The Revolution in Time

The Revolution in Time

Allow me to apply the metaphor of an animated film to the concept of time. Like the illusion of film, assume that what we know as "time" is also an illusion, developed by the ideas and concepts we capture in our minds like snap-shots. As we run the frames forward, we perceive a continuous projection of the system we have created--and like watching a movie, we become preoccupied and immersed in the delusive plots and dramas of mechanical time. But what time really is, is absolute and eternal--like the hot, white light shining behind the frames of the film. If we can begin to slow down the frames of the film, eventually stopping the animation into a single frame of reference--the hot, white light will burn through, and the illusion will dissolve away completely.

After we birth into life, we learn through gradual experience that we will leave again through death. This association, imaginable by the markers of a beginning and an end, a past and a future--establishes the constraints of "time" deeply into our awareness. Our linear concept of "time" is then continually reinforced by our 3-dimensional perception of the physical world around us as it expands out in extremes of distance and proximity. And yet, while we recognise that we have much control over our movement through space (walking, driving cars, and flying airplanes), we have no control nor a secure vehicle for our movement through time. So we have created systems to manage our perception of time--providing us with a structure for the practical coordination of our endeavours, and for mapping out our journey through life.

Throughout early human history, many indigenous cultures had developed such systems of time-perception in harmonic accordance to the natural cycles of the earth, sun, and moon. The Celtic and Mayan calenders, for example, consist of 13 months, 28-days each--formed in perfect match to rhythms of the celestial spheres. The development of the Gregorian calendar (now accepted as the world standard for almost 500 years), is comprised of an erratic 29 days in one such month, 30 or 31 days in other months, leap years, and is out of synch with the natural rhythms formed long before humans were even a smudge in the primordial goo.

It is no wonder that we take our current system of time for granted. Days turn into months, months into years--and the cycles become repetitious. But it is important to remember that, as time is the constant that we measure all physical activity against, our perception of time is the fundamental root of our reality. How we choose to perceive time has a direct affect upon our perception and influence in physical space. As a world culture, having long followed a mechanically based system of time, most everything we've accomplished has manifested in a similarly mechanistic, fragmented, and compartmentalised manner. Might our current time system be a primary source of the detriment to our healthy existence on the planet?

In contemporary times, it is becoming blatantly apparent that our existence as a species is in jeopardy. Somewhat recently, both the Vatican and the United Nations have proclaimed an open reception for the reformation of the current world time system. As we approach the Millennium, we are within a unique window of opportunity to change our perception of time--and thus change the way we work in accordance to nature and to each other. With the coming of the year 2000, our world-wide mechanical and electronic systems will encounter a situation infamously knows as the Y2K problem (a computer programming glitch, due to lack of foresight, that does not account for the numerical years after 1999). Such a grand, mechanical inconsistency seems yet another typical manifestation emerged from a mechanical time system that has been inconsistent from the start. Such a glitch, however, and the potential for a resulting crash in our electronic system, may be a prime opportunity to change our system of temporal management, and to evaluate our perception of time. Whatever system we choose to follow is mostly irrelevant, so long as we maintain our alignment with nature--the celestial clock of organic time.

During the next few years, we may expect to see a dramatic rise in both political and religious dogma, an emergence of new "cults" and spiritual organisations, and a general hyper flux of new information and opportunities regarding how we might best handle the impending chaos of "millennial madness." I invite you to search for your own truth, and to explore your own perception of this thing we call "time." For within the realm of your individual consciousness is the ineffable organisational principle of life, and the pure, white light to burn through all illusions.

first published in Noosphere (1.1), 6.98--for the Noosphere interactive community production.