Time begins and ends with us; the Perceiver in the tight grip of the perceived and it is our captivity within the confinement of our immediate world's time that binds our imaginative thoughts when we attempt to pierce the mystery of our existence itself.
But time is not a bandit that has taken us hostage but the giver of our full view of life through our thoughts, both orderly and constrained with logic and reason; and, when somewhat free of objective constraints, with flights of fancy that give us imaginative powers to envision the possibilities in and around us.
To begin with, this World is the platform from which our primitive understanding of time and life springs and if we wish to allow our thoughts freedom to explore this immensity of 'World' we must free ourselves from the shackles of our time-frame: there's much more to life than meets our eyes in this constricted environment.
Our planets rotation around our Sun has produced the basic time-table of our lives, the four seasons that produce the basic rhythm of living from antiquity: from the bleak winter months through the spring planting and the eventual harvest that provided people their mainstay when once again preparing to huddle through the cold months of a returning winter.
Using our Western World's twelve-month calendar these four seasons are again divided into our twelve month year; down and down we divide and divide time again until we arrive at our lowest daily usable unit: the second. But beyond our daily sight and even deeper within these seconds is where our basic Earthly' time keeper dwells: the atom, the Atomic Clock's watch-spring'.
Atomic clocks measure time using the precise microwave signal emitted by the atom's electrons as they change energy levels and an interesting fact here is that these most precise of our clocks placed in different gravitational fields, run at different paces*: time is not consistent.
In Scientific parlance, a clock in a gravitational field runs more slowly according to the gravitational time dilation relationship from general relativity* . . But enough of that, right?
And maybe enough of this article for those readers who do not wish to risk tweaking their elementary thought processes regarding time: this article is now over for you.
'THE END'
For readers of a more adventurous inclination who wish to stretch their imaginations away from traditional frameworks, please continue.
So there's our earthly measure of time, a clockwork physical progression we perceive starting within atoms; but does that progression within nature produce actual moments of time, or is it just an exterior, mechanical framework for our flexible perceptions?
Our perception of time is never so accurate-time flys and drags- what happens as our perceptions change?
Imagine that our awareness, our perception, is drifting thousands of feet above an ancient Siberian forest as a jagged shaft of lightning explodes into the base of a large tree, hurling fiery debris into the undergrowth and sparking the beginning of an intense conflagration.
For weeks the inferno consumes million after millions of acres, scattering wild animals and primitive people in all directions fleeing for life. Billowing trails of smoke cover huge swaths of sky in what is a continuing catastrophe of immense proportions; in time as viewed from the portals of our human minds.
In this present time-frame, it is months of our time before the fires are gone and the skies again clear of smoke; and hundreds of thousands, even millions of years are required to create noticeable change to the surface of our Earth.
But, what if our hovering awareness backs suddenly away from our planet giving us the sight of a shrunken world when we stop two hundred thousand miles away, and our human perception of time is suddenly shifted into high-gear. Our awareness speeds up into what can be referred to as Geological-time; mountain ranges visibly rise and fall in our sight as oceans shift and continents drift in discernible pace, all the while the earth's axis is noticeably shifting into new orientations.
In this new relationship of ours with time the Siberian fire no longer burns and smokes for weeks. Within our heightened cognition, our new framework, peering through the heightened velocity of our spinning planet while focused upon the Siberian forest we no longer see a lengthy conflagration; our new vision perceives a sudden 'whoosh' of light that lasts only a second before another second blows the clouded atmosphere clear.
If a demigod of a consciousness different from ours perceived our physical reality what would this demigod perceive? Geological time? Perhaps; but what might another see?
Our awareness, now retreates from the solar system and backs ever farther away; billions of miles out into space away from the fiery orb of our Sun, framed by colorful solar planets with our spinning blue Earth.
Our minds now shift into Cosmic time and mere millions of years no longer hold significance. The Sun has become an aquiline shaft of brilliance piercing the blackness of space; loosely wrapped about it is a spiraling net of colorful filaments. Our gaze moves down the strand of blue and lands upon a bright speck of light: the Siberian conflagration.
Time: the mystery goes on today as it always has.
Ancient mythologies speak of a separating within God involving the creation of identities, ultimately you and I, and this separator we are much familiar with- Time: giver of forethought to those of us who practice hindsight .
Perhaps understanding the elastic qualities of time will help release us from the primary restraints of our familiar world views; release us for flight into... ?
We are familiar with the purported transcendental qualities of our awareness, and the ineffable experiences reported by some returned from spiritual flights of consciousness, or fancy, depending upon your views; but our awareness of this elusive motion we call time is just as shifting and elusive as our consciousness itself...
Time- what is it- or is it?