Do we Experience ‘Time’ in the Moment Consciousness and Mind Separate?
By Maria Anna van Driel, www.nexttruth.com
Even though it feels that we are ‘controlling’ time as soon as we are experiencing a pure form of primordial stress…the objects swirling in that same realm, we cannot. Darn! We definitely need new (time) laws! :)
Work, lunch, sports, going out to dinner… we go through our schedules and appointments without creating a second idea or opinion produced in this process of ‘thinking’ of what it is we are really experiencing. Are we experiencing the taste, smell and sound of the popcorn we are eating while watching a movie or, are we ‘sensing’ the time our brain needs to convert the myriad (chemical) processes taking place in our body when we eat the popcorn, into a simplified and coherent language for us to understand what is happening.
Even though it is imagined to be true, one of the unexplained phenomena that still lies beyond the bounds of our comprehension is how we perceive the strange behaviors of ‘time’. No matter how many mathematical numbers we apply to it or, build those devices which should tell you what time it is in that particular moment, we just cannot seem to wrap our mind around this wobbly phenomena.
Odd as it might sound but if we place the human brain underneath a magnifying glass during stress situations, it almost seems that it has a ‘mind’ of its own. An unexplained, almost paranormal phenomena is occurring within us what we have labeled ‘consciousness’. But what if these two, mind and consciousness, separate from each other? Could we, in the moment we reposition ourselves to the Euclidean coordinates of a ‘Super Position’, become aware of them? If so, it is a logical line of thought that a psychological incoherency as such could be the cause of why we are able to experience ‘time’ as a stretched event or, as one that is speeding up rapidly.
Can we state that there are uncountable ways for the human brain to experience and translate stress and thus ‘time’ what in turn is providing ‘the observer’ (you) to enter an altered state of reality? If yes, we can also state that time is not what we read on a clock. We will neither find it in the primordial particle-soup the universe was born from nor in the annual events of Mother Nature. If the mind, so many say, is creating the universe we are swirling in, the globe we are walking on and everything that is captured by our vision every picosecond of our existence…then time is you and me.
Let me give you an example of a personal experience in where time started to act out of the ordinary.
In 2019 I went rafting for the very first time. Except for watching NGC documentaries and some You Tube video’s, I had no real clue what to expect. So, with a blank mind I stepped into this adventure. But, what should have been a day creating fun memories of defeating Mother nature’s powers, it etched a horrifying experiencing in my memory! A moment in where I observed the separation of my mind and body with full awareness. Or, should I say my consciousness did.
The day started off with receiving funny instructions of how to slide in a wetsuit what followed by the instructor explaining the roughness of the ride and how to act when you fall into the wild waters. Great, there goes a huge part of my self-confidence into the drain!
The first round went fantastic but, the second round was the one straight from hell and made it very clear that this ability of sliding into a, so to speak, superposition with full awareness, is fact in its existence. Observing the incoherent communication between the mind and body is no fable.
Drifting a few meters into the second round, the first curve was insight. The water was going berserk! More than likely, my subconscious had already calculated the dangers ahead. After that it went fast. I felt my feet slip out of the straps, the water slammed with a tremendous force to the front of the raft and then… nothing.
I have no idea how long this ‘nothing’ has lasted, perhaps a few seconds. Also, I have no recollection of me being launched from the raft or hitting the water. I think this phenomena can be thought of as the famous term ‘missing time’. Anyway, when I opened my eyes I found myself in a grayish fluid what I instantly recognized as water. Not knowing what was up or down, left or right, I became disorientated and experienced the emotion of panic coming over me. Trying to act as the instructor had explained at the very beginning in order not to drown, was not working. I found myself in a situation where I had to fight against a wall of water having a tremendous strength and a horrific way of drowning.
Fortunately, the water had two currents, one above and one below, which, miraculously, pushed me upwards. This made it possible for me to take little sips of oxygen every now and then before being dragged down again. During one of these brief moments, I saw that I was, with full speed, heading towards another raft. But fighting the water, keeping my head in a survival-mode and not gaining enough oxygen, had exhausted me. With this little bit of strength left in me, I tried to grab the ropes hanging aside the raft but I could not hold on to the ropes. The water dragged me down again and in this moment my brain ‘told’ me, you are about to die. The feeling of panic instantly disappeared and, again, there was nothing. Together with the movements of the water, time stopped.
I felt a hand grabbing my arm and I became aware of my surroundings again, time was present again. I was that exhausted and the strength of the water was that immense, 3 people where needed to hold on to me. Several instructors where heading my way and helped me climb ashore. In this moment I became aware of the fact that I had entered this ‘super position’ and observed, without standing beside my body, my mind still being in this state of dying while my body was working on autopilot. In this I can say that the mind is the controller of how we perceive time as well as that the brain is perfectly capable of operating separately from the body.
Even though we count time by means of our present activities, experience time by means of viewing these, or similar, activities in our past, future time seems to be sensed by us in the moment we are observing this strange phenomena of an incoherent communication between our brain, mind and consciousness when they are separating.
So, what is the purpose of us experiencing these strangeness’s in time’s behavior? Can we consider this as a primordial build-in defense mechanism of the human species? Is it for us to keep our sanity when we are on the brink of a transformation? Or, does it has its origin in being the oldest form of hunting? On the latter, let’s be honest, this super skill does has its advances when hunting for your dinosaur steak or, out smarting today’s criminals.
Regardless, it is a weird and mind boggling, psychological effect when perceiving ‘real’ time what is showing its existence in the moment we are about to experience a severe trauma like in facing a possible death.
