as a whole moment instead of a series of events (with a past that determines the present that determines the future). Instead of being worried over the decisions of today, allow yourself to see that you have already made all these decisions when you chose to live this life, and then embrace the choice you've made. By doing so, you still take responsibility for your life, yet you free up much conscious energy to experience, and enjoy, the life you are living. Instead of experiencing the overwhelm associated with analyzing every possible outcome and the cutting away of what could have been (the word "decision" originally meant "to cut away"), and thus focusing on loss, you can experience choosing what you are doing and embracing what is occurring. We all share the universe, the eternal testament of reality. We are different from each other only by the path we take to cover it. Some might get lost and go around in loops. Some are exposed to discontinuities, others to gradual imperceptible change. Then there are the special few for whom the whole universe is known in, and as, a single moment. Spiritually, it is as if we are all one, yet by there being so many different ways of looking at the world, we create the array of individual experiences. Imagine every individual lifeline as a piece of thread. Next, imagine that all of them are attached together in one very long piece. Now, roll up the thread into a ball. If you imagine slicing the ball, you will see many different points. Each point represents a different person at a common chronological moment. This is how a single being (the one very long thread) can generate the perception of many distinct individuals that, when focused myopically, see only the individual self and feel disconnected from others. When the mind is allowed to expand, the individuals experience the interconnectedness of all. When you measure these moments, they become data. If you seek only data that supports your own perception, reality becomes immutable. You gain consistency at the loss of transcendence and the potential to understand others. But if you perceive time as a tool to locate an experience (in the same way we use three dimensions of space to locate an object), you can be freed from the paradigm of a pre-determined succession of behaviors that forces itself on your consciousness. You are liberated from ever having to believe you are stuck, about anything- there are always other possibilities. It also makes it easier to understand and appreciate the perceptions of others. Especially, the many minds experienced within your own life.
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