We now understand as one thing what was once believed to be separate phenomena. I am, of course, talking of Space-time. It was Relativity theory which revealed that the synchronicity of an event could not be agreed upon by observers experiencing different relative motions to one another. Synchronicity is defined by the agreement of two separate observations that an effect occurred at the same exact ‘now’ moment in space-time. In a nutshell Relativity shows that there is no absolute notion of time nor absolute sense of simultaneity. Every observer’s ‘reference-body’ (co-ordinate system) has its own particular time. Measurements can only have meanings when we are told the reference-body for which the statement of time refers.

So, two observers moving through space at a constant velocity but at fixed positions from each other would be able to agree on the simultaneity of events because they occupy the same ‘reference-frame’ in space-time. This reference-frame, let’s call it ‘Frame X’, is an expansive two-dimensional plane that spreads across the Universe and moves through time at the speed of the observer. Any other observer on Frame X who maintained a stationary position in relation with the other two, no matter how far away they were, would be able to agree on simultaneity with them as well. But this would not be true for an observer whose relative speed or position changed with respect to Frame X. This new observer would occupy his or her own reference-frame, Frame Y. This reference-frame would also expand throughout the Universe, but at an angle rotated from that of Frame X. This means that this solitary observer’s ‘now’ moment in time would intersect either the past or future ‘now’ of Frame X. For occupants of Frame X, the ‘now’ of Frame Y exists in their real past with events that have already occurred, and which they can only remember. Or it exists in a real future whose events have yet to occur for them, and which they can only imagine.

It was from these, and other, results that Einstein and like-minded thinkers like Minkowski and Putnam, claimed that time as we experience it is illusory; and why not, from their viewpoint? Look down upon a crowded Avenue with its myriad of observers walking, driving, and standing, one among the other. Each occupying their own reference-frame of ‘now’ that intersects the actual past or future of other observers. At the low speeds of the relative changes in position of these observers the differences in synchronous occurrence between them is too small to be noticeable. But it is real! For me, you, anyone, walking down the street. Some folks exist in a future moment, others in a past moment of others’ lives. If someone, anyone, can ‘be’, can actually exist, even for a millisecond in my as yet unknown future, then what exactly is the future; or the past; or time for that matter? And so, with this knowledge, all bets are off as to whether our experience of flowing time reflects what time really is. And yet…

Science is content to sweep the ‘now’ under the rug. They want to eat their cake and have it too. Its utility makes it impossible to dispense with. Why? Every single measurement and observation we make is made from this very ‘now’ moment in time. Why do we believe that time exists? We experience it. But what are we experiencing? We create ever more complex and ingenious devices to ‘measure’ time but what are we measuring? Measuring time does not tell us what it is. What we measure are ‘observed changes’ in the state of matter or energy in space. The observed interval that we measure we define as time. The metrics we use to describe that interval are our own arbitrary creations, from nano-seconds to geologic epochs. But these measurements only have meaning through the recorded ‘now’ moments of our inquiry, whether it’s a snapshot or a time-lapse recording. These measurements have no meaning without the presence of conscious beings to observe them. It is no accident that both measurements and consciousness exist only at a ‘now’ moment. A consciousness that exists and measures from a ‘now’ moment experiences, and believes themselves part of, a ‘manifest reality’. But this ‘now’ moment is an interpreted creation of our bio-sensory system. Conscious awareness and the ‘now’ are two sides of the same coin created from a bio-sensory process.

But how do we know that our bio-sensory system is the creator of this ‘now’ moment? To begin, Neuro-science has made great strides in identifying the major operators within the brain and the nervous system. Leaving the copious details aside we can simply say that science believes it has discovered how the functions of the brain accurately and appropriately interprets the world and reacts to it. For those of you who know my work, this is the very definition of antIs reality. Also included with these discoveries are the many ways in which this process fails. But one thing is clear, our human ‘experience of being’ is one of a continually manifesting existence through continually manifesting ‘now’ moments, in a never-ending flow of time. But which is flowing? Is time flowing past a stationary ‘now’? Or is the ‘now’ flowing through a static ‘time’? The key to answering this riddle lies in the mutable nature of time’s metric as it is experienced from the ‘now’. The experience of time’s duration has been shown to have a dependency on the internal state of the observer’s bio-sensory system and the external conditions it is reporting on. By this dependency, the experience from the ’now’ moment can vary greatly for a conscious observer. Under benign conditions our experience of time has a certain base-line setting, a certain fundamental meter that we conscious beings tend to agree on. We experience time’s flow, but we don’t really experience the decisive importance of the ‘now’ as a platform from which we actually observe and experience time and all reality. That being said, in moments of extreme stress or danger, it is commonly reported that the experienced flow of time slows down considerably; everything seems to move in slow motion. Alternately, during moments of great joy or involvement in diverting activity it is also common to experience time as speeding up and moving appreciably faster than at ‘base-line’; time seems to fly by very quickly. This is clear evidence of biology’s involvement in the creation of an experience of flowing time. This is evidence of flowing time is an interpreted product of our bio-sensory system. But it is important to reiterate that we are only aware of flowing time, as well as every other experience of reality, through this interpreted creation of biology we call ‘now’. In fact, both Physics and Biology tell us that this singular ‘now’ experience is not a bona fide ‘now’ at all. It is a bio-sensory amalgamation of sensory inputs from chronologically disparate sources that are processed, interpreted, and fabricated by the brain into a single ‘now’ experience for the organism.

The only other way to explain such anomalies in our experience of time’s flow is that our internal biological state is capable of ‘bending’ time by slowing it or speeding it up. Can our internal bio-sensory state with the attendant emotions and judgments alter the flow of time if it is a physical property of the universe? Given that there is no evidence to say it can we would have to say no. But the ‘now’ moment is so fundamental to the existence of consciousness that consciousness is unaware of its biologically manufactured source. A good metaphor for this phenomenon is a knife, sharpen it all you want, it can never cut itself. Our manifest consciousness can never know or experience the non-manifest nature of Reality, the Source Reality, totIs Reality. This is true because no matter how deeply it delves into the minutiae of a manifest reality it experiences as existing outside of itself, that reality must always be a manifest one in order to be understood.

Relativity has transformed our understanding of time, space, matter, and energy. Since that transformation we have continued in a relentless pursuit to discover and measure new ‘constituent’ particles and energies. Yet we still don’t know what these four basic structures of reality actually are. We discover smaller and smaller entities. Atoms, protons, electrons, quarks, photons. We make finer and finer measurements from our observational platform called ‘now’. We also discover that we are theoretically limited in our measurements to what are known as the Planck length and Planck time. These ultimate measurements are so small that we have not an inkling of how to technically approach them. But it is moot because whatever time, space, matter, and energy are, they cannot be revealed through manifest measurements. Why? Because they do not manifest their existence in a ‘now’ moment. Biology does not determine the attributes of Reality; it is the other way around. The crux of the problem is that being a manifest phenomenon, consciousness can only experience a manifest reality. The world it experiences is an anthropomorphism, a mirror of its own ontological nature. “I am manifest ergo the world is manifest. But If time is an illusion, as Einstein so sagely put it, then so too is a reality that is only real in a ‘now’ moment, no matter what its reference-frame may be. It’s important to repeat this. If time is an illusion, then so is manifest reality. As such, Reality, that is, Source, must be a non-manifest phenomenon. This is totIs Reality. While consciousness cannot exist outside of a ‘now’ moment, totIs Reality, the source of our universe, needs it not.

Our biology creates for us an interpretation of reality; up/down, hot/cold, red/blue, good/bad. But being an interpretation, it is not actually Reality, it is not Source. On the other hand, the fact that it is an interpretation means that there can be other interpretations as well. We are born with and live by the DNA supplied interpretation of time’s flow in an experienced world of cause and effect. But modern science has given us clues as to the existence of an ultimate Reality that is something quite different from the default reality we experience as consciousness. As I wrote in my post on ‘Memory and the Future’, we do remember both the past and the future, we just don’t recognize our memories of the future as such because they come from a different bio-sensory processes with its own unique experiences.

Human consciousness creates a myriad of interpretations of reality. Using the findings of modern science and with the ideas above, I have developed an interpretation that says that our experience of cause and effect, with the ineluctable separateness they engender, is illusory. If separateness is an illusion, then things don’t happen to us, instead, things happening ARE us. Such an interpretation says that our bio-sensory experience of life is a discovery of ‘what actually is’ through the bio-sensory medium of a ‘now’. For a consciousness existing in a ‘now’, we can only understand this to mean that everything already exists; it’s like fate on steroids. But it’s important to understand that Reality exists beyond and outside of any understanding or experience we have regarding the measurements we make in space and time. Many would rebel at such an idea. This describes a deterministic universe they will say. What about free will? But all of consciousness’ concepts derive from a ‘now’ centric understanding of reality. If time as we experience it is illusory, this universe is a unified one. It cannot be understood by its parts because it has no parts, it is Unity. Being Unity, we are not separate from it. This is the meaning of “Things don’t happen to us, things happening is us.” Such an interpretation says that the conscious self is not really doing anything at all. TotIs reality supplies all; the stage, the actors, and the acts. How can we do anything when, in Reality, all is already done?” If these ideas seem foreign, it is because our programming does not allow any questioning of its default interpretation; that only this ‘now’ moment in time is actually real. Yet, think of all the strange and impossible beliefs and ideas our default interpretation does allow like, omnipotent and invisible gods, angels and devils, witches and wizards, flat earths with sea monsters, money, stolen elections, and neo-Nazi patriots, to name but a miniscule few. And it does not square with the discoveries of modern science, especially since the revelations of Relativity theory, Quantum mechanics, and Neuro-science.

My interpretation is built on these discoveries. But because it is a Reality that exists beyond the scope of conscious understanding, any description will sound illogical and confusing at first. What has helped me in squaring my own ‘experience of being’ with this strange new interpretation is a book called the Tao Te Ching. It is the seminal book of Chinese Taoism. In it the TAO, as Source Reality, is also a non-manifest phenomenon. The enigma of the Tao is coaxed from within its eighty-one verses. I’d like to leave you with this stanza from verse number forty-eight. It casts a fresh, unconventional light on the problem of determinism and the conscious self’s place in a non-manifest Reality.