Everything You Experience Has Already Happened
- Adrian Vladimir
- Aug 6, 2024
- 3 min read
Dear Reader, 📚
Everything you experience has already happened.
What exactly does THAT mean?
As you read these words, the light from this screen takes time to reach your eyes and for your brain to process them.
These two actions take place at drastically different speeds - one at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) and one at 50 bits per second (your brain).
Your brain then synthesizes these two streams of information, causing you to perceive them as happening simultaneously.
But they actually don’t.
​
By the time you perceive them, what you’re experiencing has already happened.
Therefore, we're all living in the past.
Even though it’s Now, it’s actually Then.
Weird, right?
While writing Fly the Heartstream, I've encountered some weird, mind-boggling facts about time, and I thought I’d share a few this month.
The force of gravity treats time like taffy. The stronger its pull, the more gravity can stretch out time, making it pass more slowly.
Nerd alert! It’s called time dilation.
Earth has gravity, too, so the closer you are to its center of gravity – the Earth’s core – the more slowly time will pass. This means that time passes more quickly at higher elevations in Earth's gravitational field.
Like your head as opposed to your feet.
So, your feet age more slowly than your head.
Unless you go through life upside down.
GPS Satellites
What’s above our heads? Space! Lots and lots of space. And swarming around in space are countless GPS satellites we’ve come to rely on so heavily.
But, because they’re farther away from Earth’s center of gravity, time passes more quickly for them.
In the first example, we were talking about fractions of a fraction of a second, so quickly we didn’t even notice, but it’s different for our satellite friends.
We must constantly adjust their clocks to Earth time because if we didn't, Google Maps and other GPS systems would be off by about 6 miles a day.
Your language affects your perception of time.
English speakers tend to describe time as in front of or behind them. To us, time is a highway, stretching into future possibilities.
But to Mandarin speakers, time is a vertical line. Down represents the future, and up represents the past.
I know it’s totally irrational, but this makes me think of falling into the future - which I have no control over - rather than driving into the future – where I am in control.
Do I have control issues? Hmmm …
Anyway, Greek people tend to view time as a three-dimensional concept that is "big" or "much" rather than "long".
For the Pormpuraww, a remote Indigenous Australian community, time is arranged according to east and west.
The language we use to describe the passing of time influences how we experience our lives.
You can control time.
Our perception of time roots us in our mental reality. The passage of time is how we organize and experience life.
The cool thing is that, depending on how you live your life, you can speed up or slow down your perception of how fast or slow time is passing.
Years flying by?
You’re probably living a repetitive, routine life.
Is time moving more slowly?
Your life is probably filled with new experiences and novelty on a fairly regular basis.
Research has shown that people perceive new experiences as slowing down time, whereas routine activities make it seem like time is moving faster.
9-5 job, anyone?
That’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for taking the time to read all over my blog!
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