Thursday, 28. February 2008, 19:30:17

I believe that each of us has been at least for once in his/hers lifetime asking those fundamental questions about time and it's nature. Many people approach these dilemmas from the physical point of view and some of them, like Einstein, were quite successful.
But we all know that this is not the end of this story. Einstein could very well be right, but changes of time become significant only when we're dealing with powerful gravitational fields, high masses or moving that is close to the speed of light.
But what about the time that we, humans, perceive? It may be relative just as well, but under different laws.
Quite recently I've read a book by
Steve Taylor who deals with this questions in his book Making time.
The book could be divided in three parts. First part talks about our perception of time in normal circumstances, the second part (which is a bit harder for me to accept) talks about paranormal experiences like precognition, and the third part tries to apply the previously discussed theory into praxis, with a single goal: to manipulate your perceived time, either by making it longer when you're having fun, or to run it faster when you're in pain (or in doctor's waiting room, prison, waiting in a line... etc). Let's examine those three parts separately.
1st part, Chapters 1-6Author starts by introducing 5 "laws" of psychological time and I hope I'm not violating any law or giving you a spoiler by writing them down:
1. Time speeds up as we get older
2. Time slows down when we are exposed to new experiences and environments.
3. Time passes quickly in states of absorption.
4. Time passes slowly in states of non-absorption.
5. Time often passes slowly, or stops altogether, in situation where conscious mind or normal ego is in abeyance.
I think most of these things are rather self-explanatory, especially if you think of the situations from your own life. Christmas does seem to come faster every year around, and time seems longer when you go abroad (when you return home it feels like you were away for at least a month, while for others it was just an other boring and short week), time does seem to pass quickly when you are absorbed (movies, video games...) and it passes so slowly when you are not absorbed (waiting at your dentist's waiting room). The last law describes situations of meditation, car accidents (when everything seems to be moving in slow motion when you try to recall it) or "in the Zone" experiences described by athletes, artists or performers.
Author spends about 150 pages for this argument and gives really detailed explanation of this theory. He cites many scientific papers and research reports. Reading these chapters was thrilling and it gave me chills... I only wish I could tell you more, but it is hard for me now to condense 150 pages into one paragraph.
2nd part, 7th ChapterSecond part is in my opinion chapter 7 when author tries to argue that linear perception of time is an illusion. While the psychological part of the argument (involving theory of
ego) could be OK, he then moves on to the quantum theory which he simplifies just a bit too much. OK, it is proven for the time to be relative across the universe and it could be true that the linear timeline that we sense isn't exactly what
really goes on in the universe, but that doesn't necessarily mean that some people have precognitive or similar abilities. I mean, quantum theory is so deep, abstract and yet still unknown, that even one of it's great masters,
Richard Feynman, once said: "If you think you understand quantum theory, you don't understand quantum theory."
Author should AT LEAST mention that many of those cases could be explained simply by
selection bias.
3rd part, Chapters 8-9So, now that we learned so much about the time perception; how to manipulate our perceived time? Should we travel around like crazy? Change jobs every couple of months? Or perhaps live in a boredom for the rest of the life to make it seem sooo looooooong. Hm... I'm not giving that up

If the author finds his way to this blog.... well, it just wouldn't be fair, would it

Overall it is an amazing book, which answered many of my fundamental questions about time vs. psychology. I can't recommend it enough.
I hope now we could debate this stuff within the comments section below. You are welcome to post your thoughts and questions.