Tick Tock, Tick Tock
Most people recognize time as being something absolute, independent of any and all external events and happenings. It flows continuously at a constant rate. Tick Tock, Tick Tock. Every second is unique and when that second dissipates, another second of equal duration comes forth. Once a second is done, the activities of that second can only be experienced through our brain’s memory files. Newton postulated that one second on earth is also one second at any point in the universe. Most people’s concept of time follow the Newtonian description of time.
The Newtonian concept of time is that time is something that flows forward uniformly and without interruption. It is independent of any external event or happening. Tick-tock, Tick-tock. Until the twentieth century, science pretty much held Newton’s position on time as accurate. Have you ever thought however that maybe time is an illusion?
Albert Einstein Contradicts Newton
One of the most influential physicists to have ever lived, Albert Einstein, came to a new conclusion about time in the twentieth century. He stated, ” People like us who believe in physics know the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
Twenty-first century discoveries in the realm of physics have led many esteemed scientists to the theory of spacetime. They put forth that there is a block universe where time and space are connected. In this block universe, called spacetime, everything that has ever happened or ever will happen is happening right now.
Time Travel Is Real
Time travel is real. A bold statement indeed but one born of first hand experience. I know because I have time travelled. It happened recently. I was in my car at a stop light, waiting for the light to change to green. This particular light has a pretty long wait time of about a minute and a half so I put the car in park and took my foot off the brake pedal. The intersecting road is heavily travelled. As I began waiting for the light to change I looked specifically at the door of one room of an adjacent chain motel. That room was Room 245. Within that room over forty years ago I had met with several co-workers in the evening. Our office was in Newark, NJ but we all had investigatory assignments in southern New Jersey. We all had rooms at this chain motel.
One evening, after dinner, we all met in Room 245. The bottle of Dewars came out, the cigarettes were already creating a haze in the room. In a totally relaxed atmosphere, we enjoyed each other’s company. Jokes and stories of this, that or the other were told in a spirit of true camaraderie. It was an evening that I enjoyed but nothing earth-shattering happened. There was no dramatic event of any type during that evening. It was just a pleasant evening with friends.
A Very, Very Weird Feeling
I turned my head away from the motel to look at the traffic light. Within another second, I was not in my car any longer. I was physically in Room 245. Not there merely in my memories. Not there only in my thoughts. My physical body, the body that I had over forty years ago, was actually there, in Room 245 with all my friends. I was standing there just enjoying the repartee. I had a glass of scotch in my left hand and a Camel cigarette in the other hand. It was an extremely weird feeling. I was there in the room, but I also could watch myself. I even saw the names of the cigarettes on the packs that the smokers were smoking – Camels, Winston and Parliament. I could not have been back in Room 245 for more than fifteen seconds tops, when I suddenly was back behind the steering wheel of my car. The traffic light had still not changed.
No Cigarettes In Over 40 Years !
After looking back and forth between the motel room door and the traffic light, the light finally changed and I drove off. I was so spooked by the experience however that I maneuvered my car to get back to that traffic light again. I looked at the door of Room 245. Nothing happened. I did not go back in time. I maneuvered my car again but this time I parked in the motel lot. For fifteen minutes I stared at the door of Room 245. I wanted so much to go back in time to that room again, but no dice. No transportation back in time. Just memories, nothing more.
That whole fifteen seconds (or whatever it was) was a spooky, weird feeling. It was most assuredly more than just my memories kicking in. I drive by dozens of places every month that bring up vivid memories. This weird experience was much more than a vivid memory. I was actually physically there. An event that took place over forty years ago but was also happening right now. The strangest part of the whole thing is this – immediately after experiencing this shift of dimensions – while I was back in my car – my right hand smelled of Camel cigarettes. I haven’t smoked a cigarette in over forty years. Camel cigarettes have no filter, only tobacco. As such, occasionally a small piece of tobacco would work itself into into the mouth when smoking Camels. As I was waiting at the light, I opened the drivers side car window in order to spit out a small piece of tobacco from my mouth.
I have no idea why or how I was physically transported back in time to that motel room. It was not something that I tried to do. It just happened. Although there are definitely things that I would have done differently in my past if I had the chance, time travel is something that I never aspired to. My focus these days until my last day is on the “now moment” in time. I only wish that I could have stayed in Room 245 a while longer. It was a bittersweet but amazing experience.
Quantum Physics
There are numerous scientists and esteemed thinkers today that are proclaiming that everything happens in the now. They argue that there exists a block universe where time and space are connected. This block universe is called spacetime. This theory states that space and time are part of a four dimensional structure where everything that has ever happened or will happen has its own coordinates in spacetime. This would allow everything to be real in the sense that the past and even the future are there in spacetime.
Think of the block universe as a four-dimensional space-time structure. In this structure, time is like space. Every event has its own coordinates in space-time. Time is tenseless with all coordinates equally real so that the past and the future are no less real than the present.
So, is time irreducible, fundamental and an ultimate descriptor of reality? Or is it that our subjective sense of flowing time has been generated by our brains and is merely an illusion to allow us to make sense of our stay here in this earth dimension? What do you think?
Meister Eckhart
Have you ever heard of a man called Meister Eckhart? He was a German cleric, teacher, philosopher and mystic in the late 1200’s, early 1300’s. I have read some of his translated writings. He was an extraordinary man of God. Through his writings, he proposes that everything happens in the Now moment. One can conceivably read that to mean that the past, present and future are all happening at the same time in the time continuum.
Here is a quote from the writings of Meister Eckhart: “There exists only the present instant…a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday, nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.”
Everyone Is A Day Trader
In the ever growing community of investors who are looking to make money from trading, there has evolved the practice known as day trading. This is the practice of buying and selling a commodity in a very short time frame, typically within a day. The goal of day trading is to earn a small profit on each trade and then compound those gains over time. If you are making good trades, you will create substantial profits. If you are making poor trades, you can lose your shirt (and pants and socks and everything else as well).
Do you realize that you are an active day trader? Every day you are conducting trades in the most valuable commodity on earth — time. When you were born, your account was fully funded for the balance of your stay on earth. You can only speculate how much time has been placed into your trading account. Every day of your life you are required to trade 24 hours of your time. Replenishment is not an option. Your total life account may have less than 24 hours or it may have over 100 years of time. It is to your benefit to recognize the precious nature of time. Likewise, it is also to your benefit to trade whatever time you have remaining with sharp focus and determined intention.
Hundreds Of Ways
There are hundreds of ways that you can trade your time for every day. A certain amount of time you spend for sleep. Next is time spent at your place of employment. More of your time is traded for grooming, hygiene, commuting to and from work, and eating your daily meals. Additional time is traded engaging in social relationships (spouse, family, friends, etc.), purchasing essential (things you need) and non-essential supplies (things you want), maintaining your lodging and your vehicle, maintaining the health of your body, engaging in recreational activities and pursuing your various hobbies and interests. Your life then is one continuous day trading session after another.
Have you traded wisely thus far? Be honest. Have you received a good return on your trading? If yes, good. Continue in this vein. If no, then realize the game of your life is not over yet As long as you are still breathing, there is still time to turn things around.
A Now Consciousness of Being
To live fully in the now will bring you inner peace and personal fulfillment. You must actively and consistently work at it however. Most are too comfortable with the familiar. That which they know, feels safer to them than the unknown. So they sadly shuffle along to the end of their life in an unconscious trance all the while wondering about that vague feeling that they have that something is missing.
Commit yourself to the daily work. It will be more than worth it to you. Immerse yourself in the daily work of exclusively living your life in the now consciousness. If you honestly do this, sooner or later the scales will fall off your eyes. And my friend, you will see the truth and the truth will set you free.
Free from what you say? Free from fear. Free from needing, grasping, clinging. You will be free from hoping that this person or that group will save you. Free from waiting for this to happen or that to happen before you can experience power, peace and joy. Freedom is living fully in this now moment, then the next, then the next, right on up to your last breath.
What To Make Of That 15 Second Journey
I am still pondering over the “Room 245” happening. That it did indeed happen is the strongest fact concerning this whole thing. Why it happened however, to an average Joe sitting at a traffic light, I do not know. The next fact is that during those fifteen or so seconds in the motel room, I heard, saw, felt, smelled and tasted. All five of my physical senses were in full use. I heard the voices and laughter. I saw my friends clearly. I felt the glass of Scotch whiskey and water in my hand (no ice) and the cigarette in the other hand. I smelled the cigarette smoke. I tasted the cigarette and the Scotch from my glass.
Perhaps I was being told by an angel (do they do time travel?) to remember to live fully in every remaining now moment. It may be by doing that with greater consistency, it will help to facilitate my manifesting efforts.
What I do know for sure is this – it was real. It was not a dream. Nor was it a hallucination or a vivid memory. I always try, as best as I can, to learn from every situation in which I find myself. That was not always the case. In my past I was prone to repeating the same mistakes over and over again. So, I guess what I am going to learn from this whole Room 245 thing is this: (1) live FULLY in the Now as best as I possibly can; (2) be THANKFUL wherever I can in the Now moment, and (3) EXPECT good things to manifest in what little remains of my life. I think it is about time, my friend, that you did the same.
Conceive. Believe. Receive.