part0005

I admit I used to have a rather conventional view of time. Just like everyone else, I viewed time as being finite, in which there was only so much to go around. I viewed time in a strictly linear fashion, with us moving ahead in time from one point to the next. Like many others, I was often pressed for time and felt that I had “not enough” time. Without even realizing it, my limited concept of time was imprisoning me instead of empowering me.

Unless one truly understands the illusion of time, we will always feel trapped and imprisoned by it. A person who does not understand the true nature and purpose of time will constantly be berating the passing of time until the physical manifestation finally shows up. This person is also likely to feel restricted as each day goes by, as he perceives that “time is running out”, or that there is “not enough time” to do all the things that need to get done. When we are young, these misguided beliefs often do not surface. But as an individual gets older, these beliefs start coming to the surface and what follows is often a difficult emotional period where one feels guilty about having wasted so much time in the past… or feels a sense of sadness that there is no longer enough time to fulfill all of one’s goals or desires in life.

Fortunately, time is merely an illusion in our current time-space reality, just as space is an illusion. I know it may be difficult for you to accept this statement at face value, just as it was difficult for me to do so in the beginning. After all, the whole concept of our society has been built upon a common understanding of time, and any violations of this understanding can have very serious social repercussions indeed. For example, your co-workers and friends aren’t going to be pleased if you start showing up a few hours late for your appointments! Yet at the same time, I’m sure you have heard stories of time slowing down for various individuals when accidents happened or at urgent, life-threatening moments. You may even have had such experiences yourself. The reverse is also true. You may have felt time “speeding up” when you were enjoying yourself and having a good time, looking at the clock to discover that a few hours have passed… when they felt like minutes to you!

If you’ve had any of these experiences in the past, I invite you to re-examine your beliefs about time. The fact that time can appear to pass faster or slower shows time is perceptual in nature. It is something we constantly perceive to be faster or slower. If time is truly a finite unit that exists independently of the observer, then we should all have the same experience of it, and our perceptions of it should not differ from one person to the next.

A friend of mine once told me this wonderful experience which happened to him. I have since heard similar stories from around the world. Once, my friend was involved in a baton-passing relay race. As you may know, the dropping of the baton in a relay means that the team is disqualified, hence great care has to be taken to ensure that the baton is not accidentally dropped. As my friend was receiving the baton from the previous runner, the baton slipped out of his hands and (to his horror) started falling towards the ground! Much to his amazement, instead of the baton hitting the ground as it normally would… it actually ended up being suspended in mid-air, waiting for him to catch it! After he had gotten over his initial amazement, he quickly reached out to grab the baton which was magically hovering inches away from the floor… and went on to complete the race.

I love this story because it wonderfully illustrates the perceptual nature of time. Would the other competitors and spectators have noticed the baton hovering in mid-air, matrix style, had they been watching my friend that day? No, they would have not. Time would have passed normally for them, and no one would noticed anything amiss. But because time is perceptual in nature depending on the observer, time appeared to slow itself down for my friend. Put differently, my friend slowed down his perception of time so he had the opportunity to react and prevent the baton from dropping on the floor! I can’t tell you how many similar stories I have read from around the world. Stories about events appearing to slow down during an accident, which would then allow the individual to react in time to avert disaster. These stories suggest that time is very bendable indeed. I told my friend that there could be a few reasons for his miraculous experience. First, he knew that dropping the baton would lead to an undesirable outcome… and therefore he had implicitly set a higher intention to avoid that outcome. Reality therefore yielded to him to fulfil that intention. Second, he was in a flow state, a very focused state of mind during the competition. A very focused and inner-directed state puts us in tune with the rhythm of the Universe, where we allow Universal energy to simply work through us without resisting any of the “flow”.

While I had only experienced that time seemed to pass faster or slower for me depending on whether I was engrossed in the activity I was doing, I never had any conscious experiences of “altering” my perception of time until I read an excellent book by spiritual author and psychologist Gay Hendricks. In one chapter of his book “The Big Leap”, Gay introduces his concept of Einstein Time, which stands in contrast to Newtonian Time. The Newtonian school views time as finite, in limited supply and progressing in a strictly linear fashion. On the other hand, the concept of Einstein Time views time as relative to the observer.

I immediately fell in love with the concept of Einstein Time the moment I read about it, because it was an invitation for me to truly play with this concept. Up till that moment, I had only read about such amazing time experiences happening to others but never really experienced such things myself. I always thought that these experiences happened spontaneously, by chance. However, after reading Hendricks’ chapter about Einstein Time, I came to the realization that since time is an illusion in itself, perhaps all of us can try our hand at altering our perception of time to our benefit.

There have been many scientific theories postulated about time. In scientific terms, time is a scalar, and one of the dimensions of our three dimensional world. The conventional view is that time can only move forward but not backwards. However, scientists also suggest that time is a way we use to organize and make sense of events. We use time to delineate the order of events, such that there will be events that happened first, and subsequent events that happened later. If there is no concept of time, everything would appear to us as happening at the single point of now. Spiritual teachers often allude to time as an “illusion”, and that there is no time, there is only the here and now. Now is the only present moment you have, and no matter which moment you’re at, it’s always now, now and now. So it follows that these two concepts actually complement one another: On one hand, there is no time. We can never really perceive the passage of time. There is only now. Our subconscious minds (as an extension of higher universal intelligence) have a hard time perceiving linear time, as there is only NOW. Everything is happening right now. On the other hand, our conscious minds need to use time as some sort of a filing cabinet, to organize the events in our lives in a kind of chronological order to give order, meaning and logic to our lives. If everything happened at a single point to us, it would be very difficult to perceive what was happening. Perhaps the most striking evidence of time being an illusion are the accounts of individuals who have had near-death experiences. These individuals often report a feeling of timelessness, where everything seems to be happening at once, in which they are simultaneously aware of everything happening at once.

Obviously, time serves an important purpose in our lives… which is to allow us to perceive and enjoy the experiences that happen to us. However, what happens when we view time as a burden instead of an empowering concept? This is where so many people fall into the trap. Recall the previous chapter when we discussed the time buffer before physical manifestations occur? Most people see this time buffer as a hindrance, rather than an aid.

Gay Hendricks in his book offers an enlightening affirmation to use, which I have since expanded and adapted for my own use. The statement goes like this: “You’re where time comes from.” I prefer to say it as, “I am where time comes from.” Some people may have trouble grasping that, so I suggest using this statement instead, “Time, like everything else, is energy.”

Think of time as a “construct”, a man-created concept, as it is done in modern timekeeping where use elaborate watches, clocks and a whole network of atomic clocks to keep time. Our world would be very different if we did not keep track of the passage of time. But more fundamentally, recognize that time is an illusion, and is up to how we choose to perceive it. Our time-related experiences are related to how we perceive time, and we can change our perceptions of time at any moment.

It did not occur to me how often I was looking at my watch during the course of a day, simply for no other reason but to know the current time! This habit did not hit me until I started consciously practicing the exercises I’m about to share with you in this chapter. I realized that I was looking at my watch and my clocks throughout the day out of sheer habit and for no particular reason! Most of the time, I was not even going for a meeting or keeping track of time to be punctual for an appointment. My mind had simply been conditioned to use the passage of time as a means of keeping track of life. If this sounds familiar to you, it will be a very liberating experience to stop doing it, at least for the time being. The next playtime activity offers some helpful suggestions to do so.

Playtime: Whenever you feel the urge to look at a clock or watch out of habit (especially if there is no need to do so), stop and say silently to yourself: “Time is an illusion. I am where time comes from. I can make more time when I need it.” If you do this consistently throughout a few days or weeks, it will be one of the most liberating experiences in your life.

I took this practice a step further and started trying it out in times when I thought I would be late. Guess what, ever since adopting this new belief that time is simply an “illusion”, I have never been late for an appointment! Whereas in the past, I would often arrive late, frantic and apologetic! I do realize you may need some concrete examples, so here are two most recent examples as I write this…

The first occurred when I was scheduled for a lunch appointment at 2.30pm. When I left my house at 2.15pm, the traffic conditions immediately made it clear that I would be “late”. In the past, this would have led me to be panicky and frazzled. I would have felt the urge to text my friend while driving, and inform them I would be late by 10 - 15 minutes. Then I would keep looking at my watch to ensure that I kept to this “new” timing. However, that would be the old way of functioning for me. I decided to put my new knowledge into practice. Throughout the journey, I resisted the strong urge to look at the watch and kept telling myself, “Time is an illusion. I am where time comes from. I can make more time when I need it.” Guess what happened? I was feeling so comfortable with my new practice that I felt no rush, and a deep sense of peace and relaxation. When I reached the mall, I even had time to go to the washroom before making my way to the restaurant. Just as I was walking towards the restaurant, I spotted my friend walking towards the entrance too! He was surprised at the synchronicity of it all… and I was secretly surprised, at how the Universe ensured that everything happened for both of us in perfect timing. Trust me, had I been functioning in my old mode of reacting to and worrying about time, I would have been a panicky mess by the time I reached the restaurant… on top of making dozens of phone calls and text messages to tell my friend that I would not be there on time.

The second experience occurred when I was driving to an important seminar, at which it was important to arrive on time. Once again, traffic conditions made it clear that I would be late. To make matters worse, there were no parking lots available when I reached the venue, which meant I had to park at a further car park and take a longer walk that usual. Again, knowing what I now know, I resisted the constant urge to look at my watch and repeated: “I am where time comes from. I can make more time if needed.” The seminar was slated to begin at 2.30pm, and the first surprise was that I was not as late as I had imagined. When I finally glanced at my watch as I walked into the room, it was only 5 minutes past two-thirty. The next surprise was that a technical glitch had occurred in the setting up of the conferencing equipment, which resulted in the seminar not starting until 2.50pm! I was therefore on time, and missed nothing. The Universe truly orchestrates everything in divine timing.

Whenever you see through an illusion, it collapses. I encourage you to do the same too with the concept of time. Of course, I’m not advocating that you start turning up late for all your appointments and start disregarding punctuality altogether. What I’m saying is that it helps to remind yourself once in a while that time is simply an illusion, and that you can control your perception of time. You can make more of it if you need it, but do not make too much lest you get bored! Ever since adopting this playful mindset of time and fully allowing myself to experiment with it, I’ve had incredibly productive days. I no longer feel “rushed” or “pressed” for time. I never say, “I have not enough time to do everything I need to do!” (I know a friend who says this all the time, and he is one of the most stressed out individuals I know… constantly feeling squeezed for time).

When I feel the need for more time, I simply say, “Okay, time is just an illusion so let me stretch and make more of it. Everything happens in its own perfect time.” Ever since setting this new intention and stepping into this new reality for myself, I’ve had incredibly productive days. The day just seems to stretch to accommodate all my activities, be it the time I need to write, come up with new ideas, exercise, or run my errands. Life is so much freer and more fun now. I sincerely invite you to try the techniques in this chapter and see them work in your own life. As with everything else in this book, the only way to know is to try it first.