Time: The greatest traitor and the biggest lie (Part 2)

In part one we saw time is mental, emotional, psychological connected to our thoughts, emotions and even our souls. But the physical body is central to it. In this part we will be slightly scientific to see other aspects including if time is the fourth dimension.

In my desperation to catch time I had no option but to talk to others. Some said it is linear. No matter where one was, be in the US or in Australia or in the Middle East; time passes the same. 24 hours is the same span everywhere. 24 hours is one day and 365 days is 1 year. It is a scale or standard like meter or liter or kilogram. One day is not 48 hours in one place and 36 hours somewhere else. That One hour is 60 minutes and one minute is 60 seconds everywhere. It is linear because it is like a number line and plotted as an axis. And it is unidirectional.  

Some said it is circular.  Many scientists have suggested that time is circular in nature. Most popular being the BigBang theory that suggests that after the big bang the universe expands, then the expansion slows down, then it contracts and finally it crunches followed by another big bang. This is a cyclic process. Even Pythagoras and Heraclitus hinted at cyclic patterns in nature. Nietzsche suggested eternal recurrence that life will repeat infinitely. Mathematical models have shown recursive patterns of time. Confirmed Cyclic Cosmology (Roser Penrose) suggests that the universe goes through infinite cycles making beginning and end indistinguishable. Patterns in time contain smaller versions of themselves. Almost like loops within loops. More interesting, Computational theory suggests ‘moments’ fall back into previous ones. More intriguing is the Einstein’s and then Kurt Godel’s curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy leading to closed timelike curves. This simply translates to, having certain cases, in specific conditions, coming back to the same time is possible. Albeit mathematically, at the current level of science. We are looking at possibilities wherein travel into the past could be a reality. And if timeloops exist within timeloops, why not a jump into the future! If one somehow jumps into the future, can come back to the time when he jumped from the future.

If we look at the mythology of different countries, these suggest time to be circular. One interesting Japanese story speaks of a turtle carrying a person into the sea and when he comes back; many years have passed. Similarly in Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and elsewhere. However, Indian mythology has concrete references to time, its nature, and the possibilities. The different Yugas (Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali) are cyclical in nature. Looking at Indian Vedic astrology one finds that the Sun moving from Tropic of Cancer to Capricorn and back is one year. But this one year is one day of the Devas or the Gods. Indian mythology also offers many travels to other worlds and some that include time travel. Are scientific models of today suggesting the authenticity of this mythological content?       

Some said Time is fixed and not a variable. Time doesn’t change. They further argued that the past and the future is contained in the present. Or at any moment in time, time is a capsule that has the future and the past just that we don’t see it. There is a famous Kirlian photography experiment that needs mention here. Extremely highly sensitive film was used to photograph a rosebud. The energy exhibited by the photograph that was taken revealed that this rosebud exhibited the energy patterns of a full-blown rose. OSHO in one of his books has referred that infact the photograph showed a full-blown flower and not the bud that was filmed. He further says that that all the log entries of the rosebud were rechecked to see if this rosebud was replaced somewhere with a full-blown rose. But that had not happened. The argument here is, the bud had its future in it that we couldn’t see but an extremely sensitive film did capture the future at that moment of time. So, time is fixed. Doesn’t change like a variable. We are simply unable to witness this phenomenon due to our physical limitations. Say for example, the horoscope of a person contains the past, future, and the present of a person. The horoscope is an astronomical capture of celestial bodies at a moment in time. Isn’t it?

Some advanced thinkers expressed that time is different for different people and different for an individual in different circumstances. I am a lazy fellow, don’t have anything to do; for me time is plenty. Someone is very active must do many things (say a CEO of a huge company); for him time is scarce. The mass, energy, space, and gravity work differently for the two persons. The same person experiences time differently in young age, old age, and childhood. We are just not sensitive to these variations. 

Can we agree that time is linear, unidirectional, is fixed, is cyclic, repeating, a scale or standard yet a variable and all these at the same time. Worth a consideration. What do you think?

Many argue that time is the fourth dimension. This 4th dimension may not be a straight line and could take any pattern. Can be something like a sine curve, a curvilinear, a loop, circular or any other. Or all these rotating in three-dimensional space!

Let us take recourse to Indian Mythology

There were two great Sages. Vasistha and Viswamitra. While Vasishta was a Bramha Rishi, Viswamitra was a Raja Rishi. It seems Bramha Rishi is like the Prime Minister who can do anything he wanted. Whereas Raja Rishi is like the defence minister. Bramha Rishi seemed higher in Rank compared to Raja Rishi. Vasishta could move to Bramha Loka (A far superior world compared to our world) in his physical body but Viswamitra was not allowed go in physical body but was doing so in shuttle body. Two things are important here. One, some could instantaneously travel to other worlds and come back to our world like Viswamitra. Secondly, some had the capacity to travel to other worlds with the same physical body like Vasishta that Viswamitra could not do. Both had the technique to travel far distances instantaneously. But Viswamitra did not have the technique to travel with his physical body. What could be the difference in the technique or the technology used? How very long distances did not matter to them and how much time did they consume to travel such far?

With this backdrop we will see in subsequent posts that Time is one of the final illusions that humans need to conquer and may not be the fourth dimension.      

END OF ARTICLE